TERMS STARTING WITH
The reason classical Greek and Roman writers speak of the Egyptian Aethopians was that the Aethiopians of southern Egypt were then considered to be the last remnants of an Aryan immigration from South India, which took place in prehistoric antiquity, and Greek and Roman writers not infrequently contrasted and identified the Aethiopians of Egypt with the Eastern Aethiopians. It was originally these Eastern Aethiopians who were known to the prehistoric Greek nations as the Aethiopians — the only ones then considered as rightfully bearing this name. These Eastern Aethiopians inhabited the central and especially the southern part of the Indian peninsula including Ceylon, and therefore were the descendants of one of the last subraces of that portion of Atlantis existing earlier on a land south of India called Lanka, of which Ceylon, then one of its northern highlands, is the only present geological remnant.
The reason is that the nature of the consciousness is like that ; after a spell of wakefulness it feels the need of a little sleep.
The reason the occultist of all ages looks askance at the tantric practices, or the Tantras dealing largely with the saktis, is because these tantric books and practices are almost wholly occupied in relations and correlations both in nature and in man of the saktis in their lower aspect. The kundalini, for instance, is likewise born in the buddhi in man, but descending through the human constitution has its pranic or psychovital physical representations in the various chakras or vital centers of the human frame, and thus the kundalini is an example of sakti or of its fluidic effluxes in the lower portions of the human constitution.
The reason we cannot remain continuously in the waking state, but must seek another aspect of consciousness during sleep, is that “our senses are all dual, and act according to the plane of consciousness on which the thinking entity energizes. Physical sleep affords the greatest facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time it is a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapna and Sushupti. . . . As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water; so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical organism, and that the force of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep, and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in rhythmical vibrations of life currents — golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness” (TBL 58).
TERMS ANYWHERE
24. This “angel of insolence and pride” had two lives. He was deprived of the first for the reason given above.
…all our spiritual and psychic experience bears affirmative witness, brings us always a constant and, in its main principles, an invariable evidence of the existence of higher worlds, freer planes of existence. Not having bound ourselves down, like so much of modern thought, to the dogma that only physical experience or experience based upon the physical sense is true, the analysis of physical experience by the reason alone verifiable, and all else only result of physical experience and physical existence and anything beyond this an error, self-delusion and hallucination, we are free to accept this evidence and to admit the reality of these planes.We see that they are, practically, different harmonies from the harmony of the physical universe; they occupy, as the word "plane" suggests, a different level in the scale of being and adopt a different system and ordering of its principles.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 818-19
::: ". . . all our spiritual and psychic experience bears affirmative witness, brings us always a constant and, in its main principles, an invariable evidence of the existence of higher worlds, freer planes of existence. Not having bound ourselves down, like so much of modern thought, to the dogma that only physical experience or experience based upon the physical sense is true, the analysis of physical experience by the reason alone verifiable, and all else only result of physical experience and physical existence and anything beyond this an error, self-delusion and hallucination, we are free to accept this evidence and to admit the reality of these planes. We see that they are, practically, different harmonies from the harmony of the physical universe; they occupy, as the word ‘plane" suggests, a different level in the scale of being and adopt a different system and ordering of its principles.” The Life Divine
“… all our spiritual and psychic experience bears affirmative witness, brings us always a constant and, in its main principles, an invariable evidence of the existence of higher worlds, freer planes of existence. Not having bound ourselves down, like so much of modern thought, to the dogma that only physical experience or experience based upon the physical sense is true, the analysis of physical experience by the reason alone verifiable, and all else only result of physical experience and physical existence and anything beyond this an error, self-delusion and hallucination, we are free to accept this evidence and to admit the reality of these planes. We see that they are, practically, different harmonies from the harmony of the physical universe; they occupy, as the word ‘plane’ suggests, a different level in the scale of being and adopt a different system and ordering of its principles.” The Life Divine
Also theory of choice. ::: The study of the reasoning underlying an agent's choices.[141] Decision theory can be broken into two branches: normative decision theory, which gives advice on how to make the best decisions given a set of uncertain beliefs and a set of values, and descriptive decision theory which analyzes how existing, possibly irrational agents actually make decisions.
anabuddhi (vijnanabuddhi; vijnana-buddhi; vijnana buddhi) ::: the intuitive mind, intermediate between intellectual reason (manasa buddhi) and pure vijñana, a faculty consisting of vijñana "working in mind under the conditions and in the forms of mind", which "by its intuitions, its inspirations, its swift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination can do the work of the reason with a higher power, a swifter action, a greater and spontaneous certitude". vij ñana-caksuh
anasa buddhi (manasabuddhi; manasa buddhi; manasbuddhi; manas-buddhi) ::: the mental reason, the reasoning intellect; the buddhi or thinking mind in its ordinary forms (distinguished from the vijñanabuddhi or intuitive mind), as a faculty of prajñana ("apprehending consciousness" or intelligence) separated from vijñana;"the mental intelligence and will" which "are only a focus of diffused and deflected rays and reflections" of "the sun of the divine Knowledge-Will burning in the heavens of the supreme conscious Being".
antinomy ::: n. --> Opposition of one law or rule to another law or rule.
An opposing law or rule of any kind.
A contradiction or incompatibility of thought or language; -- in the Kantian philosophy, such a contradiction as arises from the attempt to apply to the ideas of the reason, relations or attributes which are appropriate only to the facts or the concepts of experience.
ApadAna. In PAli, "Heroic Tales" or "Narratives" (cf. S. AVADANA); the thirteenth book of the KHUDDAKANIKAYA of the PAli SUTTAPItAKA, this collection includes hagiographies of 547 monks and forty nuns, all arahant (S. ARHAT) disciples who lived during the lifetime of the Buddha. The text also contains two introductory chapters in verse. The first, the "BuddhApadAna," is a series of encomiums praising the merits and perfections (P. pAramī; S. PARAMITA) of the Buddha and an account of the past lives during which he mastered these qualities. The second chapter, the "PaccekabuddhApadAna," deals with solitary buddhas who do not teach (paccekabuddha; S. PRATYEKABUDDHA). Quite distinctively, the ApadAna names thirty-five buddhas of antiquity, in contrast to the twenty-four listed in the BUDDHAVAMSA; this is one of the reasons that the ApadAna is presumed to be one of the latest books in the PAli canon. The third and fourth chapters offer accounts of the noble deeds of the senior disciples, including many of the most famous names in Buddhist history. Each story focuses on a specific meritorious action performed by one of these elders while they trained under a buddha in a previous lifetime, followed by an account of what wholesome result that action produced in subsequent lifetimes, and how this ultimately led them to achieve arahantship in the present life. The collection thus highlights the merit that results from perfecting specific types of moral actions.
ASANA. ::: Fixed posture habituating the body to certain attitudes of immobility. The system of Asana has at its basis two profound ideas ::: control by physical immobility, power by immobility.
The sitting motionless posture is the natural posture for concentrated meditation - walking and standing are active conditions. It is only when one has gained the enduring rest and passivity of the consciousness that it is easy to concentrate and receive when walking or doing anything. A fundamental passive condition of the consciousness gathered into itself is the proper poise for concentration and a seated gathered immobility in the body is the best position for that. It can be done also lying down, but that position is too passive, tending to be inert rather than gathered. This is the reason why yogis always sit in an āsana. One can accustom oneself to meditate walking. standing, lying but sitting is the first natural position.
Assent: The act of the intellect adhering to a truth because of the evidence of the terms; a proof of the reason (medium rationale) or the command of the will. -- H.G.
Astrology therefore embraces a science of vast scope, permitting of studies which range from the sublime to the trivial, from the most spacious to the most confined. If astronomy concerns itself with the physical constitution of the celestial bodies, astrology concerns itself especially with what might be called the reasons rather than the mere laws of the universe. Considered in its largest aspect, it includes the entire universe and every being or thing, not only on the physical plane but even more so on the invisible or causal planes — the physical plane being merely the consequence of the actions and operations of the lives and forces residing in the invisible worlds.
(a) The initial and inescapable problem with which the epistemologist is confronted is that of the very possibility of knowledge: Is genuine knowledge at all attainable? The natural dogmatism of the human mind is confronted with the sceptic's challenge: a challenge grounded on the relativity of the senses (sensory scepticism) and the contradictions into which the reason is often betrayed (rational scepticism). An alternative to both dogmatism and extreme scepticism is a tentative or methodological scepticism of which Descartes' systematic doubt, Locke's cautious empiricism and Kant's critical epistemology are instances. See Dogmatism; Scepticism; Criticism. Scepticism in modern epistemology is commonly associated with solipsism, since a scepticism regarding knowledge of the external world leads to solipsism and the ego-centric predicament. See Solipsism; Ego-centric predicament.
atindriyam ::: seizable by the reason but beyond the senses. [Gita 6.21]
because ::: conj. --> By or for the cause that; on this account that; for the reason that.
In order that; that.
Benchmarking (best practices) - The process of searching for new and better procedures by comparing your own procedures to that of the very best. The objective is to measure the key outputs of a business process or function against the best and to analyze the reasons for the performance difference. Benchmarking applies to services and practices as well as to products and is an ongoing systematic process. It entails both quantitative and qualitative measurements that allow both an internal and an external assessment Process benchmarking is the process of assessing the quality of key internal processes by comparing them with those of other firms. In results benchmarking, a firm examines the end product or service of another company, focusing on product/service specifications and performance results.
bhava ::: 1. status of being. ::: 2. a becoming. ::: 3. a subjective state, one of the secondary subjective becomings of Nature (states of mind, affections of desire, movements of passion, the reactions of the senses, the limited and dual play of the reason, the turns of the feeling and moral sense). ::: 4. the affective nature. ::: 5. general sensation. ::: 6. [one of the sadanga]: the emotion or aesthetic feeling expressed by the form. ::: 7. [in poetry: feeling, mood, sentiment]. ::: bhavah [plural]
BhAvaviveka. (T. Legs ldan 'byed; C. Qingbian; J. Shoben; K. Ch'ongbyon 清辯) (c. 500-570). Also known as BhAviveka and Bhavya, an important Indian master of the MADHYAMAKA school, identified in Tibet as a proponent of SVATANTRIKA MADHYAMAKA and, within that, of SAUTRANTIKA-SVATANTRIKA-MADHYAMAKA. He is best known for two works. The first is the PRAJNAPRADĪPA, his commentary on NAGARJUNA's MuLAMADHYAMAKAKARIKA; this work has an extensive subcommentary by AVALOKITAVRATA. Although important in its own right as one of the major commentaries on the central text of the Madhyamaka school, the work is most often mentioned for its criticism of the commentary of BUDDHAPALITA on the first chapter of NAgArjuna's text, where BhAvaviveka argues that it is insufficient for the Madhyamaka only to state the absurd consequences (PRASAnGA) that follow from the position of the opponent. According to BhAvaviveka, the Madhyamaka must eventually state his own position in the form of what is called an autonomous inference (svatantrAnumAna) or an autonomous syllogism (SVATANTRAPRAYOGA). In his own commentary on the first chapter of NAgArjuna's text, CANDRAKĪRTI came to the defense of BuddhapAlita and criticized BhAvaviveka, stating that it is inappropriate for the Madhyamaka to use autonomous syllogisms. It is on the basis of this exchange that Tibetan exegetes identified two schools within Madhyamaka: the SvAtantrika, which includes BhAvaviveka, and the PrAsangika, which includes BuddhapAlita and Candrakīrti. ¶ The other major work of BhAvaviveka is his MADHYAMAKAHṚDAYA, written in verse, and its prose autocommentary, the TARKAJVALA. The Madhyamakahṛdaya is preserved in both Sanskrit and Tibetan, the TarkajvAlA only in Tibetan. It is a work of eleven chapters, the first three and the last two of which set forth the main points in BhAvaviveka's view of the nature of reality and the Buddhist path, dealing with such topics as BODHICITTA, the knowledge of reality (tattvajNAna), and omniscience (SARVAJNATA). The intervening chapters set forth the positions (and BhAvaviveka's refutations) of various Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools, including the sRAVAKA, YOGACARA, SAMkhya, Vaisesika, VedAnta, and MīmAMsA. These chapters (along with sANTARAKsITA's TATTVASAMGRAHA) are an invaluable source of insight into the relations between Madhyamaka and other contemporary Indian philosophical schools, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. The chapter on the srAvakas, for example, provides a detailed account of the reasons put forth by the sRAVAKAYANA schools of mainstream Buddhism as to why the MahAyAna sutras are not the word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA). BhAvaviveka's response to these charges, as well as his refutation of YOGACARA in the subsequent chapter, are particularly spirited, arguing that reality (TATHATA) cannot be substantially existent (dravyasat), as those rival schools claim. However, BhAvaviveka made extensive use of both the logic and epistemology of DIGNĂGA, at least at the level of conventional analysis. BhAvaviveka appears to have been the first Madhyamaka author to declare that the negations set forth by the Madhyamaka school are nonaffirming (or simple) negations (PRASAJYAPRATIsEDHA) rather than affirming (or implicative) negations (PARYUDASAPRATIsEDHA). Also attributed to BhAvaviveka is the Karatalaratna ("Jewel in Hand Treatise"; Zhangzhen lun), a work preserved only in the Chinese translation of XUANZANG. BhAvaviveka's MADHYAMAKARTHASAMGRAHA is a brief text in verse. As the title suggests, it provides an outline of the basic topics of MADHYAMAKA philosophy, such as the middle way (S. MADHYAMAPRATIPAD) between the extremes of existence and nonexistence, Madhyamaka reasoning, and the two truths (SATYADVAYA). The MADHYAMAKARATNAPRADĪPA is likely the work of another author of the same name, since it makes reference to such later figures as Candrakīrti and DHARMAKĪRTI.
Body_of_knowledge ::: (BOK:) refers to the core teachings and skills required to work in a particular field or industry. The body of knowledge (BOK) is usually defined by professional associations or societies. Members of the profession outline what is needed to do their jobs and that forms the foundation for the curriculum of most professional programs or designations. People seeking to enter the profession must display their mastery of the body of knowledge in order to receive accreditation that enables them to practice these skills. Candidates usually demonstrate their mastery of the body of knowledge by passing rigorous examinations. These exams can be a single session or the accreditation can be done level by level, requiring a person to practice at a particular level for a set amount of time before challenging the next level. BREAKING DOWN 'Body of Knowledge - BOK' Body of knowledge is a more formal way of referring to things we more commonly call core competencies and required skills today. Not unlike a job advertisement, the body of knowledge is a list of things you must know and things you must be able to do before you will be accepted as a professional by the organization doing the accreditation. Universities have a defined body of knowledge that a student must demonstrate their familiarity with before being granted a degree. Trades have a body of knowledge that an apprentice works through in order to become a full journeyman of the trade. The actual contents of the body of knowledge for a particular profession evolves over time. This is one of the reasons that associations are often in charge of accreditation, as it is very difficult for people outside of a particular industry to keep up with new techniques and developments.
Brahman ::: Whatever reality is in existence, by which all the rest subsists, that is Brahman. An Eternal behind all instabilities, a Truth of things which is implied, if it is hidden in all appearances, a Constant which supports all mutations, but is not increased, diminished, abrogated,—there is such an unknown x which makes existence a problem, our own self a mystery, the universe a riddle. If we were only what we seem to be to our normal self-awareness, there would be no mystery; if the world were only what it can be made out to be by the perceptions of the senses and their strict analysis in the reason, there would be no riddle; and if to take our life as it is now and the world as it has so far developed to our experience were the whole possibility of our knowing and doing, there would be no problem. Or at best there would be but a shallow mystery, an easily solved riddle, the problem only of a child’s puzzle. But there is more, and that more is the hidden head of the Infinite and the secret heart of the Eternal. It is the highest and this highest is the all; there is none beyond and there is none other than it. To know it is to know the highest and by knowing the highest to know all. For as it is the beginning and source of all things, so everything else is its consequence; as it is the support and constituent of all things, so the secret of everything else is explained by its secret; as it is the sum and end of all things, so everything else amounts to it and by throwing itself into it achieves the sense of its own existence. This is the Brahman
Ref: CWSA Vol. 18, Page: 151-152
(b) Seriousness, the inner state of respect or politeness (kung). With respect to daily affairs, it is expressed in care, vigilance, attention, etc., and with respect to the laws of the universe, it is expressed in sincerity (ch'eng), especially toward the Reason (li) of things. "Seriousness is the basis of moral cultivation, the essence of human affairs, just as sincerity is the way of Heaven." It is "to straighten one's internal life and righteousness (i) is to square one's external life." It means "unity of mind and absolute equanimity and absolute steadfastness." (Neo-Confucianism.) -- W.T.C.
Buddha(s) of Compassion ::: One who, having won all, gained all -- gained the right to kosmic peace and bliss -- renounces it so thathe may return as a Son of Light in order to help humanity, and indeed all that is.The Buddhas of Compassion are the noblest flowers of the human race. They are men who have raisedthemselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, thelight of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the humansoul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry andselfish; through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words,through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becominggod-men, man-gods -- human divinities.They are called Buddhas of Compassion because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feelintimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, untilfinally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because itis at one with the universe. "The dewdrop slips into the shining sea" -- its origin.Feeling the urge of almighty love in their hearts, the Buddhas of Compassion advance forever steadilytowards still greater heights of spiritual achievement; and the reason is that they have become thevehicles of universal love and universal wisdom. As impersonal love is universal, their whole natureexpands consequently with the universal powers that are working through them. The Buddhas ofCompassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from theSilent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and evenbeyond themselves to their chelas or disciples. Spiritually and mystically they contrast strongly withwhat Asiatic occultism, through the medium of Buddhism, has called the Pratyeka Buddhas.
Buddhi (.Discrimination) ::: Buddhi is a construction of conscious being which quite exceeds its beginnings in the basic chitta; it is the intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. Buddhi takes up and deals with all the rest of the action of the mind and life and body. It is in its nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental activity. We may distinguish three successive gradations of the action of this intelligence. There is first an inferior perceptive understanding which simply takes up, records, understands and responds to the communications of the sense-mind, memory, heart and sensational mentality. It creates by their means an elementary thinking mind which does not go beyond their data, but subjects itself to their mould and rings out their repetitions, runs round and round in the habitual circle of thought and will suggested by them or follows, with an obedient subservience of the reason to the suggestions of life, any fresh determinations which may be offered to its perception and conception. Beyond this elementary understanding, which we all use to an enormous extent, there is a power of arranging or selecting reason and will-force of the intelligence which has for its action and aim an attempt to arrive at a plausible, sufficient, settled ordering of knowledge and will for the use of an intellectual conception of life. In spite of its more purely intellectual character this secondary or intermediate reason is really pragmatic in its intention. It creates a certain kind of intellectual structure, frame, rule into which it tries to cast the inner and outer life so as to use it with a certain mastery and government for the purposes of some kind of rational will. It is this reason which gives to our normal intellectual being our set aesthetic and ethical standards, our structures of opinion and our established norms of idea and purpose. It is highly developed and takes the primacy in all men of an at all developed understanding. But beyond it there is a reason, a highest action of the buddhi which concerns itself disinterestedly with a pursuit of pure truth and right knowledge; it seeks to discover the real Truth behind life and things and our apparent selves and to subject its will to the law of Truth. Few, if any of us, can use this highest reason with any purity, but the attempt to do it is the topmost capacity of the inner instrument, the antahkarana.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 651-52
buddhigrahyam atindriyam ::: beyond perception by the sense but seizable by the perceptions of the reason. [Gita 6.21]
Buddhi is a construction of conscious being which quite exceeds its beginnings in the basic chitta; it is the intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. Buddhi takes up and deals with all the rest of the action of the mind and life and body. It is in its nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental activity. We may distinguish three successive gradations of the action of this intelligence. There is first an inferior perceptive understanding which simply takes up, records, understands and responds to the communications of the sense-mind, memory, heart and sensational mentality. It creates by their means an elementary thinking mind which does not go beyond their data, but subjects itself to their mould and rings out their repetitions, runs round and round in the habitual circle of thought and will suggested by them or follows, with an obedient subservience of the reason to the suggestions of life, any fresh determinations which may be offered to its perception and conception. Beyond this elementary understanding, which we all use to an enormous extent, there is a power of arranging or selecting reason and will-force of the intelligence which has for its action and aim an attempt to arrive at a plausible, sufficient, settled ordering of knowledge and will for the use of an intellectual conception of life. In spite of its more purely intellectual character this secondary or intermediate reason is really pragmatic in its intention It creates a certain kind of intellectual structure, frame, rule into which it tries to cast the inner and outer life so as to use it with a certain mastery and government for the purposes of some kind of rational will. It is this reason which gives to our normal intellectual being our set aesthetic and ethical standards, our structures of opinion and our established norms of idea and purpose. It is highly developed and takes the primacy in all men of an at all developed understanding. But beyond it there is a reason, a highest action of the buddhi which concerns itself disinterestedly with a pursuit of pure truth and right knowledge; it seeks to discover the real Truth behind life and things and our apparent selves and to subject its will to the law of Truth. Few, if any of us, can use this highest reason with any purity, but the attempt to do it is the topmost capacity of the inner instrument, the antahkarana.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 651-52
"By individual we mean normally something that separates itself from everything else and stands apart, though in reality there is no such thing anywhere in existence; it is a figment of our mental conceptions useful and necessary to express a partial and practical truth. But the difficulty is that the mind gets dominated by its words and forgets that the partial and practical truth becomes true truth only by its relation to others which seem to the reason to contradict it, and that taken by itself it contains a constant element of falsity. Thus when we speak of an individual we mean ordinarily an individualisation of mental, vital, physical being separate from all other beings, incapable of unity with them by its very individuality. If we go beyond these three terms of mind, life and body, and speak of the soul or individual self, we still think of an individualised being separate from all others, incapable of unity and inclusive mutuality, capable at most of a spiritual contact and soul-sympathy. It is therefore necessary to insist that by the true individual we mean nothing of the kind, but a conscious power of being of the Eternal, always existing by unity, always capable of mutuality. It is that being which by self-knowledge enjoys liberation and immortality.” The Life Divine
“By individual we mean normally something that separates itself from everything else and stands apart, though in reality there is no such thing anywhere in existence; it is a figment of our mental conceptions useful and necessary to express a partial and practical truth. But the difficulty is that the mind gets dominated by its words and forgets that the partial and practical truth becomes true truth only by its relation to others which seem to the reason to contradict it, and that taken by itself it contains a constant element of falsity. Thus when we speak of an individual we mean ordinarily an individualisation of mental, vital, physical being separate from all other beings, incapable of unity with them by its very individuality. If we go beyond these three terms of mind, life and body, and speak of the soul or individual self, we still think of an individualised being separate from all others, incapable of unity and inclusive mutuality, capable at most of a spiritual contact and soul-sympathy. It is therefore necessary to insist that by the true individual we mean nothing of the kind, but a conscious power of being of the Eternal, always existing by unity, always capable of mutuality. It is that being which by self-knowledge enjoys liberation and immortality.” The Life Divine
Candrakīrti. (T. Zla ba grags pa) (c. 600-650). An important MADHYAMAKA master and commentator on the works of NAGARJUNA and ARYADEVA, associated especially with what would later be known as the PRASAnGIKA branch of Madhyamaka. Very little is known about his life; according to Tibetan sources, he was from south India and a student of Kamalabuddhi. He may have been a monk of NALANDA. He wrote commentaries on NAgArjuna's YUKTIsAstIKA and suNYATASAPTATI as well as Aryadeva's CATUḤsATAKA. His two most famous and influential works, however, are his PRASANNAPADA ("Clear Words"), which is a commentary on NAgArjuna's MuLAMADHYAMAKAKARIKA, and his MADHYAMAKAVATARA ("Entrance to the Middle Way"). In the first chapter of the PrasannapadA, he defends the approach of BUDDHAPALITA against the criticism of BHAVAVIVEKA in their own commentaries on the MulamadhyamakakArikA. Candrakīrti argues that it is inappropriate for the Madhyamaka to use what is called an autonomous syllogism (SVATANTRAPRAYOGA) in debating with an opponent and that the Madhyamaka should instead use a consequence (PRASAnGA). It is largely based on Candrakīrti's discussion that Tibetan scholars retrospectively identified two subschools of Madhyamaka, the SVATANTRIKA (in which they placed BhAvaviveka) and the PrAsangika (in which they placed BuddhapAlita and Candrakīrti). Candrakīrti's other important work is the MadhyamakAvatAra, written in verse with an autocommentary. It is intended as a general introduction to the MulamadhyamakakArikA, and provides what Candrakīrti regards as the soteriological context for NAgArjuna's work. It sets forth the BODHISATTVA path, under the rubric of the ten bodhisattva stages (BHuMI; DAsABHuMI) and the ten perfections (PARAMITA). By far the longest and most influential chapter of the text is the sixth, dealing with the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA), where Candrakīrti discusses the two truths (SATYADVAYA), offers a critique of CITTAMATRA, and sets forth the reasoning for proving the selflessness of phenomena (DHARMANAIRATMYA) and the selflessness of the person (PUDGALANAIRATMYA), using his famous sevenfold analysis of a chariot as an example. Candrakīrti seems to have had little influence in the first centuries after his death, perhaps accounting for the fact that his works were not translated into Chinese (until the 1940s). There appears to have been a revival of interest in his works in India, especially in Kashmir, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, at the time of the later dissemination (PHYI DAR) of Buddhism to Tibet. Over the next few centuries, Candrakīrti's works became increasingly important in Tibet, such that eventually the MadhyamakAvatAra became the locus classicus for the study of Madhyamaka in Tibet, studied and commented upon by scholars of all sects and serving as one of the "five texts" (GZHUNG LNGA) of the DGE LUGS curriculum. ¶ There appear to be later Indian authors who were called, or called themselves, Candrakīrti. These include the authors of the Trisaranasaptati and the MadhyamakAvatAraprajNA, neither of which appears to have been written by the author described above. Of particular importance is yet another Candrakīrti, or CandrakīrtipAda, the author of the Pradīpoddyotana, an influential commentary on the GUHYASAMAJATANTRA. Scholars often refer to this author as Candrakīrti II or "the tantric Candrakīrti."
cargo cult programming "programming, humour" A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around some bug encountered in the past, but usually neither the bug nor the reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully understood (compare {shotgun debugging}, {voodoo programming}). The term "cargo cult" is a reference to aboriginal religions that grew up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of these cults centre on building elaborate mockups of aeroplanes and military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of the god-like aeroplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war. Hackish usage probably derives from Richard Feynman's characterisation of certain practices as "cargo cult science" in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" (W. W. Norton & Co, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7). [{Jargon File}] (2002-05-28)
Causa sui: Cause of itself; necessary existence. Causa sui conveys both a negative and a positive meaning. Negatively, it signifies that which is from itself (a se), that which does not owe its being to something else; i.e., absolute independence of being, causelessness (God as uncaused). Positively, causa sui means that whose very nature or essence involves existence; i.e., God is the ground of his own being, and regarded as "cause" of his own being, he is, as it were, efficient cause of his own existence (Descartes). Since existence necessarily follows from the very essence of that which is cause of itself, causa sui is defined as that whose nature cannot be conceived as not existing (Spinoza). -- A.G.A.B. Causality: (Lat. causa) The relationship between a cause and its effect. This relationship has been defined as a relation between events, processes, or entities in the same time series, such that when one occurs, the other necessarily follows (sufficient condition), when the latter occurs, the former must have preceded (necessary condition), both conditions a and b prevail (necessary and sufficient condition), when one occurs under certain conditions, the other necessarily follows (contributory, but not sufficient, condition) ("multiple causality" would be a case involving several causes which are severally contributory and jointly sufficient); the necessity in these cases is neither that of logical implication nor that of coercion; a relation between events, processes, or entities in the same time series such that when one occurs the other invariably follows (invariable antecedence), a relation between events, processes, or entities such that one has the efficacy to produce or alter the other; a relation between events, processes, or entities such that without one the other could not occur, as in the relation between the material out of which a product is made and the finished product (material cause), structure or form and the individual embodying it (formal cause), a goal or purpose (whether supposed to exist in the future as a special kind of entity, outside a time series, or merely as an idea of the pur-poser) and the work fulfilling it (final cause), a moving force and the process or result of its action (efficient cause); a relation between experienced events, processes, or entities and extra-experiential but either temporal or non-temporal events, processes, or entities upon whose existence the former depend; a relation between a thing and itself when it is dependent upon nothing else for its existence (self-causality); a relation between an event, process, or entity and the reason or explanation for its being; a relation between an idea and an experience whose expectation the idea arouses because of customary association of the two in this sequence; a principle or category introducing into experience one of the aforesaid types of order; this principle may be inherent in the mind, invented by the mind, or derived from experience; it may be an explanatory hypothesis, a postulate, a convenient fiction, or a necessary form of thought. Causality has been conceived to prevail between processes, parts of a continuous process, changing parts of an unchanging whole, objects, events, ideas, or something of one of these types and something of another. When an entity, event, or process is said to follow from another, it may be meant that it must succeed but can be neither contemporaneous with nor prior to the other, that it must either succeed or be contemporaneous with and dependent upon but cannot precede the other, or that one is dependent upon the other but they either are not in the same time series or one is in no time series at all.
cerebrum ::: n. --> The anterior, and in man the larger, division of the brain; the seat of the reasoning faculties and the will. See Brain.
Chih chih: Extension of knowledge or achieving true knowledge through the investigation of things (ko wu) and understanding their Reason (li) to the utmost, not necessarily by investigating all things in the world, but by thoroughly investigating one thing and then more if necessary, so that the Reason in that thing, and thereby Reason in general, is understood. In Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529), it means "extension to the utmost of the mind's intuitive knowledge of good -- the knowledge of good which Mencius calls the good-evil mind and which all people have." (Neo-Confucianism). -- W.T.C.
Ch'iung li: Investigation of Reason of things to the utmost. A thing is considered by the Neo-Confucianists to be an event. A perfect understanding of an event can be obtained by investigating to the utmost the Reason underlying it. This does not require the investigation of the Reason of all things. When the Reason in one thing is extensively investigated, the Reason in other things can be understood. (Neo-Confucianism.) -- W.T.C.
Chung: Being true to the principle of the self; being true to the originally good nature of the self; being one's true self; the Confucian "central thread or principle" (i kuan) with respect to the self, as reciprocity (shu) is that principle with respect to others. See i kuan. Exerting one's pure heart to the utmost, to the extent of "not a single thought not having been exhausted", honesty, sincerity; devotion of soul, conscientiousness. (Confucianism.) "Honesty (chung) is complete realization of one's nature" whereas truthfulness (hsin) is "complete realization of the nature of things." "Honesty (chung) is the subjective side of truthfulness (hsin) whereas truthfulness is the objective side of honesty." (Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1086.) "Honesty is exerting one's heart to the utmost whereas truthfulness is the observance of the Reason of things." (Chu Hsi, 1230-1300.) Impartiality, especially in love and profit, Loyalty, especially to one's superiors, faithfulness.
Comparing this fourfold classification of the human constitution with the sevenfold division commonly set forth in theosophical literature: atman (the essential principle of selfhood and therefore the highest) is the same in both; karana-sarira is equivalent to buddhi and the higher manas; sukshma-sarira comprises manas and kama; while sthula-sarira takes in the three lower principles — prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira. The reason for the two classifications is that Subba Row fastened “attention on the monads, looking upon the universe as a vast aggregate of individualities; while H. P. B. for that time of the world’s history saw the need to give to the inquiring Western mind . . . some real explanation of what the composition of the universe is as an entity — what its ‘stuff’ is, and what man is as an integral part of it. Now the seven principles are the seven kinds of ‘stuff’ of the universe. . . . [however] we must not have our minds confused with the idea that the seven principles are one thing, and the monads are something else which work through the principles as disjunct from them” (FSO 443-4). See also PRINCIPLES.
computer literacy "education" Basic skill in use of computers, from the perspective of such skill being a necessary societal skill. The term was coined by Andrew Molnar, while director of the Office of Computing Activities at the {National Science Foundation}. "We started computer literacy in '72 [...] We coined that phrase. It's sort of ironic. Nobody knows what computer literacy is. Nobody can define it. And the reason we selected [it] was because nobody could define it, and [...] it was a broad enough term that you could get all of these programs together under one roof" (cited in Aspray, W., (September 25, 1991) "Interview with Andrew Molnar," OH 234. Center for the History of Information Processing, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota). The term, as a coinage, is similar to earlier coinages, such as "visual literacy", which {Merriam-Webster (http://m-w.com/)} dates to 1971, and the more recent "media literacy". A more useful definition from {(http://www.computerliteracyusa.com/)} is: Computer literacy is an understanding of the concepts, terminology and operations that relate to general computer use. It is the essential knowledge needed to function independently with a computer. This functionality includes being able to solve and avoid problems, adapt to new situations, keep information organized and communicate effectively with other computer literate people. (2007-03-23)
Consciousness: (Lat. conscire, to know, to be cognizant of) A designation applied to conscious mind as opposed to a supposedly unconscious or subconscious mind (See Subconscious Mind; Unconscious Mind), and to the whole domain of the physical and non-mental. Consciousness is generally considered an indefinable term or rather a term definable only by direct introspective appeal to conscious experiences. The indefinability of consciousness is expressed by Sir William Hamilton: "Consciousness cannot be defined: we may be ourselves fully aware what consciousness is, but we cannot without confusion convey to others a definition of what we ourselves clearly apprehend. The reason is plain: consciousness lies at the root of all knowledge." (Lectures on Metaphysics, I, 191.) Ladd's frequently quoted definition of consciousness succeeds only in indicating the circumstances under which it is directly observable: "Whatever we are when we are awake, as contrasted with what we are when we sink into a profound and dreamless sleep, that is to be conscious."
Core business - The sector(s) of business activity that is the reason or purpose for being, e.g. providing meals within a restaurant would be considered core, while sales of art works on the wall may be non core.
Credo quia absurdum est: Literally, I believe because it is absurd. Although these particular words are often wrongly attributed to Tertullian (born middle of the 2nd century) they nevertheless convey the thought of this Latin church father who maintained the rule of faith on the basis of one's trust in the commands and authority of Christ rather than upon the compulsion of reason or truth. To believe in the absurd, in other words, is to reveal a greater faith than to believe in the reasonable. -- V.F.
Crocodile [from Greek champsai, Egyptian emsehiu] In Egypt deified under the name of Sebak (or Sebeq). The principal seat of this worship was the city Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe) where great numbers of mummified beasts have been exhumed. When the canals became dry, the crocodiles would wander about the fields and make such havoc that they were naturally associated with the powers of destruction and evil, the principal malefactor of the pantheon being Set or Typhon. The ancient Egyptians did not regard Set or Typhon, and the crocodile which represented him, as the enemy, the destroyer. In fact, in the earlier dynasties Typhon was one of the most powerful and venerated of the divinities, giving blessings, life, and inspiration to the people, and in especial perhaps to the Royal House or rulers of Egypt. The reason lay in the fact that the earlier mythology showed Typhon or Set mystically as the shadow of Osiris, the god of light and wisdom — Typhon or Set being the alter ego or more material aspect of Osiris himself. “The Crocodile is the Egyptian dragon. It was the dual symbol of Heaven and Earth, of Sun and Moon, and was made sacred, in consequence of its amphibious nature, to Osiris and Isis” (SD 1:409). The crocodile was also named as one of the signs of the zodiac, the regency of which was connected with a group of lofty beings, whose “abode is in Capricornus” (SD 1:219).
daotu. (J. tozu; K. todo 刀塗). In Chinese, lit. "destiny of knives," viz., "butchery"; a descriptive term to refer to the realm of animals (TIRYAK). This rebirth destiny (GATI) is typically depicted in Buddhist cosmology as highly undesirable, one of the reasons being that many animals inevitably suffer the fate of being butchered to feed others. The Sanskrit tiryaggati literally means the destiny of those who go horizontally, i.e., on all four legs, rather than standing up straight.
dashi. (J. daiji; K. taesa 大事). In Chinese, the "great enterprise" or "great matter"; often seen also as the "one great matter" (C. yidashi). The Chinese term dashi appears in KUMĀRAJĪVA's translation of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") regarding the reason why the buddhas appear in the world, but has no precise relation there to a specific Sanskrit term; possible equivalencies might be mahākṛtya, "the great action," or mahānusaMsa, "the great blessing." According to the MAHĀYĀNA tradition, the Buddha taught most of his teachings as provisional, transitional, and adaptive instructions that catered to the special contingencies of the spiritually less advanced. However, the Buddha's ultimate concern is the revelation of an ultimate and overriding message, the "great enterprise." Different Mahāyāna scriptures and schools interpret this ultimate message differently and often purport uniquely to convey that message. For example, according to the Saddharmapundarīkasutra and the TIANTAI ZONG, the "great enterprise" is the revelation of the one vehicle (EKAYĀNA), through which all individuals without exception are able to enter the Mahāyāna path and realize the knowledge and vision of perfect buddhahood. According to the MAHĀPARINIRVĀnASuTRA, it is the eternal, absolute characteristics of the buddha-nature (FOXING; BUDDHADHĀTU). According to the SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA and the PURE LAND schools, it is the revelation of the paradisiacal pure land of SUKHĀVATĪ and the "original vows" of AMITĀBHA Buddha. And, finally, in the CHAN ZONG, the "great enterprise" refers to the general process of awakening to one's own original nature and becoming a buddha (JIANXING CHENGFO).
deliberation ::: n. --> The act of deliberating, or of weighing and examining the reasons for and against a choice or measure; careful consideration; mature reflection.
Careful discussion and examination of the reasons for and against a measure; as, the deliberations of a legislative body or council.
Desecrating the Host ::: Jews were accused of defiling the Host (bread used in the Christian Eucharist ritual), with blood. The red substance that can grow on bread which has a blood-like appearance is now known to be a mold. This allegation was used as the reason for a series of anti-Semitic attacks.
Discipline ::: To act according to a standard of Truth or a rule or law of action (dharma) or in obedience to a superior authority or to the highest principles discovered by the reason and intelligent will and not according to one’s own fancy, vital impulses and desires. In Yoga obedience to the Guru or to the Divine and the law of the Truth as declared by the Guru is the foundation of discipline. To live and act under control or according to a standard of what is right—not to allow the vital or the physical to do whatever they like and not to let the mind run about according to its fancy without truth or order. Also to obey those who ought to be obeyed.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 672
Door to the Human Kingdom Theosophical term expressing the idea that no more entities below the human stage will evolve into human beings in this round. The reason for this is that
dravyasat. (T. rdzas yod; C. shi you; J. jitsuu; K. sil yu 實有). In Sanskrit, "substantially existent," or "existent in substance"; a term used in Buddhist philosophical literature to describe phenomena whose inherent nature is more real than those designated as PRAJNAPTISAT, "existent by imputation." The contrast drawn in doctrinal discussions between the way things appear to be and the way they exist in reality appears to have developed out of the early contrast drawn between the false view (MITHYĀDṚstI) of a perduring self (ĀTMAN) and five real aggregates (SKANDHA). The five aggregates as the real constituents of compounded things were further elaborated into the theory of factors (DHARMA), which were generally conceived as dravyasat, although the ABHIDHARMA schools differed regarding how they defined the term and which phenomena fell into which category. In the SARVĀSTIVĀDA abhidharma, for example, dharmas are categorized as dravyasat because they have "inherent existence" (SVABHĀVA), while all compounded things, by contrast, are prajNaptisat, or merely conventional constructs that derive from dravyasat. In the MADHYAMAKA school of MAHĀYĀNA scholasticism, however, all things are considered to lack any inherent existence (NIḤSVABHĀVA). Therefore, Madhyamaka asserts that even dharmas are marked by emptiness (suNYATĀ) and thus nothing is "substantially existent" (dravyasat). In contrast to the Madhyamaka's exclusive rejection of anything being dravyasat, the YOGĀCĀRA school maintained that at least one thing, the flow of consciousness or the process of subjective imputation (VIJNAPTI), was substantially existent (dravyasat). For Yogācāra followers, however, the reason that the flow of consciousness is dravyasat is not because it is free from causal conditioning and thereby involves inherent existence (svabhāva), but because the Yogācāra denies the ontological claim that causal conditioning involves the absence of svabhāva, or vice versa. Thus the flow of consciousness, even though it is causally conditioned, may still be conceived as "substantially existent" (dravyasat) because its inherent existence is "dependent" (PARATANTRA), one of the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA) recognized in the school. Another strand of Mahāyāna thought that asserts there is something that is substantially existent is the doctrine of the buddha-nature (BUDDHADHĀTU) or TATHĀGATAGARBHA. As the potentiality inherent in each sentient being to become a buddha, the tathāgatagarbha is sometimes said to be both empty (of all afflictions) and nonempty (of all the attributes and qualities inherent in enlightenment). In this context, there has been some dispute as to whether the buddhadhātu or tathāgatagarbha should be conceived as only dravyasat, or as both dravyasat and prajNaptisat.
eleatic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a certain school of Greek philosophers who taught that the only certain science is that which owes nothing to the senses, and all to the reason. ::: n. --> A philosopher of the Eleatic school.
Equivocation is any fallacy arising from ambiguity of a word, or of a phrase playing the role of a single word in the reasoning in question, the word or phrase being used at different places with different meanings and an inference drawn which is formally correct if the word or phrase is treated as being the same word or phrase throughout. -- A. C.
Etiology (Aetiology) ::: (Gre. Cause or origin) A term used to describe or label stories that claim to explain the reason for something being (or being called) what it is. For example, in the old Jewish creation story (Genesis 2.23), woman (Heb. ishah) is given that name because she has been “taken out of the side or rib of man” (Heb. ish).
Faith: According to St. Augustine, faith means, to believe that which one does not see. (Fides ergo est, quod non vides credere.) That is the reason why faith is praiseworthy.
Fallacy is any unsound step or process of reasoning, especially one which has a deceptive appearance of soundness or is falsely accepted as sound. The unsoundness may consist either in a mistake of formal logic, or in the suppression of a premiss whose unacceptability might have been recognized if it had been stated, or in a lack of genuine adaptation of the reasoning to its purpose. Of the traditional names which purport to describe particular kinds of fallacies, not all have a sufficiently definite or generally accepted meaning to justify notice. See, however, the following:
Faxiang zong. (J. Hossoshu; K. Popsang chong 法相宗). In Chinese, "Dharma Characteristics School," the third and most important of three strands of YOGĀCĀRA-oriented MAHĀYĀNA Buddhism to emerge in China, along with the DI LUN ZONG and SHE LUN ZONG. The name Faxiang (originally coined by its opponents and having pejorative connotations) comes from its detailed analysis of factors (DHARMA) on the basis of the Yogācāra doctrine that all phenomena are transformations of consciousness, or "mere-representation" (VIJNAPTIMĀTRATĀ). The school's own preferred name for itself was the WEISHI ZONG (Consciousness/Representation-Only School). Interest in the theories of the SHIDIJING LUN (viz., Di lun) and the MAHĀLĀNASAMGRAHA (viz., She lun) largely waned as new YOGĀLĀRA texts from India were introduced to China by the pilgrim and translator XUANZANG (600/602-664) and the work of HUAYAN scholars such as FAZANG (643-712) on the AVATAMSAKASuTRA (within which the Dasabhumikasutra is incorporated) began to gain prominence. One of the reasons motivating Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India, in fact, was to procure definitive Indian materials that would help to resolve the discrepancies in interpretation of Yogācāra found in these different traditions. Because of the imperial patronage he received upon his return, Xuanzang became one of the most prominent monks in Chinese Buddhist history and attracted students from all over East Asia. The Faxiang school was established mainly on the basis of the CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimātratāsiddhi; "The Treatise on the Establishment of Consciousness-Only"), a text edited and translated into Chinese by Xuanzang, based on material that he brought back with him from India. Xuanzang studied under sĪLABHADRA (529-645), a principal disciple of DHARMAPĀLA (530-561), during his stay in India, and brought Dharmapāla's scholastic lineage back with him to China. Xuanzang translated portions of Dharmapāla's *VijNaptimātratāsiddhi, an extended commentary on VASUBANDHU's TRIMsILĀ ("Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only"). Dharmapāla's original exegesis cited the different interpretations of Vasubandhu's treatise offered by himself and nine other major scholiasts within the Yogācāra tradition; Xuanzang, however, created a précis of the text and translated only the "orthodox" interpretation of Dharmapāla. Xuanzang's disciple KUIJI (632-682) further systematized Xuanzang's materials by compiling the CHENG WEISHI LUN SHUJI ("Commentarial Notes on the *VijNaptimātratāsiddhi") and the Cheng weishi lun shuyao ("Essentials of the *VijNaptimātratāsiddhi"); for his efforts to build the school, Kuiji is traditionally regarded as the first Faxiang patriarch. The Faxiang school further developed under Huizhao (650-714), its second patriarch, and Zhizhou (668-723), its third patriarch, but thereafter declined in China. ¶ The teachings of the Faxiang school were transmitted to Korea (where it is called the Popsang chong) and were classified as one of the five major doctrinal traditions (see KYO) of the Unified Silla (668-935) and Koryo (935-1392) dynasties. The Korean expatriate monk WoNCH'ŬK (613-696) was one of the two major disciples of Xuanzang, along with Kuiji, and there are reports of intense controversies between Kuiji's Ci'en scholastic line (CI'EN XUEPAI) and Wonch'uk's Ximing scholastic line (XIMING XUEPAI) due to their differing interpretations of Yogācāra doctrine. Wonch'ŭk's commentary to the SAMDHINIRMOCANASuTRA, the Jieshenmi jing shu (K. Haesimmil kyong so), was transmitted to the DUNHUANG region and translated into Tibetan by CHOS GRUB (C. Facheng, c. 755-849) at the behest of the Tibetan king RAL PA CAN (806-838), probably sometime between 815 and 824. Wonch'ŭk's exegesis of the scripture proved to be extremely influential in the writings of TSONG KHA PA (1357-1419), and especially on his LEGS BSHAD SNYING PO, where Wonch'ŭk's work is called the "Great Chinese Commentary." ¶ The Japanese Hossoshu developed during the Nara period (710-784) after being transmitted from China and Korea, but declined during the Heian (794-1185) due to persistent attacks from the larger TENDAI (C. TIANTAI) and SHINGON (C. Zhenyan) schools. Although the Hossoshu survived, it did not have the wide influence over the Japanese tradition as did its major rivals. ¶ Faxiang is known for its comprehensive list of one hundred DHARMAs, or "factors" (BAIFA), in which all dharmas-whether "compounded" or "uncompounded," mundane or supramundane-are subsumed; this list accounts in large measure for its designation as the "dharma characteristics" school. These factors are classified into five major categories:
Fides: Faith, according to St. Augustine, means, to believe that which one does not see: Fides ergo est, quod non vides credere. That is the reason why faith is praiseworthy. Haec est enim laus fidei, si quod creditur non videtur. -- J.J.R.
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 ::: prep. --> In the most general sense, indicating that in consideration of, in view of, or with reference to, which anything is done or takes place.
Indicating the antecedent cause or occasion of an action; the motive or inducement accompanying and prompting to an act or state; the reason of anything; that on account of which a thing is or is done.
Indicating the remoter and indirect object of an act; the end or final cause with reference to which anything is, acts, serves,
From another standpoint, bhuta applies in a general way to reproductions in a new existence of entities which “have been” in a former existence. This is the reason cosmic elements are occasionally called bhutas in their connection with the various tattvas, because the elements in any one manvantara are the derivatives or reproductions, and therefore the bhutas, of the same elements in the previous manvantara.
Furthermore, because it is an expression of energy, all vibration is force and energy itself, and hence capable of arousing energies or forces of exactly the same quality or rate of intensity in other beings which they affect — this being the reason behind sympathetic vibration. When vibrations thus interlock and synchronize in rate, intensity, and quality, we have what is called sympathy, love, or attraction, and such sympathetic vibration is operative on all the planes of universal nature. Not only is this the case in all relations of humans with each other, but likewise sympathetic vibration plays an enormous part in such matters as mob psychology, quick electrical sympathies affecting audiences, hates and rebellions — even what is known as health and disease are communicated by means of vibrations, the one first affected being able to communicate his “affection” of whatever kind to others who are at the time negative to the vibrational impact and in time vibrating synchronously with the impacting energy. There is, of course, such a thing as resistance, which expresses itself in manifold ways, such as being able to throw off the vibration affecting it, and even to return it upon the sender, consciously or unconsciously; and herein lies the secret of the old medieval saying that curses come home to roost, or that if the magician is not stronger than the elementals or nature spirits he attempts to control, he is almost invariably destined to become their victim.
hack value Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal is a hack. For example, MacLISP had features for reading and printing Roman numerals, which were installed purely for hack value. See {display hack} for one method of computing hack value, but this cannot really be explained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once said when asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know." (Feminists please note Fats Waller's explanation of rhythm: "Lady, if you got to ask you ain't got it.")
hack value ::: Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal is a hack. you'll never know. (Feminists please note Fats Waller's explanation of rhythm: Lady, if you got to ask you ain't got it.)
hermetic ideality ::: (in 1919) the second of the three planes of ideality, the plane whose essence is sruti (inspiration), later called srauta vijñana. Whereas the logistic ideality "remembers at a second remove the knowledge secret in the being but lost by the mind in the oblivion of the ignorance", the hermetic ideality "divines at a first remove a greater power of that knowledge". The first "resembles the reason, is a divine reason", the second is said to be of the nature of "inspired interpretation".
Hetu (Sanskrit) Hetu Cause, motive, impulse; in the Nyaya system of philosophy, a logical reason or deduction or argument; the reason for an inference, applied especially to the second member or avayava of the five-membered syllogism. In Buddhism, a primary cause, opposed to pratyaya (concurrent cause).
Hypnotism ::: Derived from a Greek word hypnos, which means "sleep," and strictly speaking the word hypnotismshould be used only for those psychological-physiological phenomena in which the subject manifestingthem is in a condition closely resembling sleep. The trouble is that in any attempt to study these variouspsychological powers of the human constitution it is found that they are many and of divers kinds; butthe public, and even the technical experimenters, usually group all these psychologicalphenomena under the one word hypnotism, and therefore it is a misnomer. One of such powers, forinstance, which is well known, is called fascination. Another shows a more or less complete suspensionof the individual will and of the individual activities of him who is the sufferer from such psychologicalpower, although in other respects he may show no signs of physical sleep. Another again -- and thisperhaps is the most important of all so far as actual dangers lie -- passes under the name of suggestion, anexceedingly good name, because it describes the field of action of perhaps the most subtle and dangerousside-branch of the exercise of the general power or force emanating from the mind of the operator.The whole foundation upon which this power rests lies in the human psychological constitution; and itcan be easily and neatly expressed in a few words. It is the power emanating from one mind, which canaffect another mind and direct or misdirect the latter's course of action. This is in nine hundred andninety-nine times out of a thousand a wrong thing to do; and this fact would readily be understood byeverybody did men know, as they should, the difference between the higher and the lower nature of man,the difference between his incorruptible, death-defying individuality, his spiritual nature, on the onehand; and, on the other hand, the brain-mind and all its train of weak and fugitive thoughts.Anyone who has seen men and women in the state of hypnosis must realize not only how dangerous,how baleful and wrong it is, but also that it exemplifies the trance state perfectly. The reason is that theintermediate nature, or the psychomental apparatus, of the human being in this state has been displacedfrom its seat, in other words, is disjoined or dislocated; and there remains but the vitalized human body,with its more or less imperfect functioning of the brain cells and nervous apparatus. H. P. Blavatsky inher Theosophical Glossary writes: "It is the most dangerous of practices, morally and physically, as itinterferes with the nerve-fluid and the nerves controlling the circulation in the capillary blood-vessels."(See also Mesmerism)
in-band ::: (communications) (bit-robbing) The exchange of call control information on the same channel as the telephone call or data transmission. Since one bit in a frame is periodically used for signalling instead of data, this is often referred to as bit robbing.This is the reason why a D1 channel in the T-carrier system can only carry 56 Kbps of usable data instead of the 64 Kbps carried by the D0 channel in the E-carrier system.(2000-03-10)
in-band signalling "communications" (Or CAS, channel associated signaling) Transmission of control signals in the same channel as data. This is commonly used in the {Public Switched Telephone Network} where the same pair of wires carry both voice and control signals (e.g. dialling, ringing). Another example is the use on a computer {serial line} of Control-S and Control-Q characters for {flow control} as opposed to {hardware flow control} which would be out-of-band signalling. In digital communications, in-band signalling often uses "bit-robbing" where, for example, one {bit} in each {frame} is used for signalling instead of data. This is the reason why a {D1} channel in the T-carrier system can only carry 56 Kbps of usable data instead of the 64 Kbps carried by the {D0} channel in the E-carrier system. (2007-01-26)
In Epistemology (See his Mind and the World-Order) Lewis has presented a "conceptualistic pragmatism" based on these theses: "A priori truth is definitive in nature and rises exclusively from the analysis of concepts." "The choice of conceptual systems for . . . application [to particular given experiences] is . . . pragmatic." "That experience in general is such as to be capable of conceptual interpretation . . . could not conceivably be otherwise." --C.A.B. Li: Reason; Law; the Rational Principle. This is the basic concept of modern Chinese philosophy. To the Neo-Confucians, especially Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107), Ch'eng Ming-tao (1032-1086) and Chu Hsi (1130-1200), Reason is the rational principle of existence whereas the vital force (ch'i) is the material principle. All things have the same Reason in them, making them one reality. By virtue of their Reason, Heaven and Earth and all things are not isolated. The Reason of a thing is one with the Reason of all things. A thing can function easily if it follows its own Reason. Everything can be understood by its Reason. This Reason of a thing is the same as its nature (hsingj. Subjectively it is the nature, objectively it is Reason. Lu Hsiang-shan (1139-1193) said that there is only one mind and there is only one Reason, which are identical. It fills the universe, manifesting itself everywhere. To Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529), the mind itself is the embodiment of Reason. To say that there is nothing existing independent of Reason is to say that there is nothing apart from the mind. See Li hsueh, Chinese philosophy, and ch'i. -- W.T.C.
In most arguments about the nature of space, space is unconsciously assumed at the outset of the inquiry, so that the reasoning becomes viciously circular. Is space the ultimate residue left after we have removed everything conceivable? In that case how can we define it in terms of anything which is supposed to be derived from it? We must either leave it undefined, as a primary postulate, or else define it in terms of something which lies beyond the physical plane altogether.
In order to appreciate fully the meaning of the universe, man must comprehend Reason. This can be done by "investigating things to the utmost" (ko wu), that is, by "investigating the Reason of things to the utmost (ch'iung li)." When sufficient effort is made, and understanding naturally comes, one's nature will be realized and his destiny will be fulfilled, since "the exhaustive investigation of Reason, the full realization of one's nature, and the fulfillment of destiny are simultaneous." When one understands Reason, he will find that "All people are brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions," because all men have the same Reason in them. Consequently one should not entertain any distinction between things and the ego. This is the foundation of the Neo-Confucian ethics of jen, true manhood, benevolence or love. Both the understanding of Reason and the practice of jen require sincerity (ch'eng) and seriousness (ching) which to the Neo-Confucians almost assumed religious significance. As a matter of fact these have a certain correspondence with the Buddhist dhyana and prajna or meditation and insight. Gradually the Neo-Confucian movement became an inward movement, the mind assuming more and more importance.
In the plural, the celestial seven munis, a collective title given to the seven stars of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Here is the reason the marharshis of this constellation play so important a part in archaic Hindu and theosophical esoteric teaching — the genuinely evolved muni is one who is a true mahatma, one who has evoked into relatively full activity all the seven parts of his constitution.
In the subconscient the intuition manifests itself in the action, in effectivity, and the knowledge or conscious identity is either entirely or more or less concealed in the action. In the superconscient, on the contrary, Light being the law and the principle, the intuition manifests itself in its true nature as knowledge emerging out of conscious identity, and effectivity of action is rather the accompaniment or necessary consequent and no longer masks as the primary fact. Between these two states reason and mind act as intermediaries which enable the being to liberate knowledge out of its imprisonment in the act and prepare it to resume its essential primacy. When the selfawareness in the mind applied both to continent and content, to own-self and other-self, exalts itself into the luminous selfmanifest identity, the reason also converts itself into the form of the self-luminous intuitional3 knowledge. This is the highest possible state of our knowledge when mind fulfils itself in the supramental.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 72
In the world of matter, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are each personified by earth, water, and fire, i.e., each of these divinities combines in itself these three elements, one predominating when the divinity manifests one of its three fundamental gunas. “In Indian Puranas it is Vishnu, the first, and Brahma, the second logos, or the ideal and practical creators, who are respectively represented, one as manifesting the lotus, the other as issuing from it” (SD 1:381n). But Brahma, for instance, because of the significance of expansion inherent in the name, could equally well be looked upon as the source of Vishnu, manifesting as the cosmic waters or Second Logos. This perhaps is the reason why in this Trimurti, Brahma is called the emanator or evolver, and Vishnu the sustainer or preserver.
Intuition ::: Spiritual intuition is always a more luminous guide than the discriminating reason, and spiritual intuition addresses itself to us not only through the reason, but through the rest of our being as well, through the heart and the life also.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 578
Investment (Accounting) - Refers to the purchase of stocks, real property, collectible annuities, bonds, etc, with the reason being the firm expects to make a capital gain, income return or both, over the future.
i: The Great Unit. See t'ai i. T'ai Chi: The Great Ultimate or Terminus, which, in the beginning of time, "engenders the Two Primary Modes (i), which in turn engender the Four Secondary Modes or Forms (hsiang), which in their turn give rise to the Eight Elements (pa kua) and the Eight Elements determine all good and evil and the great complexity of life." (Ancient Chinese philosophy). The Great Ultimate which comes from, but is originally one with, the Non-Ultimate (wu chi). Its movement and tranquillity engender the active principle, yang, and the passive principle, yin, respectively (the Two Primary Modes), the transformation and the union of which give rise to the Five Agents (wu hsing) of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth, and thereby the determinate things (Chou Lien-hsi, 1017-1073). The Great Ultimate which is One and unmoved, and which, when moved, becomes the Omnipotent Creative Principle (shen) which engenders Number, then Form, and finally corporeality. Being such, the Great Ultimate is identical with the Mind, it is identical with the Moral Law (tao). (Shao K'ang-chieh, 1011-1077) The Great Ultimate which is identical with the One (1), or the Grand Harmony (T'ai Ho). (Chang Heng-ch'u, 1020-1077). The Great Ultimate which is identical with the Reason (li) of the universe, of the two (yin and yang) vital forces (ch'i), and of the Five Elements (wu hsing). It is the Reason of ultimate goodness. ''Collectively there is only one Great Ultimate, but there is a Great Ultimate in each thing" (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200).
“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 in his biology that the distinctive concepts of Aristotle show to best advantage. The conception of process as the actualization of determinate potentiality is well adapted to the comprehension of biological phenomena, where the immanent teleology of structure and function is almost a part of the observed facts. It is here also that the persistence of the form, or species, through a succession of individuals is most strikingly evident. His psychology is scarcely separable from his biology, since for Aristotle (as for Greek thought generally) the soul is the principle of life; it is "the primary actualization of a natural organic body." But souls differ from one another in the variety and complexity of the functions they exercise, and this difference in turn corresponds to differences in the organic structures involved. Fundamental to all other physical activities are the functions of nutrition, growth and reproduction, which are possessed by all living beings, plants as well as animals. Next come sensation, desire, and locomotion, exhibited in animals in varying degrees. Above all are deliberative choice and theoretical inquiry, the exercise of which makes the rational soul, peculiar to man among the animals. Aristotle devotes special attention to the various activities of the rational soul. Sense perception is the faculty of receiving the sensible form of outward objects without their matter. Besides the five senses Aristotle posits a "common sense," which enables the rational soul to unite the data of the separate senses into a single object, and which also accounts for the soul's awareness of these very activities of perception and of its other states. Reason is the faculty of apprehending the universals and first principles involved in all knowledge, and while helpless without sense perception it is not limited to the concrete and sensuous, but can grasp the universal and the ideal. The reason thus described as apprehending the intelligible world is in one difficult passage characterized as passive reason, requiring for its actualization a higher informing reason as the source of all intelligibility in things and of realized intelligence in man.
It likewise signifies a cross which was used in ways closely approximating that of the cross in Christian countries: it was often employed as a mark or subscription, as is done even today by people who cannot write their names. The reason for this was that the old Phoenician alphabet as well as the coins of the Maccabees in Judaea both used the written form of this alphabetic character which was like a cross.
Kaimokusho. (開目鈔). In Japanese, "Opening the Eyes"; one of the major writings of NICHIREN. Nichiren composed this treatise in 1273 while he was living in exile in a graveyard on Sado Island. Nichiren's motivation for writing this treatise is said to have come from the doubts that he came to harbor about the efficacy of the teachings of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA due to the government's repeated persecution of him and his followers. The Kaimokusho details the reasons behind the persecutions: bad KARMAN from the past, the abandonment of the country by the gods (KAMI), life in the impure realm of SAHĀLOKA, and the trials and tribulations of the BODHISATTVA path. In the Kaimokusho, Nichiren professes to have overcome his doubts and welcomes the bodhisattva path of martyrdom. The treatise explains the path that leads to "opening the eyes" as a journey from the teachings of the heretics to those of the HĪNAYĀNA, the MAHĀYĀNA, and finally culminating in the teachings of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra (see JIAOXIANG PANSHI). According to Nichiren tradition, because Nichiren claims at the conclusion of the text to be the "sovereign, teacher, and mother and father to all the people of Japan," he has thus revealed himself to be the Buddha of the degenerate age of the dharma (MAPPo).
karana. ::: the cause; causal; the reason; the seed of all seeds; the original cause of creation; the subtle cause of everything; the unmanifested potential cause that, in due time, takes shape as the visible effect; that which brings the joy of Reality
Kavyas (Sanskrit) Kavya-s, Kāvya-s [from kavi intelligent, wise] A class of pitris, the descendants of Kavi, closely connected with Sukra, regent of the planet Venus. Connected intimately with the manasaputras or solar pitris, monads of intrinsically spiritual-intellectual type or descent, as opposed to the barhishads or lunar pitris, the lower human ancestors. As the various descents of mind governed by cyclic law are connected with the manasaputras, we see the reason the kavyas are often represented as intimately connected with the whirling cycles of evolutionary time, and as presiding over these cycles.
Ko wu: Investigation of things. (Confucianism.) Investigation of the Reason (li) of things and affairs to the utmost. (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200.) "Rectification" of things and affairs by the extension of one's intuitive knowledge so that what is not correct in things, and therefore evil, may be corrected and made good. (Wang Yang-ming, 1473-1529.)
Legal Philosophy: Deals with the philosophic principles of law and justice. The origin is to be found in ancient philosophy. The Greek Sophists criticized existing laws and customs by questioning their validity: All human rules are artificial, created by enactment or convention, as opposed to natural law, based on nature. The theory of a law of nature was further developed by Aristotle and the Stoics. According to the Stoics the natural law is based upon the eternal law of the universe; this itself is an outgrowth of universal reason, as man's mind is an offshoot of the latter. The idea of a law of nature as being innate in man was particularly stressed and popularized by Cicero who identified it with "right reason" and already contrasted it with written law that might be unjust or even tyrannical. Through Saint Augustine these ideas were transmitted to medieval philosophy and by Thomas Aquinas built into his philosophical system. Thomas considers the eternal law the reason existing in the divine mind and controlling the universe. Natural law, innate in man participates in that eternal law. A new impetus was given to Legal Philosophy by the Renaissance. Natural Jurisprudence, properly so-called, originated in the XVII. century. Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Benedictus Spinoza, John Locke, Samuel Pufendorf were the most important representatives of that line of thought. Grotius, continuing the Scholastic tradition, particularly stressed the absoluteness of natural hw (it would exist even if God did not exist) and, following Jean Bodin, the sovereignty of the people. The idea of the social contract traced all political bodies back to a voluntary compact by which every individual gave up his right to self-government, or rather transferred it to the government, abandoning a state of nature which according to Hobbes must have been a state of perpetual war. The theory of the social compact more and more accepts the character of a "fiction" or of a regulative idea (Kant). In this sense the theory means that we ought to judge acts of government by their correspondence to the general will (Rousseau) and to the interests of the individuals who by transferring their rights to the commonwealth intended to establish their real liberty. Natural law by putting the emphasis on natural rights, takes on a revolutionary character. It played a part in shaping the bills of rights, the constitutions of the American colonies and of the Union, as well as of the French declaration of the rights of men and of citizens. Natural jurisprudence in the teachings of Christian Wolff and Thomasius undergoes a kind of petrification in the vain attempt to outline an elaborate system of natural law not only in the field of international or public law, but also in the detailed regulations of the law of property, of contract, etc. This sort of dogmatic approach towards the problems of law evoked the opposition of the Historic School (Gustav Hugo and Savigny) which stressed the natural growth of laws ind customs, originating from the mysterious "spirit of the people". On the other hand Immanuel Kant tried to overcome the old natural law by the idea of a "law of reason", meaning an a priori element in all existing or positive law. In his definition of law ("the ensemble of conditions according to which everyone's will may coexist with the will of every other in accordance with a general rule of liberty"), however, as in his legal philosophy in general, he still shares the attitude of the natural law doctrine, confusing positive law with the idea of just law. This is also true of Hegel whose panlogism seemed to lead in this very direction. Under the influence of epistemological positivism (Comte, Mill) in the later half of the nineteenth century, legal philosophy, especially in Germany, confined itself to a "general theory of law". Similarily John Austin in England considered philosophy of law concerned only with positive law, "as it necessarily is", not as it ought to be. Its main task was to analyze certain notions which pervade the science of law (Analytical Jurisprudence). In recent times the same tendency to reduce legal philosophy to logical or at least methodological tasks was further developed in attempting a pure science of law (Kelsen, Roguin). Owing to the influence of Darwinism and natural science in general the evolutionist and biological viewpoint was accepted in legal philosophy: comparative jurisprudence, sociology of law, the Freirecht movement in Germany, the study of the living law, "Realism" in American legal philosophy, all represent a tendency against rationalism. On the other hand there is a revival of older tendencies: Hegelianism, natural law -- especially in Catholic philosophy -- and Kantianism (beginning with Rudolf Stammler). From here other trends arose: the critical attitude leads to relativism (f.i. Gustav Radbruch); the antimetaphysical tendency towards positivism -- though different from epistemological positivism -- and to a pure theory of law. Different schools of recent philosophy have found their applications or repercussions in legal philosophy: Phenomenology, for example, tried to intuit the essences of legal institutions, thus coming back to a formalist position, not too far from the real meaning of analytical jurisprudence. Neo-positivism, though so far not yet explicitly applied to legal philosophy, seems to lead in the same direction. -- W.E.
Li hsueh: The Rational Philosophy or the Reason School of the Sung dynasty (960-1279) which insisted on Reason or Law (li) as the basis of reality, including such philosophers as Chou Lien-hsi (1017-1073), Shao K'ang-chieh (1011-1077), Chang Heng-ch'u (1020-1077), Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107), Ch'eng Ming-tao (1032-1086), Chu Hsi (1130-1200), and Lu Hsiang-shan (1139-1193). It is also called Hsing-li Hsueh (Philosophy of the Nature and Reason) and Sung Hsueh (Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty). Often the term includes the idealistic philosophy of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), including Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529), sometimes called Hsin Hsueh (Philosophy of Mind). Often it also includes the philosophy of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911), called Tao Hsueh, including such philosophers as Yen Hsi-chai (1635-1704) and Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777). For a summary of the Rational Philosophy, see Chinese philosophy. For its philosophy of Reason (li), vital force (ch'i), the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi), the passive and active principles (yin yang), the nature of man and things (hsing), the investigation of things to the utmost (ch'iung li), the extension of knowledge (chih chih), and its ethics of true manhood or love (jen), seriousness (ching) and sincerity (ch'eng), see articles on these topics. -- W.T.C.
linga. (T. mtshan/rtags; C. xiang/shengzhi; J. so/shoshi; K. sang/saengji 相/生支). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "sign" or "mark," a polysemous term with three major denotations in Buddhist materials: (1) the distinguishing characteristic of a given phenomena, (2) the reason in a syllogism (PRAYOGA), and (3) a denominator of gender and specifically the male sexual organ. In the MAHĀYĀNA, in particular, the signs that a BODHISATTVA will not turn back (avaivartikalinga) on the path to full enlightenment are described in great detail; best known are the tears and horripilation that occur spontaneously in a true bodhisattva who hears a particular Mahāyāna SuTRA for the first time, or when listening to an explanation of BODHICITTA and suNYATĀ. In a syllogism, according to DIGNĀGA, a true mark (linga) meets three prerequisites (trairupya): it must be a property of the logical subject (PAKsADHARMA), and there must be positive (anvaya) and negative concomitance (VYATIREKA). For example, in a standard syllogistic formulation, "sound (the logical subject) is impermanent because it is a product (the mark)," being a product is a property of the logical subject: there is positive concomitance between a product and impermanence (ANITYA), i.e., perishing in the next moment, and there is negative concomitance between being permanent and not being a product. As a denominator of gender, linga also refers to the gender of letters and words (male, female, and neuter). In TANTRA, linga refers to the gender of deities in MAndALAs and defines their hand implements and the specific practices associated with the deities; in some cases, particularly in the RNYING MA VAJRAKĪLAYA tantras, as in saivism, linga refers specifically to the male sexual organ.
logical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to logic; used in logic; as, logical subtilties.
According to the rules of logic; as, a logical argument or inference; the reasoning is logical.
Skilled in logic; versed in the art of thinking and reasoning; as, he is a logical thinker.
LOGIC—The science or doctrine of correct thinking; the principles governing the reasoning faculties in the pursuit and exposition of truth.
Lu Hsiang-shan: (Lu Chiu-yiian, Lu Tzu-ching, 1139-1192) Questioned Ch'eng I-ch'uan's interpretation of Confucianism when very young, later often argued with Chu Hsi, and claimed that "the six (Confucian) classics are my footnotes." This official-scholar served as transition from the Reason School (li hsueh) of Neo-Confucianism to the Mind School (hsin hsueh) of Neo-Confucianism. His complete works, Lu Hsiang-shan Ch'uan-chi, number 36 chuans in four volumes. -- W.T.C.
Madhyamakahṛdaya. (T. Dbu ma'i snying po). In Sanskrit, "Essence of the Middle Way"; the major work of the sixth-century Indian MADHYAMAKA (and, from the Tibetan perspective, SVĀTANTRIKA) master BHĀVAVIVEKA (also referred to as Bhavya and Bhāviveka). The text is written in verse, accompanied by the author's extensive prose commentary, entitled the TARKAJVĀLĀ. The Madhyamakahṛdaya is preserved in both Sanskrit and Tibetan, the TARKAJVĀLĀ only in Tibetan. The work is in eleven chapters, the first three and the last two of which set forth the main points in Bhāvaviveka's view of the nature of reality and the Buddhist path, dealing with such topics as BODHICITTA, the knowledge of reality (tattvajNāna), and omniscience (SARVAJNĀTĀ). The intervening chapters set forth the positions (and Bhāvaviveka's refutations) of various Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools, including the sRĀVAKA, YOGĀCĀRA, SāMkhya, Vaisesika, Vedānta, and MīmāMsā. These chapters (along with sĀNTARAKsITA's TATTVASAMGRAHA) are a valuable source of insight into the relations between Madhyamaka and the other Indian philosophical schools of the day. The chapter on the srāvakas, for example, provides a detailed account of the reasons put forth by the mainstream Buddhist schools as to why the Mahāyāna SuTRAs are not the word of the Buddha. Bhāvaviveka's response to these charges, as well as his refutation of Yogācāra in the subsequent chapter, are particularly spirited.
Mahālisutta. In Pāli, the "Discourse to Mahāli"; the sixth sutta of the DĪGHANIKĀYA (there is no equivalent recension in the Chinese translations of the ĀGAMAs); preached by the Buddha to the Licchavi chief Mahāli at the Kutāgārasālā in Vesāli (S. VAIsĀLĪ). Mahāli tells the Buddha that the ascetic Sunakkhatta claimed to be able to see heavenly forms but was not able to hear heavenly sounds. Mahāli asks whether such attainments are possible, whereupon the Buddha explains how through meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA) they indeed can be developed. He further explains to Mahāli that these supernatural powers are not the reason why people join the Buddhist order, but rather to attain the four degrees of sanctity, namely, those stream-enterer (P. sotāpanna; S. SROTAĀPANNA), once-returner (P. sakadagāmi; S. SAKṚDĀGĀMIN), nonreturner (P. anāgāmi; S. ANĀGĀMIN), and arahant (S. ARHAT). These are to be attained by following the noble eightfold path (P. ariyātthangikamagga; see S. AstĀnGIKAMĀRGA). The question is then raised as to whether the soul and body are the same or different. This leads to another discussion of Buddhist practice and attainments, beginning with taking refuge in the three jewels, observing the precepts, renouncing the world to become a Buddhist monk, and controlling the senses with mindfulness (P. sati; S. SMṚTI), to cultivating the four meditative absorptions (P. jhāna; S. dhyāna), and developing the six superknowledges (P. abhiNNā; S. ABHIJNĀ), which culminate in enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
Manas: Sanskrit for mind or mentality. The reasoning faculty, intelligence, understanding, the individual mind, the power of attention, selection and rejection.
MANAS. ::: The sense-mind as opposed to the reason.
Man ::: Man is in his essence a spark of the central kosmic spiritual fire. Man being an inseparable part of theuniverse of which he is the child -- the organism of graded consciousness and substance which thehuman constitution contains or rather is -- is a copy of the graded organism of consciousnesses andsubstances of the universe in its various planes of being, inner and outer, especially inner as being by farthe more important and larger, because causal.Human beings are one class of "young gods" incarnated in bodies of flesh at the present stage of theirown particular evolutionary journey. The human stage of evolution is about halfway between theundeveloped life-atom and the fully developed kosmic spirit or god.From another point of view, man is a sheaf or bundle of forces or energies. Force and matter, or spiritand substance being fundamentally one, hence, man is de facto a sheaf or bundle of matters of variousand differing grades of ethereality, or of substantiality; and so are all other entities and thingseverywhere.Man's nature, and the nature of the universe likewise, of which man is a reflection or microcosm or "littleworld," is composite of seven stages or grades or degrees of ethereality or of substantiality; or,kosmically speaking, of three generally inclusive degrees: gods, monads, and atoms. And so far as man isconcerned, we may take the New Testament division of the Christians, which gives the same triformconception of man, that he is composed of spirit, soul, body -- remembering, however, that all these threewords are generalizing terms.Man stands at the midway point of the evolutionary ladder of life: below him are the hosts of beings lessthan he is; above him are other hosts greater than he is only because older in experience, riper in wisdom,stronger in spiritual and in intellectual fiber and power. And these beings are such as they are because ofthe evolutionary unfoldment of the inherent faculties and powers immanent in the individuality of theinner god -- the ever-living, inner, individualized spirit.Man, then, like everything else -- entity or what is called "thing" -- is, to use the modern terminology ofphilosophical scientists, an "event," that is to say, the expression of a central consciousness-center ormonad passing through one or another particular phase of its long, long pilgrimage over and throughinfinity, and through eternity. This, therefore, is the reason why the theosophist often speaks of themonadic consciousness-center as the pilgrim of eternity.Man can be considered as a being composed of three essential upadhis or bases: first, the monadic ordivine-spiritual; second, that which is supplied by the Lords of Light, the so-called manasa-dhyanis,meaning the intellectual and intuitive side of man, the element-principle that makes man Man; and thethird upadhi we may call the vital-astral-physical.These three bases spring from three different lines of evolution, from three different and separatehierarchies of being. This is the reason why man is composite. He is not one sole and unmixed entity; heis a composite entity, a "thing" built up of various elements, and hence his principles are to a certainextent separable. Any one of these three bases can be temporarily separated from the two others withoutbringing about the death of the man physically. But the elements that go to form any one of these basescannot be separated without bringing about physical dissolution or inner dissolution.These three lines of evolution, these three aspects or qualities of man, come from three differenthierarchies or states, often spoken of as three different planes of being. The lowest comes from thevital-astral-physical earth, ultimately from the moon, our cosmogonic mother. The middle, the manasicor intellectualintuitional, from the sun. The monadic from the monad of monads, the supreme flower oracme, or rather the supreme seed of the universal hierarchy which forms our kosmical universe oruniversal kosmos.
Man’s highest accomplished range is the life of the reason or ordered and harmonised intelligence with its dynamic power of intelligent will, the buddhi, which is or should be the driver of man’s chariot.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 25, Page: 84
"Man"s highest accomplished range is the life of the reason or ordered and harmonised intelligence with its dynamic power of intelligent will, the buddhi, which is or should be the driver of man"s chariot.” Social and Political Thought
“Man’s highest accomplished range is the life of the reason or ordered and harmonised intelligence with its dynamic power of intelligent will, the buddhi, which is or should be the driver of man’s chariot.” Social and Political Thought
Maya, are extraordinarily skilful ; the reason is an insufficient guide and often turns traitor ; vital desire is always with us tempting to follow any alluring call. This is the reason why in this yoga we insist so much on what we call samarpaifa — rather inadequately rendered by the English word surrender. If the heart centre is fully opened and the psychic is always in control, then there is no question ; all is safe. But the psychic can at any moment be veiled by a lower upsurge. It is only a few who are exempt from these dangers and it is precisely those to whom surrender is easily possible. The guidance of one who is himself, by identity or represents the Divine is in this difficult endeavour imperative and indispensable.
Messenger ::: In the theosophical sense, an individual who comes with a mandate from the Lodge of the Masters ofWisdom and Compassion to do a certain work in the world.Only real genius -- indeed something more than merely human genius -- only extraordinary spiritual andintellectual capacity, native to the constitution of some lofty human being, could explain the reason forthe choice of such messengers. But, indeed, this is not saying enough; because in addition to genius andto merely native spiritual and intellectual capacity such a messenger must possess through initiatorytraining the capacity of throwing at will the intermediate or psychological nature into a state of perfectquiescence or receptivity for the stream of divine-spiritual inspiration flowing forth from the messenger'sown inner divinity or monadic essence. It is obvious, therefore, that such a combination of rare andunusual qualities is not often found in human beings; and, when found, such a one is fit for the work tobe done by such a messenger of the Association of great ones.The Masters of Wisdom and Compassion and Peace send their envoys continuously into the world ofmen, one after the other, and in consequence these envoys are working in the world among men all thetime. Happy are they whose hearts recognize the footfalls of those crossing the mountaintops of theMystic East. The messengers do not always do public work before the world, but frequently work in thesilences and unknown of men, or relatively unknown. At certain times, however, they are commissionedand empowered and directed to do their work publicly and to make public announcement of theirmission. Such, for instance, was the case of H. P. Blavatsky.
METAPHYSICS—The science of the first principles of being and of knowledge; the reasoned doctrine of the essential nature and fundamental relations of all that is real.
Mind in the physical or mental physical is limited by the physical view and experience of things, it mentalises the experi- ences brought by the contacts of outward life and things, and docs not go beyond that (though it can do that much very cleverly), unlike the externalising mmd which deals with them more from the reason and its higher intelligence. But in practice these two usually get mixed together. The niec/innicai mind is a much lower action of the mental physical which, left to itself, woutd only repeat customary ideas and record the natural reflexes of the physical consciousness to the contacts of outward life and things.
Ming: Fate; Destiny; the Decree of Heaven. The Confucians and Neo-Confucians are unanimous in saying that the fate and the nature (hsing) of man and things are two aspects of the same thing. Fate is what Heaven imparts; and the nature is what man and things received from Heaven. For example, "whether a piece of wood is crooked or straight is due to its nature. But that it should be crooked or straight is due to its fate." This being the case, understanding fate (as in Confucius), establishing fate (as in Mencius, 371-289 B.C.), and the fulfillment of fate (as in Neo-Confucianism) all mean the realization of the nature of man and things in accordance with the principle or Reason (li) of existence. "That which Heaven decrees is true, one, and homogeneous . . . Fate in its true meaning proceeds from Reason; its variations (i.e., inequalities like intelligence and stupidity) proceed from the material element, the vital force (ch'i) . . . 'He who understands what fate is, will not stand beneath a precipitous wall.' If a man, saying 'It is decreed,' goes and stands beneath a precipitous wall and the wall falls and crushes him, it cannot be attributed solely to fate. In human affairs when a man has done his utmost he may talk of fate." The fate of Heaven is the same as the Moral Law (tao) of Heaven. The "fulfillment of fate" consists of "the investigation of the Reason of things to the utmost (ch'iung li)" and "exhausting one's nature to the utmost (chin hsing)" -- the three are one and the same." In short, fate is "nothing other than being one's true self (ch'eng)." -- W.T.C.
Neo-Confucianism developed in three phases, namely the Reason school in the Sung period (960-1279), the Mind school in the Ming period (1388-1644) and the Moral-Law school in the Ch-ing period (1644-1911). The central idea of the movement is focused on the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi) and Reason (li). The Great Ultimate moves and generates the active principle, yang, when its activity reaches its limit, and engenders the passive principle, yin, when it becomes tranquil. The eternal oscillation of yin and yang gives rise to the material universe through their Five Agents of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth. Thus, reality is a progressively evolved and a well-coordinated system.
nirukta ::: etymology; philology, part of sahitya: the study of the origins and development of language, especially with reference to Sanskrit, with the aim of creating "a science which can trace the origins, growth & structure of the Sanscrit language, discover its primary, secondary & tertiary forms & the laws by which they develop from each other, trace intelligently the descent of every meaning of a word in Sanscrit from its original root sense, account for all similarities & identities of sense, discover the reason of unexpected divergences, trace the deviations which separated Greek & Latin from the Indian dialect, discover & define the connection of all three with the Dravidian forms of speech".
obtend ::: v. t. --> To oppose; to hold out in opposition.
To offer as the reason of anything; to pretend.
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.
Of the reasoning reason (rationis ratiocinantts) . A distinction in which our mind conceives things as distinct when there is no foundation in reality for making such a distinction, the whole distinction is dependent upon the one reasoning. E.g. when in one and the same thing we conceive the nature of subject and predicate as diverse attributes, as when we say: man is man, or when we conceive the same thing through synonymous concepts, as if we say: man is a rational animal, as though we are distinguishing man from rational animal.
Orpheus may be regarded both as an ideal or as a man and teacher. In either case, whether cosmic or terrestrial, Orpheus corresponds to the unceasing attempts of the higher or spiritual ego to raise the lower ego out of the toils of matter, much as in the Gnostic story the Christos attempts to raises the Sophia, his own lower self or vehicle, out of the mire and toils of the inferior worlds. If the call of impersonal compassion be so strong that it become personal, in other words if Orpheus looks back to see and becomes attracted to the lower planes, he loses his Eurydice. Eurydice means “wide judgment,” the function of reason in the human constitution. Orpheus here would represent intuition, and Eurydice the reason: manas sunk in the earthly nature is raised to wisdom through buddhi.
or troubled or depressed or despondent, to go on with a steady faith in the Divine’s Will. But equality docs not include inert acceptance. If, for instance, then? is a temporary failure of some endeavour in the sadhana, one has to keep equality, not to be troubled or despondent, but one has not to accept the failure as an indication of the Divine Will and give up the endeavour. You ought rather to find out the reason and mean- ing of the failure and go forward in faith towards victory.
Outside of mere mental images, often projected into quasi-objectivity by unconscious will-force, all phantoms originate in the astral light surrounding our earth and permeating it far more intimately than does the earth’s air or atmosphere. Consequently, phantoms are of many and various kinds. The word is likewise used, although inaccurately, to signify the appearance to a living human being of the mayavi-rupa (thought-projection body) of an adept, the reason being that whether merely astral intrusions or mayavi-rupa, both are appearances and therefore logically classified as phantoms.
Overmind ::: Above the mind there are several levels of conscious of the Truth. But in between is what he has distinguished as the Overmind, the world of the cosmic Gods. Now it is this Overmind that has up to the present governed our world: it is the highest that man has been able to attain in illumined consciousness. It has been taken for the Supreme Divine and all those who have reached it have never for a moment doubted that they have touched the true Spirit. For, its splendours are so great to the ordinary human consciousness that it is absolutely dazzled into believing that here at last is the crowning reality. And yet the fact is that the Overmind is far below the true Divine. It is not the authentic home of the Truth. It is only the domain of the formateurs , all those creative powers and deities to whom men have bowed down since the beginning of history. And the reason why the true Divine has not manifested and transformed the earth-nature is precisely that the Overmind has been mistaken for the Supermind.being, among which the really divine world is what Sri Aurobindo has called the Supermind, the world. The cosmic Gods do not wholly live in the Truth-Consciousness: they are only in touch with it and represent, each of them, an aspect of its glories.
paksadharma. (T. phyogs chos; C. zongfa; J. shuho/shubo; K. chongpop 宗法). In Sanskrit, lit. "property of the position," a term in Buddhist logic that designates one of the qualities of a correct syllogism (PRAYOGA). A syllogism is composed of three parts, the subject (dharmin), the property being proved (SĀDHYADHARMA), and the reason (HETU or LInGA). In the syllogism "Sound is impermanent because of being produced," the subject is sound, the property being proved is impermanence, and the reason is "being produced." In order for the syllogism to be correct, three relations must exist among the three components of the syllogism: (1) the reason must be a property (DHARMA) of the subject, also called the "position" (PAKsA); (2) there must be a relationship of pervasion (VYĀPTI) between the reason and the property being proved, such that whatever is the reason is necessarily the property being proved; and (3) there must be a relationship of reverse pervasion between the property and the reason such that whatever is not the property is necessarily not the reason. In the example, the syllogism "Sound is impermanent because of being produced" is correct because the reason (being produced) is a quality of the subject (sound), there is pervasion in the sense that whatever is produced is necessarily impermanent, and there is reverse pervasion because whatever is permanent is necessarily not produced. In Tibetan oral debate, the defender of a position is traditionally allowed only three answers to a position stated by the opponent; the position is typically stated in the form of a consequence (PRASAnGA) rather than a syllogism (prayoga), but the mechanics of the statement are the same. The defender may say, "I accept" ('dod), meaning that he agrees that the property being proved is a property of the subject. The defender may say, "There is no pervasion" (ma khyab), meaning that whatever is the reason is not necessarily the property being proved. Or he may say, "The reason is not established" (rtags ma sgrub), meaning that the reason is not in fact a property of the position.
Pharmakeia; Is roughly equivalent to witchcraft. Contrary to the accusations of the heresiologists, Gnostic writers seemed to be against any form of sympathetic magic or divination. The reason for this is not that it doesn't necessarily work, but that it's focus is still within the hylic and psychic spheres of thought. ESP, astrology etc are only applicable to the realm of Heimarene.
philosophize ::: v. i. --> To reason like a philosopher; to search into the reason and nature of things; to investigate phenomena, and assign rational causes for their existence.
Pieh Mo: Neo-Mohists; heretical Mohists. See Mo che and Chinese philosophy. Pien: Argumentation or dialectics, which "is to make clear the distinction between right and wrong, to ascertain the principles of order and disorder, to make clear the points of similarity and difference, to examine the laws of names and actualities, to determine what is beneficial and what is harmful, and to decide what is uncertain and doubtful. It describes the ten thousand things as they are, and discusses the various opinions in their comparative merits. It uses names to specify actualities, propositions to express ideas, and explanations to set forth reasons, including or excluding according to classes." It involves seven methods: "The method of possibility is to argue from what is not exhausted. The method of hypothesis is to argue from what is not actual at present. The method of imitation is to provide a model. What is imitated is taken as the model. If the reason agrees with the model, it is correct. If it does not agree with the model, it is incorrect. This is the method of imitation. The method of comparison is to make clear about one thing by means of another. The method of parallel is to compare two propositions consistently throughout. The method of analogy says, 'You are so. Why should I not be so?" The method of induction is to grant what has not been accepted on the basis of its similarity to what has already been accepted. For example, when it is said that all the others are the same, how can I say that the others are different?" (Neo-Mohism.) -- W.T.C.
Pindola-Bhāradvāja. (T. Bha ra dhwa dza Bsod snyoms len; C. Bintoulu Poluoduo zunzhe; J. Binzuruharada sonja; K. Pinduro Pallat'a chonja 賓頭盧頗羅墮尊者). Sanskrit and Pāli proper name of a prominent monk-disciple of the Buddha, born as the son of a brāhmana priest in the service of King Udāyana of Kausāmbī. He was a successful teacher of the Vedas, first encountering the Buddha when his travels took him to RĀJAGṚHA. Gluttonous by nature, he was impressed by all the offerings the Buddha's disciples received and so resolved to enter the order. For this reason, he carried with him an exceptionally large alms bowl (PĀTRA) made from a gourd. After he was finally able to conquer his avarice, he became an ARHAT and uttered his "lion's roar" (SIMHANĀDA) in the presence of the Buddha, for which reason he was declared the foremost lion's roarer (siMhanādin) among the Buddha's disciples. In a famous story found in several recensions of the VINAYA, the Buddha rebuked Pindola for performing the following miracle before a crowd. A rich merchant had placed a valuable sandalwood alms bowl (pātra) atop a pole and challenged any mendicant to retrieve it with a magical display. Encouraged by MAHĀMAUDGALYĀYANA, Pindola entered the contest and used his magical powers to rise into the air and retrieve the bowl. The Buddha rebuked Pindola for his crass exhibitionism, and ordered that the bowl be ground into sandalwood powder (presumably for incense). The incident was the occasion for the Buddha to pass the "rule of defeat" (PĀRĀJIKA), forbidding monks from displaying supernatural powers before the laity. Sanskrit sources state that the Buddha rebuked Pindola for his misdeed and ordered him not to live in JAMBUDVĪPA, but to move to aparagodānīya (see GODĀNĪYA) to proselytize (where he is said to reside with a thousand disciples). The Buddha also forbade him from entering PARINIRVĀnA so that he would remain in the world after the Buddha's demise and continue to serve as a field of blessings (PUnYAKsETRA) for sentient beings; for this reason, Pindola is also known in Chinese as the "World-Dwelling Arhat" (Zhushi Luohan). This is the reason why some traditions still today invoke his name for protection and why he is traditionally listed as the first of the sixteen ARHAT elders (sOdAsASTHAVIRA), who are charged by the Buddha with protecting his dispensation until the advent of the next buddha, MAITREYA. According to the DIVYĀVADĀNA, Pindola was given the principal seat at the third Buddhist council (SAMGĪTI) called by Emperor AsOKA (see COUNCIL, THIRD); at that point, he was already several hundred years old, with long white hair and eyebrows that he had to hold back in order to see. In China, DAO'AN of the Eastern Jin dynasty once had a dream of a white-haired foreign monk, with long, flowing eyebrows. Later, Master Dao'an's disciple LUSHAN HUIYUAN read the SARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA and realized that the monk whom his teacher had dreamed about was Pindola. From that point on, Dao'an offered Pindola food every day, and, for this reason, a picture or image of Pindola is often enshrined in monastic dining halls in China. This is also why Pindola was given another nickname in Chinese, the "Long-Browed Monk" (Changmei Seng). In CHANYUE GUANXIU's standard Chinese depiction of the sixteen arhats, Pindola-Bharadvāja is portrayed as squatting on a rock, holding a staff in his left hand, leaning on a rock with his right, with a text placed on his knees. In Tibetan iconography Pindola holds a pātra; other East Asian images depict him holding a text and either a chowrie (C. FUZI; S. VĀLAVYAJANA) or a pātra.
portability "operating system, programming" The ease with which a piece of software (or {file format}) can be "ported", i.e. made to run on a new {platform} and/or compile with a new {compiler}. The most important factor is the language in which the software is written and the most portable language is almost certainly {C} (though see {Vaxocentrism} for counterexamples). This is true in the sense that C compilers are available for most systems and are often the first compiler provided for a new system. This has led several compiler writers to compile other languages to C code in order to benefit from its portability (as well as the quality of compilers available for it). The least portable type of language is obviously {assembly code} since it is specific to one particular (family of) {processor}(s). It may be possible to translate mechanically from one assembly code (or even {machine code}) into another but this is not really portability. At the other end of the scale would come {interpreted} or {semi-compiled} languages such as {LISP} or {Java} which rely on the availability of a portable {interpreter} or {virtual machine} written in a lower level language (often C for the reasons outlined above). The act or result of porting a program is called a "port". E.g. "I've nearly finished the {Pentium} port of my big bang simulation." Portability is also an attribute of {file formats} and depends on their adherence to {standards} (e.g. {ISO 8859}) or the availability of the relevant "viewing" software for different {platforms} (e.g. {PDF}). (1997-06-18)
portability ::: (operating system, programming) The ease with which a piece of software (or file format) can be ported, i.e. made to run on a new platform and/or compile with a new compiler.The most important factor is the language in which the software is written and the most portable language is almost certainly C (though see Vaxocentrism for to benefit from its portability (as well as the quality of compilers available for it).The least portable type of language is obviously assembly code since it is specific to one particular (family of) processor(s). It may be possible to the availability of a portable interpreter or virtual machine written in a lower level language (often C for the reasons outlined above).The act or result of porting a program is called a port. E.g. I've nearly finished the Pentium port of my big bang simulation.Portability is also an attribute of file formats and depends on their adherence to standards (e.g. ISO 8859) or the availability of the relevant viewing software for different platforms (e.g. PDF). (1997-06-18)
Powers undivine in their nature present themselves as the Sup- reme Lord or as the Divine Mother and claim the being’s service and surrender. 1C these (hiags are accepted, there will be an extremely disastrous consequence. If indeed there is the assent of the sSdhaka to the Divine working alone and the submission or surrender to that guidance, then all can go smoothly. This assent and a rejection of all egoistic force or forces that appeal to the ego are the safeguard throughout the sadhana. But the ways of nature are full of snares, the disguises of the ego are innumerable, the ilfusions of the Powers of Darkness, Rakshasi Maya, are e.ttraordinariIy skilful ; the reason is an insulBdent guide and often turns traitor; vital desire is ahvays with us tempting to follow any alluring call. This is the reason why in this Yoga we insist so much on what we call samarpana — rather inade- quately rendered by the Engikh word surrender. If the heart centre is fully opened and the psychic is always in control, then there is no question ; all fe Safe. But the psychic can at any moment be veiled by a lower upsurge. It is only a few who arc exempt from these dangers and it is precisely those to whom surrender is easily possible. The guidance of one who is himself
Pranava (Sanskrit) Praṇava [from pra-ṇu to utter a droning or humming sound, as during the proper pronunciation of the word Om or Aum] The mystical, sacred syllable Om or Aum, pronounced by Brahmins, Yogis, and others during meditation. In Vedanta philosophy and the Upanishads, used in another sense: “In one sense Pranava represents the macrocosm and in another sense the microcosm. . . . The reason why this Pranava is called Vach is this, that these four principles of the great cosmos correspond to these four forms of Vach” (N on G 25, 26) — vaikhari, madhyama, pasyanti, para. These are called the four matras of pranava.
Prayer ::: An act of beseechment to a higher power or aspect of oneself. The reasons can vary and what is asked for can vary, but faith is often required to break through with a request unless there is foundational gnosis to fall back on.
prayoga. (T. sbyor ba; C. jiaxing; J. kegyo; K. kahaeng 加行). In Sanskrit, "application," "preparation," "joining together," "exertion." The term is widely used in soteriological, tantric, and astrological literature. It also functions as a technical term in logic, where it is often translated as "syllogism" and refers to a statement that contains a subject, a predicate, and a reason. A correct syllogism is composed of three parts, the subject (dharmin), the property being proved (SĀDHYADHARMA), and the reason (HETU or LInGA). For example, in the syllogism "Sound is impermanent because of being produced," the subject is sound, the property being proved is impermanence, and the reason is being produced. In order for the syllogism to be correct, three relations must exist among the three components of the syllogism: (1) the reason must be a property (DHARMA) of the subject, also called the "position" (PAKsA), (2) there must be a relationship of pervasion (VYĀPTI) between the reason and the property being proved (SĀDHYADHARMA), such that whatever is the reason is necessarily the property being proved, and (3) there must be a relationship of "exclusion" or reverse pervasion (vyatirekavyāpti) between the property being proved and the reason, such that whatever is not the property being proved is necessarily not the reason. ¶ In the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ exegetical tradition based on the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA, prayoga is the word used for the fourth to seventh of the eight ABHISAMAYAs ("clear realizations"). According to Ārya VIMUKTISENA's commentary (Vṛtti), the first three chapters set forth the three knowledges (JNĀNA) as topics to be studied and reflected upon (see sRUTAMAYĪPRAJNĀ, CINTĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ); the next four chapters set forth the practice of those knowledges, viz. the practice of the knowledge of a buddha. This practice is called prayoga. It is primarily at the level of meditation (BHĀVANĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ), and it leads to the SARVĀKĀRAJNATĀ, a buddha's omniscient knowledge of all aspects. The first prayoga is habituation to the perfect realization of all aspects (sarvākārābhisambodha); the second is learning to remain at the summit of the realization (murdhābhisamaya; cf. MuRDHAN); the third is a further habituation to each aspect, one by one (anupurvābhisamaya); and the fourth is the realization of all aspects in one single instant (ekaksanābhisamaya). This is the moment prior to omniscience. This prayoga is first detailed in twenty subtopics beginning with the cryptic statement that the practice is no practice at all; the 173 aspects (ĀKĀRA) that together cover the entire range of a bodhisattva's practice are set forth at all the stages of development, through the paths of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA) and cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA) up through the bodhisattva stages (BHuMI) to the purification of the buddha-field (BUDDHAKsETRA) and final instants of the path. Through the first of the four prayogas, the bodhisattva gains mastery over all the aspects; through the second, he abides in the mastery of them; with the third, he goes through each and makes the practice special; and with the fourth, he enters into the state of a buddha. See also PRAYOGAMĀRGA.
preamble ::: n. --> A introductory portion; an introduction or preface, as to a book, document, etc.; specifically, the introductory part of a statute, which states the reasons and intent of the law. ::: v. t. & i. --> To make a preamble to; to preface; to serve as a preamble.
rational ::: a. --> Relating to the reason; not physical; mental.
Having reason, or the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason or understanding; reasoning.
Agreeable to reason; not absurd, preposterous, extravagant, foolish, fanciful, or the like; wise; judicious; as, rational conduct; a rational man.
Expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; -- said of formulae. See under Formula.
Reason ::: The characteristic power of the reason in its fullness is a logical movement assuring itself first of all available materials and data by observation and arrangement, then acting upon them for a resultant knowledge gained, assured and enlarged by a first use of the
reflective powers, and lastly assuring itself of the correctness of its results by a more c
reful and formal action, more vigilant, deliberate, severely logical which tests, rejects or confirms them according to certain secure standards and processes developed by
reflection and experience.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 851-52
REASON. ::: The reason has its place especially with regard to certain physical things and general worldly questions — though even there it is a very fallible judge — or in the forma- tion of metaphysical conclusions and generalisations ; but its claim to be the decisive aulhori^ in matters of yoga or in spiritual things is untenable. The activities of the outward intellect there lead only to the formation of personal opinions, not to the discovery of Truth. It has always been understood in India that the reason and its logic or its judgment cannot give you the realisation of spiiitua] truths but can only assist in an intellectual presentation of ideas; realisation comes by intuition and inner experience. Reason and intellectuality cannot make you see the Divine, it is the soul that sees. Mind and the other instruments can only share in the vision when it is imparted to them by the soul and welcome and rejoice in it. But also the mind may prevent it or at least stand long in the way of the realisation of the vision. For its prepossessions. prKonceived
reason ::: “The reason itself is only a special kind of application, made by a surface regulating intelligence, of suggestions which actually come from a concealed, but sometimes partially overt and active power of the intuitive spirit.” The Synthesis of Yoga
rupted,” the reason for Moses remaining pure was
Sadducees [from Greek saddoukaioi from Hebrew tsadoq supposed to be the founder of the sect, meaning just, righteous] Among Europeans, a skeptic or doubter; originally the party of the Jewish priestly aristocracy which arose in the 2nd century BC under the later Hasmoneans. The Sadducees have come to be regarded as primarily a political party opposed to the Pharisees, called by some the party of the Scribes, but later Jewish tradition following Josephus more accurately regarded them as a philosophico-religious school. The Sadducees, a sect of erudite philosophers, opposed a great deal of the commonly accepted beliefs of the majority of the Jews, who were actually nearly all Pharisees — as for instance, the immortality of the personal soul, and the actual resurrection of the physical body; yet they strongly upheld what they considered the genuine meaning, and therefore the true authority, of the Jewish scriptures. They likewise opposed no small number of doctrinal or religious innovations, some of them true, and some of them less true in nature, which had been accepted by the body of the Pharisees — virtually by the Jewish people. And the reason for their reluctance to accept these innovations, whether of doctrine or interpretation of the Jewish scriptures, seems to be that they preferred a highly philosophical and even perhaps mystical interpretation, which they said the Jewish scriptures contained, rather than the more popular versions accepted by the Hebrew people as a whole. One may say that what the Gnostics were to the body of the Christians in the early centuries of the Christian era, the Sadducees were to the body of the Jews or Pharisees. The Sadducees likewise claimed to be the scientists and genuine philosophers of the Hebrews; although it is apparently quite true that as time went on their attitude of opposition, and even of reluctance, often became, at least among individual Sadducees, an attitude of cynicism and even possibly of cynical disbelief.
sādhyadharma. (T. sgrub bya'i chos; C. suoli/suochengli; J. shoryu/shojoryu; K. sorip/sosongnip 所立/所成立). In Sanskrit, the "property being proven," a term in Buddhist logic that designates one of the elements of a correct syllogism or proof (PRAYOGA) leading to inference (ANUMĀNA). A syllogism is composed of three parts, the subject (dharmin), the property being proved (sādhyadharma), and the reason (HETU or LInGA). It is called sādhyadharma because the sādhya ("what is being proved") must be a dharma ("property") of the logical subject. For example, in the syllogism, "Sound is impermanent because of being produced," the subject is sound, the property being proved is impermanence, and the reason is being produced. In order for the syllogism to be correct, three relations must exist among the three components of the syllogism: (1) the reason must be a property (DHARMA) of the subject, also called the "position" (PAKsA), (2) there must be a relationship of pervasion (VYĀPTI) between the reason and the property being proved, such that whatever is the reason is necessarily the property being proved, and (3) there must be a relationship of "exclusion" or reverse pervasion (vyatirekavyāpti) between the property being proved and the reason such that whatever is not the property being proved is necessarily not the reason. In the example, the syllogism "Sound is impermanent because of being produced," is correct because the reason (being produced) is a quality of the subject (sound), there is pervasion because whatever is produced is necessarily impermanent, and there is reverse pervasion because whatever is not impermanent is necessarily not produced. See ANUMĀNA; LInGA.
Samadhi(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word formed of sam, meaning "with" or "together"; a, meaning "towards"; andthe verbal root dha, signifying "to place," or "to bring"; hence samadhi, meaning "to direct towards,"generally signifies to combine the faculties of the mind with a direction towards an object. Hence, intensecontemplation or profound meditation, with the consciousness directed to the spiritual. It is the highestform of self-possession, in the sense of collecting all the faculties of the constitution towards reachingunion or quasi-union, long or short in time as the case may be, with the divine-spiritual. One whopossesses and is accustomed to use this power has complete, absolute control over all his faculties, andis, therefore, said to be "completely self- possessed." It is the highest state of yoga or "union."Samadhi, therefore, is a word of exceedingly mystical and profound significance implying the completeabstraction of the percipient consciousness from all worldly or exterior or even mental concerns orattributes, and its absorption into or, perhaps better, its becoming the pure unadulterate, undilutesuperconsciousness of the god within. In other words, samadhi is self-conscious union with the spiritualmonad of the human constitution. Samadhi is the eighth or final stage of genuine occult yoga, and can beattained at any time by the initiate without conscious recourse to the other phases or practices of yogaenumerated in Oriental works, and which other and inferior practices are often misleading, in some casesdistinctly injurious, and at the best mere props or aids in the attaining of complete mental abstractionfrom worldly concerns.The eight stages of yoga usually enumerated are the following: (1) yama, signifying "restraint" or"forbearance"; (2) niyama, religious observances of various kinds, such as watchings or fastings,prayings, penances, etc.; (3) asana (q.v.), postures of various kinds; (4) pranayama, various methods ofregulating the breath; (5) pratyahara, a word signifying "withdrawal," but technically and esoterically the"withdrawal" of the consciousness from sensual or sensuous concerns, or from external objects; (6)dharana (q.v.), firmness or steadiness or resolution in holding the mind set or concentrated on a topic orobject of thought, mental concentration; (7) dhyana (q.v.), abstract contemplation or meditation whenfreed from exterior distractions; and finally, (8) samadhi, complete collection of the consciousness and ofits faculties into oneness or union with the monadic essence.It may be observed, and should be carefully taken note of by the student, that when the initiate hasattained samadhi he becomes practically omniscient for the solar universe in which he dwells, becausehis consciousness is functioning at the time in the spiritual-causal worlds. All knowledge is then to himlike an open page because he is self-consciously conscious, to use a rather awkward phrase, of nature'sinner and spiritual realms, the reason being that his consciousness has become kosmic in its reaches.
Sanjna is the sakti of Surya, just as a human spiritual consciousness or buddhi is the sakti of atman, at once its vehicle, its manifestation, and itself in action. This is the reason the sun is considered the patron, parent, and governor of all the manasaputras, and therefore in a generalized sense the source of mind — sanjna, spiritual intellect or consciousness.
Self-Realization ::: The process through which one begins to unravel who they are, what they are, and why they are. Many grow into an idea of this that evolves as one's understanding matures and changes due to experiences. It is best complemented through a solid and consistent meditation practice. It is a journey of many flavors and stages that leads to revelations about the nature of self, the reasons for existing, and the purpose underlying one's particular path.
Shan: Goodness, "the practice of virtue." (Confucianism). It is antecedent to the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi) and motion, although it is involved in the Reason of the universe. (Neo-Confucianism) -- W.T.C.
Since the Consciousness-Force of the eternal Existence is the universal creatrix, the nature of a given world will depend on whatever self-formulation of that Consciousness expresses itself in that world. Equally, for each individual being, his seeing or representation to himself of the world he lives in will depend on the poise or make which that Consciousness has assumed in him. Our human mental consciousness sees the world in sections cut by the reason and sense and put together in a formation which is also sectional; the house it builds is planned to accommodate one or another generalised formulation of Truth, but excludes the rest or admits some only as guests or dependents in the house. Overmind Consciousness is global in its cognition and can hold any number of seemingly fundamental differences together in a reconciling vision. Thus the mental reason sees Person and the Impersonal as opposites: it conceives an impersonal Existence in which person and personality are fictions of the Ignorance or temporary constructions; or, on the contrary, it can see Person as the primary reality and the impersonal as a mental abstraction or only stuff or means of manifestation. To the Overmind intelligence these are separable Powers of the one Existence which can pursue their independent self-affirmation and can also unite together their different modes of action, creating both in their independence and in their union different states of consciousness and being which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence and consciousness is true and possible, but also an entirely personal consciousness and existence; the Impersonal Divine, Nirguna Brahman, and the Personal Divine, Saguna Brahman, are here equal and coexistent aspects of the Eternal. Impersonality can manifest with person subordinated to it as a mode of expression; but, equally, Person can be the reality with impersonality as a mode of its nature: both aspects of manifestation face each other in the infinite variety of conscious Existence. What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences present themselves to the Overmind intelligence as coexistent correlatives; what to the mental reason are contraries are to the Overmind intelligence complementaries. Our mind sees that all things are born from Matter or material Energy, exist by it, go back into it; it concludes that Matter is the eternal factor, the primary and ultimate reality, Brahman. Or it sees all as born of Life-Force or Mind, existing by Life or by Mind, going back into the universal Life or Mind, and it concludes that this world is a creation of the cosmic Life-Force or of a cosmic Mind or Logos. Or again it sees the world and all things as born of, existing by and going back to the Real-Idea or Knowledge-Will of the Spirit or to the Spirit itself and it concludes on an idealistic or spiritual view of the universe. It can fix on any of these ways of seeing, but to its normal separative vision each way excludes the others. Overmind consciousness perceives that each view is true of the action of the principle it erects; it can see that there is a material world-formula, a vital world-formula, a mental world-formula, a spiritual world-formula, and each can predominate in a world of its own and at the same time all can combine in one world as its constituent powers. The self-formulation of Conscious Force on which our world is based as an apparent Inconscience that conceals in itself a supreme Conscious-Existence and holds all the powers of Being together in its inconscient secrecy, a world of universal Matter realising in itself Life, Mind, Overmind, Supermind, Spirit, each of them in its turn taking up the others as means of its self-expression, Matter proving in the spiritual vision to have been always itself a manifestation of the Spirit, is to the Overmind view a normal and easily realisable creation. In its power of origination and in the process of its executive dynamis Overmind is an organiser of many potentialities of Existence, each affirming its separate reality but all capable of linking themselves together in many different but simultaneous ways, a magician craftsman empowered to weave the multicoloured warp and woof of manifestation of a single entity in a complex universe. …
Sīvalī. (C. Shipoluo; J. Shibara; K. Sibara 尸婆羅). In Sanskrit and Pāli, the proper name of an eminent ARHAT who was foremost among the Buddha's disciples in receiving gifts. According to the Pāli account, Sīvalī was the son of Princess Suppavāsā of Koliya (see SUPPAVĀSĀ-KOlIYADHĪTĀ), who was pregnant with him for seven years. For another seven days she was in labor and, believing that she was about to die from the ordeal, she sent a gift to the Buddha to earn merit. The Buddha accepted the gift and blessed her, and immediately she gave birth to a son. Sīvalī was possessed of extraordinary powers from infancy. sĀRIPUTRA is said to have conversed with him on the day of his birth and ordained him with Suppavāsā's consent. He attained the stage of stream-enterer (SROTAĀPANNA) and once-returner (SAKṚDĀGĀMIN) during his ordination as a novice, and while dwelling alone in the jungle, subsequently attained arhatship by contemplating the reasons for his delayed birth. (Some accounts say that Sīvalī learned he had been compelled to stay in his mother's womb for so long in retribution for having once laid siege for seven days to the city of Vārānasī during a previous existence.) Sīvalī's good luck at receiving gifts was the result of generosity shown by him in previous lifetimes to previous buddhas and the resolution he made during the time of Padmottara (P. Padumuttara) Buddha to one day be preeminent in this regard. The Buddha took Sīvalī with him on his journey to visit Khadiravaniya Revata because he knew provisions were scarce along the way. When Sīvalī and five hundred others journeyed to the desolate Himālaya mountains, the gods provided him and his companions with everything they needed. In Burma, Sīvalī is believed never to have passed into PARINIRVĀnA, but to still remain in the world today; he is worshipped for good fortune and is depicted as a standing monk, holding a fan and an alms bowl.
Six is also present in the double triangles, which when interlaced form a six-pointed star; “this is the reason why Pythagoras and the ancients made the number six sacred to Venus, since ‘the union of the two sexes, and the spagyrisation of matter by triads are necessary to develop the generative force, that prolific virtue and tendency to reproduction which is inherent in all bodies’ ” (SD 2:592). See also SENARY
slop "jargon" 1. A one-sided {fudge factor}, that is, an allowance for error but in only one of two directions. For example, if you need a piece of wire 10 feet long and have to guess when you cut it, you make very sure to cut it too long, by a large amount if necessary, rather than too short by even a little bit, because you can always cut off the slop but you can't paste it back on again. When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to avoid the possibility of being on the losing side of a {fencepost error}. 2. The percentage of "extra" code generated by a compiler over the size of equivalent {assembly code} produced by {hand-hacking}; i.e. the space (or maybe time) you lose because you didn't do it yourself. This number is often used as a measure of the quality of a compiler; slop below 5% is very good, and 10% is usually acceptable. Modern compilers, especially on {RISCs}, may actually have *negative* slop; that is, they may generate better code than humans. This is one of the reasons assembler programming is becoming less common. [{Jargon File}] (1995-05-28)
slop ::: (jargon) 1. A one-sided fudge factor, that is, an allowance for error but in only one of two directions. For example, if you need a piece of wire 10 feet When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to avoid the possibility of being on the losing side of a fencepost error.2. The percentage of extra code generated by a compiler over the size of equivalent assembly code produced by hand-hacking; i.e. the space (or maybe *negative* slop; that is, they may generate better code than humans. This is one of the reasons assembler programming is becoming less common.[Jargon File] (1995-05-28)
Smarta, Smartava (Sanskrit) Smārta, Smārtava [from smṛti tradition from the verbal root smṛ to remember] A follower of Sankaracharya and the Advaita Vedantic doctrines. According to Blavatsky “this sect, founded by Sankaracharya, (which is still very powerful in Southern India) is now almost the only one to produce students who have preserved sufficient knowledge to comprehend the dead letter of the Bhashyas. The reason of this is that they alone, I am informed, have occasionally real Initiates at their head in their mathams, as for instance, in the ‘Sringa-giri,’ in the Western Ghauts of Mysore. On the other hand, there is no sect in that desperately exclusive caste of the Brahmins, more exclusive than is the Smartava; and the reticence of its followers to say what they may know of the Occult sciences and the esoteric doctrine, is only equalled by their pride and learning” (SD 1:271-2). What the original Hebrew Qabbalists were — qabbalah itself meaning tradition or traditional knowledge handed down from generation to generation of adepts — was exactly what the Smartava-Brahmanas were.
Spiritual initdiion is always a more luminous guide than the discriminating reason and spiritual intuition addresses itself to us not only through the reason, but through the rest of (he being as well, through the heart and life also.
Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine and no other is the flame of life that sustains the physical body of living creatures and turns its food into sustenance of their vital force. He is lodged in the heart of every breathing thing; from him are memory and knowledge and the debates of the reason. He is that which is known by all the Vedas and by all forms of knowing; he is the knower of Veda and the maker of Vedanta. In other words, the Divine is at once the Soul of matter and the Soul of life and the Soul of mind as well as the Soul of the supramental light that is beyond mind and its limited reasoning intelligence.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: “The Divine and no other is the flame of life that sustains the physical body of living creatures and turns its food into sustenance of their vital force. He is lodged in the heart of every breathing thing; from him are memory and knowledge and the debates of the reason. He is that which is known by all the Vedas and by all forms of knowing; he is the knower of Veda and the maker of Vedanta. In other words, the Divine is at once the Soul of matter and the Soul of life and the Soul of mind as well as the Soul of the supramental light that is beyond mind and its limited reasoning intelligence.” Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: "The reason itself is only a special kind of application, made by a surface regulating intelligence, of suggestions which actually come from a concealed, but sometimes partially overt and active power of the intuitive spirit.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "To act according to a standard of Truth or a rule or law of action (dharma) or in obedience to a superior authority or to the highest principles discovered by the reason and intelligent will and not according to one"s own fancy, vital impulses and desires. In yoga obedience to the Guru or to the Divine and the law of the Truth as declared by the Guru is the foundation of discipline.” *Letters on Yoga
Sudinna. (T. Bzang byin; C. Xutina; J. Shudaina; K. Sujena 須提那). The Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Pāli name of a disciple of the Buddha whose actions prompted the Buddha to formulate the first rule of the monastic code, the "defeat" offense (S. PĀRĀJIKA) forbidding sexual intercourse (abrahmacarya); his name is a Middle Indic form of the classical Sanskrit Sudatta. The monastic code (VINAYA; PRĀTIMOKsA) was not formulated as a complete system. Rather, it is said that the Buddha formulated each rule in response to a specific misdeed by a monk, with the Buddha subsequently declaring a rule prohibiting that particular misdeed. Sudinna had been ordained with the grudging consent of his parents; he was their only child, was already married, and had not had a child at the time of his ordination. During a period of famine, he returned to his home region in order to beg for alms. When he was offered food at his parents' house, they, together with his wife, urged him to return to lay life. He refused, addressing his wife as "sister," which caused her to faint. His mother later visited him, imploring him to impregnate his wife so that his family would at least have an heir, thus preventing their property from being confiscated upon the death of his parents. Sudinna agreed and had intercourse with his wife three times, supposedly not out of lust but out of concern for the financial future of his family. He soon felt remorse for his deed. Upon learning of the reason for his remorse, his fellow monks informed the Buddha, who told him it would have been better for him to have inserted his penis into the mouth of a poisonous snake than to have placed it in a woman's vagina. The Buddha then established a rule of "defeat" (PĀRĀJIKA) forbidding monks from engaging in sexual intercourse, the first rule that the Buddha had ever had to promulgate in some twenty years of teaching. It was by no means the last: the monks' and nuns' codes of conduct (prātimoksa) eventually included hundreds of specific rules of conduct.
Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra. (T. Bde ba can gyi bkod pa'i mdo; C. Wuliangshou jing; J. Muryojukyo; K. Muryangsu kyong 無量壽經). Literally, the "Sutra Displaying [the Land of] Bliss," the title of the two most important Mahāyāna sutras of the "PURE LAND" tradition. The two sutras differ in length, and thus are often referred to in English as the "larger" and "smaller" (or "longer" and "shorter") Sukhāvatīvyuhasutras; the shorter one is commonly called the AMITĀBHASuTRA. Both sutras are believed to date from the third century CE. The longer and shorter sutras, together with the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING (*Amitāyurdhyānasutra), constitute the three main texts associated with the pure land tradition of East Asia (see JINGTU SANBUJING). There are multiple Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan versions of both the longer and shorter sutras, with significant differences among them. ¶ The longer Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra begins with ĀNANDA noticing that the Buddha is looking especially serene one day, and so asks him the reason. The Buddha responds that he was thinking back many millions of eons in the past to the time of the buddha LOKEsVARARĀJA. The Buddha then tells a story in the form of a flashback. In the audience of this buddha was a monk named DHARMĀKARA, who approached Lokesvararāja and proclaimed his aspiration to become a buddha. Dharmākara then requested the Buddha to describe all of the qualities of the buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). Lokesvararāja provided a discourse that lasted one million years, describing each of the qualities of the lands of trillions of buddhas. Dharmākara then retired to meditate for five eons, seeking to concentrate all of the marvelous qualities of the millions of buddha-fields that had been described to him into a single pure buddha-field. When he completed his meditation, he returned to describe this imagined land to Lokesvararāja, promising to create a place of birth for fortunate beings and vowing that he would follow the bodhisattva path and become the buddha of this new buddha-field. He described the land he would create in a series of vows, stating that if this or that marvel was not present in his pure land, may he not become a buddha: e.g., "If in my pure land there are animals, ghosts, or hell denizens, may I not become a buddha." He made forty-eight such vows. These included the vow that all the beings in his pure land will be the color of gold; that beings in his pure land will have no conception of private property; that no bodhisattva will have to wash, dry, or sew his own robes; that bodhisattvas in his pure land will be able to hear the dharma in whatever form they wish to hear it and whenever they wish to hear it; that any woman who hears his name, creates the aspiration to enlightenment (BODHICITTA), and feels disgust at the female form, will not be reborn as a woman again. Two of these vows would become the focus of particular attention. In the eighteenth vow (seventeenth in the East Asian versions), Dharmākara vows that when he has become a buddha, he will appear at the moment of death to anyone who creates the aspiration to enlightenment, hears his name, and remembers him with faith. In the nineteenth vow (eighteenth in the East Asian versions), he promises that anyone who hears his name, wishes to be reborn in his pure land, and dedicates their merit to that end, will be reborn there, even if they make such a resolution as few as ten times during the course of their life. Only those who have committed one of the five inexpiable transgressions bringing immediate retribution (ĀNANTARYAKARMAN, viz., patricide, matricide, killing an ARHAT, wounding a buddha, or causing schism in the SAMGHA) are excluded. The scene then returns to the present. Ānanda asks the Buddha whether Dharmākara was successful, whether he did in fact traverse the long path of the bodhisattva to become a buddha. The Buddha replies that he did indeed succeed and that he became the buddha Amitābha (Infinite Light). The pure land that he created is called sukhāvatī. Because Dharmākara became a buddha, all of the things that he promised to create in his pure land have come true, and the Buddha proceeds to describe sukhāvatī in great detail. It is carpeted with lotuses made of seven precious substances, some of which reach ten leagues (YOJANA) in diameter. Each lotus emits millions of rays of light and from each ray of light there emerge millions of buddhas who travel to world systems in all directions to teach the dharma. The pure land is level, like the palm of one's hand, without mountains or oceans. It has great rivers, the waters of which rise as high or sink as low as one pleases, from the shoulders to the ankles, and vary in temperature as one pleases. The sound of the river takes the form of whatever auspicious words one wishes to hear, such as "buddha," "emptiness," "cessation," and "great compassion." The words "hindrance," "misfortune," and "pain" are never heard, nor are the words "day" and "night" used, except as metaphors. The beings in the pure land do not need to consume food. When they are hungry, they simply visualize whatever food they wish and their hunger is satisfied without needing to eat. They dwell in bejeweled palaces of their own design. Some of the inhabitants sit cross-legged on lotus blossoms while others are enclosed within the calyx of a lotus. The latter do not feel imprisoned, because the calyx of the lotus is quite large, containing within it a palace similar to that inhabited by the gods. Those who dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the pure land yet who harbor doubts are reborn inside lotuses where they must remain for five hundred years, enjoying visions of the pure land but deprived of the opportunity to hear the dharma. Those who are free from doubt are reborn immediately on open lotuses, with unlimited access to the dharma. Such rebirth would become a common goal of Buddhist practice, for monks and laity alike, in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia. ¶ The "shorter" Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra was translated into Chinese by such famous figures as KUMĀRAJĪVA and XUANZANG. It is devoted largely to describing this buddha's land and its many wonders, including the fact that even the names for the realms of animals and the realms of hell-denizens are not known; all of the beings born there will achieve enlightenment in their next lifetime. In order to be reborn there, one should dedicate one's merit to that goal and bear in mind the name of the buddha here known as AMITĀYUS (Infinite Life). Those who are successful in doing so will see Amitāyus and a host of bodhisattvas before them at the moment of death, ready to escort them to sukhāvatī, the land of bliss. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of this practice, the Buddha goes on to list the names of many other buddhas abiding in the four cardinal directions, the nadir, and the zenith, who also praise the buddha-field of Amitāyus. Furthermore, those who hear the names of the buddhas that he has just recited will be embraced by those buddhas. Perhaps to indicate how his own buddha-field (that is, our world) differs from that of Amitāyus, sākyamuni Buddha concludes by conceding that it has been difficult to teach the dharma in a world as degenerate as ours.
Suvarnaprabhāsottamasutra. (T. Gser 'od dam pa'i mdo; C. Jinguangming zuishengwang jing; J. Konkomyo saishookyo; K. Kŭmgwangmyong ch'oesŭngwang kyong 金光明最勝王經). In Sanskrit, "Sutra of Supreme Golden Light," an influential MAHĀYĀNA sutra, especially in East Asia. Scholars speculate that the text originated in India in the fourth century and was gradually augmented. It was translated into Chinese by YIJING in 703. The sutra contains many DHĀRAnĪ and is considered by some to be a proto-tantric text; in some editions of the Tibetan canon it is classified as a TANTRA. It is important in East Asian Buddhism for two main reasons. First was the role the sutra played in conceptualizing state-protection Buddhism (HUGUO FOJIAO). The sutra declares that deities will protect the lands of rulers who worship and uphold the sutra, bringing peace and prosperity, but will abandon the lands of rulers who do not, such that all manner of catastrophe will befall their kingdoms. The sutra was thus central to "state protection" practices in East Asia, together with the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA and the RENWANG JING. Second, the sutra provides the locus classicus for the "water and land ceremony" (SHUILU HUI), a ritual intended for universal salvation, but especially of living creatures who inhabit the most painful domains of SAMSĀRA; the ceremony was also performed for a variety of this-worldly purposes, including state protection and rain-making. According to the sutra, in a previous life, the Buddha was a merchant's son named Jalavāhana, who one day encountered a dried-up pond in the forest, filled with thousands of dying fish. Summoning twenty elephants, he carried bags of water from a river into the forest and replenished the pond, saving the fish. He then sent for food with which to feed them. Finally, recalling that anyone who hears the name of the buddha Ratnasikhin will be reborn in the heavens, he waded into the pond and pronounced the Buddha's name, followed by an exposition of dependent origination. When the fish died, they were reborn in the TRĀYASTRIMsA heaven. Recalling the reason for their happy fate, they visited the world of humans, where each offered a pearl necklace to Jalavāhana's head, foot, right side, and left side. The sutra also tells the story of Prince Mahāsattva who sees a starving tigress and her cubs. He throws himself off a cliff to commit suicide so that the tiger might eat his body (see NAMO BUDDHA). This is one of the most famous cases of DEHADĀNA, or gift of the body.
Svadha (Sanskrit) Svadhā [from sva self, oneself + the verbal root dhā to place, fix, constitute, sustain, maintain] In Hinduism the essential individuality or individual nature of a being, whether man, god, or other entity; almost a synonym for svabhava, yet signifying the entity’s individuality as manifested through the vehicles which contain it, rather than the intrinsic characteristic of the egoity itself. This is the reason svadha is often used as a name for maya or prakriti as the source of the universe.
svārthānumāna. (T. rang don rjes dpag; C. zibiliang; J. jihiryo; K. chabiryang 自比量). In Sanskrit, "inference for oneself," a term used in Buddhist logic to refer to what would generally be referred to as a correct inference, that is, a mental process of reasoning that results in a factual assumption about a particular state of affairs. Technically speaking, inference for oneself is a conceptual consciousness that discerns an object by means of a sign or reason (LInGA) that has the three qualities (trirupa) of legitimate evidence. This refers to three relations that must obtain between the three elements of a syllogism: the subject, the predicate, and the reason. The three qualities are (1) the PAKsADHARMA, that the reason is a quality of the subject; (2) the forward pervasion (anvayavyāpti), that whatever is the reason is necessarily the predicate; and (3) the "exclusion" or reverse pervasion (vyatirekavyāpti), that whatever is not the predicate is necessarily not the reason. DIGNĀGA contrasted the inference for oneself with the inference for others (PARĀRTHĀNUMĀNA), which is not an inference in a technical sense, but is used only metaphorically. Inference for others refers to a proof that would be stated to another person, such as an opponent in a debate, in order for that person to arrive at the correct conclusion that one oneself has understood. Because the proof serves as the cause of the other person's inference, it is called an inference for others.
svatantraprayoga. (T. rang rgyud kyi sbyor ba). In Sanskrit, "autonomous syllogism." Among the many meanings of the term PRAYOGA is its use as a technical term in logic, where it is often translated as "syllogism," and refers to a statement that contains a subject, a predicate, and a reason. A svatantraprayoga leads to a svatantrānumāna (T. rang rgyud rjes dpag), an "autonomous inference." The correct syllogism that gives rise to correct inference is composed of three parts, the subject (dharmin), the property being proved (SĀDHYADHARMA), and the reason (HETU or LInGA). For example, consider the syllogism "Sound is impermanent because of being produced." The subject is sound, the property being proved is impermanence, and the reason is being produced. For the syllogism to be correct, three relations must exist among its three components: (1) the reason must be a property (DHARMA) of the subject, also called the "position" (PAKsA); (2) there must be a relationship of forward pervasion (anvayavyāpti) between the reason and the property being proved (SĀDHYADHARMA), such that whatever is the reason is necessarily the property being proved, and (3) there must be a relationship of "exclusion" or reverse pervasion (vyatirekavyāpti) between the property being proved and the reason such that whatever is not the property being proved is necessarily not the reason. In the example ("Sound is impermanent because of being produced"), the syllogism is correct because the reason ("being produced") is a quality of the subject ("sound"), there is forward pervasion in the sense that whatever is produced is necessarily impermanent, and there is reverse pervasion because whatever is not impermanent is necessarily not produced. It is generally the case in Indian logic that all elements of the syllogism must be accepted by both parties in a debate (see SAMĀNAPRATIBHĀSADHARMIN); such a syllogism is referred to as an "autonomous syllogism" (svatantrānumāna or svatantraprayoga). In the Madhyamaka school of Indian Buddhist philosophy, there was a controversy over whether such syllogisms were acceptable when a Madhyamaka debated with a proponent of another school. The locus classicus of the controversy is the debate between BHĀVAVIVEKA and CANDRAKĪRTI concerning BUDDHAPĀLITA's commentary on the first chapter of NĀGĀRJUNA's MuLAMADHYAMAKAKĀRIKĀ. It was Candrakīrti's position that the Madhyamaka should only use consequences (PRASAnGA) or an inference familiar to others (PARAPRASIDDHĀNUMĀNA), i.e., that they should only draw out the unintended consequences in others' positions; to use an autonomous syllogism implied acceptance of intrinsically established relations among the elements of the syllogism. Bhāvaviveka had argued that it was necessary for the Madhyamaka to state an autonomous syllogism at the conclusion of a debate. Based on this controversy, the Tibetans coined the terms *SVĀTANTRIKA and *PRĀSAnGIKA to designate these two positions.
Tantric: Adjective to Tantra (q.v.) Tao: The Way, principle, cosmic order, nature. "The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao." It is "vague and eluding," "deep and obscure," but "there is in it the form" and "the essence." "In it is reality." It "produced the One, the One produced the two, the two produced the three, and the three produced all things." Its "standard is the Natural." (Lao Tzu). "Tao has reality and evidence but no action nor form. It may be transmitted, but cannot be received. It may be attained, but cannot be seen. It is its own essence, and its own root." "Tao operates, and results follow." "Tao has no limit." "It is in the ant," "a tare," "a potsherd," "ordure." (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The Confucian "Way;" the teachings of the sage; the moral order, the moral life, truth, the moral law; the moral principle. This means "the fulfillment of the law of our human nature." It is the path of man's moral life. "True manhood (jen) is that by which a man is to be a man. Generally speaking, it is the moral law" (Mencius, 371-289 B.C.). "To proceed according to benevolence and righteousness is called the Way." (Han Yu, 767-824). The Way, which means following the Reason of things, and also the Reason which is in everything and which everything obeys. (Neo-Confucianism). The Way or Moral Law in the cosmic sense, signifying "what is above the realm of corporeality," and the "successive movement of the active (yang) and the passive principles (yin)." In the latter sense as understood both in ancient Confucianism and in Neo-Confucianism, it is interchangeable with the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi). Shao K'ang-chieh (1011-1077) said that "The Moral Law is the Great Ultimate." Chang Heng-ch'u (1022-1077) identified it with the Grand Harmony (Ta Ho) and said that "from the operation of the vital force (ch'i) there is the Way." This means that the Way is the principle of being as well as the sum total of the substance and functions of things. To Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107) "There is no Way independent of the active (yang) principle and the passive (yin) principle. Yet it is precisely the Way that determines the active and passive principles. These principles are the constituents of the vital force (ch'i), which is corporeal. On the other hand, the Way transcends corporeality." To Chu Hsi (1130-1200), the Way is "the Reason why things are as they are." Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777) understood it to mean "the incessant transformation of the universe," and "the operation of things in the world, involving the constant flow of the vital force (ch'i) and change, and unceasing production and reproduction."
Tāranātha. (1575-1634). The appellation of Kun dga' snying po (Kunga Nyingpo), a Tibetan scholar affiliated with the JO NANG tradition. Tāranātha was an author of exceptional scope, writing on a vast range of philosophical and doctrinal topics. Born in Drong, he was a precocious child, famously declaring himself to be an incarnate lama (SPRUL SKU) at the age of one, an identification that was eventually confirmed. He was installed at Chos lung rtse monastery at the age of four. By age fifteen, he had studied many tantric cycles, becoming adept at both the six yogas of NĀROPA (NA RO CHOS DRUG) and MAHĀMUDRĀ. He also developed an interest in Indian languages; several of his translations of Sanskrit works are included in the Tibetan canon. Tāranātha had a strong interest in India throughout his life, not simply its ancient past but also its contemporary present, chronicling events of the Mughal period. He even declared that he and the Mughal emperor Jahangir were emanations of the same person. He also had a strong interest in the SIDDHA tradition and studied with many Buddhist and non-Buddhist YOGINs. At the age of sixteen, Tāranātha met his most influential Indian teacher, Buddhaguptanātha, who had traveled throughout the Buddhist world and studied directly with some of the last remaining members of the siddha tradition. Tāranātha surveyed the Indian siddha lineages in his BKA' BABS BDUN LDAN GYI RNAM THAR ("Biographies of the Seven Instruction Lineages"). His most famous work, informally called the RGYA GAR CHOS 'BYUNG ("History of Indian Buddhism"), is highly regarded by later Tibetan historians. Tāranātha was a great master of the KĀLACAKRATANTRA and its surrounding topics, writing extensively about them. He restored the STuPA built by the Jo nang founder DOL PO PA SHES RAB RGYAL MTSHAN. Tāranātha saw Dol po pa in many visions and strongly promoted his teachings, writing in support of the GZHAN STONG view. In 1615, with the patronage of the rulers of Gtsang, he began work on JO NANG PHUN TSHOGS GLING, northwest of Gzhis ka rtse (Shigatse) in central Tibet. It was completed in 1628. Renowned for its beautiful design and sumptuous artwork, the monastery would be his primary residence in the last years of his life. After his death, the fifth DALAI LAMA suppressed the Jo nang sect, converting the monastery into a DGE LUGS establishment. He also identified Tāranātha's incarnation in Mongolia as the first RJE BTSUN DAM PA, a line of incarnations who would serve as titular head of the Dge lugs sect in Mongolia until the twentieth century. The reasons for this identification are debated. The Dalai Lama claimed in one of his autobiographies that his mother had been the tantric consort of Tāranātha and that Tāranātha was his biological father. It was also the case that Tāranātha had been supported by the rulers of Gtsang, the opponents that the Dalai Lama's faction had defeated in the civil war that resulted in the Dalai Lama gaining political control over Tibet.
Tarkajvālā. (T. Rtog ge 'bar ba). In Sanskrit, the "Blaze of Reasoning"; the extensive prose autocommentary on the MADHYAMAKAHṚDAYA, the major work of the sixth-century Indian MADHYAMAKA (and, from the Tibetan perspective, *SVĀTANTRIKA) master BHĀVAVIVEKA (also referred to as Bhavya and Bhāviveka). The Madhyamakahṛdaya is preserved in both Sanskrit and Tibetan; the Tarkajvālā only in Tibetan. It is a work of eleven chapters, the first three and the last two of which set forth the main points in Bhāvaviveka's view of the nature of reality and the Buddhist path, dealing with such topics as BODHICITTA, the knowledge of reality (tattvajNāna), and omniscience (SARVAJNATĀ). The intervening chapters set forth the positions (and Bhāvaviveka's refutations) of various Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools, including the sRĀVAKA, YOGĀCĀRA, SāMkhya, Vaisesika, Vedānta, and MīmāMsā. These chapters (along with sĀNTARAKsITA's TATTVASAMGRAHA) are an invaluable source of insight into the relations between Madhyamaka and the other Indian philosophical schools of the day. The chapter on the srāvakas, for example, provides a detailed account of the reasons put forth by the srāvaka schools as to why the MAHĀYĀNA sutras are not the word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA). Bhāvaviveka's response to these arguments, as well as his refutation of Yogācāra in the subsequent chapter, are particularly spirited.
The astral light is virtually the same as the sidereal light of Paracelsus and other medieval mystic philosophers who followed him. The reason for calling this kosmic plane astral or sidereal is that all nature being a vast and intricately interwoven organism, the stars and planets emanate into each other their respective celestial energies and substances. Thus, because there is this constant interchange of starry fluids emanating from the different celestial bodies, the term astral light has a foundation of esoteric scientific fact. It is applied specifically to the second kosmic plane only because it is nearest to the physical and beings living on the physical plane at times become sensible of the existence of the second kosmic plane by means of flashes of starry light or sensations of luminosity. Hence the ancient initiates, knowing the source of this starry substance, properly called it the astral or sidereal light, or by some similar expression. The astral light, finally, is the very dregs of akasa, and is virtually the same as the hypothetical ether of science.
"The characteristic power of the reason in its fullness is a logical movement assuring itself first of all available materials and data by observation and arrangement, then acting upon them for a resultant knowledge gained, assured and enlarged by a first use of the reflective powers, and lastly assuring itself of the correctness of its results by a more careful and formal action, more vigilant, deliberate, severely logical which tests, rejects or confirms them according to certain secure standards and processes developed by reflection and experience.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“The characteristic power of the reason in its fullness is a logical movement assuring itself first of all available materials and data by observation and arrangement, then acting upon them for a resultant knowledge gained, assured and enlarged by a first use of the reflective powers, and lastly assuring itself of the correctness of its results by a more careful and formal action, more vigilant, deliberate, severely logical which tests, rejects or confirms them according to certain secure standards and processes developed by reflection and experience.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“The Divine and no other is the flame of life that sustains the physical body of living creatures and turns its food into sustenance of their vital force. He is lodged in the heart of every breathing thing; from him are memory and knowledge and the debates of the reason. He is that which is known by all the Vedas and by all forms of knowing; he is the knower of Veda and the maker of Vedanta. In other words, the Divine is at once the Soul of matter and the Soul of life and the Soul of mind as well as the Soul of the supramental light that is beyond mind and its limited reasoning intelligence.” Essays on the Gita
The gunas affect every part of our natural being. They have indeed their strongest relative hold in the three different members of it, mind, life and body. Tamas, the principle of inertia, is strongest in material nature and in our physical being. The action of this principle is of two kinds, inertia of force and inertia of knowledge. Whatever is predominantly governed by Tamas, tends in its force to a sluggish inaction and immobility or else to a mechanical action which it does not possess, but is possessed by obscure forces which drive it in a mechanical round of energy; equally in its consciousness it turns to an inconscience or enveloped subconscience or to a reluctant, sluggish or in some way mechanical conscious action which does not possess the idea of its own energy, but is guided by an idea which seems external to it or at least concealed from its active awareness. Thus the principle of our body is in its nature inert, subconscient, incapable of anything but a mechanical and habitual self-guidance and action: though it has like everything else a principle of kinesis and a principle of equilibrium of its state and action, an inherent principle of response and a secret consciousness, the greatest portion of its rajasic motions are contributed by the lifepower and all the overt consciousness by the mental being. The principle of rajas has its strongest hold on the vital nature. It is the Life within us that is the strongest kinetic motor power, but the life-power in earthly beings is possessed by the force of desire, th
refore rajas turns always to action and desire; desire is the strongest human and animal initiator of most kinesis and action, predominant to such an extent that many consider it the father of all action and even the originator of our being. Moreover, rajas finding itself in a world of matter which starts from the principle of inconscience and a mechanical driven inertia, has to work against an immense contrary force; th
refore its whole action takes on the nature of an effort, a struggle, a besieged and an impeded conflict for possession which is distressed in its every step by a limiting incapacity, disappointment and suffering: even its gains are precarious and limited and marred by the reaction of the effort and an aftertaste of insufficiency and transience. The principle of sattwa has its strongest hold in the mind; not so much in the lower parts of the mind which are dominated by the rajasic life-power, but mostly in the intelligence and the will of the reason. Intelligence, reason, rational will are moved by the nature of their predominant principle towards a constant effort of assimilation, assimilation by knowledge, assimilation by a power of understanding will, a constant effort towards equilibrium, some stability, rule, harmony of the conflicting elements of natural happening and experience. This satisfaction it gets in various ways and in various degrees of acquisition. The attainment of assimilation, equilibrium and harmony brings with it always a relative but more or less intense and satisfying sense of ease, happiness, mastery, security, which is other than the troubled and vehement pleasures insecurely bestowed by the satisfaction of rajasic desire and passion. Light and happiness are the characteristics of the sattwic guna. The whole nature of the embodied living mental being is determined by these three gunas.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 684-685
The Platonic philosophy of art and aesthetics stresses, as might be expected, the value of the reasonable imitation of Ideal realities rather than the photographic imitation of sense things and individual experiences. All beautiful things participate in the Idea of beauty (Symposium and Phaedrus). The artist is frequently described as a man carried away by his inspiration, akin to the fool; yet art requires reason and the artist must learn to contemplate the world of Ideas. Fine art is not radically distinguished from useful art. In both the Republic and the Laws, art is subordinated to the good of the state, and those forms of art which are effeminate, asocial, inimical to the morale of the citizens, are sternly excluded from the ideal state.
The reason classical Greek and Roman writers speak of the Egyptian Aethopians was that the Aethiopians of southern Egypt were then considered to be the last remnants of an Aryan immigration from South India, which took place in prehistoric antiquity, and Greek and Roman writers not infrequently contrasted and identified the Aethiopians of Egypt with the Eastern Aethiopians. It was originally these Eastern Aethiopians who were known to the prehistoric Greek nations as the Aethiopians — the only ones then considered as rightfully bearing this name. These Eastern Aethiopians inhabited the central and especially the southern part of the Indian peninsula including Ceylon, and therefore were the descendants of one of the last subraces of that portion of Atlantis existing earlier on a land south of India called Lanka, of which Ceylon, then one of its northern highlands, is the only present geological remnant.
The reason is that the nature of the consciousness is like that ; after a spell of wakefulness it feels the need of a little sleep.
-. “The Reason of Church Government Urged
The reason the occultist of all ages looks askance at the tantric practices, or the Tantras dealing largely with the saktis, is because these tantric books and practices are almost wholly occupied in relations and correlations both in nature and in man of the saktis in their lower aspect. The kundalini, for instance, is likewise born in the buddhi in man, but descending through the human constitution has its pranic or psychovital physical representations in the various chakras or vital centers of the human frame, and thus the kundalini is an example of sakti or of its fluidic effluxes in the lower portions of the human constitution.
The reason we cannot remain continuously in the waking state, but must seek another aspect of consciousness during sleep, is that “our senses are all dual, and act according to the plane of consciousness on which the thinking entity energizes. Physical sleep affords the greatest facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time it is a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapna and Sushupti. . . . As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water; so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical organism, and that the force of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep, and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in rhythmical vibrations of life currents — golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness” (TBL 58).
There have been many Bels, which may be one of the reasons that in The Secret Doctrine Bel is made equivalent to the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury. As Bel or Ba‘al means Lord, the title becomes applicable to any of the important celestial bodies.
The search for beauty is only in its beginning a satisfaction in the beauty of form, the beauty which appeals to the physical senses and the vital impressions, impulsions, desires. It is only in the middle a satisfaction in the beauty of the ideas seized, the emotions aroused, the perception of perfect process and harmonious combination. Behind them the soul of beauty in us desires the contact, the revelation, the uplifting delight of an absolute beauty in all things which it feels to be present, but which neither the senses and instincts by themselves can give, though they may be its channels,—for it is suprasensuous,—nor the reason and intelligence, though they too are a channel,—for it is suprarational, supra-intellectual,— but to which through all these veils the soul itself seeks to arrive. When it can get the touch of this universal, absolute beauty, this soul of beauty, this sense of its revelation in any slightest or greatest thing, the beauty of a flower, a form, the beauty and power of a character, an action, an event, a human life, an idea, a stroke of the brush or the chisel or a scintillation of the mind, the colours of a sunset or the grandeur of the tempest, it is then that the sense of beauty in us is really, powerfully, entirely satisfied. It is in truth seeking, as in religion, for the Divine, the All-Beautiful in man, in nature, in life, in thought, in art; for God is Beauty and Delight hidden in the variation of his masks and forms.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 25, Page: 144-45
“The Sun was always called by the Egyptians ‘the eye of Osiris,’ and was himself the Logos, the first-begotten, or light made manifest to the world, ‘which is the Mind and divine intellect of the Concealed’ ” (SD 2:25). This symbol connects Horus with the characteristic nature and functions of the manifest Logos which spiritually surveys all, guides all, and watches over all; and as the Logos contains in itself all that is, both of spirit and matter when they are manifested, the reason is seen for the more detailed ascription to sun or moon of this or that function or activity of the Logos.
This dynamic and orderly character of the universe is due to Reason and the vital force. As the Ch'eng brothers (I-ch'uan, 1033-1077, and Min-tao, 1032-1086) said, "All things have the same Reason in them." Thus, Reason combines the Many into One, while the vital force differentiates the One into the Many, each with its own "determinate nature." The two principles, however, are not to be sharply contrasted, for neither is independent of the other. Reason operates through, and is embodied in, the vital force. It is this cooperative functioning of theirs that makes the universe a cosmos, a harmonious system of order and sequence. "Centrality is the order of the universe and harmony is its unalterable law." As such the cosmos is a moral order. This is the main reason why the greatest of the Neo-Confucians, Chu Hsi (1130-1200) said that "the Great Ultimate is nothing but the Reason of ultimate goodness."
T'ien li: Heaven-endowed nature. The Reason of Heaven; the Divine Law; the moral principle of Heaven which is embodied in benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom (ssu tuan) (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200) the Law of Nature, which is the Reason (li) m all things and is impartial. (Tai Tung-yuan, 1723-1777). --W.T.C. T'ien ti: Heaven and Earth: as the universe; as the origin of life; as the consolation of the pure and impure vital forces (ch'i) respectively; as the active or male (yang) and the passive or female (yin) phases of the universe, respectively. --W.T.C. Timarchy: (Gr.) A type of government characterized by voluntary or acclamatory rule of worthv and competent men, not aristocrats. -- K.F.L.
tingqian boshuzi. (J. teizen no hakujushi; K. chongjon paeksuja 庭前柏樹子). In Chinese, "cypress tree in front of the courtyard"; a CHAN expression that becomes a popular meditative topic (HUATOU) and is used in Chan questioning meditation (KANHUA CHAN). The phrase appears in a GONG'AN exchange attributed to the Tang-dynasty monk ZHAOZHOU CONGSHEN (778-897): Once when Zhaozhou was asked, "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?" (XILAI YI), he replied, "Cypress tree in front of the courtyard," suggesting that enlightenment, the reason that Bodhidharma traveled to China, is to be found in everyday experience. This gong'an appears as case no. 37 in the WUMEN GUAN ("Gateless Checkpoint"). See also XILAI YI.
“To act according to a standard of Truth or a rule or law of action (dharma) or in obedience to a superior authority or to the highest principles discovered by the reason and intelligent will and not according to one’s own fancy, vital impulses and desires. In yoga obedience to the Guru or to the Divine and the law of the Truth as declared by the Guru is the foundation of discipline.” Letters on Yoga
Toshodaiji. (唐招提寺). In Japanese, "Monastery for a Tang Wanderer"; located in the ancient Japanese capital of Nara and the head monastery of the VINAYA school (J. Risshu). Toshodaiji was originally a residence for Prince Niitabe, who donated it to the Tang-Chinese monk GANJIN (C. Jianzhen; 688-763), the founder of the vinaya school (RISSHu) in Japan. Ganjin came to Japan in 759 at the invitation of two Japanese monks who had studied with him in China at his home monastery of Damingsi (J. Daimyoji) in present-day Yangzhou. Ganjin tried to reach Japan five times before finally succeeding; then sixty-six and blind, he established an ordination platform at ToDAIJI before moving to Toshodaiji, where he passed away in 763. The monastery's name thus refers to Ganjin, a "wandering monk from Tang." The kondo, the golden hall that is the monastery's main shrine, was erected after Ganjin's death and finished around 781, followed three decades later by the monastery's five-story pagoda, which was finished in 810. The kondo is one of the few Nara-period temple structures that has survived and is one of the reasons why the monastery is so prized. It was built in the Yosemune style, with a colonnade with eight pillars, and enshrines three main images: the cosmic buddha VAIROCANA at the center, flanked by BHAIsAJYAGURU, and a thousand-armed AVALOKITEsVARA (see SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA), only 953 of which remain today, with images of BRAHMĀ and INDRA at the sides and statues of the four heavenly king protectors of Buddhism standing in each corner. The kodo, or lecture hall, was moved to the monastery from Heijo Palace and is the only extant structure that captures the style of a Tenpyo palace; it houses a statue of the bodhisattva MAITREYA. A kyozo, or SuTRA repository, holds the old library. The monastery also includes a treasure repository, a bell tower, and an ordination platform in the lotus pond. In 763, as Ganjin's death neared, he had a memorial statue of himself made and installed in his quarters at Toshodaiji. This dry-lacquer statue of a meditating Ganjin is enshrined today in the mieido (image hall), but is brought out for display only on his memorial days of June 5-7 each year; it is the oldest example in Japan of such a memorial statue. Toshodaiji was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
To summarize: what modern usage calls heredity, the transmission of characteristics from parents to children, is not a merely physiologic or biologic mechanism acting automatically or fortuitously; but actually is brought about because of the attraction to certain families, or certain parents, of reimbodying egos possessing in greater or larger degree the same characteristics which the parents themselves have. On identic lines is to be explained the reason why races and even nations continue with their respective characteristics; egos are drawn to similar fields for incarnation. Thus it is that the transmission of type and characteristics continues both racially and individually from generation to generation, always modified by the individualities of the reimbodying egos.
Triangle ::: A color badge worn on the clothes of a concentration camp inmate that disclosed the reason for his incarceration. Green triangles were for criminals; yellow triangles were for Jews; red triangles for political prisoners; purple triangles for Jehovah's Witnesses; pink triangles for homosexuals; black triangles for Roma (Gypsies) and "asocials"; and blue triangles for emigrants.
Two opposite errors have to be avoided, two misconceptions that disfigure opposite sides of the truth of gnosis. One error of intellect-bounded thinkers takes vijnana as synonymous with the other Indian term buddhi and buddhi as synonymous with the reason, the discerning intellect, the logical intelligence. The systems that accept this significance, pass at once from a plane of pure intellect to a plane of pure spirit. No intermediate power is recognised, no diviner action of knowledge than the pure reason is admitted; the limited human means for fixing truth is taken for the highest possible dynamics of consciousness, its topmost force and original movement. An opposite error, a misconception of the mystics identifies vijnana with the consciousness of the Infinite free from all ideation or else ideation packed into one essence of thought, lost to other dynamic action in the single and invariable idea of the One. This is the caitanyaghana of the Upanishad and is one movement or rather one thread of the many-aspected movement of the gnosis. The gnosis, the Vijnana, is not only this concentrated consciousness of the infinite Essence; it is also and at the same time an infinite knowledge of the myriad play of the Infinite. It contains all ideation (not mental but supramental), but it is not limited by ideation, for it far exceeds all ideative movement.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 476-77
“Uranos is a modified Varuna, ‘the Universal encompassor,’ the all-embracer, and one of the oldest of the Vedic deities — Space, the maker of Heaven and Earth, since both are manifested out of his (or its) seed. It is only later that Varuna became the chief of the Adityas and a kind of Neptune riding on the Leviathan — Makara, now the most sacred and mysterious of the signs of the Zodiac. Varuna, ‘without whom no creature can even wink,’ was degraded like Uranos, and, like him, he fell into generation, his functions . . . having been lowered down from heaven to earth by exoteric anthropomorphism. As the same Orientalist [Muir] says, ‘The attributes ascribed to Varuna (in the Vedas) impart to his character a moral elevation and sanctity far surpassing that attributed to any other Vedic Deity.’ But to understand correctly the reason of his fall, like that of Uranos, one has to see in every exoteric religion the imperfect and sinful work of man’s fancy, and also to study the mysteries which Varuna is said to have imparted to Vasishta. Only . . . ‘his secrets and those of Mirat are not to be revealed to the foolish’ ” (SD 2:268-9n).
Visākha. (P. Visākha; T. Sa ga; C. Pishequ; J. Bishakya; K. Pisago 舍佉). A wealthy merchant of RĀJAGṚHA and husband of the female ARHAT DHAMMADINNĀ; he should be distinguished from VIsĀKHĀ (s.v.), the foremost donor among laywomen. According to the Pāli account, Visākha accompanied King BIMBISĀRA on a visit to the Buddha during the latter's first sojourn at Rājagaha (RĀJAGṚHA) after his enlightenment. Upon hearing the Buddha preach, Visākha became a stream-enterer (SROTAĀPANNA) and, subsequently, a once-returner (SAKṚDĀGĀMIN) and a nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN). Once he became a nonreturner, his behavior toward his wife Dhammadinnā changed, and once she learned the reason, Dhammadinnā requested permission to renounce the world and enter the order as a nun. Impressed by his wife's piety, he informed Bimbisāra, who arranged for her to be carried to the nunnery on a golden palanquin. After Dhammadinnā attained arhatship, Visākha asked her questions pertaining to dharma, all of which she expertly answered. He reported this to the Buddha, who praised her for her skill in teaching. Visākha and Dhammadinnā were husband and wife during the time of Phussa (S. Pusya) Buddha (the twenty-first of the thousand buddhas) when, as a treasurer, he had arranged an offering of alms for Phussa Buddha and his disciples. Visākha was a renowned teacher in his own right and is mentioned as one of seven lay disciples who each had five hundred followers.
vyāpti. (T. khyab pa; C. bian/bianzhi; J. hen/henshi; K. p'yon/p'yonji 遍/遍至). In Sanskrit, "pervasion" or "concomitance"; a term used in logic to indicate the relation that obtains between the reason and the predicate in a correct syllogism (PRAYOGA). There is positive concomitance (anvaya) and negative concomitance (VYATIREKA). For example, in order for the syllogism (PRAYOGA) "Sound is impermanent because of being produced" to be correct, it must be true that whatever is impermanent must necessarily be produced. That is, the category of the reason must either be coextensive with or subsume the category of the predicate. In Tibetan monastic debate, the term figures in one of three answers that the defender of a position may give. When presented with a syllogism or consequence (PRASAnGA) by the challenger, the defender may (1) accept the thesis ('dod), (2) state that the reason is not a quality of the subject (rtags ma grub), or (3) state that there is no pervasion between the reason and the predicate (ma khyab).
"What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees.” Essays Divine and Human
“What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees.” Essays Divine and Human
What St. Thomas appears to have insisted on most in thus using Aristotle as a pillar of his own thought was the rehabilitation of man and the universe as stable realities and genuine causes. This insistence has been by some called his naturalism. Against the tendency of thirteenth century Augustinians to disparage the native ability of the human reason to know truth, St. Thomas insisted on the capacity of the reason to act as a genuine and sufficient cause of true knowledge within the natural order. Against the occasionalistic tendencies of Avicennian thought, which reduced both man and the world of change around him to the role of passive spectators of the sole activity of God (i.e., the intellectus agens), St. Thomas asserted the subordinate but autonomous causality of man in the production of knowledge and the genuine causality of sensible realities in the production of change. Ultimately, St. Thomas rests his defense of man and other beings as efficacious causes in their own order on the doctrine of creation; just as he shows that the occasionalism of Avicenna is ultimately based on the Neo-platonic doctrine of emanation.
When androgynous or hermaphrodite is used in philosophy, it does not mean physically or ethereally double-sexed — except when physical dual-sexed beings are distinctly referred to — but means the dual characteristic of nature in manifestation. Very often this duality is separated into “masculine” and “feminine,” using the words familiar to human life, although this duality is perhaps more accurately described by the words positive and negative, or by spirit and matter, or again by consciousness and vehicle. Here we have the reason for the separation of the deities in ancient pantheons into gods and goddesses, although occasionally in the mythological tales deities are represented as dual sexed. This androgynous or dual character of all the manifested worlds commenced with cosmic buddhi, or mahabuddhi, although the first more defined manifestations of individualized duality began on the plane of cosmic kama where fohat especially works. Above that the two rays from the One ascend again to reunite.
wherefore ::: adv. & conj. --> For which reason; so; -- used relatively.
For what reason; why; -- used interrogatively. ::: n. --> the reason why.
why ::: adv. --> For what cause, reason, or purpose; on what account; wherefore; -- used interrogatively. See the Note under What, pron., 1.
For which; on account of which; -- used relatively.
The reason or cause for which; that on account of which; on what account; as, I know not why he left town so suddenly; -- used as a compound relative. ::: n.
Will to Believe: A phrase made famous by William James (1842-1910) in an essay by that title (1896). In general, the phrase characterizes much of James's philosophic ideas: a defence of the right and even the necessity to believe where evidence is not complete, the adventurous spirit by which men must live, the heroic character of all creative thinking, the open-mind to possibilities, the repudiation of the stubborn spirit and the will-not-to-know, the primacy of the will in successful living, the reasonableness of the whole man acting upon presented data, the active pragmatic disposition in general. This will to believe does not imply indiscriminative faith; it implies a genuine option, one which presents an issue that is lively, momentous and forced. Acts of indecision may be negative decisions. -- V.F.
yogipratyaksa. (T. rnal 'byor mngon sum; C. dingguan zhi; J. jokanchi; K. chonggwan chi 定觀知). In Sanskrit, "yogic direct perception"; a specific variety of direct perception (PRATYAKsA) that is typically presumed to derive from meditative practice (BHĀVANĀ; YOGA). A direct intuition of the real obtained through meditative practice, this type of understanding was accepted as a valid means of knowledge by most of the traditional Indian religious schools. In Buddhism, the psychological analysis of the notion of yogipratyaksa and the related yogijNāna (yogic knowledge or cognition) was undertaken by DHARMAKĪRTI (c. 600-670) in his PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA and NYĀYABINDU, as well as by his commentators. Dharmakīrti's predecessor DIGNĀGA (c. 480-540) had posited that there were only two reliable sources of knowledge (PRAMĀnA): direct perception (PRATYAKsA) and logical inference (ANUMĀNA). Dharmakīrti, however, subdivided direct perception (pratyaksa) into four subtypes, viz., sensory cognition (indriyajNāna), mental discrimination (MANOVIJNĀNA), self-awareness (SVASAMVEDANA), and yogic cognition (yogijNāna). In Dharmakīrti's analysis, yogic cognition (yogijNāna) is a form of yogic perception (yogipratyaksa), because it fulfills the two conditions of perception (pratyaksa): (1) it is devoid of conceptual construction (KALPANĀ); and (2) it is a cognition that is "nonerroneous" (abhrānta), viz., real. The treatment of yogipratyaksa in the literature thus focuses on how yogipratyaksa fulfills these two conditions of perception. Yogic knowledge is devoid of conceptual construction (kalpanā), Dharmakīrti maintains, because it is nonconceptual (akalpa; NIRVIKALPA) and thus "vivid" or "distinct" (spasta). This type of perception is therefore able to perceive reality directly, without the intercession of mental images or concepts. Since yogic cognition is said to be devoid of conceptual construction, this raises the issue of its second condition, its lack of error. Why is meditatively induced perception true and reliable? How does a meditator's yogic perception differ from the hallucinations of the deranged, since both of them presume they have a vivid cognition of an object? The reason, Dharmakīrti maintains, is that the objects of yogic knowledge are "true" or "real" (bhuta; sadbhuta), whereas hallucinations are "false" or "unreal" objects (abhuta; asadbhuta). The only true objects of yogic knowledge offered by Dharmakīrti are the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS: that is, the perception of these truths is true and reliable because they enable one to reach the goal of enlightenment, not because they involve a perception of an ultimate substance. In this sense, Dharmakīrti's understanding of yogijNāna is more focused on the direct realization of the soteriological import of the four noble truths than on extraordinary sensory ability. Therefore, yogic direct perception is qualitatively different from the various forms of clairvoyance that are the byproducts of deep states of concentration that may be achieved by both Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners. Yogipratyaksa is a form of insight (VIPAsYANĀ) posssessed only by noble persons (ĀRYAPUDGALA); and among the five paths it occurs only on the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA) and above. See also DARsANA.
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1 Dee Dee M. Scott
1 C. S. Lewis
1 Cicero
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1:In that God who illumines the reason, desiring liberation I seek my refuge. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad VI.18, #KEYS
2:Ego is the reason of the difficulty in everybody. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Ego and Its Forms, #KEYS
3:God is in all people, but all people are not in God -- that is the reason why they suffer. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
4:Behind everything in life there is an Absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
5:The reason understands itself, but not what is beyond it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Intuitive Mind, #KEYS
6:Reason is science, it is conscious art, it is invention. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
7:Reduce your ideal to a system and it at once begins to fail. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
8:The reason deals with the finite and is helpless before the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Vijnana or Gnosis, #KEYS
9:In that God who illumines the reason, desiring liberation I seek my refuge. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad VI.18, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
10:The reason deals successfully only with the settled and the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
11:Seek within yourself the reason for every passion, and finding it, arm yourself and dig out its root with the sword of suffering. ~ Philokalia, Paisius Velichkovsky, #KEYS
12:Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
13:The integral truth of things is truth not of the reason but of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The End of the Curve of Reason, #KEYS
14:The good of the universe is the reason why God wills each and every particular good in the universe ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 1.86)., #KEYS
15:What the instincts and impulses seek after, the reason labours to make us understand. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Good, #KEYS
16:Why do you wonder that globetrotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason that set you wandering is ever at your heels. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
17:The reason has to be led to a truth beyond itself, but by its own means and in its own manner. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Two Natures, #KEYS
18:The reason of man struggling with life becomes either an empiric or a doctrinaire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
19:It is the legitimate function of the reason to justify to man his action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Office and Limitations of the Reason, #KEYS
20:Everything finite is striving to express an infinite which it feels to be its real truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
21:No machinery invented by the reason can perfect either the individual or the collective man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The End of the Curve of Reason, #KEYS
22:Reason is in its nature an imperfect light with a large but still restricted mission. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Office and Limitations of the Reason, #KEYS
23:The reason meant for nearness to the gods
And uplift to heavenly scale by the touch of mind ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
24:The reason you want to be better is the reason why you aren't, shall I put it like that? We aren't better because we want to be. Because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
25:This is the reason for the divine Incarnation assigned by the Apostle: "Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (1 Timothy 1:15)., #KEYS
26:Man is not and cannot be wholly governed either in his thought or his action by the reason alone. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Supramental Instruments - Thought-Process, #KEYS
27:The reason why in his Church he made some apostles, some confessors, and others martyrs, is for the beauty and completion of the Church ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 6)., #KEYS
28:The reason that you are blessed in excess with anything is so that you can give it away to someone else in need." ~ Dee Dee M. Scott, American author that has made a name as a playwright, a film producer, and an entrepreneur, #KEYS
29:Genius, the true creator, is always suprarational in its nature and its instrumentation even when it seems to be doing the work of the reason. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Beauty, #KEYS
30:The godhead of the reason, the intellectual Logos, is only a partial representative and substitute for the greater supramental Logos. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Nature of the Supermind, #KEYS
31:The intellect moves naturally between two limits, the abstractions or solving analyses of the reason and the domain of positive and practical reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, New Birth or Decadence?, #KEYS
32:The reason it takes so long to become self-realized and become free is you're looking to do something and in truth there is absolutely nothing to do. There is nothing to do to become free and liberated - What is there to do? ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
33:And this the reason of his high unease,
Because he came from the infinities
To build immortally with mortal things; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, In the Moonlight,#KEYS
34:What is the reason for creating everything unless it is for the Son of Man? We must religiously confess and reverently admit that it is for this Son of Man crowned with glory and honour that God created all things. ~ Rupert of Deutz, Commentary on Matthew 1.13, #KEYS
35:The object of our worship is the one God, who by the word of his command, by the reason of his plan, and by the strength of his power has brought forth from nothing this whole construction of elements, bodies, and spirits for the glory of his majesty. ~ Tertullian of Carthage, #KEYS
36:The reason for the transfiguration was to remove the scandal of the cross from the hearts of his disciples, and to prevent the humiliation of his voluntary suffering from disturbing the faith of those who had witnessed the surpassing glory that lay concealed. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
37:Philosophy not only purifies the reason and predisposes it to the contact of the universal and the infinite, but tends to stabilise the nature and create the tranquillity of the sage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge, #KEYS
38:We die for the reason that we are subject to death by a necessary law of nature, or in consequence of some violence done to us. But Christ did not die because of any necessity. He gave up His life by His power and His own will ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (CT 1.230)., #KEYS
39:The kings of evil and the kings of good,
Appellants at the reason's judgment seat,
Proclaimed the gospel of their opposites,
And all believed themselves spokesmen of God: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Soul's Release,#KEYS
40:When something goes wrong, one must always find the reason in oneself, not superficially but deep inside oneself, and not in order to uselessly bewail the fault, but to cure it by calling one's aid the all-powerful force of the Divine.
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, [T2],#KEYS
41:If you wish to know why we must renounce all semblances, the reason is this that they are only mean to lead us to the simple and naked truth. If I wish, then, to arrive at that truth I must leave behind by little by little the road which leads me to it. ~ Tauler; Institutions, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
42:A force demoniac lurking in man's depths
That heaves suppressed by the heart's human law,
Awed by the calm and sovereign eyes of Thought,
Can in a fire and earthquake of the soul
Arise and, calling to its native night,
Overthrow the reason, occupy the lif ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
43:In the man who contemplates the objects of the senses, attachment to them is born, from attachment is born desire, and from desire is born the wrath of desire; from that wrath delusion and from delusion error of the memory in the reason; from the error loss of understanding, and by the loss of understanding he goes to perdition. ~ Bhagavad Gita. II. 63, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
44:Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could. ~ Louise Erdrich, #KEYS
45:Few of us can escape being neurotic or character disordered to at least some degree (which is why essentially everyone can benefit from psychotherapy if he or she is seriously willing to participate in the process). The reason for this is that the problem of distinguishing what we are and what we are not responsible for in this life is one of the greatest problems of human existence. It is never completely solved; for the entirety of our lives we must continually assess and reassess where our responsibilities lie in the ever-changing course of events. ~ M Scott Peck, #KEYS
46:All souls have within them something soft, cowardly, vile, nerveless, languishing, and if there were only that element in man, there would be nothing so ugly as the human being. But at the same time there is in him, very much to the purpose, this mistress, this absolute queen, Reason, who by the effort she has it in herself to make, becomes perfect and becomes the supreme virtue. One must, to be truly a human being, give it full authority over that other part of the soul whose duty it is to obey the reason. ~ Cicero, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
47:D.: Impurities of limitation, ignorance and desire (anava, mayika, and kamya) place obstacles in the way of meditation. How to conquer them?
M.: Not to be swayed by them.
D.: Grace is necessary.
M.: Yes, Grace is both the beginning and the end. Introversion is due to Grace: Perseverance is Grace; and Realisation is Grace. That is the reason for the statement: Mamekam saranam vraja (only surrender to Me). If one has entirely surrendered oneself is there any part left to ask for Grace? He is swallowed up by Grace. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 319,#KEYS
48:it is better to wander :::
it is a deeper and more seldom heard call; yet to follow it when heard is wisest : even, it is better to wander at the call of ones soul than to go apparently straight with the reason and the outward moral mentoR But It is only when the life turns towards the Divine that the soul can truly come forward and impose its power on the outer members; for, itself a spark of the Divine, to grow in flame towards the Divine is its true life and its very reason of existence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1,#KEYS
49:The reason why you do not touch fire is because you know that it will cause you to suffer. Likewise, if you truly understand karma, you will not commit a single negative action, because unless that negative karma is purified, you know that it will eventually ripen into suffering.
You might forget this natural process, or you might not believe in it, because the ripening does not always happen immediately. But your karma will follow you like your shadow, that gets closer and closer without you realising, until you are eventually touched by it. Please, I urge you to always remember this. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,#KEYS
50:As gnostic knowledge, will and ananda are a direct instrumentation of spirit and can only be won by growing into the spirit, into divine being, this growth has to be the first aim of our Yoga. The mental being has to enlarge itself into the oneness of the Divine before the Divine will perfect in the soul of the individual its gnostic outflowering. That is the reason why the triple way of knowledge, works and love becomes the key-note of the whole Yoga, for that is the direct means for the soul in mind to rise to its highest intensities where it passes upward into the divine oneness.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
51:[Computer science] is not really about computers -- and it's not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not about microscopes and Petri dishes...and geometry isn't really about using surveying instruments. Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use. ~ Harold Abelson, Introductory lecture to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, #KEYS
52:The true intuition on the contrary carries in itself its own guarantee of truth; it is sure and infallible within its limits. And so long as it is pure intuition and does not admit into itself any mixture of sense-error or intellectual ideation, it is never contradicted by experience: the intuition may be verified by the reason or the sense-perception afterwards, but its truth does not depend on that verification, it is assured by an automatic self-evidence. ... For the true intuition proceeds from the self-existent truth of things and is secured by that self-existent truth and not by any indirect, derivatory or dependent method of arriving at knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
53: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
54:The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery ~ even if mixed with fear ~ that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence ~ as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature., #KEYS
55:You must ask yourself, if for 10 years if you didnt avoid doing what you knew you needed to do, by your own definitions right, within the value structure that you've created to the degree that youve done that, what would you be like? Well you know there are remarkable people who come into the world from time to time and there are people who do find out over decades long periods what they could be like if they were who they were if they said... if they spoke their being forward, and theyd get stronger and stronger. you do not know the limits to that, we do not know the limits to that and so you could say well in part perhaps the reason that you're suffering unbearably can be left at your feet because you are not everything you could be and you know it. and of course thats a terrible thing to admit and its a terrible thing to consider but theres real promise in it. perhaps theres another way you could look at the world and another way you could act in the world. .. Imagine many people did that. ~ Jordan Peterson, #KEYS
56:To enlarge the sense-faculties without the knowledge that would give the old sense-values their right interpretation from the new standpoint might lead to serious disorders and incapacities, might unfit for practical life and for the orderly and disciplined use of the reason. Equally, an enlargement of our mental consciousness out of the experience of the egoistic dualities into an unregulated unity with some form of total consciousness might easily bring about a confusion and incapacity for the active life of humanity in the established order of the world's relativities. This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life-basis and thought-basis of the ignorant; for, impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.
Such a disorder and incapacity may be accepted personally and are accepted by many great souls as a temporary passage or as the price to be paid for the entry into a wider existence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
57: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 Principle of the Integral Yoga, 610 [T3],#KEYS
58:Considered from this point of view, the fact that some of the theories which we know to be false give such amazingly accurate results is an adverse factor. Had we somewhat less knowledge, the group of phenomena which these "false" theories explain would appear to us to be large enough to "prove" these theories. However, these theories are considered to be "false" by us just for the reason that they are, in ultimate analysis, incompatible with more encompassing pictures and, if sufficiently many such false theories are discovered, they are bound to prove also to be in conflict with each other. Similarly, it is possible that the theories, which we consider to be "proved" by a number of numerical agreements which appears to be large enough for us, are false because they are in conflict with a possible more encompassing theory which is beyond our means of discovery. If this were true, we would have to expect conflicts between our theories as soon as their number grows beyond a certain point and as soon as they cover a sufficiently large number of groups of phenomena. In contrast to the article of faith of the theoretical physicist mentioned before, this is the nightmare of the theorist. ~ Eugene Paul Wigner, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, #KEYS
59:Therefore the age of intuitive knowledge, represented by the early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads, had to give place to the age of rational knowledge; inspired Scripture made room for metaphysical philosophy, even as afterwards metaphysical philosophy had to give place to experimental Science.
Intuitive thought which is a messenger from the superconscient and therefore our highest faculty, was supplanted by the pure reason which is only a sort of deputy and belongs to the middle heights of our being; pure reason in its turn was supplanted for a time by the mixed action of the reason which lives on our plains and lower elevations and does not in its view exceed the horizon of the experience that the physical mind and senses or such aids as we can invent for them can bring to us.
And this process which seems to be a descent, is really a circle of progress.
For in each case the lower faculty is compelled to take up as much as it can assimilate of what the higher had already given and to attempt to re-establish it by its own methods.
By the attempt it is itself enlarged in its scope and arrives eventually at a more supple and a more ample selfaccommodation to the higher faculties. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 1.08-13,#KEYS
60:understanding fails when pulled down by lower movements ::: By the understanding we mean that which at once perceives, judges and discriminates, the true reason of the human beingnot subservient to the senses, to desire or to the blind force of habit, but working in its own right for mastery, for knowledge. Certainly, the reason of man as he is at present does not even at its best act entirely in this free and sovereign fashion; but so far as it fails, it fails because it is still mixed with the lower half-animal action, because it is impure and constantly hampered and pulled down from its characteristic action. In its purity it should not be involved in these lower movements, but stand back from the object, and observe disinterestedly, put it in its right place in the whole by force of comparison, contrast, analogy, reason from its rightly observed data by deduction, induction, inference and holding all its gains in memory and supplementing them by a chastened and rightly-guided imagination view all in the light of a trained and disciplined judgment. Such is the pure intellectual understanding of which disinterested observation, judgment and reasoning are the law and characterising action.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Knowledge, The Purified Understanding,#KEYS
61:the psychic transformation :::
The soul, the psychic being is in direct touch with the divine Truth, but it is hidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature. One may practise yoga and get illuminations in the mind and the reason; one may conquer power and luxuriate in all kinds of experiences in the vital; one may establish even surprising physical Siddhis; but if the true soul-power behind does not manifest, if the psychic nature does not come into the front, nothing genuine has been done. In this yoga the psychic being is that which opens the rest of the nature to the true supramental light and finally to the supreme Ananda. Mind can open by itself to its own higher reaches; it can still itself in some kind of static liberation or Nirvana; but the supramental cannot find a sufficient base in a spiritualised mind alone. If the inmost soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then this yoga can be done; otherwise (by the sole power of the mind or any other part) it is impossible.... If there is a refusal of the psychic new birth, a refusal to become the child new born from the Mother, owing to attachment to intellectual knowledge or mental ideas or to some vital desire, then there will be a failure in the sadhana. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - III,#KEYS
62: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
63:There is, indeed, a higher form of the buddhi that can be called the intuitive mind or intuitive reason, and this by its intuitions, its inspirations, its swift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination can do the work of the reason with a higher power, a swifter action, a greater and spontaneous certitude. It acts in a self-light of the truth which does not depend upon the torch-flares of the sense-mind and its limited uncertain percepts; it proceeds not by intelligent but by visional concepts: It is a kind of truth-vision, truth-hearing, truth-memory, direct truth-discernment. This true and authentic intuition must be distinguished from a power of the ordinary mental reason which is too easily confused with it, that power of Involved reasoning that reaches its conclusion by a bound and does not need the ordinary steps of the logical mind. The logical reason proceeds pace after pace and tries the sureness of each step like a marl who is walking over unsafe ground and has to test by the hesitating touch of his foot each span of soil that he perceives with his eye. But this other supralogical process of the reason is a motion of rapid insight or swift discernment; it proceeds by a stride or leap, like a man who springs from one sure spot to another point of sure footing, -- or at least held by him to be sure. He sees this space he covers in one compact and flashing view, but he does not distinguish or measure either by eye or touch its successions, features and circumstances. This movement has something of the sense of power of the intuition, something of its velocity, some appearance of its light and certainty, arid we always are apt to take it for the intuition. But our assumption is an error and, if we trust to it, it may lead us into grievous blunders.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
64:And for the same reason, because that which we are seeking through beauty is in the end that which we are seeking through religion, the Absolute, the Divine. The search for beauty is only in its beginning a satisfaction in the beauty of form, the beauty which appeals to the physical senses and the vital impressions, impulsions, desires. It is only in the middle a satisfaction in the beauty of the ideas seized, the emotions aroused, the perception of perfect process and harmonious combination. Behind them the soul of beauty in us desires the contact, the revelation, the uplifting delight of an absolute beauty in all things which it feels to be present, but which neither the senses and instincts by themselves can give, though they may be its channels, - for it is suprasensuous, - nor the reason and intelligence, though they too are a channel, - for it is suprarational, supra-intellectual, - but to which through all these veils the soul itself seeks to arrive. When it can get the touch of this universal, absolute beauty, this soul of beauty, this sense of its revelation in any slightest or greatest thing, the beauty of a flower, a form, the beauty and power of a character, an action, an event, a human life, an idea, a stroke of the brush or the chisel or a scintillation of the mind, the colours of a sunset or the grandeur of the tempest, it is then that the sense of beauty in us is really, powerfully, entirely satisfied. It is in truth seeking, as in religion, for the Divine, the All-Beautiful in man, in nature, in life, in thought, in art; for God is Beauty and Delight hidden in the variation of his masks and forms. When, fulfilled in our growing sense and knowledge of beauty and delight in beauty and our power for beauty, we are able to identify ourselves in soul with this Absolute and Divine in all the forms and activities of the world and shape an image of our inner and our outer life in the highest image we can perceive and embody of the All-Beautiful, then the aesthetic being in us who was born for this end, has fulfilled himself and risen to his divine consummation. To find highest beauty is to find God; to reveal, to embody, to create, as we say, highest beauty is to bring out of our souls the living image and power of God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, 144, #KEYS
65:An old man of sixty began practising Yoga by reading your books. Eventually he developed signs of insanity. His son describes his condition and asks for advice. I am sending his letter.
As for the letter, I suppose you will have to tell the writer that his father committed a mistake when he took up Yoga without a Guru—for the mental idea about a Guru cannot take the place of the actual living influence. This Yoga especially, as I have written in my books, needs the help of the Guru and cannot be done without it. The condition into which his father got was a breakdown, not a state of siddhi. He passed out of the normal mental consciousness into a contact with some intermediate zone of consciousness (not the spiritual) where one can be subjected to all sorts of voices, suggestions, ideas, so-called aspirations which are not genuine. I have warned against the dangers of this intermediate zone in one of my books. The sadhak can avoid entering into this zone—if he enters, he has to look with indifference on all these things and observe them without lending any credence, by so doing he can safely pass into the true spiritual light. If he takes them all as true or real without discrimination, he is likely to land himself in a great mental confusion and, if there is in addition a lesion or weakness of the brain—the latter is quite possible in one who has been subject to apoplexy—it may have serious consequences and even lead to a disturbance of the reason. If there is ambition, or other motive of the kind mixed up in the spiritual seeking, it may lead to a fall in the Yoga and the growth of an exaggerated egoism or megalomania—of this there are several symptoms in the utterances of his father during the crisis. In fact one cannot or ought not to plunge into the experiences of this sadhana without a fairly long period of preparation and purification (unless one has already a great spiritual strength and elevation). Sri Aurobindo himself does not care to accept many into his path and rejects many more than he accepts. It would be well if he can get his father to pursue the sadhana no farther—for what he is doing is not really Sri Aurobindo's Yoga but something he has constructed in his own mind and once there has been an upset of this kind the wisest course is discontinuance.
21 April 1937
~ Sri Aurobindo, LOHATA, The Guru,#KEYS
66: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
67:the ways of the Bhakta and man of Knowledge :::
In the ordinary paths of Yoga the method used for dealing with these conflicting materials is direct and simple. One or another of the principal psychological forces in us is selected as our single means for attaining to the Divine; the rest is quieted into inertia or left to starve in its smallness. The Bhakta, seizing on the emotional forces of the being, the intense activities of the heart, abides concentrated in the love of God, gathered up as into a single one-pointed tongue of fire; he is indifferent to the activities of thought, throws behind him the importunities of the reason, cares nothing for the mind's thirst for knowledge. All the knowledge he needs is his faith and the inspirations that well up from a heart in communion with the Divine. He has no use for any will to works that is not turned to the direct worship of the Beloved or the service of the temple. The man of Knowledge, self-confined by a deliberate choice to the force and activities of discriminative thought, finds release in the mind's inward-drawn endeavour. He concentrates on the idea of the self, succeeds by a subtle inner discernment in distinguishing its silent presence amid the veiling activities of Nature, and through the perceptive idea arrives at the concrete spiritual experience. He is indifferent to the play of the emotions, deaf to the hunger-call of passion, closed to the activities of Life, -- the more blessed he, the sooner they fall away from him and leave him free, still and mute, the eternal non-doer. The body is his stumbling-block, the vital functions are his enemies; if their demands can be reduced to a minimum, that is his great good fortune. The endless difficulties that arise from the environing world are dismissed by erecting firmly against them a defence of outer physical and inner spiritual solitude; safe behind a wall of inner silence, he remains impassive and untouched by the world and by others. To be alone with oneself or alone with the Divine, to walk apart with God and his devotees, to entrench oneself in the single self-ward endeavour of the mind or Godward passion of the heart is the trend of these Yogas. The problem is solved by the excision of all but the one central difficulty which pursues the only chosen motive-force; into the midst of the dividing calls of our nature the principle of an exclusive concentration comes sovereignly to our rescue.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration. 76-77,#KEYS
68: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
69:The Absolute is in itself indefinable by reason, ineffable to the speech; it has to be approached through experience. It can be approached through an absolute negation of existence, as if it were itself a supreme Non-Existence, a mysterious infinite Nihil. It can be approached through an absolute affirmation of all the fundamentals of our own existence, through an absolute of Light and Knowledge, through an absolute of Love or Beauty, through an absolute of Force, through an absolute of peace or silence. It can be approached through an inexpressible absolute of being or of consciousness, or of power of being, or of delight of being, or through a supreme experience in which these things become inexpressibly one; for we can enter into such an ineffable state and, plunged into it as if into a luminous abyss of existence, we can reach a superconscience which may be described as the gate of the Absolute. It is supposed that it is only through a negation of individual and cosmos that we can enter into the Absolute. But in fact the individual need only deny his own small separate ego-existence; he can approach the Absolute through a sublimation of his spiritual individuality taking up the cosmos into himself and transcending it; or he may negate himself altogether, but even so it is still the individual who by self-exceeding enters into the Absolute. He may enter also by a sublimation of his being into a supreme existence or super-existence, by a sublimation of his consciousness into a supreme consciousness or superconscience, by a sublimation of his and all delight of being into a super-delight or supreme ecstasy. He can make the approach through an ascension in which he enters into cosmic consciousness, assumes it into himself and raises himself and it into a state of being in which oneness and multiplicity are in perfect harmony and unison in a supreme status of manifestation where all are in each and each in all and all in the one without any determining individuation - for the dynamic identity and mutuality have become complete; on the path of affirmation it is this status of the manifestation that is nearest to the Absolute. This paradox of an Absolute which can be realised through an absolute negation and through an absolute affirmation, in many ways, can only be accounted for to the reason if it is a supreme Existence which is so far above our notion and experience of existence that it can correspond to our negation of it, to our notion and experience of nonexistence; but also, since all that exists is That, whatever its degree of manifestation, it is itself the supreme of all things and can be approached through supreme affirmations as through supreme negations. The Absolute is the ineffable x overtopping and underlying and immanent and essential in all that we can call existence or non-existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.06 - Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
70: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
71: Sri Aurobindo writes here: "...Few and brief in their visits are the Bright Ones who are willing or permitted to succour." Why?
(1 "The Way", Cent. Vol. 17, p. 40.)
One must go and ask them! But there is a conclusion, the last sentences give a very clear explanation. It is said: "Nay, then, is immortality a plaything to be given lightly to a child, or the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling?" This comes back to the question why the adverse forces have the right to interfere, to harass you. But this is precisely the test necessary for your sincerity. If the way were very easy, everybody would start on the way, and if one could reach the goal without any obstacle and without any effort, everybody would reach the goal, and when one has come to the end, the situation would be the same as when one started, there would be no change. That is, the new world would be exactly what the old has been. It is truly not worth the trouble! Evidently a process of elimination is necessary so that only what is capable of manifesting the new life remains. This is the reason and there is no other, this is the best of reasons. And, you see, it is a tempering, it is the ordeal of fire, only that which can stand it remains absolutely pure; when everything has burnt down, there remains only the little ingot of pure gold. And it is like that. What puts things out very much in all this is the religious idea of fault, sin, redemption. But there is no arbitrary decision! On the contrary, for each one it is the best and most favourable conditions which are given. We were saying the other day that it is only his friends whom God treats with severity; you thought it was a joke, but it is true. It is only to those who are full of hope, who will pass through this purifying flame, that the conditions for attaining the maximum result are given. And the human mind is made in such a way that you may test this; when something extremely unpleasant happens to you, you may tell yourself, "Well, this proves I am worth the trouble of being given this difficulty, this proves there is something in me which can resist the difficulty", and you will notice that instead of tormenting yourself, you rejoice - you will be so happy and so strong that even the most unpleasant things will seem to you quite charming! This is a very easy experiment to make. Whatever the circumstance, if your mind is accustomed to look at it as something favourable, it will no longer be unpleasant for you. This is quite well known; as long as the mind refuses to accept a thing, struggles against it, tries to obstruct it, there are torments, difficulties, storms, inner struggles and all suffering. But the minute the mind says, "Good, this is what has to come, it is thus that it must happen", whatever happens, you are content. There are people who have acquired such control of their mind over their body that they feel nothing; I told you this the other day about certain mystics: if they think the suffering inflicted upon them is going to help them cross the stages in a moment and give them a sort of stepping stone to attain the Realisation, the goal they have put before them, union with the Divine, they no longer feel the suffering at all. Their body is as it were galvanised by the mental conception. This has happened very often, it is a very common experience among those who truly have enthusiasm. And after all, if one must for some reason or other leave one's body and take a new one, is it not better to make of one's death something magnificent, joyful, enthusiastic, than to make it a disgusting defeat? Those who cling on, who try by every possible means to delay the end even by a minute or two, who give you an example of frightful anguish, show that they are not conscious of their soul.... After all, it is perhaps a means, isn't it? One can change this accident into a means; if one is conscious one can make a beautiful thing of it, a very beautiful thing, as of everything. And note, those who do not fear it, who are not anxious, who can die without any sordidness are those who never think about it, who are not haunted all the time by this "horror" facing them which they must escape and which they try to push as far away from them as they can. These, when the occasion comes, can lift their head, smile and say, "Here I am."
It is they who have the will to make the best possible use of their life, it is they who say, "I shall remain here as long as it is necessary, to the last second, and I shall not lose one moment to realise my goal"; these, when the necessity comes, put up the best show. Why? - It is very simple, because they live in their ideal, the truth of their ideal; because that is the real thing for them, the very reason of their being, and in all things they can see this ideal, this reason of existence, and never do they come down into the sordidness of material life.
So, the conclusion:
One must never wish for death.
One must never will to die.
One must never be afraid to die.
And in all circumstances one must will to exceed oneself. ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.353-355,#KEYS
72:The Two Paths Of Yoga :::
14 April 1929 - What are the dangers of Yoga? Is it especially dangerous to the people of the West? Someone has said that Yoga may be suitable for the East, but it has the effect of unbalancing the Western mind.
Yoga is not more dangerous to the people of the West than to those of the East. Everything depends upon the spirit with which you approach it. Yoga does become dangerous if you want it for your own sake, to serve a personal end. It is not dangerous, on the contrary, it is safety and security itself, if you go to it with a sense of its sacredness, always remembering that the aim is to find the Divine.
Dangers and difficulties come in when people take up Yoga not for the sake of the Divine, but because they want to acquire power and under the guise of Yoga seek to satisfy some ambition. if you cannot get rid of ambition, do not touch the thing. It is fire that burns.
There are two paths of Yoga, one of tapasya (discipline), and the other of surrender. The path of tapasya is arduous. Here you rely solely upon yourself, you proceed by your own strength. You ascend and achieve according to the measure of your force. There is always the danger of falling down. And once you fall, you lie broken in the abyss and there is hardly a remedy. The other path, the path of surrender, is safe and sure. It is here, however, that the Western people find their difficulty. They have been taught to fear and avoid all that threatens their personal independence. They have imbibed with their mothers' milk the sense of individuality. And surrender means giving up all that. In other words, you may follow, as Ramakrishna says, either the path of the baby monkey or that of the baby cat. The baby monkey holds to its mother in order to be carried about and it must hold firm, otherwise if it loses its grip, it falls. On the other hand, the baby cat does not hold to its mother, but is held by the mother and has no fear nor responsibility; it has nothing to do but to let the mother hold it and cry ma ma.
If you take up this path of surrender fully and sincerely, there is no more danger or serious difficulty. The question is to be sincere. If you are not sincere, do not begin Yoga. If you were dealing in human affairs, then you could resort to deception; but in dealing with the Divine there is no possibility of deception anywhere. You can go on the Path safely when you are candid and open to the core and when your only end is to realise and attain the Divine and to be moved by the Divine. There is another danger; it is in connection with the sex impulses. Yoga in its process of purification will lay bare and throw up all hidden impulses and desires in you. And you must learn not to hide things nor leave them aside, you have to face them and conquer and remould them. The first effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers that lie dormant are suddenly set free, they rush up and invade the being. So long as this mental control has not been replaced by the Divine control, there is a period of transition when your sincerity and surrender will be put to the test. The strength of such impulses as those of sex lies usually in the fact that people take too much notice of them; they protest too vehemently and endeavour to control them by coercion, hold them within and sit upon them. But the more you think of a thing and say, "I don't want it, I don't want it", the more you are bound to it. What you should do is to keep the thing away from you, to dissociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even if you happen to think of it, remain indifferent and unconcerned. The impulses and desires that come up by the pressure of Yoga should be faced in a spirit of detachment and serenity, as something foreign to yourself or belonging to the outside world. They should be offered to the Divine, so that the Divine may take them up and transmute them. If you have once opened yourself to the Divine, if the power of the Divine has once come down into you and yet you try to keep to the old forces, you prepare troubles and difficulties and dangers for yourself. You must be vigilant and see that you do not use the Divine as a cloak for the satisfaction of your desires. There are many self-appointed Masters, who do nothing but that. And then when you are off the straight path and when you have a little knowledge and not much power, it happens that you are seized by beings or entities of a certain type, you become blind instruments in their hands and are devoured by them in the end. Wherever there is pretence, there is danger; you cannot deceive God. Do you come to God saying, "I want union with you" and in your heart meaning "I want powers and enjoyments"? Beware! You are heading straight towards the brink of the precipice. And yet it is so easy to avoid all catastrophe. Become like a child, give yourself up to the Mother, let her carry you, and there is no more danger for you.
This does not mean that you have not to face other kinds of difficulties or that you have not to fight and conquer any obstacles at all. Surrender does not ensure a smooth and unruffled and continuous progression. The reason is that your being is not yet one, nor your surrender absolute and complete. Only a part of you surrenders; and today it is one part and the next day it is another. The whole purpose of the Yoga is to gather all the divergent parts together and forge them into an undivided unity. Till then you cannot hope to be without difficulties - difficulties, for example, like doubt or depression or hesitation. The whole world is full of the poison. You take it in with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or even if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from him. It is sufficient for you to come near a place where there is plague in order to be infected with its poison; you need not know at all that it is there. You can lose in a few minutes what it has taken you months to gain. So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary life, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if you want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your company and your environment.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
73:Chapter 18 - Trapped in a Dream
(A guy is playing a pinball machine, seemingly the same guy who rode with him in the back of the boat car. This part is played by Richard Linklater, aka, the director.)
Hey, man.
Hey.
Weren't you in a boat car? You know, the guy, the guy with the hat? He gave me a ride in his car, or boat thing, and you were in the back seat with me?
I mean, I'm not saying that you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about.
No, you see, you guys let me off at this really specific spot that you gave him directions to let me off at, I get out, and end up getting hit by a car, but then, I just woke up because I was dreaming, and later than that, I found out that I was still dreaming, dreaming that I'd woken up.
Oh yeah, those are called false awakenings. I used to have those all the time.
Yeah, but I'm still in it now. I, I can't get out of it. It's been going on forever, I keep waking up, but, but I'm just waking up into another dream. I'm starting to get creeped out, too. Like I'm talking to dead people. This woman on TV's telling me about how death is this dreamtime that exists outside of life. I mean, (desperate sigh) I'm starting to think that I'm dead.
I'm gonna tell you about a dream I once had. I know that's, when someone says that, then usually you're in for a very boring next few minutes, and you might be, but it sounds like, you know, what else are you going to do, right? Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K. Dick.
What, you read it in your dream?
No, no. I read it before the dream. It was the preamble to the dream. It was about that book, um Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. You know that one?
Uh, yeah yeah, he won an award for that one.
Right, right. That's the one he wrote really fast. It just like flowed right out of him. He felt he was sort of channeling it, or something. But anyway, about four years after it was published, he was at this party, and he met this woman who had the same name as the woman character in the book. And she had a boyfriend with the same name as the boyfriend character in the book, and she was having an affair with this guy, the chief of police, and he had the same name as the chief of police in his book. So she's telling him all of this stuff from her life, and everything she's saying is right out of his book. So that's totally freaking him out, but, what can he do?
And then shortly after that, he was going to mail a letter, and he saw this kind of, um, you know, dangerous, shady looking guy standing by his car, but instead of avoiding him, which he says he would have usually done, he just walked right up to him and said, "Can I help you?" And the guy said, "Yeah. I, I ran out of gas." So he pulls out his wallet, and he hands him some money, which he says he never would have done, and then he gets home and thinks, wait a second, this guy, you know, he can't get to a gas station, he's out of gas. So he gets back in his car, he goes and finds the guy, takes him to the gas station, and as he's pulling up at the gas station, he realizes, "Hey, this is in my book too. This exact station, this exact guy. Everything."
So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right? And he's telling his priest about it, you know, describing how he wrote this book, and then four years later all these things happened to him. And as he's telling it to him, the priest says, "That's the Book of Acts. You're describing the Book of Acts." And he's like, "I've never read the Book of Acts." So he, you know, goes home and reads the Book of Acts, and it's like uncanny. Even the characters' names are the same as in the Bible. And the Book of Acts takes place in 50 A.D., when it was written, supposedly. So Philip K. Dick had this theory that time was an illusion and that we were all actually in 50 A.D., and the reason he had written this book was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion, this veil of time, and what he had seen there was what was going on in the Book of Acts.
And he was really into Gnosticism, and this idea that this demiurge, or demon, had created this illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and the kingdom of God was about to arrive. And that we're all in 50 A.D., and there's someone trying to make us forget that God is imminent. And that's what time is. That's what all of history is. It's just this kind of continuous, you know, daydream, or distraction.
And so I read that, and I was like, well that's weird. And than that night I had a dream and there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic. But I was skeptical. I was like, you know, he's not really a psychic, you know I'm thinking to myself. And then suddenly I start floating, like levitating, up to the ceiling. And as I almost go through the roof, I'm like, "Okay, Mr. Psychic. I believe you. You're a psychic. Put me down please." And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground, the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress. And this woman is Lady Gregory.
Now Lady Gregory was Yeats' patron, this, you know, Irish person. And though I'd never seen her image, I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory. So we're walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says, "Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Now Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he's wrong that it's 50 A.D. Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now, and it's eternity. And it's an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically, 'Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?' And we're all saying, 'No thank you. Not just yet.' And so time is actually just this constant saying 'No' to God's invitation. I mean that's what time is. I mean, and it's no more 50 A.D. than it's two thousand and one. And there's just this one instant, and that's what we're always in."
And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone's life. That, you know, behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story, and that's the story of moving from the "no" to the "yes." All of life is like, "No thank you. No thank you. No thank you." then ultimately it's, "Yes, I give in. Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace." I mean, that's the journey. I mean, everyone gets to the "yes" in the end, right?
Right.
So we continue walking, and my dog runs over to me. And so I'm petting him, really happy to see him, you know, he's been dead for years. So I'm petting him and I realize there's this kind of gross oozing stuff coming out of his stomach. And I look over at Lady Gregory, and she sort of coughs. She's like [cough] [cough] "Oh, excuse me." And there's vomit, like dribbling down her chin, and it smells really bad. And I think, "Well, wait a second, that's not just the smell of vomit," which is, doesn't smell very good, "that's the smell of like dead person vomit." You know, so it's like doubly foul. And then I realize I'm actually in the land of the dead, and everyone around me is dead. My dog had been dead for over ten years, Lady Gregory had been dead a lot longer than that. When I finally woke up, I was like, whoa, that wasn't a dream, that was a visitation to this real place, the land of the dead.
So what happened? I mean how did you finally get out of it?
Oh man. It was just like one of those like life altering experiences. I mean I could never really look at the world the same way again, after that.
Yeah, but I mean like how did you, how did you finally get out of the dream? See, that's my problem. I'm like trapped. I keep, I keep thinking that I'm waking up, but I'm still in a dream. It seems like it's going on forever. I can't get out of it, and I want to wake up for real. How do you really wake up?
I don't know, I don't know. I'm not very good at that anymore. But, um, if that's what you're thinking, I mean you, you probably should. I mean, you know if you can wake up, you should, because you know someday, you know, you won't be able to. So just, um ... But it's easy. You know. Just, just wake up. ~ Waking Life,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:The reason will end up being right. ~ parmenides, @wisdomtrove 2:The reason for much matrimony is patrimony. ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 3:Humiliate the reason and distort the soul. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 4:And the reason that i laugh and breathe is oh love ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 5:Who Killed Davey Moore? Why and what's the reason for? ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 6:It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 7:I think the reason I am important is that I know everything. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 8:We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 9:The reason that angels fly is that they take themselves so lightly. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 10:One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 11:... the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 12:The reason most people don’t accomplish much is because they don’t want much. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 13:The reason the way of the transgressor is hard is because it's so crowded. ~ kin-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 14:I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 15:Look out your window, and I'll be gone. You're the reason I'm a-traveling on. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 16:It is not what we choose that is important; it is the reason we choose it. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 17:The reason fat men are good natured is they can neither fight nor run. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 18:The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 19:That's the reason they're called lessons, because they lesson from day to day. ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 20:The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 21:The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 22:Maybe the reason nothing seems to be ‘fixing you’ is because you’re not broken. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 23:A legal broom's a moral chimney-sweeper, And that's the reason he himself's so dirty ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 24:It is not what we choose that is important; it is the reason we choose it. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 25:The reason they want you to fit in... is that once you do, then they can ignore you. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 26:Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 27:The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 28:The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 29:The reason I beat the Austrians is, they did not known the value of five minutes ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 30:I never have frustrations. The reason is to wit: Of at first I don't succeed, I quit! ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 31:The reason why most people are frustrated is because a lie cannot be turned into a truth. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 32:Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 33:The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations: It's a process, not an event. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 34:The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 35:You are a mirror of the Almighty... this is the reason you were created... your purpose. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 36:the reason you have descended into physical life is to unleash the power of your soul upon Earth. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 37:The reason conservatives cohere and radicals fight: everyone agrees about fears, no one about visions. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 38:The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 39:If the reason for doing something is that everyone else is doing it, it's not a good enough reason. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 40:That the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom - this is the reason for our rejoicing. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 41:Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove 42:You will suddenly realize that the reason you never changed before was because you didn't want to. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove 43:I suppose this is the reason why diaries are so rarely kept nowadays- that nothing ever happens to anybody. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 44:The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 45:Most often, the reason something is on your mind is that you want it to be different than it currently is. ~ david-allen, @wisdomtrove 46:The reason that men are so slow to confess their vices is because they have not yet abandoned them. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 47:the reason you have descended into physical life is to unleash the power of your soul upon Earth. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 48:Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it's not out there is that it's inside us. ~ sonja-lyubomirsky, @wisdomtrove 49:The reason why I spend so much money for my journals is to press me to find something valuable to put in them. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 50:The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 51:My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain. ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 52:The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 53:The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 54:The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 55:The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures. ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 56:The reason so few people are successful is no one has yet found a way for someone to sit down and slide uphill. ~ w-clement-stone, @wisdomtrove 57:The reason we write fiction is because it's so much easier to exist spending part of each day in an imaginary world. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 58:This is the reason why our Theology is certain: because it seizes us from ourselves and places us outside ourselves. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 59:The reason for living is to have great relationships, to have people you love and respect and who love and respect you. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 60:The reason political party platforms are so long is that when you straddle anything it takes a long time to explain it. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 61:You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals realization. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 62:The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 63:The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven't given them anything else to care about. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 64:The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 65:The reason so many individuals fail to achieve their goals in life is that they never really set them in the first place ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 66:The reason you might choose to embrace the artist within you now is that this is the path to (cue the ironic music) security. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 67:The reason why most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don't have it well designed! ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 68:It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 69:The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand." - Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina} ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 70:The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 71:The reason I'm not an alcoholic is I don't like to drink in front of the kids . . . and when you're away from them, who needs it?. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 72:The reason why we're not happy is because we believe consciously and subconsciously that we're separate from god, eternal awareness. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 73:Every human being has the right to ask the reason, why, and to have his question answered by himself, if he only takes the trouble. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 74:The types of thoughts that you think create a state of mind. The reason you think the thoughts you do results from your level of power. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 75:The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 76:The reason we have this inner conviction that death is not the end - and that Heaven exists - is because we were created in the image of God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 77:there are the two sides to a Frenchman, logic and fashion and that is the reason why French people are exciting and peaceful. Logic and fashion. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 78:The reason I don't tour is that I don't know how to front a band. What would I do? I can't really play anything well enough to deal with that situation. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 79:The reason that adulation is not displeasing is that, though untrue, it shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce people to lie. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 80:The reason many people in our society are miserable, sick, and highly stressed is because of an unhealthy attachment to things they have no control over. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 81:Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we've always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 82:If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits? ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 83:You could be anybody when you're writing. That's the reason that I'm writing: to be anybody. You can put your feet in various shoes and experience anything. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 84:The Divine of the Lord in heaven is love, for the reason that love is receptive of all things of heaven, such as peace, intelligence, wisdom and happiness ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 85:Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 86:Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 87:I am just an old country boy in a big town trying to get along. I have been eating pretty regular and the reason I have been is because I have stayed an old country boy. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 88:The reason why there's such a rigid repression of the mentally ill is the psyche of humanity senses something. It senses that it doesn't want to deal with the unknown. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 89:The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The best manual we have. The most useful guide to the country we're visiting, life. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 90:The reason that Apple is able to create products like iPad is because we always try to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 91:I prefer a kind of sweet, deep, rich prayer in which a person goes in and says, Take me down deep into the reason you gave me life. Take me down deep. It silences the chaos in me. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 92:Decisions are more apt to be accepted when you've listened to suggestions first. I wanted them to see the reason behind what I asked of them, not to do things just because I said so. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 93:The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 94:Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things. ~ alexander-hamilton, @wisdomtrove 95:The problem is with any practice is that it is a practice. That is why people don't win. The reason why people don't win is they get stuck in ideas, habits, and ways of seeing life. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 96:The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 97:The reason why so many sects hang around airports looking for converts: they know that people there are at their most vulnerable and perplexed, and ready to accept any kind of guidance. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 98:I prefer a kind of sweet, deep, rich prayer in which a person goes in and says, Take me down deep into the reason you gave me life. Take me down deep. It silences the chaos in me. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 99:The average man finds life very uninteresting as it is. And I think the reason why is that he is always waiting for something to happen to him instead of setting to work to make things happen ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 100:The woman is at the heart of the home. Let us pray that we women realize the reason for our existence: to love and be loved and through this love become instruments of peace in the world. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 101:The reason so many of us are obsessed with becoming stars is because we are not yet starring in our own lives. The cosmic spotlight isn't pointed at you, it radiates from within you. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 102:When I enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, most can see this light, or feel it. This light creates very powerful, steady spiritual transformation. The reason you are here is to sit in this light. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 103:Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 104:Be radical! The reason you feel so miserable is because you put spirituality in a form. You boxed it, franchised it. You decided spirituality was a certain way but then you got stuck in the way. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 105:He would write it for the reason he felt that all great literature, fiction and nonfiction, was written: truth comes out, in the end it always comes out. He would write it because he felt he had to. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 106:In spite the mountains of books written about art, no precise definition of art has been constructed. And the reason for this is that the conception of art has been based on the conception of beauty. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 107:It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe that is not arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what kind of thing the universe is. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 108:I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 109:The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 110:The difference between how you look and how you see yourself is enough to kill most people. And maybe the reason vampires don't die is because they can never see themselves in photographs or mirrors. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 111:The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world... The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 112:Tragedy, he precieved, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there were still privacy, love, and friendship, and when the members of a family stood by one another without needing to know the reason. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 113:Apple's Industrial Design team is harder to get into than the Illuminati, and part of the reason is because no one leaves. In the last 15 years, not one of the 18 designers has ditched Apple for greener pastures. ~ jony-ive, @wisdomtrove 114:The reason artists show so little interest In public freedom is because the freedom They've come to feel the need of is a kind No one can give them they can scarce attain The freedom of their own material... . ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 115:To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 116:It is not necessary to wrap people up. The reason you're doing it is because you don't have enough power. If you had enough power, you could unlock your own personal power - you wouldn't need to control others. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 117:The reason you study with a teacher is primarily for the empowerments, for someone who is enlightened to transfer power to you. What is most important is that the student uses that power intelligently and wisely. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 118:And you say, "The only reason that I believe this is because it is true." And we say - the reason that you believe it, is because you've practiced the thought. All that a belief is, is a thought that you keep practicing. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 119:& 120:The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 121:The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of... We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart." - Blaise Pascal ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 122:Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too. ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 123:The reason why all of us naturally began to live in France is because France has scientific methods, machines and electricity, but does not really believe that these things have anything to do with the real business of living. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 124:To grasp the meaning of the world of today we use a language created to express the world of yesterday. The life of the past seems to us nearer our true natures, but only for the reason that it is nearer our language. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 125:The only real argument against the Bible is an unholy life. When a man argues against the Word of God, follow him home, and see if you cannot discover the reason of his enmity to the Word of the Lord. It lies in some sort of sin. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 126:The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 127:The reason for desires, goals, for finding those decisions or points of focus, is because they are the life- giving things of the Universe. Without objects of attention, or objects of desire, Life- Force does not come through any of us. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 128:The reason we might lose love is because we are always looking outside of us, thinking that the object or action of love is out there. That is why we allow the love, the harmony, the mature understanding, to slip away from ourselves. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 129:Perhaps I have not lined his portrait too clearly. But if he exists, if only for the reason that I have imagined him to be. He came from the blue and returns to the blue. He has not perished, he is not lost. Neither will he be forgotten. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 130:When I grew up, the Devil was a reason why I had a headache or the Devil was the reason I got mad today. We always blamed the Devil. I think today when I say the Enemy, I like to make it broader. Sometimes the Enemy can be our own thoughts. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 131:A child starts from nothing and advances alone. It is the child's reason about which the sensitive periods revolve. The reason provides the initial force and energy, and a child absorbs his first images to assist the reason and act on it. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 132:The pleasure of satisfying a savage instinct, undomesticated by the ego, is uncomparably much more intense than the one of satisfying a tamed instinct. The reason is becoming the enemy that prevents us from a lot of possibilities of pleasure. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 133:If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it-bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 134:The reason I was successful in launching my first book with bloggers is this: I assumed that I should spend as much time on a blogger with a million-person readership as I would pitching an editor of a publication with a million person subscription-base. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 135:... Thomas did not believe the resurrection [John 20:25], and, as they say, would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I, and the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person, as for Thomas. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 136:People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they'll go to any length to live longer. But don't think that's the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 137:There are people who say, & 138:A philosophy can and must be worked out with the greatest rigour and discipline in the details, but can ultimately be founded on nothing but faith: and this is the reason, I suspect, why the novelties in philosophy are only in elaboration, and never in fundamentals. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 139:There is a set of advantages that have to do with material resources, and there is a set that have to do with the absence of material resources- and the reason underdogs win as often as they do is that the latter is sometimes every bit the equal of the former. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove 140:The reason I have entered into bodybuilding and weightlifting is to inspire everybody to pray and meditate so they can bring to the fore their own inner strength. If everybody brings to the fore his own inner strength, the world will eventually be inundated with peace. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 141:The reason you want every single thing that you want, is because you think you will feel really good when you get there. But, if you don't feel really good on your way to there, you can't get there. You have to be satisfied with what-is while you're reaching for more. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 142:Fella says today, & 143:I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 144:Tragedies do happen. We can discover the reason, blame others, imagine how different our lives would be had they not occurred. But none of that is important: they did occur, and so be it. From there onward we must put aside the fear that they awoke in us and begin to rebuild. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 145:I bet the reason people are afraid of going bald is because it makes them think of the end of life. I mean, when your hair starts to thin, it must feel as if your life is being worn away ... as if you've taken a giant step in the direction of death, the last Big Consumption. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 146:And the reason is that until Wonder came along and figured out how to spread the idea of sliced bread, no one wanted it. That the success of sliced bread... is not always about what the patent is like, or what the factory is like - it's about can you get your idea to spread, or not. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 147:Of old, the demagogue was also a general, and then democracies changed into tyrannies. Most of the ancient tyrants were originally demagogues. They are not so now, but they were then; and the reason is that they were generals and not orators, for oratory had not yet come into fashion. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 148:But I didn't walk a single step. I stopped a lot to stretch, but I never walked. I didn't come here to walk. I came to run. That's the reason-the only reason-I flew all the way to the northern tip of Japan. No matter how slow I might run, I wasn't about to walk. That was the rule. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 149:The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, learn about them, or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 150:I know for sure, that the universe is wise and compassionate. The question then becomes: How can there be such brutality and pain and such suffering in the world if the universe is compassionate and wise. The reason is we put it there. We create it. And it is up to us to stop creating it. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 151:The reason I don't like interviews is that I seem to react violently to personal questions. If the questions are about the work, I try to answer them. When they are about me, I may answer or I may not, but even if I do, if the same question is asked tomorrow, the answer may be different. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 152:No matter what the issue is, don't try to justify why you don't feel good. And don't try to justify why you should feel differently. Don't try to blame whatever it is you think the reason is that's keeping you from feeling good. All of that is wasted effort. Just try to feel better right now. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 153:I do not know what is happening. The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny. [... ] I do not believe that darkness will endure! ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 154:The reason visualization is so powerful is because as you create pictures in your mind of seeing yourself with what it is you want, you are generating thoughts and feelings of having it now. Visualization is simply powerfully focused thought in pictures, and it causes equally powerful feelings. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 155:See, when you drive home today, you've got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you've got a little bitty rearview mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what's happened in your past is not near as important as what's in your future. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 156:Here's the truth you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can't tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there'd be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map. Don't you hate that? I love that there's no map. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 157:She wouldn't say what we both knew. & 158:The ultimate story of success: When a nobody, who has never once in his entire life known the feeling of being remembered or respected, suddenly snaps and becomes a world dictator. On one hand it sounds just, but on the other, it illustrates the reason why a prosperity message has and needs its limitations. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 159:Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. There is only one single way. Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 160:When a truth is necessary, the reason for it can be found by analysis, that is, by resolving it into simpler ideas and truths until the primary ones are reached. It is this way that in mathematics speculative theorems and practical canons are reduced by analysis to definitions, axioms and postulates. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 161:If there really is a complete unified theory that governs everything, it presumably also determines your actions. But it does so in a way that is impossible to calculate for an organism that is as complicated as a human being. The reason we say that humans have free will is because we can't predict what they will do. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 162:And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject. Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: & 163:A person is disposed to an act of choice by an angel ... in two ways. Sometimes, a man's understanding is enlightened by an angel to know what is good, but it is not instructed as to the reason why ... But sometimes he is instructed by angelic illumination, both that this act is good and as to the reason why it is good. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 164:In the world it is little comprehended what love is; and yet it is man's very life. That this is little comprehended is evident from the common saying "What is love?" What it is, is not known for the reason that love is not manifest to the understanding, and the understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 165:A person is disposed to an act of choice by an angel ... in two ways. Sometimes, a man's understanding is enlightened by an angel to know what is good, but it is not instructed as to the reason why ... But sometimes he is instructed by angelic illumination, both that this act is good and as to the reason why it is good. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 166:There's no other company that could make a MacBook Air and the reason is that not only do we control the hardware, but we control the operating system. And it is the intimate interaction between the operating system and the hardware that allows us to do that. There is no intimate interaction between Windows and a Dell notebook. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 167:One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can't eat eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours -all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 168:The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being, and naturally loves itself; and it gives itself to one or the other, and hardens itself against one or the other, as it chooses... it is the heart that feels God, not the reason; this is faith. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 169:But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 170:... the reason for [this age's] anxiety and unrest is because in one direction, & 171:All writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequently infringe the rules of justice to support themselves; that truth must give way to dissimulation, honesty to convenience, and humanity itself to the reigning of interest. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the reason of state. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 172:We have no other notion of cause and effect, but that of certain objects, which have always conjoin'd together, and which in all past instances have been found inseparable. We cannot penetrate into the reason of the conjunction. We only observe the thing itself, and always find that from the constant conjunction the objects acquire an union in the imagination. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 173:The name that no human research can discover& 174:We want to use cash. The reason we haven't used our cash two years ago, we just didn't find things that were that attractive. But when people talk about cash being king, it's not king if it just sits there and never does anything. There are times when cash buys more than other times, and this is one of the other times when it buys a fair amount more, so we use it. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 175:Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth and falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 176:Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth and falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 177:To be a science fiction writer you must be interested in the future and you must feel that the future will be different and hopefully better than the present. Although I know that most - that many science fiction writings have been anti-utopias. And the reason for that is that it's much easier and more exciting to write about a really nasty future than a - placid, peaceful one. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 178:. . . it is difficult for Europeans to appreciate the sentiment. Other nations kill animals by wholesale and kill one another; they exist in a sea of blood. A European said that the reason why in India animals were not killed was because it was supposed that they contained the spirits of ancestors. This reason was worthy of a savage nation who are not many steps from the brute. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 179:The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. Maybe they always have been and will be. Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other. And maybe each time, we've been forced apart for the same reasons. That means that this goodbye is both a goodbye for the past ten thousand years and a prelude to what will come. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 180:It is amazing but true that it is easy for any of us to rebuke someone else who is intending to do something evil and say, Don’t do that—that’s a sin! And yet it is difficult for us to say the same thing to ourselves. The reason is that saying it to ourselves requires a movement of the will, but saying it to someone else requires only a low level of thought based on things we have heard. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 181:The materialistic consciousness of our culture … is the root cause of the global crisis; it is not our business ethics, our politics or even our personal lifestyles. These are symptoms of a deeper underlying problem. Our whole civilization is unsustainable. And the reason that it is unsustainable is that our value system, the consciousness with which we approach the world, is an unsustainable mode of consciousness. ~ peter-russell, @wisdomtrove 182:If you can understand the reason behind the rejection, you can do things differently next time. One easy way is to follow- up and ask why. This can be done for almost any situation. Let them know you accept the rejection and you sincerely want to learn what went wrong, so you can improve. When done in an appropriate and sincere manner, the other party will often be more than willing to share and help you to improve. ~ celestine-chua, @wisdomtrove 183:The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them. Thus they are able to reign over all the mountain streams. So the sage, wishing to be above men, putteth himself below them; wishing to be before them, he putteth himself behind them. Thus, though his place be above men, they do not feel his weight; though his place be before them, they do not count it an injury. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 184:If you don't have the ability or encouragement to use yourself in a physical way, you could become just another talking head. And talking heads run things. That's part of the reason why we're in such a sad state as a planet, because it's all about thinking, and thinking has led to a lot of aggrandizement - taking over [resources] and figuring out how you can steal and leaving people and the planet in an impoverished state. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 185:I am a buyer of blank books. Kids find it interesting that I would buy a blank book. They say, Twenty-Six dollars for a blank book! Why would you pay that? The reason I pay twenty-six dollars is to challenge myself to find something worth twenty-six dollars to put in there. All my journals are private, but if you ever got hold of one of them, you wouldn't have to look very far to discover it is worth more than twenty-six dollars ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 186:But now well democracy has shown us that what is evil are the grosses t√™tes, the big heads, all big heads are greedy for money and power, they are ambitious that is the reason they are big heads and so they are at the head of the government and the result is misery for the people. They talk about cutting off the heads of the grosses t√™tes but now we know that there will be other grosses t√™tes and the will be all the same. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 187:The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly understood by proof. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 188:Today, the reason we haven't found our grail, the key to who we are as women, is because we look for it in worlds of false power, the very worlds that took it away from us in the first place. Neither men nor work can restore our lost scepter. Nothing in this world can take us home. Only the radar in our hearts can do that, and when it does, ... & 189:Here I come to one of the memoir writer's difficulties - one of the reasons why, though I read so many, so many are failures. They leave out the person to whom things happened. The reason is that it is so difficult to describe any human being. So they say: & 190:All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer sight to almost everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 191:President Roosevelt and President Truman and President Eisenhower had the same experience, they all made the effort to get along with the Russians. But every time, finally it failed. And the reason it failed was because the Communists are determined to destroy us, and regardless of what hand of friendship we may hold out or what arguments we may put up, the only thing that will make that decisive difference is the strength of the United States. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 192:It is an irrational claim to believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ and at the same time to hold that the greater part of his teachings have no application at the present time. If you say that the reason why the powers do not follow them that believe (as Christ said they would) is because you have not faith enough and are not pure enough-that will be all right. But to say that they have no application at the present time is to be ridiculous. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 193:Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 194:I don't think most people know how to meditate - they fall asleep and they call it meditation. I prefer a kind of sweet, deep, rich prayer in which a person goes in and says, Take me down deep into the reason you gave me life. Take me down deep. It silences the chaos in me. Take me away from my sense. I need to go away now, because I'm in chaos - take me down deep. Hover over me, because I need grace. I say that a lot, many times a day. So that's my practice. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 195:I don't think most people know how to meditate - they fall asleep and they call it meditation. I prefer a kind of sweet, deep, rich prayer in which a person goes in and says, Take me down deep into the reason you gave me life. Take me down deep. It silences the chaos in me. Take me away from my sense. I need to go away now, because I'm in chaos - take me down deep. Hover over me, because I need grace. I say that a lot, many times a day. So that's my practice. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 196:At last, the answer why. The lesson that had been so hard to find, so difficult to learn, came quick and clear and simple. The reason for problems is to overcome them. Why, that’s the very nature of man, I thought, to press past limits, to prove his freedom. It isn’t the challenge that faces us, that determines who we are and what we are becoming, but the way we meet the challenge, whether we toss a match at the wreck or work our way through it, step by step, to freedom. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 197:It is often said in the Bible that God spake unto Moses, but how do you know that God spake unto Moses? Because, you will say, the Bible says so. The Koran says, that God spake unto Mahomet, do you believe that too? No. Why not? Because, you will say, you do not believe it; and so because you do, and because you don't is all the reason you can give for believing or disbelieving except that you will say that Mahomet was an impostor. And how do you know Moses was not an impostor? ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 198:Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise. Become a stranger to need of pity. Or if compassion be freely given out, take only enough. Stop short of the urge to plead, then purge away the need. Wish for nothing larger than your own small heart or greater than a star. Tame wild disappointment with caress, unmoved and cold. Make of it a parka for your soul. Discover the reason why so tiny human midget exists at all, so scared and so unwise. But expect nothing, live frugally on surprise. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 199:Albert Einstein, for one, repeatedly expressed these feelings, as in the following celebrated passage (Einstein, 1949, p. 5): The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science…the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature. ~ fritjof-capra, @wisdomtrove 200:The friends of Job appear on the scene as advisers and "consolers," offering Job the fruits of their moral scientia. But when Job insists that his sufferings have no explanation and that he cannot discover the reason for them through conventional ethical concepts, his friends turn into accusers, and curse Job as a sinner. Thus, instead of consolers, they become torturers by virtue of their very morality, and in so doing, while claiming to be advocates of God, they act as instruments of the devil. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 201:The reason why I do not know anything about myself, the reason why Siddhartha has remained alien and unknown to myself is due to one thing, to one single thing& 202:To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to & 203:To square the records, however, it should be said that if the Calvinist does not rise as high, he usually stays up longer. He places more emphasis on the Holy Scriptures which never change, while his opposite number (as the newspapers say) tends to judge his spiritual condition by the state of his feelings, which change constantly. This may be the reason that so many Calvinistic churches remain orthodox for centuries, at least in doctrine, while many churches of the Arminian persuasion often go liberal in one generation. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 204:Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 205:You must realize that it is the ordinary way of God's dealings with us that our ideas do not work out speedily and efficiently as we would like them to. The reason for this is not only the loving wisdom of God, but also the fact that our acts have to fit into a great complex pattern that we cannot possibly understand. I have learned over the years that Providence is always a whole lot wiser than any of us, and that there are always not only good reasons, but the very best reasons for the delays and blocks that often seem to us so frustrating and absurd. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 206:Are we not justified in asserting the existence of Will in the Universal Mind of SPIRIT? Cannot we conceive of SPIRIT manifesting Will, without destroying or affecting in any way the facts of its essence, nature, substance, and very being? Nay, more, are we not compelled by reason to assert the fact of Will in SPIRIT? Do we not find in Will the reason and explanation of the creative activities manifest in the Universe? Some of the world's clearest thinkers have gone so far as to assert that the One Ultimate REALITY is Will, and nothing but Will. ~ william-walker-atkinson, @wisdomtrove 207:If the Tao could be served up, everyone would serve it up to their lords. If the Tao could be offered, there is no one who would not offer it to their parents. If the Tao could be spoken of, there is no one in the world who would not speak of it to their brothers and sisters. if the Tao could be passed on, there is no one who would not pass it on to their heirs. However, it obviously cannot be so and the reason is as follows. If there is no true centre within to receive it, it cannot remain; if there is no true direction outside to guide it, it cannot be received. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 208:The very reason why we object to state ownership, that it puts a stop to individual initiative and to the healthy development of personal responsibility, is the reason why we object to an unsupervised, unchecked monopolistic control in private hands. We urge control and supervision by the nation as an antidote to the movement for state socialism. Those who advocate total lack of regulation, those who advocate lawlessness in the business world, themselves give the strongest impulse to what I believe would be the deadening movement toward unadulterated state socialism. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 209:Because in proportion as we ascend higher our speech is contracted to the limits of our view of the purely intelligible; and so now, when we enter that darkness which is above understanding, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, and the negation of thought. Thus in the other treatises our subject took us from the highest to the lowest, and in the measure of this descent our treatment of it extended itself; whereas now we rise from beneath to that which is the highest, and accordingly our speech is restrained in proportion to the height of our ascent; but when our ascent is accomplished, speech will cease altogether, and be absorbed into the ineffable. But why, you will ask, do we add in the first and begin to abstract in the last? The reason is that we affirmed that which is above all affirmation by comparison with that which is most nearly related to it, and were therefore compelled to make a hypothetical affirmation; but when we abstract that which is above all abstraction, we must distinguish it also from those things which are most remote from it. Is not God more nearly life and goodness than air or a stone; must we not deny more fully that He is drunken or enraged, than that He can be spoken of or understood? ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Love is the reason for it all. ~ Dorothy Fields, #NFDB
2:Love is the reason you were born. ~ Dorothy Fields, #NFDB
3:You're the reason our kids are ugly. ~ Loretta Lynn, #NFDB
4:But whatever the reason, it felt surreal ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
5:talking. “The reason this place looks ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
6:Jesus is the reason for the season ~ Jessica Andersen, #NFDB
7:Because you're the reason. Swear it. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
8:I'm the reason Hulk Hogan lost his hair. ~ Roddy Piper, #NFDB
9:Love is the reason God gave us hearts. ~ Milly Johnson, #NFDB
10:So the reason I wanted to stop by-” My ~ Sloane Kennedy, #NFDB
11:James Brown is the reason I play guitar. ~ Kevin Eubanks, #NFDB
12:The reason for much matrimony is patrimony. ~ Ogden Nash, #NFDB
13:To the Sioux, war was the reason for living, ~ Bob Drury, #NFDB
14:Adrenaline is the reason I do what I do. ~ Julianne Hough, #NFDB
15:I am never upset for the reason I think. ~ Helen Schucman, #NFDB
16:Our love is the reason romance was created. ~ Faraaz Kazi, #NFDB
17:The reason artists show so little interest ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
18:Baby, tonight you're the reason I have lips. ~ Marge Piercy, #NFDB
19:I don't believe in killing whatever the reason! ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
20:Christianity does not provide the reason for ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
21:Humiliate the reason and distort the soul. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
22:I do not like money, money is the reason we fight. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
23:The reason men rule is because women let them. ~ Jessica Zafra, #NFDB
24:I have never sought the reason why I write. ~ Nathalie Sarraute, #NFDB
25:The reason why things work is because of love. ~ Jeffrey Wright, #NFDB
26:Maybe I am looking for the reason why I exist. ~ Roberto Cavalli, #NFDB
27:Passion makes the will lord of the reason. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
28:The music is the void. And you're the reason why. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
29:And the reason that i laugh and breathe is oh love ~ e e cummings, #NFDB
30:I don't ever want to be the reason you cry again. ~ Rachel Gibson, #NFDB
31:Money is not the reason that people enter teaching. ~ Arne Duncan, #NFDB
32:The reason to moderate is to avoid having to quit. ~ Jim Harrison, #NFDB
33:The reason for our loving God is God. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #NFDB
34:Who Killed Davey Moore? Why and what's the reason for? ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
35:The thinner the excuse, the fatter the reason for it. ~ Jerry Scott, #NFDB
36:For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly. ~ Mary Oliver, #NFDB
37:haze condensed into Campbell. The reason he was lopsided ~ Max Barry, #NFDB
38:Swear it.
Why me?
Because you're the reason. ~ Madeline Miller,#NFDB
39:The reason actors are assholes is because they don't eat. ~ Aya Cash, #NFDB
40:Guilt is the reason they put the articles in Playboy. ~ Dennis Miller, #NFDB
41:Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo went into hiding. ~ Rebecca Gober, #NFDB
42:Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented ~ Willem de Kooning, #NFDB
43:The reason I do interviews is because I'm protecting my songs. ~ Bjork, #NFDB
44:Complacency kills. Paranoia is the reason I’m still alive. ~ D J Molles, #NFDB
45:It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
46:Sometimes humanity is the reason we can't have nice things ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
47:The music is the void. And you're the reason why. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
48:The reason kids like rock 'n roll is their parents don't ~ Mitch Miller, #NFDB
49:Betrayal isn't ridiculous. It's the reason empires fall. ~ Marisha Pessl, #NFDB
50:Sometimes humanity is the reason we can't have nice things. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
51:And the reason is that they thought matter was eternal. ~ Nancy R Pearcey, #NFDB
52:The old resists the new one.
'Change hurts' is the reason. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
53:Whatever the reason, I’m happy to remember the time we had. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
54:And suddenly you're all i need the reason why I smile<3 ~ Avril Lavigne, #NFDB
55:Content is often the reason users come to your site. ~ Jesse James Garrett, #NFDB
56:For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
57:Now Jesus don't like killin'/No matter what the reason's for. ~ John Prine, #NFDB
58:The reason we're bored is because we don't love anything. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
59:What is the reason?' 'Finish your journey and you will know. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
60:Fear is the reason for making art. It is a means to freedom. ~ Ilya Kabakov, #NFDB
61:For 50 years, acting was the reason I got up in the morning. ~ Jack Klugman, #NFDB
62:Danger is a side effect of what I do, not the reason behind it. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
63:The reason I exercise is for the quality of life I enjoy. ~ Kenneth H Cooper, #NFDB
64:The reason that women do not love one another is - men. ~ Jean de la Bruyere, #NFDB
65:And all I really want to say is you're the reason I want to stay. ~ Ben Folds, #NFDB
66:Any walk towards the reason and goodness is a holy walk! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
67:Cars are the reason we, you know, people live or die. ~ Steven Curtis Chapman, #NFDB
68:I think the reason I am important is that I know everything. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
69:The reason my kids come to the set is so I can actually see them. ~ Eric Bana, #NFDB
70:The reason trust is requested is because the person seeking ~ Jeffrey Gitomer, #NFDB
71:We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
72:And people like you are the reason we have middle fingers. ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
73:Men's willingness to die for his country, is the reason he has to. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
74:Sex is not only the basis of life, it is the reason for life. ~ Norman Lindsay, #NFDB
75:The reason for my starting a diary is that I have no real friend. ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
76:The reason why you do not hear them is that f you are not of God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
77:To discover how to be human now is the reason we follow this star. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
78:You are the reason. If you want, you are the answer in the end. ~ Jon Anderson, #NFDB
79:You’ll be the reason I get court marshalled for public indecency. ~ Eva Simone, #NFDB
80:I mean, 'Kids In The Hall' is the reason I have any career at all. ~ Dave Foley, #NFDB
81:The reason I can do what I do on stage is because I couldn't fake it. ~ Doseone, #NFDB
82:David Steinberg was the reason the Smothers Brothers got cancelled. ~ Dave Foley, #NFDB
83:If you feel that you are not free, look for the reason inside you. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
84:I know who the Muffin Man is, and the reason behind his killings. ~ Cameron Jace, #NFDB
85:I love L.A. for the beach and stuff, thats the reason I live here. ~ Eddie Money, #NFDB
86:I'm the reason why I'm overweight. No one made me do it. I did it. ~ Neil Cavuto, #NFDB
87:She’s the reason god saved me a third time.She’s our little miracle ~ Sandi Lynn, #NFDB
88:Sports are the reason I am out of shape. I watch them all on TV. ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
89:Things do happen for a reason, but do we like the reason? Rarely. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
90:I do everything for a reason. Most of the time the reason is money. ~ Ava Gardner, #NFDB
91:the dark heart of the story that is all the reason for its telling? ~ Mary Oliver, #NFDB
92:The reason can give nothing at all Like the response to desire. ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
93:The reason I use ed is that I don't want to lose what's on the screen. ~ Bill Joy, #NFDB
94:the reason I want a baby is just because I am so in love with you. ~ Jillian Dodd, #NFDB
95:We know the truth, not only be the reason, but also be the heart. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
96:The reason for leaving sometimes is to return. Simply to return. ~ Yrsa Daley Ward, #NFDB
97:The reason I'm an actor is because I'll never be able to be perfect. ~ Sam Claflin, #NFDB
98:The reason you get married is to be together, not to be separated. ~ Lauren Bacall, #NFDB
99:the wise man regards the reason for all his actions, but not the results. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
100:You do more than help. You’re the reason I take my next breath. ~ Lisa Renee Jones, #NFDB
101:No one knows the reason for all this, but it is probably quantum. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
102:People like you are the reason
People like me need medication. ~ Cheyenne McCray,#NFDB
103:The reason is, and by rights ought to be, slave to the emotions. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
104:The reason most people have kids is because they get pregnant. ~ Barbara Kingsolver, #NFDB
105:Funny to do something and then realise the reason for it afterwards. ~ Helen Oyeyemi, #NFDB
106:In other words, idolatry is always the reason we ever do anything wrong. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
107:Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
108:The reason for the survival of the award system is purely commercial. ~ Robert Henri, #NFDB
109:The reason I drink is because when I'm sober I think I'm Eddie Fisher. ~ Dean Martin, #NFDB
110:The reason I'm doing a sitcom is because it's much more approachable. ~ Tommy Wiseau, #NFDB
111:The reason men are so awful is because some woman has spoiled them. ~ Larry McMurtry, #NFDB
112:The reason most people are bad is because they do not try to be good. ~ L Frank Baum, #NFDB
113:I put my ideas into practice. That may be the reason people hate me. ~ Emir Kusturica, #NFDB
114:It is the reason you are here on Earth. You are here to risk your heart. ~ Ella James, #NFDB
115:Service is a limitless opportunity, it is the reason why we breathe. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
116:There are two lights in this universe: The light and the Reason! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
117:The reason I am a Christian is not that it is nice, but that it is true. ~ John Stott, #NFDB
118:The reason some men fear older women is they fear their own mortality. ~ Frances Lear, #NFDB
119:The reason you enjoy my company is because I look like how you feel. ~ Marie Rutkoski, #NFDB
120:Wayne's done way more for my career than Jay-Z. Wayne is the reason I'm here. ~ Drake, #NFDB
121:Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
122:Every tear should live its purpose. Don't ever wipe the reason away. ~ Jessica Simpson, #NFDB
123:Guilt. Does anyone escape it? Is guilt the reason we make up stories? ~ Salley Vickers, #NFDB
124:One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
125:...the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
126:The reason we're successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course ~ Freddie Mercury, #NFDB
127:The reason we start things is rarely the reason we continue them. ~ Richard Paul Evans, #NFDB
128:To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason. ~ Ai Weiwei, #NFDB
129:I read *old* novels. The reason is simple. I prefer proper endings. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
130:Love is the sum of all the arts, as it is the reason for their existence. ~ Jack London, #NFDB
131:The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure. ~ Quintilian, #NFDB
132:The reason adultery is immoral is that it might lead to marriage. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
133:The reason life is so strange is that so often people have no choice, ~ William Maxwell, #NFDB
134:The reason most people don't go to church is because they've already been. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
135:The reason we're successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course. ~ Freddie Mercury, #NFDB
136:The reason you often get in comedy is because you're not getting laid. ~ Demetri Martin, #NFDB
137:When I sleep to much I don't score. That's the reason I like to go out a lot. ~ Romario, #NFDB
138:his eyes pore into mine
as though i’m the reason
for making them blink ~ Rupi Kaur,#NFDB
139:The reason most people don’t accomplish much is because they don’t want much. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
140:The reason of idleness and of crime is the deferring of our hopes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
141:The reason the knives are so sharp online is because the pie is so small. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
142:The reason the Son of God appeared was r to destroy the works of the devil. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
143:The reason why it is difficult to tell it is because I remember too much. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
144:I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
145:Look out your window, and I'll be gone. You're the reason I'm a-traveling on. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
146:My African roots made me what I am today. They're the reason I exist at all. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
147:The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
148:The reason academic disputes are so vicious is that so little is at stake. ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
149:The reason most people don’t arrive at a destination is they never embark. ~ Jeff Wheeler, #NFDB
150:The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property. ~ John Locke, #NFDB
151:Fertilization of the soul is the reason for the necessity of art. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
152:I am glad I was up so late, for that's the reason I was up so early. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
153:It is not what we choose that is important; it is the reason we choose it. ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
154:I've had women come up to me and say I was the reason they went to law school. ~ Susan Dey, #NFDB
155:The reason that angels fly is that they take themselves so lightly. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
156:Her cover version of Smells Like Teen Spirit is the reason Kurt killed himself. ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
157:Making each other’s tea was half the reason they had such a happy marriage. ~ Saladin Ahmed, #NFDB
158:The reason fat men are good natured is they can neither fight nor run. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #NFDB
159:The reason people have problems is that they have too much time to think. ~ Richard Bandler, #NFDB
160:The reason why I praise the lion is because the lion is the king of the jungle. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
161:The reason why we have never found measure of wealth. We never sought it. ~ George S Clason, #NFDB
162:Discover the joy of giving and you will discover the reason for living. ~ Mark Victor Hansen, #NFDB
163:I always love to learn new things. That's the reason I like being an actor. ~ Lupita Nyong o, #NFDB
164:I love genealogical research. That's the reason I bought my first computer years ~ Nola Ochs, #NFDB
165:It’s not that I don't trust the guy, but…no, wait--that's exactly the reason. ~ Julie Kagawa, #NFDB
166:She was America-for-spacious-skies, the reason our boys died gladly in the war. ~ Eve Babitz, #NFDB
167:Staph lives on skin. Thats the reason why many infections start as a boil. ~ Anthony S Fauci, #NFDB
168:The reason for great distress is the body. Without it, what distress could there be? ~ Laozi, #NFDB
169:The reason for the delay to the kick-off is because it's not yet kick-off time ~ Jimmy Magee, #NFDB
170:The reason God made man before woman was that he didn't want any suggestions. ~ Sam Levenson, #NFDB
171:The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
172:The reason to have a home is to keep certain people in and everyone else out. ~ Jenny Offill, #NFDB
173:The reason why Christ is unknown today is because His Mother is unknown. ~ John Henry Newman, #NFDB
174:And you're wasted with your ladies. Yeah I'm the reason why you always getting faded. ~ Drake, #NFDB
175:It’s probably the reason I’m a second-rate journalist. One of them, at least. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
176:No one can change a person, but a person can be the reason someone changes. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
177:She was the reason I started to write but her beauty is kept me writing. ~ Brandon Villasenor, #NFDB
178:The reason I never give up hope is because everything is so basically hopeless. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
179:The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
180:The weak generally mistrust the justice and the reason of the strong. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
181:Women were the reason I became a monk - and, ah, the reason I switched back. ~ Chris Avellone, #NFDB
182:A man's stomach is the reason he does not easily take himself for a God. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
183:That's the reason they're called lessons, because they lesson from day to day. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
184:The reason I became successful is because I touched. I touched my community. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, #NFDB
185:The reason I love acting is because I feel like acting is all about listening. ~ Taryn Manning, #NFDB
186:The reason it's important to believe in something, he said, is because you can. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
187:The reason it’s important to believe in something, he said, is because you can. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
188:The reason or motivation you have for making money or creating success is vital. ~ T Harv Eker, #NFDB
189:The reason stories have dramatic tension is because LIFE has dramatic tension. ~ Donald Miller, #NFDB
190:The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
191:This woman is a miracle. My miracle. The reason I wandered alone for so long. ~ J T Geissinger, #NFDB
192:I'm not a media darling. I'm forever the outsider, for whatever the reason is. ~ Russell Peters, #NFDB
193:Leverage is the reason some people become rich and others do not become rich. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
194:Music says nothing to the reason: it is a kind of closely structured nonsense. ~ Woodrow Wilson, #NFDB
195:Opposites in every way, which must have been the reason we fit together perfectly ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
196:That's the reason I left the networks. I wanted to write and report and coanchor. ~ Bill Kurtis, #NFDB
197:That's the reason they're called lessons...because they lessen from day to day. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
198:The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
199:The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
200:The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
201:The reason of my life is not to be the most beautiful woman in the world. ~ Isabella Rossellini, #NFDB
202:The reason we go to poetry is not for wisdom, but for the dismantling of wisdom ~ Jacques Lacan, #NFDB
203:We mourn His suffering when, instead, we should mourn the reason He suffered. ~ Sigmund Brouwer, #NFDB
204:I don't know anyone who is not using drugs for the reason that they're illegal. ~ Roman Polanski, #NFDB
205:It's the reason we are here on this earth, little sister. We are educating God. ~ Louis Maistros, #NFDB
206:I want to be the reason behind your smile, cause surely your the reason behind mine. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
207:The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
208:The reason for my painting large canvases is that I want to be intimate and human. ~ Mark Rothko, #NFDB
209:The reason God knows the future is because he plans the future and accomplishes it. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
210:The reason I always insisted on signing my work was not to be subordinate to anyone. ~ Paul Rand, #NFDB
211:The reason I'm a Yankee is that George Steinbrenner out hustled everybody else. ~ Reggie Jackson, #NFDB
212:The reason most folksongs are so atrocious is that they were written by the people. ~ Tom Lehrer, #NFDB
213:The reason most second marriages break up, I had read, was because of the children. ~ Jane Green, #NFDB
214:A legal broom's a moral chimney-sweeper, And that's the reason he himself's so dirty ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
215:I'd never be unfaithful to my wife for the reason that I love my house very much. ~ Bob Monkhouse, #NFDB
216:No doubt about it, Lawrence Decker was the reason God had invented nakedness. ~ Suzanne Brockmann, #NFDB
217:nor do you have to personally light the world on fire to be the reason it burns. ~ Laura Thalassa, #NFDB
218:Now in matters of action the reason directs all things in view of the end: ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
219:"The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
220:The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 1 JOHN 3:8 ~ John Piper, #NFDB
221:The reason they want you to fit in... is that once you do, then they can ignore you. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
222:The reason you can accomplish something is because you already had it within you. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
223:We are not the reason the gospel works; the gospel is the reason the gospel works. ~ Ligon Duncan, #NFDB
224:Your lips were made for mine, Beck. You are the reason I have a mouth, a heart. ~ Caroline Kepnes, #NFDB
225:Art works to satisfy the instinct and the science works to satisfy the reason. ~ Thiruman Archunan, #NFDB
226:I believe the reason I love painting so much is that it forces one to be objective. ~ Max Beckmann, #NFDB
227:Meditation, more than any other factor, has been the reason for what success I've had. ~ Ray Dalio, #NFDB
228:The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
229:The reason that chefs become chefs is that they're not allowed into rooms with windows. ~ A A Gill, #NFDB
230:The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small ~ Henry Kissinger, #NFDB
231:The reason why Christ is unknown today is because His Mother is unknown. ~ Saint John Henry Newman, #NFDB
232:Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you. ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
233:You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know any thing. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
234:I exercise hard and the reason I do is so that I can earn the things I like to consume. ~ Ben Elton, #NFDB
235:The reason a poet is a poet is to write poems, not to advertise himself as a poet. ~ Yehuda Amichai, #NFDB
236:The reason for this is that the universe bends, in a way we can’t adequately imagine, ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
237:The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it. ~ Wendy Cope, #NFDB
238:He’s marrying me to have a faithful servant, that’s the reason all men get married. ~ Elena Ferrante, #NFDB
239:Philosophy, while it soothes the reason, damps the ambition. ~ Edward Bulwer Lytton 1st Baron Lytton, #NFDB
240:The reason for it was simple. They’d written for one audience but marketed to another. ~ Emlyn Chand, #NFDB
241:The reason I couldn't talk to you was because I felt so bad for not talking to you. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
242:The reason nobody else in my business has any impact is because they're all comatose. ~ Harry Chapin, #NFDB
243:The reason she fell into me like she did was just because she wasn’t used to being hurt. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
244:The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war! ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
245:The reason why I hated school so intensely [was that] it interfered with my freedom. ~ Sigrid Undset, #NFDB
246:The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
247:The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
248:You’re the reason I have to do that. Just sitting there, all Scottish and sexy as hell. ~ N R Walker, #NFDB
249:First, we must learn from him the reason why we live and why we do the things we do. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
250:I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
251:Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way. ~ Johnny Cash, #NFDB
252:Perhaps the reason she was so unhappy was because she thought unhappy thoughts. ~ Wanda E Brunstetter, #NFDB
253:The reason I beat the Austrians is, they did not known the value of five minutes ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
254:The reason most of us go to the movies is to be involved in someone else's moral dilemma. ~ Tom Hanks, #NFDB
255:The reason why people fail to achieve their dreams is because they stop pursuing them. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
256:Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
257:This is the reason we cannot complain of life: it keeps no one against his will. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
258:I know that I can sing. That's the reason I started playing music when I was twelve years old. ~ Kesha, #NFDB
259:In my humble opinion, things do happen for a reason, but do we like the reason? Rarely. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
260:I spent six years in the army. That's the reason I am like a drill sergeant sometimes. ~ Dharma Mittra, #NFDB
261:I’ve always wanted to believe God made me this way for a reason.”
“I am the reason. ~ Tiffany Reisz,#NFDB
262:The reason America is in its death-throes is because America has lost moral authority. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
263:The reason doctors are so dangerous is that they believe in what they are doing. ~ Robert S Mendelsohn, #NFDB
264:The reason he fixed himself up to look good was because he was madly in love with himself. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
265:The reason that so many fail to find happiness is that they fail to find gratitude. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
266:The reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
267:Behind every effect there is a cause. To know the reason for any action, study its cause. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
268:It's the reason the United States fell into the Patriot Act - because they were reacting. ~ Trevor Noah, #NFDB
269:Music is the reason I'm doing movies; I do credit that. But acting is an escape route for me. ~ Bow Wow, #NFDB
270:She’s part of the reason I kept fighting when all I felt like doing was giving up . . ~ Victoria Ashley, #NFDB
271:The reason for designing new media is simple - to subtly and quietly change the world. ~ Hillman Curtis, #NFDB
272:The reason I had unfaithfulness in one of my marriages is because I was too patriotic. ~ Chris Matthews, #NFDB
273:THE REASON YOU KEEP ATTRACTING THE ONES WHO LEAVE IS BECAUSE YOU EXPECT THEM TO DO SO. ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
274:You are the pinch in my heart. The catch in my breath. The reason my stomach tumbles... ~ Rachel Gibson, #NFDB
275:It isn't what people think that's important, but the reason they think what they think. ~ Eug ne Ionesco, #NFDB
276:often wondered why people invoked duty as the reason to keep doing what was destroying them. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
277:The reason my films work is because every actor on set is very secure. They're able to fly. ~ Mike Leigh, #NFDB
278:The reason teaching has to go on is that children are not born human; they are made so. ~ Jacques Barzun, #NFDB
279:The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver. ~ Jay Leno, #NFDB
280:This, then, the reason God claimed vengeance for his own? That one not be made unfeeling? ~ Tamara Leigh, #NFDB
281:You are never angry for the reason you think you are. There's an older hurt under that. ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
282:A clean conscience is expensive, it’s the reason most men have to live paycheck to paycheck. ~ David Wong, #NFDB
283:Bad is always afraid of good and that is the reason why bad tries to eliminate good! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
284:But the reason God put more than one person on the earth is so we’d help each other. ~ Charlie N Holmberg, #NFDB
285:He is my soul mate, my fresh air, the reason I look forward to getting up every morning. ~ Tabitha Suzuma, #NFDB
286:I had to let her know that the reason she’d never heard of me was because I was famous. ~ Neal Stephenson, #NFDB
287:I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
288:I never have frustrations. The reason is to wit: Of at first I don't succeed, I quit! ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
289:Is the chemical aftertaste the reason why people eat hot dogs, or is it some kind of bonus? ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
290:It isn't what people think that is important, but the reason they think what they think. ~ Eugene Ionesco, #NFDB
291:She was poisoned, but the reason she was crying was that her husband didn’t want her anymore. ~ Eula Biss, #NFDB
292:The reason he fixed himself up to look good was because he was madly in love with himself. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
293:The reason that history so often repeats is not only human nature, but also human ignorance. ~ Glenn Beck, #NFDB
294:The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there. ~ Joseph Stiglitz, #NFDB
295:The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other... but to be with each other. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
296:The reason why most people are frustrated is because a lie cannot be turned into a truth. ~ Vernon Howard, #NFDB
297:Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
298:An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
299:If the reason you’re taking on a mission is for the money you’ll make, I believe you’ll fail. ~ John Doerr, #NFDB
300:In that God who illumines the reason, desiring liberation I seek my refuge. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad VI.18, #NFDB
301:The Divine is the savour of all life and the reason of all activity,the goal of our thoughts. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
302:The reason is simple: Genes alone cannot explain how your brain got to be the way it is. ~ Sebastian Seung, #NFDB
303:The reason I started to do comics for kids, the real reason is because it worked for me. ~ Francoise Mouly, #NFDB
304:The reason people lose their healing, is because they begin questioning if God really did it. ~ Benny Hinn, #NFDB
305:The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations: It’s a process, not an event. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
306:the reason there are so many struggling women is because there were so many wounded girls. ~ John Eldredge, #NFDB
307:Ego is the reason of the difficulty in everybody. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Ego and Its Forms, #NFDB
308:In that God who illumines the reason, desiring liberation I seek my refuge. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad VI.18, #NFDB
309:[I]t is the reason alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government. ~ James Madison, #NFDB
310:I was glad to get out of my house, for any reason, even if the reason involved grave robbing. ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
311:That's maybe the reason he does so many things so that he will not have to think . ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
312:That's maybe the reason he does so many things so that he will not have to think . ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, #NFDB
313:The reason I don't have a plan is because if I have a plan I'm limited to today's options ~ Sheryl Sandberg, #NFDB
314:The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
315:The reason my food bank is vegan is because I can't pay for animal products in good conscience. ~ Sam Simon, #NFDB
316:The reason why the stone is red is its iron content, which is also why our blood is red. ~ Andy Goldsworthy, #NFDB
317:There is no doctrine of the Reason which will bear to be taught by the Understanding. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
318:What I have in my heart and soul - must find a way out. That's the reason for music. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
319:I'm here because the reason I get up each morning, needs me as much as I need her." -Jax Stone ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
320:My son is the reason why I write music. He's the reason why everything is different for me. ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
321:No one is free from something; something will surely be the reason for our actions! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
322:There are two reasons why anybody buys anything. The real reason, and the reason they give you. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
323:The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. ~ Sam Levenson, #NFDB
324:The reason I don't have a plan is because if I have a plan I'm limited to today's options. ~ Sheryl Sandberg, #NFDB
325:The reason we lose people we care about is so we're more grateful for the ones we still have. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
326:the reason we lose people we care about is so we’re more grateful for the ones we still have. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
327:Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. ~ Darius Foroux, #NFDB
328:Winter is the reason for the spring; he who loves the spring must also love its reason! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
329:It sucks when the only person who can make you feel better is also the reason why you always cry. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
330:My career has been a gradual climb. I think that's part of the reason why I've had longevity. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
331:People are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each. ~ Alan Lightman, #NFDB
332:The Divine is the savour of all life & the reason of all activity, the goal of our thoughts. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
333:The magnifying of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations is the reason the world exists. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
334:The reason I was in most of the movies I've done is that they paid for me to be in the theater. ~ Nathan Lane, #NFDB
335:The reason my voice is sounding more passionate is because I'm singing directly from the heart. ~ Sammy Hagar, #NFDB
336:The reason we have few friends in adversity, is, because we have no true ones in prosperity. ~ Norm MacDonald, #NFDB
337:Whenever you're feeling down..And I am not around let the sight of me be the reason you smile ~ Shahrukh Khan, #NFDB
338:Hang in there,” I whispered. “The night won’t last forever.” She relaxed, and I was the reason. ~ Sarina Bowen, #NFDB
339:I actually don't miss modeling and I think the reason why is because of America's Next Top Model. ~ Tyra Banks, #NFDB
340:Penn & Teller stopped doing practical jokes, and the reason is we got much too good at it. ~ Penn Jillette, #NFDB
341:Pocahontas was the reason the Virginia colony didn't disappear, unlike some earlier attempts ~ Brooks Robinson, #NFDB
342:Sales = income. The reason so many people have low incomes is that they are poor at selling. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
343:The reason I collect good ideas is because plots themselves are very difficult indeed to come by. ~ Roald Dahl, #NFDB
344:The reason so many people fail to achieve success is because they fail to fail enough times. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
345:The reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
346:The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
347:The reason why the Son of God took upon him our nature was, the fall of our first parents. ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
348:Tragedy is restful: and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it. ~ Jean Anouilh, #NFDB
349:I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
350:Janice used to say that instinct was reason in a hurry; I was not so sure about the reason part. ~ Anne Fortier, #NFDB
351:Part of the reason my friends and I became successful is that we were always helping each other. ~ George Lucas, #NFDB
352:Ravi, you big massive racist. Rap is the music of revolution. Rap is the reason we have rights. ~ Nikesh Shukla, #NFDB
353:Sometimes the reason we do not see the answer is that we are looking too closely at the question. ~ Paul Murray, #NFDB
354:The reason I start a novel is because there's something that excites me and I want to explore it. ~ Ned Beauman, #NFDB
355:The reason old man use Viagra is not that they are impotent. It's that old women are so very ugly. ~ Jimmy Carr, #NFDB
356:The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is because vampires are allergic to bullshit. ~ Richard Pryor, #NFDB
357:The reason that 'guru' is such a popular word is because 'charlatan' is so hard to spell. ~ William J Bernstein, #NFDB
358:the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from day to day. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
359:The reason we can say anything we want in America is that we know it makes no difference. ~ Garth Risk Hallberg, #NFDB
360:The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other, [...] but to be with each other. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
361:The reason you don't get to know God is because you're afraid. You're afraid of the immensity. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
362:This thing about you that you think is your flaw—it’s the reason I’m falling in love with you. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
363:Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you're stupid and make bad decisions. ~ Marion G Harmon, #NFDB
364:Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you’re stupid and make bad decisions. ~ Marion G Harmon, #NFDB
365:If the reason why you're doing anything creative is to make a living, then you're doing it wrong ~ Casey Neistat, #NFDB
366:The reason our economic crisis has been forestalled is the reason there will be an economic crisis. ~ James Cook, #NFDB
367:the reason so many people fail to achieve success is because they fail to fail enough times. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki, #NFDB
368:The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. ~ Walter Bagehot, #NFDB
369:The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. ~ Adam Carolla, #NFDB
370:To get home you had to end the war. To end the war was the reason you fought it. The only reason. ~ Paul Fussell, #NFDB
371:You’re the reason the gene pool needs a lifeguard. Sassy goddamn woman. No one ever spoke to me ~ J T Geissinger, #NFDB
372:Behind everything in life there is an Absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
373:But the reason I became, why I wanted to be in the business was because there was Midnight Cowboy. ~ Jodie Foster, #NFDB
374:Does he call you his north star? Because that’s what you are to me. You’re the reason I made it home. ~ Mila Gray, #NFDB
375:Haters are just confused admirers because they can't figure out the reason why everyone loves you. ~ Jeffree Star, #NFDB
376:He rejoices in the reason conferred on mankind but mistrusts the shifting sands of man's ingenuity. ~ Sarah Perry, #NFDB
377:how often is a deception of the senses or an error of the reason accepted as a conviction!... ~ Mikhail Lermontov, #NFDB
378:I like liquor - its taste and its effects - and that is just the reason why I never drink it. ~ Stonewall Jackson, #NFDB
379:Q: Why must the cannon be fired? A: The cannon must be fired because that is the reason for cannons. ~ Kelly Link, #NFDB
380:Sun is the reason And the world it will bloom 'Cause sun lights the sky And the sun lights the moon ~ Cat Stevens, #NFDB
381:The reason I can point out a person’s evil nature is because I have that same evil nature within me ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
382:The reason so many people turned up at his funeral is that they wanted to make sure he was dead. ~ Samuel Goldwyn, #NFDB
383:The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other,... but to be with each other. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
384:The reason you have descended into physical life is to unleash the power of your soul upon Earth. ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
385:the reason you have descended into physical life is to unleash the power of your soul upon Earth. ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
386:This thing about you that you think is your flaw - it's the reason I'm falling in love with you. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
387:True confession: The reason we don't talk about race is because we do not speak a common language. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
388:True confession? The reason we don’t talk about race is because we do not speak a common language. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
389:Half the reason I turned into a writer is you didn't have to show up anywhere. You could work naked. ~ Jerry Stahl, #NFDB
390:If our tears do not lead us to act then we have lost the reason of our humanity, which is compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
391:It's because there are too many people who want to stop us having fun. That's the reason. ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
392:The reason conservatives cohere and radicals fight: everyone agrees about fears, no one about visions. ~ Brian Eno, #NFDB
393:The reason I keep making movies is I hate the last thing I did. I'm trying to rectify my wrongs. ~ Joaquin Phoenix, #NFDB
394:The reason I still work at this stage of life is because I enjoy learning something new each day. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
395:The reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
396:The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
397:The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
398:You know, they call third base the ‘hot corner.’ I think our third baseman might be the reason. ~ Rachel Hawthorne, #NFDB
399:Because I suffer, sir! I'm not philosophizing: I'm crying aloud the reason of my sufferings. THE ~ Luigi Pirandello, #NFDB
400:but the reason why the grave-digger made music must have been because there was none in his spade ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
401:Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and make bad decisions. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
402:If he's being honest, half the reason he studied politics in college was because he liked the drama. ~ Austin Chant, #NFDB
403:Maybe the reason you can never go home again is that, once you're back, you can never leave... ~ Jerry Stahl, #NFDB
404:That the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom - this is the reason for our rejoicing. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
405:The reason families need two incomes today is not to support themselves but to support the government. ~ Dick Armey, #NFDB
406:The reason he [Jimmy Carter] says he never lies is because he thinks the truth originates with him. ~ Lester Maddox, #NFDB
407:The reason husbands and wives do not understand each other is because they belong to different sexes. ~ Dorothy Dix, #NFDB
408:The reason most people play golf is to wear clothes they would not be caught dead in otherwise. ~ Hunter S Thompson, #NFDB
409:The reason why the simpler sort are moved by authority is the consciousness of their own ignorance ~ Richard Hooker, #NFDB
410:...the reason you can never go home again isn't necessarily that places change, but that people do. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
411:You always be calling her, she aint never answerin. You aint figured out I am the reason that she canceling ~ Drake, #NFDB
412:Always wait for the trigger. The trigger is the final part of the puzzle, the reason you want to shoot. ~ Jay Maisel, #NFDB
413:Because I can’t live without Della. I don’t want to. She’s the reason I get up in the mornings - Woods ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
414:Forgiveness is the reason for the crucifixion, and the crucifixion is the reason for the Incarnation. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
415:have a few beers?” Gabe resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “One, since part of the reason for you to ~ Vivian Arend, #NFDB
416:If the reason for doing something is that everyone else is doing it, it's not a good enough reason. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
417:If there's one thing worse than being really angry for no reason, it's suddenly remembering the reason. ~ Dana Gould, #NFDB
418:I'm the reason she's going to have to make a choice, one I"m not even sure I want her to make any more. ~ K Bromberg, #NFDB
419:The reason everything falls apart around me, but I don’t is because my angels keep me standing up. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
420:The reason I write is that I'm not in dialogue with my emotions; writing puts me in touch with myself. ~ Etgar Keret, #NFDB
421:The reason producers make stupid movies is because there are stupid people who will pay to see them. ~ Jessica Zafra, #NFDB
422:The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it's not work for me. ~ John Irving, #NFDB
423:Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
424:Giving does not only preceed receiving; it is the reason for it. It is in giving that we receive. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
425:Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
426:I swear, the reason for full moons is so the gods can more clearly see the mischief they create. ~ Michael J Sullivan, #NFDB
427:Maybe Grodzenski was showing me, with his quiet pride, the reason he hummed a little while he worked. ~ Nicole Krauss, #NFDB
428:My wife and I have five children and the reason why we have five children is because we do not want six. ~ Bill Cosby, #NFDB
429:Sometimes, I feel the reason I have become a star beyond my films is that I am politically incorrect. ~ Shahrukh Khan, #NFDB
430:That's the reason I'm not the one that's dead because the attraction of the fast life is very powerful. ~ Bill Murray, #NFDB
431:The reason so many financial advisors are called brokers is because they are often broker than you. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
432:The reason understands itself, but not what is beyond it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Intuitive Mind, #NFDB
433:The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less. ~ Zeno of Citium, #NFDB
434:the reason you give your body is what makes it right or makes it shameful, and only you can decide that. ~ Gail Giles, #NFDB
435:Don’t just be alive; once you have arrived, find the reason why and make that reason accomplished. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
436:If the reason for climbing Mt. Everest is that it's hard to do, why does everyone go up the easy side? ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
437:It’d been a messy end between me and Matt, and that had been the reason I’d hightailed it to America’s wang. ~ C S Poe, #NFDB
438:It was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
439:Maybe the reason I've never died in this story is that I've never had something worth dying for before. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
440:People who say everything happens for a reason usually say that only when they agree with the reason. ~ Susan Meissner, #NFDB
441:That may be the reason he does so many things," she said, "so that he will not have to think. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
442:That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked: "because they lessen from day to day. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
443:That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from day to day. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
444:The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it. ~ Tom Wolfe, #NFDB
445:... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66] ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
446:The reason our souls hunger so is that the life we could be living so far exceeds our strangest dreams. ~ John Ortberg, #NFDB
447:The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other, he understood, but to be with each other. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
448:There is no such thing as a riskless asset. The reason an asset pays a return is that it carries risk. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
449:Actually, the reason I look like this is because my father was from Sweden and my mother was Elton John. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
450:His love wrote the first chapters of my life and is the reason I never had to wonder if I was adored. ~ Melanie Shankle, #NFDB
451:I'm one of those people that thinks things happen for a reason, and you just have to look for the reason. ~ Clint Black, #NFDB
452:I suppose this is the reason why diaries are so rarely kept nowadays- that nothing ever happens to anybody. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
453:I think part of the reason why we hold so tight is because we fear something so great won’t happen twice. ~ Faraaz Kazi, #NFDB
454:La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure. The reason of the strongest is always the best. ~ Jean de La Fontaine, #NFDB
455:Not regretting it later is the reason I've done at least three-quarters of the best things in my life. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
456:photo developers everywhere are likely the reason my entire generation didn’t devolve into total chaos. ~ Jen Lancaster, #NFDB
457:The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind. ~ Edward Gibbon, #NFDB
458:The reason people think it's important to be white is that they think it's important not to be black. ~ James A Baldwin, #NFDB
459:The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
460:The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public. ~ Phyllis Diller, #NFDB
461:Aokpe will always be special because it was the reason Kambili and Jaja first came to Nsukka. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
462:If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all. ~ Erwin Schr dinger, #NFDB
463:If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all. ~ Erwin Schrodinger, #NFDB
464:If God is not the reason, I have no reason! If Jesus Christ is not my friend, I have no friend! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
465:I happen to still like really dark, dramatic, fractured characters. They're the reason I got into movies. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
466:I have forgotten the reason, forgive me. I have forgotten my name in the language I was born to, forgive me. ~ Joy Harjo, #NFDB
467:I think the reason I became funny was because if I made people laugh, they would let me keep talking. ~ Anthony Jeselnik, #NFDB
468:I think the reason I've been able to keep making music is because I'm not married, I don't have kids. ~ Juliana Hatfield, #NFDB
469:Most often, the reason something is on your mind is that you want it to be different than it currently is, ~ David Allen, #NFDB
470:Softball is the reason Washing Machines and Bleach are so popular. Don't think so? Just ask a softball Mom. ~ Mary Roach, #NFDB
471:The reason most kids don't like school is not that the work is too hard, but that it is utterly boring. ~ Seymour Papert, #NFDB
472:The reason that men are so slow to confess their vices is because they have not yet abandoned them. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
473:Trust me, from one sociopath to another: if you don't understand the reason for something, it's always love. ~ Dan Wells, #NFDB
474:You mean everything to me. Everything I've done. All of it. You're the reason. The first and only reason. ~ Jay Kristoff, #NFDB
475:Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it's not out there is that it's inside us. ~ Sonja Lyubomirsky, #NFDB
476:Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it’s not out there is that it’s inside us. ~ Sonja Lyubomirsky, #NFDB
477:He still thinks that knowing why might help. He doesn't yet know that the reason will never be good enough. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
478:Me myself I park in handicap, the reason why... ya know my bankroll make me walk with a crazy limp. ~ Floyd Mayweather Jr, #NFDB
479:Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it ~ Richard P Feynman, #NFDB
480:The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it. ~ Thomas Wolfe, #NFDB
481:The reason why I spend so much money for my journals is to press me to find something valuable to put in them. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
482:We all have reasons for our actions. Even if we hide the reason from those who think they know us best. ~ Greer Hendricks, #NFDB
483:Willie Nelson's the one who told me the reason it costs so much to get divorced is because it's worth it. ~ Merle Haggard, #NFDB
484:You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on Earth. You are here to risk your heart. ~ Ella James, #NFDB
485:All military regimes use security as the reason why they should remain in power. It's nothing original. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi, #NFDB
486:I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
487:I knew everything happened for a reason. I just wished the reason would hurry up and make itself known. ~ Christina Lauren, #NFDB
488:I think the reason Jesus is so popular, just on a celebrity level, is that he died at the peak of his career. ~ Marc Maron, #NFDB
489:Reason is science, it is conscious art, it is invention. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
490:That's the reason you want to become a star as an actor, to be able to have more control of your destiny. ~ Bryan Cranston, #NFDB
491:The reason I hate publicists is because I think if we got rid of them everything would be on equal footing. ~ Adam Carolla, #NFDB
492:The reason knowledge workers are losing their familiarity with deep work is well established: network tools. ~ Cal Newport, #NFDB
493:The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. ~ Lynne Truss, #NFDB
494:The reason Trust is requested is because the person seeking Trust realizes that Trust is the key to Yes. ~ Jeffrey Gitomer, #NFDB
495:The reason why people don't get called back to sequels is because they did badly in the original [movie]. ~ Omari Hardwick, #NFDB
496:The reason why they resist doing as you say, is because they've been conditioned to do as you've demonstrated. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
497:To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing. ~ Elmore Leonard, #NFDB
498:and to know, by his ironical eyes, that he perfectly well understood the reason of her unusual meekness. ~ Dorothy L Sayers, #NFDB
499:I believe in intuition and inspiration...at times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
500:I had done my best, and that my lack of experience, not my lack of ability, was the reason for the failure. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
501:I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time. ~ Charles Mingus, #NFDB
502:I prefer to cry alone, Pride? No. I just want to avoid trial of people who don't know the reason of my tears. ~ Demi Lovato, #NFDB
503:It has been said that the reason we establish relationships is to assure ourselves of a witness to our lives. ~ Roger Ebert, #NFDB
504:I think there's a racial outcome to a lot of what goes in America, but I don't think race is always the reason. ~ Rand Paul, #NFDB
505:The demands of the science, of the ethics and of the reason are superior to the demands of the people! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
506:The improvement of forest trees is the work of centuries. So much more the reason for beginning now. ~ George Perkins Marsh, #NFDB
507:The reason is that in a group, individual errors on either side of the true figure cancel each other out. ~ Michael Shermer, #NFDB
508:The reason it's hard for me to tweet is I don't want to pronounce anything, and Twitter is for pronouncing. ~ Jonathan Ames, #NFDB
509:The reason there are bugs in the bed," he explained, "is that they're too scared to get down on the floor. ~ Nicholas Clapp, #NFDB
510:The reason there are so many tree-lined boulevards in Paris is so the German army can march in the shade. ~ George S Patton, #NFDB
511:The reason why Absurdist plays take place in No Man's Land with only two characters is primarily financial. ~ Arthur Adamov, #NFDB
512:The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is that there is no requirement for it to be consistent. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
513:Touring is always important to me. It's like a big IOU to my fans, because I know they are the reason I exist. ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
514:Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. ~ Josh McDowell, #NFDB
515:My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain. ~ Charlie Chaplin, #NFDB
516:The reason for the prosperity of the wicked, and also for the troubles of the good, is not in our hands.” Then ~ Herman Wouk, #NFDB
517:...the reason is that when we look at nature, we receive a sort of permission to be alive in this world... ~ Naoki Higashida, #NFDB
518:The reason I wanted her hands was because she had those beautiful scars, from when she had tried to kill herself. ~ Otsuichi, #NFDB
519:The reason Saul Bellow doesn't talk to me anymore is because he knows his new novels are not worth reading. ~ Leslie Fiedler, #NFDB
520:The reason we are justified in trusting our minds is that God designed them to “fit” the world he created. ~ Nancy R Pearcey, #NFDB
521:The reason we life black people isn't because they're black. We like them because they're not as grey as we are. ~ John Cage, #NFDB
522:The reason why lovers are never bored together is that they are always talking of themselves. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
523:figure the reason you don’t have much to say is you probably never met a man who liked to hear a woman talk. ~ Larry McMurtry, #NFDB
524:Generally people would rather be insane than talented, hence the reason that most choose drugs over greatness. ~ Sarah Noffke, #NFDB
525:I fell into writing plays by accident. But the reason I write plays is that it's the only thing I'm any good at. ~ David Hare, #NFDB
526:If this is airing in the future and no one knows who Karl Rove is - he's the reason you all live underground. ~ Eugene Mirman, #NFDB
527:See your weakness as a reason to pray the more, it should not be the reason for sadness or to abandon your post. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
528:The reason I couldn't pay my rent was because I was one of the worst drinkers you'd ever seen in your life. ~ Joe Manganiello, #NFDB
529:The reason we are so pleased to find other people's secrets is that it distracts public attention from our own. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
530:The reason we should do a carbon tax is because it's the right thing to do. It's economics 101, elementary stuff. ~ Elon Musk, #NFDB
531:The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
532:The reason you hold on to someone too tightly isn’t always to protect them—sometimes it’s to protect yourself. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
533:You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. ~ Louise Erdrich, #NFDB
534:A lot of the reason my look is the way it is, is because it's really easy to put on a sundress every night if I ~ Lana Del Rey, #NFDB
535:...but when you have a gift, it isn't yours to keep to yourself. It's the reason you're here. It's your purpose. ~ Nancy Horan, #NFDB
536:I am a complicated person with a simple life and I am the reason for everything that ever happened to me. ~ Charlotte Eriksson, #NFDB
537:I love Twinkies, and the reason I am saying that is because we are all supposed to think of reasons to live. ~ Stephen Chbosky, #NFDB
538:loneliness was the reason
i held on to you
and holding on to you
was the loneliest thing
i had ever done ~ R H Sin,#NFDB
539:Reduce your ideal to a system and it at once begins to fail. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
540:The beliefs of your country mostly become your own beliefs! Not the reason but the empty tales shape you! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
541:The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
542:The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear. ~ Baron de Montesquieu, #NFDB
543:The reason we love our parents is because they loved us first. Every single company should take this advice. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, #NFDB
544:The reason why China suffers bitterly from endless wars is because of the existence of feudal lords and kings. ~ Qin Shi Huang, #NFDB
545:The reason why some people can accept the truth, is when they lack the ability to let go of their own perceptions. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
546:The reason why Sun Tzu at the head of 30,000 men beat Ch’u with 200,000 is that the latter were undisciplined.” Teng ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
547:The reason why we love America so much is America is the only place you can actually come in and wave your flag. ~ Wyclef Jean, #NFDB
548:The reason you have to say "Trust me" is that you haven't earned it and are forced to ask for it - BAD MOVE. ~ Jeffrey Gitomer, #NFDB
549:The reason you sugarcoat things is that you don’t want anyone to think you’re an asshole. So, that’s vanity, ~ Brent Schlender, #NFDB
550:we shall find that the reason why we doubt of God's promises is, because we sinfully detract from his power. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
551:What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
552:You're so beautiful but that's not why I love you, I'm not sure you know this but the reason I love you is you ~ Avril Lavigne, #NFDB
553:Happiness for a reason is just another form of misery because the reason can be taken away from us at any time. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
554:In the Year 2000 men will finally discover that the reason women go to the bathroom in pairs... is to make out. ~ Conan O Brien, #NFDB
555:My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh.
But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain. ~ Charlie Chaplin,#NFDB
556:People have to have a desire within themselves to know who they are and the reason why they are in this body. ~ George Harrison, #NFDB
557:The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
558:The only hope I can see for the future depends on a wiser and braver use of the reason, not a panic flight from it. ~ F L Lucas, #NFDB
559:The reason I so rarely break promises to other people? It breaks trust. Without trust, there's no relationship. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
560:The reason lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn't there the second time. ~ William Tyler, #NFDB
561:The reason one enters into lower mental states is because you don't have the power or chi flowing through you. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
562:The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
563:The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures. ~ Salvador Dal, #NFDB
564:The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
565:The reason why you don't see people looking like me is because I don't encourage that. I encourage you to be you. ~ Erykah Badu, #NFDB
566:What's to be the reason for becoming man and wife, is it love that brings you here, or love that gives you life? ~ Paul Stookey, #NFDB
567:I once heard the poet laureate say that the reason why we value real flowers is because we know they're dying. ~ Victoria Danann, #NFDB
568:Most people have a time-bound awareness. And the reason is they have sacrificed their self for their self-image. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
569:My will to live is stronger than my fear of death now…because of you. You’re the reason I want to live so badly. ~ Penelope Ward, #NFDB
570:The reason deals with the finite and is helpless before the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Vijnana or Gnosis, #NFDB
571:The reason I say I'm a horrible person is I don't want myself to be presented as somebody who's a great Catholic. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
572:The reason I've been able to be so financially successful is my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
573:The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures. ~ Salvador Dali, #NFDB
574:The Revolution is the reason why French estate records are probably the richest in the world over the long run. ~ Thomas Piketty, #NFDB
575:To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
576:Dee, I think the reason why he stares at me is because he’s planning on ways to kill me and hide my body. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
577:Getting to the top should be a priority, but being aware of the reason for getting there should be the focus! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
578:If you ask me, you see, I prefer doing film. The reason I'm doing a sitcom is because it's much more approachable. ~ Tommy Wiseau, #NFDB
579:I think the reason why 'Red Eye' is popular is because we question the common assumptions that you find elsewhere. ~ Greg Gutfeld, #NFDB
580:I wonder if the reason I tend to say yes to everything is because I deeply believe that I can survive anything. ~ Scarlett Thomas, #NFDB
581:Maybe that feeling of not being alone was part of the reason why people had been coming to church for centuries. ~ Laura Bradbury, #NFDB
582:The absurd enlightens me on this point: there is no future.
Henceforth this is the reason for my inner freedom. ~ Albert Camus,#NFDB
583:The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. ~ J M Barrie, #NFDB
584:The reason for a woman’s life,” said Sarai, “is the same as the reason for a man’s—so that she might have joy. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
585:the reason for God’s keeping some for himself and rejecting others is to be sought nowhere but in God himself. When ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
586:The reason most people are bad is because they do not try to be good." L. Frank Baum, The Emerald City of Oz, 1910 ~ L Frank Baum, #NFDB
587:The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
588:The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
589:The reason why men do not look to the Church today is that she has destroyed her own influence by compromise. ~ G Campbell Morgan, #NFDB
590:America is a nation that is founded on the principle of religious freedom. That is the reason this country exists. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
591:And that is the reason why this victory is great, because different players have made contributions to the win. ~ Sachin Tendulkar, #NFDB
592:Character is half the reason we read. We're excited because of the plot, but we care because of the characters. ~ Patrick Rothfuss, #NFDB
593:Knocking out a hundred tasks for whatever the reason is a poor substitute for doing even one task that’s meaningful. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
594:Maybe it explains the reason why one person likes another. It's because their souls both thrum at the same frequency. ~ Mary Amato, #NFDB
595:Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
596:The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. ~ James M Barrie, #NFDB
597:The reason for persecution, then, is that people keep finding Jesus—and, then, they refuse to keep Him to themselves. ~ Nik Ripken, #NFDB
598:The reason I never wanted to sign with a big label was because I didn't want no one telling me how to make my music. ~ Danny Brown, #NFDB
599:The reason I went for Jenny Craig is I thought, Maybe I'm not the only one who has stupid reasons for getting fat. ~ Kirstie Alley, #NFDB
600:The reason we don’t want to feel is that feeling exposes the tragedy of our world and the darkness of our hearts. ~ Dan B Allender, #NFDB
601:The reason we shouldn’t pursue balance is that the magic never happens in the middle; magic happens at the extremes. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
602:We also have no incentive compensation of any kind. And the reason we don’t is because it is detrimental to teamwork. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
603:Yes, everything happens for a reason,' Death said, 'but sometimes the reason is that life is cold, random and awful. ~ Dave Turner, #NFDB
604:I cannot believe the volume of famous people I run into in my life, and that's part of the reason I love diary format. ~ Andy Cohen, #NFDB
605:I think the reason why I'm the person who I am today is because I went through those tough times when I was younger. ~ LeBron James, #NFDB
606:Math can explain the reason there's one out of four chance that I'd have blue eyes. But it doesn't explain why me. ~ Heidi W Durrow, #NFDB
607:There are some people in the world, and the reason they're not in jail is because they've learned how to hide it. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
608:The reason that man is seldom satisfied with his salary is that when it increases, he increases his expenses. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
609:The reason that the book exists is because there was a gap in you. You wrote the book to fulfill that gap in some way. ~ Nick Laird, #NFDB
610:The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
611:The reason the Road Hole at St. Andrews is the most difficult par 4 in the world is that it was designed as a par 6. ~ Ben Crenshaw, #NFDB
612:When you have a position, you put it on for a reason, and you've got to keep it until the reason no longer exists. ~ Richard Dennis, #NFDB
613:human beings dream of life everlasting, that's the reason! But most of them want it on earth and not in heaven. ~ Tennessee Williams, #NFDB
614:I don't think very highly of Henrik Fisker. [...H]e thinks the reason we don't have electric cars is for lack of styling ~ Elon Musk, #NFDB
615:Never take your obedience as the reason God blesses you; obedience is the outcome of being rightly related to God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
616:The reason we bitterly hate those who deceive us is because they think they are cleverer than we are. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
617:The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else. ~ Tupac Shakur, #NFDB
618:The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
619:This is the reason why our Theology is certain: because it seizes us from ourselves and places us outside ourselves. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
620:We are all here for a reason.I believe the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people thru the darkness. ~ Whoopi Goldberg, #NFDB
621:I have always wanted to be a man, if only for the reason that I would like to have gauged the value of my intellect. ~ Margot Asquith, #NFDB
622:Love is unconditional--it liberates; love is the reason why I do what I do. It is the greatest gift we have!--BeBe Winans ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
623:Nothing can permanently please, which doesn't contain in itself the reason why it is so, and not otherwise. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
624:Steve Harmison was a big disappointment in South Africa, and I don't know the reason why, but he has to lift his game. ~ Jeff Thomson, #NFDB
625:That was the reason the casino bothered to list the wheel’s most recent spins: to help gamblers to delude themselves. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
626:The preaching is part of the reason I don't go to church. Plus, I don't know, it was never part of my tradition. ~ Frederick Buechner, #NFDB
627:The reason deals successfully only with the settled and the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
628:The reason good women like me and flock to my pictures is that there is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman. ~ Theda Bara, #NFDB
629:The reason I've been able to maintain my position of chairman of CBS in addition to all the Viacom stuff is my team. ~ Leslie Moonves, #NFDB
630:The reason I wanted to be an actor is that I don't want to play me for the rest of my life and make money out of that. ~ James D arcy, #NFDB
631:The reason that he knew so much about everything, I found, was that wherever he went he got right in with the people ~ Edmund Morris, #NFDB
632:The reason that the Croats want a state of their own is that they fear being cut into little pieces by the Serbs. ~ Michael Ignatieff, #NFDB
633:The reason that you call it 'grief' is because you've been programmed to believe that you should feel bad about death. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
634:The reason wisdom is meant to be imparted is because you acquire it only after it’s too late to apply to yourself. ~ Jonathan Tropper, #NFDB
635:The Spirit is the reason we can build a church and have confidence that we will get it at least a little bit right. ~ Lauren F Winner, #NFDB
636:When you can’t see the reason for something, look for the possible result—and ask yourself who might benefit from it. ~ John Flanagan, #NFDB
637:You're the reason why selfless soldiers won't be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
638:Are you telling me that vampires and werewolves are the reason America won the Revolutionary War?,” I asked, dumbfounded. ~ Drew Hayes, #NFDB
639:Book knowledge takes action based on reasons; common sense takes action based on the reason from the reasons! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
640:It was the reason he had survived. It was the ordinary way of saying she would refuse all other men. Only you. Come back. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
641:Leaders volunteer to go first into danger. Their willingness to sacrifice for us is the reason we're inspired to follow. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
642:On your birthday thank your parents and celebrate with them. They are the reason you are here and it is their day too. ~ Robert Cheeke, #NFDB
643:The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy. ~ Guido Calabresi, #NFDB
644:The reason people don't know what is good for them is because most people don't know what they are trying to do. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
645:Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned and this regime is on its way to annihilation. ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, #NFDB
646:Trust me,” I said, “from one sociopath to another: if you don’t understand the reason for something, it’s always love.” He ~ Dan Wells, #NFDB
647:We're still being challenged in Iraq and the reason why is a free Iraq will be a major defeat in the cause of freedom. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
648:Nothing gets done (in Congress) unless it's bipartisan. And the reason that matters is that it's a function of reality. ~ Newt Gingrich, #NFDB
649:Now Jesus, he don't like killing, no matter what the reason is for, and your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore. ~ John Prine, #NFDB
650:Part of the reason some Japanese companies have underperformed financially was corporate governance and board structures. ~ Jamie Dimon, #NFDB
651:The music we play has to be tomorrow's, the things we say have to be today, and the reason for bothering is yesterday. ~ Pete Townshend, #NFDB
652:the presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agreeable to the word of God, and the reason and nature of things; ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
653:The reason I call myself a documentary photographer is the idea of how photographs contain and participate in history. ~ Catherine Opie, #NFDB
654:The reason I want to be alone, is I'm tired of all the things that went wrong that would've went right if I had did 'em on my own ~ Nas, #NFDB
655:The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
656:The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment. ~ Napol on Bonaparte, #NFDB
657:The reason that cliches become cliches is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
658:The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
659:The reason the rest of us remember, like, when John Lennon died, is because it's a moment when adrenaline is surging. ~ Sarah Silverman, #NFDB
660:The reason the stone was rolled away on Jesus's tomb was not so that Jesus could get out, but so that we could get in. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
661:The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation. ~ Donald S Whitney, #NFDB
662:The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
663:You can wave your signs in protest against America taking stands. The stands America's taken are the reason that you can. ~ Clint Black, #NFDB
664:As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. ~ James Madison, #NFDB
665:If you want something really important to be done you must not merely satisfy the reason, you must move the heart also. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
666:Love is the reason why my mother and father stick together in a hard life when they might each have an easier one apart ~ Kao Kalia Yang, #NFDB
667:No matter the reason, the people didn’t turn on Jesus because they were Jews. They turned on Jesus because they were human. ~ Tony Jones, #NFDB
668:Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers. ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
669:Stress is the reason for crime and all other kinds of frustration. To relieve it will eliminate everything else. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, #NFDB
670:The reason 'help' is such a great prayer is that God is the gift of desperation. When you're in despair, you're teachable. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
671:The reason I really started running was for meditative purposes. I would pick some problem to have in my head while running. ~ Biz Stone, #NFDB
672:The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven't given them anything else to care about. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
673:The reason the Constitution gives judges life tenure is so they can be independent of political pressures and follow the law. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
674:The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. ~ Steven Furtick, #NFDB
675:The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
676:The reason why we fail to prevail with unconverted men is due to our more fundamental failure to prevail with God in prayer. ~ John Mott, #NFDB
677:We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. ~ Whoopi Goldberg, #NFDB
678:Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is because you’re freaking stupid.” - Molly Wakefield to her brother ~ Sara Ney, #NFDB
679:God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
680:I get the reason that you should be willing to negotiate sometimes. But you also ought to be willing to throw a punch. ~ Elizabeth Warren, #NFDB
681:I think the reason people are dealing with science less well now than 50 years ago is that it has become so complicated. ~ James D Watson, #NFDB
682:I think the reason that very few people really fall in love with anyone is that they're not willing to pay the price. ~ Katharine Hepburn, #NFDB
683:She said the reason that love is so painful is that it always amounts to two people wanting more than two people can give. ~ Edna O Brien, #NFDB
684:Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers. ~ John le Carre, #NFDB
685:The reason I feel like I act is because you get to live a million different lives in one. I don't have to go about my life. ~ Rose McIver, #NFDB
686:The reason we have a Cuban Adjustment Act is because, at the beginning, they [migrants] were fleeing political persecution. ~ Marco Rubio, #NFDB
687:The screenwriting program itself is the reason I got the chance to be a working writer, and I can’t thank them enough. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
688:What you put out is what you get back, and the reason so many are so short of money is that they put little or nothing out ~ Stuart Wilde, #NFDB
689:Ellie was the reason he’d guarded his heart. But she was also the only woman who had ever made him feel as if he had one. ~ Melissa Foster, #NFDB
690:I don't think movies are the reason why this violence exists, I think it's going to happen whether movies are there or not. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
691:Jazz musicians are so comfortable. The reason they can't do what we do is because they're so comfortable doin' what they do. ~ Miles Davis, #NFDB
692:The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living. ~ Martha Graham, #NFDB
693:The reason the all-American boy prefers beauty over brains is that the all-American boy can see better than he can think. ~ Farrah Fawcett, #NFDB
694:The reason you might choose to embrace the artist within you now is that this is the path to (cue the ironic music) security. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
695:To me, the reason to write about [Buckminster] Fuller is because I think that he has ideas that are incredibly pertinent. ~ Jonathon Keats, #NFDB
696:We are all a little bit broken, she tells me (the reason she doesn’t sleep at night?), but we all work on fixing ourselves. ~ Lisa Gardner, #NFDB
697:If you just take it down to bare facts, the reason for living is the reason you make it. I mean the brain was made to create. ~ Sharon Tate, #NFDB
698:I never thought of a future without you. That was the reason I always lived in the present, hoping I would find you someday. ~ Sapan Saxena, #NFDB
699:I suppose to a certain degree. London's my favorite place on the planet and the reason for that is its fantastic diversity. ~ Douglas Booth, #NFDB
700:Never give charity if the reason is to make yourself feel better,” he said. “Real charity is not selfish, but selfless.” After ~ Tahir Shah, #NFDB
701:Only the Church offered an organizing principle, which was the reason for its success, for society cannot bear anarchy. ~ Barbara W Tuchman, #NFDB
702:Sometimes the reason God doesn't show up to win your battles is because he already put inside of you the power to end it. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
703:The reason 12-step programs can be so helpful is that, very often, empaths become addicted to their vampire partners. ~ Christiane Northrup, #NFDB
704:The reason actors, artists, writers have agents is because we'll do it for nothing. That's a basic fact - you gotta do it. ~ Morgan Freeman, #NFDB
705:The reason many of us never self-actualize is because it’s easier to play a role in life than it is to become our true selves. ~ Jeff Goins, #NFDB
706:The reason why I like theater is because it's a long journey, and no matter what role you play, we are all in it together. ~ Condola Rashad, #NFDB
707:The reason you can never go home again isn't necessarily that places change, but people do. So nothing ever looks the same. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
708:Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner? ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
709:You are the reason I want to be good, the reason I have seen the evil in my father. You make me good. You make me whole ~ Rebecca Ethington, #NFDB
710:Young man, your problem and the reason so many like you fail, is simply because you allow yourself to give up far too early. ~ Chris Murray, #NFDB
711:I think in theater the playwright is king. Those words are unchangeable. They are the reason that everything else flows from. ~ Greta Gerwig, #NFDB
712:I think we want to see new voices and new ideas emerge - that's part of the reason why term limits are a really useful thing. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
713:It is perhaps a sign of the strength of our republic that so few people feel the need to participate. That must be the reason. ~ Jon Stewart, #NFDB
714:I wouldn't have filmed The Color Purple if the book had been a big fat novel. The reason I read it is because it is thin. ~ Steven Spielberg, #NFDB
715:My species has a great many good reasons for making war, though none of them is as good as the reason for not making war. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
716:Of course, I'm only joking," he says, studying me. "The reason they're staring is because I am extraordinarily good looking. ~ Penelope King, #NFDB
717:Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
718:The integral truth of things is truth not of the reason but of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The End of the Curve of Reason, #NFDB
719:The reason for so many defeats in the spiritual realm is because this sector of the soul has not been dealt with drastically. ~ Watchman Nee, #NFDB
720:The reason I haven't had kids yet is because I was so focused on my acting career, hoping I could get something to break. ~ Katharine McPhee, #NFDB
721:The reason that women are so much more sociable than men is because they act more from the heart than the intellect. ~ Alphonse de Lamartine, #NFDB
722:The reason why most of actors got into acting was so that we could become other people and have fun with being somebody else. ~ Scott Bakula, #NFDB
723:The reason why most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don't have it well designed! ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
724:The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: life is not fair. Forget all the garbage your parents put out. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
725:When you’re up to your ears in alligators, it is difficult to remember that the reason you’re there is to drain the swamp. ~ Donald Rumsfeld, #NFDB
726:You can never learn less; you can only learn more. The reason I know so much is because I have made so many mistakes. ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
727:Almost all keg beer sold in the United States is unpasteurized, which is the reason it should always be kept below 38°F (3°C). ~ Randy Mosher, #NFDB
728:In other words, the reason why the string theory cannot be solved is that twenty-first mathematics has not yet been discovered. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
729:It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
730:The greenness of nature is the lives of plants and trees. Green is life. And that’s the reason we love to go out for walks. ~ Naoki Higashida, #NFDB
731:The reason I love my dog so much is because when I come home, he's the only one in the world who treats me like I'm the Beatles. ~ Bill Maher, #NFDB
732:The reason some people use their genetic gift for running and others don't is because the brain is a bargain shopper. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
733:The reason why I don't have a hero is because heroes set a bar - whereas if we don't have one, our potential is unlimited. ~ Peter H Reynolds, #NFDB
734:This was the reason there was music, he realized. There were some feelings that didn't have words big enough to describe them. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
735:T. S. Eliot told Auden tht the reason he played patience night after night was that it was the nearest thing to being dead. ~ Howard Jacobson, #NFDB
736:Don't expect a woman to cook and clean for you. The reason you need a woman is so your heart and soul will have a place call home ~ K Langston, #NFDB
737:I've been in love with you since the very beginning. You asked why there isn't anyone else in my life, and the reason... is you. ~ Julie James, #NFDB
738:Love is the reason to remain sane all life and yet it is an excuse to be insane in all the moments that make up a life. ~ Novoneel Chakraborty, #NFDB
739:maybe the reason we all picture serial killers as schlubby, middle-aged white guys is because they are the ones who get caught. ~ Chelsea Cain, #NFDB
740:The reason authors almost always put a dedication on a book is, because their selfishness even horrifies themselves in the end. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
741:The reason, I believe, is even if you fail in doing something ambitious, you usually succeed in doing something important. ~ Peter H Diamandis, #NFDB
742:The reason many people fail is not for lack of vision but for lack of resolve and resolve is born out of counting the cost. ~ Robert H Goddard, #NFDB
743:The reason most of us do not see opportunities to serve is that we are continually thinking about ourselves instead of others. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
744:They’d chosen each other for the reason most people chose each other: to get closer to some quality they didn’t naturally possess. ~ Aja Gabel, #NFDB
745:Adrian.
He was the reason I was able to survive in this prison.
And he was also the reason I was here in the first place. ~ Richelle Mead,#NFDB
746:Einstein once said, “I believe in intuition and inspiration…. At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. ~ Janet Lansbury, #NFDB
747:here's a payoff for everyone. The reason we hang on to self-defeating behaviors is because it's easier not to take responsibility. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
748:I invent a reason for the Hertz attendant to start the rental car.
I am seventy-five years old: this is not the reason I give. ~ Joan Didion,#NFDB
749:I'm thinking the reason I've been so quiet all these years is only because Brian wasn't around yet for me to tell everything to. ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
750:I'm thinking the reason I've been so quiet all those years is only because Brian wasn't around yet for me to tell everything to. ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
751:I've come to realize that the thing in life that's important, the reason we're all here, is to love and do well for each other. ~ Tony Gonzalez, #NFDB
752:I was glad he was there because I could barely walk, but he was the reason I felt as though the earth was dissolving under my feet. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
753:Maybe part of the reason I don’t have any friends is because I refuse to let anyone in. My walls are always erect and impenetrable. ~ K Webster, #NFDB
754:Regardless of the reason why the nap works, it appears to be of practical value. Obviously, people in controlled environments ~ Joseph E LeDoux, #NFDB
755:The reason I got into acting was the audience is right there and if you did something great they were right there and you knew it. ~ Alan Tudyk, #NFDB
756:The reason I haven't been writing in this book for so long is partly that I haven't had one decent coherent thought to put down. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
757:The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
758:The reason we can say anything we want in America is that we know it makes no difference.” Whatever pride Mercer had felt ~ Garth Risk Hallberg, #NFDB
759:The reason why borrowed books are seldom returned, is that it is easier to retain books themselves than what is inside of them. ~ Gilles Menage, #NFDB
760:The reason why many people remain on the bottom is because they play to 'not lose', as opposed to playing to win at all costs. ~ Brandi L Bates, #NFDB
761:To some people, the fact that I am not married, or don't have children, would be the reason I have written a book on punctuation. ~ Lynne Truss, #NFDB
762:What the instincts and impulses seek after, the reason labours to make us understand. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Good, #NFDB
763:why are you ending our engagement then?"
"Because of the reason you fought it" (The duel)
"I don't understand."
"I know ~ Jayne Castle,#NFDB
764:You are actually the worst person I have ever met,” Chubs said. “And people like you are the reason we have middle fingers. ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
765:Everyone thinks that. That’s the reason people cheat on their spouses, because this new relationship is just so exciting and new. ~ Lisa Jackson, #NFDB
766:For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
767:I just became a vegetable for three months. I couldn't talk to people. I was very ill and that was part of the reason I left college. ~ Adam Ant, #NFDB
768:No one is as fickle as the public, and the reason they're that fickle is that the media tell them how to think and how to feel. ~ Sarah A Denzil, #NFDB
769:The reason meant for nearness to the gods
And uplift to heavenly scale by the touch of mind ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#NFDB
770:The reason that viruses are so hard to fight, the reason for example we need a flu virus every year is that they evolve very fast. ~ Carl Zimmer, #NFDB
771:The reason there are more employees than entrepreneurs is simply because our schools train young people to become employees. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki, #NFDB
772:The reason Victorian society was so restricted and repressed was that it was impossible to move without knocking something over. ~ Connie Willis, #NFDB
773:"The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms." ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching|, #NFDB
774:I have no child to inherit my properties. You, the people, are my only family, and to make you happy is the reason I do politics. ~ Park Geun hye, #NFDB
775:Now I know a lot about NATO - NATO is obsolete, and the reason it's obsolete is because of the fact they don't focus on terrorism. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
776:Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man’s days.”
“What is the reason?”
“Finish your journey and you will know. ~ Mitch Albom,#NFDB
777:That is the reason. I keep Wishwood alive To keep the family alive, to keep them together, To keep me alive, and I live to keep them. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
778:The center of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
779:The genius of this system, and the reason it spread across the world, was that its provisions were procedural, not substantive. ~ Henry Kissinger, #NFDB
780:The reason for such behavior, her father said, was that the foreign tourists knew only one thing about this country, the war. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen, #NFDB
781:The reason I never want a book to end is that I start to feel like the characters are my friends. I'll miss them when they're gone. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
782:The reason that the American Navy does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the Americans practice chaos on a daily basis. ~ Karl Donitz, #NFDB
783:The reason why [the medical community] is reluctant to talk about it is because there's such a huge business in pharmaceuticals. ~ Jenny McCarthy, #NFDB
784:Because they can't help it, miss,' replied the girl; 'the reason's plain.' (If Miss Squeers were the reason, it was very plain.) ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
785:Do you have a brain? Then you can think your way out of it. The reason we have brains is so we can figure out how to do things. ~ Benjamin Carson, #NFDB
786:I finally understood that the reason I was angry at my friend was because, in throwing Jacob away, she took him away from me. And ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
787:I'm returning to England because the reason I stayed away no longer exists, and a reason to return has unexpectedly presented itself. ~ Sylvia Day, #NFDB
788:It is amazing how often the reason
you can't find a convincing explanation for something is because your conclusion is wrong. ~ Steven S Skiena,#NFDB
789:Now, her doc doesn’t say any of this was the reason her mommy parts cleaned house, but she doesn’t say it helped, either. Dana’s ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
790:Rosie, who had encouraged me to look beyond my limitations, who was the reason for my life being more than I had ever envisioned. ~ Graeme Simsion, #NFDB
791:The reason for loving God is God Himself. As to how He is to be loved, there is only one measure: It is immeasurable! ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #NFDB
792:the reason he had known about Islam long before he studied the religion at Dartmouth. He was one-quarter Muslim by birth. Noor had ~ Alex Berenson, #NFDB
793:The reason I'm an I.B.M.-type guy today is that I really needed a laptop back in 1986, and I just couldn't wait for the Powerbook. ~ Penn Jillette, #NFDB
794:The reason so many women today struggle to make themselves a priority is because they are trying to be everything for everyone. ~ Jessica N Turner, #NFDB
795:The reason that people say one line at junkets is that they've heard the same question 37 times. You get bored out of your mind. ~ Ted Shackelford, #NFDB
796:There had to be a reason why they were not going to marry. They had both been so adamant about it.
What the devil was the reason? ~ Mary Balogh,#NFDB
797:A lot of the economy is indeed being supplied by goods that are produced offshore. And much of the reason for that is societal. ~ Frederick W Smith, #NFDB
798:I have this idea that the reason we have dreams is that we're thinking about things that we don't know we're thinking about. ~ Benjamin Alire S enz, #NFDB
799:The fact that I’m the reason for that heated look in his eyes makes me feel even more desirable than when I imagine being perfect. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
800:The reason both Daddies can be right and still get into terrible fights is because there are so many different ways of being right. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
801:The reason domestic pets are so lovable and so helpful to us is because they enjoy, quietly and placidly, the present moment. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
802:The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
803:The reason I dislike talking about the creative process is that I do have a creative process that is a winner and it's a sure thing. ~ Garth Hudson, #NFDB
804:The reason I'm not an alcoholic is I don't like to drink in front of the kids . . . and when you're away from them, who needs it?. ~ Phyllis Diller, #NFDB
805:The reason it's difficult to learn something new is that it will change you into someone who disagrees with the person you used to be. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
806:The reason music became so powerful to our generation is that it's art you can consume in your car, and we were driving around a lot. ~ Steve Earle, #NFDB
807:the reason we in the West do not suffer more persecution is because we have accommodated ourselves too much to the world around us. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
808:The reason why nothing happens is because nothing was done. Something will happen when something is done. Leaders take actions! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
809:Encapsulation is important, but the reason why it is important is more important. Encapsulation helps us reason about our code. ~ Michael C Feathers, #NFDB
810:He didn’t want to be one more burden, but the person who held her up, the soft place she fell, the reason she endured and was happy. ~ Jennifer Ryan, #NFDB
811:I’m not one of those reporters who relishes picking through people’s privacy. It’s probably the reason I’m a second-rate journalist. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
812:I think the reason I choose the comic approach so often is because it's harder, therefore affording me the opportunity to show off. ~ Rita Mae Brown, #NFDB
813:I think the reason that I like so many different games is because I like the way my brain works when I'm playing games. It's more fun. ~ John Romero, #NFDB
814:It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovered--so many locks not enough keys. ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
815:The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. ~ Thomas A Edison, #NFDB
816:The reason has to be led to a truth beyond itself, but by its own means and in its own manner. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Two Natures, #NFDB
817:The reason of man struggling with life becomes either an empiric or a doctrinaire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
818:The reason why salt and sugar are known to be sweet is that they season other things. Care to share and dare to do it every day! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
819:These tasks weren't urgent (which was the reason they didn't get done), but because they weighed on my mind, they sapped my energy. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
820:When his cloak parts, I get a good look at the reason for his limp. He’s got a gold foot that stops at the middle of his calf. His ~ Zoraida C rdova, #NFDB
821:Another two-bowl morning?" - Damien Maslin asking Zoey Redbird if her love of cereal was the reason she was almost late for Vamp Soc class ~ P C Cast, #NFDB
822:If I had a choice, if I had understood earlier that the reason my days were all the same was because I wanted them like that, perhaps. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
823:It is the legitimate function of the reason to justify to man his action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Office and Limitations of the Reason, #NFDB
824:It’s the reason we become enamored of certain singers, I think, because they project the voice we wish to summon within ourselves. His ~ Steve Almond, #NFDB
825:My earrings are worth just enough to buy me a coffin if I die in a strange place. That was the reason why sailors used to wear them. ~ Morgan Freeman, #NFDB
826:Part of the reason I wrote the book was I wanted to understand for myself why such good people let themselves get treated so badly. ~ Stephen Chbosky, #NFDB
827:The reason people are uncomfortable is because Donald Trump acts. He doesn't talk with a bunch of people about it before, he just acts. ~ Nikki Haley, #NFDB
828:The reason so many problems do not get solved in Washington is that solving those problems is not the No. 1 priority: Re-election is. ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
829:The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
830:The reason why education is usually so poor among women of fashion is, that it is not needed for the life which they elect to lead. ~ Julia Ward Howe, #NFDB
831:The reason why lovers and their mistresses never tire of being together is that they are always talking of themselves. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
832:The reason why we're not happy is because we believe consciously and subconsciously that we're separate from god, eternal awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
833:Try to remember the reason you started riding a motorcycle in the first place. For me, it was a couple of things but mostly rebellion. ~ Sonny Barger, #NFDB
834:all of a sudden he will catch sight of something wonderfully beautiful in its nature; that, Socrates, is the reason for all his earlier labors ~ Plato, #NFDB
835:Honey, what happened to "ladies first"? Husband replies, "That's the reason why the worlds a mess today, because a lady went first!" ~ David Letterman, #NFDB
836:Love grows. Lust wastes by Enjoyment, and the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
837:Men. Men are the reason. Bad men. Entitled fucking men who think they can do whatever the hell they want. I lost everything because of men ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
838:Something must happen; that is the reason for most human relationships. Something must happen; even servitude in love, in war, ordeath. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
839:The reason I am a political radical is that I work on syntax. If I worked on semantics (which in fact I do), I'd be a good Thatcherite. ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
840:The reason I met my husband was because I remembered a friend's birthday. The moral of the story is: Remember people's birthdays. ~ Julianna Margulies, #NFDB
841:The reason I'm painting this way is that I want to be a machine, and I feel that whatever I do and do machine-like is what I want to do. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
842:The reason I stop playing songs is usually because I get sick of them, and then they find themselves back into the set list at some point. ~ Ben Folds, #NFDB
843:The reason we use all natural, hormone-free, antibiotic-free Berkshire pork belly, beef, and chicken is that it’s the right thing to do. ~ Eddie Huang, #NFDB
844:The reason why life is a sleep & dream for most people is because their awareness is caught up with past or future & not with what is. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
845:The reason you have what you have is because that is what you have decided to settle for right now. Change your mind, change your life. ~ John Assaraf, #NFDB
846:This was the problem with journeys to her past. Any happy memory led to tragedy and loss. The reason she didn’t visit all that often. ~ Angela Marsons, #NFDB
847:Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason there of until all of the events transpire. ~ Joseph Smith Jr, #NFDB
848:But as with so many things in our lives, the reason for doing something is not the important thing. It is the fact of doing that remains. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
849:Every human being has the right to ask the reason, why, and to have his question answered by himself, if he only takes the trouble. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
850:If I had a choice, if I had understood earlier that the reason my days were all the same was because I wanted them like that, perhaps... ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
851:In Ohio seasons are theatrical. Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it. ~ Toni Morrison, #NFDB
852:Keep in mind that the reason you know you can be good to others is only because you've taken strides to be better for and to yourself. ~ Alexandra Elle, #NFDB
853:Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand." - Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina} ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
854:Mainly, the reason people who didn't succeed had trouble because they had trouble forming teams. They didn't know how to collaborate. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
855:My father has said a hundred times, and I have paid attention, that it's stupid to let money be the reason you don't do something. ~ Gabrielle Hamilton, #NFDB
856:My music is very emotional. The reason why I want to play music is very emotional. I want to call out my emotions and package them into music. ~ Hiromi, #NFDB
857:Reader, whoever thou art, put thy trust in thy Creator, make use of the reason he endowed thee with, and cast from thee all such fables. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
858:The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of... We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart." - Blaise Pascal ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
859:The reason I don't like realist, photorealist, neorealist, or whatever, is that I am as interested in the artificial as I am in the real. ~ Chuck Close, #NFDB
860:The reason I play so hard is that somewhere out there is some kid who has never seen me play before, and I don't want to disappoint him. ~ Joe DiMaggio, #NFDB
861:When you feel you are badly falling into the emptiness, stick to the reason , stick to the logic; they will reverse the situation! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
862:And the reason that she did not falter and fail in this terrible situation was because her despair, great as it was, did not equal her love. ~ Zane Grey, #NFDB
863:Eddie [Murphy] is an icon. He's one of the reason why I started doing comedy in the beginning. He opened a lot of doors for black people. ~ Tracy Morgan, #NFDB
864:Oh yeah, Scooby, it does. You and I have gone round many a day. I’m the reason you keep thinking you’ve had alien abductions. (Caleb) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
865:The reason for that is something called the “paradox of power”—namely, the harder we push the more likely we are to be met with resistance. ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
866:The reason it was so scary was that there was only one climber capable of rescuing us, and that was Layton Kor, and he was in Colorado. ~ Yvon Chouinard, #NFDB
867:The types of thoughts that you think create a state of mind. The reason you think the thoughts you do results from your level of power. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
868:Why don't the names of Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius offend people? The reason is that these others didn't claim to be God, but Jesus did. ~ Josh McDowell, #NFDB
869:You know," King said, "I'm not much good at telling stories. That sounds like a paradox, but it's not; it's the reason I write them down. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
870:Allowing a person or thing to leave your life, without further pain is the basis of humanity. Everything else is the reason (theology). ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
871:Englishmen are said to love their laws; - that is the reason, I suppose, they give us so many of them, and in different editions. ~ Anna Letitia Barbauld, #NFDB
872:For most people, the reason they don’t win financially is because the pain of losing money is far greater than the joy of being rich. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki, #NFDB
873:I am convinced that the reason why my kids have become very fulfilled and achieving human beings is because I wasn't raising them alone. ~ Gioconda Belli, #NFDB
874:I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
875:It is precisely for the reason that Truth is utterly simple, basic, elementary and totally obvious, that it is completely overlooked. ~ Ramesh S Balsekar, #NFDB
876:Most of the time, the reason people are overweight is too little physical activity, in conjunction with a high-calorie, low-nutrient diet. ~ Joel Fuhrman, #NFDB
877:The fact that I could correctly make a reference to the Borg was probably part of the reason I was not being accepted into the Collective. ~ Molly Harper, #NFDB
878:The most powerful idea that's entered the world in the last few thousand years - the idea of grace - is the reason I would like to be a Christian. ~ Bono, #NFDB
879:The reason Apple can create products like the iPad is that we’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
880:The reason I do small, independent movies is because I want to keep my soul intact and maintain some kind of integrity within this industry. ~ Jamie Bell, #NFDB
881:The reason the contracts are so long is because actors are very spontaneous; we may want to do Shakespeare one day and be Porky Pig the next! ~ Jorja Fox, #NFDB
882:The reason the Uncanny Valley exists is because humans created it to put other people into. It’s how we justify killing each other. ~ Charlie Jane Anders, #NFDB
883:The reason why Donald Trump does have a very strong base of popularity is he's an authentic person and not necessarily a politician. ~ Anthony Scaramucci, #NFDB
884:The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of our people. ~ Wynton Marsalis, #NFDB
885:And make sure that capital structure we have in place is the right capital structure. I think that's the reason that we've been successful. ~ Henry Kravis, #NFDB
886:For many people the reason why they're idiots is not necessarily that their brain doesn't work well, it's that they got in a terrible pattern. ~ Joe Rogan, #NFDB
887:I think, in a weird way, the reason I was drawn to screenwriting and the reason I really love doing it is because I love writing dialogue. ~ David Benioff, #NFDB
888:I think the reason why I never wanted to do a retrospective is because I was scared to go back and look at all this stuff through the years. ~ Larry Clark, #NFDB
889:It's become uncool to play other people's songs, and that's absurd. It has got to change. It's the reason why everything's so mediocre. ~ Steven Van Zandt, #NFDB
890:My bookstore obsession grew to the point where I'd search for new shops during family trips, as though that were the reason for our travel. ~ Lewis Buzbee, #NFDB
891:My job, my mission, the reason I’ve been put onto this planet, is to save wildlife. And I thank you for comin’ with me. Yeah, let’s get 'em! ~ Steve Irwin, #NFDB
892:Part of the reason of being an actor is you like playing other people's lives and exploring all the psychologies in that and the emotions. ~ Nicole Kidman, #NFDB
893:Politicians make promises and they don't do what they said they would do: the reason why so many politicians in Washington are unhappy with me. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
894:The past is the past. It may be the reason why we’ve become who we are today, but we can change our tomorrow. Another past is seconds away. ~ Nashoda Rose, #NFDB
895:The reason most comedies don't win awards is that the filmmakers put the comedy first. This means you have to create a story around the jokes. ~ Paul Feig, #NFDB
896:The reason she had taken the long way round was on the unlikely chance that she might engineer an "accidental" meeting with Benjamin Cole. ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
897:You’re better than this, Adrian. Whatever the reason, you’re better than it. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you’re weaker than you are ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
898:At times I wonder if the reason I have lost track of time is that I will know when to return not by a date, but when an emptiness is filled. ~ Daniel Mason, #NFDB
899:Everything finite is striving to express an infinite which it feels to be its real truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #NFDB
900:I credit literature for the reason I act because that was the door to me saying, ‘Oh! I can be somebody else. I can exist as someone else.’ ~ Nicole Kidman, #NFDB
901:I've been really lucky. People have been nice to me on the internet. That's the reason why I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. ~ Erika M Anderson, #NFDB
902:No matter what the reason, if you start to scream and shout, you look a fool, and you feel a fool, and you earn the disrespect of everyone. ~ Michael Caine, #NFDB
903:Sleep on it. If you can't remember the reason tommrow, I'll race over here right after work abd rock your f****** world all night long. ~ Shannyn Schroeder, #NFDB
904:Stealth was not the reason Simon the werewolf had been hired for his job. He trundled down the hall with the grace of an elephant in a canoe. ~ Sierra Dean, #NFDB
905:The difference between the reason of man and the instinct of the beast is this, that the beast does but know, but the man knows that he knows. ~ John Donne, #NFDB
906:The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
907:The reason I became such a successful athlete was my mind was saying that no matter who you put up against me, I am better, I am the best. ~ Michael Jordan, #NFDB
908:The reason I do what I do is because I was influenced by Steve Martin, by Woody Allen, by Bob Newhart, by Carol Burnett, by Lucille Ball. ~ Ellen DeGeneres, #NFDB
909:the reason I have come to serve here, the reason I am alive, is for this purpose and this purpose alone: to learn how to love as Jesus loved. ~ Heidi Baker, #NFDB
910:The reason ... our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. ~ David Foster Wallace, #NFDB
911:Ultimately the only way that I can be myself is to become identified with Him in Whom is hidden the reason and fulfillment of my existence. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
912:You can never fully put your finger on the reason why you're suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another. ~ Daniel Day Lewis, #NFDB
913:Basically if you burst into my office the walls themselves will flutter as if alive - maybe that's the reason for all the wings in 'Pure. ~ Julianna Baggott, #NFDB
914:I am a rapper. The reason why I was against the whole rapper title is because I know so many people who want to be rappers and they're not. ~ Cakes da killa, #NFDB
915:If you do not stand up for all that is right, then understand that you are part of the reason why there is so much that is wrong in the world. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
916:I think the reason that a lot of people have to have a lot of people around is just about being smart and knowing what you want to talk about. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
917:Mountain climbing is my passion, and to empower women through my expeditions is the reason. I am doing the mountain climbing to empower women. ~ Samina Baig, #NFDB
918:So for most people, the reason they don't win financially is because the fear of losing money is far greater than the joy of being rich. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki, #NFDB
919:The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
920:The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty. ~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, #NFDB
921:The reason I turn down 99% of a hundred, I mean a thousand, scripts is because romantic comedies are often very romantic but seldom very funny. ~ Hugh Grant, #NFDB
922:The reason the word Feminism has power is because the concept has power and the reason it has power is because people are still afraid of it. ~ Laurie Penny, #NFDB
923:The reason we have this inner conviction that death is not the end - and that Heaven exists - is because we were created in the image of God. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
924:The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges : the pox and Christianity. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
925:The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century. ~ E L Doctorow, #NFDB
926:This is the reason I write, to remind people of honor and courage; to tell them that their cause isn’t lost, that their destiny is victory. ~ Charles M Blow, #NFDB
927:We simply want to follow God because we knows of the happiness it will bring, that's the reason that we chose to be open about our beliefs. ~ Jase Robertson, #NFDB
928:Yeah, Silver and his math are jokes, because math has a liberal bias. After all, math is the reason Mitt Romney's tax plan doesn't add up. ~ Stephen Colbert, #NFDB
929:All Americans have something lonely about them. I don't know what the reason might be, except maybe that they're all descended from immigrants. ~ Ry Murakami, #NFDB
930:But rainbows were made of faint and fragile gossamer—and gold weighed a ton—and since the world began, gold was the reason to do most anything. ~ V C Andrews, #NFDB
931:I'm not trying to spell out a story. I still think you feel the painting, and the reason you read the mark is because you also feel the mark. ~ Julie Mehretu, #NFDB
932:I've never done anything half-heartedly. It's the reason my comics did well. It's the reason my comics were drawn well. I can't do anything bad. ~ Jack Kirby, #NFDB
933:PULL and PUSH" are basic principles of life. You must PULL to work hard and then PUSH to give hard"... The reason why we gain is to give! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
934:The German Luftwaffe always fought without any reserves. This is also the reason why we have pilots with extremely high numbers of victories. ~ Adolf Galland, #NFDB
935:The reason for your entire salvation, the design behind your deliverance, the purpose for which God chose you in the first place is holiness. ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
936:The reason so many celebrities try to keep things secret is you want the chance to get to know someone without the glare of public scrutiny. ~ Jesse Metcalfe, #NFDB
937:The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed. ~ Bartolome de las Casas, #NFDB
938:We may not understand the reason for it; indeed, we often cannot figure it out. Still, an incongruity is a symptom of an opportunity to innovate. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
939:But I can sit here with my dwindling days and look at what I think is important in life.
I have both the time - and the reason - to do that. ~ Mitch Albom,#NFDB
940:But it does suck. Everyone in this place sucks and I hate them all. I hate everybody but Holder and they’re the reason he isn’t here anymore. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
941:Essentially, the frequentist approach toward statistics seeks to wash its hands of the reason that predictions most often go wrong: human error. ~ Nate Silver, #NFDB
942:From a Christian point of view, human reason is madness compared to the reason of God, but divine reason appears as madness to human reason. ~ Michel Foucault, #NFDB
943:God is the reason why even in pain, I smile. In confusion, I understand. In betrayal, I trust. And in fear, I continue to fight. -Bella Swan ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
944:I am not a bloody ghoda running a race that you give me a tag. I am competitive, and the reason for that is that I want to do the best films. ~ Anushka Sharma, #NFDB
945:It is the little writer rather than the great writer who seems never to quote, and the reason is that he is never really doing anything else. ~ Havelock Ellis, #NFDB
946:Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."
- Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina} ~ Leo Tolstoy,#NFDB
947:Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
948:No machinery invented by the reason can perfect either the individual or the collective man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The End of the Curve of Reason, #NFDB
949:Part of the reason I sort of shot out like a cannon out of Michigan and left home at such an early age is because I had to feel independent. ~ Madonna Ciccone, #NFDB
950:The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it... ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
951:The reason most people are bad is because they do not try to be good. Now, the Nome King had never tried to be good, so he was very bad indeed. ~ L Frank Baum, #NFDB
952:To be old is to be part of a huge and ordinary multitude... the reason why old age was venerated in the past was because it was extraordinary. ~ Ronald Blythe, #NFDB
953:Whatever the reason, too many are no longer willing to call evil by its name. There is no vision. And when there is no vision, the people perish. ~ Glenn Beck, #NFDB
954:You did. Just as I don’t have to touch each man to kill him, nor do you have to personally light the world on fire to be the reason it burns. ~ Laura Thalassa, #NFDB
955:You never had to be scared of snuffing out the light in my eyes, because in case you didn’t know . . . you were the reason that light was there. ~ Bella Jewel, #NFDB
956:Frankly, the reason why lawyers were compensated so lavishly was that they were paid to attend to the most stultifying aspects of modern life. ~ Lionel Shriver, #NFDB
957:I do understand that going out and promoting the movie is a big responsibility, and part of the reason they give me the job in the first place. ~ Mark Wahlberg, #NFDB
958:I enjoy my work. The reason I worked so hard all my life is because I want to be making big decisions and managing at the very highest level. ~ Brendan Rodgers, #NFDB
959:I realized it didn’t mean anything without Perry by my side. She was my reason for living. She was the reason I’d come alive in the first place. ~ Karina Halle, #NFDB
960:I see no reason to stop writing. But the reason isn't always one of your own. The mind is not invulnerable, and it can lose some of its powers. ~ Robert Coover, #NFDB
961:Perhaps here we have a clue to the reason why royal rule used to exist formerly, namely the difficulty of finding enough men of outstanding virtue. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
962:The great tragedy of Alzheimer's disease, and the reason why we dread it, is that it leaves us with no defence, not even against those who love us. ~ P D James, #NFDB
963:The reason fantasy fiction remains such a vital and necessary genre is that it lets us talk about such things in a way realistic fiction cannot. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
964:The reason Steve Herrell’s shop did so well is that it was famous for having a line! People brought folks from out of town to have the experience. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
965:The reason we do not let our friends see the very bottom of our hearts is not so much distrust of them as distrust of ourselves. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
966:wat hapens after we die?...maybe the reason why we dont know is because it is so wonderful that nobody ever thought to turn back aroumd to tell us. ~ Jomny Sun, #NFDB
967:Whatever the reason for wanting to escape, sane or insane, zoo detractors should realize that animals don’t escape to somewhere but from something. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
968:Art is the reason I get up in the morning, but the definition ends there. It doesn't seem fair that I'm living for something I can't even define. ~ Ani DiFranco, #NFDB
969:But to August, that fear was the shadow in his life, the monster he could fight but never kill, the reason he had wanted so badly not to feel. ~ Victoria Schwab, #NFDB
970:Celebrity culture has gone crazy, and I think the reason is that real news is just not bearable, and it also seems impossible to change anything. ~ Chris Martin, #NFDB
971:Christianity has in fact long vanished, not only from the reason but also from the life of mankind, and it is nothing more than a fixed idea. ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
972:If you didn't have anxiety, then you wouldn't have passion for anything. The reason we have anxiety is because you care and you're thoughtful. ~ Kristen Stewart, #NFDB
973:I like to see people reaching back for the roots and for the reason why. Not intellectually, but just for the gut feeling of what it's all about. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
974:I've suffered from pretty dark depressing times, and it's probably - not probably - it is the reason why I chose to lead a healthy lifestyle. ~ Mariel Hemingway, #NFDB
975:'Sex and the City' is about outsiders. Single girls as lepers, should have been married by now. It's the reason the whole thing took off. ~ Michael Patrick King, #NFDB
976:She shifted closer to him and felt something hard dig into her hip. “Is that your phone?” “No, it's my giant penis and the reason you married me. ~ Sarah Morgan, #NFDB
977:The reason I love Luis Palau is because this is a guy who is completely all about evangelism and reaching people and the lost with the gospel. ~ Stephen Baldwin, #NFDB
978:What is the point, what is the reason, to lock people away for years, when it seems to mean so very little, even to the jailers who hold the key? ~ Piper Kerman, #NFDB
979:Charity had discovered there were things you didn't want to tell. Shame wasn't the reason. Sometimes it was just better-kinder- to keep up a front ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
980:George W. said he doesn't watch television. And, of course, well - the reason for that is the Clintons stole the White House satellite system. ~ David Letterman, #NFDB
981:I don't know if it's true that most people don't know this, but the reason that I play music is because of my favourite band of all time - AC/DC. ~ Jeremy Fisher, #NFDB
982:I know jazz is completely un-American. But the reason why America doesn't like it is because it's not funny. We [americans] have made jazz funny. ~ Paul Provenza, #NFDB
983:I must let go now. Let you go. Love is too often The answer for staying. Too seldom the reason For going. I drop the line And watch you drift away. ~ Delia Owens, #NFDB
984:I think there are too many smart people pursuing internet stuff, finance, and law. That is part of the reason why we haven't seen as much innovation. ~ Elon Musk, #NFDB
985:I think the reason why people behave in an ugly manner is that it’s really scary to be alive and to be human, and people are really really afraid. ~ David Lipsky, #NFDB
986:It is the beauty of women, and the fact that they are the focus, that they are sex objects in a positive sense, is the reason we have civilization. ~ Hugh Hefner, #NFDB
987:My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops. ~ Norah Jones, #NFDB
988:One of the fun things for me, about acting, is trying to transform. Transformational acting was the reason why I became an actor, in the first place. ~ Matt Ross, #NFDB
989:Reason is in its nature an imperfect light with a large but still restricted mission. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Office and Limitations of the Reason, #NFDB
990:Thank God for the tough times. They are the reason you are there - to be the leader. If everything was going well, the people wouldn't need you! ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
991:there are the two sides to a Frenchman, logic and fashion and that is the reason why French people are exciting and peaceful. Logic and fashion. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
992:The reason there was no name for such distant relatives was because sane people would have no interest in distinguishing them from anyone else. “Once ~ Greg Egan, #NFDB
993:Today if I'm a cricketer it is because of Sachin Tendulkar. Else, I would never have picked up a bat. He's the reason behind me playing cricket ~ Virender Sehwag, #NFDB
994:Whatever the reason for wanting to escape, sane or insane, zoo detractors should realize that animals don't escape to somewhere but from something. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
995:Anybody can get chewed out. It's the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed to, no wait, the reason is... We've all heard that ~ Randy Pausch, #NFDB
996:(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli, #NFDB
997:I’m the same Harlow. I’m just secure in the man who loves me. I have nothing to hide from you.” That right there was the reason this woman owned me. ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
998:I’m trying to make some sense out of the phrase “Everything happens for a reason,” and I think I’ve figured out what the reason is—to piss me off. ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
999:The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerful messages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words as well as images ~ Galen, #NFDB
1000:The reason the Betsy DeVos case was the centerpiece case for the Democrats wasn't about her weakness as a knowledgeable person on education policy. ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
1001:The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
1002:The reason they don't ask me when they're having kids, of course, is because men can, pretty much, carry on a normal life once they've had a baby. ~ Caitlin Moran, #NFDB
1003:There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark. ~ Eliot Peper, #NFDB
1004:We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way. ~ Gloria Gaither, #NFDB
1005:Don’t assume that because you know something in the future won’t happen, that you can do nothing. Sometimes the reason it doesn’t happen is you. ~ Nathan Van Coops, #NFDB
1006:Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is that I'm a Gemini. ~ Raymond Smullyan, #NFDB
1007:The first person who is on your mind the moment you open your eyes after a long sleep is the reason either of your happiness or pain. ~ Reader s Digest Association, #NFDB
1008:The reason that some people could not find God is because they search God in dead things. They are almost ignorant about the presence of the living God. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1009:The reason the factions were evil is because there was no way out of them. They gave us the illusion of choice without actually giving us a choice. ~ Veronica Roth, #NFDB
1010:The threat of her relapsing had created a strong gravitational field around their little family and was part of the reason he had never left home. He ~ Reif Larsen, #NFDB
1011:To become less and transmit more, to replenish energy with wisdom - some such hope, at this more than midpoint in my life, is the reason why I write. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
1012:We may not understand the reason for it; indeed, we often cannot figure it out. Still, an incongruity is a symptom of an opportunity to innovate. ~ Peter F Drucker, #NFDB
1013:You are the reason why he exists on this earth. You don't have the right to abandon him just because he's inconvenient or has trouble in school. ~ Michael Crichton, #NFDB
1014:Alcohol was the reason we formed complex civilizations, and having to deal with the complexities of civilization is the reason most of us need alcohol. ~ David Wong, #NFDB
1015:He was their father, her husband, and the reason they all died a brutal, untimely death. And some days i wonder why I insist on keeping myself alive. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1016:I'm a businessman as well as an entertainer. The reason why is because I want to own whatever I'm doing. I don't want to work for other people forever. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
1017:Parents drinking is the reason you came into the world, and if we didn't keep doing it then, by God, it would be the reason you went back out of it. ~ Caitlin Moran, #NFDB
1018:So for most people, the reason they don’t win financially is because the pain of losing money is far greater than the joy of being rich. Another ~ Robert T Kiyosaki, #NFDB
1019:The reason I am thinking so far in advance is because school is terribly lonely. I think I've said that before, but it's getting harder every day. ~ Stephen Chbosky, #NFDB
1020:The reason I don't tour is that I don't know how to front a band. What would I do? I can't really play anything well enough to deal with that situation. ~ Brian Eno, #NFDB
1021:The reason I love the sea I cannot explain - it's physical. When you dive you begin to feel like an angel. It's a liberation of your weight. ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau, #NFDB
1022:You always try to be perfect, he says, and you always fall short, and it fucks with your head. Your confidence is shot, and perfectionism is the reason. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1023:Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who doubts sometimes, has written that the reason so many babies keep being born is that God loves stories. Why ~ John Ortberg Jr, #NFDB
1024:Evil has no meaning. That is the very definition of evil. But just because something hurts doesn’t mean that the reason for the pain is evil. ~ Malin Persson Giolito, #NFDB
1025:Language can become a screen which stands between the thinker and reality. This is the reason why true creativity often starts where language ends. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
1026:Maybe the reason my memory is so bad is that I always do at least two things at once. It's easier to forget something you only half-did or quarter did. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
1027:seems that men are at their best between sixty and seventy, the reason being that in such occupations a wide experience of other men is essential. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
1028:Sometimes I think them showing me what love looked like is the reason why it was so easy for me to identify it once I moved in with David.” Without ~ Santino Hassell, #NFDB
1029:Sometimes we all want to disappear in the depths of an infinite path and the reason of this is obvious: We all come from the depths of infinity! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1030:The cock does not just crow! It crows for a reason. Do not just concentrate on the cock crowing and mind the reason why it crows; the time ! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
1031:The reason can only be this: heroic poetry depends on an heroic age, and an age is heroic because of what it is, not because of what it does. ~ Lascelles Abercrombie, #NFDB
1032:The reason many stories don’t work, Mr. Linderman explained, is that as adults, we tend to judge, analyze and explain an experience, rather than tell it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1033:The reason most people don’t arrive at a destination is they never embark. They think of all the reasons why they can’t do it, so they don’t even try. ~ Jeff Wheeler, #NFDB
1034:When you're glad to be alive, good ideas come. The reason good ideas don't come today is because we're all bottled up with greed and anger. We're mad. ~ Ray Manzarek, #NFDB
1035:Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1036:Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
1037:Fools. Do they pity Kanna? But Kanna cannot feel a thing, be it pain, fear or sorrow. She cannot even understand the reason for your pity."- Naraku ~ Rumiko Takahashi, #NFDB
1038:(Had a cordial note from Dos Passos, in Key West, Fla., saying he would be delighted to receive a copy—but I’m not sending him one, for the reason given.) ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
1039:He could want her, every minute of every day. Was certain he would go on wanting her after he was dead and gone. She was the pulse, the reason, the breath. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
1040:I'm trying to make some sense out of the phrase "Everything happens for a reason," and I think I've figured out what the reason is - to pissed me off. ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
1041:It's always a job when you're the reason they're assembling. If you're just doing shows and you're on a lineup with eight other guys, it's fun, it's great. ~ Jay Mohr, #NFDB
1042:No, thanks,' I say. Tequila and i have a bad history. We're no longer on speaking terms. In fact tequila is the reason I'm now not much of a drinker. ~ Sarah Alderson, #NFDB
1043:Or maybe because my ovaries were hyperaware that Ben’s ridiculous good looks would lead to heartbreak. But whatever the reason, we did the implausible. ~ Lauren Layne, #NFDB
1044:Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause. ~ Jack Abbott, #NFDB
1045:People sing each other's songs and they cultivate standards. That's the reason why we have folk music and folk stories. History is told through song. ~ Brandi Carlile, #NFDB
1046:The reason I'm really appreciative of everything that's going on around me is because of the fact that I never expected it, and I want to keep that attitude. ~ Selena, #NFDB
1047:The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. ~ Walter Chrysler, #NFDB
1048:The reason we struggle with insecurity,” says Pastor Steven Furtick, “is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. ~ Megan McArdle, #NFDB
1049:The reason why I have survived as long as I have survived is what my friends, comrades and supporters thought was an extraordinarily cautious approach. ~ Ernst Zundel, #NFDB
1050:The reason you write [songs] is because there's something you want to say that is important to you - enough to go through all the torture of writing. ~ Emmylou Harris, #NFDB
1051:...there is nothing that has been created without some reason, even if human nature is incapable of knowing precisely the reason for them all. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #NFDB
1052: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
1053:Does he make you see stars?’ he asks in a low voice. ‘Does he call you his north star? Because that’s what you are to me. You’re the reason I made it home. ~ Mila Gray, #NFDB
1054:Everything happens for a reason. Your brain may not know the reason. Your brain may never figure it out. But your heart knows. Your heart always knows. ~ Margaret Weis, #NFDB
1055:I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose. —Ludwig van Beethoven ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
1056:Life is like the rungs on a ladder. The reason they are placed so close together is that we can learn to take baby steps and reach our destinations safely. ~ Tom Baker, #NFDB
1057:The reason why there is now no communist government in Paris is because in the circumstances of 1945 the Soviet army was not able to reach French soil. ~ Joseph Stalin, #NFDB
1058:What, other than injustice, could be the reason that the displaced citizens of New Orleans cannot be accommodated by the richest nation in the world? ~ Wynton Marsalis, #NFDB
1059:I'm the same Harlow. I'm just secure in the man who loves me. I have nothing to hide from you.
That right there was the reason this woman owned me. ~ Abbi Glines,#NFDB
1060:In Will's experience, when someone who ought to be afraid wasn't, the reason was rarely bravery. Usually it meant that they knew something you didn't. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1061:Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is because I'm a Gemini. ~ Raymond M Smullyan, #NFDB
1062:The reason Americans favor milk chocolate over dark is because Milton Hershey got his bars into enough American mouths to establish our collective taste. ~ Steve Almond, #NFDB
1063:The reason a person viciously strikes out against you is because they are afraid of you or what you represent, or are resentful of your happiness. ~ Anton Szandor LaVey, #NFDB
1064:The reason we feel alienated is because the society is infantile, trivial, and stupid. So the cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation. ~ Tao Lin, #NFDB
1065:the reason we have a sweet tooth today is probably an evolved response to an almost universal truth in the plant world that anything sweet is safe to eat. ~ Mark Sisson, #NFDB
1066:The reason we think we are better than others is that inferiority still lurks within us. A sense of superiority exists because of a sense of inferiority. ~ Haemin Sunim, #NFDB
1067:The reason why truth is so hard to be revealed
is because there are so many current practices
that would soon turn into a great history of bullshit. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
1068:Upon my word, Emma, to hear you abusing the reason you have, is almost enough to make me think so too. Better be without sense than misapply it as you do. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1069:Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity. ~ Mohsen Makhmalbaf, #NFDB
1070:A vocalist joins the organ and the hum of whispers quiets—a swarm of killer bees distracted from their target as they remember the reason for their presence. ~ Lexi Ryan, #NFDB
1071:I think no virtue goes with size;The reason of all cowardiceIs, that men are overgrown,And, to be valiant, must come downTo the titmouse dimension. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1072:I think the reason working-class people don't write books is because they are encouraged to believe that only certain people are permitted to write books. ~ Len Deighton, #NFDB
1073:It's the reason I read. In books, everything can turn out well in the end."
From The Day It Rained Books in the anthology How to Marry a Billionaire ~ Katharine Ashe,#NFDB
1074:The great thing about golf - and this is the reason why a lot of health experts like me recommend it - you can drink beer and ride in a cart while you play. ~ Dave Barry, #NFDB
1075:The reason I make movies now has a lot to do with having seen Star Wars when I was seven years old. That's the formative movie-going experience of my life. ~ Chris Weitz, #NFDB
1076:The reason most people don’t arrive at a destination is they never embark. They think of all the reasons why they can’t do it, so they don’t even try.” “I ~ Jeff Wheeler, #NFDB
1077:The reason that adulation is not displeasing is that, though untrue, it shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce people to lie. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
1078:We never actively remember death,' Odenigbo said. The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die. We will all die. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
1079:And the reason everyone doesn’t use Listp is that programming languages are not merely technologies, but habits of mind as well, and nothing changes slower. ~ Paul Graham, #NFDB
1080:Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1081:Fashion takes its inspiration from society and everyday life, which is the same for everyone, and this is perhaps the reason why certain elements recur. ~ Stefano Gabbana, #NFDB
1082:I came to Houston for a job, the reason most people move halfway across the country with a first grader and a five-week-old. I came here to teach at Rice. ~ Justin Cronin, #NFDB
1083:If Im honest, the reason I got into acting is not the reason Im still doing it, and if Im still doing it in ten years time, Im sure Ill find something else. ~ Harry Lloyd, #NFDB
1084:I’m here to extract a debt. The reason for that debt will be revealed when I’m good and ready. The method of payment for that debt is entirely up to you. ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
1085:It may be that a more subtle person would find for this thing a reason of greater subtlety: but such is the reason that I find, and that liketh me best. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1086:I won’t be the reason you don’t go to him. I won’t be your excuse. You’ve got to see for yourself, or you’l never be able to let him go
Jeremiah Fisher ~ Jenny Han,#NFDB
1087:Lawrence remembered a song he’d heard from a traveling minstrel. It claimed that the reason a god needed a festival every year was because it was lonely. ~ Isuna Hasekura, #NFDB
1088:Not-to-do lists are often more effective than to-do lists for upgrading performance. The reason is simple. What you don't do determines what you can do. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1089:Part of the reason images of women in positions of authority are marked by their gender is that the very notion of authority is associated with maleness. ~ Deborah Tannen, #NFDB
1090:Part of the reason why I want to write these books is to make everybody realize that we’re all fantastic.
Sara Alexi in interview with Dario Ciriello ~ Sara Alexi,#NFDB
1091:The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home. ~ John Y Campbell, #NFDB
1092:... the reason is that a military defeat of Britain will bring about the disintegration of the British Empire. This would not be of any benefit to Germany. ~ Franz Halder, #NFDB
1093:The reason many people in our society are miserable, sick, and highly stressed is because of an unhealthy attachment to things they have no control over. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1094:The reason statins are so helpful is that even those who are trying their best to reach their target and still can't do it have something else to rely on. ~ Antonio Gotto, #NFDB
1095:Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly. ~ Mary Oliver, #NFDB
1096:Why do you wonder that globetrotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason that set you wandering is ever at your heels. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1097:Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1098:But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to “be happy.” Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. ~ Viktor E Frankl, #NFDB
1099:Fame is not the reason why brands are created and erected. Be diligent, focused and chain unceasing prayers to God who will continue giving you cheers. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1100:Gabrielle breathes, holding me close, “you're the reason I had wings, Erin. My whole life, from the beginning of time . . . I was always flying toward you. ~ Bridget Essex, #NFDB
1101:If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings. ~ Dave Barry, #NFDB
1102:I just have that sense this is the reason we got Sandra Day O'Connor on the Court in the first place is because Ronald Reagan was running for President. ~ Patricia Ireland, #NFDB
1103:I keep telling Ron Lorman and them in the control room, "It's my band! The reason I have a band is because I can't stand for somebody to tell me what to do." ~ Miles Davis, #NFDB
1104:It was as if some sadistic author was laughing at me while she turned my life inside out. Knowing my luck, that was probably the reason for this stupidity. ~ Shannon Mayer, #NFDB
1105:The love she left behind will be the reason dreams are reached. She was the rock in a world that was crumbling. Her strength will remain. It’s in our hearts. ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
1106:Then Vajpayee mentioned Gujarat. ‘Woh hamare se galti hui,’ he said. Perhaps he felt that was the reason he lost power; because he did not stop the 2002 riots. ~ A S Dulat, #NFDB
1107:There are a lot of very brilliant scholars who believe the reason we have incomplete science on evolution is that there is a higher power involved in this. ~ Bill O Reilly, #NFDB
1108:There are Millions of people in this world. Then why are you born? The reason is, Allah is expecting something from you, which is not possible by Millions. ~ Shahid Afridi, #NFDB
1109:The reason all of this is so horrible,” McVries said, “is because it’s just trivial. You know? We’ve sold ourselves and traded our souls on trivialities. ~ Richard Bachman, #NFDB
1110:The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
1111:The reason the U.S. lags so badly is that we have obsolete rules that favor big over small, supply over efficiency, and incumbents over new market entrants. ~ Amory Lovins, #NFDB
1112:The reason to get in touch with the culture is not to adopt it but to engage it for the same reasons a missionary does... to gain a hearing for the gospel. ~ Reggie McNeal, #NFDB
1113:There is a reason for everything. You might not be able to figure it out, and time might have made us all forget it, but the reason is there all the same. ~ Maria V Snyder, #NFDB
1114:you are the reason I breathe. Without you, my life would have no meaning at all, so saying that you ‘make me happy’ is a huge fucking understatement. You ~ Melissa Collins, #NFDB
1115:And I'm a slow writer: five, six hundred words is a good day. That's the reason it took me 20 years to write those million and a half words of the Civil War. ~ Shelby Foote, #NFDB
1116:And it occurs to me that maybe the reason my mother was so exhausted all the time wasn’t because she was doing so much but because she was feeling so much. ~ Kelly Corrigan, #NFDB
1117:As the observance of religious worship is the reason for the greatness of a republic, so the contempt for religious worship is the reason for its ruin. ~ Niccol Machiavelli, #NFDB
1118:Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1119:If a thing which is believed by billions is against the reason and not supported by the science, it is a great honour not to be amongst those billions! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1120:If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings.' ~ Dave Barry, #NFDB
1121:I'm like old shoes. I've never been hip. I think the reason I'm still here is that I was never enough in fashion that I had to be replaced by something new. ~ Harrison Ford, #NFDB
1122:People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos, is because things are being loved and people are being used. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1123:The mantra that you're given in Transcendental Meditation you keep to yourself. The reason being, true happiness is not out there, true happiness lies within. ~ David Lynch, #NFDB
1124:The reason we must put on the whole armor of God is to withstand evil. We don’t war against people, but against a spiritual hierarchy of invisible power. ~ Stormie Omartian, #NFDB
1125:The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1126:We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and thy're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
1127:You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles. ~ C JoyBell C, #NFDB
1128:Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we've always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1129:For five days, I had no sleep. None. I did not sleep. And the last day, the reason I lasted, I drank 20 Red Bulls, about 20 cups of coffee. I could not function. ~ Sam Farha, #NFDB
1130:I couldn’t tell him that the reason I couldn’t return to Cambridge was that being here threw into great relief every violent and degrading moment of my life. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
1131:If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits? ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
1132:I’m yours,” he says, his head falling against mine.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll be the reason you wake up smiling. That’s hero enough for me. ~ Ginger Scott,#NFDB
1133:Indeed, she often wondered if she were dead, or dying from the inside out, and that was the root of her calm, the reason she could surrender her character. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
1134:Lately I had felt buffeted by others’ emotions. Their feelings would try to take me over, and that constituted a major part of the reason I’d felt so lost lately. ~ J D Horn, #NFDB
1135:Life is not an inconvenience to the work we dream of; it’s the reason we do it in the first place. A calling does not compete with or even complement your life. ~ Jeff Goins, #NFDB
1136:People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos, is because things are being loved and people are being used. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1137:The reason Donald Trump has supporters... I can go through the list for you. The issues are border/immigration, jobs, military, "make America great again..." ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1138:The reason man does not experience his true cultural self is that until he experiences another self as valid he has little basis for validating his own self. ~ Edward T Hall, #NFDB
1139:The reason why darkness terrifying for us, he reflected, is that there remains in us the instinctive fear the primitive man had when there was as yet no light. ~ Sh saku End, #NFDB
1140:The reason why most women have so little sense of friendship is that this is but a cold and flat passion to those that have felt that of love. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1141:For me taking a pragmatic decision when it comes to art is almost an oxymoron. The reason I first picked up a pen and wrote a story had nothing pragmatic in it. ~ Etgar Keret, #NFDB
1142:I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself, to train my body for the real fear when it comes ~ John Green, #NFDB
1143:My African roots made me what I am today. They’re the reason I’m from the Dominican Republic. They’re the reason I exist at all. To these roots I owe everything. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
1144:People often ask why comedy is harder for women, and the reason is because a tampon will sometimes fall out when you're on stage. Blokes don't have that worry. ~ Jenny Eclair, #NFDB
1145:Peter Fonda is the reason I became a motorcyclist. I saw Easy Rider and I bought a motorcycle the next day, and I rode it all the way from LA to San Francisco. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
1146:There’s just one problem with feelings. They can be tremendously difficult to express in words. That’s the reason we so often resort to metaphors and analogies, ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
1147:What is the reason that women servants ... have much lower wages than men servants ... when in fact our female house servants work much harder than the male? ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
1148:You could be anybody when you're writing. That's the reason that I'm writing: to be anybody. You can put your feet in various shoes and experience anything. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1149:I don't think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don't. The reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic and emotional. ~ Richard M Nixon, #NFDB
1150:I have an economics degree with a minor in sociology. The reason I have that is because I want to do a ministry in urban areas and help with underprivileged kids. ~ Jeremy Lin, #NFDB
1151:Is it possible for anyone in Germany, nowadays, to raise his right hand, for whatever the reason, and not be flooded by the memory of a dream to end all dreams? ~ Walter Abish, #NFDB
1152:Maybe the reason some folks lag behind in our free enterprise system is because they depend too much on the free part and not enough on their own enterprise. ~ William Greider, #NFDB
1153:One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1154:Stand up; Grow up and Climb up. The reason why you can’t see farther and further is because you didn’t climb higher. Be willing to explore and be informed! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1155:That’s the reason, as your congressman, I hold the holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that. ~ Paul Broun, #NFDB
1156:The Divine of the Lord in heaven is love, for the reason that love is receptive of all things of heaven, such as peace, intelligence, wisdom and happiness ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
1157:Then she will do so, without question, because she knows that whatever the reason for his bidding, even if it be to punish her, it comes out of his love for her. ~ Lisa Valdez, #NFDB
1158:The reason governments need to violate your property in observing you is if you had true privacy, you would have a space in your home that they couldn’t control. ~ Adam Kokesh, #NFDB
1159:The reason I started officially learning to cook was because when I first got pregnant, I had to face the sad fact that I didn't even know how to boil an egg. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
1160:The reason why we believe that change is possible is not because we are idealists but because we believe we have made it, so other people can make it as well. ~ Romeo Dallaire, #NFDB
1161:The reason why we believe that change is possible is not because we are idealists but because we believe we have made it, so other people can make it as well. ~ Rom o Dallaire, #NFDB
1162:We find our happiness to the extent to which we use our minds to bless the world, for that is the natural use of the mind. It is the reason we were born. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1163:A prolonged silence ensues. The reason for the silence is our growing interest one for the other. No one is aware of it, no one yet; no one? am I quite sure? ~ Marguerite Duras, #NFDB
1164:Few things are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool; - and this is the reason why so many of mankind are miserable. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1165:For the reason, or maxim, is inevitably a proposition of some generality. It cannot embody specifications to fit every detail of the particular state of affairs. ~ Gilbert Ryle, #NFDB
1166:Here's the only thing you need to know about John: The reason I was surprised by your hand was because he never once described you as "the girl with only one hand. ~ David Wong, #NFDB
1167:I advise treating the studio audience like a nightclub audience because that's the reason you're doing television - to get them to come see you in a nightclub. ~ Franklyn Ajaye, #NFDB
1168:If an unexpected temptation comes, don't blame the one through whom it came, but seek out the reason. Thus you will find correction for your soul. ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, #NFDB
1169:Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
1170:People say the Internet's made of cats. The reason isn't because of cats; it's because people like to have an emotion where they say 'aww' all at the same time. ~ Jonah Peretti, #NFDB
1171:So that is why the extremists try to keep girls from going to school? That is the reason we are poisoned and beaten, and our teachers threatened and killed? ~ Deborah Rodriguez, #NFDB
1172:Survival is not about being fearless. It's about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
1173:The reason I don't play any of the old songs is because I really honor my old band, and I think that those songs are best served within the context of that band. ~ Billy Corgan, #NFDB
1174:The reason I spend thousands of lifetime hours creating something 99 percent of which no one else is likely to ever read is that writing itself is the gift. ~ Christina Baldwin, #NFDB
1175:The reason I talk so much about the middle class is it's the glue that holds America together. It really is. And we don't speak enough to their legitimate concerns. ~ Joe Biden, #NFDB
1176:The reason most of the children are having problems in any inner-city neighborhood is because they don't see enough positive role models in their own environment. ~ Marla Gibbs, #NFDB
1177:The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
1178:Whatever the reason, he reluctantly pulls the cushions from the back of my couch. He pauses, looking like he’s about to change his mind. Then he slides in behind me. ~ Susan Ee, #NFDB
1179:You don't see people in prison treating each other the way people do on the outside, and the reason is that if you're rude to somebody in prison, you get killed. ~ Sonny Barger, #NFDB
1180:You’re the fuckin’ meaning of breathing for me. You’re the reason I get out of bed each day and fuck, if that’s love, I am gonna hang onto it and never let it go. ~ Bella Jewel, #NFDB
1181:And this the reason of his high unease,
Because he came from the infinities
To build immortally with mortal things; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, In the Moonlight,#NFDB
1182:Before you begin your habitual routine, take a moment to identify the reason behind your morning habits, and acknowledge each action with gratitude and appreciation. ~ S J Scott, #NFDB
1183:He is dark and quiet and completely different from me, which is exactly why I should put distance between us. But it is also the reason I find him so fascinating. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1184:I like my life. I've had a good life. I think the reason is my parents taught me that life is a burden. But if you take it one day at a time, it's an easy burden. ~ Andrew Young, #NFDB
1185:I like your mom," Adam said as they watched her walk away.
"She's a saint."
"Jake," his father called.
"And that's the reason why," Jake murmured. ~ Sarah Addison Allen,#NFDB
1186:I was such a quiet kid, so shy and calm and in my own head. Of course I knew about being sad. Maybe that's the reason I saved all the things I thought were pretty. ~ Nina LaCour, #NFDB
1187:Multiple Personality Barbie. She’s elegant, she’s fashionable, and she’s the reason that Ken has no genitals! Have fun, but remember to hide the sharp stuff! ~ Christopher Moore, #NFDB
1188:The reason I don't want anyone to control me is not because I want to be in control. I don't want anyone to control me because I don't want anyone to control anyone. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
1189:The reason we have so many problems with our sexuality now is because so many of us have self-hatred and self-disgust, and so we treat ourselves and others badly. ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
1190:The reason we struggle in relationships, marriage, and sex is because we are sinners. Therefore, the antidote for our sin must be the antidote for our struggles. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
1191:The reason why clutter clearing is effective is that while you are putting your external world in order there are corresponding changes going on internally too. ~ Karen Kingston, #NFDB
1192:The reason why Schubert is celebrated so much today, lies rather in the fact that there has been nobody else like him - not before him, not after him. ~ Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, #NFDB
1193:There is a reason for everything, Opal. You might not be able to figure it out, and time might have made us all forget it, but the reason is there all the same. ~ Maria V Snyder, #NFDB
1194:Without the interplay of human against human, the chief interest in life is gone; most of the intellectual values are gone; most of the reason for living is gone. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
1195:You're the reason I get out of bed every night. And you're the reason I can't wait to come home every dawn. Not the war. Not the Brothers. Not even Butch. It's...you. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
1196:Most of the reason I work out now is not for the external - it's for how I feel. I find working out gives me more energy. I started eight days after he was born. ~ Cindy Crawford, #NFDB
1197:She knew Pa was the reason they all left; what she wondered was why no one took her with them. She’d thought of leaving too, but had nowhere to go and no bus money. ~ Delia Owens, #NFDB
1198:The reason for the slow progress of the world seems to lie in a single fact. Every man is born under the yoke, and grows up beneath the oppressions of his age. ~ John Jay Chapman, #NFDB
1199:The reason I am so passionately committed to the psychedelic thing is because I see it as radical, and if this is not the moment for radical solutions, what is? ~ Terence McKenna, #NFDB
1200:the reason that you exercise is actually more important than the exercises that you do perform. The reason can promote your good health or actually impede it. Thus ~ Jane Roberts, #NFDB
1201:This is the reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little you might come to know me better there".
-Aslan, Voyage of the Dawn Treader ~ C S Lewis,#NFDB
1202:Democracy feeds on argument, on the discussion as to the right way forward. This is the reason why respecting the opinion of others belongs to democracy. ~ Richard von Weizsaecker, #NFDB
1203:I love reading people. I really enjoy watching, observing, and being able to figure out a person, the reason they wore that dress, the reason they smell the way they do. ~ Rihanna, #NFDB
1204:I made education the highest priority of my campaign - actually education and jobs - and the reason is a simple one: I think the future of America depends on it. ~ Charles Schumer, #NFDB
1205:Lynda Carter, I think the reason I liked her was because she was so down to earth. Even though she was a big star and she was Miss America, she was very approachable. ~ Thuy Trang, #NFDB
1206:Morality established from Science is the key to understanding Coexistence.
Science based on Morality is the reason we have prejudice for things we don't understand. ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
1207:My work has always been important to me. The reason I continue to do it is because it's so much fun for me. I love my work and so that's what keeps me in the game. ~ Harrison Ford, #NFDB
1208:People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1209:We're just getting better at our trade, man. We know what we're doing, and the reason why is that we've spent 30 years doing it. There's nothing that can replace that. ~ Alan Vega, #NFDB
1210:But how could she tell him that the reason she always acted so disinterested in everything was because of the worry that she herself wasn't all that interesting? ~ Jennifer E Smith, #NFDB
1211:But the point of using the number was to show that sex was a great part of my life as basketball was a great part of my life. That's the reason why I was single. ~ Wilt Chamberlain, #NFDB
1212:Christianity has basically communicated to men that the reason God put you on this Earth is to be a good boy. Mind your manners, be a nice guy. That's soul killing! ~ John Eldredge, #NFDB
1213:If the reason people invest is to make money, then in seeking advice they are asking others to tell them how to make money. That idea has some element of naïveté. ~ Benjamin Graham, #NFDB
1214:I think that the reason for my success is that I am really not aspirational. I am inspirational in that the people at home feel like they can really relate to me. ~ Rosie O Donnell, #NFDB
1215:Never climb the tree with the reason of plucking a fruit; only to get there and pick a leaf. Let everything you get there to do be done and let it be done well! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1216:One of the occupational hazards of being an actor, the reason why so many actors are insecure, is that the only way we know we're good is when other people tell us. ~ David Oyelowo, #NFDB
1217:Self-hate is also part of the reason people in her neighborhood do not speak to each other about the impact of incarceration on their families and their lives. ~ Michelle Alexander, #NFDB
1218:The driving force that gets people to pay a specialist is that their disease is unpredictable or hard to diagnose. The reason we’re here is to solve the hard problems. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
1219:The reason fiber helps us control our weight is that it fills the belly yet yields few calories since fiber is, for the most part, not something that we can digest. ~ Kathy Freston, #NFDB
1220:The reason why you don't put your hand in the fire is not because of fear, it's because you know you'll get burned. You don't need fear to avoid unnecessary danger. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1221:There have been many different artists that have been inspirational. I suppose the question is directed to what was the reason why I went into fantasy illustration. ~ Boris Vallejo, #NFDB
1222:You’ve always made me feel as though the reason I was born…was so I could find you, love you, and that you could love me in return. I believe that with all my heart. ~ Raine Miller, #NFDB
1223:For me, my faith is the reason I run. I definitely feel I have this amazing gift that God has blessed me with, and it's all about using it to the best of my ability. ~ Allyson Felix, #NFDB
1224:I grew up in a Hollywood family with money, so money is not the reason I make music. I'm as Hollywood as it gets. Not internally but externally - that's my bloodline. ~ Robin Thicke, #NFDB
1225:I had an art teacher who's the reason I got there in high school who encouraged me to go to Alabama. That's where she had gone and kept raving over their art department. ~ Sela Ward, #NFDB
1226:I think the reason why more rapists go into the military is the same reason why predators go into the Catholic Church. It's a place they know they can get away with it. ~ Bill Maher, #NFDB
1227:Lack can greatly be the reason for our conscious and unconscious steps in life. Mind what you lack, move for what is a must and be happy with what you have! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
1228:Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
1229:People were created to be loved.
Things were created to be used.
The reason why the world is in chaos, is because things are being loved en people are being used. ~ John Green,#NFDB
1230:That is - the reason for that is that home prices are only going to go up. Now, they've never gone down nationwide in our - since we've been keeping track of this. ~ Franklin Raines, #NFDB
1231:That the reason life is so strange is that we have simply no idea what is around the next corner, and it was an obvious idea but one most of us had learned to forget. ~ Colum McCann, #NFDB
1232:Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” Thinking is not only hard—it’s the single most important thing in life. ~ Darius Foroux, #NFDB
1233:What are they after?” Kat asked. “Hard to say,” Hale said; again, he eyed the room. “Who is that?” Macey asked. “The reason I wasn’t flirting with you,” Hale told her. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
1234:Why were they prepaying so fast? Vinny asked himself. “It made no sense to me. Then I saw that the reason the prepayments were so high is that they were involuntary. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
1235:You see what happens in college and high school games today - a three-point shot or a dunk. I think that's the reason that you see a lot of that in the pros today. ~ Oscar Robertson, #NFDB
1236:But the main reason Scanners are different from others, and the reason they get noticed for not sticking to anything, is because they learn faster than almost anybody. ~ Barbara Sher, #NFDB
1237:But the reason we fly from the city is not in reality that it is not poetical; it is that its poetry is too fierce, too fascinating and too practical in its demands. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
1238:I don't think happiness is necessarily the reason we're here. I think we're here to learn and evolve, and the pursuit of knowledge is what alleviates the pain of being human. ~ Sting, #NFDB
1239:I like being put in embarrassing positions because it's the reason why I wanted to be an actress. I want to try different things and things that make me uncomfortable. ~ Lizzy Caplan, #NFDB
1240:It's said that people who give excuses for the reason not do something always formulate those excuses, waiting for the reason to surface to justify their excuses! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1241:Look, the reason is security, a subconscious need for security. I had a rotten childhood. Two bottles at once fills a void that needs filling. Maybe. I'm not sure. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
1242:Lucifer's name means light and the reason they threw him out of heaven and he became the biggest devil and not the biggest saint anymore was what he did with language. ~ Eileen Myles, #NFDB
1243:Singing in the midst of evil is what it means to be disciples. Like Mary Magdalene, the reason we can stand and weep and listen for Jesus is because we, like Mary, ~ Nadia Bolz Weber, #NFDB
1244:There are many people who have big plans but their big plans never come true. The reason is, too many people have big plans but fail to keep their small agreements. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
1245:The reason that the unions and the other stakeholders have not cut a deal with the automakers is because they believe the federal government is going to bail them out. ~ Tim Pawlenty, #NFDB
1246:There is not a single person alive who could keep a straight face and say "Oh yeah it's healthy, the reason I use drugs and alcohol and booze is because it's healthy!" ~ Gene Simmons, #NFDB
1247:Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful
fire! More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing—the reason they can fly. ~ Mary Oliver,#NFDB
1248:(Baseball’s a dull game, really; that’s the reason that it is so good. We do not love the game so much as we love the sprawl and drowse and shirt-sleeved apathy of it.) ~ Thomas Wolfe, #NFDB
1249:Dr. Phil never talked about Smyrna and left the room if anyone did. He never mentioned his murdered sons and daughters. Maybe this was the reason for his survival. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides, #NFDB
1250:I think the reason I don't read is because, when I'm reading, I feel like I'm missing out on something else. You know, What are my friends doing? Where's my girlfriend? ~ Adam Sandler, #NFDB
1251:One of the ironies of courage, and the reason why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for someone else than we do for ourselves alone. ~ Gregory David Roberts, #NFDB
1252:The deepest reason why the Church is weak and the world is dying is that there are not enough saints. No, that's not quite honest. The reason is that WE are not saints. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
1253:The reason I'm disabled is because I have wounds and injuries that I got while on active duty ... from parachute jumping to combat to gunshot wounds, all that stuff. ~ Richard Carmona, #NFDB
1254:The reason I trust so much is that I don't feel like I have anything to hide. If somebody betrays that trust, it could never be so bad, because I don't keep any secrets. ~ Kate Hudson, #NFDB
1255:The reason they were designated as targets was to keep them from the witness stand and us. Is it just a coincidence that four years later they haven't been indicted ~ Randi Weingarten, #NFDB
1256:The reason why I play around with the word legend is because this is my 7th CD and a lot of artists don't even make it that far. Many artists don't even pass three or four. ~ Ginuwine, #NFDB
1257:If you have the ability to love, love yourself first, but always be aware of the possibility of total defeat whether the reason for that defeat seems right or wrong. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
1258:I suppose the reason why I like acting is because I'm curious about human nature, and the less I know about a character on the page, instinctively, in a way, the better. ~ Rebecca Hall, #NFDB
1259:Man is not and cannot be wholly governed either in his thought or his action by the reason alone. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Supramental Instruments - Thought-Process, #NFDB
1260:One secret of life is that the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. Another secret is that laughter is carbonated holiness ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
1261:Part of the reason we're all committed to coordinated stimulus is we want to stimulate the global economy. We're in a global economy, not just our national economies.p ~ Stephen Harper, #NFDB
1262:The reason Agatha had never married was that when she was young and had the opportunities she hadn’t felt the need, and later, feeling the need, she had no opportunities. ~ Jon Hassler, #NFDB
1263:The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience. [On diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China] ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
1264:The reason I didn't like cocaine is it made me do stupid things, have stupid conversations, and stay awake until 11 o'clock in the morning unable to think, read, sleep or speak. ~ Moby, #NFDB
1265:The reason our evangelistic endeavors result in more recycling than actual conversion is that our methods and approaches assume non-Christian rather than post-Christian. ~ Andy Stanley, #NFDB
1266:The reason that I'm an actor, or an artist, is ultimately because I'm trying to paint a self-portrait, and the most complete and beautiful self-portrait that you can. ~ Terrence Howard, #NFDB
1267:The reason why a man cannot stop staring at a woman ass is only because God has spent 80 percent of his time and efforts on woman ass and 20 percent on her entire body. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
1268:The reason why there's such a rigid repression of the mentally ill is the psyche of humanity senses something. It senses that it doesn't want to deal with the unknown. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1269:But a small part of him also knew that the reason he'd never ventured anywhere was because of the worry that the reality of the world wouldn't match up to his dreams. ~ Jennifer E Smith, #NFDB
1270:I am not promiscuous with my warmth, but when I share it, my warmth can be as hot as the sun. 74 Part of the reason relationships and friendships can be so difficult for me ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
1271:I've played lots of villains in my time and I think the reason they've been so successful is that they're not two-dimensional. They're not black and white. That's the gig. ~ Mark Strong, #NFDB
1272:I was in the Commons recently and saw a young lady wearing a nice pair of shoes. I said I liked them and she said my shoes were the reason she became involved in politics. ~ Theresa May, #NFDB
1273:Mathematicians grow very old; it is a healthy profession. The reason you live long is that you have pleasant thoughts. Math and physics are very pleasant things to do. ~ Dirk Jan Struik, #NFDB
1274:One day I might figure it out, the reason fate hated me, Isabelle West. But, until that day I damn sure will be careful with my dreams and my plans; my heart and my soul. ~ Harper Sloan, #NFDB
1275:One secret of life is that the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. Another secret is that laughter is carbonated holiness. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
1276:The major two differences between humans and animals are the language and the reason for killing each other, one does it for hunger, the other for power, hatred and greed. ~ Shikha Kaul, #NFDB
1277:The reason everyone thinks all frogs go “ribbit” is that “ribbit” is the distinctive call of the Pacific tree frog (Hyla regilla). This is the frog that lives in Hollywood. ~ John Lloyd, #NFDB
1278:The reason for this is that the problem of distinguishing what we are and what we are not responsible for in this life is one of the greatest problems of human existence. ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
1279:The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The best manual we have. The most useful guide to the country we're visiting, life. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1280:The reason of idleness and of crime is the deferring of our hopes. Whilst we are waiting, we beguile the time with jokes, with sleep, with eating, and with crimes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1281:The reason we tend to support Republicans is they're taking us toward the cliff at only 70 miles per hour miles an hour and the Democrats are taking us 100 miles an hour. ~ Charles Koch, #NFDB
1282:There's good and bad in every arena. It's funny, some people, the reason they're in the underground is because they're lazy and don't make things happen for themselves. ~ Shepard Fairey, #NFDB
1283:There's two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither one works. Will Rogers The reason that there are so few women comics is that so few women can bear being laughed at. ~ Anna Russell, #NFDB
1284:and now Xander is dead because of you.” “You’re blaming me?” she said. “But I didn’t kill him—” “You didn’t hack him into little pieces, but you’re the reason it happened. ~ Aimee Carter, #NFDB
1285:If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be: “meetings.” —DAVE BARRY ~ David Allen, #NFDB
1286:Short time here, long time gone. The reason to try to be good, smart, kind, and on the side of angels is because it's more fun and because there really aren't any angels. ~ Mark Vonnegut, #NFDB
1287:Shug say, What, too shamefaced to put singing and dancing and fucking together? She laugh. That’s the reason they call what us sing the devil’s music. Devils love to fuck. ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
1288:The reason educational spending in Texas is so low is because you don't have a state tax there, and that's why Texas is big growth because you don't tax people to death. ~ Kinky Friedman, #NFDB
1289:The reason I love comics more than anything else is that the longest story will be just a few pages. With a novel, it takes so many pages to get to one thing happening. ~ Sergio Aragones, #NFDB
1290:The reason I wrote political satire was because I thought it - politics - was important... that public policy was important. Then I transitioned into books, then into radio. ~ Al Franken, #NFDB
1291:The reason of the close concurrence between the individuals progress and that of the race appears, therefore, when we remember the dependence of each upon the other. ~ James Mark Baldwin, #NFDB
1292:The reason positive thinking alone does not work is because most people went to school and never learned how money works, so they spend their lives working for money. ~ Robert T Kiyosaki, #NFDB
1293:The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other, but to be with each other.
It's easy to get outside yourself when you're thinking about someone else. ~ Christopher McDougall,#NFDB
1294:You know, Jacob, if it weren’t for the fact that we’re natural enemies and that you’re also trying to steal away the reason for my existence, I might actually like you. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
1295:(advice to his children)
Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world. ~ William Penn,#NFDB
1296:But understand that the reason it is so difficult to extend forgiveness to those who have failed us is because we are unable to receive forgiveness for our own failures. ~ Emily P Freeman, #NFDB
1297:I realize that those who have loved us are never really gone. They live on in all the ones we love and all the ways we love. They are the reason we know how to love at all. ~ Lisa Wingate, #NFDB
1298:New preoccupations take the place of the old, hope excites more hope and ambition more ambition. They do not look for an end to their misery, but simply change the reason for it. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1299:The reason I started writing movies was because I kept getting parts that I just kind of stepped into. I didn't have to do a lot of work and I ended up getting sort of bored. ~ Scott Caan, #NFDB
1300:The reason that democracies always defeat dictatorships is because they're open to debate. We should never allow Washington to say, 'Shut up, get in line and wave the flag.' ~ Ralph Nader, #NFDB
1301:The reason the American people don't trust Hillary Clinton is they're looking at the pay to play politics she operated with the Clinton foundation through the private server. ~ Mike Pence, #NFDB
1302:The reason why there is more pessimism about technology in Europe has to do with history, the use of databases to keep track of people in the camps, ecological disasters. ~ Evgeny Morozov, #NFDB
1303:The riskiness of Art, the reason why it affects us, is not the riskiness of its subject matter, it is the risk of creating a new way of seeing, a new way of thinking. ~ Jeanette Winterson, #NFDB
1304:The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: life is not fair. Forget all the garbage your parents put out. Remember Morgenstern. You’ll be a lot happier. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
1305:When a city is inundated with water, the water will move in all of the streets. Every pathway that has been made will be used. It doesn’t matter the reason of its making. ~ John de Ruiter, #NFDB
1306:All witches who'd lived in her cottage were bookish types. They thought you could see life through books but you couldn't, the reason being that the words got in the way. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1307:A man does not wonder at what he sees frequently, even though he be ignorant of the reason. If anything happens which he has not seen before, he calls it a prodigy. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
1308:Augustine does not disagree with this when he teaches that it is a faculty of the reason and the will to choose good with the assistance of grace; evil, when grace is absent. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1309:donald justice:
i often wonder about the others,
where they are bound for on the voyage, what is the reason for their silence,
was there some reason to go away? ~ Donald Justice,#NFDB
1310:I was really shocked that Madison Square Garden sold out in a day. It was very amazing. But the reason we got back together is because the fans wanted us to get back together. ~ Vince Neil, #NFDB
1311:Our days are like identical suitcases. Even though they are all the same size, some people are able to pack more into them then others. The reason? They know what to pack. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
1312:Some people claim that expectations are the reason for unhappiness. However, I can assure you from personal experience that you’ll suffer greatly by setting subpar targets. ~ Grant Cardone, #NFDB
1313:The reason I started with prostitutes was solely to work on my negotiating skills. Once I mastered negotiating with naked women, dealing with Interscope was a piece of cake. ~ Rivers Cuomo, #NFDB
1314:What is guilt? Guilt is the pledge drive constantly hammering in our heads that keeps us from fully enjoying the show. Guilt is the reason they put the articles in Playboy. ~ Dennis Miller, #NFDB
1315:When bad things turn good, the reason can usually be found in the human heart—sometimes in the hearts of great masses of people, sometimes in the heart of a solitary soul. ~ Jerry Spinelli, #NFDB
1316:Baby,” he murmurs, gripping me and hurling me up and into his chest. He wraps his big arms around me, and nestles his face into my hair. “You are the reason I fuckin’ breathe. ~ Bella Jewel, #NFDB
1317:Hopefully people are upset for the reason I want them to be upset. Even when I was doing open mics, I've always had people upset. I've never been the consummate crowd-pleaser. ~ David Cross, #NFDB
1318:I believe the reason many Christians are so dull and lifeless in their faith is because they are not in the battle, not using their weapons, not advancing against the enemy. ~ George Verwer, #NFDB
1319:I think if you run away from who you are, that you're a Democrat and you're proud to be a Democrat, it's foolish. And the reason it's foolish is you've got a lot to be proud of. ~ Tim Kaine, #NFDB
1320:It is observable that the ladies frequent tragedies more than comedies; the reason may be, that in tragedy their sex is deified and adored, in comedy exposed and ridiculed. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
1321:My audience is a diehard audience. They are dedicated. My audience always follows me and sticks with me. They're the reason I'm still here - in the films and in stand-ups. ~ Martin Lawrence, #NFDB
1322:People ask me why I use words and the reason, of course, is that words talk to you. I mean, they're something that are generated inside of you and that you can relate to you. ~ Robert Barry, #NFDB
1323:Political experts are saying the reason John Kerry is doing so well is because he's 'electable.' Hey, so was Al Gore - in fact, he even got elected and it didn't help him at all. ~ Jay Leno, #NFDB
1324:The opinion of the majority or the minority is of no importance! The important thing is the opinion of the Truth, of the Reason, of the Logic, of the High Intelligence! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1325:The reason America is a special nation is because it was founded by people who were first on their knees before they were on their feet. We are a nation rooted in our faith. ~ Mike Huckabee, #NFDB
1326:The reason he wouldn’t be drawn into political or even theological debate was that he was indifferent to other people’s opinions and felt no urge to engage with or oppose them. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
1327:Clare, this…what we’re doing? It has to be all or nothing. And I want all of you. When you cry, I want to be the one holding you. No matter the reason. So please, let me hold you. ~ J L Berg, #NFDB
1328:Every time I am fearful I think to myself, the reason they do this is to discourage me from doing what I do. Hence, if I discontinue my work I will have succumbed to my fears. ~ Shirin Ebadi, #NFDB
1329:I write about African women, that's really my topic. I have no shame or qualm in it because it's a very underrepresented topic, which is part of the reason I started to write. ~ Danai Gurira, #NFDB
1330:Never let anything come in between you and your Passion. Let negative people and backstabbers be the reason you put wood into your Fire and Motivate you to reach Above and Beyond ~ Arsi Nami, #NFDB
1331:That was all he said, except for "Aaaeerrgghhh." Which is not really a word. But the reason that he screamed "Aaaeerrgghhh" was that Franco had bitten him savegly on the wrist. ~ Eoin Colfer, #NFDB
1332:The reason I entered the election race was to promote reforms. For us who engage in business, we will be severely affected if financial and structural reforms don't proceed. ~ Takafumi Horie, #NFDB
1333:The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. ~ Marcel Pagnol, #NFDB
1334:The reason so many people do not pray is because of its cost. The cost is not so much in the sweat of agonizing supplication as in the daily fidelity to the life of prayer. ~ Samuel Chadwick, #NFDB
1335:The reason that Apple is able to create products like iPad is because we always try to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both. ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
1336:The reason we need words to define our hearts is that our hearts are lonely, vulnerable, bare and beating things, and sometimes, they do not always know truth unless they hear it. ~ Amy Lane, #NFDB
1337:The sage is still not because he takes stillness to be good and therefore is still. The ten thousand things are insufficient to distract his mind - that is the reason he is still. ~ Zhuangzi, #NFDB
1338:After about ten seconds, we even get irate and hostile at being stared at. This is the reason why the original picture phone was such a flop. Also, who wants to have to comb one’s ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1339:Flora had decided that this was part of the reason her parents had divorced. Not the noise of the writing, but the writing itself. Specifically, the writing of romance. Flora ~ Kate DiCamillo, #NFDB
1340:If consumers have everything they need, there’s nothing left to buy except stuff that they want. And the reason they buy stuff they want is because of the way it makes them feel. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
1341:My son is everything to me. He's the reason why I get up and I work out the way I work out and train the way that I train. He changed everything about me, so he was a blessing. ~ Derrick Rose, #NFDB
1342:Now, there's tremendous waste, fraud and abuse beyond what anyone would understand, and while this is not the reason I do it, the Democrats are going to leave it the way it is. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1343:One Universe made up of all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of Being, and one Law, the Reason, shared by all thinking creatures, and one Truth. MARCUS AURELIUS ~ Brian Tracy, #NFDB
1344:The fights I fought... cost a lot --the fight for the assault-weapons ban cost 20 members their seats in Congress. The NRA is the reason the Republicans control the House. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
1345:The reason people fail to reach their goals is because they give up too early. They don't understand that most successes are built upon foundations of multiple attempts. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
1346:We can contemplate the meaning of your life all you want, but know that you’re my meaning…the reason behind just about everything I do—and I would never want to change that. ~ Rebecca Donovan, #NFDB
1347:When I was just a little young boy, Papa said Son, you'll never get far, I'll tell you the reason if you want to know, 'cause child of mine, there isn't really very far to go. ~ Robert Hunter, #NFDB
1348:[A]s a psychotherapist I do not by any means try to deliver my patients from fear. Rather, I lead them to the reason for their fear, and then it becomes clear that it is justified. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1349:Customers are the reason we open our doors every day, and keep the machines humming all night long. Customers determine what we eat, where we live, whether we stay in business. ~ Harvey Mackay, #NFDB
1350:Don’t try to prove to everybody that the reason why you can’t is that nobody could. It’s no excuse. You can break the tradition by being the first person to make it happen! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1351:For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
1352:I believe the reason is that while girls have fantasies about meeting their dream stud in a coffee shop or bookstore, no girl dreams about meeting a guy on some random street corner. ~ Roosh V, #NFDB
1353:I mean the reason the sit-down strikes struck such fear in the hearts of management was that they knew that a sit-down strike was just one step short of taking over the factory. ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
1354:In those moments when we start putting other voices in front of our own, we forget what made us go into the arena in the first place, the reason we’re there. We forget our values. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1355:I personally hold Blair more responsible for this war than I do George Bush. The reason is, Blair knows better, Blair is not an idiot. What is he doing hanging around this guy? ~ Michael Moore, #NFDB
1356:I see that you believe these things because I tell you them; but you do not know the reason for them and therefore, in spite of being believed, their meaning is still hidden. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1357:I think it's important to be sincere. And I could be the most sincere just staying in [my] mother language actually. And that's the reason why I stay composing and writing in French. ~ Stromae, #NFDB
1358:It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1359:My own tastes happen to be in tune with what the public wants. I think that's the reason my batting average is so high, not because I've discovered some brilliant formula. ~ Cameron Mackintosh, #NFDB
1360:No, the reason he didn’t fear death was because he had accepted his place—minuscule as an atom, insignificant as a mayfly—in a mystery and a miracle beyond full comprehension. ~ Robert Masello, #NFDB
1361:She and I had not exchanged an intelligent word since we first met five hours before, and the reason was readily explained: Mrs Tiffen was dead, and had been for several years. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
1362:The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1363:The reason most of us fail to achieve real and sustainable change in our lives is because we focus too much on the desired outcome and not enough on the progress we are making. ~ Matthew Kelly, #NFDB
1364:The reason we wouldn't make a seven-inch tablet isn't because we don't want to hit a price point, it's because we don't think you can make a great tablet with a seven-inch screen. ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
1365:But a fact is like a sack which won't stand up when it is empty. In order that it may stand up, one has to put into it the reason and sentiment which have caused it to exist. ~ Luigi Pirandello, #NFDB
1366:In all discussions of Hell we should keep steadily before our eyes the possible damnation, not of our enemies nor our friends (since both these disturb the reason) but of ourselves. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1367:I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself to train my body for real fear when it comes. But I am not prepared. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1368:It is almost impossible to write fiction about the Mormons, for the reason that Mormon institutions and Mormon society are so peculiar that they call for constant explanation. ~ Wallace Stegner, #NFDB
1369:It's what we're made for. It's what got us here. It's the reason I have this car to hide under. We are human. And humans thin. They plan. They dream, and they make the dream real. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1370:Japanese traditional architecture is created based on these conditions. This is the reason you have a very high degree of connection between the outside and inside in architecture. ~ Tadao Ando, #NFDB
1371:Maybe I naively subscribed to the foolish notion that my love could save him. Whatever the reason, I entered the room and sank to the carpet beside that sad and broken boy. ~ A Meredith Walters, #NFDB
1372:Steuben explained to his friend, “You say to your soldier, ‘Do this,’ and he does it; but I am obliged to say, ‘This is the reason why you ought to do that,’ and then he does it. ~ Sarah Vowell, #NFDB
1373:The reason “belonging” was so potent, so attractive, so much a part of the human yearning, was that it also meant safety, and loyalty. If you were “one of us” you were protected. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
1374:The reason why feral kitties are hard to tame is because they have missed socialization the period - you need to be touching and petting those kittens when they are real young. ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
1375:We can contemplate the meaning of your life all you want, but know that you're my meaning...the reason behind just about everything I do-and i would never want to change that. ~ Rebecca Donovan, #NFDB
1376:We can contemplate the meaning of your life all you want, but now that you're my meaning... the reason behind just about everything I do-and I would never want to change that. ~ Rebecca Donovan, #NFDB
1377:What are they after?” Kat asked.
“Hard to say,” Hale said; again, he eyed the room.
“Who is that?” Macey asked.
“The reason I wasn’t flirting with you,” Hale told her. ~ Ally Carter,#NFDB
1378:Yeah, Silver and his math are jokes, because math has a liberal bias. After all, math is the reason Mitt Romney's tax plan doesn't add up. ~ Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report (2012-11-05)[3]., #NFDB
1379:"You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,- Now tell me the reason I pray." ~ Robert Southey, #NFDB
1380:But the motion to keep the planet going in a straight line has no known reason. The reason why things coast for ever has never been found out. The law of inertia has no known origin. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1381:Every day some new fact comes to light - some new obstacle which threatens the gravest obstruction. I suppose this is the reason which makes the game so well worth playing. ~ Robert Falcon Scott, #NFDB
1382:I actually think that craft service was the reason I got into acting: the free food. I literally remember on my first job being like, "Yes! I get to have craft service every day!" ~ Blake Lively, #NFDB
1383:I am doing my best to find it. I will find it before the public finds it. I will get out of it before it's too late. The reason I will do that is because that's what I'm paid to do. ~ Jim Cramer, #NFDB
1384:I was in need of some community," she said. "I think that's the reason so many women bloggers start blogging, just to find someone out there who knows what they're going through. ~ Emily Matchar, #NFDB
1385:Now that I think about it, this might all have been inevitable. The reason we all ended up here, the reason I couldn't leave her alone...it all had to be a ridiculous fairy tale. ~ Jun Mochizuki, #NFDB
1386:Part of the reason why I've never said that I was gay until now was because I didn't want that adjective assigned to my name for all of eternity. You know, gay Rosie O'Donnell. ~ Rosie O Donnell, #NFDB
1387:The reason for not going out and sinning all you like is the same as the reason for not going out and putting your nose in a slicing machine: it's dumb, stupid, and no fun. ~ Robert Farrar Capon, #NFDB
1388:The reason I make that distinction cassette before CD is you have to listen to it in the order in which I've curated it for you. You know, side A to side B is our act break. ~ Lin Manuel Miranda, #NFDB
1389:The reason I'm keeping her secret for her, pretending that I don't know she's a girl is because I don't want to lose her. And that's exactly why I can't let her know that I know. ~ Hisaya Nakajo, #NFDB
1390:The reason so many innovations and inventions were abandoned or even outlawed in China had to do with Confucian opposition to change on grounds that the past was greatly superior. ~ Rodney Stark, #NFDB
1391:We must beware of whatever insights we have into ourselves. Our self-knowledge annoys and paralyzes our daimon-this is where we should look for the reason Socrates wrote nothing. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
1392:You will have to be,” Isabelle said. “For Sophie.” Vianne drew in a breath. And there it was. The reason she couldn’t eat a bowl of arsenic or throw herself in front of a train. ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
1393:Even among familiar faces, people often feel invisible and desolate, like an island in cold waters or a shadow apart from the crowd. Be the reason another never feels alone. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
1394:I have this idea that the reason we have dreams is that we’re thinking about things that we don’t know we’re thinking about—and those things, well, they sneak out of us in our dreams. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1395:In other localities certain places in the streams are much better than others, but at Niagara one place is just as good as another, for the reason that the fish do not bite anywhere. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1396:I prefer a kind of sweet, deep, rich prayer in which a person goes in and says, Take me down deep into the reason you gave me life. Take me down deep. It silences the chaos in me. ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
1397:I think the reason they are my relatives now is they are from my country too - it's like the country has become a real family since we are in America, which is not our country ~ NoViolet Bulawayo, #NFDB
1398:Look, if the reason you two aren't speaking doesn't make sense, then the reason you contact him again doesn't have to make sense, either. If nothing makes sense, act accordingly. ~ Bernard Cooper, #NFDB
1399:My screenplays are very detailed. The reason they're detailed... you have to think on your feet. You have to be ready to change because there are no such things as ideal conditions. ~ Deepa Mehta, #NFDB
1400:Of course, you don't turn into a shit just because you buy a Mercedes-600. It's the other way round: the reason you can afford to buy a Mercedes-600 is that you turn into a shit. ~ Victor Pelevin, #NFDB
1401:The reason a person is in a particular state of mind is primarily because of attraction and aversion. Attraction and aversion cause us to format a mental or intellectual program. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1402:The reason God responds to persistence is because prayer is changing the one who prays. As we pray, God is making us spiritually fit to receive what He is already willing to do. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
1403:The reason is obvious. You're my grandfather, okay. Like it or not, you're who you are and i'm who i am. And i'm here right now, so what are we going to do about it? -Adam Cayhall- ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
1404:The reason that I like SF and fantasy and horror is that to me it's the pulp wing of surrealism. That's the aesthetic of undermining and creative alienation that I really go for. ~ China Mieville, #NFDB
1405:But the point is this Monsieur...the reason why Madame complains of you is not because of the immorality in itself; but because, so she tells me, you make immorality delicious. ~ Daphne du Maurier, #NFDB
1406:Fool: The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
King Lear: Because they are not eight?
Fool: Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
1407:I get out, I get out of all your boxes. I get out, you can't hold me in these chains. I'll get out. Father free me from this bondage. Knowin' my condition is the reason I must change ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1408:I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself,to train my body for the real fear when it comes. But I'm not prepared. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1409:It's the reason we say "pork" and "beef" instead of "pig" and "cow." Dissection and surgical instruction, like meat-eating, require a carefully maintained set of illusions and denial. ~ Mary Roach, #NFDB
1410:Oh shut up,’ I said. ‘It’s still Dan. He’s hardly the father of my children, is he? He’s the bloke you call after you’ve been to the doctor to ask if he’s the reason you’re itching. ~ Lindsey Kelk, #NFDB
1411:The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1412:The reason we're often not there for others - whether for our child or our mother or someone who is insulting us or someone who frightens us - is that we're not there for ourselves. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1413:The reason why I buy into the Democratic Party more than the Republican Party is because there are over 2,000 verses of Scripture that deal with responding to the needs of the poor. ~ Tony Campolo, #NFDB
1414:There was good reason for the silence of the Holy Spirit as to how,when, in what form Christ ordained the apostles, the reason being to show the indifferency of all forms of words. ~ John Wycliffe, #NFDB
1415:The solution to Iraq - an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself - is more than a military mission. Precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1416:We can contemplate the meaning of your life all you want, but know that you're my meaning... the reason behind just about everything I do - and I would never want to change that. ~ Rebecca Donovan, #NFDB
1417:But if I've heard this saying once, I've heard it a thousand times- everything happens for a reason. And possibly it does. I just haven't found the reason that this all happened yet. ~ Jerry Lawler, #NFDB
1418:Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things ~ Alexander Hamilton, #NFDB
1419:Heaven isn’t a place for people who are scared of hell; it’s for people who love Jesus. The reason heaven is heavenly—full of joy, life, and bliss—is because we’ll be with Jesus. ~ Jefferson Bethke, #NFDB
1420:I am a teacher and the reason I'm a teacher is because I'm learning as hard as I can. I'm not any different from anybody else. I am searching and having some success finding answers. ~ Andy Andrews, #NFDB
1421:In the end, a man turns into what he thinks he is, however large or small. It is the reason why certain people are prone to colds and catastrophe. And why others can dance on water. ~ Marisha Pessl, #NFDB
1422:I think there are probably too many smart people pursuing Internet stuff, finance, and law,” Musk said on the way. “That is part of the reason why we haven’t seen as much innovation. ~ Ashlee Vance, #NFDB
1423:It seems incredible that a man possessing so many conditions of happiness should be not only so little happy, but clearly does not see the reason why he should exist at all. It ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz, #NFDB
1424:It's just one of those things. Everybody wants to do it, but it's really difficult. People had to wait for "Indy 4" for a decade, and the reason is because of the people involved. ~ Roland Emmerich, #NFDB
1425:I've got no interest in going over to California to fight that boring git, in a fight that no one's interested in, and that's the reason why he's trying to pimp himself out everywhere. ~ Carl Froch, #NFDB
1426:Sex and racism have always been tied together. Look at the thousands of black men who got lynched and castrated. The reason the Klan came into being was to protect white southern women. ~ Spike Lee, #NFDB
1427:Sticks and stones may break bones, but words dig and dig and dig deep into your heart until the hurt resonates, and your heart fails to remember the reason it beats in the first place. ~ Jay McLean, #NFDB
1428:Surround yourself with people who don’t just ask how you are doing. Surround yourself with people who make an effort to make sure they are part of the reason you are doing so well. ~ Jennae Cecelia, #NFDB
1429:The reason artists want to have works in museums is that we want our works to be seen by as many people as possible and we want our ideas to be understood in more complicated ways. ~ Theaster Gates, #NFDB
1430:The reason that philosophy is so essential is that if we don’t use it, it is used against us in the service of evil to enable the murder and enslavement – literally – of billions. ~ Stefan Molyneux, #NFDB
1431:Too many assume that the reason people do not come to God is because they are ignorant; it is more generally true that the reason people do not come to God is because of their behavior. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1432:Trouble, hardship, difficulty, pain, suffering, conflict, tragedy, evil - they're all part of the [Christian] Story. Indeed, the problem of evil is the reason there's any Story at all. ~ Greg Koukl, #NFDB
1433:We all have reasons for our actions. Even if we hide the reason from those who think they know us best. Even if the reasons are so deeply buried we can’t recognize them ourselves. ~ Greer Hendricks, #NFDB
1434:Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance, as that it is wrong to steal, don't argue with him-search him; the reason may be found in his pocket. ~ William Jennings Bryan, #NFDB
1435:Yellow wakes me up in the morning. Yellow gets me on the bike every day. Yellow has taught me the true meaning of sacrifice. Yellow makes me suffer. Yellow is the reason I'm here. ~ Lance Armstrong, #NFDB
1436:You know enough of me to believe me when I say I am not going anywhere. Not without you. You stay, I stay. You’re not a fling, Amelia. For me, you are the reason to stop running. ~ Susan May Warren, #NFDB
1437:1 JOHN 3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1438:Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things. ~ Alexander Hamilton, #NFDB
1439:I am sure that the reason why I wept and stormed as if I had gone off my head was that the combination of physical exhaustion and my unhappiness had made me hate and resent everything. ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
1440:I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself, to train my body for the real fear when it comes. But I am not prepared. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1441:Manual workers made a great contribution to our society but received no recognition, and this is the reason so many of them joined the Taliban—to finally achieve status and power. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
1442:Stories wanted to be read, David's mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life. ~ John Connolly, #NFDB
1443:The problem is with any practice is that it is a practice. That is why people don't win. The reason why people don't win is they get stuck in ideas, habits, and ways of seeing life. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1444:The reason is that the people know that the Democratic Party is the people’s party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be. ~ H W Brands, #NFDB
1445:The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
1446:The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1447:Unemployment in America today is too high. And part of the reason, unfortunately, is that many companies cannot fill the high-skilled jobs increasingly at risk of going overseas. ~ Michael Bloomberg, #NFDB
1448:Abe shook his head, and now the smile was gone altogether. "That's not the reason either. Don't lie to me little girl." I felt my hackles going up. "And don't interrogate me, old man. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
1449:Big Texas (Nolan Ryan) is here. The reason I like to keep Nolan around is he is a reminder that when we got done with the Sammy Sosa trade, there was still some talent on the Rangers. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1450:Comrade, you and I can never be satisfied with sitting down before a great human problem and saying nothing can be done. We must do something. That is the reason we are here on Earth. ~ W E B Du Bois, #NFDB
1451:Every character is asking: Whats my place? Why am I here? I dont want the answer to be Just because. You find your own purpose. Each finds the reason to be here and how to contribute. ~ Sharon Creech, #NFDB
1452:For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives. ~ Amy Lowell,#NFDB
1453:I think, fleetingly, that the reason I don’t need vengeance is that I have love. Vengeance doesn’t give you anything. It doesn’t fill you up or soothe you, satisfy you or change you. And ~ Robin York, #NFDB
1454:It's what we're made for. It's what got us here. It's the reason I have this car to hide under. We are human. And humans think. They plan. They dream, and then they make the dream real. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1455:Resilience, in my experience, was seldom the reason to do anything. It was only ever stated as a goal after some action that required it had occurred or been committed to.
Pg 220 ~ Graeme Simsion,#NFDB
1456:The big reason why folks leave a small town,” Rant used to say, “is so they can moon over the idea of going back. And the reason they stay put is so they can moon about getting out. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1457:The reason for this was not that the subject was simple enough to be explained without mathematics, but rather that it was much too involved to be fully accessible to mathematics. ~ Erwin Schr dinger, #NFDB
1458:The reason I didn't fly over from Maui at their beck and call is my wife was about to have a baby at any time. Those guys knew that. These guys would not compromise and meet me halfway. ~ Sammy Hagar, #NFDB
1459:The reason that truth is stranger than fiction is that fiction has to have a rational thread running through it in order to be believable, whereas reality may be totally irrational. ~ Sydney J Harris, #NFDB
1460:The reason we feel hurt and anger when things and people outside us let us down is because we believe those things and people shouldn't. Well, sorry, that's not life here on earth. ~ Peter McWilliams, #NFDB
1461:All travellers agree that protestant are both richer and more populous than catholic countries;and the reason is, because the habits of the former are more conducive to production. ~ Jean Baptiste Say, #NFDB
1462:Ask the next question, and the one that follows that, and the one that follows that. It's the symbol of everything humanity has ever created, and is the reason it has been created. ~ Theodore Sturgeon, #NFDB
1463:Beside him, making scarcely a sound, walked James, Sirius, Lupin, and Lily, and their presence was his courage, and the reason he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1464:CUTHBERT: So we're going to sit here and ignore the reason that you've chained me to the bed while Armageddon goes on around us? ASHTON: (Apologetically) I figured we could play checkers? ~ Alan Ryker, #NFDB
1465:Here's the problem with Easter. The Catholic Church needs to pick a date because it keeps moving. And I think the reason they always have Easter moving to different dates is to catch us. ~ Denis Leary, #NFDB
1466:It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1467:It was a shock to realize I was the reason she had to refuse. I was holding her back. It wasn’t just that I was a worthless kid; I was actually denying worth to the person I loved most. ~ Kanae Minato, #NFDB
1468:nd the reason is is if you put a backdoor in, hackers can presumably get a hold of that backdoor as well and break it open. So you make systems less secure for everyone if you do that. ~ Rod Beckstrom, #NFDB
1469:Nothing shocks our moral feelings so deeply as cruelty does. We can forgive every other crime, but not cruelty. The reason for this is that it is the very opposite of compassion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1470:People said that way back in the early days I was probably one of the first rappers; the reason is that I couldn't sing, so I had to talk! Lou Reed was probably the one who started it all. ~ Alan Vega, #NFDB
1471:She wanted this man with an intensity that defied logic. Which was part of the reason she’d been ignoring him. A girl only had so much self-control when faced with all this deliciousness. ~ Katie Reus, #NFDB
1472:The prejudice is against men and women - assuming men stay at work. That's the reason why we don't have enough women in the halls of power - the prejudice is pushing women to go home. ~ Brigid Schulte, #NFDB
1473:The reason I don't retire is that I learn something new every day. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body. It's about expanding, constantly pushing yourself. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
1474:The reason I do workshops is so I can learn, and I am fortunate that I've probably gained more from the whole experience of teaching than any one participant has. It is all about asking. ~ John Sexton, #NFDB
1475:The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song. ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
1476:The reason 'The Carol Burnett Show' did so well in the ratings is because people were looking for that comfort zone when the whole family sat around and watched television and enjoyed it. ~ Tim Conway, #NFDB
1477:The reason why congregations have been so dead is, because they had dead men preaching to them. O that the Lord may quicken and revive them! How can dead men beget living children? ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
1478:The reason why rivers and seas are able to be lords over a hundred mountain streams, is that they know how to keep below them. That is why they are able to reign over all the mountain streams. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1479:We're in a tightening cycle and the reason is the economy is growing, there's no expectation that the global economy and the Polish economy as a consequence could slow down dramatically. ~ Marek Belka, #NFDB
1480:I don't think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don't think that's right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people's lives. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1481:It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more. ~ Charlotte Bronte, #NFDB
1482:Jesus first of all, loves His Father in heaven and would never compromise the message that sinners must be delivered or be damned. That is the reason Jesus came to earth-to save sinners. ~ Kirk Cameron, #NFDB
1483:My flesh will heal. These wounds will close and pass away. But there are marks on my heart that will never heal. Those are the only wounds worth my tears, giant. They are the reason I weep. ~ Shae Ford, #NFDB
1484:People say there's no trace of an accent anymore, and there isn't because I worked very hard to lose it. And the reason I did that is a British accent in America is a real status symbol. ~ John Mahoney, #NFDB
1485:The reason that you dance and sing is to make the audience feel like they're dancing and singing. As long as you're having fun with it and giving it 100 percent, they're gonna feel that. ~ Heath Ledger, #NFDB
1486:The reason why new concepts in any branch of science are hard to grasp is always the same; contemporary scientists try to picture the new concept in terms of ideas which existed before. ~ Freeman Dyson, #NFDB
1487:The reason why parents mistreat their children has less to do with character and temperament than with the fact that they too were mistreated and were not permitted to defend themselves. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
1488:The reason why so many sects hang around airports looking for converts: they know that people there are at their most vulnerable and perplexed, and ready to accept any kind of guidance. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
1489:The reason why we do maths is because it's like poetry. It's about patterns, and that really turned me on. It made me feel that maths was in tune with the other things I liked doing. ~ Marcus du Sautoy, #NFDB
1490:The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.- Robert Frost Now that all your worry has proved such an unattractive business - why not find a better job? ~ Hafez, #NFDB
1491:The reason you see yourself as a creep is because you have an appreciation of what perfection is, whereas no one else conceives of themselves in that way, since they don't even strive. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1492:We can contemplate the meaning of your life all you want, but know that you're my meaning... the reason behind just about everything I do―and I would never want to change that. ~ Evan ~ Rebecca Donovan, #NFDB
1493:You know, sound was still a fairly new thing when I came into movies. And the reason musicals happened is because of sound. They could put music in the picture! That's how it all began. ~ Stanley Donen, #NFDB
1494:Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are? ~ William Golding, #NFDB
1495:Genius, the true creator, is always suprarational in its nature and its instrumentation even when it seems to be doing the work of the reason. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Beauty, #NFDB
1496:If you aren’t where you want to be or you haven’t achieved all you hope to achieve, the reason most likely resides not around you but within you. Take responsibility and then take action. ~ Nick Vujicic, #NFDB
1497:It's not the plot [of Valley of Violence] - the plot is the reason to get all these things to happen, all these character moments to happen. It was always meant to have these two perspectives. ~ Ti West, #NFDB
1498:My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we - architects - can effect the quality of life of the people. ~ Richard Rogers, #NFDB
1499:So when our boss comes down hard on us and we don’t know the reason, it is equally our responsibility to express concern for their well-being. That’s how the Circle of Safety stays strong. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
1500:The element of change has been the thing, really. We put out the first one, then the second... then a third LP totally different from them. It's the reason we were able to keep it together. ~ Jimmy Page, #NFDB
306 Integral Yoga
83 Philosophy
81 Christianity
64 Occultism
48 Yoga
32 Poetry
27 Psychology
15 Fiction
7 Integral Theory
5 Hinduism
4 Sufism
4 Science
3 Theosophy
3 Cybernetics
3 Buddhism
3 Baha i Faith
2 Education
1 Thelema
1 Philsophy
1 Mythology
1 Kabbalah
1 Alchemy
227 Sri Aurobindo
150 The Mother
78 Satprem
54 Nolini Kanta Gupta
41 Plotinus
28 Carl Jung
27 Swami Krishnananda
27 Saint Augustine of Hippo
24 Aleister Crowley
21 James George Frazer
16 Aldous Huxley
15 H P Lovecraft
14 Sri Ramakrishna
12 Plato
11 A B Purani
10 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
8 Swami Vivekananda
8 George Van Vrekhem
8 Friedrich Nietzsche
6 Saint Teresa of Avila
5 William Wordsworth
5 Nirodbaran
4 Sri Ramana Maharshi
4 Paul Richard
4 Jorge Luis Borges
4 Jordan Peterson
4 Friedrich Schiller
4 Franz Bardon
4 Al-Ghazali
3 Saint John of Climacus
3 Rudolf Steiner
3 Norbert Wiener
3 Lucretius
3 Edgar Allan Poe
3 Bokar Rinpoche
3 Baha u llah
3 Aristotle
2 Robert Browning
2 R Buckminster Fuller
2 Patanjali
2 Ken Wilber
2 Anonymous
2 Alice Bailey
48 The Synthesis Of Yoga
27 The Study and Practice of Yoga
26 The Life Divine
22 City of God
21 The Golden Bough
19 Letters On Yoga IV
16 The Perennial Philosophy
16 Record of Yoga
15 The Human Cycle
15 Lovecraft - Poems
15 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
14 Questions And Answers 1953
14 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
14 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
13 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
13 Liber ABA
13 Letters On Yoga II
11 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
11 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
11 Magick Without Tears
11 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
10 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
10 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
10 Essays On The Gita
10 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
9 Questions And Answers 1954
9 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
9 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
9 Agenda Vol 03
8 The Practice of Psycho therapy
8 Questions And Answers 1956
8 Preparing for the Miraculous
8 Agenda Vol 12
7 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
7 Mysterium Coniunctionis
7 Letters On Yoga I
7 Essays Divine And Human
7 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
7 Agenda Vol 07
7 Agenda Vol 01
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Problems of Philosophy
6 The Phenomenon of Man
6 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
6 Letters On Yoga III
6 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
6 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
6 Aion
6 Agenda Vol 10
6 Agenda Vol 06
6 Agenda Vol 02
5 Wordsworth - Poems
5 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
5 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
5 Talks
5 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
5 Savitri
5 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
5 Prayers And Meditations
5 Isha Upanishad
5 Agenda Vol 05
4 Vedic and Philological Studies
4 Twilight of the Idols
4 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
4 The Way of Perfection
4 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
4 The Alchemy of Happiness
4 Schiller - Poems
4 Raja-Yoga
4 Questions And Answers 1955
4 Maps of Meaning
4 Agenda Vol 11
4 Agenda Vol 08
4 Agenda Vol 04
3 Words Of The Mother II
3 The Practice of Magical Evocation
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
3 The Future of Man
3 The Bible
3 Tara - The Feminine Divine
3 Some Answers From The Mother
3 Poetics
3 Poe - Poems
3 Of The Nature Of Things
3 Labyrinths
3 Kena and Other Upanishads
3 Dark Night of the Soul
3 Cybernetics
3 Agenda Vol 13
3 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
2 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
2 The Book of Certitude
2 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
2 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
2 Symposium
2 Sex Ecology Spirituality
2 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
2 On the Way to Supermanhood
2 On Education
2 Collected Poems
2 Browning - Poems
2 Bhakti-Yoga
2 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
2 Agenda Vol 09
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
'Something else' is ominous, perilous, disrupting - it is quite unbearable for all those who resemble the old beast. The story of the Pondicherry 'Ashram' is the story of an old clan ferociously clinging to its 'spiritual' privileges, as others clung to the muscles that had made them kings among the great apes. It is armed with all the piousness and all the Reasonableness that had made logical man so 'infallible' among his less cerebral brothers. The spiritual brain is probably the worst obstacle to the new species, as were the muscles of the old orangutan for this fragile stranger who no longer climbed so well in the trees and sat, pensive, at the center of a little, uncertain clearing.
There is nothing more pious than the old species. There is nothing more legal. Mother was searching for the path of the new species as much against all the virtues of the old as against all its vices or laws. For, in truth, 'Something Else' ... is something else.
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Ignorance, certainly, is not man's ideal conditionit leads to death and dissolution. But knowledge also can be equally disastrous if it is not of the right kind. The knowledge that is born of spiritual disobedience, inspired by the Dark ones, leads to the soul's fall and its calvary through pain and suffering on earth. The seeker of true enlightenment has got to make a distinction, learn to separate the true and the right from the false and the wrong, unmask the luring Mra say clearly and unfalteringly to the dark light of Luciferapage Satana, if he is to come out into the true light and comm and the right forces. The search for knowledge alone, knowledge for the sake of knowledge, the path of pure scientific inquiry and inquisitiveness, in relation to the mystic world, is a dangerous thing. For such a spirit serves only to encourage and enhance man's arrogance and in the end not only limits but warps and falsifies the knowledge itself. A knowledge based on and secured exclusively through the Reason and mental light can go only so far as that faculty can be reasonably stretched and not infinitelyto stretch it to infinity means to snap it. This is the warning that Yajnavalkya gave to Gargi when the latter started renewing her question ad infinitum Yajnavalkya said, "If you do not stop, your head will fall off."
The mystic truth has to be approached through the heart. "In the heart is established the Truth," says the Upanishad: it is there that is seated eternally the soul, the real being, who appears no bigger than the thumb. Even if the mind is utilised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind as the guide and inspiration. It is precisely because, as I have just mentioned, Gargi sought to shoot uplike "vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself" of which Shakespeare speaksthrough the mind alone to the highest truth that Yajnavalkya had to pull her up and give the warning that she risked losing her head if she persisted in her questioning endlessly.
00.02 - Mystic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Mystics all over the world and in all ages have clothed their sayings in proverbs and parables, in figures and symbols. To speak in symbols seems to be in their very nature; it is their characteristic manner, their inevitable style. Let us see what is the Reason behind it. But first who are the Mystics? They are those who are in touch with supra-sensual things, whose experiences are of a world different from the common physical world, the world of the mind and the senses.
These other worlds are constituted in other ways than ours. Their contents are different and the laws that obtain there are also different. It would be a gross blunder to attempt a chart of any of these other systems, to use an Einsteinian term, with the measures and conventions of the system to which our external waking consciousness belongs. For, there "the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, neither these lightnings nor this fire." The difficulty is further enhanced by the fact that there are very many unseen worlds and they all differ from the seen and from one another in manner and degree. Thus, for example, the Upanishads speak of the swapna, the suupta, and the turya, domains beyond the jgrat which is that where the rational being with its mind and senses lives and moves. And there are other systems and other ways in which systems exist, and they are practically innumerable.
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
it cannot be defined or figured in the terms of the phenomenal consciousness. In speaking of it, however, the Upanishads invariably and repeatedly refer to two attributes that characterise its fundamental nature. These two aspects have made such an impression upon the consciousness of the Upanishadic seer that his enthusiasm almost wholly plays about them and is centred on them. When he contemplates or communes with the Supreme Object, these seem to him to be the mark of its au thenticity, the seal of its high status and the Reason of all the charm and magic it possesses. The first aspect or attri bute is that of light the brilliance, the solar effulgenceravituly-arpa the bright, clear, shadow less Light of lightsvirajam ubhram jyotim jyoti The second aspect is that of delight, the bliss, the immortality inherent in that wide effulgencenandarpam amtam yad vibhti.
And what else is the true character, the soul of beauty than light and delight? "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." And a thing of joy is a thing of light. Joy is the radiance rippling over a thing of beauty. Beauty is always radiant: the charm, the loveliness of an object is but the glow of light that it emanates. And it would not be a very incorrect mensuration to measure the degree of beauty by the degree of light radiated. The diamond is not only a thing of value, but a thing of beauty also, because of the concentrated and undimmed light that it enshrines within itself. A dark, dull and dismal thing, devoid of interest and attraction becomes aesthetically precious and significant as soon as the artist presents it in terms of the values of light. The entire art of painting is nothing but the expression of beauty, in and through the modalities of light.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
000.110 Mutually assumed survival-only-of-the-fittest is the Reason why the
United States and the USSR have for the past 30 years appropriated 200 billion
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Of these the Reasoner took six, and, preening, said:
This is the One and the All.
--
of Solomon the King about the Reason.
The universe is insane, the law of cause and effect
--
that method of destroying the Reason by formulating
contradictions is definitely inculcated.
the Reason is situated in Daath, which corresponds
the the throat in human anatomy. Hence the title of the
--
As soon as the Reason is vanquished, the garotte is
removed; then the influence of the supernals (Kether,
--
In the last paragraph, the Reason of this is explained;
it is because such sacrifices come under the Great Law
--
the Reason for thus addresing the reader is that he has now transcended the
first and second persons. Cf. Liber LXV, Chapter III, vv. 21-24, and
0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Jung has admitted that there is an element of mystery, something that baffles the Reason, in human personality. One finds that the greater the personality the greater is the complexity. And this is especially so with regard to spiritual personalities whom the Gita calls Vibhutis and Avatars.
Sri Aurobindo has explained the mystery of personality in some of his writings. Ordinarily by personality we mean something which can be described as "a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character.... In one view personality is regarded as a fixed structure of recognisable qualities expressing a power of being"; another idea regards "personality as a flux of self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being.... But flux of nature and fixity of nature" which some call character "are two aspects of being neither of which, nor indeed both together, can be a definition of personality.... But besides this flux and this fixity there is also a third and occult element, the Person behind of whom the personality is a self-expression; the Person puts forward the personality as his role, character, persona, in the present act of his long drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger than his personality, and it may happen that this inner largeness overflows into the surface formation; the result is a self-expression of being which can no longer be described by fixed qualities, normalities of mood, exact lineaments, or marked out by structural limits."[4]
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And if since then Nature has sunk back from her achievement, the Reason must always be found in some unrealised harmony, some insufficiency of the intellectual and material basis to which she has now returned, some over-specialisation of the higher to the detriment of the lower existence.
But what then constitutes this higher or highest existence to which our evolution is tending? In order to answer the question we have to deal with a class of supreme experiences, a class of unusual conceptions which it is difficult to represent accurately in any other language than the ancient Sanskrit tongue in which alone they have been to some extent systematised.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
rather than purgation. the Reason is that all the imperfections and disorders of the
sensual part have their strength and root in the spirit, where all habits, both good
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Whatever the Reason may be, as soon as my consciousness loses You I become joyless and without energy.
At no moment do I forget you. Don't you rather allow too many
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I know not except by Her lotus-feet. That is the Reason
why my eyes seek Her in your lotus-feet, and my heart
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Appellants at the Reason's judgment seat,
Proclaimed the gospel of their opposites,
--
Above the Reason's brilliant slender curve,
Released like radiant air dimming a moon,
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"We know truth not by reason alone, but by the heart also: it is in the latter way that we know the first principles, and in vain does reasoning, that has no part in it, attempt to combat them... The heart feels... and the Reason demon strates afterwards... Principles are felt, propositions are deduced. . . . "5
About doubt, Pascal says that the perfect doubter, the Pyrrhonian as he is called, is a fiction. Pascal asks:
--
And the Reason is his metaphysics. It is the Jansenist conception of God and human nature that inspired and coloured all his experience and consciousness. According to it, as according to the Calvinist conception, man is a corrupt being, corroded to the core, original sin has branded his very soul. Only Grace saves him and releases him. The order of sin and the order of Grace are distinct and disparate worlds and yet they complement each other and need each other. Greatness and misery are intertwined, united, unified with each other in him. Here is an echo of the Manichean position which also involves an abyss. But even then God's grace is not a free agent, as Jesuits declare; there is a predestination that guides and controls it. This was one of the main subjects he treated in his famous open letters (Les Provinciales) that brought him renown almost overnight. Eternal hell is a possible prospect that faces the Jansenist. That was why a Night always over-shadowed the Day in Pascal's soul.
Man then, according to Pascal, is by nature a sinful thing. He can lay no claim to noble virtue as his own: all in him is vile, he is a lump of dirt and filth. Even the greatest has his full share of this taint. The greatest, the saintliest, and the meanest, the most sinful, all meet, all are equal on this common platform; all have the same feet of clay. Man is as miserable a creature as a beast, as much a part and product of Nature as a plant. Only there is this difference that an animal or a tree is unconscious, while man knows that he is miserable. This knowledge or perception makes him more miserable, but that is his real and only greatness there is no other. His thought, his self-consciousness, and his sorrow and repentance and contrition for what he is that is the only good partMary's part that has been given to him. Here are Pascal's own words on the subject:
--
"The heart has its reasons which Reason knows not... I say, the heart loves the universal being naturally, and itself also naturally, according to which so ever it gives itself. And it hardens itself against the one or the other according to its choice. You have rejected one and preserved the other. Is it by the Reason that you love ?"10
"Know then, a you proud one, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, impotent Reason. Learn, man surpasses man infinitely. Hear from your Master your true state which you do not know. Listen to God."11
01.07 - The Bases of Social Reconstruction, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The French Revolution wanted to remould human society and its ideal was liberty, equality and fraternity. It pulled down the old machinery and set up a new one in its stead. And the result? "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" remained always in effect a cry in the wilderness. Another wave of idealism is now running over the earth and the Bolshevists are its most fiercely practical exponents. Instead of dealing merely with the political machinery, the Socialistic Revolution tries to break and remake, above all, the social machinery. But judged from the results as yet attained and the tendencies at work, few are the Reasons to hope but many to fear the worst. Even education does not seem to promise us anything better. Which nation was better educatedin the sense we understood and still commonly understand the wordthan Germany?
And yet we have no hesitation today to call them Huns and Barbarians. That education is not giving us the right thing is proved further by the fact that we are constantly changing our programmes and curriculums, everyday remodelling old institutions and founding new ones. Even a revolution in the educational system will not bring about the desired millennium, so long as we lay so much stress upon the system and not upon man himself. And finally, look to all the religions of the worldwe have enough of creeds and dogmas, of sermons and mantras, of churches and templesand yet human life and society do not seem to be any the more worthy for it.
01.08 - A Theory of Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is the Reason of this elaboration, this check and constraint upon the natural and direct outflow of the animal instincts in man? It has been said that the social life of man, the fact that he has to live and move as member of a group or aggregate has imposed upon him these restrictions. The free and unbridled indulgence of one's bare aboriginal impulses may be possible to creatures that live a separate, solitary and individual life but is disruptive of all bonds necessary for a corporate and group life. It is even a biological necessity again which has evolved in man a third and collateral primary instinct that of the herd. And it is this herd-instinct which naturally and spontaneously restrains, diverts and even metamorphoses the other instincts of the mere animal life. However, leaving aside for the moment the question whether man's ethical and spiritual ideals are a mere dissimulation of his animal instincts or whether they correspond to certain actual realities apart from and co-existent with these latter, we will recognise the simple fact of control and try to have a glimpse into its mechanism.
There are three lines, as the Psycho-analysts point out along which this control or censuring of the primary instincts acts. First, there is the line of Defence Reaction. That is to say, the mind automatically takes up an attitude directly contrary to the impulse, tries to shut it out and deny altogether its existence and the measure of the insistence of the impulse is also the measure of the vehemence of the denial. It is the case of the lady protesting too much. So it happens that where subconsciously there is a strong current of a particular impulse, consciously the mind is obliged to take up a counteracting opposite impulse. Thus in presence of a strong sexual craving the mind as if to guard and save itself engenders by a reflex movement an ascetic and puritanic mood. Similarly a strong unthinking physical attraction translates itself on the conscious plane as an equally strong repulsion.
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
of time. It is certainly one of the Reasons why your brain is still
in a muddle and lacks clarity.
--
When something goes wrong, one must always find the Reason in oneself, not superficially but deep inside oneself, and not
in order to uselessly bewail the fault, but to cure it by calling to
--
their body and provide it with all the Reasons needed to overcome
its fear.
--
those who want to know the Reason for the present situation. I
am sending it to you so that your question becomes unnecessary.
--
invitation. (Here the Reasons are enumerated.)
From your letter I can see that you really have a great desire to
--
Can You explain to me the Reason for this feeling? Why
doesn't one even feel free?
0 1956-03-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Note written by Mother in French. At this period, Mother's back was already bent. This straightening of her back seems to be the first physiological effect of the 'Supramental Manifestation' of February 29, which is perhaps the Reason why Mother noted down the experience under the name 'Agenda of the Supramental Action on Earth.' It was the first time Mother gave a title to what would become this fabulous document of 13 volumes. The experience took place during a 'translation class' when, twice a week, Mother would translate the works of Sri Aurobindo into French before a group of disciples.
AGENDA OF THE SUPRAMENTAL ACTION ON EARTH
0 1958-07-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But yesterday, in fact, I was looking (with all these mantras and these prayers and this whole vibration that has descended into the atmosphere, creating a state of constant calling in the atmosphere), and I remembered the old movements and how everything now has changed! I was also thinking of the old disciplines, one of which is to say, I am That.7 People were told to sit in meditation and repeat, I am That, to reach an identification. And it all seemed to me so obsolete, so childish, but at the same time a part of the whole. I looked, and it seemed so absurd to sit in meditation and say, I am That! I, what is this I who is That; what is this I, where is it? I was trying to find it, and I saw a tiny, microscopic point (to see it would almost require some gigantic instrument), a tiny, obscure point in an im-men-sity of Light, and that little point was the body. At the same timeit was absolutely simultaneous I saw the Presence of the Supreme as a very, very, very, VERY immense Being, within which was I in an attitude of (I was only a sensation, you see), an attitude (gesture of surrender) like this. There were no limits, yet at the same time, one felt the joy of being permeated, enveloped and of being able to widen, widen, widen indefinitelyto widen the whole being, from the highest consciousness to the most material consciousness. And then, at the same time, to look at this body and to see every cell, every atom vibrating with a divine, radiant Presence with all its Consciousness, all its Power, all its Will, all its Loveall, all, really and a joy! An extraordinary joy. And one did not disturb the other, nothing was contradictory and everything was felt at the same time. That was when I said, But truly! This body had to have the training it has had for more than seventy years to be able to bear all that without starting to cry out or dance or leap up or whatever it might be! No, it was calm (it was exultant, but it was very calm), and it remained in control of its movements and its words. In spite of the fact that it was really living in another world, it could apparently act normal due to this strenuous training in self-control by the Reasonby the Reasonover the whole being, which has tamed it and given it such a great cohesive power that I can BE in the experience, I can LIVE this experience, and at the same time respond with the most amiable of smiles to the most idiotic questions!
And then, it always ends in the same way, by a canticle to the action of the grace: O, Lord! You are truly marvelous! All the experiences I have needed to pass through You have given to me, all the things I needed to do to make this body ready You have made me do, and always with the feeling that it was You who was making me do itand with the universal disapproval of all the right-minded humanity!
0 1958-07-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But instead of using the energy in this way, they immediately throw it out. They start stirring about, reacting, working, speaking They feel full of energy and they throw it all out! They cant keep anything. So naturally, since the energy was not sent to be wasted like that but for an inner use, they feel absolutely flat, run down. And it is universal. They dont know, they do not know how to make this movementto turn within, to use the energy (not to keep it, it doesnt keep), to use it to repair the damage done to the body and to go deeply within to find the Reason for this accident or illness, and there to change it by an aspiration, an inner transformation. Instead of that, right away they start speaking, stirring about, reacting, doing this or that!
In fact, the immense majority of human beings feel they are living only when they waste their energy. Otherwise, it does not seem to them to be life.
0 1958-08-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I think of the time the hatha yogis devote to the work on the bodythey do nothing but that; they do nothing but that all the time, until they have attained a certain point. This is in fact the Reason why Sri Aurobindo wanted none of it: he found that it took a lot of time for a rather meager result.
***
0 1958-10-25 - to go out of your body, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And that is what always brings in complications, conflicts. I was surprised that the atmosphere [of the Ashram] is filled with conflict when he is here but that is the Reason.2
Why arent people conscious of this identification while having it in a part of their being?
0 1958-11-27 - Intermediaries and Immediacy, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And when I studied this, when I looked at this science of processes, of intermediaries, suddenly I clearly understood the working of karma, which I had not understood before. I had worked and intervened quite often to change someones karma, but sometimes I had to wait, without exactly knowing why the result was not immediate. I simply used to wait without worrying about the Reasons for this slowness or delay. Thats how it was. And generally it ended, as I said, with the exact vision of the karmas source, its initial cause; and scarcely would I have this vision when the Power would come, and the thing would be dissolved. But I didnt bother about finding out why it was like that.
One day I had mentioned this to X1 when he was showing me or describing to me the different movements of the pujas, the procedure, the process of the puja. I said to him, Oh, I see! For the action to be immediate, for the result to be immediate, one must acknowledge, for example, the role or the participation of certain spirits or certain forces and enter into a friendly relationship or collaboration with these forces in order to obtain an immediate result, is it not so? Then he told me, Yes, otherwise it leaves an indefinite time to the play of the forces, and you dont know when you will get the result of your puja.
0 1960-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Not last night but the night before, I touched at least one of the causes (at that time it felt like THE cause) of a certain powerlessness to act directly on Matter You see, when the Will and the Power come, they are extremely effective everywhere UP TO A CERTAIN REGION (in other words, whether people are receptive or not, open or not, makes no differencewhen the Will is applied it is all-powerful UP TO a certain region) but once it arrives here, at the most material material, its efficacy depends on many thingsand a power which depends on something is no power! For a long, long time I have been searching for the Reasons behind this powerlessness. Ive located a few, one after another, and upon these points there was an immediate effect. But some things resisted (oh, quite a number, in a number of ways), for example it had difficulty acting on illnesses, on the cells, on doubt (not mental doubt, but rather the doubt of the physical consciousness which cant accept certain things that seem impossible to itwhat Sri Aurobindo calls disbelief,1 not a mental doubt, but the disbelief of the physical consciousness which cant accept what is contrary to its own nature and its own working). And as for illnesses, sometimes it has an immediate effect, but sometimes it drags on and has to follow its so-called normal course. On all these three points, I clearly felt that something was hampering it. These are the Enemys strongholds; all that doesnt want the Divine seizes upon it and even the working of the Power coming from above is obstructed, for when it must work here in the body, it is stopped or deformed or altered or diminished.
All this goes on in the subconscient; these are things that were pushed out of the physical consciousness down into the subconscient, so theyre there and they come back up whenever they please.
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you go high enough, you come to the Heart of everything. Whatever manifests in this Heart can manifest in all things. This is the great secret, the secret of divine incarnation in an individual form. For in the normal course of things, what manifests at the center is only realized in the outer form with the awakening and RESPONSE Of the will within the individual form. But if the central Will is constantly, permanently represented in one individual, he can then serve as an intermediary between that Will and all beings, and will FOR THEM. Whatever this being perceives and consciously offers to the supreme Will is replied to as if it came from each individual being. And if individuals happen to be in a more or less conscious and voluntary relationship with this representative being, their relationship increases his efficacy and the supreme Action can work in Matter in a much more concrete and permanent way. This is the Reason for these descents of what could be called polarized consciousnesses that always come to earth for a particular realization, with a definite purpose and missiona mission decided upon before the actual embodiment. These mark the great stages of the supreme incarnations upon earth.
And when the day comes for the manifestation of supreme Lovea crystalized, concentrated descent of supreme Love that will truly be the hour of Transformation, for nothing will be able to resist That.
0 1961-01-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I was perfectly conscious (now when I say I, it refers to my body, I am not speaking of the whole higher consciousness), the body was perfectly conscious of its suffering, the Reason for its suffering, the cause of its suffering, everything and it did not suffer. You understand, the two perceptions were there together: the body saw the disorder, saw the suffering just as it would have felt it a few weeks earlier, it saw all that (saw, knew I dont know how to express itit was conscious, it was aware) and it did not suffer. The two awarenesses were absolutely simultaneous.
There is now a kind of VERY PRECISE knowledge of the whole inner mechanism for all thingsand what has to be done materially. This is developing, as a flower blossoms: you see one petal open and then another and then another; it is proceeding like that, slowly, taking its time. Its the same process for the Power.
0 1961-03-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of course, all of you would be perfectly justified in replying, What good does that do if were not aware of it! But it must be a phenomenon like the one I described. I am looking for the Reason something which refuses the knowledge. A part of the being is refusingalthough not consciouslyto become aware of the experience.
Can I do something practical about it?
0 1961-04-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The following is the exact text referred to, an extract from one of Sri Aurobindo's letters: 'I don't believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhereor it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other damned nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the "religions" and is the Reason of their failure....'
2.10.1934
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I must add that the experience came after I had been concentrating for three days (concentrating almost constantly) on finding an explanation for this: why has it become this way? It is impossible to find the why because its the Reason asking and this goes beyond reason but what is the MECHANISM? Finding the mechanism would already be somethingto have the experience of the mechanism. And then came this CONCRETE superposition of the vibration of Love and the reception of hate. But this is exactly what happens! I said. The Lord is All-Love, All-Truth, All-Bliss, All-Deligh tHe is CONSTANTLY like thatand the world, especially the human world, constantly receives him in the other way. And the two things are superposed (Mother covers her left hand with her right).
Words dont convey anything; it was the experience. I made contact. It was very interesting. It lasted a long time, some two or three days. Since it was also linked to a state of healtha headache that had to be curedit bore its consequences: a crystal clear explanation of illness came. But I must again add something that preceded this.
0 1961-12-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Dear Sir I must begin by telling you that although this text is an excellent essay, it is not, in its present form, a book for the Spiritual Masters series. Let us enumerate the Reasons for this. First of all, the general impression is of an ABSTRACT text. I can straight-away imagine your reaction to this and I dread misunderstandings! But putting myself in the readers place, since, once again, it does involve a collection intended for a wide public that we are beginning to know well, I can assure you that this public will not be able to follow page after page of reflections upon what one is bound to call a philosophical and spiritual system. Obviously this impression is caused primarily by the fact that you have begun with twenty-one pages where the reader is assumed to already know of Sri Aurobindos historical existence and the content of the Vedas and the Upanishads, plus I dont know how many other notions of rite, truth, divinity, wisdom, etc., etc. In my view, and the solution is going to appear cruel to you, for you certainly value these twenty-one pages [on the Secret of the Veda], they should purely and simply be deleted, for everything you say there, which is very rich in meaning, can only become clear when one has read what follows. There are many books in which readers can be asked to make the effort entailed in not understanding the beginning until they have read the end: but not books of popular culture. One could envisage an introduction of three or four pages to situate the spiritual climate and cultural world in which Sri Aurobindos thought has taken place, provided, however, that it is sufficiently descriptive, and not a pre-synthesis of everything to be expounded upon in what follows. In a general way you are going to smile, finding me quite Cartesian! But the readership we address is more or less permeated by a widespread Cartesianism, and you can help them, if you like, to reverse their methodology, but on the condition that you make yourself understood right from the start. Generally, you dont make enough use of analysis and, even before analysis, of a description of the realities being analyzed. That is why the sections of pure philosophical analysis seem much too long to us, and, even apart from the abstract character of the chapter on evolution (which should certainly be shorter), one feels at a positive standstill! After having waited patiently, and sometimes impatiently, for some light to be thrown on Sri Aurobindos own experience, one reads with genuine amazement that one can draw on energies from above instead of drawing on them from the material nature around oneself, or from an animal sleep, or that one can modify his sleep and render it conscious master illnesses before they enter the body. All of that in less than a page; and you conclude that the spirit that was the slave of matter becomes again the master of evolution. But how Sri Aurobindo was led to think this, the experiences that permitted him to verify it, those that permit other men to consider the method transmittable, the difficulties, the obstacles, the realizationsdoesnt this constitute the essence of what must be said to make the reader understand? Once again, it is the question of a pedagogy intimately tied in with the spirit of the collection. Let me add as well that I always find it deplorable when a thought is not expressed purely for its own sake, but is accompanied by an aggressive irony towards concepts which the author does not share. This is pointless and harms the ideas being presented, all the more so because they are expressed in contrast with caricatured notions: the allusions you make to such concepts as you think yourself capable of evoking the soul, creation, virtue, sin, salvationwould only hold some interest if the reader could find those very concepts within himself. But, as they are caricatured by your pen, the reader is given the impression of an all too easily obtained contrast between certain ideas admired and others despised. Whereas it would be far more to the point if they corresponded to something real in the religious consciousness of the West. I have too much esteem for you and the spiritual world in which you live to avoid saying this through fear of upsetting you.
Amen.
0 1962-02-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats what I have been studying these past two daysnot for you in particular, but the general effect of japa, the Reason for it in the organization of ones life. I cant say I have made any discoveries (maybe for myself, I dont know); but my study is not on higher levels, its right here.
It would take too long to give the details; I can summarize, but I dont want to make a doctrine, and for it to be living its bound to be long.
0 1962-05-22, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(The beginning of this conversation, unfortunately not kept, dealt with certain instances of human ugliness. The topic, in fact, was Satprem's break with X who had been his guru for the past few years. the Reasons for this rupture may one day be told, but it should be stressed right now that the fault did not really lie with X, whom Satprem continued to respect, but with a group of schemers at the Ashram who fastened onto X in the hope of god knows what "powers." It is perhaps just as well that the human "ugliness" here in question has vanished from Satprem's records, foralthough it did come up again immediately after Mother's departureit concerned only the Ashram disciples. All the details and all Mother's reflections on the subject have thus been lost, with the exception of this last fragment:)
What a world!
0 1962-05-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the Reason behind the idea was my physical condition. I hadnt thought of Sujata at first; I simply saw I dont know. Im tired all the time, its true. My reserves are all used up. Anything extra exhausts me. And on top of it, theres also a discouraging psychological state. For one thing, my nights are totally unconscious the mind turns round and round and I cant sleep. My meditations are always the same. You know, the feeling of nothing, nothing, nothing. So I think the cause of all this lies in the kind of physical life I lead.2
A lack of vitality.
--
I know the Reason, but.
But really, unless you experience it yourself, it will strike you as a kind of fairy tale. And not a very pleasant fairy tale!
0 1962-06-02, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother refers to the previous conversation, in which she was looking for the Reasons behind the passage from one room to another, from the room of pain to the true room: "I can't catch hold of what makes it happen. What's happening? What's going on?!")
I had an experience yesterday afternoon that might put us on the track.
0 1962-09-05, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have already told you the Reason (there are many reasons): one tiny undeveloped level in the being is enough. It obviously has to do with atavism, with the way the body was built, the milieu one was born in, ones education, the life one has led. But its mainly how much one has been drawn to higher things. It is clear that your energies have been far more concentrated on breaking through that lid and touching the Source of Truth than on having mediumistic experiencesfar more. And for what you have come to do, that was INFINITELY more important. Minor experiences such as exteriorizing and the like are just diversions along the way thats how I have always seen them.
Yes, Mother, thats all right. But theres no outer encouragement. I have the feeling that nothing is happening I wake up each morning and theres nothing. I meditate, theres nothing theres never anything! Just the certainty that its the only thing worth doing.
0 1962-12-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its not what one might imagine, its not one form entering anotherit doesnt keep him from being wherever he wants to be and doing whatever he wants to do, appearing as he wants to appear and being involved with everything happening on earth: it doesnt change any of that. And its not just a part of him [that is in Mother, but his totality]. And thats how I know he was manifesting the Absolute, he was a manifestation of the Absolute. Of course, afterwards he revealed himself as what I had called the Master of Yoga; that was the Reason he came on earth (what people here in India call an Avatar). But thats still a way of seeing things SEPARATELY: its not the thingTHE thing.
Well see tomorrow [December 5].
0 1962-12-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the time hasnt come to speak of all this, to give all the Reasons, and it probably wont come for quite a while.
These past few days, he seems to want to make me see and experience all the terrestrial conditions that led him to that decision (thats the best way to put it).
0 1962-12-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Satprem tries to question Mother on the Reasons for Sri Aurobindo's departure.)
Oh, no! No, I dont want to talk about it.
0 1962-12-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the Reason for a loose-fitting robe is obvious: its important not to get cold during such experiences, and there shouldnt be anything hampering you. And also, its important that nothing interfere with your circulation, which diminishes greatly and must be protected.
These things are practical, but.
0 1963-03-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know if thats the true reason, I am not sure if the Reason isnt just that we were not supposed to do miracles.
I could say a lot on the subject, but At any rate, perhaps Ill tell you one day, but it cant be used for the Bulletin these arent public matters.
0 1963-05-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding a letter from a personal friend of Satprem at the Editions du Seuil, who hints that the second manuscript on Sri Aurobindo ["The Adventure of Consciousness"] will also be refused: "I do not know whether P.A.L. has read it yet, he hasn't told me, but as soon as I read the first pages, I felt that this manuscript would never be published by Le Seuil. It has some defects and clumsy passages but that will not be the Reason for its refusal....")
Very well! (laughter) Let us wait and see what they say. Of course, I never thought even for a minute that those people would publish it but others will.
0 1963-05-29, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That must be the Reason.
But when you see it from the other side, its so absurdfantastically absurd! To such a point that the meaning of every single word you utter is immediately twistedautomatically, you cant say why. With something clear and obvious, which should have gone smoothly, without hurdles, you are immediately caught in a swirl of complications.
0 1963-07-13, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I must now bring myself to write to you. With regret and sadness, I confess, since it is to inform you that we do not think it possible to publish your book Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness. I confess that what prevented me from writing to you earlier is not so much the fear of causing you pain, for you are able to rise above the shock such news cannot but cause, as the fact that I knew it would be impossible to explain our reasons to you. Frankly, we cannot really understand this book. And how to explain the Reasons for not understanding something? As for me, I often had the feeling of passing from one plane to another, from the level of fact to that of conjecture, from the level of logic (with defined terms as a starting point) to that of presupposition (within a coherence unconnected with the knowledge you offer). I know that all this is disputable. I also know or guess that behind those pages lies an entire lived experience, but one doesnt feel the reader can participate in it. For what reason? Once again, I cannot say. The readers blindness, quite possibly. The minds limitation, too. But a book must build a bridge, pierce the screen, and there are doubtless cases in which doing so no longer depends on the author. I must therefore return this manuscript to you.
(signed: P.A.L.)
0 1964-03-25, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
102To the senses it is always true that the sun moves round the earth; this is false to the Reason. To the Reason it is always true that the earth moves round the sun; this is false to the supreme vision. Neither earth moves nor sun; there is only a change in the relation of sun-consciousness and earth-consciousness.
(long silence)
--
I only note the fact that it is this Vibration of Order and Harmony that intervened (were not concerned with the Reasons for its intervention, this is only a scientific observation), and of this Ive had a fairly large number of experiences.
So that would be the process of transformation of the world?
0 1964-05-17, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of course, Nature is wonderful, the sea is so beautiful, the climate delightful, but ultimately, when I close my eyes and meditate, I feel something fuller and more solid than all the degrees centigrade on a pearly sea. In reality, I spend my days waiting for my hours of japa-meditation, it is the real open sea, the peace that refreshes. It is something, and if it is nothing, its a nothing that is worth everything. Yet there is no progress of consciousness, I dont see anything, least of all youyou tell me that you know the Reason, I would really like to know what it is. I cannot understand why I am so blocked (my Western atavism?). I know the Light, I see the Space, I feel the Force, there is the absolute Truth that rules everything, pacifies everything, but inside there is nothing, not even the tip of your nosewhy? I dont see Mother either, its complete blackout. Inside, there is the Light, without a doubt, but why is it all black outside?No communication between the two. Do you make sense of it? Drat!
S.
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; 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 1964-09-16, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Announcing publicly what you intend to do helps considerably. It may give rise to objections, contempt, conflicts, but thats largely made up for by the public expectation, if we may say so: by what others expect from you. That was certainly the Reason for those robes: to let people know. Obviously, you may incur the contempt and ill will of some people, but there are all those who feel, I mustnt touch this, I mustnt have anything to do with it, its not my concern.
I dont know why, it has always seemed to me to be showing offit may not be that, and in certain cases it isnt, but still its a way of telling people, Ah! Here is what I am. And as I said, it may help, but there are drawbacks.
0 1964-11-25, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know if it is an answer to this question, but there came today a sort of film show: a long procession of all the stories telling how men destroy whats higher than they, cannot tolerate whats higher than they: the martyrs, the killings, the tragic ends of all those who represented a power or truth higher than mankind. As though that were the explanation the symbolic explanationof the Reason for the almost infinite time it took for Matter to awakenawaken to the imperious need for the Truth.
It was as if I were told, You see, there was a time when they burned you at the stake, tortured you, memories from past lives. And those memories were associated with the recent story of a Protestant missionary who said, though not in so many words, We worship Christ only because he DIED for men, because he was crucified for men.
0 1965-04-17, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The conditions for the almost indefinite prolongation of the life of the body are known, or almost known (they are more than sensed they are known), and they are learned through the work that must be done to counteract the EXTREME FRAGILITY of the physical balance of the body undergoing the transformation. Its a study every minute, as it were, almost every second. This is the extremely difficult part. It is difficult because of all the Reasons I have already explained, because of the intrusion of forces that are in a state of imbalance and have to be, as they come along, brought back to the new state of balance.1 Thats where you find the sign of the unknown.
Voil. Its there.
0 1965-05-08, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Somewhere in the Reason, one understandsit isnt that reason doesnt understand, but the Reason has no power to make this matter obey.
And every minute, I have now the feeling of a choice between victory and defeat, sun and shadow, harmony and disorder, the easy solution truly, the comfortable or pleasant and the unpleasant; and the feeling that if you dont intervene with authority, theres a sort of oh, its a combination of cowardice and spinelessness: its something limplimp, you know, slack.
0 1965-07-03, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For me its very different: things always appear old to me, they seem to belong to a faraway past. Especially these last few days. This cold, for instance (Mother has a bad cold), I clearly saw why I caught it (outwardly the Reason is very simple: the person who prepares my cards has a cold and I took the cold along with his cards), but why did I really catch it? Well, it corresponded to an arrowlike movement in the consciousness of the cells, and then, naturally, a lag: all that was refusing (refusing or unableit rather gives a feeling of drowsy things that arent too eager to make progress) is lagging behind, and naturally that manifests as a disorder.
Very well.
0 1965-07-17, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother laughs) the Reason is simple: that side is very, very close to the ordinary consciousness, so you remember; the other there isnt a sufficient connection, so when you wake up, you forget.
Thats the discouraging thing, besides, because one always remembers the bad side, not the rest!
0 1965-12-07, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And each day brings something. It seems to be going at a gallop, its going fast. Yesterday too, I learned something: for the work, the Reason for confusions. It was very interesting, a very interesting demonstration. And so forth, every day there is something like that, in the minute details of the material working.
Very interesting.
0 1965-12-10, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the doctor says, Id rather try and die He didnt have sufficient faith to be cured without outward means, thats the pity but who has sufficient faith? I dont know. There are some. there are some who have that marvelous grace. He didnt have it: the Reason, the intelligence were infinitely too active for him to have it.
Yesterday evening, I gave him a little over twenty minutes of concentration. He was sitting and I was standing, holding his hands. Never pull down on yourself, it is said, but you can pull down on someone else I pulled the Force all out. It was so powerful that his hand kept trembling2 while mine was still! Afterwards, once it was over, I wondered how it could be, I didnt understand: my hand, which was holding his, stayed still, but his was shaking; I felt his tremor in my hand. Then I stopped, when, all of a sudden, everything came to a halt: he stopped moving. And relaxation came, a relaxation. I was concentrating there, on his headrelaxation. Then I stopped. Time was up, anyway. Therefore IT CAN BE DONE. But this lack of faith based on the higher intelligence, the higher reason, prevents it from staying: it brings back the difficulty instantly. But I saw I saw it: it did stop. For me that was an obvious proof.
0 1966-03-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So, if for some reason or other there is a disorganization (but I think the Reason is one of teaching), one must have the capacity to go like this (Mother brings her two hands down in a gesture that immobilizes everything) and to stop all that instantly. But the capacity has been there for a long time, a long time (it hasnt always been used, but it has been there): the Power. And its the same with EVERYTHING: world events or natural or human upheavals, earthquakes and tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, floods, or else wars, revolutions, people killing each other without even knowing whyas they are doing at the moment: everywhere something pushes them on. Behind this quiver, there is a will for disorder that tries to prevent Harmony from being established. Its there in the individual, in the collectivity, and in Nature. And then, its such a painstaking, persistent teaching, which forgets nothing and is repeated every time something isnt totally understood, and is repeated in greater detail for you to better understand the working: the working in the hands, in the activity, in the Force going through [Mother] like this, in the use of vibrationsand which teaches the great Lesson: learning how to manifest the divine Force.
Its absolutely wonderful.
--
Aphorism 102: "To the senses it is always true that the sun moves round the earth; this is false to the Reason. To the Reason it is always true that the earth moves round the sun; this is false to the supreme vision. Neither earth moves nor sun; there is only a change in the relation of sun-consciousness and earth-consciousness."
At the beginning of the conversation, Mother had remarked about a sick disciple: "She is extremely nervous and excited. I told her to take sedatives, I told her her whole trouble was physicalshe says she is the victim of terrible Asuras! It's ridiculous! It's a physical disturbance and she need not go and trouble the Asuras!"
0 1966-04-20, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Humanly we may try to find the Reasons for this or that, but thats not the point, its that it was for her soul, for her true being the best possible for her.
Take her in you.
0 1966-07-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The resistance of inertia in consciousnesses and in Matter are the Reason why that Action, instead of being direct and perfectly harmonious, becomes confused, full of contradictions, shocks and conflicts. Instead of everything working out normally, I might say, smoothly (as it should), all that resisting, opposing inertia causes things to start clashing together in a tangled movement, with disorder and destruction, which are made necessary only by the resistance but were NOT indispensable: they might not have beenthey should not have been, to tell the truth. Because that Will, that Power, is a Power of perfect harmony in which each thing is in its place, and It organizes everything wonderfully: It comes as an absolutely luminous and perfect organization, which you can see when you have the vision. But when It descends and presses down on Matter, everything starts seething and resisting. So to want to ascribe to the divine Action and the divine Power the disorder and confusion and destruction is yet more human nonsense. Its inertia (not to speak of ill will), its inertia that CAUSES the catastrophe. It isnt that the catastrophe is willed, or even that its foreseen: it is CAUSED by the resistance.
Then, added to this is the vision of the action of the Grace that comes and mitigates the results wherever possible, that is to say, wherever its accepted. And thats what explains that the aspiration, the faith, the complete trust of the human, terrestrial element, have a power of harmonization, because they allow the Grace to come and mend the consequences of blind resistance.
0 1966-08-03, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I told you last time about those moments I had, which really were moments of realization [of divine Love]; then I clearly saw that it went away because it couldnt stay, and I immediately wanted to know why it couldnt stay. To just say, Things arent ready things arent ready, is quite meaningless. Then the cells themselves observed a sort of its something between torpor, drowsiness, numbness and indifference; and that state is mistaken for peace, quietude and acceptance, but it really is it really is a form of tamas.1 And thats the Reason why it may last for what, to our consciousness, is almost an eternity. And there was, as I told you, an experience [a painful attack]; it recurred in another form (it never recurs in the same form), in another form, and then the cells noticed that that sort of intensity, of ardor of will taking hold of them, that something concrete in the self-giving, in the surrender, does not exist when everything is fine (what people are in the habit of calling everything is fine, which means that you dont feel your body, there is no difficulty and things are just getting along).
It was almost a disappointment for these cells, which thought they were very ardent (!) and have had to realize that that semi-drowsiness was entirely responsible for all thats habitually called illnesses but I dont believe in illnesses anymore. I believe in them less and less. Everything that comes is a particular form of disorder, resistance, incomprehension or incapacityit all belongs to the domain of resistance. And there isnt really a deliberate resistance [in Mothers cells], I mean, whats conventionally called bad will (I hope this is true! If there is any, they havent become aware of it yet), but those things come as keen indications of the different points [of work or resistance in Mothers body], so it results in whats called pains, or a sense of disorder, or a discomfort. (A discomfort, that is to say, a sense of disorder or disharmony, is much harder to bear than a sharp pain, much harder; its like something that starts grating and gets stuck and cant get back into place.) All that, in the ordinary consciousness or the ordinary human view, is what people call illnesses.
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 1966-09-30, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When That comes, when the Lord is there, there isnt one in a thousand for whom its not terrifying. And not to the Reason, not to the thought: to the flesh, like that. So assumeassume it happens and a being is the condensation and expression, an embodiment of the supreme Power, of the supreme Lightwhat would happen?!
Well, thats the whole problem.
0 1966-10-05, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The spirit of organization, maybe not quite on an ordinary level but on a human one (maybe not just human, but anyway), the spirit of organization likes to have everything in front of it like a picture, and then to make plans, to organize, see: this comes here, that comes there. All that is useless. We must learn to live from minute to minute, like that. Its much more comfortable. And what prevents things from being so is (I think) that its exactly contrary to the Reasonable human mind, and that everyone around me expects me to make plans and decisions and So there is a pressure; I think thats it. Otherwise, it would naturally and spontaneously be like that: the miracle every minute. My tendency is always to say, Oh, dont worry! The more you worry, the more difficult you make thingsdont bother, dont bother. But they stare at me with a kind of horror (Mother laughs): I dont plan ahead, you see.
Thats my little storymy little miracle. It was as though to tell me, Oh, youd like to see a miracle?Here it is, ready-made! (Mother laughs) Its a good lesson.
0 1967-05-24, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I know it is the Russian explanation of the recent trend to spirituality and mysticism that it is a phenomenon of capitalist society in its decadence. But to read an economic cause, conscious or unconscious, into all phenomena of mans history is part of the Bolshevik gospel born of the fallacy of Karl Marx. Mans nature is not so simple and one-chorded as all thatit has many lines and each line produces a need of his life. The spiritual or mystic line is one of them and man tries to satisfy it in various ways, by superstitions of all kinds, by ignorant religionism, by spiritism, demonism and what not, in his more enlightened parts by spiritual philosophy, the higher occultism and the rest, at his highest by the union with the All, the Eternal or the Divine. The tendency towards the search of spirituality began in Europe with a recoil from the nineteenth centurys scientific materialism, a dissatisfaction with the pretended all-sufficiency of the Reason and the intellect and a feeling out for something deeper. That was a pre-war [of 1914] phenomenon, and began when there was no menace of Communism and the capitalistic world was at its height of insolent success and triumph, and it came rather as a revolt against the materialistic bourgeois life and its ideals, not as an attempt to serve or sanctify it. It has been at once served and opposed by the post-war disillusionmentopposed because the post-war world has fallen back either on cynicism and the life of the senses or on movements like Fascism and Communism; served because with the deeper minds the dissatisfaction with the ideals of the past or the present, with all mental or vital or material solutions of the problem of life has increased and only the spiritual path is left. It is true that the European mind having little light on these things dallies with vital will-o-the-wisps like spiritism or theosophy or falls back upon the old religionism; but the deeper minds of which I speak either pass by them or pass through them in search of a greater Light. I have had contact with many and the above tendencies are very clear. They come from all countries and it was only a minority who hailed from England or America. Russia is differentunlike the others it has lingered in mediaeval religionism and not passed through any period of revoltso when the revolt came it was naturally anti-religious and atheistic. It is only when this phase is exhausted that Russian mysticism can revive and take not a narrow religious but the spiritual direction. It is true that mysticism revers, turned upside down, has made Bolshevism and its endeavour a creed rather than a political theme and a search for the paradisal secret millennium on earth rather than the building of a purely social structure. But for the most part Russia is trying to do on the communistic basis all that nineteenth-century idealism hoped to get atand failedin the midst of or against an industrial competitive environment. Whether it will really succeed any better is for the future to decide for at present it only keeps what it has got by a tension and violent control which is not over.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1967-06-14, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You know, the story of the soul leaving the body, is childishness! Because I had that experience too, of leaving (not the soul! Its entirely independent, always and in everyone), of leaving the psychic being, the individual psychic being. When I left here in 1915, I left my psychic being here deliberately. I left it here, I didnt take it with me. Consequently, the body can live without the psychic being (it was rather sick, by the way, but that wasnt the Reasonits again the taste for drama! Oh, always the taste for drama!).
There we are.
0 1967-11-04, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At the same time, the work has become (the work, not the true one: the external work, the number of people, the number of letters ), it has become tremendous. I can clearly see the Reason for that, its because (silence) circumstances come so that the body no longer has the sense of personality. But its very difficult.
Very difficult.
0 1967-12-20, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats not to explain to you why I was late, because I did try to be on time! Thats not the Reason, its not that I let myself go like that, not at all; but there is a will certainly far more effective than mine.
(Then Mother gives flowers)
0 1968-10-09, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
V. didnt understand the Reason for it, what it meant. Then, a second time, he went there once more, saw the Pope again, who received him kindly and told him, Oh, I would very much like to return to India. V. said to him, If you come to India again, you must come and see Mother. He answered, Certainly, if I go back to India, Ill go and see Mother.
Well, well! And then?
0 1968-11-30, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Conversation of November 23. Through the "Notes on the Way" or otherwise, Satprem always wanted to make Mother's experience known to the Ashram, but did not at the time understand the Reasons for her reluctance.
***
0 1969-01-01, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These two, the vital and the mind, care very littlevery little for the bodys well-being: its merely an instrument meant to be used, and it just has to obey But the body feels much freer than before. Thats one of the Reasons why they were sent away, its not merely to go fasterwe said it was for the speed of the work, but its not merely that, its because the body left to itself has so much more practical common sense. I dont know how to explain. An extraordinary STABILITY.
The only thing in it that was a little morbid was this physical mind, the body-mind, which Sri Aurobindo regarded as impossible to changeit was very stubborn, but you see, its the one that has done the work, it has worked out the change. It had that habit of imagination, but its over, I mean its now like this (Mother brings down her hands in a gesture of authority), its the master.
0 1969-04-05, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I canceled my ticket for Pondicherry, I felt a spell of giddiness as when one receives a sharp blow to the head and ones balance seems lost. I was summoned to the Vatican and told to remain at the entire disposal of the Holy Father, who entrusts me with a grave and difficult question concerning the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference: I am asked to solve that problem. The Pope is counting on my skill, and so on. I was questioned about the Reasons for my remarks of February 24 (on March 24, I did not open my mouth), for there had just been a bombshell: two young Latin American bishops (from Peru and Chile) had left the Church-the first such cases in history, of course after the well-known and unique case of Talleyr and (for other reasons). They were my fellow students at the Rome University. They are leaving the Church because of a religious crisis. Yet they had everything the Church could give: honors, money; one was made a bishop at the age of thirty-three, the other two years ago. My remarks of February 24 were therefore prophetic. the Reason for their running away? I have just said it.
I do not feel inclined to go on giving you the detailed chronology of these facts.
0 1969-04-09, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And this Consciousness can explain wonderfully (not with words: by making you have experiences one side by side with the other). For example, many people say they cant realize the difference between an aspiration, a spiritual effort, and a desire; for them the two are hard to tell apart in the sensation; this Consciousness explains it, and shows you, gives you the one and the other, and the differencewonderful! Wonderfully exact. Now the body KNOWS, it knows perfectly well the difference and its a huge differencebetween aspiration or effort, the vibration that makes you become a thing or obtain a thing, and desire. Now the body knows. It knows. It has had such a demonstration in every detail with food. For a very long time the body has been quite indifferent to food (thats probably the Reason), but it has been given a demonstration with one thing, the relationship with that thing; it has been shown how desire is and how the harmony is that makes the thing beneficent. So as to understand clearly, it has also been shown how total indifference isnt good eitherits not like that, neither desire nor total indifference, neither this nor that, but like this (Mother seems to follow a tiny vibration with her fingertip): in a certain way, with a certain vibration, the thing you take is neutral (that is, it cant harm you, its neutral); if you take the same thing with a certain vibration, its beneficent; and then, the body is shown how vibrations of desire are disastrousall of it in detail. Tiny little things, but so clear, so precise! It takes place while youre eating, so its perfectly concrete.
Its a mentor, this Consciousness. It knows, mon petit! It knows loads of things that men dont know!
0 1969-04-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For years there was a whole side of things, the side of money and all the arrangements, which I wasnt told about, and it was quite fine, I didnt look after it, didnt bother myself with it. Now, they suddenly tell me things (half tell me, and without telling me what used to be done before), and I realize Everything is in a dreadful confusion, dreadful! Because I cant understand what they do because I dont know the Reason, I dont know how things are arranged.
Now a weight has been lifted, but They quarrel oh!
0 1969-08-20, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Hes had that sensation. He said, They will do it as they usually do; they generally give you a promotion somewhere: they might, for instance, nominate me bishop of [such and such a country]. Then he would be driven out of the Vatican. But when something of that kind happens, you are put under the Holy Office, which means you cannot talk to anyone and are obliged to answer with yes or no. If this situation comes, asks PL., what shall I do? Should I fight it out to assert my place at the Vatican, because they must give me the Reasons for my exclusion (he can openly challenge their intentions), or should I accept, get caught tip in the meshes of a post such as that of bishop [of such and such a country], with, at the same time, a rather widespread sphere of actionshould I accept that? Or what should I do in that case? His sensation is that he is going to be excluded from the Vatican this year.
Officially, is it the Pope who does it, or the cardinals?
0 1969-10-18, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its like that. For a PERFECT realization, the entire being must be illumined; but for an initial realization, its probably easier for a body that doesnt have a highly developed mind. Since he came here, Ive looked a good deal, and I am fully convinced of it. Thats why he You see, for us who have gone up to the highest degree of mental potentiality, its through that highest degree that we went beyondits when the mind realized its highest degree that it abdicated and thats very good for the integral realization, but generally the body is too accustomed to obeying the mind, not supple enough to be transformed. Thats the Reason why my mind was sent away. But thats not a process which can be recommended to others. Because nine people out of ten would die.
The mind?
0 1970-01-03, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Aphorism 261: "Perceive always and act in the light of thy increasing perceptions, but not those of the Reasoning brain only. God speaks to the heart when the brain cannot understand him."
***
0 1970-07-18, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
but matter and the body are the weak point or crucial point of our Yoga, since this province has never been conquered by the spiritual Power, the old Yogas having either left it alone or used on it only a detail mental and vital force, not the general spiritual force. It was the Reason why after a serious illness caused by a terribly bad state of the Ashram atmosphere
(Mother laughs)
0 1970-07-25, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its created in such a way, organized in such a way that EVERYTHING is like that, and every second (so then I understand; I understand movements I have felt in the consciousness, which I couldnt explain to myself), its automatic and CONTINUOUS, every second (we divide it into seconds, but its continuous). So its going forward towards the Divine, towards the conscious identification with the Divine, or else going backward. The body had felt things it didnt understand, because the consciousness was in a certain way, and some things were wrong (a very slight discomfort suddenly, you dont know why)thats the Reason. It explains everything, EVERYTHING. That way, the working of the universe is FULLY explained.
It instantly does away with all notions of sin, of evil.
0 1970-08-01, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats why, thats the Reason why I didnt want to write something of my own to this Msgr. R. I dont want to, I dont want people to say, Oh, theres a woman who Mother who that doesnt exist! (Mother laughs)
P. K. Basu, vice-chancellor or the Calcutta University. He paid a visit to Mother in June.
0 1971-01-30, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their chest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhereor it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other damned nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy or silence. It is what has happened to the religions and is the Reason of their failure.
October 2, 1934
0 1971-03-10, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
As there is a category of facts to which our senses are our best available but very imperfect guides, as there is a category of truths which we seek by the keen but still imperfect light of our reason, so according to the mystic, there is a category of more subtle truths which surpass the reach both of the senses and the Reason but can be ascertained by an inner direct knowledge and direct experience. These truths are supersensuous, but not the less real for that: they have immense results upon the consciousness changing its substance and movement, bringing especially deep peace and abiding joy, a great light of vision and knowledge, a possibility of the overcoming of the lower animal nature, vistas of a spiritual self-development which without them do not exist. A new outlook on things arises which brings with it, if fully pursued into its consequences, a great liberation, inner harmony, unificationmany other possibilities besides. These things have been experienced, it is true, by a small minority of the human race, but still there has been a host of independent witnesses to them in all times, climes and conditions and numbered among them are some of the greatest intelligences of the past, some of the worlds most remarkable figures. Must these possibilities be immediately condemned as chimeras because they are not only beyond the average man in the street but also not easily seizable even by many cultivated intellects or because their method is more difficult than that of the ordinary sense or reason? If there is any truth in them, is not this possibility opened by them worth pursuing as disclosing a highest range of self-discovery and world discovery by the human soul? At its best, taken as true, it must be thatat its lowest taken as only a possibility, as all things attained by man have been only a possibility in their earlier stages, it is a great and may well be a most fruitful adventure.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1971-05-27, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What made Satprem put this laconic note in his notebook, what was the occasion, the Reason? It is like a forewarning, which we shall leave as it is. Pranab is the name of Mother's "guard." Desh = territory or country.
***
0 1971-07-03, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And all the ideas of personal will or of a certain attitude to take are. Night and day, ceaselessly, whatever the difficulties, my body simply says, My God, let Your Will be done. The bodys attitude is steadfast: it is completely like this (hands open in offering). And the sense of its own powerlessness no: for as much as the sense of self is left (its not much, not much is left), but the little that is left is so powerless, so impotent, so ignorant ignorant! Frightfully ignorant of everything. Its something. One wonders why, whats the Reason for this (Mother touches her body). And then (gesture of a marvelous flash). Thats how it is.
And the other side doesnt create any problems. Its as if you were absolutely sick, a total mess, and all of a sudden youre marvelously well, strong. And it comes very naturally, without any fuss. It remains there, and then pfft!
0 1971-08-18, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These last few days (and quite strongly this morning) I have had the impression: the Divine is all things, and we are born so that each one makes a choice and manifests one of those thingsone or several. And so comes the question of deciding on the choice, but thats just where one must surrender entirely and leave the choice entirely to the Divine. We have been created as we are, and thats the Reason for all this wavering, these complications but what we have to learn is to leave it to that is, have no desire, no preference, and leave the choice entirely to the Divine.
(Mother goes within)
0 1971-10-20, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I must now make clear the Reasons why I hesitated to sanction the publication [of certain texts]. But that about non-cooperation would lead, I think, to a complete misunderstanding of my real position. Some would take it to mean that I accept the Gandhi programme. As you know, I do not believe that the Mahatmas principle can be the true foundation or his programme the true means of bringing out the genuine freedom and greatness of India. My own policy, if I were in the field, would be radically different in principle and programme. But the country is not yet ready to understand its principle or to execute its programme.
Because I know this very well, I am content to work still on the spiritual and psychic plane, preparing there the ideas and forces, which may afterwards at the right moment and under the right conditions precipitate themselves into the vital and material field, and I have been careful not to make any public pronouncement as that might prejudice my possibilities of future action. What that will be will depend on developments. The present trend of politics may end in abortive unrest, but it may also stumble with the aid of external circumstances into some kind of simulacrum of self-government. In either case the whole real work will remain to be done. I wish to keep myself free for it in either case.
0 1971-12-22, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, theyre not stirring anymore, that must be it. I dont hear about them anymore. Precisely, I noticed yesterday or the day before that they had grown completely quiet. That must be the Reason. So you can tell him that for the moment everyone is quiet, things are all right.
(Mother looks for a paper on the table)
0 1971-12-25, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That gives both the Reason and the goal of creationboth at once and almost the method of development.
(silence)
--
"For while the Reason proceeds from moment to moment of time and loses and acquires and loses and again acquires, the gnosis dominates time in a one view and perpetual power and links past, present and future in their indivisible connections, in a single continuous map of knowledge, side by side. The gnosis starts from the totality which it immediately possesses; it sees parts, groups and details only in relation to the totality and in one vision with it."
The Synthesis of Yoga, XX.464
0 1972-01-15, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, thats the Reason. Thats what I meantoffer that being to the Divine. You who know (the part of you that knows), offer it, just offer it. Never mind if it protests, dont pay any attentionoffer it OB-STI-NATELY to the Divine, morning and evening, morning and evening using your leg as a symbol. And we will see.
We will see.
0 1972-03-29a, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The young Indian students with whom I discuss your books understand perhaps better than Westerners the Reason for all those bloody and apparently useless sacrifices the torments conflicts and revolts of your heroes condemned to death, the great Hunger that drives them beyond themselves for they know that these are like the contractions of childbirth, and that the thick shell of egoism, routine, conformism, intellectual and sentimental habits must be broken for the inner Divine to transpierce the surface of this life for the Divine is indeed WITHIN man, and life harbors its own hidden justification. Echoing the Upanishad, Sri Aurobindo tells us that The earth is His foothold. He also wrote, God is not only in the still small voice, but in the fire and the whirlwind.
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 attribute, 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.
0 1972-04-13, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It seems that you no longer see everyone on their birthdays. Is it because of a lack of time or for some occult reason? People say that seeing too many people every day tires you, but if such is the Reason, twenty people coming to receive your Blessings on their birthdays take perhaps less time together than one person who sees you every day! Besides, it is the only dayonce a yearwhen we can see you to receive your Blessings and be near you. Of course, no one wants to disturb you, and I certainly dont.
But I was curious to know the Reason for this new arrangement. I hope I am not being impertinent to write this way to you.
Signed: V.
02.06 - The Integral Yoga and Other Yogas, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I found them out in my own experience. the Reason is that the old Yogins when they went above the spiritual mind passed into samadhi, which means that they did not attempt to be conscious in these higher planes - their aim being to pass away into the
Superconscient and not to bring the Superconscient into the waking consciousness, which is that of my Yoga.
02.07 - The Descent into Night, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But none could know the Reason of his fall.
The grey Mask whispered and, though no sound was heard,
--
Overthrow the Reason, occupy the life
And stamp its hoof on Nature's shaking ground:
--
the Reason meant for nearness to the gods
And uplift to heavenly scale by the touch of mind
02.13 - On Social Reconstruction, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In the old Indian social organisation there was at the basis such a psychological pattern and that must have been the Reason why the structure lasted through millenniums. It was a hierarchical system but based upon living psychological forces. Each group or section or class in it had inevitably its appropriate function and an assured economic status. The Four Orders the Brahmin (those whose pursuit was knowledgeacquiring and giving knowledge), the Kshattriya (the fighters, whose business it was to give physical protection), the Vaishya (traders and farmers who were in charge of the wealth of the society, its production and distribution) and the Sudra (servants and mere labourers )are a natural division or stratification of the social body based upon the nature and function of its different members. In the original and essential pattern there is no sinister mark of inferiority branded upon what are usually termed as the lower orders, especially the lowest order. If some are considered higher and are honoured and respected as such, it meant simply that the functions and qualities they stand for constitute in some way higher values, it did not mean that the others have no value or are to be spurned or neglected. The brain must be given a higher place than the stomach, although all its support and nourishment come from there. Hierarchy means, in modern terms, that the essential services must pass first, should have certain priorities. And according to the older view-point, the Brahmin, being the emblem and repository of knowledge, was considered as the head of the social body. He is the fount and origin of a culture, the creator of a civilisation; the others protect, nourish and serve, although all are equally necessary for the common welfare.
Fundamentally all human society is built upon this pattern which is psychological and which seems to be Nature's own life-plan. There is always this fourfold stratification or classification of members in any collective human grouping: the Intellectual (taken in the broadest sense) or the Intelligentsia, the Military, the Trader and the Labourer. In the earlier civilisationswhen civilisation was being formedespecially in the East, it ,was the first class that took precedence over the rest and was especially honoured; for it is they who give the tone and temper and frame of life in the society. In later epochs, in the mediaeval age for example, the age of conquerors and conquistadors, and of Digvijaya, man as the warrior, the Kshattriya, the Samurai or the Chivalry was given the place of honour. Next came the age of traders and merchants, and the industrial age with the invention of machines. Today the labourer is rising in his turn to take the prime place.
03.01 - Humanism and Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
And yet there can be a status even beyond. For beyond the cosmic reality, lies the transcendent reality. It is the Absolute, neti, neti, into which individual and cosmos, all disappear and vanish. In compassion, the cosmic communion, there is a trace and an echo of humanismit is perhaps one of the Reasons why Europeans generally are attracted to Buddhism and find it more congenial than Hinduism with its dizzy Vedantic heights; but in the status of the transcendent Selfhood humanism is totally transcended and transmuted, one dwells then in the Bliss that passeth all feeling.
The Upanishadic summit is not suffused with humanism or touched by it, because it is supra-human, not because there is a lack or want or deficiency in the human feeling, but because there is a heightening and a transcendence in the consciousness and being. To man, to human valuation, the Boddhisattwa may appear to be greater than the Buddha; even so to the sick a physician or a nurse may seem to be a diviner angel than any saint or sage or perhaps God Himself but that is an inferior viewpoint, that of particular or local interest.
03.02 - Yogic Initiation and Aptitude, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The inner soul the psychicvery often undergoes a secret preparation, develops and comes forward but just waits, as it were, behind the thin though opaque screen; and because of that it gives no objective indication of its growth and readiness. We see no patent sign of what is usually known as fitness or aptitude or capacity. Otherwise how to explain the conversion of a profligate and dilettante like Augustine, or of a rebel like Paul, or of scamps like Jagai-Madhai. Often the purest gold hides in the basest ore, the diamond is coal turned, as it were, inside out. This, one would say, is the Divine Grace that blows where it listsmakes of the dumb a prattler, of the lame a mountain-climber. Yet, but what is this Divine Grace and how does it move and act? It does not act on all and sundry, it does not act on all equally. What is the Reason? Appearances often belie the reality: a contrary mask is put on, it would appear, deliberately, with a set purpose. The: sense and significance of this mystery? The hard, obscure, obstinate, rebel outer crust may continue long but it is corroded from within and one day, all on a sudden, it crumbles and dissolves and becomes in a new avatar the vehicle and receptacle of the very thing it opposed and denied.
Virtues are not indications of the fire of the inner soul, nor are vices irremediable obstacles to its growth. The inner soul, we have said, feeds upon allit is indeed fire, the omnivorous, sarvabhuk,virtues and vices and everything else and gather strength from everywhere. The mystery of miracles, of a sudden change or reversal or revolution in consciousness and way of life lies in the omnipotency of the psychic being. The psychic being has the power of making the apparently impossible, for this reason that it is a portion of the almighty Divine, it is the supreme Conscious-Power crystallised and canalised in a centre for the sake of manifestation. It is a particle from the Being, a spark of the Consciousness, a ripple from the Delight cast into the fastnesses of Matter and the, material body. Now, it is the irresistible urge of this particle, this spark, this ripple to grow and expand, to become in the end the Vast the Ocean and the Sun and the sphere of Infinityto become that not merely in an essential status but in a dynamic and apparent becoming also. The little soul, originally no bigger than a thumb, goes forward through one life after another enlarging and intensifying itself till it recovers and establishes its parent reality in this material body here below, till it unveils what is latent within itself, what is its own, what is itself,its integral self-fulfilment, the Divine integrality.
03.03 - Modernism - An Oriental Interpretation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The domination of the religious sense reached its apogee in the Middle Ages when it almost swallowed up and annihilated all other faculties and movements in man. The end of that epoch and the first beginnings of the Modern Age were signalised by the Mind, i.e. the Reason, declaring its independence. This was the Renaissance; and it was then that the seed was sown of modern science and scientism.
Mindmind in its rational modethus emancipated, exercised in its turn a domineering control over man's entire nature. All other members were made a subservient tri butary to that which was considered the members par excellence in the rational animal. The seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries form the period of its rule the former its bright period when it expressed itself in its truth and power, as embodied in what is called classicism in literature; the latter its darker phase, its decline, the manifestation of its weakness. Its death-knell was first sounded by Voltaire who symbolised the mind's destructive criticism of itself, the same which Anatole France in France and Shaw in England have continued in our days almost to a successful issue.
03.04 - The Vision and the Boon, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Helped by the Reason's vacillating fires,
To make his thought and will a magic door
03.06 - Divine Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
And yet there can be a status even beyond. For, beyond the cosmic reality lies the transcendent reality. It is the Absolute, neti, neti, into which individual and cosmos, all disappear and vanish. In compassion, the cosmic communion, there is a trace and an echo of humanismit is perhaps one of the Reasons why Europeans generally are attracted to Buddhism and find it more congenial than Hinduism with its dizzy Vedantic heights. But in the status of the transcendent Self-hood, humanism is totally transcended and transmuted; one dwells there in the Bliss that passeth all feeling.
The Upanishadic summit is not suffused with humanism or touched by it, because it is supra-human, not because there is a lack or deficiency in the human feeling, but because there is a heightening and a transcendence in the consciousness and being. To man, to human valuation, the Bodhisattva may appear to be greater than the Buddha; even so to the sick a physician or a nurse may seem to be a diviner angel than any saint or sage or perhaps God himself but that is an inferior view-point, that of particular or local interest.
04.03 - Consciousness as Energy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The dynamic becoming, becoming a power and personality of the omnipotent Divine, is a secret well known to the Yogis and mystics. Only it has not been worked out in all its implications, not given the full value and importance rightfully due to it. the Reason is that although the principle was discovered and admitted, the proper key had not been found that could release and manipulate the Energy at its highest potential and largest amplitude. Because the major tendency in the spiritual man till now has been rather to follow the path of nivtti than the path of pravtti, this latter path being more or less identified with the path of Ignorance. But there is a higher line of pravtti which means the manifestation of the Divine, not merely the expression of the inferior Nature.
II
04.05 - The Immortal Nation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the Reason for a long life must necessarily be in the mode of life itself. The life lived by later nations had a very dominant politico-economic bias. The government, the political, that is to say, administrative power was of outstanding importance, the economic factor being necessarily an indispensable adjunct. On the other hand, in Egypt, in Greece and in all the Eastern countries, the main stream of life ran in another channel; it was cultural and ideative. What remains of Greece or even of Egypt, what the Eastern countries carry still here and there in a living manner is that element that which is immortal in mortality, as the Vedic Rishis say. The stone monuments bear a significance and a message even to us, because they embody and point to what moved, inspired and fashioned the consciousness, the inner life of these races. And it is that that outlives the glories of governments and rulers.
What happened usually in ancient times among more ancient peoples, and in Asia generally, happened with characteristic emphasis in India. The physical vastness of China or of India, their teeming populationsmuch greater than any single nation or countryare sometimes adduced as reasons of the stability or longevity of these two Asiatic peoples. But I suppose Matthew Arnold's graphic vision of the situationin his famous lines about the dreaming East and the legions thundering pasthits the mark closer, although his was a disparaging, not an appreciating note. That is to say, here in India the king, the administrator, the political or economic factor were superficial limbs of the society, they lay at the periphery of the people's consciousness. Wars and revolutions did not affect or touch essentially the life-movement. Here was a people terribly concerned with inner values: these were much more important than an occupation with problems of food and lodging. We are all familiar with the poignant cry of an Indian woman of the Vedic age: what shall I do with the thing that does not give me Immortality?
05.02 - Physician, Heal Thyself, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
And yet he does not change. He has not the sincere will to change. At least he takes the wrong way about it. And the Reason is that he does not whole-heartedly adopt the course which he knows to be the only right thing. He is divided in his being: one part knows indeed, but another, the larger, the dynamic part does not profit by that knowledge, ignores it and pursues a contrary path, the accustomed groove of ignorance and laissez-faire.
He consoles and comforts himself, lays the flattering unction to his soul by taking to a less exacting ideal, a substitute without tears, as it were. Therefore he looks outside, seeks to reform society, changing its laws and constitution, and wants to believe that in that way society can be remodelled and mankind transformed.
05.05 - Of Some Supreme Mysteries, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Faith is the urge of the soul's truth-the truth that has not yet come down and become evident to the Reason and the brain-mind.
Faith brings out not only your own latent power, but opens the gates to a Power higher than your own.
05.10 - Knowledge by Identity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When the Upanishad says, one who knows Brahman be comes Brahman, does it not mean that the very condition of knowing Brahman is to become it? Indeed, there is no contradiction or incommensurability between knowing and becoming, between (what is termed by the mystic as) Knowledge and Realisation. Consciousness has a twofold power, Sri Aurobindo says: the power of apprehension and the power of comprehensionprajna and vijna. Prajnana, the apprehending consciousness, sets the object in front, away and separate from itself and contemplates it: Vijnana, the comprehending consciousness, on the other hand, comprehends, embraces the object within itself, as part of its own being. The two are not distinct or incompatible movements, they go together and form one single movement of consciousness. It is the mind, the Reason that makes the separation; it is not possible for the mind to view two things simultaneously. It is because of this incapacity of the mind, married to its logic of the finite, that Sri Aurobindo points out the way of correcting it by a higher supramental power which operates in a global way.
Let us go back to our illustration. I am angry means both I am anger and I know I have anger. It is true in fact and experience. Similarly I am (existent) means both I am existence and I know I am existent. The transcendence of the subject (of which Prof. Das speaks) is nothing but the poise of the consciousness as the apprehending Purusha: it does not negate or exclude identification, which is another arm of a biune process. The two are complementary to each other. Also Purusha and Prakriti are nor contradictories, not mutually exclusive; they are dual aspects or dispositions of the same consciousness or self-conscious reality. Consciousness involved and lost to itself and in itself is Prakriti, consciousness evolved and looking out at itself is Purusha. I am aware of myself and I am myself are two ways of saying the same thing. We imagine Shakespeare expressed the experience graphically and poetically when he made his character say:
05.12 - The Revealer and the Revelation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
According to the Dean the qualities themselves are God, the living God whom one can worship. The True, the Good and the Beautiful the Hellenic trinity he adores more than the Holy Trinity. "The God of religion is rather the revelation than the revealer. The source of revelation cannot be revealed: the ground of knowledge cannot be known".2 This, one might say, almost echoes the Upanishadic mantra, "How can one know the knower?" (Vijtram are kena vijnyt). The Upanishad says indeed that he who thinks he knows does not certainly know, but he who says he knows not is the one who knows; he knows who knows not, he knows not who knows. This simply means that God, the supreme Reality, is apprehended in and through other channels than mind and reason. It is a commonplace of spiritual experience that the Spirit is directly, immediately realisable, although its indirect approaches are walled in by a thousand appearances. A direct non-rational experience is not however something vague, nebulous, inarticulate; it is even more concrete, precise and tangible than a sense experience or a rational idea. Not only so, a suprarational knowledge can be grasped and presented by the intellect if it is purified and illumined. A brain mind under the sway of the senses and the outgoing impulse is an obstacle: it disturbs and prevents the higher Light. But passive and transparent it can be a faithful mirror, a docile instrument and channel. That is why the Upanishad says in the first instance that the supreme Reality cannot be seized by the Reason, but in another context, it declares that the mind, the intelligence too has to hold and realise the same. Normally intellect acts as a lid, but it can also be a reflector or projector.
One knows the Revealer for one becomes it. Knowledge by identity is the characteristic of spiritual knowledge. If one keeps oneself separate and seeks to apprehend the Divine as an object outside, the Divine escapes or is caught only by the trail it leaves, its echoes and shadows, its apparent qualities and attributes. But one with the Divine, the being realises and possesses it in full consciousness, the Revealer reveals himself as such (vute tanum swm) and not merely in or as his phenomenal formulations.
05.12 - The Soul and its Journey, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When a man dies, his soul or psychic being, after a time goes to the psychic world and takes rest there till the hour comes to take birth again in another body upon earth. There are then these two periods in the life after death. First, the passage and next the rest. The passage means the gradual shedding of all the other sheaths or envelopes that surround the psychic being and form its earthly frame. With the physical body has to go also the subtle body, then the vital and finally the mental too. the Reason why one does not remember the past lives is this that one leaves behind the instrument of memory the brain mindwith one's death. One does not carryover with the psychic being the other parts that constitute the terrestrial life. They are dispersed and dissolved in their respective cosmic spheres. The subtle body gives up its elements to the subtle physical plane, the vital elements are taken up into the vital world and the mental elements go into the mental world,unless the psychic being is highly developed and has organised around itself as its instrument of self-expression any of these elements. In that case, as much of the terrestrial partsnamely, of the subtle body and life and mindas have come into direct contact with the psychic and have allowed themselves to be moved and moulded by its consciousness, will alone persist and share in the immortality of the soul. Normally, the elements of the human vehicle form a loose and unorganised aggregate massed round the psychic centre. When the centre withdraws, they too fall off automatically and are scattered into the universal storehouse of Nature. Only when they have been organised and when they have attained a definite form and character expressing something of the psychic nature, can they maintain their identity, for this identity is part and parcel of the psychic identity.
I have said that the memory of past lives is effaced because of the effacement of the instrument. But there is a higher memory which is the attribute of the psychic consciousness. The psychic being is made of light and knowledge: it knows, rather it sees and can survey the whole curve of its past growth and development. Of course, it may not see or remembervery often it does notall the physical details of things and happenings of an earthly life, the hundred incidents, accidents and contingencies that are not directly linked to its consciousness. But all things that have had its touch and have contri buted to its growth and development and have in their turn received its influenceobjects, persons, happenings or movementsfind themselves harboured in the psychic memory. And thus the only sure way of remembering the past, remembering, that is to say, what is worth remembering, is to go into the psychic being, possess the psychic consciousness. There one has the whole panorama of the soul's odyssey revealed. Any other way leads only to imagination, conjecture and delusion.
05.13 - Darshana and Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The procedure of European philosophy is different. There the Reason or the mental light is the starting-point. That light is cast about: one collects facts, one observes things and happenings and then proceeds to find out a general trutha law, a hypothesisjustified by such observations. But as a matter of fact this is the ostensible method: it is only a make-believe. For mind and reason are not normally so neutral and impersonal, a tabula rasa. The observer already comes into the field with a definite observational angle and a settled viewpoint. The precise sciences of today have almost foundered on this question of the observer entering inextricably into his observations and vitiating them. So in philosophy too as it is practised in Europe, on a closer observation, if the observer is carefully observed, one finds not unoften a core of suppositions, major premises taken for granted hidden behind the logical apparatus. In other words, even a hardened philosopher cherishes at the back of his mind a priorijudgments and his whole philosophy is only a rationalisation of an inner prejudgment, almost a window-dressing of a perception that came to him direct and in other secret ways. That was what Kant meant when he made the famous distinction between the Pure and the Practical Reason and their categories. Only the direct perceptions, the spiritual realisations are so much imbedded behind, covered so much with the mist of mind's struggle and tension and imaginative construction that it is not always easy to disengage the pure metal from the ore.
We shall take the case of one such philosopher and try to illustrate our point. We are thinking of Whitehead. The character of European philosophical mind is well exemplified in this remarkable modern philosopher. The anxiety to put the inferences into a strict logical frame makes a naturally abstruse and abstract procedure more abstruse and abstract. The effort to present suprarational truths in terms of reason and syllogism clouds the issues more than it clarifies them. The fundamental perception, the living intuition that is behind his entire philosophy and world outlook is that of an Immanent God, a dynamic evolving Power working out the growth and redemption of mankind and the world {the apotheosis of the World, as he puts it). It is the theme which comes last in the development of his system, as the culminating conclusion of his philosophy, but it is the basic presupposition, the first principle that inspires his whole outlook, all the rest is woven and extended around this central nucleus. The other perception intimate to this basic -original perception and inseparable from it is a synthetic view in which things that are usually supposed to be contraries find their harmony and union, viz.,God and the World, Permanence and Flux, Unity and Multiplicity, the Universal and the Individual. The equal reality of the two poles of an integral truth is characteristic of many of the modern philosophical systems. In this respect Whitehead echoes a fundamental conclusion of Sri Aurobindo.
06.01 - The End of a Civilisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Look at the individual. Why is there in him the life-urge to persist, to endure, to survive? If life had no other meaning than mere living, then the best thing would have been to drop the body as soon as it is badly damaged or incapacitated, through illness, accident or old age. Instead, why this attempt to prolong it, to refuse to accept the present difficulties and disadvantages? the Reason is that life requires time to grow in consciousness, to acquire experiences, to assimilate and utilise them so as to transform them into powers of being, time, that is to say, to build and forge the instrument so that it may house the higher consciousness and existence. In the present make-up, the body, at a certain stage has to be given up; for the frame becomes too rigid and stiff to keep pace with the growing and fast moving inner consciousness. The thread is taken up again in another life; but there is always a considerable reduplication in this natural process, one has to repeat the stage of babyhood and immaturity, a retempering of the instrument till it is capable of newer uses. True, some-thing of the experiences, their essence, is stored up somewhere in the depth of the being; but it is not utilised fully, it is not an effective element in the normal consciousness. And although one always bases oneself upon one's past, the edifice constructed seems new every time. Yoga in the individual seeks to eliminate this element of repetition and unconsciousness and delay in the process of growth and evolution: its aim is to complete the cycle of individual growth in a single life.
Now the same principle can be extended to the wider collective development. Civilisation has reached a status today when the next higher status can be and must be at-tempted. Man has risen to a considerable height in the mental sphere; the time and occasion are now here to step beyond into the supramental, the dynamically spiritual. Dangers are ahead, even around and close: all the forces of the infra-human, the submerged urges of animal atavism are pushing and pulling man down to a regression, to a reversion to type. The choice is indeed crucial. If the civilisation is to perish, it means mankind has to start over again its life course, begin, that is to say, at the baby stage, once more to go through the slow process of centuries to acquire the mastery that has been attained in the physical, the vital and the mental domains. Already there have been such lost periods in man's evolution now submerged in his consciousness and their gains are being with difficulty recovered. But a landslide at this critical hour will be a colossal catastrophehumanly speaking, something almost irremediable.
06.07 - Total Transformation Demands Total Rejection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the Reason is very simple. The experience or realisation is not a total one, that is to say, it belongs to a part only of the nature and is not shared by other parts. The sadhak is not of one piece: the whole of his nature is not worked to the same pitch and amplitude, it is not equally responsive everywhere. Thus, when the psychic brings forward an experience and the inner consciousness is full of the light and energy and joy and faith, even then, in the background or by the side, if you are vigilant and observe carefully, you will see that the mind, the external mind, has its reservations or continues to move in its accustomed way. It looks askance at the experience, criticises or doubts; or it tries to understand or explain in its own terms, seize it within its frame of comprehension. Or else, the vital rises up and tries to get hold of the experience and utilise it for its own purposes; it is enjoyed as a tasty food, made to serve the vital's ambition or vanity, some lower ignorant egoistic urge. Or again, the physical, the body consciousness may not at all participate in the experience; it may remain indifferent, listless, lethargic with no impulse or enthusiasm to carry out in practice the experience of the inner consciousness. Any of these drags or cross-currents is sufficient to maim and diminish and even wipe out the experience: and usually all the three are finally there to combine and reinforce each other's effects to do the mischief.
The remedy is to turn back and hold to the spot of light that is there in the consciousness, the clarity or the aspiration that belongs to the inner and higher being. That has to be used as a torch, as a staff to support and guide you in your periods of darkness and vacillation. That beam of burning light should be thrown, in turn, upon those parts in you that besiege with their obscurity and inconscience, doubt and arrogance, the realisation that comes, the progress on the way. It must be done with firmness, vigilance and perseverance. The mixture has to be sorted out, the dross separated, kept on one side and the pure element on the other: the impurities have to be put under the flame-light to melt, burn away and be eliminated. And this means an ardent sincerity, for that is the tinder which keeps the fire blazing.
07.03 - The Entry into the Inner Countries, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As if to pluck the Reason from its seat
And cast its corpse into life's wayside drain;
07.05 - This Mystery of Existence, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Have you ever asked yourself why there is this universe at all, at least this earth with which we are so much concerned and which seems to us so real, so au thentic? It would perhaps be very wise on your part if you did not! I have often spoken to you of Theon. He was truly a sage in his own way. People used to come to him and ask questions. Many asked why there was a universe. He would answer, But what is that to you? Some would ask, Why is the universe like this? To that ht would say, It is what it is, how does it matter? Others again would remark, I do not consider the world a satisfactory affair. There, we begin to come more to the point. To those who find the world unsatisfactory I would say, Get to work, try to change it. Find a way that it may be otherwise, that it may be made better. Things are what they are, it is no use speculating over that and getting worried. Seek for the means of remedy, so that things may be made what they should be. Why are things what they are? Not that one cannot know the Reason, although one may not always be sure of it. The best thing to do is to take whatever is as it is and try to change it towards that which it ought to be. Now the wonder of it is that if you are sincere, if you want to know sincerely and work sincerely, you will come to know why things are what they are the cause, the origin and the process, for they are all one. There is one truth at the base of things; if that were not there, nothing would be. If you seize that truth, you seize at the same time the origin of the creation and the means of changing it as well. In other words, if you are in contact with the Divine for the Divine is that baseyou are in possession of the key to all things, you know the why, the how and the process for change. One thing to do then is to start doing the thing. But you might say, it is too much, too difficult, too big for youto work in the world or for the world. Well then, start with yourself. You are a little mass of substance, a symbol or representative of the universe. Let your work then be to form and refashion that particle. Concentrate upon it, go withineven within that little person of yourself you will find the long looked-for key.
***
07.13 - Divine Justice, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You must understand once for all that the Divine, when he acts is not moved by human notions. Possibly he does things even without what we call reason. In any case the Reasons are not of the human kind; above all, the Divine has not that sense of justice which man has. For example, when you see a man full of greed for money, trying to cheat people just for the sake of getting a few rupees, your idea of justice cries out that such a man should be deprived of all money, he must be reduced to poverty. But actually you find things happening to the contrary. Although that is only the appearance of the situation; behind there is an altogether different picture. The greedy gets the object of his greed, but he has to make an exchange, give up some other possibilities. He gets money but he loses in his consciousness. And then it also happens very often that when he does get what he desired so much, he finds himself not so happy, generally he is even less happy than before: he is tormented by the wealth he has gained. You must not judge things by apparent success or by apparent failure. One can say, on the whole, that the Divine gives what one asks for and that is the best way in which one gets his lesson. If your desire is ignorant, unconscious, obscure, selfish, you increase in yourself ignorance, unconsciousness, obscurity and selfishness, that is to say, you move away more and more from truth and consciousness and happiness, in other words, away from the Divine. For the Divine, however, there is only one thing which is true, the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Union. Each time you put material things in front of you, you become more and more material, you push behind more and more the Divine. To the eye of the ignorant you may have all the appearance of wonderful success, but this success, from the standpoint of truth, is a terrible defeat, you have bartered truth for falsehood.
To judge by appearances, by apparent success is an act of complete ignorance. Even in the case of a person hardened to the core, who has apparently the utmost success, there is a counterpart: exactly this hardening, this evil that is put up thicker and thicker between the outer consciousness and the inner truth becomes also more and more unbearable. The outer success has to be paid for very dearly. One must be very great, very pure, one must have a very high, very unselfish spiritual consciousness to be able to succeed and yet not be affected. There is nothing so difficult to bear than success. That is the true test in life. When you are not successful, you turn very naturally to yourself, go within you, seek there comfort for the outer failure. And they who have the Flame within them and the Divine helping them truly, that is to say, if they are mature enough to get the help, if they are ready to follow the path, must expect blows coming upon them one after another, because that helps. Indeed that is the most powerful, most direct and most effective help. But if you have 'Success, take care! Ask yourself, at what price you have had it? What is the thing you have paid for the success? Of course, there are people of a different kind. They who have gone beyond, who are conscious of their soul, who are entirely surrender they can succeed and success does not touch them. But one has to rise very high to be able to shoulder the burden of success. It is perhaps the last and final test that the Divine puts to anyone. He says: Now that you are noble and high and unselfish, you belong to Me alone. I shall make you triumph. We shall see if you can bear the blow!
07.21 - On Occultism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What did the tiger represent? I told the painter that perhaps in the course of the day or at some time he was angry with someone and indulged in violent thoughts, wishing him harm, etc. Now as in the physical world, so too in the occult world there is a law of action and reaction or return movement. You cherish a bad thought; it returns upon you as an attack from outside. So the tiger might have represented some bad thought or impulse in him which came back upon him, like, as it is said, a boomerang. It is exactly one of the Reasons why one should have control over one's thoughts and feelings and sensations. For if you think ill of a person, wish unpleasant things for him, then in your dream you are likely to see the person coming to attack you, more violently perhaps than you thought of doing. In your ignorance and impulse of self-justification you say, Just see, was I not right in my feeling towards this man, he wanted to kill me! In point of fact, however, the contrary is the truth. It is a common law in occultism that if you make a formationa mental formation, for example, to the effect that an accident or some unpleasant thing should happen to a person and you send out the formation to do its work, then, if it so happens that the person concerned is on a higher level of consciousness, that is to say, if he wishes harm to none, is quite disinterested and indifferent in the matter, then the formation approaches him but does not enter into his atmosphere or touch him, it rebounds upon the sender. In that case a serious accident may happen to the sender of the formation: if one wishes death to another, death may come to himself. That is often the result of black magic which is a de-formation of occultism.
Formations are of many kinds. A formation is made for a particular work. When the work is done, the formation too dissolves. But it is a huge and complex subject. You cannot learn the whole of chemistry in one hour.
--
He knew very well that nothing could happen to him, the barrier was sound and secure and yet each time the snake darted at him, he leaped back to avoid the blow as it were. The thing repeated itself continually and however much he repeated to himself all the Reasons of his safety and security, the reflex gesture could not be controlled.
Only the scientist did not know one thingan element of occult knowledge escaped him. The physical movement of the serpent was accompanied by a considerable amount of a vital projection of its nervous energy. It was that which struck him with an irresistible force. It was almost like a violent physical shock and mere reason has no power to control it. To check and control, you must learn the occult way.
07.36 - The Body and the Psychic, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
You ask why the body has a limited receptive power. the Reason is that in the physical world things must not get mixed up, they must remain somewhat stable, in shape and position. For example, if your body suddenly began to melt and flow towards another, it would be rather troublesome; you would find it disgusting if the body of your neighbour, like a fluid, were to pour into your own fluid body. It is to prevent such a mixture that a greater concentration in masses was necessary, a kind of fixity of force that separates them. Indeed it was to separate one individuality from another that this fixity was needed. And it is precisely this fixity again that prevents the body from progressing as rapidly as it could and should. As you grow up and attain your normal size and constitution, you become more and more rigid in your body. As a child you have this plasticity of growth. Children change continually, they change visibly. This plasticity, this growth and development continue, so long as you remain young. But beyond, say, forty, people generally feel that they have reached their goal, they sit down to gather the fruits of their labour; they gradually become dry as dust, hard like old wood, and even like stone in the end. The body then not being able to adapt itself to the movement of the inner change, gets fossilised and crumbles, which means death.
After Death there is then no further progress?
08.29 - Meditation and Wakefulness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There are many such people who meditate for long hours, some almost all the time; but if by chance they are disturbed in their meditation by someone calling them or making noise, they fly into a rage, shout and abuse the whole world; they become more nasty than they would have been had they remained ordinary men without trying meditation. the Reason is, as I say, that they neglect to associate their outer life with their deeper consciousness: they cut themselves into two, there is one bit that is within making progress and another bit outside that goes from bad to worse, for it is left wholly uncared for.
Sri Ramakrishna used to tell a story in this connection. When asked about the purificatory virtue of a dip in the Holy Ganges he answered that the sins leave you as soon as you are about to enter the waters, but they keep waiting on the shore, and directly you are out they pounce upon you and settle in you as merrily as before.
09.05 - The Story of Love, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When it climbs back to its origin, it returns to the starting point with something more than what it had before it started. It is the experience of the universe and universality. Fundamentally, that is the Reason for the existence of creation. Consciousness would not be what it is had it not been expressed in a creation. There is an enrichment of consciousness through the experience gathered in an objective universe, a richness of content and a plenitude it would not have if there were not a manifested universe.
The return movement of creation is not a thing that happens in time. It is difficult to conceive, because for us things are successive. But if one could conceive a movement as a whole embracing everything, which would be at the same time the beginning and the end, and contain all, it would then be not a return in time, but a return in consciousness.
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Love alone is capable of putting an end to the suffering of the world. Only the ineffable delight of Love in its essence can wipe out of the universe the burning pain of separation. For it is only in the ecstasy of the supreme union that creation will discover the Reason of its existence and its fulfilment.
It is this marvellous state that we wish to realise upon earth. It is this that will be able to transform the world, make of it a dwelling place worthy of the divine Presence. And then only Love, true and pure, will incarnate in a body that will no longer be a disguise or a veil. That is why no effort is too arduous, no austerity too rigorous to illumine, perfect, transform the physical substance so that it no more hides the Divine, when the Divine takes an external form through Love. For, then there will be freely manifested in the world that marvellous divine Kindness that can change life into a paradise of the sweetest delight.
09.13 - On Teachers and Teaching, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now I would like to add one word, since I have the occasion. We have asked many of our students, when they are grown up and know something, to teach others. There are some, I believe, who know the Reason why; but there are others who think that it is because it is good to serve in some-way or other, because teachers are needed after all and that we are glad to have them. But I tell you, for it is a fact, I have never asked any of those who were educated here to give lessons unless I saw that that was the best way for them to acquire self-discipline, to learn what they are to teach, to attain an inner perfection which they would not do except by being teachers and having this opportunity, an exceptionally severe one, for self-discipline.
They who are successful here as teachers,I do not mean an external, artificial and superficial success,they who become truly good teachers, are exactly those who are capable of making an inner progress towards impersonalisation, capable of eliminating their egoism, becoming masters of their movements, possessing insight, comprehension of others and a patience, proof against all test and trial.
09.14 - Education of Girls, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I say if that is the way things are done elsewhere, it is no use our repeating the same here. We cannot do it better than they. On the contrary, if things are done elsewhere in that way, it is just the Reason why we should not do them that way.
What we want is precisely to bring into the world something which is not there. But if we keep to all the habits of the world, all its preferences and prejudices, all its constructions, how shall we come out of the rut and do something new?
100.00 - Synergy, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
of the Reasons why the relative size of our planet Earth, as comprehended by
humans, has shrunk so swiftly. The performance of the alloy demonstrates that the
10.01 - A Dream, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the meantime someone took Harimohon on a swift visit to the other world. He saw the hells and heavens of the Hindus, those of the Christians, the Muslims and the Greeks, and also many other hells and heavens. Then he found himself sitting once more in his own hut, on the same old torn and dirty mattress with Shyamsundar in front of him. The boy remarked, It is quite late in the night; now if I dont return home I shall get a scolding, everybody will start beating me. Let me therefore be brief. The hells and the heavens you have visited are nothing but a dream-world, a creation of your mind. After death man goes to hell or heaven and somewhere works out the tendencies that existed in him during his last birth. In your previous birth you were only virtuous, love found no way into your heart; you loved neither God nor man. After leaving your body you had to work out your old trend of nature, and so lived in imagination among middle-class people in a world of dreams; and as you went on leading that life you ceased to like it any more. You became restless and came away from there only to live in a hell made of dust; finally you enjoyed the fruits of your virtues and, having exhausted them, took birth again. In that life, except for your formal alms-giving and your soulless superficial dealings, you never cared to relieve anyones wantstherefore you have so many wants in this life. And the Reason why you are still going on with this soulless virtue is that you cannot exhaust the karma of virtues and vices in the world of dream, it has to be worked out in this world. On the other hand, Tinkari was charity itself in his past life and so, blessed by thousands of people, he has in this life become a millionaire and knows no poverty; but as he was not completely purified in his nature, his unsatisfied desires have to feed on vice. Do you follow now the system of Karma? There is no reward or punishment, but evil creates evil, and good creates good. This is Natures law. Vice is evil, it produces misery; virtue is good, it leads to happiness. This procedure is meant for purification of nature, for the removal of evil. You see, Harimohon, this earth is only a minute part of my world of infinite variety, but even then you take birth here in order to get rid of evil by the help of Karma. When you are liberated from the hold of virtue and vice and enter the realm of Love, then only you are freed of this activity. In your next birth you too will get free. I shall send you my dear sister, Power, along with Knowledge, her companion; but on one condition,you should be my playmate, and must not ask for liberation. Are you ready to accept it? Harimohon replied, Well, Keshta, you have hypnotised me! I intensely feel like taking you on my lap and caressing you, as if I had no other desire in this life!
The boy laughed and asked, Did you follow what I said, Harimohon? Yes, I did, he replied, then thought for a while and said, O Keshta, again you are deceiving me. You never gave the Reason why you created evil! So saying, he caught hold of the boys hand. But the boy, setting himself free, rebuked Harimohon, Be off! Do you want to get out of me all my secrets in an hours time? Suddenly the boy blew out the lamp and said with a chuckle, Well, Harimohon, you have forgotten all about lashing me! Out of that fear I did not even sit on your lap, lest, angry with your outward miseries, you should teach me a lesson! I do not trust you any more. Harimohon stretched his arms forward, but the boy moved farther and said, No Harimohon, I reserve that bliss for your next birth. Good-bye. So saying, the boy disappeared into the dark night. Listening to the chime of Sri Krishnas musical anklets, Harimohon woke up gently. Then he began thinking, What sort of dream is this! I saw hell, I saw heaven, I called the Divine rude names, taking him to be a mere stripling, I even scolded him. How awful! But now I am feeling very peaceful. Then Harimohon began recollecting the charming image of the dusky-complexioned boy, and went on murmuring from time to time, How beautiful! How beautiful!
One of Sri Krishna's Name
1.001 - The Aim of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We are limited individuals, with limited capacities of understanding, and we can have only limited aims in our life but we have unlimited desires. This is a contradiction. How can unlimited desires be fulfilled with limited aims? Life is a contradiction; it has begun as a contradiction, and it ends as a contradiction. This is the Reason why not one has slept peacefully, or woken up peacefully, nor lives peacefully. There is a subtle contradiction in sleep and a pressing contradiction when we wake up, and an annoying contradiction throughout our daily activities, so that there is only contradiction. There is nothing else in life; and all effort is meant to remove this contradiction. But if the very effort at removing contradiction is itself involved in a contradiction, then we are in a mess, and this is exactly what has happened to Tom, Dick, Harry, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D whoever it is.
The whole difficulty is that the structure of life is arranged in such a pattern that the depth of human understanding is incapable of touching its borders. We are not simply living life we are identical with life itself. One of the most difficult things to define is life itself. We cannot say what life is. It is only a word that we utter without any clear meaning before our eyes. It is an enigma, a mystery a mystery which has caught hold of us, which extracts the blood out of us every day, which keeps us restless and tantalises us, promising us satisfaction but never giving it. Life is made in such a way that there are promises which are never fulfilled. Every object in the world promises satisfaction, but it never gives satisfaction it only promises. Until death it will go on promising, but it will give nothing, and so we will die in the same way as we were born. Because we have been dying without having the promise fulfilled, we will take rebirth so that we will see if the promise can be fulfilled, and the same process is continued, so that endlessly the chain goes on in a hopeless manner. This vicious circle of human understanding, or rather human incapacity to understand, has arisen on account of the isolation of the human individual from the pattern of life.
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All our knowledge is insufficient, inadequate, temporal, empirical ultimately useless. It does not touch the core of life. Therefore, we will find that any learned person, whatever be the depth of his learning, whatever be the greatness of his scholarship, is miserable in the end. the Reason is that life is different from this kind of knowledge. It is an all-comprehensive organic being in which the knowing individual is unfortunately included, a fact which misses the attention of every person. It is not possible for anyone to observe or see or know anything, inasmuch as the conditions which describe the object of observation also condition the subject of observation. The Veda points this out in a mystical formula:tam eva viditv atimtyum eti nnya panth vidyate ayanya. Now, when it is said, by knowing 'That', every problem is solved, the Veda does not mean knowing this object or that object, or this person or that person, or this thing or that thing, or this subject or that subject it is nothing of that kind. It is a 'That' with a capital 'T', which means to say, the true object of knowledge. The true object of knowledge is to be known, and when 'That' is known, all problems are solved.
What are problems? A problem is a situation that has arisen on account of the irreconcilability of one person, or one thing, with the status and condition of another person, or another thing. I cannot reconcile my position with your position; this is a problem. You cannot reconcile your position with mine; this is a problem. Why should there be such a condition? How is it that it is not possible for me to reconcile myself with you? It is not possible because there is no clear perception of my relationship with you. I have a misconceived idea of my relationship with you and, therefore, there is a misconceived adjustment of my personality with yours, and a misconception cannot solve a problem. The problem is nothing but this misconception nothing else. The irreconcilability of one thing with another arises on account of the basic difficulty I mentioned, that the person who wishes to bring about this reconciliation, or establish a proper relationship, misses the point of one's own vital connection underline the word 'vital' with the object or the person with which, or with whom, this reconciliation is to be effected. Inasmuch as this kind of knowledge is beyond the purview or capacity of the ordinary human intellect, the knowledge of the Veda is regarded as supernormal, superhuman: apaurusheya not created or manufactured by an individual. This is not knowledge that has come out of reading books. This is not ordinary educational knowledge. It is a knowledge which is vitally and organically related to the fact of life. I am as much connected with the fact of life as you are, and so in my observation and study and understanding of you, in my relationship with you, I cannot forget this fact. The moment I disconnect myself from this fact of life which is unanimously present in you as well as in me, I miss the point, and my effort becomes purposeless.
10.03 - The Debate of Love and Death, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
"My heart is wiser than the Reason's thoughts,
My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death.
1.007 - Initial Steps in Yoga Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
To reiterate, this discipline is not a kind of imposition on the mind or the body, but it is a necessity. If the doctor tells us that we must take a capsule or a tablet at a particular time in a day, in such a quantity, he is not intending to impose upon us any kind of torture definitely not. It is a kind of method that he is introducing into our life for the purpose of regaining health. An introduction of a method cannot be regarded as a torture. It is not a compulsion and, therefore, discipline in this sense is not only necessary but indispensable, considering the nature of the goal that is before us. Why then this insistence on system, method, organisation, punctuality, tenacity, persistence, etc., in the practice? the Reason is that it is the nature of the goal itself. The goal of life is the ultimate point of system.
Nothing can be more systematic than consciousness itself. The highest method that can be conceived is deducible from the structure of consciousness, the nature of existence, the pattern of life everything is methodical. The whole of nature works in such a systematic manner that it is impossible to conceive chaos as a part of natural activity. Chaos means an indeterminate causative factor operating behind the effects visible in life. Any cause can bring about any effect this possibility would be regarded as a chaos. But that is not the way in which nature works. It is not that any cause will bring about any effect. Particular causes, arranged in a particular manner, will bring about particular results at a particular time and in a particular intensity. All this is decided and laid down due to the structure of things, the nature of life itself. The pattern of life is finally an organised whole and, therefore, organisation, which is another name for method, becomes a necessity in the practice of yoga. Just as we have social or political organisations, we have here an organisation of activity, conduct, procedure, and way of life.
1.008 - The Principle of Self-Affirmation, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
This is the argument of the central principle of individuality called the ego, or the asmita or ahamkara. The protection of this ego is the main function of our psychophysical individuality. Its existence and its operation have two sides or aspects of emphasis a like for certain things, and a dislike for certain other things. We may be wondering why it is that we like certain things and dislike certain things. Is there any reason behind it? the Reason is not easily available, though it is available if we go a little deeper. A like, a want, a love or an affection is that pattern of the movement of our consciousness towards an external object, whose characteristics are observed by the mind for the time being to be the counterpart, the correlative of the present condition of one's individuality so much so that when the condition of our personality changes, our like or love will also change. We cannot go on loving the same thing for eternity, nor can we hate a thing for eternity.
Loves and hatreds change when our condition changes, so that likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds are the reactions set up in respect of certain external objects by the changing pattern of our own personality or individuality. If it is summer, I like to drink water; if it is winter, I like to drink hot tea. My liking for hot tea or for cold water has some connection with what is taking place inside me in my biological and psychological personality. When there is drying up of the system due to heat, there is a need for water I would like to drink cold water. But when it is freezing cold due to the wintry atmosphere, I would like to have hot tea. So our like of hot tea and dislike of cold water in winter is caused by a peculiar condition of our body coupled with the condition of the mind, of course. In summer we would not like to drink hot tea. We would like a soda or cold water, etc., and dislike anything that is hot; we would not like to have hot coffee or hot tea in such climate. "Oh, it is so hot. I will take cold water." We dislike during summer that very thing which we liked in winter. What has happened to us? Why did we like it that day and today we dislike it? It is not because there is something wrong with tea or something wrong with water. They are the same things; nothing has happened to them. But something has happened to us. So today I like that which I disliked the other day, and today I dislike that which I liked the other day. What is the Reason? the Reason is us only. What has happened to us? Something has happened to us. If one can very carefully go into the deepest recesses of one's nature, one would know why loves and hatreds arise in one's mind. We project upon others, by a peculiar process called a defense-mechanism in psychoanalysis, the counterpart of our own nature. That which will not fit into our present condition is not liked by us. By 'present condition' I mean physical, biological, psychological, social everything. Anything that will fit into our present physical, biological, psychological and social condition is liked or loved by us. Anything that is outside the need of this condition is disliked; it becomes an obstacle. "I don't like it," we say. Why don't we like it? We do not know. "I don't like it; that is all." But if we are good physicians of the mind we will know why it is that we like it, and why it is that we do not like it.
Asmita or egoism, which is the principle of the affirmation of a particular condition of individuality, is the Reason for a particular love or hatred under given conditions. This affirmation of individuality is a peculiar thing, which cannot be understood by the intellect, by ordinary logic. Whatever be the condition with which consciousness identifies itself, that is affirmed by the ego, so that the ego does not have a set pattern it goes on changing itself. "Today I assert myself as a collector; tomorrow I assert myself as a minister." Though the principle of assertion is the same, the way of its function is different. The principle, and not merely the function, has to be tackled. It is not important to know what kind of food we want. We may want chapatti, or rice, or dal, or bread, or jam, or butter; that is not important. What is important is why we are feeling hungry that is the principle behind eating. What we eat is a minor detail, but it is why we eat that is important.
Likewise, what type of assertion we are making is a different matter it is a detail. But why we are making this assertion at all is the subject for analysis in yoga. Why is it that today we identify ourself as a sannyasi "I am a mandaleshwar" and we go on asserting that we are mandaleshwars; we are officers; we are such and such; we are this and that. This principle of affirmation is a peculiar twist in consciousness that has got identified with a changing condition. Every condition changes. We cannot have a permanent condition in life, so the affirmation of the ego also goes on changing. How do we know what we were in the previous birth? We had a different type of affirmation at that time. Who was our father in a previous birth? Who was our mother? And what has happened to that father and that mother? We have completely forgotten them. We now have another father and mother. In the next birth, what will happen to us? We will have some other father and mother. How many fathers? How many mothers? How many sisters? How many brothers? How many friends? How many enemies? So, who is our friend and who is our enemy? Who is our father and who is our mother.
1.009 - Perception and Reality, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Now comes the second problem. What is this real attitude that I have to develop towards it? The force that urges this real attitude towards the object is egoism. It is the breeding ground for the impulsive power which drives the consciousness out towards that object which has been regarded as real. It is not possible to merely perceive an object and have no attitude towards it, because the very consciousness of an object is the demand of the object to be recognised in a certain manner, and this recognition is called attitude. Therefore, we now have to find out the Reason for this perception of the object itself.
We are going from the lower stage to a higher stage, from the immediate experience of a concrete trouble to the causes thereof. We have a complex problem in the form of like and dislike for objects, and we want to maintain this condition of like and dislike. Therefore, there is love of life and fear of death, which, of course, requires the affirmation of the individual subject maintaining this attitude. We have now arrived at the stage where we understand that the Reason behind all this psychological activity is the perception of an object as a real something, external to oneself. Why do we perceive the object? We are not deliberately, or of our own accord, perceiving the object; here also, we are forced. Ultimately we will find that everything that we do is under a compulsion. Though people parade under the notion that they are free people and they can do whatever they want, it is not so. There is no free person in this world. Everybody is a slave of an urge, a force, a compulsion that is at the back of all these psychological activities. Just as we cannot see our own back, we cannot see the existence of these forces they are behind.
The perception of an object is caused by a subtle activity that has taken place in the cosmos itself. We have to go back to the Upanishads and texts which are akin in nature. The human mind is not made in such a way as to be able to comprehend what has happened, ultimately. This is what they call the cosmological analysis of human experience. Why do we exist at all as individuals, and then are compelled to perceive objects, and then to have to undergo all this tragedy and suffering of positive and negative attitudes, etc.? This is a mystery for the human intellect. While we may be able to understand and explain what things are like in the world, we will not be able to explain ourselves why we are what we are. Can we explain why we are what we are? "I am what I am, that is all. It has no reason behind it." But there is a reason, which is the Reason behind the Reason itself. Here we go back to a condition beyond human intellect. Great masters like Acharya Sankara, Ramanuja, etc. tell us that here we land in a realm where intellect should not interfere. The intellect has a boundary, and beyond that boundary, it is useless.
Now I am touching upon a realm where intellect will not work and it is not supposed to work at all because this is a cosmic question, and intellect is made in such a way that it cannot understand cosmic relationships. the Reason is that intellect is an individualised endowment; it is not a cosmic principle. It is a function of the individual psychological principle. This is what we call the intellect and, therefore, it will work only in terms of the affirmation of individuality. The intellect will always take for granted that the individual exists. But now we are trying to find out why the individual exists at all, so we know why our intellect will not work here. The intellect cannot work here because of the simple reason that we are trying to find the cause of the intellect itself so intellect fails, as it has to fail.
Here we go to a realm where the revelations of the ancient masters, which are embodied in the sacred scriptures, become our guide. Otherwise we shall be blind we will know nothing. The great masters who are the Gurus of mankind, who had plumbed the depths of being and had vision of the cosmic mystery, tell us something which the intellect cannot explain inductively, logically or scientifically. Our individual existence is caused by something which is prior to the manifestation of individuality and, therefore, let not the individual intellect interfere with this subject.
The masters, whose records we have in such scriptures as the Upanishads, for example, tell us that there is a cosmic mystery behind this operation of individuality namely, the diversification of the Comic Principle. We cannot ask as to why it happened, because the intellect is interfering here. We are asking the Reason why the intellect is there at all, and why individuality is there at all. That question cannot be asked because this intellect is an effect of individuality, and now we are trying to find the cause thereof. "Unbridled intellect is an obstacle," says Sankara in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, because the intellect will insist that there is diversity. It will oblige us to accept that individuality is real, objects are real, our relationships to them must be real, and so forth. So we should not take the advice of the intellect hereafter. The mystery of cosmic manifestation, which is the diversification of the cosmic principle, is regarded as the controlling principle behind the existence and the functioning of the individual.
Nowadays, our scientists also have conjectured the possibility of the universe having been once upon a time constituted as a sort of a cosmic atom. One scientist said, "The whole cosmos was like an atom." By "an atom", he means an indivisible something. The whole universe originally was like an atom, and that atom split into two parts. This is also mentioned in the Manu Smriti, prior to the declaration of this scientist. In the first chapter of the Manu Smriti we find the process of creation described, and instead of an atom, Manu says "anda" it was like an egg. Well, the scientist says "an atom". Does an atom not look something like an egg? It split into two parts. This original split of the atom into two parts is the cause of all our problems today. And it goes on, splitting and splitting two became four, four became eight, eight became sixteen, and umpteen, a millionfold and uncountable in number. These little split parts are the individuals you, me, and everybody included. We are struggling to become the original atom once again, as something unnatural has happened to us.
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So, it would not be judicious on the part of any individual to vehemently assert that the physical perceptions of the world are all-in-all. The materialist's conception is, therefore, not correct, because this conception arises on account of a miscalculated attitude towards everything. This is the Reason why, in the practice of yoga, expert guidance is called for, because we are dealing with matters that are super-intellectual, super-rational. Here our own understanding is not of much use, nor are books of any use, because we are treading on dangerous ground which the mind has not seen and cannot contemplate. We are all a wonder, says the scripture. This is a mystery, a wonder. It is a wonder because it is not capable of intellectually being analysed. The scripture proclaims that the subject is a great mystery, a great wonder and marvel; and one who teaches it is also a marvel, and the one who receives this knowledge, who understands it the disciple is also a wonder, indeed, because though the broadcasting station is powerful, the receiver-set also must be equally powerful to receive the message. The bamboo stick will not receive the message of the BBC. So the disciple is also a wonder to receive this mysterious knowledge, as the teacher himself is a wonder; and the subject is a marvel by itself.
Thus arises the need to be cautious in the adjustment of the mind and the judgement of values in life. The sutras of Patanjali that I referred to give only a hint, and do not enter into details the hint being that the vrittis or the modifications of the mind are of a twofold character, which I translated as determinate and indeterminate, and have to be gradually controlled. This control of the vrittis or the modifications of the mind is regarded as yoga: yoga citta vtti nirodha (I.2). Yoga is the control of the modifications of 'the stuff' of the mind, the very substance of psychological action. Not merely the external modifications, but the very 'stuff' of it, the very root of it, has to be controlled, and this is done in and by successive stages. We have always to move from the effect to the cause in the manner indicated in this analysis that we have made.
1.00a - Introduction, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Our own Order is the only exception of importance; and the Reason for this is that it is much more difficult to retain one's purity if one is living in the world than if one simply cuts oneself off from it. It is far easier to achieve technical attainments if one is unhampered by any such considerations. These regulations operate as restrictions to one's usefulness in helping the world. There are terrible dangers, the worst dangers of all, associated with complete retirement. In my own personal judgment, moreover, I think that our own ideal of a natural life is much more wholesome.
When you have found out a little about your past incarnations, you should be able to understand this very clearly and simply.
1.00c - DIVISION C - THE ETHERIC BODY AND PRANA, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
Here we touch upon a hidden mystery, of which the solution lies revealed for those who seek, in the fact that human beings and certain groups of devas are no longer found upon the Moon. Man has not ceased to exist upon the Moon because it is dead and cannot therefore support his life, but the Moon is dead because man and these deva groups have been removed from off its surface and from its sphere of influence. [xli]41 Man and the devas act on every planet as intermediaries, or as transmitting agencies. Where they are not found, then certain great activities become impossible, and disintegration sets in. the Reason for this removal lies in the cosmic Law of Cause and Effect, or cosmic karma, and in the composite, yet individual, history of that one of the Heavenly Men Whose body, the Moon or any other dead planet at any time happened to be.
3. The prana of forms.
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Hence, when the pranic vehicle is working perfectly in all three groups, human, planetary and solar, the union with latent fire will be accomplished. Here lies [103] the Reason for the emphasis laid on the necessity for building pure, refined physical vehicles. The more refined and rarefied the form, the better a receiver of prana will it be, and the less will be the resistance found to the uprising of kundalini at the appointed time. Coarse matter and crude immature physical bodies are a menace to the occultist, and no true seer will be found with a body of a gross quality. The dangers of disruption are too great, and the menace of disintegration by fire too awful. Once in the history of the race (in Lemurian days) this was seen in the destruction of the race and the continents by means of fire. [xlvi]45 The Guides of the race at that time availed Themselves of just this very thing to bring about the finish of an inadequate form. The latent fire of matter (as seen in volcanic display, for instance) and the radiatory fire of the system were combined. Planetary kundalini and solar emanation rushed into conjunction, and the work of destruction was accomplished. The same thing may again be seen, only in matter of the second ether, and the effects therefore will be less severe owing to the rarity of this ether and the comparatively greater refinement of the vehicles.
We might here note a fact of interest, though of a mystery insoluble as yet to most of us, and that is, that these destructions by fire are part of the tests by fire of an initiation of that one of the Heavenly Men Whose karma is bound up with our earth.
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d. These major seven planes of our solar system being but the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane, we can consequently see the Reason for the emphasis laid by H. P. B. [liv]52, [lv]53 upon the fact that matter and ether are synonymous terms and that this ether is found in some form or other on all the planes, and is but a gradation of cosmic atomic matter, called when undifferentiated mulaprakriti or primordial pre-genetic substance, and when differentiated by Fohat (or the energising Life, the third Logos or Brahma) it is termed prakriti, or matter. [lvi]54
e. Our solar system is what is called a system of the fourth order; that is, it has its location on the fourth cosmic etheric plane, counting, as always, from above downwards.
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Should a man, by the power of will or through an over-development of the mental side of his character, acquire the power to blend these fires of matter and to drive them forward, he stands in danger of obsession, insanity, physical death, or of dire disease in some part of his body, and he also runs the risk of an over-development of the sex impulse through the driving of the force in an uneven manner upwards, or in forcing its radiation to undesirable centres. the Reason of this is that the matter of his body is not pure enough to stand the uniting of the flames, that the channel up the spine is still clogged and blocked, and therefore acts as a barrier, turning the flame backwards and downwards, and that the flame (being united by the power of mind and not being accompanied by a simultaneous downflow from the plane of spirit), permits the entrance, through the burning etheric, of undesirable and extraneous forces, currents, and even entities. These wreck and tear and ruin what is left of the etheric vehicle, of the brain tissue and even of the dense physical body itself.
The unwary man, being unaware of his Ray and therefore of the proper geometrical form of triangle that is [127] the correct method of circulation from centre to centre, will drive the fire in unlawful progression and thus burn up tissue; this will result then (if in nothing worse), in a setting back for several lives of the clock of his progress, for he will have to spend much time in rebuilding where he destroyed, and with recapitulating on right lines all the work to be done.
1.00e - DIVISION E - MOTION ON THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
It can be noted that we have not summed up the two planes of abstraction on the atmic and the buddhic planes, the Reason being that they mark a degree of realisation which is the property of initiates of higher degree [189] than that of the adept, and which is beyond the concept of the evolving human unit, for whom this treatise is written.
We might here, for the sake of clarity, tabulate the five different aspects of the five senses on the five planes, so that their correspondences may be readily visualised, using the above table as the basis:
1.00 - PREFACE - DESCENSUS AD INFERNOS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
flaw of socialism, and the Reason for its frequent failure to attract and maintain democratic power (at least
in Britain). Orwell said, essentially, that socialists did not really like the poor. They merely hated the rich.2
1.00 - Preliminary Remarks, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Generally speaking, the larger and stronger and more highly developed any animal is, the less does it move about, and such movements as it does make are slow and purposeful. Compare the ceaseles activity of bacteria with the Reasoned steadiness of the beaver; and except in the few animal communities which are organized, such as bees, the greatest intelligence is shown by those of solitary habits. This is so true of man that psychologists have been obliged to treat of the mental state of crowds as if it were totally different in quality from any state possible to an individual.
It is by freeing the mind from external influence, whether casual or emotional, that it obtains power to see somewhat of the truth of things.
1.010 - Self-Control - The Alpha and Omega of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
It has been discovered now, therefore, that perceptions are due to a segmentation of consciousness. This is the secret behind our life in this world. And inasmuch as our perceptional experiences are involved in a condition of consciousness which is inseparable from our own being, we cannot know the Reason why we see things. Consequently, we cannot know why we like things or dislike things. Our knowledge becomes half-baked, inadequate, and erroneous when the conditions of all knowledge lie behind our capacities. Thus it is that often it looks as if we are completely under the control of pressures that are exerted from above and behind, from the right and the left, from every direction a fact of which we cannot have any awareness. It is, therefore, useless to apply scientific methods of knowing or investigation in regard to matters which are the very conditions of knowing.
This is something which goes deeper than even psychology, because all knowledge even of the mind, which is what we know as psychology is gained by an observational technique employed by the mind in an objective manner, as if it is observing somebody else, and the only thing that the mind cannot do is to know itself or to know the conditions of its own functioning. The relationships of the mind and the conditions of knowledge determine the very existence and the character of the mind, and therefore it is that we find ourselves in a helpless condition. The practice of yoga becomes all the more difficult when it deals with conditions prior to our present state of existence, when it deals with causes rather than effects, and especially causes that lie 'behind' us which are precedent to our present physical and social condition.
What we call self-control, sense-control, mind-control, etc., is nothing but the attempt of consciousness to go back to its cause. When an effect puts forth effort to return to its cause, that would be self-control on its part. It becomes self-control because in order to understand the cause of an effect, the effect has to withdraw its ramifications of action, thought, feeling, and relationship. We may wonder why such a kind of withdrawal is called for on the part of the effect for the sake of the knowledge of its cause. If I feel hot, and the cause of this heat is the sun that is shining in the sky, and I have to know the cause of this heat as the sun, I need not withdraw myself to know the cause of this heat. I can simply look up and see the sun blazing in the sky and say, "Here is the cause of heat." Where then arises the need for self-control on the part of the effect when it has to know the nature of the cause of its very existence and action? the Reason is something very peculiar. The cause of this effect we are speaking of is different in every way from external causes, such as the sun causing heat, etc. A wind may blow and cause chilliness, and a wrong diet may cause a tummy upset, etc. these become causes of certain effects in the form of experiences. In the matter of all these causes, knowledge of the causes does not necessarily involve self-control, because all these causes are outside the effect and they exert an external pressure on the effect.
Therefore, it becomes practical for us to employ observational techniques of a scientific character where causes are outside the effect, or external to the effect. But here, we are speaking of certain other types of causes, where the cause is inherent in the effect, and not outside the effect. The cause, in this case, does not have a spatial existence outside the effect, standing externally like a master outside the servant. The master is not inside the servant; he is not inherent in the servant. He is absolutely an external cause, operating on the servant with no intrinsic force in respect of the servant, whereas here the type of cause we are referring to is intrinsically operative in the effect, and not merely extrinsic. That which is the cause of this effect is present immanently in the effect, and not merely transcendentally. This means to say that the very pattern, the structure, the existence, the make-up, the substantiality of the effect is constituted by the nature of the cause which has become the effect by a greater density of its structure.
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Previously we were touching upon the nature of perceptions of objects, and these were explained as the Reasons behind our attachments and aversions, our love of individual physical life and dread of death, etc. It was also discovered that self-affirmation or egoism becomes a necessary link, an intermediary between the external acts of cognition, perception, attachment, aversion etc., and the ultimate cause of the appearance of this phenomenon, of which we have no knowledge. This phenomenon was explained also as having been caused by a vast multiple manifestation of the Ultimate Reality in the form of what we may call 'located individuals', as if one is not connected with the other, so that each individual which was originally an inseparable part of the Ultimate Truth or Reality, enjoying the status of pure selfhood or subjectivity got distorted into an object of the cognitive act and perceptive action of the senses, so that it is possible to regard any person and any object in this world either as a subject from its own point of view, or as an object from another's point of view. It is this peculiar double character, or dual role, of persons and things in this world that has made life difficult. Which is the correct attitude: to regard things as subjects, or regard them as objects? Well, the correct attitude would be to regard everything as it ought to be regarded from the point of view of what it really is.
Can we look upon anything, any person, any object for the matter of that, as something which is to be utilised as a kind of instrument in perception or cognition, or has it a status of its own? What we mean by a status of one's own is a capacity to exist by oneself, independent of external relations and dependence on others; this is the nature of subjectivity. Everyone, you and I included, has a status of one's own. It is this status that gets distorted later on into what they call egoism, pride, etc., what is called ijjat in Hindi a kind of stupid form which it has taken, though originally it was a spiritual status. Our status as pure subjects is incapable of objectification, and it is not intended to be used as a tool for another's activity or satisfaction. It is not in the nature of things to subject themselves into objects as vehicles of action and satisfaction for somebody else, because every individual, judged from its own real status, enjoys subjectivity. It is an end in itself, and not a means.
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Self-control is not a pain; it is not a suffering, as people may imagine. The moment we talk of self-control, people get frightened. They think it is a kind of tapasya that is being imposed upon us contrary to the joys that we are expecting in life. Not so is the truth. The joy of self-control is greater than the joy of sense contact - very important to remember. The joy of sense-control is greater than the joy of sense contact with objects. One may ask why. the Reason is that in sense contact an artificial condition is created, whereas in sense-control a real condition which is commensurate with our true nature is generated. In sense contact a condition is generated which is not commensurate with our true nature. We become sick in sense contact, and a kind of illness takes possession of us. And the distorted joy (distorted is the word to be underlined), the perverted joy reflected, limited, and distorted joy which we are supposed to acquire by every kind of sense contact, is far, far removed from the true joy of which it is the reflection, distortion, etc a state of affairs which can be known only by direct practice. There is a vast difference, as between health and disease. How unhappy one is when one is sick, and how happy one feels when one is healthy. But if we are perpetually sick and we do not know the joy of health, it is difficult to make it clear to us. What health is cannot be explained, because we have not seen what health is.
Sense-control, or self-control, is causative of a greater happiness than anything conceivable in this world, because it is a return of consciousness to its own self that is motivated by this effort. The more we return to ourselves, the more are we happy. The more we are away from ourselves, the less we are happy and the more we are miserable. So, in all externalised perceptions and contacts, likes and dislikes, etc., we are in a diseased state of mind and consciousness. We are not what we are. We are other than what we are: asvastha-not in our own self. We are outside ourselves when we perceive anything. Svastha is one who is healthy-one who is situated, located and rooted in one's own self. One who is established in one's own self is svastha, and that condition is called svastha-health. When we are outside ourselves, we are asvatha.
1.012 - Sublimation - A Way to Reshuffle Thought, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
But vairagya is not an abandonment of things in the world. It is an abandonment of false values, the wrong interpretation of things, and a misconstruing of one's relationship with everything around oneself. It is this erroneous notion about things around oneself that is the Reason for attachments, aversions, likes, dislikes, and what not. So also is the principle of self-control. A rejection of an existent value is impossible. This is very important to remember. Anything that is real cannot be rejected. If we think that the world is real, we cannot abandon it - the question of abandoning it does not arise. Anything which has already been declared to be real cannot be abandoned. How can we abandon real things? So, also, if self-control or self-restraint implies a withdrawal of consciousness from those things or values which are real and external to oneself, then it is impossible, because the consciousness or the mind which is expected to withdraw itself from externals will insist that abandonment of real values is impracticable and unadvisable.
Here we have not merely an effort of the will, but an educative process of the understanding. Understanding plays a very serious role in every walk of life. When the understanding is clear, the will can be applied in its implementation. But, the will is not to be applied bereft of understanding. Otherwise, that which the understanding has not accepted as correct will react upon us it will have a deleterious effect upon the entire system. That which the understanding or the Reason cannot accept, our whole personality will not accept, and that which we cannot accept cannot become part of our nature; and thus, a new difficulty will be created.
So, in the process of practice of yoga, whose essential ingredient is self-control or self-restraint, what is expected is a gradual blossoming of the flower of consciousness into a deeper insight into the nature of things, tending towards a wider experience, rather than a forceful suppression of really perceived values or a crushing of desires for things which are expected to bring about real satisfaction to the individual personality. This is a very important aspect which many seekers may miss due to their enthusiasm.
--
What is emotion? Now we come to another subject in psychology. An emotion is a wave in consciousness. As I mentioned, when it is mild, it is like a small ripple. When it is very strong, it is like a very turbulent wave of the Atlantic which can wash away things - even elephants can be drowned if the wave comes rising up with great power. A wave in consciousness is an emotion. And what is this wave? It is a tendency towards the achievement of an objective. This wave is a frequency, and a frequency of consciousness is the intensity of consciousness. This frequency or intensity of consciousness, which rises as a wave called an emotion, is directed towards an end, just as the waves in an ocean dash against the shore or against another wave. There is a push of the body of water in the ocean in a particular direction; that push is the cause of the wave, whatever be the Reason behind the push. Some pressure is felt from inside, due to the wind or some other factor, so the wave is directed in some way. Likewise, the consciousness rises in a tempestuous mood like a wave, and that is an uncontrollable emotion. This tempest can do anything if it is uncontrolled.
The point is that the difficulty in controlling an emotion arises on account of the vehemence with which it moves towards an object. The emotion is a tendency towards an object. The object may be physical, or it could even be psychological. Suppose we want to raise our social status. This is a psychological object that is in front of us, towards which we are working. Let us say that we want to become a chairman, or a minister, or some such thing. This object that is in front of us is psychological, not physical, because chairmanship is not a physical object, though it is as powerful an object as anything else; that is the end towards which the consciousness drives itself. It can also be a physical object towards which the consciousness rushes. Why does it rush towards an object, whether it be physical or psychological? It wants to fulfil a purpose.
1.013 - Defence Mechanisms of the Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
As discussed previously, a sense of reality harasses the mind in respect of the objects of sense, and as long as anything appears as real, it cannot be abrogated or rejected; and we cannot close our eyes to it if it has already been declared to be real. The mind will find difficulty in withdrawing its orders to the senses in respect of their movement towards objects as long as it cognises a worthwhile reality in the objects of sense. Why does the mind see a sense of reality in the objects of sense? It is due to a peculiar situation that has arisen, which is the Reason behind why the mind is accepting these perceptions through the senses.
What is this peculiar situation? The situation, precisely, is a misplacement of the values of life by a limitation of consciousness to a location called the individual. Therefore, yo buddhe paratastu sa there is something higher than the buddhi (the intellect) and the mind, in which we have to take refuge in order that even the mind may be directed along proper channels. Inasmuch as the mind is the general who orders the senses, if it has been instructed properly and advised well, then naturally it will give instructions to the senses accordingly. It comes finally to this: we have to take refuge in the Self not in the individual self, but in the higher self, whose principle alone can regenerate the mind and remove the miscalculated attitudes of the mind in respect of things, consequently enabling the mind to properly direct the senses in a desirable direction.
1.01 - Adam Kadmon and the Evolution, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
ciple was almost identical. 3 This is, for instance, the Reason
why in the European Middle Ages we find society domi-
1.01 - Appearance and Reality, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
It will help us in considering these questions to have a few simple terms of which the meaning is definite and clear. Let us give the name of 'sense-data' to the things that are immediately known in sensation: such things as colours, sounds, smells, hardnesses, roughnesses, and so on. We shall give the name 'sensation' to the experience of being immediately aware of these things. Thus, whenever we see a colour, we have a sensation _of_ the colour, but the colour itself is a sense-datum, not a sensation. The colour is that _of_ which we are immediately aware, and the awareness itself is the sensation. It is plain that if we are to know anything about the table, it must be by means of the sense-data--brown colour, oblong shape, smoothness, etc.--which we associate with the table; but, for the Reasons which have been given, we cannot say that the table is the sense-data, or even that the sense-data are directly properties of the table. Thus a problem arises as to the relation of the sense-data to the real table, supposing there is such a thing.
The real table, if it exists, we will call a 'physical object'. Thus we have to consider the relation of sense-data to physical objects.
--
The philosopher who first brought prominently forward the Reasons for regarding the immediate objects of our senses as not existing independently of us was Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753). His _Three
Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in Opposition to Sceptics and
--
Now obviously this point in which the philosophers are agreed--the view that there _is_ a real table, whatever its nature may be--is vitally important, and it will be worth while to consider what reasons there are for accepting this view before we go on to the further question as to the nature of the real table. Our next chapter, therefore, will be concerned with the Reasons for supposing that there is a real table at all.
Before we go farther it will be well to consider for a moment what it is that we have discovered so far. It has appeared that, if we take any common object of the sort that is supposed to be known by the senses, what the senses _immediately_ tell us is not the truth about the object as it is apart from us, but only the truth about certain sense-data which, so far as we can see, depend upon the relations between us and the object. Thus what we directly see and feel is merely 'appearance', which we believe to be a sign of some 'reality' behind. But if the reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what it is like?
1.01 - Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
the very fact that this process is unconscious gives us the Reason
10 An allegory is a paraphrase of a conscious content, whereas a symbol is the
--
that was the Reason why his face was now terrible to others.
H This vision has rightly been compared 15 with the one in
1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it. This is the Reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all poor in respect to a thousand savage comforts, though surrounded by luxuries. As
Chapman sings,
1.01f - Introduction, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
At that moment it occurred to Bodhisattva Maitreya: The Bhagavat has now manifested the sign of great transcendent power. What could be the Reason for this marvel? The Buddha, the Bhagavat, has now entered samdhi.
Whom should I ask about this wonderful marvel? Who would be able to answer my question?
--
Majur: What is the Reason for this marvelous sign, this great ray of light that illuminates the eighteen thousand worlds in the east and renders visible the adornments of all the buddha worlds?
Thereupon Bodhisattva Maitreya, wanting to elaborate the meaning of this further, spoke to Majur in verse:
--
What the Reason for this could be.
The Noble One, revered by devas and humans,
1.01 - MASTER AND DISCIPLE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The bound souls never think of God. If they get any leisure they indulge in idle gossip and foolish talk, or they engage in fruitless work. If you ask one of them the Reason, he answers, 'Oh, I cannot keep still; so I am making a hedge.' When time hangs heavy on their hands they perhaps start playing cards."
There was deep silence in the room.
1.01 - Necessity for knowledge of the whole human being for a genuine education., #The Essentials of Education, #unset, #Zen
If we could only verify the Reason this or that person suffers from arthritis, or why another has all kinds of metabolic disor- ders, poor digestion, or gout, there would be only one answer: many of these things can be attributed to the violent tempera- ment of a teacher who dealt with the child at an early age.
If we achieve pedagogical understanding by looking at the whole human being and not just at the childwhich is much more comfortableit becomes clear that education and teaching play a central role in the course of human life. We see how often happiness or unhappiness in the spirit, soul, or physical life is related to a persons education and schooling. Just consider this: doctors are asked by older people to correct the mistakes of their educators, when in fact the problems have sunk so deeply into the person that no more can be done. The impressions on the childs soul have been transformed into physical effects, and the psycho- logical interacts with the physical; knowing all this, we begin to pay attention in the right way, and we acquire a proper apprecia- tion for teaching methods and what is required for a viable educa- tion according to the reality of human nature.
1.01 - On knowledge of the soul, and how knowledge of the soul is the key to the knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
To whomsoever this revelation has been vouchsafed, if it directs him to reform the world, to invite the nations to turn to God, and to a peculiar way of life, that person is called a prophet, and his way of life is called a law; and that influence which proceeds from him, which transcends what is ordinary, is called a miracle. If he has not been appointed to invite the nations, but worships in accordance with the law of another, he is called a saint, and that which [27] proceeds from him, which transcends what is ordinary, is called a manifestation of grace. The miracle performed by a saint is accounted a miracle of that prophet whose law he follows. He who has received, by whatever meaus, a revelation of the invisible world, is capable of being ordained to the office of a prophet. And if he is not appointed by God, the Reason will be either, that at the time the existing law had been newly revealed, and that there was no occasion for a prophet, or else that there may be a peculiarity in prophets which is not found in the saints. It follows that it is our duty not to deny either the saintship or the miracles of the saints, but to acknowledge them as real.
You should be aware, however, that this alchemy of happiness, that is, the knowledge of God, which is the occasion of the revelation of truth, cannot be acquired without spiritual self-denial and effort. Unless a man has reached perfection and the rank of Superior, nothing will be revealed to him, except in cases of special divine grace and merciful providence, and this occurs very rarely. Nor, except by divine condescension, is revelation obtained even by all who by effort reach the rank of Superior. And whosoever would attain holiness can only reach it by the path of difficulty.
--
There is still one farther observation that deserves to be made. If a person by the payment of a thousand pieces of gold, could become master of alchemy, yet the condition of the man who is absolutely master of ten thousand pieces of gold would be better and preferable. And this illustrates the position of the soofees. If a person follow their method and attain to the knowledge of some things, he still does not equal in excellence, the doctors of the law. Just as we see, that books on alchemy, and students of alchemy are very numerous, while those who are successful are the least of few, so the path of mysticism is sought for by all men, and longed for by all classes of society, yet those who [34] attain to the end are exceedingly rare. Perhaps, as in the case of alchemy, it only exists now in name and form. The greater part of the notions and fancies of most of the mystics, which they esteem as revelations and mysteries, are nothing but vain triflings and pure self complacency; just as that while visions are a reality, still mere confused dreams are very abundant. The mystic, however, who by spiritual revelation has learned all that a doctor of the law has been able to learn after many years of study, and who has no remaining doubts in matters of internal or external knowledge, is certainly more excellent than the doctor of the law who is learned only in external knowledge, and this should not be denied. And it follows that the way of the mystics must be acknowledged to be a true one, and that you must not destroy the belief of those weak minded and vain persons who follow them; for, the Reason why they cast reproaches upon knowledge and calumniate the doctors of law is that they have no acquirements or knowledge themselves.
O, inquirer after divine mysteries! do you ask how it is known that the happiness of man consists in the knowledge of God, and that his enjoyment consists in the love of God ? We observe in reply, that every man's happiness is found in the place where he obtains enjoyment and tranquility. Thus sensual enjoyment is found in eating and drinking and the like. The enjoyment of anger is derived from taking revenge and from violence. The enjoyment of the eye consists in the view of correct images and agreeable objects. The enjoyment of the ear is secured in listening to harmonious voices. In the same way the enjoyment of the heart depends upon its being employed in that for which it was created, in learning to know every thing in its reality and truth. Hence, every man glories in what he knows, even if the thing is but of little importance. He [35] who knows how to play chess, boasts over him who does not know: and if he is looking on while a game of chess is played, it is of no use to tell him not to speak, for as soon as he sees an improper move, he has not patience to restrain himself from showing his skill, and glorying in his knowledge, by pointing it out....
1.01 - On renunciation of the world, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
When the soul betrays itself and loses the blessed and longed for fervour, let it carefully investigate the Reason for losing this. And let it arm itself with all its longing and zeal against whatever has caused this. For the former fervour can return only through the same door through which it was lost.
The man who renounces the world from fear is like burning incense, that begins with fragrance but ends in smoke. He who leaves the world through hope of reward is like a millstone, that always moves in the same way.3 But he who withdraws from the world out of love for God has obtained fire at the very outset; and, like fire set to fuel, it soon kindles a larger fire.
1.01 - Our Demand and Need from the Gita, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
God and all others are either impostures or at best imperfectly inspired, that this or that philosophy is the last word of the Reasoning intellect and other systems are either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as links them to the one true philosophical cult. Even the discoveries of physical Science have been elevated into a creed and in its name religion and spirituality banned as ignorance and superstition, philosophy as frippery and moonshine. And to these bigoted exclusions and vain wranglings even the wise have often lent themselves, misled by some spirit of darkness that has mingled with their light and overshadowed it with some cloud of intellectual egoism or spiritual pride. Mankind seems now indeed inclined to grow a little modester and wiser; we no longer slay our fellows in the name of God's truth or because they have minds differently trained or differently constituted from ours; we are less ready to curse and revile our neighbour because he is wicked or presumptuous enough to differ from us in opinion; we are ready even to admit that Truth is everywhere and cannot be our sole monopoly; we are beginning to look at other religions and philosophies for the truth and help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as false or criticise what we conceive to be their errors. But we are still apt to declare that our truth gives us the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies
Essays on the Gita
1.01 - Prayer, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal. This kind of love is somewhat like the canine instinct of guarding the master's property from intrusion; only, the instinct of the dog is better than the Reason of man, for the dog never mistakes its master for an enemy in whatever dress he may come before it. Again, the fanatic loses all power of judgment. Personal considerations are in his case of such absorbing interest that to him it is no question at all what a man says whether it is right or wrong; but the one thing he is always particularly careful to know is who says it. The same man who is kind, good, honest, and loving to people of his own opinion, will not hesitate to do the vilest deeds when they are directed against persons beyond the pale of his own religious brotherhood.
But this danger exists only in that stage of Bhakti which is called the preparatory (Gauni). When Bhakti has become ripe and has passed into that form which is called the supreme (Par), no more is there any fear of these hideous manifestations of fanaticism; that soul which is overpowered by this higher form of Bhakti is too near the God of Love to become an instrument for the diffusion of hatred.
1.01 - Principles of Practical Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
to all sorts of different interpretations. the Reason for this lies in the fact
that psycho therapy is not the simple, straightforward method people at
1.01 - SAMADHI PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
perception is true the other must be, for the Reason that their
value as perceptions of the mind is equal. The very fact that
1.01 - Tara the Divine, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
That is the Reason why her empowerment is sought
and her practice performed when one's health is
1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Such, then, very briefly are the Reasons for supposing that the historical traditions of oriental and our own classical antiquity may be true. It is interesting to find that at least one distinguished contemporary ethnologist is in agreement with Aristotle and the Vedantists. Orthodox ethnology, writes Dr. Paul Radin in his Primitive Man as Philosopher, has been nothing but an enthusiastic and quite uncritical attempt to apply the Darwinian theory of evolution to the facts of social experience. And he adds that no progress in ethnology will be achieved until scholars rid themselves once and for all of the curious notion that everything possesses a history; until they realize that certain ideas and certain concepts are as ultimate for man, as a social being, as specific physiological reactions are ultimate for him, as a biological being. Among these ultimate concepts, in Dr. Radins view, is that of monotheism. Such monotheism is often no more than the recognition of a single dark and numinous Power ruling the world. But it may sometimes be genuinely ethical and spiritual.
The nineteenth centurys mania for history and prophetic Utopianism tended to blind the eyes of even its acutest thinkers to the timeless facts of eternity. Thus we find T. H. Green writing of mystical union as though it were an evolutionary process and not, as all the evidence seems to show, a state which man, as man, has always had it in his power to realize. An animal organism, which has its history in time, gradually becomes the vehicle of an eternally complete consciousness, which in itself can have no history, but a history of the process by which the animal organism becomes its vehicle. But in actual fact it is only in regard to peripheral knowledge that there has been a genuine historical development. Without much lapse of time and much accumulation of skills and information, there can be but an imperfect knowledge of the material world. But direct awareness of the eternally complete consciousness, which is the ground of the material world, is a possibility occasionally actualized by some human beings at almost any stage of their own personal development, from childhood to old age, and at any period of the races history.
1.01 - The First Steps, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
We shall gradually see the Reasons for each exercise and what forces in the body are set in motion. All these things will come to us, but it requires constant practice, and the proof will come by practice. No amount of reasoning which I can give you will be proof to you, until you have demonstrated it for yourselves. As soon as you begin to feel these currents in motion all over you, doubts will vanish, but it requires hard practice every day. You must practice at least twice every day, and the best times are towards the morning and the evening. When night passes into day, and day into night, a state of relative calmness ensues. The early morning and the early evening are the two periods of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency to become calm at those times. We should take advantage of that natural condition and begin then to practice. Make it a rule not to eat until you have practiced; if you do this, the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness. In India they teach children never to eat until they have practiced or worshipped, and it becomes natural to them after a time; a boy will not feel hungry until he has bathed and practiced.
Those of you who can afford it will do better to have a room for this practice alone. Do not sleep in that room, it must be kept holy. You must not enter the room until you have bathed, and are perfectly clean in body and mind. Place flowers in that room always; they are the best surroundings for a Yogi; also pictures that are pleasing. Burn incense morning and evening. Have no quarrelling, nor anger, nor unholy thought in that room. Only allow those persons to enter it who are of the same thought as you. Then gradually there will be an atmosphere of holiness in the room, so that when you are miserable, sorrowful, doubtful, or your mind is disturbed, the very fact of entering that room will make you calm. This was the idea of the temple and the church, and in some temples and churches you will find it even now, but in the majority of them the very idea has been lost. The idea is that by keeping holy vibrations there the place becomes and remains illumined. Those who cannot afford to have a room set apart can practice anywhere they like. Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation. Mentally repeat, "Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful." So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, those who believe in God should pray not for money, not for health, nor for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish. Then the next thing to do is to think of your own body, and see that it is strong and healthy; it is the best instrument you have. Think of it as being as strong as adamant, and that with the help of this body you will cross the ocean of life. Freedom is never to be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.
1.020 - The World and Our World, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
This is perhaps the significance of perception from an organic point of view, while what happens in our case, at present, is that this organic connection between the seer and the seen is lost sight of, and we have only a mechanised form of perception where there is a false evaluation projected on the object by the mind which is perceiving it, on account of its losing contact with the vital issue which is involved in perception, namely its connectedness to the object. Whether in attachment or in aversion, the mind is not properly related to the object. It has an improper relationship with things, both in love and hatred. The impropriety of this relationship arises on account of its false disconnectedness from the object, and we cannot properly understand the way of controlling the mind if we cannot understand the relationship that the mind has with the object. It has a twofold relationship. On the one side, it stands as a perceiver of the object and is obliged to regard the object as an outside something, which is the very meaning of perception, of course. But, on the other side, there is a basic similarity of nature between the seer and the seen, which is the Reason why there is the very possibility of perception at all. A consciousness of the object would be impossible if the seer of the object is basically disconnected from the object. Basic disconnection would not be permissible. An utter isolation of the subject from the object would defeat the very purpose of all perception.
Consciousness of an object implies a basic connectedness between the subject and the object. It is this connection that pulls the object towards the subject, and vice versa. We have an undercurrent of unity among ourselves, on account of which we sometimes feel a necessity to sit together and work in a unanimous manner. We have the urge of unity from one side, and the urge of diversity on the other side. The diversity aspect is emphasised by the senses, and the unity aspect is emphasised by the nature of our consciousness. The essence of our consciousness is unity par excellence. It is the basic existence of a unity of consciousness behind all perceptions that is responsible for the perception itself, and is also the Reason for loves and hates. But the emphasis given by the senses is the other way round. They assert diversity of things and make externalised perception possible. So in the attraction that the subject feels towards the object, two elements work vigorously the diversity aspect and the unity aspect. The attraction is possible basically on account of the structural similarity between the subject and the object. But the need for being pulled by the object, or getting attracted towards the object, arises on account of the perception of diversity, or the duality of subject and object.
If unity is the whole truth there would be no need of perception, and the question of attraction would not arise, because the subject has basically become one with the object, and is one with it. Where there is an utter unity of the subject and the object, neither perception would be there, nor any kind of love or hatred. If there is utter isolation, even then there would be no perception. If we are really disconnected from all things, we can neither see anything, nor can we have love and hatred towards things.
1.02.3.1 - The Lord, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
and immortality, the Reason for the existence of Avidya, the
Ignorance, and the justification of works in the world.
--
It is without sinews. the Reason for Its being without scar is
that It does not put out Power, does not dispense Force in multiple channels, does not lose it here, increase it there, replenish
10.23 - Prayers and Meditations of the Mother, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Indeed philosophy and yoga go hand in hand. Yoga is applied philosophy. What is at first mentally perceived and recognised, what is accepted by the Reason is made active and dynamic in life. The character embodies the abstract and general principles, the vital energy executes them, that is yoga. Philosophy brings in the light of consciousness, yoga the energy of consciousness. Here we have an expression of what may be caned "yogic philosophy".
II faut chaque moment secouer le pass comme une poussire qui tombe, afin qu' elle ne salisse pas le chemin vierge qui, chaque moment aussi, s' ouvre devant nous.6
--
Although my whole being is in theory consecrated to Thee, O Sublime Master, who art the life, the light and the love in all things, I still find it hard to carry out this consecration in detail. It has taken me several weeks to learn that the Reason for this written meditation, its justification lies in the very fact of addressing it daily to Thee. In this way I shall put into material shape each day a little of the conversation I have so often with Thee; I shall make my confession to Thee as well as it may be..
I then thought of all those who were watching over the ship to safeguard and protect our route, and in gratitude, I willed that Thy peace should be born and live in their hearts; then I thought of all those who, confident and carefree, slept the sleep of inconscience and, with solicitude for their miseries, pity for their latent suffering which would awake in them in their own waking, I willed that a little of Thy Peace might dwell in their hearts and bring to birth in them the life of the Spirit, the light which dispels ignorance. I then thought of the dwellers of this vast sea, visible and invisible, and I willed that over them might be extended Thy Peace. I thought next of those whom we had left far away and whose affection is with us, and with a great tenderness I willed for them Thy conscious and lasting Peace, the plenitude of Thy Peace proportioned to their capacity to receive it. Then I thought of all those to whom we are going, who are restless with childish preoccupations and fight for mean competitions of interest in ignorance and egoism and ardently, in a great aspiration for them I asked for the plenty light of Thy Peace. I next thought of all those whom we know, of all those whom we do not know, of all the life that is working itself out, of all that has changed its form and all that is not yet in form, and for all that, and also for all of which I cannot think, for all that is present to my memory and for all that I forget, in a great eg ingathering and mute adoration, I implored Thy Peace.
1.024 - Affiliation With Larger Wholes, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
So, the real is a peculiar set-up of affairs, a condition or an environment which acts upon a particular state of mind and produces a particular type of experience. If in great fright we jump over a piece of rope thinking it is a snake, we may start perspiring and have tremors in the body. A false snake can create real perspiration. Although on a later comparative experience the snake might have been found to be unreal, when we perceived something to be a snake, at that particular moment of perception it was real enough to create a reaction in our physiological and psychological system. The mind has so many realities of this type in the world of experience, and because different realities satisfy different needs of the mind, it goes to these realities. We should not ask here whether this particular reality is ultimately real, because we are not concerned with it, and the mind is not going to accept this argument. The mind is not concerned with ultimate realities. It is concerned with realities as it sees them, conceives them and experiences them. So we can understand the Reason why the mind is drawn towards objects which it considers as real.
Patanjali's point is that as long as diverse realities are cognised by the mind, it is impossible to withdraw the mind from them, because the mind has already been convinced that they are realities and, therefore, it has to relate itself to these realities in a particular manner. There is no question of control of the mind as long as there are realities which are multifarious in character. The rays of the mind, which go out in the form of cognition, can be drawn back and the energy of the mind is conserved but this can be done only when there is a flowing of the mind towards a single reality. Our difficulty is that there is no such thing as a single reality in this world. Where is that One Reality, of which Patanjlai speaks or advises? Every reality is as good as any other reality, under different conditions. The One Reality of which Patanjali speaks, and of which yoga speaks in general, is that transcendent comprehensiveness where the lower realities are subsumed so that the mind will not find a need to go to the lower levels because of the satisfaction it achieves through contact with the higher real.
1.025 - Sadhana - Intensifying a Lighted Flame, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
But, this is not the type of reality which Patanjali had in mind, though this type of reality cannot be completely ignored. While it is true that a social system is a quantitatively higher reality than an individual body, because for obvious reasons life without it would be impracticable, it is not wholly true that an ordered society is qualitatively superior to the individual, which is the Reason that insecurity within society still persists. Even with the best government there can be insecurity and unhappiness because, after all, individuals are behind this quantitative system called this ordered whole. A hundred million thinking people cannot always be qualitatively superior to one thinking man. After all, it is man who is thinking, and not God. We must know that. A hundred million people thinking, means only people are thinking only man is thinking. So qualitatively, it is only human thinking, though quantitatively it has a larger force on account of the inclusion of many individuals.
This is a very interesting subject in political science, where political thinkers differ in their opinions as to whether there is a total absence of improvement in quality when there is social order, and there is only a quantitative increase, or whether there is also an element of an increase of quality in thinking. This has led to divergent opinions among statesmen and political philosophers right from Plato and Aristotle onwards, through to Chanakya and other thinkers in India - where the opinion swung like a pendulum. One side held that there is absolutely no improvement in quality, though there is a large improvement in quantity, and the other side thought that there is an element of qualitative superiority. We are not going to discuss this subject at present, as it is outside the jurisdiction of our current topic.
1.028 - Bringing About Whole-Souled Dedication, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
It is impossible to do anything wholly good on account of it being impossible for us to wholly understand the total pattern involved in the movement of any successful action. No human being can wholly succeed in life, because a wholly correct action cannot be performed. the Reason is that all the contri butory factors tending towards the success of an action cannot become the object of knowledge of any individual, because that would call for omniscience, almost, and no one can be omniscient; therefore, no one can be wholly successful. Entire success is possible only when there is omniscience, and not before. So, we have to swallow the bitter pill and then try to be satisfied with whatever we get. Nevertheless, it is up to us to see that we put forth the best of our abilities, commensurate with the extent of knowledge with which we are endowed in our life.
Practice, or abhyasa, is always streng thened, and has to be streng thened, by a corresponding practice that goes on simultaneously with abhyasa, and that parallel practice is the automatic withdrawal of the mind from all distracting factors. If we are pulled in two directions with equal force, we will not be able to move even a little bit. We have had occasion to contemplate to some extent on the details of what renunciation is, and what are the various stages of vairagya which Patanjali regards as indispensable to the practice of yoga. He tells us that the practice consists in an insistent attempt on our part to fix ourselves in a single or given attitude. Tatra sthitau yatna abhysa (I.13): Abhyasa or practice is the effort to fix one's own self in a given attitude. What is this given attitude? We have to choose a particular attitude in which to fix ourselves for a protracted period; this is called practice. The attitude in which we have to fix ourselves should be such that we would tend to greater and greater stages of freedom of the soul, and a lessening and decreasing of the intensity of bondage.
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The other point is that this practice will not bring results in only a few days. Sa tu drghakla nairantarya satkra sevita dhabhmi (I.14), says Patanjali. In many cases the result will not follow at all, due to obstructing prarabdhas. There were great seekers, sadhakas, who used to perform japa purascharana, the chanting of a mantra, for years and years together, with the hope of having the vision of the deity. But they had no vision of the deity. We hear of the story of the purascharanas performed by Sage Vidyaranya of yore, Yogi Sri Madhusudana Saraswati and others, but they had no vision. the Reason mentioned is that they had obstructing prarabdhas.
We have three kinds of prarabdha the tamasica, the rajasica and the sattvica. The tamasica and rajasica prarabdhas will not allow even the rise of aspiration for God. The tamasica prarabdha will always bring the most intense form of obstacles, including a mood of lethargy, indolence, sleepiness, and even doubt of the possibility of gaining any such realisation at all, as yoga promises. Atheism, materialism and lack of faith are due to the working of tamasica prarabdhas. As long as these types of prarabdha function, as long as the tamasica prarabdhas are active, there is no question of the practice of yoga we can do nothing.
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Whole-souled dedication to the practice is possible only when there is perfect understanding. Why is it that our mind is not entirely dedicated to this practice, and part of it is thinking of something else? the Reason is that our understanding of the efficacy and the value and the worthwhileness of the practice is inadequate. Our faith in God, our trust in God, and our feeling that God is everything is half-baked it is not perfect. We do not have, even today, full faith that God is everything. "There is something else which is also good." Such thinking is lurking in the mind. "Though God is all alright, the scriptures say that but my subtle conscience says that there is something else also, something else that is also sweet. God is sweet, but there is something else also, equally sweet. Why should I not go there?.
So the subconscious mind goes there, and that outlet which the mind allows for at the bottom lets all the energy leak out in the wrong direction. The so-called concentration of mind in the practice of yoga that is undertaken every day becomes a kind of futile effort on account of not knowing that some underground activity is going on in the mind which is completely upsetting all of our conscious activities called daily meditation. We have certain underground activities which we are not aware of always, and these activities completely disturb and turn upside-down all of the so-called practice of yoga that is done only at the conscious level.
1.02.9 - Conclusion and Summary, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
8. the Reason for this double movement of the Thinker is that
we are intended to realise immortality in the Birth. The self is
1.02 - Groups and Statistical Mechanics, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
pounded from an infinite sequence of cases. This is the Reason
why Lebesgue, in solving his own problem, had also solved that
1.02 - Isha Analysis, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
Every verse in the Isha Upanishad reposes on a number of ideas implicit in the text but nowhere set forth explicitly; the Reasoning also that supports its conclusions is suggested by the words, not expressly conveyed to the intelligence. The reader, or rather the hearer, was supposed to proceed from light to light, confirming his intuitions and verifying by his experience, not submitting the ideas to the judgment of the logical reason.
To the modern mind this method is invalid and inapplicable; it is necessary to present the ideas of the Upanishad in their completeness, underline the suggestions, supply the necessary transitions and bring out the suppressed but always implicit reasoning.
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
qualities of the territory explored. This is evidently but only partially true. However, the Reasons we
produce such pictures (are motivated to produce such pictures) are not usually given sufficient
--
Interpretation of the Reason for dramatic consequences, portrayed in narrative generally left to the
imagination of the audience constitutes analysis of the moral of the story. Transmission of that moral
--
can describe the Reasons for their behavior. It is only through the observation of our actions, accumulated
and distilled over the course of centuries, that we come to understand our own motivations come to
1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Know, therefore, that man from his own existence knows the existence of a Creator; from his own attributes, he knows the attributes of his maker; from the control which he has over his own kingdom, he knows the control that God exercises over all the world. the Reason of this is, that when a man looks at himself, beginning at the time when there was no trace or notion of his existence, and contemplates his creation with attention, he sees that he had his origin from a drop of water. He had neither mind nor understanding: and neither fat, flesh nor bones. Afterwards by divine operation and sovereign power, most strange and wonderful internal changes took place, and strong organs, passions, affections, and agreeable qualities rose up all adorned with beauty. When man comes to look upon his organs and members, whether upon the external, as the hand, the foot, the eye, the tongue and the mouth, or upon the internal organs, as the liver, the stomach and the spleen, he sees that each is the result of a special wisdom, that each one has been created for some peculiar ue, and that each one is in its place and perfect. After a man has observed these things, he knows that the Creator has power to do what he pleases with all things, that his knowledge includes and embraces in perfection whatever is to be known of creatures [43] either externally or internally, and that his power and wisdom pervade every organ and particle.
Beloved, in proportion as a man analyzes the nature of his body and the variety of uses of its several members, his reverence and love for its Creator and Maker will increase. Let a man observe, for example, that his hands are made like columns and separated from the body, to serve as an instrument to seize, or take hold of, or to defend it from an enemy. At the extremity of the hands are five fingers, four of which are in a row, and some long and some short, SO that when they take hold of anything, they may come equally together in the palm of the hand. The thumb, which is opposite to the four fingers, is shorter than any of them and stronger, that it may be a help to the whole and render them capable of retaining and grasping. The four fingers have three joints each, and the thumb has but two, that when contracted they may become like the bowl of a spoon or ladle, and that when open they may become like a plate, and so discharge an infinity of services. The front teeth were formed sharp, to cut and separate the food : the side teeth were formed broad to mash and grind the food. The tongue was formed like a spoon to throw the food into the throat. There is, also, under the tongue, an organ by which water is poured out, and the food is made of the consistence of dough, that it may be more easily swallowed and digested. All the organs, in short, have been devised with the best arrangement and form for use, and each one of them is punctual day and night in discharging its function. Think not, that they are lazy or sleeping. If the minds of the intelligent, the science of the learned, and the wisdom of the sage had been united and had been employed since the beginning of the world, in reflection and contrivance, they could not have discovered anything more excellent than the present arrangement, [44] nor any forms more useful and beautiful. If the eye had been attached to the top of the head, or the ear to the nape of the neck, or the mouth to the back of the body, or if three fingers had been given instead of four, it is plain to a person of intelligence that the existing advantages would not have been secured, and the present beauty of form and appearance would have been imperfect.
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The fourth class of men who indulge in error, are those who indeed receive the law, but in some peculiar and erroneous sense. They wrongly say, "The law commands U5 to keep our hearts pure from pride, envy, hatred, anger and dissimulation. But this is a thing which it is impossible to do. For the soul has been created with these qualities and affections, and human nature cannot be changed. It is just as impossible to make a black material white by scraping it, as for the human heart to be free from these qualities." These ignorant men do not know and understand, that the law does not command that these qualities should be entirely effaced and expelled from the heart, but rather requires that they should be brought under subjection to the heart and the Reason, to the end that they may not act presumptuously, go beyond the limits set by the law, and indulge in mortal sins. It is possible even to change these qualities, by doing only what reason requires, and by respecting the restrictions of the law. Many devout men in past times have secured this change of the affections of the soul. These qua.ities once existed in the prophet of God, but they were corrected, as we learn from the tradition: "I am a man like you. I become angry, as a man becomes angry." And God speaks in his holy word of [60] "those who control their wrath, and who pardon the men who offend them."1 Notice, that in his eternal word, God praises those who dissipate their anger and irritation : he does not praise those who had no anger or rage, since man cannot be without them.
The fifth class of persons in error are those who say that, "God is merciful and ready to pardon, loving and compassionate, and more pitiful to his servants than a father and mother to their children, and therefore he will pardon our faults and cover our transgressions." They do not consider that notwithstanding God is bounteous and merciful, there are still multitudes of poor and miserable people in the world, multitudes who are infirm and helpless, and many who are subjected to suffering. This is a mystery which is known only to God. But it shows us, that though God is disposed to cover and hide sin, still he is an absolute sovereign and an avenger. While he is bounteous and beneficent, he is at the same time dreadful in his chastisements : while he is a benefactor, and provides the necessaries of life, at the same time he who does not seek to gain, obtains no store: and he who is not industrious, accomplishes nothing in the world. Beloved, these ignorant men, in the affairs of the world, in their schemes of living, and in their business, manifest no trust in the bounty of God, nor do they leave off for one moment their buying and selling, their trades or their farming, although God has decreed the means of their existence many years before they were born, and has made himself surety that it should be provided for them. He announces in his eternal word and book of mighty distinctions, that "there is no creature on the earth, for whom God has not taken upon himself to provide nourishment." 2 Still they make not the least exertion in reference to their relations and condition in eternity, [61] but merely rely upon the mercy of God, notwithstanding God declares in his holy word, "man can have nothing without exertion." 1 When they say that God is gracious and merciful, they speak correctly. But they are not aware that Satan is deceiving them with it, hindering them from obedience and worship, and preventing them from engaging in that cultivation and commerce that would prepare them for eternity.
1.02 - SADHANA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
searchings of the Reason are only on the way. There are much
higher things behind them. The whole of life is not for
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did not know the Reason, man found that that place where
people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras.
1.02 - Self-Consecration, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
12:In the ordinary paths of Yoga the method used for dealing with these conflicting materials is direct and simple. One or another of the principal psychological forces in us is selected as our single means for attaining to the Divine; the rest is quieted into inertia or left to starve in its smallness. The Bhakta, seizing on the emotional forces of the being, the intense activities of the heart, abides concentrated in the love of God, gathered up as into a single one-pointed tongue of fire; he is indifferent to the activities of thought, throws behind him the importunities of the Reason, cares nothing for the mind's thirst for knowledge. All the knowledge he needs is his faith and the inspirations that well up from a heart in communion with the Divine. He has no use for any will to works that is not turned to the direct worship of the Beloved or the service of the temple. The man of Knowledge, self-confined by a deliberate choice to the force and activities of discriminative thought, finds release in the mind's inward-drawn endeavour. He concentrates on the idea of the self, succeeds by a subtle inner discernment in distinguishing its silent presence amid the veiling activities of Nature, and through the perceptive idea arrives at the concrete spiritual experience. He is indifferent to the play of the emotions, deaf to the hunger-call of passion, closed to the activities of Life, -- the more blessed he, the sooner they fall away from him and leave him free, still and mute, the eternal non-doer. The body is his stumbling-block, the vital functions are his enemies; if their demands can be reduced to a minimum, that is his great good fortune. The endless difficulties that arise from the environing world are dismissed by erecting firmly against them a defence of outer physical and inner spiritual solitude; safe behind a wall of inner silence, he remains impassive and untouched by the world and by others. To be alone with oneself or alone with the Divine, to walk apart with God and his devotees, to entrench oneself in the single self-ward endeavour of the mind or Godward passion of the heart is the trend of these Yogas. The problem is solved by the excision of all but the one central difficulty which pursues the only chosen motive-force; into the midst of the dividing calls of our nature the principle of an exclusive concentration comes sovereignly to our rescue.
13:But for the Sadhaka of the integral Yoga this inner or this outer solitude can only be incidents or periods in his spiritual progress. Accepting life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world's burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others'; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world. Their representative character gives them a much more obstinate capacity of resistance, an almost endless right to recurrence. Often he finds that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again in a seemingly interminable war, because his inner existence has already been so much enlarged that not only it contains his own being with its well-defined needs and experiences, but is in solidarity with the being of others, because in himself he contains the universe.
14: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.
15:Concentration is indeed the first condition of any Yoga, but it is an all-receiving concentration that is the very nature of the integral Yoga. A separate strong fixing of the thought, of the emotions or of the will on a single idea, object, state, inner movement or principle is no doubt a frequent need here also; but this is only a subsidiary helpful process. A wide massive opening, a harmonised concentration of the whole being in all its parts and through all its powers upon the One who is the All is the larger action of this Yoga without which it cannot achieve its purpose. For it is the consciousness that rests in the One and that acts in the All to which we aspire; it is this that we seek to impose on every element of our being and on every movement of our nature. This wide and concentrated totality is the essential character of the sadhana and its character must determine its practice.
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17:The higher mind in man is something other, loftier, purer, vaster, more powerful than the Reason or logical intelligence. The animal is a vital and sensational being; man, it is said, is distinguished from the animal by the possession of reason. But that is a very summary, a very imperfect and misleading account of the matter. For reason is only a particular and limited utilitarian and instrumental activity that proceeds from something much greater than itself, from a power that dwells in an ether more luminous, wider, illimitable. The true and ultimate, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate, importance of our observing, reasoning, inquiring, judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for the right reception and right action of a Light from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal. The latter also has a rudimentary reason, a kind of thought, a soul, a will and keen emotions; even though less developed, its psychology is yet the same in kind as man's. But all these capacities in the animal are automatically moved and strictly limited, almost even constituted by the lower nervous being. All animal perceptions, sensibilities, activities are ruled by nervous and vital instincts, cravings, needs, satisfactions, of which the nexus is the life-impulse and vital desire. Man too is bound, but less bound, to this automatism of the vital nature. Man can bring an enlightened will, an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to the difficult work of his self-development; he can more and more subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, he is mall and no longer an animal. When he can begin to replace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, consciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and transcendent knowledge, he has commenced the ascent towards tile superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divine.
18:It is, then, in the highest mind of thought and light and will or it is in the inner heart of deepest feeling and emotion that we must first centre our consciousness, -- in either of them or, if we are capable, in both together, -- and use that as our leverage to lift the nature wholly towards the Divine. The concentration of an enlightened thought, will and heart turned in unison towards one vast goal of our knowledge, one luminous and infinite source of our action, one imperishable object of our emotion is the starting-point of the Yoga. And the object of our seeking must be the very fount of the Light which is growing in us, the very origin of the Force which we are calling to move our members. Our one objective must be the Divine himself to whom, knowingly or unknowingly, something always aspires in our secret nature. There must be a large, many-sided yet single concentration of the thought on the idea, the perception, the vision, the awakening touch, the soul's realisation of the one Divine. There must be a flaming concentration of the heart on the All and Eternal and, when once we have found him, a deep plunging and immersion in the possession and ecstasy of the All-Beautiful. There must be a strong and immovable concentration of the will on the attainment and fulfilment of all that the Divine is and a free and plastic opening of it to all that he intends to manifest in us. This is the triple way of the Yoga.
1.02 - Skillful Means, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
When he said this, ve thousand monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen in the assembly immediately got up from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and left. What was the Reason for this? Because the roots of error among this group had been deeply planted and they were arrogant, thinking they had attained what they had not attained and had realized what they had not realized. Because of such defects they did not stay. And the Bhagavat remained silent and did not stop them.
Then the Buddha addressed riputra: My assembly here is free of useless twigs and leaves; only the pure essence remains.
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What is the Reason for this? Because after the parinirva of the Buddha it is hard to nd people who preserve, recite, and understand the meaning of the sutras like this. But if they should meet other buddhas they will immediately understand this teaching.
O riputra! You should wholeheartedly accept and preserve the words of the Buddha. The words of the Buddha Tathgatas are never false. There are no other vehicles, only the single buddha vehicle.
1.02 - The Divine Is with You, #Words Of The Mother II, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Divine is the savour of all life and the Reason of all activity,
the goal of our thoughts.
1.02 - The Divine Teacher, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
India has from ancient times held strongly a belief in the reality of the Avatara, the descent into form, the revelation of the Godhead in humanity. In the West this belief has never really stamped itself upon the mind because it has been presented through exoteric Christianity as a theological dogma without any roots in the Reason and general consciousness and attitude towards life. But in India it has grown up and persisted as a logical outcome of the Vedantic view of life and taken firm root in the consciousness of the race. All existence is a manifestation of God because He is the only existence and nothing can be except as either a real figuring or else a figment of that one reality. Therefore every conscious being is in part or in some way a descent of the Infinite into the apparent finiteness of
Essays on the Gita
1.02 - The Magic Circle, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
The diagram, that is the drawing by which the Divinity is expressed within the circle, is subject to the religious concepts of the magician. The procedure followed by an oriental magician when forming a magic circle is of no use to an occidental magician, because his ideas of the Divine and the Infinite are quite different from those of the magician from the East. If an occidental initiate drew a magic circle according to oriental instructions, with all divine names appertaining to it, it would be ineffective and completely fall short of its purpose. A Christian magician must therefore never draw a magic circle according to an Indian or any other religion if he wants to save himself from an unnecessary effort. The construction of the magic circle depends, from the beginning, on one's individual ideas and beliefs and one's individual conception of the qualities of the Divine, who is to be symbolized graphically by this circle. This is the Reason why a genuine magician will never draw a circle, carry out rituals, or follow instructions concerning ceremonial magic to which he himself is not identified in his individual practice. For this would be similar to wearing oriental clothes in the occident.
Bearing these facts in mind, it comes natural that the magic circle has to be drawn in complete accordance with the views of life and maturity of the magician. The initiate who is conscious about the Harmony of the Universe and its exact hierarchy will, of course, make use of his knowledge when drawing the magic circle. Such a magician may, if he likes, and if the circumstances permit it, draw into his magic circle diagrams representing the whole hierarchy of the universe and thus come into contact with, and awake his consciousness of, the universe much more rapidly. He is free to draw, if necessary, several circles at a certain distance from each other in order to use them for representing the hierarchy of the universe in the form of divine names, genii, princes, angels and other powers. One must, of course, meditate appropriately and take the concept of the divine aspects in question into consideration when drawing the circle. The true magician must know that divine names are symbolic designations of divine qualities and powers. It stands to reason that while drawing the circle and entering the divine names the magician must also consider the analogies corresponding to the power in question, such as colour, number and direction, if he does not want to allow a breach in his consciousness to come into existance because he has not presented the universe in its complete analogy.
1.02 - THE NATURE OF THE GROUND, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The bodies of human beings are affected by the good or bad states of their minds. Analogously, the existence at the heart of things of a divine serenity and good will may be regarded as one of the Reasons why the worlds sickness, though chronic, has not proved fatal. And if, in the psychic universe, there should be other and more than human consciousnesses obsessed by thoughts of evil and egotism and rebellion, this would account, perhaps, for some of the quite extravagant and improbable wickedness of human behaviour.
The acts willed by our minds are accomplished either through the instrumentality of the physiological intelligence and the body, or, very exceptionally, and to a limited extent, by direct supernormal means of the PK variety. Analogously the physical situations willed by a divine Providence may be arranged by the perpetually creating Mind that sustains the universein which case Providence will appear to do its work by wholly natural means; or else, very exceptionally, the divine Mind may act directly on the universe from the outside, as it werein which case the workings of Providence and the gifts of grace will appear to be miraculous. Similarly, the divine Mind may choose to communicate with finite minds either by manipulating the world of men and things in ways, which the particular mind to be reached at that moment will find meaningful; or else there may be direct communication by something resembling thought transference.
1.02 - The Shadow, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
the same time they reveal the Reason for its weakness, namely a
certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level
1.02 - The Two Negations 1 - The Materialist Denial, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
11:For the faculties that transcend the senses, by the very fact of their being immeshed in Matter, missioned to work in a physical body, put in harness to draw one car along with the emotional desires and nervous impulses, are exposed to a mixed functioning in which they are in danger of illuminating confusion rather than clarifying truth. Especially is this mixed functioning dangerous when men with unchastened minds and unpurified sensibilities attempt to rise into the higher domains of spiritual experience. In what regions of unsubstantial cloud and semibrilliant fog or a murk visited by flashes which blind more than they enlighten, do they not lose themselves by that rash and premature adventure! An adventure necessary indeed in the way in which Nature chooses to effect her advance, - for she amuses herself as she works, - but still, for the Reason, rash and premature.
12:It is necessary, therefore, that advancing Knowledge should base herself on a clear, pure and disciplined intellect. It is necessary, too, that she should correct her errors sometimes by a return to the restraint of sensible fact, the concrete realities of the physical world. The touch of Earth is always reinvigorating to the son of Earth, even when he seeks a supraphysical Knowledge. It may even be said that the supraphysical can only be really mastered in its fullness - to its heights we can always reach - when we keep our feet firmly on the physical. "Earth is His footing,"2 says the Upanishad whenever it images the Self that manifests in the universe. And it is certainly the fact that the wider we extend and the surer we make our knowledge of the physical world, the wider and surer becomes our foundation for the higher knowledge, even for the highest, even for the Brahmavidya.
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16:If modern Materialism were simply an unintelligent acquiescence in the material life, the advance might be indefinitely delayed. But since its very soul is the search for Knowledge, it will be unable to cry a halt; as it reaches the barriers of senseknowledge and of the Reasoning from sense-knowledge, its very rush will carry it beyond and the rapidity and sureness with which it has embraced the visible universe is only an earnest of the energy and success which we may hope to see repeated in the conquest of what lies beyond, once the stride is taken that crosses the barrier. We see already that advance in its obscure beginnings.
17:Not only in the one final conception, but in the great line of its general results Knowledge, by whatever path it is followed, tends to become one. Nothing can be more remarkable and suggestive than the extent to which modern Science confirms in the domain of Matter the conceptions and even the very formulae of language which were arrived at, by a very different method, in the Vedanta, - the original Vedanta, not of the schools of metaphysical philosophy, but of the Upanishads. And these, on the other hand, often reveal their full significance, their richer contents only when they are viewed in the new light shed by the discoveries of modern Science, - for instance, that Vedantic expression which describes things in the Cosmos as one seed arranged by the universal Energy in multitudinous forms.6 Significant, especially, is the drive of Science towards a Monism which is consistent with multiplicity, towards the Vedic idea of the one essence with its many becomings. Even if the dualistic appearance of Matter and Force be insisted on, it does not really stand in the way of this Monism. For it will be evident that essential Matter is a thing non-existent to the senses and only, like the Pradhana of the Sankhyas, a conceptual form of substance; and in fact the point is increasingly reached where only an arbitrary distinction in thought divides form of substance from form of energy.
1.031 - Intense Aspiration, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The achievement of an object, temporal or spiritual, is ultimately an effort towards achievement of unity with one's own self. Though in the beginning it looks like a movement of the seeker towards the sought, due to the individuality of the seeker and the consequent isolation of the seeker from the object that is sought, the more we advance towards the object, the nearer we seem to come to our own self. This is very strange. One's intention is to move towards an object, but what is happening is that one is coming nearer to oneself. the Reason is that the object that we seek has some connection with us. So the nearer we go to the object, the nearer also we come to our own self, because the self of the object is somehow or other, at least remotely, connected with our own self. And finally, the intention is to unite oneself in the possession of the object. The ultimate success is union of oneself with the objective that has been sought. We are in complete possession of it; not an ordinary possession of an imaginary character, but an absolute commingling of oneself with that objective so that it is inseparable from our being we have enjoyed it perfectly, to the utter core.
So, this intensity of asking, the profundity of the soul's aspiration for the object that is being sought, mentioned in this sutra of Patanjali, tvra savegnm sanna, is the crux of the whole matter. We are also told that mumukshutva is the most important qualification of a spiritual seeker. All other things, even viveka, vairagya, shatsampat, come afterwards. Mumukshutva intense longing swallows up every other thing. What qualification did the gopis have? They were not qualified MA's, graduates from Oxford. They had no viveka or vairagya in the sense that we describe academically, in philosophical parlance. We should not even apply these technical aspects to them. It was simply a surge of their souls. They wanted it and wanted nothing else, and there ended the matter. "You don't tell me anything else. I want it, I want it, and I don't want anything else." This kind of aspiration was in their hearts, and we should not bring any other argument here either philosophical, or academic, or logical, or scientific. We do not want to hear anything else. When these arguments were brought in an academic manner by Uddhava, they said, "You bundle up your knowledge and go from here. We want Him, that is all, and we do not want to hear anything else." This wanting is something which is inscrutable, though it is very easily said.
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Why do we travel from place to place, as if we have nothing else to do? the Reason is that we want to bring about a corresponding change in our own self, and the external movement has been used as a kind of assistance. But if that change has not become an assistance, the whole effort is futile. Another thing why does it not become helpful? How is it that this imagined external change of condition does not become helpful in bringing about an internal reorientation of living? the Reason is that we have not been very honest and sincere. There has been a kind of bungling in the whole attitude of our mind towards what we are seeking, and a kind of confusion a self-deception, we may say. This, again, is due to a lack of proper training from a competent master. Again, I come to this point that a Guru is necessary. We cannot tread this path with our own legs. Our legs are very weak, because there are millions of obstacles that can simply shake us from our roots and throw us into the pits, even with all our understanding, which is of no use in the face of these obstacles. The obstacles are violent winds, and our legs are like sand which will be thrown in any direction by these violent movements of winds of desire, and what not.
In the external change that we bring about, which is the first step in vairagya, as people generally understand it, we leave the homestead and go to Badrinath or Uttarkashi, or somewhere. This initial step that we regard as vairagya or renunciation is to be converted into an internal discipline and change of attitude, for which proper guidance is necessary. Everything is a system of thinking, a change in the attitude of consciousness, and even the first step that we take is only towards that end. Unless there is a corresponding transformation inside, external movements have no meaning. If proper care is taken, an external discipline has some effect upon the internal character. But proper care has to be taken; we have to be very vigilant, and we cannot be vigilant if we give a long rope to our old ways of thinking. We can change anything, but our ways of thinking cannot change, because that is a part of us part of our nature.
1.032 - Our Concept of God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Love of God is something different from ordinary love, because God is not something which we need today and do not need tomorrow. God is not an object of a temporal necessity. He is not a requisite of a particular period of time, or of a given condition. God is a necessity of every condition, of all times, and for every person, at every place. the Reason is that God is the presupposition of every condition of being, and hence the love of God cannot be conditional; it is always unconditional. While every other love can be conditioned by circumstances and needs of the time, no such condition can apply to the love of God. But our concept of God is here a very important factor, which rules the destiny of our love for God. If God is extra-cosmic, which means to say that He is outside the world, as a carpenter is outside the table or the chair, then there should be some means of communication between the table and the carpenter, or the world and God. The means of communication is, of course, the very same means that we adopt in coming in contact with anything else in this world. How do we come in contact with any person or thing in this world? We adopt the same means also in respect of God. We cry and shout loudly so that the person will hear us, if the person is far away, and yearn from within for vision and contact of that something which we love.
Now, the yearning or the love, when it is directed to an object outside, becomes a psychological condition, and if love of God is also to become a psychological condition, then it may change according to the conditions of the mind. No condition of the mind can be perpetual, because it is related to the structure of the body also. In different incarnations, different types of births that we take, the states of mind may change, and so the attitudes which the mind has towards things also may vary in different incarnations. So the love of God may become conditioned if He is to be treated as an extra-cosmic something which has to be reached by a temporal affection in the form of a mental emotion, as we have in respect of ordinary objects in this world.
1.036 - The Rise of Obstacles in Yoga Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
What is this veil? It is nothing but the space-time complex, which is the Reason for the appearance of the individuality of things and the diversity of objects. This space-time-cause complex is the veil that covers the truth of things; and this veil covers even the perceiver himself. The individual cogniser, the perceiver, the experiencer, is a part of this involvement in the space-time-cause complex. So there is an entire relativity of perception and knowledge throughout the world, and there is no such thing as real insight into the nature of things. And so the whole universe is samsara world riddled over with error and sorrow. The veil of samsara gets lifted; it is penetrated into, and what is behind the veil is seen when there is pratyakcetana adhigamah. There is no relational knowledge at that time; it is a direct perception, aparoksha anubhava. We do not require the instrumentality of mind and senses at that time.
There is a sudden rising into the wakefulness of reality from the dream of world perception. All instruments of knowing are hushed forever. We begin to be aware of the presence of objects by a sympathy of 'being' rather than by a relatedness of sensory cognition. At present we are repelled by objects due to the egoism of personalities, and as one ego cannot tolerate another ego, there is an automatic repulsion of objects, one throwing the other out into a remote distance. But when this interior consciousness arises, the repulsion that is consequent to the presence of egoism ceases, and the reverse action takes place, namely, a friendliness of attitude, not in the sense of an emotional affection that we are used to in this world, but the urge of kindred characters towards a fraternal embrace for a permanent union of their essential being.
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But when these impending impediments get reversed in their order of action and procedure, we face the world directly and do not turn our backs to it. Now we are turning our backs to nature. It is moving in one direction, and we are moving in the opposite direction, and therefore there is a repulsion of two forces and an apparent feeling of irreconcilability between our intentions and the intentions of the world or of nature. the Reason is that we have turned our backs to nature. While the order of nature requires cognition of things from the point of view of their own subjecthood or selfhood, we turn our backs to this truth and regard everything as an object. This is the Reason why there is conflict between us and nature.
There is no such thing as an object from the point of view of nature as a whole. Everything is a subject from the point of view of each and every individual element. So when we look upon anything as an object, we are fighting with nature and opposing its order; and as nature is ultimately the face of God, we are opposing God Himself. In this struggle, it is we who will be defeated, because Truth will triumph. But when this inner consciousness rises, pratyakcetana adhigamah is present, we collaborate with the order of nature by developing that faculty of cognition within us which is a function of our being, rather than an activity of our mind and senses. Then the universe comes to us like a dear mother and embraces us in all affection, and the abundance, the richness and the wealth of the whole of nature becomes ours, and we return like a prodigal son to the father from whom we have run away, having deserted him. The obstacles cease.
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That is the Reason why we have different types of feeling in respect of persons and things at different times, and we frequently go on changing our attitude towards persons and things. the Reason is that our relationships with externals are not necessarily the conscious relationships, but the invisible potentialities and the urges that are present on the subconscious and the unconscious levels. They are more powerful than those on the conscious levels, and they are the real personality. Psychoanalysts tell us that the conscious level is like the tip of an iceberg in the ocean, the larger portion of it being submerged and invisible. We do not see it at all, but it is so hard that it can severely damage a ship if the ship hits it. Likewise, our larger personality is hidden inside, and a very insignificant part comes out as what we appear to be in conscious life.
So, the obstacles are not necessarily the outcome of conscious action, perception and cognition. The obstacles are the reactions set up by our deeper personality. It is not merely the intelligible relationships of waking consciousness that are the causes of our experiences, but the unintelligible inner hidden latencies which become these powers. So we ourselves cannot know what mood will come to us tomorrow, what we will do tomorrow, what we will utter tomorrow, and in what direction we will move tomorrow. "Oh, something occurred to me, and so I went somewhere," is how we will put it. Why should something just occur to us and make us go somewhere? the Reason is that the causes of our moods and actions are not always on the conscious level, and as long as they are there, even unconsciously, they shall be the determining factors of our future; and these are the obstacles which have to be faced with a deliberate, conscious practice of yoga.
1.037 - Preventing the Fall in Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
the Reason is simple. In the practice of yoga the whole being is active and, therefore, it starts waking up every blessed thing in this world whatever may be sleeping anywhere. Even invisible forces, even distant elements may feel that some strange activity is going on in some part of the universe. We must have heard in the Epics and Puranas that even the gods are distressed by the tapas of yogis. It means that the meditative activity of a sincere seeker can tell upon even very far and distant regions like the heavens, and not merely the corners of the earth. But our ordinary little work that is going on in a shop, a factory or an office may not be felt at all in such regions. the Reason is that these ordinary activities are shallow; they are not deep enough. They do not touch the bottom of things, and therefore the reactions set up are also mild.
But in yoga, what actually moves is the very root of our being. Our soul itself is yearning in the aspiration for the Ultimate Reality. It is not a function of a part of the psychological organs like mentation, intellection, egoism, etc. It is every blessed thing that is in us that becomes active, and we may say there is a sort of conscription of every part of our personality in this warfare called the practice of yoga. Every individual is harnessed into the army. Everyone is a soldier when this war takes place. There is no civilian at all in the practice of yoga; everyone is active like an army man everyone, and no one is excluded. Every part of the personality becomes roused, and we can imagine what reactions this can set up. You may ask me why they should set up reactions. Can this noble activity called yoga not be carried on without any adverse reactions.
10.37 - The Golden Bridge, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The recoil from the normal, the rich and lush physico-mental expression of human consciousness and experience has been so radical and complete that it has catapulted us into an opposite extreme of bareness and nudity, at the most into a world of pure signs and symbols of notches and blotches, the disjointed mimics and inarticulate groans of a deaf and dumb man. The process of abstraction has gone so far that it has now been reduced to an absurdity. It has its parallel in the movement that led man away from the world of Maya to the Transcendent featureless Brahman. In either case the Reason is that the link that joins the two ends could not be founda living truth that is of the Transcendent, yet denying not, but affirming in a new manner the mayic existence. That is because man till now sought to create from a level of consciousness, by a force of consciousness that is not adequate to the task; for it belongs still to the mental region, to this inferior hemisphere although at present it seems to be the acme and topmost hemisphere in the scale. It is not an extension or intensification of the mind and its capacities that will solve the problem: a radical change in the very nature of the mind, a reversal of the mental consciousnessa turning of it inside out as it were, an opening out and up is needed to discover the true source of the Light. Therefore it has been said that man must transcend himself, find a new status in the other hemisphere. In fact there is a domain, a status of being and consciousness, a master-force which when revealed and made active will remould inevitably and spontaneously human creation and expression as a reality embodying the Highest. It is the world of Idea-Force which Sri Aurobindo has named Supermind: it is beyond the mind, even the highest mind: it is the typal concentration of the Supreme Consciousness. It is the fulcrum for the Supreme Consciousness to create and express a new formulation of the Truth in the world of matter. The mind, the highest mind, in its attempt to grasp the Supreme Reality is prone to reject, annul and efface the Cosmic Reality. The Supermind has no need to do that. It links the two ends in a supreme and miraculous synthesis negating neither, giving the full value to each, for the two are united, concentrated in its substance. Thus is found the golden bridge uniting earth and heaven.
The physical mind, with its satellite, the human speech, must indeed be rescued from the thraldom of the animal life, the life of the ordinary senses. They should be put under the regimen of the new consciousness, the status of the Idea-Force. The action of that consciousness will create its own norm and pattern adequate for expressing and embodying suprasensuous realities. It will not have to depend upon allegories and parables, symbols and signs seized from ordinary life. What exactly this will be is difficult to say at present. Evidently there is likely to be an intermediary creationa passage leading from the sensuous to the supra-sensuous, the higher not totally rejecting the lower or primitive formula, the lower not altogether englobing and swallowing the higher.
1.038 - Impediments in Concentration and Meditation, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The incapacity of the mind to fix its attention on the ideal of meditation may be due to undue pressure exerted upon it by an unclarified understanding of the technique. It can also be due to certain desires present in the mind which have not been fulfilled, and which have not been allowed to come to the surface due to the force of discipline. While discipline is good, it cannot always succeed, because it is a power externally exerted upon something which succeeds for sometime, but cannot succeed for all times. the Reason is that anything extraneous is repelled it cannot be absorbed. The mind, being the subtlest instrument available to us, can feel the pressure more than anything else. Therefore, any kind of frustration of feeling, even very minutely present, can cause a sensation of exhaustion in oneself. It is not easy to understand why we are exhausted, why it is that we are not able to sit for a continued period in meditation. There can be hundreds of excuses for our inability to sit for meditation, but they are only excuses devices employed by the mind to get out of this difficulty we have put upon it.
The mind's non-cooperation with this enterprise called yoga can specifically be said to be due to a lack of understanding as to what it is, because when there is proper understanding and deep conviction born of this understanding, it is difficult to believe that one will not cooperate. Lack of cooperation is lack of understanding. We do not appreciate the meaning of it, or the value of it, or the worth of it; the mind is of that nature. It does not know why we are practising yoga, or what the purpose of yoga is. Though intellectually, superficially, logically and academically it acquiesces in the pursuit, this has not been driven into its feelings and has not become a part of its real nature. For all these reasons, it may be difficult to gain the point of concentration, which is called the difficulty alabdha- bhumikatva.
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At a particular stage in the practice we get severed from the centres of our pleasure; and nothing can be worse than this. This severing of oneself from the centres of pleasure can happen either due to a deliberate withdrawal of oneself effected by physical sequestration, deep concentration, etc., or it may be due to a reaction of the practice of meditation. Whatever be the cause, this effect may follow that which we liked or loved and regarded as worthwhile in life may leave us; and if the cause of this event is not known, the difficulty or the pain felt is much more. If I attack you, and if you know why I am attacking you, the sorrow that you feel is a little less than when you do not know why I have attacked you. If suddenly I come and attack you and you do not know why, you become more agonised than when you know the Reason behind it. Even though you are not pleased with my attitude, at least this feeling of agony is mitigated by the knowledge of the cause thereof. But if the cause is not known, it is still worse. You do not know what is happening or why this sudden attack has taken place. Oftentimes we may be in a state of depression without knowing the cause thereof, and here the danger is obvious because at this point we are kept in a state of suspense, and a state of suspense is not a good condition because it can take any side. A person who is neutral is capable of taking either the right side or the left side, if the chance comes or the time for it comes.
So this peculiar, inert and neutral condition of the mind, where it is deeply sunk in a kind of sorrow for some reason or the other, is a dangerous state where there is a possibility of a strong wind blowing from any direction. When there are dark clouds soaring in the sky, and the sun is completely dimmed and nothing can be seen, we know that it is a preparation for a violent storm, and we do not know from which side the wind will blow, or towards what direction. So this despondency daurmanasya a mood of melancholy which follows this sorrow, which is associated with sorrow and is a part of sorrow, can produce any consequence of a devastating nature, and it is here that the subtle potentialities within can take very strong shapes and violent forms.
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So, there is distraction in the movement of the pranas. Any tendency towards objects of sense is a tendency of distraction, and not a tendency to unification. This is the Reason why there is svasaprasvasa or inhalation and exhalation through the nostrils. This compulsion to brea the in the manner we do every day, by means of forced inhalation and forced exhalation, is caused by the working of desires in a particular manner. The more is the desire, the greater is the vehemence of the movement of the prana and the quickness of breathing. The lesser is the desire, the slower is the movement of the prana. The desires temporarily get hushed up in deep sleep, and so we find that in sleep we brea the more slowly than in waking life. When we are worked up into a mood of passion, either of desire or of anger, the breathing process gets accelerated because we are required to take up an action which is urgent from the point of view of the need of the system, and so the engine works faster to drive the vehicle with a greater speed. That is why we brea the faster when we are worked up with such an emotion.
The point is that ordinarily the movement of the prana is motivated by desire, and in meditation the desire is sublimated at least there is an attempt at sublimation, though it is not fully sublimated and this is immediately felt by the pranas. When the practice of meditation is continued and is repeated every day, naturally the effect upon the prana becomes permanent, and it changes its movement in the direction of unity and harmony rather than diversity and distraction. But in the beginning this effect exerted upon the prana comes to it like a surprise because it has not become used to it, and when it is taken by surprise, it pushes the whole system with a new type of force.
1.03 - A Parable, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
Thereupon riputra stood up ecstatic and joyful, pressed his palms together and, gazing at the Buddha, the Bhagavat, said: Now, hearing the words of this Dharma from the Bhagavat, my heart is full of joy for I have experienced something unprecedented. What is the Reason for this? In the past when
I heard this Dharma from the Buddha and saw the bodhisattvas receive their predictions, I was not included. I grieved because I thought I had been deprived of the immeasurable wisdom and insight of the Tathgata.
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Splendid, O Bhagavat! I entreat you to explain to the fourfold assembly the Reason why, and free them from their doubts!
Then the Buddha said to riputra: Did I not previously tell you that all the Buddha Bhagavats explain the Dharma with various explanations and illustrations using skillful means, all for the sake of highest, complete enlightenment!? All of these teachings are for leading and inspiring the bodhisattvas.
1.03 - Concerning the Archetypes, with Special Reference to the Anima Concept, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
anima. But since, for the Reasons discussed above, consciousness
of the object prevents its projection, there is nothing for it but
1.03 - Invocation of Tara, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
the Reason for this offering?
Answer: In general, offerings serve to accumulate
1.03 - Meeting the Master - Meeting with others, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: Organisation and work in villages are certainly necessary, but I doubt very much whether the village could be a creative centre. At least in the past it was not, so far as we can see. In the past there were village communities but they do not seem to have been creative. the Reason is that the man in the village has his view of life bound up with a small portion of land and things so that he cannot easily breathe that liberal and free air which is necessary for great creation. That is why leaders always came from the cities even in ancient times. I do not think that the villages in India, or anywhere in the world, are able to rule even in democracy. For creation a certain leisure and mental development are wanted.
Question: Do you think that in Russia what they have attempted is real democracy?
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Now the problem is how to organise the future life of the country. I myself am a communist in a certain sense but I cannot agree with the Russian method. One may ask: After all what has Russia created? Even among our present workers in India there is a lack of that definite idea as to what they are about and what kind of thing they want. That is the Reason why men like Dr. Bhagwandas propose some mental constructions like asking men to go in for politics after 50 years of age and so on. That does not seem to me to be the correct method, and I believe whoever pursues it will encounter complete failure.
Question: Anything would be better than the present condition.
1.03 - On Knowledge of the World., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Now the body needs in this world three things, one is food, another is clothing, and the third is a home : and by means of these, it can be preserved from injury and ruin. If the food provided for the body is excessive, the body will be destroyed : but let the food provided for the spirit be ever so much, still is it well. On account, therefore, of man's need of clothing and food, God has appointed sensuous desire to act as a commissary, that the animal, that is, the body, may not perish from hunger, cold or heat. But as desire, under the control of the animal soul, would not be satisfied with a sufficient quantity, but would crave to spend its life in eating and drinking, God afterwards committed the animal soul into the charge of the Reason, that desire might not transgress the proper limits. Yet as the animal soul and desire, on account of their intimate relations with the body, are so essential to it, their influence would still have been predominant. But God, the holy defender, in accordance with his bounteousness and grace, (" my mercy has surpassed my anger,") has sent his law by the tongues of prophets, that it might become strength to the Reason, and prevent the animal soul and desire from [68] passing beyond the due limits, and on the contrary might dispose the soul to rest satisfied with the degree of energy and force necessary for it, and by learning the design for which it had come into the world, might spend its days accordingly.
After you have learned, O student of the divine mysteries, what this world in its meaning really is, it is important that you should look at the world in detail. Every thing in the world of matter which grows, has been included under three classes, animal, vegetable and mineral, which are called the three generations or kingdoms. Animals were created some for riding, some for food, and some for tilling. Vegetables were created to afford food and conveniences to man, and sustenance to various animals. Minerals, like gold, silver, copper and iron, were created to serve as instruments to provide means of sustaining life in man. It was designed that by means of these three kingdoms, the spirit of man, while dwelling for a few days in the body, should be employed in making preparation for the future world. Man, however, forgetful of the end for which he had come hither, heedless of the fact that he was soon to depart, and that he would then repent to find that he was going unprepared, became engaged in strife with his fellows about the things of the world, fell in love with its ways, and attempted to gain its wealth. In consequence various qualities began to appear in the heart, such as avarice, envy, ambition and hatred, which are sources of its ruin. Finally the heart, forgetful of the duties for the performance of which it had come in to the world, exhausted all its energies in building up the world.
1.03 - PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The moral of all this is plain. The quantity and quality of the surviving biographical documents are such that we have no means of knowing what the residual personality of Jesus was really like. But if the Gospels tell us very little about the I which was Jesus, they make up for this deficiency by telling us inferentially, in the parables and discourses, a good deal about the spiritual not-I, whose manifest presence in the mortal man was the Reason why his disciples called him the Christ and identified him with the eternal Logos.
The biography of a saint or avatar is valuable only insofar as it throws light upon the means by which, in the circumstances of a particular human life, the I was purged away so as to make room for the divine not-I. The authors of the Synoptic Gospels did not choose to write such a biography, and no amount of textual criticism or ingenious surmise can call it into existence. In the course of the last hundred years an enormous sum of energy has been expended on the attempt to make documents yield more evidence than in fact they contain. However regrettable may be the Synoptists lack of interest in biography, and whatever objections may be raised against the theologies of Paul and John, there can still be no doubt that their instinct was essentially sound. Each in his own way wrote about the eternal not-I of Christ rather than the historical I; each in his own way stressed that element in the life of Jesus, in which, because it is more-than-personal, all persons can participate. (The nature of selfness is such that one person cannot be a part of another person. A self can contain or be contained by something that is either less or more than a self, it can never contain or be contained by a self.)
1.03 - .REASON. IN PHILOSOPHY, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
_Proposition One._ the Reasons upon which the apparent nature of "this"
world have been based, rather tend to prove its reality,--any other
1.03 - Some Aspects of Modern Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
nature has its dark side, but the layman as well as the Reasonable scientist is
quite convinced that it also has its good and positive side, which is just as
1.03 - Sympathetic Magic, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
rights and privileges of a full-grown man. the Reason of the
practice is obscure; all that concerns us here is the belief that a
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make their nests in the decayed thatch. the Reason assigned for
invoking the rats on these occasions was that rats' teeth were the
1.03 - The Syzygy - Anima and Animus, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
represent a disturbing accretion. the Reason for their behaving
in this way is that though the contents of anima and animus can
1.03 - The Two Negations 2 - The Refusal of the Ascetic, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
7:It is true that the glimpse of supraphysical realities acquired by methodical research has been imperfect and is yet ill-affirmed; for the methods used are still crude and defective. But these rediscovered subtle senses have at least been found to be true witnesses to physical facts beyond the range of the corporeal organs. There is no justification, then, for scouting them as false witnesses when they testify to supraphysical facts beyond the domain of the material organisation of consciousness. Like all evidence, like the evidence of the physical senses themselves, their testimony has to be controlled, scrutinised and arranged by the Reason, rightly translated and rightly related, and their field, laws and processes determined. But the truth of great ranges of experience whose objects exist in a more subtle substance and are perceived by more subtle instruments than those of gross physical Matter, claims in the end the same validity as the truth of the material universe. The worlds beyond exist: they have their universal rhythm, their grand lines and formations, their self-existent laws and mighty energies, their just and luminous means of knowledge. And here on our physical existence and in our physical body they exercise their influences; here also they organise their means of manifestation and commission their messengers and their witnesses.
8:But the worlds are only frames for our experience, the senses only instruments of experience and conveniences. Consciousness is the great underlying fact, the universal witness for whom the world is a field, the senses instruments. To that witness the worlds and their objects appeal for their reality and for the one world or the many, for the physical equally with the supraphysical we have no other evidence that they exist. It has been argued that this is no relation peculiar to the constitution of humanity and its outlook upon an objective world, but the very nature of existence itself; all phenomenal existence consists of an observing consciousness and an active objectivity, and the Action cannot proceed without the Witness because the universe exists only in or for the consciousness that observes and has no independent reality. It has been argued in reply that the material universe enjoys an eternal self-existence: it was here before life and mind made their appearance; it will survive after they have disappeared and no longer trouble with their transient strivings and limited thoughts the eternal and inconscient rhythm of the suns. The difference, so metaphysical in appearance, is yet of the utmost practical import, for it determines the whole outlook of man upon life, the goal that he shall assign for his efforts and the field in which he shall circumscribe his energies. For it raises the question of the reality of cosmic existence and, more important still, the question of the value of human life.
1.03 - Time Series, Information, and Communication, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
extra difficulty if b = +∞, and it is not hard to extend the Reason-
ing to the case where a = −∞. Of course, a good deal of work
1.040 - Re-Educating the Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
It is very well known why we practise yoga, or for the matter of that, why we engage ourselves in any activity at all. The purpose is to fulfil a wish, whether it is a particularised one or a larger one. This wish is supposed to be fulfilled by the practice of concentration of mind. Here, it would be advantageous to note how a wish can be fulfilled by mere concentration of mind. If that had not been the case, why should be there any attempt at all at concentration? Is it possible to fulfil a desire, or come to the attainment of any wish, for the matter of that, by concentration of mind? The answer is yes, as given by the science of yoga. Any wish can be fulfilled, whatever it be, on earth or in heaven, provided we can adjust our thoughts properly, in a prescribed manner. The absence of success in the pursuit of any objective is due to absence of sufficient concentration on the objective. We are not fully interested in anything, as I mentioned sometime back. That is the Reason why we cannot achieve anything fully. There is nothing in this world which can draw our attention wholly, and that is why nothing comes to us as we expect it. A half-hearted friendship with anything in this world cannot lead to a permanent success in the matter of union with that object, or utilisation of that object for one's purpose.
We have a wrong notion that our secret feelings are not known to others, and that we can dupe people by showing an external form of friendship, though inwardly there may not be that friendship. It is not true that we love all people, but yet we show that we are fraternal in our attitude. This is called political relationship, or social etiquette, etc., which will not succeed always, because things of the world have a peculiar sense, and this sense is ingrained even in inanimate objects. There is nothing absolutely senseless in this world. Everything has a sense, and that sense is peculiar to its own structure. The vibrations produced by things are the senses which these things possess, and any kind of disharmonious vibration that emanates from ourselves, in respect of those things or persons outside, would be an expression of an unfriendly attitude. This has nothing to do with what we speak with our mouths or the gestures that we make with our hands. We may shake hands or we may have tea on a common table, and yet all people sitting there may be enemies. It has nothing to do with common tea, etc., because the sense of internal structure and relationship with others is something deep-rooted more deep-rooted than is visible outside. Sometimes we get repelled by certain things even when nothing is happening, and sometimes we are pulled or attracted even if there is no obvious cause behind it. That is because of something else happening inside. Some people use the term 'prehension' for this peculiar sensibility present in things, to distinguish it from 'apprehension', or conscious understanding of the nature of things by means of sensation and mental cognition. Everything reacts to everything else in a subtle manner, notwithstanding the fact that it cannot be detected by ordinary observation through the waking mind or the active senses of the waking life.
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It is not true that our inward life is the same as our outward life. They are two different things altogether, and this is perhaps the case in 99.9% of people. For various reasons, psychological as well as social, it becomes difficult for the individual to express his real nature outwardly. Whatever the Reason behind it, the fact is there the outward relationships and inward characters do not coincide with each other; therefore there is irreconcilability, obviously. So, there is no friendship. Friendship is not a matter of writing a letter or speaking a word, but a matter of feeling. This feeling is impossible unless there is the capacity to appreciate the condition or circumstance of the person or the object with whom we are related, or with which we are related, and finally, to enter into the very feeling of that very person and the being of that object which is alone, ultimately speaking, real fraternity of feeling or friendship.
We have a subtle distractedness in our mind on account of the presence of an absence of friendliness with things. This will cut at the root of all the yogic practice, because yoga is the attempt to contact Ultimate Reality. It is not a mere social contact that we are trying here, but a contact of utter being the basic reality that is in everything. So there is a requisition for a complete transformation of our personality, inwardly as well as outwardly, even on the unconscious level not merely outwardly so that we get attuned to the structure of anything and everything in the world, under every condition.
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The whole of the Srimad Bhagavata, to give only one concrete example, is filled with thousands of ideas expressed in various ways. Though these ideas are many, they are kindred, essentially. Therefore, the chaotic movement of the mind is brought to an end, and the first step is taken in bringing the mind under control by allowing it to think of sympathetic thoughts, though they may be variegated in their structure. There are several members in a family. Each person is different from the other one is tall, one is short, one is very active, another is idle, one is working outside, one is working inside, one is a man, and another is a woman. There are all sorts of persons in a family, but yet they are kindred spirits there is a sympathy of character among them. This is the Reason why we call them a family, though they are individuals of different natures altogether. Likewise is any type of organisation it may be an institution; it may be a parliament; it may be a government or it may even be an army it may be anything. In the army we have thousands of people of different natures, yet they are brought together by a single ideal.
Likewise, by introducing a common background of a type of organisation in the midst of variegated ideas, the mind can be brought within the circumference of a given purpose. This practice should be continued for long time, until it becomes possible to reduce the size of the circumference. The ideas become less and less in number, so that we will be able to get on with only a few thoughts throughout our day. There is no need to think a hundred thoughts, because it is not the number of thoughts that is important, but their quality. We may be thinking of a million things in a shallow manner, which may not lead to success; but we may be thinking of only a few things in a very deep and profound way, and that type of thinking will be more beneficial in the long run, as we know very well.
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It is a peculiar repulsive feature that makes itself felt in the mind at the time of concentration of mind, which is what I mean by saying the double activity that is going on in the mind. We have resentment towards certain features which we regard as irrelevant for the purpose, and so there is a tension in the beginning. It is not an easy thing; we struggle hard, we sweat and then feel fatigue, exhaustion. the Reason for feeling exhaustion in meditation is that there is a kind of struggle going on inside, and there is not a spontaneous movement of the mind towards the given object. That is not possible, because the very attempt to concentrate the mind on a given concept is a simultaneous attempt to get rid of certain other thoughts which are unsympa thetic with this ideal; and this is the tension. There is always a simultaneous activity going on in the mind one pulling the other in this direction and that direction. This subtle tension is the cause of exhaustion, and we tire of meditation.
We may not be openly conscious of this activity going on in the mind, but subtly it will be going on. We know very well that the very idea of sitting for meditation implies that we should not think certain things. Otherwise, we can be thinking anything in our minds and call that meditation but it is not so. We have an idea that what we are doing through the mind at present is not meditation. The idea of meditation present in the minds of people is such that it calls for a rejection of certain thoughts. Otherwise, why should we sit somewhere? We can be anywhere and do anything we like. The idea of rejection of certain thoughts becomes a difficulty for many people to implement, because the mind feels pain whenever it is asked to give up something with which it has been friendly up to this time, and which it has been regarding as valuable. The mind will say, "Why should I reject these things?" We will have a simple answer, "Because they are unspiritual, unreligious and anti-divine, unsuited to meditation, etc." But these glib answers will not be accepted by the mind easily, because the mind is shrewd and requires a very satisfactory answer.
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An intelligent technique has to be adopted in the very beginning itself. The mind should be made to understand the necessity of avoiding certain ways of thinking for the purpose of a larger objective that it has placed before itself, because the Reason behind the necessity to give up certain other methods of thinking is that these methods of thinking which are supposed to be given up are irreconcilable with the nature of truth. And as truth alone succeeds, thoughts which are not consonant with the nature of truth should be given up.
For this, the mind has to know what are the characteristics of truth. When it knows that truth is this, and the nature of truth is like this, and 'my way of thinking is not in consonance with the nature of truth, and therefore I will not succeed by the pursuit of this method', it may gradually withdraw itself from its erroneous tracks and pursue the right path of spiritual meditation.
1.045 - Piercing the Structure of the Object, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The bondage of the jiva consists in the isolation of its experiencing unit, namely, consciousness, from the object of its experience. This is the Reason why there is desire of every kind. A desire is nothing but an attempt of consciousness to gain what is not contained within its own self. The content of consciousness is what is desired by consciousness, but that content is cut off due to a peculiar phenomenon that has arisen, and the phenomenon is the principle of isolation of the subject from the object. The purpose of yoga is to bring about a reunion of this twofold principle known as the subject and the object, so that it may go back to the original condition where it was not so separated. The means of action in the process of meditation, of course, is consciousness itself; we may call it mind in a grosser form.
The mind is the principle of activity in the process of meditation, and in the lowest form of mentation there is a down-to-earth, matter-of-fact conviction that the object is completely outside the mind and it has nothing to do with the mind at all. This is the lowest form into which the mind can sink, where the desires become very vehement, very strong and uncontrollable. There is an intense tension caused by this feeling that the object longed for is absolutely outside oneself, and there is practically no control one has over the objects of sense which one needs. The method of meditation tries to introduce a technique which gradually thins out this conviction that the objects of consciousness are external, and the internal relation that exists between the two is brought up to the surface of consciousness to a greater and greater degree.
1.04 - ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER (to the devotees): "That is the Reason Chaitanya said to his companion Nityananda, 'Listen, brother, there is no hope of salvation for the worldly-minded.' "
On another occasion the Master had said to M. privately: "Yes, there is no hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God. But he has nothing to fear if he remains in the world after realizing God. Nor need a man have any fear whatever of the world if he attains sincere devotion by practising spiritual discipline now and then in solitude. Chaitanya had several householders among his devotees, but they were householders in name only, for they lived unattached to the world."
1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
To have too much power over ones fellows, to be too rich, too violent, too ambitiousall this invites punishment, and in the long run, we notice, punishment of one sort or another duly comes. But the Greeks did not stop there. Because they regarded Nature as in some way divine, they felt that it had to be respected and they were convinced that a hubristic lack of respect for Nature would be punished by avenging nemesis. In The Persians, Aeschylus gives the Reasons the ultimate, metaphysical reasons for the barbarians defeat. Xerxes was punished for two offencesoverweening imperialism directed against the Athenians, and overweening imperialism directed against Nature. He tried to enslave his fellow men, and he tried to enslave the sea, by building a bridge across the Hellespont.
Atossa
1.04 - Of other imperfections which these beginners are apt to have with respect to the third sin, which is luxury., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
5. There are also certain souls of so tender and frail a nature that, when there comes to them some spiritual consolation or some grace in prayer, the spirit of luxury is with them immediately, inebriating and delighting their sensual nature in such manner that it is as if they were plunged into the enjoyment and pleasure of this sin; and the enjoyment remains, together with the consolation, passively, and sometimes they are able to see that certain impure and unruly acts have taken place. the Reason for this is that, since these natures are, as I say, frail and tender, their humours are stirred up and their blood is excited at the least disturbance. And hence come these motions; and the same thing happens to such souls when they are enkindled with anger or suffer any disturbance or grief.37
6. Sometimes, again, there arises within these spiritual persons, whether they be speaking or performing spiritual actions, a certain vigour and bravado, through their having regard to persons who are present, and before these persons they display a certain kind of vain gratification. This also arises from luxury of spirit, after the manner wherein we here understand it, which is accompanied as a rule by complacency in the will.
1.04 - On blessed and ever-memorable obedience, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Let the zealous be particularly attentive to themselves, lest by condemning the careless they themselves incur worse condemnation. And I think the Reason why Lot was justified was because, though living among such people, he never seems to have condemned them.
At all times, but most of all during the singing in church, let us keep quiet and undistracted. For by distractions the demons aim to bring our prayer to nothing.
1.04 - On Knowledge of the Future World., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
The second kind of torment in hell, beloved, is the fire of ignominy and shame. In illustration this, suppose that a prince receives in to his friendship a poor'and humble man, treating him with great honor and making'him the favorite among all his confidential servants. He gives into his hands the keys of all his treasuries/commits his honor and wife and family to his care, and in short confides all his affairs into his hands, in full reliance upon him. Then, suppose that the poor man, after being elevated to this high rank, should be puffed up with pride, and should be disposed to betray the honor of the prince,- that he should begin to indulge in unworthy conduct with his wife [90] and servants, and should open his coffers and spend his property for his own pleasures. Suppose farther that he should even be consulting with the prince's enemy who has designs upon the principality, and should enter in to a compact with him. Just at this point the prince from a concealed retreat espies his conduct in his family, and learns how he has wasted his money and his possessions, and in short becomes acquainted with everything he has done. The man also learns that for some time the prince has been aware of his course of conduct, but that the Reason of his delaying and postponing punishment was that he might see what other crimes he would commit, that he might punish him accordingly. In these circumstances the reflecting can easily appreciate what would be the confusion and mortification of this individual. He would think it a thousand times better to fall from a precipice and be dashed to pieces, or that the earth should open and he sink into the abyss, than that he should continue to live. So also is it with you. How many actions you perform, of which you say, "it is in private and no one sees it," or of which Satan cloaks over the guilt from your mind, by persuading you that it is all right and fair. But at last, when death comes and makes your sin manifest, then the fire of ignominy and shame makes you captive to fierce torments and long continued misery....
Suppose you should throw a stone over against a wall, and some one Should come and inform you that the stone had hit your own house; and had put out the eye of your son. When you rush to your house and find that it is even so, can you conceive of the fire of repentance and anguish you will have to meet? ...
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The view which man obtains of things in the visible world is through matter, as in the contemplation of a prospect on land. But in the fourth stage, which is that of the Reason, man's view is entirely through the medium of pure spirit, as when a man looks into water. But the view he takes, and the intercourse he enjoys in the world of speculation, is as if he was looking at an object from a ship. There is, besides, in the sphere of reason a still higher degree of sight and vision, which is enjoyed by the [98] prophets, the saints, and the most devout, which may be compared to a prospect in the clearest weather. Hence, when some one observed to the apostle of God, that Jesus (upon whom be peace !) walked upon the waters, he replied, that "if his faith had been greater, he would have walked in the air."
The view that can be taken by the heart of man, embraces all things that lie in the world of perception and understanding. Its sphere of action and exercise is the whole world. The ascent of man from the rank of beasts to that of angels, is an ascent where he is always exposed to danger and to destruction. He may, with the guidance of the divine guide, mount up to the highest heaven, or may descend through the deceits of Satan to the lowest hell. And the prophet has warned us of this danger in these words: "We have proposed to the heavens, to the earth and to the mountains to accept the deposit of the faith: they trembled to receive it. Man accepted the charge, but he became stupid and a wanderer in darkness."1
1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
conscious enough to understand them. If the Reasons for the existence of our traditions were rendered more
explicit, however, perhaps we could develop greater intrapsychic and social integrity. The capacity to
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despite the Reason may be regarded as the same sort of event, from the perspective of emotion,
motivational significance or meaning. This is to say that all things that threatens the status quo, regardless
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fear-producing (and promising) potential. The different guises of this potential, and the Reasons for and
nature of their equivalence, constitute our next topic of discussion. The nature of the response evoked by
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know why I was doing these things. As long as I do not know the Reason why, I cannot do anything. In
the middle of my concern with the household, which at the time kept me quite busy, a question would
1.04 - The Conditions of Esoteric Training, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
It must be clearly realized that the purpose of this training is to build and not to destroy. The student should therefore bring with him the good will for sincere and devoted work, and not the intention to criticize and destroy. He should be capable of devotion, for he must learn what he does not yet know; he should look reverently on that which discloses itself. Work and devotion, these are the fundamental qualities which must be demanded of the student. Some come to realize that they are making no progress, though in their own opinion they are untiringly active. the Reason is that they have not grasped the meaning of work and devotion in the right way. Work done for the sake of success will be the least successful,
p. 128
1.04 - The Crossing of the First Threshold, #The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #Joseph Campbell, #Mythology
vine "enthusiasm" that overturns the Reason and releases the forces
of the destructive-creative dark.
1.04 - The Discovery of the Nation-Soul, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The primal law and purpose of the individual life is to seek its own self-development. Consciously or half consciously or with an obscure unconscious groping it strives always and rightly strives at self-formulation,to find itself, to discover within itself the law and power of its own being and to fulfil it. This aim in it is fundamental, right, inevitable because, even after all qualifications have been made and caveats entered, the individual is not merely the ephemeral physical creature, a form of mind and body that aggregates and dissolves, but a being, a living power of the eternal Truth, a self-manifesting spirit. In the same way the primal law and purpose of a society, community or nation is to seek its own self-fulfilment; it strives rightly to find itself, to become aware within itself of the law and power of its own being and to fulfil it as perfectly as possible, to realise all its potentialities, to live its own self-revealing life. the Reason is the same; for this too is a being, a living power of the eternal Truth, a self-manifestation of the cosmic Spirit, and it is there to express and fulfil in its own way and to the degree of its capacities the special truth and power and meaning of the cosmic Spirit that is within it. The nation or society, like the individual, has a body, an organic life, a moral and aesthetic temperament, a developing mind and a soul behind all these signs and powers for the sake of which they exist. One may say even that, like the individual, it essentially is a soul rather than has one; it is a group-soul that, once having attained to a separate distinctness, must become more and more self-conscious and find itself more and more fully as it develops its corporate action and mentality and its organic self-expressive life.
The parallel is just at every turn because it is more than a parallel; it is a real identity of nature. There is only this difference that the group-soul is much more complex because it has a great number of partly self-conscious mental individuals for the constituents of its physical being instead of an association of merely vital subconscious cells. At first, for this very reason, it seems more crude, primitive and artificial in the forms it takes; for it has a more difficult task before it, it needs a longer time to find itself, it is more fluid and less easily organic. When it does succeed in getting out of the stage of vaguely conscious self-formation, its first definite self-consciousness is objective much more than subjective. And so far as it is subjective, it is apt to be superficial or loose and vague. This objectiveness comes out very strongly in the ordinary emotional conception of the nation which centres round its geographical, its most outward and material aspect, the passion for the land in which we dwell, the land of our fathers, the land of our birth, country, patria, vaterland, janma-bhmi. When we realise that the land is only the shell of the body, though a very living shell indeed and potent in its influences on the nation, when we begin to feel that its more real body is the men and women who compose the nation-unit, a body ever changing, yet always the same like that of the individual man, we are on the way to a truly subjective communal consciousness. For then we have some chance of realising that even the physical being of the society is a subjective power, not a mere objective existence. Much more is it in its inner self a great corporate soul with all the possibilities and dangers of the soul-life.
1.04 - The Divine Mother - This Is She, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
I shall now give an example of the Mother's considerable courage in taking up the charge of a patient suffering from throat cancer. This man, a devotee, arrived from outside. He had refused all medical aid and turned down all entreaties of his relatives for the accepted treatment. He wanted only to be cured by the Mother or to die here. He was very thin, of a nervous type and his general health was poor. I was asked to supervise the case and give daily reports to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. We shall see in the chapter 'God Departs' another devotee seeking entire refuge in them and being cured of a mysterious illness that endangered her life. I must admit frankly that I was stunned by the Mother's boldness and could not have an unreserved faith. Either in this context or another, I had asked the Mother and Sri Aurobindo if they had cured cancer by their Force. The Mother replied firmly, "Not only cancer, other diseases too, pronounced incurable by the doctors. Isn't it so?" She asked Sri Aurobindo, as if looking for confirmation; he nodded. The Mother once said that there is hardly a disease that Yoga cannot cure. Sri Aurobindo also wrote, "Of course it [Yoga] can, but on condition of faith or openness or both. Even a mental suggestion can cure cancer with luck of course, as is shown by the case of the woman operated on unsuccessfully for cancer, but the doctors lied and told her it had succeeded. Result, cancer symptoms all ceased and she died many years afterwards of another illness altogether," Here was a patient, then, who came with faith in the Mother. I began to do my duty regularly. At first the patient came for Pranam to the Mother. I witnessed her intense concentration and preoccupation with the case. While listening to the report, she would suddenly go into a trance and Sri Aurobindo would intently watch over her. Once she was on the point of falling down. Sri Aurobindo stretched both his arms, exclaiming "Ah!" The Mother regained her control. Things seemed to be moving at a slow pace. If some symptoms improved, new ones appeared; the condition fluctuated from day to day. Some days passed in a comparative restfulness. Our help was mostly psychological: to give courage and instil faith. If some progress was noticed, I would with a cheerful face report it to the Mother. She would just listen quietly. Meanwhile letters from the relatives urged the patient to return. When the Mother heard about it, she replied, "If I can't cure it, there is none who can." The fight continued, it was a grim encounter, indeed. As a result of the Mother's steady Force, things looked bright and I felt we had turned the corner. The Mother kept her vigil and wasted no words. After the February Darshan, however, the picture changed for no apparent reason. The patient went gradually down-hill and in a month or two, life petered out. The patient was brought before the Mother to have her last blessings. She came down and with her soothing touch and the balm of her divine smile wiped away all his distress and made his passage peaceful. Later when I asked Sri Aurobindo the Reason for this unaccountable reversal, he replied, "After the Darshan his faith got shaken and he could not get it back." Cancer of the throat is a scourge; one cannot eat, drink or speak; breathing becomes difficult. Let us remember Sri Ramakrishna's classical example. To keep a steady faith needs a heroic will which how many can have? Besides, the family surroundings also were not very congenial.
I remember Nishikanto, a sadhak-poet, who fell seriously ill after being cured of an equally serious illness. The Mother giving the occult reason told me that when he came to her on his birthday, she saw a definite crack in his faith. But a man of quite a different temperament, he pulled himself up, while the cancer-patient could not. "Why take up such a case at all?" one may ask. Well, it was the patient who made the choice; he had no faith in the usual medico-surgical treatment whose efficacy is at best doubtful. Here, he had at least the unique opportunity to live under the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's direct care and supervision. For a bhakta, there cannot be a greater boon. If he lives, it will be glorious; if he dies, he will have a better life in the next birth.
1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The present essays are merely intended to raise the subject, not to exhaust it, to offer suggestions, not to establish them. The theory of Vedic religion which I shall suggest in these pages, can only be substantiated if it is supported by a clear, full, simple, natural and harmonious rendering of the Veda standing on a sound philological basis, perfectly consistent in itself and proved in hymn after hymn without any hiatus or fatal objection. Such a substantiation I shall one day place before the public. The problem of Vedic interpretation depends, in my view, on three different tests, philological, historic and psychological. If the results of these three coincide, then only can we be sure that we have understood the Veda. But to erect this Delphic tripod of interpretation is no facile undertaking. It is easy to misuse philology. I hold no philology to be sound & valid which has only discovered one or two byelaws of sound modification and for the rest depends upon imagination & licentious conjecture,identifies for instance ethos with swadha, derives uloka from urvaloka or prachetasa from prachi and on the other [hand] ignores the numerous but definitely ascertainable caprices of Pracritic detrition between the European & Sanscrit tongues or considers a number of word-identities sufficient to justify inclusion in a single group of languages. By a scientific philology I mean a science which can trace the origins, growth & structure of the Sanscrit language, discover its primary, secondary & tertiary forms & the laws by which they develop from each other, trace intelligently the descent of every meaning of a word in Sanscrit from its original root sense, account for all similarities & identities of sense, discover the Reason of unexpected divergences, trace the deviations which separated Greek & Latin from the Indian dialect, discover & define the connection of all three with the Dravidian forms of speech. Such a system of comparative philology could alone deserve to stand as a science side by side with the physical sciences and claim to speak with authority on the significance of doubtful words in the Vedic vocabulary. The development of such a science must always be a work of time & gigantic labour.
But even such a science, when completed, could not, owing to the paucity of our records be, by itself, a perfect guide. It would be necessary to discover, fix & take always into account the actual ideas, experiences and thought-atmosphere of the Vedic Rishis; for it is these things that give colour to the words of men and determine their use. The European translations represent the Vedic Rishis as cheerful semi-savages full of material ideas & longings, ceremonialists, naturalistic Pagans, poets endowed with an often gorgeous but always incoherent imagination, a rambling style and an inability either to think in connected fashion or to link their verses by that natural logic which all except children and the most rudimentary intellects observe. In the light of this conception they interpret Vedic words & evolve a meaning out of the verses. Sayana and the Indian scholars perceive in the Vedic Rishis ceremonialists & Puranists like themselves with an occasional scholastic & Vedantic bent; they interpret Vedic words and Vedic mantras accordingly. Wherever they can get words to mean priest, prayer, sacrifice, speech, rice, butter, milk, etc, they do so redundantly and decisively. It would be at least interesting to test the results of another hypothesis,that the Vedic thinkers were clear-thinking men with at least as clear an expression as ordinary poets have and at least as high ideas and as connected and logical a way of expressing themselvesallowing for the succinctness of poetical formsas is found in other religious poetry, say the Psalms or the Book of Job or St Pauls Epistles. But there is a better psychological test than any mere hypothesis. If it be found, as I hold it will be found, that a scientific & rational philological dealing with the text reveals to us poems not of mere ritual or Nature worship, but hymns full of psychological & philosophical religion expressed in relation to fixed practices & symbolic ceremonies, if we find that the common & persistent words of Veda, words such as vaja, vani, tuvi, ritam, radhas, rati, raya, rayi, uti, vahni etc,an almost endless list,are used so persistently because they expressed shades of meaning & fine psychological distinctions of great practical importance to the Vedic religion, that the Vedic gods were intelligently worshipped & the hymns intelligently constructed to express not incoherent poetical ideas but well-connected spiritual experiences,then the interpreter of Veda may test his rendering by repeating the Vedic experiences through Yoga & by testing & confirming them as a scientist tests and confirms the results of his predecessors. He may discover whether there are the same shades & distinctions, the same connections in his own psychological & spiritual experiences. If there are, he will have the psychological confirmation of his philological results.
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We do not find that the Rishi Mahachamasya succeeded in getting his fourth vyahriti accepted by the great body of Vedantic thinkers. With a little reflection we can see the Reason why. The vijnana or mahat is superior to reasoning. It sees and knows, hears and knows, remembers & knows by the ideal principles of drishti, sruti and smriti; it does not reason and know.Or withdrawing into the Mahan Atma, it is what it exercises itself upon and therefore knowsas it were, by conscious identity; for that is the nature of the Mahan Atma to be everything separately and collectively & know it as an object of his Knowledge and yet as himself. Always vijnana knows things in the whole & therefore in the part, in the mass & therefore in the particular. But when ideal knowledge, vijnana, looks out on the phenomenal world in its separate details, it then acquires an ambiguous nature. So long as it is not assailed by mind, it is still the pure buddhi and free from liability to errors. The pure buddhi may assign its reasons, but it knows first & reasons afterwards,to explain, not to justify. Assailed by mind, the ideal buddhi ceases to be pure, ceases to be ideal, becomes sensational, emotional, is obliged to found itself on data, ends not in knowledge but in opinion and is obliged to hold doubt with one hand even while it tries to grasp certainty by the other. For it is the nature of mind to be shackled & frightened by its data. It looks at things as entirely outside itself, separate from itself and it approaches them one by one, groups them & thus arrives at knowledge by synthesis; or if [it] looks at things in the mass, it has to appreciate them vaguely and then take its parts and qualities one by one, arriving at knowledge by a process of analysis. But it cannot be sure that the knowledge it acquires, is pure truth; it can never be safe against mixture of truth & error, against one-sided knowledge which leads to serious misconception, against its own sensations, passions, prejudices and false associations. Such truth as it gets can only be correct even so far as it goes, if all the essential data have been collected and scrupulously weighed without any false weights or any unconscious or semi-conscious interference with the balance. A difficult undertaking! So we can form reliable conclusions, and then too always with some reserve of doubt,about the past & the present.Of the future the mind can know nothing except in eternally fixed movements, for it has no data. We try to read the future from the past & present and make the most colossal blunders. The practical man of action who follows there his will, his intuition & his instinct, is far more likely to be correct than the scientific reasoner. Moreover, the mind has to rely for its data on the outer senses or on its own inner sensations & perceptions & it can never be sure that these are informing it correctly or are, even, in their nature anything but lying instruments. Therefore we say we know the objective world on the strength of a perpetual hypothesis. The subjective world we know only as in a dream, sure only of our own inner movements & the little we can learn from them about others, but there too sure only of this objective world & end always in conflict of transitory opinions, a doubt, a perhaps. Yet sure knowledge, indubitable Truth, the Vedic thinkers have held, is not only possible to mankind, but is the goal of our journey. Satyam eva jayate nanritam satyena pantha vitato devayanah yenakramantyrishayo hyaptakama yatra tat satyasya paramam nidhanam. Truth conquers and not falsehood, by truth the path has been extended which the gods follow, by which sages attaining all their desire arrive where is that Supreme Abode of Truth. The very eagerness of man for Truth, his untameable yearning towards an infinite reality, an infinite extension of knowledge, the fact that he has the conception of a fixed & firm truth, nay the very fact that error is possible & persistent, mare indications that pure Truth exists.We follow no chimaera as a supreme good, nor do the Powers of Darkness fight against a mere shadow. The ideal Truth is constantly coming down to us, constantly seeking to deliver us from our slavery to our senses and the magic circle of our limited data. It speaks to our hearts & creates the phenomenon of Faith, but the heart has its lawless & self-regarding emotions & disfigures the message. It speaks to the Imagination, our great intellectual instrument which liberates us from the immediate fact and opens the mind to infinite possibility; but the imagination has her pleasant fictions & her headlong creative impulse and exaggerates the truth & distorts & misplaces circumstances. It speaks to the intellect itself, bids it criticise its instruments by vichara and creates the critical reason, bids it approach the truth directly by a wide passionless & luminous use of the pure judgment, and creates shuddha buddhi or Kants pure reason; bids it divine truth & learn to hold the true divination & reject the counterfeit, and creates the intuitive reason & its guardian, intuitive discrimination or viveka. But the intellect is impatient of error, eager for immediate results and hurries to apply what it receives before it has waited & seen & understood. Therefore error maintains & even extends her reign. At last come the logician & modern rationalist thinker; disgusted with the exaggeration of these movements, seeing their errors, unable to see their indispensable utility, he sets about sweeping them away as intellectual rubbish, gets rid of faith, gets rid of flexibility of mind, gets rid of sympathy, pure reason & intuition, puts critical reason into an ill lightened dungeon & thinks now, delivered from these false issues, to compass truth by laborious observation & a rigid logic. To live on these dry & insufficient husks is the last fate of impure vijnanam or buddhi confined in the data of the mind & sensesuntil man wronged in his nature, cabined in his possibilities revolts & either prefers a luminous error or resumes his broadening & upward march.
It was this aspect of impure mahas, vijnanam working not in its own home, swe dame but in the house of a stranger, as a servant of an inferior faculty, reason as we call it, which led the Rishi Mahachamasya to include mahas among the vyahritis. But vijnana itself is an integral part of the supreme movement, it is divine thought in divine being,therefore not a vyahriti. The Veda uses to express this pure Truth &ideal knowledge another word, equivalent in meaning to mahat,the word brihat and couples with it two other significant expressions, satyam & ritam. This trinity of satyam ritam brihatSacchidananda objectivisedis the Mahan Atma. Satyam is Truth, the principle of infinite & divine Being, Sat objectivised to Knowledge as the Truth of things self-manifested; Ritam is Law, the motion of things thought out, the principle of divine self-aware energy, Chit-shakti objectivised to knowledge as the Truth of things selfarranged; Brihat is full content & fullness, satisfaction, Nature, the principle of divine Bliss objectivised to knowledge as the Truth of things contented with its own manifestation in law of being & law of action. For, as the Vedanta tells us, there is no lasting satisfaction in the little, in the unillumined or half-illumined things of mind & sense, satisfaction there is only in the large, the self-true & self-existent. Nalpe sukham asti bhumaiva sukham. Bhuma, brihat, mahat, that is God. It is Ananda therefore that insists on largeness & constitutes the mahat or brihat. Ananda is the soul of Nature, its essentiality, creative power & peace. The harmony of creative power & peace, pravritti & nivritti, jana & shama, is the divine state which we feelas Wordsworth felt itwhen we go back to the brihat, the wide & infinite which, containing & contented with its works, says of it Sukritam, What I have made, is good. Whoever enters this kingdom of Mahat, this Maho Arnas or great sea of ideal knowledge, comes into possession of his true being, true knowledge, true bliss. He attains the ideal powers of drishti, sruti, smritisees truth face to face, hears her unerring voice or knows her by immediate recognising memoryjust as we say of a friend This is he and need no reasoning of observation, comparison, induction or deduction to tell us who he is or to explain our knowledge to ourselvesthough we may, already knowing the truth, use a self-evident reasoning masterfully in order to convince others. The characteristic of ideal knowledge is first that it is direct in its approach, secondly, that it is self-evident in its revelation, swayamprakasha, thirdly, that it is unerring fact of being, sat, satyam in its substance. Moreover, it is always perfectly satisfied & divinely pleasurable; it is atmarati & atmastha, confines itself to itself & does not reach out beyond itself to grasp at error or grope within itself to stumble over ignorance. It is, too, perfectly effective whether for knowledge, speech or action, satyakarma, satyapratijna, satyavadi. The man who rising beyond the state of the manu, manishi or thinker which men are now, becomes the kavi or direct seer, containing what he sees,he who draws the manomaya purusha up into the vijnanamaya,is in all things true. Truth is his characteristic, his law of being, the stamp that God has put upon him. But even for the manishi ideal Truth has its bounties. For from thence come the intuitions of the poet, the thinker, the artist, scientist, man of action, merchant, craftsman, labourer each in his sphere, the seed of the great thoughts, discoveries, faiths that help the world and save our human works & destinies from decay & dissolution. But in utilising these messages from our higher selves for the world, in giving them a form or a practical tendency, we use our intellects, feelings or imaginations and alter to their moulds or colour with their pigments the Truth. That alloy seems to be needed to make this gold from the mines above run current among men. This then is Maho Arnas.The psychological conceptions of our remote forefa thers concerning it have so long been alien to our thought & experience that they may be a little difficult to follow & more difficult to accept mentally. But we must understand & grasp them in their fullness if we have any desire to know the meaning of the Veda. For they are the very centre & keystone of Vedic psychology. Maho Arnas, the Great Ocean, is the stream of our being which at once divides & connects the human in us from the divine, & to cross over from the human to the divine, from this small & divided finite to that one, great & infinite, from this death to that immortality, leaving Diti for Aditi, alpam for bhuma, martyam for amritam is the great preoccupation & final aim of Veda & Vedanta.
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We have therefore as a result of a long and careful examination the clear conviction that certainly in this poem of Madhuchchhanda, probably in others of his hymns, perhaps in all we have an invocation to subjective Nature powers, a symbolic sacrifice, a spiritual, moral & subjective effort & purpose. And if many other suktas in this & other Mandalas confirm the evidence of this third hymn of the Rigveda, shall we not say that here we have the true Veda as the Rishis understood it and that this was the Reason why all the ancient thinkers looked on the hymns with so deep-seated a reverence that even after they came to be used merely as ceremonial liturgies at a material sacrifice, even after the Buddha impatiently flung them aside, the writer of the Gita had to look beyond them & Shankara respectfully put them on the shelf of neglect as useless for spiritual purposes, even after they have ceased to be used and almost to be read, the most spiritual nation on the face of the earth still tenaciously, by a sort of divine instinct, clings to them as its supreme Scriptures & refers back all its spirituality and higher knowledge to the Vedas? Let us proceed and see whether this is not the truest as well as the noblest reading of the riddle the real root of Gods purpose in maintaining this our ancient faith and millennial tradition.
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1.04 - The Need of Guru, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
This inadequacy of books to quicken spiritual growth is the Reason why, although almost every one of us can speak most wonderfully on spiritual matters, when it comes to action and the living of a truly spiritual life, we find ourselves so awfully deficient. To quicken the spirit, the impulse must come from another soul.
The person from whose soul such impulse comes is called the Guru the teacher; and the person to whose soul the impulse is conveyed is called the Shishya the student. To convey such an impulse to any soul, in the first place, the soul from which it proceeds must possess the power of transmitting it, as it were, to another; and in the second place, the soul to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it. The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready ploughed; and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a wonderful growth of genuine religion takes place. "The true preacher of religion has to be of wonderful capabilities, and clever shall his hearer be" ; and when both of these are really wonderful and extraordinary, then will a splendid spiritual awakening result, and not otherwise. Such alone are the real teachers, and such alone are also the real students, the real aspirants. All others are only playing with spirituality. They have just a little curiosity awakened, just a little intellectual aspiration kindled in them, but are merely standing on the outward fringe of the horizon of religion. There is no doubt some value even in that, as it may in course of time result in the awakening of a real thirst for religion; and it is a mysterious law of nature that as soon as the field is ready, the seed must and does come; as soon as the soul earnestly desires to have religion, the transmitter of the religious force must and does appear to help that soul. When the power that attracts the light of religion in the receiving soul is full and strong, the power which answers to that attraction and sends in light does come as a matter of course.
1.04 - The Origin and Development of Poetry., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Poetry in general seems to have sprung from two causes, each of them lying deep in our nature. First, the instinct of imitation is implanted in man from childhood, one difference between him and other animals being that he is the most imitative of living creatures, and through imitation learns his earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated. We have evidence of this in the facts of experience. Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies. The cause of this again is, that to learn gives the liveliest pleasure, not only to philosophers but to men in general; whose capacity, however, of learning is more limited. Thus the Reason why men enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, 'Ah, that is he.' For if you happen not to have seen the original, the pleasure will be due not to the imitation as such, but to the execution, the colouring, or some such other cause.
Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, metres being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry.
1.04 - The Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
of the millennia the Reasoning mind has been given every oppor-
tunity to see through the futility of this conceit, though that has
1.04 - To the Priest of Rytan-ji, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Zen
It is the third letter you have written and the third time your emissary has made a trip all this way to deliver it to me. I have been extremely negligent in failing to respond to your requests, but the Reason I have not answered is because I find the responsibility involved in accepting such an invitation so intimidating. I know only too well how dim my prospects are for carrying it out. A hedge-parson such as myself is totally unfit for such a momentous task. It's like trying to make an earthworm roar like a dragon, or make a jackass perform tricks like a fine riding horse.
Much closer to home in your own Ttmi Province, there are any number of excellent priests, all of them formidable dragons of the Zen seas. What could a shrimp like me accomplish at such a meeting?
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Temple), one of the most celebrated temples in all of Ttmi and Mikawa. Even gods and demons tremble in fear when they hear of the dragons lurking in that poisonous pool. The prospect is so terrifying it sets my knees to shaking. In any case, that is the Reason I have delayed so long in sending you my answer. Accept my most profuse apologies.
Some time ago Dait Osh made the long trip here to Shin-ji with Senior Monk Zents to convey the sentiments of the temple priests in your area, including the abbot of Seiken-ji. They presented their case skillfully, with admirable powers of persuasion. They informed me of your feelings on the matter and of the enthusiastic support shown by other members of the monastic and lay community. It seems everyone is very eager for the talks to be held.
Please understand the Reason for my obstinacy. Why, I haven't a single person around to give the kind of advice and assistance I would need to carry out such an assignment. If a priest of my inexperience were to agree to your request and attempt the task you have set, I would only make myself a general laughingstock for not realizing the limits of my ability. On the other hand, were I to give in to my personal feelings, refuse the invitation, and retreat into my carapace, I would no doubt always be reproached for turning my back on the desires and expectations of all those who supported the idea. Thus confused in mind and decrepit in body, this indolent old monk now finds himself forced into a very tight corner.
Things being so, in autumn (the seventh month), after the summer retreat, I will set out from here for
1.04 - Wherefore of World?, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The various hypotheses constructed by the Reasoning mind about that which is beyond its knowledge, would undoubtedly have shed light on the riddle of the world but for our regrettable habit of opposing them to each other instead of harmonising them. Harmonised, their number would have increased our knowledge. As things stand, their diversity rather increases the perplexity of our minds.
the Reason pays in this loss and bewilderment the penalty of its lack of respect for the numerous forms which its effort has assumed at different times and in varying environments. However imperfect these forms may be, we should prize in them the fruit of the labour accomplished by the thought of man and have no right to despise what was and still is for so many minds the means of expressing the mystery of things and entering into contact with the inexpressible reality.
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To say on the other hand that this world was necessity, is simply to affirm that the Reason for which it exists, so prevailed over all others as to determine the realisation of this possibility and postpone to it the realisation of others,a self-evident proposition.
Whether this be the best or the worst of all possible worlds, it is the necessary manifestation of a given sum of contingencies.
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When the mind, then, assembles these data and makes its language sufficiently supple to translate them synthetically, it perceives that each of them justifies from its own point of view one or other of the Reasons which philosophies and religions have assigned for the existence of beings and of the world. And as the being within proceeds to resume them and make an integral whole of them all, it learns to discover by them the being itself and by the being the wherefore of the worlds.
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1.04 - Yoga and Human Evolution, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
So far there is little essential difference between our own ideas of human progress and those of the West except in this vital point that the West believes this evolution to be a development of matter and the satisfaction of the Reason, the reflective and observing intellect, to be the highest term of our progress. Here it is that our religion parts company with Science. It declares the evolution to be a conquest of matter by the recovery of the deeper emotional and intellectual self which was involved in the body and over-clouded by the desires of the pra. In the language of the Upanishads the manakoa and the buddhikoa are more than the prakoa and annakoa and it is to them that man rises in his evolution. Religion farther seeks a higher term for our evolution than the purified emotions or the clarified activity of the observing and reflecting intellect. The highest term of evolution is the spirit in which knowledge, love and action, the threefold dharma of humanity, find their fulfilment and end. This is the tman in the nandakoa, and it is by communion and identity of this individual self with the universal self which is God that man will become entirely pure, entirely strong, entirely wise and entirely blissful, and the evolution will be fulfilled. The conquest of the body and the vital self by the purification of the emotions and the clarification of the intellect was the principal work of the past. The purification has been done by morality and religion, the clarification by science and philosophy, art, literature and social and political life being the chief media in which these uplifting forces have worked. The conquest of the emotions and the intellect by the spirit is the work of the future. Yoga is the means by which that conquest becomes possible.
In Yoga the whole past progress of humanity, a progress which it holds on a very uncertain lease, is rapidly summed up, confirmed and made an inalienable possession. The body is conquered, not imperfectly as by the ordinary civilised man, but entirely. The vital part is purified and made the instrument of the higher emotional and intellectual self in its relations with the outer world. The ideas which go outward are replaced by the ideas which move within, the baser qualities are worked out of the system and replaced by those which are higher, the lower emotions are crowded out by the nobler. Finally all ideas and emotions are stilled and by the perfect awakening of the intuitive reason which places mind in communion with spirit the whole man is ultimately placed at the service of the Infinite. All false self merges into the true Self. Man acquires likeness, union or identification with God. This is mukti, the state in which humanity thoroughly realises the freedom and immortality which are its eternal goal.
1.05 - 2010 and 1956 - Doomsday?, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
as having been an apocalyptic himself, the Reason probably
being that the Catholic Church had to do its utmost to cover
1.057 - The Four Manifestations of Ignorance, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
the Reason is that there is a mix-up of values in our experience, and the truth cannot be visualised. There is a complete shaking up of the various constituents of our perceptional process, and due to this mix-up we are unable to distinguish between the permanent element and the impermanent element. The passing phenomena are regarded as real on account of an element of reality getting infused into these phenomena, just as motion pictures look real on account of the background of a screen that is behind. If the screen is not there, we will not see the motion pictures. But the screen is not seen we see only the movement of the pictures. The transference of the quality of permanence that is behind in the screen upon the movement of the pictures is the Reason why we see a continuity of the movement of the pictures. We cannot have only movement without some background of reality. But this peculiar mix-up is not easily visible, and it is precisely because of this inability to distinguish between the two factors involved in this perception that we enjoy the picture. All enjoyment is a confusion. It is not wisdom. It is not based on an understanding of the truths of things; it is based totally on a mix-up of values.
It is not true that anything is permanent in this world. So, how is it that we see everything as permanent? We see a tree, a wall or a building, and we see people living for years. All these are phenomena, no doubt. They are phenomena, not noumena not realities. This incapacity on the part of the perceiving consciousness to distinguish between the phenomenal feature in experience and the real element behind it is ignorance avidya. Inasmuch as things are interconnected, interrelated, vitally dependent upon one another there is an organic relationship of things it is not true that objects are really isolated completely and that there is a necessity for the mind to run after objects. There is no necessity for the mind to run after objects, inasmuch as the objects are really connected with the subject. That they are not so connected, and therefore there is a need for desiring and possessing them, is ignorance.
1.05 - Adam Kadmon, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
We have already considered the Reasoning faculty of the
Ruach in an earlier chapter- " The Pit ". In his Ocean of
1.05 - Buddhism and Women, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
Answer: the Reason is, without doubt, that which we
mentioned earlier. Women are easily and
1.05 - Christ, A Symbol of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
80 the Reason for this, as already indicated, is the doctrine of
the Summum Bonum. Irenaeus says very rightly, in refuting the
1.05 - Computing Machines and the Nervous System, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
side. the Reasons for its superiority to other systems are of the
same nature as the Reasons for the superiority of the binary arith-
metic over other arithmetics.Computing Machines and the Nervous System
1.05 - Dharana, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
9:If these breaks seem to become more frequent instead of less frequent, the student must not be discourage; this is partially caused by his increased accuracy of observation. In exactly the same way, the introduction of vaccination resulted in an apparent increase in the number of cases of smallpox, the Reason being that people began to tell the truth about the disease instead of faking.
10:Soon, however, the control will improve faster than the observation. When this occurs the improvement will become apparent in the record. Any variation will probably be due to accidental circumstances; for example, one night your may be very tired when you start; another night you may have headache or indigestion. You will do well to avoid practising at such times.
1.05 - ON ENJOYING AND SUFFERING THE PASSIONS, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
is little prudence in it, and least of all the Reason of all
men. But this bird built its nest with me: therefore I
1.05 - Ritam, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
We must consider first whether any valid objection can be offered to this translation; and, if not, what are the precise ideas conveyed by the words & expressions which they render. The word prachetas is one of the fixed recurrent terms of the Veda; & we have corresponding to it another term vichetas. Both terms are rendered by the commentators wise or intelligent. Is prachetas then merely an ornamental or otiose word in this verse? Is it only a partially dispensable & superfluous compliment to the gods of the hymn? Our hypothesis is that the Vedic Rishis were masters of a perfectly well managed literary style founded upon a tradition of sound economy in language & coherence in thought; all of every word in Veda is in its place & is justified by its value in the significance. If so, prachetasah gives the Reason why the protection of these gods is so perfectly efficacious. I suppose,as my hypothesis entitles me to suppose,that the Vedic ideas of prachetas & vichetas correspond to the Vedantic idea of prajnana & vijnana to which as words they are exactly equivalent in composition & sense. Prajnana is that knowledge which is aware of, knows & works upon the objects placed before it. Vijnana is the knowledge which comprehends & knows thoroughly in itself all objects of knowledge. The one is the highest faculty of mind, the other is in mind the door to and beyond it the nature of the direct supra-intellectual knowledge, the Ritam & Brihat of the Veda. It is because Varuna, Mitra & Aryama protect the human being with the perfect knowledge of that through which he has to pass, his path, his dangers, his foes, that their protg , however fiercely & by whatever powers assailed, cannot be crushed. At once, it begins to become clear that the protection in that case must, in all probability, be a spiritual protection against spiritual dangers & spiritual foes.
The second verse neither confirms as yet nor contradicts this initial suggestion. These three great gods, it says, are to the mortal as a multitude of arms which bring to him his desires & fill him with an abundant fullness and protect him from any who may will to do him hurt, rishah; fed with that fullness he grows until he is sarvah, complete in every part of his being(that is to say, if we admit the sense of a spiritual protection and a spiritual activity, in knowledge, in power, in joy, in mental, vital & bodily fullness)and by the efficacy of that protection he enjoys all this fullness & completeness unhurt. No part of it is maimed by the enemies of man, whose activities do him hurt, the Vritras, Atris, Vrikas, the Coverer on the heights, the devourer in the night, the tearer on the path.We may note in passing how important [it] is to render every Vedic word by its exact value; rish & dwish both mean enemy; but if we render them by one word, we lose the fine shade of meaning to which the poet himself calls our attention by the collocation pnti rishaharishta edhate. We see also the same care of style in the collocation sarva edhate, where, as it seems to me, it is clearly suggested that the completeness is the result of the prosperous growth, we have again the fine care & balance with which the causes pipratipnti are answered by the effects arishtahedhate. There is even a good literary reason of great subtlety & yet perfect force for the order of the words & the exact place of each word in the order. In this simple, easy & yet faultless balance & symmetry a great number of the Vedic hymns represent exactly in poetry the same spirit & style as the Greek temple or the Greek design in architecture & painting. Nor can anyone who neglects to notice it & give full value to it, catch rightly, fully & with precision the sense of the Vedic writings.
1.05 - The Activation of Human Energy, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
discover the Reason for what has hitherto deceived and per-
verted his powers of love. Woman stands before him as the
1.05 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice - The Psychic Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If knowledge is the widest power of the consciousness and its function is to free and illumine, yet love is the deepest and most intense and its privilege is to be the key to the most profound and secret recesses of the Divine Mystery. Man, because he is a mental being, is prone to give the highest importance to the thinking mind and its reason and will and to its way of approach and effectuation of Truth and, even, he is inclined to hold that there is no other. The heart with its emotions and incalculable movements is to the eye of his intellect an obscure, uncertain and often a perilous and misleading power which needs to be kept in control by the Reason and the mental will and intelligence. And yet there is in the heart or behind it a profounder mystic light which, if not what we call intuition -- for that, though not of the mind, yet descends through the mind -- has yet a direct touch upon Truth and is nearer to the Divine than the human intellect in its pride of knowledge. According to the ancient teaching the seat of the immanent Divine, the hidden Purusha, is in the mystic heart, -- the secret heart-cave, hrdaye gunayam, as the Upanishads put it, -- and, according to the experience of many Yogins, it is from its depths that there comes the voice or the breath of the inner oracle.
This ambiguity, these opposing appearances of depth and blindness are created by the double character of the human emotive being. For there is in front in men a heart of vital emotion similar to the animal's, if more variously developed; its emotions are governed by egoistic passion, blind instinctive affections and all the play of the life-impulses with their imperfections, perversions, often sordid degradations, -- heart besieged and given over to the lusts, desires, wraths, intense or fierce demands or little greeds and mean pettinesses of an obscure and fallen life-force and debased by its slavery to any and every impulse. This mixture of the emotive heart and the sensational hungering vital creates in man a false soul of desire; it is this that is the crude and dangerous element which the Reason rightly distrusts and feels a need to control, even though the actual control or rather coercion it succeeds in establishing over our raw and insistent vital nature remains always very uncertain and deceptive. But the true soul of man is not there; it is in the true invisible heart hidden in some luminous cave of the nature: there under some infiltration of the divine Light is our soul, a silent inmost being of which few are even aware; for if all have a soul, few are conscious of their true soul or feel its direct impulse. There dwells the little spark of the Divine which supports this obscure mass of our nature and around it grows the psychic being, the formed soul or the real Man within us. It is as this psychic being in him grows and the movements of the heart reflect its divinations and impulsions that man becomes more and more aware of his soul, ceases to be a superior animal, and, awakening to glimpses of the godhead within him, admits more and more its intimations of a deeper life and consciousness and an impulse towards things divine. It is one of the decisive moments of the integral Yoga when this psychic being liberated, brought out from the veil to the front, can pour the full flood of its divinations, seeings and impulsions on the mind, life and body of man and begin to prepare the upbuilding of divinity in the earthly nature.
As in the works of knowledge, so in dealing with the workings of the heart, we are obliged to make a preliminary distinction between two categories of movements, those that are either moved by the true soul or aid towards its liberation and rule in the nature and those that are turned to the satisfaction of the unpurified vital nature. But the distinctions ordinarily laid down in this sense are of little use for the deep or spiritual purpose of Yoga. Thus a division can be made between religious emotions and mundane feelings and it can be laid down as a rule of spiritual life that the religious emotions alone should be cultivated and all worldly feelings and passions must be rejected and fall away from our existence. This in practice would mean the religious life of the saint or devotee, alone with the Divine or linked only to others in a common God-love or at the most pouring out the fountains of a sacred, religious or pietistic love on the world outside. But religious emotion itself is too constantly invaded by the turmoil and obscurity of the vital movements and it is often either crude or narrow or fanatical or mixed with movements that are not signs of the spirit's perfection. It is evident besides that even at the best an intense figure of sainthood clamped in rigid hieratic lines is quite other than the wide ideal of an integral Yoga. A larger psychic and emotional relation with God and the world, more deep and plastic in its essence, more wide and embracing in its movements, more capable of taking up in its sweep the whole of life, is imperative.
--
It is the very nature of the soul or the psychic being to turn towards the Divine Truth as the sunflower to the sun; it accepts and clings to all that is divine or progressing towards divinity and draws back from all that is a perversion or a denial of it, from all that is false and undivine. Yet the soul is at first but a spark and then a little flame of godhead burning in the midst of a great darkness; for the most part it is veiled in its inner sanctum and to reveal itself it has to call on the mind, the life-force and the physical consciousness and persuade them, as best they can, to express it; ordinarily, it succeeds at most in suffusing their outwardness with its inner light and modifying with its purifying fineness their dark obscurities or their coarser mixture. Even when there is a formed psychic being, able to express itself with some directness in life, it is still in all but a few a smaller portion of the being -- "no bigger in the mass of the body than the thumb of a man" was the image used by the ancient seers -- and it is not always able to prevail against the obscurity and ignorant smallness of the physical consciousness, the mistaken surenesses of the mind or the arrogance and vehemence of the vital nature. This soul is obliged to accept the human mental, emotive, sensational life as it is, its relations, its activities, its cherished forms and figures; it has to labour to disengage and increase the divine element in all this relative truth mixed with continual falsifying error, this love turned to the uses of the animal body or the satisfaction of the vital ego, this life of an average manhood shot with rare and pale glimpses of Godhead and the darker luridities of the demon and the brute. Unerring in the essence of its will, it is obliged often under the pressure of its instruments to submit to mistakes of action, wrong placement of feeling, wrong choice of person, errors in the exact form of its will, in the circumstances of its expression of the infallible inner ideal. Yet is there a divination within it which makes it a surer guide than the Reason or than even the highest desire, and through apparent errors and stumblings its voice can still lead better than the precise intellect and the considering mental judgment. This voice of the soul is not what we call conscience -- for that is only a mental and often conventional erring substitute; it is a deeper and more seldom heard call; yet to follow it when heard is wisest : even, it is better to wander at the call of one's soul than to go apparently straight with the Reason and the outward moral mentor. But It is only when the life turns towards the Divine that the soul can truly come forward and impose its power on the outer members; for, itself a spark of the Divine, to grow in flame towards the Divine is its true life and its very reason of existence.
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.
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
lives and produces the cosmos gradually deteriorates and ends by falling into decay. This is the Reason
why it has to be recreated. In other words, the flood realizes, on the macrocosmic scale, what is
--
The fact of mortal vulnerability that defining characteristic of the individual, and the Reason for his
emergent disgust with life may be rendered even more unjust and intolerable by the specific
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the presence of a flaw. The place of the flaw, the Reasons for its existence, the meaning of the flaw (its
potential for altering interpretation and behavior) that is all something hypothetical, at the first stage of
--
consciousness; it means rather that the Reasons for her existence thousands of years ago are still
sufficient reasons today. It is not a question of racial memory, transmitted by Lamarckian means, but of the
--
to embed itself in memory. the Reasons for this implicit existence are clear, in a sense: Christ embodies the
hero, grounded in tradition, who is narrative depiction of the basis for successful individual and social
--
(and the Reason for the popularity of such journeys, in actuality and in drama) is the development of
character, in consequence of confrontation with the unknown. A journey to the place that is most feared,
--
some of them backed by his mother. Jacobs eldest son Reuben loses his inheritance for the Reason given in Genesis
49:4. Josephs younger son Ephraim takes precedence over the elder Manasseh. The same theme is extended,
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frustrating circumstances serves to focus the childs attention on the Reasons for the disequilibration rather than simply
on the desired goal. [Rychlak, J. (1981). p. 688 see Piaget, J. (1967); Piaget, J. (1962)] and (b) that will arises when
1.05 - The Magical Control of the Weather, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
thus produced. the Reason alleged by the natives for this practice
is that they are pleased with the rain, and that there is a
1.05 - War And Politics, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
"P reported to the Mother my reactions to Sri Aurobindo's recent contribution to the War Fund. I did not know about it. Suddenly I saw the Mother quite unmindful of me, I thought it might be because She was very busy in those days. But I observed Her for three days, and was convinced that something was amiss. I approached Her and asked, 'Why are you ignoring me?' She said, 'You know it very well.' But I was puzzled. I guessed every other reason than the true one, which according to Her was serious. I did not think that P would report to Her my talks with him. So I begged her to tell me what I had done, because I was sure to rectify my grave error. To this She said, with severity, 'There are things that were settled long before you were even born. We have been working on them for a long time. Now you with your infinitesimally small mind believe that all that is nothing, that Sri Aurobindo and I are wrong, and that you are right in your judgment!' I was taken aback; it flashed before me, 'What could be the Reason?' Being nonplussed, I expressed my surprise, 'Is it something about the War that I spoke to P?' The Mother made the sign of Yes. I felt relieved and said, 'Oh, it was nothing. I just spoke to him casually; it was not at all serious.' But the Mother's face was stern and She said, 'Not serious? It was almost unbelievable that you of all persons could speak like that about Sri Aurobindo! Haven't you read all that He has given out to the Press?' I said, 'Yes, Mother, I have. But have not the British done anything wrong to India?' The Mother replied, 'We never said that they had not, nor do we say that in the future they will not do so any more. But today the question is not that; don't you understand it? When you see your neighbour's house on fire, and yet you do not go to help to put it out because he has done wrong to you, you risk the burning of your own house and the loss of your own life. Do you not see the difference between the forces that are fighting for the Divine and those for the Asuras?' I said, 'Yes, Mother, I do see; only what baffles me is that Churchill, whom you and Sri Aurobindo have chosen as your direct instrument, wants today India's help for his own country's existence; and yet says that His Majesty's government has no intention of liquidating its Empire!' The Mother said, 'But leave all that to the Divine. Churchill is a human being. He is not a yogi aspiring to transform his nature, Today he represents the Soul of the Nation that is fighting against the Asuras. He is being guided by the Divine directly and his soul is responding magnificently. All concentration must be now to help the Allies for the victory that is ultimately assured, but there must be no looseness, not the slightest opening to the Asuras. After the battle is won, if Churchill's soul can remain still in front and he continues to be guided by the Divine, he will go very fast in the line of evolution. But generally on earth it doesn't happen like that. His human mind and vital will take the lead after the crisis is over, and then he will come down to the level of the ordinary human being, though of a higher order.'"
When Dr. Rao, one of the consultant physicians attending on Sri Aurobindo, said that a lot of people in Madras were wondering how Sri Aurobindo, who had been so anti-British, could contribute to the War Fund, the Master explained to him at great length why he had taken that step. His intention was that Dr. Rao should speak about it to others when the occasion arose. Among the points already known, Sri Aurobindo disclosed his own occult action in the War. He said, "Do you know that Hitler is trying to get a foothold in South America and doing extensive propaganda there? It can lead to an attack against the U.S.A. He is now practically master of Europe. If he had invaded England after the collapse of France, he could have been in Asia by this time.... Now another force has been set up against his. Still the danger has not passed. He has a 50% chance of success. Up to the time when France collapsed, he was remarkably successful because he had behind him an Asuric Power which guided him; from that Power he received remarkably correct messages."
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Sri Aurobindo: Don't you? What about the Left Wing, the Communists, Bose, for instance? And it is not true that they have given nothing. It is the character of the British to go by stages. Whenever their self-interest is at stake they come to a compromise. They gave Provincial Autonomy and didn't exercise any veto power. It is the Congress which spoiled everything by resigning. If without resigning it had put pressure on the Centre, it would have got by now what it had wanted. It is for two reasons that I support the British, for India's own interest and for humanity; and the Reasons I have given are external ones, there are spiritual reasons too.
Sri Aurobindo was not only fighting Hitler, he had also the onerous task of conquering the extreme antipathy of his own disciples towards the British. The Ashram ran the danger of being disbanded for our anti-British and pro-Hitler feelings. How many letters had Sri Aurobindo to write to his disciples to show their grave error and the danger of the Nazi victory! I quote only one such letter he wrote to a disciple, in 1942, "...You should not think of it as a fight for certain nations against others or even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance.... There cannot be the slightest doubt that if one wins; there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the work that has to be done will be subjected to conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there will be a reign of falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country do not dream of and cannot yet at all realise. If the other side that has declared itself for the free future of humanity triumphs, this terrible danger will have been averted and conditions will have been created in which there will be a chance for the Ideal to grow, for the Divine Work to be done, for the spiritual Truth for which we stand to establish itself on the earth. Those who fight for this cause are fighting for the Divine and against the threatened reign of the Asura."
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It will be very pertinent indeed to ask oneself how this identification took place, how and why this date was selected, what the Reason behind it was. Surely, there must have been a process or occasion which led to the selection of this date. It may not have been very important to the general public, but it was of great importance to us, the disciples of Sri Aurobindo. Most accidentally I found the answer though the fact was well-known, perhaps, to the historians of India's freedom movement. The occasion has been mentioned in the book Freedom at Midnight.[8] "Partition of India had been decided upon by Lord Mountbatten the Viceroy of India and the Indian leaders had agreed to it. Now the question that remained to be decided was the Transfer of Power: on which date should it be done? A Press Conference was called by the Viceroy. Three hundred journalists from various countries had gathered. When he had concluded his talk, it was followed by a burst of applause....
"Suddenly... the anonymous voice of an Indian newsman cut across the chamber. His was the last question awaiting an answer.
1.060 - Tracing the Ultimate Cause of Any Experience, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
These impulses and instincts, which are the manner in which the creative urge manifests itself, have to be purified and transformed into their respective causes so that they can be subdued in an intelligent manner. This is the meaning of the sutra: te pratiprasavahey skm (II.10). The only way of controlling anything is to bring it back to its cause. Pratiprasava is the recession of the effect into the cause. First of all, an impulse, an instinct, a desire, an urge, or any event for the matter of that, has to be diagnosed as to how it has arisen. What is the Reason for its manifesting itself at all? What is its intention? What does it seek? What are the conditions that have contri buted to its rise?
This is the etiology, the diagnosis, or we may call it the pathological investigation of a psychological condition that has arisen. No event takes place by a single cause. Many causes come together to produce an effect, just as it is in anything that we see in life. Even a headache does not come due to a single reason. There is a susceptibility of the system the season or the climate that is pervading outside, the mental condition, the social status, the function or the work that one performs, and so on. These become various factors that are contri butory to a single phenomenon which is experienced.
1.06 - Being Human and the Copernican Principle, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
This is called reductionism. the Reason of its central util
ity in science is, again, that science is an activity of the mind,
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between matter and everything else. the Reason seems to
be the physiological restrictions of the evolutionary human
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and even, Wilber writes, mystics. the Reason was that they
felt themselves confronted with the essence of things, with
1.06 - Dhyana and Samadhi, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
All ethics, all human action and all human thought, hang upon this one idea of unselfishness. The whole idea of human life can be put into that one word, unselfishness. Why should we be unselfish? Where is the necessity, the force, the power, of my being unselfish? You call yourself a rational man, a utilitarian; but if you do not show me a reason for utility, I say you are irrational. Show me the Reason why I should not be selfish. To ask one to be unselfish may be good as poetry, but poetry is not reason. Show me a reason. Why shall I be unselfish, and why be good? Because Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so say so does not weigh with me. Where is the utility of my being unselfish? My utility is to be selfish if utility means the greatest amount of happiness. What is the answer? The utilitarian can never give it. The answer is that this world is only one drop in an infinite ocean, one link in an infinite chain. Where did those that preached unselfishness, and taught it to the human race, get this idea? We know it is not instinctive; the animals, which have instinct, do not know it. Neither is it reason; reason does not know anything about these ideas. Whence then did they come?
We find, in studying history, one fact held in common by all the great teachers of religion the world ever had. They all claim to have got their truths from beyond, only many of them did not know where they got them from. For instance, one would say that an angel came down in the form of a human being, with wings, and said to him, "Hear, O man, this is the message." Another says that a Deva, a bright being, appeared to him. A third says he dreamed that his ancestor came and told him certain things. He did not know anything beyond that. But this is common that all claim that this knowledge has come to them from beyond, not through their reasoning power. What does the science of Yoga teach? It teaches that they were right in claiming that all this knowledge came to them from beyond reasoning, but that it came from within themselves.
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The Yogi says there is a great danger in stumbling upon this state. In a good many cases there is the danger of the brain being deranged, and, as a rule, you will find that all those men, however great they were, who had stumbled upon this superconscious state without understanding it, groped in the dark, and generally had, along with their knowledge, some quaint superstition. They opened themselves to hallucinations. Mohammed claimed that the Angel Gabriel came to him in a cave one day and took him on the heavenly horse, Harak, and he visited the heavens. But with all that, Mohammed spoke some wonderful truths. If you read the Koran, you find the most wonderful truths mixed with superstitions. How will you explain it? That man was inspired, no doubt, but that inspiration was, as it were, stumbled upon. He was not a trained Yogi, and did not know the Reason of what he was doing. Think of the good Mohammed did to the world, and think of the great evil that has been done through his fanaticism! Think of the millions massacred through his teachings, mothers bereft of their children, children made orphans, whole countries destroyed, millions upon millions of people killed!
So we see this danger by studying the lives of great teachers like Mohammed and others. Yet we find, at the same time, that they were all inspired. Whenever a prophet got into the superconscious state by heightening his emotional nature, he brought away from it not only some truths, but some fanaticism also, some superstition which injured the world as much as the greatness of the teaching helped. To get any reason out of the mass of incongruity we call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition. We must take up the study of the superconscious state just as any other science. On reason we must have to lay our foundation, we must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails, reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane. When you hear a man say, "I am inspired," and then talk irrationally, reject it. Why? Because these three states instinct, reason, and superconsciousness, or the unconscious, conscious, and superconscious states belong to one and the same mind. There are not three minds in one man, but one state of it develops into the others. Instinct develops into reason, and reason into the transcendental consciousness; therefore, not one of the states contradicts the others. Real inspiration never contradicts reason, but fulfils it. Just as you find the great prophets saying, "I come not to destroy but to fulfil," so inspiration always comes to fulfil reason, and is in harmony with it.
1.06 - Dhyana, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
37:Any mere theory is easy to upset. One can find flaws in the Reasoning process, one can assume that the premisses are in some way false; but in this case, if one attacks the evidence for Dhyana, the mind is staggered by the fact that all other experience, attacked on the same lines, will fall much more easily.
38:In whatever way we examine it the result will always be the same. Dhyana may be false; but, if so, so is everything else.
1.06 - MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
As to their nature, considered in themselves, they have nothing of goodness or holiness, nor are any real part of our sanctification, they are not the true food or nourishment of the Divine Life in our souls, they have no quickening, sanctifying power in them; their only worth consists in this, that they remove the impediments of holiness, break down that which stands between God and us, and make way for the quickening, sanctifying spirit of God to operate on our souls, which operation of God is the one only thing that can raise the Divine Life in the soul, or help it to the smallest degree of real holiness or spiritual life. Hence we may learn the Reason why many people not only lose the benefit, but are even the worse for all their mortifications. It is because they mistake the whole nature and worth of them. They practice them for their own sakes, as things good in themselves; they think them to be real parts of holiness, and so rest in them and look no further, but grow full of self-esteem and self-admiration for their own progress in them. This makes them self-sufficient, morose, severe judges of all those that fall short of their mortifications. And thus their self-denials do only that for them which indulgences do for other people: they withstand and hinder the operation of God upon their souls, and instead of being really self-denials, they streng then and keep up the kingdom of self.
William Law
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Many a man hath the virtues of humility, patience and charity towards his neighbours, only in the Reason and will, and hath no spiritual delight nor love in them; for ofttimes he feeleth grudging, heaviness and bitterness for to do them, but yet nevertheless he doth them, but tis only by stirring of reason for dread of God. This man hath these virtues in reason and will, but not the love of them in affection. But when, by the grace of Jesus and by ghostly and bodily exercise, reason is turned into light and will into love, then hath he virtues in affection; for he hath so gnawn on the bitter bark or shell of the nut that at length he hath broken it and now feeds on the kernel; that is to say, the virtues which were first heavy for to practise are now turned into a very delight and savour.
Walter Hilton
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Then, said Yen Hui, the Reason I could not get the use of this method is my own individuality. If I could get the use of it, my individuality would have gone. Is this what you mean by the negative state?
Exactly so, replied the Master. Let me tell you. If you can enter the domain of this prince (a bad ruler whom Yen Hui was ambitious to reform) without offending his amour propre, cheerful if he hears you, passive if he does not; without science, without drugs, simply living there in a state of complete indifferenceyou will be near success. Look at that window. Through it an empty room becomes bright with scenery; but the landscape stops outside. In this sense you may use your ears and eyes to communicate within, but shut out all wisdom (in the sense of conventional, copybook maxims) from your mind. This is the method for regenerating all creation.
1.06 - THE FOUR GREAT ERRORS, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
curiosity. the Reason of this is the confusion of effect and cause.
This worthy Italian saw the cause of his long life in his diet: whereas
1.06 - The Literal Qabalah, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
One Qabalist of tremendous knowledge was endeavouring to transliterate into Hebrew the name of a preterhuman intelligence by the name of Aiwass. This is, of course neither the time nor the place to go into the Reason for his desire to obtain this name in Hebrew, and yet have the numerical value of 418. Had this Qabalist, whom the writer greatly esteems, known of the remark made with regard to the letter of the thirty-second Path, n Tav, he would have been saved several years of effort. For that letter, when without a dSgish, is pronounced as an " S ". Aiwass should have been spelt :
n 400 +n 1 + ) 6 +' 10 +N 1 =418.
1.06 - The Objective and Subjective Views of Life, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The principle of subjectivism entering into human thought and action, while necessarily it must make a great difference in the view-point, the motive-power and the character of our living, does not at first appear to make any difference in its factors. Subjectivism and objectivism start from the same data, the individual and the collectivity, the complex nature of each with its various powers of the mind, life and body and the search for the law of their self-fulfilment and harmony. But objectivism proceeding by the analytical reason takes an external and mechanical view of the whole problem. It looks at the world as a thing, an object, a process to be studied by an observing reason which places itself abstractly outside the elements and the sum of what it has to consider and observes it thus from outside as one would an intricate mechanism. The laws of this process are considered as so many mechanical rules or settled forces acting upon the individual or the group which, when they have been observed and distinguished by the Reason, have by ones will or by some will to be organised and applied fully much as Science applies the laws it discovers. These laws or rules have to be imposed on the individual by his own abstract reason and will isolated as a ruling authority from his other parts or by the Reason and will of other individuals or of the group, and they have to be imposed on the group itself either by its own collective reason and will embodied in some machinery of control which the mind considers as something apart from the life of the group or by the Reason and will of some other group external to it or of which it is in some way a part. So the State is viewed in modern political thought as an entity in itself, as if it were something apart from the community and its individuals, something which has the right to impose itself on them and control them in the fulfilment of some idea of right, good or interest which is inflicted on them by a restraining and fashioning power rather than developed in them and by them as a thing towards which their self and nature are impelled to grow. Life is to be managed, harmonised, perfected by an adjustment, a manipulation, a machinery through which it is passed and by which it is shaped. A law outside oneself,outside even when it is discovered or determined by the individual reason and accepted or enforced by the individual will,this is the governing idea of objectivism; a mechanical process of management, ordering, perfection, this is its conception of practice.
Subjectivism proceeds from within and regards everything from the point of view of a containing and developing self-consciousness. The law here is within ourselves; life is a self-creating process, a growth and development at first subconscious, then half-conscious and at last more and more fully conscious of that which we are potentially and hold within ourselves; the principle of its progress is an increasing self-recognition, self-realisation and a resultant self-shaping. Reason and will are only effective movements of the self, reason a process in self-recognition, will a force for self-affirmation and self-shaping. Moreover, reason and intellectual will are only a part of the means by which we recognise and realise ourselves. Subjectivism tends to take a large and complex view of our nature and being and to recognise many powers of knowledge, many forces of effectuation. Even, we see it in its first movement away from the external and objective method discount and belittle the importance of the work of the Reason and assert the supremacy of the life-impulse or the essential Will-to-be in opposition to the claims of the intellect or else affirm some deeper power of knowledge, called nowadays the intuition, which sees things in the whole, in their truth, in their profundities and harmonies while intellectual reason breaks up, falsifies, affirms superficial appearances and harmonises only by a mechanical adjustment. But substantially we can see that what is meant by this intuition is the self-consciousness feeling, perceiving, grasping in its substance and aspects rather than analysing in its mechanism its own truth and nature and powers. The whole impulse of subjectivism is to get at the self, to live in the self, to see by the self, to live out the truth of the self internally and externally, but always from an internal initiation and centre.
But still there is the question of the truth of the self, what it is, where is its real abiding-place; and here subjectivism has to deal with the same factors as the objective view of life and existence. We may concentrate on the individual life and consciousness as the self and regard its power, freedom, increasing light and satisfaction and joy as the object of living and thus arrive at a subjective individualism. We may, on the other hand, lay stress on the group consciousness, the collective self; we may see man only as an expression of this group-self necessarily incomplete in his individual or separate being, complete only by that larger entity, and we may wish to subordinate the life of the individual man to the growing power, efficiency, knowledge, happiness, self-fulfilment of the race or even sacrifice it and consider it as nothing except in so far as it lends itself to the life and growth of the community or the kind. We may claim to exercise a righteous oppression on the individual and teach him intellectually and practically that he has no claim to exist, no right to fulfil himself except in his relations to the collectivity. These alone then are to determine his thought, action and existence and the claim of the individual to have a law of his own being, a law of his own nature which he has a right to fulfil and his demand for freedom of thought involving necessarily the freedom to err and for freedom of action involving necessarily the freedom to stumble and sin may be regarded as an insolence and a chimera. The collective self-consciousness will then have the right to invade at every point the life of the individual, to refuse to it all privacy and apartness, all self-concentration and isolation, all independence and self-guidance and determine everything for it by what it conceives to be the best thought and highest will and rightly dominant feeling, tendency, sense of need, desire for self-satisfaction of the collectivity.
1.06 - The Sign of the Fishes, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Megarian philosopher Diodoros. But the Reason for the Saturn-ass analogy prob-
ably lies deeper, that is, in the nature of the ass itself, which was regarded as a
1.06 - The Three Schools of Magick 1, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
The History of Magick has never been seriously attempted. For one reason, only initiates pledged to secrecy know much about it; for another, every historian has been talking about some more or less conventional idea of Magick, not of the thing itself. But Magick has led the world from before the beginning of history, if only for the Reason that Magick has always been the mother of Science. It is, therefore, of extreme importance that some effort should be made to understand something of the subject; and there is, therefore, no apology necessary for essaying this brief outline of its historical aspects.
There have always been, at least in nucleus, three main Schools of Philosophical practice. (We use the word "philosophical" in the old good broad sense, as in the phrase "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for the Advancement of Knowledge.")
1.070 - The Seven Stages of Perfection, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Tad abhvt sayogbhva hna tadde kaivalyam (II.25): The absence of ignorance which is responsible for perceptions is itself liberation; that is the freedom of the spirit. The absence of bondage is the same as the presence of freedom. These are not two experiences, but a self-identical revelation like the passing of the night and the rising of the sun. This experience of freedom, or kaivalya, is not possible of attainment as long as there is even the least tendency or susceptibility to object perception whatever may be the justification which the Reason may put forth for such perception.
As we have had occasion to study, these tendencies to object perception are deep-seated and they can be present sometimes actively present even when they are apparently imperceptible. The conscious non-apprehension of an object is not necessarily an indication of the absence of this tendency to object perception in the deeper layers of ones personality. The urges of the individual are nothing but the building bricks of the individuality itself. What is known as self-consciousness, or individuality, is a pattern or shape taken by this tendency to object perception. As long as the individuality-consciousness persists, even in its minimum formation, one can safely conclude that these tendencies are still there, because when they are absent, the individuality also vanishes, just as when we pull out every brick from the house, the house itself is not there.
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The second stage is the discovery that there is a cause of this pain, that it has not come suddenly from the blue. How has this pain come this suffering, this sorrow? What is the Reason for this defect behind everything? There is a reason. Without a cause, there is no effect. The discovery of the cause of this troublesome situation is the second stage of knowledge. That is a greater control that we gain over our situation. When we know that there is some trouble, and we do not know how the trouble has arisen, we are in a difficulty. But the difficulty is a little bit ameliorated when the cause of it is known, because we feel a confidence that, after all, this is the cause, and we shall try to tackle it. So, in the second stage of awareness there is a recognition of the causal background of the troubles of life, the pains of experience.
The third stage is the recognition of a way out of these causative factors. Even if we know the causes of the trouble, is there a way out of it, or is it impossible to do anything? That must be seen first. We will find out that there is a way. We can get over these causes of pain and trouble. This gives greater confidence and a satisfaction that, after all, we are not going to suffer like this for all time; there is going to be an end to it. That is the discovery that there is a possibility of getting over the causes of pain. But this stage comes very late, because while everyone can feel the pain and can sometimes attribute the pain to certain causes, they cannot find the way out. Not finding the way out is samsara, the essence of suffering. When the way is discovered, there is an effort that automatically arises in oneself to work out this way which is the redemption of the sorrows of life. The awareness that there is a state which is beyond the sufferings of life is itself a great solace.
1.078 - Kumbhaka and Concentration of Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
This is also one of the Reasons why people with intense cravings have a peculiar physical feature which can be observed, to some extent, if we are cautious. The beauty of the body that is seen in childhood vanishes gradually when the body grows into the stages of youth and adult. There is a sort of equal distribution of the pranic energy in childhood, so that we see a blooming youthfulness, beauty and exuberance in children which is absent in youths and adults because the sense organs of grown-up persons are more active than the sense organs of children. Due to a particular vehemence of a group of senses in adults, or grown-up people, the energy withdraws itself from other parts of the body and directs itself only to that particular part which is asking for fulfilment, so a kind of absence of symmetry can be seen in the system. Symmetry is beauty. Where symmetry and beauty are absent, we find a kind of ugliness gradually creeping into the system, due to the simple reason that the prana is unequally distributed. Hence, the unequal distribution of the prana in the system is due to the presence of desires. The child also has desires. It does not mean that desires are absent there, but they are not manifest; they are not revealed. They are not pressing themselves forward in any particular manner.
The prana shifts its centre of pressure from time to time according to the circumstances, and this should be prevented. The kumbhaka process is a technique by which this excessive emphasis which prana lays on any particular part of the body is obviated, and it is allowed to equally distribute itself in the whole system, which is another way of saying that the rajas of the prana is made to cease. The excessive emphasis of the prana in any particular part of the system is due to rajas, which means there is movement. Without movement, how can there be any kind of unequal distribution of energy? This is prevented by the process of kumbhaka. The filling of the system with the pranic energy means distributing the energy equally in the whole system and making it felt everywhere equally, with equal intensity, and without the special favour it sometimes does to a particular limb or organ. This is what happens in kumbhaka. It can be done, as mentioned, either after exhalation or after inhalation. Either we brea the out and retain the breath, or we brea the in and retain it. These are the two types of kumbhaka mentioned as bahya vritti and abhyantara vritti.
1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
positive potential invokes teachers. This is one of the Reasons for having
Dharma centers. How often are we going to get one-on-one teachings with
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benet everybody. the Reason that fully qualied disciples want to practice
tantra is that they want to attain enlightenment quickly because their bodhichitta is so strong. They nd other beings suffering so unbearable that
1.07 - Bridge across the Afterlife, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
of their life; they were made to understand the Reason for
every decision, thought and action they had had in life.
1.07 - Medicine and Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
it successfully puts up against the will. This fact, which can easily beestablished by experiment, is the Reason why psychoneuroses and
psychoses have from time immemorial been regarded as states of
1.07 - On Our Knowledge of General Principles, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume--maintained that all our knowledge is derived from experience; the rationalists--who are represented by the Continental philosophers of the seventeenth century, especially Descartes and Leibniz--maintained that, in addition to what we know by experience, there are certain 'innate ideas' and 'innate principles', which we know independently of experience. It has now become possible to decide with some confidence as to the truth or falsehood of these opposing schools. It must be admitted, for the Reasons already stated, that logical principles are known to us, and cannot be themselves proved by experience, since all proof presupposes them. In this, therefore, which was the most important point of the controversy, the rationalists were in the right.
On the other hand, even that part of our knowledge which is _logically_ independent of experience (in the sense that experience cannot prove it) is yet elicited and caused by experience. It is on occasion of particular experiences that we become aware of the general laws which their connexions exemplify. It would certainly be absurd to suppose that there are innate principles in the sense that babies are born with a knowledge of everything which men know and which cannot be deduced from what is experienced. For this reason, the word 'innate' would not now be employed to describe our knowledge of logical principles. The phrase
1.07 - The Ego and the Dualities, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
4:Certainly, the practical values given us by our senses and by the dualistic sense-mind must hold good in their field and be accepted as the standard for ordinary life-experience until a larger harmony is ready into which they can enter and transform themselves without losing hold of the realities which they represent. To enlarge the sense-faculties without the knowledge that would give the old sense-values their right interpretation from the new standpoint might lead to serious disorders and incapacities, might unfit for practical life and for the orderly and disciplined use of the Reason. Equally, an enlargement of our mental consciousness out of the experience of the egoistic dualities into an unregulated unity with some form of total consciousness might easily bring about a confusion and incapacity for the active life of humanity in the established order of the world's relativities. This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life-basis and thought-basis of the ignorant; for, impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.
5:Such a disorder and incapacity may be accepted personally and are accepted by many great souls as a temporary passage or as the price to be paid for the entry into a wider existence. But the right goal of human progress must be always an effective and synthetic reinterpretation by which the law of that wider existence may be represented in a new order of truths and in a more just and puissant working of the faculties on the lifematerial of the universe. For the senses the sun goes round the earth; that was for them the centre of existence and the motions of life are arranged on the basis of a misconception. The truth is the very opposite, but its discovery would have been of little use if there were not a science that makes the new conception the centre of a reasoned and ordered knowledge putting their right values on the perceptions of the senses. So also for the mental consciousness God moves round the personal ego and all His works and ways are brought to the judgment of our egoistic sensations, emotions and conceptions and are there given values and interpretations which, though a perversion and inversion of the truth of things, are yet useful and practically sufficient in a certain development of human life and progress. They are a rough practical systematisation of our experience of things valid so long as we dwell in a certain order of ideas and activities. But they do not represent the last and highest state of human life and knowledge. "Truth is the path and not the falsehood." The truth is not that God moves round the ego as the centre of existence and can be judged by the ego and its view of the dualities, but that the Divine is itself the centre and that the experience of the individual only finds its own true truth when it is known in the terms of the universal and the transcendent. Nevertheless, to substitute this conception for the egoistic without an adequate base of knowledge may lead to the substitution of new but still false and arbitrary ideas for the old and bring about a violent instead of a settled disorder of right values. Such a disorder often marks the inception of new philosophies and religions and initiates useful revolutions. But the true goal is only reached when we can group round the right central conception a reasoned and effective knowledge in which the egoistic life shall rediscover all its values transformed and corrected. Then we shall possess that new order of truths which will make it possible for us to substitute a more divine life for the existence which we now lead and to effectualise a more divine and puissant use of our faculties on the life-material of the universe.
1.07 - The Ideal Law of Social Development, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The true law of our development and the entire object of our social existence can only become clear to us when we have discovered not only, like modern Science, what man has been in his past physical and vital evolution, but his future mental and spiritual destiny and his place in the cycles of Nature. This is the Reason why the subjective periods of human development must always be immeasurably the most fruitful and creative. In the others he either seizes on some face, image, type of the inner reality Nature in him is labouring to manifest or else he follows a mechanical impulse or shapes himself in the mould of her external influences; but here in his subjective return inward he gets back to himself, back to the root of his living and infinite possibilities, and the potentiality of a new and perfect self-creation begins to widen before him. He discovers his real place in Nature and opens his eyes to the greatness of his destiny.
Existence is an infinite and therefore indefinable and illimitable Reality which figures itself out in multiple values of life. It begins, at least in our field of existence, with a material figure of itself, a mould of firm substance into which and upon which it can build,worlds, the earth, the body. Here it stamps firmly and fixes the essential law of its movement. That law is that all things are one in their being and origin, one in their general law of existence, one in their interdependence and the universal pattern of their relations; but each realises this unity of purpose and being on its own lines and has its own law of variation by which it enriches the universal existence. In Matter variation is limited; there is variation of type, but, on the whole, uniformity of the individuals of the type. These individuals have a separate movement, but yet the same movement; subject to some minute differences, they adhere to one particular pattern and have the same assemblage of properties. Variety within the type, apart from minor unicities of detail, is gained by variation of group sub-types belonging to one general kind, species and sub-species of the same genus. In the development of Life, before mind has become self-conscious, the same law predominates; but, in proportion as life grows and still more when mind emerges, the individual also arrives at a greater and more vital power of variation. He acquires the freedom to develop according, no doubt, to the general law of Nature and the general law of his type, but also according to the individual law of his being.
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The object of all society should be, therefore, and must become, as man grows conscious of his real being, nature and destiny and not as now only of a part of it, first to provide the conditions of life and growth by which individual Man,not isolated men or a class or a privileged race, but all individual men according to their capacity, and the race through the growth of its individuals may travel towards this divine perfection. It must be, secondly, as mankind generally more and more grows near to some figure of the Divine in life and more and more men arrive at it,for the cycles are many and each cycle has its own figure of the Divine in man,to express in the general life of mankind, the light, the power, the beauty, the harmony, the joy of the Self that has been attained and that pours itself out in a freer and nobler humanity. Freedom and harmony express the two necessary principles of variation and oneness,freedom of the individual, the group, the race, coordinated harmony of the individuals forces and of the efforts of all individuals in the group, of all groups in the race, of all races in the kind, and these are the two conditions of healthy progression and successful arrival. To realise them and to combine them has been the obscure or half-enlightened effort of mankind throughout its history,a task difficult indeed and too imperfectly seen and too clumsily and mechanically pursued by the Reason and desires to be satisfactorily achieved until man grows by self-knowledge and self-mastery to the possession of a spiritual and psychical unity with his fellow-men. As we realise more and more the right conditions, we shall travel more luminously and spontaneously towards our goal and, as we draw nearer to a clear sight of our goal, we shall realise better and better the right conditions. 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 mans source and law of progress and the secret of his impulse towards perfection.
Mankind upon earth is one foremost self-expression of the universal Being in His cosmic self-unfolding; he expresses, under the conditions of the terrestrial world he inhabits, the mental power of the universal existence. All mankind is one in its nature, physical, vital, emotional, mental and ever has been in spite of all differences of intellectual development ranging from the poverty of the Bushman and negroid to the rich cultures of Asia and Europe, and the whole race has, as the human totality, one destiny which it seeks and increasingly approaches in the cycles of progression and retrogression it describes through the countless millenniums of its history. Nothing which any individual race or nation can triumphantly realise, no victory of their self-aggrandisement, illumination, intellectual achievement or mastery over the environment, has any permanent meaning or value except in so far as it adds something or recovers something or preserves something for this human march. The purpose which the ancient Indian scripture offers to us as the true object of all human action, lokasa
1.07 - The Primary Data of Being, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
This is the Reason why one cannot divide Time without bringing into it the notion of Space so as to be able to discern in it spaces of time.
But each of these spaces of Time is common to all beings; they exist in them simultaneously. On the contrary each of the possible divisions of Space relates exclusively to a particular being and can only be successively occupied by several, not simultaneously.
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All life in the relative thus pursues its vain dream and tends towards a sort of personal Absolute which the experience of the Reason must one day transform for each being into an endeavour towards the absolute consciousness of the Impersonal.
***
1.07 - The Psychic Center, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
absurdity: Plato and the Hottentot, the fortunate child of saints or Rishis88 and the born and trained criminal plunged from beginning to end in the lowest fetid corruption of a great modern city have equally to create by the action or belief of this one unequal life all their eternal future. This is a paradox which offends both the soul and the Reason, and ethical sense and the spiritual intuition. 89 But even among awakened beings, there are vast differences. Some souls, some consciousness-forces have just been born, while others have already acquired quite distinct individualities; some souls are in the midst of their first radiant self-discoveries, but they do not know much outside their own resplendent joys (they do not even have any precise memory of their past, nor are they aware of the worlds they carry within),
while other, rare souls seem replete with a consciousness as vast as the earth. Indeed, a man can be a luminous yogi or a saint living in his soul, yet still possess a crude mind, a repressed vital, a body he ignores or crassly mistreats, and a completely virgin superconscient.
1.07 - TRUTH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
All that the imagination can imagine and the Reason conceive and understand in this life is not, and cannot be, a proximate means of union with God.
St. John of the Cross
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The word intellect is used by Eckhart in the scholastic sense of immediate intuition. Intellect and reason, says Aquinas, are not two powers, but distinct as the perfect from the imperfect. The intellect means, an intimate penetration of truth; the Reason, enquiry and discourse. It is by following, and then abandoning, the rational and emotional path of word and discrimination that one is enabled to enter upon the intellectual or intuitive path of realization. And yet, in spite of the warnings pronounced by those who, through selflessness, have passed from letter to spirit and from theory to immediate knowledge, the organized Christian churches have persisted in the fatal habit of mistaking means for ends. The verbal statements of theologys more or less adequate rationalizations of experience have been taken too seriously and treated with the reverence that is due only to the Fact they are intended to describe. It has been fancied that souls are saved if assent is given to what is locally regarded as the correct formula, lost if it is withheld. The two words, filioque, may not have been the sole cause of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches; but they were unquestionably the pretext and casus belli.
The overvaluation of words and formulae may be regarded as a special case of that overvaluation of the things of time, which is so fatally characteristic of historic Christianity. To know Truth-as-Fact and to know it unitively, in spirit and in truth-as-immediate-apprehensionthis is deliverance, in this standeth our eternal life. To be familiar with the verbalized truths, which symbolically correspond to Truth-as-Fact insofar as it can be known in, or inferred from, truth-as-immediate-apprehension, or truth-as-historic-revelationthis is not salvation, but merely the study of a special branch of philosophy. Even the most ordinary experience of a thing or event in time can never be fully or adequately described in words. The experience of seeing the sky or having neuralgia is incommunicable; the best we can do is to say blue or pain, in the hope that those who hear us may have had experiences similar to our own and so be able to supply their own version of the meaning. God, however, is not a thing or event in time, and the time-bound words which cannot do justice even to temporal matters are even more inadequate to the intrinsic nature and our own unitive experience of that which belongs to an incommensurably different order. To suppose that people can be saved by studying and giving assent to formulae is like supposing that one can get to Timbuctoo by poring over a map of Africa. Maps are symbols, and even the best of them are inaccurate and imperfect symbols. But to anyone who really wants to reach a given destination, a map is indispensably useful as indicating the direction in which the traveller should set out and the roads which he must take.
1.080 - Pratyahara - The Return of Energy, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We have been struggling for days and nights, for months and years and we are getting nothing. How is it possible? the Reason is that there is some very strong impediment, like a thick wall standing in front of us, on account of some tamasic or rajasic karma of the past lives. All our time is spent in breaking through this wall. The achievement is something quite different that will come later on. So why should we weep that we have achieved nothing? We have achieved; we have pierced through the wall. It is like Bharatpur Fort which the British wanted to break and could not, due to the thickness of the wall. Somehow or other, after tremendous effort, they made a hole and went in. We can imagine what indefatigable effort and what kind of persistence was required in breaking through the fort. Otherwise, one would give up and go back. It was impossible to break in because the wall was too thick fifty feet thick and made of mud. One could not break it by any kind of bullet such was Bharatpur Fort. They did not succeed, but they were very persistent. Somehow or other they made a hole and went in, and the fort was captured.
Likewise, the first days effort need not necessarily bring illumination because of the great efforts that are necessary to break through the fort of the veil of ignorance and karma, which is itself sufficient and weighty. Even if we spend three-fourths of our life in this work only, it should not be regarded as a kind of defeat. Often it so happens that the major part of our life is spent only in cleansing and in breaking through this veil. Once this negative work of cleansing and breaking is effected, then the positive achievement will take place in a trice. How much time do we require to see the brilliance of the sun? We have only to remove the cataract veil that is covering our eyes and immediately we see the sun shining. The effort is to remove this veil. Hence, this vashyata, or the mastery over the senses which the sutra speaks of, is gained with very hard effort, and no sadhaka can afford to lose heart in the attempt. It is declared in the scriptures on yoga that the only thing that works, and succeeds, in this noble endeavour is persistence. If we go on persistently doing a thing again and again, whether we succeed or not we will succeed eventually.
1.083 - Choosing an Object for Concentration, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The particular attention that the mind and the senses pay to a given object at a particular time is an indication of the preponderance of the particular vritti at that particular time in respect of that object, for the sake of fulfilment thereby. But the fulfilment by contact of the senses with the objects is variegated, and it is not of any specific character. the Reason why there is an endlessness of desires, and a continuous dissatisfaction felt even in spite of the fulfilment of desires, is due to the presence of infinite urges in the mind which want to press themselves forward in respect of their own objects. But, due to unfavourable conditions, all of them cannot press themselves forward at the same time. Though a hundred people may have a hundred desires in their minds, it may be that every desire cannot be fulfilled at the same time because of the different conditions which contri bute to the fulfilment of these desires, so each desire will raise its head at the appropriate moment. Hence, the mind is filled with these urges and is made up of these urges. How will we bring all these urges together in a compact mass and focus the whole of them into the direction of the object of meditation?
The very first step is the most difficult step. This requires a very terrible adjustment of ideas. The sadhaka, the seeker, has to work very hard to introduce some sort of an organisation in the midst of the variegated ideas which run hither and thither in disparity just as the head of a family, if he is wise enough, may bring about some sort of an organisation in the family in spite of the fact that the members disagree among themselves, as otherwise there will be only disagreement and no such thing as a family. The very purpose of there being a head of the family is to introduce system into the chaos that would be there otherwise. The aspiration for the realisation of a higher goal acts like the head of a family which brings this disparity of ideas into a focused attention. It does not mean that the mind is really united in the act of concentration, or dharana. It is still disunited inside; therefore, there is a vast difference between the stage of dharana and the further advanced stages, which are yet to be reached, where there is a complete union of ideas. There is no such complete union in dharana there is still restlessness. But there is a force exerted upon the mind as a whole by the aspiration that is at the background of this effort at concentration.
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This something which we achieve, or wish to achieve through concentration, is something very difficult to understand in the beginning. People are very restless in their minds and incapable of thinking about one thing continuously, even for a few minutes. That is the Reason why they cannot understand what is good for them. If we ask a person, What is it that you want? he cannot answer this question. He does not know what is good for him. Even a very intelligent man cannot answer this question, because this intelligence, ordinarily speaking, is useless when we come to this difficult problem of choosing the highest objective of ones life. Such a thing does not exist; it is not conceivable. Nobody has seen it and nobody can think about it. But now comes a time when it is necessary to pinpoint this object, and we cannot continue to hobnob with various other sense-objects, thinking that each one is equally good. If each one is equally good, even then, what prevents the mind from choosing one, since it is as good as the other? Why is it that the mind is restless?
Again we come to that original analysis of the nature of the mind why it is moving like that, from object to object. It has got many aims in intention, and these aims are nothing but the satisfaction of the different types of vrittis of which it is constituted. So it will not be amenable to any kind of pinpointing, because this pinpointing implies the satisfaction of a single vritti only, leaving the other vrittis unsatisfied. This is a difficulty which it feels, and a suspicion that it has got: You are trying to compel me to concentrate on one thing, so that I may get only that, but what about my other children who also ask for many things? If only one child is satisfied, the father is not happy. Other children are there, and they also have to be satisfied. So, what about the other children the other vrittis whom we have completely ignored, as it were, in our attempt at driving any one particular vritti only in the direction of the object that we have chosen now? The mind cannot appreciate that this object of concentration is not going to be the fulfilment only of a single vritti that it is going to be the fulfilment of every vritti. It is something which can satisfy all our children and is not merely the goal of only one child. This is what the mind has to understand. But it will not understand.
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The desires of the mind generally cannot get fulfilled, on account of an infinite craving that is behind the vrittis of the mind. It is not a finite desire that we have got; our desires are infinite. the Reason is that we are in some way connected, rightly or wrongly, with something behind us that is endless. We are not completely cut off from the forces of nature, though it looks as if we are outside them. There is a pressure exerted by the vast reservoir of the entire nature, due to which it is not possible for any vritti to be satisfied entirely.
Therefore it is that no desire can be really satisfied, because the intention of a desire is not merely the contact of it with an object; it is a satisfaction that it seeks, not contact with objects. That satisfaction cannot come as long as the asker for the satisfaction is an infinite background. The infinite is asking for infinite joy through the little tunnel, or the pipe, which is the mind that connects the individual with the objects. The whole ocean cannot pass through a pipe; it is not possible. But yet this is what is expected. We are trying the impossible; therefore, we can never be happy in this world. The impossibility of fulfilment of desire arises on account of an infinite urge that is at the background of a finite desire. This is a contradiction. A finite desire cannot comprehend or contain within itself the energy of an infinite asking, so we are kept in suspense at all moments of time. At any given moment of time we are forcefully driven to the object for the achievement of a satisfaction which is really not in the hands of any vritti of the mind. This difficulty is there at the base of even the effort at concentration and meditation.
This difficulty has to be solved first, by proper viveka and vairagya a clear understanding of the difficulty in which we have been placed, the nature of the difficulty or the Reason behind it, and the way out of it. How do we know that meditation is the remedy for all these problems? Why is it that we take to yoga? It is because we have got great sufferings in life. The whole of life is nothing but an endless medley of confusion, chaos and pain. We want to get out of this. That is why we take to yoga. But how do we know that yoga is the remedy for it? How is yoga going to rectify all these difficulties? Unless this is understood properly, the mind cannot be taken to the point of concentration. We cannot simply hear someone saying that yoga is the way, and then proceed. The mind has to be convinced that this is the remedy, and that this is the remedy because this is our problem. When we know the nature of the disease, we can also know the nature of the medicine. If we do not know the disease itself, how can we know the medicine? How can we know that yoga is the remedy unless we know what our problem is? So, what is the problem? What is the difficulty? What is the trouble? Why are we crying? What are we asking for? If this is clear to the mind, the way out of the problem also will be clear automatically. We will at once know that yoga is such a peculiar thing that there can be no other alternative for this problem.
As a little hint, I have mentioned what this problem is. It is the problem of fulfilment of desires nothing but that. The whole of life is nothing but this difficulty. The desires spontaneously arise in the mind but they cannot be fulfilled for various reasons, the main reason being that they are propelled by an infinite urge which seeks infinite satisfaction; but this cannot be achieved due to the little aperture through which the finite movement of the mind moves towards finite objects. Thus, the means adopted in the achievement of the objective is defective. If the infinite urge within has to be satisfied, there should be an infinite means to fulfil it. We cannot have a finite means. The individual is finite, the senses are finite, the mind is finite, and the objects also are finite. How can we have infinite satisfaction from them? But that the desire within is infinite is not known to us. We are cleverly screened away from this knowledge by a trick of nature which keeps the world going on. Otherwise, we will immediately wake up to the problem on hand, and then defeat nature of all its purposes.
1.08a - The Ladder, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
His task, hence, is to resolve these abstruse questions, and until he has thoroughly mastered the Reason for every incident in his past, and found a purpose for every item of his present equipment, he cannot go forward.
Having done so, he prepares a thesis setting forth his knowledge of the universe. It is said that such works as those of Paracelsus, Robert Fludd, Newton, Berkeley,
1.08 - Attendants, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
"One day, however, a few days before His passing I found him looking at me very closely and intensely with such a love and compassion that passes all description. I was alone with Him at the time. I did not know why He was looking at me so, but I was so carried away with joy by the love He showered on me in His look that I did not bother about the Reason for it. It was only later, when comparing notes with the others who served Him personally, that I discovered that He was bidding me a physical good-bye. He had done the same to others to each differently and, it seems, each one was puzzled at the time. But when He left us physically soon after, we guessed the Reason."
[1] Gita 4.11: As men approach Me, so I accept them to My love.
1.08 - Independence from the Physical, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
whether mental or vital, we notice that this disorder irresistibly invites detrimental outward circumstances, some accident or illness. the Reason for this is simple: when something goes wrong within us, we send out a particular type of vibration that automatically elicits and
contacts all other vibrations of the same type, at every level of our being; there is total jamming, and all external circumstances are upset and disrupted. Not only does the negative inner state create chaos, but it also weakens the circumconscious protective envelope mentioned earlier, which means that we are no longer protected by a certain intensity of vibration; we are open, vulnerable for there is nothing like a vibration of disorder to poke holes in our protective envelope, or to disintegrate it and then anything whatsoever can enter. We should also remember that a bad inner state is contagious; associations with certain people always tend to attract accidents or troubles. After we have had the same experi- ence ten times or a hundred times which might be anything from catching a cold to tripping on the stairs to having a serious accident, depending upon our inner state we will finally realize that neither our own self no so-called chance has anything to do with all this, and that the remedy lies not with any drug, but with restoring the true attitude, the inner order in other words, with consciousness. If the seeker is conscious, he can live in the midst of an epidemic or drink all the filth of the Ganges River if he pleases; nothing will touch him, for what could touch the awakened Master? We have isolated bacteria and viruses, but we have not understood that these are only external agents; the illness is not caused by the virus but by the force behind that uses the virus. If we are clear,
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This is also one of the Reasons why Sri Aurobindo and Mother insist so much on the development of our physical body; without it, we may be able to go into ecstasy and soar straight into the Absolute, but we are unable to bring the intensity and plenitude of the Spirit down to our "lower" kingdom the mental, vital, and material realm in order to create a divine life there.
Independence from the Body Thus, consciousness can be independent of the sense organs,
1.08 - Psycho therapy Today, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
But by that very act I become the Reasonable father and remain despite
everything the father. Not only nature, but the patient too, abhors a
1.08 - RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Within the general population, as we have seen, variation is continuous, and in most people the three components are fairly evenly mixed. Those exhibiting extreme predominance of any one component are relatively rare. And yet, in spite of their rarity, it is by the thought-patterns characteristic of these extreme individuals that theology and ethics, at any rate on the theoretical side, have been mainly dominated. the Reason for this is simple. Any extreme position is more uncompromisingly clear and therefore more easily recognized and understood than the intermediate positions, which are the natural thought-pattern of the person in whom the constituent components of personality are evenly balanced. These intermediate positions, it should be noted, do not in any sense contain or reconcile the extreme positions; they are merely other thought-patterns added to the list of possible systems. The construction of an all-embracing system of metaphysics, ethics and psychology is a task that can never be accomplished by any single individual, for the sufficient reason that he is an individual with one particular kind of constitution and temperament and therefore capable of knowing only according to the mode of his own being. Hence the advantages inherent in what may be called the anthological approach to truth.
The Sanskrit dharmaone of the key words in Indian formulations of the Perennial Philosophyhas two principal meanings. The dharma of an individual is, first of all, his essential nature, the intrinsic law of his being and development. But dharma also signifies the law of righteousness and piety. The implications of this double meaning are clear: a mans duty, how he ought to live, what he ought to believe and what he ought to do about his beliefs these things are conditioned by his essential nature, his constitution and temperament. Going a good deal further than do the Catholics, with their doctrine of vocations, the Indians admit the right of individuals with different dharmas to worship different aspects or conceptions of the divine. Hence the almost total absence, among Hindus and Buddhists, of bloody persecutions, religious wars and proselytizing imperialism.
1.08 - Sri Aurobindos Descent into Death, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
was the Reason why Sri Aurobindo had to descend into
death. That he was successful, that he found the key to the
1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
:::Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. . . . The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the Reason of self-trust. Who is the Trustee? What is the aboriginal Self, on which a universal reliance may be grounded? . . . The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life. . . . In that deep force, the last fact behind which analysis cannot go, all things find their common origin.
:::For the sense of being which in calm hour arises, we know not how, in the Soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. . . . Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom. . . . We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. . . .
1.08 - The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
4:The complete use of pure reason brings us finally from physical to metaphysical knowledge. But the concepts of metaphysical knowledge do not in themselves fully satisfy the demand of our integral being. They are indeed entirely satisfactory to the pure reason itself, because they are the very stuff of its own existence. But our nature sees things through two eyes always, for it views them doubly as idea and as fact and therefore every concept is incomplete for us and to a part of our nature almost unreal until it becomes an experience. But the truths which are now in question, are of an order not subject to our normal experience. They are, in their nature, "beyond the perception of the senses but seizable by the perception of the Reason." Therefore, some other faculty of experience is necessary by which the demand of our nature can be fulfilled and this can only come, since we are dealing with the supraphysical, by an extension of psychological experience.
5:In a sense all our experience is psychological since even what we receive by the senses, has no meaning or value to us till it is translated into the terms of the sense-mind, the Manas of Indian philosophical terminology. Manas, say our philosophers, is the sixth sense. But we may even say that it is the only sense and that the others, vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste are merely specialisations of the sense-mind which, although it normally uses the sense-organs for the basis of its experience, yet exceeds them and is capable of a direct experience proper to its own inherent action. As a result psychological experience, like the cognitions of the Reason, is capable in man of a double action, mixed or dependent, pure or sovereign. Its mixed action takes place usually when the mind seeks to become aware of the external world, the object; the pure action when it seeks to become aware of itself, the subject. In the former activity, it is dependent on the senses and forms its perceptions in accordance with their evidence; in the latter it acts in itself and is aware of things directly by a sort of identity with them. We are thus aware of our emotions; we are aware of anger, as has been acutely said, because we become anger. We are thus aware also of our own existence; and here the nature of experience as knowledge by identity becomes apparent. In reality, all experience is in its secret nature knowledge by identity; but its true character is hidden from us because we have separated ourselves from the rest of the world by exclusion, by the distinction of ourself as subject and everything else as object, and we are compelled to develop processes and organs by which we may again enter into communion with all that we have excluded. We have to replace direct knowledge through conscious identity by an indirect knowledge which appears to be caused by physical contact and mental sympathy. This limitation is a fundamental creation of the ego and an instance of the manner in which it has proceeded throughout, starting from an original falsehood and covering over the true truth of things by contingent falsehoods which become for us practical truths of relation.
6:From this nature of mental and sense knowledge as it is at present organised in us, it follows that there is no inevitable necessity in our existing limitations. They are the result of an evolution in which mind has accustomed itself to depend upon certain physiological functionings and their reactions as its normal means of entering into relation with the material universe. Therefore, although it is the rule that when we seek to become aware of the external world, we have to do so indirectly through the sense-organs and can experience only so much of the truth about things and men as the senses convey to us, yet this rule is merely the regularity of a dominant habit. It is possible for the mind - and it would be natural for it, if it could be persuaded to liberate itself from its consent to the domination of matter, - to take direct cognisance of the objects of sense without the aid of the sense-organs. This is what happens in experiments of hypnosis and cognate psychological phenomena. Because our waking consciousness is determined and limited by the balance between mind and matter worked out by life in its evolution, this direct cognisance is usually impossible in our ordinary waking state and has therefore to be brought about by throwing the waking mind into a state of sleep which liberates the true or subliminal mind. Mind is then able to assert its true character as the one and allsufficient sense and free to apply to the objects of sense its pure and sovereign instead of its mixed and dependent action. Nor is this extension of faculty really impossible but only more difficult in our waking state, - as is known to all who have been able to go far enough in certain paths of psychological experiment.
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8:None of them, however, leads to the aim we have in view, the psychological experience of those truths that are "beyond perception by the sense but seizable by the perceptions of the Reason", buddhigrahyam atndriyam.2 They give us only a larger field of phenomena and more effective means for the observation of phenomena. The truth of things always escapes beyond the sense. Yet is it a sound rule inherent in the very constitution of universal existence that where there are truths attainable by the Reason, there must be somewhere in the organism possessed of that reason a means of arriving at or verifying them by experience. The one means we have left in our mentality is an extension of that form of knowledge by identity which gives us the awareness of our own existence. It is really upon a selfawareness more or less conscient, more or less present to our conception that the knowledge of the contents of our self is based. Or to put it in a more general formula, the knowledge of the contents is contained in the knowledge of the continent. If then we can extend our faculty of mental self-awareness to awareness of the Self beyond and outside us, Atman or Brahman of the Upanishads, we may become possessors in experience of the truths which form the contents of the Atman or Brahman in the universe. It is on this possibility that Indian Vedanta has based itself. It has sought through knowledge of the Self the knowledge of the universe.
9:But always mental experience and the concepts of the Reason have been held by it to be even at their highest a reflection in mental identifications and not the supreme self-existent identity. We have to go beyond the mind and the Reason. the Reason active in our waking consciousness is only a mediator between the subconscient All that we come from in our evolution upwards and the superconscient All towards which we are impelled by that evolution. The subconscient and the superconscient are two different formulations of the same All. The master-word of the subconscient is Life, the master-word of the superconscient is Light. In the subconscient knowledge or consciousness is involved in action, for action is the essence of Life. In the superconscient action re-enters into Light and no longer contains involved knowledge but is itself contained in a supreme consciousness. Intuitional knowledge is that which is common between them and the foundation of intuitional knowledge is conscious or effective identity between that which knows and that which is known; it is that state of common self-existence in which the knower and the known are one through knowledge. But in the subconscient the intuition manifests itself in the action, in effectivity, and the knowledge or conscious identity is either entirely or more or less concealed in the action. In the superconscient, on the contrary, Light being the law and the principle, the intuition manifests itself in its true nature as knowledge emerging out of conscious identity, and effectivity of action is rather the accompaniment or necessary consequent and no longer masks as the primary fact. Between these two states reason and mind act as intermediaries which enable the being to liberate knowledge out of its imprisonment in the act and prepare it to resume its essential primacy. When the selfawareness in the mind applied both to continent and content, to own-self and other-self, exalts itself into the luminous selfmanifest identity, the Reason also converts itself into the form of the self-luminous intuitional3 knowledge. This is the highest possible state of our knowledge when mind fulfils itself in the supramental.
10:Such is the scheme of the human understanding upon which the conclusions of the most ancient Vedanta were built. To develop the results arrived at on this foundation by the ancient sages is not my object, but it is necessary to pass briefly in review some of their principal conclusions so far as they affect the problem of the divine Life with which alone we are at present concerned. For it is in those ideas that we shall find the best previous foundation of that which we seek now to rebuild and although, as with all knowledge, old expression has to be replaced to a certain extent by new expression suited to a later mentality and old light has to merge itself into new light as dawn succeeds dawn, yet it is with the old treasure as our initial capital or so much of it as we can recover that we shall most advantageously proceed to accumulate the largest gains in our new commerce with the ever-changeless and ever-changing Infinite.
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13:But Intuition by the very nature of its action in man, working as it does from behind the veil, active principally in his more unenlightened, less articulate parts, served in front of the veil, in the narrow light which is our waking conscience, only by instruments that are unable fully to assimilate its messages, - Intuition is unable to give us the truth in that ordered and articulated form which our nature demands. Before it could effect any such completeness of direct knowledge in us, it would have to organise itself in our surface being and take possession there of the leading part. But in our surface being it is not the Intuition, it is the Reason which is organised and helps us to order our perceptions, thoughts and actions. Therefore the age of intuitive knowledge, represented by the early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads, had to give place to the age of rational knowledge; inspired Scripture made room for metaphysical philosophy, even as afterwards metaphysical philosophy had to give place to experimental Science. Intuitive thought which is a messenger from the superconscient and therefore our highest faculty, was supplanted by the pure reason which is only a sort of deputy and belongs to the middle heights of our being; pure reason in its turn was supplanted for a time by the mixed action of the Reason which lives on our plains and lower elevations and does not in its view exceed the horizon of the experience that the physical mind and senses or such aids as we can invent for them can bring to us. And this process which seems to be a descent, is really a circle of progress. For in each case the lower faculty is compelled to take up as much as it can assimilate of what the higher had already given and to attempt to re-establish it by its own methods. By the attempt it is itself enlarged in its scope and arrives eventually at a more supple and a more ample selfaccommodation to the higher faculties. Without this succession and attempt at separate assimilation we should be obliged to remain under the exclusive domination of a part of our nature while the rest remained either depressed and unduly subjected or separate in its field and therefore poor in its development. With this succession and separate attempt the balance is righted; a more complete harmony of our parts of knowledge is prepared.
14:We see this succession in the Upanishads and the subsequent Indian philosophies. The sages of the Veda and Vedanta relied entirely upon intuition and spiritual experience. It is by an error that scholars sometimes speak of great debates or discussions in the Upanishad. Wherever there is the appearance of a controversy, it is not by discussion, by dialectics or the use of logical reasoning that it proceeds, but by a comparison of intuitions and experiences in which the less luminous gives place to the more luminous, the narrower, faultier or less essential to the more comprehensive, more perfect, more essential. The question asked by one sage of another is "What dost thou know?", not "What dost thou think?" nor "To what conclusion has thy reasoning arrived?" Nowhere in the Upanishads do we find any trace of logical reasoning urged in support of the truths of Vedanta. Intuition, the sages seem to have held, must be corrected by a more perfect intuition; logical reasoning cannot be its judge.
1.08 - The Synthesis of Movement, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Such then is the sense of life, such the Reason of the incessant passage of the being through this fugitive ray of clarescent Light.
Why must it be that this brief hour should be lost by so great a number and the inestimable privilege of being and of self-consciousness should for the most part be ignored? For so the being passes without seeing it the great half-opened gate and returns towards the night in which ignorant desires lose themselves.
1.094 - Understanding the Structure of Things, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The relationship of the mind to the objects is a very important thing to be taken into consideration at the time of the practice of samyama because samyama gradually reduces the distance between the mind and the object, so that a stage will be reached when there will be no distance at all. The mind will be the object, and the object will be the mind; the thinker will be the thought of, and vice versa. But the mind will revolt against any such attempt, which is the Reason why there is difficulty in concentration of mind. The refusal of the mind to concentrate on any given object is due to its inability to comprehend the relationship it maintains with the object, and the relationship of any object with other objects. The objects, which are the bhutas or rather, the evolutes of the bhutas, the elements are known to exist and operate on account of the action of the senses. The mind begins to be aware of the activity of the world outside through the senses, the indriyas. And, the transformation, which is the conditioning factor of the objects outside in the world, again gets conditioned through the senses when it reaches the mind, so that there is no direct knowledge of the nature of the transformation which the objects undergo.
It is not possible to have a correct insight into the nature of things directly by the mind, on account of there being an intervening activity called the senses or the indriyas. So there is a need for not only an adjustment of the internal processes of thought, but also there is a need for the regulation of the activity of the senses in order that there may be a harmony between the mental transformations inside and the outer transformations which are the conditioning factors of the objects outside. We have, therefore, a final aim in yoga, which is the thorough harmonisation of the activities of the mind, the senses and the objects outside, without any kind of discrepancy or disharmony intervening in the middle.
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The ignorance present in the mind is due to the very old matter about which we were speaking asmita, egoism. The mind and the egoism are united; they cannot be separated. The ego principle, which is the cohesive force that keeps the mind in a restricted position, prevents its connection with anything else other than that with which the ego is connected, so the mind is completely cut off from the world of objects outside. Inasmuch as the personal notions of the mind, as determined by the principle of the ego, cannot always correspond to the law of things in general, there is disharmony between the subject and the object. This disharmony between the subject and the object is the Reason behind the subject having no knowledge of the object. Consequently, there is no control over anything. There is a total helplessness on the part of the subject and a compulsion which the subject feels in respect of everything, because the law of the world presses upon the subject so forcefully to yield to its dictates, in spite of whatever the mind may be thinking according to its whims and fancies. Thus, the Reason for the bondage of the jiva, or the subject, is the vehemence of the ego, or the asmita tattva, which will not sacrifice even a whit of its notions and opinions about things.
The yoga process here, in this great endeavour known as samyama, attempts to cut at the root of this problem by a direct focusing of the attention of the mind on the very same thing with which it cannot reconcile itself namely, the object. The name object is given to that with which we cannot reconcile ourselves; otherwise, it will not be an object. It will be like us only it will be a subject. It is something different from us and, therefore, we call it an object. It stands outside us because we cannot cope with its ways of working and the manner of its relationship with other things of a similar nature.
1.096 - Powers that Accrue in the Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The character of grasping an object is called grahana. The way in which the eyes see, the ears hear, etc. that manner of the senses operating upon objects is called grahana. Svarupa is the senses themselves, independent of these functions. Apart from the functions that the senses perform, they have a nature of their own. That independent nature of the senses, apart from their activity, is called svarupa. Asmita is the I-principle that controls the operation of the five senses. It is the ego principle which organises the activities of the different senses and focuses them on a particular object. That means to say, the higher controls the lower, and the higher includes the lower. Ultimately, it is the I-principle that is the Reason behind the working of the senses. Thus, if we can grasp the meaning of this ego, the meaning of the senses also is clear. The fourth one is anvaya. That is similar to the fourth aspect in respect of the power of the five elements namely, the operation of the gunas. The three gunas sattva, rajas and tamas of prakriti are the rudimentary principles behind the senses and also the ahamkara tattva, or I-principle. Arthavattva is the purpose of the activity of the senses which is, again, to bring about experience for the purpose of the liberation of the spirit. With these connotations of the activities of the senses, one can concentrate, do samyama on the senses themselves, and the senses come under ones control. Grahaa svarpa asmita anvay arthavattva sayamat indriyajaya (III.48).
Then the sutra, tata manojavitva vikaraabhva pradhnajaya ca (III.49), tells us that the mind becomes powerful and it can carry the body, like a rocket, to any place. That is called manojavitvam: one can fly as fast as the mind flies. Vikranabhava is another perfection that is said to follow. Vikranabhava means the capacity to reach any object, at any distance, and manipulate it in the manner required, according to the wish of the yogi. Again, this is another part of grahsya samapatti, or the power that one gains over the elements.
1.09 - Civilisation and Culture, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The pursuit of the mental life for its own sake is what we ordinarily mean by culture; but the word is still a little equivocal and capable of a wider or a narrower sense according to our ideas and predilections. For our mental existence is a very complex matter and is made up of many elements. First, we have its lower and fundamental stratum, which is in the scale of evolution nearest to the vital. And we have in that stratum two sides, the mental life of the senses, sensations and emotions in which the subjective purpose of Nature predominates although with the objective as its occasion, and the active or dynamic life of the mental being concerned with the organs of action and the field of conduct in which her objective purpose predominates although with the subjective as its occasion. We have next in the scale, more sublimated, on one side the moral being and its ethical life, on the other the aesthetic; each of them attempts to possess and dominate the fundamental mind stratum and turn its experiences and activities to its own benefit, one for the culture and worship of Right, the other for the culture and worship of Beauty. And we have, above all these, taking advantage of them, helping, forming, trying often to govern them entirely, the intellectual being. Mans highest accomplished range is the life of the Reason or ordered and harmonised intelligence with its dynamic power of intelligent will, the buddhi, which is or should be the driver of mans chariot.
But the intelligence of man is not composed entirely and exclusively of the rational intellect and the rational will; there enters into it a deeper, more intuitive, more splendid and powerful, but much less clear, much less developed and as yet hardly at all self-possessing light and force for which we have not even a name. But, at any rate, its character is to drive at a kind of illumination,not the dry light of the Reason, nor the moist and suffused light of the heart, but a lightning and a solar splendour. It may indeed subordinate itself and merely help the Reason and heart with its flashes; but there is another urge in it, its natural urge, which exceeds the Reason. It tries to illuminate the intellectual being, to illuminate the ethical and aesthetic, to illuminate the emotional and the active, to illuminate even the senses and the sensations. It offers in words of revelation, it unveils as if by lightning flashes, it shows in a sort of mystic or psychic glamour or brings out into a settled but for mental man almost a supernatural light a Truth greater and truer than the knowledge given by Reason and Science, a Right larger and more divine than the moralists scheme of virtues, a Beauty more profound, universal and entrancing than the sensuous or imaginative beauty worshipped by the artist, a joy and divine sensibility which leaves the ordinary emotions poor and pallid, a Sense beyond the senses and sensations, the possibility of a diviner Life and action which mans ordinary conduct of life hides away from his impulses and from his vision. Very various, very fragmentary, often very confused and misleading are its effects upon all the lower members from the Reason downward, but this in the end is what it is driving at in the midst of a hundred deformations. It is caught and killed or at least diminished and stifled in formal creeds and pious observances; it is unmercifully traded in and turned into poor and base coin by the vulgarity of conventional religions; but it is still the light of which the religious spirit and the spirituality of man is in pursuit and some pale glow of it lingers even in their worst degradations.
This very complexity of his mental being, with the absence of any one principle which can safely dominate the others, the absence of any sure and certain light which can guide and fix in their vacillations the Reason and the intelligent will, is mans great embarrassment and stumbling-block. All the hostile distinctions, oppositions, antagonisms, struggles, conversions, reversions, perversions of his mentality, all the chaotic war of ideas and impulses and tendencies which perplex his efforts, have arisen from the natural misunderstandings and conflicting claims of his many members. His reason is a judge who gives conflicting verdicts and is bribed and influenced by the suitors; his intelligent will is an administrator harassed by the conflicts of the different estates of his realm and by the sense of his own partiality and final incompetence. Still in the midst of it all he has formed certain large ideas of culture and the mental life, and his conflicting notions about them follow certain definite lines determined by the divisions of his nature and shaped into a general system of curves by his many attempts to arrive either at an exclusive standard or an integral harmony.
We have first the distinction between civilisation and barbarism. In its ordinary, popular sense civilisation means the state of civil society, governed, policed, organised, educated, possessed of knowledge and appliances as opposed to that which has not or is not supposed to have these advantages. In a certain sense the Red Indian, the Basuto, the Fiji islander had their civilisation; they possessed a rigorously, if simply organised society, a social law, some ethical ideas, a religion, a kind of training, a good many virtues in some of which, it is said, civilisation is sadly lacking; but we are agreed to call them savages and barbarians, mainly it seems, because of their crude and limited knowledge, the primitive rudeness of their appliances and the bare simplicity of their social organisation. In the more developed states of society we have such epithets as semi-civilised and semi-barbarous which are applied by different types of civilisation to each other,the one which is for a time dominant and physically successful has naturally the loudest and most self-confident say in the matter. Formerly men were more straightforward and simpleminded and frankly expressed their standpoint by stigmatising all peoples different in general culture from themselves as barbarians or Mlechchhas. The word civilisation so used comes to have a merely relative significance or hardly any fixed sense at all. We must therefore get rid in it of all that is temporary or accidental and fix it upon this distinction that barbarism is the state of society in which man is almost entirely preoccupied with his life and body, his economic and physical existence,at first with their sufficient maintenance, not as yet their greater or richer well-being, and has few means and little inclination to develop his mentality, while civilisation is the more evolved state of society in which to a sufficient social and economic organisation is added the activity of the mental life in most if not all of its parts; for sometimes some of these parts are left aside or discouraged or temporarily atrophied by their inactivity, yet the society may be very obviously civilised and even highly civilised. This conception will bring in all the civilisations historic and prehistoric and put aside all the barbarism, whether of Africa or Europe or Asia, Hun or Goth or Vandal or Turcoman. It is obvious that in a state of barbarism the rude beginnings of civilisation may exist; it is obvious too that in a civilised society a great mass of barbarism or numerous relics of it may exist. In that sense all societies are semi-civilised. How much of our present-day civilisation will be looked back upon with wonder and disgust by a more developed humanity as the superstitions and atrocities of an imperfectly civilised era! But the main point is this that in any society which we can call civilised the mentality of man must be active, the mental pursuits developed and the regulation and improvement of his life by the mental being a clearly self-conscious concept in his better mind.
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The first results of this momentous change have been inspiriting to our desire of movement, but a little disconcerting to the thinker and to the lover of a high and fine culture; for if it has to some extent democratised culture or the semblance of culture, it does not seem at first sight to have elevated or streng thened it by this large accession of the half-redeemed from below. Nor does the world seem to be guided any more directly by the Reason and intelligent will of her best minds than before. Commercialism is still the heart of modern civilisation; a sensational activism is still its driving force. Modern education has not in the mass redeemed the sensational man; it has only made necessary to him things to which he was not formerly accustomed, mental activity and occupations, intellectual and even aesthetic sensations, emotions of idealism. He still lives in the vital substratum, but he wants it stimulated from above. He requires an army of writers to keep him mentally occupied and provide some sort of intellectual pabulum for him; he has a thirst for general information of all kinds which he does not care or has not time to coordinate or assimilate, for popularised scientific knowledge, for such new ideas as he can catch, provided they are put before him with force or brilliance, for mental sensations and excitation of many kinds, for ideals which he likes to think of as actuating his conduct and which do give it sometimes a certain colour. It is still the activism and sensationalism of the crude mental being, but much more open and free. And the cultured, the intelligentsia find that they can get a hearing from him such as they never had from the pure Philistine, provided they can first stimulate or amuse him; their ideas have now a chance of getting executed such as they never had before. The result has been to cheapen thought and art and literature, to make talent and even genius run in the grooves of popular success, to put the writer and thinker and scientist very much in a position like that of the cultured Greek slave in a Roman household where he has to work for, please, amuse and instruct his master while keeping a careful eye on his tastes and preferences and repeating trickily the manner and the points that have caught his fancy. The higher mental life, in a word, has been democratised, sensationalised, activised with both good and bad results. Through it all the eye of faith can see perhaps that a yet crude but an enormous change has begun. Thought and Knowledge, if not yet Beauty, can get a hearing and even produce rapidly some large, vague, yet in the end effective will for their results; the mass of culture and of men who think and strive seriously to appreciate and to know has enormously increased behind all this surface veil of sensationalism, and even the sensational man has begun to undergo a process of transformation. Especially, new methods of education, new principles of society are beginning to come into the range of practical possibility which will create perhaps one day that as yet unknown phenomenon, a race of mennot only a classwho have to some extent found and developed their mental selves, a cultured humanity.
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1.09 - Concentration - Its Spiritual Uses, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
It is true that all knowledge is within ourselves, but this has to be called forth by another knowledge. Although the capacity to know is inside us, it must be called out, and that calling out of knowledge can only be done, a Yogi maintains, through another knowledge. Dead, insentient matter never calls out knowledge, it is the action of knowledge that brings out knowledge. Knowing beings must be with us to call forth what is in us, so these teachers were always necessary. The world was never without them, and no knowledge can come without them. God is the Teacher of all teachers, because these teachers, however great they may have been gods or angels were all bound and limited by time, while God is not. There are two peculiar deductions of the Yogis. The first is that in thinking of the limited, the mind must think of the unlimited; and that if one part of that perception is true, so also must the other be, for the Reason that their value as perceptions of the mind is equal. The very fact that man has a little knowledge shows that God has unlimited knowledge. If I am to take one, why not the other? Reason forces me to take both or reject both. If I believe that there is a man with a little knowledge, I must also admit that there is someone behind him with unlimited knowledge. The second deduction is that no knowledge can come without a teacher. It is true, as the modern philosophers say, that there is something in man which evolves out of him; all knowledge is in man, but certain environments are necessary to call it out. We cannot find any knowledge without teachers. If there are men teachers, god teachers, or angel teachers, they are all limited; who was the teacher before them? We are forced to admit, as a last conclusion, one teacher who is not limited by time; and that One Teacher of infinite knowledge, without beginning or end, is called God.
1.09 - FAITH IN PEACE, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
depend upon their supplanting one another, except for the Reason
that they existed independendy of one another? Ultimately and fun-
1.09 - Fundamental Questions of Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
But whereas Janet supposed that the Reason for the withdrawal of
consciousness must lie in some specific weakness, Freud pointed out that
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also the Reason why the priest, the predecessor of the doctor in his role of
healer and psychologist, has in large measure forfeited his authority, at any
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appearances they will be flatly irreconcilable. the Reason obviously lies in
the subjective premise, which assimilates what suits it and discards what
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uppermost layer of his unconscious, is far less individualized, the Reason
being that a man is distinguished from his fellows more by his virtues than
1.09 - Of the signs by which it will be known that the spiritual person is walking along the way of this night and purgation of sense., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
4. For the cause of this aridity is that God transfers to the spirit the good things and the strength of the senses, which, since the soul's natural strength and senses are incapable of using them, remain barren, dry and empty. For the sensual part of a man has no capacity for that which is pure spirit, and thus, when it is the spirit that receives the pleasure, the flesh is left without savour and is too weak to perform any action. But the spirit, which all the time is being fed, goes forward in strength, and with more alertness and solicitude than before, in its anxiety not to fail God; and if it is not immediately conscious of spiritual sweetness and delight, but only of aridity and lack of sweetness, the Reason for this is the strangeness of the exchange; for its palate has been accustomed to those other sensual pleasures upon which its eyes are still fixed, and, since the spiritual palate is not made ready or purged for such subtle pleasure, until it finds itself becoming prepared for it by means of this arid and dark night, it cannot experience spiritual pleasure and good, but only aridity and lack of sweetness, since it misses the pleasure which aforetime it enjoyed so readily.
5. These souls whom God is beginning to lead through these solitary places of the wilderness are like to the children of Israel, to whom in the wilderness God began to give food from Heaven, containing within itself all sweetness, and, as is there said, it turned to the savour which each one of them desired. But withal the children of Israel felt the lack of the pleasures and delights of the flesh and the onions which they had eaten aforetime in Egypt, the more so because their palate was accustomed to these and took delight in them, rather than in the delicate sweetness of the angelic manna; and they wept and sighed for the fleshpots even in the midst of the food of Heaven.64 To such depths does the vileness of our desires descend that it makes us to long for our own wretched food65 and to be nauseated by the indescribable66 blessings of Heaven.
6. But, as I say, when these aridities proceed from the way of the purgation of sensual desire, although at first the spirit feels no sweetness, for the Reasons that we have just given, it feels that it is deriving strength and energy to act from the substance which this inward food gives it, the which food is the beginning of a contemplation that is dark and arid to the senses; which contemplation is secret and hidden from the very person that experiences it; and ordinarily, together with the aridity and emptiness which it causes in the senses, it gives the soul an inclination and desire to be alone and in quietness, without being able to think of any particular thing or having the desire to do so. If those souls to whom this comes to pass knew how to be quiet at this time, and troubled not about performing any kind of action, whether inward or outward, neither had any anxiety about doing anything, then they would delicately experience this inward refreshment in that ease and freedom from care. So delicate is this refreshment that ordinarily, if a man have desire or care to experience it, he experiences it not; for, as I say, it does its work when the soul is most at ease and freest from care; it is like the air which, if one would close one's hand upon it, escapes.
7. In this sense we may understand that which the Spouse said to the Bride in the Songs, namely: 'Withdraw thine eyes from me, for they make me to soar aloft.'67 For in such a way does God bring the soul into this state, and by so different a path does He lead it that, if it desires to work with its faculties, it hinders the work which God is doing in it rather than aids it; whereas aforetime it was quite the contrary. the Reason is that, in this state of contemplation, which the soul enters when it forsakes meditation for the state of the proficient, it is God Who is now working in the soul; He binds its interior faculties, and allows it not to cling to the understanding, nor to have delight in the will, nor to reason with the memory. For anything that the soul can do of its own accord at this time serves only, as we have said, to hinder inward peace and the work which God is accomplishing in the spirit by means of that aridity of sense. And this peace, being spiritual and delicate, performs a work which is quiet and delicate, solitary, productive of peace and satisfaction68 and far removed from all those earlier pleasures, which were very palpable and sensual. This is the peace which, says David, God speaks in the soul to the end that He may make it spiritual.69 And this leads us to the third point.
64Numbers xi, 5-6.
1.09 - (Plot continued.) Dramatic Unity., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Alcibiades did or suffered. In Comedy this is already apparent: for here the poet first constructs the plot on the lines of probability, and then inserts characteristic names;--unlike the lampooners who write about particular individuals. But tragedians still keep to real names, the Reason being that what is possible is credible: what has not happened we do not at once feel sure to be possible: but what has happened is manifestly possible: otherwise it would not have happened. Still there are even some tragedies in which there are only one or two well known names, the rest being fictitious. In others, none are well known, as in
Agathon's Antheus, where incidents and names alike are fictitious, and yet they give none the less pleasure. We must not, therefore, at all costs keep to the received legends, which are the usual subjects of
1.09 - SELF-KNOWLEDGE, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Spiritual progress is through the growing knowledge of the self as nothing and of the Godhead as all-embracing Reality. (Such knowledge, of course, is worthless if it is merely theoretical; to be effective, it must be realized as an immediate, intuitive experience and appropriately acted upon.) Of one great master of the spiritual life Professor tienne Gilson writes: The displacement of fear by Charity by way of the practice of humilityin that consists the whole of St. Bernards ascesis, its beginning, its development and its term. Fear, worry, anxiety these form the central core of individualized selfhood. Fear cannot be got rid of by personal effort, but only by the egos absorption in a cause greater than its own interests. Absorption in any cause will rid the mind of some of its fears; but only absorption in the loving and knowing of the divine Ground can rid it of all fear. For when the cause is less than the highest, the sense of fear and anxiety is transferred from the self to the causeas when heroic self-sacrifice for a loved individual or institution is accompanied by anxiety in regard to that for which the sacrifice is made. Whereas if the sacrifice is made for God, and for others for Gods sake, there can be no fear or abiding anxiety, since nothing can be a menace to the divine Ground and even failure and disaster are to be accepted as being in accord with the divine will. In few men and women is the love of God intense enough to cast out this projected fear and anxiety for cherished persons and institutions. the Reason is to be sought in the fact that few men and women are humble enough to be capable of loving as they should. And they lack the necessary humility because they are without the fully realized knowledge of their own personal nothingness.
Humility does not consist in hiding our talents and virtues, in thinking ourselves worse and more ordinary than we are, but in possessing a clear knowledge of all that is lacking in us and in not exalting ourselves for that which we have, seeing that God has freely given it us and that, with all His gifts, we are still of infinitely little importance.
1.09 - SKIRMISHES IN A WAY WITH THE AGE, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
and this would have been the Reasonable course, it was even a dire
necessity. What has been done? Everything has been done with the view
1.09 - Sleep and Death, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
or go into a rage, or feel a movement of rebellion inside us, or a sexual impulse, etc., or even, to take another example of a seemingly different nature, we may trip on the stairs two or three times and almost fall headlong, or contract a violent fever; then we notice that each of these small, very trivial daytime incidents corresponds exactly to another incident, most often symbolic in nature (symbolic, because it is not the fact itself, but a mental transcription when we wake up in the morning), which we experienced the night before: either we were attacked in a "dream" by an enemy, or we were involved in an unhappy turn of event, or else we saw, sometimes very precisely, all the details surrounding the psychological scene that would take place the next day. It would seem that "someone" is perfectly awake in us and very concerned with helping us identify all the why's and hidden mechanisms of our psychological life, all the Reasons for our falls as well as progress. For, conversely, we may have a premonition of all the happy psychological movements that will translate the next day into a progress, an opening of consciousness, a feeling of lightness, an inner widening; we remember that the night before we saw a light, an ascent, or a wall or house crumbling (symbolic of our resistance or the mental constructions that were confining us). We are also very struck by the realization that these premonitions are usually not associated with events we deem important on our physical plane, such as the death of a parent or some worldly achievement (although these premonitions also may occur), but with very trivial details, bearing no external importance, yet always very meaningful for our inner progress. This is a sign of the development of our consciousness.
Instead of unconsciously accepted mental, vital or other vibrations,
1.09 - Sri Aurobindo and the Big Bang, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
ing ever, which is the Reason why words like integral
and synthetic are keywords in it. His affirmation was a
1.09 - The Absolute Manifestation, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
This is the Reason of that truth, so often repeated, that he who by a conscious self-identification knows the Absolute cannot speak of what he knows. He who knows It, says the Tao does not speak of it; he who speaks of I, does not know it.
Nevertheless, it is in the power of the human word to prepare in the depths of the intelligence the inexpressible experience of the supreme knowledge and self-identification with the Absolute.
1.1.01 - Seeking the Divine, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In these matters it is not the thinking mind but the vital being - the life-force and the desire nature - or some part of it at least, that usually determines men's action and their choice - when it is not some outward necessity or pressure that compels or mainly influences the decision. The mind is only an interpreting, justifying and devising agent. By your taking up the sadhana this part of your vital being has had a pressure put upon it from above and within which has discouraged its old turn of desires and tendencies, its past grooves, those which would have decided its direction before; this vital has, as is often one first result, fallen silent and neutral. It is no longer strongly moved towards the ordinary life; it has not yet received from or through the psychic centre and the higher mental will a sufficient illumination and impulse to take up a new vital movement and run vigorously on the road to a new life. That is the Reason for the listlessness of which you speak and the mistiness of the future. Men do not know themselves and have not learned to distinguish these different parts of the being which are usually lumped together as mind; they do not understand their own states and actions, or, if at all, then only on the surface. It is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of the complexity of the nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge.
The remedy can only come from the parts of the being that are already turned towards the Light. To call in the light of the divine consciousness, bring the psychic being to the front and kindle a flame of aspiration which will awaken spiritually the outer mind and set on fire the vital being, is the way out. It is usually a psychic awakening or a series of strong experiences by which the sadhak comes out of this intermediary no man's land of the quiescent vital (few can avoid altogether this passage through a neutral vital indifference) into the full dynamic course of the spiritual movement.
11.03 - Cosmonautics, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Is that the Reason why man has now become so eager to quit earthly atmosphere and soar up into starry spaces? In any case, the human body is now, at least by way of experiment, being shifted to other atmospheres, other modes of living. The important, the most significant thing however is not so much the discovery of new regions of the universe but new dimensions of the human body itself. No doubt this is just the beginning, but there are indications, pointers towards unthinkable possibilities in the future. Men are now training themselves to be inhabitants not of earth only but of distant places. It is a demonstration of developments on unusual lines for the body. At present to dwell or even to stay in unearthly regions, the earthly body has to be protected, buttressed, propped up, with much care and skill by a mechanical outfitcrude scaffolding after all. In the future, other simpler and natural ways will surely be found.
As we know, Nature has pushed up its secret consciousness to the human level and is still pushing it up, upward to levels of the higher man, towards the Superman. She has moulded the body for the jelly-fish and moved up through all the intermediaries to the human body. Man's body like his consciousness has to be remoulded in such a way as to be able to enclose and express the superman-consciousness. The rigid natural laws that bind down the body the so-called natural laws of temperature and pressure, of respiration and circulation, of assimilation and rejectionhave to be turned, obviated, neutralised so that man may be actually, physically a citizen of the world.
1.107 - The Bestowal of a Divine Gift, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
A very important aphorism now comes before us which points out that even at an advanced stage, one cannot be too confident that obstacles may not recur. This is the meaning of the sutra, tat cchidreu pratyayntari saskrebhya (IV.27), which is a very small statement with a very large significance and meaning. The movement on the path of yoga is not a smooth and unobstructed, unimpeded progress. Sometimes there are retrogressions, and even in highly advanced conditions of yoga the previously existent samskaras in the mind may come up to the surface and prevent the continuous flow of consciousness. This is the Reason why we find, many a time, in the lives of saints, sages and yogis, that novel features and behaviours manifest themselves which cannot be understood by the public eye. It is not that they have turned back from the path of yoga; it is because they have to face that which was already inside but had been kept controlled by hard thinking and strenuous meditation.
Very powerful acts of concentration of mind keep the vrittis in respect of objects under subjection. If the practice is continuous, done daily without any break, and the meditation becomes a habit with us, these vrittis in respect of objects of sense will never be allowed to come to the surface, so that it may appear that there is a continuous flow of consciousness in the direction of the aim of yoga. That may be so for a time for such time as opportunities do not arise for those subjected vrittis to rise to the surface. It is impossible for even a Hercules in yoga to keep up this continuity of consciousness in meditation, because it is a labour and an effort of the mind which has to be exerted against the normal tendencies in respect of physical objects.
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There are no physical obstacles in the higher realms. The obstacle in the physical world is the physical body. That is the object and, therefore, we cannot enjoy it properly. The presence of the physical body obstructs the union that we seek with the object, which is the Reason for this search for enjoyment through the senses. But there are no physical bodies in the higher realms; therefore, the temptations are more powerful, and it is a greater difficulty there than here on earth. It is possible that one can get stuck in the higher realms more easily than on earth. All these have to be watched with great care, and the sutra tells us: What to talk of these enjoyments; you have to be free even from the desire to have omniscience, and you should ask for pure Being-consciousness only. Sarvatha vivekakhyateh it is not knowledge of things that we are asking for; it is knowledge as such, which is knowledge of being alone. This is the purusha. Then comes dharma-megha samadhi. At that time, what happens?
Nobody can say what happens. No one can go there and see what happens. Dharma-megha samadhi is only a term which is defined in various ways, but it is said to be a divine gift which is bestowed upon the seeker by the powers that be the divine forces that guard the cosmos. Rapturous descriptions of this condition can be found in such scriptures as the Yoga Vasishtha where we are told that even the divine beings, the guardians of the cosmos, become our servants. The guardians of the cosmos become the servants of this man. Such things are told in the Yoga Vasishtha and other scriptures of that kind.
1.10 - Aesthetic and Ethical Culture, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Republican Romebefore it was touched and finally taken captive by conquered Greecestands out in relief as one of the most striking psychological phenomena of human history. From the point of view of human development it presents itself as an almost unique experiment in high and strong character-building divorced as far as may be from the sweetness which the sense of beauty and the light which the play of the Reason brings into character and uninspired by the religious temperament; for the early Roman creed was a superstition, a superficial religiosity and had nothing in it of the true religious spirit. Rome was the human will oppressing and disciplining the emotional and sensational mind in order to arrive at the self-mastery of a definite ethical type; and it was this self-mastery which enabled the Roman republic to arrive also at the mastery of its environing world and impose on the nations its public order and law. All supremely successful imperial nations have had in their culture or in their nature, in their formative or expansive periods, this predominance of the will, the character, the impulse to self-discipline and self-mastery which constitutes the very basis of the ethical tendency. Rome and Sparta like other ethical civilisations had their considerable moral deficiencies, tolerated or deliberately encouraged customs and practices which we should call immoral, failed to develop the gentler and more delicate side of moral character, but this is of no essential importance. The ethical idea in man changes and enlarges its scope, but the kernel of the true ethical being remains always the same,will, character, self-discipline, self-mastery.
Its limitations at once appear, when we look back at its prominent examples. Early Rome and Sparta were barren of thought, art, poetry, literature, the larger mental life, all the amenity and pleasure of human existence; their art of life excluded or discouraged the delight of living. They were distrustful, as the exclusively ethical man is always distrustful, of free and flexible thought and the aesthetic impulse. The earlier spirit of republican Rome held at arms length as long as possible the Greek influences that invaded her, closed the schools of the Greek teachers, banished the philosophers, and her most typical minds looked upon the Greek language as a peril and Greek culture as an abomination: she felt instinctively the arrival at her gates of an enemy, divined a hostile and destructive force fatal to her principle of living. Sparta, though a Hellenic city, admitted as almost the sole aesthetic element of her deliberate ethical training and education a martial music and poetry, and even then, when she wanted a poet of war, she had to import an Athenian. We have a curious example of the repercussion of this instinctive distrust even on a large and aesthetic Athenian mind in the utopian speculations of Plato who felt himself obliged in his Republic first to censure and then to banish the poets from his ideal polity. The end of these purely ethical cultures bears witness to their insufficiency. Either they pass away leaving nothing or little behind them by which the future can be attracted and satisfied, as Sparta passed, or they collapse in a revolt of the complex nature of man against an unnatural restriction and repression, as the early Roman type collapsed into the egoistic and often orgiastic licence of later republican and imperial Rome. The human mind needs to think, feel, enjoy, expand; expansion is its very nature and restriction is only useful to it in so far as it helps to steady, guide and streng then its expansion. It readily refuses the name of culture to those civilisations or periods, however noble their aim or even however beautiful in itself their order, which have not allowed an intelligent freedom of development.
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This insufficiency of the aesthetic view of life becomes yet more evident when we come down to its other great example, Italy of the Renascence. The Renascence was regarded at one time as pre-eminently a revival of learning, but in its Mediterranean birth-place it was rather the efflorescence of art and poetry and the beauty of life. Much more than was possible even in the laxest times of Hellas, aesthetic culture was divorced from the ethical impulse and at times was even anti-ethical and reminiscent of the licence of imperial Rome. It had learning and curiosity, but gave very little of itself to high thought and truth and the more finished achievements of the Reason, although it helped to make free the way for philosophy and science. It so corrupted religion as to provoke in the ethically minded Teutonic nations the violent revolt of the Reformation, which, though it vindicated the freedom of the religious mind, was an insurgence not so much of the Reason,that was left to Science,but of the moral instinct and its ethical need. The subsequent prostration and loose weakness of Italy was the inevitable result of the great defect of its period of fine culture, and it needed for its revival the new impulse of thought and will and character given to it by Mazzini. If the ethical impulse is not sufficient by itself for the development of the human being, yet are will, character, self-discipline, self-mastery indispensable to that development. They are the backbone of the mental body.
Neither the ethical being nor the aesthetic being is the whole man, nor can either be his sovereign principle; they are merely two powerful elements. Ethical conduct is not the whole of life; even to say that it is three-fourths of life is to indulge in a very doubtful mathematics. We cannot assign to it its position in any such definite language, but can at best say that its kernel of will, character and self-discipline are almost the first condition for human self-perfection. The aesthetic sense is equally indispensable, for without that the self-perfection of the mental being cannot arrive at its object, which is on the mental plane the right and harmonious possession and enjoyment of the truth, power, beauty and delight of human existence. But neither can be the highest principle of the human order. We can combine them; we can enlarge the sense of ethics by the sense of beauty and delight and introduce into it to correct its tendency of hardness and austerity the element of gentleness, love, amenity, the hedonistic side of morals; we can steady, guide and streng then the delight of life by the introduction of the necessary will and austerity and self-discipline which will give it endurance and purity. These two powers of our psychological being, which represent in us the essential principle of energy and the essential principle of delight,the Indian terms are more profound and expressive, Tapas and Ananda,2can be thus helped by each other, the one to a richer, the other to a greater self-expression. But that even this much reconciliation may come about they must be taken up and enlightened by a higher principle which must be capable of understanding and comprehending both equally and of disengaging and combining disinterestedly their purposes and potentialities. That higher principle seems to be provided for us by the human faculty of reason and intelligent will. Our crowning capacity, it would seem to be by right the crowned sovereign of our nature.
1.10 - Concentration - Its Practice, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
Those Samdhis with which we ended our last chapter are very difficult to attain; so we must take them up slowly. The first step, the preliminary step, is called Kriya-yoga. Literally this means work, working towards Yoga. The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot. If the horses are very strong and do not obey the rein, if the charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then the chariot will come to grief. But if the organs, the horses, are well controlled, and if the rein, the mind, is well held in the hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the chariot reaches the goal. What is meant, therefore, by this mortification? Holding the rein firmly while guiding the body and the organs; not letting them do anything they like, but keeping them both under proper control. Study. What is meant by study in this case? No study of novels or story books, but study of those works which teach the liberation of the Soul. Then again this study does not mean controversial studies at all. The Yogi is supposed to have finished his period of controversy. He has had enough of that, and has become satisfied. He only studies to intensify his convictions. Vda and Siddhnta these are the two sorts of scriptural knowledge Vada (the argumentative) and Siddhanta (the decisive). When a man is entirely ignorant he takes up the first of these, the argumentative fighting, and reasoning pro and con; and when he has finished that he takes up the Siddhanta, the decisive, arriving at a conclusion. Simply arriving at this conclusion will not do. It must be intensified. Books are infinite in number, and time is short; therefore the secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it. There is an old Indian legend that if you place a cup of milk and water before a Rja-Hamsa (swan), he will take all the milk and leave the water. In that way we should take what is of value in knowledge, and leave the dross. Intellectual gymnastics are necessary at first. We must not go blindly into anything. The Yogi has passed the argumentative state, and has come to a conclusion, which is, like the rocks, immovable. The only thing he now seeks to do is to intensify that conclusion. Do not argue, he says; if one forces arguments upon you, be silent. Do not answer any argument, but go away calmly, because arguments only disturb the mind. The only thing necessary is to train the intellect, what is the use of disturbing it for nothing? The intellect is but a weak instrument, and can give us only knowledge limited by the senses. The Yogi wants to go beyond the senses, therefore intellect is of no use to him. He is certain of this and, therefore, is silent, and does not argue. Every argument throws his mind out of balance, creates a disturbance in the Chitta, and a disturbance is a drawback. Argumentations and searchings of the Reason are only by the way. There are much higher things beyond them. The whole of life is not for schoolboy fights and debating societies. "Surrendering the fruits of work to God" is to take to ourselves neither credit nor blame, but to give up both to the Lord and be at peace.
- -
--
Now we shall understand the aphorism that the states of the qualities are defined, undefined, indicated only, and signess. By the "defined" are meant the gross elements, which we can sense. By the "undefined" are meant the very fine materials, the Tanmatras, which cannot be sensed by ordinary men. If you practise Yoga, however, says Patanjali, after a while your perceptions will become so fine that you will actually see the Tanmatras. For instance, you have heard how every man has a certain light about him; every living being emits a certain light, and this, he says, can be seen by the Yogi. We do not all see it, but we all throw out these Tanmatras, just as a flower continuously sends out fine particles which enable us to smell it. Every day of our lives we throw out a mass of good or evil, and everywhere we go the atmosphere is full of these materials. That is how there came to the human mind, unconsciously, the idea of building temples and churches. Why should man build churches in which to worship God? Why not worship Him anywhere? Even if he did not know the Reason, man found that the place where people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras. Every day people go there, and the more they go the holier they get, and the holier that place becomes. If any man who has not much Sattva in him goes there, the place will influence him and arouse his Sattva quality. Here, therefore, is the significance of all temples and holy places, but you must remember that their holiness depends on holy people congregating there. The difficulty with man is that he forgets the original meaning, and puts the cart before the horse. It was men who made these places holy, and then the effect became the cause and made men holy. If the wicked only were to go there, it would become as bad as any other place. It is not the building, but the people that make a church, and that is what we always forget. That is why sages and holy persons, who have much of this Sattva quality, can send it out and exert a tremendous influence day and night on their surroundings. A man may become so pure that his purity will become tangible. Whosoever comes in contact with him becomes pure.
Next "the indicated only" means the Buddhi, the intellect. "The indicated only" is the first manifestation of nature; from it all other manifestations proceed. The last is "the signless". There seems to be a great difference between modern science and all religions at this point. Every religion has the idea that the universe comes out of intelligence. The theory of God, taking it in its psychological significance, apart from all ideas of personality, is that intelligence is first in the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals into men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of intelligence, intelligence itself is the last to come. Both the religious and the scientific statements, though seeming directly opposed to each other are true. Take an infinite series, ABAB AB. etc. The question is which is first, A or B? If you take the series as AB. you will say that A is first, but if you take it as BA, you will say that B is first. It depends upon the way we look at it. Intelligence undergoes modification and becomes the gross matter, this again merges into intelligence, and thus the process goes on. The Sankhyas, and other religionists, put intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence, then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on matter, and says matter, then intelligence. They both indicate the same chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusha, or Self, which is beyond intelligence, of which intelligence is but the borrowed light.
1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Defined in psychological terms, grace is something other than our self-conscious personal self, by which we are helped. We have experience of three kinds of such helpsanimal grace, human grace and spiritual grace. Animal grace comes when we are living in full accord with our own nature on the biological levelnot abusing our bodies by excess, not interfering with the workings of our indwelling animal intelligence by conscious cravings and aversions, but living wholesomely and laying ourselves open to the virtue of the sun and the spirit of the air. The reward of being thus in harmony with Tao or the Logos in its physical and physiological aspects is a sense of well-being, an awareness of life as good, not for any reason, but just because it is life. There is no question, when we are in a condition of animal grace, of propter vitam vivendi perdere causas; for in this state there is no distinction between the Reasons for living and life itself. Life, like virtue, is then its own reward. But, of course, the fulness of animal grace is reserved for animals. Mans nature is such that he must live a self-conscious life in time, not in a blissful sub-rational eternity on the hither side of good and evil. Consequently animal grace is something that he knows only spasmodically in an occasional holiday from self-consciousness, or as an accompaniment to other states, in which life is not its own reward but has to be lived for a reason outside itself.
Human grace comes to us either from persons, or from social groups, or from our own wishes, hopes and imaginings projected outside ourselves and persisting somehow in the psychic medium in a state of what may be called second-hand objectivity. We have all had experience of the different types of human grace. There is, for example, the grace which, during childhood, comes from mother, father, nurse or beloved teacher. At a later stage we experience the grace of friends; the grace of men and women morally better and wiser than ourselves; the grace of the guru, or spiritual director. Then there is the grace which comes to us because of our attachment to country, party, church or other social organizationa grace which has helped even the feeblest and most timid individuals to achieve what, without it, would have been the impossible. And finally there is the grace which we derive from our ideals, whether low or high, whether conceived of in abstract terms or bodied forth in imaginary personifications. To this last type, it would seem, belong many of the graces experienced by the pious adherents of the various religions. The help received by those who devotedly adore or pray to some personal saint, deity or Avatar is often, we may guess, not a genuinely spiritual grace, but a human grace, coming back to the worshipper from the vortex of psychic power set up by repeated acts (his own and other peoples) of faith, yearning and imagination.
1.10 - Laughter Of The Gods, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: No reason. Only unreason or super-reason. Keep your end up and it will arrive again, and some day perhaps after jack-in-the-boxing like that sufficiently, one day it will sit down and say, "Here I am for good. Send for the priest and let us be married." With these things that is the law and the rule and the Reason and rhyme of it and everything.
Myself: The result of the last Darshan was disturbing in some quarters. Difficulties of individual nature rushing up?
1.10 - On our Knowledge of Universals, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
Brown and Jones and Robinson and Smith are four. the Reason is that this proposition cannot be understood at all unless we know that there are such people as Brown and Jones and Robinson and Smith, and this we can only know by experience. Hence, although our general proposition is _a priori_, all its applications to actual particulars involve experience and therefore contain an empirical element. In this way what seemed mysterious in our _a priori_ knowledge is seen to have been based upon an error.
It will serve to make the point clearer if we contrast our genuine _a priori_ judgement with an empirical generalization, such as 'all men are mortals'. Here as before, we can _understand_ what the proposition means as soon as we understand the universals involved, namely _man_ and
1.10 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The Master said: "God and His name are identical; that is the Reason Radha said that.
There is no difference between Rama and His holy name."
1.10 - Theodicy - Nature Makes No Mistakes, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
and compels things to remain in existence. It is the Reason
of that clinging to existence, that overmastering will-to-be,
1.10 - The Revolutionary Yogi, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
another, the way the two parts of the stick appear in water, but the reality is quite different when we ascend to a higher plane, to the Superconscient, just as it is again different when we descend to the lower, atomic level. The one difference between the broken stick and our customary vision of the world is that one is merely an optical illusion, while the other is an earnest one. We insist on seeing as broken a stick which in reality is not. That this earnest illusion agrees with our present practical life and with the superficial level at which our existence unfolds may justify the illusion, but it is also the Reason we are powerless to control life, for to see falsely is to live falsely.
The scientist, who is not hampered by appearances, sees better and controls better, but his vision, too, is incomplete and his control uncertain; he has not truly mastered life, not even physical forces, but is merely using some of their most obvious effects. Therefore this problem of vision is not just one of personal satisfaction; it is not a matter of seeing better in order to have lovely visions in rose or blue,
1.10 - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If this traditionlet us call it mystic or esoteric for want of a less abused wordwas already formed at the time of the Brahmanas and Upanishads, when and how did it originally arise? Two possibilities present themselves. The tradition may have grown up gradually in the period between the Vedic hymns and the exegetical writings or else the esoteric sense may have already existed in the Veda itself and descended in a stream of tradition to the later mystics, developing, modifying itself, substituting new terms for oldas is the way of traditions. The former is, practically, the European theory.We are told that this spiritual revolution, this movement away from ritual Nature-worship to Brahmavada, begun in the seed in the later Vedic hymns, is found in a more developed state in the Upanishads & culminated in Buddha. In these writings and in the Brahmanas some record can be found of the speculations by which the development was managed. If it prove to be so, if these ancient writings are really the result of progressive intellectual speculation departing from crude & imperfect beginnings of philosophic thought, the European theory justifies itself to the Reason and can no longer easily be disputed. But is this the true character of the Upanishads? It seems to me that in most of their dealings with our religions and our philosophical literature European scholars have erred by imposing their own familiar ideas and the limits of their own mentality on the history of an alien mentality and an alien development. Nowhere has this error been more evident than in the failure to realise the true nature of the Upanishads. In India we have never developed, but only affirmed thought by philosophical speculation, because we have never attached to the mere intellectual idea the amazingly exaggerated value which Europe has attached to it, but regarded it only as a test of the logical value to be attached to particular intellectual statements of truth. That is not truth to us which is merely well & justly thought out & can be justified by ratiocinative argument; only that is truth which has been lived & seen in the inner experience. We meditate not to get ideas, but in order to experience, to realise. When we speak of the Jnani, the knower, we do not mean a competent and logical thinker full of wise or of brilliant ideas, but a soul which has seen and lived & spoken in himself with the living truth. Ratiocination is freely used by the later philosophers, but only for the justification against opponents of the ideas already formed by their own meditation or the meditation of others, Rishis, gurus, ancient Vedantins; it is not itself a sufficient means towards the discovery of truth, but at best a help. The ideas of our great thinkers are not mere intellectual statements or even happy or great intuitions; they are based upon spiritual experiences formalised by the intellect into a philosophy. Shankaras passionate advocacy of the idea of Maya as an explanation of life was not merely the ardour of a great metaphysician enamoured of a beautiful idea or a perfect theory of life, but the passion of a man with a deep & vast spiritual experience which he believed to be the sole means of human salvation. Therefore philosophy in India, instead of tending as in Europe to ignore or combat religion, has always been itself deeply religious. In Europe Buddha and Shankara would have become the heads of metaphysical schools & ranked with Kant or Hegel or Nietzsche1 as strong intellectual influences; in India they became, inevitably, the founders of great religious sects, immense moral & spiritual forces;inevitably because Europe has made thought its highest & noblest aim, while India seeks not after thought but soul-vision and inner experience and even in the realm of ideas believes that they can & ought to be seen & lived inwardly rather than merely thought and allowed indirectly to influence outward action. This has been the mentality of our race for ages.Was the mentality of our Vedic forefa thers entirely different from our own? Was it, as Western scholars seem to insist, a European mentality, the mentality of incursive Western savages, (it is Sergis estimate of the Aryans), changed afterwards by the contact with the cultured & reflective Dravidians into something new and strange, rationality changing to mysticism, materialism to a metaphysical spirituality? If so, the change had already been effected when the Upanishads were written. We speak of the discussions in the Upanishads; but in all truth the twelve Upanishads contain not a single genuine discussion. Only once in that not inconsiderable mass of literature, is there something of the nature of logical argument brought to the support of a philosophical truth. The nature of debate or logical reasoning is absent from the mentality of the Upanishadic thinkers. The grand question they always asked each other was not What hast thou thought out in this matter? or What are thy reasonings & conclusions? but What dost thou know? What hast thou seen in thyself? The Vedantic like the Vedic Rishi is a drashta & srota, not a manota, a kavi, not a manishi. There is question, there is answer; but solely for the comparison of inner knowledge & experience; never for ratiocinative argument, for disputation, for the battles of the logician. Always, knowledge, spiritual vision, experience are what is demanded; and often a questioner is turned back because he is not yet prepared in soul to realise the knowledge of the master. For all knowledge is within us and needs only to be awakened by the fit touch which opens the eyes of the soul or by the powerful revealing word.We find throughout the Vedic era always the same method, always the same theory of knowledge; they persist indeed in India to the present day and later habits of metaphysical debate unknown to the Vedic Brahmavadins have never been able to dethrone them from their primaeval supremacy. Let a man present never so finely reasoned a system of metaphysical philosophy, few will turn to hear, none leave his labour to receive, but let a man say as in the old Vedantic times I have experienced, my soul has seen, & hundreds in India will yet leave all to share in this new light of the eternal Truth.
concrete visualisation & passion for his ideas & experiences which mark off the religious from the merely philosophical mind.
1.11 - GOOD AND EVIL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Covetousness, envy, pride and wrath are the four elements of self, or nature, or hell, all of them inseparable from it. And the Reason why it must be thus, and cannot be otherwise, is because the natural life of the creature is brought forth for the participation of some high supernatural good in the Creator. But it could have no fitness, no possible capacity to receive such good, unless it was in itself both an extremity of want and an extremity of desire for some high good. When therefore this natural life is deprived of or fallen from God, it can be nothing else in itself but an extremity of want continually desiring, and an extremity of desire continually wanting. And because it is that, its whole life can be nothing else but a plague and torment of covetousness, envy, pride and wrath, all which is precisely nature, self, or hell. Now covetousness, pride and envy are not three different things, but only three different names for the restless workings of one and the same will or desire. Wrath, which is a fourth birth from these three, can have no existence till one or all of these three are contradicted, or have something done to them that is contrary to their will. These four properties generate their own torment. They have no outward cause, nor any inward power of altering themselves. And therefore all self or nature must be in this state until some supernatural good comes into it, or gets a birth in it. Whilst man indeed lives among the vanities of time, his covetousness, envy, pride and wrath may be in a tolerable state, may hold him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have at times their gratifications as well as their torments. But when death has put an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, the soul that is not born again of the supernatural Word and Spirit of God, must find itself unavoidably devoured or shut up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting covetousness, envy, pride and wrath.
William Law
1.11 - On Intuitive Knowledge, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
There is a common impression that everything that we believe ought to be capable of proof, or at least of being shown to be highly probable. It is felt by many that a belief for which no reason can be given is an unreasonable belief. In the main, this view is just. Almost all our common beliefs are either inferred, or capable of being inferred, from other beliefs which may be regarded as giving the Reason for them. As a rule, the Reason has been forgotten, or has even never been consciously present to our minds. Few of us ever ask ourselves, for example, what reason there is to suppose the food we are just going to eat will not turn out to be poison. Yet we feel, when challenged, that a perfectly good reason could be found, even if we are not ready with it at the moment. And in this belief we are usually justified.
But let us imagine some insistent Socrates, who, whatever reason we give him, continues to demand a reason for the Reason. We must sooner or later, and probably before very long, be driven to a point where we cannot find any further reason, and where it becomes almost certain that no further reason is even theoretically discoverable. Starting with the common beliefs of daily life, we can be driven back from point to point, until we come to some general principle, or some instance of a general principle, which seems luminously evident, and is not itself capable of being deduced from anything more evident. In most questions of daily life, such as whether our food is likely to be nourishing and not poisonous, we shall be driven back to the inductive principle, which we discussed in Chapter VI. But beyond that, there seems to be no further regress. The principle itself is constantly used in our reasoning, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously; but there is no reasoning which, starting from some simpler self-evident principle, leads us to the principle of induction as its conclusion. And the same holds for other logical principles. Their truth is evident to us, and we employ them in constructing demonstrations; but they themselves, or at least some of them, are incapable of demonstration.
Self-evidence, however, is not confined to those among general principles which are incapable of proof. When a certain number of logical principles have been admitted, the rest can be deduced from them; but the propositions deduced are often just as self-evident as those that were assumed without proof. All arithmetic, moreover, can be deduced from the general principles of logic, yet the simple propositions of arithmetic, such as 'two and two are four', are just as self-evident as the principles of logic.
1.11 - The Change of Power, #On the Way to Supermanhood, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
So the seeker learns of Harmony. He learns it step by step, by trial and error, tiny little errors that sow disease and confusion. At this stage, the experience no longer takes place in the intellect or heart; it takes place in the body. There is a minute play of sensations, as fleeting as must have been the first quiver of the radiolarian under the temperature changes in the Gulf Stream, and as laden with physical consequences as a storm over the lovely wheat fields of the mind or a typhoon over the murky seas of the vital. We are so dense and blind on our higher levels that we need to be hit over the head to understand that the man in front of us is angry and that murder is lurking in those eyes so transparent. But matter is refined; the more we experience it, the more we discover its incredible receptivity, working in both directions, alas. A hundred times or a thousand times, the seeker is confronted with those microtyphoons, those minute whirlwinds that abruptly overturn the whole equilibrium of the being, becloud everything, give a taste of ashes and despair to the slightest gesture, decompose the air he breathes and decompose everything an instantaneous general decomposition for one second, ten seconds. A hardening of everything. The seeker is suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue; he sees illness coming and it is indeed coming straight at him. Which illness? The Illness. And just behind, lying in wait, death. In one second, ten seconds, one goes straight to the point; one touches the thing. It is right there, irrefutable: the whole mechanism out in the open, like a sudden call of death. Yet, outside, everything is the same. The circumstances are the same, the gestures the same; the sun still shines and the body comes and goes as usual. But everything is changed. It is a flash-death, an instantaneous cholera. Then it vanishes, dissipates like a cloud, one hardly knows why. But if one gives in, one truly falls ill, breaks a leg or has a real accident. And the seeker starts learning the Reason for those minuscule reversals of equilibrium. He tracks down a minuscule hell, which is perhaps the first seed of the great million-faced Evil, the first hardening of death's great blissful petrification. Everything is contained there, in a black spark. But the day we catch hold of that tiny poisonous vibration, we will have the secret of immortality, or at least that of the prolongation of life at will. We die because we give in, and we give in in thousands of little instances. The choice between death and immortality must be made again at every instant.
But this is still a negative and human way of approaching the experience. In fact, the Harmony, the marvelous Harmony that attends to everything, does not want to teach us the laws of hell, even a minute hell. It wants the sunlit law. It flings its typhoons and illnesses at us, casts us down into the black pit, only as much as is necessary for us to learn the lesson, not one minute more. And the second we have recaptured the speck of sun, the little note, the miraculous and tranquil little flowing in the heart of things, everything changes, is cured, tilts into the light an instantaneous miracle. Actually, it is not a miracle. The miracle is everywhere, at each instant; it is the very nature of the universe, its air, its sun, its breathing of harmony. Only we keep blocking the way, putting up our walls, our sciences, our millions of devices that know better than this Harmony. We must learn to let it flow freely, to let go there is no other secret. It does not push us down to crush us or punish us, but to teach us the technique of mastery. It wants us to be the true masters of its solar Secret, to be fully what we have always been, free and kings and joyous, and it will pound and pound our miserable secrets until we are forced to knock at its sunlit door, to open our hands and let its sweetness flow over the world and into our hearts.
1.11 - The Influence of the Sexes on Vegetation, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
chastity and more or less open debauchery, the Reason, as it
presents itself to the primitive mind, is perhaps not very far to
1.11 - The Kalki Avatar, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
exceptions. This may be is the Reason why Sri Aurobindo
wrote that the Avatars were generally recognized as such
--
life possible. This is the Reason why the Avatar of the Su-
permind, transcending the evolutionary sexuality, had to be
--
body being aware of it. (This may, moreover, be the Reason
that the light or aura of Shri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo is
1.11 - The Reason as Governor of Life, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:1.11 - the Reason as Governor of Life
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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The intellectual reason is not mans only means of knowledge. All action, all perception, all aesthesis and sensation, all impulse and will, all imagination and creation imply a universal, many-sided force of knowledge at work and each form or power of this knowledge has its own distinct nature and law, its own principle of order and arrangement, its logic proper to itself, and need not follow, still less be identical with the law of nature, order and arrangement which the intellectual reason would assign to it or itself follow if it had control of all these movements. But the intellect has this advantage over the others that it can disengage itself from the work, stand back from it to study and understand it disinterestedly, analyse its processes, disengage its principles. None of the other powers and faculties of the living being can do this: for each exists for its own action, is confined by the work it is doing, is unable to see beyond it, around it, into it as the Reason can; the principle of knowledge inherent within each force is involved and carried along in the action of the force, helps to shape it, but is also itself limited by its own formulations. It exists for the fulfilment of the action, not for knowledge, or for knowledge only as part of the action. Moreover, it is concerned only with the particular action or working of the moment and does not look back reflectively or forward intelligently or at other actions and forces with a power of clear coordination. No doubt, the other evolved powers of the living being, as for instance the instinct whether animal or human,the latter inferior precisely because it is disturbed by the questionings and seekings of reason,carry in themselves their own force of past experience, of instinctive self-adaptation, all of which is really accumulated knowledge, and they hold sometimes this store so firmly that they are transmitted as a sure inheritance from generation to generation. But all this, just because it is instinctive, not turned upon itself reflectively, is of great use indeed to life for the conduct of its operations, but of noneso long as it is not taken up by the Reason for the particular purpose man has in view, a new order of the dealings of the soul in Nature, a free, rational, intelligently coordinating, intelligently self-observing, intelligently experimenting mastery of the workings of force by the conscious spirit.
Reason, on the other hand, exists for the sake of knowledge, can prevent itself from being carried away by the action, can stand back from it, intelligently study, accept, refuse, modify, alter, improve, combine and recombine the workings and capacities of the forces in operation, can repress here, indulge there, strive towards an intelligent, intelligible, willed and organised perfection. Reason is science, it is conscious art, it is invention. It is observation and can seize and arrange truth of facts; it is speculation and can extricate and forecast truth of potentiality. It is the idea and its fulfilment, the ideal and its bringing to fruition. It can look through the immediate appearance and unveil the hidden truths behind it. It is the servant and yet the master of all utilities; and it can, putting away all utilities, seek disinterestedly Truth for its own sake and by finding it reveal a whole world of new possible utilities. Therefore it is the sovereign power by which man has become possessed of himself, student and master of his own forces, the godhead on which the other godheads in him have leaned for help in their ascent; it has been the Prometheus of the mythical parable, the helper, instructor, elevating friend, civiliser of mankind.
Recently, however, there has been a very noticeable revolt of the human mind against this sovereignty of the intellect, a dissatisfaction, as we might say, of the Reason with itself and its own limitations and an inclination to give greater freedom and a larger importance to other powers of our nature. The sovereignty of the Reason in man has been always indeed imperfect, in fact, a troubled, struggling, resisted and often defeated rule; but still it has been recognised by the best intelligence of the race as the authority and law-giver. Its only widely acknowledged rival has been faith. Religion alone has been strongly successful in its claim that reason must be silent before it or at least that there are fields to which it cannot extend itself and where faith alone ought to be heard; but for a time even Religion has had to forego or abate its absolute pretension and to submit to the sovereignty of the intellect. Life, imagination, emotion, the ethical and the aesthetic need have often claimed to exist for their own sake and to follow their own bent, practically they have often enforced their claim, but they have still been obliged in general to work under the inquisition and partial control of reason and to refer to it as arbiter and judge. Now, however, the thinking mind of the race has become more disposed to question itself and to ask whether existence is not too large, profound, complex and mysterious a thing to be entirely seized and governed by the powers of the intellect. Vaguely it is felt that there is some greater godhead than the Reason.
To some this godhead is Life itself or a secret Will in life; they claim that this must rule and that the intelligence is only useful in so far as it serves that and that Life must not be repressed, minimised and mechanised by the arbitrary control of reason. Life has greater powers in it which must be given a freer play; for it is they alone that evolve and create. On the other hand, it is felt that reason is too analytical, too arbitrary, that it falsifies life by its distinctions and set classifications and the fixed rules based upon them and that there is some profounder and larger power of knowledge, intuition or another, which is more deeply in the secrets of existence. This larger intimate power is more one with the depths and sources of existence and more able to give us the indivisible truths of life, its root realities and to work them out, not in an artificial and mechanical spirit but with a divination of the secret Will in existence and in a free harmony with its large, subtle and infinite methods. In fact, what the growing subjectivism of the human mind is beginning obscurely to see is that the one sovereign godhead is the soul itself which may use reason for one of its ministers, but cannot subject itself to its own intellectuality without limiting its potentialities and artificialising its conduct of existence.
The highest power of reason, because its pure and characteristic power, is the disinterested seeking after true knowledge. When knowledge is pursued for its own sake, then alone are we likely to arrive at true knowledge. Afterwards we may utilise that knowledge for various ends; but if from the beginning we have only particular ends in view, then we limit our intellectual gain, limit our view of things, distort the truth because we cast it into the mould of some particular idea or utility and ignore or deny all that conflicts with that utility or that set idea. By so doing we may indeed make the Reason act with great immediate power within the limits of the idea or the utility we have in view, just as instinct in the animal acts with great power within certain limits, for a certain end, yet finds itself helpless outside those limits. It is so indeed that the ordinary man uses his reasonas the animal uses his hereditary, transmitted instinctwith an absorbed devotion of it to the securing of some particular utility or with a useful but hardly luminous application of a customary and transmitted reasoning to the necessary practical interests of his life. Even the thinking man ordinarily limits his reason to the working out of certain preferred ideas; he ignores or denies all that is not useful to these or does not assist or justify or actually contradicts or seriously modifies them,except in so far as life itself compels or cautions him to accept modifications for the time being or ignore their necessity at his peril. It is in such limits that mans reason normally acts. He follows most commonly some interest or set of interests; he tramples down or through or ignores or pushes aside all truth of life and existence, truth of ethics, truth of beauty, truth of reason, truth of spirit which conflicts with his chosen opinions and interests; if he recognises these foreign elements, it is nominally, not in practice, or else with a distortion, a glossing which nullifies their consequences, perverts their spirit or whittles down their significance. It is this subjection to the interests, needs, instincts, passions, prejudices, traditional ideas and opinions of the ordinary mind1 which constitutes the irrationality of human existence.
But even the man who is capable of governing his life by ideas, who recognises, that is to say, that it ought to express clearly conceived truths and principles of his being or of all being and tries to find out or to know from others what these are, is not often capable of the highest, the free and disinterested use of his rational mind. As others are subject to the tyranny of their interests, prejudices, instincts or passions, so he is subjected to the tyranny of ideas. Indeed, he turns these ideas into interests, obscures them with his prejudices and passions and is unable to think freely about them, unable to distinguish their limits or the relation to them of other, different and opposite ideas and the equal right of these also to existence. Thus, as we constantly see, individuals, masses of men, whole generations are carried away by certain ethical, religious, aesthetic, political ideas or a set of ideas, espouse them with passion, pursue them as interests, seek to make them a system and lasting rule of life and are swept away in the drive of their action and do not really use the free and disinterested reason for the right knowledge of existence and for its right and sane government. The ideas are to a certain extent fulfilled, they triumph for a time, but their very success brings disappointment and disillusionment. This happens, first, because they can only succeed by compromises and pacts with the inferior, irrational life of man which diminish their validity and tarnish their light and glory. Often indeed their triumph is convicted of unreality, and doubt and disillusionment fall on the faith and enthusiasm which brought victory to their side. But even were it not so, the ideas themselves are partial and insufficient; not only have they a very partial triumph, but if their success were complete, it would still disappoint, because they are not the whole truth of life and therefore cannot securely govern and perfect life. Life escapes from the formulas and systems which our reason labours to impose on it; it proclaims itself too complex, too full of infinite potentialities to be tyrannised over by the arbitrary intellect of man.
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But behind all this continuity of failure there has persisted a faith that the Reason of man would end in triumphing over its difficulties, that it would purify and enlarge itself, become sufficient to its work and at last subject rebellious life to its control. For, apart from the stumbling action of the world, there has been a labour of the individual thinker in man and this has achieved a higher quality and risen to a loftier and clearer atmosphere above the general human thought-levels. Here there has been the work of a reason that seeks always after knowledge and strives patiently to find out truth for itself, without bias, without the interference of distorting interests, to study everything, to analyse everything, to know the principle and process of everything. Philosophy, Science, learning, the Reasoned arts, all the agelong labour of the critical reason in man have been the result of this effort. In the modern era under the impulsion of Science this effort assumed enormous proportions and claimed for a time to examine successfully and lay down finally the true principle and the sufficient rule of process not only for all the activities of Nature, but for all the activities of man. It has done great things, but it has not been in the end a success. The human mind is beginning to perceive that it has left the heart of almost every problem untouched and illumined only outsides and a certain range of processes. There has been a great and ordered classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence. It is a question whether the intellectual reason will ever be able to give us an adequate account of these deeper and greater things or subject them to the intelligent will as it has succeeded in explaining and canalising, though still imperfectly, yet with much show of triumphant result, the forces of physical Nature. But these other powers are much larger, subtler, deeper down, more hidden, elusive and variable than those of physical Nature.
The whole difficulty of the Reason in trying to govern our existence is that because of its own inherent limitations it is unable to deal with life in its complexity or in its integral movements; it is compelled to break it up into parts, to make more or less artificial classifications, to build systems with limited data which are contradicted, upset or have to be continually modified by other data, to work out a selection of regulated potentialities which is broken down by the bursting of a new wave of yet unregulated potentialities. It would almost appear even that there are two worlds, the world of ideas proper to the intellect and the world of life which escapes from the full control of the Reason, and that to bridge adequately the gulf between these two domains is beyond the power and province of the Reason and the intelligent will. It would seem that these can only create either a series of more or less empirical compromises or else a series of arbitrary and practically inapplicable or only partially applicable systems. the Reason of man struggling with life becomes either an empiric or a doctrinaire.
Reason can indeed make itself a mere servant of life; it can limit itself to the work the average normal man demands from it, content to furnish means and justifications for the interests, passions, prejudices of man and clo the them with a misleading garb of rationality or at most supply them with their own secure and enlightened order or with rules of caution and self-restraint sufficient to prevent their more egregious stumbles and most unpleasant consequences. But this is obviously to abdicate its throne or its highest office and to betray the hope with which man set forth on his journey. It may again determine to found itself securely on the facts of life, disinterestedly indeed, that is to say, with a dispassionate critical observation of its principles and processes, but with a prudent resolve not to venture too much forward into the unknown or elevate itself far beyond the immediate realities of our apparent or phenomenal existence. But here again it abdicates; either it becomes a mere critic and observer or else, so far as it tries to lay down laws, it does so within very narrow limits of immediate potentiality and it renounces mans drift towards higher possibilities, his saving gift of idealism. In this limited use of the Reason subjected to the rule of an immediate, an apparent vital and physical practicality man cannot rest long satisfied. For his nature pushes him towards the heights; it demands a constant effort of self-transcendence and the impulsion towards things unachieved and even immediately impossible.
On the other hand, when it attempts a higher action reason separates itself from life. Its very attempt at a disinterested and dispassionate knowledge carries it to an elevation where it loses hold of that other knowledge which our instincts and impulses carry within themselves and which, however imperfect, obscure and limited, is still a hidden action of the universal KnowledgeWill inherent in existence that creates and directs all things according to their nature. True, even Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. They fall into subjection to the tyranny of their own ideas, their partial systems, their hasty generalisations and by the innate drive of man towards practice they seek to impose these upon the life. But even so they enter into a world either of abstract ideas or of ideals or of rigid laws from which the complexity of life escapes. The idealist, the thinker, the philosopher, the poet and artist, even the moralist, all those who live much in ideas, when they come to grapple at close quarters with practical life, seem to find themselves something at a loss and are constantly defeated in their endeavour to govern life by their ideas. They exercise a powerful influence, but it is indirectly, more by throwing their ideas into Life which does with them what the secret Will in it chooses than by a direct and successfully ordered action. Not that the pure empiric, the practical man really succeeds any better by his direct action; for that too is taken by the secret Will in life and turned to quite other ends than the practical man had intended. On the contrary, ideals and idealists are necessary; ideals are the savour and sap of life, idealists the most powerful diviners and assistants of its purposes. But reduce your ideal to a system and it at once begins to fail; apply your general laws and fixed ideas systematically as the doctrinaire would do, and Life very soon breaks through or writhes out of their hold or transforms your system, even while it nominally exists, into something the originator would not recognise and would repudiate perhaps as the very contradiction of the principles which he sought to eternise.
The root of the difficulty is this that at the very basis of all our life and existence, internal and external, there is something on which the intellect can never lay a controlling hold, the Absolute, the Infinite. Behind everything in life there is an Absolute, which that thing is seeking after in its own way; everything finite is striving to express an infinite which it feels to be its real truth. Moreover, it is not only each class, each type, each tendency in Nature that is thus impelled to strive after its own secret truth in its own way, but each individual brings in his own variations. Thus there is not only an Absolute, an Infinite in itself which governs its own expression in many forms and tendencies, but there is also a principle of infinite potentiality and variation quite baffling to the Reasoning intelligence; for the Reason deals successfully only with the settled and the finite. In man this difficulty reaches its acme. For not only is mankind unlimited in potentiality; not only is each of its powers and tendencies seeking after its own absolute in its own way and therefore naturally restless under any rigid control by the Reason; but in each man their degrees, methods, combinations vary, each man belongs not only to the common humanity, but to the Infinite in himself and is therefore unique. It is because this is the reality of our existence that the intellectual reason and the intelligent will cannot deal with life as its sovereign, even though they may be at present our supreme instruments and may have been in our evolution supremely important and helpful. the Reason can govern, but only as a minister, imperfectly, or as a general arbiter and giver of suggestions which are not really supreme commands, or as one channel of the sovereign authority, because that hidden Power acts at present not directly but through many agents and messengers. The real sovereign is another than the Reasoning intelligence. Mans impulse to be free, master of Nature in himself and his environment cannot be really fulfilled until his self-consciousness has grown beyond the rational mentality, become aware of the true sovereign and either identified itself with him or entered into constant communion with his supreme will and knowledge.
The ordinary mind in man is not truly the thinking mind proper, it is a life-mind, a vital mind as we may call it, which has learned to think and even to reason but for its own ends and on its own lines, not on those of a true mind of knowledge.
1.11 - The Soul or the Astral Body, #Initiation Into Hermetics, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
Therefore this kind of aura is not to be compared with the astral matrix, because between these two conceptions there is a thumping difference. The astral matrix is the connecting substance between body and soul, whilst the aura is the emanation of the action o the elements in the various qualities, having its origin either in the active or in the passive form. This emanation in the whole soul produces a certain vibration corresponding to a certain colour. On the grounds of this colour, the adept can exactly recognize his own aura of that of another being with the astral eyes. Backed by this aura, the seer can establish not only a mans basic character, but he also can perceive the action or the polarity of the souls vibration, and influence it eventually. I shall speak of these problems in a more detailed way in a separate chapter relating to introspection. Hence, a mans temperament influences his character, and both together, in their effect as total result, are creating the emanation of the soul or the aura. This is also the Reason for high adepts or saints always being represented in the images with a halo identical to the aura we have described.
Besides the character, the temperament and the activity of the electromagnetic fluid, the astral body still has two centres in the brain, the cerebrum being the seat of normal consciousness, whilst in the cerebellum, there is the opposite to the normal consciousness, the sub-conscious. As to their functions, see the chapter concerning the Spirit.
1.1.2 - Commentary, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
These considerations justify to the Reason the idea of a Mind
beyond our mind, but only as a final evolution out of Matter. The
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by synthesis and analysis. the Reason of this entire inability
Kena and Other Upanishads: Part One
1.12 - Delight of Existence - The Solution, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
1:IN THIS conception of an inalienable underlying delight of existence of which all outward or surface sensations are a positive, negative or neutral play, waves and foamings of that infinite deep, we arrive at the true solution of the problem we are examining. The self of things is an infinite indivisible existence; of that existence the essential nature or power is an infinite imperishable force of self-conscious being; and of that self-consciousness the essential nature or knowledge of itself is, again, an infinite inalienable delight of being. In formlessness and in all forms, in the eternal awareness of infinite and indivisible being and in the multiform appearances of finite division this self-existence preserves perpetually its self-delight. As in the apparent inconscience of Matter our soul, growing out of its bondage to its own superficial habit and particular mode of self-conscious existence, discovers that infinite Conscious-Force constant, immobile, brooding, so in the apparent non-sensation of Matter it comes to discover and attune itself to an infinite conscious Delight imperturbable, ecstatic, all-embracing. This delight is its own delight, this self is its own self in all; but to our ordinary view of self and things which awakes and moves only upon surfaces, it remains hidden, profound, subconscious. And as it is within all forms, so it is within all experiences whether pleasant, painful or neutral. There too hidden, profound, subconscious, it is that which enables and compels things to remain in existence. It is the Reason of that clinging to existence, that overmastering will-to-be, translated vitally as the instinct of self-preservation, physically as the imperishability of matter, mentally as the sense of immortality which attends the formed existence through all its phases of self-development and of which even the occasional impulse of self-destruction is only a reverse form, an attraction to other state of being and a consequent recoil from present state of being. Delight is existence, Delight is the secret of creation, Delight is the root of birth, Delight is the cause of remaining in existence, Delight is the end of birth and that into which creation ceases. "From Ananda" says the Upanishad "all existences are born, by Ananda they remain in being and increase, to Ananda they depart."
2:As we look at these three aspects of essential Being, one in reality, triune to our mental view, separable only in appearance, in the phenomena of the divided consciousness, we are able to put in their right place the divergent formulae of the old philosophies so that they unite and become one, ceasing from their agelong controversy. For if we regard world-existence only in its appearances and only in its relation to pure, infinite, indivisible, immutable Existence, we are entitled to regard it, describe it and realise it as Maya. Maya in its original sense meant a comprehending and containing consciousness capable of embracing, measuring and limiting and therefore formative; it is that which outlines, measures out, moulds forms in the formless, psychologises and seems to make knowable the Unknowable, geometrises and seems to make measurable the limitless. Later the word came from its original sense of knowledge, skill, intelligence to acquire a pejorative sense of cunning, fraud or illusion, and it is in the figure of an enchantment or illusion that it is used by the philosophical systems.
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12:In regard to physical pleasure and pain, it is more difficult to apply the universal truth; for this is the very domain of the nerves and the body, the centre and seat of that in us whose nature is to be dominated by external contact and external pressure. Even here, however, we have glimpses of the truth. We see it in the fact that according to the habit the same physical contact can be either pleasurable or painful, not only to different individuals, but to the same individual under different conditions or at different stages of his development. We see it in the fact that men in periods of great excitement or high exaltation remain physically indifferent to pain or unconscious of pain under contacts which ordinarily would inflict severe torture or suffering. In many cases it is only when the nerves are able to reassert themselves and remind the mentality of its habitual obligation to suffer that the sense of suffering returns. But this return to the habitual obligation is not inevitable; it is only habitual. We see that in the phenomena of hypnosis not only can the hypnotised subject be successfully forbidden to feel the pain of a wound or puncture when in the abnormal state, but can be prevented with equal success from returning to his habitual reaction of suffering when he is awakened. the Reason of this phenomenon is perfectly simple; it is because the hypnotiser suspends the habitual waking consciousness which is the slave of nervous habits and is able to appeal to the subliminal mental being in the depths, the inner mental being who is master, if he wills, of the nerves and the body. But this freedom which is effected by hypnosis abnormally, rapidly, without true possession, by an alien will, may equally be won normally, gradually, with true possession, by one's own will so as to effect partially or completely a victory of the mental being over the habitual nervous reactions of the body.
13:Pain of mind and body is a device of Nature, that is to say, of Force in her works, meant to subserve a definite transitional end in her upward evolution. The world is from the point of view of the individual a play and complex shock of multitudinous forces. In the midst of this complex play the individual stands as a limited constructed being with a limited amount of force exposed to numberless shocks which may wound, maim, break up or disintegrate the construction which he calls himself. Pain is in the nature of a nervous and physical recoil from a dangerous or harmful contact; it is a part of what the Upanishad calls jugupsa, the shrinking of the limited being from that which is not himself and not sympathetic or in harmony with himself, its impulse of self-defence against "others". It is, from this point of view, an indication by Nature of that which has to be avoided or, if not successfully avoided, has to be remedied. It does not come into being in the purely physical world so long as life does not enter into it; for till then mechanical methods are sufficient. Its office begins when life with its frailty and imperfect possession of Matter enters on the scene; it grows with the growth of Mind in life. Its office continues so long as Mind is bound in the life and body which it is using, dependent upon them for its knowledge and means of action, subjected to their limitations and to the egoistic impulses and aims which are born of those limitations. But if and when Mind in man becomes capable of being free, unegoistic, in harmony with all other beings and with the play of the universal forces, the use and office of suffering diminishes, its raison d'etre must finally cease to be and it can only continue as an atavism of Nature, a habit that has survived its use, a persistence of the lower in the as yet imperfect organisation of the higher. Its eventual elimination must be an essential point in the destined conquest of the soul over subjection to Matter and egoistic limitation in Mind.
14:This elimination is possible because pain and pleasure themselves are currents, one imperfect, the other perverse, but still currents of the delight of existence. the Reason for this imperfection and this perversion is the self-division of the being in his consciousness by measuring and limiting Maya and in consequence an egoistic and piecemeal instead of a universal reception of contacts by the individual. For the universal soul all things and all contacts of things carry in them an essence of delight best described by the Sanskrit aesthetic term, rasa, which means at once sap or essence of a thing and its taste. It is because we do not seek the essence of the thing in its contact with us, but look only to the manner in which it affects our desires and fears, our cravings and shrinkings that grief and pain, imperfect and transient pleasure or indifference, that is to say, blank inability to seize the essence, are the forms taken by the Rasa. If we could be entirely disinterested in mind and heart and impose that detachment on the nervous being, the progressive elimination of these imperfect and perverse forms of Rasa would be possible and the true essential taste of the inalienable delight of existence in all its variations would be within our reach. We attain to something of this capacity for variable but universal delight in the aesthetic reception of things as represented by Art and Poetry, so that we enjoy there the Rasa or taste of the sorrowful, the terrible, even the horrible or repellent;2 and the Reason is because we are detached, disinterested, not thinking of ourselves or of self-defence (jugupsa), but only of the thing and its essence. Certainly, this aesthetic reception of contacts is not a precise image or reflection of the pure delight which is supramental and supra-aesthetic; for the latter would eliminate sorrow, terror, horror and disgust with their cause while the former admits them: but it represents partially and imperfectly one stage of the progressive delight of the universal Soul in things in its manifestation and it admits us in one part of our nature to that detachment from egoistic sensation and that universal attitude through which the one Soul sees harmony and beauty where we divided beings experience rather chaos and discord. The full liberation can come to us only by a similar liberation in all our parts, the universal aesthesis, the universal standpoint of knowledge, the universal detachment from all things and yet sympathy with all in our nervous and emotional being.
15:Since the nature of suffering is a failure of the consciousforce in us to meet the shocks of existence and a consequent shrinking and contraction and its root is an inequality of that receptive and possessing force due to our self-limitation by egoism consequent on the ignorance of our true Self, of Sachchidananda, the elimination of suffering must first proceed by the substitution of titiks.a, the facing, enduring and conquest of all shocks of existence for jugupsa, the shrinking and contraction: by this endurance and conquest we proceed to an equality which may be either an equal indifference to all contacts or an equal gladness in all contacts; and this equality again must find a firm foundation in the substitution of the Sachchidananda consciousness which is All-Bliss for the ego-consciousness which enjoys and suffers. The Sachchidananda consciousness may be transcendent of the universe and aloof from it, and to this state of distant Bliss the path is equal indifference; it is the path of the ascetic. Or the Sachchidananda consciousness may be at once transcendent and universal; and to this state of present and all-embracing Bliss the path is surrender and loss of the ego in the universal and possession of an all-pervading equal delight; it is the path of the ancient Vedic sages. But neutrality to the imperfect touches of pleasure and the perverse touches of pain is the first direct and natural result of the soul's self-discipline and the conversion to equal delight can, usually, come only afterwards. The direct transformation of the triple vibration into Ananda is possible, but less easy to the human being.
1.12 - God Departs, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
In the chapter on Talks I have indicated that in the late forties we began to notice a change coming over Sri Aurobindo. He was becoming more and more silent, aloof, as if deeply preoccupied with some problem and the talks were less and less frequent till they ceased almost completely. Many were the days when we hardly exchanged a word. We were attending on a god who had suddenly become aware of his true identity and would now escape from his human bondage. The contrast between the past years of abundance and the present years of famine was so striking that our minds were rife with all sorts of speculations as to the Reason of this ominous silence. Was it a terrestrial problem or a supraterrestrial one? Could there have been any possible dereliction of duty on our part? Was it due to the increasing symptoms of the disease that had now lodged in his body? As regards terrestrial affairs, the War had come to a successful completion, India had gained her freedom, for both of which he had worked incessantly. The supraphysical was out of our ken; so we could lay our finger only on the physical world. But that would be a very tenuous ground indeed on which to build our conjecture, for Sri Aurobindo certainly was the last Person to be perturbed by mere physical troubles, however serious they might be. Besides, he had cured this disease when it appeared the first time. Surely he could do it again, if that was the real issue! What ailed him then? Or was the disease more serious?
Let us go back to the origin of his illness and follow the sequence of events that ended with his leaving the physical sheath and were apparently its cause and try to discover the truth behind the appearance. One day we came to notice that Sri Aurobindo's urination had increased in freqency. He wanted to know the Reason. The urine was examined and found to have an excessive amount of sugar with a trace of albumin. I reported the result to the Mother in Sri Aurobindo's presence and said, "It looks like diabetes." The Mother sharply retorted, "It is not diabetes." "What is it then?" I asked myself. The Mother, however, reduced considerably the amount of starchy food, particularly rice and sweets for which Sri Aurobindo seemed to have a liking. For his age and his sedentary life, so much carbohydrate was surely bad. He could hardly now walk 6-7 hours a day as he used to. I was asked to examine the urine every week and apprise him of the result. In a few weeks' time it became sugar-free but the frequency did not altogether disappear. Sri Aurobindo too had noticed it. It made me suspect some mild prostatic enlargement. When Dr. P. Sanyal, F. R. C. S., England, paid a visit to the Ashram, I consulted him and at my request Sri Aurobindo, saw him. After an enquiry he confirmed my suspicion, but added that it was just at the initial stage. He told Sri Aurobindo of the nature, course and complications of the disease, ultimately operation being the only radical cure. After a few months, on Sanyal's second visit, Sri Aurobindo told him emphatically, "It is no more troubling me. I have cured it." Our faith in the action of the Force was fortified and we felt no anxiety.
We could not say then that this change of mood had any connection with the disease. Not only with us, but with the Mother too, he became very reticent. However, with regard to his work, there was no flagging. Even when a little time was at our disposal and I was reluctant to bring out the numerous files containing the Savitri manuscript, just for half an hour, he would say, "We shall work a little." This provoked my other colleagues, particularly Champaklal, to an impish mirth, for they loved work and I did not, at least I did not then. And almost till his withdrawal the miscellaneous literary works and the labour on Savitri were carried on in full swing in spite of the discomfort caused by the gradual increase of the symptoms. In addition to these, when at this stage an importunate call came from an outside sadhika in Northern India to save her life from a dreaded and strange illness, he took great pains to cure her, especially as she was an intimate friend of an old sadhak who had made a desperate appeal to Sri Aurobindo's compassion. The story is rather long but intriguing. The doctors, as usual, differed about the diagnosis. Cancer, ulcer, T. B., none was found to be the case. One prominent symptom was profuse bleeding through the mouth but without any definite lesion of any organ. All kinds of tests and treatment failed. At last the patient gave up all treatment and said that she would depend entirely on Sri Aurobindo, even if she were to die. Sri Aurobindo then took up the responsibility at the supplication of the sadhak-bhakta, I believe, but on one condition that regular news must be supplied to him. The bhakta himself went from Pondicherry to the patient's place with a view to fulfil the condition. News began to stream in by letters, wires about her daily progress. Suddenly it stopped. Sri Aurobindo became anxious and enquired again and again if any news had come. I tried to plead on their behalf and give the usual excuses for the delay. At last he remarked, "How am I to save her if I have no news?" After two or three days, information began to flow in and very soon the patient recovered completely and came to settle in the Ashram. Her illness turned out to be a case of black magic. That is why the symptoms were erratic and there was no definite lesion in spite of their gravity. That was what probably made Sri Aurobindo so anxious about the case. We modern people may scoff at such unscientific superstition, but in this case, there was very solid ground in favour of such a belief. Though Sri Aurobindo took charge of the case, at each fresh arrival of news, he would ask me to keep the Mother informed. "Have you informed the Mother?" he would repeat. I did not understand why he was so insistent on the point; it was not his nature. Did he suspect that I might not, and I really felt no necessity, such was my human stupidity, trying to be wiser than the Guru! the Reason for it became clear when he left the body. He had already taken the decision and wanted the Mother to know all about the case in anticipation of possible future developments.
The revision of Savitri was going on apace with regular unabated vigour. Book after Book was getting done and fascicules of them released for publication. Some 400-500 lines of The Book of Everlasting Day were dictated on successive days, since we could not spare more than an hour a day for the monumental work and that too had often to be cut short to meet other demands. We were, nevertheless, progressing quite steadily. I marvelled at the smooth spontaneous flow of verse after verse of remarkable beauty. Once I had complained to him in my correspondence why, having all the planes of inspiration at his command, should he still labour like us mortals at his Savitri.Why should not the inspiration burst out like the "champagne bottle"? Now I witnessed that miracle and imagined that it also must have been the way Valmiki composed his Ramayana. At this rate, I thought, Savitri would not take long to finish. On everyone's lips was the eager query, "How far are you with Savitri?"
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At last the clue to a part of the enigma was found, the Reason why the disease had come back and progressed. But the big mystery as to his strange attitude and non-intervention still remains. The increasing gravity of the disease was visible in three clear stages concomitant with the completion of Savitri, the Darshan and the School Anniversary, each progressive stage followed by a deeper and deeper trance. It was probably at the second stage that the Mother remarked, "Each time I enter his room, I see him pulling down the Supramental Light." Evidently, he had fixed the date of his departure and was pulling down the highest Light before the curtain fell. We misinterpreted the Mother's words to mean that the descending Light was meant to cure him. After an hour in the chair he went back to bed, serene and majestic in poise. Sanyal even held a brief talk about Bengal's pitiable plight. But the Mother knew the truth behind the appearance.
Since midday the symptoms were on the increase, particularly the breathing difficulty; urine output definitely diminished. That was an alarming signal. We decided to make a thorough blood analysis. Sri Aurobindo consented after a great deal of reluctance. Our poor human vision! It was a Sunday; the General Hospital was closed. Dr. Nripendra and I hunted out the laboratory assistant; he took some blood from Sri Aurobindo's imperceptible vein. The punctures were painful to the sensitive body which was getting transformed. The result of the examination staggered us. All the signs of imminent kidney failure and nothing to be done! As a last resort we had to give some drugs. He was now always indrawn, and only woke up whenever he was called for a drink. That confirmed the Mother's observation that he was fully conscious within and disproved the idea that he was in uraemic coma. Throughout the entire course of the illness he was never unconscious.
1.1.2 - Intellect and the Intellectual, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The power to discuss and debate is, as I say, a common human faculty and habit. Perhaps it is here that man begins to diverge from the animal; for animals have much intelligencemany animals and even insectseven some rudimentary power of practical reasoning, but so far as we know, they dont meet and put their ideas about things side by side or sling them at each other in a debate,1 as even the most ignorant human can do and very animatedly does. There too is the beginning of intellect for the Reasons you allege. Also for the Reason that it is a common faculty of the race, it can be specialised, so much so that a man whom it is dangerous to cross in debate in the field of literature or of science or of philosophy may yet make a fool of himself and wallow contentedly in a quagmire of blunders and fallacies if he discusses politics or economy or, let us say, spirituality or Yoga. His only salvation is the blissful depth of his ignorance which prevents him from seeing what a mess he has made. Again a man may be a keen legal or political debater,the two very commonly go together,yet no intellectual. I admit that a man must have some logical intellect to debate well. But after all the object of debate is to win, to make your point and you may do that even if your point is false; success, not truth, is the aim of debate. So I admit what you say, but with reservations.
I agree also that labels are unsatisfactoryeven when applied to less developed persons; what we really do is to pick out something prominent and label with that as if it were all the person. But classification is impossible without that and mans intellect is driven always to classify, fix distinctions, set apart with a label. The philosophers have pointed out that Science does that too rigidly and in doing so cuts falsely across the truth of Nature. But if we dont do that, we cant have any Science.
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Ys distinction is based on those I have made here, but these distinctions are not current in ordinary speech, except one or two and those even in a very imperfect way. If I go by these distinctions, then the intellectuals will no longer be called intellectuals but thinkers and creatorsexcept a certain class of them. An intellectual or intellectual thinker will then be one who is a thinker by his reason or mainly by his reasone.g. Bertr and Russell, Bernard Shaw, Wells etc. Tagore thinks by vision, imagination, feeling or by intuition, not by the Reasonat least that is true of his writings. C. R. Das himself would not be an intellectual; in politics, literature and everything else he was an intuitive and emotive man. But, as I say, these would be distinctions not ordinarily current. In ordinary parlance Tagore, Das and everybody else of the kind would all be called intellectuals. The general mind does not make these subtle distinctions: it takes things in the mass, roughly and it is right in doing so, for otherwise it would lose itself altogether.
As for barristers etc., a man to succeed as a barrister must have legal knowledge and the power to apply it. It is not necessary that he should be a thinker even in his own subject or an intellectual. It is the same with all professional mendoctors, engineers etc. etc.: they may be intellectuals as well as successful in their profession, but they need not be.
1.12 - The Office and Limitations of the Reason, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:1.12 - The Office and Limitations of the Reason
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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If the Reason is not the sovereign master of our being nor even intended to be more than an intermediary or minister, it cannot succeed in giving a perfect law to the other estates of the realm, although it may impose on them a temporary and imperfect order as a passage to a higher perfection. The rational or intellectual man is not the last and highest ideal of manhood, nor would a rational society be the last and highest expression of the possibilities of an aggregate human life,unless indeed we give to this word, reason, a wider meaning than it now possesses and include in it the combined wisdom of all our powers of knowledge, those which stand below and above the understanding and logical mind as well as this strictly rational part of our nature. The Spirit that manifests itself in man and dominates secretly the phases of his development, is greater and profounder than his intellect and drives towards a perfection that cannot be shut in by the arbitrary constructions of the human reason.
Meanwhile, the intellect performs its function; it leads man to the gates of a greater self-consciousness and places him with unbandaged eyes on that wide threshold where a more luminous Angel has to take him by the hand. It takes first the lower powers of his existence, each absorbed in its own urge, each striving with a blind self-sufficiency towards the fulfilment of its own instincts and primary impulses; it teaches them to understand themselves and to look through the reflecting eyes of the intelligence on the laws of their own action. It enables them to discern intelligently the high in themselves from the low, the pure from the impure and out of a crude confusion to arrive at more and more luminous formulas of their possibilities. It gives them self-knowledge and is a guide, teacher, purifier, liberator. For it enables them also to look beyond themselves and at each other and to draw upon each other for fresh motives and a richer working. It streng thens and purifies the hedonistic and the aesthetic activities and softens their quarrel with the ethical mind and instinct; it gives them solidity and seriousness, brings them to the support of the practical and dynamic powers and allies them more closely to the strong actualities of life. It sweetens the ethical will by infusing into it psychic, hedonistic and aesthetic elements and ennobles by all these separately or together the practical, dynamic and utilitarian temperament of the human being. At the same time it plays the part of a judge and legislator, seeks to fix rules, provide systems and regularised combinations which shall enable the powers of the human soul to walk by a settled path and act according to a sure law, an ascertained measure and in a balanced rhythm. Here it finds after a time that its legislative action becomes a force for limitation and turns into a bondage and that the regularised system which it has imposed in the interests of order and conservation becomes a cause of petrifaction and the sealing up of the fountains of life. It has to bring in its own saving faculty of doubt. Under the impulse of the intelligence warned by the obscure revolt of the oppressed springs of life, ethics, aesthetics, the social, political, economic rule begin to question themselves and, if this at first brings in again some confusion, disorder and uncertainty, yet it awakens new movements of imagination, insight, self-knowledge and self-realisation by which old systems and formulas are transformed or disappear, new experiments are made and in the end larger potentialities and combinations are brought into play. By this double action of the intelligence, affirming and imposing what it has seen and again in due season questioning what has been accomplished in order to make a new affirmation, fixing a rule and order and liberating from rule and order, the progress of the race is assured, however uncertain may seem its steps and stages.
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This view of human life and of the process of our development, to which subjectivism readily leads us, gives us a truer vision of the place of the intellect in the human movement. We have seen that the intellect has a double working, dispassionate and interested, self-centred or subservient to movements not its own. The one is a disinterested pursuit of truth for the sake of Truth and of knowledge for the sake of Knowledge without any ulterior motive, with every consideration put away except the rule of keeping the eye on the object, on the fact under enquiry and finding out its truth, its process, its law. The other is coloured by the passion for practice, the desire to govern life by the truth discovered or the fascination of an idea which we labour to establish as the sovereign law of our life and action. We have seen indeed that this is the superiority of reason over the other faculties of man that it is not confined to a separate absorbed action of its own, but plays upon all the others, discovers their law and truth, makes its discoveries serviceable to them and even in pursuing its own bent and end serves also their ends and arrives at a catholic utility. Man in fact does not live for knowledge alone; life in its widest sense is his principal preoccupation and he seeks knowledge for its utility to life much more than for the pure pleasure of acquiring knowledge. But it is precisely in this putting of knowledge at the service of life that the human intellect falls into that confusion and imperfection which pursues all human action. So long as we pursue knowledge for its own sake, there is nothing to be said: the Reason is performing its natural function; it is exercising securely its highest right. In the work of the philosopher, the scientist, the savant labouring to add something to the stock of our ascertainable knowledge, there is as perfect a purity and satisfaction as in that of the poet and artist creating forms of beauty for the aesthetic delight of the race. Whatever individual error and limitation there may be, does not matter; for the collective and progressive knowledge of the race has gained the truth that has been discovered and may be trusted in time to get rid of the error. It is when it tries to apply ideas to life that the human intellect stumbles and finds itself at fault.
Ordinarily, this is because in concerning itself with action the intelligence of man becomes at once partial and passionate and makes itself the servant of something other than the pure truth. But even if the intellect keeps itself as impartial and disinterested as possible, and altogether impartial, altogether disinterested the human intellect cannot be unless it is content to arrive at an entire divorce from practice or a sort of large but ineffective tolerantism, eclecticism or sceptical curiosity,still the truths it discovers or the ideas it promulgates become, the moment they are applied to life, the plaything of forces over which the Reason has little control. Science pursuing its cold and even way has made discoveries which have served on one side a practical humanitarianism, on the other supplied monstrous weapons to egoism and mutual destruction; it has made possible a gigantic efficiency of organisation which has been used on one side for the economic and social amelioration of the nations and on the other for turning each into a colossal battering-ram of aggression, ruin and slaughter. It has given rise on the one side to a large rationalistic and altruistic humanitarianism, on the other it has justified a godless egoism, vitalism, vulgar will to power and success. It has drawn mankind together and given it a new hope and at the same time crushed it with the burden of a monstrous commercialism. Nor is this due, as is so often asserted, to its divorce from religion or to any lack of idealism. Idealistic philosophy has been equally at the service of the powers of good and evil and provided an intellectual conviction both for reaction and for progress. Organised religion itself has often enough in the past hounded men to crime and massacre and justified obscurantism and oppression.
The truth is that upon which we are now insisting, that reason is in its nature an imperfect light with a large but still restricted mission and that once it applies itself to life and action it becomes subject to what it studies and the servant and counsellor of the forces in whose obscure and ill-understood struggle it intervenes. It can in its nature be used and has always been used to justify any idea, theory of life, system of society or government, ideal of individual or collective action to which the will of man attaches itself for the moment or through the centuries. In philosophy it gives equally good reasons for monism and pluralism or for any halting-place between them, for the belief in Being or for the belief in Becoming, for optimism and pessimism, for activism and quietism. It can justify the most mystic religionism and the most positive atheism, get rid of God or see nothing else. In aesthetics it supplies the basis equally for classicism and romanticism, for an idealistic, religious or mystic theory of art or for the most earthy realism. It can with equal power base austerely a strict and narrow moralism or prove triumphantly the thesis of the antinomian. It has been the sufficient and convincing prophet of every kind of autocracy or oligarchy and of every species of democracy; it supplies excellent and satisfying reasons for competitive individualism and equally excellent and satisfying reasons for communism or against communism and for State socialism or for one variety of socialism against another. It can place itself with equal effectivity at the service of utilitarianism, economism, hedonism, aestheticism, sensualism, ethicism, idealism or any other essential need or activity of man and build around it a philosophy, a political and social system, a theory of conduct and life. Ask it not to lean to one idea alone, but to make an eclectic combination or a synthetic harmony and it will satisfy you; only, there being any number of possible combinations or harmonies, it will equally well justify the one or the other and set up or throw down any one of them according as the spirit in man is attracted to or withdraws from it. For it is really that which decides and the Reason is only a brilliant servant and minister of this veiled and secret sovereign.
This truth is hidden from the rationalist because he is supported by two constant articles of faith, first that his own reason is right and the Reason of others who differ from him is wrong, and secondly that whatever may be the present deficiencies of the human intellect, the collective human reason will eventually arrive at purity and be able to found human thought and life securely on a clear rational basis entirely satisfying to the intelligence. His first article of faith is no doubt the common expression of our egoism and arrogant fallibility, but it is also something more; it expresses this truth that it is the legitimate function of the Reason to justify to man his action and his hope and the faith that is in him and to give him that idea and knowledge, however restricted, and that dynamic conviction, however narrow and intolerant, which he needs in order that he may live, act and grow in the highest light available to him. the Reason cannot grasp all truth in its embrace because truth is too infinite for it; but still it does grasp the something of it which we immediately need, and its insufficiency does not detract from the value of its work, but is rather the measure of its value. For man is not intended to grasp the whole truth of his being at once, but to move towards it through a succession of experiences and a constant, though not by any means a perfectly continuous self-enlargement. The first business of reason then is to justify and enlighten to him his various experiences and to give him faith and conviction in holding on to his self-enlargings. It justifies to him now this, now that, the experience of the moment, the receding light of the past, the half-seen vision of the future. Its inconstancy, its divisibility against itself, its power of sustaining opposite views are the whole secret of its value. It would not do indeed for it to support too conflicting views in the same individual, except at moments of awakening and transition, but in the collective body of men and in the successions of Time that is its whole business. For so man moves towards the infinity of the Truth by the experience of its variety; so his reason helps him to build, change, destroy what he has built and prepare a new construction, in a word, to progress, grow, enlarge himself in his self-knowledge and world-knowledge and their works.
The second article of faith of the believer in reason is also an error and yet contains a truth. the Reason cannot arrive at any final truth because it can neither get to the root of things nor embrace the totality of their secrets; it deals with the finite, the separate, the limited aggregate, and has no measure for the all and the infinite. Nor can reason found a perfect life for man or a perfect society. A purely rational human life would be a life baulked and deprived of its most powerful dynamic sources; it would be a substitution of the minister for the sovereign. A purely rational society could not come into being and, if it could be born, either could not live or would sterilise and petrify human existence. The root powers of human life, its intimate causes are below, irrational, and they are above, suprarational. But this is true that by constant enlargement, purification, openness the Reason of man is bound to arrive at an intelligent sense even of that which is hidden from it, a power of passive, yet sympathetic reflection of the Light that surpasses it. Its limit is reached, its function is finished when it can say to man, There is a Soul, a Self, a God in the world and in man who works concealed and all is his self-concealing and gradual self-unfolding. His minister I have been, slowly to unseal your eyes, remove the thick integuments of your vision until there is only my own luminous veil between you and him. Remove that and make the soul of man one in fact and nature with this Divine; then you will know yourself, discover the highest and widest law of your being, become the possessors or at least the receivers and instruments of a higher will and knowledge than mine and lay hold at last on the true secret and the whole sense of a human and yet divine living.
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1.12 - The Sacred Marriage, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
and catch many fish. the Reason for choosing the brides so young was
to make sure that they were virgins. The origin of the custom is
1.12 - The Sociology of Superman, #On the Way to Supermanhood, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
We have been so thoroughly mechanized, exteriorized, projected outside ourselves by our habit of depending on one mechanical device or another that our very first reflex is always to look for the external means, that is, an artifice, for all external means are artificial, part of the old falsehood. We will therefore be tempted to spread the idea, the Enterprise, through all the existing publicity channels, in short, to attract as many supporters of the new hope as possible which will quickly become a new religion. Here it may be appropriate to quote Sri Aurobindo and to drive home positively and forcefully his categorical statement: I don't believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their chest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhere or it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other damned nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy or silence. It is what has happened to the religions and is the Reason of their failure.31 True, ultimately all men, the entire earth belong to supermanhood, but the ABC's of the new consciousness, its governing principle, is diversity in Unity and to try to confine the superman in advance to a ready-made setting, a privileged environment, an allegedly unique and more enlightened location is to fall back into the old farce and once again inflate the old human ego. To be sure, the law of Harmony will work in thousands of ways and in thousands of disguises, ultimately gathering the myriad notes of its great indivisible flow into a vaster space without boundaries. The Enterprise will be born everywhere at once it is already born, whispering here and there, blindly banging against walls and will gradually unveil its true face only when men are no longer able to trap it in a system, logic or shrine when everything here below is a shrine, in every heart and every country. And men shall not even know how they were prepared for such a Marvel.
Those who know a little, who feel, who have begun to perceive the great Wave of Truth, will therefore not fall into the trap of superman recruiting. The earth is unequally prepared; men are spiritually unequal despite all our democratic protests to the contrary though they are essentially equal and vast in the great Self, and only one body with millions of faces they have not all become the greatness that they are. They are on the way, and some dawdle while others seem to travel more swiftly, but the detours of the former are also part of the great geography of our indivisible domain, their delay or the brake they seem to apply to our motion is part of the fullness of perfection that we seek and which compels us to a greater meticulousness of truth. They too are going there, by their own way and what is outside the way, in the end, since everything is the Way? He who knows a little, who feels, knows first and foremost, from having experienced it in his own flesh, that men are never truly brought together by artifices and when they persist in their artifice, everything finally collapses and the meeting is brief; the beautiful school, the lovely sect, the little iridescent bubble of a moment's enthusiasm or faith is short-lived they are brought together through a finer and more discreet law, a tiny little searchlight across time and space, and touches a similar ray here and there, a twin frequency, a light source with the same intensity and he goes. He goes haphazardly, takes a train, a plane, travels to this country and that one, believes he is searching for this or that, that he is in quest of adventure, the exotic, drugs or philosophy he believes. He believes a lot of things. He thinks he has to have this power or that solution, this panacea or that revolution, this slogan or that one. He thinks he set out because of that thirst or revolt, that unhappy love affair or need for action, this hope or that old insoluble discord in his heart. But then, there is none of that! One day he stops, without knowing why, without planning to be there, without having looked for that place or that face, that insignificant village under the stars of one hemisphere or the other and there it is. He has arrived. He has opened his one door, found his kindred fire, that look forever known; and he is exactly at the right place, at the right time, to do the right work. The world is a fabulous clockwork, if only we knew the secret of those little fires glowing in another space, dancing on a great inner sea where our skiffs sail as if guided by an invisible beacon.
1.12 - TIME AND ETERNITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
In the idealistic cosmology of Mahayana Buddhism memory plays the part of a rather maleficent demiurge. When the triple world is surveyed by the Bodhisattva, he perceives that its existence is due to memory that has been accumulated since the beginningless past, but wrongly interpreted. (Lankavatara Sutra), The word here translated as memory, means literally perfuming. The mind-body carried with it the ineradicable smell of all that has been thought and done, desired and felt, throughout its racial and personal past. The Chinese translate the Sanskrit term by two symbols, signifying habit-energy. The world is what (in our eyes) it is, because of all the consciously or unconsciously and physiologically remembered habits formed by our ancestors or by ourselves, either in our present life or in previous existences. These remembered bad habits cause us to believe that multiplicity is the sole reality and that the idea of I, me, mine represents the ultimate truth. Nirvana consists in seeing into the abode of reality as it is, and not reality quoad nos, as it seems to us. Obviously, this cannot be achieved so long as there is an us, to which reality can be relative. Hence the need, stressed by every exponent of the Perennial Philosophy, for mortification, for dying to self. And this must be a mortification not only of the appetites, the feelings and the will, but also of the Reasoning powers, of consciousness itself and of that which makes our consciousness what it isour personal memory and our inherited habit-energies. To achieve complete deliverance, conversion from sin is not enough; there must also be a conversion of the mind, a paravritti, as the Mahayanists call it, or revulsion in the very depths of consciousness. As the result of this revulsion, the habit-energies of accumulated memory are destroyed and, along with them, the sense of being a separate ego. Reality is no longer perceived quoad nos (for the good reason that there is no longer a nos to perceive it), but as it is in itself. In Blakes words, If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would be seen as it is, infinite. By those who are pure in heart and poor in spirit, Samsara and Nirvana, appearance and reality, time and eternity are experienced as one and the same.
Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time. And not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections; not only temporal affections but the very taint and smell of time.
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For those whose philosophy does not compel them to take time with an excessive seriousness the ultimate good is to be sought neither in the revolutionarys progressive social apocalypse, nor in the reactionarys revived and perpetuated past, but in an eternal divine now which those who sufficiently desire this good can realize as a fact of immediate experience. The mere act of dying is not in itself a passport to eternity; nor can wholesale killing do anything to bring deliverance either to the slayers or the slain or their posterity. The peace that passes all understanding is the fruit of liberation into eternity; but in its ordinary everyday form peace is also the root of liberation. For where there are violent passions and compelling distractions, this ultimate good can never be realized. That is one of the Reasons why the policy correlated with eternity-philosophies is tolerant and non-violent. The other reason is that the eternity, whose realization is the ultimate good, is a kingdom of heaven within. Thou art That; and though That is immortal and impassible, the killing and torturing of individual thous is a matter of cosmic significance, inasmuch as it interferes with the normal and natural relationship between individual souls and the divine eternal Ground of all being. Every violence is, over and above everything else, a sacrilegious rebellion against the divine order.
Passing now from theory to historical fact, we find that the religions, whose theology has been least preoccupied with events in time and most concerned with eternity, have been consistently the least violent and the most humane in political practice. Unlike early Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism (all of them obsessed with time), Hinduism and Buddhism have never been persecuting faiths, have preached almost no holy wars and have refrained from that proselytizing religious imperialism, which has gone hand in hand with the political and economic oppression c the coloured peoples. For four hundred years, from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, most of the Christian nations of Europe have spent a good part of their time and energy in attacking, conquering and exploiting their non-Christian neighbours in other continents. In the course of these centuries many individual churchmen did their best to mitigate the consequences of such iniquities; but none of the major Christian churches officially condemned them. The first collective protest against the slave system, introduced by the English and the Spaniards into the New World, was made in 1688 by the Quaker Meeting of Germantown. This fact is highly significant. Of all Christian sects in the seventeenth century, the Quakers were the least obsessed with history, the least addicted to the idolatry of things in time. They believed that the inner light was in all human beings and that salvation came to those who lived in conformity with that light and was not dependent on the profession of belief in historical or pseudo-historical events, nor on the performance of certain rites, nor on the support of a particular ecclesiastical organization. Moreover their eternity-philosophy preserved them from the materialistic apocalypticism of that progress-worship which in recent times has justified every kind of iniquity from war and revolution to sweated labour, slavery and the exploitation of savages and childrenhas justified them on the ground that the supreme good is in future time and that any temporal means, however intrinsically horrible, may be used to achieve that good. Because Quaker theology was a form of eternity-philosophy, Quaker political theory rejected war and persecution as means to ideal ends, denounced slavery and proclaimed racial equality. Members of other denominations had done good work for the African victims of the white mans rapacity. One thinks, for example, of St. Peter Claver at Cartagena. But this heroically charitable slave of the slaves never raised his voice against the institution of slavery or the criminal trade by which it was sustained; nor, so far as the extant documents reveal, did he ever, like John Woolman, attempt to persuade the slave-owners to free their human chattels. the Reason, presumably, was that Claver was a Jesuit, vowed to perfect obedience and constrained by his theology to regard a certain political and ecclesiastical organization as being the mystical body of Christ. The heads of this organization had not pronounced against slavery or the slave trade. Who was he, Pedro Claver, to express a thought not officially approved by his superiors?
Another practical corollary of the great historical eternity-philosophies, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, is a morality inculcating kindness to animals. Judaism and orthodox Christianity taught that animals might be used as things, for the realization of mans temporal ends. Even St. Francis attitude towards the brute creation was not entirely unequivocal. True, he converted a wolf and preached sermons to birds; but when Brother Juniper hacked the feet off a living pig in order to satisfy a sick mans craving for fried trotters, the saint merely blamed his disciples intemperate zeal in damaging a valuable piece of private property. It was not until the nineteenth century, when orthodox Christianity had lost much of its power over European minds, that the idea that it might be a good thing to behave humanely towards animals began to make headway. This new morality was correlated with the new interest in Nature, which had been stimulated by the romantic poets and the men of science. Because it was not founded upon an eternity-philosophy, a doctrine of divinity dwelling in all living creatures, the modern movement in favour of kindness to animals was and is perfectly compatible with intolerance, persecution and systematic cruelty towards human beings. Young Nazis are taught to be gentle with dogs and cats, ruthless with Jews. That is because Nazism is a typical time-philosophy, which regards the ultimate good as existing, not in eternity, but in the future. Jews are, ex hypothesi, obstacles in the way of the realization of the supreme good; dogs and cats are not. The rest follows logically.
1.13 - Knowledge, Error, and Probably Opinion, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
In derivative knowledge our ultimate premisses must have some degree of self-evidence, and so must their connexion with the conclusions deduced from them. Take for example a piece of reasoning in geometry. It is not enough that the axioms from which we start should be self-evident: it is necessary also that, at each step in the Reasoning, the connexion of premiss and conclusion should be self-evident. In difficult reasoning, this connexion has often only a very small degree of self-evidence; hence errors of reasoning are not improbable where the difficulty is great.
From what has been said it is evident that, both as regards intuitive knowledge and as regards derivative knowledge, if we assume that intuitive knowledge is trustworthy in proportion to the degree of its self-evidence, there will be a gradation in trustworthiness, from the existence of noteworthy sense-data and the simpler truths of logic and arithmetic, which may be taken as quite certain, down to judgements which seem only just more probable than their opposites. What we firmly believe, if it is true, is called _knowledge_, provided it is either intuitive or inferred (logically or psychologically) from intuitive knowledge from which it follows logically. What we firmly believe, if it is not true, is called _error_. What we firmly believe, if it is neither knowledge nor error, and also what we believe hesitatingly, because it is, or is derived from, something which has not the highest degree of self-evidence, may be called _probable opinion_. Thus the greater part of what would commonly pass as knowledge is more or less probable opinion.
1.13 - Reason and Religion, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But if the soul is the true sovereign and if its spiritual self-finding, its progressive largest widest integral fulfilment by the power of the spirit are to be accepted as the ultimate secret of our evolution, then since certainly the instinctive being of man below reason is not the means of attaining that high end and since we find that reason also is an insufficient light and power, there must be a superior range of being with its own proper powers,liberated soul-faculties, a spiritual will and knowledge higher than the Reason and intelligent will,by which alone an entire conscious self-fulfilment can become possible to the human being. We must remember that our aim of self-fulfilment is an integral unfolding of the Divine within us, a complete evolution of the hidden divinity in the individual soul and the collective life. Otherwise we may simply come back to an old idea of individual and social living which had its greatness, but did not provide all the conditions of our perfection. That was the idea of a spiritualised typal society. It proceeded upon the supposition that each man has his own peculiar nature which is born from and reflects one element of the divine nature. The character of each individual, his ethical type, his training, his social occupation, his spiritual possibility must be formed or developed within the conditions of that peculiar element; the perfection he seeks in this life must be according to its law. The theory of ancient Indian cultureits practice, as is the way of human practice, did not always correspond to the theoryworked upon this supposition. It divided man in society into the fourfold orderan at once spiritual, psychic, ethical and economic orderof the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra,practically, the spiritual and intellectual man, the dynamic man of will, the vital, hedonistic and economic man, the material man; the whole society organised in these four constituent classes represented the complete image of the creative and active Godhead.
A different division of the typal society is quite possible. But whatever the arrangement or division, the typal principle cannot be the foundation of an ideal human society. Even according to the Indian theory it does not belong either to the periods of mans highest attainment or to the eras of his lowest possibility; it is neither the principle of his ideal age, his age of the perfected Truth, Satyayuga, Kritayuga, in which he lives according to some high and profound realisation of his divine possibility, nor of his iron age, the Kaliyuga, in which he collapses towards the life of the instincts, impulses and desires with the Reason degraded into a servant of this nether life of man. This too precise order is rather the appropriate principle of the intermediate ages of his cycle in which he attempts to maintain some imperfect form of his true law, his dharma, by will-power and force of character in the Treta, by law, arrangement and fixed convention in the Dwapara.1 The type is not the integral man, it is the fixing and emphasising of the generally prominent part of his active nature. But each man contains in himself the whole divine potentiality and therefore the Shudra cannot be rigidly confined within his Shudrahood, nor the Brahmin in his Brahminhood, but each contains within himself the potentialities and the need of perfection of his other elements of a divine manhood. In the Kali age these potentialities may act in a state of crude disorder, the anarchy of our being which covers our confused attempt at a new order. In the intermediate ages the principle of order may take refuge in a limited perfection, suppressing some elements to perfect others. But the law of the Satya age is the large development of the whole truth of our being in the realisation of a spontaneous and self-supported spiritual harmony. That can only be realised by the evolution, in the measure of which our human capacity in its enlarging cycles becomes capable of it, of the spiritual ranges of our being and the unmasking of their inherent light and power, their knowledge and their divine capacities.
We shall better understand what may be this higher being and those higher faculties, if we look again at the dealings of the Reason with the trend towards the absolute in our other faculties, in the divergent principles of our complex existence. Let us study especially its dealings with the suprarational in them and the infrarational, the two extremes between which our intelligence is some sort of mediator. The spiritual or suprarational is always turned at its heights towards the Absolute; in its extension, living in the luminous infinite, its special power is to realise the infinite in the finite, the eternal unity in all divisions and differences. Our spiritual evolution ascends therefore through the relative to the absolute, through the finite to the infinite, through all divisions to oneness. Man in his spiritual realisation begins to find and seize hold on the satisfying intensities of the absolute in the relative, feels the large and serene presence of the infinite in the finite, discovers the reconciling law of a perfect unity in all divisions and differences. The spiritual will in his outer as in his inner life and formulation must be to effect a great reconciliation between the secret and eternal reality and the finite appearances of a world which seeks to express and in expressing seems to deny it. Our highest faculties then will be those which make this possible because they have in them the intimate light and power and joy by which these things can be grasped in direct knowledge and experience, realised and made normally and permanently effective in will, communicated to our whole nature. The infrarational, on the other hand, has its origin and basis in the obscure infinite of the Inconscient; it wells up in instincts and impulses, which are really the crude and more or less haphazard intuitions of a subconscient physical, vital, emotional and sensational mind and will in us. Its struggle is towards definition, towards self-creation, towards finding some finite order of its obscure knowledge and tendencies. But it has also the instinct and force of the infinite from which it proceeds; it contains obscure, limited and violent velleities that move it to grasp at the intensities of the absolute and pull them down or some touch of them into its finite action: but because it proceeds by ignorance and not by knowledge, it cannot truly succeed in this more vehement endeavour. The life of the Reason and intelligent will stands between that upper and this nether power. On one side it takes up and enlightens the life of the instincts and impulses and helps it to find on a higher plane the finite order for which it gropes. On the other side it looks up towards the absolute, looks out towards the infinite, looks in towards the One, but without being able to grasp and hold their realities; for it is able only to consider them with a sort of derivative and remote understanding, because it moves in the relative and, itself limited and definite, it can act only by definition, division and limitation. These three powers of being, the suprarational, rational and infrarational are present, but with an infinitely varying prominence in all our activities.
The limitations of the Reason become very strikingly, very characteristically, very nakedly apparent when it is confronted with that great order of psychological truths and experiences which we have hitherto kept in the background the religious being of man and his religious life. Here is a realm at which the intellectual reason gazes with the bewildered mind of a foreigner who hears a language of which the words and the spirit are unintelligible to him and sees everywhere forms of life and principles of thought and action which are absolutely strange to his experience. He may try to learn this speech and understand this strange and alien life; but it is with pain and difficulty, and he cannot succeed unless he has, so to speak, unlearned himself and become one in spirit and nature with the natives of this celestial empire. Till then his efforts to understand and interpret them in his own language and according to his own notions end at the worst in a gross misunderstanding and deformation. The attempts of the positive critical reason to dissect the phenomena of the religious life sound to men of spiritual experience like the prattle of a child who is trying to shape into the mould of his own habitual notions the life of adults or the blunders of an ignorant mind which thinks fit to criticise patronisingly or adversely the labours of a profound thinker or a great scientist. At the best even this futile labour can extract, can account for only the externals of the things it attempts to explain; the spirit is missed, the inner matter is left out, and as a result of that capital omission even the account of the externals is left without real truth and has only an apparent correctness.
The unaided intellectual reason faced with the phenomena of the religious life is naturally apt to adopt one of two attitudes, both of them shallow in the extreme, hastily presumptuous and erroneous. Either it views the whole thing as a mass of superstition, a mystical nonsense, a farrago of ignorant barbaric survivals,that was the extreme spirit of the rationalist now happily, though not dead, yet much weakened and almost moribund,or it patronises religion, tries to explain its origins, to get rid of it by the process of explaining it away; or it labours gently or forcefully to reject or correct its superstitions, crudities, absurdities, to purify it into an abstract nothingness or persuade it to purify itself in the light of the Reasoning intelligence; or it allows it a role, leaves it perhaps for the edification of the ignorant, admits its value as a moralising influence or its utility to the State for keeping the lower classes in order, even perhaps tries to invent that strange chimera, a rational religion.
The former attitude has on its positive side played a powerful part in the history of human thought, has even been of a considerable utility in its own waywe shall have to note briefly hereafter how and whyto human progress and in the end even to religion; but its intolerant negations are an arrogant falsity, as the human mind has now sufficiently begun to perceive. Its mistake is like that of a foreigner who thinks everything in an alien country absurd and inferior because these things are not his own ways of acting and thinking and cannot be cut out by his own measures or suited to his own standards. So the thoroughgoing rationalist asks the religious spirit, if it is to stand, to satisfy the material reason and even to give physical proof of its truths, while the very essence of religion is the discovery of the immaterial Spirit and the play of a supraphysical consciousness. So too he tries to judge religion by his idea of its externalities, just as an ignorant and obstreperous foreigner might try to judge a civilisation by the dress, outward colour of life and some of the most external peculiarities in the social manners of the inhabitants. That in this he errs in company with certain of the so-called religious themselves, may be his excuse, but cannot be the justification of his ignorance. The more moderate attitude of the rational mind has also played its part in the history of human thought. Its attempts to explain religion have resulted in the compilation of an immense mass of amazingly ingenious perversions, such as certain pseudo-scientific attempts to form a comparative Science of Religion. It has built up in the approved modern style immense facades of theory with stray bricks of misunderstood facts for their material. Its mild condonations of religion have led to superficial phases of thought which have passed quickly away and left no trace behind them. Its efforts at the creation of a rational religion, perfectly well-intentioned, but helpless and unconvincing, have had no appreciable effect and have failed like a dispersing cloud, chinnbhram iva nayati.
The deepest heart, the inmost essence of religion, apart from its outward machinery of creed, cult, ceremony and symbol, is the search for God and the finding of God. Its aspiration is to discover the Infinite, the Absolute, the One, the Divine, who is all these things and yet no abstraction but a Being. Its work is a sincere living out of the true and intimate relations between man and God, relations of unity, relations of difference, relations of an illuminated knowledge, an ecstatic love and delight, an absolute surrender and service, a casting of every part of our existence out of its normal status into an uprush of man towards the Divine and a descent of the Divine into man. All this has nothing to do with the realm of reason or its normal activities; its aim, its sphere, its process is suprarational. The knowledge of God is not to be gained by weighing the feeble arguments of reason for or against his existence: it is to be gained only by a self-transcending and absolute consecration, aspiration and experience. Nor does that experience proceed by anything like rational scientific experiment or rational philosophic thinking. Even in those parts of religious discipline which seem most to resemble scientific experiment, the method is a verification of things which exceed the Reason and its timid scope. Even in those parts of religious knowledge which seem most to resemble intellectual operations, the illuminating faculties are not imagination, logic and rational judgment, but revelations, inspirations, intuitions, intuitive discernments that leap down to us from a plane of suprarational light. The love of God is an infinite and absolute feeling which does not admit of any rational limitation and does not use a language of rational worship and adoration; the delight in God is that peace and bliss which passes all understanding. The surrender to God is the surrender of the whole being to a suprarational light, will, power and love and his service takes no account of the compromises with life which the practical reason of man uses as the best part of its method in the ordinary conduct of mundane existence. Wherever religion really finds itself, wherever it opens itself to its own spirit,there is plenty of that sort of religious practice which is halting, imperfect, half-sincere, only half-sure of itself and in which reason can get in a word,its way is absolute and its fruits are ineffable.
Reason has indeed a part to play in relation to this highest field of our religious being and experience, but that part is quite secondary and subordinate. It cannot lay down the law for the religious life, it cannot determine in its own right the system of divine knowledge; it cannot school and lesson the divine love and delight; it cannot set bounds to spiritual experience or lay its yoke upon the action of the spiritual man. Its sole legitimate sphere is to explain as best it can, in its own language and to the rational and intellectual parts of man, the truths, the experiences, the laws of our suprarational and spiritual existence. That has been the work of spiritual philosophy in the East andmuch more crudely and imperfectly doneof theology in the West, a work of great importance at moments like the present when the intellect of mankind after a long wandering is again turning towards the search for the Divine. Here there must inevitably enter a part of those operations proper to the intellect, logical reasoning, inferences from the data given by rational experience, analogies drawn from our knowledge of the apparent facts of existence, appeals even to the physical truths of science, all the apparatus of the intelligent mind in its ordinary workings. But this is the weakest part of spiritual philosophy. It convinces the rational mind only where the intellect is already predisposed to belief, and even if it convinces, it cannot give the true knowledge. Reason is safest when it is content to take the profound truths and experiences of the spiritual being and the spiritual life, just as they are given to it, and throw them into such form, order and language as will make them the most intelligible or the least unintelligible to the Reasoning mind. Even then it is not quite safe, for it is apt to harden the order into an intellectual system and to present the form as if it were the essence. And, at best, it has to use a language which is not the very tongue of the suprarational truth but its inadequate translation and, since it is not the ordinary tongue either of the rational intelligence, it is open to non-understanding or misunderstanding by the ordinary reason of mankind. It is well-known to the experience of the spiritual seeker that even the highest philosophising cannot give a true inner knowledge, is not the spiritual light, does not open the gates of experience. All it can do is to address the consciousness of man through his intellect and, when it has done, to say, I have tried to give you the truth in a form and system which will make it intelligible and possible to you; if you are intellectually convinced or attracted, you can now seek the real knowledge, but you must seek it by other means which are beyond my province.
But there is another level of the religious life in which reason might seem justified in interfering more independently and entitled to assume a superior role. For as there is the suprarational life in which religious aspiration finds entirely what it seeks, so too there is also the infrarational life of the instincts, impulses, sensations, crude emotions, vital activities from which all human aspiration takes its beginning. These too feel the touch of the religious sense in man, share its needs and experience, desire its satisfactions. Religion includes this satisfaction also in its scope, and in what is usually called religion it seems even to be the greater part, sometimes to an external view almost the whole; for the supreme purity of spiritual experience does not appear or is glimpsed only through this mixed and turbid current. Much impurity, ignorance, superstition, many doubtful elements must form as the result of this contact and union of our highest tendencies with our lower ignorant nature. Here it would seem that reason has its legitimate part; here surely it can intervene to enlighten, purify, rationalise the play of the instincts and impulses. It would seem that a religious reformation, a movement to substitute a pure and rational religion for one that is largely infrarational and impure, would be a distinct advance in the religious development of humanity. To a certain extent this may be, but, owing to the peculiar nature of the religious being, its entire urge towards the suprarational, not without serious qualifications, nor can the rational mind do anything here that is of a high positive value.
Religious forms and systems become effete and corrupt and have to be destroyed, or they lose much of their inner sense and become clouded in knowledge and injurious in practice, and in destroying what is effete or in negating aberrations reason has played an important part in religious history. But in its endeavour to get rid of the superstition and ignorance which have attached themselves to religious forms and symbols, intellectual reason unenlightened by spiritual knowledge tends to deny and, so far as it can, to destroy the truth and the experience which was contained in them. Reformations which give too much to reason and are too negative and protestant, usually create religions which lack in wealth of spirituality and fullness of religious emotion; they are not opulent in their contents; their form and too often their spirit is impoverished, bare and cold. Nor are they really rational; for they live not by their reasoning and dogma, which to the rational mind is as irrational as that of the creeds they replace, still less by their negations, but by their positive quantum of faith and fervour which is suprarational in its whole aim and has too its infrarational elements. If these seem less gross to the ordinary mind than those of less self-questioning creeds, it is often because they are more timid in venturing into the realm of suprarational experience. The life of the instincts and impulses on its religious side cannot be satisfyingly purified by reason, but rather by being sublimated, by being lifted up into the illuminations of the spirit. The natural line of religious development proceeds always by illumination; and religious reformation acts best when either it re-illuminates rather than destroys old forms or, where destruction is necessary, replaces them by richer and not by poorer forms, and in any case when it purifies by suprarational illumination, not by rational enlightenment. A purely rational religion could only be a cold and bare Deism, and such attempts have always failed to achieve vitality and permanence; for they act contrary to the dharma, the natural law and spirit of religion. If reason is to play any decisive part, it must be an intuitive rather than an intellectual reason, touched always by spiritual intensity and insight. For it must be remembered that the infrarational also has behind it a secret Truth which does not fall within the domain of the Reason and is not wholly amenable to its judgments. The heart has its knowledge, the life has its intuitive spirit within it, its intimations, divinations, outbreaks and upflamings of a Secret Energy, a divine or at least semi-divine aspiration and outreaching which the eye of intuition alone can fathom and only intuitive speech or symbol can shape or utter. To root out these things from religion or to purge religion of any elements necessary for its completeness because the forms are defective or obscure, without having the power to illuminate them from within or the patience to wait for their illumination from above or without replacing them by more luminous symbols, is not to purify but to pauperise.
But the relations of the spirit and the Reason need not be, as they too often are in our practice, hostile or without any point of contact. Religion itself need not adopt for its principle the formula I believe because it is impossible or Pascals I believe because it is absurd. What is impossible or absurd to the unaided reason, becomes real and right to the Reason lifted beyond itself by the power of the spirit and irradiated by its light. For then it is dominated by the intuitive mind which is our means of passage to a yet higher principle of knowledge. The widest spirituality does not exclude or discourage any essential human activity or faculty, but works rather to lift all of them up out of their imperfection and groping ignorance, transforms them by its touch and makes them the instruments of the light, power and joy of the divine being and the divine nature.
Therefore it is said that Vishnu is the King in the Treta, but in the Dwapara the arranger and codifier of the knowledge and the law.
1.13 - THE HUMAN REBOUND OF EVOLUTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
process: for the Reason that any human tendency to fragmentation,
regardless of its extent and origin, is clearly of an order of magnitude
1.13 - THE MASTER AND M., #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
But one of them abstained from it. On being asked the Reason, he said: 'I am observing asoucha. I cannot perform the sandyha ceremony.8 In my case the defilement is due to both a birth and a death. My mother, Ignorance, is dead, and my son, Self-Knowledge, has been born.'"
MASTER: "Tell us, also, how caste distinctions drop away when one attains Self-Knowledge."
1.13 - Under the Auspices of the Gods, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
because the Mind can only devise systems and seek to confine everything in them. the Reason of man struggling with life becomes either an empiric or a doctrinaire. 211 It seizes upon a bit of truth, one drop of divine illumination, and makes it a universal law; it constantly confuses unity with uniformity. Even when it is capable of 210
211
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but there is also a principle of infinite potentiality and variation quite baffling to the Reasoning intelligence; for the Reason deals successfully only with the settled and the finite. In man this difficulty reaches its acme. For not only is mankind unlimited in potentiality,
not only is each of its powers and tendencies seeking after its own absolute in its own way and therefore naturally restless under any rigid control by the Reason; but in each man their degrees, methods,
combinations vary, each man belongs not only to the common humanity, but to the Infinite in himself and is therefore unique. It is because this is the reality of our existence that the intellectual reason and the intelligent will cannot deal with life as its sovereign, even though they may be at present our supreme instruments and may have been in our evolution supremely important and helpful.212
1.14 - The Book of Magic Formulae, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
The book of formulae, sometimes wrongly called the book of spirits, is the genuine magical diary of the magician practising ritual magic, in which he enters, step by step, the procedures of his ritual in order to be able to follow every point conscientiously up to his goal. Some readers might wish to know how mutilated charms, furmulae for incantation etc. could ever develop? From the days of yore the secret of magic has been restricted to high castes, potentates, kings and high priests. In order that the real truth, that true ideas and spiritual facts might never be known by the public, many code-words and secret formulae have been introduced, the deciphering of which has been reserved to the mature. The key for these codes was only transferred upon mature persons by word of mouth, and their profanation was punished with death. This is the Reason why this science has remained a secret up to our time and it will continue to remain an occult and mystic science even if it is directly published, as the immature und profane person will regard it all as delusion or fantastic nonsense and, depending on his grade of maturity and psychic receptivity, will always have at hand an individual interpretation or view of this science. The most secret matters will thus never lose their occult tradition and there will always be but a few people who will profit by it. If a person who is not an initiate gets such a book of magic formulae in his hands and does not know the key to it, he will take everything in its literal sense without knowing that the particular words and formulae are nothing but aids for the magician's memory and that it is a schematic layout for the ritual work of a true magician. This makes it clear why sometimes the most senseless words have been used as magic charms to evoke a certain being. But the book of formulae is a proper note-book in which the genuine magician writes the whole procedure of his magic operations from beginning to end. If he is not sure that his book will never fall into the hands of another person, he will have to use, point by point, code-names. I can only give here a few instructions. These will, however, enable the magician to procede according to his own taste and ideas.
1. Purpose of the operation
1.14 - The Limits of Philosophical Knowledge, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
Cantor, it has appeared that the impossibility of infinite collections was a mistake. They are not in fact self-contradictory, but only contradictory of certain rather obstinate mental prejudices. Hence the Reasons for regarding space and time as unreal have become inoperative, and one of the great sources of metaphysical constructions is dried up.
The mathematicians, however, have not been content with showing that space as it is commonly supposed to be is possible; they have shown also that many other forms of space are equally possible, so far as logic can show. Some of Euclid's axioms, which appear to common sense to be necessary, and were formerly supposed to be necessary by philosophers, are now known to derive their appearance of necessity from our mere familiarity with actual space, and not from any _a priori_ logical foundation. By imagining worlds in which these axioms are false, the mathematicians have used logic to loosen the prejudices of common sense, and to show the possibility of spaces differing--some more, some less--from that in which we live. And some of these spaces differ so little from Euclidean space, where distances such as we can measure are concerned, that it is impossible to discover by observation whether our actual space is strictly Euclidean or of one of these other kinds.
1.14 - The Structure and Dynamics of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
the snake (or dragon) guards, and also the Reason why the snake
signifies evil and darkness on the one hand and wisdom on the
--
it, synchronicity. 102 the Reason for this is that our description
of Nature is in certain respects incomplete and accordingly ex-
1.14 - The Suprarational Beauty, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Religion is the seeking after the spiritual, the suprarational and therefore in this sphere the intellectual reason may well be an insufficient help and find itself, not only at the end but from the beginning, out of its province and condemned to tread either diffidently or else with a stumbling presumptuousness in the realm of a power and a light higher than its own. But in the other spheres of human consciousness and human activity it may be thought that it has the right to the sovereign place, since these move on the lower plane of the rational and the finite or belong to that border-land where the rational and the infrarational meet and the impulses and the instincts of man stand in need above all of the light and the control of the Reason. In its own sphere of finite knowledge, science, philosophy, the useful arts, its right, one would think, must be indisputable. But this does not turn out in the end to be true. Its province may be larger, its powers more ample, its action more justly self-confident, but in the end everywhere it finds itself standing between the two other powers of our being and fulfilling in greater or less degree the same function of an intermediary. On one side it is an enlightenernot always the chief enlightener and the corrector of our life-impulses and first mental seekings, on the other it is only one minister of the veiled Spirit and a preparer of the paths for the coming of its rule.
This is especially evident in the two realms which in the ordinary scale of our powers stand nearest to the Reason and on either side of it, the aesthetic and the ethical being, the search for Beauty and the search for Good. Mans seeking after beauty reaches its most intense and satisfying expression in the great creative arts, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, but in its full extension there is no activity of his nature or his life from which it need or ought to be excluded,provided we understand beauty both in its widest and its truest sense. A complete and universal appreciation of beauty and the making entirely beautiful our whole life and being must surely be a necessary character of the perfect individual and the perfect society. But in its origin this seeking for beauty is not rational; it springs from the roots of our life, it is an instinct and an impulse, an instinct of aesthetic satisfaction and an impulse of aesthetic creation and enjoyment. Starting from the infrarational parts of our being, this instinct and impulse begin with much imperfection and impurity and with great crudities both in creation and in appreciation. It is here that the Reason comes in to distinguish, to enlighten, to correct, to point out the deficiencies and the crudities, to lay down laws of aesthetics and to purify our appreciation and our creation by improved taste and right knowledge. While we are thus striving to learn and correct ourselves, it may seem to be the true law-giver both for the artist and the admirer and, though not the creator of our aesthetic instinct and impulse, yet the creator in us of an aesthetic conscience and its vigilant judge and guide. That which was an obscure and erratic activity, it makes self-conscious and rationally discriminative in its work and enjoyment.
But again this is true only in restricted bounds or, if anywhere entirely true, then only on a middle plane of our aesthetic seeking and activity. Where the greatest and most powerful creation of beauty is accomplished and its appreciation and enjoyment rise to the highest pitch, the rational is always surpassed and left behind. The creation of beauty in poetry and art does not fall within the sovereignty or even within the sphere of the Reason. The intellect is not the poet, the artist, the creator within us; creation comes by a suprarational influx of light and power which must work always, if it is to do its best, by vision and inspiration. It may use the intellect for certain of its operations, but in proportion as it subjects itself to the intellect, it loses in power and force of vision and diminishes the splendour and truth of the beauty it creates. The intellect may take hold of the influx, moderate and repress the divine enthusiasm of creation and force it to obey the prudence of its dictates, but in doing so it brings down the work to its own inferior level, and the lowering is in proportion to the intellectual interference. For by itself the intelligence can only achieve talent, though it may be a high and even, if sufficiently helped from above, a surpassing talent. Genius, the true creator, is always suprarational in its nature and its instrumentation even when it seems to be doing the work of the Reason; it is most itself, most exalted in its work, most sustained in the power, depth, height and beauty of its achievement when it is least touched by, least mixed with any control of the mere intellectuality and least often drops from its heights of vision and inspiration into reliance upon the always mechanical process of intellectual construction. Art-creation which accepts the canons of the Reason and works within the limits laid down by it, may be great, beautiful and powerful; for genius can preserve its power even when it labours in shackles and refuses to put forth all its resources: but when it proceeds by means of the intellect, it constructs, but does not create. It may construct well and with a good and faultless workmanship, but its success is formal and not of the spirit, a success of technique and not the embodiment of the imperishable truth of beauty seized in its inner reality, its divine delight, its appeal to a supreme source of ecstasy, Ananda.
There have been periods of artistic creation, ages of reason, in which the rational and intellectual tendency has prevailed in poetry and art; there have even been nations which in their great formative periods of art and literature have set up reason and a meticulous taste as the sovereign powers of their aesthetic activity. At their best these periods have achieved work of a certain greatness, but predominantly of an intellectual greatness and perfection of technique rather than achievements of a supreme inspired and revealing beauty; indeed their very aim has been not the discovery of the deeper truth of beauty, but truth of ideas and truth of reason, a critical rather than a true creative aim. Their leading object has been an intellectual criticism of life and nature elevated by a consummate poetical rhythm and diction rather than a revelation of God and man and life and nature in inspired forms of artistic beauty. But great art is not satisfied with representing the intellectual truth of things, which is always their superficial or exterior truth; it seeks for a deeper and original truth which escapes the eye of the mere sense or the mere reason, the soul in them, the unseen reality which is not that of their form and process but of their spirit. This it seizes and expresses by form and idea, but a significant form, which is not merely a faithful and just or a harmonious reproduction of outward Nature, and a revelatory idea, not the idea which is merely correct, elegantly right or fully satisfying to the Reason and taste. Always the truth it seeks is first and foremost the truth of beauty,not, again, the formal beauty alone or the beauty of proportion and right process which is what the sense and the Reason seek, but the soul of beauty which is hidden from the ordinary eye and the ordinary mind and revealed in its fullness only to the unsealed vision of the poet and artist in man who can seize the secret significances of the universal poet and artist, the divine creator who dwells as their soul and spirit in the forms he has created.
The art-creation which lays a supreme stress on reason and taste and on perfection and purity of a technique constructed in obedience to the canons of reason and taste, claimed for itself the name of classical art; but the claim, like the too trenchant distinction on which it rests, is of doubtful validity. The spirit of the real, the great classical art and poetry is to bring out what is universal and subordinate individual expression to universal truth and beauty, just as the spirit of romantic art and poetry is to bring out what is striking and individual and this it often does so powerfully or with so vivid an emphasis as to throw into the background of its creation the universal, on which yet all true art romantic or classical builds and fills in its forms. In truth, all great art has carried in it both a classical and a romantic as well as a realistic element,understanding realism in the sense of the prominent bringing out of the external truth of things, not the perverse inverted romanticism of the real which brings into exaggerated prominence the ugly, common or morbid and puts that forward as the whole truth of life. The type of art to which a great creative work belongs is determined by the prominence it gives to one element and the subdual of the others into subordination to its reigning spirit. But classical art also works by a large vision and inspiration, not by the process of the intellect. The lower kind of classical art and literature,if classical it be and not rather, as it often is, pseudo-classical, intellectually imitative of the external form and process of the classical,may achieve work of considerable, though a much lesser power, but of an essentially inferior scope and nature; for to that inferiority it is self-condemned by its principle of intellectual construction. Almost always it speedily degenerates into the formal or academic, empty of real beauty, void of life and power, imprisoned in its slavery to form and imagining that when a certain form has been followed, certain canons of construction satisfied, certain rhetorical rules or technical principles obeyed, all has been achieved. It ceases to be art and becomes a cold and mechanical workmanship.
--
For the conscious appreciation of beauty reaches its height of enlightenment and enjoyment not by analysis of the beauty enjoyed or even by a right and intelligent understanding of it,these things are only a preliminary clarifying of our first unenlightened sense of the beautiful,but by an exaltation of the soul in which it opens itself entirely to the light and power and joy of the creation. The soul of beauty in us identifies itself with the soul of beauty in the thing created and feels in appreciation the same divine intoxication and uplifting which the artist felt in creation. Criticism reaches its highest point when it becomes the record, account, right description of this response; it must become itself inspired, intuitive, revealing. In other words, the action of the intuitive mind must complete the action of the rational intelligence and it may even wholly replace it and do more powerfully the peculiar and proper work of the intellect itself; it may explain more intimately to us the secret of the form, the strands of the process, the inner cause, essence, mechanism of the defects and limitations of the work as well as of its qualities. For the intuitive intelligence when it has been sufficiently trained and developed, can take up always the work of the intellect and do it with a power and light and insight greater and surer than the power and light of the intellectual judgment in its widest scope. There is an intuitive discrimination which is more keen and precise in its sight than the Reasoning intelligence.
What has been said of great creative art, that being the form in which normally our highest and intensest aesthetic satisfaction is achieved, applies to all beauty, beauty in Nature, beauty in life as well as beauty in art. We find that in the end the place of reason and the limits of its achievement are precisely of the same kind in regard to beauty as in regard to religion. It helps to enlighten and purify the aesthetic instincts and impulses, but it cannot give them their highest satisfaction or guide them to a complete insight. It shapes and fulfils to a certain extent the aesthetic intelligence, but it cannot justly pretend to give the definitive law for the creation of beauty or for the appreciation and enjoyment of beauty. It can only lead the aesthetic instinct, impulse, intelligence towards a greatest possible conscious satisfaction, but not to it; it has in the end to hand them over to a higher faculty which is in direct touch with the suprarational and in its nature and workings exceeds the intellect.
And for the same reason, because that which we are seeking through beauty is in the end that which we are seeking through religion, the Absolute, the Divine. The search for beauty is only in its beginning a satisfaction in the beauty of form, the beauty which appeals to the physical senses and the vital impressions, impulsions, desires. It is only in the middle a satisfaction in the beauty of the ideas seized, the emotions aroused, the perception of perfect process and harmonious combination. Behind them the soul of beauty in us desires the contact, the revelation, the uplifting delight of an absolute beauty in all things which it feels to be present, but which neither the senses and instincts by themselves can give, though they may be its channels,for it is suprasensuous,nor the Reason and intelligence, though they too are a channel,for it is suprarational, supra-intellectual,but to which through all these veils the soul itself seeks to arrive. When it can get the touch of this universal, absolute beauty, this soul of beauty, this sense of its revelation in any slightest or greatest thing, the beauty of a flower, a form, the beauty and power of a character, an action, an event, a human life, an idea, a stroke of the brush or the chisel or a scintillation of the mind, the colours of a sunset or the grandeur of the tempest, it is then that the sense of beauty in us is really, powerfully, entirely satisfied. It is in truth seeking, as in religion, for the Divine, the All-Beautiful in man, in nature, in life, in thought, in art; for God is Beauty and Delight hidden in the variation of his masks and forms. When, fulfilled in our growing sense and knowledge of beauty and delight in beauty and our power for beauty, we are able to identify ourselves in soul with this Absolute and Divine in all the forms and activities of the world and shape an image of our inner and our outer life in the highest image we can perceive and embody of the All-Beautiful, then the aesthetic being in us who was born for this end, has fulfilled himself and risen to his divine consummation. To find highest beauty is to find God; to reveal, to embody, to create, as we say, highest beauty is to bring out of our souls the living image and power of God.
***
1.15 - In the Domain of the Spirit Beings, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
The laws ruling this zone have nothing to do with the idea of space, however, as they go for the whole microcosm and macrocosm and their analogous connection. This is the Reason why man can only reach his perfection, his ultimate magical maturity, and his genuine connection with the deity, in this zone girdling the earth. This clearly shows that, from the point of view of magic, the earth-zone is the lowest sphere, but at the same time also the sphere with the highest emanation of the Divine Princi86 p Ie. I shall show further that there exist further spheres belonging to this hierarchy which the magician is able to contact, but he is able to live in the earth-zone also as a being of perfection, as the true image of God. In this zone girdling the earth the whole creation from the highest perfection of the deity down to the lowest and roughest form is manifested. A human being may get into contact with all kinds of spheres which lie above the earth-zone, but he cannot become their constant inhabitant, because the earth-zone is the reflecting mirror of the whole creation. It is the manifested world of all degrees of condensation. The old Quabbalists knew this truth and therefore called the earth-zone
"Malkuth", which does not mean earth ball, but Kingdom, by which expression creation from its highest to its lowest manifestation is meant. According to the Tree of Life of the
--
Every experienced magician who leaves the physical world either with his mental or with his astral body to visit the various spheres of the earth-zone, or even to visit other zones, will realize that the beings of all zones, irrespective of their qualities and faculties, speak a universal language, called "metaphoricallanguage", i. e. the language of imagination. This is the Reason why all beings can make themselves understood by another. Any average person may moreover experience this the moment he leaves his physical body, for he is then able to converse with any person amongst the dead, no matter to which nation he may have belonged before. If a magician whishes to say something in a sphere lying outside our physical world, that is if he wants to form ideas there, he will also do that by way of mouth, but no sounds will come out of his mouth; in place of sound vibrations pictures manifest themselves which then can be perceived by any being.
If, however, a spirit being is embodied in our physical world, that is if it has left its zone to get adequately condensed in order to be visible and audible, then this metaphorical language is at once translated into the language the magician knows. This means that should a magician call, by condensation, from the earth-zone into the physical world, a person who before his death was of Chinese, Indian or any other nationality, he will find that such a spirit has a perfect comm and of the language the magician himself speaks. A religious person will remember that the apostles and disciples of Christ who, after the death of the
1.15 - LAST VISIT TO KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Discrimination is the Reasoning by which one knows that God alone is real and all else is unreal. Real means eternal, and unreal means impermanent. He who has acquired discrimination knows that God is the only Substance and all else is non-existent. With the awakening of this spirit of discrimination a man wants to know God.
On the contrary, if a man loves the unreal-such things as creature comforts, name, fame, and wealth, then he doesn't want to know God, who is of the very nature of Reality. Through discrimination between the Real and the unreal one seeks to know God.
1.15 - THE DIRECTIONS AND CONDITIONS OF THE FUTURE, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
pendence and cohesion. the Reason is this. The human mass on
the restricted surface of the earth, after a period of expansion cov-
--
mechanization. Here again the facts are clear and the Reasons obvi-
ous. In a Mankind becoming unified under pressure, its various or-
Wikipedia - Circular reasoning -- Logical fallacy in which the reasoner begins the premise with what they are trying to conclude with
Wikipedia - Contemplate (The Reason You Exist) -- 2003 studio album by Kai Tracid
Wikipedia - Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why -- 2011 book by Simon LeVay
Wikipedia - The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty
Wikipedia - The Reason of State
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331926.The_Reason_Driven_Life
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3494.The_Reasons_of_Love
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Psychology Wiki - Cult#Theories_about_the_reasons_for_joining_a_cult
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ExiledFromContinuity/OtherReasons
Encino Man(1992) - Two losers find a frozen caveman after they an earthquake in Encino California. The reason the frozen cube man came out of the ground was because of the pool they were digging. At first scared, the caveman does not like his surroundings but soon enjoys everything the 90's has to offer at this point...
Hobgoblins(1988) - Hobgoblins is set in a dusty old movie studio. Years earlier, a horror film had been in the works, but production had suddenly and mysteriously shut down. The reason becomes obvious when the title characters escape from the studio vaults. Chaos ensues, not to mention panic and havoc. Say, this sound...
Queen Kong(1976) - Yes, there is such film. It exists. Stop laughing. Shut up. In this hillaious British parody of the 1933 classic, the gender tables are switched. Now the reason why this film got lost was because of the battle over the rights of the original between Universal and Dino Dellaurentiis. The film ran in...
Slums of Beverly Hills(1998) - Being young is tough on many levels, but for Vivian Abromowitz (Natasha Lyonne), things are especially strenuous. It's 1976 and she and her family have moved to Beverly Hills, but not the glamorous Beverly Hills that everyone is familiar with. The reason for the constant moving is because her parent...
Woof (1990)(1990) - "A hilarious canine comedy about a young boy who keeps turning into a dog. Through a series of outrageous canine capers, the boy discovers the reason for his startling transformation
Five Easy Pieces(1970) - A former concert pianist,from A wealthy family,gives it all up to work on an oil rig.But when his father grows ill,the man must rejoin his family,having to face the reasons;he left in the first place.Jack Nicholson is Excellent,in an oscar nominated performance.A good comedy/drama study of working c...
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow(2004) - After New York City receives a series of attacks from giant flying robots, a reporter teams up with a pilot in search of their origin, as well as the reason for the disappearances of famous scientists around the world.
https://myanimelist.net/manga/118646/The_Reason_Why_Raeliana_Ended_up_at_the_Dukes_Mansion
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) ::: 7.1/10 -- Approved | 1h 40min | Action, Drama, Romance | 1 March 1950 (USA) -- Haunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker's rigid form of discipline. Director: Allan Dwan Writers:
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) ::: 6.7/10 -- PG-13 | 2h 19min | Drama, History, War | 11 October 1968 (USA) -- In 1854, during the Crimean War, poor planning leads to the British Light Brigade openly charging a Russian artillery position with tragic consequences. Director: Tony Richardson Writers: Charles Wood (screenplay), Cecil Woodham-Smith (additional source material "The Reason Why") (as Cecil Woodham Smith)
The Railway Children (1970) ::: 7.3/10 -- G | 1h 49min | Drama, Family | 22 December 1970 (UK) -- After the enforced absence of their father, three children move with their mother to Yorkshire, where during their adventures they attempt to discover the reason for his disappearance. Director: Lionel Jeffries Writers: E. Nesbit (from the celebrated novel by), Lionel Jeffries (screenplay) Stars:
The Uninvited (1944) ::: 7.3/10 -- Passed | 1h 39min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery | 1 September 1944 -- The Uninvited Poster -- A composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past. Director: Lewis Allen Writers:
https://dgrayman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Reason_Why_You_Are_Here
https://diamondnoace.fandom.com/wiki/That's_The_Reason_Why
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Reason_We_Fight
100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru 2nd Season -- -- Maho Film -- ? eps -- Manga -- Action Game Drama Fantasy Shounen -- 100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru 2nd Season 100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru 2nd Season -- Second season of 100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru. -- TV - Jul ??, 2021 -- 27,971 N/A -- -- Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari! Season 2 -- -- CloverWorks -- 23 eps -- Game -- Comedy Drama Mystery Police -- Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari! Season 2 Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari! Season 2 -- Defense attorney Ryuuichi Naruhodou is still hard at work defending the falsely accused with his knack for last-minute turnabouts. With his trusty assistant and medium-in-training Mayoi Ayasato in tow, Ryuuichi's fame as a champion for the innocent steadily grows. But this newfound success attracts the attention of the coffee-loving, masked Godot—a mysterious rookie prosecutor who bears an inexplicable grudge against Ryuuichi. -- -- With the help of their allies, Ryuuichi and Mayoi take this new challenger head-on and search for the reason behind his appearance. But before long, the first two cases from the career of Mayoi's late sister Chihiro Ayasato become critical to solving a fantastical murder mystery, continuing the bloody saga of the tumultuous Ayasato clan. Will Ryuuichi once again be able to overcome the odds and find the truths hidden within the web of lies? -- -- 27,968 7.14
3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season -- -- Shaft -- 22 eps -- Manga -- Drama Game Seinen Slice of Life -- 3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season 3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season -- Now in his second year of high school, Rei Kiriyama continues pushing through his struggles in the professional shogi world as well as his personal life. Surrounded by vibrant personalities at the shogi hall, the school club, and in the local community, his solitary shell slowly begins to crack. Among them are the three Kawamoto sisters—Akari, Hinata, and Momo—who forge an affectionate and familial bond with Rei. Through these ties, he realizes that everyone is burdened by their own emotional hardships and begins learning how to rely on others while supporting them in return. -- -- Nonetheless, the life of a professional is not easy. Between tournaments, championships, and title matches, the pressure mounts as Rei advances through the ranks and encounters incredibly skilled opponents. As he manages his relationships with those who have grown close to him, the shogi player continues to search for the reason he plays the game that defines his career. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- 283,096 9.00
Accel World -- -- Sunrise -- 24 eps -- Light novel -- Action Game Sci-Fi Romance School -- Accel World Accel World -- Haruyuki Arita is an overweight, bullied middle schooler who finds solace in playing online games. But his life takes a drastic turn one day, when he finds that all his high scores have been topped by Kuroyukihime, the popular vice president of the student council. She then invites him to the student lounge and introduces him to "Brain Burst," a program which allows the users to accelerate their brain waves to the point where time seems to stop. Brain Burst also functions as an augmented reality fighting game, and in order to get more points to accelerate, users must win duels against other players. However, if a user loses all their points, they will also lose access to Brain Burst forever. -- -- Kuroyukihime explains that she chose to show Haruyuki the program because she needs his help. She wants to meet the creator of Brain Burst and uncover the reason of why it was created, but that's easier said than done; to do so, she must defeat the "Six Kings of Pure Color," powerful faction leaders within the game, and reach level 10, the highest level attainable. After the girl helps Haruyuki overcome the bullies that torment him, he vows to help her realize her goal, and so begins the duo's fight to reach the top. -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- 612,411 7.30
Bakukyuu Hit! Crash B-Daman -- -- SynergySP -- 50 eps -- - -- Game Adventure Kids -- Bakukyuu Hit! Crash B-Daman Bakukyuu Hit! Crash B-Daman -- Hitto Tamaga, an 11-year-old boy, lives in some town in Japan. He is a very unfortunate boy, whose only asset is brightness. He lives only with his father who is a Bedaman researcher, but he left home several months ago, and he's been missing since then. He is living alone in a hut built on a relative’s land. Nobody celebrates his 11th birthday...except his cousin Nana who lives in the same land. One day, Hitto receives a present from the lost father, and he is very grad to know that his father remembers his birthday. It is “Crash Bedaman” that he longed for. After he puts them together to complete Crash Bedaman, he brings it to Bee Park, or a battle field of Beedaman. A battle there shows him a new way he should go. -- -- There is a message from his father with the present. -- -- “Overcome the difficulties”. -- -- Putting this word in his mind, he beats the enemies one after another with his Bedaman. With the encounter of partners and rivals, the mystery of Bedaman, a shadow organization, and the reason of the missing of his father gradually come to light. Defeating various obstacles in his way, he’s growing up. (Source: AnimeNFO) -- 1,562 6.04
B-gata H-kei -- -- Hal Film Maker, TYO Animations -- 12 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy Ecchi Romance School Seinen -- B-gata H-kei B-gata H-kei -- Most people, including the girl herself, would say that first year high school student Yamada is beautiful and perfect. Despite this, she is working towards a peculiar goal: to have sex with one hundred men by the end of high school. -- -- Trying to put some sense into her head, Yamada's best friend, Miharu Takeshita, points out a major flaw in that plan—she is completely inexperienced with men. However, the reason behind this is that Yamada thinks her lady parts look strange and believes others will judge her for it. As a result, Yamada decides that her first time must be with a fellow virgin, since they will not hurt or scare her. After a fateful encounter, she sets her sights on the shy and average Takashi Kosuda, an aspiring photographer with a heart of gold. -- -- With contending rivals for his affection and her own raging hormones, Yamada must find ways to seduce Kosuda and take his cherry. However, as she gets closer to Kosuda, she finds herself increasingly enjoying their time spent together. -- -- 330,273 6.92
Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Super Power Supernatural Shounen -- Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody -- When a life ends, its soul departs to its final resting place known as the Soul Society. However, if a soul is left to wander in the human world for too long, it ends up turning into a corrupted "Hollow" that feeds on other souls. In such cases, spirits called "Soul Reapers" are needed to eliminate the Hollows and guide the lost souls to the Soul Society. -- -- Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki are two Soul Reapers who are used to dealing with Hollows that appear in Karakura Town. But when they encounter the hostile "Blanks"—souls devoid of memories and immune to the "soul burial" used by Reapers—they are thrown for a loop. Senna, a fellow Reaper that neither Ichigo or Rukia are familiar with, comes to their rescue and manages to fend off the Blanks. The mystery deepens when a mirage of the human world suddenly appears over Soul Society. What could be the reason behind the strange phenomena, and how is it connected to Senna, who avoids any questions about her identity? -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- Movie - Dec 16, 2006 -- 226,583 7.45
Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Super Power Supernatural Shounen -- Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody -- When a life ends, its soul departs to its final resting place known as the Soul Society. However, if a soul is left to wander in the human world for too long, it ends up turning into a corrupted "Hollow" that feeds on other souls. In such cases, spirits called "Soul Reapers" are needed to eliminate the Hollows and guide the lost souls to the Soul Society. -- -- Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki are two Soul Reapers who are used to dealing with Hollows that appear in Karakura Town. But when they encounter the hostile "Blanks"—souls devoid of memories and immune to the "soul burial" used by Reapers—they are thrown for a loop. Senna, a fellow Reaper that neither Ichigo or Rukia are familiar with, comes to their rescue and manages to fend off the Blanks. The mystery deepens when a mirage of the human world suddenly appears over Soul Society. What could be the reason behind the strange phenomena, and how is it connected to Senna, who avoids any questions about her identity? -- -- Movie - Dec 16, 2006 -- 226,583 7.45
Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai -- -- Manglobe -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Sci-Fi Horror Shounen -- Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai -- Two years after the catastrophic tidal wave that swept over Japan, police officer Kiyomasa Senji is trying to make the world a safer place. Using his Branch of Sin powers, he stops criminals in whatever ways he can. After rescuing a boy named Izuru Tsukiyoshi from a gang called Goreless Peace, the conflict between Kiyomasa and his adversaries heats up rapidly, to the point of being explosive. -- -- Offering a glimpse into the past of the future Deadman, the story follows Senji, helping to further develop the reasoning that drives his actions later in life. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- OVA - Oct 8, 2011 -- 119,108 6.97
Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai -- -- Manglobe -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Sci-Fi Horror Shounen -- Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai -- Two years after the catastrophic tidal wave that swept over Japan, police officer Kiyomasa Senji is trying to make the world a safer place. Using his Branch of Sin powers, he stops criminals in whatever ways he can. After rescuing a boy named Izuru Tsukiyoshi from a gang called Goreless Peace, the conflict between Kiyomasa and his adversaries heats up rapidly, to the point of being explosive. -- -- Offering a glimpse into the past of the future Deadman, the story follows Senji, helping to further develop the reasoning that drives his actions later in life. -- -- OVA - Oct 8, 2011 -- 119,108 6.97
Digimon Adventure -- -- Toei Animation -- 54 eps -- Other -- Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Kids -- Digimon Adventure Digimon Adventure -- When a group of seven children go to summer camp, the last thing that they expect is snow falling in July. In the confusion that follows this phenomenon, they each receive an odd device that transports them to another world. As soon as they wake up in this new world, they encounter strange creatures who call themselves "Digimon." The Digimon tell them that they've landed in the "Digital World," far from home. -- -- With only the Digimon and the "Digivices" as protection, the seven children set off to find their way home and learn the reason why they were brought here. Led by the impulsive Taichi Yagami and his hungry Digimon partner Agumon, this group will have to fight unknown evils as they discover more about this outlandish Digital World. -- -- 335,127 7.78
Digimon Adventure -- -- Toei Animation -- 54 eps -- Other -- Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Kids -- Digimon Adventure Digimon Adventure -- When a group of seven children go to summer camp, the last thing that they expect is snow falling in July. In the confusion that follows this phenomenon, they each receive an odd device that transports them to another world. As soon as they wake up in this new world, they encounter strange creatures who call themselves "Digimon." The Digimon tell them that they've landed in the "Digital World," far from home. -- -- With only the Digimon and the "Digivices" as protection, the seven children set off to find their way home and learn the reason why they were brought here. Led by the impulsive Taichi Yagami and his hungry Digimon partner Agumon, this group will have to fight unknown evils as they discover more about this outlandish Digital World. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Flatiron Film Company, Saban Entertainment -- 335,127 7.78
Dr. Stone -- -- TMS Entertainment -- 24 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Adventure Comedy Shounen -- Dr. Stone Dr. Stone -- After five years of harboring unspoken feelings, high-schooler Taiju Ooki is finally ready to confess his love to Yuzuriha Ogawa. Just when Taiju begins his confession however, a blinding green light strikes the Earth and petrifies mankind around the world—turning every single human into stone. -- -- Several millennia later, Taiju awakens to find the modern world completely nonexistent, as nature has flourished in the years humanity stood still. Among a stone world of statues, Taiju encounters one other living human: his science-loving friend Senkuu, who has been active for a few months. Taiju learns that Senkuu has developed a grand scheme—to launch the complete revival of civilization with science. Taiju's brawn and Senkuu's brains combine to forge a formidable partnership, and they soon uncover a method to revive those petrified. -- -- However, Senkuu's master plan is threatened when his ideologies are challenged by those who awaken. All the while, the reason for mankind's petrification remains unknown. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Crunchyroll, Funimation -- 1,059,749 8.32
Eve no Jikan -- -- Studio Rikka -- 6 eps -- Original -- Sci-Fi Slice of Life -- Eve no Jikan Eve no Jikan -- In future Japan, in a time when android housekeepers have become commonplace, society strictly abides by the Three Laws of Robotics, which all androids must follow. Under the influence of the Robot Ethics Committee, androids are treated the same way as lesser technology, such as household appliances. However, a minority with an adoration for androids exists, categorized as "android-holics," and are shunned by the general public. -- -- Rikuo Sakisaka was raised to accept society's precept about androids, and is perfectly aware that they are not human. That is, until the day he discovers a strange message buried within the activity logs of his household android, Sammy. This leads him to Eve no Jikan, a cafe with only one rule that its patrons must adhere to: there must be no distinction made between humans and androids. Curiosity drives Rikuo to learn more about the shop, and he attempts to unearth the reason behind Sammy's peculiar behavior. -- -- ONA - Aug 1, 2008 -- 156,275 8.07
Fate/Extra: Last Encore -- -- Shaft -- 10 eps -- Game -- Action Fantasy Magic -- Fate/Extra: Last Encore Fate/Extra: Last Encore -- A technological hell masquerading as paradise, Tsukimihara Academy is an artificial high school that serves as the setting for the next Holy Grail War. Created by the Moon Cell computer, the school is inhabited by Earth-projected souls who have even the slightest aptitude for being a "Master." Of these 256 souls, 128 will be chosen for the main tournament and granted a Servant. With all of the Masters selected, the Academy activates a purge, targeting the remaining lifeforms for elimination. -- -- Awakening in a pool of his own blood, Hakuno Kishinami refuses to die. Fueled by unknown feelings of hatred, he vows to fight for survival. As he struggles to escape from a relentless pursuer, he finds a crimson blade plunged into the ground; and by pulling it out, Hakuno summons his own Servant, Saber, who instantly destroys his pursuer in a flurry of rose petals. With his newfound power, Hakuno must now begin his journey to Moon Cell's core, the Angelica Cage. There, he will unveil the reason for this artificial world and the secrets of his own blood-soaked past. -- -- 165,564 6.29
Free! Movie 2: Timeless Medley - Yakusoku -- -- Kyoto Animation -- 1 ep -- Original -- School Slice of Life Sports -- Free! Movie 2: Timeless Medley - Yakusoku Free! Movie 2: Timeless Medley - Yakusoku -- Rin Matsuoka’s childhood friend, Sousuke Yamazaki, has recently transferred to Samezuka Academy. Upon their reunion, the two reminisce about their childhood days and reaffirm their wish to swim together. Now with Rin, Sousuke, Captain Mikoshiba’s younger brother Momotarou Mikoshiba, and hard-working Aiichirou Nitori, the Samezuka relay team is formed, and their friendship deepens. However, as tournaments, races, and training go on, the reason for Sousuke’s sudden return begins to trouble him and affect his swimming. Noticing Sousuke’s change, Rin pushes to uncover what is holding him back. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- Movie - Jul 1, 2017 -- 25,238 7.59
Goblin Slayer 2nd Season -- -- - -- ? eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Fantasy -- Goblin Slayer 2nd Season Goblin Slayer 2nd Season -- Second season of Goblin Slayer. -- TV - ??? ??, ???? -- 56,694 N/APersona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Fantasy Supernatural -- Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down -- As the fall season nears its end, Chidori Yoshino, a member of Strega, abducts Junpei Iori. Meanwhile, Makoto Yuuki and the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) annihilate the Arcana Hanged Man. Soon after, a mysterious playboy named Ryouji Mochizuki transfers into Gekkoukan High School's Class 2-F. -- -- Supposedly having achieved their goal, the members of SEES believe they are free from the battle that has ruthlessly stolen away the lives of their loved ones. And yet, Tartarus and the Dark Hour continue to exist, undeterred by the extermination of the twelfth Shadow. Distraught by their apparent failure, SEES must cope with their personal struggles and discover whose sake they fight for. As Makoto and Junpei's journeys of self-discovery progress, Ryouji's identity and the reason behind Aegis's hate for him become clear. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- Movie - Apr 4, 2015 -- 56,090 7.61
Harukana Receive -- -- C2C -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Sports -- Harukana Receive Harukana Receive -- In beach volleyball, there is no room for aces. To achieve victory, each player must find their one, irreplaceable partner that they can rely on in the court of sand. At least, that is what Haruka Oozora learns on her first day in Okinawa after moving in with her grandmother and her cousin Kanata Higa. While touring a nearby beach, Haruka stumbles upon some girls practicing beach volleyball and is quickly invited to join. This friendly practice game suddenly turns into a match when one of the girls, Narumi Tooi, notices Kanata approaching the court. -- -- Although the two suffer a devastating defeat, Haruka finally realizes the reason for her cousin’s quiet and distant behavior. Kanata and Narumi used to be an exceptionally talented beach volleyball duo, until Kanata quit due to her short height causing problems for Narumi. Now, with the Junior Tournament just weeks away, Haruka must learn the intricacies of competitive beach volleyball and help Kanata overcome her crippling anxiety towards the sport that she once used to love. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 83,702 6.69
Hello Harinezumi: Satsui no Ryoubun -- -- Studio Deen -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Drama Mystery Psychological Seinen -- Hello Harinezumi: Satsui no Ryoubun Hello Harinezumi: Satsui no Ryoubun -- One stormy night, a young woman is shot to death on a cliff; her body is found floating in the waters below the next morning. She was last seen with a man who is now being sought not only for her death. Meanwhile, an estranged wife hires Goro, a private investigator, to find her husband. Alongside another member of law enforcement with his own motives for finding the man, Goro sets forth on a trail of tragedy and intrigue to find the reason and connection behind the murders and missing husband. -- -- (Source: Anime-Planet; edited) -- -- Licensor: -- Central Park Media, NYAV Post -- OVA - Sep 1, 1992 -- 2,551 6.43
Hino Hideshi Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Horror -- Hino Hideshi Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan Hino Hideshi Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan -- Based on Kaidan Yotsuya (Classic Japanese ghost story). -- OVA - Jul 20, 2000 -- 548 N/A -- -- Inagawa Junji no Sugoku Kowai Hanashi -- -- - -- 10 eps -- Book -- Horror Supernatural -- Inagawa Junji no Sugoku Kowai Hanashi Inagawa Junji no Sugoku Kowai Hanashi -- Short ghost stories by Inagawa Junji, an entertainer who is famous for his horror stories broadcasted on late night radio. He has gone on to write horror novels and directing live-action horror dramas and films. The anime is a spin-off of his Inagawa Junji no Chou: Kowai Hanashi (Inagawa Junji's Super Scary Stories) live-action direct-to-DVD series. -- ONA - Sep 5, 2017 -- 530 N/A -- -- Kyoufu Shinbun -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 2 eps -- Manga -- Horror Shounen -- Kyoufu Shinbun Kyoufu Shinbun -- For reasons unknown to him, Rei receives the Kyoufu Shinbun every morning, a newspaper which foresees deaths and catastrophes... -- -- Based on Tsunoda Jirou's classic horror manga "Kyoufu Shinbun", serialized in Weekly Shounen Champion. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- OVA - Jul 21, 1991 -- 528 N/A -- -- Eko Eko Azarak -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- - -- Fantasy Horror Magic -- Eko Eko Azarak Eko Eko Azarak -- The worried owner of a luxury hotel hires high school student Kuroi Misa who has experience with necromancy. The reason is that a series of suicides carried out by guests have taken place in the garden which was once a place of execution. She agrees to use her knowledge of the black arts but demands a fee of ten million yen. -- OVA - Jan 30, 2007 -- 522 N/A -- -- Chainsaw Bunny: Deleted Scene -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Horror Supernatural Thriller -- Chainsaw Bunny: Deleted Scene Chainsaw Bunny: Deleted Scene -- A "deleted scene" from Chainsaw Bunny, where the monster becomes a giant pink faceless looming creature. -- ONA - Aug 1, 2018 -- 509 4.75
Initial D Second Stage -- -- Pastel -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Action Cars Drama Seinen Sports -- Initial D Second Stage Initial D Second Stage -- Accumulating an impressive series of victories with his AE86, Takumi Fujiwara has imposed himself as street racing's newest rising star. However, his newly found confidence of winning at his home turf of Mount Akina has been put in jeopardy by a new Emperor team exclusively using a car model favored by most professional racing pilots: the Mitsubishi four-wheel drive Lancer Evolutions—also known as Lan Evos. The Emperor team leader, Kyouichi Sudou, looks down on Takumi and regards him as an inferior pilot for driving an antique car that lacks the makings of a true modern race car. Kyouichi's elitist philosophy is also the reason why his team is only made of Lan Evo drivers. -- -- Will Takumi be able to keep his perfect track record intact against the highly skilled and mechanically superior Emperor team, or does his hot streak end here? -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Tokyopop -- 142,566 8.12
Isekai Cheat Magician -- -- Encourage Films -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Fantasy -- Isekai Cheat Magician Isekai Cheat Magician -- Regular high schooler Taichi Nishimura and his childhood friend, Rin Azuma, are on their way to school one ordinary morning. Suddenly, a glowing light envelops them, transporting them to a fantasy world full of magical creatures. -- -- Upon their arrival, Taichi and Rin are threatened by a beast. They are promptly saved by a group of adventurers, who advise the pair that traveling unarmed and inexperienced makes them vulnerable to the recently increasing monster attacks. Taichi and Rin are directed to the Guild, where they can determine their magical aptitude and register as adventurers. However, the test they take reveals an unprecedented result: Taichi and Rin possess extraordinary powers that far surpass the standard mage, instantly transforming them from typical high school students to the ultimate cheat magicians. -- -- Taichi and Rin learn to grasp the full extent of their powers and familiarize themselves with their new world. However, while the duo seeks to uncover the reason behind their transportation and a possible way back to their original world, unexpected trouble lurks in the shadows. -- -- 203,921 5.37
Isshuukan Friends. -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Slice of Life Comedy School Shounen -- Isshuukan Friends. Isshuukan Friends. -- Sixteen-year-old Yuuki Hase finally finds the courage to speak to his crush and ask her if she wants to become friends. The object of his affection, Kaori Fujimiya, is a quiet and reserved girl who cuts herself off from everyone and does not spare him the same blunt rejection she gives everybody else. -- -- Some time after, Yuuki finds her eating lunch on the roof where she secludes herself during break. He decides to start meeting with Kaori every day in the hopes of beginning to understand her better. The more time they spend together, the more she begins to open up to him. However, nearing the end of the week, she starts to push him away once more. It is then revealed to him the reason for Kaori's cold front: at the end of the week, her memories of those close to her, excluding her family, are forgotten, as they are reset every Monday. The result of an accident in middle school, the once popular and kind Kaori is now unable to make friends in fear of hurting the people dear to her. -- -- Determined to become more than just one week friends, Yuuki asks her the exact same question each Monday: "Would you like to be friends?" Because he knows that deep down, Kaori wishes for that more than anything. -- -- 259,203 7.56
Isshuukan Friends. -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Slice of Life Comedy School Shounen -- Isshuukan Friends. Isshuukan Friends. -- Sixteen-year-old Yuuki Hase finally finds the courage to speak to his crush and ask her if she wants to become friends. The object of his affection, Kaori Fujimiya, is a quiet and reserved girl who cuts herself off from everyone and does not spare him the same blunt rejection she gives everybody else. -- -- Some time after, Yuuki finds her eating lunch on the roof where she secludes herself during break. He decides to start meeting with Kaori every day in the hopes of beginning to understand her better. The more time they spend together, the more she begins to open up to him. However, nearing the end of the week, she starts to push him away once more. It is then revealed to him the reason for Kaori's cold front: at the end of the week, her memories of those close to her, excluding her family, are forgotten, as they are reset every Monday. The result of an accident in middle school, the once popular and kind Kaori is now unable to make friends in fear of hurting the people dear to her. -- -- Determined to become more than just one week friends, Yuuki asks her the exact same question each Monday: "Would you like to be friends?" Because he knows that deep down, Kaori wishes for that more than anything. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 259,203 7.56
Kanata no Astra -- -- Lerche -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Adventure Space Shounen -- Kanata no Astra Kanata no Astra -- In the year 2063, space travel is feasible and commercially available. As the cheerful Aries Spring arrives at the spaceport to attend a camp on the distant planet McPa, her purse is suddenly snatched by a reckless thief. Luckily, the athletic Kanata Hoshijima is able to retrieve it for her, and Aries soon discovers that he is among the group of teenagers who will be travelling with her on the excursion as team B-5. -- -- Upon arriving at their campsite, the group's trip takes a turn for the worse when a strange sphere of black light sucks them into the vast reaches of outer space. Stranded with seemingly no hope, they find an abandoned ship nearby that provides them with the means to return home. However, they soon discover that they are not as close to their campsite as they initially thought, but are in fact thousands of light-years away from home. -- -- With this realization, the nine members must cautiously manage their resources, maintain their strength, and unite as one to conquer the darkness of space together. While the reason behind their trip's sudden obstruction remains unknown, they nevertheless embark on the treacherous voyage back home aboard their new ship, the Astra. -- -- 208,590 8.14
Kanata no Astra -- -- Lerche -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Adventure Space Shounen -- Kanata no Astra Kanata no Astra -- In the year 2063, space travel is feasible and commercially available. As the cheerful Aries Spring arrives at the spaceport to attend a camp on the distant planet McPa, her purse is suddenly snatched by a reckless thief. Luckily, the athletic Kanata Hoshijima is able to retrieve it for her, and Aries soon discovers that he is among the group of teenagers who will be travelling with her on the excursion as team B-5. -- -- Upon arriving at their campsite, the group's trip takes a turn for the worse when a strange sphere of black light sucks them into the vast reaches of outer space. Stranded with seemingly no hope, they find an abandoned ship nearby that provides them with the means to return home. However, they soon discover that they are not as close to their campsite as they initially thought, but are in fact thousands of light-years away from home. -- -- With this realization, the nine members must cautiously manage their resources, maintain their strength, and unite as one to conquer the darkness of space together. While the reason behind their trip's sudden obstruction remains unknown, they nevertheless embark on the treacherous voyage back home aboard their new ship, the Astra. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 208,590 8.14
Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e -- -- MAPPA -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Fantasy Military Shounen -- Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e -- With the initiation of the Patrian civil war came the creation of half-beast, half-human soldiers—a development of the outnumbered Northerners in a desperate attempt to counter the overwhelming Southern forces. Able to quickly dominate battlefields and achieve victory with ease, the soldiers' godlike abilities earned them the name "Incarnates." However, as the war raged on, the Incarnates encountered a problem involving the beasts inside them that they were unable to rectify by ordinary means. -- -- Once the war was over, mysteries and accounts of the Incarnates submitting to the misfortune of their war days surfaced. Aware of the horrors they faced during the war, Special Sergeant Major and former captain of the Incarnates Hank Henriette becomes a Beast Hunter—those who take the lives of Incarnates who have succumbed to the issues they experienced on the battlefields. -- -- After witnessing her father, a former Incarnate soldier, meet his end at the hands of one such Beast Hunter, Nancy Schaal Bancroft resolves to hunt the man who took her father's life. However, Nancy's eye-opening encounter with the Beast Hunter influences her to instead seek the reason behind her father's death and the Incarnates' problematic existence in society. -- -- 95,746 6.40
Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Tou no Kuni - Free Lance -- -- A.C.G.T. -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Adventure Psychological Fantasy -- Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Tou no Kuni - Free Lance Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Tou no Kuni - Free Lance -- Waking up from a nap, Kino is relieved to see that a certain tower from afar is still proudly standing. Located in the heart of the Tower Country, the immensely tall tower stretches high into the sky, reaching seemingly infinite heights. The tower looks like something out of a dream, but the breathtaking construction is unmistakably real. Intrigued, the traveling partners Kino and Hermes—the talking motorcycle—journey to the tower to get a closer look at the building. -- -- Despite already being unbelievably tall, the tower is still being built by the townspeople to this day. Puzzled by the origins of the tower, Kino and Hermes ask around the town for information, but they fail to obtain any definitive answer. They continue to observe both the tower and the townspeople during their stay, hoping to understand the reasoning behind building a tower that requires so much effort. After all, there is always something to learn... even from the strangest of countries. -- -- Special - Oct 19, 2005 -- 33,066 7.60
Kuromukuro -- -- P.A. Works -- 26 eps -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Mecha -- Kuromukuro Kuromukuro -- During the dawn of the 21st century, the United Nations Kurobe Research Institute was established in Japan to investigate an ancient artifact, which was discovered during the construction of the Kurobe Dam. Scientists from around the world have gathered in the facility to study the object, while their children enjoy their everyday lives attending Mt. Tate International Senior High School. -- -- Yukina Shirahane, a reserved high school girl, is the daughter of the facility's head scientist. While visiting her mother at the facility, Yukina manages to solve part of the artifact's puzzle. To her surprise, what appears before her is Kennosuke Tokisada Ouma, a young samurai from the Sengoku era. -- -- As a threat approaches from outer space, Yukina, along with Kennosuke, finds herself defending Earth against the invading forces. Along the way, she discovers the mystery behind Kennosuke and the reason he is determined to protect her. -- -- 115,000 7.19
Kuromukuro -- -- P.A. Works -- 26 eps -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Mecha -- Kuromukuro Kuromukuro -- During the dawn of the 21st century, the United Nations Kurobe Research Institute was established in Japan to investigate an ancient artifact, which was discovered during the construction of the Kurobe Dam. Scientists from around the world have gathered in the facility to study the object, while their children enjoy their everyday lives attending Mt. Tate International Senior High School. -- -- Yukina Shirahane, a reserved high school girl, is the daughter of the facility's head scientist. While visiting her mother at the facility, Yukina manages to solve part of the artifact's puzzle. To her surprise, what appears before her is Kennosuke Tokisada Ouma, a young samurai from the Sengoku era. -- -- As a threat approaches from outer space, Yukina, along with Kennosuke, finds herself defending Earth against the invading forces. Along the way, she discovers the mystery behind Kennosuke and the reason he is determined to protect her. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Ponycan USA -- 115,000 7.19
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen -- -- - -- ? eps -- Light novel -- Sci-Fi Supernatural Magic -- Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen -- Looking at Miyuki and Tatsuya now, it might be hard to imagine them as anything other than loving siblings. But it wasn't always this way.. -- -- Three years ago, Miyuki was always uncomfortable around her older brother. The rest of their family treated him no better than a lowly servant, even though he was the perfect Guardian, watching over Miyuki while she lived a normal middle school life. But what really bothered her was that he never showed any emotions or thoughts of his own. -- -- However, when danger comes calling during a fateful trip to Okinawa, their relationship as brother and sister will change forever… -- -- (Source: Yen Press) -- - - ??? ??, ???? -- 25,203 N/ASakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day -- -- Purple Cow Studio Japan, Studio Rikka -- 4 eps -- - -- Sci-Fi -- Sakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day Sakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day -- This is an online distribution of the prologue of the movie, illustrating the first day of the entire story. -- -- A world, forever beyond your expectations. -- -- In a dark, cramped, underground world of endless tunnels and shafts, people wear protective suits and live out their modest yet happy lives. The princess of the underground community, Patema, goes out exploring as always, inspired by her curiosity of the unknown depths of the world. -- -- Her favorite spot is the "danger zone," an area forbidden by the "rule" of the community. Despite being frequently chastised by her caretaker Jii, she cannot hold back her curiosity for the reason behind the rule, because no one would tell her what the "danger" was. When she approaches the hidden "secret," the story begins. -- -- (Source: translation of a synopsis from the nicovideo news) -- Special - Feb 26, 2012 -- 25,203 7.38
Mononoke -- -- Toei Animation -- 12 eps -- Original -- Mystery Historical Horror Demons Psychological Supernatural Fantasy Seinen -- Mononoke Mononoke -- The "Medicine Seller" is a deadly and mysterious master of the occult who travels across feudal Japan in search of malevolent spirits called "mononoke" to slay. When he locates one of these spirits, he cannot simply kill it; he must first learn its Form, its Truth, and its Reason in order to wield the mighty Exorcism Sword and fight against it. He must begin his strange exorcisms with intense psychological analysis and careful investigative work—an extremely dangerous step, as he must first confront and learn about the mononoke before he even has the means to defeat it. -- -- The Medicine Seller's journey leads him to an old-fashioned inn where Shino, a pregnant woman, has finally found a place to rest. The owner has reluctantly placed her in the last vacant room; however, as she settles in, it quickly becomes clear that the room is infested by a lethal band of mononoke, the Zashiki Warashi. With his hunter's intuition, the Medicine Seller begins his investigation to discover the Form, the Truth, and the Reason before the Zashiki Warashi can kill again. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Flatiron Film Company -- TV - Jul 13, 2007 -- 228,080 8.43
Mononoke -- -- Toei Animation -- 12 eps -- Original -- Mystery Historical Horror Demons Psychological Supernatural Fantasy Seinen -- Mononoke Mononoke -- The "Medicine Seller" is a deadly and mysterious master of the occult who travels across feudal Japan in search of malevolent spirits called "mononoke" to slay. When he locates one of these spirits, he cannot simply kill it; he must first learn its Form, its Truth, and its Reason in order to wield the mighty Exorcism Sword and fight against it. He must begin his strange exorcisms with intense psychological analysis and careful investigative work—an extremely dangerous step, as he must first confront and learn about the mononoke before he even has the means to defeat it. -- -- The Medicine Seller's journey leads him to an old-fashioned inn where Shino, a pregnant woman, has finally found a place to rest. The owner has reluctantly placed her in the last vacant room; however, as she settles in, it quickly becomes clear that the room is infested by a lethal band of mononoke, the Zashiki Warashi. With his hunter's intuition, the Medicine Seller begins his investigation to discover the Form, the Truth, and the Reason before the Zashiki Warashi can kill again. -- -- TV - Jul 13, 2007 -- 228,080 8.43
Morita-san wa Mukuchi. -- -- Seven -- 13 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Slice of Life -- Morita-san wa Mukuchi. Morita-san wa Mukuchi. -- Morita Mayu, a high school girl. She is extremely reticent and her silence and habit of looking at people's eyes straightly sometimes cause misunderstanding. The reason behind it is not because she doesn’t like to talk nor because she has nothing to say. The reason she rarely speaks is due to the fact she thinks too much before speaking, thus losing the timing to speak altogether. But she lives a happy school life with her classmates. -- TV - Jul 6, 2011 -- 21,221 6.53
Morita-san wa Mukuchi -- -- Seven -- 1 ep -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Slice of Life -- Morita-san wa Mukuchi Morita-san wa Mukuchi -- OVA bundled with the special edition of manga volume 3. -- -- Morita Mayu is a high school girl. She is extremely reticent and her silence and habit of looking at people's eyes straightly sometimes cause misunderstanding. The reason behind it is not because she doesn’t like to talk nor because she has nothing to say. The reason she rarely speaks is due to the fact she thinks too much before speaking, thus losing the timing to speak altogether. Despite this, she lives a happy school life with her classmates. -- OVA - Mar 26, 2011 -- 8,592 6.58
Nourin -- -- SILVER LINK. -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Parody Romance Ecchi School -- Nourin Nourin -- Idol-obsessed Kousaku Hata is left devastated when his favorite, Yuka Kusakabe, unexpectedly announces her retirement at the peak of an illustrious career. As Yuka’s biggest fan, this news proves to be more difficult than he can bear. Shaken to his very core, he sinks into depression and places himself in self-imposed isolation. However, on the day his friends managed to convince him to attend school again, he gets a pleasant surprise. -- -- It turns out that his beloved idol, under the guise of Ringo Kinoshita, has transferred into his class. This miraculous development fills Kousaku with newfound resolve, as he dedicates himself to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With the support of his teacher and friends, Kousaku works toward getting close to the girl of his dreams and uncovering the reason for her retirement from the entertainment industry. -- -- TV - Jan 11, 2014 -- 152,252 6.81
One Piece: Episode of East Blue - Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibouken -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Super Power Drama Fantasy Shounen -- One Piece: Episode of East Blue - Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibouken One Piece: Episode of East Blue - Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibouken -- The words that Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, uttered just before his death excited the masses and the world has entered a Great Pirate Era! There is a group of young pirates who are about to set sail on the Grand Line. Monkey D. Luffy, a rubber man. Roronoa Zoro aka “Pirate Hunter.” Usopp, a sniper. Sanji, a seafaring cook. And “Cat Burglar” Nami. They, the Straw Hats, all place a foot upon a barrel and make their vows before their next journey across the great ocean. Luffy shouts “In order to be the King of the Pirates!” A decade ago in the Windmill Village... A little boy Luffy was enthralled with a pirate boss Red-Haired Shanks. But a group of mountain bandits shows up and makes fun of the pirates. “Why didn't you fight them?!” Luffy yells out angrily but Shanks says that it's nothing worth getting mad over. At that time, Luffy snatches the Gum-Gum Fruit from a treasure box and eats it and as a result, his entire body becomes rubber and he loses the ability to swim for the rest of his life! A few days later, Luffy is surrounded by the mountain bandits again and Shanks comes to help. “No matter what the reason, anyone who hurts my friends has to pay!!” Shanks and his pirate crew are incredibly strong and they beat down the mountain bandits. Higuma, the head of the mountain bandits, runs away kidnapping Luffy and heads for the sea. However, they encounter a local Sea Monster there and are attacked. Luffy is in a desperate situation... But again, Shanks saves the day. He outstares the Sea Monster and chases it away but in exchange, he loses his left arm... When Shanks leaves the village, he leaves his straw hat with Luffy. “Come bring it back to me someday! Once you've become a great pirate!” 10 years later, Luffy has grown up strong and he sets out for an adventure on a small boat. He again encounters the local Sea Monster for that fateful day. However, Luffy takes it down with a single blow of Gum-Gum Pistol. Luffy’s journey to become the King of the Pirates now begins! -- -- (Source: Crunchyroll) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- Special - Aug 26, 2017 -- 24,025 7.90
One Piece: Episode of East Blue - Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibouken -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Super Power Drama Fantasy Shounen -- One Piece: Episode of East Blue - Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibouken One Piece: Episode of East Blue - Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibouken -- The words that Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, uttered just before his death excited the masses and the world has entered a Great Pirate Era! There is a group of young pirates who are about to set sail on the Grand Line. Monkey D. Luffy, a rubber man. Roronoa Zoro aka “Pirate Hunter.” Usopp, a sniper. Sanji, a seafaring cook. And “Cat Burglar” Nami. They, the Straw Hats, all place a foot upon a barrel and make their vows before their next journey across the great ocean. Luffy shouts “In order to be the King of the Pirates!” A decade ago in the Windmill Village... A little boy Luffy was enthralled with a pirate boss Red-Haired Shanks. But a group of mountain bandits shows up and makes fun of the pirates. “Why didn't you fight them?!” Luffy yells out angrily but Shanks says that it's nothing worth getting mad over. At that time, Luffy snatches the Gum-Gum Fruit from a treasure box and eats it and as a result, his entire body becomes rubber and he loses the ability to swim for the rest of his life! A few days later, Luffy is surrounded by the mountain bandits again and Shanks comes to help. “No matter what the reason, anyone who hurts my friends has to pay!!” Shanks and his pirate crew are incredibly strong and they beat down the mountain bandits. Higuma, the head of the mountain bandits, runs away kidnapping Luffy and heads for the sea. However, they encounter a local Sea Monster there and are attacked. Luffy is in a desperate situation... But again, Shanks saves the day. He outstares the Sea Monster and chases it away but in exchange, he loses his left arm... When Shanks leaves the village, he leaves his straw hat with Luffy. “Come bring it back to me someday! Once you've become a great pirate!” 10 years later, Luffy has grown up strong and he sets out for an adventure on a small boat. He again encounters the local Sea Monster for that fateful day. However, Luffy takes it down with a single blow of Gum-Gum Pistol. Luffy’s journey to become the King of the Pirates now begins! -- -- (Source: Crunchyroll) -- Special - Aug 26, 2017 -- 24,025 7.90
Ousama Game The Animation -- -- Seven -- 12 eps -- Novel -- Mystery Dementia Horror Supernatural Drama School -- Ousama Game The Animation Ousama Game The Animation -- It can be rough transferring to a new school—even more so if you don't want to make any friends, like Nobuaki Kanazawa. But the reason for his antisocial behavior soon becomes clear when his class receives a text from someone called "The King." Included are instructions for the "King's Game," and all class members must participate. Those who refuse to play, quit halfway, or don't follow an order in the allotted time of 24 hours will receive a deadly punishment. -- -- Having played the game before and watched as those around him died, Nobuaki tries to warn his clueless classmates. Unfortunately, they only believe him after the King's Game claims its first casualties. Stuck in a horrific situation with no chance of escape, Nobuaki has a choice: put his own survival above those around him, or do what he couldn't before and save his classmates. -- -- 183,629 5.00
Ousama Game The Animation -- -- Seven -- 12 eps -- Novel -- Mystery Dementia Horror Supernatural Drama School -- Ousama Game The Animation Ousama Game The Animation -- It can be rough transferring to a new school—even more so if you don't want to make any friends, like Nobuaki Kanazawa. But the reason for his antisocial behavior soon becomes clear when his class receives a text from someone called "The King." Included are instructions for the "King's Game," and all class members must participate. Those who refuse to play, quit halfway, or don't follow an order in the allotted time of 24 hours will receive a deadly punishment. -- -- Having played the game before and watched as those around him died, Nobuaki tries to warn his clueless classmates. Unfortunately, they only believe him after the King's Game claims its first casualties. Stuck in a horrific situation with no chance of escape, Nobuaki has a choice: put his own survival above those around him, or do what he couldn't before and save his classmates. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 183,629 5.00
Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth -- -- AIC ASTA -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Supernatural Fantasy -- Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth -- At the stroke of midnight, the Dark Hour appears—a secret hour which most are unaware of. Those not trapped in coffins during this time, unfortunate enough to find themselves conscious, are met by dangerous creatures known as Shadows. A select few, however, possess the potential to wield Persona: a special power used to defeat these beings. This secret group is called SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad), and their mission is to uncover the reason behind the Dark Hour's appearance. -- -- Only a short while after transfer student Makoto Yuuki begins his residency at Iwatodai Dorm, his Persona awakens after an attack by a strong Shadow. Now recruited into the ranks of SEES, he begins fighting alongside his comrades, as only they can protect humanity from Shadows and prevent the anomaly that is the Dark Hour. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- Movie - Nov 23, 2013 -- 94,390 7.58
Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth -- -- AIC ASTA -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Supernatural Fantasy -- Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth -- At the stroke of midnight, the Dark Hour appears—a secret hour which most are unaware of. Those not trapped in coffins during this time, unfortunate enough to find themselves conscious, are met by dangerous creatures known as Shadows. A select few, however, possess the potential to wield Persona: a special power used to defeat these beings. This secret group is called SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad), and their mission is to uncover the reason behind the Dark Hour's appearance. -- -- Only a short while after transfer student Makoto Yuuki begins his residency at Iwatodai Dorm, his Persona awakens after an attack by a strong Shadow. Now recruited into the ranks of SEES, he begins fighting alongside his comrades, as only they can protect humanity from Shadows and prevent the anomaly that is the Dark Hour. -- -- Movie - Nov 23, 2013 -- 94,390 7.58
Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Fantasy Supernatural -- Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down -- As the fall season nears its end, Chidori Yoshino, a member of Strega, abducts Junpei Iori. Meanwhile, Makoto Yuuki and the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) annihilate the Arcana Hanged Man. Soon after, a mysterious playboy named Ryouji Mochizuki transfers into Gekkoukan High School's Class 2-F. -- -- Supposedly having achieved their goal, the members of SEES believe they are free from the battle that has ruthlessly stolen away the lives of their loved ones. And yet, Tartarus and the Dark Hour continue to exist, undeterred by the extermination of the twelfth Shadow. Distraught by their apparent failure, SEES must cope with their personal struggles and discover whose sake they fight for. As Makoto and Junpei's journeys of self-discovery progress, Ryouji's identity and the reason behind Aegis's hate for him become clear. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- Movie - Apr 4, 2015 -- 56,090 7.61
Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Fantasy Supernatural -- Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down Persona 3 the Movie 3: Falling Down -- As the fall season nears its end, Chidori Yoshino, a member of Strega, abducts Junpei Iori. Meanwhile, Makoto Yuuki and the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) annihilate the Arcana Hanged Man. Soon after, a mysterious playboy named Ryouji Mochizuki transfers into Gekkoukan High School's Class 2-F. -- -- Supposedly having achieved their goal, the members of SEES believe they are free from the battle that has ruthlessly stolen away the lives of their loved ones. And yet, Tartarus and the Dark Hour continue to exist, undeterred by the extermination of the twelfth Shadow. Distraught by their apparent failure, SEES must cope with their personal struggles and discover whose sake they fight for. As Makoto and Junpei's journeys of self-discovery progress, Ryouji's identity and the reason behind Aegis's hate for him become clear. -- -- Movie - Apr 4, 2015 -- 56,090 7.61
Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle -- -- Gonzo -- 25 eps -- Game -- Action Sci-Fi Space -- Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle -- A TV anime adaptation of episode 1-3 out of 5 the total episodes from the Phantasy Star Online 2 game. Some anime-original content will be created as well. -- -- Episode 1: During their qualification exam in planet Naberius, the player and fellow ARKS trainee Afin were attacked by vile organisms known as Darkers. This is followed by the two discovering a mysterious girl who lost most of her memories, and the truth regarding Naberius and the recent spike of Darker activities. -- -- Episode 2: The plot follows the player and Matoi as they try to unravel a dark conspiracy regarding the origin and purpose of ARKS. -- -- Episode 3: The discovery of the planet Harukotan brought a new quest into the fray, as the peace between the Shironian and Kuronites that dwell in the planet is disturbed by the Kuronites' sudden attack. The newly-reformed ARKS is tasked to investigate the reason behind it all, and it seems like the truth is more complicated and horrifying than expected... -- -- (Source: phantasystar.fandom.com) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 18,794 6.53
Princess Tutu -- -- Hal Film Maker -- 38 eps -- Original -- Comedy Drama Fantasy Magic Mystery Romance -- Princess Tutu Princess Tutu -- In a fairy tale come to life, the clumsy, sweet, and gentle Ahiru (Japanese for "duck") seems like an unlikely protagonist. In reality, Ahiru is just as magical as the talking cats and crocodiles that inhabit her town—for Ahiru really is a duck! Transformed by the mysterious Drosselmeyer into a human girl, Ahiru soon learns the reason for her existence. Using her magical egg-shaped pendant, Ahiru can transform into Princess Tutu—a beautiful and talented ballet dancer whose dances relieve people of the turmoil in their hearts. With her newfound ability, Ahiru accepts the challenge of collecting the lost shards of her prince's heart, for long ago he had shattered it in order to seal an evil raven away for all eternity. -- -- Princess Tutu is a tale of heroes and their struggle against fate. Their beliefs, their feelings, and ultimately their actions will determine whether this fairy tale can reach its "happily ever after." -- -- 133,320 8.14
Princess Tutu -- -- Hal Film Maker -- 38 eps -- Original -- Comedy Drama Fantasy Magic Mystery Romance -- Princess Tutu Princess Tutu -- In a fairy tale come to life, the clumsy, sweet, and gentle Ahiru (Japanese for "duck") seems like an unlikely protagonist. In reality, Ahiru is just as magical as the talking cats and crocodiles that inhabit her town—for Ahiru really is a duck! Transformed by the mysterious Drosselmeyer into a human girl, Ahiru soon learns the reason for her existence. Using her magical egg-shaped pendant, Ahiru can transform into Princess Tutu—a beautiful and talented ballet dancer whose dances relieve people of the turmoil in their hearts. With her newfound ability, Ahiru accepts the challenge of collecting the lost shards of her prince's heart, for long ago he had shattered it in order to seal an evil raven away for all eternity. -- -- Princess Tutu is a tale of heroes and their struggle against fate. Their beliefs, their feelings, and ultimately their actions will determine whether this fairy tale can reach its "happily ever after." -- -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Sentai Filmworks -- 133,320 8.14
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis - Short Story -- -- MAPPA -- 2 eps -- Game -- Action Adventure Demons Supernatural Magic Fantasy -- Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis - Short Story Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis - Short Story -- The first short story focuses on Favaro and Kaiser between the events of the first and second series as they visit Favaro's home village. -- -- The second short story shows Kaiser as a knight commander sparring with Jeanne, and sharing the reasons they remained as Orleans Knights in the aftermath of the final battle against Bahamut. -- ONA - Dec 28, 2016 -- 21,714 7.14
Tokyo Ghoul: "Pinto" -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Action Drama Horror Mystery Psychological Supernatural -- Tokyo Ghoul: "Pinto" Tokyo Ghoul: "Pinto" -- Shuu Tsukiyama is a "ghoul": a creature who eats human flesh, and he likes to enjoy his meals to the fullest. One night, while relishing in the premeditated murder of his dinner, Shuu's much anticipated first bite is disturbed by a sudden flash of light. -- -- The flash turns out to be from the camera of high schooler Chie Hori, who presents Shuu with the perfect picture capturing his true nature; the extremely clear shot of a bloody corpse and an overly excited Shuu threatens to expose his ghoul identity, thus Shuu needs to sort out this situation quickly. -- -- After Shuu discovers that Chie attends the same high school as him and is even in the same class, the reason behind his feelings of obsession changes from self-preservation to morbid curiosity. As he grows closer to the absent-minded and extremely odd photographer, he challenges them both to learn more about each other's conflicting worlds; Shuu promises that Chie will come out of this experience with a photograph superior to the one she already has. -- -- OVA - Dec 25, 2015 -- 158,029 7.25
Trigun -- -- Madhouse -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Sci-Fi Adventure Comedy Drama Shounen -- Trigun Trigun -- Vash the Stampede is the man with a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head. The reason: he's a merciless villain who lays waste to all those that oppose him and flattens entire cities for fun, garnering him the title "The Humanoid Typhoon." He leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever he goes, and anyone can count themselves dead if they so much as make eye contact—or so the rumors say. In actuality, Vash is a huge softie who claims to have never taken a life and avoids violence at all costs. -- -- With his crazy doughnut obsession and buffoonish attitude in tow, Vash traverses the wasteland of the planet Gunsmoke, all the while followed by two insurance agents, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who attempt to minimize his impact on the public. But soon, their misadventures evolve into life-or-death situations as a group of legendary assassins are summoned to bring about suffering to the trio. Vash's agonizing past will be unraveled and his morality and principles pushed to the breaking point. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Geneon Entertainment USA -- 576,758 8.23
Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Romance Drama Sci-Fi -- Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer -- Not all is normal in Tomobiki, even by its standards. The students have been preparing feverishly for the first day of the student fair, which is scheduled to go on the next day. However, problems arise when some begin to notice that the next day simply will not come. As the students begin to try to find the reason for the problem, their beliefs about reality and the world of dreams are challenged. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Central Park Media, Discotek Media -- Movie - Feb 11, 1984 -- 13,382 7.83
Uzumaki -- -- Drive -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Dementia Horror Psychological Supernatural Drama Romance Seinen -- Uzumaki Uzumaki -- In the town of Kurouzu-cho, Kirie Goshima lives a fairly normal life with her family. As she walks to the train station one day to meet her boyfriend, Shuuichi Saito, she sees his father staring at a snail shell in an alley. Thinking nothing of it, she mentions the incident to Shuuichi, who says that his father has been acting weird lately. Shuuichi reveals his rising desire to leave the town with Kirie, saying that the town is infected with spirals. -- -- But his father's obsession with the shape soon proves deadly, beginning a chain of horrific and unexplainable events that causes the residents of Kurouzu-cho to spiral into madness. -- -- TV - ??? ??, 2021 -- 33,169 N/A -- -- Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Tou no Kuni - Free Lance -- -- A.C.G.T. -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Adventure Psychological Fantasy -- Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Tou no Kuni - Free Lance Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Tou no Kuni - Free Lance -- Waking up from a nap, Kino is relieved to see that a certain tower from afar is still proudly standing. Located in the heart of the Tower Country, the immensely tall tower stretches high into the sky, reaching seemingly infinite heights. The tower looks like something out of a dream, but the breathtaking construction is unmistakably real. Intrigued, the traveling partners Kino and Hermes—the talking motorcycle—journey to the tower to get a closer look at the building. -- -- Despite already being unbelievably tall, the tower is still being built by the townspeople to this day. Puzzled by the origins of the tower, Kino and Hermes ask around the town for information, but they fail to obtain any definitive answer. They continue to observe both the tower and the townspeople during their stay, hoping to understand the reasoning behind building a tower that requires so much effort. After all, there is always something to learn... even from the strangest of countries. -- -- Special - Oct 19, 2005 -- 33,066 7.60
Vampire Knight: Guilty -- -- Studio Deen -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Drama Mystery Romance Shoujo Supernatural Vampire -- Vampire Knight: Guilty Vampire Knight: Guilty -- When the missing Zero Kiryuu returns to Cross Academy, Yuuki Cross is relieved to see him safe, but finds that Zero has changed in more ways than one. As a result of choices he made, Zero is plagued by visions, and he seeks to uncover the reason behind them—unaware that the answers may be much closer than he thinks. -- -- Soon Yuuki also begins to be tormented by ghastly hallucinations, and she seeks an explanation about her shrouded past from the only one who can provide clarity: Pureblood vampire Kaname Kuran, who is closest to her heart. But what will happen when the truth is finally revealed? -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- TV - Oct 7, 2008 -- 312,148 7.19
Yama no Susume: Omoide Present -- -- 8bit -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Adventure Comedy Slice of Life -- Yama no Susume: Omoide Present Yama no Susume: Omoide Present -- On the final day of summer vacation, Kokona Aoba is ready to spend some long-awaited time with her mother, but these plans are unfortunately canceled due to work. Opting to go outside instead, she takes a stroll down a familiar path—one where fond memories appear at every corner. -- -- Later, in the middle of autumn, Hinata Kuraue and Aoi Yukimura are looking through a scrapbook of their childhood. Snooping around in Aoi's room, Hinata finds that she has kept a strange acorn as a keepsake, but doesn't remember the reason why. As its discovery dwells on her, a wave of old memories comes forth, causing her to reminisce about a forgotten event from her childhood. -- -- From time spent with loved ones to promises from the past, Yama no Susume: Omoide Present follows the three girls as they cherish old memories while crafting entirely new ones to remember. -- -- OVA - Oct 28, 2017 -- 9,603 7.37
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sean_Faircloth_at_the_Reason_Rally
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As the Reasons Die
Clare & the Reasons
Contemplate (The Reason You Exist)
Fools (The Reason album)
Give Me the Reason
Give Me the Reason (Lady Saw album)
Texas Is the Reason
The Reason
The Reason 4
The Reason (Beanie Sigel album)
The Reason for God
The Reason (Hoobastank album)
The Reason (Hoobastank song)
The Reason I Can't Find My Love
The Reason I Exist
The Reason I Jump
The Reason Is You
The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty
The Reasons Why
The Reasons Why (album)
The Reason Why
The Reason Why I'm Talking S--t
You're the Reason
You're the Reason (EP)
You Are the Reason
You Are the Reason (Calum Scott song)
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