Agustina Thorgilsson is The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to "Spiritual Growth". You can find complete information on Agustina Thorgilsson and her products by visitingwww.lifenavigation.com.
We frequently allow our mental process and the limitations of language to create confusion within ourselves. The mind’s primary capacities involve fragmentation and classification; thus, we identify different aspects, parts, beings, roles, events and treat them as separate and distinct from one ... Views:143
We frequently allow our mental process and the limitations of language to create confusion within ourselves. The mind’s primary capacities involve fragmentation and classification; thus, we identify different aspects, parts, beings, roles, events and treat them as separate and distinct from one ... Views:127
When we observe the standpoint we inhabit closely, we find that we tend to identify ourselves as a distinct ‘person’ or ‘personality’ with specific traits, habits, relationships and viewpoints about ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’. This is the ego-personality and we tend to try to associate ... Views:109
We generally live, most of the time, within a framework of the ego-consciousness. We look at and experience our lives from this standpoint, and it places limitations on our understanding and our response to circumstances. Those who are called to yoga and spiritual development practices in ... Views:116
The external life and its conditions tend to fixate the attention for most people to such a degree, that they are overwhelmed by the needs of the body, the impositions of the life-energy and the force of desire, and the focus and attention of the mind. Just trying to keep up with all the ... Views:131
There is a considerable difference in effective results from the psychic being having an influence, essentially from ‘behind’ the surface nature, on the actions of the life in the external world, and what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother designate as the psychic being ‘coming forward’. Until the ... Views:121
Life is so short! When one wants to accomplish something extraordinary or difficult, it takes considerable time and focus. If we reflect however, that the first 16 years or more are formative years and are focused on physical growth, development of vital powers of action, and cultivating the ... Views:111
Most people do not understand why it is they are alive, what it is they are here to do in the world. Many simply think that ‘eat, drink and be merry’ is the sum of their purpose; in other words, they do not recognise a life purpose or mission in that sense, and just want to find a way to enjoy ... Views:116
The mental, vital and physical levels of consciousness are fundamentally limited by their basis in division and fragmentation. They see and categorize their understanding in a way that emphasizes the separateness of the forces at work and the consequences. This makes it impossible to understand ... Views:142
There are certain beings that occupy specific positions in the hierarchy of consciousness, who inhabit specific planes with a specific define role in the creation. These are essentially ‘static’ beings as they do not ‘evolve’. It is commonly held that, on the contrary, the evolutionary principle ... Views:134
We remain so fixated on the external surface being, that we fail to recognise the divinity within us. Just as we go through our daily lives in the light of the day and do not attend to our world’s connection to the vast galaxies and universe of which our world is a part, so also we do not ... Views:117
It is not easy for most people to distinguish vital responses such as feelings or emotions from the true expression of the psychic being within them. This is primarily due to the fact that just about everyone bases themselves in the external surface being. We see this confusion when people see ... Views:132
It is common for an individual to take some kind of illumination of the mind, or some strong positive emotion in the heart, for instance, as a sign of their contact with the soul. Yet in many, if not most, cases the contact is with a mental or vital movement tinged with the influence of the ... Views:125
As human beings live primarily in the external consciousness on the surface of the being, their experience of existence is centred around and focused on the body, life-force and mind. They do not generally see nor recognise the true soul deep behind the surface, and they see the coming and going ... Views:128
Each level of consciousness acts on its own native level independent of any single individual person or embodiment. There is a subtle physical plane, a vital plane, a mental plane, and various spiritual planes beyond that characterize and represent further levels of the evolution of ... Views:119
The soul is a portion of the Divine specifically detailed to each individual being that is created as part of the universal manifestation. The soul develops the inmost being, the psychic being, through lifetimes of experience. This psychic being grows, matures and transitions through birth and ... Views:132
Within a particular lifetime we experience a sense of continuity of being, which we normally attribute to the ego-personality. The sense of ego helps us identify with the body, life and mind we currently inhabit and utilize. This ego-sense is held together by the force of memory and by an ... Views:140
The questions of what happens to us after we die, whether we are reborn, and if so, in what form or manner have occupied human beings from time immemorial. What is the purpose of life and what are we, as conscious individuals, supposed to do with the life we are living?
The Tibetan Book of ... Views:128
The confusion about the soul is pervasive at virtually every level of our being. Sri Aurobindo identifies what he calls the ‘desire soul’ which is a formation of the vital being, living on the surface of the consciousness and seeking gratification of desires for the external being. The amalgam ... Views:138
Confusion about the spiritual being and the psychic being is not the only source of misunderstanding about the source of inspirations, feelings, and thoughts that arise as the individual shifts away from exclusive focus on the surface external being and begins to gain experience of the inner ... Views:140
The soul makes choices along the way and in so doing, it builds up the psychic being as it grows, evolves and passes through a series of births and deaths of the physical existence. The Jivatman represents the Divine Consciousness presiding over each individual formation within the manifestation ... Views:154
Most people live their lives centered around the ego-personality and the external life. Their focus and actions are based in the needs, desires and gratifications that are put up by the body, the vital life-energy and the mind. They do not have a conscious relationship with the soul or the most ... Views:131
As the seeker proceeds in the path of yoga, it is important that he not misinterpret or misunderstand what he experiences or what the source of the experience may be. Most people confuse the terms Self, Spirit, and soul so that they really cannot appreciate the difference aspects or ... Views:147
The Taittiriya Upanishad describes a series of planes or sheathes that are ever more subtle, with the outermost sheath being the physical being, and then the vital sheath and the mental sheath, which makes up our ordinary human existence. Each of these sheaths are connected to a plane of ... Views:136
In order to distinguish standpoint and nexus of attention, we refer to the Divine Being as either Transcendent, i.e. exceeding the entire manifested universe and containing both the manifest and unmanifest aspects; Universal, i.e. the consciousness that maintains awareness of the universal ... Views:142
As an individual begins to consciously try to understand the yogic path and connect with his soul and discover his true self, and then find and consciously participate in the spiritual purpose of the divine manifestation, he is confronted with a number of different terms and elements that need ... Views:133
The gradations of consciousness beyond the human level represent levels of awareness and power that far exceed anything that we can appreciate from the purely human mental level. In the Taittiriya Upanishad, there is a “calculus” of gradations of bliss. “Let there be a young man, excellent and ... Views:133
In the Kena Upanishad, the various gods Agni, Vayu and Indra each are confronted by the Supreme and asked to use their utmost power to destroy what was presented before them. They each failed as their power was insufficient to meet the force of the Supreme. Indra eventually discovered that there ... Views:140
When we generally consider the idea of intuition, we look at some ‘gut feeling’ we may have, or some quick certainty we have about a certain situation and call that ‘intuition’. If we examine the common notions of intuition carefully, we find that in some cases they are embedded responses to ... Views:133
The aspiring yogic practitioner starts from the basis of the normal human egoistic standpoint of the mind-life-body complex. The process and method of perception, thought, logic, analysis, classification and labeling, reasoning, understanding and implementation in action is quite well-defined ... Views:127
It is difficult to appreciate that there are gradations of consciousness, each with their own distinct characteristics, that occur outside our normal human range of perception. We tend to see separations and divisions within our limited range, while we treat anything outside that range as being ... Views:132
Just as all energy operates along a spectrum of vibration from shorter wavelength to longer wavelength, and this spectrum can be perceived within certain limited ranges based on the capacity of our sense instruments (or tools we develop to extend our range of perception), so also consciousness ... Views:136
When an individual takes up the practice of Yoga, he generally expects to see palpable and constant progress towards whatever he has set as his goal in that practice. When the yogic practice is focused on bringing about the next stage of the evolution of consciousness, and integrating the ... Views:125
It is typical for human beings to associate their knowledge, their artistic achievements, their skills as something they create within themselves. They tether the ego-consciousness to all such developments, believing that somehow they are unique and special in terms of the ability to create ... Views:134
It is one thing to gain an intellectual understanding of the concept of the subliminal consciousness. However, this does not provide a real experience of nor true knowledge about the action, influence and impact of the subliminal consciousness on our lives. The question then arises, whether and ... Views:125
In the Taittiriya Upanishad, a seeker undertakes a discipline to discover the truth of existence. He first lands upon the idea thta the material existence is the truth, as it is the basis and foundation of his existence. As he continues his concentration, however, he begins to realize that the ... Views:170
We focus our attention and awareness on the external world in which we are active. We receive impressions, sensations, vibrations, impulsions and pressures from that world and it fixes our mind on that palpable experience of reality. This is however not the entirely of our existence nor of the ... Views:132
Western psychology is in its infancy as a science. It is, as is all mental knowledge, a form of ignorance, seeking and grasping for knowledge, while not actually able to see the entire picture nor understand the complexity of all the elements that go into human psychology. Thus, Freud gained a ... Views:131
As long as we focus our attention on the surface perceptions, events and actions, we respond to the vibrations associated with those things. We may focus on our physical needs, our vital desires, our mental interests, our emotional states, or on our aesthetic and artistic sensibilities, or on ... Views:122
In his epic poem Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo describes the experience of the awareness moving inwards away from the surface consciousness fixated on external perceptions. “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits ... Views:135
Human awareness can be compared to an iceberg on the physical plane. The iceberg appears small and insignificant above the surface of the ocean, yet it is massive below the surface, as was found out by the ‘unsinkable’ cruise ship, the Titanic during its maiden voyage. Similarly, the awareness ... Views:139
Introduction: Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol is an inner guidebook for the soul. These mantric verses imbue even the body with potent spiritual resonance.
In this epic spiritual poem, Sri Aurobindo reveals his vision of mankind’s destiny within the universal evolution. He sets forth the ... Views:145
The inconscient level is a substratum for the broader manifestation and is not tied to any particular individual. Before anything can be done to effectively wake up and energize the inconscient, the task of the spiritual seeker is to bring down the light and consciousness through all the higher ... Views:138
A large number of responses and reactions are embedded in the subconscious and unconscious parts of our nature. Some of these arise as a result of atavistic reactions that precede the human stage of evolution and have been carried forward, while others are embedded as a result of prenatal and ... Views:128
All consciousness operates on a continuum with each plane representing certain vibrational spectra that are perceptible to those able to receive and process the vibrations of that plane. We know from research with various beings such as insects and animals of various sorts that they have ... Views:144
How can something arise out of nothing? How can consciousness develop out of unconscious matter? Western science has tried to explain how life and mind can arise through random recombination of atoms and the impact of energetic forces on these atoms, but Western science has not explained where ... Views:124
Human beings generally have little patience or endurance. Particularly in today’s world, where we expect “immediate” gratification, we want something to get done quickly, easily and permanently. If we work on a particular issue we notice in our being, we want to see results and not have to ... Views:140
When the seeker recognises the difficulties attendant upon gaining control and mastery of the subconscient, he looks for leverage to both become conscious of what is currently subconscious to his awareness, and to find ways to change the response and reactions that arise from the ... Views:133
We understand that there is an electro-magnetic spectrum, ranging from very short wavelengths to extremely long wavelengths. We can visualize the color spectrum with a similar range. There is also a sound spectrum. In each instance of a vibrational spectrum, there is a range within which we can ... Views:128
It is often said that ‘you can’t change human nature’. One of the major obstacles turns out to be the seeds of all past habits, actions, behaviors, reactions and instincts that reside in the subconscious levels of the being. An individual may spend his life culturing his mind, his emotions and ... Views:146