All Life Is Yoga: Spiritual Peace E-Book

Sri Aurobindo

• Herausgeber: Sri Aurobindo Digital Edition
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 99

Beschreibung

The one thing that is most needed for this sadhana is peace, calm, especially in the vital – a peace which depends not on circumstances or surroundings but on the inner relation with a higher consciousness which is the consciousness of the Divine, of the Mother. Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Asram for ten or twenty years and yet be as restless and full of struggle as ever, – those who open their mind and vital to the Mother’s strength and peace can get it even in the hardest and most unpleasant work and the worst circumstances. (Sri Aurobindo)

Leseprobe

Omsriaurobindomira

All

Life

Is

Yoga

“All life is Yoga.” – Sri Aurobindo

Spiritual Peace

Sri Aurobindo | The Mother

SRI AUROBINDODIGITAL EDITION

SRI AUROBINDO BHAVANBERCHTESGADENER LAND

www.sriaurobindo.center

PublisherAURO MEDIAVerlag und FachbuchhandelWilfried SchuhGermany

www.auro.media

eBook Design

SRI AUROBINDO DIGITAL EDITIONGermany, Berchtesgaden

ALL LIFE IS YOGASpiritual PeaceSelections from the Works ofSri Aurobindo and the MotherFirst edition 2022ISBN 978-3-96387-106-1

© Photos and selections of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:Sri Aurobindo Ashram TrustPuducherry, India

Flower on the cover:Curcuma zedoaria. Yellow, greenish-pink.Spiritual significance and explanation given by the Mother:PeaceTo want what You want always and in every circumstance is the only way to enjoy an unshakable peace.

Publisher’s Note

This is one in a series of some e-books created by SRI AUROBINDO DIGITAL EDITION and published by AURO MEDIA under the title All Life Is Yoga. Our effort is to bring together, from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, simple passages with a practical orientation on specific subjects, so that everyone may feel free to choose a book according to his inner need. The topics cover the whole field of human activity, because true spirituality is not the rejection of life but the art of perfecting life.

While the passages from Sri Aurobindo are in the original English, most of the passages from the Mother (selections from her talks and writings) are translations from the original French. We must also bear in mind that the excerpts have been taken out of their original context and that a compilation, in its very nature, is likely to have a personal and subjective approach. A sincere attempt, however, has been made to be faithful to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. These excerpts are by no means exhaustive.

Bringing out a compilation from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, which have a profound depth and wideness unique, is a difficult task. The compiler’s subjective tilt and preferences generally result in highlighting some aspects of the issues concerned while the rest is by no means less significant. Also without contexts of the excerpts the passages reproduced may not fully convey the idea – or may be misunderstood or may reduce a comprehensive truth into what could appear like a fixed principle.

The reader may keep in mind this inherent limitation of compilations; compilations are however helpful in providing an introduction to the subject in a handy format. They also give the readers a direct and practical feel of some of the profound issues and sometimes a mantric appeal, musing on which can change one’s entire attitude to them.

The excerpts from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother carry titles and captions chosen by the editor, highlighting the theme of the excerpts and, whenever possible, borrowing a phrase from the text itself. The sources of the excerpts are given at the end of each issue.

We hope these compilations will inspire the readers to go to the complete works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and will help them to mould their lives and their environments towards an ever greater perfection.

“True spirituality is not to renounce life, but to make life perfect with a Divine Perfection.” – The Mother

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Contents

Title PageCopyrightPublisher’s NoteSPIRITUAL PEACEQuotation1. What is Spiritual Peace2. What is Calm3. In Its Supreme Truth, the Divine is Absolute and Infinite Peace4. Descent of Spiritual Peace is One of the Fundamental Realisation5. In Spiritual Transformation there is a Double Movement6. The Nature of Spiritual Consciousness7. The Purpose of the Descent of Spiritual Consciousness8. Why Peace is the First Thing that has to be Brought Down from Above9. First Prepare to Become Calm and Undisturbed10. Detailed Process of Bringing Descent of Peace11. The Mother’s Method to Establish a Settled Peace and Silence in the Mind12. Aspire for Descent of Peace13. For Descent of Peace Call the Divine Shakti14. Know the Chief Disturbers when Peace Descends15. Descent of Peace should Become Strong and Solid Basis16. Once you get Peace17. What Is Perfect Peace of Mind18. A Description of the Experience of Peace and Silence of the Divine19. Sri Aurobindo’s Spiritual Experience of a Vast Calm20. Other Quotations on Descent of PeaceAPPENDIXReferences

Guide

CoverTable of ContentsStart Reading

SPIRITUAL PEACE

The one thing that is most needed for this sadhana is peace, calm, especially in the vital – a peace which depends not on circumstances or surroundings but on the inner relation with a higher consciousness which is the consciousness of the Divine, of the Mother. Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Asram for ten or twenty years and yet be as restless and full of struggle as ever, – those who open their mind and vital to the Mother’s strength and peace can get it even in the hardest and most unpleasant work and the worst circumstances.

– Sri Aurobindo

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Chapter 1

What is Spiritual Peace

Words of Sri Aurobindo

…spiritual peace and joy is something quite different from mental peace and happiness. And it cannot be reached without a spiritual discipline.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

But the spiritual peace is something other and infinitely more than the mental peace and its results are different, not merely clear thinking or some control or balance or a sattwic state. But its greater results can only be fully and permanently manifest when it lasts long enough in the system or when one feels spread out in it above the head and on every side stretching towards infinity as well as penetrated by it down to the very cells. Then it carries with it the deep and vast and solid tranquillity that nothing can shake – even if on the surface there is storm and battle. I was myself of the sattwic type you describe in my youth, but when the peace from above came down, that was quite different. Sattvaguna disappeared into nirguna and negative nirguna into positive traigunyatıta.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

The silence and peace are themselves part of the higher consciousness – the rest comes in the silence and peace.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

The psychic can have peace behind it – but the inner mind, vital and physical are not necessarily silent – they are full of movements. It is the higher consciousness that has a basis of peace.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

There is a higher consciousness above you, not in the body, so above the head, which we call the higher, spiritual or divine consciousness, or the Mother’s consciousness. When the being opens then all in you, the mind (head), emotional being (heart), vital, even something in the physical consciousness begin to ascend in order to join themselves to this greater higher consciousness. One has when one sits with eyes closed in meditation the sensation of going up which you describe. It is called the ascension of the lower consciousness. Afterwards things begin to descend from above, peace, joy, light, strength, knowledge etc. and a great change begins in the nature. This is what we call the descent of the higher (the Mother’s) consciousness.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

Peace is a deep quietude where no disturbance can come – a quietude with a sense of established security and release.

In complete silence there are either no thoughts or, if they come, they are felt as something coming from outside and not disturbing the silence.

Silence of the mind, peace or calm in the mind are three things that are very close together and bring each other.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

Peace is more positive than calm – there can be a negative calm which is merely an absence of disturbance or trouble, but peace is always something positive bringing not merely a release as calm does but a certain happiness or Ananda of itself. There is also a positive calm, something that stands firm against all things that seek to trouble, not thin and neutral like the negative calm, but strong and massive. Very often the two words are used in the same sense, but one can distinguish them in their true sense as above.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

Quiet is rather negative – it is the absence of disturbance.

Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances.

Peace is a calm deepened into something that is very positive amounting almost to a tranquil waveless Ananda.

Silence is the absence of all motion of thought or other vibration of activity.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

The words “peace, calm, quiet, silence” have each their own shade of meaning, but it is not easy to define them.

Peace – santi. Calm – sthirata. Quiet – acancalata. Silence – niscala-nıravata.

Quiet is a condition in which there is no restlessness or disturbance.

Calm is a still, unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect – it is a less negative condition than quiet.

Peace is a still more positive condition; it carries with it a sense of settled and harmonious rest and deliverance.

Silence is a state in which either there is no movement of the mind or vital or else a great stillness which no surface movement can pierce or alter.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

I presume that [feeling peace concretely between the lobes of the brain] would mean that the peace had become or was becoming very material and solid and physically tangible – ‘peace in the cells’. Everything is a ‘substance’ – even peace, consciousness, ananda, – only there are different orders of substance.

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Words of the Mother

Sweet Mother, what does “solid peace” mean?

You see, there is a negative peace, that is, an absence of disturbance; but solid peace is a positive peace. One may feel a peace which is absolutely positive, which is not the negation of the absence of peace, a peace that is something solid, concrete, very… almost active, you see, that is, having a power of contagion, of spreading through the whole being and bringing peace even in places where there is none. This becomes something very positive and concrete… as though one were touching a solid object. This indeed is true peace. The other is just the preceding step – the negation of the disturbance – that is to say, one remains untroubled, one has no vibration which shows any disturbance.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

The higher consciousness in its descent takes several fundamental forms – peace, power and strength, light, knowledge, Ananda. Usually it is the peace that descends first. This is not a mental, vital or physical peace of the ordinary kind, but something from above (spiritual), very firm, solid and concrete. It is its concreteness that makes you feel like a still massive block – a mass of the higher consciousness in place of the more tenuous substance of the ordinary nature. As for its being worth having, you can see that it is – it is indeed the beginning of the real transformation – all the rest hitherto has been mainly preparation and clearing of difficulties and impediments through all these years.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

Peace is a part of the highest ideal, but it must be spiritual or at the very least psychological in its basis; without a change in human nature it cannot come with any finality.

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Words of Sri Aurobindo

If one has faith and openness, that is enough [to get the understanding one needs to practise the Yoga