Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / What Actually Is Spirituality?

Transcript

What Actually Is Spirituality? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:00
  We speak of spirituality and we have a conception in our minds
• 0:05
  about what it actually is. We vaguely sense that it
• 0:10
  encompasses A devotion and focus on something other than our
• 0:14
  daily external life and relationships.
• 0:17
  Many people state that they are spiritual, not religious.
• 0:22
  We sometimes conceive of it as a deep devotional sense in our
• 0:25
  being. Others may conceive of it as the
• 0:29
  ability to put aside all worldly concerns and cares and focus 1
• 0:34
  pointed attention on the Infinite.
• 0:36
  By whatever name and in whatever form we may conceive of the
• 0:41
  Infinite, we may associate it on occasion with the deeper
• 0:46
  movements of the religious temperament when we have an
• 0:49
  experience of a sense of consecration or a flame of
• 0:53
  aspiration welling up from our heart centre.
• 0:57
  Or we may sense that it is some kind of dedicated, selfless work
• 1:01
  that we do for the benefit of the larger whole, whether that
• 1:05
  is conceived of as the entirety of humankind or something wider
• 1:10
  and more encompassing even than that.
• 1:14
  We have unusual or even extraordinary experiences of
• 1:18
  consciousness which we quickly identify as spiritual
• 1:22
  experiences, whether it is a sense of existing outside the
• 1:27
  body, or having the descent of a deep and immovable peace into
• 1:32
  our being. Or the opening up and activation
• 1:36
  of a force, whether from below moving upwards or from above
• 1:42
  moving downwards, opening the energy centers, chakras,
• 1:47
  actualizing powers of knowledge, insight, consecration, devotion
• 1:53
  that are normally quite absent. To the extent we conceive of
• 1:59
  spirituality as any of these things, we may believe that by
• 2:03
  our mind's attention and acceptance of a particular idea
• 2:07
  or formation that we are being spiritual.
• 2:12
  Even having spiritual experiences from time to time
• 2:15
  does not, however, make us spiritual.
• 2:19
  These mental formations and special experiences are
• 2:23
  essentially there to awaken us to the reality, the need, the
• 2:27
  opportunity, and the path before us.
• 2:31
  It is then up to us to take those next steps and work on the
• 2:36
  transformation of human nature that represents the next stage
• 2:40
  in human evolution and thereby helps us embody in our thoughts,
• 2:46
  our words and our deeds, in our very perceptions, reactions and
• 2:52
  impulses, the essence of spirituality.
• 2:57
  Spirituality brings with it the experience of Oneness,
• 3:01
  transcending the fixation we have on the ego, personality and
• 3:05
  the body, life mind complex we inhabit during our current short
• 3:09
  lifetimes. This transcendence removes the
• 3:13
  barriers of space-time and circumstance.
• 3:18
  We respond entirely differently than the ego consciousness, as
• 3:22
  we are no longer centered in that small and artificially
• 3:26
  distinct through the illusion of separation, Nexus of experience.
• 3:32
  From this basis it is possible to effectuate real change in
• 3:37
  human nature, an evolutionary change that impacts every aspect
• 3:42
  of our lives. Triorro Bindo notes quote Talk
• 3:48
  of surrender or a mere idea or tepid wish for integral
• 3:53
  consecration will not do. There must be the push for a
• 3:58
  radical and total change. It is not by taking a mere
• 4:02
  mental attitude that this can be done, or even by any number of
• 4:07
  inner experiences which leave the outer man as he was.
• 4:11
  It is this outer man who has to open, to surrender and to
• 4:16
  change. His every least movement, habit,
• 4:20
  action has to be surrendered, seen, held up and exposed to the
• 4:27
  Divine Light, offered to the Divine Force for its old forms
• 4:31
  and motives to be destroyed, and the Divine Truth and the action
• 4:36
  of the transforming consciousness of the Divine
• 4:38
  Mother to take their place. End Quote Reference Sri Oro
• 4:45
  Bindu and the Mother Looking from Within, Chapter 5,
• 4:49
  Attitudes on the Path, pages 125 to 126.