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The Latent Potential of the Soul and the Actual Implementation of the Psychic Being · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  An individual walks into a train station without a particular
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  destination in mind. He is confronted with dozens, if
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  not hundreds of possible destinations.
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  He is surrounded by the latent potential to take a particular
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  direction. Each possible destination holds
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  opportunities and further decision points for him which he
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  cannot yet see or comprehend. Once he makes his choice and
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  boards a particular train, all of the unknown possibilities
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  that existed in those other directions collapse and he is
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  now following a particular line of development come what may.
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  Every day we are confronted by choices, opportunities, and
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  decisions. Depending on those choices, our
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  lives develop and we create before us the chain of cause and
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  effect which leads us forward on the chosen path.
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  In the field of quantum mechanics, there is a particular
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  thought experiment that helps us frame our understanding of the
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  latent versus the actual. A theoretical physicist
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  Schrodinger proposed that there is a cat in a box.
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  We cannot observe the status of the cat.
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  There is also a vial that if broken, will release a deadly
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  poison gas and kill the cat. Until such time as we actually
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  open the box and observe the actual status of the cat, we
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  have to treat the cat as being in two potential states at the
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  same time, alive and dead. This represents the
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  potentiality, whereas the observation upon opening of the
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  box collapses one of these two options and we recognize the one
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  that was turned into an actuality.
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  Another experiment has light passing through 2 slits in a
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  screen. As long as it is unobserved, the
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  light passes through both of these slits, but once observed
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  and measured, it creates a specific resulting pattern.
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  The potential result of the unobserved phenomenon becomes an
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  actual result through the process of observation.
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  The relationship between the latent potentiality and the
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  actual reality is represented in the soul and the psychic being
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  as well. The soul, as a divine element
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  within each being, contains the potentiality of the entire
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  divine intention through its expression of the psychic being.
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  Particular directions are chosen for each lifetime to carry out a
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  specific line of that divine intention in a particular
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  individual incarnation. The psychic being games the
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  essence of the experience of the mind, life and body, and over
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  time it works to increase its direct influence over these
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  parts to ensure they are carrying out the divine will in
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  an ever clearer and more direct manner.
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  It does so generally unobtrusively and allows the
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  external parts to grow and exercise their native powers and
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  directions until they are ready on their own to accept the
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  deeper aspiration and guidance that the psychic being embodies.
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  Srioro Bindo writes quote The psychic has two aspects.
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  There is the sole principle itself, which contains all soul
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  possibilities, and there is the psychic personality, which
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  represents whatever soul power is developed from life to life
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  or put forward for action in our present life formation.
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  The psychic being usually expresses itself through its
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  instruments, mental, vital and physical.
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  It tries to put as much of its stamp on them as possible, but
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  it can seldom put on them the full psychic stamp unless it
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  comes fully out from its rather secluded and overshadowed
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  position, and takes into its hands the direct government of
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  the nature. It can then receive and express
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  all spiritual realization in its own way and manner.
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  For the turn of the psychic is different from that of the
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  overhead planes. It has less of greatness, power,
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  wideness, more of a smaller sweetness, delicate beauty.
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  There is an intense beauty of emotion, a fine subtlety of true
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  perception and intimate language.
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  The expression sweetness and light can very well be applied
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  to the psychic as the kernel of its nature.
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  The spiritual plane, when it takes up these things, gives
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  them a wider utterance, a greater splendor of light, a
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  stronger sweetness, a breath of powerful audacity, strength and
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  space. End Quote.
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  Reference Shrioro Window and the Mother.
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  The psychic being, Soul, its nature, mission and evolution.
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  Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the
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  Psychic Being, pages 37 to 38.