Seeing things in a new light
Posted on Aug 15th, 2007
by 
M. Alan
M. Alan
I've been going through a spiritual learning process.
Over the last few weeks I had computer problems and am only now back on line, with a brand new motherboard! (it's like a new computer :-)
Not having the internet for the while has helped me focus spiritually without distraction.
Also there were various other minor crises, which brought out by neurotic anxiety.
As it was Sri Aurobindo's bithday yesterday (15th August) the lasty few days especially I tried to tune into his presence.
More and more I am realising (and i hope that this realisation will be permament) how pointless intellectualism and egotism are. And that there is no point trying to "want" something, because we are very small and helpless relative to the cosmos; by getting all worked up and wanting something one just gets caught up in affective being. But by letting go, and flowintg with the Godhead, or the Tao, or whatever term you prefer, these thuings can happen automatically. As The Mother says: it is in stillness that the power lies. I don't have the exact quote, so that's not the wording, but it is about being quiet, quieting the mind and the vital (the affective being).
For example, there was a time when I posted a lot on the Aurobindo mail list, but now I just read (or glance over) what others say. When it is necessary to say something, one says something. But otherwise one should remain silent, and work on one's own sadhana (spiritual discipline)
I'm thinking also I should redisign my website a bit. I had all this stuff on "integral" on it, and now I feel bored with "integral". So I'm going to redistribute the Integral pages in otehr sections. The "integral movement" may amount to something, but it is really just a subset of the New Paradigm. I guess it was a phase in my life to get involved with it, and Ive made some fantastic friends I wouldn't have met otherwise. But really I feel that the pure spiritual path of gnosis is better. And if that can be used to transform the Integral movement, so much the better!
I'm also reconsidering my writing plan. I set myself a deadline to get my manuscript finished well before the end of 2007, but the intellectual stuff kept dragging on. Also some people found the manuscript a bit hard to follow (although others liked it). So I'm thinking now of first writing a less technical book on metaphysics; to be called The Story of Everything, to be followed up by the more detailed and academic thesis, Integral Metaphysics and Transformation (which emphasises the Aurobindonian definition , although with lots of other stuff too)
Over the last few weeks I had computer problems and am only now back on line, with a brand new motherboard! (it's like a new computer :-)
Not having the internet for the while has helped me focus spiritually without distraction.
Also there were various other minor crises, which brought out by neurotic anxiety.
As it was Sri Aurobindo's bithday yesterday (15th August) the lasty few days especially I tried to tune into his presence.
More and more I am realising (and i hope that this realisation will be permament) how pointless intellectualism and egotism are. And that there is no point trying to "want" something, because we are very small and helpless relative to the cosmos; by getting all worked up and wanting something one just gets caught up in affective being. But by letting go, and flowintg with the Godhead, or the Tao, or whatever term you prefer, these thuings can happen automatically. As The Mother says: it is in stillness that the power lies. I don't have the exact quote, so that's not the wording, but it is about being quiet, quieting the mind and the vital (the affective being).
For example, there was a time when I posted a lot on the Aurobindo mail list, but now I just read (or glance over) what others say. When it is necessary to say something, one says something. But otherwise one should remain silent, and work on one's own sadhana (spiritual discipline)
I'm thinking also I should redisign my website a bit. I had all this stuff on "integral" on it, and now I feel bored with "integral". So I'm going to redistribute the Integral pages in otehr sections. The "integral movement" may amount to something, but it is really just a subset of the New Paradigm. I guess it was a phase in my life to get involved with it, and Ive made some fantastic friends I wouldn't have met otherwise. But really I feel that the pure spiritual path of gnosis is better. And if that can be used to transform the Integral movement, so much the better!
I'm also reconsidering my writing plan. I set myself a deadline to get my manuscript finished well before the end of 2007, but the intellectual stuff kept dragging on. Also some people found the manuscript a bit hard to follow (although others liked it). So I'm thinking now of first writing a less technical book on metaphysics; to be called The Story of Everything, to be followed up by the more detailed and academic thesis, Integral Metaphysics and Transformation (which emphasises the Aurobindonian definition , although with lots of other stuff too)
Access: PublicTagged with: internet, spirituality, Integral, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, writing, The Story of Everything
integral
July 2008 
Alan, my old fruit,
I indentify with alot of what you say. I wonder whether my own projects are really worth the effort(ie. Transfinancial Economics, Multi-Dimensional Hypothesis, and Advanced Voice Instrumental Music) sometimes. When you KNOW that there is something more real to the physical universe you have the tendency to think more in terms of experience rather than just endless intellectualism which so easily inflates our egos.
We can only do so much, and the rest should be left to the Higher Power. Yet, our egos can get so easily frustrated when things do not seem to go our way. We are all too human, and vulnerable to our subconcious, and unconcious emotional forces.
Too much intellectualism can also cause problems. It is all a question of balance…which is often easier said than done.
R.Searle
Alan,
these crisis are great - in retrospect.
Having gone through one for around 2 years, and now having surfaced in quite a new world and way-of-being I can only encourage you to not hold back, and allow these questions and doubts run their course in you.
I'm convinced that we do not so much need more and better theories - even though it's great to have encompassaing ones, and grand ones, and integral ones, and I'm sure you have a lot to say on that front (and I have learnt from you, thank you!) - I feel we need better and clearer cooperation and manifestation.
You know that I'm basically convinced that “We are the Next Buddha” and that the next steps in our evolution will be done in we-fullness. We, learning from ourselves and each other; we practising together and in broad daylight; we, moving from transcendental loftiness to daily joys and beauties of shared spaces; we, moveing from the age of individualism - with it's pinnacles of personal enlightenment and mystical insights - to an age we are slowly fathoming - we're letting go “I see myself in you” or “I am the World honored One” or “I am That” and we're sloly starting to see, that all-of-us know and work and be…
It's an inkling, an intuition, spiced with interesting experiences over the last months; it's a new way of doing business and working, even a new way of making sense of what happens that makes me say this… and I guess sooner or later we'll get moved through those changes Earth (for lack of a better word) deems best to go through to become a part of Galactic Civilisation.
Thanks Robert and Mushin for your wise words of advice and comments
Robert, yes balance, absolutely. Like you, I certainly don't reject intellectualism, just I see it as secondary to mental silence and spiritual presence. But certainly the rational mind is a marvelous tool which can do great good, when guided by the inner divine wisdom.
Mushin I resonate very strongly with what you say about the Collective Buddha! It is interesting that Sri Aurobindo and even strongly the Mother (in the Agenda) said somnething very similar, that the Supramental has to be realised in a collective way; that it will be a collective or one might say global realisation. The old yogas were only concerned with individual realisation. The trick is to combine both. Because without individual realisation then one stumbles around in ignorance, or worse, with a partial knowledge that is even more dangerous (Sri Aurobindo's “Intermediate Zone”), whereas without the collective work, the world as a whole remains unchanged.
So this does seem to be a new development in planetary consciousness
Yeah I use the word “Earth” - the whole Earth consciousness, and all beings that are incarnating on and around Earth. For me, spirituality has to be about the transformation of the whole Earth