Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / How Do Spiritual Experiences Come About?
Transcript
- 0:01Well we are allured by the idea of spiritual experiences or if
- 0:06one looks at the popular media, the idea of some kind of unusual
- 0:11powers that an individual can develop obtained or possess.
- 0:16We actually have very little idea about what is really
- 0:20possible and how it actually works.
- 0:24Popular entertainment, fixates on Clairvoyance or super
- 0:28strength. Or in some cases, fantastic
- 0:32powers of sight. Hearing speed or the ability to
- 0:36fly communicate with dead souls or manifest other powers, not
- 0:42generally seen within Humanity. For the most part, these are the
- 0:47result of a general feeling of powerlessness in society.
- 0:51And our looked on its fantasy. Yet the fixation on these type
- 0:56of powers shows an attraction to the concept that there are
- 1:01potentially enhanced powers of some sort that will accompany
- 1:05the development and evolution of future stages of Consciousness.
- 1:10The seed Within These fantasies is the fact that there are many
- 1:16in explicit inexplicable experiences that arise which
- 1:21outside the framework of the normal current action of the
- 1:25body life, mine complex that we identify as our existence and
- 1:31being the actual experiences that arise tend to be marked as
- 1:36extraordinary by those who have them and carry with themselves a
- 1:40veracity and reality that cannot be challenged.
- 1:44Some individuals have experiences spontaneously
- 1:48sometimes through a deep inner connection with someone or
- 1:52something, undergoing an extraordinary event such as
- 1:56experiencing the death of a, loved one at the very instant of
- 2:00their death, despite being on the opposite.
- 2:02It end of the Earth and experience which is recounted
- 2:06any number of times, other individuals begin to have
- 2:10experiences that are outside any known context in this lifetime
- 2:16and which change the course of their lives and their focus as
- 2:20they develop in this new Direction.
- 2:23They may begin to recognize that this is an opening that was
- 2:27prepared in a past lifetime. still others undertake a
- 2:32specific course of action to break through the wall of the
- 2:36external nature in order to experience the wider reality,
- 2:42they then undertake either a Vision Quest or some kind of
- 2:46spiritual practice such as pranayama or tratak, which helps
- 2:51them break through the veil of the external nature, some
- 2:55attempt to do this through use of mind-altering drugs, while
- 2:59still under, Others, use ecstatic song, prayer, or trance
- 3:04dance. As a way to leave the ordinary
- 3:07Consciousness behind. A disciple asks on what do
- 3:13experiences depend weather? The mother responds quote, it
- 3:19depends on many things. Some people have experiences
- 3:23quite spontaneously and it is understood that this depends on
- 3:28their former lives or the way in which they were formed the
- 3:32forces, which presided over the construction of their present,
- 3:35physical being and the influence they came under even before
- 3:39their birth. These people have experiences
- 3:44spontaneously, there are not many of these but there are some
- 3:49there are others for whom it is. The result of a very sustained
- 3:54effort. They aspire to have experiences
- 3:58and impose a discipline upon themselves or adopt a
- 4:02discipline. So as to be able to have them
- 4:05sometimes it takes very long to obtain something.
- 4:09It depends altogether upon the way.
- 4:11One is built. I knew people who were ignorant.
- 4:15Yes. And who had quite remarkable
- 4:17experiences of Clairvoyance of inner perception.
- 4:22They understood nothing of what was happening to them or of what
- 4:26they saw, but they had the gift and quote.
- 4:31Reference SRI aurobindo in the mother growing within the
- 4:36psychology of inner development. Chapter 7, growth of
- 4:40Consciousness. Inner experiences page 127.