TERMS STARTING WITH
The spiritual element is the need of the being for contact, merging, union wth its own highest and uhole sell and source of being and consciousness and bliss, the Ditinc. These two are two sides of the same thing. The mind, vital, physical can be the supports and recipients of this lose, but they can be fully that only when they become remoulded in harmony with the psychic and spiritual elements of the being and no longer bring in the lower insistences of the ego.
The spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousocss, ignorant and separated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one’s true being and comes first into direct and liviug contact and then into union with the Divine. ‘ ■ ’ j
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle*
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle
The spiritual transformation proper begins or becomes possible when one rises above the mind and lives there governing all from above. Even in the psychic transformation one can rise above by a sort of going above of the mental, vital, physical being and a return, but one does not yet live above in the summit consciousness where overmind has its seat with the other planes that are above the human Mind.
Ref: SABCL Vol. 22-23-24, Page: 1092-93
the spirit world?” Or did they come to him, as they have and still do to initiates, after a special,
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. 2. The spiritual apprehension of divine truths, or of realities beyond the reach of sensible experience or logical proof.
1. The spirit of God. 2. The presence of God as part of a person"s religious experience; also called Holy Spirit. 3. The third person of the Christian Trinity.
. a (anandamaya purusha) ::: "the Bliss-Self of the spirit"; the supreme and universal Soul, "the one and yet innumerable Personality, the infinite Godhead, the self-aware and self-unfolding Purusha", whose essential nature is ananda, a "transcendent Bliss, unimaginable and inexpressible by the mind and speech"; also called ananda purus.a. anandamaya sagun anandamaya saguna
"Action is a resultant of the energy of the being, but this energy is not of one sole kind; the Consciousness-Force of the Spirit manifests itself in many kinds of energies: there are inner activities of mind, activities of life, of desire, passion, impulse, character, activities of the senses and the body, a pursuit of truth and knowledge, a pursuit of beauty, a pursuit of ethical good or evil, a pursuit of power, love, joy, happiness, fortune, success, pleasure, life-satisfactions of all kinds, life-enlargement, a pursuit of individual or collective objects, a pursuit of the health, strength, capacity, satisfaction of the body.” The Life Divine*
“Action is a resultant of the energy of the being, but this energy is not of one sole kind; the Consciousness-Force of the Spirit manifests itself in many kinds of energies: there are inner activities of mind, activities of life, of desire, passion, impulse, character, activities of the senses and the body, a pursuit of truth and knowledge, a pursuit of beauty, a pursuit of ethical good or evil, a pursuit of power, love, joy, happiness, fortune, success, pleasure, life-satisfactions of all kinds, life-enlargement, a pursuit of individual or collective objects, a pursuit of the health, strength, capacity, satisfaction of the body.” The Life Divine
adhyatma-jivana ::: the spiritual life.
adhyatma ::: the spiritual, everything that has to do with the highest existence [atman] in us; the principle of the self in Nature.
aesthesis ::: “By aesthesis is meant a reaction of the consciousness, mental and vital and even bodily, which receives a certain element in things, something that can be called their taste, Rasa, which, passing through the mind or sense or both, awakes a vital enjoyment of the taste, Bhoga, and this can again awaken us, awaken even the soul in us to something yet deeper and more fundamental than mere pleasure and enjoyment, to some form of the spirit’s delight of existence, Ananda.” Letters on Savitri
Afterwards all gets surcharged with the spiritual consciousness and there is an automatic right perception and right action of the different parts because they are controlled entirely from above and do not falsify or resist or confuse its dictates.
ahaṅkara ::: the ego; the subjective principle by which the purus.a is induced to identify himself with prakr.ti and her activities; "the limited ‘I" in us", freedom from which is part of the mukti or liberation of the nature: the egoistic consciousness, including the "ego-sense in the life stuff" and the "ego-idea in the mind" which "maintain a constructed symbol of self, the separative ego, which does duty for the hidden real self, the spirit or true being" and whose nature "is a self-limitation of consciousness by a willed ignorance of the rest of its play and its exclusive absorption in one form, one combination of tendencies, one field of the movement of energies". aha ahankara-mukti-siddhi
AIM. ::: To return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by Ignorance is the soul’s aim in life.
There is only one aim to be followed, the increase of Peace, Light, Power and the growth of a new consciousness in the being. With that new consciousness the true knowledge, understanding, strength, feeling will come.
Aim of yoga ::: to find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the rest is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one’s own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one’s essential nature and, as a consequence. to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one’s active nature.
Aim of Integral yoga ::: it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life into a divine living.
airy ::: a. --> Consisting of air; as, an airy substance; the airy parts of bodies.
Relating or belonging to air; high in air; aerial; as, an airy flight.
Open to a free current of air; exposed to the air; breezy; as, an airy situation.
Resembling air; thin; unsubstantial; not material; airlike.
Relating to the spirit or soul; delicate; graceful; as, airy
alcohol ::: n. --> An impalpable powder.
The fluid essence or pure spirit obtained by distillation.
Pure spirit of wine; pure or highly rectified spirit (called also ethyl alcohol); the spirituous or intoxicating element of fermented or distilled liquors, or more loosely a liquid containing it in considerable quantity. It is extracted by simple distillation from various vegetable juices and infusions of a saccharine nature, which have undergone vinous fermentation.
“All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite’s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit’s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being,—an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves,—but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” The Life Divine
". . . all creation is a formation of the Spirit, . . . .” The Secret of the Veda*
“… all creation is a formation of the Spirit, …” The Secret of the Veda
"All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit.” The Life Divine
“All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit.” The Life Divine
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
“All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All true law is the right motion and process of a reality, an energy or power of being in action fulfilling its own inherent movement self-implied in its own truth of existence. This law may be inconscient and its working appear to be mechanical, — that is the character or, at least, the appearance of law in material Nature: it may be a conscious energy, freely determined in its action by the consciousness in the being aware of its own imperative of truth, aware of its plastic possibilities of self-expression of that truth, aware, always in the whole and at each moment in the detail, of the actualities it has to realise; this is the figure of the law of the Spirit.” *The Life Divine
“All true law is the right motion and process of a reality, an energy or power of being in action fulfilling its own inherent movement self-implied in its own truth of existence. This law may be inconscient and its working appear to be mechanical,—that is the character or, at least, the appearance of law in material Nature: it may be a conscious energy, freely determined in its action by the consciousness in the being aware of its own imperative of truth, aware of its plastic possibilities of self-expression of that truth, aware, always in the whole and at each moment in the detail, of the actualities it has to realise; this is the figure of the law of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
"All world is a movement of the Spirit in itself and is mutable and transient in all its formations and appearances; its only eternity is an eternity of recurrence, its only stability a semblance caused by certain fixities of relation and grouping.” *The Upanishads
“All world is a movement of the Spirit in itself and is mutable and transient in all its formations and appearances; its only eternity is an eternity of recurrence, its only stability a semblance caused by certain fixities of relation and grouping.” The Upanishads
Amal: “If nothing existed except the Gods there would be no mediating passage for the spirit awaking in matter and moving towards the higher regions and reaching the glory of the Oversoul after much labour and gradual process.”
Amal: “‘The gold Hawk’ is the spiritual-mental being.”
Amal: “The phrase strikes me as referring to the psychic being because in the preceding line the ‘Grandeur’ is called ‘a seer, a strong creator’ and is said to be ‘within’. But I am not quite sure, because the ‘Grandeur’ is said to ‘brood upon your days’, suggesting that it is above and not within. Perhaps two different though allied powers are suggested: the inner soul and the Spirit or the Atman which is one ultimately with Brahman.”
. amaya ::: full of infinite qualities (anantagun.a); the "Godhead, the spirit manifested in Nature" who "appears in a sea of infinite quality" expressing his "absolute capacity of boundlessly varied selfrevelation"; Kr.s.n.a seen in the second degree of the third intensity of Kr.s.n.adarsana, a kind of vision of the divine Personality corresponding to anantaṁ brahma in the impersonal brahmadarsana. ananta-j ñana
amr.ta (amrita; amritam) ::: immortality; "the spirit"s timeless existence . . . translated into the Time manifestation", including in its
anagoge ::: n. --> An elevation of mind to things celestial.
The spiritual meaning or application; esp. the application of the types and allegories of the Old Testament to subjects of the New.
ananda ::: delight, bliss, ecstasy, beatitude; "a profound concentrated ananda intense self-existent bliss extended to all that our being does, envisages, creates, a fixed divine rapture"; same as sama ananda, the universal delight which constitutes active / positive samata, "an equal delight in all the cosmic manifestation of the Divine", whose "foundation is the Atmajnana or Brahmajnana by which we perceive the whole universe as a perception of one Being that manifests itself in multitudinous forms and activities"; the highest of the three stages of active / positive . 12 samata, "the joy of Unity" by which "all is changed into the full and pure ecstasy" of the Spirit; the third and highest state of bhukti, consisting of the delight of existence experienced "throughout the system" in seven principal forms (kamananda, premananda, ahaituka ananda, cidghanananda, suddhananda, cidananda and sadananda) corresponding to the seven kosas or sheaths of the being and the seven lokas or planes of existence; physical ananda or sarirananda in its five forms, also called vividhananda (various delight), the fourth member of the sarira catus.t.aya; (especially in the plural, "anandas") any of these forms of ananda; same as anandaṁ brahma, the last aspect of the fourfold brahman; bliss of infinite conscious existence, "the original, all-encompassing, all-informing, all-upholding delight", the third aspect of saccidananda and the principle manifested in its purity in janaloka or anandaloka, also present in an involved or subordinated form on every other plane.
ANANDA. ::: Delight; essential principle of delight; bliss; spiritual ecstasy; the bliss of the Spirit which is the secret source· and support of all existence.
Ānanda is the secret delight from which all things are born, by which all is sustained in existence and to which all can rise in the spiritual culmination.
It is the Divine Bliss which comes from above. It is not joy or pleasure, but something self-existent, pure and quite beyond what any joy or pleasure can be.
Something greater than peace or joy, something that, like Truth and Light, is the very nature of the supramental Divine. It can come by frequent inrushes or descents, partially or for a time, but it cannot -remain in the system so long as the system has not been prepared for it.
It can come not only with its fullest intensity but with a more enduring persistence when the mind is at peace and the heart delivered from ordinary joy and sorrow. If the mind and heart are restless, changeful, unquiet, Ānanda of a kind may come, but it is mixed with vital excitement and cannot abide. One must get peace and calm fixed in the consciousness first, then there is a solid basis on which Ānanda can spread itself and in its turn become an enduring part of the consciousness and the nature.
Ānanda (ascension into) ::: It is quite impossible to ascend to the real Ānanda plane (except in a profound trance), until after the supramental consciousness has been entered, realised and possessed; but it is quite possible and normal to feel some form of Ānanda consciousness on any level. This consciousness, wherever it is felt, is a derivation from the Ānanda plane, but it is very much diminished in power and modified to suit the lesser power of receptivity of the inferior levels.
Ānanda (divine) in the physical ::: self-existent in its essence, its manifestation is dependent only on an inner union with the Divine.
Ānanda (of the Brahman) ::: there is an absoluteness of immutable ecstasy in it, a concentrated intensity of silent and inalienable rapture.
anandakosa (anandakosha; ananda-kosha) ::: the sheath (kosa) coranandakosa responding to the plane of ananda, the "bliss-sheath" which is the spiritual body of the "bliss soul" and in which, together with the vijñanakosa, "all the perfection of a spiritual embodiment is to be found, a yet unmanifested divine law of the body".
anandamaya isvara (Anandamaya Ishwara) ::: [the Lord whose substance is ananda], the Lord of existence and works and the Spirit of bliss.
anantagun.a (anantaguna; ananta guna; anantagunam) ::: "the infinite anantaguna qualities of the spirit" of which "Nature is only the power in being and the development in action"; brahman as "an Infinite teeming with innumerable qualities, properties, features"; capable of infinite qualities; same as anantagun.amaya.
anarya ::: not arya; ignoble, unaspiring; a human being or supraphysical power opposed to the spiritual effort.
And still we can recognise at once in the Overmind the original cosmic Maya, not a Maya of Ignorance but a Maya of Knowledge, yet a Power which has made the Ignorance possible, even inevitable. For if each principle loosed into action must follow its independent line and carry out its complete consequences, the principle of separation must also be allowed its complete course and arrive at its absolute consequence; this is Overmind in its descent reaches a line which divides the cosmic Truth from the cosmic Ignorance; it is the line at which it becomes possible for Consciousness-Force, emphasising the separateness of each independent movement created by Overmind and hiding or darkening their unity, to divide Mind by an exclusive concentration from the overmental source. There has already been a similar separation of Overmind from its supramental source, but with a transparency in the veil which allows a conscious transmission and maintains a certain luminous kinship; but here the veil is opaque and the transmission of the Overmind motives to the Mind is occult and obscure. Mind separated acts as if it were an independent principle, and each mental being, each basic mental idea, power, force stands similarly on its separate self; if it communicates with or combines or contacts others, it is not with the catholic universality of the overmind movement, on a basis of underlying oneness, but as independent units joining to form a separate constructed whole. It is by this movement that we pass from the cosmic Truth into the cosmic Ignorance. The cosmic Mind on this level, no doubt, comprehends its own unity, but it is not aware of its own source and foundation in the Spirit or can only comprehend it by the intelligence, not in any enduring experience; it acts in itself as if by its own right and works out what it receives as material without direct communication with the source from which it receives it. Its units also act in ignorance of each other and of the cosmic whole except for the knowledge that they can get by contact and communication,—the basic sense of identity and the mutual penetration and understanding that comes from it are no longer there. All the actions of this Mind Energy proceed on the opposite basis of the Ignorance and its divisions and, although they are the results of a certain conscious knowledge, it is a partial knowledge, not a true and integral self-knowledge, nor a true and integral world-knowledge. This character persists in Life and in subtle Matter and reappears in the gross material universe which arises from the final lapse into the Inconscience. …
— anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest, — not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of thesS things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit. It is not easy to have this equality in any full perfect measure, but one should always try more and more to make it the basis of one's inner state and outer movements.
art ::: “The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the doors of the spirit.” The Human Cycle etc.
asat ::: non-existent, unreal; non-being, nothingness; "the Negation of things" made possible by "the Spirit"s potency of presenting to itself
As for the outer attacks and adverse circumstances, that depends on the action of the Force transforming the relations of the being with the outer Nature ; as the victory of the Force proceeds, they will be eliminated ; but however long they last, they cannot impede the sadhana, for then even adverse things and happenings become a means for its advance and for the growth of the spirit.
ASPECTS OF THE DIVINE. ::: The Divine has three aspects for us :
1. It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe- although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.
2. It is the Spirit and Master of our own being within us whom we have to serve and learn to express his will in all our movements so that we may grow out of the Ignorance into the Light.
3. The Divine is transcendent Being and Spirit, all bliss and light and divine knowledge and power, and towards that highest divine existence and its Light we have to rise and bring down the reality of it more and more into our consciousness and life.
"A SPIRITUAL evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the keynote, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence. This significance is concealed at the outset by the involution of the Spirit, the Divine Reality, in a dense material Inconscience; a veil of Inconscience, a veil of insensibility of Matter hides the universal Consciousness-Force which works within it, so that the Energy, which is the first form the Force of creation assumes in the physical universe, appears to be itself inconscient and yet does the works of a vast occult Intelligence.” The Life Divine
“A SPIRITUAL evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the keynote, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence. This significance is concealed at the outset by the involution of the Spirit, the Divine Reality, in a dense material Inconscience; a veil of Inconscience, a veil of insensibility of Matter hides the universal Consciousness-Force which works within it, so that the Energy, which is the first form the Force of creation assumes in the physical universe, appears to be itself inconscient and yet does the works of a vast occult Intelligence.” The Life Divine
"As soon as we become aware of the Self, we are conscious of it as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings: it can be felt within the form of being, but also as enveloping it, as above it, surveying its embodiment from above, adhyaksa; it is omnipresent, the same in everything, infinite and pure and intangible for ever. This Self can be experienced as the Self of the individual, the Self of the thinker, doer, enjoyer, but even so it always has this greater character; its individuality is at the same time a vast universality or very readily passes into that, and the next step to that is a sheer transcendence or a complete and ineffable passing into the Absolute. The Self is that aspect of the Brahman in which it is intimately felt as at once individual, cosmic, transcendent of the universe. The realisation of the Self is the straight and swift way towards individual liberation, a static universality, a Nature-transcendence. At the same time there is a realisation of Self in which it is felt not only sustaining and pervading and enveloping all things, but constituting everything and identified in a free identity with all its becomings in Nature. Even so, freedom and impersonality are always the character of the Self. There is no appearance of subjection to the workings of its own Power in the universe, such as the apparent subjection of the Purusha to Prakriti. To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
“As soon as we become aware of the Self, we are conscious of it as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings: it can be felt within the form of being, but also as enveloping it, as above it, surveying its embodiment from above, adhyaksa; it is omnipresent, the same in everything, infinite and pure and intangible for ever. This Self can be experienced as the Self of the individual, the Self of the thinker, doer, enjoyer, but even so it always has this greater character; its individuality is at the same time a vast universality or very readily passes into that, and the next step to that is a sheer transcendence or a complete and ineffable passing into the Absolute. The Self is that aspect of the Brahman in which it is intimately felt as at once individual, cosmic, transcendent of the universe. The realisation of the Self is the straight and swift way towards individual liberation, a static universality, a Nature-transcendence. At the same time there is a realisation of Self in which it is felt not only sustaining and pervading and enveloping all things, but constituting everything and identified in a free identity with all its becomings in Nature. Even so, freedom and impersonality are always the character of the Self. There is no appearance of subjection to the workings of its own Power in the universe, such as the apparent subjection of the Purusha to Prakriti. To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine*
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine
“As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine
astral ::: 1. Of, relating to, emanating from, or resembling the stars. 2. Of the spirit world [Greek astron star].
ASTROLOGY. ::: Many astrological predictions come true, quite a mass of them, if one takes all together. But it does not follow that the stars rule our destiny; the stars merely record a destiny that has been already formed, they are a hieroglyph, not a Force, - or if their action constitutes a force, it is a transmitting energy, not an originating Power. Someone is there who has determined or something is there which is Fate, let us say; the stars are only indications. The astrologers themselves say that there are two forces, daiva and puruṣakāra, fate and individual energy, and the individual energy can modify and even frustrate fate. Moreover, the stars often indicate several fatepossibilities; for example, that one may die in mid-age, but that if that determination can be overcome, one can live to a predictable old age. Finally, cases are seen in which the predictions of the horoscope fulfil themselves with great accuracy up to a certain age, then apply no more. This often happens when the subject turns away from the ordinary to the spiritual life. If the turn is very radical, the cessation of predictability may be immediate; otherwise certain results may still last on for a time ; but there is no longer the sure inevitability.
"A third step is to find out that there is something in him other than his instrumental mind, life and body, not only an immortal ever-developing individual soul that supports his nature but an eternal immutable self and spirit, and to learn what are the categories of his spiritual being, until he discovers that all in him is an expression of the spirit and distinguishes the link between his lower and his higher existence; thus he sets out to remove his constitutional self-ignorance. Discovering self and spirit he discovers God; he finds out that there is a Self beyond the temporal: he comes to the vision of that Self in the cosmic consciousness as the divine Reality behind Nature and this world of beings; his mind opens to the thought or the sense of the Absolute of whom self and the individual and the cosmos are so many faces; the cosmic, the egoistic, the original ignorance begin to lose the rigidness of their hold upon him.” The Life Divine
“A third step is to find out that there is something in him other than his instrumental mind, life and body, not only an immortal ever-developing individual soul that supports his nature but an eternal immutable self and spirit, and to learn what are the categories of his spiritual being, until he discovers that all in him is an expression of the spirit and distinguishes the link between his lower and his higher existence; thus he sets out to remove his constitutional self-ignorance. Discovering self and spirit he discovers God; he finds out that there is a Self beyond the temporal: he comes to the vision of that Self in the cosmic consciousness as the divine Reality behind Nature and this world of beings; his mind opens to the thought or the sense of the Absolute of whom self and the individual and the cosmos are so many faces; the cosmic, the egoistic, the original ignorance begin to lose the rigidness of their hold upon him.” The Life Divine
atma swarupa. ::: the true nature of one's own Self; "the form of the spirit"; the Self shining as
::: ". . . a true occultism means no more than a research into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. It attempts the discovery of the secret laws of mind and mental energy, the secret laws of life and life-energy, the secret laws of the subtle-physical and its energies, — all that Nature has not put into visible operation on the surface; it pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplifting, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiritual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in its own way an occultism; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic, — for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supraphysical knowledge is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.” The Life Divine
“… a true occultism means no more than a research into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. It attempts the discovery of the secret laws of mind and mental energy, the secret laws of life and life-energy, the secret laws of the subtle-physical and its energies,—all that Nature has not put into visible operation on the surface; it pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplifting, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiritual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in its own way an occultism; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic,—for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supraphysical knowledge is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.” The Life Divine
Attachment to food, greed and eagerness for it, making it an unduly important thing in life is contrary to the spirit of yoga.
AUM ::: another spelling of the mystic syllable OM; its three letters,.28A, U and M, symbolise the states of brahman as, respectively, "the spirit of the gross and external" (virat.), "the spirit of the subtle and internal" (hiran.yagarbha), and "the spirit of the secret superconscient omnipotence" (prajña), while the syllable as a whole represents the Absolute (turiya), "the supreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self-existent above all manifestation in supernal being".
AUM. ::: Same as Om (showing the three syllables separately ::: a - the spirit of the gross and external, Virāt; u - the spirit of the subtle and internal, Taijasa; m - the spirit of the secret superconscient Omnipotence, Prājna ; am - the Absolute, Turīya).
The three letters represent the Brahman or Supreme Self in its three degrees of status, the Waking Soul, the Dream Soul and the Sleep Soul and the whole potent sound rises towards that which is beyond status as beyond activity.
“Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development—Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” Letters on Yoga
avidya ::: ignorance; the power by which "the Spirit dwells . . . in the avidya consciousness of multiplicity and relativity"; "the knowledge of the Many" (bahu), which "becomes no longer knowledge at all but ignorance, Avidya" because it "takes the Many for the real fact of existence and views the One [eka1] only as a cosmic sum of the Many". avikalpa samadhi
avidya. ::: "to know not"; nescience; inexplicable ignorance that lulls the spiritual being away from its true nature
"Be thyself, immortal, and put not thy faith in death; for death is not of thyself, but of thy body. For the Spirit is immortality.” Essays Divine and Human
“Be thyself, immortal, and put not thy faith in death; for death is not of thyself, but of thy body. For the Spirit is immortality.” Essays Divine and Human
bhoga ::: enjoyment; a response to experience which "translates itself into joy and suffering" in the lower being, where it "is of a twofold kind, positive and negative", but in the higher being "it is an actively equal enjoyment of the divine delight in self-manifestation";(also called sama bhoga) the second stage of active / positive samata, reached when the rasagrahan.a or mental "seizing of the principle of delight" in all things takes "the form of a strong possessing enjoyment . . . which makes the whole life-being vibrate with it and accept and rejoice in it"; the second stage of bhukti, "enjoyment without desire" in the pran.a or vital being; (when priti is substituted for bhoga as the second stage of positive samata or bhukti) same as (sama) ananda, the third stage of positive samata or bhukti, the "perfect enjoyment of existence" that comes "when it is not things, but the Ananda of the spirit in things that forms the real, essential object of our enjoying and things only as form and symbol of the spirit, waves of the ocean of Ananda". bhoga h hasyam asyaṁ karmalips karmalipsa a samabh samabhava
"Birth is an assumption of a body by the spirit, death is the casting off [of] the body; there is nothing original in this birth, nothing final in this death. Before birth we were; after death we shall be. Nor are our birth and death a single episode without continuous meaning or sequel; it is one episode out of many, scenes of our drama of existence with its denouement far away in time.” Essays Divine and Human*
“Birth is an assumption of a body by the spirit, death is the casting off [of] the body; there is nothing original in this birth, nothing final in this death. Before birth we were; after death we shall be. Nor are our birth and death a single episode without continuous meaning or sequel; it is one episode out of many, scenes of our drama of existence with its denouement far away in time.” Essays Divine and Human
bishop ::: n. --> A spiritual overseer, superintendent, or director.
In the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Anglican or Protestant Episcopal churches, one ordained to the highest order of the ministry, superior to the priesthood, and generally claiming to be a successor of the Apostles. The bishop is usually the spiritual head or ruler of a diocese, bishopric, or see.
In the Methodist Episcopal and some other churches, one of the highest church officers or superintendents.
blithe ::: a. --> Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit.
body ::: n. --> The material organized substance of an animal, whether living or dead, as distinguished from the spirit, or vital principle; the physical person.
The trunk, or main part, of a person or animal, as distinguished from the limbs and head; the main, central, or principal part, as of a tree, army, country, etc.
The real, as opposed to the symbolical; the substance, as opposed to the shadow.
brahmananda ::: the bliss of brahman, "the self-existent bliss of the spirit which depends on no object or circumstance"; it "can be described as the eternity of an uninterrupted supreme ecstasy", a bliss of which "peace . . . is the intimate core and essence".
brahman ::: (in the Veda) "the soul or soul-consciousness emerging from the secret heart of things" or "the thought, inspired, creative, full of the secret truth, which emerges from that consciousness and becomes thought of the mind"; (in Vedanta) the divine Reality, "the One [eka1] besides whom there is nothing else existent", the Absolute who is "at the same time the omnipresent Reality in which all that is relative exists as its forms or its movements". Its nature is saccidananda, infinite existence (sat), consciousness (cit) and bliss (ananda), whose second element can also be described as consciousness-force (cit-tapas), making four fundamental principles of the integral Reality; brahman seen in all things in terms of these principles is called in the Record of Yoga the fourfold brahman, whose aspects form the brahma catus.t.aya. The complete realisation of brahman included for Sri Aurobindo not only the unification of the experiences of the nirgun.a brahman (brahman without qualities) and sagun.a brahman (brahman with qualities), but the harmonisation of the impersonal brahman which is "the spiritual material and conscious substance of all the ideas and forces and forms of the universe" with the personal isvara in the consciousness of parabrahman, the brahman in its supreme status as "a transcendent Unthinkable too great for any manifestation", which "is at the same time the living supreme Soul of all things" (purus.ottama) and the supreme Lord (paramesvara) and supreme Self (paramatman), "and in all these equal aspects the same single and eternal Godhead". Brahman is represented in sound by the mystic syllable OM.
brahman ::: [Ved.]: the sacred or inspired word, expression of the heart or soul; heart; the Vedic word or mantra in its profoundest aspect as the expression of the intuition arising out of the depths of the soul or being; the Soul that emerges out of the subconscient in Man and rises towards the superconscient and also word of creative Power welling upward out of the soul. [Vedanta]: the Reality; the Eternal; the Absolute; the Spirit; the Supreme Being; the One besides whom there is nothing else existent; in relation to the universe [cf. atman] the Supreme is brahman, the one Reality which is not only the spiritual, material and conscious substance of all the ideas and forces and forms of the universe, but their origin, support and possessor, the cosmic and supracosmic Spirit. ::: brahma [nominative] ::: brahmana [instrumental], by the hymn. ::: brahmani [locative], into the brahman. [cf. Brahma]
Brahmarandhra downward. People went above this only in samadhi or in a condition of static mukii without any dynamic descent. All that was dynamic took place in the region of the spiritualised mental and vital-physical consciousness.
brahma upadesa. ::: initiation into the spiritual path of Brahman-realisation
break ::: v. 1. To destroy by or as if by shattering or crushing. 2. To force or make a way through (a barrier, etc.). 3. To vary or disrupt the uniformity or continuity of. 4. To overcome or put an end to. 5. To destroy or interrupt a regularity, uniformity, continuity, or arrangement of; interrupt. 6. To intrude upon; interrupt a conversation, etc. 7. To discontinue or sever an association, an agreement, or a relationship. **8. To overcome or wear down the spirit, strength, or resistance of. 9. (usually followed by in, into or out). 10. To filter or penetrate as sunlight into a room. 11. To come forth suddenly. 12. To utter suddenly; to express or start to express an emotion, mood, etc. 13. Said of waves, etc. when they dash against an obstacle, or topple over and become surf or broken water in the shallows. 14. To part the surface of water, as a ship or a jumping fish. breaks, broke, broken, breaking.* *n. 15.** An interruption or a disruption in continuity or regularity.
breathing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Breathe ::: n. --> Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air.
Air in gentle motion.
Any gentle influence or operation; inspiration; as, the breathings of the Spirit.
broken-hearted ::: a. --> Having the spirits depressed or crushed by grief or despair.
buddhi ::: intelligence; the thinking mind, the highest normal faculty of the antah.karan.a, also called the manasa buddhi or mental reason, whose three forms are the habitual mind, pragmatic reason and truth-seeking reason. The buddhi as "the discerning intelligence and the enlightened will" is "in its nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental activity" and thus "an intermediary between a much higher Truth-mind not now in our active possession, which is the direct instrument of Spirit, and the physical life of the human mind evolved in body"; its powers of perception, imagination, reasoning and judgment correspond respectively to the higher faculties of revelation, inspiration, intuition and discrimination belonging to vijñana, which may act in the mind to create "a higher form of the buddhi that can be called the intuitive mind" or vijñanabuddhi. In compound expressions, the word buddhi sometimes refers to a particular mentality or state of consciousness and may be translated "sense of", as in dasyabuddhi, "sense of surrender".
buffel duck ::: --> A small duck (Charitonetta albeola); the spirit duck, or butterball. The head of the male is covered with numerous elongated feathers, and thus appears large. Called also bufflehead.
"But always the whole foundation of the gnostic life must be by its very nature inward and not outward. In the life of the Spirit it is the Spirit, the inner Reality, that has built up and uses the mind, vital being and body as its instrumentation; thought, feeling and action do not exist for themselves, they are not an object, but the means; they serve to express the manifested divine Reality within us: otherwise, without this inwardness, this spiritual origination, in a too externalised consciousness or by only external means, no greater or divine life is possible.” The Life Divine
“But always the whole foundation of the gnostic life must be by its very nature inward and not outward. In the life of the Spirit it is the Spirit, the inner Reality, that has built up and uses the mind, vital being and body as its instrumentation; thought, feeling and action do not exist for themselves, they are not an object, but the means; they serve to express the manifested divine Reality within us: otherwise, without this inwardness, this spiritual origination, in a too externalised consciousness or by only external means, no greater or divine life is possible.” The Life Divine
"But the Spirit, the Divine is not only above Nature; it is master of Nature and cosmos; the soul rising into its spiritual poise must at least be capable of the same mastery by its unity with the Divine. " The Synthesis of Yoga*
“But the Spirit, the Divine is not only above Nature; it is master of Nature and cosmos; the soul rising into its spiritual poise must at least be capable of the same mastery by its unity with the Divine.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"But in a higher than our present mental consciousness we find that this duality is only a phenomenal appearance. The highest and real truth of existence is the one Spirit, the supreme Soul, Purushottama, and it is the power of being of this Spirit which manifests itself in all that we experience as universe. This universal Nature is not a lifeless, inert or unconscious mechanism, but informed in all its movements by the universal Spirit. The mechanism of its process is only an outward appearance and the reality is the Spirit creating or manifesting its own being by its own power of being in all that is in Nature. Soul and Nature in us too are only a dual appearance of the one existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
“But in a higher than our present mental consciousness we find that this duality is only a phenomenal appearance. The highest and real truth of existence is the one Spirit, the supreme Soul, Purushottama, and it is the power of being of this Spirit which manifests itself in all that we experience as universe. This universal Nature is not a lifeless, inert or unconscious mechanism, but informed in all its movements by the universal Spirit. The mechanism of its process is only an outward appearance and the reality is the Spirit creating or manifesting its own being by its own power of being in all that is in Nature. Soul and Nature in us too are only a dual appearance of the one existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga
But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, and evolution in Nature.
But these things are not universal in Westerners ; they are super-structural formations, not the very grain of the being. They cannot permanently stand in the way of the soul, if the soul’s aspiration is strong and firm, if the spiritual aim is the chief thing in the life.
catholicos ::: n. --> The spiritual head of the Armenian church, who resides at Etchmiadzin, Russia, and has ecclesiastical jurisdiction over, and consecrates the holy oil for, the Armenians of Russia, Turkey, and Persia, including the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Sis.
catvaro manavah ::: the four Manus (the spiritual Fathers of every human mind and body). [Gita 10.6]
celestial ::: a. --> Belonging to the aerial regions, or visible heavens.
Of or pertaining to the spiritual heaven; heavenly; divine. ::: n. --> An inhabitant of heaven.
A native of China.
chivalry ::: n. --> A body or order of cavaliers or knights serving on horseback; illustrious warriors, collectively; cavalry.
The dignity or system of knighthood; the spirit, usages, or manners of knighthood; the practice of knight-errantry.
The qualifications or character of knights, as valor, dexterity in arms, courtesy, etc.
A tenure of lands by knight&
christianity ::: n. --> The religion of Christians; the system of doctrines and precepts taught by Christ.
Practical conformity of one&
CIT. ::: The pure consciousness, as in Sai-Cit~Amnda. Creative sclf-consciencc ; the essential consciousness of the Spirit.
clay ::: 1. A natural earthy material that is plastic when wet, consisting essentially of hydrated silicates of aluminium: used for making bricks, pottery, etc. 2. The material which is said to form the human body. 3. The human body, esp. as opposed to the spirit. clay-kin.
cliquism ::: n. --> The tendency to associate in cliques; the spirit of cliques.
colonist ::: Madhav: “King Aswapathy had come to birth on earth with a special mission from the higher realms of the Spirit: to prepare the conditions for a divine advent, to embody in himself the soul of evolving humanity and to develop its aspiration for the Divine Life. he was conscious of the purpose for which he had sojourned in this mortal Nature and strove to extend here the reign of his native country of Infinity and Immortality.
comradery ::: n. --> The spirit of comradeship; comradeship.
■ Conch ::: Symbol of the spiritual call.
Conditions lor equality ::: Complete samata takes long to establish and it is dependent on three things ::: the soul’s self- giving to the Divine by an inner surrender, the descent of the spiritual calm and peace from above and the steady, long and persistent rejection of all egoistic, rajasic and other feelings that contradict samata.
Consciousness has not taken up the entire control of our God- ward endeavour. The working of the DIvme Force in m under the conditions of the transition and the tight of the psychic being turning us alw’aj'S towards a conscious and seeing obedience to that higher impulsion and away from the demands and instiga- tions of the Forces of the Ignorance, these between them create an ever progressive inner Jaw of our action which continues rilJ the spiritual and supramental can be established in our nature.
Consciousness which is waiting above us. To concentrate in the heart centre with the offering of oneself to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural begin- ning ; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way.
consequence ::: “ Karma is nothing but the will of the Spirit in action, consequence nothing but the creation of will. What is in the will of being, expresses itself in karma and consequence. When the will is limited in mind, karma appears as a bondage and a limitation, consequence as a reaction or an imposition. But when the will of the being is infinite in the spirit, karma and consequence become instead the joy of the creative spirit, the construction of the eternal mechanist, the word and drama of the eternal poet, the harmony of the eternal musician, the play of the eternal child.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
consistory ::: n. --> Primarily, a place of standing or staying together; hence, any solemn assembly or council.
The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere.
An assembly of prelates; a session of the college of cardinals at Rome.
A church tribunal or governing body.
A civil court of justice.
consolation ::: n. --> The act of consoling; the state of being consoled; allevation of misery or distress of mind; refreshment of spirit; comfort; that which consoles or comforts the spirit.
console ::: v. t. --> To cheer in distress or depression; to alleviate the grief and raise the spirits of; to relieve; to comfort; to soothe. ::: n. --> A bracket whose projection is not more than half its height.
Any small bracket; also, a console table.
convert ::: v. t. --> To cause to turn; to turn.
To change or turn from one state or condition to another; to alter in form, substance, or quality; to transform; to transmute; as, to convert water into ice.
To change or turn from one belief or course to another, as from one religion to another or from one party or sect to another.
To produce the spiritual change called conversion in (any one); to turn from a bad life to a good one; to change the heart
cosmic being ::: the manifold self-expression of the spirit.
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmos ::: “But if the individual is a persistent reality, an eternal portion or power of the Eternal, if his growth of consciousness is the means by which the Spirit in things discloses its being, the cosmos reveals itself as a conditioned manifestation of the play of the eternal One in the being of Sachchidananda with the eternal Many.” The Life Divine
davy jones ::: --> The spirit of the sea; sea devil; -- a term used by sailors.
death ::: “For the spiritual seeker death is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but only departed.” Letters on Yoga
DEATH. ::: For the spiritual seeker death is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but only departed.
death ::: Sri Aurobindo: "For the spiritual seeker death is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but only departed.” *Letters on Yoga
Deer ::: Speed in the spiritual path.
dehasiddhi ::: the perfection of the body, which "has to submit to a mutation and be no longer the clamorous animal or the impeding clod it now is, but become instead a conscious servant and radiant instrument and living form of the spirit"; the siddhi of the sarira catus.t.aya.
deject ::: v. t. --> To cast down.
To cast down the spirits of; to dispirit; to discourage; to dishearten. ::: a. --> Dejected.
demogorgon ::: n. --> A mysterious, terrible, and evil divinity, regarded by some as the author of creation, by others as a great magician who was supposed to command the spirits of the lower world. See Gorgon.
devi ::: goddess; the consort of the deva; the sakti of the isvara in her devi "outer or executive side" as Nature (prakr.ti); the sakti as the isvari,"the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit"s omnipotence".
dharan.asakti (dharanashakti) ::: the "faculty of holding"; the body"s "power to hold whatever force is brought into it by the spirit and to contain its action without spilling and wasting it or itself getting cracked"; same as dharan.asamarthya. dh dharanasamarthya
DIFFICULTIES. ::: All who enter the spiritual path harc to face the difficulties and ordeals of the path, those which rise from their own nature and those which come in from outside.
discourage ::: v. t. --> To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject; -- the opposite of encourage; as, he was discouraged in his undertaking; he need not be discouraged from a like attempt.
To dishearten one with respect to; to discountenance; to seek to check by disfavoring; to deter one from; as, they discouraged his efforts.
dishearten ::: v. t. --> To discourage; to deprive of courage and hope; to depress the spirits of; to deject.
dismay ::: v. i. --> To disable with alarm or apprehensions; to depress the spirits or courage of; to deprive or firmness and energy through fear; to daunt; to appall; to terrify.
To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet.
To take dismay or fright; to be filled with dismay. ::: v. t.
dispirit ::: v. t. --> To deprive of cheerful spirits; to depress the spirits of; to dishearten; to discourage.
To distill or infuse the spirit of.
Displaced the spirit’s finer view of things:
dissenterism ::: n. --> The spirit or principles of dissenters.
Divine and can create in us the divine consciousness and a new birth or births of the spirit.
Divine exists and the Divine is the one thing to be followed after — nothing else in life is worth having in comparison with that. So long as a man has that faith, he is marked for the spiritual life.
Divine in his spiritual and supraihentally ideative being. These cannot be acquired at all securely or integrally by personal effort, but can only come from above, or else can become natural to the man if and when he ascends beyond mind and lives in the spiritual being, power, consciousness and ideation.
dr.s.t.i (drishti; dristi) ::: vision; subtle sight, including rūpadr.s.t.i and sometimes lipidr.s.t.i; subtle sense-perception (vis.ayadr.s.t.i) in general; trikaladr.s.t.i, the knowledge of the past, present and future; perception of brahman or isvara in things and beings (same as darsana); revelation, the truth-seeing faculty of jñana whose nature is "a direct inner seizing or a penetrating and enveloping luminous contact of the spiritual consciousness with its object". In the last sense, dr.s.t.i is the essence of the seer ideality and present in all forms of logistic ideality with a revelatory element; in 1920 it often means revelatory logistis or full revelatory ideality.
drsti (Drishti) ::: seeing, sight, vision; revelation, revelatory knowledge; direct vision of the Truth; direct inner seizing or a penetrating and enveloping luminous contact of the spiritual consciousness.
Ecstasy ::: “It has been held that ecstasy is a lower and transient passage, the peace of the Supreme is the supreme realisation, the consummate abiding experience. This may be true on the spiritual-mind plane: there the first ecstasy felt is indeed a spiritual rapture, but it can be and is very usually mingled with a supreme happiness of the vital parts taken up by the Spirit; there is an exaltation, exultation, excitement, a highest intensity of the joy of the heart and the pure inner soul-sensation that can be a splendid passage or an uplifting force but is not the ultimate permanent foundation. But in the highest ascents of the spiritual bliss there is not this vehement exaltation and excitement; there is instead an illimitable intensity of participation in an eternal ecstasy which is founded on the eternal Existence and therefore on a beatific tranquillity of eternal peace. Peace and ecstasy cease to be different and become one. The Supermind, reconciling and fusing all differences as well as all contradictions, brings out this unity; a wide calm and a deep delight of all-existence are among its first steps of self-realisation, but this calm and this delight rise together, as one state, into an increasing intensity and culminate in the eternal ecstasy, the bliss that is the Infinite.” The Life Divine
ecstasy ::: n. --> The state of being beside one&
elate ::: a. --> Lifted up; raised; elevated.
Having the spirits raised by success, or by hope; flushed or exalted with confidence; elated; exultant. ::: v. t. --> To raise; to exalt.
To exalt the spirit of; to fill with confidence or
energy ::: “It is true that when Matter first emerges it becomes the dominant principle; it seems to be and is within its own field the basis of all things, the constituent of all things, the end of all things: but Matter itself is found to be a result of something that is not Matter, of Energy, and this Energy cannot be something self-existent and acting in the Void, but can turn out and, when deeply scrutinised, seems likely to turn out to be the action of a secret Consciousness and Being: when the spiritual knowledge and experience emerge, this becomes a certitude,—it is seen that the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
Energy ::: The creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit.
::: Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you, but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements, — anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest, — not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.” *Letters on Yoga
Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you, but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements,—anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest,—not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.” Letters on Yoga
ethereal ::: 1. Of the celestial spheres; heavenly. 2. Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air. 3. Characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy 4. Of heaven or the spirit. ethereal-tressed.
eudaemonised ::: Madhav: “To eudaemonise is to bestow happiness or felicity through an informal internal action on the spirit of a thing.” The Book of the Divine Mother
evaporate ::: v. t. --> To pass off in vapor, as a fluid; to escape and be dissipated, either in visible vapor, or in practice too minute to be visible.
To escape or pass off without effect; to be dissipated; to be wasted, as, the spirit of writer often evaporates in the process of translation.
To convert from a liquid or solid state into vapor (usually) by the agency of heat; to dissipate in vapor or fumes.
::: "Even Science believes that one day death may be conquered by physical means and its reasonings are perfectly sound. There is no reason why the supramental Force should not do it. Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
“Even Science believes that one day death may be conquered by physical means and its reasonings are perfectly sound. There is no reason why the supramental Force should not do it. Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
“Every man is knowingly or unknowingly the instrument of a universal Power and, apart from the inner Presence, there is no such essential difference between one action and another, one kind of instrumentation and another as would warrant the folly of an egoistic pride. The difference between knowledge and ignorance is a grace of the Spirit; the breath of divine Power blows where it lists and fills today one and tomorrow another with the word or the puissance. If the potter shapes one pot more perfectly than another, the merit lies not in the vessel but the maker. The attitude of our mind must not be ‘This is my strength’ or ‘Behold God’s power in me’, but rather ‘A Divine Power works in this mind and body and it is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in conscious and living things and in things apparently inconscient and inanimate.’” The Synthesis of Yoga
excite ::: v. t. --> To call to activity in any way; to rouse to feeling; to kindle to passionate emotion; to stir up to combined or general activity; as, to excite a person, the spirits, the passions; to excite a mutiny or insurrection; to excite heat by friction.
To call forth or increase the vital activity of an organism, or any of its parts.
exhilaration ::: n. --> The act of enlivening the spirits; the act of making glad or cheerful; a gladdening.
The state of being enlivened or cheerful.
“Existence is not merely a machinery of Nature, a wheel of law in which the soul is entangled for a moment or for ages; it is a constant manifestation of the Spirit. Life is not for the sake of life alone, but for God, and the living soul of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead.” Essays on the Gita
External worship ::: If it is purely external, then of course it is the lowest form ; but if done with the true consciousness, it can bring the greatest possible completeness to the adoration by allowing the body and the most external consciousness to share in the spirit and act of worship.
Faith is a certitude In the soul which does not depend on reasoning, on this or that menial idea, on circumstances. Faith is a spiritual certitude of the spiritual, the divine, the soul’s ideal, something that clings to that even when it is not fulfilled in life, even when the immediate facts or the persistent circum- stances seem to deny it.
::: **"Faith is a certitude in the soul which does not depend on reasoning, on this or that mental idea, on circumstances, on this or that passing condition of the mind or the vital or the body. It may be hidden, eclipsed, may even seem to be quenched, but it reappears again after the storm or the eclipse; it is seen burning still in the soul when one has thought that it was extinguished for ever. The mind may be a shifting sea of doubts and yet that faith may be there within and, if so, it will keep even the doubt-racked mind in the way so that it goes on in spite of itself towards its destined goal. Faith is a spiritual certitude of the spiritual, the divine, the soul"s ideal, something that clings to that even when it is not fulfilled in life, even when the immediate facts or the persistent circumstances seem to deny it.” Letters on Yoga
“Faith is a certitude in the soul which does not depend on reasoning, on this or that mental idea, on circumstances, on this or that passing condition of the mind or the vital or the body. It may be hidden, eclipsed, may even seem to be quenched, but it reappears again after the storm or the eclipse; it is seen burning still in the soul when one has thought that it was extinguished for ever. The mind may be a shifting sea of doubts and yet that faith may be there within and, if so, it will keep even the doubt-racked mind in the way so that it goes on in spite of itself towards its destined goal. Faith is a spiritual certitude of the spiritual, the divine, the soul’s ideal, something that clings to that even when it is not fulfilled in life, even when the immediate facts or the persistent circumstances seem to deny it.” Letters on Yoga
FAMILY DUTIES. ::: They exist so long os one is in the ordi- nary consciousness of (he sfbasiha ;* if the call to a spiritual life comes, whether one keeps to them or not depends partly upon the way of yoga one follows, partly on one’s own spiritual necessity. There are many who pursue inwardly the spiritual life and keep the family duties, not as social duties but as a field for the practice of karmayoga, others abandon everything to follow the spiritual call or line and they are justified if that is necessary for the yoga they practise or If that is the impera- tive demand of the sou! within (hem.
fate ::: “The Indian explanation of fate is Karma. We ourselves are our own fate through our actions, but the fate created by us binds us; for what we have sown, we must reap in this life or another. Still we are creating our fate for the future even while undergoing old fate from the past in the present. That gives a meaning to our will and action and does not, as European critics wrongly believe, constitute a rigid and sterilising fatalism. But again, our will and action can often annul or modify even the past Karma, it is only certain strong effects, called utkata karma, that are non-modifiable. Here too the achievement of the spiritual consciousness and life is supposed to annul or give the power to annul Karma. For we enter into union with the Will Divine, cosmic or transcendent, which can annul what it had sanctioned for certain conditions, new-create what it had created, the narrow fixed lines disappear, there is a more plastic freedom and wideness. Neither Karma nor Astrology therefore points to a rigid and for ever immutable fate.” Letters on Yoga
::: **"Fear and anxiety are perverse forms of will. What thou fearest & ponderest over, striking that note repeatedly in thy mind, thou helpest to bring about; for, if thy will above the surface of waking repels it, it is yet what thy mind underneath is all along willing, & the subconscious mind is mightier, wider, better equipped to fulfil than thy waking force & intellect. But the spirit is stronger than both together; from fear and hope take refuge in the grandiose calm and careless mastery of the spirit.” Essays Divine and Human
“Fear and anxiety are perverse forms of will. What thou fearest & ponderest over, striking that note repeatedly in thy mind, thou helpest to bring about; for, if thy will above the surface of waking repels it, it is yet what thy mind underneath is all along willing, & the subconscious mind is mightier, wider, better equipped to fulfil than thy waking force & intellect. But the spirit is stronger than both together; from fear and hope take refuge in the grandiose calm and careless mastery of the spirit.” Essays Divine and Human
flag ::: v. i. --> To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.
To droop; to grow spiritless; to lose vigor; to languish; as, the spirits flag; the streugth flags. ::: v. t. --> To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into
Flute ::: Symbol of a call, usually the spiritual call.
FOOD. ::: The importance of sativic food from the spiritual point of view has been exaggerated. Spiritually, the effect of food depends more on the occult stmosphere and influences that come with it than on anything in the food itself. ■
"Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
“Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes), because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit.
"For these are achievements of the spiritual mind in man; they are movements of that mind passing beyond itself, but on its own plane, into the splendours of the Spirit. The Life Divine
“For these are achievements of the spiritual mind in man; they are movements of that mind passing beyond itself, but on its own plane, into the splendours of the Spirit. The Life Divine
“From our ascending point of view we may say that the Real is behind all that exists; it expresses itself intermediately in an Ideal which is a harmonised truth of itself; the Ideal throws out a phenomenal reality of variable conscious-being which, inevitably drawn towards its own essential Reality, tries at last to recover it entirely whether by a violent leap or normally through the Ideal which put it forth. It is this that explains the imperfect reality of human existence as seen by the Mind, the instinctive aspiration in the mental being towards a perfectibility ever beyond itself, towards the concealed harmony of the Ideal, and the supreme surge of the spirit beyond the ideal to the transcendental.” The Life Divine
ghost ::: n. --> The spirit; the soul of man.
The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.
Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.
A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.
GLADNESS. ::: A sunshine and gladness are also powers and expressions of the Spirit.
goddess ::: “The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow implicit and complete. There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit’s omnipotence.” The Life Divine
god ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the Absolute, the Spirit, the Self spaceless and timeless, the Self manifest in the cosmos and Lord of Nature, — all this is what we mean by God, . . . .” *The Life Divine
god ::: “… the Absolute, the Spirit, the Self spaceless and timeless, the Self manifest in the cosmos and Lord of Nature,—all this is what we mean by God, …” The Life Divine
God ::: the Absolute, the Spirit, the Self spaceless and timeless, the Self manifest in the Cosmos and Lord of Nature. God is the All and that which transcends the All.
golden Child ::: Sri Aurobindo: "I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows after the silver light of the spiritual. When it plunges into the black waters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and, clearing itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme Divine (the Mother).” (Reply to a question in the chapter Visions and Symbols.) Letters on Yoga
GOVERNANCE BY THE DIVINE. ::: A constant aspiration for that is the first thing ; next a sort of stillness within and a draw- ing back from the outward action into the stillness and a sort of listening expectancy, not for a sound but for the spiritual feeling or direction of the consciousness that comes through the psychic.
grihastha dharma. ::: according to the hindu system, human life is divided into four successive stages or asramas looked at from the viewpoint of the pilgrim on the spiritual path; the grihastha dharma of the married householder is the second stage, preceded by brahmacharya, the stage of the celibate student
guruvada ::: [the doctrine that stresses the indispensability of the guru to the spiritual seeker].
Here too the achievement of the spiritual consciousness and life is supposed to annul or give the power to annul karma. For we enter into union with the Will Divine, cosmic or transcendent, which can annul what it had created, the narrow fixed lines dis- appear, there is a more plastic freedom and wideness.
hiranyagarbha ::: the Golden Embryo; the Spirit in the Dream-State.
His vision warned by the spirit"s inward eye
His vision warned by the spirit’s inward eye
Hostile Forces have a certain self-chosen function ::: it is to test the condition of the individual, of the work, of the earth itself and their readiness for the spiritual descent and fulfilment.
::: "Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual life, and spiritual pride, arrogance, or vanity and self-assurance press always downward. But confidence in the Divine and a faith in one"s spiritual destiny (i.e. since my heart and soul seek for the Divine, I cannot fail one day to reach Him) are much needed in view of the difficulties of the Path.” Letters on Yoga
“Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual life, and spiritual pride, arrogance, or vanity and self-assurance press always downward. But confidence in the Divine and a faith in one’s spiritual destiny (i.e. since my heart and soul seek for the Divine, I cannot fail one day to reach Him) are much needed in view of the difficulties of the Path.” Letters on Yoga
"Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual life, and spiritual pride, arrogance, or vanity and self-assurance press always downward.” *Letters on Yoga
“Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual life, and spiritual pride, arrogance, or vanity and self-assurance press always downward.” Letters on Yoga
IDEA. ::: There is a power in the idea, a force of which the idea is a shape. Again, behind the idea and force and word there is what is called the spirit, -—a consciousness which gene- rates the force.
::: "If there is an evolution in material Nature and if it is an evolution of being with consciousness and life as its two key-terms and powers, this fullness of being, fullness of consciousness, fullness of life must be the goal of development towards which we are tending and which will manifest at an early or later stage of our destiny. The Self, the Spirit, the Reality that is disclosing itself out of the first inconscience of life and matter, would evolve its complete truth of being and consciousness in that life and matter. It would return to itself, — or, if its end as an individual is to return into its Absolute, it could make that return also, — not through a frustration of life but through a spiritual completeness of itself in life. Our evolution in the Ignorance with its chequered joy and pain of self-discovery and world-discovery, its half-fulfilments, its constant finding and missing, is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the Knowledge, a self-finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a self-revelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature.” The Life Divine
“If there is an evolution in material Nature and if it is an evolution of being with consciousness and life as its two key-terms and powers, this fullness of being, fullness of consciousness, fullness of life must be the goal of development towards which we are tending and which will manifest at an early or later stage of our destiny. The Self, the Spirit, the Reality that is disclosing itself out of the first inconscience of life and matter, would evolve its complete truth of being and consciousness in that life and matter. It would return to itself,—or, if its end as an individual is to return into its Absolute, it could make that return also,—not through a frustration of life but through a spiritual completeness of itself in life. Our evolution in the Ignorance with its chequered joy and pain of self-discovery and world-discovery, its half-fulfilments, its constant finding and missing, is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the Knowledge, a self-finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a self-revelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature.” The Life Divine
“If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies,—not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
ignorantism ::: n. --> The spirit of those who extol the advantage to ignorance; obscuriantism.
illuminati ::: v. t. --> Literally, those who are enlightened
Persons in the early church who had received baptism; in which ceremony a lighted taper was given them, as a symbol of the spiritual illumination they has received by that sacrament.
Members of a sect which sprung up in Spain about the year 1575. Their principal doctrine was, that, by means of prayer, they had attained to so perfect a state as to have no need of ordinances, sacraments, good works, etc.; -- called also Alumbrados,
Illumined Mind ::: a mind no longer of higher thought, but of spiritual light; here the clarity of the intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit.
illumined mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; . . . .” The Life Divine
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine*
"I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better.” Letters on Yoga*
“I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better.” Letters on Yoga
::: ". . . immortality in its fundamental sense does not mean merely some kind of personal survival of the bodily death; we are immortal by the eternity of our self-existence without beginning or end, beyond the whole succession of physical births and deaths through which we pass, beyond the alternations of our existence in this and other worlds: the spirit"s timeless existence is the true immortality.” *The Life Divine
“… immortality in its fundamental sense does not mean merely some kind of personal survival of the bodily death; we are immortal by the eternity of our self-existence without beginning or end, beyond the whole succession of physical births and deaths through which we pass, beyond the alternations of our existence in this and other worlds: the spirit’s timeless existence is the true immortality.” The Life Divine
imperialism ::: n. --> The power or character of an emperor; imperial authority; the spirit of empire.
In a sense each man is a colonist here from the Kingdom of the Spirit. His original and permanent home is there on the Divine summits; he has come to establish on earth the rule of the Spirit.” Readings in Savitri, Vol. I.
inconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity.” *The Life Divine
"All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite"s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit"s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being, — an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves, — but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” *The Life Divine
"Once consciousnesses separated from the one consciousness, they fell inevitably into Ignorance and the last result of Ignorance was Inconscience.” Letters on Yoga
*inconscience.
indicavit ::: n. --> A writ of prohibition against proceeding in the spiritual court in certain cases, when the suit belongs to the common-law courts.
individual ::: “But what do we mean by the individual? What we usually call by that name is a natural ego, a device of Nature which holds together her action in the mind and body. This ego has to be extinguished, otherwise there is no complete liberation possible; but the individual self or soul is not this ego. The individual soul is the spiritual being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the Divine, but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false separative senseof individuality, realise our oneness with the transcendent and cosmic Divine and with all beings.” Letters on Yoga
". . . in fact matter itself is only an obscure form of the spirit. . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga
“… in fact matter itself is only an obscure form of the spirit….” The Synthesis of Yoga
inspired ::: aroused, animated or imbued with the spirit to do something, by or as if by supernatural or divine influence. inspiring.
inspire ::: v. t. --> To breathe into; to fill with the breath; to animate.
To infuse by breathing, or as if by breathing.
To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale; -- opposed to expire.
To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by inspiration.
To infuse into; to affect, as with a superior or
institution ::: n. --> The act or process of instituting; as: (a) Establishment; foundation; enactment; as, the institution of a school.
Instruction; education.
The act or ceremony of investing a clergyman with the spiritual part of a benefice, by which the care of souls is committed to his charge.
That which instituted or established
Established order, method, or custom; enactment;
INTEGRAL YOGA ::: This yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality; its object is to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ānanda. But for that, the surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to the Higher Consciousnessis indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a Supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the call to such a change should enter into this yoga.
Aim of the Integral Yoga ::: It is not merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter.
Conditions of the Integral Yoga ::: This yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human ego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. It cannot be done in a spirit of levity or laxity; the work is too high and difficult, the adverse powers in the lower Nature too ready to take advantage of the least sanction or the smallest opening, the aspiration and tapasyā needed too constant and intense.
Method in the Integral Yoga ::: To concentrate, preferably in the heart and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. One can concentrate also in the head or between the eye-brows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is the beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother’s Power and Presence.
Integral method ::: The method we have to pursue is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform Our entire being into His, so that in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sādhaka of the sādhana* as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.
In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sādhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for the weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It” makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills.” The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a Succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.
Secondly, the process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organised by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all to undergo a divine change. Everything in us is seized by the hands of a mighty Artificer and transformed into a clear image of that which it now seeks confusedly to present. In that ever-progressive experience we begin to perceive how this lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less distorted or imperfect figure of some elements or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin to understand what the Vedic Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefathers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy.
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every inner experience, even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. And we recognise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and miserable. We see the divine method to be the same in the lower and in the higher working; only in the one it is pursued tardily and obscurely through the subconscious in Nature, in the other it becomes swift and selfconscious and the instrument confesses the hand of the Master. All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
Key-methods ::: The way to devotion and surrender. It is the psychic movement that brings the constant and pure devotion and the removal of the ego that makes it possible to surrender.
The way to knowledge. Meditation in the head by which there comes the opening above, the quietude or silence of the mind and the descent of peace etc. of the higher consciousness generally till it envelops the being and fills the body and begins to take up all the movements.
Yoga by works ::: Separation of the Purusha from the Prakriti, the inner silent being from the outer active one, so that one has two consciousnesses or a double consciousness, one behind watching and observing and finally controlling and changing the other which is active in front. The other way of beginning the yoga of works is by doing them for the Divine, for the Mother, and not for oneself, consecrating and dedicating them till one concretely feels the Divine Force taking up the activities and doing them for one.
Object of the Integral Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine’s sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.
Principle of the Integral Yoga ::: The whole principle of Integral Yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother all the transcendent light, power, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ānanda of the Supramental Divine.
Central purpose of the Integral Yoga ::: Transformation of our superficial, narrow and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life.
Fundamental realisations of the Integral Yoga ::: The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness.
Results ::: First, an integral realisation of Divine Being; not only a realisation of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary to the complete knowledge of it by the relative consciousness; not only realisation of unity in the Self, but of unity in the infinite diversity of activities, worlds and creatures.
Therefore, also, an integral liberation. Not only the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujya mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; not only the sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda ; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
By this integral realisation and liberation, the perfect harmony of the results of Knowledge, Love and Works. For there is attained the complete release from ego and identification in being with the One in all and beyond all. But since the attaining consciousness is not limited by its attainment, we win also the unity in Beatitude and the harmonised diversity in Love, so that all relations of the play remain possible to us even while we retain on the heights of our being the eternal oneness with the Beloved. And by a similar wideness, being capable of a freedom in spirit that embraces life and does not depend upon withdrawal from life, we are able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. In integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine Being in ourselves and on the other the perfect outpouring of its Truth and Law in us in the terms of life and through the right functioning of the complex instrument we are in our outer parts, is the condition of an integral liberty. Its result is an integral beatitude, in which there becomes possible at once the Ānanda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ānanda of that which is not-world. And it prepares the integral perfection of our humanity as a type of the Divine in the conditions of the human manifestation, a perfection founded on a certain free universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unegoistic action. This integrality also can be attained by the integral Yoga.
Sādhanā of the Integral Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by a self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come.
The yoga does not proceed by upadeśa but by inner influence.
Integral Yoga and Gita ::: The Gita’s Yoga consists in the offering of one’s work as a sacrifice to the Divine, the conquest of desire, egoless and desireless action, bhakti for the Divine, an entering into the cosmic consciousness, the sense of unity with all creatures, oneness with the Divine. This yoga adds the bringing down of the supramental Light and Force (its ultimate aim) and the transformation of the nature.
Our yoga is not identical with the yoga of the Gita although it contains all that is essential in the Gita’s yoga. In our yoga we begin with the idea, the will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature. If we do not do this double movement, we are in danger of making a tamasic and therefore unreal surrender, making no effort, no tapas and therefore no progress ; or else we make a rajasic surrender not to the Divine but to some self-made false idea or image of the Divine which masks our rajasic ego or something still worse.
Integral Yoga, Gita and Tantra ::: The Gita follows the Vedantic tradition which leans entirely on the Ishvara aspect of the Divine and speaks little of the Divine Mother because its object is to draw back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation beyond it.
The Tantric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishvari aspect and makes all depend on the Divine Mother because its object is to possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation through it.
This yoga insists on both the aspects; the surrender to the Divine Mother is essential, for without it there is no fulfilment of the object of the yoga.
Integral Yoga and Hatha-Raja Yogas ::: For an integral yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. Their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psychophysical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action. Integral Yoga and Kundalini Yoga: There is a feeling of waves surging up, mounting to the head, which brings an outer unconsciousness and an inner waking. It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the ādhāra to meet the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on which so much stress is laid in the Tantric process, the awakening of the Kundalini, the Energy coiled up and latent in the body and its mounting through the spinal cord and the centres (cakras) and the Brahmarandhra to meet the Divine above. In our yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous upnish of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves, sometimes in a less concrete motion, and on the other side a descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force into the body.
Integral Yoga and other Yogas ::: The old yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence), absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-exist- ence, absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the Supramcntal plane.
The suprcfhe supra-cosmic Sachchidananda is above all. Supermind may be described as its power of self-awareness and W’orld- awareness, the world being known as within itself and not out- side. So to live consciously in the supreme Sachchidananda one must pass through the Supermind.
Distinction ::: The realisation of Self and of the Cosmic being (without which the realisation of the Self is incomplete) are essential steps in our yoga ; it is the end of other yogas, but it is, as it were, the beginning of outs, that is to say, the point where its own characteristic realisation can commence.
It is new as compared with the old yogas (1) Because it aims not at a departure out of world and life into Heaven and Nir- vana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object.
If there is a descent in other yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent — the ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent is the first step, but it is a means for the descent. It is the descent of the new coosdousness attain- ed by the ascent that is the stamp and seal of the sadhana. Even the Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the release from life ; here the object is the divine fulfilment of life.
(2) Because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realisation for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth-consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic acbievement. The thing to be gained also is the bringing of a Power of consciousness (the Supramental) not yet organised or active directly in earth-nature, even in the spiritual life, but yet to be organised and made directly active.
(3) Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, viz., the total and integral change of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods, but only as a part action and present aid to others that are distinctive.
Integral Yoga and Patanjali Yoga ::: Cilia is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness out of which arise the movements of thought, emotion, sensation, impulse etc.
It is these that in the Patanjali system have to be stilled altogether so that the consciousness may be immobile and go into Samadhi.
Our yoga has a different function. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.
In the iransiiioD there may well be a period in which we take up all life and action and offer them to the Divine for purifica- tion, change and deliverance of the truth within them, another period in which we draw back and build a spiritual wall around us admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the Jaw of the spiritual transformation, a third In which a free and all-cmbracing action, with new forms fit for the utter
In these activities is expressed the conscious Will or Shakti of the Spirit moved to manifest its being in infinite ways, a Will or
"In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning — it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one"s being, one"s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred" and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge", it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
“In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning—it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one’s being, one’s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred’ and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge’, it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
in the world first in Matter, then in Life, then in Mind and finally as the Spirit. The apparently inconscient Energy which creates is in fact the Consciousness-Force of the Divine and its aspect of consciousness, secret in Matter, begins to emerge in
In this joga the consciousness (after the lower field has been prepared by a certain amount of psycho-spiritual-occult experi- ence) is drawn upwards above the Brahmarandhra to ranges above belonging to the spiritual consciousness proper and instead of merely receiving from there has to live there and from there change the lower consciousness altogether. For there is a dyna- mism proper to the spiritual consciousness whose nature is Light,
intuition ::: direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process. intuition"s, intuitions, half-intuition.
Sri Aurobindo: "Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude.” *The Life Divine
"Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind-substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of ``stable lightnings"". When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar understanding or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power. To complete or verify an isolated intuition or discriminate its nature, its application, its limitations, the receiving consciousness must rely on another completing intuition or be able to call down a massed intuition capable of putting all in place. For once the process of the change has begun, a complete transmutation of the stuff and activities of the mind into the substance, form and power of Intuition is imperative; until then, so long as the process of consciousness depends upon the lower intelligence serving or helping out or using the intuition, the result can only be a survival of the mixed Knowledge-Ignorance uplifted or relieved by a higher light and force acting in its parts of Knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"I use the word ‘intuition" for want of a better. In truth, it is a makeshift and inadequate to the connotation demanded of it. The same has to be said of the word ‘consciousness" and many others which our poverty compels us to extend illegitimately in their significance.” *The Life Divine - Sri Aurobindo"s footnote.
"For intuition is an edge of light thrust out by the secret Supermind. . . .” The Life Divine
". . . intuition is born of a direct awareness while intellect is an indirect action of a knowledge which constructs itself with difficulty out of the unknown from signs and indications and gathered data.” The Life Divine
"Intuition is above illumined Mind which is simply higher Mind raised to a great luminosity and more open to modified forms of intuition and inspiration.” Letters on Yoga
"Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” Letters on Yoga
intuition ::: “Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the
intuitive knowledge ::: Sri Aurobindo: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The intuitive knowledge on the contrary, however limited it may be in its field or application, is within that scope sure with an immediate, a durable and especially a self-existent certitude.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
(in which there is much ima gina tion and fantasy) are useful for opening up the consciousness ; but it is when iey are replaced by the spiritual and psychic consciousness that there is the begia- ning of the true progress.
::: "I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.” Letters on Yoga
“I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.” Letters on Yoga
Is Itself greater than the Ufe-forcc. In matter life appears and living physical beings. But life or matter is not the sole reality ; it is a power of the Spirit. ’ . ‘ /
“I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows after the silver light of the spiritual. When it plunges into the black waters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and, clearing itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme Divine (the Mother).” (Reply to a question in the chapter Visions and Symbols.) Letters on Yoga
“It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truth-consciousness and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit. Here a slow and tardy change need no longer be the law or manner of our evolution; it will be only so to a greater or less extent so long as a mental ignorance clings and hampers our ascent; but once we have grown into the truth-consciousness its power of spiritual truth of being will determine all. Into that truth we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit. The obscurations of earth will not prevail against the supramental truth-consciousness, for even into the earth it can bring enough of the omniscient light and omnipotent force of the spirit conquer. All may not open to the fullness of its light and power, but whatever does open must that extent undergo the change. That will be the principle of transformation.” The Supramental Manifestation
It is the insinimentation of the Sachchidananda, — the Infinite consciousness higher than the mental being. It Is a Self- awareness of the Infinite and Eternal and a power of Self- determination Inherent in that Self-awareness. Supermind keeps always and in every status and condition the spiritual realisation of the unity of all. It is the Consciousness creatrix of the world, a W”!!! to light and vision and also a will to power of works. It
“It might be said again that, even so, in Sachchidananda itself at least, above all worlds of manifestation, there could be nothing but the self-awareness of pure existence and consciousness and a pure delight of existence. Or, indeed, this triune being itself might well be only a trinity of original spiritual self-determinations of the Infinite; these too, like all determinations, would cease to exist in the ineffable Absolute. But our position is that these must be inherent truths of the supreme being; their utmost reality must be pre-existent in the Absolute even if they are ineffably other there than what they are in the spiritual mind’s highest possible experience. The Absolute is not a mystery of infinite blankness nor a supreme sum of negations; nothing can manifest that is not justified by some self-power of the original and omnipresent Reality.” The Life Divine
I use transformation in a special sense, a change of conscious- ness radical and complete and of a certain specific kind which is so conceived as to bring about a strong and assured step fonvard in the spiritual evolution of the being of a greater and higher kind and of a larger sweep and completeness than what took place when a mentalised being first appeared in a vital and matciiaV ammal world.
jada laya ::: [an absorption of the self into the Spirit, which leaves the mind, life and body in a state of inconscience and inertia].
Jhumur: “Law is capital, it has to be! It is a very powerful dominating force, a force of resistance, a force of refusal, whatever in us denies the acceptance of light. If this law were not there then there would be an immediate rising into the light and there would be perhaps no play of the manifestation. For a long time there was a kind of a backward pull for each forward attempt so that you would have to work your way up from below and these lower levels have their very strong demands or pulls to resist. Slowly you have to take up all these movements and rise, otherwise the spirit would have risen really without any restriction and that would not have been what the divine intention was, to manifest here in the inconscient, the Divine.”
Jhumur: “Prakriti, the human embodiment in the spirit of earth in which the Divine, the bridegroom comes. It is in the realm of the spirit where they meet, Radha and Krishna, Purusha and Prakriti. But if the God retires then the chamber becomes empty.”
Jhumur: “The soul has made this sacrifice of entering into darkness and now it has to pay the price of pain and suffering and work its way up. But each time it makes some kind of forward progress, more darkness, constantly more unconscious movements, imperfections, pile up. One might say the price that the spirit has to pay for having made this daring descent keeps on going up. It is like a very long journey and she [Savitri] has come to strike that out.”
Jhumur: “The spirit that has taken birth sometimes does not reach the goal. There is a kind of a witness consciousness that puts a cross against it and you go back to the beginning all over again. It’s like the game snakes and ladders that we used to play as children. You have to go back to the first square and start all over again. You almost reach the goal and then you fall back and have to start all over again.”
jiva ::: 1. Living creature. ::: 2. the spirit individualised and upholding the living being in its evolution from birth to birth (the full term is jivatman).
Karmic ::: “If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future; and that is the spiritual essence of the law of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
ksarah sarvani bhutani ::: the spirit of mutable things is all existences. [Gita 15.16]
ksara purusa (Kshara Purusha) ::: the soul in Nature; the spirit in the mutability of cosmic phenomenon and becoming.
Law of Karma ::: If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future ; and that is the spiritual essence of (he law of Karma,
Madhav: “Space which is normally occupied by movements in the world is now occupied by the spiritual silence of the Self. Mark, it is not physical silence but spiritual silence. Spiritual silence permits activity, even speech, unlike physical silence which shuts off speech. Spiritual silence is silence of the whole being, whereas physical silence, mauna as we call it, is only abstention from speech, vocal activity, which makes the mind, very often, more active than before.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Madhav: “The brilliant courtyard is the realm of the subtle-physical Matter that Aswapathy is leaving behind in his upward climb. He sees that with all its brilliant glow, this region is limited on all sides and it is only a courtyard—not yet the entrance proper—of the Mansion of Light, where the Light of God is ever manifest. Day in the spiritual symbolism signifies the reign of Light. Aswapathy seeks to enter the Order (symbolised by House) where the Light shines uninterrupted.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Madhav: “The Scripture Wonderful refers to the Supreme Knowledge. The Spirit-mate of Life hopes to divine the Supreme Knowledge in the transcript made by Life of God’s intention; but that script, however bright and attractive is a product of her fancy. The true Word lies covered under her fanciful rendering. The Supreme Knowledge that holds the key to the celestial beatitudes escapes him.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Mahakala ::: [a form of siva in his character of destroyer]; the spirit within, whose energy goes abroad in Kali and moulds the progress of the world and the destiny of the nations.
MAHALAKSHMI ::: Goddess of the supreme love and delight ; her gifts are the spirits grace and the charm and beauty of the Ananda and protection and every divine and human blessing.
Mahasarasvati (Mahasaraswati) ::: the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit; the Mother's Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order; one of the four leading Powers and Personalities of the Mother.
MAHASARASWATI ::: the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit, and hers is the Yoga that is skill in works, yogah karmasu kausalam, and the utilities of divine knowledge and the self-application of the spirit to life and the happiness of its harmonies.
mahat ::: [in samkhya philosophy]: vast cosmic principle of Force; the idea-being of the Spirit; the essential and original matrix of consciousness (involved not evolved) in prakrti out of which individuality and formation come. ::: mahan [nominative]
MAHESHWARI ::: goddess of the supreme knowledge, and brings to us her vision for all kinds and widenesses of truth, her rectitude of the spiritual will, the calm and passion of her supramental largeness, her felicity of illumination; ~ TSOY, 4.18 - Faith and shakti
male-spirited ::: a. --> Having the spirit of a male; vigorous; courageous.
malingery ::: n. --> The spirit or practices of a malingerer; malingering.
manu ::: 1. the thinker, the mental being, man. ::: 2. Manu: the father of man. ::: 3. the four Manus (catvaro manavah): the spiritual Fathers of every human mind and body. ::: 4. [one of the fourteen progenitors who preside successively over the fourteen manvantaras; to the first of these is attributed the Manava-dharmasastra; the manu of the present (seventh) manvantara is Vaivasvata].
“Material form is only a support and means for the progressive manifestation of the Spirit.” Essays Divine and Human
material form ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Material form is only a support and means for the progressive manifestation of the Spirit.” *Essays Divine and Human
material world ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Our material world is the result of all the others, for the other principles have all descended into Matter to create the physical universe, and every particle of what we call Matter contains all of them implicit in itself; their secret action, as we have seen, is involved in every moment of its existence and every movement of its activity. And as Matter is the last word of the descent, so it is also the first word of the ascent; as the powers of all these planes, worlds, grades, degrees are involved in the material existence, so are they all capable of evolution out of it. It is for this reason that material being does not begin and end with gases and chemical compounds and physical forces and movements, with nebulae and suns and earths, but evolves life, evolves mind, must evolve eventually Supermind and the higher degrees of the spiritual existence.” The Life Divine
MATTER. ::: A form of the Spirit, a habitation of the Spirit, and here, in matter itself, there can be a icalisalion of Spirit.
"Matter is the form of substance of being which the existence of Sachchidananda [a trinity of Existence (sat), Consciousness (cit), and Delight (ananda),] assumes when it subjects itself to this phenomenal action of its own consciousness and force.” The "Matter is the body or field of a consciousness hidden within it, the material universe a form and movement of the Spirit.” The Renaissance in India
“Matter is the form of substance of being which the existence of Sachchidananda [a trinity of Existence (sat), Consciousness (cit), and Delight (ananda),] assumes when it subjects itself to this phenomenal action of its own consciousness and force.” The”Matter is the body or field of a consciousness hidden within it, the material universe a form and movement of the Spirit.” The Renaissance in India
"Matter, — substance itself, subtle or dense, mental or material, — is form and body of Spirit and would never have been created if it could not be made a basis for the self-expression of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
“Matter,—substance itself, subtle or dense, mental or material,—is form and body of Spirit and would never have been created if it could not be made a basis for the self-expression of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
mediaevalist ::: n. --> One who has a taste for, or is versed in, the history of the Middle Ages; one in sympathy with the spirit or forms of the Middle Ages.
militarism ::: n. --> A military state or condition; reliance on military force in administering government; a military system.
The spirit and traditions of military life.
Mind acts by representations and constructions, by the separa- tion and weaving together of its constructed data ; it can make a synthetic constnietlon and see it as a whole, but when it looks for the reality of things, it takes refuge in abstractions — it has not the concrete vision, experience, contact sought by the mystic and the spiritual seeker. To know Self and Reality directly or truly, It has to be silent and reflect some light of these things or undergo self-exceeding and Iransfonnation, and this is only possible either by a higher Light descending into it or by its ascent, the taking up or immcrgcncc of it into a higher Light of e^tence.
mind, Ideal Mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The link between the spiritual and the lower planes of the being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the vijñâna and which we may describe in our modern turn of language as the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or supermind. There the One and the Many meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the divine Truth and the inspiration of the divine Will and Knowledge.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
mind, illumined ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
mind, spiritual ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The spiritual mind is a mind which, in its fullness, is aware of the Self, reflecting the Divine, seeing and understanding the nature of the Self and its relations with the manifestation, living in that or in contact with it, calm, wide and awake to higher knowledge, not perturbed by the play of the forces. When it gets its full liberated movement, its central station is very usually felt above the head, though its influence can extend downward through all the being and outward through space.” Letters on Yoga
Mind, vital, physical are properly instruments for the soul and spirit ; when they work for themselves then they produce ignorant and imperfect things — if they can be made into conscious instruments of the psychic and the spirit, then they get their own diviner fulfilment ; that Is the idea contained in what we call transformation in this yoga.
MORALITY. ::: A part of the ordinary life t it is an attempt to govern the outward conduct by certain mental rules or to form the character by these rules in the image of a certain mental ideal. The spiritual life goes beyond the mind ; it enters into the deeper consciousness of the Spirit and acts out of the truth of the Spirit.
nama. :::the spiritual or essential properties of an object or being
"Nature, because she is a power of spirit, is essentially qualitative in her action. One may almost say that Nature is only the power in being and the development in action of the infinite qualities of the spirit, . . . .” *The Synthesis of Yoga
“Nature, because she is a power of spirit, is essentially qualitative in her action. One may almost say that Nature is only the power in being and the development in action of the infinite qualities of the spirit, …” The Synthesis of Yoga
Necessity ::: “… Necessity is the child of the spirit’s free self-determination. What affects us as Necessity, is a Will which works in sequence and not a blind Force driven by its own mechanism.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
necessity ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . Necessity is the child of the spirit"s free self-determination. What affects us as Necessity, is a Will which works in sequence and not a blind Force driven by its own mechanism.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Next is the spiritual transformation in Vifaich all is merged in the Divine in the cosmic consdousness.
nishkamya punya. ::: the spiritual merit that accumulates from doing good deeds that are performed without any particular motive
No doubt, the Supermind has also acted in the history of the world but always through the Overmind. It is the direct descent of the Supramental Consciousness and Power that alone can utterly re-create life in terms of the Spirit. For, in the Overmind there is already the play of possibilities which marks the beginning of this lower triple world of Mind, Life and Matter in which we have our existence. And whenever there is this play and not the spontaneous and infallible working of the innate Truth of the Spirit, there is the seed of distortion and ignorance. Not that the Overmind is a field of ignorance; but it is the border-line between the Higher and the Lower, for, the play of possibilities, of separate even if not yet divided choice, is likely to lead to deviation from the Truth of things.
Not to mix with others deprives of the test which contact with them imposes on the consciousness and the chance to progress in these respects. Mixing is unproStabJe from the spiriluaJ point of view when it is only to indulge the vital, chat, interchange vital movements etc. ; but abstentioa from all mixing and con- tact is also not desirable. It is only when the consciousness truly needs full retirement that such retirement can be made and even then it may be full but not absolute. For in the absolute retire- ment one lives a purely subjectiw life and the opportunity for extending the spiritual progress to the outer life and testing it thoroughly is not there.
Occult and spiritual ::: The spiritual realisation is of primary importance and indispensable. I would consider it best to have the spiritual and psychic development first and have it with the same fullness before entering the occult regions. Those who enter the latter first may find their spiritual realisation much delayed ; others fall into the ma^ traps of the occult and do not come out in this life. Some no doubt can cany on both together, the occult and the spiritual, and make them help each other ; but the process I suggest is the safer.
Occult powers can only be for the spiritual man an instru- mentation of the Divine Power that uses him ; they cannot be the aim or an aim of bis sadhana.
Ocean (blue): Often a symbol of the spiritual consdousness in the higher Mind one and indiviribJe.
OM ::: “OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak and Shabda and of which the other sounds, out of whose stuff words of speech are woven, are supposed to be the developed evolutions.” Essays on the Gita
OM ::: Sri Aurobindo: "OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak and Shabda and of which the other sounds, out of whose stuff words of speech are woven, are supposed to be the developed evolutions.” *Essays on the Gita
OM ::: Sri Aurobindo: “OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak and Shabda and of which the other sounds, out of whose stuff words of speech are woven, are supposed to be the developed evolutions.” Essays on the Gita
opinions and mental preferences may build a wall of arguments against the spiritual truth that has to be realised and refuse to accept it if it presents itself in a form which does not conform to its own previous ideas ::: so also it may prevent one from recog- nising the Divine if the Divine presents himself in a form for whidi the intellect is not prepared or which in any detail runs counter to its prejudgements and prejudices. One can depend on one’s reason in other matters provided the mind tries to be open and impartial and free from undue passion and is prepared to concede that it is not always right and may err ; but it is not safe to depend on it alone In matters which escape its jurisdiction, specially in spiritual realisation and in matters of yoga which belong to a different order of knowledge.
Ordinary life and yoga ::: In the ordinary life a personal, social or traditional constructed rule, standard or ideal is the guide ; once the spiritual journey has begun, this must be replac- ed by an inner and outer rule or way of living necessary for our self-discipline, liberation and perfection, a way of living proper to the path we follow or enjoined by the spiritual guide and master, the Guru or else dictated by a Guide within us.
— or in it, our Father in heaven, — and t\e'do not feel or sec him in ourselves or around us. So long as we keep this vision, fbe mortaUty in us is queilcd by that Immortality ; it feeis the light, power and joy and responds to it according to its capa- city ; or it feels the descent of the spirit and it is then for a time transformed or else uplifted into some lustre of reflection of the light and power ; it ^comes a vessel of the Ananda. But at other times it lapses into old mortality and exists or works dully or pettily in the ruck of its earthly habits. The complete redemption comes by the descent of the divine Power into the
"Our explanation of the evolution in Matter is that the universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality whose presence makes spirit the substance of things, — all things are there as the spirit"s powers and means and forms of manifestation.” The Life Divine
“Our explanation of the evolution in Matter is that the universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality whose presence makes spirit the substance of things,—all things are there as the spirit’s powers and means and forms of manifestation.” The Life Divine
“Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the Spirit. Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge. It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind,—but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin,—as all these greater powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought; it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge. An all-awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truths the identity held in itself, conceiving swiftly, victoriously, multitudinously, formulating and by self-power of the Idea effectually realising its conceptions, is the character of this greater mind of knowledge.” The Life Divine
“Our material world is the result of all the others, for the other principles have all descended into Matter to create the physical universe, and every particle of what we call Matter contains all of them implicit in itself; their secret action, as we have seen, is involved in every moment of its existence and every movement of its activity. And as Matter is the last word of the descent, so it is also the first word of the ascent; as the powers of all these planes, worlds, grades, degrees are involved in the material existence, so are they all capable of evolution out of it. It is for this reason that material being does not begin and end with gases and chemical compounds and physical forces and movements, with nebulae and suns and earths, but evolves life, evolves mind, must evolve eventually Supermind and the higher degrees of the spiritual existence.” The Life Divine
"Over each grade of our being a power of the Spirit presides; we have within us and discover when we go deep enough inwards a mind-self, a life-self, a physical self; there is a being of mind, a mental Purusha, expressing something of itself on our surface in the thoughts, perceptions, activities of our mind-nature, a being of life which expresses something of itself in the impulses, feelings, sensations, desires, external life-activities of our vital nature, a physical being, a being of the body which expresses something of itself in the instincts, habits, formulated activities of our physical nature. These beings or part selves of the self in us are powers of the Spirit and therefore not limited by their temporary expression, for what is thus formulated is only a fragment of its possibilities; but the expression creates a temporary mental, vital or physical personality which grows and develops even as the psychic being or soul-personality grows and develops within us.” The Life Divine
“Over each grade of our being a power of the Spirit presides; we have within us and discover when we go deep enough inwards a mind-self, a life-self, a physical self; there is a being of mind, a mental Purusha, expressing something of itself on our surface in the thoughts, perceptions, activities of our mind-nature, a being of life which expresses something of itself in the impulses, feelings, sensations, desires, external life-activities of our vital nature, a physical being, a being of the body which expresses something of itself in the instincts, habits, formulated activities of our physical nature. These beings or part selves of the self in us are powers of the Spirit and therefore not limited by their temporary expression, for what is thus formulated is only a fragment of its possibilities; but the expression creates a temporary mental, vital or physical personality which grows and develops even as the psychic being or soul-personality grows and develops within us.” The Life Divine
para prakrtir jivabhuta ::: the spiritual Nature which has become the jiva. [cf. Gita 7.5]
pharisaical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Pharisees; resembling the Pharisees.
Addicted to external forms and ceremonies; making a show of religion without the spirit of it; ceremonial; formal; hypocritical; self-righteous.
physical and its energies, — all that Nature has not put into visi- ble operation on the surface ; It pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain, which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplift- ing, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiri- tual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in Its own way an occultism ; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic, — for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supra- physical knowledge Is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.
PHYSICAL CONTACT. ::: No spiritual man who acts dyna- mically is limited to physical contact ; the idea that physical contact through writing, speech, meeting is indispensable to the action of the spiritual force is self-contradictory, for then it
Por immortality in its fundamental sense does not mean merely some'kind of penonal survival of the bodily death ; we are im- mortal by the eternity of our self-existence without beginning or end, beyond the whole succession of physical births and deaths through which we pass, beyond the alternations of our existence in this and other worlds ; the spirit’s timeless existence is the true immortality.
Power will do even the surrender for you. The Supreme demands your surrender to her, but docs not impose it ::: you are free at every moment, till the irrevocable transformation comes, to deny and to reject the Divine or to recall your self-giving, if you are willing to suffer the spiritual consequence. Your surren- der must be self-made and free ; It must be the surrender of a living being, not of an inert automaton or mechanical tool.
PRAKRTI. ::: Prakrti is only the executive or working force; the Pow'er behind the Prakrti is Shakti. It b the Chit-Shakti in manifestation ::: that is the spiritual consciousness.
PRAYER. ::: The life of man is a life of wants and needs and therefore of desires, not only in his physical and vital, but in his mental and spiritual being. When he becomes conscious of a greater Power governing the world, he approaches it through prayer for the fulfilment of his needs, for help in his rough journey, for protection and aid in his struggle. Whatever crudi- ties there may be in the ordinary religious approach to God by prayer, and there are many, especially that attitude which ima- gines the Divine as if capable of being propitiated, bribed, flat- tered into acquiescence or indulgence by praise, entreaty and gifts and has often little te^td to the spirit in which he is approached, still this way of turning to the Divine is an essen- tial movement of our religious being and reposes on a universal truth.
The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that, being omniscient, his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual's desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least, human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important. Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations. For our will and aspiration can act either by our own strength and endeavour, which can no doubt be made a thing great and effective whether for lower or higher purposes, -and there are plenty of disciplines which put it forward as the one force to be used, -- or it can act in dependence upon and with subordination to the divine or the universal Will. And this latter way, again, may either look upon that Will as responsive indeed to our aspiration, but almost mechanically, by a sort of law of energy, or at any rate quite impersonally, or else it may look upon it as responding consciously to the divine aspiration and faith of the human soul and consciously bringing to it the help, the guidance, the protection and fruition demanded, yogaksemam vahamyaham. ~ TSOY, SYN
Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is (here consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the givinc of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange.
In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience. Necessarily, in the end prayer either ceases in the greater thing for which it prepared us, -- in fact the form we call prayer is not itself essential so long as the faith, the will, the aspiration are there, -- or remains only for the joy of the relation. Also its objects, the artha or interest it seeks to realise, become higher and higher until we reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
Prayer for others ::: The fact of praying and the attitude it brings, especially unselfish prayer for others, itself opens you to the higher Power, even if there is no corresponding result in the person prayed for. 'Nothing can be positively said about that, for the result must necessarily depend on the persons, whe- ther they arc open or receptive or something in them can res- pond to any Force the prayer brings down.
Prayer must well up from the heart on a crest of emotion or aspiration.
Prayer {Ideal)'. Not prayer insisting on immediate fulfilment, but prayer that is itself a communion of the mind and heart with the Divine*and can have the joy and satisfaction of itself, trusting for fulfilment by the Divine in his own time.
presence ::: 1. The state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence. 2. A divine, spiritual, or supernatural spirit or influence felt or conceived as present. 3. The immediate proximity of someone or something.
Sri Aurobindo: "It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one"s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the ‘ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. The word may be used sometimes in a less absolute sense, but that is always the fundamental significance, — the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” Essays Divine and Human
"But if we learn to live within, we infallibly awaken to this presence within us which is our more real self, a presence profound, calm, joyous and puissant of which the world is not the master — a presence which, if it is not the Lord Himself, is the radiation of the Lord within.” *The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
"If we need any personal and inner witness to this indivisible All-Consciousness behind the ignorance, — all Nature is its external proof, — we can get it with any completeness only in our deeper inner being or larger and higher spiritual state when we draw back behind the veil of our own surface ignorance and come into contact with the divine Idea and Will behind it. Then we see clearly enough that what we have done by ourselves in our ignorance was yet overseen and guided in its result by the invisible Omniscience; we discover a greater working behind our ignorant working and begin to glimpse its purpose in us: then only can we see and know what now we worship in faith, recognise wholly the pure and universal Presence, meet the Lord of all being and all Nature.” *The Life Divine
"The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” *The Life Divine
"There is a secret divine Will, eternal and infinite, omniscient and omnipotent, that expresses itself in the universality and in each particular of all these apparently temporal and finite inconscient or half-conscient things. This is the Power or Presence meant by the Gita when it speaks of the Lord within the heart of all existences who turns all creatures as if mounted on a machine by the illusion of Nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"For what Yoga searches after is not truth of thought alone or truth of mind alone, but the dynamic truth of a living and revealing spiritual experience. There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere. That Presence must remain with us as the living, pervading Reality in which we and all things exist and move and act, and we must feel it always and everywhere, concrete, visible, inhabiting all things; it must be patent to us as their true Self, tangible as their imperishable Essence, met by us closely as their inmost Spirit. To see, to feel, to sense, to contact in every way and not merely to conceive this Self and Spirit here in all existences and to feel with the same vividness all existences in this Self and Spirit, is the fundamental experience which must englobe all other knowledge.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one"s own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.” *Letters on Yoga
"For it is quietness and inwardness that enable one to feel the Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” *Essays Divine and Human
The Mother: "For, in human beings, here is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart — not in the physical heart but the psychic centre — of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of his Presence.” Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15.
provinces, a thousand types, stages, forms, paths, variations of the spiritual idea, degrees of spiritual advancement. It is from the basis of this truth that things regarding spirituality and its seekers must be Judged.
Psychic emergence ::: When the psychic being comes in front, there is an automatic perception of the true and untrue, the divine and the undivine, the spiritual right and wrong of things, and the false vital and mental movements and attacks are imme- diately exposed and fall away and can do nothing ; gradually the vital and physical as well as flte mind get full of this psychic licht and truth and sound feeling and purit>'.
purgation ::: n. --> The act of purging; the act of clearing, cleansing, or putifying, by separating and carrying off impurities, or whatever is superfluous; the evacuation of the bowels.
The clearing of one&
quail ::: v. i. --> To die; to perish; hence, to wither; to fade.
To become quelled; to become cast down; to sink under trial or apprehension of danger; to lose the spirit and power of resistance; to lose heart; to give way; to shrink; to cower.
To curdle; to coagulate, as milk. ::: v. t.
Rain ::: Symbol of the descent of Grace or of the higher cons- ciousness which is the cause of the riches, the spiritual plenty. i?oinhou> ; Sign of peace and deliverance.
Real-Idea ::: "is a truth-perception which is self-effective; for it is the idea and will of the Spirit in direct action..." [S19:986]
real, the ::: Sri Aurobindo: " From our ascending point of view we may say that the Real is behind all that exists; it expresses itself intermediately in an Ideal which is a harmonised truth of itself; the Ideal throws out a phenomenal reality of variable conscious-being which, inevitably drawn towards its own essential Reality, tries at last to recover it entirely whether by a violent leap or normally through the Ideal which put it forth. It is this that explains the imperfect reality of human existence as seen by the Mind, the instinctive aspiration in the mental being towards a perfectibility ever beyond itself, towards the concealed harmony of the Ideal, and the supreme surge of the spirit beyond the ideal to the transcendental.” *The Life Divine
recruit ::: v. t. --> To repair by fresh supplies, as anything wasted; to remedy lack or deficiency in; as, food recruits the flesh; fresh air and exercise recruit the spirits.
Hence, to restore the wasted vigor of; to renew in strength or health; to reinvigorate.
To supply with new men, as an army; to fill up or make up by enlistment; as, he recruited two regiments; the army was recruited for a campaign; also, to muster; to enlist; as, he recruited
Relations which are part of the ordinary vital nature in human life arc of no value in the spiritual life ; they rather interfere with the progress ; for the mind and rital also should be wholly turned towards the Divine.
"Religion in fact is not knowledge, but a faith and aspiration; it is justified indeed both by an imprecise intuitive knowledge of large spiritual truths and by the subjective experience of souls that have risen beyond the ordinary life, but in itself it only gives us the hope and faith by which we may be induced to aspire to the intimate possession of the hidden tracts and larger realities of the Spirit. That we turn always the few distinct truths and the symbols or the particular discipline of a religion into hard and fast dogmas, is a sign that as yet we are only infants in the spiritual knowledge and are yet far from the science of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
“Religion in fact is not knowledge, but a faith and aspiration; it is justified indeed both by an imprecise intuitive knowledge of large spiritual truths and by the subjective experience of souls that have risen beyond the ordinary life, but in itself it only gives us the hope and faith by which we may be induced to aspire to the intimate possession of the hidden tracts and larger realities of the Spirit. That we turn always the few distinct truths and the symbols or the particular discipline of a religion into hard and fast dogmas, is a sign that as yet we are only infants in the spiritual knowledge and are yet far from the science of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga
repine ::: v. i. --> To fail; to wane.
To continue pining; to feel inward discontent which preys on the spirits; to indulge in envy or complaint; to murmur. ::: n. --> Vexation; mortification.
revivalism ::: n. --> The spirit of religious revivals; the methods of revivalists.
rishi ("s) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth.” *Social and Political Thought
Rishi ::: The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle
saman (Sama) ::: the mantra of the divine ananda, the word of calm and harmonious attainment for the bringing of the divine desire of the spirit. [Ved.]
satguru &
savitur. ::: the radiating Source of all creation with the brightness of the sun; the spiritual light that destroys ignorance and bestows wisdom, bliss and eternity; divine illumination
"Science at its limits, even physical Science, is compelled to perceive in the end the infinite, the universal, the spirit, the divine intelligence and will in the material universe.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“Science at its limits, even physical Science, is compelled to perceive in the end the infinite, the universal, the spirit, the divine intelligence and will in the material universe.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Seeking for occulf powers is looked on with disfavour for the most part by spiritual teachers in India, because it belongs to the inferior planes and usually pushes the seeker on a path which may lead him very far from the Divine. Especially, a contact mth the forces and beings of the astral (or, as we term it, the vital) plane is attended with great dangers. The beings of this plane are often bosiQc to the true aim of spiritual life and establish contact with the seeker and offer him powers and occult experiences only in order that they may lead him away from the spiritual path or else that they may establish their own control over him or take possession of him for their owm pur- pose. Often, representing themselves as Divine powers they mis- lead, give erring suggestions and impulsions and pervert the inner life. Many are those who, attracted by these powers and beings of the vital plane, bave ended in a definitive spiritual fall or in mental and physical perversion and disorder. One comes ineritably into contact with the vital plane and enters into it in the expansion of consriousness which results from an inner opening, but one ought never to put oneself into the hands of these beings and forces or allow oneself to be led by their sug- gestions and impulsions. This is one of the chief dangers of the spiritual life and to be on one’s guard against it is a necessity for the seeTer if he wishes to arrive at his goal. It is true that many supraphysical or supernonnal powers come with the expansion of the consciousness in the yoga ; to rise out of the body consciousness, to act by subtle means on the supraphysical planes, etc. are natural activities for the yogi- But these powers are not sought after, they come naturally, and they have not the astral character. Also, Aey have to be used on purely spiritual
semi-pelagian ::: n. --> A follower of John Cassianus, a French monk (died about 448), who modified the doctrines of Pelagius, by denying human merit, and maintaining the necessity of the Spirit&
sensual ::: a. --> Pertaining to, consisting in, or affecting, the sense, or bodily organs of perception; relating to, or concerning, the body, in distinction from the spirit.
Hence, not spiritual or intellectual; carnal; fleshly; pertaining to, or consisting in, the gratification of the senses, or the indulgence of appetites; wordly.
Devoted to the pleasures of sense and appetite; luxurious; voluptuous; lewd; libidinous.
"shadows", and ru ::: means "He who disperses them"&
SHANKARA. ::: The Shanlcara knowledge is only one side of the TniUi ; it is the knowledge of the Supreme as realised by the spiritual Mind through the static silence of the pure Exist- ence. It was because he went by this side only 'that Shankara was unable to accept or explain the origin of the universe except as illusion, a creation of Maya. Unless one realises the Supreme on the dynamic as well as the static side, one cannot experience the true ori^n of things and the equal reality of the active
sheaths ::: the oldest Vedantic knowledge tells us of five degrees of our being, the material, the vital, the mental, the ideal, the spiritual or beatific and to each of these grades of our soul there corresponds a grade of our substance, a sheath as it was called in the ancient figurative language.
"Sincerity means more than mere honesty. It means that you mean what you say, feel what you profess, are earnest in your will.” The Mother - The Spiritual Significance of Flowers
“Sincerity means more than mere honesty. It means that you mean what you say, feel what you profess, are earnest in your will.” The Mother—The Spiritual Significance of Flowers
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. …
sin ::: “ Sin is the working of the lower nature for the crude satisfaction of its own ignorant, dull or violent rajasic and tamasic propensities in revolt against any high self-control and self-mastery of the nature by the spirit.” Essays on the Gita
&
SORROW. ::: Sorrow is not a way to sM/i / ; it confuses and weakens and distracts the mind, depresses the vital forces, darkens the spirit. A relapse from joy and vital elasticity and Ananda to sorrow, self-distrust, despondency and weakness is a recoil from a greater to a lesser consciousness.
Spirit is an act of the supreme Reality from above which makes the realisation possible and it can appear either as the divine aid which brings about the fulfilment of the progress and process or as the sanction of the miracle. Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usual- ly ages to reach abiding results ; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from ioconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and co- operator, and this is precisely what must take place here. Even in the effort and progress from the Ignorance to Knowledge this must be in part if not wholly the endeavour to be made on the heights of the nature and it must be wholly that in the final movement towards the spiritual change, realisation, transforma- tion. It must be still more so when there is a transition across the dividing line between the Ignorance and the Knowledge and the evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge, from consciousness to greater consciousness, from being to greater being. There is then no longer any necessity for the slow pace of the ordinary evolution; there can be rapid consersion. quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our
SPIRITISM. ::: It is quite possible for the dead or rather the departed — for they are not dead — who are still in regions rear the earth to have communication with the living ; some- times it happens automatically, sometimes by an effort at com- munication on one side of the curtain or the other. There is no impossibility of such communication by the means used by the spiritists ; usually however, genuine communications or a contact can only be with those who are yet m a wodd which is s sort of idealised replica of the earth-consciousness and in which the same personality, ideas, memories persist that the person had here. But all that pretends to be communications with departed souls is not genuine, especially when it is done through a paid professional medium. There is there an enormous amount of mixture of a very undesirable kind — for apart from the great mass of unconscious suggestions from the sitters or the contn-
spiritless ::: devoid of the spirit; lifeless.
spirit ::: “The Spirit is the consciousness above mind, the Atman or Self, which is always in oneness with the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
spiritual ::: 1. Of or pertaining to, affecting or concerning, the spirit or soul as distinguished from the physical nature; incorporeal. 2. Of or pertaining to sacred things or matters; sacred. 3. Characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; having spiritual tendencies or instincts; holy.
spiritual ::: a. --> Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as, a spiritual substance or being.
Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
Of or pertaining to the moral feelings or states of the soul, as distinguished from the external actions; reaching and affecting the spirits.
Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as
Spiritual evolution ::: It is a series of ascents from the physical being and consciousness to the vital, the being dominated by the life-self, thence to the menial being realised in the fully deve- loped man and thence into the perfect consciousness which is beyond the mental, into the supramental consciousness and the supramental being, the Truth-Consciousness which is the integral consciousness of the spiritual being. Mind cannot be our last conscious expression because mind is fundamentally an ignorance seeking for knowledge ; it is only the supramental Truth-Cons- ciousness that can bring us the true and whole Self-Knowledge and world-KnowIedge ; it is through that only that we can get to our true being and fulfilment of our spiritual evolution.
spiritualisation ::: the spiritual change in which there is the established descent of the divine peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole nature to that.
Spirituality can only come by opening of the mind, vital and physical to the inmost soul, to the higher Self, to the Divine, and their subordination to the spiritual forces and instrumentation as channels of the inner Light, the higher Knowledge and Power.
SPIRITUAL LIFE. ::: The spiritual life is not a thing that can be formulated in a rigid definition or bound by a fixed mental rule ; it is a vast field of evolution, an immense kingdom poten- tially larger than the other kuigdoms below it, with a hundred
spiritual ::: of the spirit. All contacts with the Self, the Higher Consciousness, the Divine above are spiritual.
Spiritual transformation Is a putting on of the spiritual cons- ciousness, dynamic as well as static, in every part of the being down to the subconscient.
Sri Aurobindo: "Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development — Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "But if the individual is a persistent reality, an eternal portion or power of the Eternal, if his growth of consciousness is the means by which the Spirit in things discloses its being, the cosmos reveals itself as a conditioned manifestation of the play of the eternal One in the being of Sachchidananda with the eternal Many.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "But what do we mean by the individual? What we usually call by that name is a natural ego, a device of Nature which holds together her action in the mind and body. This ego has to be extinguished, otherwise there is no complete liberation possible; but the individual self or soul is not this ego. The individual soul is the spiritual being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the Divine, but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false separative sense of individuality, realise our oneness with the transcendent and cosmic Divine and with all beings.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "By aesthesis is meant a reaction of the consciousness, mental and vital and even bodily, which receives a certain element in things, something that can be called their taste, Rasa, which, passing through the mind or sense or both, awakes a vital enjoyment of the taste, Bhoga, and this can again awaken us, awaken even the soul in us to something yet deeper and more fundamental than mere pleasure and enjoyment, to some form of the spirit"s delight of existence, Ananda.” *Letters on Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: "Every man is knowingly or unknowingly the instrument of a universal Power and, apart from the inner Presence, there is no such essential difference between one action and another, one kind of instrumentation and another as would warrant the folly of an egoistic pride. The difference between knowledge and ignorance is a grace of the Spirit; the breath of divine Power blows where it lists and fills today one and tomorrow another with the word or the puissance. If the potter shapes one pot more perfectly than another, the merit lies not in the vessel but the maker. The attitude of our mind must not be ‘This is my strength" or ‘Behold God"s power in me", but rather ‘A Divine Power works in this mind and body and it is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in conscious and living things and in things apparently inconscient and inanimate."” The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future; and that is the spiritual essence of the law of Karma.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future; and that is the spiritual essence of the law of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows after the silver light of the spiritual. When it plunges into the black waters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and, clearing itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme Divine (the Mother).” (Reply to a question in the chapter Visions and Symbols.) Letters on Yoga
"Sri Aurobindo: "It has been held that ecstasy is a lower and transient passage, the peace of the Supreme is the supreme realisation, the consummate abiding experience. This may be true on the spiritual-mind plane: there the first ecstasy felt is indeed a spiritual rapture, but it can be and is very usually mingled with a supreme happiness of the vital parts taken up by the Spirit; there is an exaltation, exultation, excitement, a highest intensity of the joy of the heart and the pure inner soul-sensation that can be a splendid passage or an uplifting force but is not the ultimate permanent foundation. But in the highest ascents of the spiritual bliss there is not this vehement exaltation and excitement; there is instead an illimitable intensity of participation in an eternal ecstasy which is founded on the eternal Existence and therefore on a beatific tranquillity of eternal peace. Peace and ecstasy cease to be different and become one. The Supermind, reconciling and fusing all differences as well as all contradictions, brings out this unity; a wide calm and a deep delight of all-existence are among its first steps of self-realisation, but this calm and this delight rise together, as one state, into an increasing intensity and culminate in the eternal ecstasy, the bliss that is the Infinite.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "It is true that when Matter first emerges it becomes the dominant principle; it seems to be and is within its own field the basis of all things, the constituent of all things, the end of all things: but Matter itself is found to be a result of something that is not Matter, of Energy, and this Energy cannot be something self-existent and acting in the Void, but can turn out and, when deeply scrutinised, seems likely to turn out to be the action of a secret Consciousness and Being: when the spiritual knowledge and experience emerge, this becomes a certitude, — it is seen that the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "It might be said again that, even so, in Sachchidananda itself at least, above all worlds of manifestation, there could be nothing but the self-awareness of pure existence and consciousness and a pure delight of existence. Or, indeed, this triune being itself might well be only a trinity of original spiritual self-determinations of the Infinite; these too, like all determinations, would cease to exist in the ineffable Absolute. But our position is that these must be inherent truths of the supreme being; their utmost reality must be pre-existent in the Absolute even if they are ineffably other there than what they are in the spiritual mind"s highest possible experience. The Absolute is not a mystery of infinite blankness nor a supreme sum of negations; nothing can manifest that is not justified by some self-power of the original and omnipresent Reality.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: " Karma is nothing but the will of the Spirit in action, consequence nothing but the creation of will. What is in the will of being, expresses itself in karma and consequence. When the will is limited in mind, karma appears as a bondage and a limitation, consequence as a reaction or an imposition. But when the will of the being is infinite in the spirit, karma and consequence become instead the joy of the creative spirit, the construction of the eternal mechanist, the word and drama of the eternal poet, the harmony of the eternal musician, the play of the eternal child.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: " Sin is the working of the lower nature for the crude satisfaction of its own ignorant, dull or violent rajasic and tamasic propensities in revolt against any high self-control and self-mastery of the nature by the spirit.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: "The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow implicit and complete. There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit"s omnipotence.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The flute is the call of the Divine Love;” Letters on Yoga ::: "The flute is the symbol of a call — usually the spiritual call.” Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the doors of the spirit.” The Human Cycle etc.*
*Sri Aurobindo: "The Indian explanation of fate is Karma. We ourselves are our own fate through our actions, but the fate created by us binds us; for what we have sown, we must reap in this life or another. Still we are creating our fate for the future even while undergoing old fate from the past in the present. That gives a meaning to our will and action and does not, as European critics wrongly believe, constitute a rigid and sterilising fatalism. But again, our will and action can often annul or modify even the past Karma, it is only certain strong effects, called utkata karma, that are non-modifiable. Here too the achievement of the spiritual consciousness and life is supposed to annul or give the power to annul Karma. For we enter into union with the Will Divine, cosmic or transcendent, which can annul what it had sanctioned for certain conditions, new-create what it had created, the narrow fixed lines disappear, there is a more plastic freedom and wideness. Neither Karma nor Astrology therefore points to a rigid and for ever immutable fate.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “The link between the spiritual and the lower planes of the being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the vijñâna and which we may describe in our modern turn of language as the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or supermind. There the One and the Many meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the divine Truth and the inspiration of the divine Will and Knowledge.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "There are two allied powers in man: Knowledge and Wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth, seen in a distorted medium, as the mind arrives at by groping; Wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit.” *The Hour of God
Sri Aurobindo: "[There is] a Supernature behind all that is apparent, a supreme power of the Spirit in Time and beyond Time, in Space and beyond Space, a conscious Power of the Self who by her becomes all becomings, of the Absolute who by her manifests all relativities.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "There is no necessity in the essential nature of mind, sense, life that they should be so limited: for the physical sense-organs are not the creators of sense-perceptions, but themselves the creation, the instruments and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic sense; the nervous system and vital organs are not the creators of life"s action and reaction, but themselves the creation, the instruments and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic Life-force; the brain is not the creator of thought, but itself the creation, the instrument and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic Mind. The necessity then is not absolute, but teleological; it is the result of a divine cosmic Will in the material universe which intends to posit here a physical relation between sense and its object, establishes here a material formula and law of Conscious-Force and creates by it physical images of Conscious-Being to serve as the initial, dominating and determining fact of the world in which we live. It is not a fundamental law of being, but a constructive principle necessitated by the intention of the Spirit to evolve in a world of Matter.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: “There is no necessity in the essential nature of mind, sense, life that they should be so limited: for the physical sense-organs are not the creators of sense-perceptions, but themselves the creation, the instruments and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic sense; the nervous system and vital organs are not the creators of life’s action and reaction, but themselves the creation, the instruments and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic Life-force; the brain is not the creator of thought, but itself the creation, the instrument and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic Mind. The necessity then is not absolute, but teleological; it is the result of a divine cosmic Will in the material universe which intends to posit here a physical relation between sense and its object, establishes here a material formula and law of Conscious-Force and creates by it physical images of Conscious-Being to serve as the initial, dominating and determining fact of the world in which we live. It is not a fundamental law of being, but a constructive principle necessitated by the intention of the Spirit to evolve in a world of Matter.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The Spirit is the consciousness above mind, the Atman or Self, which is always in oneness with the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth.” Social and Political Thought
*Sri Aurobindo: "The timeless Spirit is not necessarily a blank; it may hold all in itself, but in essence, without reference to time or form or relation or circumstance, perhaps in an eternal unity. Eternity is the common term between Time and the Timeless Spirit. What is in the Timeless unmanifested, implied, essential, appears in Time in movement, or at least in design and relation, in result and circumstance. These two then are the same Eternity or the same Eternal in a double status; they are a twofold status of being and consciousness, one an eternity of immobile status, the other an eternity of motion in status.” The Life Divine ::: "The spiritual fullness of the being is eternity; . . . ” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "This material universe is itself only existence as we see it when the soul dwells on the plane of material movement and experience in which the spirit involves itself in form, and therefore all the framework of things in which it moves by the life and which it embraces by the consciousness is determined by the principle of infinite division and aggregation proper to Matter, to substance of form.” The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "Universal love is the spiritual founded on the sense of the One and the Divine everywhere and the change of the personal into a wide universal consciousness, free from attachment and ignorance.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Vitality means life-force — wherever there is life, in plant or animal or man, there is life-force — without the vital there can be no life in matter and no living action. The vital is a necessary force and nothing can be done or created in the bodily existence, if the vital is not there as an instrument.” *Letters on Yoga
"The vital proper is the life-force acting in its own nature, impulses, emotions, feelings, desires, ambitions, etc., having as their highest centre what we may call the outer heart of emotion, while there is an inner heart where are the higher or psychic feelings and sensibilities, the emotions or intuitive yearnings and impulses of the soul. The vital part of us is, of course, necessary to our completeness, but it is a true instrument only when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by the psychic touch and taken up and governed by the spiritual light and power.” *Letters on Yoga
". . . the vital is the Life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul in man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, fear, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of the nature. Letters on Yoga
The Mother: "The vital is the dynamism of action. It is the seat of the will, of impulses, desires, revolts, etc.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15*.
Strength is all right for the strong — but aspiration and the Grace answering to it are not altogether myths; they are great realities of the spiritual life.” Letters on Yoga*
Strength is all right for the strong—but aspiration and the Grace answering to it are not altogether myths; they are great realities of the spiritual life.” Letters on Yoga
supernature ::: “[There is] a Supernature behind all that is apparent, a supreme power of the Spirit in Time and beyond Time, in Space and beyond Space, a conscious Power of the Self who by her becomes all becomings, of the Absolute who by her manifests all relativities.” The Life Divine
Surya ::: the Sun; the Sun-God, Lord of Truth and the Light, the giver of the rays of knowledge which illumine the mind; the soul and energy and body of the spiritual illumination.
svabhava (Swabhava) ::: "own being", "own becoming"; the principle of self-becoming; nature, real nature; essential nature and self-principle of being of each becoming; the pure quality of the spirit in its inherent power of conscious will and in its characteristic force of action; spiritual temperament, inborn nature, essential character.
tartarus ::: n. --> The infernal regions, described in the Iliad as situated as far below Hades as heaven is above the earth, and by later writers as the place of punishment for the spirits of the wicked. By the later poets, also, the name is often used synonymously with Hades, or the Lower World in general.
Tehmi: “The Spirit of the Void is Death.”
“the basic syllable OM, which is the foundation of all the perfect creative sounds of the revealed word; OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases, all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak (speech, the goddess Speech) and Shabda (sound, vibration, word). The mantra of the divine consciousness brings its light of revelation, the Mantra of the divine Power, its will of effectuation, the Mantra of the divine Ananda is equal fulfilment of the spiritual delight of existence. All word and thought are an outflowing of he great OM,—OM, the Word, the Eternal Manifest in the forms of sensible objects; manifest in that conscious play of creative self-conception of which forms and objects are the figures, manifest behind in the self-gathered superconscient power of the Infinite, OM is the sovereign source, seed, womb of thing and idea, form and name—it is itself, integrally, the supreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self—existent above all manifestation in supernal being.” SABCL Volume 13—Page 315
"the basic syllable OM, which is the foundation of all the perfect creative sounds of the revealed word; OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases, all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak (speech, the goddess Speech) and Shabda (sound, vibration, word). The mantra of the divine consciousness brings its light of revelation, the Mantra of the divine Power, its will of effectuation, the Mantra of the divine Ananda is equal fulfilment of the spiritual delight of existence. All word and thought are an outflowing of he great OM, - OM, the Word, the Eternal Manifest in the forms of sensible objects; manifest in that conscious play of creative self-conception of which forms and objects are the figures, manifest behind in the self-gathered superconscient power of the Infinite, OM is the sovereign source, seed, womb of thing and idea, form and name – it is itself, integrally, the supreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self- existent above all manifestation in supernal being.” SABCL Volume 13 – Page 315*
“… the body itself is only a constant act of consciousness of the spirit.” Essays on the Gita
“The Chhandogya,… is to be a work in the right and perfect way of devoting oneself to the Brahman; its subject is the Brahman, but the Brahman as symbolised in the OM, the sacred syllable of the Veda, not therefore, the pure state of existence only, but that existence in all its parts… OM is the symbol and the thing symbolised.”the basic syllable OM, which is the foundation of all the perfect creative sounds of the revealed word; OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases, all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak (speech, the goddess Speech) and Shabda (sound, vibration, word). The mantra of the divine consciousness brings its light of revelation, the Mantra of the divine Power, its will of effectuation, the Mantra of the divine Ananda is equal fulfilment of the spiritual delight of existence. All word and thought are an outflowing of he great OM,—OM, the Word, the Eternal Manifest in the forms of sensible objects; manifest in that conscious play of creative self-conception of which forms and objects are the figures, manifest behind in the self-gathered superconscient power of the Infinite, OM is the sovereign source, seed, womb of thing and idea, form and name—it is itself, integrally, the supreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self—existent above all manifestation in supernal being.” SABCL Volume 13—Page 315
". . . the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit. Matter itself cannot be the original and ultimate reality. At the same time the view that divorces Matter and Spirit and puts them as opposites is unacceptable; Matter is a form of Spirit, a habitation of S Life Divine
“… the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit. Matter itself cannot be the original and ultimate reality. At the same time the view that divorces Matter and Spirit and puts them as opposites is unacceptable; Matter is a form of Spirit, a habitation of Spirit. The Life Divine
". . . the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
“… the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
The fear of death shows a vital weakness which is also contrary to a capacity for yoga. Equally, one who is under the domination of his passions, would find the yoga dilhcuU and, unless supported by a true inner call and a sincere and strong aspiration for the spiritual consciousness and union with the Divine, might very easily fall fatally and his effort come to nothing.
``The first step on this free, this equal, this divine way of action is to put from you attachment to fruit and recompense and to labour only for the sake of the work itself that has to be done. For you must deeply feel that the fruits belong not to you but to the Master of the world. Consecrate your labour and leave its returns to the Spirit who manifests and fulfils himself in the universal movement. The outcome of your action is determined by his will alone and whatever it be, good or evil fortune, success or failure, it is turned by him to the accomplishment of his world purpose.” Essays on the Gita*
``The first step on this free, this equal, this divine way of action is to put from you attachment to fruit and recompense and to labour only for the sake of the work itself that has to be done. For you must deeply feel that the fruits belong not to you but to the Master of the world. Consecrate your labour and leave its returns to the Spirit who manifests and fulfils himself in the universal movement. The outcome of your action is determined by his will alone and whatever it be, good or evil fortune, success or failure, it is turned by him to the accomplishment of his world purpose.” Essays on the Gita
The gifts of the spirit crowding came to him;
The gifts of the spirit crowding came to him…
"The gnosis is the effective principle of the Spirit, a highest dynamis of the spiritual existence.” *The Life Divine
“The gnosis is the effective principle of the Spirit, a highest dynamis of the spiritual existence.” The Life Divine
The governing factors for us must be the spirit and the psychic being united with the Divine ; the occult laws and phenomena have to be known only as an instrumentation, not as the govern* ing principles. The occult is a vast field and complicated and not without its dangers. It need not be abandoned but it should not be given the first place.
::: "The idea is only a partial expression of the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
“The idea is only a partial expression of the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
::: ". . . the modern man, even the modern cultured man, is or tends to be to a degree quite unprecedented politikon zôon, a political, economic and social being valuing above all things the efficiency of the outward existence and the things of the mind and spirit mainly, when not exclusively, for their aid to humanity"s vital and mechanical progress: he has not that regard of the ancients which looked up towards the highest heights and regarded an achievement in the things of the mind and the spirit with an unquestioning admiration or a deep veneration for its own sake as the greatest possible contribution to human culture and progress. And although this modern tendency is exaggerated and ugly and degrading in its exaggeration, inimical to humanity"s spiritual evolution, it has this much of truth behind it that while the first value of a culture is its power to raise and enlarge the internal man, the mind, the soul, the spirit, its soundness is not complete unless it has shaped also his external existence and made of it a rhythm of advance towards high and great ideals. This is the true sense of progress and there must be as part of it a sound political, economic and social life, a power and efficiency enabling a people to survive, to grow and to move securely towards a collective perfection, and a vital elasticity and responsiveness that will give room for a constant advance in the outward expression of the mind and the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
“… the modern man, even the modern cultured man, is or tends to be to a degree quite unprecedented politikon zôon, a political, economic and social being valuing above all things the efficiency of the outward existence and the things of the mind and spirit mainly, when not exclusively, for their aid to humanity’s vital and mechanical progress: he has not that regard of the ancients which looked up towards the highest heights and regarded an achievement in the things of the mind and the spirit with an unquestioning admiration or a deep veneration for its own sake as the greatest possible contribution to human culture and progress. And although this modern tendency is exaggerated and ugly and degrading in its exaggeration, inimical to humanity’s spiritual evolution, it has this much of truth behind it that while the first value of a culture is its power to raise and enlarge the internal man, the mind, the soul, the spirit, its soundness is not complete unless it has shaped also his external existence and made of it a rhythm of advance towards high and great ideals. This is the true sense of progress and there must be as part of it a sound political, economic and social life, a power and efficiency enabling a people to survive, to grow and to move securely towards a collective perfection, and a vital elasticity and responsiveness that will give room for a constant advance in the outward expression of the mind and the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
The musician and the poet stand for a truth, it is the truth of the expression of the Spirit through beauty.
". . . the nature of the Spirit is a spacious inner freedom and a large unity into which each man must be allowed to grow according to his own nature.” The Human Cycle
“… the nature of the Spirit is a spacious inner freedom and a large unity into which each man must be allowed to grow according to his own nature.” The Human Cycle
theopneustic ::: a. --> Given by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
“The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” The Life Divine
The process of the Kundalini awakened rising through the centres as also the purification of the centres is a Taniric know- ledge. In our yoga there is no willed process of the punfication and opening of the centres, no raising up of the Kundalini by a set process either. Another method is used, but stiff there is the ascent of the consciousness from and through the different fc\cls to join the higher consciousness above ; there is the open- ing of the centres and of the planes (mental, vital, physical) which these centres command ; there is also the descent which is the main key of the spiritual transformation.
"The progress of Life involves the development and interlocking of an immense number of things that are in conflict with each other and seem often to be absolute oppositions and contraries. To find amid these oppositions some principle or standing-ground of unity, some workable lever of reconciliation which will make possible a larger and better development on a basis of harmony and not of conflict and struggle, must be increasingly the common aim of humanity in its active life-evolution, if it at all means to rise out of life"s more confused, painful and obscure movement, out of the compromises made by Nature with the ignorance of the Life-mind and the nescience of Matter. This can only be truly and satisfactorily done when the soul discovers itself in its highest and completest spiritual reality and effects a progressive upward transformation of its life-values into those of the spirit; for there they will all find their spiritual truth and in that truth their standing-ground of mutual recognition and reconciliation. The spiritual is the one truth of which all others are the veiled aspects, the brilliant disguises or the dark disfigurements, and in which they can find their own right form and true relation to each other.” *The Human Cycle, etc.
“The progress of Life involves the development and interlocking of an immense number of things that are in conflict with each other and seem often to be absolute oppositions and contraries. To find amid these oppositions some principle or standing-ground of unity, some workable lever of reconciliation which will make possible a larger and better development on a basis of harmony and not of conflict and struggle, must be increasingly the common aim of humanity in its active life-evolution, if it at all means to rise out of life’s more confused, painful and obscure movement, out of the compromises made by Nature with the ignorance of the Life-mind and the nescience of Matter. This can only be truly and satisfactorily done when the soul discovers itself in its highest and completest spiritual reality and effects a progressive upward transformation of its life-values into those of the spirit; for there they will all find their spiritual truth and in that truth their standing-ground of mutual recognition and reconciliation. The spiritual is the one truth of which all others are the veiled aspects, the brilliant disguises or the dark disfigurements, and in which they can find their own right form and true relation to each other.” The Human Cycle, etc.
The psychic part oS us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine. In its origin Jt is the nucleus pregnant with divine possibilities that supports this lower triple ma^estation of mind, life and body. There is this divine element in all living beings, but it stands bidden behind the ordinary cemsdousness, is not at first developed and, even when developed, is not always or often in the front ; it expresses itself so far as the imperfection of the instruments anon’s, by their means and imdcr their limitations. It grows in the cons- ciousness by Godward experience, gaining strength every time there is a Wgher movement in us, and, finally, by the accumu- lation of these deeper and higher movements, there is developed a psychic individuality, — that which we call usually the psychic being, ft is afways tius p^-chic hem? ffcif £f c&e reaf, often the secret cause of man’s turning to the spiritual life and his greatest help in it.
The religious life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it Is only a turning about In a round of rites, cere- monies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue.
"These two sets of three names each mean the same things. Visva or Virat=the Spirit of the external universe, Hiranyagarbha or Taijasa (the Luminous)=the Spirit in the inner planes, Prajna or Ishwara=the Superconscient Spirit, Master of all things and the highest Self on which all depends.” *Letters on Yoga
“These two sets of three names each mean the same things. Visva or Virat=the Spirit of the external universe, Hiranyagarbha or Taijasa (the Luminous)=the Spirit in the inner planes, Prajna or Ishwara=the Superconscient Spirit, Master of all things and the highest Self on which all depends.” Letters on Yoga
“These two sets of three names each mean the same things. Visva or Virat=the Spirit of the external universe, Hiranyagarbha or Taijasa (the Luminous)=theSpirit in the inner planes, Prajna or Ishwara=the Superconscient Spirit, Master of all things and the highest Self on which all depends.” Letters on Yoga
The sex-energy is a great power with two components in its physical basis, one ntcant for procreation and the process neces- sary for it, the other for feeding the general energies of the body, mind and vital, — also of the spiritual energies of the body.
The soul, on the contrary, is something. that comes down into birth and passes through death — although it does not itself die, for it is immortal — from one state to another, from the earth plane to other planes and back again to the earth'cxisteoce. ft goes on with this progression from life to life through an evolu- tion which leads it up to the human state and evolves through it all a being of itself which we call the psychic being that sup- ports the evolution and develops a physical, a vital, a mental human consciousness as its instruments of world-experience and of a disguised, imperfect, but growing self-expression. All this it does from behind a veil showing something of its divine self only in so far as the imperfection of the instrumental being will allow it. But a time comes when it is able to prepare to come out from behind the veil, take command and turn all the instru- mental nature towards a divine fulfilment. This is the beginning of the true spiritual life. The soul is able now to make itself ready for a higher evolution of manifested consciousness than the mental human — it can pass from the mental to the spiritual and through degrees of the spiritual to the supramental state. _ ,
"The spirit is an essential entity or consciousness which does not need to think or perceive either in the mental or the sensory way, because whatever knowledge it has is direct or essential knowledge.” Letters on Yoga
“The spirit is an essential entity or consciousness which does not need to think or perceive either in the mental or the sensory way, because whatever knowledge it has is direct or essential knowledge.” Letters on Yoga
"The Spirit is the supreme Being in his infinite consciousness and the supreme Nature is the infinity of power or will of being of the Spirit, . . .” *Essays on the Gita
“The Spirit is the supreme Being in his infinite consciousness and the supreme Nature is the infinity of power or will of being of the Spirit, …” Essays on the Gita
"The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The spiritual change is the established descent of the peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole consciousness to that.” Letters on Yoga
“The spiritual change is the established descent of the peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole consciousness to that.” Letters on Yoga
"The spiritual destiny always stands — it may be delayed or seem to be lost for a time, but it is never abolished.” Letters on Yoga
“The spiritual destiny always stands—it may be delayed or seem to be lost for a time, but it is never abolished.” Letters on Yoga
The spiritual element is the need of the being for contact, merging, union wth its own highest and uhole sell and source of being and consciousness and bliss, the Ditinc. These two are two sides of the same thing. The mind, vital, physical can be the supports and recipients of this lose, but they can be fully that only when they become remoulded in harmony with the psychic and spiritual elements of the being and no longer bring in the lower insistences of the ego.
“The spiritual fullness of the being is eternity; …” The Life Divine
::: "The spiritual law of Karma is that the nature of each being can be only the result of his past energies; . . . .” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The spiritual law of Karma is that the nature of each being can be only the result of his past energies; …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
The spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousocss, ignorant and separated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one’s true being and comes first into direct and liviug contact and then into union with the Divine. ‘ ■ ’ j
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle*
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle
“The spiritual mind is a mind which, in its fullness, is aware of the Self, reflecting the Divine, seeing and understanding the nature of the Self and its relations with the manifestation, living in that or in contact with it, calm, wide and awake to higher knowledge, not perturbed by the play of the forces. When it gets its full liberated movement, its central station is very usually felt above the head, though its influence can extend downward through all the being and outward through space.” Letters on Yoga
"The surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” *The Life Divine
“The surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
"The Veda is thus the spiritual and psychological seed of Indian culture . . . ." The Renaissance in India
“The Veda is thus the spiritual and psychological seed of Indian culture . . . .“ The Renaissance in India
“The vital proper is the life-force acting in its own nature, impulses, emotions, feelings, desires, ambitions, etc., having as their highest centre what we may call the outer heart of emotion, while there is an inner heart where are the higher or psychic feelings and sensibilities, the emotions or intuitive yearnings and impulses of the soul. The vital part of us is, of course, necessary to our completeness, but it is a true instrument only when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by the psychic touch and taken up and governed by the spiritual light and power.” Letters on Yoga
The will for Tapasya has in It a truth — it is the truth of the Spirit’s mastery over Its members.
“The will of man works in the ignorance by a partial light or more often flickerings of light which mislead as much as they illuminate. His mind is an ignorance striving to erect standards of knowledge, his will an ignorance striving to erect standards of right, and his whole mentality as a result very much a house divided against itself, idea in conflict with idea, the will often in conflict with the ideal of right or the intellectual knowledge. The will itself takes different shapes, the will of the intelligence, the wishes of the emotional mind, the desires and the passion of the vital being, the impulsions and blind or half-blind compulsions of the nervous and the subconscient nature, and all these make by no means a harmony, but at best a precarious concord among discords. The will of the mind and life is a stumbling about in search of right force, right Tapas which can wholly be attained in its true and complete light and direction only by oneness with the spiritual and supramental being.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The world knows three kinds of revolution. The material has strong results, the moral and intellectual are infinitely larger in their scope and richer in their fruits, but the spiritual are the great sowings.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“The world knows three kinds of revolution. The material has strong results, the moral and intellectual are infinitely larger in their scope and richer in their fruits, but the spiritual are the great sowings.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
thirst ::: Madhav: “… all the power, all the knowledge that the world can give us are products of time, products of the movements of time. Truly they cannot satisfy the sacred thirst of the spirit. Mark the words ‘sacred thirst’ (III. 1. 305.). Mother uses the word ‘thirst’ so often; it is an intense aspiration that cannot be satisfied, cannot be fulfilled by the gifts of time; it can be fulfilled only by the gifts of what is beyond time, of what is eternal. The hunger of the soul in us can be satisfied only by a response from the Eternal.” The Book of the Divine Mother
"This body of ours is a symbol of our real being. . . .” Letters on Yoga ::: ". . . the body itself is only a constant act of consciousness of the spirit.” Essays on the Gita
::: "This conception of the Person and Personality, if accepted, must modify at the same time our current ideas about the immortality of the soul; for, normally, when we insist on the soul"s undying existence, what is meant is the survival after death of a definite unchanging personality which was and will always remain the same throughout eternity. It is the very imperfect superficial I'' of the moment, evidently regarded by Nature as a temporary form and not worth preservation, for which we demand this stupendous right to survival and immortality. But the demand is extravagant and cannot be conceded; theI"" of the moment can only merit survival if it consents to change, to be no longer itself but something else, greater, better, more luminous in knowledge, more moulded in the image of the eternal inner beauty, more and more progressive towards the divinity of the secret Spirit. It is that secret Spirit or divinity of Self in us which is imperishable, because it is unborn and eternal. The psychic entity within, its representative, the spiritual individual in us, is the Person that we are; but the I'' of this moment, theI"" of this life is only a formation, a temporary personality of this inner Person: it is one step of the many steps of our evolutionary change, and it serves its true purpose only when we pass beyond it to a farther step leading nearer to a higher degree of consciousness and being. It is the inner Person that survives death, even as it pre-exists before birth; for this constant survival is a rendering of the eternity of our timeless Spirit into the terms of Time.” The Life Divine
“This conception of the Person and Personality, if accepted, must modify at the same time our current ideas about the immortality of the soul; for, normally, when we insist on the soul’s undying existence, what is meant is the survival after death of a definite unchanging personality which was and will always remain the same throughout eternity. It is the very imperfect superficial I’’ of the moment, evidently regarded by Nature as a temporary form and not worth preservation, for which we demand this stupendous right to survival and immortality. But the demand is extravagant and cannot be conceded; theI’’ of the moment can only merit survival if it consents to change, to be no longer itself but something else, greater, better, more luminous in knowledge, more moulded in the image of the eternal inner beauty, more and more progressive towards the divinity of the secret Spirit. It is that secret Spirit or divinity of Self in us which is imperishable, because it is unborn and eternal. The psychic entity within, its representative, the spiritual individual in us, is the Person that we are; but the I’’ of this moment, theI’’ of this life is only a formation, a temporary personality of this inner Person: it is one step of the many steps of our evolutionary change, and it serves its true purpose only when we pass beyond it to a farther step leading nearer to a higher degree of consciousness and being. It is the inner Person that survives death, even as it pre-exists before birth; for this constant survival is a rendering of the eternity of our timeless Spirit into the terms of Time.” The Life Divine
“This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” The Life Divine
“This material universe is itself only existence as we see it when the soul dwells on the plane of material movement and experience in which the spirit involves itself in form, and therefore all the framework of things in which it moves by the life and which it embraces by the consciousness is determined by the principle of infinite division and aggregation proper to Matter, to substance of form.” The Upanishads
thought-Mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the Spirit. Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge. It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind, — but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin, — as all these greater powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought; it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge. An all-awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truths the identity held in itself, conceiving swiftly, victoriously, multitudinously, formulating and by self-power of the Idea effectually realising its conceptions, is the character of this greater mind of knowledge. " *The Life Divine
timeserving ::: a. --> Obsequiously complying with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power. ::: n. --> An obsequious compliance with the spirit of the times, or the humors of those in power, which implies a surrender of one&
Tlie lose that belongs to the spiritual planes is of a dillcrcni kind; the psychic has its own more personal lose, bhalti, sur- render. Love in the higher or spiritual mind is more unisenal and impersonal. The two must go together to male the highest divine los'C.
To realise Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit.
Transcendent ::: “A Transcendent who is beyond all world and all Nature and yet possesses the world and its nature, who has descended with something of himself into it and is shaping it into that which as yet it is not, is the Source of our being, the Source of our works and their Master. But the seat of the Transcendent Consciousness is above in an absoluteness of divine Existence—and there too is the absolute Power, Truth, Bliss of the Eternal—of which our mentality can form no conception and of which even our greatest spiritual experience is only a diminished reflection in the spiritualised mind and heart, a faint shadow, a thin derivate. Yet proceeding from it there is a sort of golden corona of Light, Power, Bliss and Truth—a divine Truth-Consciousness as the ancient mystics called it, a Supermind, a Gnosis, with which this world of a lesser consciousness proceeding by Ignorance is in secret relation and which alone maintains it and prevents it from falling into a disintegrated chaos.” The Synthesis of Yoga
transcendent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "A Transcendent who is beyond all world and all Nature and yet possesses the world and its nature, who has descended with something of himself into it and is shaping it into that which as yet it is not, is the Source of our being, the Source of our works and their Master. But the seat of the Transcendent Consciousness is above in an absoluteness of divine Existence — and there too is the absolute Power, Truth, Bliss of the Eternal — of which our mentality can form no conception and of which even our greatest spiritual experience is only a diminished reflection in the spiritualised mind and heart, a faint shadow, a thin derivate. Yet proceeding from it there is a sort of golden corona of Light, Power, Bliss and Truth — a divine Truth-Consciousness as the ancient mystics called it, a Supermind, a Gnosis, with which this world of a lesser consciousness proceeding by Ignorance is in secret relation and which alone maintains it and prevents it from falling into a disintegrated chaos.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"The Transcendent, the Universal, the Individual are three powers overarching, underlying and penetrating the whole manifestation; this is the first of the Trinities. In the unfolding of consciousness also, these are the three fundamental terms and none of them can be neglected if we would have the experience of the whole Truth of existence. Out of the individual we wake into a vaster freer cosmic consciousness; but out of the universal too with its complex of forms and powers we must emerge by a still greater self-exceeding into a consciousness without limits that is founded on the Absolute.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"We see then that there are three terms of the one existence, transcendent, universal and individual, and that each of these always contains secretly or overtly the two others. The Transcendent possesses itself always and controls the other two as the basis of its own temporal possibilities; that is the Divine, the eternal all-possessing God-consciousness, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, which informs, embraces, governs all existences. The human being is here on earth the highest power of the third term, the individual, for he alone can work out at its critical turning-point that movement of self-manifestation which appears to us as the involution and evolution of the divine consciousness between the two terms of the Ignorance and the Knowledge.” The Life Divine
The Transcendent
This is what is termed the Adya Shakti; she is the Supreme Consciousness and Power above the universe and it is by her that all the Gods are manifested, and even the supramental Ishwara comes into manifestation through her — the supramental Purushottama of whom the Gods are Powers and Personalities.” Letters on Yoga
**Transcendent"s.**
“‘Transformation’ is a word that I have brought in myself (like ‘supermind’) to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature by the ‘influence’ of the Spirit is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of a psychic change or a psycho-spiritual change—the word besides has many senses and is very often given a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign to my purpose.” Letters on Yoga
transformation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. There is a higher consciousness of the true self, which is spiritual, but it is above; if one rises above into it, then one is free as long as one remains there, but if one comes down into or uses mind, vital or body — and if one keeps any connection with life, one has to do so, either to come down and act from the ordinary consciousness or else to be in the self but use mind, life and body, then the imperfections of these instruments have to be faced and mended — they can only be mended by transformation.” *Letters on Yoga
"‘Transformation" is a word that I have brought in myself (like ‘supermind") to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature by the ‘influence" of the Spirit is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of a psychic change or a psycho-spiritual change — the word besides has many senses and is very often given a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign to my purpose.” *Letters on Yoga
"It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truth-consciousness and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit. Here a slow and tardy change need no longer be the law or manner of our evolution; it will be only so to a greater or less extent so long as a mental ignorance clings and hampers our ascent; but once we have grown into the truth-consciousness its power of spiritual truth of being will determine all. Into that truth we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit. The obscurations of earth will not prevail against the supramental truth-consciousness, for even into the earth it can bring enough of the omniscient light and omnipotent force of the spirit conquer. All may not open to the fullness of its light and power, but whatever does open must that extent undergo the change. That will be the principle of transformation.” The Supramental Manifestation
The Mother: "Transformation. The change by which all the elements and all the movements of the being become ready to manifest the supramental Truth.”
"One thing you must know and never forget: in the work of transformation all that is true and sincere will always be kept; only what is false and insincere will disappear.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
triple transformation ::: "First is the psychic transformation, in which all is in contact with the Divine through the individual psychic consciousness. Next is the spiritual transformation in which all is merged in the Divine in the cosmic consciousness. Third is the supramental transformation in which all becomes supramentalised in the divine gnostic consciousness." [S22:95]
Triple transiormation ::: There must first be the psjchic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into a soul- instrumentation ; on that or along vnth that there must be the spiritual change, the descent of a higher Light, Knowledge,
Truth-Consciousness which is the integral consciousness of the spiritual being. Mind cannot be our fast conscious expression because mind is fundamentally an isaoionce seeking for know- ledge ; it is only the Supramental Truth-Consciousness that can bring us the true and whole Self-Knowledge and world-know- ledge ; it is through that only that we can get to our true being and fulfilment of our spiritual evolution. '
truth of the Spirit, can again be made possible. These things, however, will be decided by no mental rule but in the light of the soul within us and by the ordaining force and progressive guidance of the Divine Power that secretly or overtly first impels, then begins clearly to control and to order and finally takes up the whole burden of the Yoga.
Truths of the being'. There is a truth in Nirvana — Nirvana is nothing but the peace and freedom of the Spirit which can exist in itself, be there world or no world, world-order or world- disorder.
tumult ::: n. --> The commotion or agitation of a multitude, usually accompanied with great noise, uproar, and confusion of voices; hurly-burly; noisy confusion.
Violent commotion or agitation, with confusion of sounds; as, the tumult of the elements.
Irregular or confused motion; agitation; high excitement; as, the tumult of the spirits or passions.
UDANA. ::: Life-current that moves upward from the body to the crown of the head, a regular channel of communication bet- ween the physical life and the greater life of the spirit/
udana ::: [one of the five pranas] : it moves upward from the body to the crown of the head and is a regular channel of communication between the physical life and the greater life of the spirit.
“Universal love is the spiritual founded on the sense of the One and the Divine everywhere and the change of the personal into a wide universal consciousness, free from attachment and ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
Universal love is the spiritual founded on tJ;e sense of the
Un of the Spirit in things, and only outwardly an evolution of species. Thus also, the delight of existence emerges from the original insentience, first in the contrary forms of pleasure and pain and then has to find itself in the bliss of the Spirit or as it is called in the Upanishads, the bliss of the Brahman.
upadesa. ::: "of this instruction"; the spiritual guidance or teaching given by a Guru; spiritual instruction; teaching; initiation
vandalism ::: n. --> The spirit or conduct of the Vandals; ferocious cruelty; hostility to the arts and literature, or willful destruction or defacement of their monuments.
Very often the sadhaka feels a flow of light upon him and around him or a flow of light invading his centres or even his whole being and body, penetrating and illumining every cell and in that light there glows the spiritual consciousness and one becomes open to all or many of its workings and realisations.
vijnanamaya purusa ::: the gnostic purusa; the Spirit poised in gnosis.
VIRAHA.* A transitional experience on the plane of the vital seeking for the Spirit. The pure feeling of viraha is psy- chic ; but if rajasic or tamasic movements come in (such as depression, complaint, revolt, etc.) then it becomes tantasic or rSjasic.
virat ::: the universal Soul; the Self that becomes all these forms of things; the Spirit of the external universe; the seer and creator of gross forms.
Virtue and viec have nothing to do Jirh ,1 1 truth and falsehood. The spiritual 1° ■ or light,
Visions do not come from the spiritual plane ; they come from the subtle physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic or from the planes above the Mind. What comes from the spiritual plane are experiences of the Dirae, c.g. the experience of Self every- where. of the Divine in all etc.
visva (Vishwa) ::: [all, the all, the universe]; the Spirit of the external universe.
vital (the) ::: the life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul of man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of nature. The vital part of man is a true instrument only when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by the psychic touch and governed by the spiritual light and power. The vital has three main parts:
higher vital ::: the mental vital and emotional vital taken together. The mental vital gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations or other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest.
central vital or vital proper ::: dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, such as ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passion of various kinds and the field of many vital energies.
lower vital ::: made up of the smaller movements of human life-desire and life-reactions, it is occupied with small desires and feelings, such as food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, little wishes of all kinds, etc. The material vital is that part of the lower vital turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane.
—we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; for though we have applied that word for want of a better to any supra-intellectual direct way of knowing, yet what we actually know as intuition is only one special movement of self-existent knowledge. This new range is its origin; it imparts to our intuitions something of its own distinct character and is very clearly an intermediary of a greater Truth-Light with which our mind cannot directly communicate. At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies,—not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality. This then is the occult link we were looking for; this is the Power that at once connects and divides the supreme Knowledge and the cosmic Ignorance….
"We see that the Absolute, the Self, the Divine, the Spirit, the Being is One; the Transcendental is one, the Cosmic is one: but we see also that beings are many and each has a self, a spirit, a like yet different nature. And since the spirit and essence of things is one, we are obliged to admit that all these many must be that One, and it follows that the One is or has become many; but how can the limited or relative be the Absolute and how can man or beast or bird be the Divine Being? But in erecting this apparent contradiction the mind makes a double error. It is thinking in the terms of the mathematical finite unit which is sole in limitation, the one which is less than two and can become two only by division and fragmentation or by addition and multiplication; but this is an infinite Oneness, it is the essential and infinite Oneness which can contain the hundred and the thousand and the million and billion and trillion. Whatever astronomic or more than astronomic figures you heap and multiply, they cannot overpass or exceed that Oneness; for, in the language of the Upanishad, it moves not, yet is always far in front when you would pursue and seize it. It can be said of it that it would not be the infinite Oneness if it were not capable of an infinite multiplicity; but that does not mean that the One is plural or can be limited or described as the sum of the Many: on the contrary, it can be the infinite Many because it exceeds all limitation or description by multiplicity and exceeds at the same time all limitation by finite conceptual oneness.” The Life Divine
“We see that the Absolute, the Self, the Divine, the Spirit, the Being is One; the Transcendental is one, the Cosmic is one: but we see also that beings are many and each has a self, a spirit, a like yet different nature. And since the spirit and essence of things is one, we are obliged to admit that all these many must be that One, and it follows that the One is or has become many; but how can the limited or relative be the Absolute and how can man or beast or bird be the Divine Being? But in erecting this apparent contradiction the mind makes a double error. It is thinking in the terms of the mathematical finite unit which is sole in limitation, the one which is less than two and can become two only by division and fragmentation or by addition and multiplication; but this is an infinite Oneness, it is the essential and infinite Oneness which can contain the hundred and the thousand and the million and billion and trillion. Whatever astronomic or more than astronomic figures you heap and multiply, they cannot overpass or exceed that Oneness; for, in the language of the Upanishad, it moves not, yet is always far in front when you would pursue and seize it. It can be said of it that it would not be the infinite Oneness if it were not capable of an infinite multiplicity; but that does not mean that the One is plural or can be limited or described as the sum of the Many: on the contrary, it can be the infinite Many because it exceeds all limitation or description by multiplicity and exceeds at the same time all limitation by finite conceptual oneness.” The Life Divine
"What becomes desire in the ego is Will in the Spirit.” The Life Divine
“What becomes desire in the ego is Will in the Spirit.” The Life Divine
What I mean by surrender is this inner surrender of the mind and vital. There is, of course, the outer surrender also ::: the giving up of all that is found to conflict with the spirit or need of the sadhanS, the offering, the obedience to the guidance of the Divine, whether directly, if one has reached that stage, or through the psychic or to the guidance of the Guru.
wheel of law ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Existence is not merely a machinery of Nature, a wheel of law in which the soul is entangled for a moment or for ages; it is a constant manifestation of the Spirit. Life is not for the sake of life alone, but for God, and the living soul of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead.” Essays on the Gita
When one enters the spiritual life, the family ties which belong to the ordinary nature fall away ; one becomes indifi'erent to old things. This indifference is a release. There need be no harshness in it at all. To remain tied to the old physical affec- tions would mean to remain tied to the ordinary nature and that would prevent spiritual progress.
When that plunge has once been taken, you are-marked for the yogic, the spiritual life and nothing can ellacc the seal that has been put upon you.
will, human ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The will of man works in the ignorance by a partial light or more often flickerings of light which mislead as much as they illuminate. His mind is an ignorance striving to erect standards of knowledge, his will an ignorance striving to erect standards of right, and his whole mentality as a result very much a house divided against itself, idea in conflict with idea, the will often in conflict with the ideal of right or the intellectual knowledge. The will itself takes different shapes, the will of the intelligence, the wishes of the emotional mind, the desires and the passion of the vital being, the impulsions and blind or half-blind compulsions of the nervous and the subconscient nature, and all these make by no means a harmony, but at best a precarious concord among discords. The will of the mind and life is a stumbling about in search of right force, right Tapas which can wholly be attained in its true and complete light and direction only by oneness with the spiritual and supramental being.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
wisdom ::: “There are two allied powers in man: Knowledge and Wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth, seen in a distorted medium, as the mind arrives at by groping; Wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit.” The Hour of God
Without the vital there is no life-force of creation or mani- festation ::: it is a necessary instrument of the spirit for life.
Without the vital there is no life-force of creation or mani- festation ; it is a necessary instrument of the spirit for life.
Work and the Gita ::: Any work can be done as a field for the practice of the spirit of the Gita. Forget yourself and your miseries in the aspiration to a larger consciousness, feel the greater Force working in the world and make yourself an instrument for a work to be done, however small it may be.
WORSHIP. ::: It can, if rightly done in the deepest rcBgwus spirit, prepare the mind and the heart to some extent but no more. But if worship is done as a part of meditation or with a true aspiration to the spiritual reality and the spiritual conscious- ness and with the yearning for contact with the Divine, then it can be spiritually effective.
would not be a spiritual force. The spirit is not limited by physical things or by the body.
yaksa (Yaksha) ::: one of the keepers of wealth; [in the Kena Upanisad]: the Daemon, the Spirit, the Unknown Power.
Yet, how can I not remember those moments at Her feet, the times when She and Sri Aurobindo came to me in vision during sleep, the gifts of the spirit they showered upon me and on all of us…
KEYS (10k)
239 Sri Aurobindo
11 Sri Ramakrishna
8 Anonymous
5 The Mother
4 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
4 Saint John Chrysostom
4 Saint Basil the Great
4 Didymus of Alexandria
4 Basil the Great
4 Saint Thomas Aquinas
3 Saint Ambrose
3 Swami Vivekananda
2 Swami Vijnanananda
2 Swami Saradananda
2 Sri Ramana Maharshi
2 Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi
2 Laws of Manu
2 Irenaeus
2 Matsuo Basho
2 Jalaluddin Rumi
1 Yogi Bhajan
1 Udanavarga
1 Tolstoy
1 Tolstoi
1 Thomas Keating
1 Thomas A Kempis
1 Tertullian of Carthage
1 SWAMI YATISWARANANDA
1 SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA
1 SWAMI BRAHMANANDA
1 Shennong Ben Cao Jing
1 Sangiti Sutta
1 Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
1 Saint John Chrysostom [PG 64
1 Saint Irenaeus
1 Saint Faustina Kowalska
1 Saint CATHERINE OF SIENA
1 Saint Benedict of Nursia
1 Saint Basil
1 Saint Augustine
1 Ruysbro-eok
1 Romans VIII 3
1 Romans VIII. 13
1 Romans 8:11).
1 Revelation 3:21-22
1 Ramakrishna
1 Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 Ptahhotep
1 Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori
1 Pico de la Mirandola
1 Philokalia
1 Pascal: Penses
1 Origen
1 Miyamoto Musashi
1 Max Weber
1 Maximus the Confessor
1 Matthew XII. 13
1 Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 7)
1 Manly P Hall
1 Leo the Great
1 Latita Vistara
1 Lao-tse
1 Krisna Prem
1 Katha Upanishad
1 Joseph Campbell
1 John III 6. 7
1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1 Jean-Pierre Camus de Pontcarré
1 Jacques Maritain
1 I Thessalonians V. 19
1 id
1 Heraclitus
1 Helwa
1 Hazrat Inayat Khan
1 Gregory the Great
1 Gregory of Nazianzen
1 Gregory Nazianzus
1 George W. Hegel
1 Galatians VI. 7. 8
1 Fa-khe-pi-
1 Evelyn Underhill
1 Emerson
1 Edith Stein
1 D. T. Suzuki
1 C S Lewis
1 Corinthians
1 Coleridge
1 Chinese Proverb
1 Buddhist Texts
1 Buddhist Text
1 Buddhist Mediations from the Japanese
1 Book of Golden Precepts
1 Black Elk
1 Bhagavat Purana
1 Bhagavad Gita XIII
1 Bhagavad Gita IV. 38
1 Bhagavad Gita. II- 50
1 Bhagavad Gita
1 Bennett Cerf
1 Basil of Caesarea
1 Baha-ullah: The Seven Valleys
1 Baha-ullah
1 Antoine the Healer
1 Albert Einstein
1 Saint Augustine of Hippo
1 Heraclitus
1 Aleister Crowley
1 Ahmed Halif
1 1Pt 4:13-14).
1 1 John 4:3
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
65 Anonymous
62 Sri Aurobindo
20 Rumi
17 Mahatma Gandhi
15 Friedrich Nietzsche
10 Oswald Chambers
10 Beth Moore
9 Thomas Jefferson
9 J D Greear
8 Henri J M Nouwen
8 Charles Spurgeon
7 Thomas Merton
7 Ralph Waldo Emerson
7 Marianne Williamson
7 Frederick Lenz
7 Andrew Murray
6 The Mother
6 Swami Vivekananda
6 John Calvin
6 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1:Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
2:The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." ~ Bennett Cerf, #KEYS
3:'"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'" ~ Revelation 3:21-22, #KEYS
4:Quench not the spirit. ~ I Thessalonians V. 19, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
5:All wisdom is one: to understand the spirit that rules all by all. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
6:For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, II, #KEYS
7:... Your body, a temple of the Spirit, is being degraded and profaned." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
8:Poetic Knowledge is as natural to the spirit of man as the return of the bird to his nest. ~ Jacques Maritain, #KEYS
9:The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Job, 33:4, #KEYS
10:Dance represents the triumph of the spirit over the flesh. ~ Aleister Crowley, [T7], #KEYS
11:I believe the Spirit to proceed from no other source than from the Father through the Son. ~ Tertullian of Carthage, #KEYS
12:The inmost is the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Power of the Spirit, #KEYS
13:For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. ~ Corinthians, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
14:Harmony is the natural rule of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
15:hen the spirit has comm and over the soul, that is strength. ~ Lao-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
16:The intellectual ages sing less easily. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
17:The spirit and the form; sentiment within and symbol without. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
18:All wisdom is one: to understand the spirit that rules all by all. ~ Heraclitus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
19:Accord and concord are the true normality of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
20:The lyric is a moment of heightened soul experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
21:By the Lord's grace the spirit must be quickened. Spiritual awakening is followed by Samadhi. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
22:Ignorance is the night of the spirit, but a night without stars or moon. ~ Chinese Proverb, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
23:It is the seeing mind that is the master of poetic utterance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #KEYS
24:The one thing that man sees above the intellect is the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Power of the Spirit, #KEYS
25:When the spark of truth is discovered in the spirit, all is taught to it that it needs. ~ Ruysbro-eok, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
26:Only in the spiritual self can we possess the true unity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
27:Fear is more even of a nervous sensation than an emotion. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #KEYS
28:The human Guru whispers the sacred formula into the ear. The Divine Guru breathes the spirit into the soul. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
29:The poet is a magician who hardly knows the secret of his own spell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #KEYS
30:Necessity is the child of the spirit's free self-determination. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma and Freedom, #KEYS
31:All this infinite becoming is a birth of the Spirit into form. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ascending Unity, #KEYS
32:Time was Eternity's transparent robe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #KEYS
33:For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, II, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
34:The Word that ushers divine experience ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #KEYS
35:Outward circumstances are only a cover for the real workings of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
36:This darkness hides our nobler destiny. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #KEYS
37:To break up the form is to injure the spirit's self-expression. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, "Is India Civilised?" - I, #KEYS
38:Worlds were many, but the Self was one. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #KEYS
39:Continence is a denial of the body and an assent to God. It withdraws from everything mortal, having, as it were, the Spirit of God as a body. ~ Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
40:the mountains
in silence
nurture the spirit
~ Matsuo Basho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
41:The spirit is doomed to pain till man is free. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, #KEYS
42:He who has the spirit of devotion in him receives an awakening in holy places, and that spirit becomes intensified. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
43:The difference between knowledge and ignorance is a grace of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Master of the Work, #KEYS
44:The senses there were outlets of the soul; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #KEYS
45:It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T5],#KEYS
46:It is the spirit within and not the mind without that is the fount of poetry. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, New Birth or Decadence?, #KEYS
47:Brahman is like an infinite expanse of water. The parts that are frozen are the spirit in personal forms of the deity. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
48: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
49:The lyrical impulse is the original and spontaneous creator of the poetic form, ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
50:Material universe a form and movement of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #KEYS
51:Spiritual truth is a truth of the spirit, not a truth of the intellect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
52:Tied up the spirit to golden posts of bliss.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
53:All things are there as the spirit's powers and means and forms of manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
54:He blows where he wills and on whom He wills, and to what extent He wills (Jn 3:8). Thus we are inspired both to think and to speak of the Spirit. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
55:Only by falling back on our better thought, by yielding to the spirit of prophecy which is innate in every man, can we know what that wisdom saith. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
56:The heart's love allies itself readily with a vital desire in the body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #KEYS
57:The idea is only a partial expression of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - VI, #KEYS
58:a bird
singing a lullaby
to the spirit of the willow
~ Matsuo Basho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
59:The Spirit manifest as Intelligence is the basis of the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
60:For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every form of grace, for the Spirit is truth. ~ Saint Irenaeus, #KEYS
61:In order to be an image of God, the spirit must turn to what is eternal, hold it in spirit, keep it in memory, and by loving it, embrace it in the will. ~ Edith Stein, [T5], #KEYS
62:Don't waste your energies on things that cause worry, disturbance and anxiety. Only one thing is necessary: to lift the spirit and love God. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
63:So long as one is not free from the ego sense, there can be no real freedom. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
64:The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VII. 500), #KEYS
65:Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.
~ Miyamoto Musashi,#KEYS
66:A man has the spirit of true renunciation who, upon meeting a beautiful young woman, turns away from her, seeing her as his mother ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
67:The jiva (soul), possessed by the spirit of Maya (illusion), on realizing that it is self-deluded, becomes at once free from Maya. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
68:If by the grace of God the spirit of immediate renunciation comes to one, then one may get rid of the attachment to lust and wealth. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
69:The poetic word is a vehicle of the spirit, the chosen medium of the soul's self-expression. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #KEYS
70:The too developed intellect cannot often keep or recover life's first fine careless rapture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
71:For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, 12:8,#KEYS
72:To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
73:Does one enter a temple with dirty feet?
Likewise, one does not enter the temple of the spirit with a sullied mind.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
74:Fate revealed a chain of seeing Will; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
75:Here chaos sorts itself into a world, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
76:I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?" "For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "you can step out into it at any moment..." ~ C S Lewis, The Great Divorce, #KEYS
77:Through the spirit we come to the root of action and existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
78:But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. ~ Latita Vistara, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
79:Then an attempt is made to bring her to compromise with the spirit of the world, which thus enters into her and affects and paralyses her vitality." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
80:Body and mind are not the creators of the spirit, the spirit is the creator of the mind and body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
81:In each success a seed of failure lurks. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
82:In man it is the ego idea which chiefly supports the falsehood of a separative existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
83:In the true nature of Matter is the fundamental law of the Spirit. In the true nature of Spirit is the fundamental law of Matter. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
84:Poetry and art are born mediators between the immaterial and the concrete, the spirit and life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Ideal Spirit of Poetry, #KEYS
85:The shadow has to disappear and by its disappearance reveal the spirit's unclouded substance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
86:The Immobile's ocean-silence saw him pass, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
87:To possess its world is the nature of infinite spirit and the necessary urge in all being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
88:Death lay beneath him like a gate of sleep. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
89:If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. ~ Romans VIII. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
90:Intellect void of the spirit can only pile up external knowledge and machinery and efficiency. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
91:Strength in the spirit, wisdom in the mind,
Love in the heart complete the trinity
Of glorious manhood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act III,#KEYS
92:The ecstasy of the spirit's calm needs to be transformed by the ecstasy of the soul's Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Fullness of Spiritual Action, #KEYS
93:Learn then, in brief, matter and its nature, qualities and modifications and also what the Spirit is and what its power. ~ Bhagavad Gita XIII, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
94:Our hearts clutch at a forfeited heavenly bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
95:Nature creates perfectly because she creates directly out of life and is not intellectually self-conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
96:Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ephesians, 6:18, #KEYS
97:... and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world." ~ 1 John 4:3, #KEYS
98:No radiance of the Spirit can dissipate the darkness of the soul below unless all egoistic thought has fled out of it. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
99:Thought climbs in vain and brings a borrowed light, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness, #KEYS
100:Through all ways of our being the Divine can touch us and make use of them to awaken and liberate the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ananda Brahman, #KEYS
101:Mind is not the native dynamism of consciousness of the Spirit; supermind, the light of gnosis, is its native dynamism. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
102:Our sight and sense are a fallible gaze and touch
And only the spirit's vision is wholly true. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#KEYS
103:The ego sense must be replaced by a oneness with the transcendental Divine and with universal being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
104:An epicure of the spirit's unseen joys,
He lives on the sweet honey of solitude: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#KEYS
105:Not alone the mind in its trouble
God beholds, but the spirit behind that has joy of the torture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
106:We who are weak and poor ought not to despair because we are fervent at times and at other times cold, for the spirit comes and goes according to His will. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
107:He was seen in the past prophetically, through the Spirit, and now as it were by adoption, through the Son; and in the kingdom of heaven he will be seen as a true father. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
108:Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead to live, because it is conducted in the spirit of meekness and humility. I persecute by word, not by acts. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
109:what is Fate if not the spirit's will
After long time fulfilled by cosmic Force? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
110:What the spirit sees, creates a truth
And what the soul imagines is made a world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
111:The guardians of Eternity keep its law
For ever fixed upon Truth's giant base ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
112:The inconscient world is the spirit's self-made room,
Eternal Night shadow of eternal Day. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Ideal,#KEYS
113:Time shall be
The quivering of the spirit's endless bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
114:O my friend, hearken to the melody of the Spirit in thy heart and in thy soul and guard it as the apple of thy eyes. ~ Baha-ullah, "The Seven Valleys", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
115:Phenomenon built Reality's summer-house
On the beaches of the sea of Infinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
116:The Spirit prepares mankind for the Son of God, the Son leads it to God, and God gives it the gift of incorruptible eternal life, a life that everyone receives who sees God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
117:To the Spirit all creatures turn in their need for sanctification; all living things seek him according to their ability. His breath empowers each to achieve its own natural end. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
118:Imagination's great ensorcelling rod
Summoned the unknown and gave to it a home, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
119:The Spirit's greatness is our timeless source
And it shall be our crown in endless Time.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdom of Subtle Matter, [T5],#KEYS
120:Armed with the intuition of a bliss
To which some moved tranquillity was the key, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
121:Christianity was an assertion of human equality in the spirit, a great assertion of the unity of the divine spirit in man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Asiatic Democracy, #KEYS
122:The Purusha has that capacity; for the spirit within can always change and perfect the working of its nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Power of the Instruments, #KEYS
123:The secret of our apparent bondage is the Spirit's play by which It consents to forget God-consciousness in the absorption of Nature's movement.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad,#KEYS
124:Always ascends the zigzag of the gods
And upward points the spirit's climbing Fire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
125:He tore desire up from its bleeding roots
And offered to the gods the vacant place. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
126:There Matter is the Spirit's firm density,
An artistry of glad outwardness of self. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
127:The spirit's consent is needed for each act
And Freedom walks in the same pace with Law. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
128:This now he willed to discover and exile,
The element in him betraying God.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, [T5],#KEYS
129:If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you" ~ Romans 8:11)., #KEYS
130:The discussion of prayer is so great that it requires the Father to reveal it, his firstborn Word to teach it, and the Spirit to enable us to think and speak rightly of so great a subject. ~ Origen, On Prayer, #KEYS
131:Only by falling back on our better thought, by yielding to the spirit of prophecy which is innate in every man, can we know what that wisdom saith. ~ Emerson, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
132:The oneness which is brought about by the happy loss of the will of desire and the ego, is the essence of Mukti. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
133:A spiritual symbol is only a meaningless ticket, unless the thing symbolised is realised in the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Advent and Progress of the Spiritual Age, #KEYS
134:Follow your desire as long as you live, and do not perform more than is ordered, do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit... ~ Ptahhotep, 11th maxim of, #KEYS
135:It waited for the fiat of the Word
That comes through the still self from the Supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
136:Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has obtained a level of civilization and never before achieved. ~ Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, #KEYS
137:It made of Space a marvel house of God,
It poured through Time its works of ageless might, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
138:The witness silence of the Spirit is there in the very grain of all the voices and workings of Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
139:Two kinds of joy are there O my brothers, and what are they? The joy of the senses and the joy of the spirit; but nobler is the joy of the spirit. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
140:All is determined by the Spirit, for all from subtlest existence to grossest matter is manifestation of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ladder of Self-Transcendence, #KEYS
141:A perfect self-expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
142:To the Spirit all creatures turn in their need for sanctification; all living things seek him according to their ability. His breath empowers each to achieve its own natural end. ~ Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, #KEYS
143:That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. Marvel not that said unto thee, "Ye must be born again. " ~ John III 6. 7, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
144:There substance was a resonant harp of self,
A net for the constant lightnings of the spirit, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
145:The Sole in its solitude yearned towards the All
And the Many turned to look back at the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
146:Our base's Matter seems alone complete,
An absolute machine without a soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
147:Just as the spirit is vaster than its ideas, the ideas too are larger than their forms, moulds and rhythms. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - VI, #KEYS
148:the rhythms and metres of the stars
Significant of the movements of our fate ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
149:In the enormous spaces of the self
The body now seemed only a wandering shell, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
150:Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I, Transformation and the Body, #KEYS
151:Whoever wishes to walk the straight road to God, stands in need of both the inherent spiritual knowledge of Scripture, and the natural contemplation of beings according to the spirit. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Amb. 10.17 [1128c], #KEYS
152:he man whose understanding is in union with the Spirit, casts from him both good doing and evil doing; get this union, it is the perfect skill in works. ~ Bhagavad Gita. II- 50, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
153:Once figure of creation's vain ellipse,
The expanding zero lost its giant curve. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
154:Hear its cry when God's moment changing our fate comes visored
Silently into our lives and the spirit too knows, for it watches. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
155:But first the spirit's ascent we must achieve
Out of the chasm from which our nature rose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
156:Veiled by the ray no mortal eye can bear,
The Spirit's bare and absolute potencies
Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
157:His wakened mind became an empty slate
On which the Universal and Sole could write. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
158:A living centre of the Illimitable
Widened to equate with the world's circumference, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
159:Across the unfolding of the seas of self
Appeared the deathless countries of the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
160:Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead to live, because it is conducted in the spirit of meekness and humility. I persecute by word, not by acts. I persecute heresy, not heretics. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
161:Sunbelts of knowledge, moonbelts of delight
Stretched out in an ecstasy of widenesses ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
162:The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze
And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
163:Ethics deals only with the desire-soul and the active outward dynamical part of our being; its field is confined to character and action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #KEYS
164:An almighty occultist erects in Space
This seeming outward world which tricks the sense; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
165:The lust that warps the spirit's natural good
Replaced by a manufactured virtue and vice
The frank spontaneous impulse of the soul: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
166:All's miracle here and can by miracle change.
This is that secret Nature's edge of might. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
167:Hid in our hearts is his glory; the Spirit works in our members.
Silence is he, with our voices he speaks, in our thoughts he remembers. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
168:He shore the cord of mind that ties the earth-heart
And cast away the yoke of Matter's law. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
169:He who contemplates the supreme Truth, contemplates the perfect Essence; only the vision of the spirit can see this nature of ineffable perfection. ~ Buddhist Mediations from the Japanese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
170:In place of earth the Spirit reopens heaven to us and gladly admits us into paradise, giving us even now greater honor than the angels, and by the holy waters of baptism extinguishing the unquenchable fires of hell. ~ Didymus of Alexandria, #KEYS
171:Intense, one-pointed, monumental, lone,
Patient he sat like an incarnate hope
Motionless on a pedestal of prayer. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
172:Life, the river of the Spirit, consenting to anguish and sorrow
If by her heart's toil a loan-light of joy from the heavens she can borrow. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
173:Not all can attain to the perfection of wisdom as Solomon or Daniel did, but the spirit of wisdom is poured out on all according to their capacity, that is, on all the faithful. If you believe, you have the spirit of wisdom. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
174:A mystic Form that could contain the worlds,
Yet make one human breast its passionate shrine, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
175:The spirit rises mightier by defeat;
Its godlike wings grow wider with each fall.
Its splendid failures sum to victory. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
176:Therefore, considering with a firm heart the way of the spirit, renounce the trust which made you see something durable in the cause of joy and sorrow and return into calm. ~ Bhagavat Purana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
177:Where Matter is all, there Spirit is a dream:
If all are the Spirit, Matter is a lie,
And who was the liar who forged the universe? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
178:The spirit constructs its own abode; directed falsely from the beginning it thinks in erroneous ways and engenders its own distress. Thought creates for itself its own suffering. ~ Fa-khe-pi-, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
179:The Spirit created the world for Ananda, enjoyment and possession of the many by the One, of the One by the many and of the many too by the many. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #KEYS
180:The Inconscient too is infinite;
The more its abysses we insist to sound,
The more it stretches, stretches endlessly. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
181:There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit's omnipotence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
182:O Holy Spirit grant me the gift of prayer. Come into my heart, and [grant] me the strength not to abandon it because I sometimes grow weary of it; And give me the spirit of prayer, the grace to pray continually. ~ Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
183:You should analyze your mind and see whether you have been able to cover every bit of work with the spirit of God and judge whether the duties you are performing are for His sake or for the propitiation of your spurious self. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
184:At the close of the great Night...He whom the spirit alone can perceive, who escapes from the organs of sense, who is without visible parts, Eternal, the soul of all existences, whom none can comprehend, outspread His own splendours. ~ Laws of Manu, #KEYS
185:The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, and he offers his own light to every mind to help it in its search for truth. By nature the Spirit is beyond the reach of our mind, but we can know him by his goodness. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
186:This earth that is promised to the meek, that is to be given to the gentle to possess, is the body of the saints, whose humility will raise them up and clothe them in the glory of immortality, united at last with the Spirit of unity. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
187:The nature of the Spirit is a spacious inner freedom and a large unity into which each man must be allowed to grow according to his own nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Advent and Progress of the Spiritual Age, #KEYS
188:Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh, shall reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ~ Galatians VI. 7. 8, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
189:A divine quietism discovers the immaculate eternity of the Spirit, a divine kinetism adds to it the right pure undeviating action of the soul, mind and body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #KEYS
190:Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
191:Orthodoxy, in fact, has retained much of the spirit and form of a mystery-religion in the best sense of the term; its symbolic yet realistic apprehension of the deep things of God, and the nearness yet otherness of the Eternal. ~ Evelyn Underhill, Worship, #KEYS
192:There are two spirits: the old and the new. The old spirit is the spirit of slavery; the new is the spirit of love. The first produces slaves; the second, children by adoption ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (In Jn. 13, lect. 7)., #KEYS
193:The little Mind is tied to little things:
Its sense is but the spirit's outward touch,
Half-waked in a world of dark Inconscience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
194:Mystic, ineffable is the spirit's truth,
Unspoken, caught only by the spirit's eye.
When naked of ego and mind it hears the Voice; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
195:Prayer is the light of the spirit, true knowledge of God, mediating between God and man.... I speak of prayer, not words. It is the longing for God, love too deep for words, a gift not given by man but by God's grace. ~ Saint John Chrysostom [PG 64, 462-466], #KEYS
196:Real rebirth is dying from the ego into the spirit. Whenever identification with the body exists, a body is always available, whether this or any other one, till the body-sense disappears by merging into the source - the spirit, or Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
197:An arrow leaping through eternity
Suddenly shot from the tense bow of Time,
A ray returning to its parent sun. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
198:There Mind, a splendid sun of vision's rays,
Shaped substance by the glory of its thoughts
And moved amidst the grandeur of its dreams. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
199:Moses struck the rock and brought forth streams of water; Christ touches his table, strikes the spiritual rock of the new covenant and draws forth the living water of the Spirit. This rock is like a fountain in the midst of Christ's table. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
200:The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, and he offers his own light to every mind to help it in its search for truth. By nature the Spirit is beyond the reach of our mind, but we can know him by his goodness. ~ Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, #KEYS
201:Reconstitute the perfect word, unite
The Alpha and the Omega in one sound;
Then shall the Spirit and Nature be at one.
Two are the ends of the mysterious plan. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
202:The three witnesses in baptism-the water, the blood and the Spirit-are one. This means that if you take away one of these the sacrament is not conferred. What is water without the cross of Christ? Only an ordinary element without sacramental effect. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
203:The traveller in this valley may seem to be seated in the dust, but in truth he sits upon spiritual heights receiving the eternal favours, drinking the exquisite wine of the spirit. ~ Baha-ullah: The Seven Valleys, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
204:Ye have been taught that ye put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that ye put on the new man. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ephesians, IV. 21-24, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
205:A giant order was discovered here
Of which the tassel and extended fringe
Are the scant stuff of our material lives. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
206:Mind is a mediator divinity:
Its powers can undo all Nature's work:
Mind can suspend or change earth's concrete law. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
207:Simple in himself, the Spirit is manifold in his mighty works. The whole of his being is present to each individual; the whole of his being is present everywhere. Though shared in by many, he remains unchanged; his self-giving is no loss to himself. ~ Basil the Great, #KEYS
208:saw the signature and fiery seal
Of Wisdom on the dim Power's hooded work
Who builds in Ignorance the steps of Light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
209:The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
210:Since this fountain, this source of life, this table surrounds us with untold blessings and fills us with the gifts of the Spirit, let us approach it with sincerity of heart and purity of conscience to receive grace and mercy in our time of need. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
211:If men were not and all were brilliant gods,
The mediating stair would then be lost
By which the spirit awake in Matter winds ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
212:Through the ministry of priests, the font gives symbolic birth to our visible bodies. Through the ministry of angels, the Spirit of God, whom even the mind's eye cannot see, baptizes into himself both our souls and bodies, giving them a new birth. ~ Didymus of Alexandria, #KEYS
213:You proclaimed your faith in the Father - recall what you did - and the Son and the Spirit. Mark the sequence of events. In proclaiming this faith you died to the world, you rose again to God, and, as though buried to sin, you were reborn to eternal life. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
214:Ascending and descending twixt life's poles
The seried kingdoms of the graded Law
Plunged from the Everlasting into Time, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
215:For they that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. To be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ~ Romans VIII 3, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
216:Nature's Process
A nearness thrilled of the spirit to its source
And deepest things seemed obvious, close and true. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces,#KEYS
217:Simple in himself, the Spirit is manifold in his mighty works. The whole of his being is present to each individual; the whole of his being is present everywhere. Though shared in by many, he remains unchanged; his self giving is no loss to himself. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
218:These static objects in the cosmic dance
That are but Energy's self-repeating whorls
Prolonged by the spirit of the brooding Void, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
219:Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh; for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the desire of the spirit is against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other. ~ Matthew XII. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
220:A purpose mingled with the whims of Time,
A meaning met the stumbling pace of Chance
And Fate revealed a chain of seeing Will ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
221:Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword... are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. ~ Gregory Nazianzus, #KEYS
222:One of our problems is that we are not well acquainted with the literature of the spirit. We're interested in the news of the day ...When you get to be older and you turn to the inner life -- well, if you don't know where it is or what it is, you'll be sorry. ~ Joseph Campbell, #KEYS
223:There are two allied powers in man; knowledge & wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth seen in a distorted medium as the mind arrives at by groping, wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human, #KEYS
224:After all these tribulations and miseries, in a way beyond all human understanding, the Lord God will purify His holy Church, and and awaken the spirit of His elect. Such a wondrous reform after these things will happen in the holy Church of God, ..." ~ Saint CATHERINE OF SIENA, #KEYS
225:Each leaned on the occult Inconscient's power,
The fountain of its needed Ignorance,
Archmason of the limits by which it lives. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
226:In this whirl and sprawl through infinite vacancy
The Spirit became Matter and lay in the whirl,
A body sleeping without sense or soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
227:Man is given faith in himself, his ideas and his powers that he may work and create and rise to greater things and in the end bring his strength as a worthy offering to the altar of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
228:All the splendour of outward greatness has no lustre for men who are in search of the Spirit. The greatness of men of the Spirit is obnoxious to the rich, the kings, the conquerors and all the men of the flesh. ~ Pascal: Penses, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
229:Behind her an ineffable Presence stood:
Her reign received their mystic influences,
Their lion-forces crouched beneath her feet. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
230:The great hammer-beats of a pent-up world-heart
Burst open the narrow dams that keep us safe
Against the forces of the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
231:The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from the earthly men we were, men of dust and ashes, into spiritual men, sharers in the divine glory, sons and heirs of God the Father who bear a likeness to the Son and are his co-heirs and brothers. ~ Didymus of Alexandria, #KEYS
232:Climbed back from Time into undying Self,
Up a golden ladder carrying the soul,
Tying with diamond threads the Spirit's extremes. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
233:Like the sunshine, permeating the atmosphere, spreading over land & sea, & yet is enjoyed by each person as though it were for him alone, so the Spirit pours forth his grace in full measure, sufficient for all, & yet is present as though exclusively to everyone. ~ Basil the Great, #KEYS
234:The Holy Spirit renews us in baptism through his godhead, which he shares w/ the Father and the Son. Finding us in a state of deformity, the Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with his grace, leaving no room for anything unworthy of our love. ~ Didymus of Alexandria, #KEYS
235:A sumptuous chamber of the spirit's sleep
At first she made, a deep interior room,
Where he slumbers as if a forgotten guest. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
236:Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you ~ 1Pt 4:13-14)., #KEYS
237:To catch the boundless in a net of birth,
To cast the spirit into physical form,
To lend speech and thought to the Ineffable; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
238:Above the spirit cased in mortal sense
Are superconscious realms of heavenly peace,
Below, the Inconscient's sullen dim abyss,
Between, behind our life, the deathless Rose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal,#KEYS
239:A flight of the spirit is not a sufficient victory for the being embodied in this world of the becoming; it effects a separation from Nature, not a liberation and fulfilment of our nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
240:The music born in Matter's silences
Plucked nude out of the Ineffable's fathomlessness
The meaning it had held but could not voice. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
241:This sole is real in apparent things,
Even upon earth the spirit is life's key,
But her solid outsides nowhere bear its trace. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
242:A river does not resemble a pond, a pond a tun, nor a tun a bucket : but in a pond, a river, a tun and a bucket there is the same water. And so too all men are different, but the spirit that lives in them all is the same. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
243:A border sovereign is the occult Force.
A threshold guardian of the earth-scene's Beyond,
She has canalised the outbreaks of the Gods ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
244:Already we have the first fruits of the Spirit, and have we not also other reasons for rejoicing? For we are drawing near to the one we love, and not only are we drawing near. We even have some feeling and taste of the banquet we shall one day eagerly eat and drink. ~ Saint Augustine, #KEYS
245:Science at its limits, even physical Science, is compelled to perceive in the end the infinite, the universal, the spirit, the divine intelligence and will in the material universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge, #KEYS
246:The Spirit has made itself Matter in order to place itself there as an instrument for the well-being and joy, yogakṣema, of created beings, for a self. offering of universal physical utility and service. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
247:Truth-world
Two beings he was, one wide and free above,
One struggling, bound, intense, its portion here.
A tie between them still could bridge two worlds; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
248:Overtaken by the spirit's sudden spell,
Smitten by a divine passion's alchemy,
Pain's self compelled transformed to potent joy
Curing the antithesis twixt heaven and hell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
249:Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we are admitted to the company of the angels, we enter into eternal happiness and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations—we become God. ~ Saint Basil, #KEYS
250:There's a community of the spirit, join it and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise. Drink all your passion and be disgraced. Close both eyes to see with the other one. Open your hands if you want to be held. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
251:But still there lacked the last transcendent power
And Matter still slept empty of its Lord.
The Spirit was saved, the body lost and mute
Lived still with Death and ancient Ignorance ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Satyavan and Savitri,#KEYS
252:I shall not die.
Although this body, when the spirit tires
Of its cramped residence, shall feed the fires,
My house consumes, not I. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou,#KEYS
253:A last high world was seen where all worlds meet;
In its summit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep,
The light began of the Trinity supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
254:Drugs cure the body when they do not merely trouble or poison it, but only if their physical attack on the disease is supported by the force of the spirit; if that force can be made to work freely, drugs are superfluous.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
255:Almighty God, give me wisdom to perceive You, intelligence to understand You, diligence to seek You, patience to wait for You, eyes to behold You, a heart to meditate upon You and life to proclaim You, through the power of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
256:What Nature herself attends from us is that the whole of what we are should rise into the spiritual consciousness and become a manifest and manifold power of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge, #KEYS
257:For the spirit is eternal and unmade
And not by thinking was its greatness born,
And not by thinking can its knowledge come.
It knows itself and in itself it lives, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
258:He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Revelation, 2:17, #KEYS
259:Ascetic voices called of lonely seers
On mountain summits or by river banks
Or from the desolate heart of forest glades
Seeking heaven's rest or the spirit's worldless peace, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
260:At the close of the great Night...He whom the spirit alone can perceive, who escapes from the organs of sense, who is without visible parts, Eternal, the soul of all existences, whom none can comprehend, outspread His own splendours. ~ Laws of Manu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
261:In its vast ambit of ideal Space
Where beauty and mightiness walk hand in hand,
The Spirit's truths take form as living Gods
And each can build a world in its own right. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
262:That life which has passed thro spiritual regeneration will last for ever. It is of the spirit, & not subject to destruction or decay. The law of physical regeneration is the law of physical change, but the law of spiritual regeneration brings about thor change of human life ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA, #KEYS
263:The man who has plunged deep into a pure knowledge of the profound secrets of the spirit, is neither a terrestrial nor a celestial being. He is the most high spirit robed in the perishable body, the sublime and very Divinity. ~ Pico de la Mirandola, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
264:I dwell in the spirit's calm nothing can move
And watch the actions of Thy vast world-force,
Its mighty wings that through infinity move
And the Time-gallopings of the deathless Horse. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Witness Spirit,#KEYS
265:Back from his nature he drew to the passionless peaks of the spirit,
Throned where it dwells for ever uplifted and silent and changeless
Far beyond living and death, beyond Nature and ending of Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
266:He who has plunged himself into a pure knowledge of the profoundest secrets of the Spirit, is no longer either a terrestrial or a celestial being. He is the supreme Spirit enveloped in perishable flesh, the sublime divinity itself. ~ Pico de la Mirandola, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
267:Such is God, superior to His name, invisible and apparent, who reveals Himself to the spirit, who reveals Himself to the eyes, who has no body and who has many bodies or rather all bodies; for there is nothing which is not He and all is He alone. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
268:One among many thousands never touched,
Engrossed in the external world's design,
Is chosen by a secret witness Eye
And driven by a pointing hand of Light ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
269:1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 4:1,#KEYS
270:It is effort and work that lead to effortlessness and freedom of the spirit when the mind has become purified enough to let Grace take over. We are never out of its operation, but earnest effort is necessary to know its existence. Such effort never fails. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
271:And yet a greater destiny may be his,
For the eternal Spirit is his truth.
He can re-create himself and all around
And fashion new the world in which he lives: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
272:The thousand-hooded serpent Force
That blazing towered and clasped the World-Self above,
Joined Matter's dumbness to the Spirit's hush
And filled earth's acts with the Spirit's silent power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
273:A natural inclination toward the darker side of magic is as good a point as any from which to begin the ultimate quest, and half this book is devoted to the black arts. ... We will begin by discussing the Spirit of Black Magic. Magical power is the key to the heaven-hell of the now.
~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Null,#KEYS
274:On meditation's mounting edge of trance
Great stairs of thought climbed up to unborn heights
Where Time's last ridges touch eternity's skies
And Nature speaks to the spirit's absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
275:Nude, unashamed, exulting she upraised.
Her evil face of perilous beauty and charm.
And, drawing panic to a shuddering kiss.
Twixt the magnificence of her fatal breasts.
Allured to their abyss the spirit's f ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
276:An Infant nursed on Nature's covert breast,
An Infant playing in the magic woods,
Fluting to rapture by the spirit's streams,
Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
277:Illusion lost her aggrandising lens;
As from her failing hand the measures fell,
Atomic looked the things that loomed so large.
The little ego's ring could join no more; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness#KEYS
278:O living power of the incarnate Word,
All that the Spirit has dreamed thou canst create:
Thou art the force by which I made the worlds,
Thou art my vision and my will and voice.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day The Souls Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
279:Sown in the black earth of Nature's trance,
The seed of the Spirit's blind and huge desire
From which the tree of cosmos was conceived
And spread its magic arms through a dream of space. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Soul's Release,#KEYS
280:He found the occult cave, the mystic door
Near to the well of vision in the soul,
And entered where the Wings of Glory brood
In the silent space where all is for ever known. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
281:Weight of the event and its surface we bear, but the meaning is hidden.
Earth sees not; life's clamour deafens the ear of the spirit:
Man knows not; least knows the messenger chosen for the summons.
Only he listens to the voice of his thoughts, his ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Ilion,#KEYS
282:What is the way of making the consciousness of human unity grow in man?
Spiritual education, that is to say an education which gives more importance to the growth of the spirit than to any religious or moral teaching or to the material so-called knowledge.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
283:In ancient times, anterior to our history, the temples of the spirit were also outwardly visible; today, because our life has become so unspiritual, they are not to be found in the world visible to external sight; yet they are present spiritually everywhere, and all who seek may find them. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #KEYS
284:In the texture of our bound humanity
He felt the stark resistance huge and dumb
Of our inconscient and unseeing base,
The stubborn mute rejection in life's depths,
The ignorant No in the origin of things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
285:A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal's world.
On Nature's luminous tops, on the Spirit's ground,
The superman shall reign as king of life,
Make earth almost the mate and peer of heaven, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
286:And if we can thus be free in the spirit, we shall find out all the wonder of God's workings; we shall find that in inwardly renouncing everything we have lost nothing. 'By all this abandoned thou shalt come to enjoy the All.'
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Integral Knowledge, Renunciation,#KEYS
287:The essential spiritual being is so noble that even the damned cannot wish to cease from being. But sins form a partition and provoke so great a darkness and dissimilarity between the forces and the being in whom God lives that the spirit cannot unite itself to its own essence. ~ Ruysbroeck, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
288:the priest and the mage, the man of piety, the just man, the man of wisdom, the saint, the prophet, the Rishi, the Yogi, the seer, the spiritual sage and the mystic ... the saint, the devotee, the spiritual sage, the seer, the prophet, the servant of God, the soldier of the spirit
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
289:The Spirit's white neutrality became
A playground of miracles, a rendezvous
For the secret powers of a mystic Timelessness:
It made of Space a marvel house of God,
It poured through Time its works of ageless might. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
290:A world that knows not its inhabiting Self
Labours to find its cause and need to be;
A spirit ignorant of the world it made,
Obscured by Matter, travestied by Life,
Struggles to emerge, to be free, to know and reign; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
291:All seemed a vainly teeming vast
Upheld by a deluded Energy
To a spectator self-absorbed and mute,
Careless of the unmeaning show he watched,
Regarding the bizarre procession pass
Like one who waits for an expected end. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
292:Existence found its truth on Oneness' breast
And each became the self and space of all.
The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul,
To feel was a flame-discovery of God,
All mind was a single harp of many strings, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
293:The house of the Divine is not closed to any who knock sincerely at its gates, whatever their past stumbles and errors. Human virtues and human errors are bright and darkwrappings of a divine element within which once it pierces the veil, can burn through both towards the heights of the Spirit.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
294:God's Tread
Once we have chosen to be as the gods, we must follow that motion.
Knowledge must grow in us, might like a Titan's, bliss like an ocean,
Calmness and purity born of the spirit's gaze on the Real,
Rapture of his oneness embracing the soul in a clasp ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
295:There is no fact in Science which may not tomorrow be turned into ridicule...The very hopes of man, the thoughts of his heart, the religions of the peoples, the customs and ethics of humanity are all at the mercy of a new generalisation. The generalisation is always a new current of the divine in the spirit. ~ Emerson, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
296:When the vital joins in the love for the Divine, it brings into it heroism, enthusiasm, intensity, absoluteness, exclusiveness, the spirit of self-sacrifice, the total and passionate self-giving of all the nature. It is the vital passion for the Divine that creates the spiritual heroes, conquerors or martyrs.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
297:A shadowy unity with a vanished past
Treasured in an old-world frame was lurking there,
Secret, unnoted by the illumined mind,
And in subconscious whispers and in dream
Still murmured at the mind's and spirit's choice.
Its treacherous elements sp ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
298:If thou remain in isolation, thou shalt never be able to travel the path of the spirit; a guide is needed. Go not alone by thyself, enter not as a blind man into that ocean...Since thou art utterly ignorant what thou shouldst do to issue out of the pit of this world, how shalt thou dispense with a sure guide? ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
299:For Christ - the true "esoteric" SAVIOR - is no man, but the DIVINE PRINCIPLE in every human being. He who strives to resurrect the Spirit crucified in him by his terrestrial passions, and buried deep in the "sepulcher" of his sinful flesh: he who has the strength to roll back the stone of matter from the door of his own inner sanctuary, he has the risen Christ in him. ~ Madame Blavatsky, #KEYS
300:Alarmed for her rule and full of fear and rage
She prowls around each light that gleams through the dark
Casting its ray from the spirit's lonely tent,
Hoping to enter with fierce stealthy tread
And in the cradle slay the divine Child. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness,#KEYS
301:And before thee she shall open wide the portals of her secret chambers and under thy eyes she shall lay bare the treasures hidden in the deeps of her bosom. But she shows not her treasures save to the eye of the spirit, the eve which is never closed, the eye which is met by no veil in any of the kingdoms of her empire. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
302:The gifts of the spirit crowding came to him;
They were his life's pattern and his privilege.
A pure perception lent its lucent joy:
Its intimate vision waited not to think;
It enveloped all Nature in a single glance,
It looked into the very self of thin ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Soul's Release,#KEYS
303:Who cares for your bhakti and mukti? Who cares what your scriptures say? I will go into a thousand hells cheerfully if I can rouse my countrymen, immersed in tamas, to stand on their own feet and be men inspired with the spirit of karma-yoga. I am a follower only of he or she who serves and helps others without caring for his own bhakti and mukti! ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
304:Here even the highest rapture Time can give
Is a mimicry of ungrasped beatitudes,
A mutilated statue of ecstasy,
A wounded happiness that cannot live,
A brief felicity of mind or sense
Thrown by the World-Power to her body-slave,
Or a simulacr ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
305:The incertitude of man's proud confident thought,
The transience of the achievements of his force.
A thinking being in an unthinking world,
An island in the sea of the Unknown,
He is a smallness trying to be great,
An animal with some instincts o ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
306:...
6-But the one who receives instruction in the word must share in all good things with his instructor.
7-Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. 8The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.... ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Galatians, 6:7, BSB,#KEYS
307:God sees the inner spirit stripped of flesh, skin, and all debris. For his own mind only touches the spirit that he has allowed to flow from himself into our bodies. And if you can act the same way, you will rid yourself of all suffering. For surely if you are not preoccupied with the body that encloses you, you will not trouble yourself about clothes, houses, fame, and other showy trappings. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
308:We cannot counteract the harm done by mental faith in the need for drugs by any external measures. Only by escaping from the mental prison and emerging consciously into the light of the spirit, by a conscious union with the Divine, can we enable Him to give back to us the balance and health we have lost.The supramental transformation is the only true remedy.
~ The Mother, On Thoughts And Aphorisms,#KEYS
309:Brahman: the Reality; the Eternal; the Absolute; the Spirit; the Supreme Being; the One besides whom there is nothing else existent; in relation to the universe [cf. atman] the Supreme is brahman, the one Reality which is not only the spiritual, material and conscious substance of all the ideas and forces and forms of the universe, but their origin, support and possessor, the cosmic and supracosmic Spirit. God.
~ Sri Aurobindo?,#KEYS
310:In men, says the Upanishad, the Self-Existent has cut the doors of consciousness outward, but a few turn the eye inward and it is these who see and know the Spirit and develop the spiritual being. Thus to look into ourselves and see and enter into ourselves and live within is the first necessity for transformation of nature and for the divine life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life, #KEYS
311:Self-knowledge
A man capable of self-sacrifice, whatever his other sins, has left the animal behind him; he has the stuff in him of a future and higher humanity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin: The Doctrine of Sacrifice
Self-Sacrifice
The pure action of sense is a spiritual action and pure sense is itself a power of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Supramental Sense,#KEYS
312:Spirit's joy
Across the covert air the spirit breathes,
A body of the cosmic beauty and joy
Unseen, unguessed by the blind suffering world, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal
Spirit's joy
The spiritual life is the flower not of a featureless but a conscious and diversified oneness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Conditions for the Coming of a Spiritual Age,#KEYS
313:In the growth into a divine life the spirit must be our first preoccupation; until we have revealed and evolved it in our self out of its mental, vital, physical wrappings and disguises, extricated it with patience from our own body, as the Upanishad puts it, until we have built up in ourselves an inner life of the spirit, it is obvious that no outer divine living can become possible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life, #KEYS
314:This is our time ~ to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can! ~ Barack Obama (2008), #KEYS
315:St. Teresa of Avila wrote: 'All difficulties in prayer can be traced to one cause: praying as if God were absent.' This is the conviction that we bring with us from early childhood and apply to everyday life and to our lives in general. It gets stronger as we grow up, unless we are touched by the Gospel and begin the spiritual journey. This journey is a process of dismantling the monumental illusion that God is distant or absent. ~ Thomas Keating, Fruits & Gifts of the Spirit, #KEYS
316:The Gita has laid it down from the beginning that the very first precondition of the divine birth, the higher existence is the slaying of rajasic desire and its children, and that means the exclusion of sin. Sin is the working of the lower nature for the crude satisfaction of its own ignorant, dull or violent rajasic and tamasic propensities in revolt against any high self-control and self-mastery of the nature by the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays On The Gita, #KEYS
317:All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from mind into the spirit. It is this that must be the method of our growth from a mental into a spiritual and supramental manifestation, out of a still half-animal humanity into a divine being and divine living.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
318:All we have acquired soon loses worth,
An old disvalued credit in Time's bank,
Imperfection's cheque drawn on the Inconscient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness
Time's bank
Though Time is immortal,
Mortal his works are and ways and the anguish ends like the rapture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Poetry and Art, Hexameters, Alcaics, Sapphics,#KEYS
319:He tore desire up from its bleeding roots
And offered to the gods the vacant place.
Thus could he bear the touch immaculate.
A last and mightiest transformation came.
His soul was all in front like a great sea
Flooding the mind and body with its waves;
His being, spread to embrace the universe,
United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony,
An empire of the immanent Divine.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
320:The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine #KEYS
321:The tranquil lake reflects in the polished mirror of its waters heaven and the trees and the glittering stars; approach now and see how the image is changed; in place of heaven and the stars it is thyself that thou seest, for it was thy soul that created the heaven and the stars reflected in the mirror of the lake. Learn that all things seem to be in the soul which reflects them, but they are not the truth and the essence of the eternal reality. That essence is the Spirit which forms all things. ~ Anonymous, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
322:31. For your exercise this week, visualize your friend, see him exactly as you last saw him, see the room, the furniture, recall the conversation, now see his face, see it distinctly, now talk to him about some subject of mutual interest; see his expression change, watch him smile. Can you do this? All right, you can; then arouse his interest, tell him a story of adventure, see his eyes light up with the spirit of fun or excitement. Can you do all of this? If so, your imagination is good, you are making excellent progress. ~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System, #KEYS
323:The spirit, while superior to all of its bodies, is incapable of manifesting without its chain of vehicles. This divine spark must always be limited by the quality of its bodies. In all too many cases, it is the servant of its own dependencies. Instead of ruling its world by apostolic succession, the spirit is generally bowed and broken by the endless demands of the lower nature. The appetites, desires, and selfish propensities cast the spirit into a dungeon, while a false and cruel monarch rules the empire in his stead. ~ Manly P Hall, Magic: A Treatise on Esoteric Ethics, #KEYS
324:All was found there the Unique has dreamed and made
Tinging with ceaseless rapture and surprise
And an opulent beauty of passionate difference
The recurring beat that moments God in Time.
Only was missing the sole timeless Word
That carries eternity in its lonely sound,
The Idea self-luminous key to all ideas,
The integer of the Spirit's perfect sum
That equates the unequal All to the equal One,
The single sign interpreting every sign,
The absolute index to the Absolute.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
325:Mind, heart, life, body are to do the works of the Divine, all the works which they do now and yet more, but to do them divinely, as now they do not do them. This is the first appearance of the problem before him on which the seeker of perfection has to lay hold, that it is not a negative, prohibitory, passive or quietistic, but a positive, affirmative, active purity which is his object. A divine quietism discovered the immaculate eternity of the Spirit, a divine kinetism adds to it the right pure undeviating action of the soul, mind and body.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
326:We have to know ourselves as the self, the spirit, the eternal; we have to exist consciously in our true being. Therefore this must be our primary, if not our first one and all-absorbing idea and effort in the path of knowledge. But when we have realised the eternal self that we are, when we have become that inalienably, we have still a secondary aim, to establish the true relation between this eternal self that we are and the mutable existence and mutable world which till now we had falsely taken for our real being and our sole possible status.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
327:It is the devil's greatest triumph when he can deprive us of the joy of the Spirit. He carries fine dust with him in little boxes and scatters it through the cracks in our conscience in order to dim the soul's pure impulses and its luster. But the joy that fills the heart of the spiritual person destroys the deadly poison of the serpent. But if any are gloomy and think that they are abandoned in their sorrow, gloominess will continuously tear at them or else they will waste away in empty diversions. When gloominess takes root, evil grows. If it is not dissolved by tears, permanent damage is done. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
328: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
329:One can mount higher in a singular sort when the spirit soars above Time as high as eternity and there uniting itself with God becomes one thing with him and by that union knows and loves, not what is more or less noble, but all things in all things, considering them in that Object which is infinitely noble, all eminently reunited and in an equal degree of nobility. It is there that the spirit after it has raised itself above all that is, surpasses itself also and dwells imperturbable in an eternal repose, and the more it knows and loves, the more this eternity is affirmed and it becomes there itself eternal. ~ J. Taulcr, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
330:This then is the first necessity, that the individual, each individual, shall discover the spirit, the divine reality within him and express that in all his being and living. A divine life must be first and foremost an inner life; for since the outward must be the expression of what is within, there can be no divinity in the outer existence if there is not the divinisation of the inner being.
The Divinity in man dwells veiled in his spiritual centre; there can be no such thing as self-exceeding for man or a higher issue for his existence if there is not in him the reality of an eternal self and spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life,#KEYS
331:The books I liked became a Bible from which I drew advice and support; I copied out long passages from them; I memorized new canticles and new litanies, psalms, proverbs, and prophecies, and I sanctified every incident in my life by the recital of these sacred texts. My emotions, my tears, and my hopes were no less sincere on account of that; the words and the cadences, the lines and the verses were not aids to make believe: but they rescued from silent oblivion all those intimate adventures of the spirit that I couldn't speak to anyone about; they created a kind of communion between myself and those twin souls which existed somewhere out of reach; instead of living out my small private existence, I was participating in a great spiritual epic. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #KEYS
332:... All the works of mind and intllect must be first heightened and widened, then illumined, lifted into the domain of a higher Intelligence, afterwards translated into workings of a greater non-mental Intuition, these again transformed into the dynamic outpourings of the Overmind radiance, and those transfigured into the full light and sovereignty of the supramental Gnosis. It is this that the evolution of consciousness in the world carries prefigured but latent in its seed and in the straining tense intention of its process; nor can that process, that evolution cease till it has evolved the instruments of a perfect in place of its now imperfect manifestation of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, 149, #KEYS
333:It is not one's self, but the band of the spirit's inner enemies that we have to discourage, expel, slay upon the altar of the growth of the spirit; these can be ruthlessly excised, whose names are desire, wrath, inequality, greed, attachment to outward pleasures and pains, the cohort of usurping demons that are the cause of the soul's errors and sufferings. These should be regarded not as part of oneself but as intruders and perverters of our self's real and diviner nature; these have to be sacrificed in the harsher sense of the word, whatever pain in going they may throw by reflection on the consciousness of the seeker.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice [108-109],#KEYS
334:Invitation:::
With wind and the weather beating round me
Up to the hill and the moorland I go.
Who will come with me? Who will climb with me?
Wade through the brook and tramp through the snow?
Not in the petty circle of cities
Cramped by your doors and your walls I dwell;
Over me God is blue in the welkin,
Against me the wind and the storm rebel.
I sport with solitude here in my regions,
Of misadventure have made me a friend.
Who would live largely? Who would live freely?
Here to the wind-swept uplands ascend.
I am the Lord of tempest and mountain,
I am the Spirit of freedom and pride.
Stark must he be and a kinsman to danger
Who shares my kingdom and walks at my side. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems,#KEYS
335:Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the spirit. Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge. It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind,-but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin,-as all these greater powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought; it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of spirit-born conceptual knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
336:The messengers of the Incommunicable,
The architects of immortality.
Into the fallen human sphere they came,
Faces that wore the Immortal's glory still,
Voices that communed still with the thoughts of God,
Bodies made beautiful by the spirit's light,
Carrying the magic word, the mystic fire,
Carrying the Dionysian cup of joy,
Approaching eyes of a diviner man,
Lips chanting an unknown anthem of the soul,
Feet echoing in the corridors of Time.
High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss,
Discoverers of beauty's sunlit ways
And swimmers of Love's laughing fiery floods
And dancers within rapture's golden doors,
Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth
And justify the light on Nature's face. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 3:4,#KEYS
337:higher mind: (c. 1931, in the diagram on page 1360) a plane of consciousness with three levels: liberated intelligence, intuitive [higher mind] and illumined [higher mind] (in ascending order). The first level may correspond to vijnanabuddhi in the earlier terminology of the Record of Yoga. The intuitive and illumined levels may be what Sri Aurobindo soon after making the diagram began to refer to as higher mind (defined as a luminous thought-mind, a mind of spiritborn conceptual knowledge) and illumined mind (characterised by an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the spirit); cf. logistic ideality (also called luminous reason) and hermetic ideality or srauta vijnana(distinguished by a diviner splendour of light and blaze of fiery effulgence) in the terminology of 1919-20.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Record Of Yoga,#KEYS
338:Only, in all he sees God, sees the supreme reality, and his motive of work is to help mankind towards the knowledge of God and the possession of the supreme reality. He sees God through the data of science, God through the conclusions of philosophy, God through the forms of Beauty and the forms of Good, God in all the activities of life, God in the past of the world and its effects, in the present and its tendencies, in the future and its great progression. Into any or all of these he can bring his illumined vision and his liberated power of the spirit. The lower knowledge has been the step from which he has risen to the higher; the higher illumines for him the lower and makes it part of itself, even if only its lower fringe and most external radiation.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge,#KEYS
339:Medieval alchemy prepared the way for the greatest intervention in the divine world that man has ever attempted: alchemy was the dawn of the scientific age, when the daemon of the scientific spirit compelled the forces of nature to serve man to an extent that had never been known before. It was from the spirit of alchemy that Goethe wrought the figure of the "superman" Faust, and this superman led Nietzsche's Zarathustra to declare that God was dead and to proclaim the will to give birth to the superman, to "create a god for yourself out of your seven devils." Here we find the true roots, the preparatory processes deep in the psyche, which unleashed the forces at work in the world today. Science and technology have indeed conquered the world, but whether the psyche has gained anything is another matter. ~ Carl Jung, "Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon" (1942), CW 13, § 163., #KEYS
340:the soul alone ensures sincerity :::
It is here that the emergence of the secret psychic being in us as the leader of the sacrifice is of the utmost importance; for this inmost being alone can bring with it the full power of the spirit in the act, the soul in the symbol. It alone can assure, even while the spiritual consciousness is incomplete, the perennial freshness and sincerity and beauty of the symbol and prevent it from becoming a dead form or a corrupted and corrupting magic; it alone can preserve for the act its power with its significance. All the other members of our being, mind, life-force, physical or body consciousness, are too much under the control of the Ignorance to be a sure instrumentation and much less can they be a guide or the source of an unerring impulse. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, 166,#KEYS
341:A silence, an entry into a wide or even immense or infinite emptiness is part of the inner spiritual experience; of this silence and void the physical mind has a certain fear, the small superficially active thinking or vital mind a shrinking from it or dislike, - for it confuses the silence with mental and vital incapacity and the void with cessation or non-existence: but this silence is the silence of the spirit which is the condition of a greater knowledge, power and bliss, and this emptiness is the emptying of the cup of our natural being, a liberation of it from its turbid contents so that it may be filled with the wine of God; it is the passage not into non-existence but to a greater existence. Even when the being turns towards cessation, it is a cessation not in non-existence but into some vast ineffable of spiritual being or the plunge into the incommunicable superconscience of the Absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life, #KEYS
342:a sevenfold self-revelation within our consciousness: - it will mean the knowledge of the Absolute as the origin of all things; the knowledge of the Self, the Spirit, the Being and of the cosmos as the Self's becoming, the becoming of the Being, a manifestation of the Spirit; the knowledge of the world as one with us in the consciousness of our true self, thus cancelling our division from it by the separative idea and life of ego; the knowledge of our psychic entity and its immortal persistence in Time beyond death and earth-existence; the knowledge of our greater and inner existence behind the surface; the knowledge of our mind, life and body in its true relation to the self within and the superconscient spiritual and supramental being above them; the knowledge, finally, of the true harmony and true use of our thought, will and action and a change of all our nature into a conscious expression of the truth of the Spirit, the Self, the Divinity, the integral spiritual Reality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
343:''He is a great spirit,151 Socrates. All spirits are intermediate between god and mortal''.
''What is the function of a spirit?'' I asked.
''Interpreting and conveying all that passes between gods and humans: from humans, petitions and sacrificial offerings, and from gods, instructions and the favours they return. Spirits, being intermediary, fill the space between the other two, so that all are bound together into one entity. It is by means of spirits that all divination can take place, the whole craft of seers and priests, with their sacrifices, rites and spells, and all prophecy and magic. Deity and humanity are completely separate, but through the mediation of spirits all converse and communication from gods to humans, waking and sleeping, is made possible. The man who is wise in these matters is a man of the spirit,152 whereas the man who is wise in a skill153 or a manual craft,154 which is a different sort of expertise, is materialistic.155 These spirits are many and of many kinds, and one of them is Love''. ~ Plato, Symposium, 202e,#KEYS
344:But in whatever way it comes, there must be a decision of the mind and the will and, as its result, a complete and effective self-consecration. The acceptance of a new spiritual idea-force and upward orientation in the being, an illumination, a turning or conversion seized on by the will and the heart's aspiration, -this is the momentous act which contains as in a seed all the results that the Yoga has to give. The mere idea or intellectual seeking of something higher beyond, however strongly grasped by the mind's interest, is ineffective unless it is seized on by the heart as the one thing desirable and by the will as the one thing to be done. For truth of the Spirit has not to be merely thought but to be lived, and to live it demands a unified single-mindedness of the being; so great a change as is contemplated by the Yoga is not to be effected by a divided will or by a small portion of the energy or by a hesitating mind. He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration,#KEYS
345:O King, thy fate is a transaction done
At every hour between Nature and thy soul
With God for its foreseeing arbiter.
Fate is a balance drawn in Destiny's book.
Man can accept his fate, he can refuse.
Even if the One maintains the unseen decree
He writes thy refusal in thy credit page:
For doom is not a close, a mystic seal.
Arisen from the tragic crash of life,
Arisen from the body's torture and death,
The spirit rises mightier by defeat;
Its godlike wings grow wider with each fall.
Its splendid failures sum to victory.
O man, the events that meet thee on thy road,
Though they smite thy body and soul with joy and grief,
Are not thy fate, - they touch thee awhile and pass;
Even death can cut not short thy spirit's walk:
Thy goal, the road thou choosest are thy fate.
On the altar throwing thy thoughts, thy heart, thy works,
Thy fate is a long sacrifice to the gods
Till they have opened to thee thy secret self
And made thee one with the indwelling God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 06:02 The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
346:
An Informal Integral Canon: Selected books on Integral Science, Philosophy and the Integral Transformation
Sri Aurobindo - The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo - The Synthesis of Yoga
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - The Phenomenon of Man
Jean Gebser - The Ever-Present Origin
Edward Haskell - Full Circle - The Moral Force of Unified Science
Oliver L. Reiser - Cosmic Humanism and World Unity
Christopher Hills - Nuclear Evolution: Discovery of the Rainbow Body
The Mother - Mother's Agenda
Erich Jantsch - The Self-Organizing Universe - Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution
T. R. Thulasiram - Arut Perum Jyothi and Deathless Body
Kees Zoeteman - Gaiasophy
Ken Wilber - Sex Ecology Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution
Don Edward Beck - Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change
Kundan Singh - The Evolution of Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna, and Swami Vivekananda
Sean Esbjorn-Hargens - Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World
~ M Alan Kazlev, Kheper,#KEYS
347:...the present terms are there not as an unprofitable recurrence, but in active pregnant gestation of all that is yet to be unfolded by the spirit, no irrational decimal recurrence helplessly repeating for ever its figures, but an expanding series of powers of the Infinite. What is in front of us is the greater potentialities, the steps yet unclimbed, the intended mightier manifestations. Why we are here is to be this means of the spirit's upward self-unfolding. What we have to do with ourselves and our significances is to grow and open them to greater significances of divine being, divine consciousness, divine power, divine delight and multiplied unity, and what we have to do with our environment is to use it consciously for increasing spiritual purposes and make it more and more a mould for the ideal unfolding of the perfect nature and self-conception of the Divine in the cosmos. This is surely the Will in things which moves, great and deliberate, unhasting, unresting, through whatever cycles, towards a greater and greater informing of its own finite figures with its own infinite Reality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga,#KEYS
348:A Community of the Spirit
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes to see with the other eye.
Open your hands if you want to be held.
Consider what you have been doing.
Why do you stay
with such a mean-spirited and dangerous partner?
For the security of having food. Admit it.
Here is a better arrangement.
Give up this life, and get a hundred new lives.
Sit down in this circle.
Quit acting like a wolf,
and feel the shepherd's love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Do not take painkillers.
Tonight, no consolations.
And do not eat.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover's mouth in yours.
You moan, But she left me. He left me.
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought.
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down
in always widening rings of being.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
349:the first necessity :::
An entire self-consecration, a complete equality, an unsparing effacement of the ego, a transforming deliverance of the nature from its ignorant modes of action are the steps by which the surrender of all the being and nature to the Divine Will can be prepared and achieved, -- a self-giving true, total and without reserve. The first necessity is an entire spirit of self-consecration in our works; it must become first the constant will, then the ingrained need in all the being, finally its automatic but living and conscious habit, the self-existent turn to do all action as a sacrifice to the Supreme and to the veiled Power present in us and in all beings and in all the workings of the universe. Life is the altar of this sacrifice, works are our offerings; a transcendent and universal Power and Presence as yet rather felt or glimpsed than known or seen by us is the Deity to whom they are offered. This sacrifice, this self-consecration has two sides to it; there is the work itself and there is the spirit in which it is done, the spirit of worship to the Master of Works in all that we see, think and experience.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Equality and the Annihilation of Ego,#KEYS
350:By lie I mean : wishing not to see something that one does see; wishing not to see something as one sees it.
Whether the lie takes place before witnesses or without witnesses does not matter. The most common lie is that with which one lies to oneself; lying to others is, relatively, an exception.
Now this wishing-not-to-see what one does see, this wishing-not-to-see as one sees, is almost the first conclition for all who are party in any sense: of necessity, the party man becomes a liar. Gennan historiography, for example, is convinced that Rome represented des potism and that the Germanic tribes brought the spirit of freedom into the world. What is the difference be tween this conviction and a lie? May one still be sur· prised when all parties, as well as the Gennan his torians, instinctively employ the big words of morality, that morality almost continues to exist because the party man of every description needs it at every moment? "This is our conviction: we confess it before all the world, we live and die for it. Respect for all who have convictions!" I have heard that sort of thing even out of the mouths of anti-Semites. On the contrary, gentlemen! An anti-Semite certainly is not any more decent because he lies as a matter of principle. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ,#KEYS
351:Many are God's forms by which he grows in man;
They stamp his thoughts and deeds with divinity,
Uplift the stature of the human clay
Or slowly transmute it into heavens gold.
He is the Good for which men fight and die,
He is the war of Right with Titan wrong;
He is Freedom rising deathless from her pyre;
He is Valour guarding still the desperate pass
Or lone and erect on the shattered barricade
Or a sentinel in the dangerous echoing Night.
He is the crown of the martyr burned in flame
And the glad resignation of the saint
And courage indifferent to the wounds of Time
And the heros might wrestling with death and fate.
He is Wisdom incarnate on a glorious throne
And the calm autocracy of the sages rule.
He is the high and solitary Thought
Aloof above the ignorant multitude:
He is the prophets voice, the sight of the seer.
He is Beauty, nectar of the passionate soul,
He is the Truth by which the spirit lives.
He is the riches of the spiritual Vast
Poured out in healing streams on indigent Life;
He is Eternity lured from hour to hour,
He is infinity in a little space:
He is immortality in the arms of death.
These powers I am and at my call they come.
Thus slowly I lift mans soul nearer the Light.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces,#KEYS
352:the one entirely acceptable sacrifice :::
And the fruit also of the sacrifice of works varies according to the work, according to the intention in the work and according to the spirit that is behind the intention. But all other sacrifices are partial, egoistic, mixed, temporal, incomplete, - even those offered to the highest Powers and Principles keep this character: the result too is partial, limited, temporal, mixed in its reactions, effective only for a minor or intermediate purpose. The one entirely acceptable sacrifice is a last and highest and uttermost self-giving, - it is that surrender made face to face, with devotion and knowledge, freely and without any reserve to One who is at once our immanent Self, the environing constituent All, the Supreme Reality beyond this or any manifestation and, secretly, all these together, concealed everywhere, the immanent Transcendence. For to the soul that wholly gives itself to him, God also gives himself altogether. Only the one who offers his whole nature, finds the Self. Only the one who can give everything, enjoys the Divine All everywhere. Only a supreme self-abandonment attains to the Supreme. Only the sublimation by sacrifice of all that we are, can enable us to embody the Highest and live here in the immanent consciousness of the transcendent Spirit.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice [110],#KEYS
353:If the spirit of divine love can enter, the hardness of the way diminishes, the tension is lightened, there is a sweetness and joy even in the core of difficulty and struggle. The indispensable surrender of all our will and works and activities to the Supreme is indeed only perfect and perfectly effective when it is a surrender of love. All life turned into this cult, all actions done in the love of the Divine and in the love of the world and its creatures seen and felt as the Divine manifested in many disguises become by that very fact part of an integral Yoga.
It is the inner offering of the heart's adoration, the soul of it in the symbol, the spirit of it in the act, that is the very life of the sacrifice. If this offering is to be complete and universal, then a turning of all our emotions to the Divine is imperative. This is the intensest way of purification for the human heart, more powerful than any ethical or aesthetic catharsis could ever be by its half-power and superficial pressure. A psychic fire within must be lit into which all is thrown with the Divine Name upon it. In that fire all the emotions are compelled to cast off their grosser elements and those that are undivine perversions are burned away and the others discard their insufficiencies, till a spirit of largest love and a stainless divine delight arises out of the flame and smoke and frankincense. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, 165, [T2],#KEYS
354:The scientists, all of them, have their duties no doubt, but they do not fully use their education if they do not try to broaden their sense of responsibility toward all mankind instead of closing themselves up in a narrow specialization where they find their pleasure. Neither engineers nor other scientific men have any right to prefer their own personal peace to the happiness of mankind; their place and their duty are in the front line of struggling humanity, not in the unperturbed ranks of those who keep themselves aloof from life. If they are indifferent, or discouraged because they feel or think that they know that the situation is hopeless, it may be proved that undue pessimism is as dangerous a "religion" as any other blind creed. Indeed there is very little difference in kind between the medieval fanaticism of the "holy inquisition," and modern intolerance toward new ideas. All kinds of intellect must get together, for as long as we presuppose the situation to be hopeless, the situation will indeed be hopeless. The spirit of Human Engineering does not know the word "hopeless"; for engineers know that wrong methods are alone responsible for disastrous results, and that every situation can be successfully handled by the use of proper means. The task of engineering science is not only to know but to know how. Most of the scientists and engineers do not yet realize that their united judgment would be invincible; no system or class would care to disregard it. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, #KEYS
355:Life clung to its seat with cords of gasping breath;
Lapped was his body by a tenebrous tongue.
Existence smothered travailed to survive;
Hope strangled perished in his empty soul,
Belief and memory abolished died
And all that helps the spirit in its course.
There crawled through every tense and aching nerve
Leaving behind its poignant quaking trail
A nameless and unutterable fear.
As a sea nears a victim bound and still,
The approach alarmed his mind for ever dumb
Of an implacable eternity
Of pain inhuman and intolerable.
This he must bear, his hope of heaven estranged;
He must ever exist without extinction's peace
In a slow suffering Time and tortured Space,
An anguished nothingness his endless state.
A lifeless vacancy was now his breast,
And in the place where once was luminous thought,
Only remained like a pale motionless ghost
An incapacity for faith and hope
And the dread conviction of a vanquished soul
Immortal still but with its godhead lost,
Self lost and God and touch of happier worlds.
But he endured, stilled the vain terror, bore
The smothering coils of agony and affright;
Then peace returned and the soul's sovereign gaze.
To the blank horror a calm Light replied:
Immutable, undying and unborn,
Mighty and mute the Godhead in him woke
And faced the pain and danger of the world.
He mastered the tides of Nature with a look:
He met with his bare spirit naked Hell.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
356:The Supreme Mind
'O God! we acknowledge Thee to be the Supreme Mind
Who hast disposed and ordered the Universe;
Who gave it life and motion at the first,
And still continuest to guide and regulate it.
From Thee was its primal impulsion;
Thou didst bestow on thine Emanated Spirit of Light,
Divine wisdom and various power
To stablish and enforce its transcendent orbits.
Thou art the Inconceivable Energy
Which in the beginning didst cause all things;
Of whom shall no created being ever know
A millionth part of thy divine properties.
But the Spirit was the Spirit of the Universe-
Sacred, Holy, Generating Nature;
Which, obedient unto thy will,
Preserves and reproduces all that is in the Kosmos.
Nothing is superior to the Spirit
But Thou, alone, O God! who art the Creator and Lord;
Thou madest the Spirit to be thy servitor,
But this thy Spirit transcends all other creatures;
This is the Spirit which is in the highest heavens;
Whose influence permeates all that lives;
As a beautiful Flower diffuses fragrances
But is not diminished in aught thereby.
For all divine essences are the same,
Differing only in their degree and power and beauty;
But in no wise differing in their principle,
Which is the fiery essence of God himself.
Such is the animating flame of every existence
Being in God, purely perfect;
But in all other living things
Only capable of being made perfect.' ~ Dr E.V. Kenealy, The Book of Fo.
The Supreme Mind. from path of regeneration,#KEYS
357:Sadhaka of Integral Yoga
The difficulty of harmonising the divine life with human living, of being in God and yet living in man is the very difficulty that he is set here to solve and not to shun. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral yoga
Personal salvation he does not seek except as a necessity for the human fulfilment and because he who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others,—though to God nothing is impossible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral Yoga
For a heaven of personal joys he has no hankerings even as a hell of personal sufferings has for him no terrors. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka of Integral Yoga
If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral yoga
If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka of Integral yoga
To give oneself is the secret of sadhana, not to demand and acquire a thing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother, The Mother's Love,#KEYS
358:the ruthless sacrifice ::: The vulgar conception of sacrifice is an act of painful self-immolation, austere self-mortification, difficult self-effacement; this kind of sacrifice may go even as far as self-mutilation and self-torture. These things may be temporarily necessary in man's hard endeavor to exceed his natural self; if the egoism in his nature is violent and obstinate, it has to be met sometimes by an answering strong internal repression and counterbalancing violence. But the Gita discourages any excess of violence done to oneself; for the self within is really the Godhead evolving, it is Krishna, the Divine; it has not to be troubled and tortured as the Titans of the world trouble and torture it, but to be increased, fostered, cherished, luminously opened to a divine light and strength and joy and wideness. It is not one's self, but the band of the spirit's inner enemies that we have to discourage, expel, slay upon the alter of the growth of the spirit; these can be ruthlessly excised, whose names are desire, wrath, inequality, greed, attachment to outward pleasures and pains, the cohort of usurping demons that are the cause of the soul's errors and sufferings. These should be regarded not as part of oneself but as intruders and perverters of our self's real and diviner nature; these have to be sacrificed in the harsher sense of the word, whatever pain in going they may thrown by reflection on the consciousness of the seeker.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Sacrifice, The Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice,#KEYS
359: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
360:So too we can rise to a consciousness above and observe the various parts of our being, inner and outer, mental, vital and physical and the subconscient below all, and act upon one or other or the whole from that higher status. It is possible also to go down from that height or from any height into any of these lower states and take its limited light or its obscurity as our place of working while the rest that we are is either temporarily put away or put behind or else kept as a field of reference from which we can get support, sanction or light and influence or as a status into which we can ascend or recede and from it observe the inferior movements. Or we can plunge into trance, get within ourselves and be conscious there while all outward things are excluded; or we can go beyond even this inner awareness and lose ourselves in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconscience. There is also a pervading equal consciousness into which we can enter and see all ourselves with one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisible. All this which looks strange and abnormal or may seem fantastic to the surface reason acquainted only with our normal status of limited ignorance and its movements divided from our inner higher and total reality, becomes easily intelligible and admissible in the light of the larger reason and logic of the Infinite or by the admission of the greater illimitable powers of the Self, the Spirit in us which is of one essence with the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 1.2.02 #KEYS
361:[the value of sublimation:]
And since Yoga is in its essence a turning away from the ordinary material and animal life led by most men or from the more mental but still limited way of living followed by the few to a greater spiritual life, to the way divine, every part of our energies that is given to the lower existence in the spirit of that existence is a contradiction of our aim and our self-dedication. On the other hand, every energy or activity that we can convert from its allegiance to the lower and dedicate to the service of the higher is so much gained on our road, so much taken from the powers that oppose our progress. It is the difficulty of this wholesale conversion that is the source of all the stumblings in the path of Yoga. For our entire nature and its environment, all our personal and all our universal self, are full of habits and of influences that are opposed to our spiritual rebirth and work against the whole-heartedness of our endeavour.
In a certain sense we are nothing but a complex mass of mental, nervous and physical habits held together by a few ruling ideas, desires and associations, - an amalgam of many small self-repeating forces with a few major vibrations. What we propose in our Yoga is nothing less than to break up the whole formation of our past and present which makes up the ordinary material and mental man and to create a new centre of vision and a new universe of activities in ourselves which shall constitute a divine humanity or a superhuman nature.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration, [71] [T1],#KEYS
362:Thought's long far-circling journey touched its close
And ineffective paused the actor Will.
The symbol modes of being helped no more,
The structures Nescience builds collapsing failed,
All glory of outline, sweetness of harmony,
Rejected like a grace of trivial notes,
Expunged from Being's silence nude, austere,
Died into a fine and blissful Nothingness.
The Demiurges lost their names and forms,
The great schemed worlds that they had planned and wrought
Passed, taken and abolished one by one.
The universe removed its coloured veil,
And at the unimaginable end
Of the huge riddle of created things
Appeared the far-seen Godhead of the whole,
His feet firm-based on Life's stupendous wings,
Omnipotent, a lonely seer of Time,
Inward, inscrutable, with diamond gaze.
Attracted by the unfathomable regard
The unsolved slow cycles to their fount returned
To rise again from that invisible sea.
All from his puissance born was now undone;
Nothing remained the cosmic Mind conceives.
Eternity prepared to fade and seemed
A hue and imposition on the Void,
Space was the fluttering of a dream that sank
Before its ending into Nothing's deeps.
The spirit that dies not and the Godhead's self
Seemed myths projected from the Unknowable;
From It all sprang, in It is called to cease.
But what That was, no thought nor sight could tell.
Only a formless Form of self was left,
A tenuous ghost of something that had been,
The last experience of a lapsing wave ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 3:1,#KEYS
363:These are the conditions of our effort and they point to an ideal which can be expressed in these or in equivalent formulae. To live in God and not in the ego; to move, vastly founded, not in the little egoistic consciousness, but in the consciousness of the All-Soul and the Transcendent. To be perfectly equal in all happenings and to all beings, and to see and feel them as one with oneself and one with the Divine; to feel all in oneself and all in God; to feel God in all, oneself in all. To act in God and not in the ego. And here, first, not to choose action by reference to personal needs and standards, but in obedience to the dictates of the living highest Truth above us. Next, as soon as we are sufficiently founded in the spiritual consciousness, not to act any longer by our separate will or movement, but more and more to allow action to happen and develop under the impulsion and guidance of a divine Will that surpasses us. And last, the supreme result, to be exalted into an identity in knowledge, force, consciousness, act, joy of existence with the Divine Shakti; to feel a dynamic movement not dominated by mortal desire and vital instinct and impulse and illusive mental free-will, but luminously conceived and evolved in an immortal self-delight and an infinite self-knowledge. For this is the action that comes by a conscious subjection and merging of the natural man into the divine Self and eternal Spirit; it is the Spirit that for ever transcends and guides this world-Nature.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, Self-Surrender in Works - The Way of the Gita, [101],#KEYS
364:Musa Spiritus :::
O Word concealed in the upper fire,
Thou who hast lingered through centuries,
Descend from thy rapt white desire,
Plunging through gold eternities.
Into the gulfs of our nature leap,
Voice of the spaces, call of the Light!
Break the seals of Matter's sleep,
Break the trance of the unseen height.
In the uncertain glow of human mind,
Its waste of unharmonied thronging thoughts,
Carve thy epic mountain-lined
Crowded with deep prophetic grots.
Let thy hue-winged lyrics hover like birds
Over the swirl of the heart's sea.
Touch into sight with thy fire-words
The blind indwelling deity.
O Muse of the Silence, the wideness make
In the unplumbed stillness that hears thy voice,
In the vast mute heavens of the spirit awake
Where thy eagles of Power flame and rejoice.
Out, out with the mind and its candles flares,
Light, light the suns that never die.
For my ear the cry of the seraph stars
And the forms of the Gods for my naked eye!
Let the little troubled life-god within
Cast his veils from the still soul,
His tiger-stripes of virtue and sin,
His clamour and glamour and thole and dole;
All make tranquil, all make free.
Let my heart-beats measure the footsteps of God
As He comes from His timeless infinity
To build in their rapture His burning abode.
Weave from my life His poem of days,
His calm pure dawns and His noons of force.
My acts for the grooves of His chariot-race,
My thoughts for the tramp of His great steeds' course! ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems,#KEYS
365:Received him in their deathless harmonies.
All things were perfect there that flower in Time;
Beauty was there creation's native mould,
Peace was a thrilled voluptuous purity.
There Love fulfilled her gold and roseate dreams
And Strength her crowned and mighty reveries;
Desire climbed up, a swift omnipotent flame,
And Pleasure had the stature of the gods;
Dream walked along the highways of the stars;
Sweet common things turned into miracles:
Overtaken by the spirit's sudden spell,
Smitten by a divine passion's alchemy,
Pain's self compelled transformed to potent joy
Curing the antithesis twixt heaven and hell.
All life's high visions are embodied there,
Her wandering hopes achieved, her aureate combs
Caught by the honey-eater's darting tongue,
Her burning guesses changed to ecstasied truths,
Her mighty pantings stilled in deathless calm
And liberated her immense desires.
In that paradise of perfect heart and sense
No lower note could break the endless charm
Of her sweetness ardent and immaculate;
Her steps are sure of their intuitive fall.
After the anguish of the soul's long strife
At length were found calm and celestial rest
And, lapped in a magic flood of sorrowless hours,
Healed were his warrior nature's wounded limbs
In the encircling arms of Energies
That brooked no stain and feared not their own bliss.
In scenes forbidden to our pallid sense
Amid miraculous scents and wonder-hues
He met the forms that divinise the sight,
To music that can immortalise the mind
And make the heart wide as infinity
Listened, and captured the inaudible
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
366:[the first aid, shastra, the lotus of the eternal knowledge:]
The supreme Shastra of the Integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being. The lotus of the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us. It opens swiftly or gradually, petal by petal, through successive realisations, once the mind of man begins to turn towards the Eternal, once his heart, no longer compressed and confined by attachment to finite appearances, becomes enamoured, in whatever degree, of the Infinite. All life, all thought, all energising of the faculties, all experiences passive or active, become thenceforward so many shocks which disintegrate the teguments of the soul and remove the obstacles to the inevitable efflorescence. He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite. He has received the divine touch without which there is no awakening, no opening of the spirit; but once it is received, attainment is sure, whether conquered swiftly in the course of one human life or pursued patiently through many stadia of the cycle of existence in the manifested universe.
Nothing can be taught to the mind which is not already concealed as potential knowledge in the unfolding soul of the creature. So also all perfection of which the outer man is capable, is only a realising of the eternal perfection of the Spirit within him. We know the Divine and become the Divine, because we are That already in our secret nature. All teaching is a revealing, all becoming is an unfolding. Self-attainment is the secret; self-knowledge and an increasing consciousness are the means and the process.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids [53] [T1],#KEYS
367:IN OUR scrutiny of the seven principles of existence it was found that they are one in their essential and fundamental reality: for if even the matter of the most material universe is nothing but a status of being of Spirit made an object of sense, envisaged by the Spirit's own consciousness as the stuff of its forms, much more must the life-force that constitutes itself into form of Matter, and the mind-consciousness that throws itself out as Life, and the Supermind that develops Mind as one of its powers, be nothing but Spirit itself modified in apparent substance and in dynamism of action, not modified in real essence. All are powers of one Power of being and not other than that All-Existence, All-Consciousness, All-Will, All-Delight which is the true truth behind every appearance. And they are not only one in their reality, but also inseparable in the sevenfold variety of their action. They are the seven colours of the light of the divine consciousness, the seven rays of the Infinite, and by them the Spirit has filled in on the canvas of his self-existence conceptually extended, woven of the objective warp of Space and the subjective woof of Time, the myriad wonders of his self-creation great, simple, symmetrical in its primal laws and vast framings, infinitely curious and intricate in its variety of forms and actions and the complexities of relation and mutual effect of all upon each and each upon all. These are the seven Words of the ancient sages; by them have been created and in the light of their meaning are worked out and have to be interpreted the developed and developing harmonies of the world we know and the worlds behind of which we have only an indirect knowledge. The Light, the Sound is one; their action is sevenfold.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 7 - The Knowledge and the Ignorance, 499,#KEYS
368:Shastra is the knowledge and teaching laid down by intuition, experience and wisdom, the science and art and ethic of life, the best standards available to the race. The half-awakened man who leaves the observance of its rule to follow the guidance of his instincts and desires, can get pleasure but not happiness; for the inner happiness can only come by right living. He cannot move to perfection, cannot acquire the highest spiritual status. The law of instinct and desire seems to come first in the animal world, but the manhood of man grows by the pursuit of truth and religion and knowledge and a right life. The Shastra, the recognised Right that he has set up to govern his lower members by his reason and intelligent will, must therefore first be observed and made the authority for conduct and works and for what should or should not be done, till the instinctive desire nature is schooled and abated and put down by the habit of self-control and man is ready first for a freer intelligent self-guidance and then for the highest supreme law and supreme liberty of the spiritual nature.
For the Shastra in its ordinary aspect is not that spiritual law, although at its loftiest point, when it becomes a science and art of spiritual living, Adhyatma-shastra, - the Gita itself describes its own teaching as the highest and most secret Shastra, - it formulates a rule of the self-transcendence of the sattwic nature and develops the discipline which leads to spiritual transmutation. Yet all Shastra is built on a number of preparatory conditions, dharmas; it is a means, not an end. The supreme end is the freedom of the spirit when abandoning all dharmas the soul turns to God for its sole law of action, acts straight from the divine will and lives in the freedom of the divine nature, not in the Law, but in the Spirit. This is the development of the teaching which is prepared by the next question of Arjuna. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays On The Gita,#KEYS
369:The most outward psychological form of these things is the mould or trend of the nature towards certain dominant tendencies, capacities, characteristics, form of active power, quality of the mind and inner life, cultural personality or type. The turn is often towards the predominance of the intellectual element and the capacities which make for the seeking and finding of knowledge and an intellectual creation or formativeness and a preoccupation with ideas and the study of ideas or of life and the information and development of the reflective intelligence. According to the grade of the development there is produced successively the make and character of the man of active, open, inquiring intelligence, then the intellectual and, last, the thinker, sage, great mind of knowledge. The soul-powers which make their appearance by a considerable development of this temperament, personality, soul-type, are a mind of light more and more open to all ideas and knowledge and incomings of Truth; a hunger and passion for knowledge, for its growth in ourselves, for its communication to others, for its reign in the world, the reign of reason and right and truth and justice and, on a higher level of the harmony of our greater being, the reign of the spirit and its universal unity and light and love; a power of this light in the mind and will which makes all the life subject to reason and its right and truth or to the spirit and spiritual right and truth and subdues the lower members to their greater law; a poise in the temperament turned from the first to patience, steady musing and calm, to reflection, to meditation, which dominates and quiets the turmoil of the will and passions and makes for high thinking and pure living, founds the self-governed sattwic mind, grows into a more and more mild, lofty, impersonalised and universalised personality. This is the ideal character and soul-power of the Brahmana, the priest of knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 4:15 - Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality #KEYS
370:The guiding law of spiritual experience can only come by an opening of human consciousness to the Divine Consciousness; there must be the power to receive in us the working and command and dynamic presence of the Divine Shakti and surrender ourselves to her control; it is that surrender and that control which bring the guidance. But the surrender is not sure, there is no absolute certitude of the guidance so long as we are besieged by mind formations and life impulses and instigations of ego which may easily betray us into the hands of a false experience. This danger can only be countered by the opening of a now nine-tenths concealed inmost soul or psychic being that is already there but not commonly active within us. That is the inner light we must liberate; for the light of this inmost soul is our one sure illumination so long as we walk still amidst the siege of the Ignorance and the Truth-consciousness has not taken up the entire control of our Godward endeavour. The working of the Divine Force in us under the conditions of the transition and the light of the psychic being turning us always towards a conscious and seeing obedience to that higher impulsion and away from the demands and instigations of the Forces of the Ignorance, these between them create an ever progressive inner law of our action which continues till the spiritual and supramental can be established in our nature. In the transition there may well be a period in which we take up all life and action and offer them to the Divine for purification, change and deliverance of the truth within them, another period in which we draw back and build a spiritual wall around us admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation, a third in which a free and all-embracing action, but with new forms fit for the utter truth of the Spirit, can again be made possible. These things, however, will be decided by no mental rule but in the light of the soul within us and by the ordaining force and progressive guidance of the Divine Power that secretly or overtly first impels, then begins clearly to control and order and finally takes up the whole burden of the Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, 138, #KEYS
371:Now I have taught you about Immortal Man and have loosed the bonds of the robbers from him. I have broken the gates of the pitiless ones in their presence. I have humiliated their malicious intent, and they all have been shamed and have risen from their ignorance. Because of this, then, I came here, that they might be joined with that Spirit and Breath, [III continues:] and might from two become one, just as from the first, that you might yield much fruit and go up to Him Who Is from the Beginning, in ineffable joy and glory and honor and grace of the Father of the Universe.
"Whoever, then, knows the Father in pure knowledge will depart to the Father and repose in Unbegotten Father. But whoever knows him defectively will depart to the defect and the rest of the Eighth. Now whoever knows Immortal Spirit of Light in silence, through reflecting and consent in the truth, let him bring me signs of the Invisible One, and he will become a light in the Spirit of Silence. Whoever knows Son of Man in knowledge and love, let him bring me a sign of Son of Man, that he might depart to the dwelling-places with those in the Eighth.
"Behold, I have revealed to you the name of the Perfect One, the whole will of the Mother of the Holy Angels, that the masculine multitude may be completed here, that there might appear in the aeons, the infinities and those that came to be in the untraceable wealth of the Great Invisible Spirit, that they all might take from his goodness, even the wealth of their rest that has no kingdom over it. I came from First Who Was Sent, that I might reveal to you Him Who Is from the Beginning, because of the arrogance of Arch-Begetter and his angels, since they say about themselves that they are gods. And I came to remove them from their blindness, that I might tell everyone about the God who is above the universe. Therefore, tread upon their graves, humiliate their malicious intent, and break their yoke and arouse my own. I have given you authority over all things as Sons of Light, that you might tread upon their power with your feet."
These are the things the blessed Savior said, and he disappeared from them. Then all the disciples were in great, ineffable joy in the spirit from that day on. And his disciples began to preach the Gospel of God, the eternal, imperishable spirit. Amen.
~ The Sophia of Jesus, (excerpt), The Nag Hamadi Library,#KEYS
372:requirements for the psychic :::
At a certain stage in the Yoga when the mind is sufficiently quieted and no longer supports itself at every step on the sufficiency of its mental certitudes, when the vital has been steadied and subdued and is no longer constantly insistent on its own rash will, demand and desire, when the physical has been sufficiently altered not to bury altogether the inner flame under the mass of its outwardness, obscurity or inertia, an inmost being hidden within and felt only in its rare influences is able to come forward and illumine the rest and take up the lead of the sadhana. Its character is a one-pointed orientation towards the Divine or the Highest, one-pointed and yet plastic in action and movement; it does not create a rigidity of direction like the one-pointed intellect or a bigotry of the regnant idea or impulse like the one-pointed vital force; it is at every moment and with a supple sureness that it points the way to the Truth, automatically distinguishes the right step from the false, extricates the divine or Godward movement from the clinging mixture of the undivine. Its action is like a searchlight showing up all that has to be changed in the nature; it has in it a flame of will insistent on perfection, on an alchemic transmutation of all the inner and outer existence. It sees the divine essence everywhere but rejects the mere mask and the disguising figure. It insists on Truth, on will and strength and mastery, on Joy and Love and Beauty, but on a Truth of abiding Knowledge that surpasses the mere practical momentary truth of the Ignorance, on an inward joy and not on mere vital pleasure, -- for it prefers rather a purifying suffering and sorrow to degrading satisfactions, -- on love winged upward and not tied to the stake of egoistic craving or with its feet sunk in the mire, on beauty restored to its priesthood of interpretation of the Eternal, on strength and will and mastery as instruments not of the ego but of the Spirit. Its will is for the divinisation of life, the expression through it of a higher Truth, its dedication to the Divine and the Eternal.
But the most intimate character of the psychic is its pressure towards the Divine through a sacred love, joy and oneness. It is the divine Love that it seeks most, it is the love of the Divine that is its spur, its goal, its star of Truth shining over the luminous cave of the nascent or the still obscure cradle of the new-born godhead within us.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1,#KEYS
373: There is also the consecration of the thoughts to the Divine. In its inception this is the attempt to fix the mind on the object of adoration, -for naturally the restless human mind is occupied with other objects and, even when it is directed upwards, constantly drawn away by the world, -- so that in the end it habitually thinks of him and all else is only secondary and thought of only in relation to him. This is done often with the aid of a physical image or, more intimately and characteristically, of a Mantra or a divine name through which the divine being is realised. There are supposed by those who systematise, to be three stages of the seeking through the devotion of the mind, first, the constant hearing of the divine name, qualities and all that has been attached to them, secondly, the constant thinking on them or on the divine being or personality, thirdly, the settling and fixing of the mind on the object; and by this comes the full realisation. And by these, too, there comes when the accompanying feeling or the concentration is very intense, the Samadhi, the ecstatic trance in which the consciousness passes away from outer objects. But all this is really incidental; the one thing essential is the intense devotion of the thought in the mind to the object of adoration. Although it seems akin to the contemplation of the way of knowledge, it differs from that in its spirit. It is in its real nature not a still, but an ecstatic contemplation; it seeks not to pass into the being of the Divine, but to bring the Divine into ourselves and to lose ourselves in the deep ecstasy of his presence or of his possession; and its bliss is not the peace of unity, but the ecstasy of union. Here, too, there may be the separative self-consecration, which ends in the giving up of all other thought of life for the possession of this ecstasy, eternal afterwards in planes beyond, or the comprehensive consecration in which all the thoughts are full of the Divine and even in the occupations of life every thought remembers him. As in the other Yogas, so in this, one comes to see the Divine everywhere and in all and to pour out the realisation of the Divine in all ones inner activities and outward actions. But all is supported here by the primary force of the emotional union: for it is by love that the entire self-consecration and the entire possession is accomplished, and thought and action become shapes and figures of the divine love which possesses the spirit and its members.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Way of Devotion [T2],#KEYS
374:The fundamental nature of this supermind is that, all its knowledge is originally a knowledge by identity and oneness and even when it makes numberless apparent divisions and discriminating modifications in itself, still all the knowledge that operates in its workings even in these divisions, is founded upon and sustained and lit and guided by this perfect knowledge by identity and oneness. The Spirit is one everywhere and it knows all things as itself and in itself, so sees them always and therefore knows them intimately, completely, in their reality as well as their appearance, in their truth, their law, the entire spirit and sense and figure of their nature and their workings. When it sees anything as an object of knowledge, it yet sees it as itself and in itself, and not as a thing other than or divided from it about which therefore it would at first be ignorant of the nature, constitution and workings and have to learn about them, as the mind is at first ignorant of its object and has to learn about it because the mind is separated from its object and regards and senses and meets it as something other than itself and external to its own being. ..... This is the second character of the supreme supermind that its knowledge is a real because a total knowledge. It has in the first place a transcendental vision and sees the universe not only in the universal terms, but in its right relation to the supreme and eternal reality from which it proceeds and of which it is an expression. It knows the spirit and truth and whole sense of the universal expression because it knows all the essentiality and all the infinite reality and all the consequent constant potentiality of that which in part it expresses. It knows rightly the relative because it knows the Absolute and all its absolutes to which the relatives refer back and of which they are the partial or modified or suppressed figures. It is in the second place universal and sees all that is individual in the terms of the universal as well as in its own individual terms and holds all these individual figures in their right and complete relation to the universe. It is in the third place, separately with regard to individual things, total in its view because it knows each in its inmost essence of which all else is the resultant, in its totality which is its complete figure and in its parts and their connections and dependences, -- as well as in its connections with and its dependences upon other things and its nexus with the total implications and the explicits of the universe.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
375:Integral knowledge will then mean the cancelling of the sevenfold Ignorance by the discovery of what it misses and ignores, a sevenfold self-revelation within our consciousness:- it will mean the knowledge of the Absolute as the origin of all things; the knowledge of the Self, the Spirit, the Being and of the cosmos as the Self's becoming, the becoming of the Being, a manifestation of the Spirit; the knowledge of the world as one with us in the consciousness of our true self, thus cancelling our division from it by the separative idea and life of ego; the knowledge of our psychic entity and its immortal persistence in Time beyond death and earth-existence; the knowledge of our greater and inner existence behind the surface; the knowledge of our mind, life and body in its true relation to the self within and the superconscient spiritual and supramental being above them; the knowledge, finally, of the true harmony and true use of our thought, will and action and a change of all our nature into a conscious expression of the truth of the Spirit, the Self, the Divinity, the integral spiritual Reality. But this is not an intellectual knowledge which can be learned and completed in our present mould of consciousness; it must be an experience, a becoming, a change of consciousness, a change of being. This brings in the evolutionary character of the Becoming and the fact that our mental ignorance is only a stage in our evolution. The integral knowledge, then, can only come by an evolution of our being and our nature, and that would seem to signify a slow process in Time such as has accompanied the other evolutionary transformations. But as against that inference there is the fact that the evolution has now become conscious and its method and steps need not be altogether of the same character as when it was subconscious in its process. The integral knowledge, since it must result from a change of consciousness, can be gained by a process in which our will and endeavour have a part, in which they can discover and apply their own steps and method: its growth in us can proceed by a conscious self-transformation. It is necessary then to see what is likely to be the principle of this new process of evolution and what are the movements of the integral knowledge that must necessarily emerge in it,-or, in other words, what is the nature of the consciousness that must be the base of the life divine and how that life may be expected to be formed or to form itself, to materialise or, as one might say, to realise.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, 681,#KEYS
376:The Godhead, the spirit manifested in Nature appears in a sea of infinite quality, Ananta-guna. But the executive or mechanical prakriti is of the threefold Guna, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, and the Ananta-guna, the spiritual play of infinite quality, modifies itself in this mechanical nature into the type of these three gunas. And in the soul-force in man this Godhead in Nature represents itself as a fourfold effective Power, caturvyuha , a Power for knowledge, a Power for strength, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, a Power for works and labour and service, and its presence casts all human life into a nexus and inner and outer operation of these four things. The ancient thought of India conscious of this fourfold type of active human personality and nature, built out of it the four types of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra, each with its spiritual turn, ethical ideal, suitable upbringing, fixed function in society and place in the evolutionary scale of the spirit. As always tends to be the case when we too much externalise and mechanise the more subtle truths of our nature, this became a hard and fast system inconsistent with the freedom and variability and complexity of the finer developing spirit in man. Nevertheless the truth behind it exists and is one of some considerable importance in the perfection of our power of nature; but we have to take it in its inner aspects, first, personality, character, temperament, soul-type, then the soul-force which lies behind them and wears these forms, and lastly the play of the free spiritual shakti in which they find their culmination and unity beyond all modes. For the crude external idea that a man is born as a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Sudra and that alone, is not a psychological truth of our being. The psychological fact is that there are these four active powers and tendencies of the Spirit and its executive shakti within us and the predominance of one or the other in the more well-formed part of our personality gives us our main tendencies, dominant qualities and capacities, effective turn in action and life. But they are more or less present in an men, here manifest, there latent, here developed, there subdued and depressed or subordinate, and in the perfect man will be raised up to a fullness and harmony which in the spiritual freedom will burst out into the free play of the infinite quality of the spirit in the inner and outer life and in the self-enjoying creative play of the Purusha with his and the world's Nature-Power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 4:15 - Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality, #KEYS
377:they are acting all the while in the spirit of rajasic ahaṅkara, persuade themselves that God is working through them and they have no part in the action. This is because they are satisfied with the mere intellectual assent to the idea without waiting for the whole system and life to be full of it. A continual remembrance of God in others and renunciation of individual eagerness (spr.ha) are needed and a careful watching of our inner activities until God by the full light of self-knowledge, jñanadı̄pena bhasvata, dispels all further chance of self-delusion. The danger of tamogun.a is twofold, first, when the Purusha thinks, identifying himself with the tamas in him, "I am weak, sinful, miserable, ignorant, good-for-nothing, inferior to this man and inferior to that man, adhama, what will God do through me?" - as if God were limited by the temporary capacities or incapacities of his instruments and it were not true that he can make the dumb to talk and the lame to cross the hills, mūkaṁ karoti vacalaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim, - and again when the sadhak tastes the relief, the tremendous relief of a negative santi and, feeling himself delivered from all troubles and in possession of peace, turns away from life and action and becomes attached to the peace and ease of inaction. Remember always that you too are Brahman and the divine Shakti is working in you; reach out always to the realisation of God's omnipotence and his delight in the Lila. He bids Arjuna work lokasaṅgraharthaya, for keeping the world together, for he does not wish the world to sink back into Prakriti, but insists on your acting as he acts, "These worlds would be overpowered by tamas and sink into Prakriti if I did not do actions." To be attached to inaction is to give up our action not to God but to our tamasic ahaṅkara. The danger of the sattvagun.a is when the sadhak becomes attached to any one-sided conclusion of his reason, to some particular kriya or movement of the sadhana, to the joy of any particular siddhi of the yoga, perhaps the sense of purity or the possession of some particular power or the Ananda of the contact with God or the sense of freedom and hungers after it, becomes attached to that only and would have nothing else. Remember that the yoga is not for yourself; for these things, though they are part of the siddhi, are not the object of the siddhi, for you have decided at the beginning to make no claim upon God but take what he gives you freely and, as for the Ananda, the selfless soul will even forego the joy of God's presence, ... ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
378:10000 ::: The True Object of Spiritual Seeking:
To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the rest is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him,-that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental mistranslation of the Truth-these things cannot be the first or true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in the inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforehand by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental realisation or of impeding or even falsifying by a half-way formation the true growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of His will in our life. This is a mistake of orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone. It is far better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us from the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material life also as well as the inner life is part of what we see as the Divine Plan, but it can only be fulfilled by an outflowing of the inner realisation, something that grows from within outward, not by the working out of a mental principle.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, [T1],#KEYS
379:The Mahashakti, the universal Mother, works out whatever is transmitted by her transcendent consciousness from the Supreme and enters into the worlds that she has made; her presence fills and supports them with the divine spirit and the divine all-sustaining force and delight without which they could not exist. That which we call Nature or Prakriti is only her most outward executive aspect; she marshals and arranges the harmony of her forces and processes, impels the operations of Nature and moves among them secret or manifest in all that can be seen or experienced or put into motion of life. Each of the worlds is nothing but one play of the Mahashakti of that system of worlds or universe, who is there as the cosmic Soul and Personality of the transcendent Mother. Each is something that she has seen in her vision, gathered into her heart of beauty and power and created in her Ananda.
But there are many planes of her creation, many steps of the Divine Shakti. At the summit of this manifestation of which we are a part there are worlds of infinite existence, consciousness, force and bliss over which the Mother stands as the unveiled eternal Power. All beings there live and move in an ineffable completeness and unalterable oneness, because she carries them safe in her arms for ever. Nearer to us are the worlds of a perfect supramental creation in which the Mother is the supramental Mahashakti, a Power of divine omniscient Will and omnipotent Knowledge always apparent in its unfailing works and spontaneously perfect in every process. There all movements are the steps of the Truth; there all beings are souls and powers and bodies of the divine Light; there all experiences are seas and floods and waves of an intense and absolute Ananda. But here where we dwell are the worlds of the Ignorance, worlds of mind and life and body separated in consciousness from their source, of which this earth is a significant centre and its evolution a crucial process. This too with all its obscurity and struggle and imperfection is upheld by the Universal Mother; this too is impelled and guided to its secret aim by the Mahashakti.
The Mother as the Mahashakti of this triple world of the Ignorance stands in an intermediate plane between the supramental Light, the Truth life, the Truth creation which has to be brought down here and this mounting and descending hierarchy of planes of consciousness that like a double ladder lapse into the nescience of Matter and climb back again through the flowering of life and soul and mind into the infinity of the Spirit. Determining all that shall be in this universe and in the terrestrial evolution by what she sees and feels and pours from her, she stands there... ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother,#KEYS
380:O Death, thou lookst on an unfinished world
Assailed by thee and of its road unsure,
Peopled by imperfect minds and ignorant lives,
And sayest God is not and all is vain.
How shall the child already be the man?
Because he is infant, shall he never grow?
Because he is ignorant, shall he never learn?
In a small fragile seed a great tree lurks,
In a tiny gene a thinking being is shut;
A little element in a little sperm,
It grows and is a conqueror and a sage.
Then wilt thou spew out, Death, God's mystic truth,
Deny the occult spiritual miracle?
Still wilt thou say there is no spirit, no God?
A mute material Nature wakes and sees;
She has invented speech, unveiled a will.
Something there waits beyond towards which she strives,
Something surrounds her into which she grows:
To uncover the spirit, to change back into God,
To exceed herself is her transcendent task.
In God concealed the world began to be,
Tardily it travels towards manifest God:
Our imperfection towards perfection toils,
The body is the chrysalis of a soul:
The infinite holds the finite in its arms,
Time travels towards revealed eternity.
A miracle structure of the eternal Mage,
Matter its mystery hides from its own eyes,
A scripture written out in cryptic signs,
An occult document of the All-Wonderful's art.
All here bears witness to his secret might,
In all we feel his presence and his power.
A blaze of his sovereign glory is the sun,
A glory is the gold and glimmering moon,
A glory is his dream of purple sky.
A march of his greatness are the wheeling stars.
His laughter of beauty breaks out in green trees,
His moments of beauty triumph in a flower;
The blue sea's chant, the rivulet's wandering voice
Are murmurs falling from the Eternal's harp.
This world is God fulfilled in outwardness.
His ways challenge our reason and our sense;
By blind brute movements of an ignorant Force,
By means we slight as small, obscure or base,
A greatness founded upon little things,
He has built a world in the unknowing Void.
His forms he has massed from infinitesimal dust;
His marvels are built from insignificant things.
If mind is crippled, life untaught and crude,
If brutal masks are there and evil acts,
They are incidents of his vast and varied plot,
His great and dangerous drama's needed steps;
He makes with these and all his passion-play,
A play and yet no play but the deep scheme
Of a transcendent Wisdom finding ways
To meet her Lord in the shadow and the Night:
Above her is the vigil of the stars;
Watched by a solitary Infinitude
She embodies in dumb Matter the Divine,
In symbol minds and lives the Absolute.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
381:- for every well-made and significant poem, picture, statue or building is an act of creative knowledge, a living discovery of the consciousness, a figure of Truth, a dynamic form of mental and vital self-expression or world-expression, - all that seeks, all that finds, all that voices or figures is a realisation of something of the play of the Infinite and to that extent can be made a means of God-realisation or of divine formation. But the Yogin has to see that it is no longer done as part of an ignorant mental life; it can be accepted by him only if by the feeling, the remembrance, the dedication within it, it is turned into a movement of the spiritual consciousness and becomes a part of its vast grasp of comprehensive illuminating knowledge.
For all must be done as a sacrifice, all activities must have the One Divine for their object and the heart of their meaning. The Yogin's aim in the sciences that make for knowledge should be to discover and understand the workings of the Divine Consciousness-Puissance in man and creatures and things and forces, her creative significances, her execution of the mysteries, the symbols in which she arranges the manifestation. The Yogin's aim in the practical sciences, whether mental and physical or occult and psychic, should be to enter into the ways of the Divine and his processes, to know the materials and means for the work given to us so that we may use that knowledge for a conscious and faultless expression of the spirit's mastery, joy and self-fulfilment. The Yogin's aim in the Arts should not be a mere aesthetic, mental or vital gratification, but, seeing the Divine everywhere, worshipping it with a revelation of the meaning of its own works, to express that One Divine in ideal forms, the One Divine in principles and forces, the One Divine in gods and men and creatures and objects. The theory that sees an intimate connection between religious aspiration and the truest and greatest Art is in essence right; but we must substitute for the mixed and doubtful religious motive a spiritual aspiration, vision, interpreting experience. For the wider and more comprehensive the seeing, the more it contains in itself the sense of the hidden Divine in humanity and in all things and rises beyond a superficial religiosity into the spiritual life, the more luminous, flexible, deep and powerful will the Art be that springs from that high motive. The Yogin's distinction from other men is this that he lives in a higher and vaster spiritual consciousness; all his work of knowledge or creation must then spring from there: it must not be made in the mind, - for it is a greater truth and vision than mental man's that he has to express or rather that presses to express itself through him and mould his works, not for his personal satisfaction, but for a divine purpose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, 142 [T4],#KEYS
382:Zarathustra, however, looked at the people and wondered. Then he spoke thus: Man is a rope stretched between animal and overman - a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking back, a dangerous trembling and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what can be loved in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going. I love those who know not how to live except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers. I love the great despisers, because they are the great reverers, and arrows of longing for the other shore. I love those who do not first seek a reason beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to the earth, that the earth of the overman may some day arrive. I love him who lives in order to know, and seeks to know in order that the overman may someday live. Thus he seeks his own down-going. I love him who works and invents, that he may build a house for the overman, and prepare for him earth, animal, and plant: for thus he seeks his own down-going. I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is the will to down-going, and an arrow of longing. I love him who reserves no drop of spirit for himself, but wants to be entirely the spirit of his virtue: thus he walks as spirit over the bridge. I love him who makes his virtue his addiction and destiny: thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no more. I love him who does not desire too many virtues. One virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for ones destiny to cling to. I love him whose soul squanders itself, who wants no thanks and gives none back: for he always gives, and desires not to preserve himself. I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favor, and who then asks: Am I a dishonest player? - for he is willing to perish. I love him who scatters golden words in front of his deeds, and always does more than he promises: for he seeks his own down-going. I love him who justifies those people of the future, and redeems those of the past: for he is willing to perish by those of the present. I love him who chastens his God, because he loves his God: for he must perish by the wrath of his God. I love him whose soul is deep even in being wounded, and may perish from a small experience: thus goes he gladly over the bridge. I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgets himself, and all things are in him: thus all things become his down-going. I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his head only the entrails of his heart; his heart, however, drives him to go down. I love all who are like heavy drops falling one by one out of the dark cloud that hangs over man: they herald the coming of the lightning, and perish as heralds. Behold, I am a herald of the lightning, and a heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is called overman.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra,#KEYS
383:On that spring day in the park I saw a young woman who attracted me. She was tall and slender, elegantly dressed, and had an intelligent and boyish face. I liked her at once. She was my type and began to fill my imagination. She probably was not much older than I but seemed far more mature, well-defined, a full-grown woman, but with a touch of exuberance and boyishness in her face, and this was what I liked above all .
I had never managed to approach a girl with whom I had fallen in love, nor did I manage in this case. But the impression she made on me was deeper than any previous one had been and the infatuation had a profound influence on my life.
Suddenly a new image had risen up before me, a lofty and cherished image. And no need, no urge was as deep or as fervent within me as the craving to worship and admire. I gave her the name Beatrice, for, even though I had not read Dante, I knew about Beatrice from an English painting of which I owned a reproduction. It showed a young pre-Raphaelite woman, long-limbed and slender, with long head and etherealized hands and features. My beautiful young woman did not quite resemble her, even though she, too, revealed that slender and boyish figure which I loved, and something of the ethereal, soulful quality of her face.
Although I never addressed a single word to Beatrice, she exerted a profound influence on me at that time. She raised her image before me, she gave me access to a holy shrine, she transformed me into a worshiper in a temple.
From one day to the next I stayed clear of all bars and nocturnal exploits. I could be alone with myself again and enjoyed reading and going for long walks.
My sudden conversion drew a good deal of mockery in its wake. But now I had something I loved and venerated, I had an ideal again, life was rich with intimations of mystery and a feeling of dawn that made me immune to all taunts. I had come home again to myself, even if only as the slave and servant of a cherished image.
I find it difficult to think back to that time without a certain fondness. Once more I was trying most strenuously to construct an intimate "world of light" for myself out of the shambles of a period of devastation; once more I sacrificed everything within me to the aim of banishing darkness and evil from myself. And, furthermore, this present "world of light" was to some extent my own creation; it was no longer an escape, no crawling back to -nether and the safety of irresponsibility; it was a new duty, one I had invented and desired on my own, with responsibility and self-control. My sexuality, a torment from which I was in constant flight, was to be transfigured nto spirituality and devotion by this holy fire. Everything :brk and hateful was to be banished, there were to be no more tortured nights, no excitement before lascivious picures, no eavesdropping at forbidden doors, no lust. In place of all this I raised my altar to the image of Beatrice, :.. and by consecrating myself to her I consecrated myself to the spirit and to the gods, sacrificing that part of life which I withdrew from the forces of darkness to those of light. My goal was not joy but purity, not happiness but beauty, and spirituality.
This cult of Beatrice completely changed my life.
~ Hermann Hesse, Demian,#KEYS
384:(Novum Organum by Francis Bacon.)
34. "Four species of idols beset the human mind, to which (for distinction's sake) we have assigned names, calling the first Idols of the Tribe, the second Idols of the Den, the third Idols of the Market, the fourth Idols of the Theatre.
40. "The information of notions and axioms on the foundation of true induction is the only fitting remedy by which we can ward off and expel these idols. It is, however, of great service to point them out; for the doctrine of idols bears the same relation to the interpretation of nature as that of the confutation of sophisms does to common logic.
41. "The idols of the tribe are inherent in human nature and the very tribe or race of man; for man's sense is falsely asserted to be the standard of things; on the contrary, all the perceptions both of the senses and the mind bear reference to man and not to the Universe, and the human mind resembles these uneven mirrors which impart their own properties to different objects, from which rays are emitted and distort and disfigure them.
42. "The idols of the den are those of each individual; for everybody (in addition to the errors common to the race of man) has his own individual den or cavern, which intercepts and corrupts the light of nature, either from his own peculiar and singular disposition, or from his education and intercourse with others, or from his reading, and the authority acquired by those whom he reverences and admires, or from the different impressions produced on the mind, as it happens to be preoccupied and predisposed, or equable and tranquil, and the like; so that the spirit of man (according to its several dispositions), is variable, confused, and, as it were, actuated by chance; and Heraclitus said well that men search for knowledge in lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.
43. "There are also idols formed by the reciprocal intercourse and society of man with man, which we call idols of the market, from the commerce and association of men with each other; for men converse by means of language, but words are formed at the will of the generality, and there arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind. Nor can the definitions and explanations with which learned men are wont to guard and protect themselves in some instances afford a complete remedy-words still manifestly force the understanding, throw everything into confusion, and lead mankind into vain and innumerable controversies and fallacies.
44. "Lastly, there are idols which have crept into men's minds from the various dogmas of peculiar systems of philosophy, and also from the perverted rules of demonstration, and these we denominate idols of the theatre: for we regard all the systems of philosophy hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought out and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical worlds. Nor do we speak only of the present systems, or of the philosophy and sects of the ancients, since numerous other plays of a similar nature can be still composed and made to agree with each other, the causes of the most opposite errors being generally the same. Nor, again, do we allude merely to general systems, but also to many elements and axioms of sciences which have become inveterate by tradition, implicit credence, and neglect. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity,#KEYS
385:[desire and its divine form:]
Into all our endeavour upward the lower element of desire will at first naturally enter. For what the enlightened will sees as the thing to be done and pursues as the crown to be conquered, what the heart embraces as the one thing delightful, that in us which feels itself limited and opposed and, because it is limited, craves and struggles, will seek with the troubled passion of an egoistic desire. This craving life-force or desire-soul in us has to be accepted at first, but only in order that it may be transformed. Even from the very beginning it has to be taught to renounce all other desires and concentrate itself on the passion for the Divine. This capital point gained, it has to be aught to desire, not for its own separate sake, but for God in the world and for the Divine in ourselves; it has to fix itself upon no personal spiritual gain, though of all possible spiritual gains we are sure, but on the great work to be done in us and others, on the high coming manifestation which is to be the glorious fulfilment of the Divine in the world, on the Truth that has to be sought and lived and enthroned for eveR But last, most difficult for it, more difficult than to seek with the right object, it has to be taught to seek in the right manner; for it must learn to desire, not in its own egoistic way, but in the way of the Divine. It must insist no longer, as the strong separative will always insists, on its own manner of fulfilment, its own dream of possession, its own idea of the right and the desirable; it must yearn to fulfil a larger and greater Will and consent to wait upon a less interested and ignorant guidance. Thus trained, Desire, that great unquiet harasser and troubler of man and cause of every kind of stumbling, will become fit to be transformed into its divine counterpart. For desire and passion too have their divine forms; there is a pure ecstasy of the soul's seeking beyond all craving and grief, there is a Will of Ananda that sits glorified in the possession of the supreme beatitudes.
When once the object of concentration has possessed and is possessed by the three master instruments, the thought, the heart and the will,-a consummation fully possible only when the desire-soul in us has submitted to the Divine Law,-the perfection of mind and life and body can be effectively fulfilled in our transmuted nature. This will be done, not for the personal satisfaction of the ego, but that the whole may constitute a fit temple for the Divine Presence, a faultless instrument for the divine work. For that work can be truly performed only when the instrument, consecrated and perfected, has grown fit for a selfless action,-and that will be when personal desire and egoism are abolished, but not the liberated individual. Even when the little ego has been abolished, the true spiritual Person can still remain and God's will and work and delight in him and the spiritual use of his perfection and fulfilment. Our works will then be divine and done divinely; our mind and life and will, devoted to the Divine, will be used to help fulfil in others and in the world that which has been first realised in ourselves,- all that we can manifest of the embodied Unity, Love, Freedom, Strength, Power, Splendour, immortal Joy which is the goal of the Spirit's terrestrial adventure.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration [83] [T1],#KEYS
386:It is thus by an integralisation of our divided being that the Divine Shakti in the Yoga will proceed to its object; for liberation, perfection, mastery are dependent on this integralisation, since the little wave on the surface cannot control its own movement, much less have any true control over the vast life around it. The Shakti, the power of the Infinite and the Eternal descends within us, works, breaks up our present psychological formations, shatters every wall, widens, liberates, presents us with always newer and greater powers of vision, ideation, perception and newer and greater life-motives, enlarges and newmodels increasingly the soul and its instruments, confronts us with every imperfection in order to convict and destroy it, opens to a greater perfection, does in a brief period the work of many lives or ages so that new births and new vistas open constantly within us. Expansive in her action, she frees the consciousness from confinement in the body; it can go out in trance or sleep or even waking and enter into worlds or other regions of this world and act there or carry back its experience. It spreads out, feeling the body only as a small part of itself, and begins to contain what before contained it; it achieves the cosmic consciousness and extends itself to be commensurate with the universe. It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings of the nature. We begin to perceive the working of the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working, separate from within the truth and falsehood of our perceptions, enlarge their field, extend and illumine their significance, become master of our own minds and active to shape the movements of Mind in the world around us. We begin to perceive the flow and surge of the universal life-forces, detect the origin and law of our feelings, emotions, sensations, passions, are free to accept, reject, new-create, open to wider, rise to higher planes of Life-Power. We begin to perceive too the key to the enigma of Matter, follow the interplay of Mind and Life and Consciousness upon it, discover more and more its instrumental and resultant function and detect ultimately the last secret of Matter as a form not merely of Energy but of involved and arrested or unstably fixed and restricted consciousness and begin to see too the possibility of its liberation and plasticity of response to higher Powers, its possibilities for the conscious and no longer the more than half-inconscient incarnation and self-expression of the Spirit. All this and more becomes more and more possible as the working of the Divine Shakti increases in us and, against much resistance or labour to respond of our obscure consciousness, through much struggle and movement of progress and regression and renewed progress necessitated by the work of intensive transformation of a half-inconscient into a conscious substance, moves to a greater purity, truth, height, range. All depends on the psychic awakening in us, the completeness of our response to her and our growing surrender. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, 183, #KEYS
387:We have now completed our view of the path of Knowledge and seen to what it leads. First, the end of Yoga of Knowledge is God-possession, it is to possess God and be possessed by him through consciousness, through identification, through reflection of the divine Reality. But not merely in some abstraction away from our present existence, but here also; therefore to possess the Divine in himself, the Divine in the world, the Divine within, the Divine in all things and all beings. It is to possess oneness with God and through that to possess also oneness with the universal, with the cosmos and all existences; therefore to possess the infinite diversity also in the oneness, but on the basis of oneness and not on the basis of division. It is to possess God in his personality and his impersonality; in his purity free from qualities and in his infinite qualities; in time and beyond time; in his action and in his silence; in the finite and in the infinite. It is to possess him not only in pure self, but in all self; not only in self, but in Nature; not only in spirit, but in supermind, mind, life and body; to possess him with the spirit, with the mind, with the vital and the physical consciousness; and it is again for all these to be possessed by him, so that our whole being is one with him, full of him, governed and driven by him. It is, since God is oneness, for our physical consciousness to be one with the soul and the nature of the material universe; for our life, to be one with all life; for our mind, to be one with the universal mind; for our spirit, to be identified with the universal spirit. It is to merge in him in the absolute and find him in all relations. Secondly, it is to put on the divine being and the divine nature. And since God is Sachchidananda, it is to raise our being into the divine being, our consciousness into the divine consciousness, our energy into the divine energy, our delight of existence into the divine delight of being. And it is not only to lift ourselves into this higher consciousness, but to widen into it in all our being, because it is to be found on all the planes of our existence and in all our members, so that our mental, vital, physical existence shall become full of the divine nature. Our intelligent mentality is to become a play of the divine knowledge-will, our mental soul-life a play of the divine love and delight, our vitality a play of the divine life, our physical being a mould of the divine substance. This God-action in us is to be realised by an opening of ourselves to the divine gnosis and divine Ananda and, in its fullness, by an ascent into and a permanent dwelling in the gnosis and the Ananda. For though we live physically on the material plane and in normal outwardgoing life the mind and soul are preoccupied with material existence, this externality of our being is not a binding limitation. We can raise our internal consciousness from plane to plane of the relations of Purusha with prakriti, and even become, instead of the mental being dominated by the physical soul and nature, the gnostic being or the bliss-self and assume the gnostic or the bliss nature. And by this raising of the inner life we can transform our whole outward-going existence; instead of a life dominated by matter we shall then have a life dominated by spirit with all its circumstances moulded and determined by the purity of being, the consciousness infinite even in the finite, the divine energy, the divine joy and bliss of the spirit.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Integral Knowledge, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge [511] [T1],#KEYS
388:This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge. A downpour of inwardly visible Light very usually envelops this action; for it must be noted that, contrary to our ordinary conceptions, light is not primarily a material creation and the sense or vision of light accompanying the inner illumination is not merely a subjective visual image or a symbolic phenomenon: light is primarily a spiritual manifestation of the Divine Reality illuminative and creative; material light is a subsequent representation or conversion of it into Matter for the purposes of the material Energy. There is also in this descent the arrival of a greater dynamic, a golden drive, a luminous enthousiasmos of inner force and power which replaces the comparatively slow and deliberate process of the Higher Mind by a swift, sometimes a vehement, almost a violent impetus of rapid transformation.
But these two stages of the ascent enjoy their authority and can get their own united completeness only by a reference to a third level; for it is from the higher summits where dwells the intuitional being that they derive the knowledge which they turn into thought or sight and bring down to us for the mind's transmutation. Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude. ... Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of stable lightnings.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
389:There's an idea in Christianity of the image of God as a Trinity. There's the element of the Father, there's the element of the Son, and there's the element of the Holy Spirit. It's something like the spirit of tradition, human beings as the living incarnation of that tradition, and the spirit in people that makes relationship with the spirit and individuals possible. I'm going to bounce my way quickly through some of the classical, metaphorical attributes of God, so that we kind of have a cloud of notions about what we're talking about, when we return to Genesis 1 and talk about the God who spoke chaos into Being.
There's a fatherly aspect, so here's what God as a father is like. You can enter into a covenant with it, so you can make a bargain with it. Now, you think about that. Money is like that, because money is a bargain you make with the future. We structured our world so that you can negotiate with the future. I don't think that we would have got to the point where we could do that without having this idea to begin with. You can act as if the future's a reality; there's a spirit of tradition that enables you to act as if the future is something that can be bargained with. That's why you make sacrifices. The sacrifices were acted out for a very long period of time, and now they're psychological. We know that you can sacrifice something valuable in the present and expect that you're negotiating with something that's representing the transcendent future. That's an amazing human discovery. No other creature can do that; to act as if the future is real; to know that you can bargain with reality itself, and that you can do it successfully. It's unbelievable.
It responds to sacrifice. It answers prayers. I'm not saying that any of this is true, by the way. I'm just saying what the cloud of ideas represents. It punishes and rewards. It judges and forgives. It's not nature. One of the things weird about the Judeo-Christian tradition is that God and nature are not the same thing, at all. Whatever God is, partially manifest in this logos, is something that stands outside of nature. I think that's something like consciousness as abstracted from the natural world. It built Eden for mankind and then banished us for disobedience. It's too powerful to be touched. It granted free will. Distance from it is hell. Distance from it is death. It reveals itself in dogma and in mystical experience, and it's the law. That's sort of like the fatherly aspect.
The son-like aspect. It speaks chaos into order. It slays dragons and feeds people with the remains. It finds gold. It rescues virgins. It is the body and blood of Christ. It is a tragic victim, scapegoat, and eternally triumphant redeemer simultaneously. It cares for the outcast. It dies and is reborn. It is the king of kings and hero of heroes. It's not the state, but is both the fulfillment and critic of the state. It dwells in the perfect house. It is aiming at paradise or heaven. It can rescue from hell. It cares for the outcast. It is the foundation and the cornerstone that was rejected. It is the spirit of the law.
The spirit-like aspect. It's akin to the human soul. It's the prophetic voice. It's the still, small voice of conscience. It's the spoken truth. It's called forth by music. It is the enemy of deceit, arrogance, and resentment. It is the water of life. It burns without consuming. It's a blinding light.
That's a very well-developed set of poetic metaphors. These are all...what would you say...glimpses of the transcendent ideal. That's the right way of thinking about it. They're glimpses of the transcendent ideal, and all of them have a specific meaning. In part, what we're going to do is go over that meaning, as we continue with this series. What we've got now is a brief description, at least, of what this is. ~ Jordan Peterson, Biblical Series, 1,#KEYS
390:EVOCATION
Evocation is the art of dealing with magical beings or entities by various acts which create or contact them and allow one to conjure and command them with pacts and exorcism. These beings have a legion of names drawn from the demonology of many cultures: elementals, familiars, incubi, succubi, bud-wills, demons, automata, atavisms, wraiths, spirits, and so on. Entities may be bound to talismans, places, animals, objects, persons, incense smoke, or be mobile in the aether. It is not the case that such entities are limited to obsessions and complexes in the human mind. Although such beings customarily have their origin in the mind, they may be budded off and attached to objects and places in the form of ghosts, spirits, or "vibrations," or may exert action at a distance in the form of fetishes, familiars, or poltergeists. These beings consist of a portion of Kia or the life force attached to some aetheric matter, the whole of which may or may not be attached to ordinary matter.
Evocation may be further defined as the summoning or creation of such partial beings to accomplish some purpose. They may be used to cause change in oneself, change in others, or change in the universe. The advantages of using a semi-independent being rather than trying to effect a transformation directly by will are several: the entity will continue to fulfill its function independently of the magician until its life force dissipates. Being semi-sentient, it can adapt itself to a task in that a non-conscious simple spell cannot. During moments of the possession by certain entities the magician may be the recipient of inspirations, abilities, and knowledge not normally accessible to him.
Entities may be drawn from three sources - those which are discovered clairvoyantly, those whose characteristics are given in grimoires of spirits and demons, and those which the magician may wish to create himself.
In all cases establishing a relationship with the spirit follows a similar process of evocation. Firstly the attributes of the entity, its type, scope, name, appearance and characteristics must be placed in the mind or made known to the mind. Automatic drawing or writing, where a stylus is allowed to move under inspiration across a surface, may help to uncover the nature of a clairvoyantly discovered being. In the case of a created being the following procedure is used: the magician assembles the ingredients of a composite sigil of the being's desired attributes. For example, to create an elemental to assist him with divination, the appropriate symbols might be chosen and made into a sigil such as the one shown in figure 4.
A name and an image, and if desired, a characteristic number can also be selected for the elemental.
Secondly, the will and perception are focused as intently as possible (by some gnostic method) on the elemental's sigils or characteristics so that these take on a portion of the magician's life force and begin autonomous existence. In the case of preexisting beings, this operation serves to bind the entity to the magician's will.
This is customarily followed by some form of self-banishing, or even exorcism, to restore the magician's consciousness to normal before he goes forth.
An entity of a low order with little more than a singular task to perform can be left to fulfill its destiny with no further interference from its master. If at any time it is necessary to terminate it, its sigil or material basis should be destroyed and its mental image destroyed or reabsorbed by visualization. For more powerful and independent beings, the conjuration and exorcism must be in proportion to the power of the ritual which originally evoked them. To control such beings, the magicians may have to re-enter the gnostic state to the same depth as before in order to draw their power. ~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Null,#KEYS
391:The perfect supramental action will not follow any single principle or limited rule.It is not likely to satisfy the standard either of the individual egoist or of any organised group-mind. It will conform to the demand neither of the positive practical man of the world nor of the formal moralist nor of the patriot nor of the sentimental philanthropist nor of the idealising philosopher. It will proceed by a spontaneous outflowing from the summits in the totality of an illumined and uplifted being, will and knowledge and not by the selected, calculated and standardised action which is all that the intellectual reason or ethical will can achieve. Its sole aim will be the expression of the divine in us and the keeping together of the world and its progress towards the Manifestation that is to be. This even will not be so much an aim and purpose as a spontaneous law of the being and an intuitive determination of the action by the Light of the divine Truth and its automatic influence. It will proceed like the action of Nature from a total will and knowledge behind her, but a will and knowledge enlightened in a conscious supreme Nature and no longer obscure in this ignorant Prakriti. It will be an action not bound by the dualities but full and large in the spirit's impartial joy of existence. The happy and inspired movement of a divine Power and Wisdom guiding and impelling us will replace the perplexities and stumblings of the suffering and ignorant ego.
If by some miracle of divine intervention all mankind at once could be raised to this level, we should have something on earth like the Golden Age of the traditions, Satya Yuga, the Age of Truth or true existence. For the sign of the Satya Yuga is that the Law is spontaneous and conscious in each creature and does its own works in a perfect harmony and freedom. Unity and universality, not separative division, would be the foundation of the consciousness of the race; love would be absolute; equality would be consistent with hierarchy and perfect in difference; absolute justice would be secured by the spontaneous action of the being in harmony with the truth of things and the truth of himself and others and therefore sure of true and right result; right reason, no longer mental but supramental, would be satisfied not by the observation of artificial standards but by the free automatic perception of right relations and their inevitable execution in the act. The quarrel between the individual and society or disastrous struggle between one community and another could not exist: the cosmic consciousness imbedded in embodied beings would assure a harmonious diversity in oneness.
In the actual state of humanity, it is the individual who must climb to this height as a pioneer and precursor. His isolation will necessarily give a determination and a form to his outward activities that must be quite other than those of a consciously divine collective action. The inner state, the root of his acts, will be the same; but the acts themselves may well be very different from what they would be on an earth liberated from ignorance. Nevertheless his consciousness and the divine mechanism of his conduct, if such a word can be used of so free a thing, would be such as has been described, free from that subjection to vital impurity and desire and wrong impulse which we call sin, unbound by that rule of prescribed moral formulas which we call virtue, spontaneously sure and pure and perfect in a greater consciousness than the mind's, governed in all its steps by the light and truth of the Spirit. But if a collectivity or group could be formed of those who had reached the supramental perfection, there indeed some divine creation could take shape; a new earth could descend that would be a new heaven, a world of supramental light could be created here amidst the receding darkness of this terrestrial ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, 206,#KEYS
392:The recurring beat that moments God in Time.
Only was missing the sole timeless Word
That carries eternity in its lonely sound,
The Idea self-luminous key to all ideas,
The integer of the Spirit's perfect sum
That equates the unequal All to the equal One,
The single sign interpreting every sign,
The absolute index to the Absolute.
There walled apart by its own innerness
In a mystical barrage of dynamic light
He saw a lone immense high-curved world-pile
Erect like a mountain-chariot of the Gods
Motionless under an inscrutable sky.
As if from Matter's plinth and viewless base
To a top as viewless, a carved sea of worlds
Climbing with foam-maned waves to the Supreme
Ascended towards breadths immeasurable;
It hoped to soar into the Ineffable's reign:
A hundred levels raised it to the Unknown.
So it towered up to heights intangible
And disappeared in the hushed conscious Vast
As climbs a storeyed temple-tower to heaven
Built by the aspiring soul of man to live
Near to his dream of the Invisible.
Infinity calls to it as it dreams and climbs;
Its spire touches the apex of the world;
Mounting into great voiceless stillnesses
It marries the earth to screened eternities.
Amid the many systems of the One
Made by an interpreting creative joy
Alone it points us to our journey back
Out of our long self-loss in Nature's deeps;
Planted on earth it holds in it all realms:
It is a brief compendium of the Vast.
This was the single stair to being's goal.
A summary of the stages of the spirit,
Its copy of the cosmic hierarchies
Refashioned in our secret air of self
A subtle pattern of the universe.
It is within, below, without, above.
Acting upon this visible Nature's scheme
It wakens our earth-matter's heavy doze
To think and feel and to react to joy;
It models in us our diviner parts,
Lifts mortal mind into a greater air,
Makes yearn this life of flesh to intangible aims,
Links the body's death with immortality's call:
Out of the swoon of the Inconscience
It labours towards a superconscient Light.
If earth were all and this were not in her,
Thought could not be nor life-delight's response:
Only material forms could then be her guests
Driven by an inanimate world-force.
Earth by this golden superfluity
Bore thinking man and more than man shall bear;
This higher scheme of being is our cause
And holds the key to our ascending fate;
It calls out of our dense mortality
The conscious spirit nursed in Matter's house.
The living symbol of these conscious planes,
Its influences and godheads of the unseen,
Its unthought logic of Reality's acts
Arisen from the unspoken truth in things,
Have fixed our inner life's slow-scaled degrees.
Its steps are paces of the soul's return
From the deep adventure of material birth,
A ladder of delivering ascent
And rungs that Nature climbs to deity.
Once in the vigil of a deathless gaze
These grades had marked her giant downward plunge,
The wide and prone leap of a godhead's fall.
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme.
The great World-Mother by her sacrifice
Has made her soul the body of our state;
Accepting sorrow and unconsciousness
Divinity's lapse from its own splendours wove
The many-patterned ground of all we are.
An idol of self is our mortality.
Our earth is a fragment and a residue;
Her power is packed with the stuff of greater worlds
And steeped in their colour-lustres dimmed by her drowse;
An atavism of higher births is hers,
Her sleep is stirred by their buried memories
Recalling the lost spheres from which they fell.
Unsatisfied forces in her bosom move;
They are partners of her greater growing fate
And her return to immortality;
They consent to share her doom of birth and death;
They kindle partial gleams of the All and drive
Her blind laborious spirit to compose
A meagre image of the mighty Whole.
The calm and luminous Intimacy within
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
393:Although a devout student of the Bible, Paracelsus instinctively adopted the broad patterns of essential learning, as these had been clarified by Pythagoras of Samos and Plato of Athens. Being by nature a mystic as well as a scientist, he also revealed a deep regard for the Neoplatonic philosophy as expounded by Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus. Neoplatonism is therefore an invaluable aid to the interpretation of the Paracelsian doctrine.
Paracelsus held that true knowledge is attained in two ways, or rather that the pursuit of knowledge is advanced by a two-fold method, the elements of which are completely interdependent. In our present terminology, we can say that these two parts of method are intuition and experience. To Paracelsus, these could never be divided from each other.
The purpose of intuition is to reveal certain basic ideas which must then be tested and proven by experience. Experience, in turn, not only justifies intuition, but contributes certain additional knowledge by which the impulse to further growth is strengthened and developed. Paracelsus regarded the separation of intuition and experience to be a disaster, leading inevitably to greater error and further disaster. Intuition without experience allows the mind to fall into an abyss of speculation without adequate censorship by practical means. Experience without intuition could never be fruitful because fruitfulness comes not merely from the doing of things, but from the overtones which stimulate creative thought. Further, experience is meaningless unless there is within man the power capable of evaluating happenings and occurrences. The absence of this evaluating factor allows the individual to pass through many kinds of experiences, either misinterpreting them or not inter preting them at all. So Paracelsus attempted to explain intuition and how man is able to apprehend that which is not obvious or apparent. Is it possible to prove beyond doubt that the human being is capable of an inward realization of truths or facts without the assistance of the so-called rational faculty?
According to Paracelsus, intuition was possible because of the existence in nature of a mysterious substance or essence-a universal life force. He gave this many names, but for our purposes, the simplest term will be appropriate. He compared it to light, further reasoning that there are two kinds of light: a visible radiance, which he called brightness, and an invisible radiance, which he called darkness. There is no essential difference between light and darkness. There is a dark light, which appears luminous to the soul but cannot be sensed by the body. There is a visible radiance which seems bright to the senses, but may appear dark to the soul. We must recognize that Paracelsus considered light as pertaining to the nature of being, the total existence from which all separate existences arise. Light not only contains the energy needed to support visible creatures, and the whole broad expanse of creation, but the invisible part of light supports the secret powers and functions of man, particularly intuition. Intuition, therefore, relates to the capacity of the individual to become attuned to the hidden side of life. By light, then, Paracelsus implies much more than the radiance that comes from the sun, a lantern, or a candle. To him, light is the perfect symbol, emblem, or figure of total well-being. Light is the cause of health. Invisible light, no less real if unseen, is the cause of wisdom. As the light of the body gives strength and energy, sustaining growth and development, so the light of the soul bestows understanding, the light of the mind makes wisdom possible, and the light of the spirit confers truth. Therefore, truth, wisdom, understanding, and health are all manifesta tions or revelations ot one virtue or power. What health is to the body, morality is to the emotions, virtue to the soul, wisdom to the mind, and reality to the spirit. This total content of living values is contained in every ray of visible light. This ray is only a manifestation upon one level or plane of the total mystery of life. Therefore, when we look at a thing, we either see its objective, physical form, or we apprehend its inner light Everything that lives, lives in light; everything that has an existence, radiates light. All things derive their life from light, and this light, in its root, is life itself. This, indeed, is the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. ~ Manly P Hall, Paracelsus,#KEYS
394:CHAPTER XIII
OF THE BANISHINGS: AND OF THE PURIFICATIONS.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and had better come first. Purity means singleness. God is one. The wand is not a wand if it has something sticking to it which is not an essential part of itself. If you wish to invoke Venus, you do not succeed if there are traces of Saturn mixed up with it.
That is a mere logical commonplace: in magick one must go much farther than this. One finds one's analogy in electricity. If insulation is imperfect, the whole current goes back to earth. It is useless to plead that in all those miles of wire there is only one-hundredth of an inch unprotected. It is no good building a ship if the water can enter, through however small a hole.
That first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his Circle absolutely impregnable.
If one littlest thought intrude upon the mind of the Mystic, his concentration is absolutely destroyed; and his consciousness remains on exactly the same level as the Stockbroker's. Even the smallest baby is incompatible with the virginity of its mother. If you leave even a single spirit within the circle, the effect of the conjuration will be entirely absorbed by it.> {101}
The Magician must therefore take the utmost care in the matter of purification, "firstly", of himself, "secondly", of his instruments, "thirdly", of the place of working. Ancient Magicians recommended a preliminary purification of from three days to many months. During this period of training they took the utmost pains with diet. They avoided animal food, lest the elemental spirit of the animal should get into their atmosphere. They practised sexual abstinence, lest they should be influenced in any way by the spirit of the wife. Even in regard to the excrements of the body they were equally careful; in trimming the hair and nails, they ceremonially destroyed> the severed portion. They fasted, so that the body itself might destroy anything extraneous to the bare necessity of its existence. They purified the mind by special prayers and conservations. They avoided the contamination of social intercourse, especially the conjugal kind; and their servitors were disciples specially chosen and consecrated for the work.
In modern times our superior understanding of the essentials of this process enables us to dispense to some extent with its external rigours; but the internal purification must be even more carefully performed. We may eat meat, provided that in doing so we affirm that we eat it in order to strengthen us for the special purpose of our proposed invocation.> {102}
By thus avoiding those actions which might excite the comment of our neighbours we avoid the graver dangers of falling into spiritual pride.
We have understood the saying: "To the pure all things are pure", and we have learnt how to act up to it. We can analyse the mind far more acutely than could the ancients, and we can therefore distinguish the real and right feeling from its imitations. A man may eat meat from self-indulgence, or in order to avoid the dangers of asceticism. We must constantly examine ourselves, and assure ourselves that every action is really subservient to the One Purpose.
It is ceremonially desirable to seal and affirm this mental purity by Ritual, and accordingly the first operation in any actual ceremony is bathing and robing, with appropriate words. The bath signifies the removal of all things extraneous to antagonistic to the one thought. The putting on of the robe is the positive side of the same operation. It is the assumption of the fame of mind suitable to that one thought.
A similar operation takes place in the preparation of every instrument, as has been seen in the Chapter devoted to that subject. In the preparation of theplace of working, the same considerations apply. We first remove from that place all objects; and we then put into it those objects, and only those {103} objects, which are necessary. During many days we occupy ourselves in this process of cleansing and consecration; and this again is confirmed in the actual ceremony.
The cleansed and consecrated Magician takes his cleansed and consecrated instruments into that cleansed and consecrated place, and there proceeds to repeat that double ceremony in the ceremony itself, which has these same two main parts. The first part of every ceremony is the banishing; the second, the invoking. The same formula is repeated even in the ceremony of banishing itself, for in the banishing ritual of the pentagram we not only command the demons to depart, but invoke the Archangels and their hosts to act as guardians of the Circle during our pre-occupation with the ceremony proper.
In more elaborate ceremonies it is usual to banish everything by name. Each element, each planet, and each sign, perhaps even the Sephiroth themselves; all are removed, including the very one which we wished to invoke, for that force ... ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA,#KEYS
395:It is natural from the point of view of the Yoga to divide into two categories the activities of the human mind in its pursuit of knowledge. There is the supreme supra-intellectual knowledge which concentrates itself on the discovery of the One and Infinite in its transcendence or tries to penetrate by intuition, contemplation, direct inner contact into the ultimate truths behind the appearances of Nature; there is the lower science which diffuses itself in an outward knowledge of phenomena, the disguises of the One and Infinite as it appears to us in or through the more exterior forms of the world-manifestation around us. These two, an upper and a lower hemisphere, in the form of them constructed or conceived by men within the mind's ignorant limits, have even there separated themselves, as they developed, with some sharpness.... Philosophy, sometimes spiritual or at least intuitive, sometimes abstract and intellectual, sometimes intellectualising spiritual experience or supporting with a logical apparatus the discoveries of the spirit, has claimed always to take the fixation of ultimate Truth as its province. But even when it did not separate itself on rarefied metaphysical heights from the knowledge that belongs to the practical world and the pursuit of ephemeral objects, intellectual Philosophy by its habit of abstraction has seldom been a power for life. It has been sometimes powerful for high speculation, pursuing mental Truth for its own sake without any ulterior utility or object, sometimes for a subtle gymnastic of the mind in a mistily bright cloud-land of words and ideas, but it has walked or acrobatised far from the more tangible realities of existence. Ancient Philosophy in Europe was more dynamic, but only for the few; in India in its more spiritualised forms, it strongly influenced but without transforming the life of the race.... Religion did not attempt, like Philosophy, to live alone on the heights; its aim was rather to take hold of man's parts of life even more than his parts of mind and draw them Godwards; it professed to build a bridge between spiritual Truth and the vital and material human existence; it strove to subordinate and reconcile the lower to the higher, make life serviceable to God, Earth obedient to Heaven. It has to be admitted that too often this necessary effort had the opposite result of making Heaven a sanction for Earth's desires; for, continually, the religious idea has been turned into an excuse for the worship and service of the human ego. Religion, leaving constantly its little shining core of spiritual experience, has lost itself in the obscure mass of its ever extending ambiguous compromises with life: in attempting to satisfy the thinking mind, it more often succeeded in oppressing or fettering it with a mass of theological dogmas; while seeking to net the human heart, it fell itself into pits of pietistic emotionalism and sensationalism; in the act of annexing the vital nature of man to dominate it, it grew itself vitiated and fell a prey to all the fanaticism, homicidal fury, savage or harsh turn for oppression, pullulating falsehood, obstinate attachment to ignorance to which that vital nature is prone; its desire to draw the physical in man towards God betrayed it into chaining itself to ecclesiastic mechanism, hollow ceremony and lifeless ritual. The corruption of the best produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil. At the same time in a vain effort at self-defence against this downward gravitation, Religion was driven to cut existence into two by a division of knowledge, works, art, life itself into two opposite categories, the spiritual and the worldly, religious and mundane, sacred and profane; but this defensive distinction itself became conventional and artificial and aggravated rather than healed the disease.... On their side Science and Art and the knowledge of Life, although at first they served or lived in the shadow of Religion, ended by emancipating themselves, became estranged or hostile, or have even recoiled with indifference, contempt or scepticism from what seem to them the cold, barren and distant or unsubstantial and illusory heights of unreality to which metaphysical Philosophy and Religion aspire. For a time the divorce has been as complete as the one-sided intolerance of the human mind could make it and threatened even to end in a complete extinction of all attempt at a higher or a more spiritual knowledge. Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind's horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment. A sterile agnosticism awaits us above the brilliant phosphorescence of a half-knowledge that is still the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, #KEYS
396:[the sevenfold ignorance and the integral knowledge:]
We are ignorant of the Absolute which is the source of all being and becoming; we take partial facts of being, temporal relations of the becoming for the whole truth of existence,-that is the first, the original ignorance. We are ignorant of the spaceless, timeless, immobile and immutable Self; we take the constant mobility and mutation of the cosmic becoming in Time and Space for the whole truth of existence, -that is the second, the cosmic ignorance. We are ignorant of our universal self, the cosmic existence, the cosmic consciousness, our infinite unity with all being and becoming; we take our limited egoistic mentality, vitality, corporeality for our true self and regard everything other than that as not-self,-that is the third, the egoistic ignorance. We are ignorant of our eternal becoming in Time; we take this little life in a small span of Time, in a petty field of Space, for our beginning, our middle and our end,-that is the fourth, the temporal ignorance. Even within this brief temporal becoming we are ignorant of our large and complex being, of that in us which is superconscient, subconscient, intraconscient, circumconscient to our surface becoming; we take that surface becoming with its small selection of overtly mentalised experiences for our whole existence,-that is the fifth, the psychological ignorance. We are ignorant of the true constitution of our becoming; we take the mind or life or body or any two of these or all three for our true principle or the whole account of what we are, losing sight of that which constitutes them and determines by its occult presence and is meant to determine sovereignly by its emergence their operations,-that is the sixth, the constitutional ignorance. As a result of all these ignorances, we miss the true knowledge, government and enjoyment of our life in the world; we are ignorant in our thought, will, sensations, actions, return wrong or imperfect responses at every point to the questionings of the world, wander in a maze of errors and desires, strivings and failures, pain and pleasure, sin and stumbling, follow a crooked road, grope blindly for a changing goal,-that is the seventh, the practical ignorance.
Our conception of the Ignorance will necessarily determine our conception of the Knowledge and determine, therefore, since our life is the Ignorance at once denying and seeking after the Knowledge, the goal of human effort and the aim of the cosmic endeavour. Integral knowledge will then mean the cancelling of the sevenfold Ignorance by the discovery of what it misses and ignores, a sevenfold self-revelation within our consciousness:- it will mean [1] the knowledge of the Absolute as the origin of all things; [2] the knowledge of the Self, the Spirit, the Being and of the cosmos as the Self's becoming, the becoming of the Being, a manifestation of the Spirit; [3] the knowledge of the world as one with us in the consciousness of our true self, thus cancelling our division from it by the separative idea and life of ego; [4] the knowledge of our psychic entity and its immortal persistence in Time beyond death and earth-existence; [5] the knowledge of our greater and inner existence behind the surface; [6] the knowledge of our mind, life and body in its true relation to the self within and the superconscient spiritual and supramental being above them; [7] the knowledge, finally, of the true harmony and true use of our thought, will and action and a change of all our nature into a conscious expression of the truth of the Spirit, the Self, the Divinity, the integral spiritual Reality.
But this is not an intellectual knowledge which can be learned and completed in our present mould of consciousness; it must be an experience, a becoming, a change of consciousness, a change of being. This brings in the evolutionary character of the Becoming and the fact that our mental ignorance is only a stage in our evolution. The integral knowledge, then, can only come by an evolution of our being and our nature, and that would seem to signify a slow process in Time such as has accompanied the other evolutionary transformations. But as against that inference there is the fact that the evolution has now become conscious and its method and steps need not be altogether of the same character as when it was subconscious in its process. The integral knowledge, since it must result from a change of consciousness, can be gained by a process in which our will and endeavour have a part, in which they can discover and apply their own steps and method: its growth in us can proceed by a conscious self-transformation. It is necessary then to see what is likely to be the principle of this new process of evolution and what are the movements of the integral knowledge that must necessarily emerge in it,-or, in other words, what is the nature of the consciousness that must be the base of the life divine and how that life may be expected to be formed or to form itself, to materialise or, as one might say, to realise.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, pg 680-683 [T1],#KEYS
397: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
398:This, in short, is the demand made on us, that we should turn our whole life into a conscious sacrifice. Every moment and every movement of our being is to be resolved into a continuous and a devoted self-giving to the Eternal. All our actions, not less the smallest and most ordinary and trifling than the greatest and most uncommon and noble, must be performed as consecrated acts. Our individualised nature must live in the single consciousness of an inner and outer movement dedicated to Something that is beyond us and greater than our ego. No matter what the gift or to whom it is presented by us, there must be a consciousness in the act that we are presenting it to the one divine Being in all beings. Our commonest or most grossly material actions must assume this sublimated character; when we eat, we should be conscious that we are giving our food to that Presence in us; it must be a sacred offering in a temple and the sense of a mere physical need or self-gratification must pass away from us. In any great labour, in any high discipline, in any difficult or noble enterprise, whether undertaken for ourselves, for others or for the race, it will no longer be possible to stop short at the idea of the race, of ourselves or of others. The thing we are doing must be consciously offered as a sacrifice of works, not to these, but either through them or directly to the One Godhead; the Divine Inhabitant who was hidden by these figures must be no longer hidden but ever present to our soul, our mind, our sense. The workings and results of our acts must be put in the hands of that One in the feeling that that Presence is the Infinite and Most High by whom alone our labour and our aspiration are possible. For in his being all takes place; for him all labour and aspiration are taken from us by Nature and offered on his altar. Even in those things in which Nature is herself very plainly the worker and we only the witnesses of her working and its containers and supporters, there should be the same constant memory and insistent consciousness of a work and of its divine Master. Our very inspiration and respiration, our very heart-beats can and must be made conscious in us as the living rhythm of the universal sacrifice.
It is clear that a conception of this kind and its effective practice must carry in them three results that are of a central importance for our spiritual ideal. It is evident, to begin with, that, even if such a discipline is begun without devotion, it leads straight and inevitably towards the highest devotion possible; for it must deepen naturally into the completest adoration imaginable, the most profound God-love. There is bound up with it a growing sense of the Divine in all things, a deepening communion with the Divine in all our thought, will and action and at every moment of our lives, a more and more moved consecration to the Divine of the totality of our being. Now these implications of the Yoga of works are also of the very essence of an integral and absolute Bhakti. The seeker who puts them into living practice makes in himself continually a constant, active and effective representation of the very spirit of self-devotion, and it is inevitable that out of it there should emerge the most engrossing worship of the Highest to whom is given this service. An absorbing love for the Divine Presence to whom he feels an always more intimate closeness, grows upon the consecrated worker. And with it is born or in it is contained a universal love too for all these beings, living forms and creatures that are habitations of the Divine - not the brief restless grasping emotions of division, but the settled selfless love that is the deeper vibration of oneness. In all the seeker begins to meet the one Object of his adoration and service. The way of works turns by this road of sacrifice to meet the path of Devotion; it can be itself a devotion as complete, as absorbing, as integral as any the desire of the heart can ask for or the passion of the mind can imagine.
Next, the practice of this Yoga demands a constant inward remembrance of the one central liberating knowledge, and a constant active externalising of it in works comes in too to intensify the remembrance. In all is the one Self, the one Divine is all; all are in the Divine, all are the Divine and there is nothing else in the universe, - this thought or this faith is the whole background until it becomes the whole substance of the consciousness of the worker. A memory, a self-dynamising meditation of this kind, must and does in its end turn into a profound and uninterrupted vision and a vivid and all-embracing consciousness of that which we so powerfully remember or on which we so constantly meditate. For it compels a constant reference at each moment to the Origin of all being and will and action and there is at once an embracing and exceeding of all particular forms and appearances in That which is their cause and upholder. This way cannot go to its end without a seeing vivid and vital, as concrete in its way as physical sight, of the works of the universal Spirit everywhere. On its summits it rises into a constant living and thinking and willing and acting in the presence of the Supramental, the Transcendent. Whatever we see and hear, whatever we touch and sense, all of which we are conscious, has to be known and felt by us as That which we worship and serve; all has to be turned into an image of the Divinity, perceived as a dwelling-place of his Godhead, enveloped with the eternal Omnipresence. In its close, if not long before it, this way of works turns by communion with the Divine Presence, Will and Force into a way of Knowledge more complete and integral than any the mere creature intelligence can construct or the search of the intellect can discover.
Lastly, the practice of this Yoga of sacrifice compels us to renounce all the inner supports of egoism, casting them out of our mind and will and actions, and to eliminate its seed, its presence, its influence out of our nature. All must be done for the Divine; all must be directed towards the Divine. Nothing must be attempted for ourselves as a separate existence; nothing done for others, whether neighbours, friends, family, country or mankind or other creatures merely because they are connected with our personal life and thought and sentiment or because the ego takes a preferential interest in their welfare. In this way of doing and seeing all works and all life become only a daily dynamic worship and service of the Divine in the unbounded temple of his own vast cosmic existence. Life becomes more and more the sacrifice of the eternal in the individual constantly self-offered to the eternal Transcendence. It is offered in the wide sacrificial ground of the field of the eternal cosmic Spirit; and the Force too that offers it is the eternal Force, the omnipresent Mother. Therefore is this way a way of union and communion by acts and by the spirit and knowledge in the act as complete and integral as any our Godward will can hope for or our soul's strength execute.
It has all the power of a way of works integral and absolute, but because of its law of sacrifice and self-giving to the Divine Self and Master, it is accompanied on its one side by the whole power of the path of Love and on the other by the whole power of the path of Knowledge. At its end all these three divine Powers work together, fused, united, completed, perfected by each other.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice [111-114],#KEYS
399:The Supermind [Supramental consciousness] is in its very essence a truth-consciousness, a consciousness always free from the Ignorance which is the foundation of our present natural or evolutionary existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge and world-knowledge and a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe. The Supermind, because it is a truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it and this power of true existence; its course is straight and can go direct to its aim, its field is wide and can even be made illimitable. This is because its very nature is knowledge: it has not to acquire knowledge but possesses it in its own right; its steps are not from nescience or ignorance into some imperfect light, but from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter and boundless luminousness, from growing widenesses to the utter vasts and to very infinitude. On its summits it possesses the divine omniscience and omnipotence, but even in an evolutionary movement of its own graded self-manifestation by which it would eventually reveal its own highest heights, it must be in its very nature essentially free from ignorance and error: it starts from truth and light and moves always in truth and light. As its knowledge is always true, so too its will is always true; it does not fumble in its handling of things or stumble in its paces. In the Supermind feeling and emotion do not depart from their truth, make no slips or mistakes, do not swerve from the right and the real, cannot misuse beauty and delight or twist away from a divine rectitude. In the Supermind sense cannot mislead or deviate into the grossnesses which are here its natural imperfections and the cause of reproach, distrust and misuse by our ignorance. Even an incomplete statement made by the Supermind is a truth leading to a further truth, its incomplete action a step towards completeness. All the life and action and leading of the Supermind is guarded in its very nature from the falsehoods and uncertainties that are our lot; it moves in safety towards its perfection. Once the truth-consciousness was established here on its own sure foundation, the evolution of divine life would be a progress in felicity, a march through light to Ananda. Supermind is an eternal reality of the divine Being and the divine Nature. In its own plane it already and always exists and possesses its own essential law of being; it has not to be created or to emerge or evolve into existence out of involution in Matter or out of non-existence, as it might seem to the view of mind which itself seems to its own view to have so emerged from life and Matter or to have evolved out of an involution in life and Matter. The nature of Supermind is always the same, a being of knowledge, proceeding from truth to truth, creating or rather manifesting what has to be manifested by the power of a pre-existent knowledge, not by hazard but by a self-existent destiny in the being itself, a necessity of the thing in itself and therefore inevitable. Its -manifestation of the divine life will also be inevitable; its own life on its own plane is divine and, if Supermind descends upon the earth, it will bring necessarily the divine life with it and establish it here. Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence. The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. It is when all the movements of thought, impulse and action are governed and directed by a self-existent and luminously automatic truth-consciousness and our whole nature comes to be constituted by it and made of its stuff that the life divine will be complete and absolute. Even as it is, in reality though not in the appearance of things, it is a secret self-existent knowledge and truth that is working to manifest itself in the creation here. The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality that we have to manifest; it is that which constitutes the urge towards the divine living and makes necessary the creation of the life divine even in this material existence. A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is then inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or lateR But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, an evolution in Nature. The ascent is necessarily an effort, a working of Nature, an urge or nisus on her side to raise her lower parts by an evolutionary or revolutionary change, conversion or transformation into the divine reality and it may happen by a process and progress or by a rapid miracle. The descent or self-revelation of the Spirit is an act of the supreme Reality from above which makes the realisation possible and it can appear either as the divine aid which brings about the fulfilment of the progress and process or as the sanction of the miracle. Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here. Even in the effort and progress from the Ignorance to Knowledge this must be in part if not wholly the endeavour to be made on the heights of the nature, and it must be wholly that in the final movement towards the spiritual change, realisation, transformation. It must be still more so when there is a transition across the dividing line between the Ignorance and the Knowledge and the evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge, from consciousness to greater consciousness, from being to greater being. There is then no longer any necessity for the slow pace of the ordinary evolution; there can be rapid conversion, quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our normal present mind a succession of miracles. An evolution on the supramental levels could well be of that nature; it could be equally, if the being so chose, a more leisurely passage of one supramental state or condition of things to something beyond but still supramental, from level to divine level, a building up of divine gradations, a free growth to the supreme Supermind or beyond it to yet undreamed levels of being, consciousness and Ananda.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, 558,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Seek the spirit, forget the form. ~ bulleh-shah, @wisdomtrove 2:It is the spirit of the quest which helps ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 3:A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 4:as the spirit wanes the form appears ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 5:There are many faiths, but the spirit is one. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 6:The spirit, Sir, is one of mockery. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 7:The supreme end is the freedom of the spirit. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 8:Don't reason in the mind just obey in the spirit. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 9:Even in animals there exists the spirit of their sires. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 10:Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 11:Drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 12:The spirit of delight comes in small ways. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 13:You can kill the body, but not the spirit. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 14:Humility is born of the spirit, humiliation of the ego. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 15:Nature always wears the colours of the spirit. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 16:All makers must leave room for acts of the spirit. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 17:The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 18:He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 19:He who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 20:Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 21:My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 22:Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 23:The ego is a tool. You don't separate it. It's a tool for the spirit. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 24:Life, the river of the Spirit, consenting to anguish and sorrow. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 25:The spirit of the age is filled with the disdain for thinking. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 26:The substance, the essence, the Spirit is freedom. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 27:Doctors can heal the body, but it is music that uplifts the spirit. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 28:How long can the truth be veiled? The spirit is all there is to know. ~ bulleh-shah, @wisdomtrove 29:I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 30:Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 31:Being judgmental and condemning is not one of the gifts of the Spirit. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 32:Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 33:Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 34:Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 35:The spirit's foe in man has not been simplicity, but sophistication. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 36:The life of the spirit is not our life, but the life of God within us. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 37:The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 38:There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 39:Even more amazing than the wonders of Nature are the powers of the spirit. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 40:Be in the spirit of Truth and any words you speak are in alignment with that spirit. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 41:Religion is the fruit of the Spirit, a Christian character, a true life. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 42:The Lord casts no one down in Hell, but the spirit casts himself hither. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 43:All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 44:The man who sticks it out against his fate shows spirit, but the spirit of a fool. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 45:All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 46:It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 47:To drink in the spirit of a place you should be not only alone but unhurried. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 48:Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 49:People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 50:If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 51:Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 52:True prayer is an approach of the soul by the Spirit of God to the throne of God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 53:Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 54:I don't like the spirit of socialism – I think freedom is the basis of everything. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 55:Heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 56:Prayer is an art which only the Spirit can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 57:The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 58:As the snake is separate from its slough, even so is the Spirit separate from the body. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 59:All the hope of our ministry lies in the Spirit of God operating on the spirits of men. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 60:Every day the choice is presented to us, to live up to the spirit that is in us, or deny it. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 61:The grace of the spirit comes only from heaven, and lights up the whole bodily presence. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 62:The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 63:The spirit of love arranges all meetings in divine order for the highest good of all concerned. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 64:Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 65:The sensory world is the school, without which the human being would never come to the spirit. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 66:The truth is mightier than eloquence, the Spirit greater than genius, faith more than education. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 67:I want to live so fully in the Spirit that... every act of my life may be an act of worship. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 68:The healing of the spirit has not been completed until openness to challenge becomes a way of life. ~ m-scott-peck, @wisdomtrove 69:For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 70:Only a person who has passed through the gate of humility can ascend to the heights of the spirit. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 71:Our purpose here on earth: to manifest the very nature of our spirit, which is touched by the spirit of God. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 72:The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 73:Let me ... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 74:Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 75:When the spirit most closely approaches the physical earth, then we have the perception of fragrance. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 76:Only the ego resists egos. The spirit may notice egos, but sees beyond them and does not engage with them. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 77:Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly ‚Äì all else is desperation. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 78:The spirit of arrogance most definitely makes you shine. It paints a bright red target on your own forehead. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 79:Every spirit makes its house, but as afterwards the house confines the spirit, you had better build well. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 80:Love and Self-control are the bookends of the fruit of the Spirit. Remove one of them and the rest fall over ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 81:Change is not always progress... A fever of newness has everywhere been confused with the spirit of progress. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 82:Suddenly I found you and the spirit in me sings, Don't have to look no further, You're the soul of many things. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 83:Tolerance is the first principle of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 84:Spirit is the third, yet in such a way that one can speak of a synthesis only when the spirit is posited. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 85:The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 86:Die Wunden des Geistes heilen, ohne dass Narben bleiben"... "The wounds of the spirit heal and leave no scars. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 87:I know God is in charge. Not me, I'm nothing. I wouldn't be anything except for the power of the spirit of God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 88:I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 89:The spirit is never at rest, but always engaged in progressive motion, giving itself new form. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 90:Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 91:God is our portion, Christ our companion, the Spirit our Comforter, Earth our lodge, and Heaven is our home. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 92:Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 93:For in this strange anatomy we wear, the head has greater powers than the hand; the spirit, heart, and mind are over all. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 94:A pure heart does not demean the spirit of an individual, it, instead, compels the individual to examine his spirit. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 95:I think big business is a terrible thing for the spirit of the country, as our spirit is the best thing about us. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 96:The Spirit goes ahead of us when we witness - preparing the way, giving us the words, and granting us courage. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 97:The spirit of an age may be best expressed in the abstract ideal arts, for the spirit itself is abstract and ideal. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 98:I am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 99:Because I have confidence in the power of truth, and of the spirit, I have confidence in the future of mankind. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 100:I am not a Hindu, Nor a Muslim am II am this body, a playOf five elements a dramaOf the spirit dancing With joy and sorrow. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 101:The spirit of democracy... requires change of the heart... requires the inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 102:Grow deep roots to harvest rich fruit! When your roots run deep, you cannot help but bear the fruit of the Spirit. ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 103:Real intimacy; real love has to do with a joining of the mind, a joining of the spirit, a joining of the heart. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 104:The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 105:The true policy of government is to make use of aristocracy, but under the forms and in the spirit of democracy. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 106:We are not filled with the Spirit of God to do easy things. He fills us with His Spirit so we can do impossible things. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 107:Whoever has the world's treasures has them no matter how he got them. In the world of the spirit it is otherwise. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 108:Day by day, we are becoming what we shall be eternally. The spirit who convicts us is also the spirit who consoles. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 109:The tree of life is growing where the spirit never dies, and the bright light of salvation shines in dark and empty skies. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 110:Distractions must be conquered or they will conquer us. So let us cultivate simplicity; let us walk in the Spirit. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 111:If drawing belongs to the world of spirit and color to that of the senses, you must draw first to cultivate the spirit. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 112:The highest proof of the spirit is love. Love the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 113:You are engaged in a work so spiritual, so far above all human power, that to forget the Spirit is to ensure defeat. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 114:The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 115:In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 116:The Spirit lurks within the Flesh Like Tides within the Sea That make the Water live, estranged What would the Either be? ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 117:When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose then they will also find their way to each other. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 118:But this we know, the obstacle that checked And tripped the body, shot the spirit on Further than target ever showed or shone. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 119:To realize the spirit as spirit is practical religion. Everything else is good so far as it leads to this one grand idea. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 120:The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 121:The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 122:Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove 123:When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose then they will also find their way to each other ... ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 124:All art is the expression of one and the same thing- the relation of the spirit of man to the spirit of other men and to the world. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 125:Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 126:When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 127:The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 128:Where principles and heart stand in conflict with each other, let us make the law of the spirit free from the law of principles. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 129:Dear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace. Then send, dear Lord, the spirit of peace from me to all the world. Amen. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 130:Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 131:We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 132:The way you come to fully appreciate the infusion of the Spirit is to more and more come fully into the moment, where this moment is enough. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 133:A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 134:Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. ~ m-scott-peck, @wisdomtrove 135:All makers must leave room for the acts of the spirit. But they have to work hard and carefully, and wait patiently, to deserve them. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 136:There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 137:Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 138:We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 139:The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 140:The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 141:Laughter can relieve tension, soothe the pain of disappointment, and strengthen the spirit for the formidable tasks that always lie ahead. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 142:Living for Christ is a day-to-day going on with Him. It is a continuous dependence upon the Spirit of God. It is believing in His faithfulness. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 143:The highest art form of all is a human being in control of himself and his airplane in flight, urging the spirit of a machine to match his own. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 144:Q: Between the spirit and the body, is it love that provides the bridge? M: What else? Mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 145:Every single choice we make is either going to enhance the spirit or drain it. Every day, we're either giving ourselves power or taking it away. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 146:I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 147:The church can have light only as it is full of the Spirit, and it can be full only as the members that compose it are filled individually. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 148:When a person, yielding to God and believing the truth of God, is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worship. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 149:There is something more - the spirit, or the soul. I think that that quality encourages our courtesy and care and our minds. And mercy, and identity. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 150:Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 151:The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 152:When God works in us, the will, being changed and sweetly breathed upon by the Spirit of God, desires and acts, not from compulsion, but responsively. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 153:Every single choice we make is either going to enhance the spirit or drain it. Every day, we're either giving ourselves power or taking it away. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 154:The important thing is to strive toward a goal which is not immediately visible. That goal is not the concern of the mind, but of the spirit. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 155:The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 156:Love in fact is the spiritual life, and without it all the other exercises of the spirit, however lofty, are emptied of content and become mere illusions. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 157:A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul: More Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit. Book by Jack Canfield (p. 188), September 1, 2012. ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 158:The spirit of rejection finds its support in the consciousness of separateness; the spirit of acceptance finds its base in the consciousness of unity. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 159:& 160:The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 161:Irony is the cultivation of the spirit and therefore follows next after immediacy; then comes the ethicist, then the humourist, then the religious person. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 162:The Spirit could not create matter as anything different from Itself, for it had only Itself as the tissue or material with which to build the cosmos. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 163:If the Lord's people were only half as eager to be filled with the Spirit as they are to prove that they cannot be filled, the church would be crowded out. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 164:Union is only possible to those who are units. To be fit for relations in time, souls, whether of man or woman, must be able to do without them in the spirit. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 165:A lamp does not flicker in a place where no wind blows; so it is with a yogi, who controls his mind, intellect and self, being absorbed in the spirit within him. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 166:True religion comes not front the teaching of men or the reading of books; it is the awakening of the spirit within us, consequent upon pure and heroic action. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 167:If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 168:If the heart has been reformed by the spirit, it makes use of both the useful and delightful things created and given by God in a holy manner and with thanksgiving. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 169:When the restlessness of the mind, intellect and self is stilled through the practice of Yoga, the yogi by the grace of the Spirit within himself finds fulfillment. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 170:Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 171:Isaiah calls the Church barren because her children are born without effort by the Word of faith through the Spirit of God. It is a matter of birth, not of exertion. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 172:There is within each of us the possibility of magnificence. Every moment is an opportunity to make it manifest. Let the spirit awaken you to a miraculous life. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 173:His life oscillates, as everyone's does, not merely between two poles, such as the body and the spirit, the saint and the sinner, but between thousands and thousands. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 174:The universe is large and we are tiny, without the need for further religious superstructure. One can have so-called spiritual moments without belief in the spirit. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 175:True religion is removed from diet and days, from garments and ceremonies, and placed where it belongs - in the union of the spirit of man with the Spirit of God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 176:(a womanist) 3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 177:The muffled syllables that Nature speaks Fill us with deeper longing for her word; She hides a meaning that the spirit seeks, She makes a sweeter music than is heard. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 178:When men have come to the edge of a precipice, it is the lover of life who has the spirit to leap backwards, and only the pessimist who continues to believe in progress. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 179:Whether in the intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pursuits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds. ~ sir-arthur-eddington, @wisdomtrove 180:Everything will come right if you are pure and sincere. We want hundreds like you bursting upon society and bringing new life and vigor of the spirit wherever they go. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 181:Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 182:To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 183:The fence and the boundary line are the symbols of the spirit of justice. They set the limits upon each man's interest to prevent one from taking advantage of the other. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 184:[T]here is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution. ~ alexander-hamilton, @wisdomtrove 185:To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 186:The Bible is actually a library of books-some long, some short- written over hundreds of years by many authors. Behind each one, however, was [the] Author: the Spirit of God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 187:The spirit is often most free when the body is satiated with pleasure; indeed, sometimes the stars shine more brightly seen from the gutter than from the hilltop. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 188:All nature ... is a respiration Of the Spirit of God, who, in breathing hereafter Will inhale it into his bosom again, So that nothing but God alone will remain. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 189:[The spirit of party] opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 190:Antichrist is the pope and the Turk [Muslim] together. A beast full of life must have a body and soul. The spirit or soul of Antichrist is the pope, his flesh or body the Turk. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 191:That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superiors, is to keep the Spirit of Liberty constantly awake, is an undeniable truth ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 192:... the transaction between a writer and the spirit of the age is one of infinite delicacy, and upon a nice arrangement between the two the whole fortune of his works depend. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 193:When I dive, I dive into a different dimensional plane. I am not in this world anymore. Someone might see the body, but the spirit has left. It has gone everywhere or nowhere. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 194:In both Surfing the Himalayas and Snowboarding to Nirvana, I have tried to transmit as best I could the spirit of humor, and the sense of humor of the monks I have encountered. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 195:Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 196:Hatred, rancor, and the spirit of vengeance are useless baggage to the artist. His road is difficult enough for him to cleanse his soul of everything which could make it more so. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 197:Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise, for the result is waste of time and general stagnation. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 198:What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 199:Man, it is not thy works, which are mortal, infinitely little, and the greatest no greater than the least, but only the spirit thou workest in, that can have worth or continuance. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 200:Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever! Let the bell toll!-a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?-weep now or nevermore! ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 201:The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty to the ear, or to the mind. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 202:No matter how humble your work may seem, do it in the spirit of an artist, of a master. In this way you lift it out of commonness and rob it of what would otherwise be drudgery. ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 203:The surest sign that you're working with the life-affirming kind of discipline, rather than the spirit-depressing kind, is that you don't complain very much about doing what it takes. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 204:The unseen energy that was once in Shakespeare or Picasso or Galileo or any human form, is also available to all of us. That is because the spirit energy does not die, it simply changes form. ~ wayne-dyer, @wisdomtrove 205:Patience is a fruit of the spirit that grows only under trial. It is useless to pray for patience. Well, actually I encourage you to pray for patience, but I'll tell you what you'll get TRIALS! ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 206:Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 207:There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 208:The offering of [the body] is called a spiritual sacrifice because it is freely sacrificed through the Spirit, the Christian being uninfluenced by the constrainst of the Low or the fear of hell. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 209:The man who can articulate the movements of his inner life need no longer be a victim of himself, but is able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 210:The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the door of the spirit. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 211:In that world, you'll be able to rise in the morning with the spirit you had known in your childhood: that spirit of eagerness, adventure and certainty which comes from dealing with a rational universe. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 212:When your creative expressions match the needs of your fellow humans, then wealth will spontaneously flow from the unmanifest into the manifest, from the realm of the spirit to the world of form. ~ deepak-chopra, @wisdomtrove 213:In the poorest cottage are Books: is one Book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is Deepest in him. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 214:Grace is the wonderful spirit that imbues every fiber of our being when we practice the fruits of the spirit: kindness, patience, understanding, forgiveness, love, gentleness, fellowship and endurance. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 215:God scorns and mocks the devil, in setting under his very nose a poor, weak, human creature, mere dust and ashes, yet endowed with the firstfruits of the Spirit, against whom the devil can do nothing. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 216:It is through the body that everything comes to the mind. It is through and with your body that you have to reach realization of being a spark of divinity. How can we neglect the temple of the spirit? ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 217:Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 218:I really believe that what we finally want is to know God, as God has come to be known through Jesus. Knowledge is knowledge of the heart - the Spirit - I would say. It is the Spirit in us who reveals God. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 219:Children must grow not only in the body but in the spirit, and the mother longs to follow the mysterious spiritual journey of the beloved one who to-morrow will be the intelligent, divine creation, man. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 220:Yes, there are siddha powers. Yes, you can heal people, transform attention. You can flood the sky with light at night so you can't even see the stars. But the greatest miracle is the spirit - it is light ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 221:In the psychological realm of relationship between teacher and child, the teacher's part and its techniques are analogous to those of the valet; they are to serve, and to serve well: to serve the spirit. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 222:Look after the root of the tree, and the fragrant flower and luscious fruits will grow by themselves. Look after the health of the body, and the fragrance of the mind and richness of the spirit will follow. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 223:What has happened to the dreams of the United Nations' founders? What has happened to the spirit which created the United Nations? The answer is clear: Governments got in the way of the dreams of the people. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 224:Humility may well be one of the most difficult of the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in us - and to maintain. That's because without humility, it's not likely that you will put your complete trust in God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 225:Let the spirit out - Discard all thoughts of reward, all hopes of praise and fears of blame, all awareness of one's bodily self. And, finally closing the avenues of sense perception, let the spirit out, as it will. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 226:Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove 227:Zen professes to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. When Zen is thoroughly understood, absolute peace of mind is attained, and a man lives as he should live. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 228:Tantra is spiritual, not religious. It deals with the spirit. Religion is just an applied body of doctrines that's believed or not believed by one or more individuals. Spirituality is the science of metaphysics. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 229:Where does the body end and the mind begin? Where does the mind end and the spirit begin? They cannot be divided as they are inter-related and but different aspects of the same all-pervading divine consciousness. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 230:The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine... . If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 231:Abraham Lincoln - the spirit incarnate of those who won victory in the Civil War - was the true representative of this people, not only for his own generation, but for all time, because he was a man among men. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 232:Prana is implicate to matter but explicate to mind; mind is implicate to prana but explicate to soul; soul is implicate to mind but explicate to spirit; and the spirit is the source and suchness of the entire sequence. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 233:Whenever I work on a film, I have three rules. Only three and I tell them to every screenwriter. I say let's retain the spirit and the intent of the overall story. Let's make it the best film that we possibly can. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 234:The real preparation for education is a study of one's self. The training of the teacher... is something far more than a learning of ideas. It includes the training of character; it is a preparation of the spirit. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 235:What is it in you that brings you to a spiritual teacher in the first place? It's not the spirit in you, since that is already enlightened, and has no need to seek. No, it is the ego in you that brings you to a teacher. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 236:Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 237:The spirit of brotherhood recognizes of necessity both the need of self-help and also the need of helping others in the only way which every ultimately does great god, that is, of helping them to help themselves. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 238:When the Spirit illuminates the heart, then a part of the man sees which never saw before; a part of him knows which never knew before, and that with a kind of knowing which the most acute thinker cannot imitate. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 239:The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 240:People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 241:The surest foundation in which this perfection may rest is humility; whatever here crawls in the deepest abjectness, that the Spirit lifts to the very heights of God, for love brings suffering and suffering brings love. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 242:Those seeking the life of the spirit should be cheerful and free, and not neglect recreation. Married people must act in conformity with their vocation& 243:She saw the myriad gods, and beyond God his own ineffable eternity; she saw that there were ranges of life beyond our present life, ranges of mind beyond our present mind and above these she saw the splendors of the spirit. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 244:The spirit is the cause of all our thoughts and body-action, and everything, but it is untouched by good or evil, pleasure or pain, heat of cold, and all the dualism of nature, although it lends its light to everything. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 245:Spirit is the essence of consciousness, the energy of the universe that creates all things. Each one of us is a part of that spirit - a divine entity. So the spirit is the higher self, the eternal being that lives within us. ~ shakti-gawain, @wisdomtrove 246:The seven deadly sins... food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven millstones from man's neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones are lifted. ~ george-bernard-shaw, @wisdomtrove 247:Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 248:As God talked with Arjuna, so will He talk with you. As He lifted up the spirit and consciousness of Arjuna, so will He uplift you. As he granted Arjuna supreme spiritual vision, so will He confer enlightenment on you. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 249:I had assumed that the Earth, the spirit of the Earth, noticed exceptions-those who wantonly damage it and those who do not. But the Earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 250:The human mind cannot go beyond the gift of God, the Holy Ghost. To suppose that art can go beyond the finest specimens of art that are now in the world is not knowing what art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the spirit. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 251:It is required of every man," the ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 252:The spirit of the West, of America, is different than the East. The cultural conditioning is very different. It seems to be harder for people to work in teams, more difficult for people here to live in harmony, in a monastery. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 253:You can know everything that the books have to say, but ultimately it boils down to whether we do the inner work of devotion and surrender, whether we can put aside our own agendas and allow the spirit to move through us. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 254:If the spirit has passed through a great many sensations, possibly it can no longer be sated with them, but grows more excited, and demands more sensations, and stronger and stronger ones, until at length it falls exhausted. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 255:I have an increasing sense that the most important crisis of our time is spiritual and that we need places where people can grow stronger in the spirit and be able to integrate the emotional struggles in their spiritual journeys. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 256:Our works are the mirror wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments. Hence, too, the folly of that impossible precept, Know theyself; till it be translated into this partially possible one, know what thou canst work at. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 257:There comes a time in the evolution of every soul when the chief concern is no longer the survival of the physical body, but the growth of the spirit; no longer the attainment of worldly success, but the realization of Self. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 258:We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 259:When the Holy Spirit is in full control of our lives, He will expect our obedience to the written Word of God. But it is part of our human problem that we would like to be full of the Spirit and yet go on and do as we please! ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 260:Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Whatever is superadded or violently torn away, injures the wholesomeness of the spirit. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 261:Seek the truly practical life, but seek it in such a way that it does not blind you to the spirit working in it. Seek the spirit, but seek it not out of spiritual greed, but so that you may apply it in the genuinely practical life. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 262:The Yogi conquers the body by the practice of asanas, making the body a fit vehicle for the spirit. The Yogi knows that it is a necessary vehicle for the spirit, for a soul without a body is like a bird deprived of its power to fly. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 263:I feel sorry for the man who has never known the bracing thrill of taking a stand and sticking to it fearlessly. Moral courage has rewards that timidity can never imagine. Like a shot of adrenaline, it floods the spirit with vitality. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 264:I must pour out my heart in the language which his Spirit gives me; and more than that, I must trust in the Spirit to speak the unutterable groanings of my spirit, when my lips cannot actually express all the emotions of my heart. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 265:Our manners, our civilization, and all the good things connected with manners and civilization, have, in this European world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles: I mean the spirit of a gentleman, and the spirit of religion. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 266:Each individual human being can claim the Spirit of Jesus as the guiding spirit of his or her life. In that Spirit we can speak and act freely and confidently with the knowledge that the same Spirit that inspired Jesus is inspiring us. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 267:[The spirit of party] serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 268:What seems real to the mind can be as important as any material fact. We live by the spirit and the imagination as well as by our senses. Cartoon animation can give fantasy the same reality as those things we can touch and see and hear. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 269:And only the very courageous will be able to keep alive the spirit of individualism and dissent which gave birth to this nation, nourished it as an infant, and carried it through its severest tests upon the attainment of its maturity. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 270:The priest is not made. He must be born a priest; must inherit his office. I refer to the new birth-the birth of water and the Spirit. Thus all Christians must became priests, children of God and co-heirs with Christ the Most High Priest. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 271:The soul loves to meditate, for in contact with the Spirit lies its greatest joy. If, then you experience mental resistance during meditation, remember that reluctance to meditate comes from the ego; it doesn't belong to the soul. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 272:Each of us, if we would grow, must be committed to excellence. The championships, the money, the color; all of these things linger only in the memory. It is the spirit, the will to excel, the will to win; these are the things that endure. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 273:Jesus invites us to abide in his love. That means to dwell with all that I am in him. It is an invitation to a total belonging, to full intimacy, to an unlimited being-with. The light of the Spirit reveals to us that love conquers all fear. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 274:In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule; because ridicule, I suppose is an attitude of defiance: we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 275:Copying is slavery. The letter must never be followed, only the spirit is to be grasped. Higher affirmations live in the spirit. And where is the spirit? Seek it in your everyday experience, and therein lies abundance of proof for all you need. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 276:The good Christian should beware the mathematician and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 277:To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 278:Socialists ignore the side of man that is the spirit. They can provide you shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you're ill, all the things guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we also dream. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 279:Rebuilding us. Isn't that what the spirit requires, when we climb over the wreckage of our lives, sometimes, we go on to make our lives our own affirmation? We are perfect expressions of perfect Love, here and now. There is no permanent injury. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 280:From of old the things that have acquired unity are these: Heaven by unity has become clear; Earth by unity has become steady; The Spirit by unity has become spiritual; The Valley by unity has become full; All things by unity have come into existence. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 281:A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else's way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 282:No matter what the circumstances, we Christians should keep our heads. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind. It is a dismal thing to see a son of heaven cringe in terror before the sons of earth. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 283:Let all the & 284:Thou mayest rule over sin,' Lee. That's it. I do not believe all men are destroyed. I can name you a dozen who were not, and they are the ones the world lives by. It is true of the spirit as it is true of battles ‚î only the winners are remembered. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 285:The magic is as wide as a smile and as narrow as a wink, loud as laughter and quiet as a tear, tall as a tale and deep as emotion. So strong, it can lift the spirit. So gentle, it can touch the heart. It is the magic that begins the happily ever after. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 286:The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 287:Dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life; they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 288:It is remarkable, all that men can swallow. For a good ten minutes I read a newspaper. I allowed the spirit of an irresponsible man who chews and munches another's words in his mouth, and gives them out again undigested, to enter into me through my eyes. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 289:Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless. As an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 290:The spirit for me is the eternal self. And when one incarnates, an aspect comes with that incarnation, that's called the soul. And together the mind, the emotional body, and the soul form the energy field that lives within this thing called the human body. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 291:The spirit of the place is a strange thing. Our mechanical age tries to override it. But it does not succeed. In the end the strange, sinister spirit of the place, so diverse and adverse in differing places, will smash our mechanical oneness into smithereens. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 292:The heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility. You can only acquire right knowledge when you have learnt to esteem it. Man has certainly the right to turn his eyes to the light, but he must first acquire this right. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 293:It is not the child as a physical but as a psychic being that can provide a strong impetus to the betterment of mankind. It is the spirit of the child that can determine the course of human progress and lead it perhaps even to a higher form of civilization. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 294:We must live our lives in such a way that our children, and their children after them, will form a natural and lasting commitment to the vigorous life. Only in this way can we be assured that the spirit and strength of America will be constantly replenished.. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 295:The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy. The smoke hung sluggishly above the chimney-tops as if it lacked the courage to rise, and the rain came slowly and doggedly down, as if it had not even the spirit to pour. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 296:Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 297:Beautiful sights arouse feelings of love, and contrary sights bring feelings of disgrace and hate. And the emotions of the soul and spirit bring something additional to the body itself, which exists under the control of the soul and the direction of the spirit. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 298:I have been wounded but not yet slain. I shall lie here and bleed awile. Then I shall rise and fight again. The title of champion may from time to time fall to others more than ourselves. But the heart, the spirit, and the soul of champions remains in Green Bay. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 299:The spirit for me is the eternal self. And when one incarnates, an aspect comes with that incarnation, that's called the soul. And together the mind, the emotional body, and the soul form the energy field that lives within this thing called the human body. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 300:Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat... Never take yourself too seriously. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 301:One has a more practical survival level, that's the mind function. The heart function obviously has an internal level that has to do with the quality of developing perceptions, feelings, the self. And the spirit level has to do with the pondering part of our lives. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 302:Poetry is the universal art of the spirit which has become free in itself and which is not tied down for its realization to external sensuous material; instead, it launches out exclusively in the inner space and the inner time of ideas and feelings. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 303:Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh... .Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 304:I cannot copy nature in a servile way; I am forced to interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture. From the relationship I have found in all the tones there must result a living harmony of colors, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 305:I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, & 306:Most commonly revolt is born of material circumstances; but insurrection is always a moral phenomenon. Revolt is Masaniello, who led the Neapolitan insurgents in 1647; but insurrection is Spartacus. Insurrection is a thing of the spirit, revolt is a thing of the stomach. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 307:Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 308:One has a more practical survival level, that's the mind function. The heart function obviously has an internal level that has to do with the quality of developing perceptions, feelings, the self. And the spirit level has to do with the pondering part of our lives. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 309:This consciousness of the reality of & 310:Religions are institutions that push you up the mountain and then they have their fantasies about the spirit. I mean they try to make God like the human psyche and it's wrong. I mean it's a projection of the mind, and you can use it to get a start and then you must leave it behind. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 311:... Arthur Gride, whose bleared eyes gloated only over the outward beauties, and were blind to the spirit which reigned within, evinced - a fantastic kind of warmth certainly, but not exactly that kind of warmth of feeling which the contemplation of virtue usually inspires. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 312:It had never gotten old for him, flying. Never gone boring. Every engine start was a new adventure, guiding the spirit of a lovely machine back into life; every takeoff blending his spirit with its own to do what's never been done in history, to lift away from the ground and fly. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 313:I think the idea that women have all this wonderful emotion is a myth, as well as the fact that men do not. I mean, people are people. What is happening across the board is that the recognition that emotions, and the spirit and soul play a fundamental part in the art of healing. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 314:Infinite power of the spirit, brought to bear upon matter evolves material development, made to act upon thought evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon itself makes of man a God. First, let us be Gods, and then help other to be GOds. Be and Make. Let this be our motto. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 315:The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth. The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality, and hope. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 316:Art is both the taking and giving of beauty; the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is the recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the inter-relations of these. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 317:There is a spirit in all music, the spirit has the ability to conjure up thoughts even pictures of something that happened, or you wished would happen or you anticipate happening. Music has the ability to create ideas in you and me. It has the ability to encourage us to be creative. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 318:To realize the spirit as spirit is practical religion. Everything else is good so far as it leads to this one grand idea. That realization is to be attained by renunciation, by meditation-renunciation of all the senses, cutting the knots, the chains that bind us down to matter. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 319:I think the idea that women have all this wonderful emotion is a myth, as well as the fact that men do not. I mean, people are people. What is happening across the board is that the recognition that emotions, and the spirit and soul play a fundamental part in the art of healing. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 320:I believe that there was a great age, a great epoch when man did not make war: previous to 2000 B.C. Then the self had not reallybecome aware of itself, it had not separated itself off, the spirit was not yet born, so there was no internal conflict, and hence no permanent external conflict. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 321:We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must capture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 322:In ancient times, anterior to our history, the temples of the spirit were also outwardly visible; today, because our life has become so unspiritual, they are not to be found in the world visible to external sight; yet they are present spiritually everywhere, and all who seek may find them. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 323:The Spirit of Place [does not] exert its full influence upon a newcomer until the old inhabitant is dead or absorbed. So America... . The moment the last nuclei of Red [Indian] life break up in America, then the white men will have to reckon with the full force of the demon of the continent. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 324:True politeness is the spirit of benevolence showing itself in a refined way. It is the expression of good-will and kindness. It promotes both beauty in the man who possesses it, and happiness in those who are about him. It is a religious duty, and should be a part of religious training. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 325:But when the self speaks to the self, who is speaking? The entombed soul, the spirit driven in, in, in to the central catacomb; the self that took the veil and left the world - a coward perhaps, yet somehow beautiful, as it flits with its lantern restlessly up and down the dark corridors. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 326:Find your unique talent, serve humanity with it, and you can generate all the wealth that you want. When your creative expressions match the needs of your fellow humans, then wealth will spontaneously flow from the unmanifest into the manifest, from the realm of the spirit to the world of form. ~ deepak-chopra, @wisdomtrove 327:Life's fulfillment finds constant obstacles in its path; but those are necessary for the sake of its advance. The stream is saved from the sluggishness of its current by the perpetual opposition of the soil through which it must cut its way. The spirit of fight belongs to the genius of life. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 328:I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 329:I find that when people haven't found God and do not know the new birth and the Spirit is not on them, yet they have the ancient impulse to worship something. If they're not educated they kill a chicken and put a funny thing on their head and dance around. If they are educated they write poetry. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 330:There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 331:The proper office of religion is to regulate the heart of men, humanize their conduct, infuse the spirit of temperance, order, andobedience; and as its operation is silent, and only enforces the motives of morality and justice, it is in danger of being overlooked, and confounded with these other motives. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 332:If our prayer is ‚ÄúDear God, please use me to be of service,‚Äù then that is what we will be. And it is not for us to judge either the size or value of our gifts. Our job is to try to get out of the way, to defer to the spirit moving within us and become open channels for the flow of God’s love. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 333:The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 334:The spirit of Lincoln still lives; that spirit born of the teachings of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans, and made the captives free. In the light of this divine example, the doctrines of demagogues shiver in their chaff. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 335:... revivals (or any other spiritual gifts and graces) come only to those who want them badly enough. It may be said without qualification that every man is as holy and as full of the Spirit as he wants to be. He may not be as full as he wishes he were, but he is most certainly as full as he wants to be. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 336:The greatest, strongest, mightiest plea for the church of God in the world is the existence of the Spirit of God in its midst, and the works of the Spirit of God are the true evidences of Christianity. They say miracles are withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is the standing miracle of the church of God to-day. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 337:To speak freely of mathematics, I find it the highest exercise of the spirit; but at the same time I know that it is so useless that I make little distinction between a man who is only a mathematician and a common artisan. Also, I call it the most beautiful profession in the world; but it is only a profession. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 338:Because I have confidence in the power of truth and in the spirit, I believe in the future of mankind. Affirmation of the world and of life contains within itself an optimistic willing and hoping which can never be lost. It is, therefore, never afraid to face the dismal reality and to see it as it really is. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 339:Who did she know in Raleigh who took the time off to fix a house? Or read Whitman or Eliot, finding images in the mind, thoughts of the spirit? Or hunted dawn from the bow of a canoe? These weren't the things that drove society, but she felt they shouldn't be treated as unimportant. They made living worthwhile. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 340:I can give you a spirit love, I have given you this long, long time; but not embodied passion. See, you are a nun. I have given you what I would give a holy nun... In all our relations no body enters. I do not talk to you through the senses - rather through the spirit. That is why we cannot love in the common sense. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 341:It is not one man nor a million, but the spirit of liberty that must be preserved. The waves which dash upon the shore are, one by one, broken, but the ocean conquers nevertheless. It overwhelms the Armada, it wears out the rock. In like manner, whatever the struggle of individuals, the great cause will gather strength. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 342:What is our death but a night's sleep? For as through sleep all weariness and faintness pass away and cease, and the powers of the spirit come back again, so that in the morning we arise fresh and strong and joyous; so at the Last Day we shall rise again as if we had only slept a night, and shall be fresh and strong. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 343:In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens - when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 344:What you want will pull like a magnet. Here's the other part. What for? Purpose is stronger than object. It's the & 345:The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 346:You cannot come to Christ unless the Spirit of God brings you. But what if you ignore His warnings? Then you are in the gravest danger, for some day God will no longer be speaking to you. Then it will be too late. Come to Christ while there is still time. Christ, God's greater Ark, stands ready to welcome you to safety today. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 347:& 348:Look here ‚Äî we shall all die! Bear this in mind always, and then the spirit within will wake up. Then only, meanness will vanish from you, practicality in work will come, you will get new vigour in mind and body, and those who come in contact with you will also feel that they have really got something uplifting from you. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 349:The life of the spirit is the expression of Infinity and, as such, knows no artificial limits. True spirituality is not to be mistaken for an exclusive enthusiasm for some fad. It is not concerned with any "ism." When people seek spirituality apart from life, as if it had nothing to do with the material world, their search is futile. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 350:The spirit of God, like the sun, always gives all its light at once. The spirit of man resembles the pale moon, which has its phases, its absences and its returns, its lucidity and its spots, its fullness and its disappearance, which borrows all its light from the rays of the sun, and which still dares to intercept them on occasion. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 351:Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as hard duty. Never regard study as duty but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 352:Because we are spiritual beings, it is the spirit of what we do that determines how much fulfilment we derive. You can be going through all the motions and doing all the appropriate and expected actions, but if you are empty or absent inside, your deeds mean little. Only soul satisfaction can fulfil you; everything else will leave you hungry. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 353:The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows... ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 354:To permit every lawless capitalist, every law-defying corporation, to take any action, no matter how iniquitous, in the effort to secure an improper profit and to build up privilege, would be ruinous to the Republic and would mark the abandonment of the effort to secure in the industrial world the spirit of democratic fair dealing. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 355:We all know the tragedy of the dustbowls, the cruel unforgivable erosions of the soil, the depletion of fish or game, and the shrinking of the noble forests. And we know that such catastrophes shrivel the spirit of the people... The wilderness is pushed back, man is everywhere. Solitude, so vital to the individual man, is almost nowhere. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 356:We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 357:Art is a window to The Infinite, and opening to the goddess, a portal through which you and I, with the help of the artist, may discover depths and heights of our soul undreamed of by the vulgar world. Art is the eye of the spirit, through which the sublime can reach down to us, and we up to it, and be transformed, transfigured in the process. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 358:So much of truth, only under an ancient obsolete vesture, but the spirit of it still true, do I find in the Paganism of old nations. Nature is still divine, the revelation of the workings of God; the Hero is still worshipable: this, under poor cramped incipient forms, is what all Pagan religions have struggled, as they could, to set forth. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 359:There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, & 360:If you have to be reasoned into Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it! If you come to Christ by a flash of the Holy Spirit so that by intuition you know that you are God's child, you know it by the text but you also know it by the inner light, the inner illumination of the Spirit, and no one can ever reason you out of it. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 361:The life of any one can by no means be changed after death; an evil life can in no wise be converted into a good life, or an infernal into an angelic life: because every spirit, from head to foot, is of the character of his love, and therefore, of his life; and to convert this life into its opposite, would be to destroy the spirit utterly. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 362:What is of the nature of spirit and soul must be gleaned from facts belonging to the spirit and soul; we shall then know that in the living thinking which is liberated from the will, a life-germ has been discerned which passes through the gate of death, goes through the spiritual world after death, and afterwards returns again to earthly life. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 363:A mathematician of the first rank, Laplace quickly revealed himself as only a mediocre administrator; from his first work we saw that we had been deceived. Laplace saw no question from its true point of view; he sought subtleties everywhere; had only doubtful ideas, and finally carried the spirit of the infinitely small into administration. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 364:Non-violence means dialogue, using our language, the human language. Dialogue means compromise; respecting each other’s rights; in the spirit of reconciliation there is a real solution to conflict and disagreement. There is no hundred percent winner, no hundred percent loser—not that way but half-and-half. That is the practical way, the only way. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 365:Just as people can watch spellbound a circus artist tumbling through the air in a phosphorized costume, so they can listen to a preacher who uses the Word of God to draw attention to himself. But a sensational preacher stimulates the senses and leaves the spirit untouched. Instead of being the way to God, his & 366:That's the beauty of backbends. Emotionally we can never be disturbed, for the emotional centre becomes an extrovert. When you do Viparita Dandasana, your head looks backwards, but your conscious mind stretches everywhere. Study by observing how the mind gets regulated. You not only know the freedom in the spine, but also the freedom in the spirit. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 367:This little separate self must die. Then we shall find that we are in the Real, and that Real is God, and He is our own true nature, and He is always in us and with us. Let us live in Him and stand in Him. It is the only joyful state of existence. Life on the plane of the Spirit is the only life, and let us all try to attain to this realization. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 368:Who cares for your bhakti and mukti? Who cares what your scriptures say? I will go into a thousand hells cheerfully if I can rouse my countrymen, immersed in tamas, to stand on their own feet and be men inspired with the spirit of karma-yoga. I am a follower only of he or she who serves and helps others without caring for his own bhakti and mukti! ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 369:Any political movement directed against any body of our fellow-citizens because of their religious creed is a grave offense against American principles and American institutions. It is a wicked thing either to support or oppose a man because of the creed he possesses. . . . Such a movement directly contravenes the spirit of the Constitution itself. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 370:When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact... that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 371:The purpose of music is to elevate the spirit and inspire. Not to help push some product down your throat. It puts you in tune with your own existence. Sometimes you really don't know how you feel, but really good music can define how you feel... someone who's telling me where he's been that I haven't and what it's like there - somebody whose life I can feel. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 372:When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact... that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters... ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 373:When we raise ourselves through meditation to what unites us with the spirit, we quicken something within us that is eternal and unlimited by birth and death. Once we have experienced this eternal part in us, we can no longer doubt its existence. Meditation is thus the way to knowing and beholding the eternal, indestructible, essential centre of our being. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 374:In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But theworks of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 375:The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts& 376:Storytelling is how we survive, when there's no feed, the story feeds something, it feeds the spirit, the imagination. I can't imagine life without stories, stories from my parents, my culture. Stories from other people's parents, their culture. That's how we learn from each other, it's the best way. That's why literature is so important, it connects us heart to heart. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 377:The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 378:It is by the Holy Spirit that we love those who are united to us in Christ. The more plentifully we have received of the Spirit of Christ, the more perfectly we are able to love them: and the more we love them the more we receive the Spirit. It is clear, however, that since we love them by the Spirit Who is given to us by Jesus, it is Jesus Himself Who loves them in us. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 379:And the small ripple spilt upon the beach Scarcely o'erpass'd the cream of your champagne, When o'er the brim the sparkling bumpers reach, That spring-dew of the spirit! the heart's rain! Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please,‚Äîthe more because they preach in vain,‚Äî Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 380:My job is simply to proclaim the Gospel, and to let the Spirit of God apply in the individual hearts. When I give the invitation for people to receive Christ it will be so quiet you can hear a pin drop. And you will see people coming forward deliberately, quietly, reverently, thoughtfully, and many of their lives. . . . will have been transformed and changed in that moment. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 381:We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 382:Beerbohm in his way is perfect ... He has brought personality into literature, not unconsciously and impurely, but so consciously and purely that we do not know whether there is any relation between Max the essayist and Mr. Beerbohm the man. We only know that the spirit of personality permeates every word that he writes ... He is without doubt the prince of his profession. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 383:Every man who speaks out loud and clear is tinting the "Zeitgeist." Every man who expresses what he honestly thinks is true is changing the Spirit of the Times. Thinkers help other people to think, for they formulate what others are thinking. No person writes or thinks alone& 384:Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can only be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice. Justice requires that we carefully weigh rights and privileges and assure that each member of a community receives his due share. Love does not weigh rights and privileges too carefully because it prompts each to bear the burden of the other. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 385:Where is fate and who is fate? We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none else has the praise. We make our own destiny. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. Each must assimilate the spirit of other religion and yet preserve his individuality and follow his own law of growth. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 386:We cannot understand what happens in the universe. What is glorious in it is united with what is full of horror. What is full of meaning is united to what is senseless. The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive ‚Äî it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 387:Richard and I both believe that something transcendental is involved with the mind, consciousness, and the path of awakening—call it God, Spirit, Buddha-nature, the Ground, or by no name at all. Whatever it is, by definition it’s beyond the physical universe. Since it cannot be proven one way or another, it is important—and consistent with the spirit of science—to respect it as a possibility. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 388:Ultimately all is experience. Whatever we think, feel, do is experience. Behind it is the experiencer. So all we know consists of these two, the experiencer and the experience. But the two are really one - the experiencer alone is the experience. Still, the experiencer takes the experience to be outside. In the same way the spirit and the body are one; they only appear as two. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 389:Every piece of marble has a statue in it waiting to be released by a person of sufficient skill to chip away the unnecessary parts. Just as the sculptor is to the marble, so is education to the soul. It releases it. For only educated people are free people. You cannot create a statue by smashing the marble with a hammer, and you cannot by the force of arms release the spirit or the soul of people. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 390:To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 391:He who knows his soul knows this truth: I am beyond everything finite; I I now see that the Spirit, alone in a space with Its ever-new joy, has expressed Itself as the vast body of nature. I am the stars, I am the waves, I am the Life of all, I am the laughter within all hearts, I am the smile on the faces of the flowers and in each soul. I am the Wisdom and Power that sustain all creation. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 392:We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone (We) have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 393:A total spiritual direction given to the whole life and the whole nature can alone lift humanity beyond itself. . . It is only the full emergence of the soul, the full descent of the native light and power of the Spirit and the consequent replacement or transformation and uplifting of our insufficient mental and vital nature by a spiritual and supramental Supernature that can effect this evolutionary miracle. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 394:I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 395:Learn obedience first. Among these Western nations, with such a high spirit of independence, the spirit of obedience is equally strong. We are all of us self-important, which never produces any work. Great enterprise, boundless courage, tremendous energy, and, above all, perfect obedience; these are the only traits that lead to individual and national regeneration. These traits are altogether lacking in us. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 396:The essence of spirituality does not consist in a specialised or narrow interest in some imagined part of life, but in a certain enlightened attitude to all the various situations which obtain in life. It covers and includes the whole of life. All the material things of this world can be made subservient to the divine game, and when they are thus subordained they become auxiliary to the self-affirmation of the spirit. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 397:I say, of the Congress, then, this - that its aims are mistaken, that the spirit in which it proceeds towards their accomplishment is not a spirit of sincerity and whole-heartedness, and that the methods it has chosen are not the right methods, and the leaders in whom it trusts, not the right sort of men to be leaders; - in brief, that we are at present the blind led, if not by the blind, at any rate by the one-eyed. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 398:A man who fears not God, will break all his laws with an easy conscience, but one who is the favorite of heaven, who has been indulged to sit at royal banquets, who knows the eternal love of God to him, cannot bear that there should be any evil way in him that might grieve the Spirit and bring dishonor to the name of Christ. A very little sin, as the world calls it, is a very great sin to a truly awakened Christian. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 399:We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 400:Every philosophy is complete in itself and, like a genuine work of art, contains the totality. Just as the works of Apelles and Sophocles, if Raphael and Shakespeare had known them, should not have appeared to them as mere preliminary exercises for their own work, but rather as a kindred force of the spirit, so, too reason cannot find in its own earlier forms mere useful preliminary exercises for itself. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 401:This state of & 402:Man is not by any means of fixed and enduring form (this, in spite of suspicions to the contrary on the part of their wise men, was the ideal of the ancients). He is nothing else than the narrow and perilous bridge between nature and spirit. His innermost destiny drives him on to the spirit and to God. His innermost longing draws him back to nature, the mother. Between the two forces his life hangs tremulous and irresolute. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 403:A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of [circumstances]... The man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader. The true leader will have no desire to lord it over God's heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-sacrificing and altogether ready to follow when the Spirit chooses another to lead. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 404:People who have known the joy of God point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real Presence of God. They discover that there are people who heal each other's wounds, forgive each other's offenses, share their possessions, foster the spirit of community, celebrate the gifts they have received, and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God's Glory. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 405:We need less posturing and more genuine charisma. Charisma was originally a religious term, meaning "of the spirit" or "inspired." It's about letting God's light shine through us. It's about a sparkle in people that money can't buy. It's an invisible energy with visible effects. To let go, to just love, is not to fade into the wallpaper. Quite the contrary, it's when we truly become bright. We're letting our own light shine. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 406:There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true, and, in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 407:When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our fellow people, regardless of race, color, or creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human brother- and sisterhood, until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 408:Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 409:Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.' Valjean, who did not recall having made any promise, was silent. The bishop had spoken the words slowly and deliberately. He concluded with a solemn emphasis: Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to what is evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 410:Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 411:I am a deeply religious person, but I belong to no denomination. I follow the spirit of God's law, not the letter of the law. One can become so attached to the outward symbols and structure of religion that one forgets its original intent - to bring one closer to God. We can only gain access to the Kingdom of God by realizing it dwells within us as well as in all humanity. Know that we are all cells in the ocean of infinity, each contributing to the others' welfare. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 412:Q: But ultimately is there a world, or is there none? M: What you see is nothing but your self. Call it what you like, it does not change the fact. Through the film of destiny your own light depicts pictures on the screen. You are the viewer, the light, the picture and the screen. Even the film of destiny is self-selected and self-imposed. The spirit is a sport and enjoys to overcome obstacles. The harder the task the deeper and wider his self-realisation. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 413:As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the rays of God's light and fire to a point that sets fire to the spirit of man. ... Through the glass of His Incarnation He concentrates the rays of His Divine Truth and Love upon us so that we feel the burn, and all mystical experience is communicated to men through the Man Christ. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 414:Deep religious beliefs stemming from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible inspired many of the early settlers of our country, providing them with the strength, character, convictions, and faith necessary to withstand great hardship and danger in this new and rugged land. These shared beliefs helped forge a sense of common purpose among the widely dispersed colonies - a sense of community which laid the foundation for the spirit of nationhood that was to develop in later decades. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 415:The factory of love encompasses all, but on some days, does it seem to be one of suffocation, squeezing its target too tightly? And on other days not tight enough? Or maybe that is the breath of a living love knowing when to protect, when to release, and when to protect again. For we are the products of an active love - the Father the creator, the Son the perfecter, the Spirit the supervisor - but just like in a factory, to deny the process is to ultimately create a defect of oneself. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 416:It is said that the Christian mystic Theresa of Avila found difficulty at first in reconciling the vastness of the life of the spirit with the mundane tasks of her Carmelite convent: the washing of pots, the sweeping of floors, the folding of laundry. At some point of grace, the mundane became for her a sort of prayer, a way she could experience her ever-present connection to the divine pattern which is the source of life. She began then to see the face of God in the folded sheets. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 417:In Romans 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 418:You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need. We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 419:Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things. Even with the best of intentions a spiritual man finds himself exhausted and deadened and debased by the constant noise of machines and loudspeakers, the dead air and the glaring lights of offices and shops, the everlasting suggestion of advertising and propaganda. The whole mechanism of modern life is geared for a flight from God and from the spirit into the wilderness of neurosis. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 420:Man stands in materialism; you and I are materialists. Our talking about God and Spirit is good; but it is simply the vogue in our society to talk thus: we have learnt it parrot-like and repeat it. So we have to take ourselves where we are as materialists, and must take the help of matter and go on slowly until we become real spiritualists, and feel ourselves spirits, understand the spirit, and find that this world which we call the infinite is but a gross external form of that world which is behind. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 421:When I think of New York I have a very different feeling. New York makes even a rich man feel his unimportance. New York is cold, glittering, malign. The buildings dominate. There is a sort of atomic frenzy to the activity going on; the more furious the pace, the more diminished the spirit. A constant ferment, but it might just as well be going on in a test tube. Nobody knows what it's all about. Nobody directs the energy. Stupendous. Bizarre, Baffling. A tremendous reactive urge, but absolutely uncoordinated. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 422:Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again. That is why every man's story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 423:We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals... The tragic results of this spirit all all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies... the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities... .salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 424:Everyone had some defect, or body or of mind: he thought of all the people he had known (the whole world was like a sick house and there was no rhyme or reason in it), he saw a long procession, deformed in body, warped in mind, some with illness of the flesh, weak hearts or weak lungs, and some with illness of the spirit, languor of will, or craving for liquor. At that moment he felt a holy compassion for them all. ¶The words of the dying God crossed his memory: Forgive them, for they know not what they do. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 425:How we sit within the body is an extremely important part of the spiritual journey. The body itself is used either by the spirit within us, or by the fear-based mind. When it is used by the spirit, then it is a thing of holiness. How we dwell within it, how we treat it, and how we use it in relationship to other aspects of the planet is extremely important. When we use the body without reverence, we are destructive elements on the planet. We become destructive to ourselves, to other life forms, and to the earth. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 426:When we complain of having to do the same thing over and over, let us remember that God does not send new trees, strange flowers and different grasses every year. When the spring winds blow, they blow in the same way. In the same places the same dear blossoms lift up the same sweet faces, yet they never weary us. When it rains, it rains as it always has. Even so would the same tasks which fill our daily lives put on new meanings if we wrought them in the spirit of renewal from within& 427:The task of art is to take hold of the shining, the radiance, the manifestation, of that which as spirit weaves and lives throughout the world. All genuine art seeks the spirit. Even when art wishes to represent the ugly, the disagreeable, it is concerned, not with the sensory - disagreeable as such, but with the spiritual which proclaims its nature in the midst of unpleasantness. If the spiritual shines through the ugly, even the ugly becomes beautiful. In art it is upon a relation to the spiritual that beauty depends. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 428:The constantly recurring question must be: What shall we unite with and from what shall we separate? The question of coexistence does not enter here, but the question of union and fellowship does. The wheat grows in the same field as the tares, but shall the two cross-pollinate? The sheep graze near the goats, but shall they seek to interbreed? The unjust and the just enjoy the same rain and sunshine, but shall they forget their deep moral differences and intermarry? ... The Spirit-illuminated church will have none of this ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 429:Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another. In governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 430:The pie should be eaten "while it is yet florescent, white or creamy yellow, with the merest drip of candied juice along the edges, (as if the flavor were so good to itself that its own lips watered!) of a mild and modest warmth, the sugar suggesting jelly, yet not jellied, the morsels of apple neither dissolved nor yet in original substance, but hanging as it were in a trance between the spirit and the flesh of applehood... then, O blessed man, favored by all the divinities! eat, give thanks, and go forth, & 431:The Spirit of God bears no witness to Christless sermons. Leave Jesus out of your preaching, and the Holy Spirit will never come upon you. Why should he? Has he not come on purpose that he may testify of Christ? Did not Jesus say, ‚ÄòHe shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you'? Yes, the subject was Christ, and nothing but Christ, and such is the teaching which the Spirit of God will own. Be it ours never to wander from this central point: may we determine to know nothing among men but Christ and his cross. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 432:Rational thinking which is free from assumptions ends therefore in mysticism. To relate oneself in the spirit of reverence for life to the multiform manifestations of the will-to-live which together constitute the world is ethical mysticism. All profound world-view is mysticism, the essence of which is just this: that out of my unsophisticated and na√Øve existence in the world there comes, as a result of thought about self and the world, spiritual self-devotion to the mysterious infinite Will which is continuously manifested in the universe. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 433:Even if it be true that all these shapes, and forms, and appearances, and phenomena, and personalities, be but illusion as compared to the inner Reality— what of it? Are you not then assured that the Spirit within Yourself is the Spirit of the Absolute— that the Reality within You is the Reality of the Absolute— that you ARE, because the Absolute IS, and cannot be otherwise? Does not the Peace, and Calm, and Security, and Bliss that comes to you with this Realization, far more than counterbalance the petty nothings that you have discarded? ~ william-walker-atkinson, @wisdomtrove 434:The Inner Teachings of all great religions contain references to a Silent Place of the Soul in which the Individual Spirit communes with the Infinite Spirit of Life. Many are the references to the Inner Chamber, the door to which will be opened to him who gives the Right Knock. Many are the admonitions to “Enter into thine Inner Chamber and shut the Door.” This Inner Chamber is not the physical place which so many have considered it to be. It is the Quiet Place of the Soul— the Sanctuary of the Spirit— the state of Spiritual Consciousness. ~ william-walker-atkinson, @wisdomtrove 435:Every growth of spiritual life, from the first tender shoot until now, has been the work of the Holy Spirit... . The only way to more life is the Holy Spirit. You will not even know that you want more unless He works in you to desire it... . The Spirit of God must come and make the letter alive, transfer it to your heart, set it on fire, and make it burn within you, or else its divine force and majesty will be hid from your eyes... . Prayer is the creation of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do without prayer, and we cannot pray without the Holy Spirit. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 436:And then the spirit brings hope, hope in the strictest Christian sense, hope which is hoping against hope. For an immediate hope exists in every person; it may be more powerfully alive in one person than in another; but in death every hope of this kind dies and turns into hopelessness. Into this night of hopelessness (it is death that we are describing) comes the life-giving spirit and brings hope, the hope of eternity. It is against hope, for there was no longer any hope for that merely natural hope; this hope is therefore a hope contrary to hope. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 437:It is the Spirit of Christ in us that will draw satan's fire. The people of the world will not much care what we believe and they will stare vacantly at our religious forms, but there is one thing they will never forgive us-the presence of God's Spirit in our hearts. They may not know the cause of that strange feeling of antagonism which rises within them, but it will be nonetheless real and dangerous. satan will never cease to make war on the Man-child, and the soul in which dwells the Spirit of Christ will continue to be the target for his attacks. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 438:Grace is from God, and works in the depth of the soul whose powers it employs. It is a light which issues forth to do service under the guidance of the Spirit. The Divine Light permeates the soul, and lifts it above the turmoil of temporal things to rest in God. The soul cannot progress except with the light which God has given it as a nuptial gift; love works the likeness of God into the soul. The peace, freedom and blessedness of all souls consist in their abiding in God's will. Towards this union with God for which it is created the soul strives perpetually. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 439:Because the Holy Spirit is God, we feel Him as He controls our circumstances and transforms our lives. When He does that, He uses us. He melts us in relationships. He molds us in the pursuit and the direction of His will. He fills us with power and the perseverance to keep at it. He uses as He controls our circumstances and transforms our lives. Ask the Spirit of God to use you, just as you are, with the gifts and abilities that He's given you. Secure in the confidence that God is in control of your life, you will be free to serve Him with joy and effectiveness. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 440:But where is this true possession of God, whereby we really possess him, to be found? This real possession of God is to be found in the heart, in an inner motion of the spirit towards him and striving for him, and not just in thinking about him always and in the same way. For that would be beyond the capacity of our nature and would be very difficult to achieve and would not even be the best thing to do. We should not content ourselves with the God of thoughts for, when the thoughts come to an end, so too shall God. Rather, we should have a living God who is beyond the thoughts of all people and all creatures. That kind of God will not leave us, unless we ourselves choose to turn away from him. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 441:The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality - the man who lives to serve others - is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit. The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man, and he degrades the conception of love. But that is the essence of altruism ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 442:TRY: During the day, see if you can detect the bloom of the present moment in every moment, the ordinary ones, the in-between ones, even the hard ones. Work at allowing more things to unfold in your life without forcing them to happen and without rejecting the ones that don’t fit your idea of what should be happening. See if you can sense the spaces through which you might move with no effort in the spirit of Chuang Tzu’s cook. Notice how if you can make some time early in the day for being, with no agenda, it can change the quality of the rest of your day. By affirming first what is primary in your own being, see if you don’t get a mindful jump on the whole day and wind up more capable of sensing, appreciating, and responding to the bloom of each moment. ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove 443:I know that if I said today, "How many of you would like to have me pray for you to have self control?" I could stay here and pray for people to have self control until midnight tonight. How many of you would stay if I would just lay hands on you and pray for you to have self control? Well, you know what, it would be a waste of time! Because, you are not going to have self control because somebody prays for you to have self control. You already have self control. It is in you as a fruit of the spirit, but it's a little teeny tiny little seed. And, nobody else can develop your fruit of the spirit. Nobody can develop your peace but you. Nobody can develop your joy but you. Nobody can develop your patience but you. Nobody can develop your discipline and self control but you. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 444:Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth ~ andrew-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 445:When I rest in simple, clear, ever-present awareness, I am resting in intrinsic Spirit; I am in fact nothing other than witnessing Spirit itself. I do not become Spirit; I simply recognize the Spirit that I always already am. When I rest in simple, clear, ever-present awareness, I am the Witness of the World. I am the eye of Spirit. I see the world as God sees it. I see the world as the Goddess sees it. I see the world as Spirit sees it: every object an object of Beauty, every thing and event a gesture of the Great Perfection, every process a ripple in the pond of my own eternal Being, so much so that I do not stand apart as a separate witness, but find the witness is one taste with all that arises within it. The entire Kosmos arises in the eye of Spirit, in the I of Spirit, in my own intrinsic awareness, this simple ever-present state, and I am simply that. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 446:When someone's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which it derives from the spiritual world), then we say that the individual has died. This happens when the lungs' breathing and the heart's systolic motion have ceased. The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are. We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Bible, "death" means resurrection and a continuation of life. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 447:Be silent and listen: have you recognised your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognise your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life... If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature... Be glad that you can recognise it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:keep in step with the Spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
2:The spirit of a youth ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
3:Quench not the spirit. ~ I Thessalonians V. 19, #NFDB
4:Never the spirit was born, ~ Emma Curtis Hopkins, #NFDB
5:There is a community of the spirit . . . ~ Rumi, #NFDB
6:The spirit gone, man is garbage. ~ Joseph Heller, #NFDB
7:This asshole is the spirit user? ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
8:Worship the spirit of criticism. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
9:It is the spirit of the quest which helps ~ Kabir, #NFDB
10:Life is a school of the spirit. ~ Stephen R Lawhead, #NFDB
11:Looking foolish does the spirit good. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
12:13When t the Spirit of truth comes, u he ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
13:The spirit is so near that you can't see it! ~ Rumi, #NFDB
14:The spirit is the true self. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
15:Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit. ~ Mark Rothko, #NFDB
16:I believe in walking in the Spirit. ~ David Wilkerson, #NFDB
17:Space for the Spirit to breathe. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
18:The hour that burst the spirit's sleep. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
19:The Spirit calls me, and I must go. ~ Sojourner Truth, #NFDB
20:That's the spirit of the revolution. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
21:The spirit is the bouquet of nature. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
22:True weakness is weakness of the spirit ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
23:A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
24:as the spirit wanes the form appears ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
25:I will show you the path to the spirit world. ~ Cao Cao, #NFDB
26:I paint the spirit and soul of what I see. ~ Brian Froud, #NFDB
27:So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”d ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
28:Vivacity is the health of the spirit. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
29:I am the Spirit that denies. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
30:Revenge is an infection of the spirit. ~ Jonathan Maberry, #NFDB
31:Where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
32:The spirit should never grow old. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith, #NFDB
33:Fasting breaks the spirit of heaviness. ~ Jentezen Franklin, #NFDB
34:That's the spirit, one part brave, three parts fool. ~ Brom, #NFDB
35:There are many faiths, but the spirit is one. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
36:The spirit of property doubles a man's strength. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
37:Addiction is perhaps a sickness of the spirit. ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
38:art as the spirit wanes the form appears. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
39:Death is birth into the realm of the spirit. ~ Mary T Browne, #NFDB
40:Life is the spirit incarnate in time. ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
41:The greater the spirit, the more one is alone. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
42:The spirit, Sir, is one of mockery. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
43:Caring for others creates the spirit of a nation. ~ Pat Nixon, #NFDB
44:helpful. The spirit is God-conscious. The soul ~ Derek Prince, #NFDB
45:Jesus, deliver me from the spirit of witchcraft! ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
46:Open the window of your heart and let the Spirit speak ~ Rumi, #NFDB
47:Presbyterians are the spirit of the Antichrist. ~ Pat Roberts, #NFDB
48:The supreme end is the freedom of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
49:The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
50:But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
51:Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
52:Perhaps true weakness is weakness of the spirit ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
53:The further left you go, the meaner the spirit ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
54:The Spirit goes ahead of us when we witness--- ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
55:The spirit of Columbus hovers over us to-day. ~ Chauncey Depew, #NFDB
56:The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness. ~ Herbie Hancock, #NFDB
57:When the spirit is willing your feet are light. ~ Jos Saramago, #NFDB
58:Don't reason in the mind just obey in the spirit. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
59:subservience of any kind is death to the spirit. ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
60:Dreams drain the spirit if we dream too long. ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
61:Even in animals there exists the spirit of their sires. ~ Horace, #NFDB
62:Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will. ~ Antonio Gramsci, #NFDB
63:Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
64:Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
65:Service is a balm to both the spirit and the body. ~ Betty Eadie, #NFDB
66:The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. ~ Mary Alice Monroe, #NFDB
67:America is the spirit of human exploration distilled. ~ Elon Musk, #NFDB
68:Drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses. ~ Henri Matisse, #NFDB
69:Faith is trust in what the spirit learned eons ago. ~ B H Roberts, #NFDB
70:For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. ~ Corinthians, #NFDB
71:for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
72:It is a pity the spirit does not grow old too. ~ Chingiz Aitmatov, #NFDB
73:I was there in the beginning and I was the spirit of love. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
74:One who lives within reason lives without the spirit ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
75:Satyagraha is an attribute of the spirit within. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
76:That which lives on reason lives against the spirit. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
77:The death of the spirit is the price of progress. ~ Eric Voegelin, #NFDB
78:Any landscape is a condition of the spirit. ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
79:Any landscape is a condition of the spirit. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
80:biblical knowledge apart from the Spirit is impotent. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
81:(Dreams drain the spirit if we dream too long.) ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
82:The spirit he has shown has been second to none. ~ Terry Venables, #NFDB
83:Ireland. Great for the spirit - very bad for the body. ~ Hugh Dancy, #NFDB
84:Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
85:noble winged pig.’” “Yes, the spirit of programming. ~ Vernor Vinge, #NFDB
86:Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth. ~ Philip James Bailey, #NFDB
87:The spirit of delight comes in small ways. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
88:You can kill the body, but not the spirit. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
89:For truth and the spirit will abide with the morrow. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
90:A doctor is nothing more than consolation for the spirit. ~ Petronius, #NFDB
91:All makers must leave room for acts of the spirit. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
92:Coquetry, it's a triumph of the spirit over the senses. ~ Coco Chanel, #NFDB
93:Love is the spirit that motivates the artist's journey. ~ Eric Maisel, #NFDB
94:Music touching my soul, the spirit dance was unfolding. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
95:Officers succumbed to the spirit of conspirators. ~ Barbara W Tuchman, #NFDB
96:The artist injects the spirit of life into a culture. ~ L Ron Hubbard, #NFDB
97:The body is a device to calculate the astronomy of the spirit. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
98:the letter means nothing until the spirit gives it life ~ Owen Wister, #NFDB
99:There's nothing a man can't do if the spirit's there. ~ Franz Stampfl, #NFDB
100:To nourish the spirit the body must also be nourished. ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
101:But I think the spirit of man is a good adversary ~ Tennessee Williams, #NFDB
102:...man is only an extension of the spirit of place. ~ Lawrence Durrell, #NFDB
103:The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices. ~ Irvin D Yalom, #NFDB
104:We need to restore the spirit of irreverence in music. ~ Pierre Boulez, #NFDB
105:When the spirit has command over the soul, that is strength. ~ Lao-tse, #NFDB
106:Can the Lord forgive me? Got the spirit of a thug in me. ~ Tupac Shakur, #NFDB
107:Freedom of the Spirit is the cornerstone of all freedom. ~ Ameen Rihani, #NFDB
108:Thats the spirit-one part brave,three parts fool. ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
109:The spirit grows sluggish when you neglect the passions. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
110:The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
111:When the spirit moves me, I can do many wondrous things. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
112:Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit ~ Jawaharlal Nehru, #NFDB
113:He must have travelled everywhere, at least in the spirit. ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
114:Insecurity of the spirit demands completeness elsewhere. ~ Peter Ackroyd, #NFDB
115:That great brow And the spirit-small hand propping it. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
116:The spirit-world around this world of sense ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, #NFDB
117:To be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by ~ Charles C Ryrie, #NFDB
118:Water is sufficient...the spirit moves over water. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
119:But the spirit of Eve is strong in all her daughters. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
120:Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru, #NFDB
121:It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh. ~ Douglas MacArthur, #NFDB
122:The spirit seeks the spirit just as matter seeks matter. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
123:A bit of exercise lifts the spirit. (The Angel's Game) ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
124:All unpleasantness should be faced with the spirit of Samata. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
125:being quick to anger sure ain’t a fruit of the Spirit. ~ Michelle Stimpson, #NFDB
126:Films made in the spirit of the past continued to be made. ~ Andrzej Wajda, #NFDB
127:He who doesn't have the spirit of his time, has all its misery. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
128:The gifts of the Spirit can be recognized by their fruits. ~ Susan Howatch, #NFDB
129:The main task of the spirit is to free man from his ego. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
130:The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support. ~ Franz Kafka, #NFDB
131:The Spirit inside of us is greater than even Jesus beside us. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
132:The spirit of the times can haunt even the atheists. ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, #NFDB
133:14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons [6] of God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
134:Aikido is the spirit of loving protection for all beings. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
135:As we live in the Spirit, we live in the process of God’s mind ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
136:Cheers the spirit, humor does, even at the darkest times. ~ Christie Golden, #NFDB
137:God considers not the action, but the spirit of the action. ~ Peter Abelard, #NFDB
138:He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
139:He who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
140:People look to me to see what the spirit of the Seventies is. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
141:To pursue science is not to disparage things of the spirit. ~ Vannevar Bush, #NFDB
142:Travel ennobles the spirit and does away with our prejudices. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
143:How very little can be done under the spirit of fear. ~ Florence Nightingale, #NFDB
144:One secures the gold of the spirit when he finds himself. ~ Claude M Bristol, #NFDB
145:Society decides when we get old. But the spirit never ages. ~ Isabel Allende, #NFDB
146:The spirit knows that its growth is the real aim of existence. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
147:The spirit of a nation is what counts-the look in its eyes. ~ Jean Giraudoux, #NFDB
148:Vibration is the core of the spirit. It is the breath of life. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
149:18†praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
150:GAL5.25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
151:I'm the spirit you couldn't kill. You have no power over me. ~ William Ritter, #NFDB
152:Love is the spirit of life, and makes all things live. ~ James Freeman Clarke, #NFDB
153:Our body is dependent on heaven and heaven on the Spirit. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
154:Religion is not a melancholy, the spirit of God is not a damper. ~ John Donne, #NFDB
155:the influence of the Spirit ~ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, #NFDB
156:The New Age orgy: The flesh was willing but the spirit's weak. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
157:The spirit of adventure sped through his soul on mighty wings. ~ Tove Jansson, #NFDB
158:The spirit of dogmatic theology poisons anything it touches. ~ Jeremy Bentham, #NFDB
159:To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit. ~ Richard M Nixon, #NFDB
160:When we forget about the Spirit, we really are forgetting God. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
161:You feel the spirit move you. I can be possessed really well. ~ River Phoenix, #NFDB
162:Destinations are less important than the spirit you bring to them. ~ Pico Iyer, #NFDB
163:If you have the spirit in you, then you must go where it takes you, ~ Jean Ure, #NFDB
164:My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
165:Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
166:What makes people interesting is the spirit that shines through. ~ Roger Ebert, #NFDB
167:You are being renewed in the spirit of your minds. Ephesians 4:23 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
168:You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit; ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
169:All wisdom is one: to understand the spirit that rules all by all. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
170:Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit. ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, #NFDB
171:Cheers the spirit, humor does, even at the darkest times. Yet ~ Christie Golden, #NFDB
172:Even if the spirit had been willing, the flesh felt a bit drooping. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
173:God is with me. Jesus is near. The Spirit is greater than my fear. ~ Ted Dekker, #NFDB
174:He who weds the spirit of the times quickly becomes a widower. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
175:I shall strive to inculculate in my men the spirit of the chase. ~ J E B Stuart, #NFDB
176:It is better to be destroyed than to triumph in slaying the spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
177:I tried to empty myself and let the spirit of Sethe inhabit me. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
178:I will play my part by singing the spirit into every open heart. ~ Bobby Womack, #NFDB
179:Ours is the Spirit of the Eucharist, the total Gift of Self. ~ Katharine Drexel, #NFDB
180:Slavery is dead, but the spirit which animated it still lives. ~ Frances Harper, #NFDB
181:The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness. ~ Muriel Rukeyser, #NFDB
182:The spirit and the form; sentiment within and symbol without. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
183:We are what we are, the spirit afterwards, but first the touch. ~ Charlotte Mew, #NFDB
184:All wisdom is one: to understand the spirit that rules all by all. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
185:Celebration happens when the mind unites with the spirit. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
186:Don't stop to paint the material, but push on to give the spirit. ~ Robert Henri, #NFDB
187:Life, the river of the Spirit, consenting to anguish and sorrow. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
188:The ego is a tool. You don't separate it. It's a tool for the spirit. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
189:2‘The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
190:A great imperative imparts a wonderful impulse to the spirit. ~ Barbara W Tuchman, #NFDB
191:in order to train the spirit you had to train both mind and body, ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
192:It is important to be still and listen and follow the Spirit. ~ M Russell Ballard, #NFDB
193:Literature is a means to delight the mind and embolden the spirit. ~ Ian Mortimer, #NFDB
194:Remember: The spirit grows sluggish when you neglect the passions. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
195:ROM8.15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
196:Self-esteem is as necessary to the spirit as food is to the body. ~ Maxwell Maltz, #NFDB
197:The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight. ~ William Cowper, #NFDB
198:Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing. ~ Charles Grandison Finney, #NFDB
199:What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
200:What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
201:27And d he who searches hearts knows what is e the mind of the Spirit, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
202:Chains cease to be needed after the spirit has gone out of a prisoner. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
203:For the Spirit blows where He wills (John 3:8), not where we will. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
204:Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body. ~ Cyril Connolly, #NFDB
205:Let us celebrate the spirit of sport through the National Games ~ Sachin Tendulkar, #NFDB
206:Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together. ~ Phil Jackson, #NFDB
207:Loveliness of the spirit is worth more than loveliness of the flesh. ~ S Jae Jones, #NFDB
208:Often the wisdom of the body Clarifies the despair of the spirit. ~ Marion Woodman, #NFDB
209:The spirit from which we act is the principal matter. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
210:The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
211:The spirit of the age is filled with the disdain for thinking. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
212:The spirit walks of every day deceased. ~ Edward Young, Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), #NFDB
213:The substance, the essence, the Spirit is freedom. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #NFDB
214:Truth is the spirit of all that is good and worthy through loving. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
215:When the spirit shines, even foggy skies make pleasant light. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook, #NFDB
216:Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
217:Whoever marries the spirit of the times must soon become a widower. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
218:Christianity is an adventure of the spirit or it is not Christianity. ~ Alan Hirsch, #NFDB
219:Christ's disciples were no orators, till the Spirit made them such. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
220:Commerce diminishes the spirit both patriotism and military defense. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
221:Doctors can heal the body, but it is music that uplifts the spirit. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
222:I feel like the spirit of the butterfly transferred itself to me. ~ Vanessa Hudgens, #NFDB
223:I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
224:I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers ~ Napol on Bonaparte, #NFDB
225:is spirit,w and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
226:Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
227:Ministers can but speak to the ear, the Spirit speaks to the heart. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
228:Movies are art and the spirit of the movie depends on the creators. ~ Lloyd Kaufman, #NFDB
229:Sometimes I miss the spirit of London, but it's a very gray place. ~ Claire Forlani, #NFDB
230:The ego needs recognition. The spirit does not need to thank itself. ~ Stuart Wilde, #NFDB
231:The most visible symbol in New York is the spirit of a free people. ~ Rudy Giuliani, #NFDB
232:The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form. ~ Gustav Mahler, #NFDB
233:All bonafide revolutions are of necessity revolutions of the spirit. ~ Sonia Johnson, #NFDB
234:and you can only know Jesus fully through the Spirit’s influence, ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
235:Dance represents the triumph of the spirit over the flesh. ~ Aleister Crowley, [T7], #NFDB
236:For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ~ I Corinthians II, #NFDB
237:He will win whose army is animated by the spirit throughout all its ranks. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
238:I am the spirit of perpetual negation. (Mephistopheles) ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
239:If I just work when the spirit moves me, the spirit will ignore me. ~ Carolyn Forche, #NFDB
240:I love the spirit of Halloween and the energy that comes with it. ~ Katharine McPhee, #NFDB
241:Journaling is a way to be a good steward of the Spirit's illuminations. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
242:No man has ever yet been hanged for breaking the spirit of a law. ~ Grover Cleveland, #NFDB
243:The spirit needs several sorts of food of which knowledge is only one. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
244:The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God. ~ John Stott, #NFDB
245:To keep a kind of republic of the spirit—that's what I call success. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
246:When the eyes of the flesh are shut, the eyes of the spirit are open. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
247:All Scripture ought to be read in the spirit in which it was written. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
248:Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit. ~ Max Ehrmann,#NFDB
249:Being judgmental and condemning is not one of the gifts of the Spirit. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
250:Everything can be found at sea according to the spirit of your quest. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
251:For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ~ I Corinthians II, #NFDB
252:Geometry will draw the soul toward truth and create the spirit of philosophy. ~ Plato, #NFDB
253:You know who you should trust? Trust the Spirit within you, that’s who. ~ Mick Mooney, #NFDB
254:No man can come to God but by an extraordinary revelation of the Spirit. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
255:She read Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him. ~ Eudora Welty, #NFDB
256:The spirit finds a way to be born.
Instinct seeks for ways to survive. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
257:The spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not quite sure it is right. ~ Learned Hand, #NFDB
258:The spirit of prayer is more precious than treasures of gold and silver. ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
259:Through the medium of the Spirit God reveals Himself to Man. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
260:To Dogmatism the Spirit of Inquiry is the same as the Spirit of Evil. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
261:To find the spirit of change—was that it?—after the change had happened. ~ Caleb Crain, #NFDB
262:War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. ~ Alexander Berkman, #NFDB
263:When the spirit is not master of the world, then it is its dupe. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
264:All life is a manifestation of the spirit, the manifestation of love. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
265:Anybody can and should dance... It's good for the body and the spirit. ~ Isadora Duncan, #NFDB
266:Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
267:Every tool carries with it the spirit by which it has been created. ~ Werner Heisenberg, #NFDB
268:fix your desire on this one thing: to be filled with the Spirit of God. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
269:In the life of the spirit there is no ending that is not a beginning. ~ Henrietta Szold, #NFDB
270:Judge the spirit of the prophecy before you judge the truth of the word. ~ Graham Cooke, #NFDB
271:Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence. ~ Plato, #NFDB
272:Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
273:Mealtime's the only time I get to devote to the things of the spirit. ~ John Dos Passos, #NFDB
274:Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too. ~ Robert Schumann, #NFDB
275:Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, not the byproduct of accumulated wealth. ~ Andy Stanley, #NFDB
276:Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
277:The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity. ~ Thomas Huxley, #NFDB
278:The spirit's foe in man has not been simplicity, but sophistication. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
279:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. —GALATIANS 5:22 ~ Sarah Young, #NFDB
280:Love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
281:Love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, #NFDB
282:Only the Spirit, if it breathe upon the clay, can create Man. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
283:Spirituality is keeping the spirit up against all odds and obstacles of life. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
284:The inmost is the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Power of the Spirit, #NFDB
285:The spirit is the mirror; the body is the rust.
(Divan-i-Shamsi Tabriz) ~ Idries Shah,#NFDB
286:The spirit of policy and that of bureaucracy are diametrically opposed, ~ Niall Ferguson, #NFDB
287:The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
288:We only have victory over satan when we walk in the Spirit in Christ Jesus. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
289:2 Corinthians 3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit...is that the one you like? ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
290:Even more amazing than the wonders of Nature are the powers of the spirit. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
291:Loving kindness is the spirit of friendship toward yourself and others. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
292:Marriage and its entourage of possession and jealousy enslave the spirit. ~ Irvin D Yalom, #NFDB
293:May the spirit of death make a clerical error and forget you exist. ~ John Jackson Miller, #NFDB
294:Millions of mind guerrillas, raising the spirit of peace and love, not war. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
295:My business is anything that comes between men and the Spirit of God. ~ Richard Llewellyn, #NFDB
296:There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
297:The spirit is life. The mind is the builder. The physical is the result.
~ Edgar Cayce,#NFDB
298:The spirit of the poet craves spectators... even if only buffaloes. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
299:The supreme harmony of the cosmos is selected in the harmony of the spirit. ~ Franz Liszt, #NFDB
300:To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
301:While still in the cage of your being behold the spirit bird before it flies away. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
302:You have not read till you understand the spirit of the matter. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
303:Art makes the spirit soar. And when the spirit is lifted, life follows. ~ Adriana Trigiani, #NFDB
304:Do not rest in baptism; what is it to have the water, and want the Spirit? ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
305:Eternal truth needs a human language that alters with the spirit of the times. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
306:Ignorance is the night of the spirit, but a night without stars or moon. ~ Chinese Proverb, #NFDB
307:Illumination by the Spirit is the endless end of every virtue. ~ Symeon the New Theologian, #NFDB
308:It's the spirit within, not the veneer without, that makes a man. ~ Baden Powell de Aquino, #NFDB
309:ROM8.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
310:The light of the face comes from the candle of the spirit. ~ Jalaluddin RumiFriday Joy 😊❤️, #NFDB
311:The Scoutmaster guides the boy in the spirit of an older brother. ~ Baden Powell de Aquino, #NFDB
312:The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver. ~ Baron de Montesquieu, #NFDB
313:To love with the spirit is to pity, and he who pities most loves most. ~ Miguel de Unamuno, #NFDB
314:We cling to the letter because the spirit is so much harder to master. ~ Rachel Held Evans, #NFDB
315:When you see Jesus as your Treasure, the Spirit has blown through your heart. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
316:Where they come in the spirit of perpetual giving - the house that love built. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
317:God has not given us the spirit of fear. That comes from the adversary. ~ Gordon B Hinckley, #NFDB
318:In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
319:It takes the Word of God plus the Spirit of God to equal the Truth of God. ~ Kris Vallotton, #NFDB
320:Let parents then bequeath to their children not riches but the spirit of reverence. ~ Plato, #NFDB
321:That is the spirit of the music: to not leave anyone out, to be inclusive. ~ Brian Viglione, #NFDB
322:The Jews detests the spirit of the nation in the midst of which they live. ~ Bernard Lazare, #NFDB
323:the product of a freed people that have not the spirit to be free.… We ~ Richard Hofstadter, #NFDB
324:The spirit animates the soul but the body kills it. The soul kills itself. ~ Marvin W Meyer, #NFDB
325:The Spirit of God breathes inspiration, while the carnal mind breeds vanity. ~ Fred C White, #NFDB
326:The spirit of her invincible heart guided her through the shadows. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
327:The spirit of her invincible heart guided her through the shadows. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, #NFDB
328:The spirit of the age is: Ask not what your country can do for you, demand it. ~ Mark Steyn, #NFDB
329:The spirit of the law is the least of the things we're prepared to violate. ~ Howard Tayler, #NFDB
330:The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
331:The word stands for the body, but the symphony stands for the spirit. ~ Hildegard of Bingen, #NFDB
332:...to tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called control ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
333:What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood? ~ Beatrix Potter, #NFDB
334:As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead. ~ John Stott, #NFDB
335:...because all happiness is contagious, and disarms the spirit of hatred. ~ Ir ne N mirovsky, #NFDB
336:Be in the spirit of Truth and any words you speak are in alignment with that spirit. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
337:Confession is good for the soul, it empties the spirit making more room for sin. ~ Trevanian, #NFDB
338:the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
339:There is a germ of revolt lying in the spirit of inquiry and critical curiosity. ~ Andr Gide, #NFDB
340:The Spirit is not given to make Bible study needless, but to make it effective. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
341:The will is the spirit of perseverance, and perseverance holds clear success. ~ Ameen Rihani, #NFDB
342:To live according to the spirit is to love according to the spirit. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
343:Too bad you got so bogged down in books. You've got the spirit of a warrior. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
344:When the spirit of nature touches us, our hearts turn into a butterfly! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
345:"Above all, Freud's attitude toward the spirit seemed to me highly questionable." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
346:and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. ACT2:05 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
347:Harmony is the natural rule of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #NFDB
348:Let not the spirit wander while the words of prayer run on out of our mouth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
349:Religion is the fruit of the Spirit, a Christian character, a true life. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
350:Sometimes survival seems like submitting. And that's really hard on the spirit. ~ Aldis Hodge, #NFDB
351:The fruit of the Spirit is love. But love is the most costly of fruits. ~ Sinclair B Ferguson, #NFDB
352:The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
353:The Lord casts no one down in Hell, but the spirit casts himself hither. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
354:The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed. ~ Bennett Cerf, #NFDB
355:The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom-they are the pillars of society. ~ Henrik Ibsen, #NFDB
356:We hope the world will act in the spirit of enlightened self-interest. ~ Atal Bihari Vajpayee, #NFDB
357:Can such stiff and formal moldings as words capture the spirit-essence of love? ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
358:Every human being is a repeated question asked to the spirit of the Universe. ~ Mihai Eminescu, #NFDB
359:if you want to walk with the Spirit of God, get on your knees and open your Bible. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
360:Just as the nature of the water is to flow, it is the nature of the Spirit to be free. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
361:Lies are a thing of the physical world. They can’t exist in the spirit world. ~ Nnedi Okorafor, #NFDB
362:No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
363:Oddly, neglect seemed to have resulted in an accidental release of the spirit. ~ Arundhati Roy, #NFDB
364:The life of the spirit is not our life, but the life of God within us. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
365:The man who sticks it out against his fate shows spirit, but the spirit of a fool. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
366:The spirit flowed more freely and made for a more spontaneous style of worship. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
367:To practice Aikido fully you must calm the spirit and go back to the origin. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
368:An authentic experience of the Spirit is an experience in response to the gospel. ~ Tim Chester, #NFDB
369:As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
370:It all began with a dozen men and a handful of women: and then the Spirit came. ~ Michael Green, #NFDB
371:It is against the spirit of ahimsa to overawe even one person into submission. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
372:It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit. ~ J R R Tolkien, #NFDB
373:It is the Spirit of God alone who opens the gate of heaven to the elect. Further, ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
374:One has to nurture a new generation, to raise children in the spirit of Islam. ~ Akhmad Kadyrov, #NFDB
375:The ego constantly competes with the spirit for control over your inner voice. ~ Darren Johnson, #NFDB
376:The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man. ~ David Hilbert, #NFDB
377:The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
378:The Spirit always communicates that He's for you when He convicts you of your sin. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
379:The spirit is an inward flame; a lamp the world blows upon but never puts out. ~ Margot Asquith, #NFDB
380:The spirit of Mayfair beats in the soul of dandies and dandizettes everywhere. ~ Tyne O Connell, #NFDB
381:The spirit of social computing is the concept of leaving value in your wake. ~ Bradley Horowitz, #NFDB
382:We cling to the letter because the spirit is so much harder to master. More ~ Rachel Held Evans, #NFDB
383:With every anguish of our earthly part The spirit's sight grows clearer. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
384:Happiness is salutary for the body but sorrow develops the powers of the spirit. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
385:I live by the spirit so I don't gratify all them old sinful desires that never satisfy. ~ LeCrae, #NFDB
386:In the heart of man, there is a constant conflict between the flesh and the spirit. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
387:It is only possible to speak in the language and in the spirit of one's time. ~ Eugene Delacroix, #NFDB
388:It is the spirit of a person that hangs above him like a star in the sky. ~ George Matthew Adams, #NFDB
389:Loveliness of the spirit is worth more than loveliness of the flesh" -Der Erlkonig ~ S Jae Jones, #NFDB
390:Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes. ~ Alfred Tennyson,#NFDB
391:There may be no city in the clouds, but dreaming of it can enliven the spirit. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
392:The Spirit-filled life yields every decision to the control of the Spirit. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
393:The Spirit power begins in directing the Animal power to other than egoistic ends. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
394:To drink in the spirit of a place you should be not only alone but unhurried. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
395:We must all have the spirit of martyrdom, though we may not all die martyrs. ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
396:Faith is a capacity of the spirit. It is like talent: you have to be born with it ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
397:God enabled me to speak with the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power. ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
398:God’s supernatural self-control is available to us when we walk by the Spirit. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
399:If a wolf's fangs killed the body, then human hostility was death to the spirit. ~ Isuna Hasekura, #NFDB
400:If you want to be led by the Spirit of God, then devote yourself to the Word of God. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
401:In Scripture, the word of the gospel and the power of the Spirit always go together. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
402:In the spirit of the Irish people, Osama bin Laden, you can kiss my royal Irish ass! ~ Mike Moran, #NFDB
403:It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life ~ Henrik Ibsen, #NFDB
404:Junk food nurtures the spirit. I think there's scientific research to prove it. ~ Suzanne Johnson, #NFDB
405:Prayer is you speaking to God. Meditation is allowing the spirit to speak to you. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
406:There are times when the spirit is completely darkened because it needs to be reborn. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
407:We recognize already that regeneration of the spirit is the paramount need of man. ~ Watchman Nee, #NFDB
408:When the spirit of people is strong focused and vibrant, wonderful things happen. ~ Harrison Owen, #NFDB
409:Who tarnishes, assaults, threatens, hates the spirit of man is guilty of crime. ~ Christina Stead, #NFDB
410:Because the world has gone nutty and art always paints the spirit of its times ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
411:Chieftains must understand that the spirit of the law is greater than its letter. ~ Attila the Hun, #NFDB
412:Faith is a capacity of the spirit. It is like talent: you have to be born with it. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
413:Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson, #NFDB
414:One universe, one body...in this urn
the animal night sweats of the spirit burn ~ Robert Lowell,#NFDB
415:The body dies, but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
416:...the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. ~ Moses, #NFDB
417:The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
418:The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
419:We must not be content to be cleansed from sin; we must be filled with the Spirit. ~ John Fletcher, #NFDB
420:5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
421:But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
422:Don't organize in the spirit of antagonism; that should be beneath your consideration. ~ Mark Hanna, #NFDB
423:It's hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom. ~ Shane Claiborne, #NFDB
424:I've decided to retreat to the spirit world where I feel appreciated and understood. ~ Dov Davidoff, #NFDB
425:Life s picture is constantly undergoing change. The spirit beholds a new world every moment. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
426:People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
427:The female body is a chthonian machine, indifferent to the spirit who inhabits it. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
428:The portal of healing and creativity always takes us into the realm of the spirit. ~ Angeles Arrien, #NFDB
429:The spirit receives from the body just as much as it gives to the body, if not more. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
430:When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has found. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
431:Every artist, as child of his age, is impelled to express the spirit of his age. ~ Wassily Kandinsky, #NFDB
432:If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
433:Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
434:Sometimes the spirit of a man isn't strong enough to survive the ghosts of his past ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
435:The intellectual ages sing less easily. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #NFDB
436:The self says, I am; The heart says, I am less; The spirit says, you are Nothing. ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
437:The spirit of complaint is born out of an unwillingness to trust God with today. ~ Priscilla Shirer, #NFDB
438:The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. [ Job 33:4 NIV ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
439:The spirit of science is not to prejudge, but to give any honest query a fair shake. ~ Allen Wheelis, #NFDB
440:The spirit of the drum is something that you feel but cannot put your hands on, ~ Babatunde Olatunji, #NFDB
441:True prayer is an approach of the soul by the Spirit of God to the throne of God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
442:Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next. ~ William Ralph Inge, #NFDB
443:All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
444:An artist must approach his work in the spirit of the criminal about to commit a crime. ~ Edgar Degas, #NFDB
445:childbirth was only one of thousands of things the body could do without the spirit. ~ Nnedi Okorafor, #NFDB
446:Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
447:Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
448:Finished things cease to be a shelter for the spirit; but work in progress is a delight. ~ Max Frisch, #NFDB
449:He embodied what he worshipped, the exquisite in the commonplace…salt for the spirit. ~ Philip Levine, #NFDB
450:I don't like the spirit of socialism - I think freedom is the basis of everything. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
451:It was amazing how quickly the body could heal. But the spirit was not so resilient. ~ Tilly Bagshawe, #NFDB
452:Let go of the spirit of the departed, and continue the celebration of your own life. ~ Allen Ginsberg, #NFDB
453:Living in the Spirit changes your attitude, thinking, and ultimately your actions. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
454:Money could be found, worked at, saved. But the spirit, when gone, was gone forever. ~ Caroline Jantz, #NFDB
455:Never affirm, always allude: allusions are made to test the spirit and probe the heart. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
456:No matter how humble the spirit it’s offered in, a sermon is an act of aggression. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
457:"The erotic instinct . . . blooms only when the spirit and instinct are in true harmony." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
458:The passion of vanity has its own depths in the spirit, and is powerfully militant. ~ Elizabeth Bowen, #NFDB
459:The spirit of man, which God inspired, cannot together perish with this corporeal clod. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
460:The vibrant Christian life is a union of clarity in the Word and openness to the Spirit. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
461:We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
462:When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
463:When the spark of truth is discovered in the spirit, all is taught to it that it needs. ~ Ruysbro-eok, #NFDB
464:Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it. ~ Johann Georg Hamann, #NFDB
465:For what the Spirit sees becomes a truth
And what the soul imagines is made a world ~ Sri Aurobindo,#NFDB
466:Freedom from likes and dislikes, the sudden sense of identification, the spirit of comedy. ~ John Cage, #NFDB
467:Heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
468:If the heart sorrows over physical loss, the spirit rejoices over hope of understanding. ~ Subhash Kak, #NFDB
469:If there is one thing fundamental to the life of the spirit it is the absence of force. ~ Harold Laski, #NFDB
470:It's in the spirit of male loneliness to imagine that someone has to suffer for it. ~ Hanif Abdurraqib, #NFDB
471:Open your hearts as wide as ever you will, the Spirit of the Lord shall fill them. ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
472:Prayer is an art which only the Spirit can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
473:The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
474:The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
475:The movement is contagious, and the people in it are the ones who pass on the spirit. ~ Yuri Kochiyama, #NFDB
476:Therefore the highest utility for mankind is to find this happiness in the Spirit. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
477:There is something greater than any nation; it is the spirit which created the nation. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
478:The spirit of punk-cabaret is that you feel that you can truly be all of who you are. ~ Brian Viglione, #NFDB
479:What is agony of the spirit? To advance toward death without seizing hold of the Water of Life. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
480:Action is the language of the body and should harmonize with the spirit within. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
481:Every single decision you make as a leader has an effect on the spirit of those you lead. ~ Bill Hybels, #NFDB
482:Faithful persons are expected to seek the gifts of the Spirit with all their hearts. ~ Bruce R McConkie, #NFDB
483:Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
484:GAL5.16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
485:Happy is the spirit that attains to the perfect formlessness at the time of prayer. ~ Evagrius Ponticus, #NFDB
486:I never yet have known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord's people were divided. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
487:It's actually the spirit helping the spirit; it is the doctor, the bed, the potion. ~ Franz Grillparzer, #NFDB
488:Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
489:Preciate the wakeup blowjob, baby. Feel free to do that any time the spirit moves you. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
490:The church that is married to the spirit of this age, becomes a widow in the next. ~ William Ralph Inge, #NFDB
491:The devil can counterfeit all the saving operations and graces of the Spirit of God. ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
492:The only currency I value is the coin of the spirit. That's very important in my life. ~ Kinky Friedman, #NFDB
493:There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
494:The spirit partly lies in physical body,
the rest of it is still waiting to be refitted. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
495:What fetters the mind and benumbs the spirit is ever the dogged acceptance of absolutes. ~ Edward Sapir, #NFDB
496:When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body. ~ Saadi, #NFDB
497:34For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
498:All of us bear God’s image, all are worthy to be loved, all can grow in the spirit of God. ~ Steve Berry, #NFDB
499:God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~ Lynette Eason, #NFDB
500:In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness. ~ Lin Yutang, #NFDB
501:It isn't bread that feeds you; it is life and the spirit that feed you through bread. ~ Angelus Silesius, #NFDB
502:I will eat the spirit of innocence so that you will finally see that we are all abused. ~ Zachary Koukol, #NFDB
503:Man is in reality a spiritual being and only when he lives in the spirit is he truly happy. ~ Abdu l Bah, #NFDB
504:Our greatest limitation isn't the leader of the lives; it is the spirit within us. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
505:ROM8.16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
506:Slowly, a gentle, quiet, personal victory of the spirit grows out of her fear and doubt. ~ Elaine N Aron, #NFDB
507:teach, pray in your heart that the power of the Spirit ~ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, #NFDB
508:That’s what great art is supposed to do—help us to live in the spirit and die at peace. ~ Susan Vreeland, #NFDB
509:The eternity of the spirit does not begin after death ... but is, like God, always present. ~ Moses Hess, #NFDB
510:The grinding search for money can crush the spirit out of you unless you're made of steel. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
511:There is something greater than any nation; it is the spirit which created the nation. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
512:The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light. ~ Baden Powell de Aquino, #NFDB
513:The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me" (Isaiah 61:1). ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
514:We’ll never abandon ourselves to the Spirit as long as we think we can change without Him. ~ Larry Crabb, #NFDB
515:What we take from the spirit world is only a reflection of what lies inside ourselves. ~ Charles de Lint, #NFDB
516:Where does one not find that bland degeneration which beer produces in the spirit! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
517:Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love. ~ Honor de Balzac, #NFDB
518:A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
519:As the snake is separate from its slough, even so is the Spirit separate from the body. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
520:Fasting is the first principle of medicine; fast and see the strength of the spirit reveal itself. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
521:For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
522:For the Spirit is required to understand the whole of the Scripture and every part of it. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
523:I can't wait until I touch the stage, I'm going to catch the spirit and lose my mind. ~ Theophilus London, #NFDB
524:I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
525:there is nothing sorer to the spirit than falling below what one's lover thinks of one. ~ Naomi Mitchison, #NFDB
526:Unless the Spirit of God is with us, we cannot expect that our prayers will be answered. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
527:When we pray to God with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of prayer. ~ Cyprian, #NFDB
528:Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
529:17Now the Lord [4] is the Spirit, and where r the Spirit of the Lord is, there is s freedom. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
530:5For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly d wait for the hope of righteousness. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
531:All the hope of our ministry lies in the Spirit of God operating on the spirits of men. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
532:Ever since I lost the spirit, I’d just as soon go one way or the other. I’ll go your way. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
533:It is because the spirit is inestimable, that the lifeless body is so little valued. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
534:Love was even more mathematical than poetry. It was the pure mathematics of the spirit. ~ Charles Williams, #NFDB
535:Photography, not soft gutless painting, is best equipped to bore into the spirit of today. ~ Edward Weston, #NFDB
536:Proverbs 15:4 4 Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
537:Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. ~ Solomon, #NFDB
538:The warrior guided by the spirit serves humanity, the warrior without, serves the ego ~ Soke Behzad Ahmadi, #NFDB
539:To discover one's own spiritual poverty is to achieve a positive conquest by the spirit. ~ William Barrett, #NFDB
540:Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,- One of the flesh, and of the spirit one. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
541:Accord and concord are the true normality of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #NFDB
542:All Christians have the Spirit of Christ, but not all Christians have the mind of Christ. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
543:Always seeking to do rather than to be. Do you really seek the counsel of the spirit? ~ Jacqueline Winspear, #NFDB
544:Every day the choice is presented to us, to live up to the spirit that is in us, or deny it. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
545:Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and God. ~ Charles Horton Cooley, #NFDB
546:Intelligence and personality do not die with the body. They continue with the spirit.” Bradley ~ Terri Reid, #NFDB
547:Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
548:The atmosphere rare and pure, danger near and the spirit full of a joyful wickedness: ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
549:The depth of revival will be determined exactly by the depth of the spirit of repentance. ~ Frank Bartleman, #NFDB
550:The ego is always looking to find something. The Spirit can see what's already there. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
551:The grace of the spirit comes only from heaven, and lights up the whole bodily presence. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
552:The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
553:The morality of customs,the spirit of the laws, produces the man emancipated from the law. ~ Gilles Deleuze, #NFDB
554:The spirit of democracy cannot be superimposed from the outside. It must come from within. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
555:Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3). ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
556:for the spirit God gives us does not make us timid, but gives us power love and self discipline. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
557:Grumble weakens the spirit.
Despair is counterproductive.
Both are true toxicants in life. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
558:I'm a scientist. We don't talk about the spirit. Soul is a four letter word in our tradition. ~ Candace Pert, #NFDB
559:Living in the Spirit means a daily commitment to please Christ and not to please self. ~ Sinclair B Ferguson, #NFDB
560:Not with wrath do we kill, but with laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
561:Once we realize we are all members of humanity, we will want to compete in the spirit of love ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
562:Philosophy... is the creative perception by the spirit of the meaning of human existence. ~ Nikolai Berdyaev, #NFDB
563:The Sinister Spirit sneered: 'It had to be!'
And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, 'Why? ~ Thomas Hardy,#NFDB
564:The Spirit is neither good nor bad, it runs where the wild heart leads" "Wisdom begins in wonder. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
565:The spirit of man can endure only so much and when it is broken only a miracle can mend it. ~ John Burroughs, #NFDB
566:The spirit of our day is a soft acceptance of everything—except deep conviction in anything. ~ John Eldredge, #NFDB
567:When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon men it will make them expert even without experience. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
568:1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
569:America, I like the spirit. Because American people here believe in something. I like that spirit. ~ Paz Vega, #NFDB
570:I like the peace, you see. If there is disorder, it is hard for the spirit to be peaceful. ~ Beatriz Williams, #NFDB
571:It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
572:I will trade my self-pity for hate. My guilt for cunning. My grief for the spirit of vengeance. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
573:Love is a source of anxiety until it is a source of boredom; only friendship feeds the spirit. ~ Edmund White, #NFDB
574:love of truth and insight which lent wings to the spirit of the Renaissance has grown cold, ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
575:Perhaps the spirit of the Everglades was most evident in the unseen, the hidden, the implied. ~ T J MacGregor, #NFDB
576:The eyes of the young are drawn to the stars, and the spirit of youth is seldom earth-bound. ~ Radclyffe Hall, #NFDB
577:The obsession with moderation is the spirit of castrated narrow-mindedness. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
578:Time was Eternity’s transparent robe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #NFDB
579:When we commune with the spirit within and ask for new ideas, they are always forthcoming. ~ Charles Fillmore, #NFDB
580:6The mind governed by the flesh is death,† but the mind governed by the Spirit is life† and peace. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
581:Battling a sickness of the spirit was like standing in a quicksand and beating it with a stick. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
582:Beer, if drank with moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
583:It was the spirit of the times: we applied high theory to shampoo ads, philosophy to NWA videos. ~ Zadie Smith, #NFDB
584:I was taken in by the bravado and the sounds of Mexico... not so much the music, but the spirit. ~ Herb Alpert, #NFDB
585:Listen to the whisperings of the Spirit, the gift of revelation to which you are entitled. ~ Gordon B Hinckley, #NFDB
586:Never allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog the flowering of the spirit. ~ Stephen Spender, #NFDB
587:The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
588:There has never been a great film unless it was created in the spirit of the experimental filmmaker. ~ Len Lye, #NFDB
589:The Word that ushers divine experience ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #NFDB
590:We wish to fill our culture once more with the spirit of Christianity - but not only in theory. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
591:What distinguishes man from the brute is his conscious striving to realise the spirit within. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
592:What is agony of the spirit?
To advance toward death without seizing
hold of the Water of Life. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
593:What they're not doing is marketing the Dead Kennedys in the spirit of what the band stood for. ~ Jello Biafra, #NFDB
594:Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
595:Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. ~ Tecumseh, #NFDB
596:Battling a sickness of the spirit was like standing in a quickstand and beating it with a stick. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
597:He said the mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
598:I'm aware that people I have loved and have died and are in the spirit world looking after me. ~ Princess Diana, #NFDB
599:Just as the Spirit always makes one out of two, so the evil one invariably makes two out of one! ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
600:That evidence of the spirit of life is what makes me get out of bed in the morning. ~ Kristin Bauer van Straten, #NFDB
601:The sensory world is the school, without which the human being would never come to the spirit. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
602:The words we speak in the physical realm move mountains and bend destinies in the spirit realm. ~ Blake K Healy, #NFDB
603:This darkness hides our nobler destiny. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #NFDB
604:Worlds were many, but the Self was one. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #NFDB
605:2TI1.7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
606:The minister is not always in the act of prayer, but he is always in the spirit of it. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
607:The Spirit is that within man which closest approaches the Center - is nearest to God. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
608:The truth is mightier than eloquence, the Spirit greater than genius, faith more than education. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
609:To me, relationship is sacred because the spirit of God is manifest in empathic connection. ~ Helen LaKelly Hunt, #NFDB
610:We are one, you and I. Brothers in hate, brothers in cunning, brothers in the spirit of vengeance. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
611:When mirrors are facing one another, it's suppose to open the door to the spirit world. ~ Rebecca Patrick Howard, #NFDB
612:Whether drugs lead to illumination or degradation depends on the spirit in which one takes them ~ George Andrews, #NFDB
613:With my natural communication abilities, I could probably gather a crowd even without the Spirit. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
614:All other ways of mortification are vain, all helps leave us helpless; it must be done by the Spirit. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
615:Authentic architecture is not the incarnation of the spirit of the age but of the spirit, full stop. ~ Leon Krier, #NFDB
616:But not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood. ~ Robert E Howard, #NFDB
617:He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
618:I know very well that one must fight, for one is often in contradiction to the spirit of the age. ~ Auguste Rodin, #NFDB
619:In God, the life of the flesh became the story of the spirit. I loved that story, no matter what. ~ Andrew Klavan, #NFDB
620:I would not know what the spirit of a philosopher might wish more to be than a good dancer. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
621:Just as when spring comes, Nature celebrates, When Navaratri comes, the Spirit celebrates. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
622:Sometimes the spirit knows things that the mind cannot; never ignore the urgings of your spirit. ~ Brian Rathbone, #NFDB
623:The Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
624:The lyric is a moment of heightened soul experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #NFDB
625:The spirit and the manner of the Chief Shepherd should be the one adopted by the undershepherds. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
626:The spirit is doomed to pain till man is free. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, #NFDB
627:The Spirit of God is jealous over us; He doesn't want superficial fellowship, but genuine intimacy. ~ John Bevere, #NFDB
628:We must never ignore or pass by the prompting of the Spirit to render service to one another. ~ M Russell Ballard, #NFDB
629:When the truth is preached, the Spirit of God brings each person face to face with God Himself. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
630:As we move into the 21st century, there's what the Bible calls a 'quickening of the spirit.' ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
631:Being filled with the power of the Spirit begins with an honest acknowledgment of our own weakness. ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
632:Foreign culture is as necessary to the spirit of a nation as is foreign commerce to its industries. ~ Ameen Rihani, #NFDB
633:Freedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself. ~ Nikolai Berdyaev, #NFDB
634:Get government out of our way, and let freedom and the spirit of the American people shine through. ~ Luis Fortuno, #NFDB
635:I believe that the future will learn more from the spirit of Gesell than from that of Marx . ~ John Maynard Keynes, #NFDB
636:Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
637:Revival is the Spirit's passion within the believer to know and to obey the total will of God. ~ Leonard Ravenhill, #NFDB
638:So people will come along and do new things and sometimes return to the spirit of an earlier age. ~ Norman McLaren, #NFDB
639:The healing of the spirit has not been completed until openness to challenge becomes a way of life. ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
640:The senses there were outlets of the soul; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, #NFDB
641:The spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers the world. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
642:The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded. ~ Zhuangzi, #NFDB
643:To hear commandments is nothing unless the Spirit teaches us the Law without a mediator and Moses. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
644:We love and live in power; it is the spirit's end. Mind must subdue; to conquer is its life. ~ Philip James Bailey, #NFDB
645:we suffer from hunger of the spirit while much of the world is suffering from hunger of the body. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
646:22But e the fruit of the Spirit is f love, joy, peace, patience, g kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
647:Christian, be a Christian: live by faith; walk by the Spirit; serve in the strength that God supplies. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
648:For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
649:Fullness of the Spirit and depth in the gospel are inseparable, and one always leads you to the other. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
650:I can't be a man. But I can embrace the head of a man, the intelligence of a man, the spirit of a man. ~ Linda Hunt, #NFDB
651:light of Spirit God sends it trials of suffering and pain so the gold of the Spirit may manifest. Surrender, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
652:Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
653:Never be without remembrance of Him, for His remembrance gives strength and wings to the bird of the Spirit. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
654:Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother / With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit. ~ Stephen Spender, #NFDB
655:Our purpose here on earth: to manifest the very nature of our spirit, which is touched by the spirit of God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
656:Some people talk a lot about—even boast of—the Spirit, but their lives do not bear His fruit. Others ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
657:the greater the sin you forgive them of, the greater the measure of the Spirit that will come to you. ~ R T Kendall, #NFDB
658:The Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:2 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
659:We must realize that the ministries and gifts of the Spirit are for everyday life, not just meetings. ~ Rick Joyner, #NFDB
660:When evil thoughts arise, repeat that... "I am the Spirit! I am the Witness, the Ever-Blessed!" ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
661:Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly-all else is desperation. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
662:It is fine to stand upon some lofty mountain thought, and feel the spirit stretch into a view. ~ Philip James Bailey, #NFDB
663:Men had been living a proud life, having felt no need for the spirit-until Christianity invented it. ~ Yukio Mishima, #NFDB
664:The fruit of the Spirit is love.” We read that “Love is the fulfilling of the law”’ (Romans 13: 10), ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
665:The Spirit is the first power we practically experience, but the last power we come to understand. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
666:The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
667:The spirit of trade cannot coexist with war, and sooner or later this spirit dominates every people. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
668:To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
669:A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
670:As all man's work is done by his mind, so the work of the Church is done by the Spirit, and by Him alone. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
671:His Kingdom on this earth was to rule the visible world of man from the invisible realm of the spirit. ~ Myles Munroe, #NFDB
672:It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Government to use force to subjugate the South. ~ William H Seward, #NFDB
673:Let me ... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
674:Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
675:No one had a better sense of luxury than Coco Chanel, She really had the spirit of the 20th Century. ~ Diana Vreeland, #NFDB
676:Obviously there is a lot more ecstasy in the spirit than in the flesh but the flesh has its moments! ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
677:Possession of a friend should be with the spirit: the spirit's never absent: it sees daily whoever it likes. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
678:Remember, any day not surrendered to the Spirit of God will likely be lived in the flesh (Gal. 5:16–17). ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
679:... the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
680:The Spirit Realm, realm of beauty No one knows fate’s secrets Judgment or blessing No man can say T ~ Jaclyn Dolamore, #NFDB
681:We can start by living by the Spirit while we stop following the heart of discontentment and doubt. ~ Candace Cameron, #NFDB
682:When we work with love we renew the spirit; that renewal is an act of self-love, it nurtures our growth. ~ Bell Hooks, #NFDB
683:Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly – all else is desperation. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
684:He’d read that rage remained forever in a place that had once nurtured it. “The spirit of the place. ~ Chet Williamson, #NFDB
685:If you are worshipping God without depending on the Spirit of God, you are serving a god you do not know. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
686:I'm not going to be murdered," Harry said out loud. "That's the spirit, dear," said his mirror sleepily. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
687:I’m not going to be murdered,” Harry said out loud. “That’s the spirit, dear,” said his mirror sleepily. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
688:Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
689:The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
690:The more the flesh is wasted by affliction, so much more is the Spirit strengthened by inward grace. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
691:The spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which can be pointed out by your finger. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
692:The spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers the world. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
693:The spirit of advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with everything ~ Chinmayananda Saraswati, #NFDB
694:The spirit of elder days found a dwelling here, and we delighted to trace its footsteps. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, #NFDB
695:The Spirit’s work of making the gospel real to the heart weakens the self-centeredness in the soul. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
696:What are we born for?’ ‘For infinite happiness,’ said the Spirit. ‘You can step out into it at any moment… ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
697:When the Spirit is present, people are not offended when you share your feelings about the gospel. ~ M Russell Ballard, #NFDB
698:When the spirit most closely approaches the physical earth, then we have the perception of fragrance. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
699:By our attitude to prayer we tell God that what was begun in the Spirit we can finish in the flesh. ~ Leonard Ravenhill, #NFDB
700:I celebrate the spirit of Christmas. It's the winter solstice celebration, rebirth and new possibilities. ~ Ian Astbury, #NFDB
701:just do it. Make time for leisure when the spirit seizes you, no matter what you happen to be wearing. ~ Brigid Schulte, #NFDB
702:Let us listen to what all the faithful say, because in every one of them the Spirit of God breathes. ~ Paulinus of Nola, #NFDB
703:Only the ego resists egos. The spirit may notice egos, but sees beyond them and does not engage with them. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
704:Pantagruelism is a certain gaitey of the spirit consisting in a disdain for the hazards of fortune. ~ Francois Rabelais, #NFDB
705:Proud is the spirit of Zeus-fostered kings - their honor comes from Zeus, and Zeus, god of council, loves them. ~ Homer, #NFDB
706:The times change, and to the extent that comedy captures the spirit of the times, it will enjoy success. ~ Harold Ramis, #NFDB
707:This continued a negotiation in the spirit of sinking hoods and strange smiles, all that elite malarkey. ~ Steve Aylett, #NFDB
708:Tied up the spirit to golden posts of bliss.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#NFDB
709:Anybody can do their best, but we are helped by the Spirit of God to do better than our best. ~ Catherine Bramwell Booth, #NFDB
710:Holiness requires continual effort on our part and continual nourishing and strengthening by the Spirit. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
711:If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
712:It is struggle that strengthens and makes us aware, that tempers the spirit and opens the mind’s eye. ~ Linda Lay Shuler, #NFDB
713:often we look for the Spirit in the extraordinary when God has promised to be present in the ordinary. ~ James K A Smith, #NFDB
714:Peace, sweet peace finally comes to men when they humbly yield to the gentle pressure of the Spirit. ~ Spencer W Kimball, #NFDB
715:Someone produces Candace’s plans for the Spirit Caravan, and when she tears it up, all the girls cheer. ~ Siobhan Vivian, #NFDB
716:The spirit of our age is hostile toward people who state their opinions clearly and hold them strongly. ~ John R W Stott, #NFDB
717:Tulsidas's Ramayana is a notable book because it is informed with the spirit of purity, pity and piety. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
718:Work and achievement, without the peace of God in our lives through the Spirit, will never be enough. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
719:Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul. The spirit sports with time. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
720:Dark, cold, and snowbound, Russia has the sort of climate in which the spirit of Christmas burns brightest. ~ Amor Towles, #NFDB
721:Gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
722:it is the Lord’s love that sends the Spirit, whose final duty is always to prepare mankind for love. ~ Adrienne von Speyr, #NFDB
723:Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson’s research into these questions—distilled in their book The Spirit Level ~ Johann Hari, #NFDB
724:My dear man,’ Philippa said. ‘It seems to me that you have no spirit left but the spirit of resentment. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
725:People are unaware of how delicate the spirit is and how it needs a safe and grounded home in the body. ~ Sonia Choquette, #NFDB
726:People is the name of the body, State of the spirit, of that ruling person that has hitherto suppressed me. ~ Max Stirner, #NFDB
727:Self-conscious, uncertain, I'm showered by the dust. But the spirit enters into me and I submit to trust. ~ Peter Gabriel, #NFDB
728:The great man, that is, the man most imbued with the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
729:The spirit of arrogance most definitely makes you shine. It paints a bright red target on your own forehead. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
730:The ties that bind a family together must surely mean more in the Spirit than we can know in the flesh. ~ Reinhard Bonnke, #NFDB
731:14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
732:Ah, the inner eye blinks, and the spirit trembles, at the dangerous cost of seeing one's self as one is. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
733:A road trip frees the mind, revitalizes the spirit, and infuses the body with Dr Pepper and teriyaki jerky. ~ Peter Heller, #NFDB
734:Change is not always progress... A fever of newness has everywhere been confused with the spirit of progress. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
735:Do not say, ‘I cannot pray. I am not in the spirit,’” writes Forsyth. “Pray till you are in the spirit. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
736:Every spirit makes its house, but as afterwards the house confines the spirit, you had better build well. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
737:Four parts of man, it was said, survive after death, namely, the soul, the spirit, the shadow, and the double. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
738:Gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
739:It is the seeing mind that is the master of poetic utterance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #NFDB
740:nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
741:The apostles understood the church to be a movement birthed by the mighty, rushing wind of the Spirit of God. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
742:The church's final word is not 'church' but the glory of the Father and the Son in the Spirit of liberty ~ Jurgen Moltmann, #NFDB
743:The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
744:this group of young, nimble engineers who crossed disciplines out of necessity and the spirit of adventure. ~ Ashlee Vance, #NFDB
745:Though the heroes and their fates are inventions, yet the spirit in which they are composed is true and natural. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
746:We are the spirit, the collective conscience. We create the pain, and suffering, and beauty in this world. ~ Tracy Chapman, #NFDB
747:We can start by living by the Spirit while we stop following the heart of discontentment and doubt. ~ Candace Cameron Bure, #NFDB
748:What was the use of conquering the world if they could not drink and murder and love as the spirit moved them? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
749:When windows shatter through a bomb, we will repair it next week because we are Afghans. That's the spirit. ~ Ashraf Ghani, #NFDB
750:Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
751:Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
752:For many of the churchly, the life of the spirit is reduced to a dull preoccupation with getting to Heaven. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
753:Jealousy ... is an affliction of the spirit which, unlike some sins of the flesh, gives no one any pleasure. ~ Muriel Spark, #NFDB
754:looked back only once, to glance at the spot where Little Fox had been given to the Spirit of the Flames ~ Frank M Robinson, #NFDB
755:Suddenly I found you and the spirit in me sings, Don't have to look no further, You're the soul of many things. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
756:The involuntary character of psychiatric treatment is at odds with the spirit and ethics of medicine itself. ~ Kate Millett, #NFDB
757:The one thing that man sees above the intellect is the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Power of the Spirit, #NFDB
758:There is no way of deliverance from the state and condition of being in the flesh, but by the Spirit of Christ. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
759:The spirit of research and conquest is the permanent soul of evolution. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #NFDB
760:Tolerance is the first principle of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
761:We have been released from the spirit of fear by the Holy Spirit, who has placed us in the body of Christ. ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
762:What are we born for?"
"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment... ~ C S Lewis,#NFDB
763:Aesthetic pleasure is not to be taken lightly; it's very important for the spirit and therefore the health. ~ Robert Bateman, #NFDB
764:If a Beethoven could give us in music the spirit of the Bhagavad Gita, what a wonderful symphony we should hear! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
765:I recognised uneasily the hand of what I sometimes thought to be my personal nemesis, the spirit of farce. ~ William Golding, #NFDB
766:It is correct to speak of sanctification as the work of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
767:It was the spirit of poetry who reached out and found me as I stood there at the doorway between panic and love. ~ Joy Harjo, #NFDB
768:MAT26.41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
769:The graces and comforts of the Spirit are communicated to the soul by the enlightening of the understanding. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
770:The Spirit-filled life is nothing more than living in the conscious presence of the indwelling Christ. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
771:The Word of God and the Spirit of God are enough for the people of God to enjoy and spread the worship of God. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
772:The world is my country, the human race is my race. The spirit of man is my god, the future of man is my heaven. ~ F R Scott, #NFDB
773:They were real golfers, for real golf is a thing of the spirit, not of mere mechanical excellence of stroke. ~ P G Wodehouse, #NFDB
774:too often we look for the Spirit in the extraordinary when God has promised to be present in the ordinary. ~ James K A Smith, #NFDB
775:11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
776:41Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
777:Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
778:Any pilot can describe the mechanics of flying. What it can do for the spirit of man is beyond description. ~ Barry Goldwater, #NFDB
779:GAL4.6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
780:I believe the divine is part of the world, not in a pantheistic way but by way of the movement of the Spirit. ~ Peter Garrett, #NFDB
781:In the West, the spirit is separate from the body. In the East these are things that are very real and concrete. ~ Li Hongzhi, #NFDB
782:I refer to jet lag as 'jet-psychosis - there's an old saying that the spirit cannot move faster than a camel. ~ Spalding Gray, #NFDB
783:Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
784:Leo Valdez!" the spirit howled. "Open this gate or I will kill you!"
"A fair and generous offer!" Leo said. ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
785:May each one of us glorify the Lord with the soul of Mary and rejoice in God with the spirit of Mary ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #NFDB
786:Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. ROMANS 12:11 ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
787:One might say that where Religion becomes artificial, it is reserved for Art to save the spirit of religion. ~ Richard Wagner, #NFDB
788:Prunella took to the ballrooms of London in the spirit of ruthless calculation of a general entering a battlefield. ~ Zen Cho, #NFDB
789:Spirit is the third, yet in such a way that one can speak of a synthesis only when the spirit is posited. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
790:The feet bear the burden of the body, the head the burden of the mind, and the heart the burden of the spirit, ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
791:The feet bear the burden of the body, the head the burden of the mind, and the heart the burden of the spirit. ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
792:The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
793:There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
794:The spirit cannot endure the body when overfed, but, if underfed, the body cannot endure the spirit. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
795:The spirit of Christmas is a sweet, internal peace that testifies of the power of kindness and charity. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
796:too often we look for the Spirit in the extraordinary when God has promised to be present in the ordinary.5 ~ James K A Smith, #NFDB
797:Watch and d pray that you may not e enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
798:As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” 16 ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
799:But they had imbibed, in the first fervor of the reformation, the spirit, as well as the principles of Luther. ~ Edward Gibbon, #NFDB
800:Feeling is the voice of the body; reasoning is the voice of the mind; conscience is the voice of the spirit. ~ Kenneth E Hagin, #NFDB
801:God has not given us the spirit of fear. So imagine where your fear coming from. It's from somewhere else! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
802:History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
803:If in normal conditions it is skill, which counts, in such extreme situations, it is the spirit, which saves. ~ Walter Bonatti, #NFDB
804:If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28). ~ Wayne Grudem, #NFDB
805:If we could combine Starbucks' spirit with the spirit of the artisan, we knew we could achieve something special. ~ Kengo Kuma, #NFDB
806:I know God is in charge. Not me, I'm nothing. I wouldn't be anything except for the power of the spirit of God. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
807:I'm not going to be murdered,' Harry said out loud.
'That's the spirit, dear,' said his mirror sleepily. ~ J K Rowling,#NFDB
808:In every situation take the shield of faith … and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. Ephesians 6:16–17 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
809:It is living in sensation that makes man material, and after some time he becomes ignorant of the spirit. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
810:It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building. ~ Louis Sullivan, #NFDB
811:I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
812:Noble and manly music invigorates the spirit, strengthens the wavering man, and incites him to great and worthy deeds. ~ Homer, #NFDB
813:Religious work can be done by natural men without the gifts of the Spirit, and it can be done well and skillfully. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
814:Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
815:The body is a device to calculate
the astronomy of the spirit.
Look through that astrolabe
and become oceanic. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
816:The mixture of the grotesque and the tragic is agreeable to the spirit, as are discords to the jaded ear. ~ Charles Baudelaire, #NFDB
817:There are in the world, two powers. The sword and the spirit. The spirit has always vanquished the sword. ~ Napol on Bonaparte, #NFDB
818:The Spirit, and your soul are not the same things. The Spirit is God - the source. Your soul is God's imagination. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
819:The spirit is never at rest, but always engaged in progressive motion, giving itself new form. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #NFDB
820:Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
821:You have to watch them all the time,’ she assured me darkly. ‘Even if the spirit’s willing, the flesh is weak! ~ Trisha Ashley, #NFDB
822:For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.1 —II TIMOTHY 1:7 ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
823:God is our portion, Christ our companion, the Spirit our Comforter, Earth our lodge, and Heaven is our home. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
824:Humor is a necessary part of wisdom; it gives perspective; it frees the spirit. —ROSE FITZGERALD KENNEDY I ~ Jean Kennedy Smith, #NFDB
825:In comparison with the spirit of priestly revenge all the remaining spirits are hardly worth considering. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
826:It's impossible to contemplate the life of soil very long without seeing its analogy to the life of the spirit. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
827:No matter what our circumstances, our greatest limitation isn’t the leader above us—it’s the spirit within us. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
828:One requirement to be used as a leader in a movement of revival: They must have the Spirit of God upon them. ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
829:Only in the spiritual self can we possess the true unity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #NFDB
830:Paul says “the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6 NASB). ~ Renee Swope, #NFDB
831:The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
832:The spirit in which one earns his daily bread means as much to his soul as the bread itself may mean to his body. ~ Myrtle Reed, #NFDB
833:The spirit of poetry combines the profundity of the philosopher and the child's delight in bright pictures. ~ Franz Grillparzer, #NFDB
834:Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. ~ D T Suzuki, #NFDB
835:38 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
836:Constitution is not a mere lawyers document, it is a vehicle of Life, and its spirit is always the spirit of Age. ~ B R Ambedkar, #NFDB
837:Even if your body doesn't work the way it used to, the heart and the mind and the spirit are not diminished. ~ Christopher Reeve, #NFDB
838:Fear is more even of a nervous sensation than an emotion. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #NFDB
839:For in this strange anatomy we wear, the head has greater powers than the hand; the spirit, heart, and mind are over all. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
840:Her eyes were darkened pits of fury. She had become the spirit of vengeance itself, barely contained by human flesh. ~ S M Reine, #NFDB
841:himself calls such thinking stupid. “Are you so foolish?” he asks in Galatians 3:3. “Having begun by the Spirit, ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
842:History has informed us that bodies of men, as well as individuals, are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
843:In my life I find that memories of the spirit linger and sweeten long after memories of the brain have faded. ~ Harry Connick Jr, #NFDB
844:I think the beauty of working with young people is they remind you of the spirit of acting and it's just a big play. ~ Eric Bana, #NFDB
845:Let a man be what he will, you are to love him. Love is to be the fruit of the Spirit all the day and every day. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
846:the only way the false teachers can make sail against us is by appearing to be endowed with the Spirit of God. But ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
847:there can be no dharma without the spirit of generosity. Without genuine love, laws and rules are worthless. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
848:… the spirit has its homeland, which is the realm of the meaning of things. Saint-Exupéry The Wisdom of the Sands ~ Clive Barker, #NFDB
849:The Spirit of God createth a new nature in us, which is the principle and next cause of all acts of the life of God. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
850:To darkness are they doomed who worship only the body, and to greater darkness they who worship only the spirit. ~ Prabhavananda, #NFDB
851:True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
852:We cannot really look at the movement of the Spirit, just because It is the Power by which we do the looking. ~ Dorothy L Sayers, #NFDB
853:All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. ~ Wangari Maathai, #NFDB
854:And you know, these things don't last forever.'
I know, Mandy. Nothing does.'
That's the spirit. ~ Scott Westerfeld,#NFDB
855:A pure heart does not demean the spirit of an individual, it, instead, compels the individual to examine his spirit. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
856:As you call people to submit to the Person of Christ, you can trust the Spirit of Christ to lead them to salvation. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
857:Don’t believe in ghosts but evidence points to the fact that the spirit of Janis Joplin puked all over your pad. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
858:Don't make the body do what the spirit does best, and don't put a big load on the spirit that the body could easily carry. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
859:If all struggles and sufferings were eliminated, the spirit would no more reach maturity than would the child. ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
860:If wrinkles must be written on our brow, let them not be written on our heart. The spirit should not grow old. ~ James A Garfield, #NFDB
861:Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili. ~ Harry James, #NFDB
862:No matter what our circumstances, our greatest limitation isn't the leader above us - it's the spirit within us. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
863:Purity does not mean crushing the instincts but having the instincts as servants and not the master of the spirit. ~ Eric Liddell, #NFDB
864:The poet is a magician who hardly knows the secret of his own spell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #NFDB
865:The secret of all true and effective praying is knowing the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of grace and of supplication. ~ R A Torrey, #NFDB
866:The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are destructible-that is precisely why they are so precious. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
867:The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become. ~ Henry Martyn, #NFDB
868:The spirit of Christmas exists in harmonious carols like those sung by angels on the day of Christ’s birth. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
869:To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
870:True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
871:writing is perilous, as you can’t always guarantee your words will be read in the spirit in which they were written. ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
872:You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. Romans 8:15 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
873:Awakening your spiritual side is really what artists do. When you hit a groove, it's not you; it's the spirit world. ~ Tommy Chong, #NFDB
874:But a name is a thing of the air, of the mind and the spirit, so a fellow could give it to a spirit, right? ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
875:face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. 14The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
876:GAL4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
877:I am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
878:If the spirit of business adventure is dulled, this country will cease to hold the foremost position in the world. ~ Andrew Mellon, #NFDB
879:Necessity is the child of the spirit’s free self-determination. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma and Freedom, #NFDB
880:Our time, however much it talks of economy, is a squanderer: it squanders what is most precious, the spirit. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
881:Regardless of Galileo’s logic, the highest of arts, I realized, is to uplift the spirit, whatever means one uses. ~ Susan Vreeland, #NFDB
882:The Church needs your faith, your idealism and your generosity, so that she can always be young in the Spirit. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
883:The force of the spirit is ever progressive and endless. Its full expression makes it unconquerable in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
884:There is respect for a heart like yours, and if its beating stop, the spirit lives to guard the ways you wandered. ~ Beryl Markham, #NFDB
885:There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion. ~ Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 34, #NFDB
886:The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are destructible--that is precisely why they are so precious. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
887:The spirit of democracy... requires change of the heart... requires the inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
888:We can accomplish more in one month of dependence on the Spirit than we can in 100 years of dependence on ourselves. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
889:All this infinite becoming is a birth of the Spirit into form. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ascending Unity, #NFDB
890:Because I have confidence in the power of truth, and of the spirit, I have confidence in the future of mankind. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
891:By the time you rise through the ranks, the culture of homogenization has bred the spirit and imagination out of you. ~ Ralph Nader, #NFDB
892:God deliver me from the dread asbestos of “other things.” Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. ~ Jim Elliot, #NFDB
893:I am not a Hindu, Nor a Muslim am II am this body, a playOf five elements a dramaOf the spirit dancing With joy and sorrow. ~ Kabir, #NFDB
894:Imagine if the White House was called the Black House. Everyone would think it was inhabited by the spirit of darkness. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
895:It’s like there is this predator energy on this planet, and this predator energy feeds on the essence of the spirit. ~ John Trudell, #NFDB
896:Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook The longing of the spirit can never be stilled. ~ Hildegard of Bingen, #NFDB
897:Sice Karate exists for cultivating the spirit and training the body, it must be a moral way surpassing mere techniques. ~ Mas Oyama, #NFDB
898:The reality of spirit-matter is inevitably translated into and confirmed by a structure of the spirit. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #NFDB
899:The spirit and determination of the people to chart their own destiny is the greatest power for good in human affairs. ~ Matt Blunt, #NFDB
900:The Spirit Awards are great too, they'll say anything because they're not televised. Another great drinking night. ~ William H Macy, #NFDB
901:The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
902:The spirit of deception, you see,” Father Maximos explained, “has egotism and pride as its primary attribute. ~ Kyriacos C Markides, #NFDB
903:The steam of meat darkens the light of the spirit...One hardly can have virtue when one enjoys meat meals and feasts. ~ Saint Basil, #NFDB
904:We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:13 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
905:But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. ~ Latita Vistara, #NFDB
906:Endeavoring to live the Christian life by your own efforts is the greatest single hindrance to walking in the Spirit. ~ Derek Prince, #NFDB
907:Far from being a psychological trait, the spirit of revenge is the principle on which our whole psychology depends. ~ Gilles Deleuze, #NFDB
908:God the Father's a deep root; the Son's the shoot that breaks into the world; the Spirit spreads the beauty & fragrance ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
909:I believe strongly in inspiration, inspiration literally meaning full of the spirit. I do believe that it comes to you. ~ Jimmy Webb, #NFDB
910:If anything, the spirit that drove him now was fiercer, but there was no denying the diminishing powers of his body. He ~ Donna Leon, #NFDB
911:it strikes me that the spirit of the Fourth, this year, was used up by September's end and fell like an early leaf. ~ William H Gass, #NFDB
912:No one in USAID embodied the spirit of compassion and brotherhood that underpins our efforts more than Larry Foley. ~ Andrew Natsios, #NFDB
913:Religion is boring and alien to me and relates no more than a chimera to what is to me the reality of the spirit. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
914:The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are destructible -- that is precisely why they are so precious. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
915:Above everything else, as fulfillment of the new covenant[2] the Spirit marked the return of the lost presence of God. ~ Gordon D Fee, #NFDB
916:A sensible thanksgiving for mercies received is a mighty prayer in the Spirit of God. It prevails with Him unspeakably. ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
917:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
918:Fate revealed a chain of seeing Will; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
919:For the countries of the spirit, to which he was now admitted, were accessible only via many dim and tangled trails. ~ Louise Erdrich, #NFDB
920:Grow deep roots to harvest rich fruit! When your roots run deep, you cannot help but bear the fruit of the Spirit. ~ Michael Beckwith, #NFDB
921:Here chaos sorts itself into a world, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
922:If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old. ~ Candice Millard, #NFDB
923:Outward circumstances are only a cover for the real workings of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #NFDB
924:Part of the spirit dies a little each time its asked to carry more than its weight in terror, violence, and betrayal. ~ Gregory Boyle, #NFDB
925:Real intimacy; real love has to do with a joining of the mind, a joining of the spirit, a joining of the heart. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
926:The body is like the wife to the spirit. The two must cohabit to create new forms, but their pleasures rarely coincide. ~ Subhash Kak, #NFDB
927:The end of the year! I draw the balance. Inquiry of conscience and request to the Spirit for progress and maturity. ~ Joseph Goebbels, #NFDB
928:The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less. ~ Annie Dillard, #NFDB
929:The political philosopher Francis Fukuyama captured the spirit of the time best in his 1989 essay “The End of History. ~ Neil Strauss, #NFDB
930:The spirit and soul are the body and the brain, which are destructible—that is precisely why they are so precious. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
931: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
932:The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
933:The spirit of meditation is the combating of self-willed thinking-it is a combat against the weight of one's feelings. ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #NFDB
934:The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
935:The true policy of government is to make use of aristocracy, but under the forms and in the spirit of democracy. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
936:To break up the form is to injure the spirit’s self-expression. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, “Is India Civilised?” - I, #NFDB
937:Whoever has the world's treasures has them no matter how he got them. In the world of the spirit it is otherwise. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
938:You need mending?” “We all do. When we are young it is the spirit that breaks, and when we are old it is the body. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
939:A shaking hand may as well write a line steadily, as we can keep our hearts fixed in prayer without the Spirit of God. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
940:Day by day, we are becoming what we shall be eternally. The spirit who convicts us is also the spirit who consoles. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
941:If, therefore, there is any grace in the water, it is not from the nature of water but from the Spirit's presence there. ~ Saint Basil, #NFDB
942:If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old. ~ James A Garfield, #NFDB
943:If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old. ~ James A Garfield, #NFDB
944:I have never come away from you without reflecting that the Spirit of God and His holy workings reside in you. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
945:In the true nature of Matter is the fundamental law of the Spirit. In the true nature of Spirit is the fundamental law of Matter. ~ id, #NFDB
946:It is the Spirit who gives life; a the flesh is no help at all. b The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
947:Nothing is more poisonous than the spirit of entitlement that permeates our culture and sometimes, sadly, our churches. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
948:The spirit of creation is the spirit of contradiction. It is the breakthrough of appearances toward an unknown reality. ~ Jean Cocteau, #NFDB
949:The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey, and those who nourish themselves with this honey produce sweet fruit. ~ Anthony of Padua, #NFDB
950:The spirit of the First Amendment has been effectively repealed for conservative speech by a censorious, accusatory mob. ~ Ann Coulter, #NFDB
951:The tree of life is growing where the spirit never dies, and the bright light of salvation shines in dark and empty skies. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
952:We began as restless and radical. Remember the spirit of 1997, but by the end of our time in office we had lost our way. ~ Ed Miliband, #NFDB
953:What people call the spirit of the times is mostly their own spirit in which the times mirror themselves. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
954:When the spirit of child's play enters into the creative process, it's a wonderful force and something to be nurtured. ~ Joni Mitchell, #NFDB
955:When you love without conditions, you the human and you the God, align with the spirit of life moving through you. ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz, #NFDB
956:Art has always been and is in its very essence the boldest departure from nature. It is the bridge into the spirit world. ~ Franz Marc, #NFDB
957:But we have nothing of the Spirit except through regeneration. Everything, therefore, which we have from nature is flesh. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
958:Christ teaches by the Spirit of wisdom in the heart, opening the understanding to the Spirit of revelation in the word. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
959:Give up all bad qualities in you, banish the ego and develop the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
960:How is that for some people drinking is a short-term loan on the spirit, but for others a heavy mortgage on the soul? ~ Sebastian Barry, #NFDB
961:If drawing belongs to the world of spirit and color to that of the senses, you must draw first to cultivate the spirit. ~ Henri Matisse, #NFDB
962:Let us pray to “be filled with the Spirit,” that we may bring forth increasingly the fruits of righteousness. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
963:The basis of action on love, the brotherhood of all men, the value of the individual... the humility of the spirit. ~ Richard P Feynman, #NFDB
964:The fruit of the Spirit is not what we can make ourselves do for a moment, But what God makes us to be for a lifetime. ~ Wayne Jacobsen, #NFDB
965:The highest proof of the spirit is love. Love the eternal thing which can already on earth possess as it really is. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
966:theology is the serious and joyful attempt to live blessedly with others, before God, in Christ, through the Spirit ~ Kevin J Vanhoozer, #NFDB
967:The Spirit must be honored not only as the author of a new life but also as the leader and director of our entire walk. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
968:When led of the Spirit, the child of God must be as ready to wait as to go, as prepared to be silent as to speak. ~ Lewis Sperry Chafer, #NFDB
969:Whoever uses the spirit that is
in him creatively is an artist. To
make living itself an art, that is
the goal. ~ Henry Miller,#NFDB
970:You are engaged in a work so spiritual, so far above all human power, that to forget the Spirit is to ensure defeat. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
971:And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
972:Any time my walk with God gets hard, I know that I am no longer walking in the spirit but have begun living out of my soul. ~ Jack Frost, #NFDB
973:Enjoying praise is in some people merely a civility of the heart--and just the opposite of a vanity of the spirit. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
974:Essay on tragedy.
(1) The silence of Prometheus.
(2) The Elizabethans.
(3) Moliere.
(4) The spirit of revolt. ~ Albert Camus,#NFDB
975:For where the church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God, there is the church and all grace. ~ Irenaeus of Lyons, #NFDB
976:If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written
upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old. ~ Candice Millard,#NFDB
977:In each success a seed of failure lurks. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
978:It is part of the unceasing human endeavor to prove that the spirit of man can transcend the flaws of his own nature. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi, #NFDB
979:One simple thing to do and destroy the spirit of self-sabotage is to admire the beauty hidden in ugly circumstances. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
980:Part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Once you get married, however, a good defense is frequency and freedom. ~ Mark Driscoll, #NFDB
981:Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. ~ Richard J Foster, #NFDB
982:The Bible’s aim, as I read it, is not the freeing of the spirit from the world. It is the handbook of their interaction. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
983:The body always expresses the spirit whose envelope it is. And for him who can see, the nude offers the richest meaning. ~ Auguste Rodin, #NFDB
984:The difference between knowledge and ignorance is a grace of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Master of the Work, #NFDB
985:The real force of Silicon Valley is the mentality, the spirit. There's no reason at all that can't be replicated in Paris. ~ Xavier Niel, #NFDB
986:There is a greater purpose to living which is found in the spirit, which is the Being, and that purpose is worth living for. ~ Belsebuub, #NFDB
987:The spirit of rebellion can exist only in a society where a theoretical equality conceals great factual inequalities. The ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
988:The spirit of wrath - not the words - is the sin; and the spirit of wrath is cursing. We begin to swear before we can talk. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
989:The worship of God is not a rule of safety - it is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
990:To construct plausible and moving ‘other worlds’ you must draw upon the only real ‘other world’ we know, that of the spirit. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
991:To hate another person is wrong. It is never right. Hate is a crime of the spirit that leads to crimes of the flesh. ~ Patricia Cornwell, #NFDB
992:A general rule for the good use of time is to accustom oneself to live in a continual dependence on the Spirit of God. ~ Francois Fenelon, #NFDB
993:If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. ~ Romans VIII. 13, #NFDB
994:Islam, in the year 1978, was not the opium of the people precisely because it was the spirit of a world without spirit. ~ Michel Foucault, #NFDB
995:I think The Grateful Dead kind of represents the spirit of being able to go out and have an adventure in America at large. ~ Jerry Garcia, #NFDB
996:Pine trees with low limbs spread over fresh snow made a stronger vault for the spirit than pews and pulpits ever could. ~ Daniel Woodrell, #NFDB
997:Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit, simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justificat ion ~ Richard J Foster, #NFDB
998:the fruit of the Spirit k is love, l joy, m peace, patience, n kindness, o goodness, faith, B 23 gentleness, p self-control. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
999:The great American judge Learned Hand once said, “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1000:The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
1001:The new dimensions of the message are examples of the Spirit of truth doing what Jesus promised he would do: continuing ~ Brian D McLaren, #NFDB
1002:There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1003:The spirit is often concealed within matter to such an extent that few people are generally capable of perceiving it. ~ Wassily Kandinsky, #NFDB
1004:The spirit looks upon the Dust
That fastened it so long
With indignation,
As a Bird
Defrauded of it's Song. ~ Emily Dickinson,#NFDB
1005:the spirit of an evil man who tried to take your body … but you say fire?” “It felt like fire,” Stammel said. His throat ~ Elizabeth Moon, #NFDB
1006:The spirit of commerce... renders every man willing to live on his own property...& prevents the growth of luxury. ~ Baron de Montesquieu, #NFDB
1007:The spirit of karate practice and the elements of training are applicable to each and every aspect of our daily lives. ~ Gichin Funakoshi, #NFDB
1008:The whole difficulty is that we wish to pray in the Spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh. This is impossible. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1009:Travel can also be the spirit of adventure somewhat tamed, for those who desire to do something they are a bit afraid of. ~ Ella Maillart, #NFDB
1010:Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit. Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of inventions. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
1011:Art is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light of the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. ~ Ansel Adams, #NFDB
1012:At a time when experimentation expresses itself in all forms of life, search becomes the only valid expression of the spirit. ~ Mark Tobey, #NFDB
1013:Grace is free, but when once you take it, you are bound forever to the Giver and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. ~ E Stanley Jones, #NFDB
1014:In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1015:It is the spirit within and not the mind without that is the fount of poetry. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, New Birth or Decadence?, #NFDB
1016:Let your spirit be the bigger one. They are spirits, they will submit to the authority of the spirit that asserts itself. ~ Easterine Kire, #NFDB
1017:Lots of people say it's the song. For me, it's not always the song - there's something bigger: the spirit of an artist. ~ Steve Lillywhite, #NFDB
1018:Sometimes, when the spirit moves me I can do many wondrous things I wanna know when the spirit moves you Did ye get healed? ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
1019:The great benefit of philosophy, which is also its great weakness, is that all its steps are taken in the spirit of doubt. ~ Roger Scruton, #NFDB
1020:The Immobile’s ocean-silence saw him pass, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
1021:The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit, and he cannot know them, for they are foolishness unto him. ~ Emma Curtis Hopkins, #NFDB
1022:The Spirit is speaking strongly to me for you to place a $50 offering on the altar, when you do, God will do a now miracle. ~ Steve Munsey, #NFDB
1023:The spirit must be felt so intensely that it has power to call others in passing, for it must pass, not stop in the pictures. ~ Emily Carr, #NFDB
1024:The spirit of mercy is found in all the world's great religions , and they remind us of our charge in caring for Creation. ~ Wayne Pacelle, #NFDB
1025:The yoga of selfless giving is easy for anyone to practice. The key is detachment. The spirit is unattachment to results. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1026:When we get into the spirit world, and the veil is withdrawn, we shall then perhaps understand the whys and wherefores. ~ Wilford Woodruff, #NFDB
1027:You are to listen to the cursed radio music of life and to reverence the spirit behind it and to laugh at its distortions. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1028:A blast, an acceleration, the distillate, the spirit, the history, the weaponized soul of convulsive beauty went critical. ~ China Mi ville, #NFDB
1029:and he wants to see those courtyard wells that depress the spirit and twist the soul into a truly Russian miserable knot. ~ Elena Gorokhova, #NFDB
1030:Confession should be a daily activity for the Christian, whose entire pilgrimage is characterized by the spirit of repentance. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1031:Consecrate your labour and leave its returns to the Spirit who manifests and fulfills himself in the universal movement." ~ ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
1032:Death lay beneath him like a gate of sleep. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
1033:God commands us to be filled with the Spirit, and if we are not filled, it is because we are living beneath our privileges ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
1034:Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart. ~ Arthur Erickson, #NFDB
1035:If you walk in the Spirit, know your Bible, and spend sufficient time alone with God, your theology will take care of itself. ~ R T Kendall, #NFDB
1036:In the dance the boundaries between body and soul are effaced. The body moves itself spiritually, the spirit bodily. ~ Gerard van der Leeuw, #NFDB
1037:In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #NFDB
1038:It will make you feel good, and it will make you feel whole, when the spirit moves you and it fills you through and through. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
1039:[Man’s] nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the power to come to Christ unless drawn by the Spirit. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1040:Since the beginning of time mankind has used music and dance to commune with the Spirit of Nature and the Spirit of the Universe… ~ Goa Gil, #NFDB
1041:The Spirit lurks within the Flesh Like Tides within the Sea That make the Water live, estranged What would the Either be? ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1042:The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower, #NFDB
1043:What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common sense. ~ Sarah Jio, #NFDB
1044:When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose then they will also find their way to each other. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
1045:But when we study God’s word we should pray that the Spirit of God will not only inform our heads but also inspire our hearts. ~ Tim Chester, #NFDB
1046:Death is a dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust.
"Dissolve" says Death-The Spirit "Sir
I have another Trust"- ~ Emily Dickinson,#NFDB
1047:Follow your dream as long as you live, do not lessen the time of following desire, for wasting time is an abomination of the spirit. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1048:I am the Ultimate Warrior, you are the Ultimate Warrior fans and the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior will run forever. ~ The Ultimate Warrior, #NFDB
1049:If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of Strategy. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
1050:Life will come to an end, a return to dust from which we came... The spirit becomes memories living in the minds of people. ~ Hiromu Arakawa, #NFDB
1051:Our task in worship is to prepare ourselves spiritually to hear the Spirit speak, sometimes despite the music and preaching. ~ Adam Hamilton, #NFDB
1052:People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress. ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
1053:The deterioration of symbols is natural. They wear out, needing to be reclaimed, recreated; returned to the spirit. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes, #NFDB
1054: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
1055:The lyrical impulse is the original and spontaneous creator of the poetic form, ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #NFDB
1056:The mind of the spirit will guide you in perfect ways, even in the minute details of your life, if you will let it do so. ~ Charles Fillmore, #NFDB
1057:There is no form of conviction more intimate and irresistible than that which arises from the inward teaching of the Spirit. ~ Charles Hodge, #NFDB
1058:The Spirit, and your soul are not the same things. The Spirit is God - the source. Your soul is God's imagination - the subject. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
1059:The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It had only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
1060:The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1061:The struggle of the spirit against the senses is the gospel of modern man. I do not wish to have any part in it. ~ Leopold von Sacher Masoch, #NFDB
1062:The wanting of advice is the sign that the Spirit in you has not yet spoken with the compelling voice that you ought to obey. ~ Annie Besant, #NFDB
1063:When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth… . He will also declare to you what is to come. John 16:13 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1064:You could never fail me. Whatever you do, whoever you become, you will always be my Karasi. The Spirit of my heart." PART ~ Karpov Kinrade, #NFDB
1065:You think any of this crap could be possessed? (Zeke)
No. I think you’re possessed of the spirit of creepiness. (Mary) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon,#NFDB
1066:A mind may know a thing, the spirit may embrace it, but the voice that chatters in the head clings ever to shameful beliefs. ~ Ki Longfellow, #NFDB
1067:Artists create out of a sense of desolation. The spirit of creation is a excruciating, intricate exploration from within the soul. ~ El Greco, #NFDB
1068:Don’t be deceived by the spirit of complacency and think you have achieved enough. Try to become better than you’ve been. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1069:For Krishna, there can be no dharma without the spirit of generosity. Without genuine love, laws and rules are worthless. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
1070:I find that plans kill the spirit of an adventure because the experience has to measure up to the plan and is not of itself. ~ Lesley Thomson, #NFDB
1071:If you are walking with Jesus, in the Spirit, you need not fear going too far. No believer has gone as far as God wants him to go ~ A A Allen, #NFDB
1072:It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T5],#NFDB
1073:Learn then, in brief, matter and its nature, qualities and modifications and also what the Spirit is and what its power. ~ Bhagavad Gita XIII, #NFDB
1074:Material universe a form and movement of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #NFDB
1075:No man has greater confidence than I have in the spirit of the people, to a rational extent. Whatever they can, they will. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
1076:Not alone the mind in its trouble
God beholds, but the spirit behind that has joy of the torture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#NFDB
1077:Paul says, if we choose to live by the Spirit, we will live; if we choose to follow our sinful nature, we will die (Rom. 8:13). ~ Henry Cloud, #NFDB
1078:Spiritual truth is a truth of the spirit, not a truth of the intellect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #NFDB
1079:The brilliance of enslaving the spirit is that it is an invisible prison from which the inmate appears to derive some comfort. ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
1080:The point is clear. People who get things done in this world don’t wait for the spirit to move them; they move the spirit. ~ David J Schwartz, #NFDB
1081:The purpose of meditation is to stop thinking for a time, wait for the fog of thought to thin, and glimpse the spirit within. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1082:The spirit of a person's life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing fragrance upon the air. ~ Thomas Starr King, #NFDB
1083:The voice of an Angel, the Heart of a Lamb, the spirit of a Lioness, the presence of a Goddess, love you R.I.P Whitney Houston. ~ Wyclef Jean, #NFDB
1084:To realize the spirit as spirit is practical religion. Everything else is good so far as it leads to this one grand idea. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1085:We should cultivate the serenity, because in the substance of sincerity germinate the most beautiful flowers of the Spirit. ~ Samael Aun Weor, #NFDB
1086:Whomsoever you follow, howsoever great, see to it that you follow the spirit of the master and not imitate him mechanically. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1087:All things are there as the spirit’s powers and means and forms of manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #NFDB
1088:And in that faith he died believing, as he had ever believed, that the spirit of evil was stronger than the spirit of good. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1089:Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness. ~ Mark Rothko, #NFDB
1090:(I am) dealing not with the particular anecdote, but rather with the Spirit of Myth, which is generic to all myths at all times. ~ Mark Rothko, #NFDB
1091:If you are walking with Jesus, in the Spirit, you need not fear going too far. No believer has gone as far as God wants him to go. ~ A A Allen, #NFDB
1092:Intolerance, discourtesy and harshness..... are taboo in all good society and are surely contrary to the spirit of democracy. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1093:More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
1094:The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1095:The good young man went out and I felt the great relief that simple kindness can work. It is a salve of the spirit, surely. ~ Geraldine Brooks, #NFDB
1096:The heart’s love allies itself readily with a vital desire in the body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Instruments of the Spirit, #NFDB
1097:The idea is only a partial expression of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - VI, #NFDB
1098:The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
1099:We learn to be victorious by surrendering our lives completely to the Spirit of God, not by gritting our teeth and trying harder. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1100:What is heavy? so asks the spirit that would bear much, and then kneels down like the camel, and wants to be well laden. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1101:Youth is the time when hearts are large, And stirring wars Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn To the blade it draws. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
1102:63 ‡ The Spirit gives life;† the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[34] and life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1103:How much there is in books that one does not want to know, that it would be a mere weariness and burden to the spirit to know. ~ John Burroughs, #NFDB
1104:I have inherited a belief in community, the promise that a gathering of the spirit can both create and change culture. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
1105:It is delightful to transport one's self into the spirit of the past, to see how a wise man has thought before us. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
1106:I was not okay for one thing.For another, I'd passed from simple misanthropy to nihilism, death of the spirit and beyond. ~ T Coraghessan Boyle, #NFDB
1107:Our prayers must spring from the indigenous soil of our own personal confrontation with the Spirit of God in our lives. ~ Reverend Malcolm Boyd, #NFDB
1108:Our theology and experience of the Spirit must be more interwoven if our experienced life of the Spirit is to be more effective. ~ Gordon D Fee, #NFDB
1109:Paul Scholes is my favourite player. He epitomises the spirit of Manchester United and everything that is good about football. ~ Bobby Charlton, #NFDB
1110:The final aim and reason of all music is nothing other than the glorification of God and the refreshment of the spirit. ~ Johann Sebastian Bach, #NFDB
1111:The spirit as system requires the murder of God; and, conversely, in order to commit the murder of God the system is fashioned. ~ Eric Voegelin, #NFDB
1112:The Spirit manifest as Intelligence is the basis of the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #NFDB
1113:The spirit of religious persecution is not the special failing of any particular faith, but springs eternal in the human breast. ~ Dion Fortune, #NFDB
1114:Use it or lose it" is a law of nature, but mercifully "not a soul will be lost" is a law of the spirit that supersedes it. ~ Arianna Huffington, #NFDB
1115:With the spirit of my administration, New York City is poised for dramatic change. The era of fear has had a long enough reign. ~ Rudy Giuliani, #NFDB
1116:You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way. EPHESIANS 4:3 (NCV) ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
1117:If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. – 1 Peter 4:14 ~ R A Torrey, #NFDB
1118:Leaves are the Greek, flowers the Italian, phase of the spirit of beauty that reveals itself through the flora of the globe. ~ Thomas Starr King, #NFDB
1119:"No one can flatter himself that he is immune to the spirit of his own epoch, or even that he possesses a full understanding of it." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1120:No radiance of the Spirit can dissipate the darkness of the soul below unless all egoistic thought has fled out of it. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, #NFDB
1121:Our hearts clutch at a forfeited heavenly bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
1122:ROM8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1123:The place one's in, though, doesn't make any contribution to peace of mind: it's the spirit that makes everything agreeable to oneself. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1124:The Southern heart is too impulsive; Southern hospitality is too lavish with the stranger.
- "The Spirit of Tennessee Journalism ~ Mark Twain,#NFDB
1125:Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1126:When the Spirit lives within you, any place can become a sanctuary. You just have to listen. You just have to pay attention. ~ Rachel Held Evans, #NFDB
1127:All art is the expression of one and the same thing- the relation of the spirit of man to the spirit of other men and to the world. ~ Ansel Adams, #NFDB
1128:An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government. ~ James Madison, #NFDB
1129:Holy Spirit, who is forever the Comforter of the church. It is the Spirit’s role to console the hearts of God’s people. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1130:I don’t love just men. I love people. It’s not about a gender. It’s just about the spirit that exudes from that other person you’re with. ~ Kesha, #NFDB
1131:I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing. ~ Tadao Ando, #NFDB
1132:I see the time coming when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Spirit will desert worldly Evangelicalism, one by one. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1133:Jazz to me is the spirit of freedom. I mean real freedom. Freedom to explore. Freedom to express. Freedom to pour out your guts. ~ Herbie Hancock, #NFDB
1134:Music should make the spirit soar, take the breath away, touch the soul. Your work was just…pleasant tones, adequately performed. ~ Brian Herbert, #NFDB
1135:My son really has the spirit of Valentine's Day. When he was in college, he used to send his mother a heart-shaped box of laundry. ~ Milton Berle, #NFDB
1136:People need to climb the mountain not simple because it is there But because the soulful divinity needs to be mated with the spirit. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1137:Seek in God's presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment be spiritual. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1138:surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than allowing massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort.”32 ~ Philip Jenkins, #NFDB
1139:The restriction of knowledge to an elite group destroys the spirit of the society and leads to its intellectual impoverishment. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1140:The spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned ... . ~ Learned Hand, #NFDB
1141:To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life. ~ Woodrow Wilson, #NFDB
1142:Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
1143:If it was his mother who had given birth to him in the flesh, it was Pushkin who had given birth to him in the world of the spirit. ~ Joseph Frank, #NFDB
1144:Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1145:Nearness to nature... keeps the spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt and in touch with the unseen powers. ~ Charles Alexander Eastman, #NFDB
1146:No form of government matters nearly as much as the spirit and intelligence brought to the administration of any form of government. ~ Don Marquis, #NFDB
1147:So long as one is not free from the ego sense, there can be no real freedom. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #NFDB
1148:Teachers are wonderful beings who inspire the spirit and open the mind.
Nobody at Padua High School fits that description. ~ David Levithan,#NFDB
1149:The real trouble with the Jews at the time of our Lord was that they stopped at the letter and never arrived at the spirit. ~ D Martyn Lloyd Jones, #NFDB
1150:The spirit's there and that's not just my imagination. I think if you look at surveys and attitudes among young people, you see it. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1151:...,the will of God for your life is pretty straightforward: Be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God. ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
1152:The wise attend to the inner truth of things
and are not fooled by outward appearances.
They ignore matter and seek the spirit. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
1153:63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1154:God is present in the Spirit, who groans wordlessly on our behalf and who speaks in a soft voice to all consciences attuned to him. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
1155:I pressed my father's hand and told him I would protect his grave with my life. My father smiled and passed away to the spirit land. ~ Chief Joseph, #NFDB
1156:Is there a place here for the spirit ? Is there time on this brief platform for anything other than mind 's failure to explain itself? ~ R S Thomas, #NFDB
1157:My philosophy is always, "Let's get the spirit of the character." If people believe in it and the spirit of it, then it will work. ~ Julian Jarrold, #NFDB
1158:That's the spirit of Nasty Gal: We want you to dress for yourself, and know that it's not shallow to put effort into how you look. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
1159:The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1160:Thought climbs in vain and brings a borrowed light, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness, #NFDB
1161:To this it must be added that a sincere love of the law of God is a sure sign of our adoption because it is a work of the Spirit. . . ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1162:We call this the spirit of Ubuntu, that profound African sense that we are human only through the humanity of other human beings. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
1163:When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1164:When the great promise of the Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, it was fulfilled not in reference to the apostles only. ~ Charles Hodge, #NFDB
1165:Catharsis is about cleansing and healing at one and the same time - healing memories and attitudes, healing the spirit and the heart. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1166:Christmas lights, again, piercing like knives. The spirit of that season was never more remote than during those dark December days. ~ Elaine Pagels, #NFDB
1167:In a certain state of thought is the common origin of very diverse works. It is the spirit and not the fact that is identical. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1168:In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1169:It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
1170:I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
1171:I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, #NFDB
1172:Our sight and sense are a fallible gaze and touch
And only the spirit’s vision is wholly true. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#NFDB
1173:The body, lady, is like a house: it don't go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like a automobile: always on the move, always... ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
1174:The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter. ~ Sigmund Freud, #NFDB
1175:The fruit of the Spirit wasn't intended to be a list of goals for us to produce - it is the Holy Spirit through us who produces fruit. ~ Dan Kimball, #NFDB
1176:The Indian may seem poor to we rich Westerners but in matters of the spirit it is we who are the paupers and they who are millionaires. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1177:There is an uncalculating, unaffected, unbound excitement in us when the Spirit is given freedom to express Himself through us. ~ Lloyd John Ogilvie, #NFDB
1178:To see a spiritually dead sinner made alive in Christ Jesus by the power of the Spirit is to witness an actual miracle of God. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1179:Until bitterness ans self-pity and anger are gone... the belief was that healing was not possible until the spirit was cleansed. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
1180:Where principles and heart stand in conflict with each other, let us make the law of the spirit free from the law of principles. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1181:An epicure of the spirit’s unseen joys,
He lives on the sweet honey of solitude: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#NFDB
1182:As in the Old Testament, God’s response to prayer and persecution is the sending of the Spirit to revive individuals and churches. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1183:Dear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace. Then send, dear Lord, the spirit of peace from me to all the world. Amen. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1184:Genius is not a matter of intelligence, but of spirit; and we cannot speak accurately of the spirit in any language but music. ~ Kim Stanley Robinson, #NFDB
1185:Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1186:Overall, rocks, wood and water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the soul to its innermost depths. ~ Thomas Cole, #NFDB
1187:Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. ~ Scott Peck, #NFDB
1188:The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1189:The English have all the material requisites for the revolution. What they lack is the spirit of generalization and revolutionary ardour. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
1190:The spirit of resistance to government,” Jefferson wrote, “is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. ~ Paul Graham, #NFDB
1191:Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet. ~ N T Wright, #NFDB
1192:To speak of sin without grace is to minimize the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, and the hope of shalom. ~ Cornelius Plantinga, #NFDB
1193:A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
1194:Convert a soul without the Spirit of' God! Why, you cannot even make a fly, much less create a new heart and a right spirit. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1195:For I believe that climate does thus react on man--as there is something in the mountain air that feeds the spirit and inspires. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1196:It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true. ~ Gore Vidal, #NFDB
1197:Language is surely too small a vessel to contain these emotions of mind and body that have somehow awakened a response in the spirit. ~ Radclyffe Hall, #NFDB
1198:O my friend, hearken to the melody of the Spirit in thy heart and in thy soul and guard it as the apple of thy eyes. ~ Baha-ullah, “The Seven Valleys”, #NFDB
1199:Reckless of my mortality,
Strengthen me to behold a face,
To know the spirit of a beloved one
Yet to endure, yet to dare! ~ Edgar Lee Masters,#NFDB
1200:Small female children. They're devious, but they're prettier than sons, and they smell better." (The Spirit of the Prophecy to Garion) ~ David Eddings, #NFDB
1201:The church is biblical, therefore, when it seeks to embody the words in the power of the Spirit and so become a living commentary. ~ Kevin J Vanhoozer, #NFDB
1202:The Spirit inspired the Word when it originally was written. Today, He uses it to illumine us, and He applies it to our souls and hearts. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1203:what is Fate if not the spirit’s will
After long time fulfilled by cosmic Force? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#NFDB
1204:While many congregations are less than vibrant, my experience has shown that where the Word is taught, the Spirit of the Lord is present. ~ Tim LaHaye, #NFDB
1205:A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to Be Both Scriptural and Rational Doctrine. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1206:Cricket, however, has more in it than mere efficiency. There is something called the spirit of cricket, which cannot be defined. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson, #NFDB
1207:Do you know what the Spirit-filled life is? It is living every moment as though you are standing in the presence of Jesus Christ! ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1208:If God is your Father, the Son is your Savior, and the Spirit is your indwelling Helper, you have hope no matter what you’re facing. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
1209:If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old. JAMES A. GARFIELD ~ Candice Millard, #NFDB
1210:It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit which we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory. ~ George C Marshall, #NFDB
1211:It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
1212:No man to be judged by mere nature of his duties, but all should be judged by the manner and the spirit in which they perform them. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1213:Only a conscious leader can evoke the spirit of unconditional responsibility in each of her followers and in her organization as a whole. ~ Fred Kofman, #NFDB
1214:Please, compete in the spirit of fair play, mutual understanding and respect. And above all, please compete cleanly by refusing doping. ~ Jacques Rogge, #NFDB
1215:Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
1216:The ordinary man is ruined by the flesh lusting against the spirit; the scholar by the spirit lusting too much against the flesh. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
1217:These times of waiting on God for the fullness of the Spirit are times when He searches the heart and tests the mind (Jer. 17:10). ~ Smith Wigglesworth, #NFDB
1218:The spirit contains within it all potentialities, and as man progresses he unfolds new powers, new qualities, into the light. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
1219:The spirit of the depths took my understanding and all my knowledge and placed them at the service of the inexplicable and the paradoxical. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1220:The Spirit’s convicting work is not about making unrepentant sinners feel bad, but about delivering a legal verdict against them. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1221:The Spirit speaks directly to our hearts through music. That's why music has always had such power to move people into positive action. ~ Kenny Loggins, #NFDB
1222:The way you come to fully appreciate the infusion of the Spirit is to more and more come fully into the moment, where this moment is enough. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
1223:To one who reads the spirit of the Gita, it teaches the secret of nonviolence, the secret of realizing self through the physical body. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1224:True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible. ~ William Barclay, #NFDB
1225:We have fallen on hard times of the spirit, with many of the people more concerned with fear of evil than contemplation of the good. ~ Clifford D Simak, #NFDB
1226:What the spirit sees, creates a truth
And what the soul imagines is made a world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#NFDB
1227:A husband's work as provider will be so difficult that it can only be fulfilled in the power of the Spirit and a transformed life. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1228:All makers must leave room for the acts of the spirit. But they have to work hard and carefully, and wait patiently, to deserve them. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1229:A story, to me, has a particular sprite, like the angel of the spirit of that story - and it's my job to attend to what it wants to do. ~ Philip Pullman, #NFDB
1230:A vision we give to others of who and what they could become has power when it echoes what the spirit has already spoken into their souls. ~ Larry Crabb, #NFDB
1231:But first the spirit’s ascent we must achieve
Out of the chasm from which our nature rose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Godheads of the Little Life,#NFDB
1232:In the spirit of Vivian Maier, who worked unaided by any publication or commercial shooting, I set up the Emerging Photographer Fund ~ David Alan Harvey, #NFDB
1233:It is gaol that finally reveals to me the beauty of Shakespeare, the spirit in his words, the jaw-dropping audacity of his language. ~ Christos Tsiolkas, #NFDB
1234:It is the spirit of the South to defend everything belonging to it. The North is too cosmopolitan and tolerant for such a spirit. ~ James Weldon Johnson, #NFDB
1235:Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit. ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
1236:The guardians of Eternity keep its law
For ever fixed upon Truth’s giant base ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1237:The inconscient world is the spirit’s self-made room,
Eternal Night shadow of eternal Day. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Ideal,#NFDB
1238:The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1239:The one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6:8 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1240:There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
1241:There is only one way to be prepared for death: to be sated. In the soul, in the heart, in the spirit, in the flesh. To the brim. ~ Henry de Montherlant, #NFDB
1242:The spirit, alas, is not the same thing as the consciousness and one may lose–sacrifice– the first and still be burdened with the second. ~ Fritz Leiber, #NFDB
1243:The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. John 6:63 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1244:Time shall be
The quivering of the spirit’s endless bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#NFDB
1245:When the Word of God, faithfully taught by the people of God and empowered by the Spirit of God, falls down, people become different. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
1246:A movie is not a book. If the source material is a book, you cannot be too respectful of the book. All you owe to the book is the spirit. ~ Graham Greene, #NFDB
1247:And they will ask thee of the spirit. Say: The spirit proceedeth at my Lord's command; but of knowledge, only a little is given to you. ~ Elijah Muhammad, #NFDB
1248:Elpis, the spirit of hope, stayed with humans so they wouldn’t give up completely. They could always believe that things might get better. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1249:Every one called effectually by God and regenerated by the Spirit has secured the victory in the terms of Romans 6:14; 1 John 3:9; 5:4, 18. ~ John Murray, #NFDB
1250:For Emily Dickinson every philosophical idea was a potential lover. Metaphysics is the realm of eternal seduction of the spirit by ideas. ~ Charles Simic, #NFDB
1251:I can neither teach nor live by the faith of others. I must live by my own faith as the Spirit of the Lord has taught me through His Word. ~ Menno Simons, #NFDB
1252:If by losing the spirit of prayer, you mean losing the heavenly sensations of deep devotion, I am afraid that does not matter a scrap. ~ Evelyn Underhill, #NFDB
1253:Meditation on Savitri, October 9, 2018 TuesdayThen stirred the Spirit’s mute immobile sleep;The Force concealed broke dumbly, slowly out. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
1254:Paris-New York, the two high tension magnetic poles between life, life of the senses, of the spirit in Paris, and life in action in New York. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
1255:Phenomenon built Reality’s summer-house
On the beaches of the sea of Infinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1256:Roar the lion's knowledge. Write
with gold ink so whoever reads this will feel the ocean's light around them and grow
in the spirit. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
1257:The body's ills are the least of ills, for they end only in death, which is but a little thing. But if the spirit dies, then all is lost. ~ Michael Flynn, #NFDB
1258:The old saying is true: If you have only the Word, you dry up. If you have only the Spirit, you blow up. But if you have both, you grow up. ~ Jim Cymbala, #NFDB
1259:The poetic word is a vehicle of the spirit, the chosen medium of the soul’s self-expression. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #NFDB
1260:The too developed intellect cannot often keep or recover life’s first fine careless rapture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #NFDB
1261:What is Christian in art does not lie in the theme but in the spirit of it, in its wisdom and the understanding of reality it reflects. ~ Hans Rookmaaker, #NFDB
1262:wrong are those who magnify the decree of the Father, and the atonement of the Son, so as to depreciate the work of the Spirit. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1263:Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts... ~ Robert Fulghum, #NFDB
1264:You can be angry and silent, but it's no use - there's no distance in the spirit - besides, my words touch you more softly than my hands. ~ John J Geddes, #NFDB
1265:Begging God, then, today, to show me how to make wobbly steps in this walk of the Spirit. To know when to move and when to stand still. ~ Emily T Wierenga, #NFDB
1266:Every child has the spirit of creation. The rubbish of life often exterminates the spirit through plague and a souls own wretchedness. ~ Peter Paul Rubens, #NFDB
1267:Hunger is more than a problem of belly and guts, and ... the satisfying of it can and must and does nourish the spirit as well as the body. ~ M F K Fisher, #NFDB
1268:If all you can do is judge a person by their appearance, because you don't have the spirit to judge someone from within, you're in trouble. ~ Dick Gregory, #NFDB
1269:"If you have compassion and are imbued with the spirit of the Way, it is of no consequence to be criticized, even reviled, by the ignorant." ~ Dogen Zenji, #NFDB
1270:Insight into the origin of a work concerns the physiologists and vivisectionists of the spirit; never the aesthetic man, the artist! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1271:Life won’t just happen to you, boy,” he said. “You have to happen to it. Remember: The spirit grows sluggish when you neglect the passions. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
1272:living water,” the Spirit of God Himself, that will keep them from ever again being thirsty—being driven and ruled by unsatisfied desires ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
1273:Most of all I remember that what begins with drums and fife, flags and bunting, becomes too swiftly a long and grey winter of the spirit. ~ Helen Simonson, #NFDB
1274:My daughters are here, and that makes me feel good. And with the spirit of Nick Ashford, I think I'll make it through. I have no choice. ~ Valerie Simpson, #NFDB
1275:Only in the spirit of attack, born in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be. ~ Adolf Galland, #NFDB
1276:Religion prevents you from seeing in the spirit because it puts a wall of regulation and duty where God intended to put love. It makes you ~ Blake K Healy, #NFDB
1277:So when I feel the spirit upon me it's something I don't take it for granted, and I don't think I'm solely responsible for these things. ~ John Frusciante, #NFDB
1278:The biblical scholar Wilhelm de Wette generalized the idea: “The spirit of Protestantism . . . leads necessarily to political freedom. ~ Kevin J Vanhoozer, #NFDB
1279:The first glance from the eyes of the beloved is like the spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, giving birth to heaven and earth. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1280:The more a man cultivates the arts the less he fornicates. A more and more apparent cleavage occurs between the spirit and the brute. ~ Charles Baudelaire, #NFDB
1281:The most important advance in the next fifty years will be in the realm of the spiritual - dealing with the spirit of thought. ~ Charles Proteus Steinmetz, #NFDB
1282:The singing of hymns and the rendition of selections from the great sacred oratorios by ward choirs all enhance the spirit of worship. ~ Gordon B Hinckley, #NFDB
1283:The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1284:To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #NFDB
1285:To think what is true, to sense what is beautiful and to want what is good, hereby the spirit finds purpose of a life in reason. ~ Johann Gottfried Herder, #NFDB
1286:We imagine that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord, "I *delight* to do Thy will, O My God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1287:We need to transmute the lead of personality into the gold of the Spirit. This work is only possible in the laboratory of the Alchemist. ~ Samael Aun Weor, #NFDB
1288:You might as reasonably expect to find a living man without breath, as a true Christian without the spirit of prayer and supplication. ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
1289:Being spiritual does not mean being dead serious. If you allow life to happen within you exuberantly, unbridled, you will touch the spirit. ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #NFDB
1290:Do not seek to empty your cup as a way to avoid sin, but rather seek to fill it up with the Spirit of life, so there is no longer room for sin. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
1291:Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr, #NFDB
1292:How could I sleight you? How threaten to leave you? not in the spirit of a Threat to you -- no -- but in the spirit of Wretchedness in myself. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
1293:Imagination’s great ensorcelling rod
Summoned the unknown and gave to it a home, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1294:Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. The ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
1295:Small men command the letter of the law. Great men serve its spirit. For the spirit of the law is justice... and justice is the spirit of God. ~ J C Marino, #NFDB
1296:The coach launched himself at the spirit with some serious goat fu – lashing out with his hooves, knocking Leo free from the spirit’s grasp. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1297:The dynamic element in my philosophy, taken as a whole, can be seen as an obstinate and untiring battle against the spirit of abstraction. ~ Gabriel Marcel, #NFDB
1298:The more mechanical becomes the weapons with which we fight, the less mechanical must be the spirit which controls them. ~ Archibald Wavell 1st Earl Wavell, #NFDB
1299:The past has passed; the time for grace is now! Let's respond to the grace of this moment with the gifts of the Spirit active in our lives. ~ Kimberly Hahn, #NFDB
1300:There were certain elements of the healing process I could not capture. And even if I was right in the science, I could be wrong in the spirit. ~ Mehmet Oz, #NFDB
1301:The Spirit is both a builder and a dweller. He cannot dwell where he has not built; He builds to dwell and dwells in only what he has built. ~ Watchman Nee, #NFDB
1302:The spirit is the life of the body seen from within, and the body the outward manifestation of the life of the spirit-the two being really one. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1303:The Spirit's greatness is our timeless source
And it shall be our crown in endless Time.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdom of Subtle Matter, [T5],#NFDB
1304:Through the art of affirmative prayer the limitless resources of the Spirit are at my command. The power of the Infinite is at my disposal. ~ Ernest Holmes, #NFDB
1305:We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit. ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
1306:What people have to realize is that if one has a firm belief in God and the spirit then one does not make statements that are negative and untrue. ~ Prince, #NFDB
1307:Where oppression does not completely and permanently break the spirit, has it not a natural tendency to produce retaliatory pride and contempt? ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1308:Armed with the intuition of a bliss
To which some moved tranquillity was the key, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1309:For the first time in our lives, we weren’t trying to create our own opportunities; we were simply trying to respond to the Spirit’s leading. ~ Jen Hatmaker, #NFDB
1310:For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1311:Galatians 5:18 asks, “Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?” (MSG). ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
1312:It is not whether your words or actions are tough or gentle; it is the spirit behind your actions and words that announces your inner state. ~ Chin Ning Chu, #NFDB
1313:It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1314:[Poetry] strips the veil of familiarity from the world, and lays bear the naked and sleeping beauty which is the spirit of its forms. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
1315:ROM8.15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1316:The place one's in, though, doesn't make any contribution to peace of mind: it's the spirit that makes everything agreeable to oneself. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1317:Through the spirit we come to the root of action and existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #NFDB
1318:We are still in the body and thus under the rule of heavy matter. Also it is equally true that matter not moved by the spirit is dead and empty. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1319:We must talk, think, and live up to the spirit of the times, and write up to it too, if that cacoethes be upon us, or else we are nought. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1320:What is the conscience? It is the most highly developed part of the human being, the core of the spirit, the most sensitive, the most tender. ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
1321:...you can be angry and silent, but it's no use - there's no distance in the spirit - besides, my words touch you more softly than my hands... ~ John Geddes, #NFDB
1322:I'm fanatical about sport: there seems to me something almost religious about the fact that human beings can organise play, the spirit of play. ~ Simon Gray, #NFDB
1323:Never yet was a nation born that did not begin in the spirit, pass to the heart and the mind, and then take an outer form in the world of men. ~ Annie Besant, #NFDB
1324:Only by falling back on our better thought, by yielding to the spirit of prophecy which is innate in every man, can we know what that wisdom saith. ~ Emerson, #NFDB
1325:Our main work is, by the spirit of God, with the Word of God, to portray the glories of God as more beautiful and more satisfying than anything. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
1326:These other cultures are not failed attempts to be us; they are unique manifestations of the spirit—other options, other visions of life itself. ~ Wade Davis, #NFDB
1327:The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
1328:The spirit longs for the world of light from which it came. That longing causes something to happen. It causes the being to grow into light. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1329:the spirit of the Internet.” This spirit is a powerful myth concocted by overzealous legal activists, and the sooner we bury it, the better. ~ Evgeny Morozov, #NFDB
1330:Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger, #NFDB
1331:We are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1332:When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions. ~ Calvin Coolidge, #NFDB
1333:When we work with love we renew the spirit; that renewal is an act of self-love, it nurtures our growth. It's not what you do but how you do it. ~ bell hooks, #NFDB
1334:Always ascends the zigzag of the gods
And upward points the spirit’s climbing Fire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#NFDB
1335:Body and mind are not the creators of the spirit, the spirit is the creator of the mind and body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #NFDB
1336:Churches we build only by our own efforts and not in the strength of the Spirit will quickly collapse when we don't push and prod people along. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
1337:Does one enter a temple with dirty feet?
Likewise, one does not enter the temple of the spirit with a sullied mind.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#NFDB
1338:He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ~ Paul the Apostle, #NFDB
1339:I also learned that I must walk by the Spirit, trust God, and not allow my emotions to dictate my actions. Faith cannot exist alongside fear. ~ MaryLu Tyndall, #NFDB
1340:Just as when water is frozen in to a form as ice and then melts - so at the time of death, there is no death. The spirit simply changes form. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1341:Living for Christ is a day-to-day going on with Him. It is a continuous dependence upon the Spirit of God. It is believing in His faithfulness. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
1342:No man is to be judged by the mere nature of his duties, but all should be judged by the manner and the spirit in which they perform them. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1343:People who try to define their spirituality sometimes are annoying, 'cause the spirit is something you feel and let guide you and humbly respect. ~ Ben Harper, #NFDB
1344:Since joy is a fruit of the Spirit, our sanctification is displayed not only by our love, peace, patience, kindness, and so forth, but by our joy ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1345:Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit. Here, ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
1346:The highest art form of all is a human being in control of himself and his airplane in flight, urging the spirit of a machine to match his own. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1347:There Matter is the Spirit’s firm density,
An artistry of glad outwardness of self. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1348:The spirit’s consent is needed for each act
And Freedom walks in the same pace with Law. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#NFDB
1349:This now he willed to discover and exile,
The element in him betraying God.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation, [T5],#NFDB
1350:When a man begins to feel that he is the only one whou can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions. ~ Calvin Coolidge, #NFDB
1351:Yes, it is God who works in you. And, yes, there is work for you to do. Yes, the Spirit empowers you to do the work. And, yes, you do the work. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
1352:3“I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and skill, in understanding and intelligence, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1353:Cuts and bruises always healed, but words spoken in anger were most often permanent. They didn’t damage the body, they destroyed the spirit. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1354:Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality. ~ Baron de Montesquieu, #NFDB
1355:For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “•Abba, Father! ” ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1356:If you are fortunate enough to enjoy great success, you should never forget the spirit of the beginner, and not grow indolent and arrogant. ~ Kentetsu Takamori, #NFDB
1357:In man it is the ego idea which chiefly supports the falsehood of a separative existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #NFDB
1358:Lips to lips, mouth to mouth, Comes the speaker of the shrouds. Suck in the spirit, speak the words, Let secrets of the dead be heard. The ~ Yasmine Galenorn, #NFDB
1359:Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
1360:Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies ~ Alfred Tennyson,#NFDB
1361:Poetry and art are born mediators between the immaterial and the concrete, the spirit and life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Ideal Spirit of Poetry, #NFDB
1362:Rather than walking in the flesh, they now “walk by the Spirit” (v. 25), being characterized by a growing desire to obey the Word of God. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1363:The gift was not large as money goes, and my need was not great, but the spirit of the gift is beyond price and leaves me blessed and in debt. ~ Robert Fulghum, #NFDB
1364:The shadow has to disappear and by its disappearance reveal the spirit’s unclouded substance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #NFDB
1365:Three metamorphoses of the spirit I relate to you: how the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel, a lion; and the lion, finally, a child. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1366:Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. ~ George S Patton, #NFDB
1367:We ought to prepare the sermon as if all depended on us, and then we are to trust the Spirit of God, knowing that all depends on Him. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1368:Ceremony keeps up things: 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, and the spirit lost. ~ John Selden, #NFDB
1369:Every single choice we make is either going to enhance the spirit or drain it. Every day, we're either giving ourselves power or taking it away. ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
1370:God is inseparably linked to the coming of Pentecost. In a certain sense, Jesus lacked the authority to dispatch the Spirit prior to His ascension. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1371:I don't know if you believe in the Spirit, sir. I believe in it. I believe in the dialogue that the Spirit conducts uninterruptedly with itself. ~ Italo Calvino, #NFDB
1372:If one believes in God, but has learned not to pray, one offers only, in silence, one’s apologies, and then asks the spirit to do what it can. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
1373:I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1374:In my cheapest moments I am apt to think that it is n't my business to be "seeking the spirit," but as much its business to be seeking me. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1375:It is useless, sisters, for you to attempt the duties of your exalted callings . . . without the constant companionship of the Spirit of God. ~ Susa Young Gates, #NFDB
1376:Laughter can relieve tension, soothe the pain of disappointment, and strengthen the spirit for the formidable tasks that always lie ahead. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower, #NFDB
1377:Our great human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain. ~ Tom Robbins, #NFDB
1378:The key [to sharing the gospel] is that you be inspired of God, that you ask Him for direction and then go and do as the Spirit prompts you. ~ M Russell Ballard, #NFDB
1379:The mission of this government is much more than the promotion of economic progress. It is to renew the spirit and solidarity of the nation. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
1380:These are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:17–18 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1381:The spirit of Jane Eyre looms over Once Upon a Day. Lisa Tucker keeps the plot of this gothic novel bubbling with tons of juicy family secrets. ~ Stewart O Nan, #NFDB
1382:To possess its world is the nature of infinite spirit and the necessary urge in all being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #NFDB
1383:True Budo is to accept the spirit of the universe, keep the peace of the world, correctly produce, protect and cultivate all beings in nature. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
1384:With neurology, if you go far enough with it, and you keep going, you end up getting weird. If you go a little further, you end up in the spirit. ~ Oliver Sacks, #NFDB
1385:Before God the work of man will be judged by the spirit in which it is done, not by the nature of the work which makes no difference whatsoever. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1386:Besides, argued I, fasting makes the body cave in; hence the spirit caves in; and all thoughts born of a fast must necessarily be half-starved. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
1387:But when I breath with the birds, The spirit of wrath becomes the spirit of blessings, And the dead begin from their dark to sing in my sleep. ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
1388:Indeed the river is a spirit. Spirit responds to spirit. Your gun is useless against the things of the spirit for these are not flesh and blood. ~ Easterine Kire, #NFDB
1389:It is the Spirit that giveth life” (John vi. 63, A. R. V.). In 2 Cor. iii. 6, we are told that “the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”[i] ~ R A Torrey, #NFDB
1390:It waited for the fiat of the Word
That comes through the still self from the Supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1391:Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. ~ Alfred Tennyson,#NFDB
1392:Never stop praying, especially for others. Always pray by the power of the Spirit. Stay alert and keep praying for God’s people. Ephesians 6:18 CEV ~ Renee Swope, #NFDB
1393:No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1394:The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the living God, and He is able and ready to give to you a living God, to make God real in your personal experience. ~ R A Torrey, #NFDB
1395:the Spirit f intercedes for the saints g according to the will of God. 28And we know that for those who love God all things work together h for good, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1396:The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.” (1 Sam. 10:6) ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1397:The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces. ~ Smith Wigglesworth, #NFDB
1398:Until we are renewed in the spirit of our mind and illumined in every part, our very virtues are but taught practices grafted upon a corrupt bottom ~ William Law, #NFDB
1399:Yes, it is God who works in you. And, yes, there is work for you to do.
Yes, the Spirit empowers you to do the work. And, yes, you do the work. ~ Francis Chan,#NFDB
1400:You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs, as to try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
1401:You write out of experience, and a large part of that experience is the life of the spirit; reading is the liberation into the minds of others. ~ Penelope Lively, #NFDB
1402:And the good fairy said, I won't leave you money or pretty dresses but I will leave you the spirit to seek your fortune from your own efforts. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
1403:Dullness it is that perverts and corrups the spirit but it is always possible to look past the dullness, and see the bright, shining heart of things ~ Jude Morgan, #NFDB
1404:Filming is always a challenge because I'm not used to it. But I approach it head-on. I'm not technically brilliant, but it's the spirit that counts. ~ Martin Parr, #NFDB
1405:If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:25–26 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1406:I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?" "For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment... ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1407:Lips to lips, mouth to mouth,
Comes the speaker of the shrouds,
Suck in the spirit, speak the words,
Let secrets of the dead be heard. ~ Yasmine Galenorn,#NFDB
1408:Often I have struggled for days to get the image of the photograph to overlap the spirit I see. It is an awesome responsibility, and a lonely one. ~ Ruth Bernhard, #NFDB
1409:One Body, Many Blogs is a nifty look at the mission to cyberspace that Christians, obedient to the Spirit, have undertaken! Read it and be inspired! ~ Mark P Shea, #NFDB
1410:The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell. ~ Morris Kline, #NFDB
1411:The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1412:The worst derangement of the spirit is to believe things because we want them to be so, not because we have seen them for what they are. ~ Jacques Benigne Bossuet, #NFDB
1413:We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle How very little can be done under the spirit of fear. ~ Florence Nightingale, #NFDB
1414:Don't you see? I'm not the spirit of any age. I'm at odds with everything and always have been! I have never belonged anywhere with anyone at any time! ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1415:Give unto me, made lowly wise, The spirit of self-sacrifice; The confidence of reason give, And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live! ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
1416:If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1417:Love is the virtue of the Heart, Sincerity is the virtue of the Mind, Decision is the virtue of the Will, Courage is the virtue of the Spirit. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
1418:Of making great knowledge there is no end, and much study, and the knowledge therefrom is a weariness of the flesh and a deadening of the spirit. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
1419:Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit….I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1420:Our greatest human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain. ~ Tom Robbins, #NFDB
1421:Refinement lies in the heart and the spirit rather than in outward appearance, but it is by what we do and say that we prove that it exists within us. ~ Ruth Hogan, #NFDB
1422:Then, in the spirit of benevolence, "Your face is well balanced." She slapped him encouragingly on the back, "You have very long eyelashes. Like a cow. ~ C S Pacat, #NFDB
1423:The shaman does not believe in a division between the body and the spirit or between the visible world of form and the invisible world of energy ~ Alberto Villoldo, #NFDB
1424:Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: how the
spirit became a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#NFDB
1425:True democracy is not inconsistent with a few persons representing the spirit, the hope and the aspirations of those whom they claim to represent. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1426:Two kinds of joy are there O my brothers, and what are they? The joy of the senses and the joy of the spirit; but nobler is the joy of the spirit. ~ Buddhist Texts, #NFDB
1427:Watch and d pray that you may not e enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39And again he went away and prayed, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1428:As for workout clothes, Bowerman told readers that proper clothing “may help the spirit,” but added that people shouldn’t get hung up on brands. Maybe ~ Phil Knight, #NFDB
1429:If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory. ~ Henry Blackaby, #NFDB
1430:Intellect void of the spirit can only pile up external knowledge and machinery and efficiency. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #NFDB
1431:Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
1432:Not knowing how to feed the spirit, we try to muffle its demands in distraction...What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, #NFDB
1433:Strength in the spirit, wisdom in the mind,
Love in the heart complete the trinity
Of glorious manhood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act III,#NFDB
1434:The ecstasy of the spirit’s calm needs to be transformed by the ecstasy of the soul’s Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Fullness of Spiritual Action, #NFDB
1435:There is something more - the spirit, or the soul. I think that that quality encourages our courtesy and care and our minds. And mercy, and identity. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1436:...the spirit reveals itself to everyone with the same intensity and consistency, but only warriors are consistently attuned to such revelations. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
1437:We believe that all men are the spirit children of God, created in his image. This concept is supported by the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation. ~ Hugh B Brown, #NFDB
1438:What came from the earth returns back to the earth, and the spirit that was sent from heaven, again carried back, is received into the temple of heaven. ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
1439:You took off your former way of life, the old man that is corrupted by deceitful desires … being renewed in the spirit of your minds. Ephesians 4:22–23 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1440:5As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb [1] of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1441:Breathe like a fallen leaf and think of nothing. Just breathe and let your heart and mind be carried, however briefly, by the spirit you can't quite see. ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
1442:ecumenical relations it is important not only to know each other better, but also to recognize what the Spirit has sown in the other as a gift for us. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1443:Fright never injures anyone. What injures the spirit is having someone always on your back, beating you, telling you what to do and what not to do ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
1444:It is in my internal and external struggles, when it feels like someone is river-dancing on my last nerve, that the fruit of the Spirit is developed. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
1445:It is time to rekindle the spirit of the Renaissancee to achieve a golden age that will be a turning point for human productivity and quality of life. ~ Joel Garreau, #NFDB
1446:It made of Space a marvel house of God,
It poured through Time its works of ageless might, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1447:I want to find a language that transforms language itself into steel for the spirit--a language to use against these sparkling insects, these jets. ~ Mahmoud Darwish, #NFDB
1448:Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (v. 17). This means there is also an absence of expectations. ~ Charles R Swindoll, #NFDB
1449:That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. Marvel not that said unto thee, “Ye must be born again. ” ~ John III 6. 7, #NFDB
1450:the room of the spirit is the mind and the seat of the spirit is the heart. What we give room to much in our minds, take a seat in our heart ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
1451:The Satanic message for this age will be reformation and self-development, while the message of God is regeneration by the power of the spirit. ~ Lewis Sperry Chafer, #NFDB
1452:The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all. ~ Gerald R Ford, #NFDB
1453:They were the first Westerners. The spirit of the West, the modern spirit, is a Greek discovery; and the place of the Greeks is in the modern world. ~ Edith Hamilton, #NFDB
1454:Wealthy the spirit that knows its own flight. Stealthy the hunter who slays his own fright. Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light ~ Dan Fogelberg, #NFDB
1455:We do not want actions, but men; not a chemical drop of water, but rain; the spirit that sheds and showers actions, countless, endless actions. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1456:Words; the powerful air that can change the mind, the body and the spirit in the twinkle of an eye! He who don't know words don't know life! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
1457:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1458:8The spirit respiresh where it will, and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; such is everyone born of the Spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1459:But we will never advance this heavenly cause if we do not rely on the power of the Spirit. Jesus needed the Spirit’s power—what makes us any different? ~ John Bevere, #NFDB
1460:Even in waging war, cherish the spirit of peace-maker; that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1461:If the Student thinks he is the Spirit, he will be a better Student. If the Lawyer thinks he is the Spirit, he will be a better Lawyer, and so on. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1462:In the course of our eternal existence, we spend infinitely more time in the spirit world on the other side than we spend in the human world on earth. ~ Sylvia Browne, #NFDB
1463:I was once told by someone wise that writing is perilous as you cannot always guarantee your words will be read in the spirit in which they were written. ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
1464:Latimer Springfield was a rather cheerless, oldish young man, who went into politics somewhat in the spirit in which other people might go into half-mourning. ~ Saki, #NFDB
1465:Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1466:Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
1467:My mother read secondarily for information; she sank as a hedonist into novels. She read Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him. ~ Eudora Welty, #NFDB
1468:The conviction is well founded, which the sight of noble conduct calls forth, that the spirit of love... can never pass away and become nothing. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1469:The spirit of poetry, like all other living powers, must of necessity circumscribe itself by rules, were it only to unite power with beauty. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
1470:The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
1471:When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1472:Whenever your focus is on doing what you want and making yourself feel good, you can be confident that the Spirit of God is not the one leading the way. ~ Leslie Ludy, #NFDB
1473:When God works in us, the will, being changed and sweetly breathed upon by the Spirit of God, desires and acts, not from compulsion, but responsively. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1474:Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated. ~ Auguste Rodin, #NFDB
1475:A shepherd, in whom the spirit of God works, is more highly esteemed before God than the wisest and most potent in self-wit, without the divine dominion. ~ Jakob Bohme, #NFDB
1476:I shall not cease learning while I live, nor when I arrive in the spirit-world… and when I again receive my body, I shall …still continue my researches ~ Brigham Young, #NFDB
1477:I should like to make films that are not lowering to the spirit. A new building can be very harrowing, I should like to give people a chance to whistle. ~ Jacques Tati, #NFDB
1478:Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love. ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
1479:MATTHEW 4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1480:Or have we ourselves become so caught up in the spirit of this age that we are content to be rich in information and impoverished in wisdom and godliness? ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
1481:She made a long and detailed tour with no planned itinerary, stopping with no other motive than her unhurried delight in the spirit of things. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
1482:The spirit of God has the habit of taking the words of Jesus out of their scriptural setting and putting them into the setting of our personal lives. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1483:We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order to know what has been freely given to us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1484:When our inner child is not nurtured and nourished, our minds gradually close to new ideas, unprofitable commitments and the surprises of the Spirit. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1485:I congratulate you, my brave countrymen and fellow soldiers, on the spirit and success with which you have executed this important part of our enterprise. ~ James Wolfe, #NFDB
1486:I do believe strongly in photography and hope by following it intuitively that when the photographs are looked at they will touch the spirit in people. ~ Harry Callahan, #NFDB
1487:If we have the Word without the Spirit, we dry up. If we have the Spirit without the Word, we blow up. But if we have the Word and the Spirit, we grow up. ~ Mike Bickle, #NFDB
1488:I'm always curious about what happens when we die. And I'd like to think that somehow the spirit goes on. I'd rather not think that it's just about this. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
1489:My confidence grew out of knowing that when the spirit was right and the players were attuned to one another, the game was likely to unfold in our favor. ~ Phil Jackson, #NFDB
1490:Nature creates perfectly because she creates directly out of life and is not intellectually self-conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #NFDB
1491:Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.” – M. Scott Peck ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
1492:The Bible says that the Cross offends. If you are offended, I am doing my job. If you are attracted to Christ, the Spirit is doing his work. - Bruce Barnes ~ Tim LaHaye, #NFDB
1493:The flesh dies, or at least it changes, and its passions pass, but that other passion of the spirit — that longing for oneness — is undying as itself. ~ H Rider Haggard, #NFDB
1494:The gospel casts out a rope to hale sinners to land; but the sinner has no hands to lay hold on it; his very faith must be wrought in him by the Spirit. ~ Thomas Boston, #NFDB
1495:The important thing is to strive toward a goal which is not immediately visible. That goal is not the concern of the mind, but of the spirit. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
1496:The important thing is to strive toward a goal which is not immediately visible. That goal is not the concern of the mind, but of the spirit. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
1497:The one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Galatians 6:8 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1498:There substance was a resonant harp of self,
A net for the constant lightnings of the spirit, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
1499:The Savior answered, 'Man does not see through
the soul, nor through the spirit, but the mind which
is between the two—that is (what) sees a vision... ~ Various,#NFDB
1500:The Sole in its solitude yearned towards the All
And the Many turned to look back at the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#NFDB
722 Integral Yoga
240 Poetry
151 Occultism
98 Christianity
81 Philosophy
61 Psychology
56 Fiction
55 Yoga
26 Science
18 Theosophy
11 Sufism
11 Education
9 Integral Theory
7 Mysticism
7 Hinduism
6 Baha i Faith
5 Philsophy
5 Mythology
2 Buddhism
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
561 Sri Aurobindo
293 The Mother
214 Nolini Kanta Gupta
148 Satprem
59 Carl Jung
45 Percy Bysshe Shelley
42 James George Frazer
41 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
40 Aleister Crowley
33 William Wordsworth
33 Sri Ramakrishna
31 Friedrich Nietzsche
26 Saint Augustine of Hippo
24 Rudolf Steiner
24 Aldous Huxley
23 A B Purani
20 Saint John of Climacus
17 Anonymous
15 Walt Whitman
13 Swami Krishnananda
13 Robert Browning
13 H P Lovecraft
12 Friedrich Schiller
12 Franz Bardon
10 Saint Teresa of Avila
10 Plato
10 George Van Vrekhem
9 Nirodbaran
8 Swami Vivekananda
8 Plotinus
7 Edgar Allan Poe
6 Baha u llah
6 Alice Bailey
5 Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 Kabir
5 Jordan Peterson
5 Al-Ghazali
4 Vyasa
4 Sri Ramana Maharshi
4 Paul Richard
4 Joseph Campbell
4 John Keats
4 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
4 Jalaluddin Rumi
4 Henry David Thoreau
3 Symeon the New Theologian
3 Saint Francis of Assisi
3 Peter J Carroll
3 Lalla
3 Ken Wilber
3 Jorge Luis Borges
2 William Butler Yeats
2 Thubten Chodron
2 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
2 Saint John of the Cross
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Lucretius
2 Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
2 Jean Gebser
2 Ibn Arabi
2 Farid ud-Din Attar
2 Bokar Rinpoche
118 The Synthesis Of Yoga
51 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
45 Shelley - Poems
44 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
43 Letters On Yoga IV
42 The Life Divine
42 The Golden Bough
42 Savitri
41 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
40 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
39 Letters On Yoga II
35 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
34 Mysterium Coniunctionis
33 Wordsworth - Poems
32 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
30 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
28 Essays On The Gita
28 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
27 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
25 Letters On Yoga III
24 The Perennial Philosophy
23 The Bible
23 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
22 Liber ABA
21 Questions And Answers 1956
21 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
20 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
20 The Human Cycle
18 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
18 Letters On Yoga I
18 City of God
17 Record of Yoga
17 Magick Without Tears
17 Collected Poems
16 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
15 The Future of Man
15 Agenda Vol 03
14 Whitman - Poems
14 Questions And Answers 1953
14 Essays Divine And Human
13 The Study and Practice of Yoga
13 Lovecraft - Poems
13 Browning - Poems
13 Agenda Vol 08
13 Agenda Vol 02
13 Agenda Vol 01
12 The Practice of Psycho therapy
12 Theosophy
12 Schiller - Poems
12 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
11 Questions And Answers 1955
11 On the Way to Supermanhood
11 Let Me Explain
11 Dark Night of the Soul
11 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
11 Agenda Vol 06
10 Preparing for the Miraculous
10 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
10 Agenda Vol 12
9 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
9 The Phenomenon of Man
9 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
9 Talks
9 Some Answers From The Mother
9 Questions And Answers 1954
9 On Education
9 Kena and Other Upanishads
9 Agenda Vol 11
9 Agenda Vol 10
8 Words Of The Mother II
8 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
8 Isha Upanishad
8 Agenda Vol 04
7 The Practice of Magical Evocation
7 The Integral Yoga
7 Poe - Poems
7 Aion
7 Agenda Vol 09
7 Agenda Vol 07
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Red Book Liber Novus
6 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
6 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
6 Letters On Poetry And Art
6 Hymn of the Universe
6 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
6 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
6 5.1.01 - Ilion
5 Words Of Long Ago
5 Vedic and Philological Studies
5 Twilight of the Idols
5 The Divine Comedy
5 The Alchemy of Happiness
5 Maps of Meaning
5 Initiation Into Hermetics
5 Emerson - Poems
5 Agenda Vol 05
4 Walden
4 Vishnu Purana
4 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
4 Songs of Kabir
4 Prayers And Meditations
4 Keats - Poems
4 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
4 Faust
4 Bhakti-Yoga
3 Words Of The Mother I
3 The Way of Perfection
3 The Secret Of The Veda
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Raja-Yoga
3 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
3 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
3 Liber Null
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
2 Yeats - Poems
2 Words Of The Mother III
2 The Ever-Present Origin
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Blue Cliff Records
2 Tara - The Feminine Divine
2 Symposium
2 Rumi - Poems
2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
2 Of The Nature Of Things
2 Labyrinths
2 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
2 Arabi - Poems
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
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.
--
'spiritual life': it was all so comfortable, for we had a supreme 'symbol' of it right there. She let us do as we pleased, She even opened up all kinds of little heavens in us, along with a few hells, since they go together. She even opened the door in us to a certain 'liberation,' which in the end was as soporific as eternity - but there was nowhere to get out: it WAS eternity. We were trapped on all sides. There was nothing left but these 4m2 of skin, the last refuge, that which we wanted to flee by way of above or below, by way of Guiana or the Himalayas. She was waiting for us just there, at the end of our spiritual or not so spiritual pirouettes. Matter was her concern. It took us seven years to understand that She was beginning there, 'where the other yogas leave off,' as Sri Aurobindo had already said twenty-five years earlier. It was necessary to have covered all the paths of the Spirit and all those of Matter, or in any case a large number geographically, before discovering, or even simply understanding, that 'something else' was really Something Else. It was not an improved
Spirit nor even an improved Matter, but ... it could be called 'nothing,' so contrary was it to all we know. For the caterpillar, a butterfly is nothing, it is not even visible and has nothing in common with caterpillar heavens nor even caterpillar matter. So there we were, trapped in an impossible adventure. One does not return from there: one must cross the bridge to the other side. Then one day in that seventh year, while we still believed in liberations and the collected Upanishads, highlighted with a few glorious visions to relieve the commonplace (which remained appallingly commonplace), while we were still considering 'the Mother of the Ashram' rather like some spiritual super-director (endowed, albeit, with a disarming yet ever so provocative smile, as though
She were making fun of us, then loving us in secret), She told us, 'I have the feeling that ALL we have lived, ALL we have known, ALL we have done is a perfect illusion ... When I had the Spiritual experience that material life is an illusion, personally I found that so marvelously beautiful and happy that it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, but now it is the entire spiritual structure as we have lived it that is becoming an illusion! - Not the same illusion, but an illusion far worse. And I am no baby: I have been here for forty-seven years now!' Yes, She was eighty-three years old then. And that day, we ceased being 'the enemy of our own conception of the Divine,' for this entire Divine was shattered to pieces - and we met Mother, at last. This mystery we call
Mother, for She never ceased being a mystery right to her ninety-fifth year, and to this day still, challenges us from the other side of a wall of invisibility and keeps us floundering fully in the mystery - with a smile. She always smiles. But the mystery is not solved.
--
TRULY to the conquest of the new. The 'new' is painful, discouraging, it resembles nothing we know! We cannot hoist the flag of an unconquered country - but this is what is so marvelous: it does not yet exist. We must MAKE IT EXIST. The adventure has not been carved out: it is to be carved out. Truth is not entrapped and fossilized, 'spiritualized': it is to be discovered. We are in a nothing that we must force to become a something. We are in the adventure of the new species. A new species is obviously contradictory to the old species and to the little flags of the alreadyknown. It has nothing in common with the Spiritual summits of the old world, nor even with its abysms - which might be delightfully tempting for those who have had enough of the summits, but everything is the same, in black or white, it is fraternal above and below. SOMETHING ELSE is needed.
'Are you conscious of your ceils?' She asked us a short time after the little operation of spiritual demolition She had undergone. 'No? Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that it gives TERRESTRIAL results.' To become conscious of one's cells? ... It was a far more radical operation than crossing the Maroni with a machete in hand, for after all, trees and lianas can be cut, but what cannot be so easily uncovered are the grandfa ther and the grandmo ther and the whole atavistic pack, not to mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over this single pure little cell beneath its millennial genetic program. The grandfa thers and grandmo thers grow back again like crabgrass, along with all the old habits of being hungry, afraid, falling ill, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, which is still the best of an old mortal habit. All this is not uprooted nor entrapped as easily as celestial 'liberations,' which leave the teeming humus in peace and the body to its usual decomposition. She had come to hew a path through all that. She was the Ancient One of evolution who had come to make a new cleft in the old, tedious habit of being a man. She did not like tedious repetitions, She was the adventuress par excellence - the adventuress of the earth. She was wrenching out for man the great Possible that was already beating there, in his primeval clearing, which he believed he had momentarily trapped with a few machines.
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A scientist once thought that he had clinched the issue and cut the Gordian knot when he declared triumphantly with reference to spirit sances: "Very significant is the fact that spirits appear only in closed chambers, in half obscurity, to somnolent minds; they are nowhere in the open air, in broad daylight to the wide awake and vigilant intellect!" Well, if the fact is as it is stated, what does it prove? Night alone reveals the stars, during the day they vanish, but that is no proof that stars are not existent. Rather the true scientific spirit should seek to know why (or how) it is so, if it is so, and such a fact would exactly serve as a pointer, a significant starting ground. The attitude of the jesting Pilate is not helpful even to scientific inquiry. This matter of the Spirits we have taken only as an illustration and it must not be understood that this is a domain of high mysticism; rather the contrary. the Spiritualists' approach to Mysticism is not the right one and is fraught with not only errors but dangers. For the Spiritualists approach their subject with the entire scientific apparatus the only difference being that the scientist does not believe while the Spiritualist believes.
Mystic realities cannot be reached by the scientific consciousness, because they are far more subtle than the subtlest object that science can contemplate. The neutrons and positrons are for science today the finest and profoundest object-forces; they belong, it is said, almost to a borderl and where physics ends. Nor for that reason is a mystic reality something like a mathematical abstraction, -n for example. The mystic reality is subtler than the subtlest of physical things and yet, paradoxical to say, more concrete than the most concrete thing that the senses apprehend.
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the Spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try to find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967
~ The Mother Sweet Mother The Mother to Mona Sarkar, [T0]
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The progression indicated by the order of succession points to a gradual withdrawal from the outer to the inner light, from the surface to the deep, from the obvious to the secret, from the actual and derivative to the real and original. We begin by the senses and move towards the Spirit.
The Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light that man has and needs. He is the presiding deity of our waking consciousness and has his seat in the eyecakusa ditya, ditya caku bhtvakii prviat. The eye is the representative of the senses; it is the sense par excellence. In truth, sense-perception is the initial light with which we have to guide us, it is the light with which we start on the way. A developed stage comes when the Sun sets for us, that is to say, when we retire from the senses and rise into the mind, whose divinity is the Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our consciousness. We have to proceed farther and get beyond the mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and inspirations of our secret life-will. Here we come into touch with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-perception. Still this light partakes more of heat than of pure luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not vision. We must probe deeper, mount higherreach heights and profundities that are serene and transparent. The Fire is to be quieted and silenced, says the Upanishad. Then we come nearer, to the immediate vicinity of the Truth: an inner hearing opens, the direct voice of Truth the Wordreaches us to lead and guide. Even so, however, we have not come to the end of our journey; the Word of revelation is not the ultimate Light. The Word too is clothing, though a luminous clothinghiramayam ptram When this last veil dissolves and disappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign in the entire consciousness, when no other lights trouble or distract our attention, there appears the Atman in its own body; we stand face to face with the source of all lights, the self of the Light, the light of the Self. We are that Light and we become that Light.
--
With this sacrifice nourish the Gods, that the Gods may nourish you; thus mutually nourishing ye shall obtain the highest felicity3 is the very secret of the cosmic play, the basis of the Spiritual evolution in the universal existence.
The Gods are the formations or particularisations of the Truth-consciousness, the multiple individualisations of the One spirit. The Pitris are the Divine Fathers, that is to say, souls that once laboured and realised here below, and now have passed beyond. They dwell in another world, not too far removed from the earth, and from there, with the force of their Realisation, lend a more concrete help and guidance to the destiny that is being worked out upon earth. They are forces and formations of consciousness in an intermediate region between Here and There (antarika), and serve to bring men and gods nearer to each other, inasmuch as they belong to both the categories, being a divinised humanity or a humanised divinity. Each fixation of the Truth-consciousness in an earthly mould is a thing of joy to the Pitris; it is the Svadh or food by which they live and grow, for it is the consolidation and also the resultant of their own realisation. The achievements of the sons are more easily and securely reared and grounded upon those of the forefa thers, whose formative powers we have to invoke, so that we may pass on to the realisation, the firm embodiment of higher and greater destinies.
--
And they who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are freed from the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. They enjoy the supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents, as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, into the higher.
IV. The Triple Agni
--
The three fires are named elsewhere Garhapatya, Dakshina, and Ahavaniya.9 They are the three tongues of the one central Agni, that dwells secreted in the hearth of the soul. They manifest as aspirations that flame up from the three fundamental levels of our being, the body, the life and the mind. For although the Spiritual consciousness is the natural element of the soul and is gained in and through the soul, yet, in order that man may take possession of it and dwell in it consciously, in order that the soul's empire may be established, the external being too must respond to the soul's impact and yearn for its truth in the Spirit. The mind, the life and the body which are usually obstructions in the path, must discover the secret flame that is in them tooeach has his own portion of the Soul's Fireand mount on its ardent tongue towards the heights of the Spirit.
Garhapatya is the Fire in the body-consciousness, the fire of Earth, as it is sometimes called; Dakshina is the Fire of the moon or mind, and Ahavaniya that of life.10 The earthly fire is also the fire of the sun; the sun is the source of all earth's heat and symbolises at the same time the Spiritual light manifested in the physical consciousness. The lunar fire is also the fire of the stars, the stars, mythologically, being the consorts or powers of the moon and they symbolise, in Yogic experience, the intuitive thoughts. The fire of the life-force has its symbol in lightning, electric energy being its vehicle.
Agni in the physical consciousness is calledghapati, for the body is the house in which the soul is lodged and he is its keeper, guardian and lord. The fire in the mental consciousness is called daki; for it is that which gives discernment, the power to discriminate between the truth and the falsehood, it is that which by the pressure of its heat and light cleaves the wrong away from the right. And the fire in the life-force is called havanya; for pra is not only the plane of hunger and desire, but also of power and dynamism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into' play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the Spiritual path.
Of the three fires one is the upholderhe who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the Veda jtaved, who guides and directs; and the third the Doer, the effective Power, the driving Energyvaivnara.
--
Ether or Space is the infinitude of the Spirit, the limitless Presence that dwells in and yet transcends the body, the life the heart and the mind.
VI. The Science of the Five Fires
--
Man, however, is an epitome of creation. He embraces and incarnates the entire gamut of consciousness and comprises in him all beings from the highest Divinity to the lowest jinn or elf. And yet each human being in his true personality is a lineal descendant of one or other typal aspect or original Personality of the one supreme Reality; and his individual character is all the more pronounced and well-defined the more organised and developed is the being. The psychic being in man is thus a direct descent, an immediate emanation along a definite line of devolution of the supreme consciousness. We may now understand and explain easily why one chooses a particular Ishta, an ideal god, what is the drive that pushes one to become a worshipper of Siva or Vishnu or any other deity. It is not any rational understanding, a weighing of pros and cons and then a resultant conclusion that leads one to choose a path of religion or spirituality. It is the soul's natural call to the God, the type of being and consciousness of which it is a spark, from which it has descended, it is the secret affinity the Spiritual blood-relation as it were that determines the choice and adherence. And it is this that we name Faith. And the exclusiveness and violence and bitterness which attend such adherence and which go "by the "name of partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., a;e a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original is one and indivisible and in the highest integration consciousness is global and not exclusive. And the human being that attains such a status is not bound or wholly limited to one particular formation: its personality is based on the truth of impersonality. And yet the two can go together: an individual can be impersonal in consciousness and yet personal in becoming and true to type.
The number of gods depends on the level of consciousness on which we stand. On this material plane there are as many gods as there are bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the supreme height there is only one God without a second. In between there are gradations of types and sub-types whose number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself.
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Only, to some perhaps the beauty may not appear as evident and apparent. the Spirit of beauty that resides in the Upanishadic consciousness is more retiring and reticent. It dwells in its own privacy, in its own home, as it were, and therefore chooses to be bare and austere, simple and sheer. Beauty means usually the beauty of form, even if it be not always the decorative, ornamental and sumptuous form. The early Vedas aimed at the perfect form (surpaktnum), the faultless expression, the integral and complete embodiment; the gods they envisaged and invoked were gleaming powers carved out of harmony and beauty and figured close to our modes of apprehension (spyan). But the Upanishads came to lay stress upon what is beyond the form, what the eye cannot see nor the vision reflect:
na sandi tihati rpamasya
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
But the soul of India was to be resuscitated through a spiritual awakening. We hear the first call of this renascence in the Spirited retort of the young Gadadhar: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education?"
Ramkumar could hardly understand the import of his young brother's reply. He described in bright colours the happy and easy life of scholars in Calcutta society. But Gadadhar intuitively felt that the scholars, to use one of his own vivid illustrations, were like so many vultures, soaring high on the wings of their uninspired intellect, with their eyes fixed on the charnel-pit of greed and lust. So he stood firm and Ramkumar had to give way.
--
At this time there came to Dakshineswar a youth of sixteen, destined to play an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's life. Hriday, a distant nephew2 of Sri Ramakrishna, hailed from Sihore, a village not far from Kamarpukur, and had been his boyhood friend. Clever, exceptionally energetic, and endowed with great presence of mind, he moved, as will be seen later, like a shadow about his uncle and was always ready to help him, even at the sacrifice of his personal comfort. He was destined to be a mute witness of many of the Spiritual experiences of Sri Ramakrishna and the caretaker of his body during the stormy days of his spiritual practice. Hriday came to Dakshineswar in search of a job, and Sri Ramakrishna was glad to see him.
Unable to resist the persuasion of Mathur Babu, Sri Ramakrishna at last entered the temple service, on condition that Hriday should be asked to assist him. His first duty was to dress and decorate the image of Kali.
--
It is said that samadhi, or trance, no more than opens the portal of the Spiritual realm. Sri Ramakrishna felt an unquenchable desire to enjoy God in various ways. For his meditation he built a place in the northern wooded section of the temple garden. With Hriday's help he planted there five sacred trees. The spot, known as the Panchavati, became the scene of many of his visions.
As his spiritual mood deepened he more and more felt himself to be a child of the Divine Mother. He learnt to surrender himself completely to Her will and let Her direct him.
--
He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He heard the Anahata Sabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable sounds of the universe are only so many echoes. He acquired the eight supernatural powers of yoga, which make a man almost omnipotent, and these he spurned as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of the divine Maya, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In this vision he saw a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerging from the Ganges and slowly approaching the Panchavati. Presently she gave birth to a child and began to nurse it tenderly. A moment later she assumed a terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws, and crushed it. Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.
But the most remarkable experience during this period was the awakening of the Kundalini Sakti, the "Serpent Power". He actually saw the Power, at first lying asleep at the bottom of the spinal column, then waking up and ascending along the mystic Sushumna canal and through its six centres, or lotuses, to the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus in the top of the head. He further saw that as the Kundalini went upward the different lotuses bloomed. And this phenomenon was accompanied by visions and trances. Later on he described to his disciples and devotees the various movements of the Kundalini: the fishlike, birdlike, monkeylike, and so on. The awaken- ing of the Kundalini is the beginning of spiritual consciousness, and its union with Siva in the Sahasrara, ending in samadhi, is the consummation of the Tantrik disciplines.
--
While practising the discipline of the madhur bhava, the male devotee often regards himself as a woman, in order to develop the most intense form of love for Sri Krishna, the only purusha, or man, in the universe. This assumption of the attitude of the opposite sex has a deep psychological significance. It is a matter of common experience that an idea may be cultivated to such an intense degree that every idea alien to it is driven from the mind. This peculiarity of the mind may be utilized for the subjugation of the lower desires and the development of the Spiritual nature. Now, the idea which is the basis of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of his indissoluble association with a male body. If he can inoculate himself thoroughly with the idea that he is a woman, he can get rid of the desires peculiar to his male body. Again, the idea that he is a woman may in turn be made to give way to another higher idea, namely, that he is neither man nor woman, but the Impersonal Spirit. The Impersonal Spirit alone can enjoy real communion with the Impersonal God. Hence the highest est realization of the Vaishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedantist.
A beautiful expression of the Vaishnava worship of God through love is to be found in the Vrindavan episode of the Bhagavata. The gopis, or milk-maids, of Vrindavan regarded the six-year-old Krishna as their Beloved. They sought no personal gain or happiness from this love. They surrendered to Krishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gopis, Radhika, or Radha, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to Krishna. She manifested mahabhava and was united with her Beloved. This union represents, through sensuous language, a supersensuous experience.
--
Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali vanished from before his vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways, and he termed these "avidyamaya" and "vidyamaya". Avidyamaya represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the Spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of avidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue autumn heaven.
The Divine Mother asked Sri Ramakrishna not to be lost in the featureless Absolute but to remain, in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness, the border line between the Absolute and the Relative. He was to keep himself at the "sixth centre" of Tantra, from which he could see not only the glory of the seventh, but also the divine manifestations of the Kundalini in the lower centres. He gently oscillated back and forth across the dividing line. Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity. He thus bridged the gulf between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent aspects of Reality. This is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual history of the world.
--
Sri Ramakrishna never taught his disciples to hate any woman, or womankind in general. This can be seen clearly by going through all his teachings under this head and judging them collectively. The Master looked on all women as so many images of the Divine Mother of the Universe. He paid the highest homage to womankind by accepting a woman as his guide while practising the very profound spiritual disciplines of Tantra. His wife, known and revered as the Holy Mother, was his constant companion and first disciple. At the end of his spiritual practice he literally worshipped his wife as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Divine Mother. After his passing away the Holy Mother became the Spiritual guide not only of a large number of householders, but also of many monastic members of the Ramakrishna Order.
--- THE MASTER'S YEARNING FOR HIS OWN DEVOTEES
--
Mahendranath Gupta, better known as "M.", arrived at Dakshineswar in March 1882. He belonged to the Brahmo Samaj and was headmaster of the Vidyasagar High School at Syambazar, Calcutta. At the very first sight the Master recognized him as one of his "marked" disciples. Mahendra recorded in his diary Sri Ramakrishna's conversations with his devotees. These are the first directly recorded words, in the Spiritual history of the world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Christ. The present volume is a translation of this diary. Mahendra was instrumental, through his personal contacts, in spreading the Master's message among many young and aspiring souls.
--- NAG MAHASHAY
Durgacharan Nag, also known as Nag Mahashay, was the ideal householder among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his intense desire to become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him to live in the world in the Spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time to obey his father's command. But he once said to his wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed who can give his love to God with his whole heart. Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be attached to this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the Mother and think of Her alone. Thus your life here and hereafter will be ennobled." The Master spoke of him as a "blazing light". He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doctors, lawyers, and brokers to make much progress in spirituality. Of doctors he said, "If the mind clings to the tiny drops of medicine, how can it conceive of the Infinite?" That was the end of Durgacharan's medical practice and he threw his chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men. On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the sadhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere life than Durgacharan.
--- GIRISH GHOSH
--
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came to the Master when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said to him: "My boy, if you think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all connexions with the Spiritualists. During his second visit the Master embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting away. When will you realize God? This life will be in vain if you do not realize Him. When will you devote your mind wholly to God?" Niranjan was surprised to see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of the Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat, threatening to sink it in mid stream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident to the Master, he was rebuked for his inability to curb his anger.
--- JOGINDRA
--
Gangadhar, Harinath's friend, also led the life of a strict brahmachari, eating vegetarian food cooked by his own hands and devoting himself to the study of the scriptures. He met the Master in 1884 and soon became a member of his inner circle. The Master praised his ascetic habit and attributed it to the Spiritual disciplines of his past life. Gangadhar became a close companion of Narendra.
--- HARIPRASANNA
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
the Spirits, and explains his own position. Their real
mission was to rouse him to confidence and action.
--
surrendered to the Spiritual. And so on. This is a
Laylah-chapter, but in it Laylah figures as the mere
--
Alpha ({Alpha}) is Air; Rho ({Rho}) the Sun; these are the Spirit and the
Son of Christian theology. In the midst is the Father, expressed
--
has been impregnated by the Spirit; it is the rough breathing and
not the soft. The centre of all is Theta ({Theta}), which was originally
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us of the life of the Spirit.
--------------------
--
The book contains many songs sung either by the Master or by the devotees. These form an important feature of the Spiritual tradition of Bengal and were for the most part written by men of mystical experience. For giving the songs their present form I am grateful to Mr. John Moffitt, Jr.
In the preparation of this manuscript I have received ungrudging help from several friends. Miss Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Mr.Joseph Campbell have worked hard in editing my translation. Mrs.Elizabeth Davidson has typed, more than once, the entire manuscript and rendered other valuable help. Mr.Aldous Huxley has laid me under a debt of gratitude by writing the Foreword. I sincerely thank them all.
In the Spiritual firmament Sri Ramakrishna is a waxing crescent. Within one hundred years of his birth and fifty years of his death his message has spread across land and sea. Romain Rolland has described him as the fulfilment of the Spiritual aspirations of the three hundred millions of Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi has written: "His life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ.
The life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna have redirected the thoughts of the denationalized Hindus to the Spiritual ideals of their forefa thers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century his was the time-honoured role of the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. His teachings played an important part in liberalizing the minds of orthodox pundits and hermits. Even now he is the silent force that is moulding the Spiritual destiny of India. His great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu missionary to preach the message of Indian culture to the enlightened minds of Europe and America. The full consequence of Swami Vivekn and work is still in the womb of the future.
May this translation of the first book of its kind in the religious history of the world, being the record of the direct words of a prophet, help stricken humanity to come nearer to the Eternal Verity of life and remove dissension and quarrel from among the different faiths!
May it enable seekers of Truth to grasp the subtle laws of the supersensuous realm, and unfold before man's restricted vision the Spiritual foundation of the universe, the unity of existence, and the divinity of the soul!
- Sw mi Nikhilnanda
--
Imparting secular education was, however, only his profession ; his main concern was with the Spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which Destiny seems to have chosen him. From his childhood he was deeply pious, and he used to be moved very much by Sdhus, temples and Durga Puja celebrations. The piety and eloquence of the great Brahmo leader of the times, Keshab Chander Sen, elicited a powerful response from the impressionable mind of Mahendra Nath, as it did in the case of many an idealistic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakrishna into his life.
This epoch-making event of his life came about in a very strange way. M. belonged to a joint family with several collateral members. Some ten years after he began his career as an educationist, bitter quarrels broke out among the members of the family, driving the sensitive M. to despair and utter despondency. He lost all interest in life and left home one night to go into the wide world with the idea of ending his life. At dead of night he took rest in his sister's house at Baranagar, and in the morning, accompanied by a nephew Siddheswar, he wandered from one garden to another in Calcutta until Siddheswar brought him to the Temple Garden of Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna was then living. After spending some time in the beautiful rose gardens there, he was directed to the room of the Paramahamsa, where the eventful meeting of the Master and the disciple took place on a blessed evening (the exact date is not on record) on a Sunday in March 1882. As regards what took place on the occasion, the reader is referred to the opening section of the first chapter of the Gospel.
--
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the Spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
The two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing.
0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The question which Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Gita (second chapter) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the language of one whose understanding is poised? How does he speak, how sit, how walk?" Men want to know the outer signs of the inner attainment, the way in which a spiritual person differs outwardly from other men. But all the tests which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the inner or the Spiritual is the essential and the outer derives its value and form from the inner. But the transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his books has to take place in nature, because according to him the divine Reality has to manifest itself in nature. So, all the parts of nature including the physical and the external are to be transformed. In his own case the very physical became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result of his intense Sadhana. This is borne out by the impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders like Sj. K. M. Munshi who was deeply impressed by his radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty years.
The Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of his external personality and give the seeker some idea of its richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality from the books in which the height, the universal sweep and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can be seen. His writings are, in a sense, the best representative of his mental personality. The versatile nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Another side of his dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown to the outside world because from 1910 to 1950 a span of forty years he led a life of outer retirement. No doubt, many knew about his staying at Pondicherry and practising some kind of very special Yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To some, perhaps, he was living a life of enviable solitude enjoying the luxury of a spiritual endeavour. Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on his part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altruistic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of his admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. His outward non-participation in public life was construed by many as lack of love for humanity.
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This period of outer retirement was one of intense Sadhana and of intellectual activity it was also one during which he acted on external events, though he was not dedicated outwardly to a public cause. About his own retirement he writes: "But this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he [Sri Aurobindo] had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and all world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened, whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action; for it is part of the experience of those who have advanced in yoga that besides the ordinary forces and activities of the mind and life and body in Matter, there are other forces and powers that can and do act from behind and from above; there is also a spiritual dynamic power which can be possessed by those who are advanced in spiritual consciousness, though all do not care to possess or, possessing, to use it and this power is greater than any other and more effective. It was this force which, as soon as he attained to it, he used at first only in a limited field of personal work, but afterwards in a constant action upon the world forces."[1]
Twice he found it necessary to go out of his way to make public pronouncements on important world-issues, which shows distinctly that renunciation of life is not a part of his Yoga. "The first was in relation to the Second World War. At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene."[2]
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In his Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo says about the Avatar: "He may, on the other hand, descend as an incarnation of divine life, the divine personality and power in its characteristic action, for a mission ostensibly social, ethical and political, as is represented in the story of Rama or Krishna; but always then this descent becomes in the soul of the race a permanent power for the inner living and the Spiritual rebirth."[5]
"He comes as the divine power and love which calls men to itself, so that they may take refuge in that and no longer in the insufficiency of their human wills and the strife of their human fear, wrath and passion, and liberated from all this unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the Divine."[6]
0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
organisation, on the material as well as the Spiritual side, and you
can easily imagine what it means. We already occupy five houses,
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HERE are two necessities of Nature's workings which seem always to intervene in the greater forms of human activity, whether these belong to our ordinary fields of movement or seek those exceptional spheres and fulfilments which appear to us high and divine. Every such form tends towards a harmonised complexity and totality which again breaks apart into various channels of special effort and tendency, only to unite once more in a larger and more puissant synthesis. Secondly, development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation; yet all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the Spirit revivifying the dead or dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life. To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality. We are in an age, full of the throes of travail, when all forms of thought and activity that have in themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of persistence are being subjected to a supreme test and given their opportunity of rebirth. The world today presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of Medea in which all things are being cast, shredded into pieces, experimented on, combined and recombined either to perish and provide the scattered material of new forms or to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of existence. Indian Yoga, in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great powers of Nature, itself specialised, divided and variously formulated, is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity. The child of immemorial ages, preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and is seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities. But it has first to rediscover itself, bring to the surface
The Conditions of the Synthesis
0.02 - II - The Home of the Guru, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The Master, the Guru, set at rest the puzzled human mind by his illuminating answers, perhaps even more by his silent consciousness, so that it might be able to pursue unhampered the path of realisation of the Truth. Those ancient discourses answer the mind of man today even across the ages. They have rightly acquired as everything of the past does a certain sanctity. But sometimes that very reverence prevents men from properly evaluating, and living in, the present. This happens when the mind instead of seeking the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not necessary for such discourses that they take place in forest-groves in order to be highly spiritual. Wherever the Master is, there is Light. And guru-griha the house of the Master can be his private dwelling place. So much was this feeling a part of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to maintain the personal character of his work that during the first few years after 1923 he did not like his house to be called an 'Ashram', as the word had acquired the sense of a public institution to the modern mind. But there was no doubt that the flower of Divinity had blossomed in him; and disciples, like bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration to say that these Evening Talks were to the small company of disciples what the Aranyakas were to the ancient seekers. Seeking the Light, they came to the dwelling place of their Guru, the greatest seer of the age, and found it their spiritual home the home of their parents, for the Mother, his companion in the great mission, had come. And these spiritual parents bestowed upon the disciples freely of their Light, their Consciousness, their Power and their Grace. The modern reader may find that the form of these discourses differs from those of the past but it was bound to be so for the simple reason that the times have changed and the problems that puzzle the modern mind are so different. Even though the disciples may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed at in them, still they are his creations. It is in order to repay, in however infinitesimal a degree, the debt which we owe to him that the effort is made to partake of the joy of his company the Evening Talks with a larger public.
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0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If, then, this inferior equilibrium is the basis and first means of the higher movements which the universal Power contemplates and if it constitutes the vehicle in which the Divine here seeks to reveal Itself, if the Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. Such a refusal may be, owing to some secret law of their development, the right attitude for certain individuals, but never the aim intended for mankind. It can be, therefore, no integral Yoga which ignores the body or makes its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. Rather, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit and to make the bodily life also divine must be God's final seal upon His work in the universe. The obstacle which the physical presents to the Spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature's indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee.
Equally, the vital and nervous energies in us are there for a great utility; they too demand the divine realisation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. The great part assigned to this element in the universal scheme is powerfully emphasised by the catholic wisdom of the Upanishads. "As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-Energy is all established, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the LifeEnergy is all this that is established in the triple heaven."2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
What was talked in the small group informally was not intended by Sri Aurobindo to be the independent expression of his views on the subjects, events or the persons discussed. Very often what he said was in answer to the Spiritual need of the individual or of the collective atmosphere. It was like a spiritual remedy meant to produce certain spiritual results, not a philosophical or metaphysical pronouncement on questions, events or movements. The net result of some talks very often was to point out to the disciple the inherent incapacity of the human intellect and its secondary place in the search for the ultimate Reality.
But there were occasions when he did give his independent, personal views on some problems, on events or other subjects. Even then it was never an authoritarian pronouncement. Most often it appeared to be a logically worked out and almost inevitable conclusion expressed quite impersonally though with firm and sincere conviction. This impersonality was such a prominent trait of his personality! Even in such matters as dispatching a letter or a telegram it would not be a command from him to a disciple to carry out the task. Most often during his usual passage to the dining room he would stop on the way, drop in on the company of four or five disciples and, holding out the letter or the telegram, would say in the most amiable and yet the most impersonal way: "I suppose this has to be sent." And it would be for someone in the group instantly to volunteer and take it. The expression he very often used was "It was done" or "It happened", not "I did."
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
NATURE, then, is an evolution or progressive self-manifestation of an eternal and secret existence, with three successive forms as her three steps of ascent. And we have consequently as the condition of all our activities these three mutually interdependent possibilities, the bodily life, the mental existence and the veiled spiritual being which is in the involution the cause of the others and in the evolution their result. Preserving and perfecting the physical, fulfilling the mental, it is Nature's aim and it should be ours to unveil in the perfected body and mind the transcendent activities of the Spirit. As the mental life does not abrogate but works for the elevation and better utilisation of the bodily existence, so too the Spiritual should not abrogate but transfigure our intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and vital activities.
For man, the head of terrestrial Nature, the sole earthly frame in which her full evolution is possible, is a triple birth. He has been given a living frame in which the body is the vessel and life the dynamic means of a divine manifestation. His activity is centred in a progressive mind which aims at perfecting itself as well as the house in which it dwells and the means of life that it uses, and is capable of awaking by a progressive self-realisation to its own true nature as a form of the Spirit. He culminates in what he always really was, the illumined and beatific spirit which is intended at last to irradiate life and mind with its now concealed splendours.
Since this is the plan of the divine Energy in humanity, the whole method and aim of our existence must work by the interaction of these three elements in the being. As a result of their separate formulation in Nature, man has open to him a choice between three kinds of life, the ordinary material existence, a life of mental activity and progress and the unchanging spiritual beatitude. But he can, as he progresses, combine these three forms, resolve their discords into a harmonious rhythm and so create in himself the whole godhead, the perfect Man.
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The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. The attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the Spiritual life.
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-existence, whether family, clan and nation or groupings dependent on less physical principles or the supreme group of all, our collective humanity. Man also may seek his own individual good from any or all of these spheres of activity, or identify himself in them with the collectivity and live for it, or, rising to a truer perception of this complex universe, harmonise the individual realisation with the collective aim. For as it is the right relation of the soul with the Supreme, while it is in the universe, neither to assert egoistically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to realise its unity with the Divine and the world and unite them in the individual, so the right relation of the individual with the collectivity is neither to pursue egoistically his own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to his fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim his proper development, but to sum up in himself all its best and completest possibilities and pour them out by thought, action and all other means on his surroundings so that the whole race may approach nearer to the attainment of its supreme personalities.
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Yet he admits so much of spirituality as has been enforced on his customary ideas by the great religious outbursts of the past and he makes in his scheme of society a place, venerable though not often effective, for the priest or the learned theologian who can be trusted to provide him with a safe and ordinary spiritual pabulum. But to the man who would assert for himself the liberty of spiritual experience and the Spiritual life, he assigns, if he admits him at all, not the vestment of the priest but the robe of the Sannyasin. Outside society let him exercise his dangerous freedom. So he may even serve as a human lightning-rod receiving the electricity of the Spirit and turning it away from the social edifice.
Nevertheless it is possible to make the material man and his life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life. The creation by this means of progressive societies in Europe is one of the greatest triumphs of Mind over Matter. But the physical nature has its revenge; for the progress made tends to be of the grosser and more outward kind and its attempts at a higher or a more rapid movement bring about great wearinesses, swift exhaustions, startling recoils.
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Its higher manifestations, even the most splendid and puissant, either merely increase the number of souls drawn out of social life and so impoverish it or disturb the society for a while by a momentary elevation. The truth is that neither the mental effort nor the Spiritual impulse can suffice, divorced from each other, to overcome the immense resistance of material Nature.
She demands their alliance in a complete effort before she will suffer a complete change in humanity. But, usually, these two great agents are unwilling to make to each other the necessary concessions.
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That highest thing, the Spiritual existence, is concerned with what is eternal but not therefore entirely aloof from the transient. For the Spiritual man the mind's dream of perfect beauty is realised in an eternal love, beauty and delight that has no dependence and is equal behind all objective appearances; its dream of perfect Truth in the supreme, self-existent, self-apparent and eternal Verity which never varies, but explains and is the secret of all variations and the goal of all progress; its dream of perfect action in the omnipotent and self-guiding Law that is inherent for ever in all things and translates itself here in the rhythm of the worlds. What is fugitive vision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally existing Reality in the Self that knows2 and is the Lord.
But if it is often difficult for the mental life to accommodate itself to the dully resistant material activity, how much more difficult must it seem for the Spiritual existence to live on in a world that appears full not of the Truth but of every lie and illusion, not of Love and Beauty but of an encompassing discord and ugliness, not of the Law of Truth but of victorious selfishness and sin? Therefore the Spiritual life tends easily in the saint and Sannyasin to withdraw from the material existence and reject it either wholly and physically or in the Spirit. It sees this world as the kingdom of evil or of ignorance and the eternal and divine either in a far-off heaven or beyond where there is no world and no life. It separates itself inwardly, if not also physically, from the world's impurities; it asserts the Spiritual reality in a spotless isolation. This withdrawal renders an invaluable service to the material life itself by forcing it to regard and even to bow down to something that is the direct negation of its own petty ideals, sordid cares and egoistic self-content.
But the work in the world of so supreme a power as spiritual force cannot be thus limited. the Spiritual life also can return upon the material and use it as a means of its own greater fullness. Refusing to be blinded by the dualities, the appearances, it can seek in all appearances whatsoever the vision of the same Lord, the same eternal Truth, Beauty, Love, Delight. The
Vedantic formula of the Self in all things, all things in the Self and all things as becomings of the Self is the key to this richer and all-embracing Yoga.
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But the Spiritual life, like the mental, may thus make use of this outward existence for the benefit of the individual with a perfect indifference to any collective uplifting of the merely symbolic world which it uses. Since the Eternal is for ever the same in all things and all things the same to the Eternal, since the exact mode of action and the result are of no importance compared with the working out in oneself of the one great realisation, this spiritual indifference accepts no matter what environment, no matter what action, dispassionately, prepared to retire as soon as its own supreme end is realised. It is so that many have understood the ideal of the Gita. Or else the inner love and bliss may pour itself out on the world in good deeds, in service, in compassion, the inner Truth in the giving of knowledge, without therefore attempting the transformation of a world which must by its inalienable nature remain a battlefield of the dualities, of sin and virtue, of truth and error, of joy and suffering.
But if Progress also is one of the chief terms of worldexistence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, this limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the Spiritual life in the world, and it is its real mission, to change the material life into its own image, the image of the Divine. Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration. Ordinarily, the effort is concentrated on a mental and moral change in humanity, but it may extend itself also to the alteration of the forms of our life and its institutions so that they too may be a better mould for the inpourings of the Spirit. These attempts have been the supreme landmarks in the progressive development of human ideals and the divine preparation of the race. Every one of them, whatever its outward results, has left Earth more capable of Heaven and quickened in its tardy movements the evolutionary Yoga of Nature.
In India, for the last thousand years and more, the Spiritual life and the material have existed side by side to the exclusion of the progressive mind. Spirituality has made terms for itself with Matter by renouncing the attempt at general progress. It has obtained from society the right of free spiritual development for all who assume some distinctive symbol, such as the garb of the Sannyasin, the recognition of that life as man's goal and those who live it as worthy of an absolute reverence, and the casting of society itself into such a religious mould that its most customary acts should be accompanied by a formal reminder of the Spiritual symbolism of life and its ultimate destination. On the other hand, there was conceded to society the right of inertia and immobile self-conservation. The concession destroyed much of the value of the terms. The religious mould being fixed, the formal reminder tended to become a routine and to lose its living sense. The constant attempts to change the mould by new sects and religions ended only in a new routine or a modification of the old; for the saving element of the free and active mind had been exiled. The material life, handed over to the Ignorance, the purposeless and endless duality, became a leaden and dolorous yoke from which flight was the only escape.
The schools of Indian Yoga lent themselves to the compromise. Individual perfection or liberation was made the aim, seclusion of some kind from the ordinary activities the condition, the renunciation of life the culmination. The teacher gave his knowledge only to a small circle of disciples. Or if a wider movement was attempted, it was still the release of the individual soul that remained the aim. The pact with an immobile society was, for the most part, observed.
The utility of the compromise in the then actual state of the world cannot be doubted. It secured in India a society which lent itself to the preservation and the worship of spirituality, a country apart in which as in a fortress the highest spiritual ideal could maintain itself in its most absolute purity unoverpowered by the siege of the forces around it. But it was a compromise, not an absolute victory. The material life lost the divine impulse to growth, the Spiritual preserved by isolation its height and purity, but sacrificed its full power and serviceableness to the world. Therefore, in the divine Providence the country of the Yogins and the Sannyasins has been forced into a strict and imperative contact with the very element it had rejected, the element of the progressive Mind, so that it might recover what was now wanting to it.
We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.
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But what Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. It works by a quickening of all her energies, a sublimation of all her faculties. While she develops the Spiritual life with difficulty and has constantly to fall back from it for the sake of her lower realisations, the sublimated force, the concentrated method of Yoga can attain directly and carry with it the perfection of the mind and even, if she will, the perfection of the body. Nature seeks the Divine in her own symbols: Yoga goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature, beyond universe to the Transcendent and can return with the transcendent light and power, with the fiat of the Omnipotent.
But their aim is one in the end. The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth, the Spiritual existence. And as the mental life uses and perfects the material, so will the Spiritual use and perfect the material and the mental existence as the instruments of a divine self-expression.
The ages when that is accomplished, are the legendary Satya or Krita3 Yugas, the ages of the Truth manifested in the symbol, of the great work done when Nature in mankind, illumined, satisfied and blissful, rests in the culmination of her endeavour.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Beatitude and Infinity which are the nature of the Spiritual life.
Its method is a direct commerce between the human Purusha in the individual body and the divine Purusha who dwells in every body and yet transcends all form and name.
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We perceive that as Hathayoga, dealing with the life and body, aims at the supernormal perfection of the physical life and its capacities and goes beyond it into the domain of the mental life, so Rajayoga, operating with the mind, aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond it into the domain of the Spiritual existence.
But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation leads first to a certain aloofness from the physical life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the Spiritual life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the Spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our whole existence.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So you must open yourself to the Spiritual force and allow it
to work in you; then you will more and more dwell in constant
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The moon is the symbol of the Spiritual light, one in its origin,
multiple in its manifestation. There is only one moon and yet
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are meant for the Ashram life, it is necessary that the Spiritual
life and all the discipline it entails - in short, the search for and
--
Of course, if you want to lead the Spiritual life at any cost,
that is another thing. But in that case, you will have to rely on
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Perfection includes perfection of mind and body, so that the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally to be effected by mankind. At any rate a full development of the general mental and physical faculties and experiences attainable by humanity through Yoga must be included in the scope of the integral method. Nor would these have any raison d'etre unless employed for an integral mental and physical life. Such a mental and physical life would be in its nature a translation of the Spiritual existence into its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a synthesis of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which she has evolved or is evolving. We would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material life, our base, and the mental life, our intermediate instrument.
Nor would the integrality to which we aspire be real or even possible, if it were confined to the individual. Since our divine perfection embraces the realisation of ourselves in being, in life and in love through others as well as through ourselves, the extension of our liberty and of its results in others would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. And the constant and inherent attempt of such an extension would be towards its increasing and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
And the second is of the Spiritual part; of this speaks the second stanza,
which follows; and of this we shall treat likewise, in the second and the third
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state of those that meditate on the Spiritual road and begins to set them in
the state of progressiveswhich is that of those who are already
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comparison with it,' for it is 'horrible and awful to the Spirit.'6 A good deal of
literature on the former Night existed in the time of St. John of the Cross and he
--
Night of the Spirit, which is at once more afflictive and more painful than those
which have preceded it. This, nevertheless, is the Dark Night par excellence, of
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sensual part have their strength and root in the Spirit, where all habits, both good
and bad, are brought into subjection, and thus, until these are purged, the
--
Chapter ix describes how, although these purgations seem to blind the Spirit,
they do so only to enlighten it again with a brighter and intenser light, which it is
--
of a somewhat similar kind. Admirable as are the Spiritual Canticle and the Living
Flame of Love, they are not so completely knit into one whole as is this great double
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
as the attitude, the Spirit in which one acts. To know how to
give yourself entirely and without egoism while washing dishes
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close to me. It is the Spirit in which it is done that is important.
Mother, which is this being that receives happily any
--
It is not the work that is of importance but the Spirit in which
one does it. It is difficult to keep one's mind perfectly quiet; it
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Exposition of the stanzas describing the method followed by the soul in its journey upon the Spiritual road to the attainment of the perfect union of love with God, to the extent that is possible in this life. Likewise are described the properties belonging to the soul that has attained to the said perfection, according as they are contained in the same stanzas.
PROLOGUE
IN this book are first set down all the stanzas which are to be expounded; afterwards, each of the stanzas is expounded separately, being set down before its exposition; and then each line is expounded separately and in turn, the line itself also being set down before the exposition. In the first two stanzas are expounded the effects of the two spiritual purgations: of the sensual part of man and of the Spiritual part. In the other six are expounded various and wondrous effects of the Spiritual illumination and union of love with God.
STANZAS OF THE SOUL
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Nothing to excuse, all is in the Spirit of the offering....
Love and blessings to my dear child.
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
and the Spiritual change?
The psychic change is the change that puts you in contact with
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by yoga that one can do it. There have been, throughout the Spiritual history of humanity, many methods of yoga - which Sri
Aurobindo has described and explained for us in The Synthesis
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
ambition or a vital caprice for the Spiritual call - for that alone
is a sure sign that one should take up Yoga. the Spiritual call is
heard only when the time has come, and then the soul responds
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one another: some want the Spiritual life, others are attached to
the things of this world. To make all these parts agree and to
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Here is the very heart of the mystery, the master-key to the problem. The advent of the superhuman or divine race, however stupendous or miraculous the phenomenon may appear to be, can become a thing of practical actuality, precisely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine himself in his supreme potency and wisdom and love. The descent of the Divine into the ordinary human nature in order to purify and transform it and be lodged there is the whole secret of the sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. The sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the consciousness, its sublimation into the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and dissolution there in the end. The descent of the Divine Consciousness to prepare its definitive home in the dynamic and pragmatic human nature, if considered at all, was not the main theme of the past efforts and achievements. Furthermore, the descent spoken of here is the descent, not of a divine consciousness for there are many varieties of divine consciousness but of the Divine's own consciousness, of the Divine himself with his Shakti. For it is that that is directly working out this evolutionary transformation of the age.
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.
--
From a certain point of view, from the point of view of essentials and inner realities, it would appear that spirituality is, at least, the basis of the arts, if not the highest art. If art is meant to express the soul of things, and since the true soul of things is the divine element in them, then certainly spirituality, the discipline of coming in conscious contact with the Spirit, the Divine, must be accorded the regal seat in the hierarchy of the arts. Also, spirituality is the greatest and the most difficult of the arts; for it is the art of life. To make of life a perfect work of beauty, pure in its lines, faultless in its rhythm, replete with strength, iridescent: with light, vibrant with delightan embodiment of the Divine, in a wordis the highest ideal of spirituality; viewed the Spirituality that Sri Aurobindo practisesis the ne plus ultra of artistic creation
The Gita, II. 40
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
If one were to be busy about reforming the world and when that was done then alone to turn to other-worldly things, in that case, one would never take the turn, for the world will never be reformed totally or even considerably in that way. It is not that reformers have for the first time appeared on the earth in the present age. Men have attempted social, political, economic and moral reforms from times immemorial. But that has not barred the Spiritual attempt or minimised its importance. To say that because an ideal is apparently too high or too great for the present age, it must be kept in cold storage is to set a premium on the present nature of humanity arid eternise it: that would bind the world to its old moorings and never give it the opportunity to be free and go out into the high seas of larger and greater realisations.
The ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in this world. To achieve something actually in the physical and material field, even a lesser something, is worth much more than speculating on high flaunting chimeras and indulging in day-dreams. Yes, but what is this something that has to be achieved in the material world? It is always an ideal. Even procuring food for each and every person, clothing and housing all is not less an ideal for all its concern about actuality. Only there are ideals and ideals; some are nearer to the earth, some seem to be in the background. But the mystery is that it is not always the ideal nearest to the earth which is the easiest to achieve or the first thing to be done first. Do we not see before our very eye show some very simple innocent social and economic changes are difficult to carry outthey bring in their train quite disproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease. For even the most innocent-looking social, economic or political abuse has at its base far-reaching attitudes and life-urgeseven a spiritual outlook that have to be sought out and tackled first, if the attempt at reform is to be permanently and wholly successful. Even in mundane matters we do not dig deep enough, or rise high enough.
Indeed, looking from a standpoint that views the working of the forces that act and achieve and not the external facts and events and arrangements aloneone finds that things that are achieved on the material plane are first developed and matured and made ready behind the veil and at a given moment burst out and manifest themselves often unexpectedly and suddenly like a chick out of the shell or the young butterfly out of the cocoon. The Gita points to that truth of Nature when it says: "These beings have already been killed by Me." It is not that a long or strenuous physical planning and preparation alone or in the largest measure brings about a physical realisation. The deeper we go within, the farther we are away from the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. the Spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
The highest ideal, the very highest which God and Nature and Man have in view, is not and cannot be kept in cold storage: it is being worked out even here and now, and it has to be worked out here and now. The ideal of the Life Divine embodies a central truth of existence, and however difficult or chimerical it may appear to be to the normal mind, it is the preoccupation of the inner being of manall other ways or attempts of curing human ills are faint echoes, masks, diversions of this secret urge at the source and heart of things. That ideal is a norm and a force that is ever dynamic and has become doubly so since it has entered the earth atmosphere and the waking human consciousness and is labouring there. It is always safer and wiser to recognise that fact, to help in the realisation of that truth and be profited by it.
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
That Power, that Spirit has been growing and gathering its strength during all the millenniums that humanity has lived through. On the momentous day when man appeared on earth, the Higher Man also took his birth. Since the hour the Spirit refused to be imprisoned in its animal sheath and came out as man, it approached by that very uplift a greater freedom and a vaster movement. It was the crest of that underground wave which peered over the surface from age to age, from clime to clime through the experiences of poets and prophets and sages the Head of the Sacrificial Horse galloping towards the Dawn.
And now the days of captivity or rather of inner preparation are at an end. The voice in the wilderness was necessary, for it was a call and a communion in the silence of the soul. Today the silence seeks utterance. Today the shell is ripe enough to break and to bring out the mature and full-grown being. The king that was in hiding comes in glory and triumph, in his complete regalia.
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the Spiritual Truth and the Spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the resit is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental mistranslation of the Truth - these things cannot be the first true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or a means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in inner consciousness, or as the Spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforeh and by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the Spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure Gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental realisation or of impeding or even falsifying by a halfway formation the truth growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of His will in our life. This is a mistake of orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone. It is far better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us from the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material life also as well as the inner life is part of what we see as the Divine Plan, but it can only be fulfilled by an ourflowing of the inner realisation, something that grows from within outwards, not by the working out of a mental principle.
The realisation of the Divine is the one thing needful and the rest is desirable only in so far as it helps or leads towards that or when it is realised, extends and manifests the realisation. Manifestation and organisation of the whole life for the divine work, - first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the realisation and a common life of God-realised men, secondly, for help to the world to move towards that, and to live in the Light - is the whole meaning and purpose of my Yoga. But the realisation is the first need and it is that round which all the rest moves, for apart from it all the rest would have no meaning.
--
Sadhana must be the main thing and sadhana means the purification of the nature, the consecration of the being, the opening of the psychic and the inner mind and vital, the contact and presence of the Divine, the realisation of the Divine in all things, surrender, devotion, the widening of the consciousness into the cosmic Consciousness, the Self one in all, the psychic and the Spiritual transformation of the nature.
... the principle of this Yoga is not perfection of the human nature as it is but a psychic and spiritual transformation of all the parts of the being through the action of an inner consciousness and then of a higher consciousness which works on them, throws out the old movements or changes them into the image of its own and so transmutes lower into higher nature. It is not so much the perfection of the intellect as a transcendence of it, a transformation of the mind, the substitution of a larger greater principle of knowledge - and so with all the rest of the being.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all,
Her nature felt all Nature as its own.
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
For, till now Mind has been the last term of the evolutionary consciousness Mind as developed in man is the highest instrument built up and organised by Nature through which the self-conscious being can express itself. That is why the Buddha said: Mind is the first of all principles, Mind is the highest of all principles: indeed Mind is the constituent of all principlesmana puvvangam dhamm1. The consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element in the life upon earth; it has been glimpsed or entered into in varying degrees and modes by saints and seers; it has cast its derivative illuminations in the creative activities of poets and artists, in the finer and nobler urges of heroes and great men of action. But the utmost that has been achieved, the summit reached in that direction, as exampled in spiritual disciplines, involves a withdrawal from the evolutionary cycle, a merging and an absorption into the static status that is altogether beyond it, that lies, as it were, at the other extreme the Spirit in itself, Atman, Brahman, Sachchidananda, Nirvana, the One without a second, the Zero without a first.
The first contact that one has with this static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is established through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. The Overmind dissolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individualised formation bounded by an outward and narrow frame or sheath of mind, life and body; it reveals the universal Self and Spirit, the cosmic godhead and its myriad forces throwing up myriad forms; the world-existence there appears as a play of ever-shifting veils upon the face of one ineffable reality, as a mysterious cycle of perpetual creation and destructionit is the overwhelming vision given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which this cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
--
But the initial illusory consciousness of the Overmind need not at all lead to the static Brahmic consciousness or Sunyam alone. As a matter of fact, there is in this particular processes of consciousness a hiatus between the two, between Maya and Brahman, as though one has to leap from the one into the other somehow. This hiatus is filled up in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga by the principle of Supermind, not synthetic-analytic2 in knowledge like Overmind and the highest mental intelligence, but inescapably unitarian even in the utmost diversity. Supermind is the Truth-consciousness at once static and dynamic, self-existent and creative: in Supermind the Brahmic consciousness Sachchidanandais ever self-aware and ever manifested and embodied in fundamental truth-powers and truth-forms for the play of creation; it is the plane where the One breaks out into the Many and the Many still remain one, being and knowing themselves to be but various self-expressions of the One; it develops the Spiritual archetypes, the divine names and forms of all individualisations of an evolving existence.
SRI AUROBINDO
The Upanishads speak of a solar and a lunar Path in the Spiritual consciousness. Perhaps they have some reference to these two linesone through the Mayic consciousness of the Overmind enters into the static Bliss, ecstatic Nihil, and the other mounts still farther to the solar status which is a mass, a sea, an infinity of that light and ecstasy but which can at the same time express and embody itself as the creative Truth-consciousness (srya svitr ).
In the Supermind things exist in their perfect spiritual reality; each is consciously the divine reality in its transcendent essence, its cosmic extension, its, spiritual individuality; the diversity of a manifested existence is there, but the mutually exclusive separativeness has not yet arisen. The ego, the knot of separativity, appears at a later and lower stage of involution; what is here is indivisible nexus of individualising centres of the one eternal truth of being. Where Supermind and Overmind meet, one can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something moreOneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance. The first shadow of the Illusory Consciousness, the initial possibility of the movement of Ignorance comes in when the supramental light enters the penumbra of the mental sphere. The movement of Supermind is the movement of light without obscurity, straight, unwavering, unswerving, absolute. The Force here contains and holds in their oneness of Reality the manifold but not separated lines of essential and unalloyed truth: its march is the inevitable progression of each one assured truth entering into and upholding every other and therefore its creation, play or action admits of no trial or stumble or groping or deviation; for each truth rests on all others and on that which harmonises them all and does not act as a Power diverging from and even competing with other Powers of being. In the Overmind commences the play of divergent possibilities the simple, direct, united and absolute certainties of the supramental consciousness retire, as it were, a step behind and begin to work themselves out through the interaction first of separately individualised and then of contrary and contradictory forces. In the Overmind there is a conscious underlying Unity but yet each Power, Truth, Aspect of that Unity is encouraged to work out its possibilities as if it were sufficient to itself and the others are used by it for its own enhancement until in the denser and darker reaches below Overmind this turns out a thing of blind conflict and battle and, as it would appear, of chance survival. Creation or manifestation originally means the concretisation or devolution of the powers of Conscious Being into a play of united diversity; but on the line which ends in Matter it enters into more and more obscure forms and forces and finally the virtual eclipse of the supreme light of the Divine Consciousness. Creation as it descends' towards the Ignorance becomes an involution of the Spirit through Mind and Life into Matter; evolution is a movement backward, a return journey from Matter towards the Spirit: it is the unravelling, the gradual disclosure and deliverance of the Spirit, the ascension and revelation of the involved consciousness through a series of awakeningsMatter awakening into Life, Life awakening into Mind and Mind now seeking to awaken into something beyond the Mind, into a power of conscious Spirit.
The apparent or actual result of the movement of Nescienceof Involutionhas been an increasing negation of the Spirit, but its hidden purpose is ultimately to embody the Spirit in Matter, to express here below in cosmic Time-Space the splendours of the timeless Reality. The material body came into existence bringing with it inevitably, as it seemed, mortality; it appeared even to be fashioned out of mortality, in order that in this very frame and field of mortality, Immortality, the eternal Spirit Consciousness which is the secret truth and reality in Time itself as well as behind it, might be established and that the Divine might be possessed, or rather, possess itself not in one unvarying mode of the static consciousness, as it does even now behind the cosmic play, but in the play itself and in the multiple mode of the terrestrial existence.
II
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
We do not say that poets have never sung of God and Soul and things transcendent. Poets have always done that. But what I say is this that presentation of spiritual truths, as they are in their own home, in other words, treated philosophically and yet in a supreme poetic manner, has always been a rarity. We have, indeed, in India the Gita and the Upanishads, great philosophical poems, if there were any. But for one thing they are on dizzy heights out of the reach of common man and for another they are idolised more as philosophy than as poetry. Doubtless, our Vaishnava poets sang of God and Love Divine; and Rabindranath, in one sense, a typical modern Vaishnava, did the same. And their songs are masterpieces. But are they not all human, too human, as the mad prophet would say? In them it is the human significance, the human manner that touches and moves us the Spiritual significance remains esoteric, is suggested, is a matter of deduction. Sri Aurobindo has dealt with spiritual experiences in a different way. He has not clothed them in human symbols and allegories, in images and figures of the mere earthly and secular life: he presents them in their nakedness, just as they are seen and realised. He has not sought to tone down the rigour of truth with contrivances that easily charm and captivate the common human mind and heart. Nor has he indulged like so many poet philosophers in vague generalisations and colourless or too colourful truisms that do not embody a clear thought or rounded idea, a radiant judgment. Sri Aurobindo has given us in his poetry thoughts that are clear-cut, ideas beautifully chiselledhe is always luminously forceful.
Take these Vedantic lines that in their limpidity and harmonious flow beat anything found in the fine French poet Lamartine:
--
The heart and its urges, the vital and its surges, the physical impulsesit is these of which the poets sang in their infinite variations. But the mind proper, that is to say, the higher reflective ideative mind, was not given the right of citizenship in the domain of poetry. I am not forgetting the so-called Metaphysicals. The element of metaphysics among the Metaphysicals has already been called into question. There is here, no doubt, some theology, a good dose of mental cleverness or conceit, but a modern intellectual or rather rational intelligence is something other, something more than that. Even the metaphysics that was commandeered here had more or less a decorative value, it could not be taken into the pith and substance of poetic truth and beauty. It was a decoration, but not unoften a drag. I referred to the Upanishads, but these strike quite a different, almost an opposite line in this connection. They are in a sense truly metaphysical: they bypass the mind and the mental powers, get hold of a higher mode of consciousness, make a direct contact with truth and beauty and reality. It was Buddha's credit to have forged this missing link in man's spiritual consciousness, to have brought into play the power of the rational intellect and used it in support of the Spiritual experience. That is not to say that he was the very first person, the originator who initiated the movement; but at least this seems to be true that in him and his au thentic followers the movement came to the forefront of human consciousness and attained the proportions of a major member of man's psychological constitution. We may remember here that Socrates, who started a similar movement of rationalisation in his own way in Europe, was almost a contemporary of the Buddha.
Poetry as an expression of thought-power, poetry weighted with intelligence and rationalised knowledge that seems to me to be the end and drive, the secret sense of all the mystery of modern technique. The combination is risky, but not impossible. In the Spiritual domain the Gita achieved this miracle to a considerable degree. Still, the power of intelligence and reason shown by Vyasa is of a special order: it is a sublimated function of the faculty, something aloof and other-worldly"introvert", a modern mind would term it that is to say, something a priori, standing in its own au thenticity and self-sufficiency. A modern intelligence would be more scientific, let us use the word, more matter-of-fact and sense-based: the mental light should not be confined in its ivory tower, however high that may be, but brought down and placed at the service of our perception and appreciation and explanation of things human and terrestrial; made immanent in the mundane and the ephemeral, as they are commonly called. This is not an impossibility. Sri Aurobindo seems to have done the thing. In him we find the three terms of human consciousness arriving at an absolute fusion and his poetry is a wonderful example of that fusion. The three terms are the Spiritual, the intellectual or philosophical and the physical or sensational. The intellectual, or more generally, the mental, is the intermediary, the Paraclete, as he himself will call it later on in a poem9 magnificently exemplifying the point we are trying to make out the agent who negotiates, bridges and harmonises the two other firmaments usually supposed to be antagonistic and incompatible.
Indeed it would be wrong to associate any cold ascetic nudity to the Spiritual body of Sri Aurobindo. His poetry is philosophic, abstract, no doubt, but every philosophy has its practice, every abstract thing its concrete application,even as the soul has its body; and the fusion, not mere union, of the two is very characteristic in him. The deepest and unseizable flights of thought he knows how to clo the with a Kalidasian richness of imagery, or a Keatsean gusto of sensuousness:
. . . . .O flowers, O delight on the tree-tops burning!
--
The Greek sings of the humanity of man, the Indian the divinity of man. It is the Hellenic spirit that has very largely moulded our taste and we have forgotten that an equally poetic world exists in the domain of spiritual life, even in its very severity, as in that of earthly life and its sweetness. And as we are passionate about the earthly life, even so Sri Aurobindo has made a passion of the Spiritual life. Poetry after all has a mission; the phrase "Art for Art's sake" may be made to mean anything. Poetry is not merely what is pleasing, not even what is merely touching and moving but what is at the same time, inspiring, invigorating, elevating. Truth is indeed beauty but it is not always the beauty that captivates the eye or the mere aesthetic sense.
And because our Vedic poets always looked beyond humanity, beyond earth, therefore could they make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth. Therefore it was that they were pervadingly so grandiose and sublime and puissant. The heroic, the epic was their natural element and they could not but express themselves in the grand manner Sri Aurobindo has the same outlook and it is why we find in him the ring of the old-world manner.
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he- creates, so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am. If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that you have no genius at all. Be and become yourselfma gridhah kasyachit dhanam, says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular delight the self-determination of the Spirit within you and not in the desire for your neighbours riches. The world has become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else. Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief.
In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a god-head. Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for the most wondrous symphony. Once a man knows what he is and holds fast to it, refusing to be drawn away by any necessity or temptation, he begins to uncover himself, to do what his inmost nature demands and takes joy in, that is to say, begins to create. Indeed there may be much difference in the forms that different souls take. But because each is itself, therefore each is grounded upon the fundamental equality of things. All our valuations are in reference to some standard or other set up with a particular end in view, but that is a question of the practical world which in no way takes away from the intrinsic value of the greatness of the soul. So long as the thing is there, the how of it does not matter. Infinite are the ways of manifestation and all of them the very highest and the most sublime, provided they are a manifestation of the soul itself, provided they rise and flow from the same level. Whether it is Agni or Indra, Varuna, Mitra or the Aswins, it is the same supreme and divine inflatus.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Death, fall and sorrow as the Spirit's goads,
The dubious godhead with his torch of pain
--
Affirmed the Spirit's tread on Circumstance,
Pressed back the senseless dire revolving Wheel
01.02 - The Object of the Integral Yoga, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
You must go inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication to the Spiritual life. All clinging to mental preferences must fall away from you, all insistence on vital aims and interests and attachments must be put away, all egoistic clinging to family, friends, country must disappear if you want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action, must proceed from the Truth once discovered and not from the lower mental or vital motives, from the Divine Will and not from personal choice or the preferences of the ego.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
is just on the borderland: it has succeeded in leaving behind the mystic domain, but has not yet entered the city of the Spiritat the most, it has turned the corner and approached the gate. Listen now,
My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,
--
When the Spirit speaks its own language in its own name, we have spiritual poetry. If, however, the Spirit speaksfrom choice or necessity-an alien language and manner, e.g., that of a profane consciousness, or of the consciousness of another domain, idealistic or philosophical or even occult, puts on or imitates spirit's language and manner, we have what we propose to call mystic poetry proper. When Samain sings of the body of the dancer:
Et Pannyre deviant fleur, flamme, papillon! ...
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It is not merely by addressing the beloved as your goddess that you can attain this mysticism; the Elizabethan did that in merry abundance,ad nauseam.A finer temper, a more delicate touch, a more subtle sensitiveness and a kind of artistic wizardry are necessary to tune the body into a rhythm of the Spirit. The other line of mysticism is common enough, viz., to express the Spirit in terms and rhythms of the flesh. Tagore did that liberally, the Vaishnava poets did nothing but that, the Song of Solomon is an exquisite example of that procedure. There is here, however, a difference in degrees which is an interesting feature worth noting. Thus in Tagore the reference to the Spirit is evident, that is the major or central chord; the earthly and the sensuous are meant as the name and form, as the body to render concrete, living and vibrant, near and intimate what otherwise would perhaps be vague and abstract, afar, aloof. But this mundane or human appearance has a value in so far as it is a support, a pointer or symbol of the Spiritual import. And the mysticism lies precisely in the play of the two, a hide-and-seek between them. On the other hand, as I said, the greater portion of Vaishnava poetry, like a precious and beautiful casket, no doubt, hides the Spiritual import: not the pure significance but the sign and symbol are luxuriously elaborated, they are placed in the foreground in all magnificence: as if it was their very purpose to conceal the real meaning. When the Vaishnava poet says,
O love, what more shall I, shall Radha speak,
--
there is nothing in the matter or manner which can indicate, to the uninitiated, any reference to the Spirit or the Divine. Or this again,
I have gazed upon beauty from my very birth
--
This is spiritual matter and spiritual manner that can never be improved upon. This is spiritual poetry in its quintessence. I am referring naturally here to the original and not to the translation which can never do full justice, even at its very best, to the poetic value in question. For apart from the individual genius of the poet, the greatness of the language, the instrument used by the poet, is also involved. It may well be what is comparatively easy and natural in the language of the gods (devabhasha) would mean a tour de force, if not altogether an impossibility, in a human language. The Sanskrit language was moulded and fashioned in the hands of the Rishis, that is to say, those who lived and moved and had their being in the Spiritual consciousness. The Hebrew or even the Zend does not seem to have reached that peak, that absoluteness of the Spiritual tone which seems inherent in the Indian tongue, although those too breathed and grew in a spiritual atmosphere. The later languages, however, Greek or Latin or their modern descendants, have gone still farther from the source, they are much nearer to the earth and are suffused with the smell and effluvia of this vale of tears.
Among the ancients, strictly speaking, the later classical Lucretius was a remarkable phenomenon. By nature he was a poet, but his mental interest lay in metaphysical speculation, in philosophy, and unpoetical business. He turned away from arms and heroes, wrath and love and, like Seneca and Aurelius, gave himself up to moralising and philosophising, delving 'into the mystery, the why and the how and the whither of it all. He chose a dangerous subject for his poetic inspiration and yet it cannot be said that his attempt was a failure. Lucretius was not a religious or spiritual poet; he was rather Marxian,atheistic, materialistic. The dialectical materialism of today could find in him a lot of nourishment and support. But whatever the content, the manner has made a whole difference. There was an idealism, a clarity of vision and an intensity of perception, which however scientific apparently, gave his creation a note, an accent, an atmosphere high, tense, aloof, ascetic, at times bordering on the supra-sensual. It was a high light, a force of consciousness that at its highest pitch had the ring and vibration of something almost spiritual. For the basic principle of Lucretius' inspiration is a large thought-force, a tense perception, a taut nervous reactionit is not, of course, the identity in being with the inner realities which is the hallmark of a spiritual consciousness, yet it is something on the way towards that.
--
The religious, the mystic or the Spiritual man was, in the past, more or Jess methodically and absolutely non-intellectual and anti-intellectual: but the modern age, the age of scientific culture, is tending to make him as strongly intellectual: he has to explain, not only present the object but show up its mechanism alsoexplain to himself so that he may have a total understanding and a firmer grasp of the thing which he presents and explains to others as well who demand a similar approach. He feels the necessity of explaining, giving the rationality the rationale the science, of his art; for without that, it appears to him, a solid ground is not given to the structure of his experience: analytic power, preoccupation with methodology seems inherent in the modern creative consciousness.
The philosophical trend in poetry has an interesting history with a significant role: it has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation, of katharsis. As man has risen from his exclusively or predominantly vital nature into an increasing mental poise, in the same way his creative activities too have taken this new turn and status. In the earlier stages of evolution the mental life is secondary, subordinate to the physico-vital life; it is only subsequently that the mental finds an independent and self-sufficient reality. A similar movement is reflected in poetic and artistic creation too: the thinker, the philosopher remains in the background at the outset, he looks out; peers through chinks and holes from time to time; later he comes to the forefront, assumes a major role in man's creative activity.
Man's consciousness is further to rise from the mental to over-mental regions. Accordingly, his life and activities and along with that his artistic creations too will take on a new tone and rhythm, a new mould and constitution even. For this transition, the higher mentalwhich is normally the field of philosophical and idealistic activitiesserves as the Paraclete, the Intercessor; it takes up the lower functionings of the consciousness, which are intense in their own way, but narrow and turbid, and gives, by purifying and enlarging, a wider frame, a more luminous pattern, a more subtly articulated , form for the higher, vaster and deeper realities, truths and harmonies to express and manifest. In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets, this intervening medium was overlooked for evident reasons, for human reason or even intelligence is a double-edged instrument, it can make as well as mar, it has a light that most often and naturally shuts off other higher lights beyond it. So it was bypassed, some kind of direct and immediate contact was sought to be established between the normal and the transcendental. The result was, as I have pointed out, a pure spiritual poetry, on the one hand, as in the Upanishads, or, on the other, religious poetry of various grades and denominations that spoke of the Spiritual but in the terms and in the manner of the mundane, at least very much coloured and dominated by the latter. Vyasa was the great legendary figure in India who, as is shown in his Mahabharata, seems to have been one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, to forge and build the missing link of Thought Power. The exemplar of the manner is the Gita. Valmiki's represented a more ancient and primary inspiration, of a vast vital sensibility, something of the kind that was at the basis of Homer's genius. In Greece it was Socrates who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy and the emphasis of intellectual power slowly began to find expression in the later poets, Sophocles and Euripides. But all these were very simple beginnings. The moderns go in for something more radical and totalitarian. The rationalising element instead of being an additional or subordinate or contri buting factor, must itself give its norm and form, its own substance and manner to the creative activity. Such is the present-day demand.
The earliest preoccupation of man was religious; even when he concerned himself with the world and worldly things, he referred all that to the other world, thought of gods and goddesses, of after-death and other where. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity.
--
This, I say, is something different from the religious and even from the mystic. It is away from the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity (in spite of a human face that masks it at times) ; it is something more than the merely mystic, for it does not stop being a signpost or an indication to the Beyond, but is itself the presence and embodiment of the Beyond. The mystic gives us, we can say, the magic of the Infinite; what I term the Spiritual, the Spiritual proper, gives in addition the logic of the Infinite. At least this is what distinguishes modern spiritual consciousness from the ancient, that is, Upanishadic spiritual consciousness. The Upanishad gives expression to the Spiritual consciousness in its original and pristine purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. It did not buttress itself with any logic. It is the record of fundamental experiences and there was no question of any logical exposition. But, as I have said, the modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions and presentations. Also it must needs be a different kind of logic that can satisfy and satisfy wholly the deeper and subtler movements of a modern consciousness. For the philosophical poet of an earlier age, when he had recourse to logic, it was the logic of the finite that always gave him the frame, unless he threw the whole thing overboard and leaped straight into the occult, the illogical and the a logical, like Blake, for instance. Let me illustrate and compare a little. When the older poet explains indriyani hayan ahuh, it is an allegory he resorts to, it is the logic of the finite he marshals to point to the infinite and the beyond. The stress of reason is apparent and effective too, but the pattern is what we are normally familiar with the movement, we can say, is almost Aristotelian in its rigour. Now let us turn to the following:
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
--
This is what I was trying to make out as the distinguishing trait of the real spiritual consciousness that seems to be developing in the poetic creation of tomorrow, e.g., it has the same rationality, clarity, concreteness of perception as the scientific spirit has in its own domain and still it is rounded off with a halo of magic and miracle. That is the nature of the logic of the infinite proper to the Spiritual consciousness. We can have a Science of the Spirit as well as a Science of Matter. This is the Thought element or what corresponds to it, of which I was speaking, the philosophical factor, that which gives form to the formless or definition to that which is vague, a nearness and familiarity to that which is far and alien. The fullness of the Spiritual consciousness means such a thing, the presentation of a divine name and form. And this distinguishes it from the mystic consciousness which is not the supreme solar consciousness but the nearest approach to it. Or, perhaps, the mystic dwells in the domain of the Divine, he may even be suffused with a sense of unity but would not like to acquire the Divine's nature and function. Normally and generally he embodies all the aspiration and yearning moved by intimations and suggestions belonging to the human mentality, the divine urge retaining still the human flavour. We can say also, using a Vedantic terminology, that the mystic consciousness gives us the tatastha lakshana, the nearest approximative attribute of the attri buteless; or otherwise, it is the hiranyagarbha consciousness which englobes the multiple play, the coruscated possibilities of the Reality: while the Spiritual proper may be considered as prajghana, the solid mass, the essential lineaments of revelatory knowledge, the typal "wave-particles" of the Reality. In the former there is a play of imagination, even of fancy, a decorative aesthesis, while in the latter it is vision pure and simple. If the Spiritual poetry is solar in its nature, we can say, by extending the analogy, that mystic poetry is characteristically lunarMoon representing the delight and the magic that Mind and mental imagination, suffused, no doubt, with a light or a reflection of some light from beyond, is capable of (the Upanishad speaks of the Moon being born of the Mind).
To sum up and recapitulate. The evolution of the poetic expression in man has ever been an attempt at a return and a progressive approach to the Spiritual source of poetic inspiration, which was also the original, though somewhat veiled, source from the very beginning. The movement has followed devious waysstrongly negative at timeseven like man's life and consciousness in general of which it is an organic member; but the ultimate end and drift seems to have been always that ideal and principle even when fallen on evil days and evil tongues. The poet's ideal in the dawn of the world was, as the Vedic Rishi sang, to raise things of beauty in heaven by his poetic power,kavi kavitv divi rpam sajat. Even a Satanic poet, the inaugurator, in a way, of modernism and modernistic consciousness, Charles Baudelaire, thus admonishes his spirit:
"Flyaway, far from these morbid miasmas, go and purify yourself in the higher air and drink, like a pure and divine liquor, the clear fire that fills the limpid spaces."18
01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
And, properly speaking, it is not at all a school, least of all a mere school of thought, that is growing round Sri Aurobindo. It is rather the nucleus of a new life that is to come. Quite naturally it has almost insignificant proportions at present to the outward eye, for the work is still of the nature of experiment and trial in very restricted limits, something in the nature of what is done in a laboratory when a new power has been discovered, but has still to be perfectly formulated in its process. And it is quite a mistake to suppose that there is a vigorous propaganda carried on in its behalf or that there is a large demand for recruits. Only the few, who possess the call within and are impelled by the Spirit of the future, have a chance of serving this high attempt and great realisation and standing among its first instruments and pioneer workers.
***
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The gifts of the Spirit crowding came to him;
They were his life's pattern and his privilege.
--
The body's means the Spirit's acolytes.
A heavenlier function with a finer mode
--
Follow in the shadow of the Spirit's descent;
The twin duality for ever one
--
Else would the Spirit reach alone its source
Leaving a half-saved world to its dubious fate.
--
Of the Spirit's dance with Matter as its mask
The balance of the world's design grew clear,
--
The seed of the Spirit's blind and huge desire
From which the tree of cosmos was conceived
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is not helpful to abandon the ordinary life before the being is ready for the full spiritual life. To do so means to precipitate a struggle between the different elements and exasperate it to a point of intensity which the nature is not ready to bear. The vital elements in you have partly to be met by the discipline and experience of life, while keeping the Spiritual aim in view and trying to govern life by it progressively in the Spirit of Karmayoga.
The best way to prepare oneself for the Spiritual life when one has to live in the ordinary occupations and surroundings is to cultivate an entire equality and detachment and the samata of the Gita with the faith that the Divine is there and the Divine Will at work in all things even though at present under the conditions of a world of Ignorance. Beyond this are the Light and Ananda towards which life is working, but the best way for their advent and foundation in the individual being and nature is to grow in this spiritual equality. That would also solve your difficulty about things unpleasant and disagreeable. All unpleasantness should be faced with this spirit of samata.
I may say briefly that there are two states of consciousness in either of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. The other is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite superficial, an instrument of the Spirit for the play of life. Those who live and act in the normal consciousness are governed entirely by the common movements of the mind and are naturally subject to grief and joy and anxiety and desire or to everything else that makes up the ordinary stuff of life.
Mental quiet and happiness they can get, but it can never be permanent or secure. But the Spiritual consciousness is all light, peace, power and bliss. If one can live entirely in it, there is no question; these things become naturally and securely his.
But even if he can live partly in it or keep himself constantly open to it, he receives enough of this spiritual light and peace and strength and happiness to carry him securely through all the shocks of life. What one gains by opening to this spiritual consciousness, depends on what one seeks from it; if it is peace, one gets peace; if it is light or knowledge, one lives in a great light and receives a knowledge deeper and truer than any the normal mind of man can acquire; if it [is] strength or power, one gets a spiritual strength for the inner life or Yogic power to govern the outer work and action; if it is happiness, one enters into a beatitude far greater than any joy or happiness that the ordinary human life can give.
--
Power of the Spirit working in the mind and heart and body, the rest is a matter of remaining faithful to It, calling for it always, allowing it to do its work when it comes and rejecting every other and inferior Force that belongs to the lower consciousness and the lower nature.
Apart from external things there are two possible inner ideals which a man can follow. The first is the highest ideal of ordinary human life and the other the divine ideal of Yoga.
--
The religious life is a movement of the same ignorant human consciousness, turning or trying to turn away from the earth towards the Divine but as yet without knowledge and led by the dogmatic tenets and rules of some sect or creed which claims to have found the way out of the bonds of the earth-consciousness into some beatific Beyond. The religious life may be the first approach to the Spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue. the Spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousness, ignorant and separated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one's true being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Divine. For the Spiritual seeker this change of consciousness is the one thing he seeks and nothing else matters.
Morality is a part of the ordinary life; it is an attempt to govern the outward conduct by certain mental rules or to form the character by these rules in the image of a certain mental ideal. the Spiritual life goes beyond the mind; it enters into the deeper consciousness of the Spirit and acts out of the truth of the Spirit.
The principle of life which I seek to establish is spiritual.
Morality is a question of man's mind and vital, it belongs to a lower plane of consciousness. A spiritual life therefore cannot be founded on a moral basis, it must be founded on a spiritual basis. This does not mean that the Spiritual man must be immoral - as if there were no other law of conduct than the moral. The law of action of the Spiritual consciousness is higher, not lower than the moral - it is founded on union with the Divine and living in the Divine Consciousness and its action is founded on obedience to the Divine Will.
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But of course that is not the Spiritual life, it is only a sort of elementary religious approach. For the Spiritual life to give and not to demand is the rule. The sadhak however can ask for the
Divine Force to aid him in keeping his health or recovering it if he does that as part of his sadhana so that his body may be able and fit for the Spiritual life and a capable instrument for the
Divine Work.
01.04 - Sri Aurobindos Gita, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The supreme secret of the Gita, rahasyam uttamam, has presented itself to diverse minds in diverse forms. All these however fall, roughly speaking, into two broad groups of which one may be termed the orthodox school and the other the modem school. The orthodox school as represented, for example, by Shankara or Sridhara, viewed the Gita in the light of the Spiritual discipline more or less current in those ages, when the purpose of life was held out to be emancipation from life, whether through desireless work or knowledge or devotion or even a combination of the three. The Modern School, on the other hand, represented by Bankim in Bengal and more thoroughly developed and systematised in recent times by Tilak, is inspired by its own Time-Spirit and finds in the Gita a gospel of life-fulfilment. The older interpretation laid stress upon a spiritual and religious, which meant therefore in the end an other-worldly discipline; the newer interpretation seeks to dynamise the more or less quietistic spirituality which held the ground in India of later ages, to set a premium upon action, upon duty that is to be done in our workaday life, though with a spiritual intent and motive.
This neo-spirituality which might claim its sanction and authority from the real old-world Indian disciplinesay, of Janaka and Yajnavalkyalabours, however, in reality, under the influence of European activism and ethicism. It was this which served as the immediate incentive to our spiritual revival and revaluation and its impress has not been thoroughly obliterated even in the best of our modern exponents. The bias of the vital urge and of the moral imperative is apparent enough in the modernist conception of a dynamic spirituality. Fundamentally the dynamism is made to reside in the lan of the ethical man, the Spiritual element, as a consciousness of supreme unity in the Absolute (Brahman) or of love and delight in God, serving only as an atmosphere for the mortal activity.
01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
All movementswhe ther of thought or of life, whether in the individual or in the massproceed from a fundamental intuition which lies in the background as the logical presupposition, the psychological motive and the Spiritual force. A certain attitude of the soul, a certain angle of vision is what is posited first; all other thingsall thoughts and feelings and activities are but necessary attempts to express, to demonstrate, to realise on the conscious and dynamic levels, in the outer world, the truth which has thus already been seized in some secret core of our being. The intuition may not, of course, be present to the conscious mind, it may not be ostensibly sought for, one may even deny the existence of such a preconceived notion and proceed to establish truth on a tabula rasa; none the less it is this hidden bias that judges, this secret consciousness that formulates, this unknown power that fashions.
Now, what is the intuition that lies behind the movements of the new age? What is the intimate realisation, the underlying view-point which is guiding and modelling all our efforts and achievementsour science and art, our poetry and philosophy, our religion and society? For, there is such a common and fundamental note which is being voiced forth by the human spirit through all the multitude of its present-day activities.
--
Now, in order to understand the new orientation of the Spirit of the present age, we may profitably ask what was the inspiration of the past age, the characteristic note which has failed to satisfy us and which we are endeavouring to transform. We know that that age was the Scientific age or the age of Reason. Its great prophets were Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists or if you mount further up in time, we may begin from Bacon and the humanists. Its motto was first, "The proper study of mankind is man" and secondly, Reason is the supreme organon of knowledge, the highest deity in manla Desse Raison. And it is precisely against these two basic principles that the new age has entered its protest. In face of Humanism, Nietzsche has posited the Superman and in face of Reason Bergson has posited Intuition.
The worship of man as something essentially and exclusively human necessitates as a corollary, the other doctrine, viz the deification of Reason; and vice versa. Humanism and Scientism go together and the whole spirit and mentality of the age that is passing may be summed up in those two words. So Nietzsche says, "All our modern world is captured in the net of the Alexandrine culture and has, for its ideal, the theoretical man, armed with the most powerful instruments of knowledge, toiling in the service of science and whose prototype and original ancestor is Socrates." Indeed, it may be generally asserted that the nation whose prophet and sage claimed to have brought down Philosophia from heaven to dwell upon earth among men was precisely the nation, endowed with a clear and logical intellect, that was the very embodiment of rationality and reasonableness. As a matter of fact, it would not be far, wrong to say that it is the Hellenic culture which has been moulding humanity for ages; at least, it is this which has been the predominating factor, the vital and dynamic element in man's nature. Greece when it died was reborn in Rome; Rome, in its return, found new life in France; and France means Europe. What Europe has been and still is for the world and humanity one knows only too much. And yet, the Hellenic genius has not been the sole motive power and constituent element; there has been another leaven which worked constantly within, if intermittently without. If Europe represented mind and man and this side of existence, Asia always reflected that which transcends the mind the Spirit, the Gods and the Beyonds.
However, we are concerned more with the immediate past, the mentality that laid its supreme stress upon the human rationality. What that epoch did not understand was that Reason could be overstepped, that there was something higher, something greater than Reason; Reason being the sovereign faculty, it was thought there could be nothing beyond, unless it were draison. The human attribute par excellence is Reason. Exactly so. But the fact is that man is not bound by his humanity and that reason can be transformed and sublimated into other more powerful faculties.
--
Matter forms the lowest level of reality. Above it is the elan vital. Above the elan vital there is yet the domain of the Spirit. And the Spirit is a static substance and at the same a dynamic creative power. It is Being (Sat) that realises or expresses itself through certain typal nuclei or nodi of consciousness (chit) in a continuous becoming, in a flow of creative activity (ananda). The dynamism of the vital energy is only a refraction or precipitation of the dynamism of the Spirit; and so also static matter is only the substance of the Spirit concretised and solidified. It is in an uplift both of matter and vital force to their prototypesswarupa and swabhavain the Spirit that lies the real transformation and transfiguration of the humanity of man.
This is the truth that is trying to dawn upon the new age. Not matter but that which forms the substance of matter, not intellect but a vaster consciousness that informs the intellect, not man as he is, an aberration in the cosmic order, but as he may and shall be the embodiment and fulfilment of that orderthis is the secret Intuition which, as yet dimly envisaged, nevertheless secretly inspires all the human activities of today. Only, the truth is being interpreted, as we have said, in terms of vital life. The intellectual and physical man gave us one aspect of the reality, but neither is the vital and psychical man the complete reality. The one acquisition of this shifting of the viewpoint has been that we are now in touch with the natural and deeper movement of humanity and not as before merely with its artificial scaffolding. The Alexandrine civilisation of humanity, in Nietzsche's phrase, was a sort of divagation from nature, it was following a loop away from the direct path of natural evolution. And the new Renaissance of today has precisely corrected this aberration of humanity and brought it again in a line with the natural cosmic order.
Certainly this does not go far enough into the motive of the change. The cosmic order does not mean mentalised vitalism which is also in its turn a section of the integral reality. It means the order of the Spirit, it means the transfiguration of the physical, the vital and the intellectual into the supernal Substance, Power and Light of that Spirit. The real transcendence of humanity is not the transcendence of one or other of its levels but the total transcendence to an altogether different status and the transmutation of humanity in the mould of that statusnot a Nietzschean Titan nor a Bergsonian Dionysus but the tranquil vision and delight and dynamism of the Spirit the incarnation of a god-head.
***
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Whether the original and true source of the poet's inspiration lies deep within or high above, all depends upon the mediating instrument the mind (in its most general sense) and speech for a successful transcription. Man's ever-growing consciousness demanded also a conscious development and remoulding of these two factors. A growth, a heightening and deepening of the consciousness meant inevitably a movement towards the Spiritual element in things. And that means, we have said, a twofold change in the future poet's make-up. First as regards the substance. The revolutionary shift that we notice in modern poets towards a completely new domain of subject-matter is a signpost that more is meant than what is expressed. The superficialities and futilities that are dealt with do not in their outward form give the real trend of things. In and through all these major and constant preoccupation of our poets is "the pain of the present and the passion for the future": they are, as already stated, more prophets than poets, but prophets for the moment crying in the wildernessalthough some have chosen the path of denial and revolt. They are all looking ahead or beyond or deep down, always yearning for another truth and reality which will explain, justify and transmute the present calvary of human living. Such an acute tension of consciousness has necessitated an overhauling of the vehicle of expression too, the creation of a mode of expressing the inexpressible. For that is indeed what human consciousness and craft are aiming at in the present stage of man's evolution. For everything, almost everything that can be normally expressed has been expressed and in a variety of ways as much as is possible: that is the history of man's aesthetic creativity. Now the eye probes into the unexpressed world; for the artist too the Upanishadic problem has cropped up:
By whom impelled does the mind fall to its target, what is the agent that is behind the eye and sees through the eyes, what is the hearing and what the speech that their respective sense organs do not and cannot convey and record adequately or at all?
--
In other words, the tension in the human consciousness has been raised to the nth power, the heat of a brooding consciousness is about to lead it to an outburst of new creationsah tapastaptva. Human self-consciousness, the turning of oneself upon oneself, the probing and projecting of oneself into oneselfself-consciousness raised so often to the degree of self-torture, marks the acute travail of the Spirit. The thousand "isms" and "logies" that pullulate in all fields of life, from the political to the artistic or even the religious and the Spiritual indicate how the human laboratory is working at white heat. They are breaches in the circuit of the consciousness, volcanic eruptions from below or cosmic-ray irruptions from above, tearing open the normal limit and boundaryBaudelaire's couvercle or the "golden lid" of the Upanishads-disclosing and bringing into the light of common day realities beyond and unseen till now.
Ifso long the poet was more or less a passive, a half-conscious or unconscious intermediary between the higher and the lower lights and delights, his role in the future will be better fulfilled when he becomes fully aware of it and consciously moulds and directs his creative energies. The poet is and has to be the harbinger and minstrel of unheard-of melodies: he is the fashioner of the creative word that brings down and embodies the deepest aspirations and experiences of the human consciousness. The poet is a missionary: he is missioned by Divine Beauty to radiate upon earth something of her charm and wizardry. The fullness of his role he can only play up when he is fully conscious for it is under that condition that all obstructing and obscuring elements lying across the path of inspiration can be completely and wholly eradicated: the instrument purified and tempered and transmuted can hold and express golden truths and beauties and puissances that otherwise escape the too human mould.
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
They are born from the Spirit's sun of hidden powers
Digging a tunnel through emergency.
--
In Matter shall be lit the Spirit's glow,
In body and body kindled the sacred birth;
--
Then shall the Spirit and Nature be at one.
Two are the ends of the mysterious plan.
--
Here meanwhile at the Spirit's opposite pole
In the mystery of the deeps that God has built
--
And laid on the Spirit the burden of the flesh,
That Godhead's seed might flower in mindless Space.
01.05 - Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, a Great Man, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Tagore is in direct line with those bards who have sung of the Spirit, who always soared high above the falsehoods and uglinesses of a merely mundane life and lived in the undecaying delights and beauties of a diviner consciousness. Spiritual reality was the central theme of his poetic creation: only and naturally he viewed it in a special way and endowed it with a special grace. We know of another God-intoxicated man, the Jewish philosopher Spinoza, who saw things sub specie aeternitatis, under the figure or mode of eternity. Well, Tagore can be said to see things, in their essential spiritual reality, under the figure or mode of beauty. Keats indeed spoke of truth being beauty and beauty truth. But there is a great difference in the outlook and inner experience. A worshipper of beauty, unless he rises to the Upanishadic norm, is prone to become sensuous and pagan. Keats was that, Kalidasa was that, even Shelley was not far different. the Spiritual vein in all these poets remains secondary. In the old Indian master, it is part of his intellectual equipment, no doubt, but nothing much more than that. In the other two it comes in as strange flashes from an unknown country, as a sort of irruption or on the peak of the poetic afflatus or enthousiasmos.
The world being nothing but Spirit made visible is, according to Tagore, fundamentally a thing of beauty. The scars and spots that are on the surface have to be removed and mankind has to repossess and clo the itself with that mantle of beauty. The world is beautiful, because it is the image of the Beautiful, because it harbours, expresses and embodies the Divine who is Beauty supreme. Now by a strange alchemy, a wonderful effect of polarisation, the very spiritual element in Tagore has made him almost a pagan and even a profane. For what are these glories of Nature and the still more exquisite glories that the human body has captured? They are but vibrations and modulations of beauty the delightful names and forms of the supreme Lover and Beloved.
Socrates is said to have brought down Philosophy from Heaven to live among men upon earth. A similar exploit can be ascribed to Tagore. the Spirit, the bare transcendental Reality contemplated by the orthodox Vedantins, has been brought nearer to our planet, close to human consciousness in Tagore's vision, being clothed in earth and flesh and blood, made vivid with the colours and contours of the physical existence. the Spirit, yes and by all means, but not necessarily asceticism and monasticism. So Tagore boldly declared in those famous lines of his:
Mine is not the deliverance achieved through mere renunciation. Mine rather the freedom that tastes itself in a thousand associations.1
the Spirit of the age demands this new gospel. Mankind needs and awaits a fresh revelation. The world and life are not an illusion or a lesser reality: they are, if taken rightly, as real as the pure Spirit itself. Indeed, Spirit and Flesh, Consciousness and Matter are not antinomies; to consider them as such is itself an illusion. In fact, they are only two poles or modes or aspects of the same reality. To separate or divide them is a one-sided concentration or abstraction on the part of the human mind. The fulfilment of the Spirit is in its expression through Matter; human life too reaches its highest term, its summum bonum, in embodying the Spiritual consciousness here on earth and not dissolving itself in the Transcendence. That is the new Dispensation which answers to the deepest aspiration in man and towards which he has been travelling through the ages in the course of the evolution of his consciousness. Many, however, are the prophets and sages who have set this ideal before humanity and more and more insistently and clearly as we come nearer to the age we live in. But none or very few have expressed it with such beauty and charm and compelling persuasion. It would be carping criticism to point out-as some, purists one may call them, have done-that in poetising and aesthetising the Spiritual truth and reality, in trying to make it human and terrestrial, he has diminished and diluted the original substance, in endeavouring to render the diamond iridescent, he has turned it into a baser alloy. Tagore's is a poetic soul, it must be admitted; and it is not necessary that one should find in his ideas and experiences and utterances the cent per cent accuracy and inevitability of a Yogic consciousness. Still his major perceptions, those that count, stand and are borne out by the highest spiritual realisation.
Tagore is no inventor or innovator when he posits Spirit as Beauty, the Spiritual consciousness as the ardent rhythm of ecstasy. This experience is the very core of Vaishnavism and for which Tagore is sometimes called a Neo-Vaishnava. The Vaishnava sees the world pulsating in glamorous beauty as the Lila (Play) of the Lord, and the Lord, God himself, is nothing but Love and Beauty. Still Tagore is not all Vaishnava or merely a Vaishnava; he is in addition a modern (the carping voice will say, there comes the dilution and adulteration)in the sense that problems exist for himsocial, political, economic, national, humanitarianwhich have to be faced and solved: these are not merely mundane, but woven into the texture of the fundamental problem of human destiny, of Soul and Spirit and God. A Vaishnava was, in spite of his acceptance of the world, an introvert, to use a modern psychological phrase, not necessarily in the pejorative sense, but in the neutral scientific sense. He looks upon the universe' and human life as the play of the Lord, as an actuality and not mere illusion indeed; but he does not participate or even take interest in the dynamic working out of the world process, he does not care to know, has no need of knowing that there is a terrestrial purpose and a diviner fulfilment of the mortal life upon earth. The Vaishnava dwells more or less absorbed in the Vaikuntha of his inner consciousness; the outer world, although real, is only a symbolic shadowplay to which he can but be a witness-real, is only a nothing more.
A modern idealist of the type of a reformer would not be satisfied with that role. If he is merely a moralist reformer, he will revolt against the "witness business", calling it a laissez-faire mentality of bygone days. A spiritual reformer would ask for morea dynamic union with the Divine Will and Consciousness, not merely a passive enjoyment in the Bliss, so that he may be a luminous power or agent for the expression of divine values in things mundane.
Not the acceptance of the world as it is, not even a joyous acceptance, viewing it as an inexplicable and mysterious and magic play of, God, but the asp ration and endeavour to change it, mould it in the pattern of its inner divine realities for there are such realities which seek expression and embodiment in earthly life that is the great mission and labour of humanity and that is all the meaning of man's existence here below. And Tagore is one of the great prophets and labourers who had the vision of the shape of things to come and worked for it. Only it must be noted, as I have already said, that unlike mere moral reformists or scientific planners, Tagore grounded himself upon the eternal ancient truths that "age cannot wither nor custom stale"the divine truths of the Spirit.
Tagore was a poet; this poetic power of his he put in the service of the great cause for the divine uplift of humanity. Naturally, it goes without saying, his poetry did not preach or propagandize the truths for which he stoodhe had a fine and powerful weapon in his prose to do the work, even then in a poetic way but to sing them. And he sang them not in their philosophical bareness, like a Lucretius, or in their sheer transcendental austerity like some of the Upanishadic Rishis, but in and through human values and earthly norms. The especial aroma of Tagore's poetry lies exactly here, as he himself says, in the note of unboundedness in things bounded that it describes. A mundane, profane sensuousness, Kalidasian in richness and sweetness, is matched or counterpointed by a simple haunting note imbedded or trailing somewhere behind, a lyric cry persevering into eternity, the nostalgic cry of the still small voice.2
Thus, on the one hand, the Eternity, the Infinity, the Spirit is brought nearer home to us in its embodied symbols and living vehicles and vivid formulations, it becomes easily available to mortals, even like the father to his son, to use a Vedic phrase; on the other hand, earthly things, mere humanities are uplifted and suffused with a "light that never was, on sea or land."
Another great poet of the Spirit says also, almost like Tagore:
Cold are the rivers of peace and their banks are leafless and lonely.3
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is another aspect of his which the world has yet been slow to recognise. For, at bottom, Nietzsche is not all storm and fury. If his Superman is a Destroying Angel, he is none the less an angel. If he is endowed with a supreme sense of strength and power, there is also secreted in the core of his heart a sense of the beautiful that illumines his somewhat sombre aspect. For although Nietzsche is by birth a Slavo-Teuton, by culture and education he is pre-eminently Hellenic. His earliest works are on the subject of Greek tragedy and form what he describes as an "Apollonian dream." And to this dream, to this Greek aesthetic sense more than to any thing else he sacrifices justice and pity and charity. To him the weak and the miserable, the sick and the maimed are a sort of blot, a kind of ulcer on the beautiful face of humanity. The herd that wallow in suffering and relish suffering disfigure the aspect of the world and should therefore be relentlessly mowed out of existence. By being pitiful to them we give our tacit assent to their persistence. And it is precisely because of this that Nietzsche has a horror of Christianity. For compassion gives indulgence to all the ugliness of the world and thus renders that ugliness a necessary and indispensable element of existence. To protect the weak, to sympathise with the lowly brings about more of weakness and more of lowliness. Nietzsche has an aristocratic taste par excellencewhat he aims at is health and vigour and beauty. But above all it is an aristocracy of the Spirit, an aristocracy endowed with all the richness and beauty of the soul that Nietzsche wants to establish. The beggar of the street is the symbol of ugliness, of the poverty of the Spirit. And the so-called aristocrat, die millionaire of today is as poor and ugly as any helpless leper. The soul of either of them is made of the same dirty, sickly stuff. The tattered rags, the crouching heart, the effeminate nerve, the unenlightened soul are the standing ugliness of the world and they have no place in the ideal, the perfect humanity. Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is made in order to be beautiful, to conceive the beautiful, to create the beautiful. Nietzsche's Superman has its perfect image in a Grecian statue of Zeus cut out in white marble-Olympian grandeur shedding in every lineament Apollonian beauty and Dionysian vigour.
The real secret of Nietzsche's philosophy is not an adoration of brute force, of blind irrational joy in fighting and killing. Far from it, Nietzsche has no kinship with Treitschke or Bernhard. What Nietzsche wanted was a world purged of littleness and ugliness, a humanity, not of saints, perhaps, but of heroes, lofty in their ideal, great in their achievement, majestic in their empirea race of titanic gods breathing the glory of heaven itself.
01.05 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.05 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness
class:chapter
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The body's rules bound not the Spirit's powers:
When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in;
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In the glow of the Spirit's room of memories
He could recover the luminous marginal notes
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In the locked archives of the Spirit's crypt,
And saw the signature and fiery seal
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Tying with diamond threads the Spirit's extremes.
In this drop from consciousness to consciousness
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From Matter's abysses to the Spirit's peaks.
Above were the Immortal's changeless seats,
01.06 - Vivekananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The consciousness that breathed out these mighty words, these heavenly sounds was in itself mighty and heavenly and it is that that touches you, penetrates you, vibrates in you a kindred chord, "awakening in you someone dead" till thenmrtam kcana bodhayant. More than the matter, the thing that was said, was the personality, the being who embodied the truth expressed, the living consciousness behind the words and the speech that set fire to your soul. Indeed it was the soul that Vivekananda could awaken and stir in you. Any orator, any speaker with some kind of belief, even if it is for the moment, in what he says, by the sheer force of assertion, can convince your mind and draw your acquiescence and adhesion. A leader of men, self-confident and bold and fiery, can carry you off your feet and make you do brave things. But that is a lower degree of character and nature, ephemeral and superficial, that is touched in you thereby. the Spiritual leader, the Guide, goes straight to the Spirit in youit is the call of the deep unto the deep. That was what Vivekananda meant when he said that Brahman is asleep in you, awaken it, you are the Brahman, awaken it, you are free and almighty. It is the Spirit consciousness Sachchidananda that is the real man in you and that is supremely mighty and invincible and free absolutely. The courage and fearlessness that Vivekananda gave you was the natural attribute of the lordship of your spiritual reality. Vivekananda spoke and roused the Atman in man.
Vivekananda spoke to the Atman in man, he spoke to the Atman of the world, and he spoke specially to the Atman of India. India had a large place in Vivekananda's consciousness: for the future of humanity and the world is wedded to India's future. India has a great mission, it has a spiritual, rather the Spiritual work to do. Here is India's work as Vivekananda conceived it in a nutshell:
"Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct." And wherefore is this call for the life spiritual? Thus the aspiring soul would answer:
"If I do not find bliss in the life of the Spirit, shall I seek satisfaction in the life of the senses? If I cannot get nectar, shall I fall back upon ditch water?"
The answer is as old as that of Nachiketas: "These horses and these songs and dances of yours, let them remain yours, man is not appeased with riches"; or that of Maitreyi, "What am I to do with that which will not bring me immortality?" This is then man's mission upon earth:
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In his inquiry into truth and certitude Pascal takes his stand upon what he calls the geometrical method, the only valid method, according to him, in the sphere of reason. The characteristic of this method is that it takes for granted certain fundamental principles and realitiescalled axioms and postulates or definitionsand proceeds to other truths that are infallibly and inevitably deduced from them, that are inherent and implied in them. There is no use or necessity in trying to demonstrate these fundamentals also; that will only land us into confusion and muddle. They have to be simply accepted, they do not require demonstration, it is they that demonstrate others. Such, for instance, are space, time, number, the reality of which it is foolishness and pedantry to I seek to prove. There is then an order of truths that do not i require to be proved. We are referring only to the order of I physical truths. But there is another order, Pascal says, equally I valid and veritable, the order of the Spirit. Here we have another set of fundamentals that have to be accepted and taken for granted, matrix of other truths and realities. It can also be called the order of the Heart. Reason posits physical fundamentals; it does not know of the fundamentals of the Heart which are beyond its reach; such are God, Soul, Immortality which are evident only to Faith.
But Faith and Reason, according to Pascal, are not contraries nor irreconcilables. Because the things of faith are beyond reason, it is not that they are irrational. Here is what Pascal says about the function and limitation of reason:
01.08 - A Theory of Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the real meaning and sense of the moral struggle in man, the continuous endeavour towards a transvaluation of the primary and aboriginal instincts and impulses. Looked at from one end, from below up the ascending line, man's ethical and spiritual ideals are a dissimulation and sublimation of the animal impulsions. But this is becauseas we see, if we look from the other end, from above down the descending lineman is not all instinct, he is not a mere blind instrument in the hands of Nature forces. He has in him another source, an opposite pole of being from which other impulsions flow and continually modify the structure of the lower levels. If the animal is the foundation of his nature, the divine is its summit. If the bodily demands form his manifest reality, the demands of the Spirit enshrine his higher reality. And if as regards the former he is a slave, as regards the latter he is the Master. It is by the interaction of these double forces that his whole nature has been and is being fashioned. Man does not and cannot give carte blanche to his vital, inclinations, since there is a pressure upon them of higher forces coming down from his mental and spiritual levels. It is these latter which have deviated him from the direct line of the pure animal life.
Thus then we may distinguish three types of control on three levels. First, the natural control, secondly the conscious, i.e. to say the mental the ethical and religious control, and thirdly the Spiritual or divine control. Now the Spirit is the ultimate truth and reality, behind the forces that act in the mind and in the body, so that the natural control and the ethical control are mere attempts to establish and realise the Spiritual control. The animal impulses feel the hidden stress of the divine urges that are their real essence and thus there rises first an unconscious conflict in the natural life and then a conscious conflict in the higher ethical life. But when both of these are transcended and the conflict is carried on to a still higher level, then do we find their real significance and arrive at the consummation to which they move. Yoga is the ultimate transvaluation of physical (and of moral) values, it is the trans-substantiation of life-power into its spiritual substance.
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01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This will elucidate another point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God, for both are characterised by an extreme intensity and sweetness and exquisiteness of that divine feeling. This Christian's, however, is the union of the soul in its absolute purity and simplicity and "privacy" with her lord and master; the soul is shred here of all earthly vesture and goes innocent and naked into the embrace of her Beloved. The Vaishnava feeling is richer and seems to possess more amplitude; it is more concrete and less ethereal. The Vaishnava in his passionate yearning seeks to carry as it were the whole world with him to his Lord: for he sees and feels Him not only in the inmost chamber of his soul, but meets Him also in and I through his senses and in and through the world and its objects around. In psychological terms one can say that the Christian realisation, at its very source, is that of the inmost soul, what we call the "psychic being" pure and simple, referred to in the book we are considering; as: "His sweet privy voice... stirreth thine heart full stilly." Whereas the Vaishnava reaches out to his Lord with his outer heart too aflame with passion; not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine. This bears upon the occult story of man's spiritual evolution upon earth. The Divine Grace descends from the highest into the deepest and from the deepest to the outer ranges of human nature, so that the whole of it may be illumined and transformed and one day man can embody in his earthly life the integral manifestation of God, the perfect Epiphany. Each religion, each line of spiritual discipline takes up one limb of manone level or mode of his being and consciousness purifies it and suffuses it with the Spiritual and divine consciousness, so that in the end the whole of man, in his integral living, is recast and remoulded: each discipline is in charge of one thread as it were, all together weave the warp and woof in the evolution of the perfect pattern of a spiritualised and divinised humanity.
The conception of original sin is a cardinal factor in Christian discipline. The conception, of sinfulness is the very motive-power that drives the aspirant. "Seek tensely," it is said, "sorrow and sigh deep, mourn still, and stoop low till thine eye water for anguish and for pain." Remorse and grief are necessary attendants; the way of the cross is naturally the calvary strewn with pain and sorrow. It is the very opposite of what is termed the "sunlit path" in spiritual ascension. Christian mystics have made a glorious spectacle of the process of "dying to the world." Evidently, all do not go the whole length. There are less gloomy and happier temperaments, like the present one, for example, who show an unusual balance, a sturdy common sense even in the midst of their darkest nights, who have chalked out as much of the sunlit path as is possible in this line. Thus this old-world mystic says: it is true one must see and admit one's sinfulness, the grosser and apparent and more violent ones as well as all the subtle varieties of it that are in you or rise up in you or come from the Enemy. They pursue you till the very end of your journey. Still you need not feel overwhelmed or completely desperate. Once you recognise the sin in you, even the bare fact of recognition means for you half the victory. The mystic says, "It is no sin as thou feelest them." The day Jesus gave himself away on the Cross, since that very day you are free, potentially free from the bondage of sin. Once you give your adherence to Him, the Enemies are rendered powerless. "They tease the soul, but they harm not the soul". Or again, as the mystic graphically phrases it: "This soul is not borne in this image of sin as a sick man, though he feel it; but he beareth it." The best way of dealing with one's enemies is not to struggle and "strive with them." The aspirant, the lover of Jesus, must remember: "He is through grace reformed to the likeness of God ('in the privy substance of his soul within') though he neither feel it nor see it."
01.09 - The Parting of the Way, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The inflatus of something vast and transcendent, something which escapes all our familiar schemes of cognisance and yet is insistent with a translucent reality of its own, we do feel sometimes within us invading and enveloping our individuality, lifting up our sense of self and transmuting our personality into a reality which can hardly be called merely human. All this life of ego-bound rationality then melts away and opens out the passage for a life of vision and power. Thus it is the poet has felt when he says, "there is this incalculable element in human life influencing us from the mystery which envelops our being, and when reason is satisfied, there is something deeper than Reason which makes us still uncertain of truth. Above the human reason there is a transcendental sphere to which the Spirit of men sometimes rises, and the will may be forged there at a lordly smithy and made the unbreakable pivot."(A.E.)
This passage from the self-conscient to the super-conscient does not imply merely a shifting of the focus of consciousness. The transmutation of consciousness involves a purer illumination, a surer power and a wider compass; it involves also a fundamental change in the very mode of being and living. It gives quite a different life-intuition and a different life-power. The change in the motif brings about a new form altogether, a re-casting and re-shaping and re-energising of the external materials as well. As the lift from mere consciousness to self-consciousness meant all the difference between an animal and a man, so the lift again from self-consciousness to super-consciousness will mean the difference of a whole world between man and the divine creature that is to be.
01.09 - William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The ideal was Blake's. It will not sound so revolting if we understand what the poet meant by Hell. Hell, he explains, is simply the body, the Energy of Lifehell, because body and life on earth were so considered by the orthodox Christianity. The Christian ideal demands an absolute denial and rejection of life. Fulfilment is elsewhere, in heaven alone. That is, as we know, the ideal of the ascetic. The life of the Spirit (in heaven) is a thing away from and stands against the life of the flesh (on earth). In the face of this discipline, countering it, Blake posited a union, a marriage of the two, considered incompatibles and incommensurables. Enfant terrible that he was, he took an infinite delight in a spirit of contradiction and went on expatiating on the glory of the misalliance. He declared a new apocalypse and said that Lucifer, the one called Satan, was the real God, the so-called Messiah the fake one: the apparent Milton spoke in praise of God and in dispraise of Satan, but the real, the esoteric Milton glorified Satan, who is the true God and minimised or caricatured the counterfeit or shadow God. Here is Blakean Bible in a nutshell:
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged.. . . If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
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Such is to be the ideal, the perfect, the Spiritual man. Have we here the progenitor of the Nietzschean Superman? Both smell almost the same sulphurous atmosphere. But that also seems to lie in the direction to which the whole world is galloping in its evolutionary course. Humanity in its agelong travail has passed through the agony, one might say, of two extreme and opposite experiences, which are epitomised in the classic phrasing of Sri Aurobindo as: (1) the Denial of the Materialist and (2) the Refusal of the Ascetic.1 Neither, however, the Spirit alone nor the body alone is man's reality; neither only the earth here nor only the heaven there embodies man's destiny. Both have to be claimed, both have to belivedubhayameva samrt, as the old sage, Yajnavalkya, declared.
The earliest dream of humanity is also the last fulfilment. The Vedic Rishis sang of the marriage of heaven and earthHeaven is my father and this Earth my mother. And Blake and Nietzsche are fiery apostles of that dream and ideal in an age crippled with doubt, falsehood, smallness, crookedness, impotence, colossal ignorance.
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Power of the Spirit.
The "Iron Age" in which we live.
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on the Spiritual path. As a matter of fact, it is the first step
without which one cannot advance at all. That is why I always
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What is an obstacle to the Spiritual life is to attach importance to
material comfort and to take one's desires for needs - in other
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India ought to be the Spiritual guide who explains what is happening and helps to hasten the movement. But unfortunately,
in her blind ambition to imitate the West, she has become
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If it is from the Spiritual point of view, the Divine Will alone
is justifiable, and it is That which men travesty and deform in
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I had asked my last question from the Spiritual point
of view and from Your answer I conclude that the American action is not at all justifiable. But, Mother, isn't the
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order to establish the Spiritual life on earth. But, Mother,
in order to occupy this high position she must be worthy
01.10 - Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Nicholas Berdyaev is an ardent worker, as a Russian is naturally expected to be, in the cause of the Spiritual rehabilitation of mankind. He is a Christian, a neo-Christian: some of his conclusions are old-world truths and bear repetition and insistence; others are of a more limited, conditional and even doubtful nature. His conception of the value of human person, the dignity and the high reality he gives to it, can never be too welcome in a world where the individual seems to have gone the way of vanished empires and kings and princes. But even more important and interesting is the view he underlines that the true person is a spiritual being, that is to say, it is quite other than the empirical ego that man normally is"not this that one worships" as the Upanishads too declare. Further, in his spiritual being man, the individual, is not simply a portion or a fraction; he is, on the contrary, an integer, a complete whole, a creative focus; the true individual is a microcosm yet holding in it and imaging the macrocosm. Only perhaps greater stress is laid upon the aspect of creativity or activism. An Eastern sage, a Vedantin, would look for the true spiritual reality behind the flux of forces: Prakriti or Energy is only the executive will of the Purusha, the Conscious Being. The personality in Nature is a formulation and emanation of the transcendent impersonality.
There is another aspect of personality as viewed by Berdyaev which involves a bias of the more orthodox Christian faith: the Christ is inseparable from the Cross. So he says: "There is no such thing as personality if there is no capacity for suffering. Suffering is inherent in God too, if he is a personality, and not merely an abstract idea. God shares in the sufferings of men. He yearns for responsive love. There are divine as well as human passions and therefore divine or creative personality must always suffer to the end of time. A condition of anguish and distress is inherent in it." The view is logically enforced upon the Christian, it is said, if he is to accept incarnation, God becoming flesh. Flesh cannot but be weak. This very weakness, so human, is and must be specially characteristic of God also, if he is one with man and his lover and saviour.
01.11 - Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A sage can smile and smile delightfully! The parable illustrates the well-known Biblical phrase, 'the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life'. The monkey is symbolical of the ignorant, arrogant, fussy human mind. There is another Buddhistic story about the monkey quoted in the book and it is as delightful; but being somewhat long, we cannot reproduce it here. It tells how the mind-monkey is terribly agile, quick, clever, competent, moving lightning-fast, imagining that it can easily go to the end of the world, to Paradise itself, to Brahmic status. But alas! when he thought he was speeding straight like a rocket or an arrow and arrive right at the target, he found that he was spinning like a top at the same spot, and what he very likely took to be the very fragrance of the topmost supreme heaven was nothing but the aroma of his own urine.
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01.11 - The Basis of Unity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A modern society or people cannot have religion, that is to say, credal religion, as the basis of its organized collective life. It was mediaeval society and people that were organized on that line. Indeed mediaevalism means nothing more and nothing lessthan that. But whatever the need and justification in the past, the principle is an anachronism under modern conditions. It was needed, perhaps, to keep alive a truth which goes into the very roots of human life and its deepest aspiration; and it was needed also for a dynamic application of that truth on a larger scale and in smaller details, on the mass of mankind and in its day to day life. That was the aim of the Church Militant and the Khilafat; that was the Spirit, although in a more Sattwic way, behind the Buddhistic evangelism or even Hindu colonization.
The truth behind a credal religion is the aspiration towards the realization of the Divine, some ultimate reality that gives a permanent meaning and value to the human life, to the existence lodged in this 'sphere of sorrow' here below. Credal paraphernalia were necessary to express or buttress this core of spiritual truth when mankind, in the mass, had not attained a certain level of enlightenment in the mind and a certain degree of development in its life-relations. The modern age is modern precisely because it had attained to a necessary extent this mental enlightenment and this life development. So the scheme or scaffolding that was required in the past is no longer unavoidable and can have either no reality at all or only a modified utility.
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In Europe such a contingency did not arise, because the religious spirit, rampant in the days of Inquisitions and St. Bartholomews, died away: it died, and (or, because) it was replaced by a spirit that was felt as being equally, if not more, au thentic and, which for the moment, suffused the whole consciousness with a large and high afflatus, commensurate with the amplitude of man's aspiration. I refer, of course, to the Spirit of the Renaissance. It was a spirit profane and secular, no doubt, but on that level it brought a catholicity of temper and a richness in varied interesta humanistic culture, as it is calledwhich constituted a living and unifying ideal for Europe. That spirit culminated in the great French Revolution which was the final coup de grace to all that still remained of mediaevalism, even in its outer structure, political and economical.
In India the Spirit of renascence came very late, late almost by three centuries; and even then it could not flood the whole of the continent in all its nooks and corners, psychological and physical. There were any number of pockets (to use a current military phrase) left behind which guarded the Spirit of the past and offered persistent and obdurate resistance. Perhaps, such a dispensation was needed in India and inevitable also; inevitable, because the religious spirit is closest to India's soul and is its most direct expression and cannot be uprooted so easily; needed, because India's and the world's future demands it and depends upon it.
Only, the religious spirit has to be bathed and purified and enlightened by the Spirit of the renascence: that is to say, one must learn and understand and realize that Spirit is the thing the one thing needfulTamevaikam jnatha; 'religions' are its names and forms, appliances and decorations. Let us have by all means the religious spirit, the fundamental experience that is the inmost truth of all religions, that is the matter of our soul; but in our mind and life and body let there be a luminous catholicity, let these organs and instruments be trained to see and compare and appreciate the variety, the numberless facets which the one Spirit naturally presents to the human consciousness. Ekam sat viprh bahudh vadanti. It is an ancient truth that man discovered even in his earliest seekings; but it still awaits an adequate expression and application in life.
II
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Unlike the previous irruptions that merged and were lost in the general life and consciousness, Islam entered as a leaven that maintained its integrity and revolutionized Indian life and culture by infusing into its tone a Semitic accent. After the Islamic impact India could not be what she was beforea change became inevitable even in the major note. It was a psychological cataclysm almost on a par with the geological one that formed her body; but the Spirit behind which created the body was working automatically, inexorably towards the greater and more difficult synthesis demanded by the situation. Only the thing is to be done now consciously, not through an unconscious process of laissez-faire as on the inferior stages of evolution in the past. And that is the true genesis of the present conflict.
History abounds in instances of racial and cultural immixture. Indeed, all major human groupings of today are invariably composite formations. Excepting, perhaps, some primitiveaboriginal tribes there are no pure races existent. The Briton, the Dane, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Norman have combined to form the British; a Frenchman has a Gaul, a Roman, a Frank in him; and a Spaniard's blood would show an Iberian, a Latin, a Gothic, a Moorish element in it. And much more than a people, a culture in modern times has been a veritable cockpit of multifarious and even incongruous elements. There are instances also in which a perfect fusion could not be accomplished, and one element had to be rejected or crushed out. The complete disappearance of the Aztecs and Mayas in South America, the decadence of the Red Indians in North America, of the Negroes in Africa as a result of a fierce clash with European peoples and European culture illustrate the point.
Nature, on the whole, has solved the problem of blood fusion and mental fusion of different peoples, although on a smaller scale. India today presents the problem on a larger scale and on a higher or deeper level. The demand is for a spiritual fusion and unity. Strange to say, although the Spirit is the true bed-rock of unitysince, at bottom, it means identityit is on this plane that mankind has not yet been able to really meet and coalesce. India's genius has been precisely working in the line of a perfect solution of this supreme problem.
Islam comes with a full-fledged spiritual soul and a mental and vital formation commensurable with that inner being and consciousness. It comes with a dynamic spirit, a warrior mood, that aims at conquering the physical world for the Lord, a temperament which Indian spirituality had not, or had lost long before, if she had anything of it. This was, perhaps, what Vivekananda meant when he spoke graphically of a Hindu soul with a Muslim body. The Islamic dispensation, however, brings with it not only something complementary, but also something contradictory, if not for anything else, at least for the strong individuality which does not easily yield to assimilation. Still, in spite of great odds, the process of assimilation was going on slowly and surely. But of late it appears to have come to a dead halt; difficulties have been presented which seem insuperable.
--
The solution can come, first, by going to the true religion of the Spirit, by being truly spiritual and not merely religious, for, as we have said, real unity lies only in and through the Spirit, since Spirit is one and indivisible; secondly, by bringing down somethinga great part, indeed, if not the wholeof this puissant and marvellous Spirit into our life of emotions and sensations and activities.
If it is said that this is an ideal for the few only, not for the mass, our answer to that is the answer of the GitaYad yad acharati sreshthah. Let the few then practise and achieve the ideal: the mass will have to follow as far as it is possible and necessary. It is the very character of the evolutionary system of Nature, as expressed in the principle of symbiosis, that any considerable change in one place (in one species) is accompanied by a corresponding change in the same direction in other contiguous places (in other associated species) in order that the poise and balance of the system may be maintained.
01.12 - Goethe, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
German obscured the Spirit of a Greek.
Sri Aurobindo
01.13 - T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Divine Love is a greater fire than the low smouldering fire that our secular unregenerate life is. One has to choose and declare his adhesion. Indeed, the stage of conversion, the crucial turn from the ordinary life to the Spiritual life Eliot has characterised in a very striking manner. We usually say, sometimes in an outburst of grief, sometimes in a spirit of sudden disgust and renunciation that the world is dark and dismal and lonesome, the only thing to do here is to be done with it. The true renunciation, that which is deep and abiding, is not, however, so simple a thing, such a short cut. So our poet says, but the world is not dark enough, it is not lonesome enough: the world lives and moves in a superficial half-light, it is neither real death nor real life, it is death in life. It is this miserable mediocrity, the shallow uncertainty of consciousness that spells danger and ruin for the soul. Hence the poet exclaims:
. . . . Not here
--
The modern temper is especially partial to harmony: it cannot assert and reject unilaterally and categorically, it wishes to go round an object and view all its sides; it asks for a synthesis and reconciliation of differences and contraries. Two major chords of life-experience that demand accord are Life and Death, Time and Eternity. Indeed, the problem of Time hangs heavy on the human consciousness. It has touched to the quick philosophers and sages in all ages and climes; it is the great question that confronts the Spiritual seeker, the riddle that the Sphinx of life puts to the journeying soul for solution.
A modern Neo-Brahmin, Aldous Huxley, has given a solution of the problem in his now famous Shakespearean apothegm, "Time must have a stop". That is an old-world solution rediscovered by the modern mind in and through the ravages of Time's storm and stress. It means, salvation lies, after all, beyond the flow of Time, one must free oneself from the vicious and unending circle of mortal and mundane life. As the Rajayogi controls and holds his breath, stills all life-movement and realises a dead-stop of consciousness (Samadhi), even so one must control and stop all secular movements in oneself and attain a timeless stillness and vacancy in which alone the true spiritual light and life can descend and manifest. That is the age-long and ancient solution to which the Neo-Brahmin as well the Neo-Christian adheres.
01.14 - Nicholas Roerich, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Ex oriente lux. Out of the East the Light, and that light is of the nature and substance of beauty, of creative and dynamic beauty in the life the Spirit. This, I suppose, is Roerich's message in a nutshell. The Light of the East is always the light of the ample consciousness that dwells on the heights of our being in God.
The call that stirred a Western soul, made him a wanderer over the world in quest of the Holy Grail and finally lodged him in the Home of the Snows is symbolic of a more than individual destiny. It is representative of the secret history of a whole culture and civilisation that have been ruling humanity for some centuries, its inner want and need and hankering and fulfilment. The West shall come to the East and be reborn. That is the prophecy of occult seers and sages.
--
Indeed, Roerich considers the Himalayas as the very abode, the tabernacle itself thesanctum sanctorumof the Spirit, the Light Divine. Many of Roerich's paintings have mountain ranges, especially snow-bound mountain ranges, as their theme. There is a strange kinship between this yearning artistic soul, which seems solitary in spite of its ardent humanism, and the silent heights, rising white tier upon tier reflecting prism like the fiery glowing colours, the vast horizons, the wide vistas vanishing beyond.
Roerich is one of the prophets and seers who have ever been acclaiming and preparing the Golden Age, the dream that humanity has been dreaming continuously since its very childhood, that is to say, when there will be peace and harmony on earth, when racial, cultural or ideological egoism will no longer divide man and mana thing that seems today a chimera and a hallucinationwhen there will be one culture, one civilisation, one spiritual life welding all humanity into a single unit of life luminous and beautiful. Roerich believes that such a consummation can arrive only or chiefly through the growth of the sense of beauty, of the aesthetic temperament, of creative labour leading to a wider and higher consciousness. Beauty, Harmony, Light, Knowledge, Culture, Love, Delight are cardinal terms in his vision of the deeper and higher life of the future.
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
"In the Spiritual order of things, the higher we project our view and our aspiration,
the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us, because it is already there within us
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It means to become conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself or on the Spiritual heights, and, once one is conscious of
His Presence, to surrender to Him completely so that one no
--
the scientific as well as the Spiritual point of view?
Because the darkness tries to prevent the light from coming.
--
"There are moments when the Spirit moves among men
and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters
0 1957-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
These three categories of tests are: those conducted by the forces of Nature, those conducted by the Spiritual and divine forces, and those conducted by the hostile forces. This latter category is the most deceptive in its appearance, and a constant state of vigilance, sincerity and humility is required so as not to be caught by surprise or unprepared.
The most commonplace circumstances, people, the everyday events of life, the most seemingly insignificant things, all belong to one or another of these three categories of examiners. In this considerably complex organization of tests, those events generally considered the most important in life are really the easiest of all examinations to pass, for they find you prepared and on your guard. One stumbles more easily over the little pebbles on the path, for they attract no attention.
--
For the Spiritual tests: aspiration, confidence, idealism, enthusiasm and generosity in self-giving.
For the tests stemming from the hostile forces: vigilance, sincerity and humility.
0 1958-05-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As a matter of fact, my tendency is more and more towards something in which the role of these hostile forces will be reduced to that of an examinerwhich means that they are there to test the sincerity of your spiritual quest. These elements have a reality in their action and for the workthis is their great reality but when you go beyond a certain region, it all grows dim to such a degree that it is no longer so well defined, so distinct. In the occult world, or rather if you look at the world from the occult point of view, these hostile forces are very real, their action is very real, quite concrete, and their attitude towards the divine realization is positively hostile; but as soon as you go beyond this region and enter into the Spiritual world where there is no longer anything but the Divine in all things, and where there is nothing undivine, then these hostile forces become part of the total play and can no longer be called hostile forces: it is only an attitude that they have adoptedor more precisely, it is only an attitude adopted by the Divine in his play.
This again belongs to the dualities that Sri Aurobindo speaks of in (The Synthesis of Yoga, these dualities that are being reabsorbed. I dont know if he spoke of this particular one; I dont think so, but its the same thing. Its again a certain way of seeing. He has written of the Personal-Impersonal duality, Ishwara-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti but there is still one more: Divine and anti-divine.
0 1958-10-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Money is not meant to generate money; money should generate an increase in production, an improvement in the conditions of life and a progress in human consciousness. This is its true use. What I call an improvement in consciousness, a progress in consciousness, is everything that education in all its forms can providenot as its generally understood, but as we understand it here: education in art, education in from the education of the body, from the most material progress, to the Spiritual education and progress through yoga; the whole spectrum, everything that leads humanity towards its future realization. Money should serve to augment that and to augment the material base for the earths progress, the best use of what the earth can giveits intelligent utilization, not the utilization that wastes and loses energies. The use that allows energies to be replenished.
In the universe there is an inexhaustible source of energy that asks only to be replenished; if you know how to go about it, it is replenished. Instead of draining life and the energies of our earth and making of it something parched and inert, we must know the practical exercise for replenishing the energy constantly. And these are not just words; I know how its to be done, and science is in the process of thoroughly finding outit has found out most admirably. But instead of using it to satisfy human passions, instead of using what science has found so that men may destroy each other more effectively than they are presently doing, it must be used to enrich the earth: to enrich the earth, to make the earth richer and richer, more active, generous, productive and to make all life grow towards its maximum efficiency. This is the true use of money. And if its not used like that, its a vicea short circuit and a vice.
0 1958-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When we begin living the Spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which for us is the proof that we have entered the Spiritual life; well, yet another occurs when we enter the supramental world.
And probably each time a new world opens up, there will again be a new reversal. This is why even our spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something still so so totally different when compared to this supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite.
0 1958-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
That is why the journey is so long, so difficult. For if one would truly consent no longer to be, everything would become so easy, so swift, so luminous, so joyousthough perhaps not in the way men conceive of joy and ease. At heart, there are very few beings who are not enamored of struggle. There are very few who would consent to having no darkness or who can conceive of light as anything other than the opposite of obscurity: Without shadow, there would be no painting. Without struggle, there would be no victory. Without suffering, there would be no joy. That is what they think, and as long as they think like that, they are not yet born to the Spirit.
***
0 1958-11-27 - Intermediaries and Immediacy, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For example, one thing had always appeared unimportant to me in actionintermediaries between the Spiritualized individual being, the conscious soul, and the Supreme. According to my personal experience, it had always seemed to me that if one is exclusively turned towards the Supreme in all ones actions and expresses Him directly, whatever is to be done is done automatically. For example, if you are always open and if at each second you consciously want to express only what the Supreme Lord wants to be expressed, it is done automatically. But with all that I have learned about pujas, about certain scriptures and certain rituals as well, the necessity for a process has become very clear to me. Its the same as in physical life; in physical life, everything needs a process, as we know, and it is the knowledge of processes that constitutes physical science. Similarly, in a more occult working, the knowledge and especially the RESPECT for the process seem to be much more important than I had first thought.
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.
--
the Spiritual action is direct, but it may not be immediate (anyway, thats my experience). Sri Aurobindo said that with the supramental presence, it becomes immediate and I have experienced this. But this would then mean that the supramental Power automatically commands all these intermediaries, whereas if its not present, even the highest spiritual power would need a specialized knowledge to act in this realm, a knowledge equivalent to an occult or initiatory knowledge of all these realms. This is why I told X, Well, you taught me many things while you were here. There is always something to learn.
Of course, when the Supramental is here, it will be very different. I see it clearly: in moments when it is there, everything is turned inside out, and all this belongs to a world to the world of preparation. It is like a preparation, a long preparation.
0 1959-01-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I am taking advantage of this situation to work. I have chosen the articles for the Bulletin. They are as follows: 1) Message. 2) To keep silent. 3) Can there be intermediary states between man and super-man? 4) The Anti-Divine. 5) What is the role of the Spirit? 6) Karma (I have touched this one up to make it less personal). 7) The Worship of the Supreme in Matter. Now I would like to prepare the first twelve Aphorisms3 for printing. But as you have not yet revised the last two, I am sending them to you. Could you do them when you have finished what you are doing for the Bulletin? It is not urgent, take your time. Do not disturb your real work for this in any way. For, in my eyes, this work of inner liberation is much more important.
You will find in this letter a little money. I thought you might need it for your stamps, etc.
0 1959-05-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
So there remains the pure spiritual destiny, pure interiorization. That is what I have been trying to do for the last five years, without much success. There are good periods of collaboration, because one part of my being can be happy in any condition. But in a certain way this achievement remains truncated, especially when you base spiritual life on a principle of integrality. And these three destinies in me have their own good reasons, which are true: they are not inferior, they are not incidental, they are woven from the very threads that created the Spiritual life in me. My error is to open the door to revolt when I feel too poignantly one or the other being stifled.
So you see, all this is insoluble. I have only to bow before these unfortunate circumstances. I perceive an injustice somewhere, but I have only to remain silent.
0 1960-03-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I came down that evening for distribution,2 at first I was annoyed. I had said that I didnt want anybody in the hall, precisely because I wanted to establish an atmosphere of concentration, the immobility of the Spirit but there were at least thirty people in there, those who had decorated the hall, thirty of them stirring, stirring about, a mass of little vibrations. And before I could even say scat I had hardly taken my seatsomeone put the tray of medals on my lap and they started filing past.
But what is surprising is that in a flash, no one was there any longer. No one, you understand I was gone. Perhaps I was everywhere (but in fact I am always everywhere, I am always conscious of being everywhere at the same time), though normally there is the sense of the body, a physical center, but that evening there was no more center! Nothing, no one, not even the sense that there was no onenothing. I was gone. There was indeed something handing out the medals which felt the joy of giving the medal, the joy of receiving it, the joy of mutually looking at each other. It was simply the joy of the action taking place, the joy of looking, this joy everywhere, but me?Nothing, no one, gone. Only later, afterwards, did I see what had happened, for everything had disappeared, even the higher mind that understands and organizes things (by understand I mean contain, which contains things). That also was gone. And this lasted the entire distribution. Only when that [the body] had gone back upstairs to the room did the consciousness of what is me return.
0 1960-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the Spirit of the two languages is not the same. Something always escapes. This must surely be why revelations (as Sri Aurobindo calls them) sometimes come to me in one language and sometimes in the other. And it does not depend on the state of consciousness Im in, it depends on what has to be said.
And the revelations would probably be more exact if we had a more perfect language. Our language is poor.
0 1960-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its quite all right when youve come TO THE END, when you have totally mastered the body by means of the Spiritual consciousness. But until then, I dont agree I do not at all agree.
Its the same as when X tells people, I am feeding you, so eat! And he serves you ten times more than you can put in. If you tell him, My stomach cant digest it, he answers that this is nonsense: Eat, and you will see! And in fact, up above that is, once youve mastered itits perfectly true. But we arent there yet, far from it! He himself is sick all the time.
--
Its very well to say, If you live in the Spirit, its not the same. Thats quite true, but MUCH later. For the last two years, I myself have been learning this, and I see how difficult it isone mustnt boast. And to say, Oh, its all the same to me, is a way of boasting. It SHOULD NOT be all the same to you. This body is not meant for usit wasnt for us that it was given, its for the Work, so consequently it must be in working order.
Thats what annoys me sometimes. Why not have this mastery? We SHOULD be masters of it. With consciousness, we should be able to be the masters of our bodies.
0 1960-10-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Then suddenly I went into a little trance. And in it I saw you, but you were physically, you were on one plane, and then I saw another man on a different plane (I saw him quite concretely; he was rather tall, broad-shoulderednot so tall as broad, with a dark, European suit). And he took your hands and started shaking them enthusiastically!but you were quite indifferent, just as you are now, dressed in Indian fashion and sitting cross-legged. He took both your hands and started shaking them! And then I distinctly heard the words: Congratulations, its a great success!it had to do with your book.3 And at the same time, I saw all sorts of people and things who were touched by your bookall kinds of people, obviously French, or Westerners in any case women, men. There was even one woman (she must have been an actress or a singer or anyway, someone whose life was she was even dressed for the stage, with some kind of tightsa beautiful girl!) and she said to someone, Ah, it has even given me a taste for the Spiritual life! It was extremely interesting All kinds of things of this nature. And then once again I came out of this trance and In the end, I tried to do some certain thing for you and it turned out well. It turned out quite well.
But then, just before that, there was this powdering of golden light coming down. And as it descended, it was white with a touch of gold (but it was white) and it came down in a column, with such POWER! And then, just at the end, this powdering of gold came and settled into this white light which had remained there the whole timeoh, it was so abundant. A great power of realization. I had a hard time coming out of it! At the start, I had decided to come out of it at half past, so I came out, but still not completely
0 1960-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
What I saw is this world, this realm where people are like that, they live that, for its necessary to get out from below and this is a wayits a way, the only way. It was the only way for the vital formation and the vital creation to enter into the material world, into inert matter. An intellectualized vital, a vital of ideas, an artist; it even fringes upon or has the first drops of Poetrythis Poetry which upon its peaks goes beyond the mind and becomes an expression of the Spirit. Well, when these first drops fall on earth, it stirs up mud.
And I wondered why people are so rigid and severe, why they condemn others (but one day Ill understand this as well). I say this because very often I run into these two states of mind in my activities (the grave and serious mind which sees hypocrisy and vice, and the religious and yogic mind which sees the illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine)and without being openly criticized, Im criticized Ill tell you about this one day
0 1961-02-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Christians say its the Spirit of evil, but this is due to a lack of understanding.
Theon always told me that the true interpretation of the Biblical story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden is that humanity wanted to pass from a state of animal-like divinity to the state of conscious divinity by means of mental development, symbolized by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. And this serpent, which Theon always said was iridescent, reflecting all the colors of the prism, was not at all the Spirit of evil, but the power of evolution the force, the power of evolution. And it was natural that this power of evolution would make them taste the fruit of knowledge.
Now, according to Theon, Jehovah was the chief of the Asuras,6 the supreme Asura, the egoistic God who wanted to dominate everything and keep everything under his control. And of course this act made him furious, for it enabled mankind to become gods through the power of an evolution of consciousness. And thats why he banished them from Paradise.
--
One could almost say that of all animals, the serpent is the most sensitive to hypnotic or magnetic power. If you have it (magnetic power comes from the most material vital), you can easily gain a mastery over snakes; all the people who like snakes have it and use it to make snakes obey them. Thats how I got out of my encounter with the cobra at Tlemcen7do you know the story? Theon had told me about this power and I was aware of it in myself, so I was able to make the cobra obey and he left. Afterwards (Ive told this story, too), I was visited by the King of Serpents I mean the Spirit of the species. He came to me in Tlemcen after this and another incident when I helped a cat overpower a little asp (there are asps over there like Cleopatras, very dangerous)a big russet angora cat. At first it started to play with the asp, but then naturally grew furious. The asp struck at the cat, but the cat leapt aside with such swiftness that the asp missed it (I watched this going on for more than ten minutes, it was extraordinary). Just as the snake darted by, the cat would swat at it with all his claws outand the asp got scratched each time, so that little by little it ran out of energy, and at the end. I stopped the cat from eating it that part was disgusting!
Then after these two incidents, I received a visit one night from the King of Serpents. He was wearing a superb crown on his headsymbolic, of course, but anyway, he was the Spirit of the species. He had the appearance of a cobra, and he was wonderful! A formidable beast, and wonderful! He said he had come to make a pact with me: I had demonstrated my power over his species, so he wanted to come to an understanding. All right, I said, what do you propose? I not only promise that serpents wont harm you, he replied, but that they will obey you. But you must promise me something in return: never to kill one of them. I thought it over and said, No, I cant make this promise, because if ever one of yours attacks one of mine (a being that depends upon me), my pact with you could not stop me from protecting him. I can assure you that I have no bad feelings and no intention of killingkilling is not on my program! But I cant commit myself, because it would restrict my freedom of decision. He left without replying, so it remains status quo.
I have had several experiences demonstrating my power over snakes (not so much as over catswith cats its extraordinary!). Long ago, I often used to take a drive and then stop somewhere for a walk. One day after my walk, as I was getting back into the car to drive away (the door was still open), a very large snake came out, right from the spot I had just left. He was furious and heading straight towards the open door, ready to strike (luckily I was alone, neither the driver nor Pavitra were there, otherwise). When the snake had come quite near, I looked at him closely and said, What do you want? Why have you come here? There was a pause. Then he fell down flat and off he went. I hadnt made a move, only asked him, What do you want? Why have you come here? You know, they have a way of suddenly falling back, going limp, and prrt! Gone!
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the present case, of course, the body is always saying, I am ready for everything I will do anything at all; yet I still cant say that it has this. Its trying to be completely pure according to the Spiritual conceptit doesnt sense its separate personality. More and more, year after year, it has been striving to feel only the divine Presence, the divine Life, the divine Force and the divine Will, all within itself; and to feel that without them it is nothing, it doesnt exist. This is fully realized in its consciousness (the conscious part). In the subconscient and inconscient,5 obviously it is not realized otherwise, logically, it shouldnt be ill.
The whole disorder evidently originates from the subconscient and inconscient; all the more so as it came with various indications (sent by the hostile forces but this can always be useful, provided you are careful) saying, Yes, everything is going well in your higher centers, but(because the different points of attack have clearly followed the order of the centers). Four or five days ago, or maybe a week, before this latest difficulty occurred, I saw little beings coming out of the subconscient and saying, Ah! Your legs havent had any trouble for a long time! Its the turn of the lower centers! I swept it all away, of course, but.
--
For example, each time I have been able to master something, I mean find the true solution for an illness or a malfunctioning (the TRUE solution, not a mental one, not some ordinary knowledge, but the Spiritual solution: the vibration that will UNDO the wrong working or set you on your feet again), it has always been very easy for me to cure the same thing in others, through the emission of this vibration.
Thats how it works. Because all substance is ONE. All is onewe constantly forget that! We always have a sense of separation, and that is total, total falsehood; its because we rely on what our eyes see, on (Mother touches her hands and arms, as if to indicate a separate body, cut off from other bodies). That is truly Falsehood. As soon as your consciousness changes a little, you realize that what we see is like an image plastered over something. But its not true, NOT TRUE AT ALL. Even in the most material Matter, even a stoneeven in a stoneas soon as ones consciousness changes, all this separation, all this division, completely vanishes. These are (how to put it?) modes of concentration (something akin to yet not quite that), vibratory modes WITHIN THE SAME THING.8
0 1961-03-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Listen to this appeal: If the opportunity offered by this movement appeals to you, if you have the feeling that you are one of those who have been prepared to collaborate in the Spiritual adventure, we invite you to write to us, enrolling yourself as a member of World Union.
Im going to send this to V, asking her innocently, Has this appeared in your journal? Because it would be better if it didnt: we dont make propaganda. Oh, I am hard on them, you know!
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
According to Theon, the serpent wasnt the Spirit of evil at all: it was the evolutionary Force. And Sri Aurobindo fully agreed; he used to tell me the same thing: the evolutionary power the mental evolutionary poweris what drove man to gain knowledge, a knowledge of division. And its a fact that along with the sense of Good and Evil, man became conscious of himself. Naturally, this ruined everything and he couldnt stay: it was his own consciousness that drove him out of Paradisehe could no longer stay.
Then was man banished by Jehovah or by his own consciousness?
0 1961-03-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its one thing to have the Spiritual experience of the illusion of material life (some find this painful, but I found it so wonderfully beautiful and happy that it was one of the loveliest experiences of my life); but now the whole spiritual construction as one has lived it is becoming a total illusion! Not the same illusion, a far more serious illusion.
If That was not there. Obviously, That [divine Love] is here, like a mattress placed so you wont break your neck when you fall. Thats precisely the feeling: this experience of the vibration of divine Love is the mattress so you dont break your neck!
0 1961-04-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Cats are vital forces, incarnations of vital forces. The King of the Cats that is, the Spirit of the speciesis a being of the vital world.
For instance, cats can very easily incarnate the vital force of a dead person. I have had two absolutely astounding experiences of this.
0 1961-04-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Look here, theres a muddle in all this. The Sri Aurobindo Society people had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the Spiritual life when they began; they didnt at all present themselves as a spiritual groupnothing of the kind; they were people of good will who volunteered to collect money to help the Ashram. So I said, Very well, excellent and as long as its like that, Im behind it. Leaflets can be handed outwhatever people like; its enough if their interest is aroused, if they know there is an Ashram and that it needs some help to go on. But thats all. It has nothing to do with yoga or spiritual progress or anything of the kindit was a strictly practical organization. It was not the same thing as World Union. World Union wanted to do a spiritual work on earth and to create human unity. I told them, You are taking something of an inward nature and you want to externalize it, so naturally it immediately goes rotten.(But its almost over now, Ive pulled the rug out from under them.)
Anyway.
0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Men are such fools (laughing: it doesnt get any better!) that they can change anything at all into a religion, so great is their need for a fixed framework for their narrow thought and limited action. They dont feel secure unless they can affirm: This is true and that is not but such an affirmation becomes impossible for anyone who has read and understood what Sri Aurobindo has written. Religion and yoga are not situated on the same plane of the being, and the Spiritual life can exist in its purity only if it is free from all mental dogma.
People must really be made to understand this.
--
Oh, Ive had some very interesting revelations on this point, on the way people think and feel about it. I remember someone once made a little statue of Sri Aurobindo; he gave it a potbelly and anyway, to me it was ridiculous. So I said, How could you make such a thing?! He explained that even if its a caricature for the ordinary eye, since its an image of the one you consider God, or a god, or an Avatar, since its the image of the one you worship, even if only a guru, it contains the Spirit and the force of his presence, and this is what you worship, even in a crude form, even if the form is a caricature to the physical eye.
Someone made a large painting of Sri Aurobindo and myself, and they brought it here to show me. I said, Oh, its dreadful! It was to the physical eye it was really dreadful. Its dreadful, I said, we cant keep it. Then immediately someone asked me for it, saying, Im going to put it up in my house and do my puja before it. Ah! I couldnt help saying, But how could you put up a thing like that! (It wasnt so much ugly as frightfully banal.) How can you do puja before something so commonplace and empty! This person replied, Oh, to me its not empty! It contains all the presence and all the force, and I shall worship it as that: the Presence and the Force.
0 1961-05-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The more I see these texts, the more. At first I had the impression of a certain nebulous quality in the English text, and that precisely this quality could be used to introduce the Spirit of another language. Now I see that this nebulousness was in my head! It was not in what he wrote.
Yes, I see what you meantheres a sense in the way it is put.
0 1961-07-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But you know, this present state gives me the feeling that actually we know nothing at all, at all, at allnothing at all. Everything else, everything leading to the Spiritual life, to liberation and so forthwell, yes, its all very well, all very well. But compared to what one must know to do this work.
Perhaps its better not to know.
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Identification of the person in question with the Spirit who had taken possession of her.
Here is the exact text of Mother's message: Truth is supreme harmony and supreme delight. All disorder, all suffering is falsehood. Thus it can be said that illnesses are the falsehoods of the body, and consequently doctors are soldiers of the great and noble army fighting in the world for the conquest of Truth.
0 1961-10-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The secret lies in matter. Because Agni is imprisoned in matter and we ourselves are imprisoned there. It is said that Agni is without head or feet, that it conceals its two extremities: above, it disappears into the great heaven of the supraconscient (which the Rishis also called the great ocean), and below, it sinks into the formless ocean of the inconscient (which they also called the rock). We are truncated. But the Rishis were men of a solid realism, a true realism resting upon the Spirit; and since the summits of mind opened out upon a lacuna of lightecstatic, to be sure, but with no hold over the worldthey set upon the downward way.6 Thus begins the quest for the lost sun, the long pilgrimage of descent into the inconscient and the merciless fight against the dark forces, the thieves of the sun, the panis and vritras, pythons and giants, hidden in the dark lair with the whole cohort of usurpers: the dualizers, the confiners, the tearers, the COVERERS. But the divine worker, Agni, is helped by the gods, and in his quest he is led by the intuitive ray, Sarama, the heavenly hound with the subtle sense of smell who sets Agni on the track of the stolen herds (strange, shining herds). Now and again there comes the sudden glimmer of a fugitive dawn then all grows dim. One must advance step by step, digging, digging, fighting every inch of the way against the wolves whose savage fury increases the nearer one draws to their denAgni is a warrior. Agni grows through his difficulties, his flame burns more brilliantly with each blow from the Adversary; for, as the Rishis said, Night and Day both suckled the divine Child; they even said that Night and Day are the two sisters, Immortal, with a common lover [the sun] common they, though different their forms (I.113.2,3). These alternations of night and brightness accelerate until Day breaks at last and the herds of Dawn7 surge upward awakening someone who was dead (I.113.8). The infinite rock of the inconscient is shattered, the seeker uncovers the Sun dwelling in the darkness (III.39.5), the divine consciousness in the heart of Matter. In the very depths of Matter, that is to say, in the body, on earth, the Rishis found themselves cast up into Light that same Light which others sought on the heights, without their bodies and without the earth, in ecstasy. And this is what the Rishis would call the Great Passage. Without abandoning the earth they found the vast dwelling place, that dwelling place of the gods, Swar, the original Sun-world that Sri Aurobindo calls the Supramental World: Human beings [the Rishis emphasize that they are indeed men] slaying the Coverer have crossed beyond both earth and heaven [matter and mind] and made the wide world their dwelling place (I.36.8). They have entered the True, the Right, the Vast, Satyam, Ritam, Brihat, the unbroken light, the fearless light, where there is no longer suffering nor falsehood nor death: it is immortality, amritam.
***
0 1961-12-20, #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.
--
So the very normal, natural reaction against this attitude is to negate the Spiritual life: lets take the world as it is, brutally, materially, short and sweet (since it all comes to an end with this short life), lets do all we can to enjoy ourselves now, suffer as little as possible and not think of anything else. Having said that life is a condemned, reprehensible, anti-divine thing, this is the logical conclusion. Then what to do? We dont want to do away with life, so we do away with the Divine.
Thats it exactly.
0 1962-01-12 - supramental ship, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Once and for all it has swept away all these notionsnot merely ordinary moral notions, but everything people here in India consider necessary for the Spiritual life. In that respect, it was very instructive. And first and foremost, this so-called ascetic purity. Ascetic purity is merely the rejection of all vital movements. Instead of taking these movements and turning them towards the Divine, instead of seeing, that is, the supreme Presence in them (and so letting the Supreme deal with them freely), He is told (laughing): Noits none of Your business! You have no say in it.
As for the physical, its an old and well-known storyascetics have always rejected it; but they also reject the vital. And theyre all like that here, even X may have changed somewhat by now, but at the beginning he was no different either. Only things classically recognized as holy or admitted by religious tradition were accepted the sanctity of marriage, for example, and things like that. But a free life? Not a chance! It was wholly incompatible with religious life.
0 1962-01-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The system of getting rid of things by anubhava [experience] can also be a dangerous one; for on this way one can easily become more entangled instead of arriving at freedom. This method has behind it two well-known psychological motives. One, the motive of purposeful exhaustion, is valid only in some cases, especially when some natural tendency has too strong a hold or too strong a drive in it to be got rid of by vicra [intellectual reflection] or by the process of rejection and the substitution of the true movement in its place; when that happens in excess, the sadhak has sometimes even to go back to the ordinary action of the ordinary life, get the true experience of it with a new mind and will behind and then return to the Spiritual life with the obstacle eliminated or else ready for elimination. But this method of purposive indulgence is always dangerous, though sometimes inevitable. It succeeds only when there is a very strong will in the being towards realisation; for then indulgence brings a strong dissatisfaction and reaction, vairagya, and the will towards perfection can be carried down into the recalcitrant part of the nature.
The other motive for anubhava is of a more general applicability; for in order to reject anything from the being one has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is an entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it is only the degradation of a higher and true movement. It is this or something like it that is attempted crudely and improperly with a rudimentary and insufficient knowledge in the system of psycho-analysis. The process of raising up the lower movements into the full light of consciousness in order to know and deal with them is inevitable; for there can be no complete change without it. But it can truly succeed only when a higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held up for change. Many, under the pretext of anubhava, not only raise up the adverse movement, but support it with their consent instead of rejecting it, find justifications for continuing or repeating it and so go on playing with it, indulging its return, eternising it; afterwards when they want to get rid of it, it has got such a hold that they find themselves helpless in its clutch and only a terrible struggle or an intervention of divine grace can liberate them.Some do this out of a vital twist or perversity, others out of sheer ignorance; but in yoga, as in life, ignorance is not accepted by Nature as a justifying excuse. This danger is there in all improper dealings with the ignorant parts of the nature; but none is more ignorant, more perilous, more unreasoning and obstinate in recurrence than the lower vital subconscious and its movements. To raise it up prematurely or improperly for anubhava is to risk suffusing the conscious parts also with its dark and dirty stuff and thus poisoning the whole vital and even the mental nature. Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the divine calm, light, force and knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.
0 1962-02-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There has been a kind of perception of a variety of bodily activities, a whole series of them, having to do exclusively (or so it seems) with the maintenance of the body. Some are on the borderlinesleep, for instance: one portion of it is necessary for good maintenance of the body, and another portion puts it in contact with other parts and activities of the being; but one portion of sleep is exclusively for maintaining the bodys balance. Then there is food, keeping clean, a whole range of things. And according to Sri Aurobindo, spiritual life shouldnt suppress those things; whatever is indispensable for the bodys well-being must be kept up. For ordinary people, all other bodily activities are used for personal pleasure and benefit. the Spiritual man, on the other hand, has given his body to serve the Divine, so that the Divine may use it for His work and perhaps, as Sri Aurobindo said, for His joyalthough given the present state of Matter and the body, that seems to me unlikely or at best very intermittent and partial, because this body is much more a field of misery than a field of joy. (None of this is based on speculation, but on personal experience I am relating my personal experience.) But with work, its different: when the body is at work, its in full swing. Thats its joy, its needto exist only to serve Him. To exist only to serve. And of course, to reduce maintenance to a bare minimum while trying to find a way for the Divine to participate in the very restricted, limited and meager possibilities of joy this maintenance may give. To associate the Divine with all those movements and things, like keeping clean, sleeping (although sleep is different, its already a lot more interesting); but especially with personal hygiene, eating and other absolutely indispensable things, the attempt is to associate them with the Divine Presence so that they may be as much an expression of divine joy as possible. (This is realized to a certain extent.)
Now where does japa fit into all this?
0 1962-03-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To begin with, I said that the vital is peopled by small entities, small formations, the remnants of human beings who have died. But there is a whole vital world which has nothing to do with that one, a world peopled by beings of the vital proper, beings of great power and even great beauty. Most people who dabble in occultism without having a deep enough spiritual life are immediately deluded by themsome even take them as the supreme God and worship them. Thats generally how religions are created. They are a great success. They are the supreme God of many a religion they are beings of the vital world, and can assume an appearance of overwhelming beauty. They are the biggest impostors in the world, and dangerous at that; it takes the Spiritual instinct, the instinct of true spiritual purity, not to be deceived by them. Many religions and sects are founded on revelations and miracles, and every bit of it comes from vital beings.
Its one of the greatest problems in human life; I dont mean spiritual life, but the life of people who deal with the beyond.
--
It should at least be mentioned that some beings in the vital world can take on completely deceptive appearances at willall the most dazzling lights are found in the vital, but with a particular quality. So those who have truly approached THE Light cant be deceived. Because its indefinable, something the Spiritual sense alone can feel: perfect security, perfect peace, perfect purity (although I hesitate to use the word purity, which has taken on such an idiotic meaning); what I mean is the absence of all admixture.
To those with the Spiritual sense, the most dazzling vital lights always seem to have something artificial about themthey FEEL artificial and cold, hard, aggressive, deceptive. But thats the point: you yourself must be beyond all this. Not to be fooled, you mustnt fool yourself!
Actually, thats the main reason I dont like to talk about occultism. It puts people in touch with an extremely dangerous world which cant be safely entered unless one is (I cant even say a saint, because its not true; some saints enter the vital world and get right into it!) unless one is transformed, unless one has the true spiritual consciousness. On this condition alone are you perfectly safe. So where are the people with the Spiritual consciousness? There are really very few of them, very few. And above all, in those who have this occult curiosity there are also all sorts of vital movements, which make it dangerous for them to enter that world. Unless, of course, they go shielded by the gurus presence; with that, you can go anywhere, its the same as going there with him. And if you do go with him, all is well; he has the knowledge and he protects you. But going there all on your own is you need the Divine Protection itself! Or the protection of the guru who represents the Divine. With the gurus protection you are safe.
But isnt it possible to have a fruitful collaboration with those beings? Should they be avoided altogether, or what?
0 1962-05-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
From my own experience, though, I could say to all those who believe EXCLUSIVELY in the Spiritual approach, the approach through inner experience, that thisat least if its exclusiveis equally fatal. For it reveals to them ONE aspect, ONE truth of the Whole but not THE Whole. The other side seems just as indispensable to me, for when I was so utterly in that supreme Realization, this other falsified, outer realization was undeniably just a distortion (and probably accidental) of something EQUALLY TRUE.
This something is what we are seeking. And perhaps not merely seekingwe may be taking part in the MAKING of it.
--
These positions the Spiritual and the materialist (if you can call it that) positionswhich consider themselves exclusive (exclusive and unique, and so each one denies the others value in the name of Truth) are inadequate, not only because neither one will accept the other, but because even accepting and uniting them both wont solve the problem. Something else is needed, a third position that isnt the result of these two but something still to be discovered, which will probably open the door to total Knowledge.
Well, thats where I stand.
--
For a very long time it had seemed to me that a perfect union between the scientific approach pushed to its extreme and the Spiritual approach pushed to its extreme, to its utmost realization, a merging of the two would naturally lead to the Truth we seek, the total Truth. But with the two experiences I have had, the experience of the outer life (with universalization, impersonalizationall the yogic experiences you can have in a material body) and the experience of total and perfect union with the Origin now that Ive had those two experiences and something has happened something I cant yet describe I know that knowing and uniting the two approaches is not enough; they open out on a third thing, and that third thing is what is in the making. The third thing is what can lead to the Realization, to the Truth we seek.
Is it clear this time?
--
Through yoga I had come to a sort of relationship with the material world based on the notion of the fourth dimension (of the innumerable inner dimensions opened up by yoga) and on the utilization of this attitude and state of consciousness. Using this sense of inner dimensions, and through perfecting the consciousness of the inner dimensions, I used to observe the relation between the material and the Spiritual worldsthis was prior to my last experience.
Of course, its been a long time since there has been any question of three dimensionsall that belongs ABSOLUTELY to the world of illusion and falsehood. But now the whole use of the sense of the fourth dimensionalong with all it entailsseems superficial to me! And so much so that I cant recapture it. The other world, the three-dimensional world, is completely unreal; but now that one (what can I say?) seems conventional to me. Like a conventional transcription opening a particular type of approach to you.
0 1962-05-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Let me put it to you more clearly: your physical body, for example, should have been either stronger or more supple or endowed with certain very strong vital compensations, so that you wouldnt suffer from your working conditions. Of course, for someone following a yogic ascent, whose soul is in the process of formation, the external conditions of life are normally what is best for inner development, whatever that may beeven if, on the surface, those conditions arent good. So the only advice you can give such a person is, Well, either renounce the Spiritual life or else putup with it. But thats not your case. There is a Mission, a work, and a kind of gap between a certain physical formation and that Mission. So if you ask me plainly what I see, I can tell you plainly, instead of saying as I would to certain sadhaks or anyone sincerely wanting to do yoga, Take it or leave it; you must learn to transform yourself inwardly to the point where you can master the body and its needs. I cant tell you that, because thats not how it is for you.
I mean it may beit may be that even an inner transformation (a complete conversion of the vital being, for instance) wouldnt necessarily bring an improvement in your health. It is here where. Its not something I see imperatively. And to go back to ordinary life would be the end of everythingof your physical life and your inner life too.
0 1962-05-29, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What I see is almost a childrens book, fga, in the Spiritual life: an elite. It is a book for an elite, not for the generalor a whole generation aged ten to eighteen, thousands of children. With lovely pictures.
(silence)
--
No, its solely a question of health. If I could. Listen, I also had a longing to go to the Himalayas, I had a great longing for it when I was in France. When I came here the first time it was fine, I was very happy, everything was beautiful, everything was perfect, but oh, to go to the Himalayas for a while! (I have always loved mountains.) I was living over there in the Dupleix house, and I used to meditate while walking back and forth. There was a small courtyard with a dividing wall, and shards of glass were stuck on top of the wall to keep out thieves. And I was meditatingmeditating on the Spiritual lifewhen suddenly something caught my eye: a ray of sunlight on a sharp piece of blue glass on top of the wall. And positively, spontaneously, without thinking or reflecting or anything I saw the summits of the Himalayas: I was on the summits of the Himalayas.
It lasted more than half an hour. It was a marvelous mountain scene, with mountain air and the lightness of the mountainsit was all there. The splendor of sunlight on the Himalayan peaks.
0 1962-06-02, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The afternoon experience was very intriguing; I was busy working (organizing things for one of the departments, I no longer remember which) and then I said to the person I was with, Now I am going to my cousins place! When I was very young I had a cousin, the eldest son of one of my fathers brothers (he had a large family, such as you seldom see in France). This cousin became some kind of engineera civil engineer, maybe, or a mechanical engineer (he was an outstanding chemist). Anyway, this boy was very attracted to me. He went off to the war as an officer and caught some disease (I forget what) and died around 1915, at the time I returned to France. Well, in my experience yesterday afternoon, a certain family living HERE gave me exactly the same sensation I had had towards those people when I was young. And especially for this cousin (for the rest of the family it was more vague, like a background to the experience). I am going to their place, I said. They have a lovely estate here, just as they had a lovely estate in France before (they had Madame de Sevignes chateau at Sucy, near Parisa beautiful property). And it was all so concrete! It wasnt coming through the head; it wasnt a thought but a sensation. I have to go see him now, I said. And even as I was having my vision I was telling myself, You must be going crazy! Can they really be here in Pondicherry? This uncle with whom I had only rather distant relations and this cousin I never saw much of, but whom I knew to be very nice and very loyalAre they really here?! The sensation was most strange (the head wasnt functioning at all; it was a SENSATION). So off I went to see this cousin, and it was on the way to see him that I had the experience of crossing the river. And on the way back, after the discussion with the Spiritual brother (whom I really told off: Get out of here! I dont need you!), after that, when I found myself back on the bank, I started collecting my consciousness again, telling myself, Look here now! Lets try to see clearly. And then I realized that the cousin who died prematurely during the war had reincarnated in someone here. How strange, I thought. And the dates coincided.
But that is a singular state: there is no mental intervention at all; you live things POSITIVELY, just as you experience them physically, in the same way that this (Mother knocks on the table next to her) is physically a table. Its that kind of perception something positive. I positively said, I am going to my cousins place, and the relationship had an absolutely positive vibrationit wasnt at all something thought or even remembered: theres no remembering anything, its simply there, alive. A strange state. I have had it on several occasions, and when I have it I am aware that this must be the state people who know what is happening and make predictions are inin this state there is no possibility of doubt. No thoughts intervenenone at all, not one. Absolutely nothing intellectual: simply certain vital-physical vibrations, and then you know. And you dont even wonder how you know; its not that kind of thingits self-evident. And since I was in that state when I saw the reincarnation of the cousin, I am perfectly sure of what I saw. And god knows (Mother laughs), when I came out of it and began to look at it all with my usual consciousness, I said to myself, My word! I would never have thought of such a thing! It was millions of miles from any thought of mine. Besides, I never used to think of that cousin; he was a fine boy but I never paid much attention to him, he had no place in my active consciousness.
0 1962-06-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It doesnt take me any time, the time factor doesnt enter into it at allits a sort of inner resolution: this way or that way (Mother turns the palms of her hands in and out). People say, Oh, youve been waiting! No, I never wait; its either action or a sort of blissful peace (same in and out gesture). And I am talking about the body, not the Spirit the Spirit is elsewhere. Elsewhere. The BODY feels like that.
And what nights I have! Nights like the one I told you about the other day, with visions and actions; and then I have nights. All night last night, I didnt lose consciousness, I dont feel I slept for a minute; and it was like being in a sort of temporal Infinity (both hands open above the head). From time to time, I look at the clock (all at once I feel something pulling me and I look at the clock): two or two and a half hours have passedlike a second. Did I sleep, you ask? Did the consciousness fall asleep? No, not for a second. But the sense of time completely disappears into into an inner immobility. But an immobility in motion!
0 1962-07-07, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is still (gesture above the head). Its geared to intelligent people interested in things of the Spirit.
I dont see how these things could be skipped.
0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I shall write and tell you afterwards what this way of yoga is. Or if you come here I shall speak to you about it. In this matter the spoken word is better than the written. At present I can only say that its root-principle is to make a harmony and unity of complete knowledge, complete works and complete Bhakti [Devotion], to raise all this above the mind and give it its complete perfection on the supramental level of Vijnana [Gnosis]. This was the defect of the old yoga the mind and the Spirit it knew, and it was satisfied with the experience of the Spirit in the mind. But the mind can grasp only the divided and partial; it cannot wholly seize the infinite and indivisible. The minds means to reach the infinite are Sannyasa [Renunciation], Moksha [Liberation] and Nirvana, and it has no others. One man or another may indeed attain this featureless Moksha, but what is the gain? The Brahman, the Self, God are ever present. What God wants in man is to embody Himself here in the individual and in the community, to realize God in life.
The old way of yoga failed to bring about the harmony or unity of Spirit and life: it instead dismissed the world as Maya [Illusion] or a transient Play. The result has been loss of life-power and the degeneration of India. As was said in the Gita, These peoples would perish if I did not do worksthese peoples of India have truly gone down to ruin. A few sannyasins and bairagis [renunciants] to be saintly and perfect and liberated, a few bhaktas [lovers of God] to dance in a mad ecstasy of love and sweet emotion and Ananda [Bliss], and a whole race to become lifeless, void of intelligence, sunk in deep tamas [inertia]is this the effect of true spirituality? No, we must first attain all the partial experiences possible on the mental level and flood the mind with spiritual delight and illumine it with spiritual light, but afterwards we must rise above. If we cannot rise above, to the supramental level, that is, it is hardly possible to know the worlds final secret and the problem it raises remains unsolved. There, the ignorance which creates a duality of opposition between the Spirit and Matter, between truth of spirit and truth of life, disappears. There one need no longer call the world Maya. The world is the eternal Play of God, the eternal manifestation of the Self. Then it becomes possible to fully know and fully realize Godto do what is said in the Gita, To know Me integrally. The physical body, the life, the mind and understanding, the supermind and the Ananda these are the Spirits five levels. The higher man rises on this ascent the nearer he comes to the state of that highest perfection open to his spiritual evolution. Rising to the Supermind, it becomes easy to rise to the Ananda. One attains a firm foundation in the condition of the indivisible and infinite Ananda, not only in the timeless Parabrahman [Absolute] but in the body, in life, in the world. The integral being, the integral consciousness, the integral Ananda blossoms out and takes form in life. This is the central clue of my yoga, its fundamental principle.
This is no easy change to make. After these fifteen years I am only now rising into the lowest of the three levels of the Supermind and trying to draw up into it all the lower activities. But when this siddhi will be complete, then I am absolutely certain that through me God will give to others the siddhi of the Supermind with less effort. Then my real work will begin. I am not impatient for success in the work. What is to happen will happen in Gods appointed time. I have no hasty or disorderly impulse to rush into the field of work in the strength of the little ego. Even if I did not succeed in my work I would not be shaken. This work is not mine but Gods. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me then I will move.
I know very well that Bengal is not really ready. the Spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not the real transformation. However this too was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old yogas and exhausting their samskaras [old habitual tendencies], extracting their essence and with it fertilizing the soil. At first it was the time of VedantaAdwaita, Sannyasa, Shankaras Maya and the rest. It is now the turn of Vaishnava DharmaLila, love, the intoxication of emotional experience. All this is very old, unfitted for the new age and will not endure for such excitement has no capacity to last. But the merit of the Vaishnava Bhava [emotional enthusiasm] is that it keeps a connexion between God and the world and gives a meaning to life; but since it is a partial bhava the whole connexion, the full meaning is not there. The tendency to create sects which you have noticed was inevitable. The nature of the mind is to take a part and call it the whole and exclude all other parts. The Siddha [illuminated being] who brings the bhava, although he leans on its partial aspect, yet keeps some knowledge of the integral whole, even though he may not be able to give it form. But his disciples do not get that knowledge precisely because it is not in a form. They are tying up their little bundles, let them. The bundles will open of themselves when God manifests himself fully. These things are the signs of incompleteness and immaturity. I am not disturbed by them. Let the force of spirituality play in the country in whatever way and in as many sects as may be. Afterwards we shall see. This is the infancy or the embryonic condition of the new age. It is a first hint, not even the beginning.
The peculiarity of this yoga is that until there is siddhi above the foundation does not become perfect. Those who have been following my course had kept many of the old samskaras; some of them have dropped away, but others still remain. There was the samskara of Sannyasa, even the wish to create an Aravinda Math [Sri Aurobindo monastery]. Now the intellect has recognized that Sannyasa is not what is wanted, but the stamp of the old idea has not yet been effaced from the prana [breath, life energy]. And so there was next this talk of remaining in the midst of the world, as a man of worldly activities and yet a man of renunciation. The necessity of renouncing desire has been understood, but the harmony of renunciation of desire with enjoyment of Ananda has not been rightly seized by the mind. And they took up my Yoga because it was very natural to the Bengali temperament, not so much from the side of Knowledge as from the side of Bhakti and Karma [Works]. A little knowledge has come in, but the greater part has escaped; the mist of sentimentalism has not been dissipated, the groove of the sattwic bhava [religious fervor] has not been broken. There is still the ego. I am not in haste, I allow each to develop according to his nature. I do not want to fashion all in the same mould. That which is fundamental will indeed be one in all, but it will express itself in many forms. Everybody grows, forms from within. I do not want to build from outside. The basis is there, the rest will come.
What I am aiming at is not a society like the present rooted in division. What I have in view is a Samgha [community] founded in the Spirit and in the image of its oneness. It is with this idea that the name Deva Samgha has been given the commune of those who want the divine life is the Deva Samgha. Such a Samgha will have to be established in one place at first and then spread all over the country. But if any shadow of egoism falls over this endeavor, then the Samgha will change into a sect. The idea may very naturally creep in that such and such a body is the one true Samgha of the future, the one and only centre, that all else must be its circumference, and that those outside its limits are not of the fold or even if they are, have gone astray, because they think differently.
You may say, what need is there of a Samgha? Let me be free and live in every vessel; let all become one without form and let whatever must be happen in the midst of that vast formlessness. There is a truth there, but only one side of the truth. Our business is not with the formless Spirit alone; we have also to direct the movement of life. And there can be no effective movement of life without form. It is the Formless that has taken form and that assumption of name and form is not a caprice of Maya. Form is there because it is indispensable. We do not want to rule out any activity of the world as beyond our province. Politics, industry, society, poetry, literature, art will all remain, but we must give them a new soul and a new form.
--
People now talk of spiritualizing politics. Its result will be, if there be any permanent result, some kind of Indianized Bolshevism. Even to that kind of work I have no objection. Let each man do according to his inspiration. But that is not the real thing. If one pours the Spiritual power into all these impure forms the water of the Causal ocean into raw vesselsei ther the raw vessels will break and the water will be spilt and lost or the Spiritual power will evaporate and only the impure form remain. In all fields it is the same. I can give the Spiritual power but that power will be expended in making the image of an ape and setting it up in the temple of Shiva. If the ape is endowed with life and made powerful, he may play the part of the devotee Hanuman and do much work for Rama,2 so long as that life and that power remain. But what we want in the Temple of India is not Hanuman, but the god, the avatar, Rama himself.
We can mix with all, but in order to draw all into the true path, keeping intact the Spirit and form of our ideal. If we do not do that we shall lose our direction and the real work will not be done. If we remain individually everywhere, something will be done indeed; but if we remain everywhere as parts of a Samgha, a hundred times more will be done. As yet that time has not come. If we try to give a form hastily, it may not be the exact thing we want. The Samgha will at first be in unconcentrated form. Those who have the ideal will be united but work in different places. Afterwards, they will form something like a spiritual commune and make a compact Samgha. They will then give all their work a shape according to the demand of the Spirit and the need of the agenot a bound and rigid form, not an achalayatana3, but a free form which will spread out like the sea, mould itself into many waves and surround a thing here, overflood a thing there and finally take all into itself. As we go on doing this there will be established a spiritual community. This is my present idea. As yet it has not been fully developed. All is in Gods hands; whatever He makes us do, that we shall do.
Now let me discuss some particular points of your letter. I do not want to say much in this letter about what you have written as regards your yoga. We shall have better occasion when we meet. To look upon the body as a corpse is a sign of Sannyasa, of the path of Nirvana. You cannot be of the world with this idea. You must have delight in all thingsin the Spirit as well as in the body. The body has consciousness, it is Gods form. When you see God in everything that is in the world, when you have this vision that all this is Brahman, Sarvamidam Brahma, that Vasudeva is all thisVasudevah sarvamiti then you have the universal delight. The flow of that delight precipitates and courses even through the body. When you are in such a state, full of the Spiritual consciousness, you can lead a married life, a life in the world. In all your works you find the expression of Gods delight. So far I have been transforming all the objects and perceptions of the mind and the senses into delight on the mental level. Now they are taking the form of the supramental delight. In this condition is the perfect vision and perception of Sachchidananda.
You write about the Deva Samgha and say, I am not a god, I am only a piece of much hammered and tempered iron. No one is a God but in each man there is a God and to make Him manifest is the aim of divine life. That we can all do. I recognize that there are great and small adharas [vessels]. I do not accept, however, your description of yourself as accurate. Still whatever the nature of the vessel, once the touch of God is upon it, once the Spirit is awake, great and small and all that does not make much difference. There may be more difficulties, more time may be taken, there may be a difference in the manifestation, but even about that there is no certainty. The God within takes no account of these hindrances and deficiencies. He breaks his way out. Was the amount of my failings a small one? Were there less obstacles in my mind and heart and vital being and body? Did it not take time? Has God hammered me less? Day after day, minute after minute, I have been fashioned into I know not whether a god or what. But I have become or am becoming something. That is sufficient, since God wanted to build it. It is the same as regards everyone. Not our strength but the Shakti of God is the sadhaka [worker] of this yoga.
Let me tell you in brief one or two things about what I have long seen. My idea is that the chief cause of the weakness of India is not subjection nor poverty, nor the lack of spirituality or dharma [ethics] but the decline of thought-power, the growth of ignorance in the motherl and of Knowledge. Everywhere I see inability or unwillingness to thinkthought-incapacity or thought-phobia. Whatever may have been in the middle ages, this state of things is now the sign of a terrible degeneration. The middle age was the night, the time of the victory of ignorance. The modern world is the age of the victory of Knowledge. Whoever thinks most, seeks most, labors most, can fathom and learn the truth of the world, and gets so much more Shakti. If you look at Europe, you will see two things: a vast sea of thought and the play of a huge and fast-moving and yet disciplined force. The whole Shakti of Europe is in that. And in the strength of that Shakti it has been swallowing up the world, like the tapaswins [ascetics] of our ancient times, by whose power even the gods of the world were terrified, held in suspense and subjection. People say Europe is running into the jaws of destruction. I do not think so. All these revolutions and upsettings are the preconditions of a new creation.
Then look at India. Except for some solitary giants, everywhere there is your simple man, that is, the average man who does not want to think and cannot think, who has not the least Shakti but only a temporary excitement. In India, you want the simple thought, the easy word. In Europe they want the deep thought, the deep word; there even an ordinary laborer or artisan thinks, wants to know, is not satisfied with surface things but wants to go behind. But there is still this difference: there is a fatal limitation in the strength and thought of Europe. When it comes into the Spiritual field, its thought-power can no longer move ahead. There Europe sees everything as riddlenebulous metaphysics, yogic hallucination. They rub their eyes as in smoke and can see nothing clear. Still, some effort is being made in Europe to surmount even this limitation. We already have the Spiritual sensewe owe it to our forefa thersand whoever has that sense has at his disposal such Knowledge and Shakti as with one breath might blow away all the huge power of Europe like a blade of grass. But to get that Shakti one must be a worshiper of Shakti. We are not worshipers of Shakti. We are worshipers of the easy way. But Shakti is not to be had by the easy way. Our forefa thers dived into a sea of vast thought and gained a vast Knowledge and established a mighty civilization. As they went on in their way, fatigue and weariness came upon them. The force of thought diminished and with it also the strong current of Shakti. Our civilization has become an achalayatana [prison], our religion a bigotry of externals, our spirituality a faint glimmer of light or a momentary wave of religious intoxication. And so long as this sort of thing continues, any permanent resurgence of India is improbable
In Bengal this weakness has gone to the extreme. The Bengali has a quick intelligence, emotional capacity and intuition. He is foremost in India in all these qualities. All of them are necessary but they do not suffice. If to these there were added depth of thought, calm strength, heroic courage and a capacity for and pleasure in prolonged labor, the Bengali might be a leader not only of India, but of mankind. But he does not want that, he wants to get things done easily, to get knowledge without thinking, the fruits without labor, siddhi by an easy sadhana [discipline]. His stock is the excitement of the emotional mind. But excess of emotion, empty of knowledge, is the very symptom of the malady. In the end it brings about fatigue and inertia. The country has been constantly and gradually going down. The life-power has ebbed away. What has the Bengali come to in his own country? He cannot get enough food to eat or clothes to wear, there is lamentation on all sides, his wealth, his trade and commerce, his lands, his very agriculture have begun to pass into the hands of others. We have abandoned the sadhana of Shakti and Shakti has abandoned us. We do the sadhana of Love, but where Knowledge and Shakti are not, there Love does not remain, there narrowness and littleness come, and in a little and narrow mind there is no place for Love. Where is Love in Bengal? There is more quarreling, jealousy, mutual dislike, misunderstanding and faction there than anywhere else even in India which is so much afflicted by division.
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You say that what is needed is maddening enthusiasm, to fill the country with emotional excitement. In the time of the Swadeshi [fight for independence, boycott of English goods] we did all that in the field of politics, but what we did is all now in the dust. Will there be a more favorable result in the Spiritual field? I do not say there has been no result. There has been. Any movement will produce some result, but for the most part in terms of an increase of possibility. This is not the right method, however, to steadily actualize the thing. Therefore I no longer wish to make emotional excitement or any intoxication of the mind the base. I wish to make a large and strong equanimity the foundation of the yoga. I want established on that equality a full, firm and undisturbed Shakti in the system and in all its movements. I want the wide display of the light of Knowledge in the ocean of Shakti. And I want in that luminous vastness the tranquil ecstasy of infinite Love, Delight and Oneness. I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God. I have no faith in the customary trade of the guru. I do not wish to be a guru. If anybody wakes and manifests from within his slumbering godhead and gets the divine lifebe it at my touch or at anothersthis is what I want. It is such men that will raise the country.
You must not think from all this lecture that I despair of the future of Bengal. I too hope, as they say, that this time a great light will manifest itself in Bengal. Still I have tried to show the other side of the shield, where the fault is, the error, the deficiency. If these remain, the light will not be a great light and it will not be permanent.
0 1962-08-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its not sleep, its a kind of peace that descends. It can begin as drowsiness, but it changes into a sort of inner immobilityimmobility of the Spirit. The body too becomes quiet, quiet, quiet, very still; and from there, if nothing disturbs you, you flow into a sense of eternity. Its a wonderful experience. The real sense of Eternity: everything stops, and then NOTHING. And if you have the gift of vision (its not necessary, but if you do), you see it all grow white and luminousall white. But that may well not happen because its its something youre born with.
All the cells open up and become conscious of their eternity.
0 1962-09-22, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the middle of the First World War, Sri Aurobindo noted with prophetic force: The defeat of Germany could not of itself kill the Spirit then incarnate in Germany; it may well lead merely to a new incarnation of it, perhaps in some other race or empire, and the whole battle would then have to be fought over again. So long as the old gods are alive, the breaking or depression of the body which they animate is a small matter, for they know well how to transmigrate. Germany overthrew the Napoleonic spirit in France in 1813 and broke the remnants of her European leadership in 1870; the same Germany became the incarnation of that which it had overthrown. The phenomenon is easily capable of renewal on a more formidable scale.2 Today we are finding that the old gods know how to transmigrate. Gandhi himself, seeing all those years of nonviolence culminate in the terrible violence that marked Indias partition in 1947, ruefully observed shortly before his death: The attitude of violence which we have secretly harboured now recoils on us, and makes us fly at each others throats when the question of distribution of power arises. Now that the burden of subjection is lifted, all the forces of evil have come to the surface. For neither nonviolence nor violence touch upon the root of Evil.
Ahimsa: nonviolence.
0 1962-11-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
3) Struggle is more in the Spiritual (subtle) than on the physical and the struggle need not be a shooting war.
4) Himalayan states will enjoy independence.
0 1962-12-28, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All earth shall be the Spirits manifest home.1
This cleansing of the middle ground is the whole story of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother I had been dredging, dredging, dredging the mire of the subconscious. The supramental light was coming down before November,2 but afterwards all the mud arose and it stopped.3 Once again Sri Aurobindo verified, not individually this time but collectively, that if one pulls down too strong a light, the violated darkness below is made to moan. It is noteworthy that each time Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had some new experience marking a progress in the transformation, this progress automatically materialized in the consciousness of the disciples, without their even knowing anything about it, as a period of increased difficulties, sometimes even revolts or illnesses, as though everything were grating and grinding. But then, one begins to understand the mechanism. If a pygmy were abruptly subjected to the simple mental light of a cultivated man, we would probably see the poor fellow traumatized and driven mad by the subterranean revolutions within him. There is still too much jungle beneath the surface. The world is still full of jungle, thats the crux of the matter in a word; our mental colonization is a minuscule crust plastered over a barely dry quaternary. And the battle seems endless; one digs and digs, said the Rishis, and the deeper one digs, the more the bottom seems to recede: I have been digging, digging. Many autumns have I been toiling night and day, the dawns aging me. Age is diminishing the glory of our bodies. Thus, thousands of years ago, lamented Lopamudra, wife of Rishi Agastya, who was also seeking transformation. But Agastya doesnt lose heart, and his reply is magnificently characteristic of the conquerors the Rishis were: Not in vain is the labor which the gods protect. Let us relish all the contesting forces, let us conquer indeed even here, let us run this battle race of a hundred leadings.
0 1963-01-12, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Which means it took twelve days for all his elements to form again. You see, they burned his body. (He was Christian, but his familyhis wife is alive and his brother toofound it less costly to let us handle it than to bury him as a Christian! So they had him cremated.) We cremated him, but I demanded a certain interval of time,4 although in his case it was really a gradual exhaustion and nothing much remained in his body; nonetheless, even then the consciousness is flung out of the cells violentlyit took twelve days to form again. It wasnt his soul (it had already left) but the Spirit of his body that came to me, the body consciousness gathered in a well-dressed, neat Benjamin with his hair neatly brushed. He was quite trim when he came to me, just as he would have been in life: he always wanted to be well-groomed and impeccable to see me, that was his way. It took twelve days to gather together because I didnt see to it (I can do it in a few hours but only if I see to it), but in his case, his soul having been at rest for a long time, it didnt matter much. So over twelve days it took form again and when he was ready (laughing), he came to reoccupy his room! And there was no furniture left, nothing!
I found that very funny.
0 1963-01-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In Matter shall be lit the Spirits glow,
In body and body kindled the sacred birth;
0 1963-03-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The inconscient world is the Spirits self-made room
Self-made.
0 1963-05-11, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And this (the diagram) is meant to prepare for the second birth mentioned in the Vedas, the Spiritual birth. Through it one becomes a complete being, consciously complete.
Of course, its the beginning of realization. But for many people its the ultimate term.
0 1963-06-26a, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Basically, these are almost methods for children (children from the Spiritual viewpoint), young soulschild-souls. They are methods for child-souls.
I used to write my whole japa fluently like that, in Sanskrit,1 now I have forgotten everything again.
0 1963-07-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We must have endurance, patience, and trust tooto last and last and last. Because ultimately, whatever way you look at it, thats the only solution. All the roundabout routes people follow (zigzag gesture as if to show the Spiritual disciplines and all the usual human quests) are simply to give you the illusion that you are doing something.
Thats quite clear.
0 1963-12-07 - supramental ship, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The way to get faith and all things else is to insist on having them and refuse to flag or despair or give up until one has themit is the way by which everything has been got since this difficult earth began to have thinking and aspiring creatures upon it. It is to open always, always to the Light and turn ones back on the Darkness. It is to refuse the voices that say persistently, You cannot, you shall not, you are incapable, you are the puppet of a dream,for these are the enemy voices, they cut one off from the result that was coming, by their strident clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness of the result as a proof of their thesis. The difficulty of the endeavour is a known thing, but the difficult is not the impossibleit is the difficult that has always been accomplished and the conquest of difficulties makes up all that is valuable in the earths history. In the Spiritual endeavour also it shall be so.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1963-12-31, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And earth shall be the Spirits manifest home1
(Sujata:) Is it the promise that came?
0 1964-01-18, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There should be somewhere upon earth a place that no nation could claim as its own, a place where every human being of goodwill, sincere in his aspiration, could live freely as a citizen of the world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the Spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasures and material enjoyment. In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their souls; education would be given not with a view to passing examinations or obtaining certificates and posts, but to enrich ones existing faculties and bring forth new ones. In this place, titles and positions would be replaced by opportunities to serve and organize; everyones bodily needs would be provided for equally, and in the general organization, intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority would be expressed not by increased pleasures and powers in life, but by greater duties and responsibilities. Beauty in all its art formspainting, sculpture, music, literaturewould be accessible to all equally, the ability to share in the joys it brings being limited solely by ones capacities and not by social or financial position. For in this ideal place, money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social position. There, work would not be for earning ones living, but the means to express oneself and develop ones capacities and possibilities, while at the same time being of service to the group as a whole, which would in turn provide for everyones subsistence and field of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, ordinarily based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in trying to do ones best, of collaboration and real brotherhood.
The earth is not ready to realize such an ideal, for humanity does not yet possess either the knowledge necessary to understand and adopt it or the conscious force indispensable for its execution. This is why I call it a dream.
0 1964-01-29, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The extreme acuteness of your difficulties is due to the yoga having come down against the bed-rock of Inconscience which is the fundamental basis of all resistance in the individual and in the world to the victory of the Spirit and the Divine Work that is leading toward that victory. The difficulties themselves are general in the Ashram as well as in the outside world.
The description follows. You would think it was happening now:
Doubt, discouragement, diminution or loss of faith, waning of the vital enthusiasm for the ideal, perplexity and a baffling of the hope for the future are the common features of the difficulty. In the world outside there are much worse symptoms such as the general increase of cynicism, a refusal to believe in anything at all, a decrease of honesty, an immense corruption, a preoccupation with food, money, comfort, pleasure, to the exclusion of higher things, and a general expectation of worse and worse things awaiting the world. All that, however acute, is a temporary phenomenon for which those who know anything about the workings of the world-energy and the workings of the Spirit were prepared. I myself foresaw that this worst would come, the darkness of night before the dawn; therefore I am not discouraged. I know what is preparing behind the darkness and can see and feel the first signs of its coming. Those who seek for the Divine have to stand firm and persist in their seeking; after a time, the darkness will fade and begin to disappear and the Light will come.
(XXVI.169-170, April 9, 1947)
0 1964-03-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But you see, you see all the way I have come. And I was born with a consciously prepared bodySri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the Spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And, mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, its IMPOSSIBLE to do this work.
A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexlessa warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warriorno desires, no attachments. Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to the human consciousness, are monstrous; my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real monster, because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, Would you like to do this? I answered, I dont care (my father especially, it would make him furious!3). If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm and so: Youre a monster, you have no feelings.
0 1964-11-21, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of course, I had the answer. I have a calendar with quotations from Sri Aurobindo, and I had the answer in the evening. I dont remember the exact words, but he said, the Spirit will change this human body too into a divine reality. That was the answer; he said, the Spirit. I said to myself, Obviously, but how can THIS be transformed?
Thats the problem.
0 1964-11-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Anyway, this is the Spirit nowadays.
And I am obliged to keep regular hours because the entire life of others depends on it. That was why people wanted to withdraw into solitude there is an advantage and a drawback; the advantage is that I try to make things very automatic, that is, quite outside a conscious will: they should work by themselves. On the mental level, its very easy, you can detach yourself completely and nothing matters; but for the body, its difficult, because its rhythm The whole rhythm of ordinary life is a mentalized one; even people who live in vital freedom are at odds with the whole social organizationits a mentalized life: there are clocks that strike the hour and it is agreed that things must be that way. Mentally, you can be perfectly free: you leave your body in the cogwheels and stop bothering about it; but when its this poor body itself that has to find its own rhythm, how difficult it is! How difficult. Sometimes, all of a sudden, it feels a discomfort; then I look and I see that there is something that could be an experience, but that would necessitate certain conditions of isolation, of quietness and independence, and it isnt possible. Then, very well as far as I can, I go within and do the minimum (the maximum of what can be done, which is a minimum compared to what could be done).
0 1965-02-27, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding the Playground Talk of March 10, 1951: In the physical form there is the Spirit of the form, and that spirit of the form persists for a time, even when outwardly the person is said to be dead. And as long as the Spirit of the form persists, the body isnt destroyed. In ancient Egypt they had that knowledge; they knew that if they prepared the body in a certain way, the Spirit of the form wouldnt go away and the body wouldnt be dissolved. In certain cases, they succeeded wonderfully. And if you go and violate the sleep of those beings who for thousands of years have remained like that, I can understand that they arent too pleased, especially when their sleep is violated out of an unhealthy curiosity legitimized by scientific ideas. At the Guimet Museum in Paris, there are two mummies. Nothing remains in one; but in the other, the Spirit of the form has remained very conscious, conscious to such a point that you can have a contact of consciousness with it. Its obvious that when a bunch of idiots come and stare at you with round eyes devoid of any understanding, saying, Oh, he is like this, he is like that, its not likely to please you. You know, in the first place they do something odious: those mummies are enclosed in a box with a special shape to fit the person, with everything needed to preserve them; so they open the box with more or less violence, they remove some wrapping here and there to see better. And as ordinary people were never mummified, they were beings who had achieved a considerable inner power, or else members of the royal family, people of some initiation.)
Those things about mummies, I knew them when I was nine or ten, they are memories from that time. I would find again some objects I had used in the past (thats how I was later able to rediscover the track). I had at leastat leastthree incarnations in Egypt (three that have been found).
0 1965-04-30, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How can I explain? (Smiling) It was like a round of inspection of the Spiritual sanitary conditions of the different lodgings (1). I am putting it like this, but it was rather curious; it was like a force, yes, or a sort of consciousness that came to inspect the different premises from the standpoint of spiritual healthit was rather curious, interesting. It had started with a visit to my own rooms here; then I asked for the explanation of the principle, if I may say so, on which that inspection was based, and when the explanation was given, I said, Well, lets go and see Satprems home, then. And I even had a sort of feeling that you didnt know (mind you, in fact I knew nothing about it, its just what I saw last night) that the mosquito netting they put at your place is mine, the one that was here before.
Yes.
0 1965-05-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have known one or two sincere doctors, and they admitted to me quite clearly that it was like that. I told them, From the Spiritual standpoint, there cannot be two identical cases. Nature never repeats itself there are families, there are analogies, there are similarities, but there arent two identical cases; therefore you know very well that you dont know. When you study it on its own level, the immense complexity of the possibilities of physical reality is such that unless you have a direct and intimate perception, you cannot know what will happen.
Now that the body knows a little, when something is wrong or goes awry for some reason or other (it may be because of transformation, it may be because of attacks there are innumerable reasons), my cells are beginning to say, Oh, no doctor, no doctor, no doctor! They feel the doctor will crystallize the disorder, harden it and take away the plasticity necessary to respond to the deeper forces; and then the disorder will follow an outward, material course which takes ages I dont have the time to wait.
0 1965-05-29, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He has become more sober, he doesnt speak so much anymore. You know he had made a prediction about M.s wife? What was her name? (Names its something rather odd: when people have left their body, their name goes away, I can no longer remember itits cut off, there is a break; I have to stop and let a sort of material memory come back, but in my consciousness its cut off, there isnt any name anymore: the name has gone away along with the bodywhich is quite as it should be, of course.) He had told her, Oh, you will live another ten years.The next month, she left. So I think it threw some cold water on him, because obviously people attach a great importance to those things. At any rate, he shouldnt have told her, because it interrupted all my workall my work was to make her unite with her soul before she went, so that all that could be taken along in the Spiritual life would be taken along. And I was working at it, but then when the other one told her she was going to live ten years, naturally she wasnt in a hurry anymore! I lost at least ten days because of that. And she left the day after the contact was madeshe found her soul, she became quiet, very quiet and the next day she was gone.
I havent lost hope that X might be progressive. If he is progressive, all will be well. Maybe in two or three years he will be a new man with a new consciousness? The stuff is good.
--
Even with scientific development taken to its utmost, to the point where one really feels there is almost no difference left, when, for instance, they reach the oneness of substance and there seems to remain just an almost insensible or imperceptible passage from one condition to the other [the material to the Spiritual], well, no, its not like that! In order to perceive that sort of identity, you must carry already in yourself the experience of the OTHER THING; otherwise you cannot.
And precisely because they have acquired the capacity to explain, they explain for themselves the inner phenomena, so that they remain in their negation of inner phenomena: they say they are like extensions of what they have studied.
--
"After all India with her mentality and method has done a hundred times more in the Spiritual field than Europe with her intellectual doubts and questionings. Even when a European overcomes the doubt and questioning, he does not find it as easy to go as fast and far as an Indian with the same force of personality because the stir of mind is still greater. It is only when he can get beyond that that he arrives, but for him it is not so easy.
"On the other hand however your statement is correct. It is 'natural considering the times' and the occidental mentality prevalent everywhere. It is also probably necessary that this should be faced and overcome before any supramental realisation is possible in the earth-consciousness for it is the attitude of the physical mind to spiritual things and as it is in the physical that the resistance has to be overcome before the mind can be overpassed in the way required for this yoga, the strongest possible representation of its difficulties was indispensable."
0 1965-06-26, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
First I should say that when he had his cancer, E. asked me to intervene; I answered her, I accept, but what will happen to him will be the best from the SpiritUAL standpointnot at all according to human conception. He refused the doctors treatments, he went from bad to worse; then that telegram, which I still had here till the day before yesterday. And when I received that telegram announcing it was the end, all of a sudden I said, Very well, he is going to start being cured. And I didnt say anything to anyone. Afterwards, E. sent me a letter asking me what she should do with all the things that would pass to her by right. But persistently there was, Now its going to get better and better, and everyone was expecting the telegram announcing the end. And now this!
Its interesting.
0 1965-07-31, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Afterwards, we should see according to the Spirit of peoples inquiries. He can start The Synthesis right awayThe Synthesis and The Life Divine are the two most important things.
Yes, not the small distorting books.
0 1965-08-07, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo opens a door in this world stifled by its material or heavenly excesses. He tells us, first, that there is something to be discovered and that we are rich, richer than we may ever think with our headswe are like beggars sitting on a gold mine. But we must get down into the mine. And he tells us that we have the power, if only we are pure enough to seize it. The power over Death and over Life and over Matter, for the Spirit is in us and it is here below that It wants to conquer:
Heavens touch fulfils but cancels not our earth.4
0 1965-08-31, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That isnt the physical mind. The physical mind, its a long time since It is the material mindnot even the material mind: the mind OF MATTER.1 It is the mental substance that belongs to Matter itself, to the cells. Thats what was formerly called the Spirit of the form, when it was said that mummies kept their bodies intact as long as the Spirit of the form persisted.2 Thats the mind I mean, that completely material mind. The other one, the physical mind, has been organized for a long time.
So what is the difference between this material mind and the physical mind? How would you define the physical mind in contrast with this material mind?
--
In a former Playground Talk (of March 10, 1951), Mother said regarding the violation of tombs in Egypt: "In the physical form there is the 'spirit of the form,' and that spirit of the form persists for a time, even when outwardly the person is said to be dead. And as long as the Spirit of the form persists, the body isn't destroyed. In ancient Egypt they had that knowledge; they knew that if they prepared the body in a certain way, the Spirit of the form wouldn't go away and the body wouldn't be dissolved." See conversation of February 27, 1965, p. 38
***
0 1965-09-18, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A member of UNESCO has asked a stupid question, something to this effect: There was a time when India represented the Spiritual consciousness (or taught the Spiritual consciousness, I dont remember now), but now that she is engaged in such a war, who will play this role?2 So instead of replying to the question, because I might have told him a thing or two, I answered what youve just read.
Of course! All those Europeans for fifty years they have been told about Gandhi, so now they dont understand!
0 1965-09-29, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, India is free and her freedom was necessary if the divine work was to be done. The difficulties that surround her now and may increase for a time, especially with regard to the Pakistan imbroglio, were also things that had to come and to be cleared out. Here too there is sure to be a full clearance, though unfortunately, a considerable amount of human suffering in the process is inevitable. Afterwards the work for the Divine will become more possible and it may well be that the dream, if it is a dream, of leading the world towards the Spiritual light, may even become a reality. So I am not disposed even now, in these dark conditions to consider my will to help the world as condemned to failure.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1965-11-27, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I clearly see that when the work is done as I am made to do it, it becomes that way very spontaneously. For instance, one of the very concrete things, which shows the problem clearly: humanity has the sex impulse quite naturally, spontaneously and, I may say, legitimately. This impulse will naturally and spontaneously disappear along with animality (a lot of other things will disappear, such as for instance the need to eat, perhaps also the need to sleep the way we do), but the most conscious impulse in a higher humanity, and which has remained as a source of bliss is a big word, but of joy, of delight, is certainly the sexual activity, which will have absolutely no more reason to exist in the functions of nature when the need to create in that way no longer exists. Therefore the capacity to come into contact with the joy in life will go up one rung or will orient itself differently. But what the Spiritual aspirants of old had attempted on principlesexual negationis an absurd thing, because it must exist only in those who have gone beyond that stage and no longer have any animality in them. And it must fall off naturally, effortlessly, without struggle, just like that. Making it a focus of conflict, struggle and effort is ridiculous. To be sure, my experience with the Ashram has absolutely proved that to me, because I have seen all the stages and that all the ideas and prohibitions are absolutely useless, that its only when the consciousness stops being human that it falls off quite naturally. There is a transition there that may be somewhat difficult because transitional beings are always in a precarious balance, but inside oneself there is a sort of flame or need thanks to which the transition isnt painfulits not a painful effort, its something that can be done with a smile. But to want to impose that on those who arent ready for that transition is absurd. I have been much reproached for encouraging certain people to marry; there are lots of these children to whom I say, Get married, get married! I am told, What! You encourage them?its common sense.
Its common sense. They are human, but let them not pretend they arent.
0 1966-01-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Seeking heavens rest or the Spirits worldless peace,
Or in bodies motionless like statues, fixed
0 1966-01-31, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just two days ago, I wrote to someone (someone who is a bit under the influence of ascetic ideas), and I told that person, Those thoughtsthose thoughts and that type of actionbelong, from the Spiritual standpoint, to the ascetic belief, but it-is-no-longer-true. And I said it with terrible force: IT-IS-NO-LONGER-TRUE. And I saw that at one point in the history of the earth it was necessary to obtain a certain result, but now ITS NO LONGER TRUE. Voil. It has given way to a higher and more complete truth. From that point of view, your book can obviously be the expression of this new force.
Its possible, its by no means impossible.
0 1966-07-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If it is from the Spiritual point of view the Divine Will alone is justifiable and It is what men travesty and distort in all their actions.
***
0 1966-09-30, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oddly, these last few days again, this has been the subject of my meditations (not willed ones: they are imposed from above). Because in all the transition from plant to animal and from animal to man (especially from animal to man), the differences of form are, ultimately, minor: the true transformation is the intervention of another agent of consciousness. All the differences between the life of the animal and the life of man stem from the intervention of the Mind; but the substance is essentially the same and it obeys the same laws of formation and construction. There isnt much difference, for instance, between the calf being formed in a cows womb and the child being formed in its mothers womb. There is one difference: that of the Minds intervention. But if we envisage a PHYSICAL being, that is, as visible as the physical now is and with the same density, for instance a body that wouldnt need blood circulation and bones (especially these two things: the skeleton and blood circulation) its very hard to imagine. And as long as it is like this, with this blood circulation, this functioning of the heart, we could imaginewe can imagine the renewal of strength, of energy through a power of the Spirit, through other means than food. Its conceivable. But the rigidity, the solidity of the body, how is it possible without a skeleton? So it would be an infinitely greater transformation than that from animal to man; it would be a transition from man to a being that would no longer be built in the same way, that would no longer function in the same way, that would be like a densification or concretization of something. Up till now, it doesnt correspond to anything we have seen physically, unless the scientists have found something I am not aware of.
We may conceive of a new light or force giving the cells a sort of spontaneous life, a spontaneous strength.
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 1966-12-07, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You understand, what comes is something that arousesit arouses words or gets clothed in words. Then it depends: it may arouse different words. And its in a universal storehouse, not necessarily an individual one; its not necessarily individual since it can be clothed in words. Languages are such narrow things, while that is universal. What could I call it? Its not the soul but the Spirit of the thing (though its more concrete than that): its the POWER of the thing. And because of the quality of the power, the best quality of words is attracted. Its inspiration that arouses the words; the inspired person isnt the one who finds or adapts them, not at all: its inspiration that AROUSES the words.
But I understand what you mean. You want to know if its something ready-made, ready-prepared, which you pull down as it is. (Mother remains silent). That exists in a realm far higher than words. For example, I have often received something like that (gesture from above), direct, then I translate it; I dont try to find it (the more silent I am, the more powerful and concrete it growspowerfully concrete), but I often see, as coming from Sri Aurobindo, something that adds a correction, a precision (rarely an addition, its not that: its only in the form, especially in the line of precision); the first expression is a little hazy, then it becomes more precise. And I dont try to find it, I dont strive, there isnt any mental activity: its always like this (even, still gesture to the forehead), and its always in this [stillness] that it comes: suddenly it comesplop! plop! I say, Oh! and note it down.
--
At any rate, because of the immensity of the work to be done, from an outward standpoint it looks like a quite thankless task. But thats only a purely superficial vision. Waves come to me like that from the world, from a whole class of the manifestation, saying, Ah, no! I dont want to bother about that, I just want to live peacefully, as well as I can. Well see once the world has been transformed, then we can start bothering about it. And thats among the most developed classes, the most intellectual, they are like that: Oh, very well, well see when its done. Which means they dont have the Spirit of sacrifice. Thats what Sri Aurobindo says (I keep coming across quotations from Sri Aurobindo all the time), he says that to do the Work one must have the Spirit of sacrifice.
But its true that, for instance, those few seconds (which come to me now and then and with increasing frequency), if you look at those few seconds calmly, well, theyre worth a great deal of effort. Having that is worth quite a few years of struggle and effort, because that is beyond anything perceptible, comprehensible, even beyond anything possible for life as it is now. Its its unimaginable.
0 1966-12-17, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(2) Sciences, if you study them deeply enough, will teach you the unreality of appearances and will thus lead you to the Spiritual reality.
(3) The study of all aspects and movements of physical Nature will bring you into contact with the universal Mother, and you will thus be nearer to me.
0 1967-02-15, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What I asked for was to give the students, as a preparation, a class on the history of religions, from the purely historical, external and intellectual standpoint. There is no question of dealing with the subject from the Spiritual angle.
At any rate, nothing useful can be done before carefully reading all that Sri Aurobindo has said on the subject (Synthesis of Yoga: in the Yoga of Knowledge he deals with religions; the first chapters of Essays on the Gita; Foundations of Indian Culture; Thoughts and Aphorisms, and many others too). Therefore start reading first.
0 1967-02-18, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The nature (of Mother) was rather shy, and as a matter of fact, there wasnt much confidence in the personal capacity (although there was the sense of being able to do anything, if the need arose). Till the age of twenty or twenty-one I spoke very little, and never, never anything like a speech. I wouldnt take part in conversations: I would listen, but speak very little. Then I was put in touch with Abdul Baha (the Bahai), who was then in Paris, and a sort of intimacy grew between us. I used to go to his gatherings because I was interested. And one day (when I was in his room), he said to me, I am sick, I cant speak; go and speak for me. I said, Me! But I dont speak. He replied, You just have to go there, sit quietly and concentrate, and what you have to say will come to you. Go and do it, you will see. Well then (laughing), I did as he said. There were some thirty or forty people. I went and sat in their midst, stayed very still, and then I sat like that, without a thought, nothing, and suddenly I started speaking. I spoke to them for half an hour (I dont even know what I told them), and when it was over everybody was quite pleased. I went to find Abdul Baha, who told me, You spoke admirably. I said, It wasnt me! And from that day (I had got the knack from him, you understand!), I would stay like that, very still, and everything would come. Its especially the sense of the I that must be lost thats the great art in everything, for everything, for everything you do: for painting, for (I did painting, sculpture, architecture even, I did music), for everything, but everything, if you are able to lose the sense of the I, then you open yourself to to the knowledge of the thing (sculpture, painting, etc.). Its not necessarily beings, but the Spirit of the thing that uses you.
Well, I think it should be the same thing with language. One should be tuned in to someone in that way, or through that someone to something still higher: the Origin. And then, very, very passive. But not inertly passive: vibrantly passive, receptive, like that, attentive, letting that come in and be expressed. The result would be there to see. As I said, we are limited by what we know, but that may be because were still too much of a person; if we could be perfectly plastic it might be different: there have been instances of people speaking in a language they didnt know, consequently
0 1967-03-04, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding Sri Aurobindo's Aphorism 126: "The most binding law of Nature is only a fixed process which the Lord of Nature has framed and uses constantly; the Spirit made it and the Spirit can exceed it, but we must first open the doors of our prison-house and learn to live less in Nature than in the Spirit.")
That was precisely the subject of (can we call it meditation?) of this mornings work. It came so clearly. But the experiences arent literary, they cant be expressed.1
0 1967-04-05, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now they still make a distinction: the Spiritual life and the ordinary life.
Only, one should have what I had when I was very young: the sense of material realization in its utmost perfection, the will for perfection THERE. One should have this in order not to fling everything out of the window and just remain like that (beatific gesture), like an idiot doing nothing. Its thanks to that old discipline that everything I do is automatically done with a will for perfection. Its an old discipline. Otherwise one would be there, laughing at everyone and everything, Have my experience, youll see what its worth!
--
Spiritual things! They teach History OR spiritual things, they teach Science OR spiritual things. Thats what is idiotic! In History, there is the Spirit; in Science, there is the Spirit the Truth is everywhere. And what is needed is to teach it not in an untruthful but in a true way.
They cant get that into their heads.
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 1967-06-07, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The traditions of the past are very great in their own place, in the past, but I do not see why we should merely repeat them and not go farther. In the Spiritual development of the consciousness upon earth the great past ought to be followed by a greater future.
January 14, 1932
0 1967-07-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The role of music lies in helping the consciousness to uplift itself towards the Spiritual heights.
All that lowers the consciousness, encourages desires and excites the passions runs counter to the true goal of music and ought to be avoided.
--
and the Spiritual consciousness alone can judge there.
Because at the School they play music every Saturday, and theyve begun quarrelling about the kind of music that should be played; then one boy said, As for me, I LOVE light music VERY MUCH, I find it VERY amusing. (Mother laughs) So they looked down on him scornfully! And they wrote to ask me. So thats what I replied!
0 1967-08-19, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then the conclusion Oh, at that moment I could have said many things about all the different intellectual and even spiritual attitudes of mankind. There arent big differences. the Spiritual (whats commonly called spiritual) boils down to the whole attempt at finding the Divine again by annulling the creation thats what has been regarded as spiritual life (thats why the word got distorted). To annul the creation in order to find the Divine again. And then, NOW: the vision of now. We are obviously drawing nearer to the moment of possibility that is clear. Its a question of timeof course, it cant be on the human scale, but we are on the borderline.
And as I said, the body asked oh, it had such a wonderful moment! A moment, a few minutes, so wonderful, when it KNEW how it ought to be. It was magnificent. Then the experience came.1 Till then, it was inexpressible: it was lived, it was a living consciousness, but the mind had become very quiet, so it was inexpressible. Then there came back that great complaint from the world, and the experience started being expressed (Mother looks for a note). It started being expressed, because it isnt just the anonymous demand of thousands of people: its virtually a shower of letters, questions, demands from people who believe who believe they are part of the Work, of the Action, who believe they have given themselves, and all their questionsand such futile questionswhich to them are of crucial importance, but which are so puerile, stupid, unimportant: how to start a business, the opening date, a name for a house, a message for a meeting. And what goings-on, its a deluge from every side. So it all was seen in the new attitudenot new, the consciousness was fully there, there had been a whole tendency to increasingly adopt that attitude, but now it was KNOWN, fully known: what one must be, how one must be. So I came down abruptly to reply to all that.
0 1967-08-26, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You know, I had an experience of this sort quite a long time ago (a very long time), when I was still in France, in Paris. There was a student friend in the studio (because I studied in a painting studio for a long time), she was a very good painter, we were close friends, and I started telling her about the Cosmic Review and Thons teaching. She belonged to a Catholic family of archbishops, even cardinals, anyway it was And she was extremely interested and wholly convinced: she felt a liberation of the Spirit and aspiration. Then, after I had Sri Aurobindos teaching, I passed it on to her, and there she was really quite taken. But she often told me, As long as I am awake, everything is fine, but in my sleep Ill suddenly wake up in a dreadful panic: and if the Catholic teaching is true, then Ill go to hell! And so, a torture. And she would tell me, When I am wide awake, I see how ridiculous it is
But all those who were baptized and went for a time to confession are part of an inner, a whole psychological entity, and its VERY DIFFICULT to break free of it; they are bound to a wholethere is there is an invisible Church, and all those people are in its grip. To break free of it, one must be a vital hero. A true hero, you understand. Because its very strong. I saw that all religions have in that way kinds of congregations in the invisible; but the Christian one is the strongest of them all from a terrestrial standpoint. Its much stronger than that of the Buddhists, much stronger than that of the Chinese, much stronger than the ancient Hindu religionsits the strongest. And naturally stronger than the more recent religions, too the strongest. And when you are baptized, you are bound. If you dont go to mass and have never been to confession, with a little vital energy you can get out of it, but those who have gone to confessionespecially confession and when you take communion, when you are given Christ to eat (another frightful thing).
0 1967-09-30, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Life runs in contemplation. People speak in a low voice. Their movements are slow and liturgical. The country is born for the Spirit, the Pope said.
All the same, it means he is receptive.
0 1967-10-25, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Illumine common acts with the Spirits ray
And meet the deity in common things.
--
the Spirit shall take up the human play,
This earthly life become the life divine.
--
Only, I see quite clearly that they dont believe in it, there is no one who feels. So does it? And the concrete materialization of the Spirit of Auroville hasnt taken place yet, it doesnt exist, there isnt in the earth atmosphere a formation of the Spirit of Auroville, which is a spirit. (Mother remains absorbed for a long time) At bottom it is: The art of building unity out of complexity. Without uniformity, you understand: unity through harmony in complexity, with each thing in its place.
Its very difficult.
0 1967-11-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a denial of all the Spiritual assertions of the past: If you want to live fully conscious of the divine life, leave your body the body cannot follow. Well, Sri Aurobindo came and said, Not only can the body follow, but it can be the base that will manifest the Divine.
The work remains to be done.
But now there is a certitude. The result is still very farvery far off, there is much to do before the crust, the outermost surface experience as it is, can manifest what takes place within (not within in the Spiritual depths: within in the body). For it to be able to manifest what is within That will come last, which is very good because if it came earlier, we would neglect the work; we would be so happy that wed forget to complete the work. Everything must have been done within, everything must be fully and thoroughly changed, then the outside will express it.
But its all ONE SINGLE substance, the very same everywhere, which was unconscious everywhere; and so, the remarkable thing is that things are taking place AUTOMATICALLY (gesture of points scattered throughout the world), completely unexpected things, here and there, even in people who dont know anything.
0 1967-12-30, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its an extremely interesting experience: how the same actions, the same work, the same observations, the same relationship with the people around (near or far), how they take place in the mind, through intelligence, and how they take place in the consciousness, by experience. And thats what this body is now learningto replace the mental government of intelligence by the Spiritual government of the consciousness. And it makes (it looks like nothing, one may not notice it), it makes a tremendous difference, to the point of multiplying the bodys possibilities a hundredfold. When the body is subjected to rules, even if they are broad, even if they are comprehensive, it is a slave to those rules and its possibilities are limited by them. But when its governed by the Spirit and the Consciousness that gives it an incomparable possibility and flexibility! And thats what will give it the capacity to prolong its life, to last longer: its by replacing the mental, intellectual government by the government of the Spirit, of the Consciousness THE Consciousness. Outwardly, it doesnt seem to make much difference, but My experience is like this (because now my body no longer obeys the mind or the intelligence at all, not any moreit doesnt even understand how that can be done), and more and more, and better and better, it follows the direction and impulsion of the Consciousness. But then, it sees, almost at each minute, the tremendous difference that it makes. For instance, time has lost its value (its rigid value): you can do exactly the same thing in very little time or in much time. Necessities have lost their authority: you can adapt yourself this way, adapt yourself that way. All the lawsthose laws that were laws of Naturehave lost all their despotism, we may say: it no longer works that way. All you have to do is always, always be supple, attentive, and responsive (if any such thing can be!) to the influence of the Consciousness the Consciousness in its all-powerfulnessso as to go through all this with extraordinary suppleness.
That is the discovery being made more and more.
0 1968-02-17, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
She wanted and she said I had allowed her (which is standing truth on its head)she wanted to open an LSD club in Auroville. Because I wrote to her being as objective as possible, I wrote it could be useful only under the control of people who have the Spiritual knowledge AND the power to control and assist. So she turned it upside down and said, Mother has given her permission on condition that there are people with knowledge who control So there. And the people with knowledge, of course
In the end, whatever happens in life, in action, is to make the movement of transformation and ascent as rapid as possible. Perhaps there are timesthere is a rhythm, and there are times more favorable to harmony, but a stagnant harmony, and so one tries to do away with, or at any rate suppress, all dangerous movements that might stop the progress or even lead towards destruction; but there are other times when there is a very strong push towards transformation, and, I must say with a risk of possible damage. Certainly since 1956, its plainly visible that there has been something pushing and pushing and pushing to hasten the movement, and it results in some very dangerous extravagances.
0 1968-04-20, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mothers answer:) The opposition between spirituality and material life, the division between the two has no sense for me as, in truth, life and the Spirit are ONE and it is in and by physical work that the highest spirit must be manifested.
I got today a letter from a Swedish lady, I think (Swedish or Norwegian, I dont know), who bought a crucifixion. A HUGE paintinghuge, I forget its size, but its fantastic, something like thirty feet high. She asks me what she should do with it! She wants to send it to me. So Ive told her (she paid a good sum for it, but shes a very rich woman; only she wanted to make a gift of it to me), Ive told her to make an exhibition in a large hall, with, written under the painting, The Past. Then to put next to it, quite small, a photo of the galaxy, which is almost identical to Aurovilles plana photo of the galaxy, big as this, and below, Aurovilles plan big as this (gesture still smaller), and to write, The Future.
0 1968-04-24, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the Spiritual order of things, the higher we project our view and our aspiration, the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us, because it is already there within us and calls for its release from the covering that conceals it in manifested Nature.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1968-07-03, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But her soul is one, intense in her aspiration towards the Spiritual truth, the essential unity of the creation and the divine origin of life, and by uniting with this aspiration the whole country can recover a unity that has never ceased to exist for the superior mentality.
My handwriting has become quite bad. Its not me who wrote this, I dont remember it at allit doesnt evoke any memory in me.
Wikipedia - Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43466858-the-way-of-the-spiritual-muslim
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43902586-the-labyrinth-of-the-spirits
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44062542-a-glimpse-of-the-spirit
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44717244-anatomy-of-the-spirit
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https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/11_fruits_of_the_spiritual_life
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Gifts_of_the_Spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_spirit#History
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_spirit#Lessons
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_spirit#Origin
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Gifts_of_the_Spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/New_Covenant#Gift_of_the_Spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Slain_in_the_Spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Talk:Code_of_the_spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Text:EBD:Intercession_of_the_Spirit
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Umbanda#World_of_the_Spirits
auromere - stages-in-the-spiritual-journey
auromere - signs-of-readiness-for-the-spiritual-path
auromere - the-spiritual-aptitude-adhikara-needed-for-yoga
auromere - meditation
auromere - hardships-in-the-spiritual-path
auromere - psychic-being
auromere - the-role-of-intellectual-development-in-the-spiritual-path
auromere - the-spiritual-dawn
Integral World - The Spiritual aspects of Illuminism, Casey M. Copsey
Integral World - The Spirit of Politics
Integral World - The Spiritual Politics of Jesus, Versus the "Integral" Politics of Ken Wilber, L. Ron Gardner
Integral World - LOHAS and the Indigo Dollar: Growing the Spiritual Economy, Joseph Gelfer
Integral World - The Spirituality of Tomorrow: Transcending (Yet Including) Religions, Why "Wilber's Way" Might Not Work, Brad Reynolds
Integral World - Ken Wilber Videos: The Spirituality of Tomorrow
Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-spirit-science.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-spiritual-genome-from-jewish.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-spiritual-genome.html
https://esotericotherworlds.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-spirit-molecule.html
https://esotericotherworlds.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-spiritualist-association-of-great.html
wiki.auroville - Loretta_reads_Savitri:One.V_"The_Yoga_of_the_King:_The_Yoga_of_the_Spirit's_Freedom_and_Greatness"_part_1
wiki.auroville - Loretta_reads_Savitri:One.V_"The_Yoga_of_the_King:_The_Yoga_of_the_Spirit's_Freedom_and_Greatness"_part_2
wiki.auroville - Loretta_reads_Savitri:One.V_"The_Yoga_of_the_King:_The_Yoga_of_the_Spirit's_Freedom_and_Greatness"_part_3
wiki.auroville - Loretta_reads_Savitri:Three.III_"The_House_of_the_Spirit_and_the_New_Creation"_part_1
wiki.auroville - Loretta_reads_Savitri:Three.III_"The_House_of_the_Spirit_and_the_New_Creation"_part_2
wiki.auroville - Loretta_reads_Savitri:Three.III_"The_House_of_the_Spirit_and_the_New_Creation"_part_3
wiki.auroville - The_Spirit_of_Auroville
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Embracing_Envy:_Finding_the_Spiritual_Treasure_in_Our_Most_Shameful_Emotion
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Charles_Lindbergh_and_the_Spirit_of_Saint_Louis_(Crisco_restoration,_with_wings).jpg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:The_Last_of_the_Spirits-John_Leech,_1843.jpg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_'43
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Laws
Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990 - 1996) - Gaia the Spirit of the Earth summons five teenagers from all ends of the earth to help in the crusade to protect our planet. Kwame, from Africa held the power of earth, Wheeler from US held the power of fire, Linka from Eastern Europe held the power of Wind, Gi from Asia held the power of water, an...
USA High (1997 - 1999) - A comedy in the spirit of "Saved by the Bell", "Running the Halls", "California Dreams", etc.: six students (4 Americans, a Brit and a German) go to "The American Academy of Paris", which is run by a stuffy British Headmaster, but who are taught by a gorgeous Dutch teacher. Hilarity ensues.
Sandra, The Fairytale Detective (2009 - 2009) - Sandra is a little girl who is the lone descendant from a long line of fairytale detectives. Sandra seems like other kids her age, but when her assistant and friend Fo, a 500-year-old elf with the spirit of a child, arrives to say that there's a problem over in The Land of Once Upon a Time, Sandra d...
Hikaru no Go (2001 - 2003) - 12-year-old Shindou Hikaru is just your average 6th grader. One day, while searching through his grandfather's attic, he comes across an old Go board. Upon touching the Go board, Hikaru is possessed by the spirit of Fujiwara no Sai, and continues to be haunted by him soon after. Sai was once a great...
The Spirit of Christmas (1953) (1953 - 1960) - a Christmas television special performed by marionettes.[1] It first aired in 1953 in the United States.[1] Its half-hour showing time is divided into two marrionette segments, one dramatizing "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and one telling the story of the Nativity.[1] The live-action part of the film...
FernGully: The Last Rainforest(1992) - A curious fairy named Crysta comes upon a rain forest near Mount Warning, Australia. Despite her beliefs that humans live on Mount Warning, the forest spirit tells her that humans have long since gone extinct, driven away by Hexxus, the spirit of all that is evil and toxic to nature. After a few for...
Sleeping Beauty(1959) - When an enchanted kingdom and the most fair Princess Aurora fall prey to the ultimate mistress of evil, Maleficent, the fate of the empire rests in the hands of three small, reclusive faries and a courageous prince's magical kiss. Their quest is fraught with preril as the spirited group must battle...
Night of the Scarecrow(1995) - A group of drunk teenagers accidently set free the spirit of a warlock, which possesses a scarecrow. The scarecrow goes on a bloody rampage killing the descendents of the men who had killed the warlock a century before. A newcomer and the daughter of the mayor try to stop it before it is too late an...
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within(2001) - In the year 2065, the next great assault against an invading race of phantom-like aliens is about to be launched. Dr. Aki Ross, a brilliant young scientist, races to find the invaders' secrets, not only to save the planet, but herself as well after her body is infected by alien particles. She teams...
Sometimes They Come Back... Again(1996) - Murderous spirits hell-bent on revenge return to haunt John Porter, a young man whose sister they had murdered three-decades ago. Just as before, they start tormenting him by taking over the body of his lovely teenage daughter, but the spirits make a terrible mistake by underestimating Porter; for t...
Jack Frost(1979) - In this holiday classic, Jack Frost, the spirit of winter chill falls for a young maiden in a small midevil village which is under the rule of a terrible Kosak King. After asking to be human, so he may wooh his lady, he finds out that she loves a knight in golden armor. Still a true and good spirit...
Jack Frost 2(2000) - Snowmen just don't get more abominable than the frozen serial killer in this tongue-in-cheek sequel to the cult horror hit Jack Frost. Sam (Christopher Allport) is still a bit spooked after his encounter with Jack Frost (Matt Falletta), a bloodthirsty snowman posessed by the spirit of a mass murdere...
The Eyes of the Panther(1990) - This film first debuted as an episode of the television anthology Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics. Based on a story by Ambrose Bierce, it tells of how the spirit of a wild panther continually plagues a young woman (Daphne Zuniga).
Witchboard(1987) - In this horror film, the spirit of a young boy named David reaches out to Linda Brewster (Tawny Kitaen) while she participates in an Ouija board session at a party. However, when Linda unwisely uses the board alone to attempt to communicate with David, she summons the spirit of a brutal murderer, wh...
The Spirit of '76(1990) - A group of polititions from the future are sent back to the year 1776 to seek advice from the Founding Fathers on how to resolve their problems. A slight malfunction sends them to the year1976 instead, where they witness what may be the most embarassing decade in american history.
The Awakening(1980) - Archeologist Matthew Corbeck (Charlton Heston) is placed in an unenviable position when his daughter is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian queen bent on destroying humanity.
My Fair Lady(1964) - Linguist Professor Henry Higgins bets his friend, Colonel Hugh Pickering , that he can transform Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle in time for an important society ball. The spirited Eliza proves more of a handful than the Professor could have predicted. As she slowly becomes more refined, and les...
Bringing Out the Dead(1999) - This tense urban drama stars Nicolas Cage as Frank Pierce, a paramedic on the brink of physical and emotional collapse. Frank has worked for years in one of New York's most brutal neighborhoods, and the pressure of his job has taken its toll; plagued with self-doubt, he is haunted by the spirits of...
The Possession of Joel Delaney(1972) - A rich New York divorcee's (Shirley MacLaine) brother (Perry King) feels the spirit of an ethnic voodoo-ritual beheader.
A Christmas Carol (1938)(1938) - On Christmas Eve, an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the spirit of his former partner, Jacob Marley. The deceased partner was in his lifetime as mean and miserly as Scrooge is now and he warns him to change his ways or face the consequences in the afterlife. Scrooge dismisses the appa...
The Asphyx(1973) - English country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham searches for immortality by literally 'bottling up' the Spirit of the Dead, or Asphyx.
Disney's A Christmas Carol(2009) - Jim Carrey plays Ebeneezer Scrooge in Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. Ebeneezer Scrooge is a grumpy old man that holds the spirit of Christmas in contempt. In a dream, her gets a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past, who reminds him of how he got to be su...
The Spirit(2008) - Rookie Cop Denny Colt Return's From The Beyond As The Spirit, A Superhero Whose Mission Is To Fight Off Against The Bad Forces In Central City.
Cathy's Curse(1977) - A young girl is possessed by the spirit of her dead aunt, who died in a car accident. Soon members of her family begin to mysteriously die off.
The Vengeance Of She(1968) - A beautiful young European girl, Carol, is taken over by the spirit of mysterious Ayesha, queen of the lost city of Kuma. Carol is taken to Kuma to succeed the almost-immortal Ayesha as empress of Kuma.
Hysterical(1983) - A burned out writer retreats to a northwest town called Hellview to write the great American novel. Unfortunately for him, the lighthouse he is renting is inhabited by the spirit of a woman who killed herself there one hundred years before and now wants him to replace her lost love, Captain Howdy. W...
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1361/Final_Fantasy__The_Spirits_Within -- Sci-Fi
Always (1989) ::: 6.4/10 -- PG | 2h 2min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance | 22 December 1989 (USA) -- The spirit of a recently deceased expert pilot mentors a newer pilot while watching him fall in love with the girlfriend that he left behind. Director: Steven Spielberg Writers:
Bedlam (1946) ::: 6.8/10 -- Approved | 1h 19min | Drama, Horror, Thriller | 10 May 1946 (USA) -- Nell Bowen, the spirited protege of rich Lord Mortimer, becomes interested in the conditions of notorious St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam). Encouraged by the Quaker Hannay, she tries... S Director: Mark Robson Writers: William Hogarth (suggested by The William Hogarth painting Bedlam Plate #8 "The Rake's Progress"), Val Lewton (screenplay) (as Carlos Keith) |
Beetlejuice (1988) ::: 7.5/10 -- Beetle Juice (original title) -- Beetlejuice Poster -- The spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit to drive them out. Director: Tim Burton Writers:
Blithe Spirit (1945) ::: 7.1/10 -- Not Rated | 1h 36min | Comedy, Fantasy | 3 October 1945 (Canada) -- A man and his second wife are haunted by the ghost of his first wife. Director: David Lean Writers: David Lean (adapted for the screen by), Ronald Neame (adapted for the screen by) | 1 more credit
Dead Man (1995) ::: 7.6/10 -- R | 2h 1min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | 10 May 1996 (USA) -- On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange aboriginal American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world. Director: Jim Jarmusch Writer:
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) ::: 6.4/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 46min | Animation, Action, Adventure | 11 July 2001 (USA) -- A scientist makes a last stand on Earth with the help of a ragtag team of soldiers against an invasion of alien phantoms. Directors: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara (co-director) Writers: Hironobu Sakaguchi (story), Al Reinert | 4 more credits
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) ::: 6.6/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 46min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller | 13 September 2013 (USA) -- The Lamberts believe that they have defeated the spirits that have haunted their family, but they soon discover that evil is not beaten so easily. Director: James Wan Writers:
Juliet of the Spirits (1965) ::: 7.6/10 -- Giulietta degli spiriti (original title) -- Juliet of the Spirits Poster -- Visions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband. Director: Federico Fellini Writers:
Just Like Heaven (2005) ::: 6.7/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 35min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy | 16 September 2005 (USA) -- A lonely landscape architect falls for the spirit of the beautiful woman who used to live in his new apartment. Director: Mark Waters Writers: Peter Tolan (screenplay), Leslie Dixon (screenplay) | 1 more credit
Lucky (2017) ::: 7.4/10 -- Not Rated | 1h 28min | Comedy, Drama | 29 September 2017 (USA) -- Lucky follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off the map desert town. Director: John Carroll Lynch Writers: Logan Sparks (screenplay), Drago Sumonja (screenplay)
Mystery Train (1989) ::: 7.6/10 -- R | 1h 50min | Comedy, Crime, Drama | 17 November 1989 (USA) -- Three stories are connected by a Memphis hotel and the spirit of Elvis Presley. Director: Jim Jarmusch Writer: Jim Jarmusch
Powder (1995) ::: 6.6/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 51min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery | 27 October 1995 (USA) -- An off the charts genius who is home schooled and shunned after his last relative dies shows the unconscious residents of his town about connection awareness and the generosity of the spirit. Director: Victor Salva Writer:
Seabiscuit (2003) ::: 7.3/10 -- PG-13 | 2h 20min | Drama, History, Sport | 25 July 2003 (USA) -- True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation. Director: Gary Ross Writers:
Silk (2006) ::: 6.4/10 -- Gui si (original title) -- (Taiwan) Silk Poster In Taipei, the crippled scientist Hashimoto uses his invention of "Menger Sponge" to capture the energy of the spirit of a child in an old building. He invites the specialist in reading ... S Director: Chao-Bin Su (as Chao-Pin Su) Writer:
Song of the Sea (2014) ::: 8.1/10 -- PG | 1h 33min | Animation, Adventure, Drama | 20 November 2015 (USA) -- Ben, a young Irish boy, and his little sister Saoirse, a girl who can turn into a seal, go on an adventure to free the fairies and save the spirit world. Director: Tomm Moore Writers:
The House of the Spirits (1993) ::: 6.9/10 -- R | 2h 20min | Drama, Romance | 1 April 1994 (USA) -- A rancher, his clairvoyant wife and their family face turbulent years in South America in this adaptation of Isabel Allende's best-seller. Director: Bille August Writers: Isabel Allende (novel), Bille August
The Polar Express (2004) ::: 6.6/10 -- G | 1h 40min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy | 10 November 2004 (USA) -- On Christmas Eve, a young boy embarks on a magical adventure to the North Pole on the Polar Express, while learning about friendship, bravery, and the spirit of Christmas. Director: Robert Zemeckis Writers:
The Spirit of Christmas (2015) ::: 6.5/10 -- Unrated | 1h 31min | Drama, Mystery, Romance | TV Movie 19 December -- The Spirit of Christmas Poster -- 12 days before Christmas, Kate is trying to close the sale of a historic inn, only to find Daniel, the ghost of a man who died a century ago, and he needs her help to unravel the mystery of his annual holiday haunting. Director: David Jackson
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) ::: 7.2/10 -- Approved | 2h 15min | Adventure, Biography, Drama | 20 April 1957 (USA) -- Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing. Director: Billy Wilder Writers:
To the Forest of Firefly Lights (2011) ::: 7.9/10 -- Hotarubi no mori e (original title) -- To the Forest of Firefly Lights Poster Hotaru is rescued by a spirit when she gets lost in a forest as a child. The two become friends, despite the spirit revealing that he will disappear if he is ever touched by a human. Director: Takahiro mori Writers: Yuki Midorikawa (idea), Takahiro mori (screenplay)
Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files ::: Yu yu hakusho (original tit ::: TV-PG | 24min | Animation, Action, Adventure | TV Series (1992-1995) Episode Guide 112 episodes Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files Poster -- One day, 14-year-old Yusuke Urameshi suddenly finds himself dead, having died pushing a child out of the way of oncoming traffic. Since he has such a bad personality, even the Spirit World ... S
https://animanga.fandom.com/wiki/Moribito:_Guardian_of_the_Spirit
https://anneofgreengables.fandom.com/wiki/A_Strong_Effort_of_the_Spirit_of_Good
https://anneofgreengables.fandom.com/wiki/Gallery:A_Strong_Effort_of_the_Spirit_of_Good
https://arcthelad.fandom.com/wiki/Arc_The_Lad:_Twilight_of_the_Spirits
https://arsmagica.fandom.com/wiki/House_of_the_Spirit
https://ayakashi-ghost-guild.fandom.com/wiki/Chapter_Ten:_The_Spirit_Stone
https://comics.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Steps_of_the_Spirits
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Break_the_Spirit
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Call_forth_the_spirit_pack
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Cast_Afar_the_Spirit
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Eyes_of_the_Spirits
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Focus_the_Spirits'_Lives
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Wrath_of_the_spirit_world
https://dreamfiction.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Scuttlebutt
https://dreamfiction.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Scuttlebutt/Trailer_transcripts
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Founding_of_the_Spirit_Wardens
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/On_the_Spirits_of_the_Hel_Shira
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Trial_of_the_Spirit
https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Collecting_the_Spirits
https://fanfiction.fandom.com/wiki/Kill_The_Spirits
https://fanfiction.fandom.com/wiki/Soul_Chronicles:_Tale_of_the_Spiritual_Samurai
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Peace_for_the_Spirit
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within_characters
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Girl_of_the_Spirit_Forest
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_Dais
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ochimo:_The_Spirit_Warrior
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Qanun_of_the_spirits
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Myrrth
https://hell-teacher-nube.fandom.com/wiki/Reibaishi_Izuna:_The_Spiritual_Medium
https://humanscience.fandom.com/wiki/Opening_to_the_Spiritual_Force_(Consecration)
https://humanscience.fandom.com/wiki/Qualities_of_the_Spiritual-Oriented_Individual
https://humanscience.fandom.com/wiki/True_and_the_Spiritually_True_Individual
https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within/Home_media
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Commander_2015/Call_the_Spirits
https://princessmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Ruler_of_the_Spirit_of_the_Stars_(PM5)
https://psychokid.fandom.com/wiki/Jesse_Ridgway_(The_Spirit_of_Ursula_Series_Character)
https://psychokid.fandom.com/wiki/Joe_(The_Spirit_of_Ursula_Series_Character)
https://psychokid.fandom.com/wiki/Larry_Abraham_(The_Spirit_of_Ursula_Series_Character)
https://psychokid.fandom.com/wiki/Parker_Zippel_(The_Spirit_of_Ursula_Series_Character)
https://psychokid.fandom.com/wiki/THE_SPIRIT_OF_URSULA_SERIES!
https://shamanking.fandom.com/wiki/Shaman_King:_Legacy_of_the_Spirits
https://soulcalibur.fandom.com/wiki/FanGame:Soulcalibur:The_Spirit_Lineage
https://tales-of-the-rays.fandom.com/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Spirit_Contained_Within
https://talespin.fandom.com/wiki/Idol_of_the_Spirit-Switcher
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Ashgar_(comic_story)
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_Trap_(audio_story)
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Dark_and_Lonely_Water
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Lore_of_the_Spirit
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Quest:The_Spirits_of_Stonetalon
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Competition
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Gnomeregan
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Umbranse_the_Spiritspeaker
Arad Senki: Slap Up Party -- -- Gonzo -- 26 eps -- Game -- Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy -- Arad Senki: Slap Up Party Arad Senki: Slap Up Party -- The anime will follow the adventures of Baron, a man living on continent of Arad in the year 981 after "the cursed light of Kazan" has fallen across the land. Thanks to the curse, one of his arms has become possessed. After finding a sword that has been possessed by the spirit Roxy, he embarks on a quest to unravel the secret of the curse and meets various people who also join his party. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Apr 4, 2009 -- 14,823 6.74
Battle Spirits: Heroes -- -- Sunrise -- 50 eps -- Card game -- Game Sci-Fi -- Battle Spirits: Heroes Battle Spirits: Heroes -- Like every card game enthusiast, Hajime Hinobori has always wanted to see the Spirits from his cards come to life and witness them in real combat. This dream is successfully realized by Hajime's scientist parents, who develop an augmented reality system that revolutionizes the competitive scene of Battle Spirits. Curious players from across the globe travel to partake in this innovative battle system. -- -- With his sight set on becoming the champion of this new form of Battle Spirits, Hajime encounters many colorful and quirky rivals, including eccentric diva Kimari Tatsumi and arrogant prodigy Tegamaru Tanashi. Along this journey of self-discovery and card-gaming shenanigans, there are no ordinary days in the lives of young heroes striving to take the crown! -- -- TV - Sep 18, 2011 -- 1,670 6.14
Biohazard: Infinite Darkness -- -- Quebico -- ? eps -- Game -- Action Sci-Fi Horror -- Biohazard: Infinite Darkness Biohazard: Infinite Darkness -- The Netflix series will tell its new story across two timelines. In the first, 14-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. A manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world. The second, more than a decade into the future sees less than 15 million people left on Earth. And more than 6 billion monsters — people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now 30, struggles to survive in this new world, while the secrets from her past — about her sister, her father and herself — continue to haunt her. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- ONA - ??? ??, 2021 -- 1,612 N/AOretacha Youkai Ningen -- -- DLE -- 25 eps -- Original -- Demons Horror Parody -- Oretacha Youkai Ningen Oretacha Youkai Ningen -- (No synopsis yet.) -- 1,612 N/A -- -- Youshou -- -- - -- 2 eps -- - -- Demons Hentai Horror -- Youshou Youshou -- Justice has never been so naked! -- -- A super-secret cult of lesbians performs erotic experiments on bodies from the local hospital! Their purpose: to revive the spirit of their ancient leader in a virile human form. Now it's up to the Midnight Strike Force, a team of busty justice fighters, to go undercover (and under the covers) to stop the nefarious acolytes before they succeed in their diabolically dirty schemes! -- -- (Source: Critical Mass Video) -- OVA - Feb 11, 2001 -- 1,599 5.21
Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 3: World Heroes' Mission -- -- Bones -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Super Power School Shounen -- Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 3: World Heroes' Mission Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 3: World Heroes' Mission -- (No synopsis yet.) -- Movie - Aug 6, 2021 -- 60,166 N/A -- -- Nobunagun -- -- Bridge -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Action Sci-Fi Super Power -- Nobunagun Nobunagun -- Shio Ogura is a Japanese high school student, who is visiting Taiwan on a school trip when she is suddenly attacked by monsters. Agents known as "E-Gene Holders" from the government agency DOGOO also arrive, who wield weapons infused with the spirits of historical figures. Shio is revealed to also be an E-Gene Holder when the soul of Oda Nobunaga awakens after she tries to rescue a friend. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 60,058 6.70
Boruto: Naruto the Movie -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Martial Arts Shounen Super Power -- Boruto: Naruto the Movie Boruto: Naruto the Movie -- The spirited Boruto Uzumaki, son of Seventh Hokage Naruto, is a skilled ninja who possesses the same brashness and passion his father once had. However, the constant absence of his father, who is busy with his Hokage duties, puts a damper on Boruto's fire. Upon learning that his father will watch the aspiring ninjas who will participate in the upcoming Chunin exams, Boruto is driven to prove to him that he is worthy of his attention. In order to do so, he enlists the help of Naruto's childhood friend and rival, Sasuke Uchiha. -- -- The Chunin exams begin and progress smoothly, until suddenly, the Konohagakure is attacked by a new foe that threatens the long-standing peace of the village. Now facing real danger, Naruto and his comrades must work together to protect the future of their cherished home and defeat the evil that terrorizes their world. As this battle ensues, Boruto comes to realize the struggles his father once experienced—and what it truly means to be a ninja. -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- Movie - Aug 7, 2015 -- 338,945 7.48
Boruto: Naruto the Movie -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Martial Arts Shounen Super Power -- Boruto: Naruto the Movie Boruto: Naruto the Movie -- The spirited Boruto Uzumaki, son of Seventh Hokage Naruto, is a skilled ninja who possesses the same brashness and passion his father once had. However, the constant absence of his father, who is busy with his Hokage duties, puts a damper on Boruto's fire. Upon learning that his father will watch the aspiring ninjas who will participate in the upcoming Chunin exams, Boruto is driven to prove to him that he is worthy of his attention. In order to do so, he enlists the help of Naruto's childhood friend and rival, Sasuke Uchiha. -- -- The Chunin exams begin and progress smoothly, until suddenly, the Konohagakure is attacked by a new foe that threatens the long-standing peace of the village. Now facing real danger, Naruto and his comrades must work together to protect the future of their cherished home and defeat the evil that terrorizes their world. As this battle ensues, Boruto comes to realize the struggles his father once experienced—and what it truly means to be a ninja. -- -- Movie - Aug 7, 2015 -- 338,945 7.48
Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou -- -- Asread -- 4 eps -- Visual novel -- Mystery Horror Supernatural -- Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou -- Nine students gather in their high school at night to bid farewell to a friend. As is customary among many high school students, they perform a sort of ritual for them to remain friends forever, using small paper charms shaped like dolls. -- -- However, the students do not realize that these charms are connected to Heavenly Host Academy—an elementary school that was destroyed years ago after a series of gruesome murders took place, a school that rests under the foundation of their very own Kisaragi Academy. Now, trapped in an alternate dimension with vengeful ghosts of the past, the students must work together to escape—or join the spirits of the damned forever. -- -- A feast for mystery fanatics, gore-hounds, and horror fans alike, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou shows a sobering look at redemption, sacrifice, and how the past is always right behind, sometimes a little too close for comfort. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Maiden Japan -- OVA - Jul 24, 2013 -- 296,149 6.55
Date A Bullet: Dead or Bullet -- -- GEEK TOYS -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Sci-Fi -- Date A Bullet: Dead or Bullet Date A Bullet: Dead or Bullet -- Soon after falling into another world, Kurumi Tokisaki takes interest in a particular white cat. Much to Kurumi's disappointment, the two part ways. -- -- Kurumi later meets Hibiki Higoromo, a white haired quasi-spirit. Hibiki explains that they are at the center of a killing game between quasi-spirits. Within the Neighboring World, the spirits compete for a single wish to be granted to the lone survivor of the death-match. -- -- Understanding the rules of the game, Kurumi and Hibiki reach a compromise—a temporary alliance. -- -- Movie - Aug 14, 2020 -- 61,817 7.51
Date A Live -- -- AIC PLUS+ -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Sci-Fi Harem Comedy Romance Mecha School -- Date A Live Date A Live -- Thirty years ago, the Eurasian continent was devastated by a supermassive "spatial quake"—a phenomenon involving space vibrations of unknown origin—resulting in the deaths of over 150 million people. Since then, these quakes have been plaguing the world intermittently, albeit on a lighter scale. -- -- Shidou Itsuka is a seemingly average high school student who lives with his younger sister, Kotori. When an imminent spatial quake threatens the safety of Tengu City, he rushes to save her, only to be caught in the resulting eruption. He discovers a mysterious girl at its source, who is revealed to be a "Spirit," an otherworldly entity whose appearance triggers a spatial quake. Soon after, he becomes embroiled in a skirmish between the girl and the Anti-Spirit Team, a ruthless strike force with the goal of annihilating Spirits. -- -- However, there is a third party that believes in saving the spirits: "Ratatoskr," which surprisingly is commanded by Shidou's little sister! Kotori forcibly recruits Shidou after the clash, presenting to him an alternative method of dealing with the danger posed by the Spirits—make them fall in love with him. Now, the fate of the world rests on his dating prowess, as he seeks out Spirits in order to charm them. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 762,164 7.20
Date A Live III -- -- J.C.Staff -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Sci-Fi Harem Comedy Romance Mecha School -- Date A Live III Date A Live III -- Shidou Itsuka carries on with his quest for Ratatoskr in finding Spirits and trying to seal their powers, all while maintaining his relationships with the ones he had already sealed. Moreover, as new Spirits appear, he must undergo more complicated trials—all to put a stop to further disasters as he discovers more about the Spirits' origin. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 242,341 7.14
Date A Live Movie: Mayuri Judgment -- -- Production IMS -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Harem Romance Sci-Fi -- Date A Live Movie: Mayuri Judgment Date A Live Movie: Mayuri Judgment -- War(Date), resumes. -- The peaceful days of Itsuka Shidou returned without having to save the Spirits from the relentless battle days. But, the peaceful days were interrupted by the emergence of a mysterious sphere emitting spiritual wave――as well as a mysterious girl who showed herself at the same time. What is her purpose of keeping an eye on Shidou……? The mission that had been entrusted to Shidou under the tense situation was, -- -- “Date all of the Spirits, and make them fall in love?!” -- -- ――With the fate of humanity at stake, the war(date) resumes! -- -- (Source: Date A Live Wiki) -- Movie - Aug 22, 2015 -- 148,796 7.35
Douluo Dalu -- -- Sparkly Key Animation Studio -- 26 eps -- Novel -- Action Adventure Fantasy Historical Martial Arts Romance -- Douluo Dalu Douluo Dalu -- Tang San is one of Tang Sect martial art clan's most prestigious disciples and peerless in the use of hidden weapons. With high expectations, the sect's elders believe his future will be bright; yet Tang chooses to forsake this life at the cost of obtaining the sect's forbidden lore—an action punishable by death. Tang, now content with his ascension of knowledge, sees no reason to keep on living and jumps from Hell's Peak, but little did he know that that would not be the end of his existence. -- -- In Douluo Continent, the strong prevail and the weak perish. Each person possesses an innate spirit, some of which can be cultivated and strengthened, bestowing its user with various benefits. Those who were born with such spirits can become Spirit Masters, a profession regarded as one of the continent's most noble. -- -- Tang, reincarnated into this strange world, knows only the life of a blacksmith's son. At the age of six, he takes part in the Spirit Master ceremony, and discovers his spirit is Blue Silver Grass—supposedly the world's most useless spirit. In contrast, however, he possesses strong spirit power. Now, aided by the memories of his previous life as well, Tang's future as a Spirit Master is in no way bleak. -- -- ONA - Jan 20, 2018 -- 16,164 7.87
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within -- -- Square Enix -- 1 ep -- Game -- Sci-Fi -- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within -- The year is 2065, and the planet of Earth is far removed from the place that it was in the past. Deadly alien creatures known as Phantoms have appeared all over the planet, and mere contact with these entities is lethal, whether it be an instant death or a prolonged decline. In order to try and salvage what little of the human race is left, large force-field barriers have been constructed around certain cities to repel the Phantoms. -- -- Seeking a more permanent solution to this invasion are scientists Aki Ross and her mentor, Dr. Sid, whose investigations have revealed that there exists a form of spiritual, Gaia energy that can eradicate the Phantom's presence from this world. Aki and Sid aren't alone in their quest through Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within; the human council and the military squad "Deep Eyes" are ready to help. Not everyone is convinced of this plan though. -- -- Aki, Sid, Grey, and their allies have to band together against forces both alien and human if they are to have any chance at restoring peace to Earth. An enemy whose mere touch is fatal, the Phantoms appear the more dangerous enemy, but as they will come to find out, their human nemeses are also not to be trifled with. -- Movie - Jul 2, 2001 -- 65,855 6.35
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Specials -- -- Bones -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Magic Fantasy -- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Specials Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Specials -- To mark the July 2 opening of the Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos film, the Pia Eiga Seikatsu website posted an exclusive video "interview" with the stars of the film, Edward and Alphonse Elric (as voiced by Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya, respectively). In keeping with the spirit of Hiromu Arakawa's original manga and the two television anime, the interviewer has trouble early on in figuring out who the "Fullmetal Alchemist" is. (The interview has cameos by the other stars of the anime.) Also includes 3 "Study" sessions with "Professor" Mustang, teaching Winry and Hawkeye about Creta and Milos. -- ONA - Jun 10, 2011 -- 19,933 6.95
Fuse: Teppou Musume no Torimonochou -- -- TMS Entertainment -- 1 ep -- Book -- Action Drama Historical Supernatural -- Fuse: Teppou Musume no Torimonochou Fuse: Teppou Musume no Torimonochou -- In Kyokutei Bakin's classic Japanese epic novel Nansou Satomi Hakkenden, eight samurai serve the Satomi clan during Japan's tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era. The Edo-era samurai are the reincarnations of the spirits that Princess Fuse mothered with a dog named Yatsufusa. In Fuse Gansaku: Satomi Hakkenden, the female hunter Hamaji comes to her brother in order to hunt Fuse. Thus, the karmic cycle of retribution that began long ago with the Satomi family begins anew. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- NIS America, Inc. -- Movie - Oct 20, 2012 -- 28,075 7.35
Fuse: Teppou Musume no Torimonochou -- -- TMS Entertainment -- 1 ep -- Book -- Action Drama Historical Supernatural -- Fuse: Teppou Musume no Torimonochou Fuse: Teppou Musume no Torimonochou -- In Kyokutei Bakin's classic Japanese epic novel Nansou Satomi Hakkenden, eight samurai serve the Satomi clan during Japan's tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era. The Edo-era samurai are the reincarnations of the spirits that Princess Fuse mothered with a dog named Yatsufusa. In Fuse Gansaku: Satomi Hakkenden, the female hunter Hamaji comes to her brother in order to hunt Fuse. Thus, the karmic cycle of retribution that began long ago with the Satomi family begins anew. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- Movie - Oct 20, 2012 -- 28,075 7.35
Futari wa Precure: Splash☆Star -- -- Toei Animation -- 49 eps -- Original -- Action Comedy Magic Fantasy Shoujo -- Futari wa Precure: Splash☆Star Futari wa Precure: Splash☆Star -- During the summer festival five years ago, two girls met at a mysterious tree and saw two glowing spheres. Now, these two girls--Saki Hyuuga, ace pitcher on the school softball team; and Mai Mishou, who prefers sketching over stargazing--are chosen by the spirits of flowers (Flappy) and birds (Choppy) to restore the Seven Fountains and save their worlds from Dark Autumn. Together, they are the NEW Pretty Cure. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Feb 5, 2006 -- 10,195 7.14
Hengen Taima Yakou Karura Mau! Nara Onryou Emaki -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Demons Fantasy Horror Shoujo Supernatural -- Hengen Taima Yakou Karura Mau! Nara Onryou Emaki Hengen Taima Yakou Karura Mau! Nara Onryou Emaki -- Shoko and Maiko Ougi are apparently two ordinary schoolgirls in pursuit of graduating and having fun. Shii-chan is the more serious while Mai-chan is more fun-loving. In reality, the two sisters are powerful exorcists from the Karura temple. Each wields half the power...Shii-chan can "see" the spirits, and Mai-chan can banish them. This is the movie adaptation of a spooky series with heavy emphasis on traditionally Japanese occult themes. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo's Karura Mau OVA description; modified) -- Movie - Apr 8, 1989 -- 1,245 5.79
Hengen Taima Yakou Karura Mau! Sendai Kokeshi Enka -- -- - -- 6 eps -- Manga -- Horror Shoujo -- Hengen Taima Yakou Karura Mau! Sendai Kokeshi Enka Hengen Taima Yakou Karura Mau! Sendai Kokeshi Enka -- Shoko and Maiko Ougi are apparently two ordinary schoolgirls in pursuit of graduating and having fun. Shii-chan is the more serious while Mai-chan is more fun-loving. In reality, the two sisters are powerful exorcists from the Karura temple. Each wields half the power... Shii-chan can "see" the spirits, and Mai-chan can banish them. This is a spooky series with heavy emphasis on traditionally Japanese occult themes. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- OVA - Sep 14, 1990 -- 721 6.19
Hikaru no Go -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 75 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Game Shounen Supernatural -- Hikaru no Go Hikaru no Go -- While searching through his grandfather's attic, Hikaru Shindou stumbles upon an old go board. Touching it, he is greeted by a mysterious voice, and soon after falls unconscious. When he regains his senses, he discovers that the voice is still present and belongs to Sai Fujiwara no, the spirit of an ancient go expert. A go instructor for the Japanese Emperor in the Heian Era, Sai's passion for the game transcends time and space, allowing him to continue playing his beloved game as a ghostly entity. Sai's ultimate goal is to master a divine go technique that no player has achieved so far, and he seeks to accomplish this by playing the board game through Hikaru. -- -- Despite having no interest in board games, Hikaru reluctantly agrees to play, executing moves as instructed by Sai. However, when he encounters the young go prodigy Akira Touya, a passion for the game is slowly ignited within him. Inspired by his newfound rival, Hikaru's journey into the world of go is just beginning. -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- TV - Oct 10, 2001 -- 113,725 8.10
Hikaru no Go -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 75 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Game Shounen Supernatural -- Hikaru no Go Hikaru no Go -- While searching through his grandfather's attic, Hikaru Shindou stumbles upon an old go board. Touching it, he is greeted by a mysterious voice, and soon after falls unconscious. When he regains his senses, he discovers that the voice is still present and belongs to Sai Fujiwara no, the spirit of an ancient go expert. A go instructor for the Japanese Emperor in the Heian Era, Sai's passion for the game transcends time and space, allowing him to continue playing his beloved game as a ghostly entity. Sai's ultimate goal is to master a divine go technique that no player has achieved so far, and he seeks to accomplish this by playing the board game through Hikaru. -- -- Despite having no interest in board games, Hikaru reluctantly agrees to play, executing moves as instructed by Sai. However, when he encounters the young go prodigy Akira Touya, a passion for the game is slowly ignited within him. Inspired by his newfound rival, Hikaru's journey into the world of go is just beginning. -- -- TV - Oct 10, 2001 -- 113,725 8.10
Kantai Collection: KanColle -- -- Diomedéa -- 12 eps -- Game -- Action Military Sci-Fi Slice of Life School -- Kantai Collection: KanColle Kantai Collection: KanColle -- With the seas under constant threat from the hostile "Abyssal Fleet," a specialized naval base is established to counter them. Rather than standard naval weaponry, however, the base is armed with "Kanmusu"—girls who harbor the spirits of Japanese warships—possessing the ability to don weaponized gear that allows them to harness the powerful souls within themselves. Fubuki, a young Destroyer-type Kanmusu, joins the base as a new recruit; unfortunately for her, despite her inexperience and timid nature, she is assigned to the famous Third Torpedo Squadron and quickly thrust into the heat of battle. When she is rescued from near annihilation, the rookie warship resolves to become as strong as the one who saved her. -- -- 190,735 6.87
Kantai Collection: KanColle -- -- Diomedéa -- 12 eps -- Game -- Action Military Sci-Fi Slice of Life School -- Kantai Collection: KanColle Kantai Collection: KanColle -- With the seas under constant threat from the hostile "Abyssal Fleet," a specialized naval base is established to counter them. Rather than standard naval weaponry, however, the base is armed with "Kanmusu"—girls who harbor the spirits of Japanese warships—possessing the ability to don weaponized gear that allows them to harness the powerful souls within themselves. Fubuki, a young Destroyer-type Kanmusu, joins the base as a new recruit; unfortunately for her, despite her inexperience and timid nature, she is assigned to the famous Third Torpedo Squadron and quickly thrust into the heat of battle. When she is rescued from near annihilation, the rookie warship resolves to become as strong as the one who saved her. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Crunchyroll, Funimation -- 190,735 6.87
Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai -- -- David Production -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Action Mystery Shounen Supernatural -- Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai -- Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai adapts a handful of one-shots based on the manga series JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken, and follows the bizarre adventures that Rohan Kishibe goes through as he searches for inspiration for his manga. -- -- Fugou Mura -- -- Rohan accompanies manga editor Kyouka Izumi to a secretive village where she plans on buying a house. Izumi informs Rohan that inhabitants of the village suddenly become rich at the age of 25 after purchasing their homes. Being 25 years old herself, Izumi has high hopes for moving into the village and invites Rohan to gather ideas for his manga. As they enter one of the houses for an interview with the seller, they are greeted by a servant named Ikkyuu, who puts them through a test of etiquette with deadly consequences. -- -- Mutsukabezaka -- -- Rohan meets with his editor, Minoru Kagamari, to discuss both his manga and the six mountains that the manga author recently bought. He explains that he purchased the mountains in order to search for a legendary spirit known as the Mutsukabezaka. To give his search context, he tells the tale of Naoko Osato, a wealthy heiress who murdered her boyfriend and became cursed by the spirit. -- -- Zangenshitsu -- -- Rohan decides to vacation in Venice after putting his manga on hiatus. While there, he explores the interior of a church and examines the structure of its confessional. After stepping into the priest's compartment, Rohan hears a man enter the confessional and begin to confess his sins. The man recounts his confrontation with a starving beggar and the haunting events that followed. -- -- The Run -- -- Youma Hashimoto is a young male model who has quickly risen to success. As his popularity grows, so does his obsession with his appearance and body. One day, he meets Rohan at the gym, and the two quickly form a rivalry which pushes Youma to intensify his training. Soon. Youma's fixation on his physique takes a dark turn as his training takes precedence over his life, and he challenges Rohan to a fatal competition on the treadmills. -- -- OVA - Sep 20, 2017 -- 77,010 7.62
Kyuuketsuhime Miyu -- -- AIC -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Action Horror Demons Drama Vampire Shoujo -- Kyuuketsuhime Miyu Kyuuketsuhime Miyu -- A quiet gothic horror story about a vampire girl, Miyu, whose destiny it is to hunt down murderous demons known as Shinma and return them to their land of origin, the Dark. Miyu is pursued by the Spiritualist Himiko, determined to find out who Miyu is and to stop her from sucking the life blood from helpless humans. Each of the four episodes chronicle one of Miyu's encounters with a Shinma and the humans that it is affecting, from the perspective of Himiko's pursuit of Miyu. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- -- Licensor: -- AnimEigo -- OVA - Jul 21, 1988 -- 17,454 6.99
Ling Qi -- -- Haoliners Animation League -- 20 eps -- Web manga -- Action Comedy Magic Shounen Ai Supernatural -- Ling Qi Ling Qi -- Low on luck after a series of unfortunate events, You Keika works part-time to try bringing himself out of a life of poverty. After a strange encounter with a white-haired man in a junkyard, You wakes up to discover that he was killed in a sudden accident and has become a spirit. The man he had encountered, Tanmoku Ki, is revealed as the 13th Youmeshi of the Tanmoki, the highest-ranking exorcist family of China. Noticing the wandering spirit, he offers You the opportunity to form a pact: he will offer You protection from humans and in return, You will have to become his spirit shadow, keeping him safe and guarded at all times. -- -- From then on, the two face untold challenges in the spiritual world, striving to keep those around them safe from harmful spirits. Along the way, the pact they formed grows into something more; a bond that neither of the two ever expected. Behind their roles as master and servant, a lingering admiration begins to emerge. -- -- ONA - Jun 21, 2016 -- 66,773 7.14
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka -- -- LIDENFILMS -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Magic Military Seinen -- Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka -- Three years ago, a bloodthirsty race of interdimensional beings known as the Disas appeared and destroyed everything they could reach on Earth. With regular weapons rendered useless, humanity's only hope of survival relied on humans who became magical girls after forming an alliance with the Spirit Realm, who had followed the Disas to Earth. After a violent conflict, the squad of magical girls emerge victorious, with the survivors now known as the "Magical Five." -- -- Following the war with the Disas, the Magical Five disbands. Kurumi Mugen, Mia Cyrus, Tamara Volkova, and Lau Peipei independently continue their own military services, while their leader, Asuka Ootorii, retires and becomes a high school student. However, Asuka's peace is short-lived, as it seems there were survivors on the enemy's side as well. As magic must be fought with magic, Asuka is dragged back into combat as an even worse battle looms on the horizon. -- -- 64,447 6.34
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka -- -- LIDENFILMS -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Magic Military Seinen -- Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka -- Three years ago, a bloodthirsty race of interdimensional beings known as the Disas appeared and destroyed everything they could reach on Earth. With regular weapons rendered useless, humanity's only hope of survival relied on humans who became magical girls after forming an alliance with the Spirit Realm, who had followed the Disas to Earth. After a violent conflict, the squad of magical girls emerge victorious, with the survivors now known as the "Magical Five." -- -- Following the war with the Disas, the Magical Five disbands. Kurumi Mugen, Mia Cyrus, Tamara Volkova, and Lau Peipei independently continue their own military services, while their leader, Asuka Ootorii, retires and becomes a high school student. However, Asuka's peace is short-lived, as it seems there were survivors on the enemy's side as well. As magic must be fought with magic, Asuka is dragged back into combat as an even worse battle looms on the horizon. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 64,447 6.34
Mob Psycho 100: Dai Ikkai Rei toka Soudansho Ian Ryokou - Kokoro Mitasu Iyashi no Tabi -- -- Bones -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Slice of Life Comedy Supernatural -- Mob Psycho 100: Dai Ikkai Rei toka Soudansho Ian Ryokou - Kokoro Mitasu Iyashi no Tabi Mob Psycho 100: Dai Ikkai Rei toka Soudansho Ian Ryokou - Kokoro Mitasu Iyashi no Tabi -- Mob, Reigen, Dimple, and the newest member of the Spirits and Such Consultation Office staff, Serizawa, take a trip up to a secluded hot spring called Ibogami Hot Springs in Zebra Prefecture. Reigen happened to get a request from the matron there to discover the truth behind the strange rumors going around there and save the inn. Ritsu and Teru also join in on this trip and the six of them head out on this super relaxing trip to the hot spring. But on their way there, Reigen and Serizawa start nodding off on the train and somehow get sucked into an eerie parallel world... -- -- (Source: Crunchyroll) -- OVA - Sep 25, 2019 -- 55,671 7.62
Mo Dao Zu Shi -- -- B.CMAY PICTURES -- 15 eps -- Novel -- Action Adventure Mystery Historical Supernatural -- Mo Dao Zu Shi Mo Dao Zu Shi -- Xian: the state of immortality that all cultivators strive to achieve. However, there is a dark energy that lies underneath—the forbidden Mo Dao, or demonic path. Through an unfortunate series of tragedies, this is the path that cultivator Wei Wuxian experiments with during his teachings. His rise in power is accompanied by chaos and destruction, but his reign of terror comes to an abrupt end when the cultivation clans overpower him and he is killed by his closest ally. -- -- Thirteen years later, Wei Wuxian is reincarnated in the body of a lunatic and reunited with Lan Wangji, a former classmate of his. This marks the beginning of a supernatural mystery that plagues the clans and threatens to disrupt their everyday life. -- -- Mo Dao Zu Shi follows these two men on their mission to unravel the mysteries of the spiritual world. Fighting demons, ghosts, and even other cultivators, the two end up forming a bond that neither of them had ever expected. -- -- ONA - Jul 9, 2018 -- 140,492 8.49
Natsu-iro Kiseki -- -- Sunrise -- 12 eps -- Original -- School Slice of Life Supernatural -- Natsu-iro Kiseki Natsu-iro Kiseki -- Yuka, Rinko, Saki, and Natsumi are childhood friends and classmates nearing the end of their second year of middle school and eagerly awaiting their summer break. Unfortunately, it's a bittersweet time for this close-knit group, as Saki is transferring to another school. -- -- The girls are determined to keep the spirit of their friendship alive, even if only for this summer. They reminisce about a large stone the four of them used to visit, tucked away in an old Shinto shrine, and the belief that if four friends gathered around it and made a single wish, it would come true. Now, much to their surprise, they discover that old folktale is true. -- -- Natsu-iro Kiseki follows the magical events the girls go through during this last summer they’ll all spend together. As friendships get tested, and fantasies are fulfilled, the four classmates will end up learning a great deal about themselves and each other on the path to forging a summer that they’ll never forget. -- 38,381 7.01
Natsume Yuujinchou -- -- Brain's Base -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Demons Supernatural Drama Shoujo -- Natsume Yuujinchou Natsume Yuujinchou -- While most fifteen-year-old boys, in one way or another, harbor secrets that are related to girls, Takashi Natsume has a peculiar and terrifying secret involving youkai: for as long as he can remember, he has been constantly chased by these spirits. Natsume soon discovers that his deceased grandmother Reiko had passed on to him the Yuujinchou, or "Book of Friends," which contains the names of the spirits whom she brought under her control. Now in Natsume's possession, the book gives Reiko's grandson this power as well, which is why these enraged beings now haunt him in hopes of somehow attaining their freedom. -- -- Without parents and a loving home, and constantly being hunted by hostile, merciless youkai, Natsume is looking for solace—a place where he belongs. However, his only companion is a self-proclaimed bodyguard named Madara. Fondly referred to as Nyanko-sensei, Madara is a mysterious, pint-sized feline spirit who has his own reasons for sticking with the boy. -- -- Based on the critically acclaimed manga by Yuki Midorikawa, Natsume Yuujinchou is an unconventional and supernatural slice-of-life series that follows Natsume as he, with his infamous protector Madara, endeavors to free the spirits bound by his grandmother's contract. -- -- -- Licensor: -- NIS America, Inc. -- 424,103 8.33
Natsume Yuujinchou San -- -- Brain's Base -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Demons Supernatural Drama Shoujo -- Natsume Yuujinchou San Natsume Yuujinchou San -- Natsume Yuujinchou San follows Takashi Natsume, a boy who is able to see youkai. Natsume and his bodyguard Madara, nicknamed Nyanko-sensei, continue on their quest to release youkai from their contracts in the "Book of Friends." -- -- Natsume comes to terms with his ability to see youkai and stops thinking of it as a curse. As he spends more time with his human and youkai friends, he realizes how much he values them both and decides he doesn't have to choose between the spirit and human worlds to be happy. -- -- 206,009 8.59
Natsume Yuujinchou San -- -- Brain's Base -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Demons Supernatural Drama Shoujo -- Natsume Yuujinchou San Natsume Yuujinchou San -- Natsume Yuujinchou San follows Takashi Natsume, a boy who is able to see youkai. Natsume and his bodyguard Madara, nicknamed Nyanko-sensei, continue on their quest to release youkai from their contracts in the "Book of Friends." -- -- Natsume comes to terms with his ability to see youkai and stops thinking of it as a curse. As he spends more time with his human and youkai friends, he realizes how much he values them both and decides he doesn't have to choose between the spirit and human worlds to be happy. -- -- -- Licensor: -- NIS America, Inc. -- 206,009 8.59
Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Other -- Action Comedy Drama Fantasy Historical -- Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi -- From the heavenly object known as the Chaos Pearl, two elements are extracted: the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb. In an attempt to suppress their power, the Lord of Heaven sends the Spirit Pearl to Earth to reincarnate as Ne Zha, the third son of Li Jing, while the Demon Orb is scheduled to be destroyed by a lightning strike. However, because of a conspiracy by the Dragon King to steal the Spirit Pearl for his own son, Ne Zha is instead reincarnated with the Demon Orb. -- -- With no way to remove the cursed effects of the Demon Orb, Ne Zha is raised under the belief that he will become the great demon hunter the Spirit Pearl destined for him to be. Fighting against his chaotic and mischievous nature, Ne Zha must decide whether to accept his evil fate or repel against it to prove he is worthy of the future his parents foretold. -- -- Movie - Jul 26, 2019 -- 8,578 7.66
Nobunagun -- -- Bridge -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Action Sci-Fi Super Power -- Nobunagun Nobunagun -- Shio Ogura is a Japanese high school student, who is visiting Taiwan on a school trip when she is suddenly attacked by monsters. Agents known as "E-Gene Holders" from the government agency DOGOO also arrive, who wield weapons infused with the spirits of historical figures. Shio is revealed to also be an E-Gene Holder when the soul of Oda Nobunaga awakens after she tries to rescue a friend. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 60,058 6.70
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt -- -- Gainax -- 13 eps -- Original -- Action Comedy Parody Supernatural Ecchi -- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt -- The "Anarchy Sisters," Panty and Stocking, have been kicked out of Heaven for, to put it mildly, misbehaving. Led by a priest named Garterbelt, these angels must buy their way back by exterminating ghosts in Daten City. But this task requires unconventional weapons for these unorthodox angels—they transform their lingerie into weapons to dispatch the spirits. Unfortunately, neither of them take their duties seriously, as they rather spend their time in pursuit of other "hobbies": Panty prefers to sleep with anything that walks, and Stocking favors stuffing her face with sweets than hunting ghosts. -- -- Follow these two unruly angels as they battle ghosts, an overflow of bodily fluids, and their own tendency to get side-tracked in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Oct 2, 2010 -- 303,865 7.72
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt -- -- Gainax -- 13 eps -- Original -- Action Comedy Parody Supernatural Ecchi -- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt -- The "Anarchy Sisters," Panty and Stocking, have been kicked out of Heaven for, to put it mildly, misbehaving. Led by a priest named Garterbelt, these angels must buy their way back by exterminating ghosts in Daten City. But this task requires unconventional weapons for these unorthodox angels—they transform their lingerie into weapons to dispatch the spirits. Unfortunately, neither of them take their duties seriously, as they rather spend their time in pursuit of other "hobbies": Panty prefers to sleep with anything that walks, and Stocking favors stuffing her face with sweets than hunting ghosts. -- -- Follow these two unruly angels as they battle ghosts, an overflow of bodily fluids, and their own tendency to get side-tracked in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. -- -- TV - Oct 2, 2010 -- 303,865 7.72
Piano no Mori (TV) 2nd Season -- -- Gaina -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Drama Music School Seinen -- Piano no Mori (TV) 2nd Season Piano no Mori (TV) 2nd Season -- With the start of the Chopin piano competition, Kai Ichinose, Shuuhei Amamiya, and many other hopeful musicians from around the world strive to reach the top. The stakes have never been higher, and the judges are rigorous when it comes to selecting the winner out of the plethora of talented pianists. This competition is so harsh that even famous prodigies can be easily eliminated. -- -- Some play for the money, some play to fulfill their duty to their families, and yet others play for their music to be heard. However, the only one who can reach the top is the one who embodies the spirit of the music Frédéric Chopin crafted for future generations. With the stakes higher than ever before, rivalries, friendships, and family ties will be tested, and each pianist will find their own sound. -- -- 34,359 7.39
Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage -- -- Studio Deen -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Magic Fantasy -- Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage -- Long ago in the nine provinces of Kyushu, a calamitous event was prophesied to take place: falling comets would exhaust the spiritual energies of both the heavens and the lands and thus bring about an age of chaos upon the world. But contrary to the prophecy, the comets passed by with no calamity taking place. At the same time, as if touched by the phenomenon, a boy was born in a remote village of the Sokei region by the name of Ouriku. -- -- Twelve years later, as the memories of the event have faded from people's minds, the Reikenzan clan—one of the five supreme sects of the nine provinces—decides to hold an examination in order to gather the most talented individuals fit to become disciples and eventually sages. Hearing about this news, Ouriku and his servant Ouchou head toward the site, unaware that the organizer Oubu, despite her elegant appearance, is infamous for being extremely irresponsible and carefree; hence, making the trials in the examination unpredictable. -- -- Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage follows the story of Ouriku as he journeys through these trials to become a powerful sage. -- -- 79,165 7.10
Saint Seiya: Saishuu Seisen no Senshi-tachi -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- - -- Adventure Sci-Fi Shounen -- Saint Seiya: Saishuu Seisen no Senshi-tachi Saint Seiya: Saishuu Seisen no Senshi-tachi -- Lucifer has been awoken from his eternal slumber by the spirits of Eris, Abel and Poseidon. He has come to kill Athena and fulfill his heart's burning desire: becoming the strongest of all the gods. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- Movie - Mar 18, 1989 -- 13,497 6.80
Seireitsukai no Blade Dance -- -- TNK -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Harem Comedy Supernatural Romance Ecchi Fantasy School -- Seireitsukai no Blade Dance Seireitsukai no Blade Dance -- On his way to Areishia Spirit Academy, Kamito Kazehaya runs into a naked Claire Rouge, a student who had been bathing as part of a purification ceremony. She had been preparing to form a contract with a powerful spirit in order to acquire more power as an "elementalist." Her efforts are wasted, however, when Kamito ends up with the spirit despite the fact that only shrine maidens can become elementalists. Yet to be discouraged, Claire then announces that Kamito must become her contracted spirit instead! -- -- After reaching the school grounds, Kamito escapes from Claire and meets Headmaster Greyworth Ciel Mais, who invites him to enroll at the academy. Although his life at Areishia will be far from easy as the only male student among the shrine princesses-in-training, he begrudgingly accepts in exchange for information about his former contracted spirit, Restia Ashdoll. Adding on to that, he also must fulfill Greyworth's main request: to win in the Blade Dance, a battle festival occurring in two months, where he will face the strongest elementalist rumored to be contracted with a darkness spirit. -- -- 293,324 6.79
Seireitsukai no Blade Dance -- -- TNK -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Harem Comedy Supernatural Romance Ecchi Fantasy School -- Seireitsukai no Blade Dance Seireitsukai no Blade Dance -- On his way to Areishia Spirit Academy, Kamito Kazehaya runs into a naked Claire Rouge, a student who had been bathing as part of a purification ceremony. She had been preparing to form a contract with a powerful spirit in order to acquire more power as an "elementalist." Her efforts are wasted, however, when Kamito ends up with the spirit despite the fact that only shrine maidens can become elementalists. Yet to be discouraged, Claire then announces that Kamito must become her contracted spirit instead! -- -- After reaching the school grounds, Kamito escapes from Claire and meets Headmaster Greyworth Ciel Mais, who invites him to enroll at the academy. Although his life at Areishia will be far from easy as the only male student among the shrine princesses-in-training, he begrudgingly accepts in exchange for information about his former contracted spirit, Restia Ashdoll. Adding on to that, he also must fulfill Greyworth's main request: to win in the Blade Dance, a battle festival occurring in two months, where he will face the strongest elementalist rumored to be contracted with a darkness spirit. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 293,324 6.79
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi -- -- Studio Ghibli -- 1 ep -- Original -- Adventure Supernatural Drama -- Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi -- Stubborn, spoiled, and naïve, 10-year-old Chihiro Ogino is less than pleased when she and her parents discover an abandoned amusement park on the way to their new house. Cautiously venturing inside, she realizes that there is more to this place than meets the eye, as strange things begin to happen once dusk falls. Ghostly apparitions and food that turns her parents into pigs are just the start—Chihiro has unwittingly crossed over into the spirit world. Now trapped, she must summon the courage to live and work amongst spirits, with the help of the enigmatic Haku and the cast of unique characters she meets along the way. -- -- Vivid and intriguing, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi tells the story of Chihiro's journey through an unfamiliar world as she strives to save her parents and return home. -- -- -- Licensor: -- GKIDS, Walt Disney Studios -- Movie - Jul 20, 2001 -- 1,324,076 8.82
Shinreigari -- -- Production I.G -- 22 eps -- Original -- Sci-Fi Mystery Psychological Supernatural -- Shinreigari Shinreigari -- Strange things are happening around the town of Suiten. The daughter of a priest begins to see strange visions, spirits have started to roam the mountains, and Tarou Komori is having unsettling dreams. Due to the trauma of being kidnapped 11 years ago, he has repressed most of the memories that could shed light on what really happened all those years ago. But they return in his sleep, combined with encounters beyond the realm of dreams. -- -- In Shinreigari: Ghost Hound, the supernatural and psychological collide, as three children struggle to face their demons and repair the breach between the spiritual and corporeal worlds. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Oct 18, 2007 -- 123,364 7.45
Shinreigari -- -- Production I.G -- 22 eps -- Original -- Sci-Fi Mystery Psychological Supernatural -- Shinreigari Shinreigari -- Strange things are happening around the town of Suiten. The daughter of a priest begins to see strange visions, spirits have started to roam the mountains, and Tarou Komori is having unsettling dreams. Due to the trauma of being kidnapped 11 years ago, he has repressed most of the memories that could shed light on what really happened all those years ago. But they return in his sleep, combined with encounters beyond the realm of dreams. -- -- In Shinreigari: Ghost Hound, the supernatural and psychological collide, as three children struggle to face their demons and repair the breach between the spiritual and corporeal worlds. -- -- TV - Oct 18, 2007 -- 123,364 7.45
Shuangsheng Lingtan -- -- B.CMAY PICTURES -- 20 eps -- Manga -- Mystery Psychological -- Shuangsheng Lingtan Shuangsheng Lingtan -- There is always more to the world than meets the eye. This is the motto that twin brothers Sun Xiaotu and Sun Xiaohu follow in their lives as paranormal investigators, where what may be terrifying to some is just another day at work. Normally, it is simple for them to separate their daily lives from their job, but when they go to investigate a seemingly typical haunting of a pair of twins, a series of bizarre events throw their perception of the supernatural world into question as they become a target of the hauntings themselves. -- -- The further the brothers search for answers to the paranormal mysteries thrown at them, the hazier the lines between truth and fiction become. Through the challenging and sometimes dangerous adventures ahead, one question remains: what kind of secrets are the ghosts trying to hide from them, and are they already more connected to the spirits than they originally thought? -- -- ONA - Aug 25, 2016 -- 11,678 7.26
Tales of Symphonia The Animation: Sylvarant-hen -- -- ufotable -- 4 eps -- Game -- Action Adventure Magic Martial Arts Fantasy -- Tales of Symphonia The Animation: Sylvarant-hen Tales of Symphonia The Animation: Sylvarant-hen -- Two worlds exist, both unaware of the existance of the other. In order for one world to flourish, the other will have to perish. On the perishing world, a Chosen one is sent on a journey to restore that world's mana by awakening the Spirits and becoming an angel. Colette Brunel, the Chosen of Sylvarant, sets out on her journey accompanied by her best friends Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage. As they travel further they meet more friends and even more enemies, while they learn more and more about the truth behind the World Regeneration. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- OVA - Jun 8, 2007 -- 47,617 7.17
Tayutama: Kiss on My Deity -- -- SILVER LINK. -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Harem Romance Supernatural -- Tayutama: Kiss on My Deity Tayutama: Kiss on My Deity -- Yuuri Mito is a typical, normal Japanese teenager. He goes to school, works on people's motorcycles and performs exorcisms. Okay, that last part's a little bit unusual, but his family lives in a shrine and they do that sort of thing. Still, you would think he'd know enough to be careful with an ancient relic he finds in the woods, especially when a mysterious goddess appears and tells him to leave it alone. Unfortunately, despite Mito's best efforts, the seal gets broken anyway and a number of dangerous "tayuti" that it held in stasis get loose. This is bad. Mito also ends up with a beautiful goddess girl who decides that she's going to marry him. This might not be so bad. if he wasn't already caught up in the middle of a war between the entities he's released. The flesh may be weak but the spirit's more than willing to compensate. -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- 61,922 6.77
Teizokurei Daydream -- -- Hal Film Maker -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Horror Supernatural Drama Ecchi -- Teizokurei Daydream Teizokurei Daydream -- Saiki Misaki has been able to see ghosts since she was a kid. Now, working at an S&M club, her spare time goes to sending the spirits off to the other world by having to make them realize they're dead and have to leave. This would supposedly be a little bit easier if you didnt have a background of hardship and loneliness... and a perverted employer. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Geneon Entertainment USA -- OVA - Jun 25, 2004 -- 8,704 6.19
Teizokurei Daydream -- -- Hal Film Maker -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Horror Supernatural Drama Ecchi -- Teizokurei Daydream Teizokurei Daydream -- Saiki Misaki has been able to see ghosts since she was a kid. Now, working at an S&M club, her spare time goes to sending the spirits off to the other world by having to make them realize they're dead and have to leave. This would supposedly be a little bit easier if you didnt have a background of hardship and loneliness... and a perverted employer. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- OVA - Jun 25, 2004 -- 8,704 6.19
Ushio to Tora (TV) -- -- MAPPA, Studio VOLN -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Shounen Supernatural -- Ushio to Tora (TV) Ushio to Tora (TV) -- Ushio Aotsuki is a stubborn middle school student and son of an eccentric temple priest who goes about life without care for his father's claims regarding otherworldly monsters known as youkai. However, as he is tending to the temple while his father is away on work, his chores lead him to a shocking discovery: in the basement he finds a menacing youkai impaled by the fabled Beast Spear. -- -- The beast in question is Tora, infamous for his destructive power, who tries to coerce Ushio into releasing him from his five hundred year seal. Ushio puts no trust in his words and refuses to set him free. But when a sudden youkai outbreak puts his friends and home in danger, he is left with no choice but to rely on Tora, his only insurance being the ancient spear if he gets out of hand. -- -- Ushio and Tora's meeting is only the beginning of the unlikely duo's journey into the depths of the spiritual realm. With the legendary Beast Spear in his hands, Ushio will find out just how real and threatening the world of the supernatural can be. -- -- 185,965 7.59
Ushio to Tora (TV) -- -- MAPPA, Studio VOLN -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Shounen Supernatural -- Ushio to Tora (TV) Ushio to Tora (TV) -- Ushio Aotsuki is a stubborn middle school student and son of an eccentric temple priest who goes about life without care for his father's claims regarding otherworldly monsters known as youkai. However, as he is tending to the temple while his father is away on work, his chores lead him to a shocking discovery: in the basement he finds a menacing youkai impaled by the fabled Beast Spear. -- -- The beast in question is Tora, infamous for his destructive power, who tries to coerce Ushio into releasing him from his five hundred year seal. Ushio puts no trust in his words and refuses to set him free. But when a sudden youkai outbreak puts his friends and home in danger, he is left with no choice but to rely on Tora, his only insurance being the ancient spear if he gets out of hand. -- -- Ushio and Tora's meeting is only the beginning of the unlikely duo's journey into the depths of the spiritual realm. With the legendary Beast Spear in his hands, Ushio will find out just how real and threatening the world of the supernatural can be. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 185,965 7.59
xxxHOLiC Movie: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume -- -- Production I.G -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Mystery Comedy Psychological Supernatural Drama -- xxxHOLiC Movie: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume xxxHOLiC Movie: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume -- Summer break has arrived, but while his other classmates are out having fun, Kimihiro Watanuki continues to work as compensation for the eccentric Yuuko in her shop. With the spirits and supernatural phenomena that bother him lessening, he pays his dues by cleaning, cooking, and doing whatever else the apparently lazy Yuuko needs. -- -- Watanuki, however, gets involved in a new predicament when Yuuko receives a mysterious invitation to a mansion whose owner seeks Yuuko's wish-granting ability. When he, Yuuko, and his classmate Shizuka Doumeki make their way to the peculiar residence, they meet others who were summoned by the same strange invitation. All of them are collectors of various unique items, drawn there by the chance to expand their collections. But as the collectors begin to disappear one by one, Watanuki and his companions must solve the mystery and put the case to rest, or find themselves in risk of danger. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- Movie - Aug 20, 2005 -- 57,008 7.96
xxxHOLiC Movie: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume -- -- Production I.G -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Mystery Comedy Psychological Supernatural Drama -- xxxHOLiC Movie: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume xxxHOLiC Movie: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume -- Summer break has arrived, but while his other classmates are out having fun, Kimihiro Watanuki continues to work as compensation for the eccentric Yuuko in her shop. With the spirits and supernatural phenomena that bother him lessening, he pays his dues by cleaning, cooking, and doing whatever else the apparently lazy Yuuko needs. -- -- Watanuki, however, gets involved in a new predicament when Yuuko receives a mysterious invitation to a mansion whose owner seeks Yuuko's wish-granting ability. When he, Yuuko, and his classmate Shizuka Doumeki make their way to the peculiar residence, they meet others who were summoned by the same strange invitation. All of them are collectors of various unique items, drawn there by the chance to expand their collections. But as the collectors begin to disappear one by one, Watanuki and his companions must solve the mystery and put the case to rest, or find themselves in risk of danger. -- -- Movie - Aug 20, 2005 -- 57,008 7.96
Young Black Jack -- -- Tezuka Productions -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Historical Drama Seinen -- Young Black Jack Young Black Jack -- In the 1960s, a gifted young medical student tries to make a name for himself. Kuroo Hazama is a reserved young man with unusual black-and-white hair, a body covered with scars, and a dark past. Despite only being a medical student, his surgical brilliance starts to attract attention after he completes a seemingly impossible operation. Together with the spirited and honest intern Maiko Okamoto and Yabu, a close friend with a troubled life, Hazama devotes himself to the world of medicine. -- -- However, his path to becoming a respectable surgeon is a difficult one as student riots, war, and corruption are consuming Japan. Hazama quickly finds himself caught up in a series of nefarious circumstances that challenge his integrity as a person and his path towards becoming a surgeon. Young Black Jack chronicles the story of a man capable of performing unthinkable feats of medicine, and the journey that leads him to become the legend known as Black Jack. -- -- 72,784 7.24
Yu☆Gi☆Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions -- -- Gallop -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Game Adventure Shounen -- Yu☆Gi☆Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Yu☆Gi☆Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions -- Obsessed with revenge against the King of Games, Seto Kaiba commences an excavation in Egypt to find the fragments of the Millennium Puzzle, which once retained the spirit of the "counterpart Yuugi." However, a cloaked man steals two pieces of the Puzzle and disappears before it could be reconstructed. Meanwhile, now in their final year of high school, Yuugi Mutou and his friends plan for their futures, unaware of the danger lurking close by. -- -- Yu☆Gi☆Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions tells the tale of vindictive forces distorting reality in whatever way they please. Will Seto and Yuugi move past their differences and save the world, or will Seto's own greed get the better of him? -- -- -- Licensor: -- Manga Entertainment -- Movie - Apr 23, 2016 -- 55,473 7.46
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 112 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Demons Supernatural Martial Arts Shounen -- Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho -- One fateful day, Yuusuke Urameshi, a 14-year-old delinquent with a dim future, gets a miraculous chance to turn it all around when he throws himself in front of a moving car to save a young boy. His ultimate sacrifice is so out of character that the authorities of the spirit realm are not yet prepared to let him pass on. Koenma, heir to the throne of the spirit realm, offers Yuusuke an opportunity to regain his life through completion of a series of tasks. With the guidance of the death god Botan, he is to thwart evil presences on Earth as a Spirit Detective. -- -- To help him on his venture, Yuusuke enlists ex-rival Kazuma Kuwabara, and two demons, Hiei and Kurama, who have criminal pasts. Together, they train and battle against enemies who would threaten humanity's very existence. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Oct 10, 1992 -- 500,430 8.45
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Supernatural Martial Arts Shounen -- Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna -- Millennia ago, a war was fought between the Netherworld and the Spirit World. Ultimately, the Netherworld was destroyed and Lord Yakumo, the King of the Netherworld, was banished to the depths of space. Now, five defenders from the Spirit World must team-up against Yakumo's Demon-Gods for possession of five, mystical sites. But Lord Yakumo is dangerously close to reclaiming the Power Sphere—the source of the Netherworld's energy—and once it is again in his possession, our world will become the new Netherworld. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- -- Licensor: -- Central Park Media -- Movie - Apr 9, 1994 -- 22,871 7.20
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Supernatural Martial Arts Shounen -- Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna -- Millennia ago, a war was fought between the Netherworld and the Spirit World. Ultimately, the Netherworld was destroyed and Lord Yakumo, the King of the Netherworld, was banished to the depths of space. Now, five defenders from the Spirit World must team-up against Yakumo's Demon-Gods for possession of five, mystical sites. But Lord Yakumo is dangerously close to reclaiming the Power Sphere—the source of the Netherworld's energy—and once it is again in his possession, our world will become the new Netherworld. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- Movie - Apr 9, 1994 -- 22,871 7.20
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho (Movie) -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Supernatural Martial Arts Shounen -- Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho (Movie) Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho (Movie) -- Yusuke Urameshi is not exactly what you'd call an angel. In fact, some might call him down right devilish. But when he dies in an accident trying to save a child, he finds himself in the Spirit World. Unfortunately for Yusuke, his name is not listed in the Book of Enma, which means it was one big mistake! So he should return from the Spirit World, but must pass a few tests first, and become a detective of the spiritual world. -- -- So now Yusuke works in the Spirit World as a half-dead, half-alive agent for Koenma, son of the ruler of the Spirit World. This position does have its disadvantages, especially when you're trying to enjoy your summer vacation and Koenma gets kidnapped! So now Yusuke must interrupt his summer fun to find Koenma and trade the Golden Seal of King Enma for his life. But if someone other then King Enma has the Golden Seal there will be chaos in the Spirit World! What's a half-dead spirit detective to do? -- -- With the aide of his closest allies, Yusuke sets off for Magma Valley, to save the life of the one who saved his, and find out who's at the bottom of this evil conspiracy. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Media Blasters -- Movie - Jul 10, 1993 -- 24,728 6.82
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Two Shots/Noru ka Soru ka -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 2 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Supernatural Martial Arts Shounen -- Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Two Shots/Noru ka Soru ka Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Two Shots/Noru ka Soru ka -- Special included in the 25th anniversary Blu-ray box set. -- -- The special will cover the "Two Shot" bonus chapter from the manga's seventh volume, which tells the story of how Kurama and Hiei met, as well as the manga's penultimate chapter "All or Nothing." which shows the main characters reuniting to solve a hostage crisis in the spirit world. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- Special - Oct 26, 2018 -- 16,197 7.41
Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead -- -- Studio Binzo -- 4 eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror -- Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead -- Clay animation about a guy stuck in a room during zombie apocalypse. -- OVA - ??? ??, 2011 -- 292 N/A -- -- The Girl and the Monster -- -- - -- ? eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror -- The Girl and the Monster The Girl and the Monster -- A girl quietly reads a book in her room. Suddenly, a monster comes crawling out from under her bed! Is it friend or foe? -- ONA - Jul 26, 2019 -- 291 N/A -- -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi -- -- DLE -- 2 eps -- Original -- Comedy Historical Parody Horror Supernatural -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi -- A Matsue City collaboration anime with Eagle Talon. Yoshida book-ends the story as horror tales, both modern and historical, originated within the city are narrated by another person. -- ONA - Mar 17, 2017 -- 289 N/A -- -- 3-bu de Wakaru Koizumi Yakumo no Kaidan -- -- - -- 7 eps -- Book -- Historical Horror Parody Supernatural -- 3-bu de Wakaru Koizumi Yakumo no Kaidan 3-bu de Wakaru Koizumi Yakumo no Kaidan -- Stories from Patrick Lafcadio Hearn's book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. The Greek-American author was known as Koizumi Yakumo in Japan and is renowned for collecting and publishing stories of Japanese folklore and legends. -- -- The shorts were made for a Matsue City tourism promotion, as Hearn taught, lived, and married there. His home is a museum people can visit. -- ONA - May 9, 2014 -- 287 N/A -- -- Kimoshiba -- -- Jinnis Animation Studios, TMS Entertainment -- 13 eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror Kids Supernatural -- Kimoshiba Kimoshiba -- Kimoshiba is a weird type of life form with the shape of an oversize shiba inu, loves eating curry (particularly curry breads), and works at a funeral home. Similar life forms include yamishiba and onishiba. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- 284 N/A -- -- Ehon Yose -- -- - -- 50 eps -- Other -- Historical Horror Kids -- Ehon Yose Ehon Yose -- Anime rakugo of classic Japanese horror tales shown in a wide variety of art styles. -- TV - ??? ??, 2006 -- 279 N/A -- -- Higanjima X: Aniki -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Fantasy Horror Seinen Vampire -- Higanjima X: Aniki Higanjima X: Aniki -- A new episode of Higanjima X that was included in Blu-ray. -- Special - Aug 30, 2017 -- 277 N/A -- -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki -- -- Sunrise -- 2 eps -- - -- Historical Horror -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki Yamiyo no Jidaigeki -- Tales include: -- -- The Hill of Old Age, which tells of a conspiracy hatched against Japan's unifier, Oda Nobunaga. -- -- Seeing the Truth, about the assassin sent to murder Nobunaga's successor leyasu Tokugawa. -- -- The broadcast was a part of the Neo Hyper Kids program. -- -- (Source: Anime Encyclopedia) -- Special - Feb 19, 1995 -- 275 N/A -- -- Youkai Ningen Bem: Part II -- -- Topcraft -- 2 eps -- Original -- Demons Horror -- Youkai Ningen Bem: Part II Youkai Ningen Bem: Part II -- For 1982 a 26-episode TV series sequel to Youkai Ningen Bem was planned. Because the original producers disbanded, the animation was done by Topcraft. 2 episodes were created and the project shut down without airing on television. The episodes were released to the public on a LD-Box Set a decade later. 2,000 units were printed and all were sold out. -- Special - Oct 21, 1992 -- 268 N/A -- -- Kaibutsu-kun: Kaibutsu Land e no Shoutai -- -- Shin-Ei Animation -- 1 ep -- - -- Comedy Horror Kids Shounen -- Kaibutsu-kun: Kaibutsu Land e no Shoutai Kaibutsu-kun: Kaibutsu Land e no Shoutai -- Based on the shounen manga by Fujiko Fujio. -- -- Note: Screened as a double feature with Doraemon: Nobita no Uchuu Kaitakushi. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- Movie - Mar 14, 1981 -- 266 N/A -- -- Ushiro no Hyakutarou -- -- - -- 2 eps -- - -- Horror School Supernatural -- Ushiro no Hyakutarou Ushiro no Hyakutarou -- Horror OVA based on the manga by Jirou Tsunoda. The title roughly means "Hyakutarou behind". -- -- A boy named Ichitarou Ushiro deals with various horrifying phenomena with the help of his guardian spirit Hyakutarou. -- -- 2 episodes: "Kokkuri Satsujin Jiken", "Yuutai Ridatsu". -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- OVA - Aug 21, 1991 -- 254 N/A -- -- Zombie Clay Animation: I'm Stuck!! -- -- Studio Binzo -- 4 eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror -- Zombie Clay Animation: I'm Stuck!! Zombie Clay Animation: I'm Stuck!! -- Spin-off series of Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead. -- ONA - Mar 2, 2014 -- 247 N/A -- -- Shou-chan Sora wo Tobu -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Novel -- Horror Sci-Fi -- Shou-chan Sora wo Tobu Shou-chan Sora wo Tobu -- An anime version of Ikkei Makina's horror novel of the same name. It aired at the same time as the live-action adaptation. -- Movie - Nov 14, 1992 -- 235 N/A -- -- Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour -- -- DLE -- 2 eps -- Original -- Comedy Historical Parody Horror -- Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour -- An accompaniment to Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi. This ghost tour takes a more realistic approach featuring Yoshia (the fictional Eagle Talon character), Kihara Hirokatsu (horror and mystery novelist), Chafurin (voice actor and Shimae Prefecture ambassador), and Frogman (Ryou Ono's caricature; real-life director of the anime studio DLE). The quartet travels around Matsue City exploring horror/haunted real life locations talking about the history and how it became a paranormal focus. -- -- The end of the episode promotes ticket sale and times for a real ghost tour watchers can partake in. -- ONA - Mar 16, 2017 -- 227 N/A -- -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki (OVA) -- -- Sunrise -- 2 eps -- - -- Historical Horror -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki (OVA) Yamiyo no Jidaigeki (OVA) -- A direct sequel that was put straight to video. -- -- The Ear of Jinsuke, about a wandering swordsman saving a damsel in distress from evil spirits. -- -- Prints from the Fall of the Bakufu, features a tomboy from a woodcut works charged with making a print of the young warrior Okita Soji. -- -- (Source: Anime Encyclopedia) -- -- OVA - Aug 2, 1995 -- 227 N/A -- -- Inunaki-mura x Taka no Tsume-dan -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Other -- Comedy Horror Parody -- Inunaki-mura x Taka no Tsume-dan Inunaki-mura x Taka no Tsume-dan -- A collaboration between the live-action horror film Inunaki-mura slated to be released in theaters February 7, 2020 and the Eagle Talon franchise. The film is based on the urban legend of the real-life abandoned Inunaki Village and the old tunnel that cut through the area. -- ONA - Jan 17, 2020 -- 226 N/A -- -- Echigo no Mukashibanashi: Attaten Ganoo -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Demons Horror Kids -- Echigo no Mukashibanashi: Attaten Ganoo Echigo no Mukashibanashi: Attaten Ganoo -- A collection of four folk tales from Koshiji (from 2005, part of Nagaoka), Niigata prefecture (Echigo is the old name of Niigata). -- -- Episode 1: The Azuki Mochi and the Frog -- A mean old woman tells an azuki mochi to turn into a frog, if her daughter-in-law wants to eat it. The daughter-in-law hears this, and... -- -- Episode 2: Satori -- A woodcutter warms himself at the fire of deadwood, when a spirit in the form of an eyeball appears in front of him. The spirit guesses each of the woodcutter's thoughts right... -- -- Episode 3: The Fox's Lantern -- An old man, who got lost in the night streets, finds a lantern with a beautiful pattern, which was lost by a fox spirit. The next day, he returns it reluctantly, and what he sees... -- -- Episode 4: The Three Paper Charms -- An apprentice priest, who lost his way, accidentally puts up at the hut of the mountain witch. To avoid being eaten, he uses three paper charms to get back to the temple... -- -- (Source: Official site) -- OVA - May ??, 2000 -- 221 N/A -- -- Jigoku Koushien -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Sports Comedy Horror Shounen -- Jigoku Koushien Jigoku Koushien -- (No synopsis yet.) -- OVA - Feb 13, 2009 -- 220 N/A -- -- Nanja Monja Obake -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Kids Horror -- Nanja Monja Obake Nanja Monja Obake -- An anime made entirely in sumi-e following a child fox spirit and his morphing ability for haunting but he ends up getting scared himself. -- Special - Dec 6, 1994 -- 215 N/A -- -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan -- -- DLE -- 7 eps -- Original -- Horror Parody Supernatural -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan Heisei Matsue Kaidan -- A Matsue City collaboration anime with Eagle Talon. Yoshida book-ends the story as modern horror tales, originated within the city, are narrated by another person. The shorts are meant to promote the Patrick Lafcadio Hearn's Ghost Tour offered by the city. -- -- Some episodes feature biographical segments of the Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour group. -- ONA - Apr 9, 2015 -- 211 N/A -- -- Akuma no Organ -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Music -- Music Horror Demons -- Akuma no Organ Akuma no Organ -- Music video for Devil's Organ by GREAT3. From Climax E.P. (2003) -- Music - ??? ??, 2003 -- 210 5.16
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Spirit_of_Russia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angelic_Life_in_the_Spiritual_World,_as_revealed_by_the_Sacred_Scriptures.djvu
Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude
All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I. F. Stone
As the Spirit Wanes
Behold the Spirit
Between the Spirit & the Flesh
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (1945 film)
Blithe Spirit (2020 film)
Blithe Spirit (play)
Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance
Catch the Spirit The Complete Anthology
Channel the Spirits
Country Music: The Spirit of America
Dance to the Spirits
Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys
Dome of the Spirits
Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
Every Time I Feel the Spirit
Evolution of the Spirit
Feelin' the Spirit
Feel the Spirit
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Gifts of the Spirit in Mormonism
Gods in the Spirit
Golem, the Spirit of the Exile
(Here I Stand) In the Spirit of Paul Robeson
I Feel the Spirit
In the Spirit
In the Spirit (film)
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Juliet of the Spirits
Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC's
List of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit episodes
Lost the Spirit to Rock & Roll
Magician Among the Spirits
Marrow of the Spirit
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Rollo and the Spirit of the Woods
Shake the Spirit
Shaman King: Legacy of the Spirits
Singing in the Spirit
Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre
Slain in the Spirit
Sounds of the Spirit
Summoning the Spirits
Sword of the Spirit
Sword of the Spirits
That's the Spirit
That's the Spirit (disambiguation)
The Biggest Loser Brunei: The Spirit of Life
The House of the Spirits
The House of the Spirits (film)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism
The Rocketeer & The Spirit: Pulp Friction
The Spirit's in It
The Spirit (album)
The Spirit Awakened
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Engine 2
The Spirit Indestructible
The Spirit in the Bottle
The Spirit Level (book)
The Spirit Level (poetry collection)
The Spirit of '43
The Spirit of '45
The Spirit of '67
The Spirit of '76 (1917 film)
The Spirit of '76 (1990 film)
The Spirit of '76 (pinball)
The Spirit of Apollo
The Spirit of Butts' Farm
The Spirit of Christmas
The Spirit of Christmas (short films)
The Spirit of Christmas (TV program)
The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
The Spirit of Detroit
The Spirit of Eternal Repose
The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning
The Spirit of Kelso Cochrane
The Spirit of Mickey
The Spirit of Polonia
The Spirit of Radio
The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 19741987
The Spirit of Romance
The Spirit of Spanish Music
The Spirit of St. Louis (album)
The Spirit of St. Louis (EP)
The Spirit of St. Louis (film)
The Spirit of Swiftwater
The Spirit of the Age
The Spirit of the Beehive
The Spirit of the Border
The Spirit of the Hawk
The Spirit of the Laws
The Spirit of the Liturgy
The Spirit of Ukko
The Spirit Room
The Spirits Book
The Spirits Business
The Spirits of Love
The Spirits of Our Ancestors
The Spirit Squad
The Spiritual
When the Spirit Slips Away
Zeitgeist: The Spirit of the Age
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