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Solving Illness With Insight and Moderation · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  It is a natural human tendency and it carries over to those who
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  take up spiritual practice. This tendency sees most things
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  through the mental lens and tries to categorize them as
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  black and white, positive and negative, etcetera.
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  Essentially creating a mental framework of exclusion that
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  looks to thoughts, actions and focus without looking at
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  process, timing or the needs of the various elements being
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  addressed, whether they are individual formations of the
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  mental, emotional, vital or physical basis or more general
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  formations of the social framework.
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  Thus, we tend to extremes and become dogmatic.
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  This habit of perspective also affects the way spiritual
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  seekers look at the issue of curing illness.
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  We frequently hear the refrain that they do not take any
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  medicines or vaccinations as they don't believe in them and
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  believe that their faith and their spiritual practice will
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  take care of them. There is certainly a certain
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  element of truth in the pure surrender of the being to
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  spiritual guidance. However, in many cases, when an
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  individual becomes I'll, we see a different picture emerge which
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  shows the faith was not as perfect as their mental belief
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  system had professed. Sriorovindo explores the process
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  by which spiritual force can effectuate healing in the
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  physical body. Spiritual force, when it is
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  active in the being, needs to deal with the realities of the
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  mind, the vital being, and the physical body.
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  The physical body in particular has a material basis and is thus
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  subject to habitual patterns of response and reaction that are
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  deeply embedded and are both difficult to change and which
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  take time, even with constant and repeated pressure to change.
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  While the pressure to change is taking place, the being may
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  require support that is operative on the level to which
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  it is habitually accustomed. The use of a placebo shows us
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  that the mind can more easily accept the healing force, in
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  many cases through a physical medium that convinces it that it
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  is being aided. The use of pranayam, mantras or
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  prayers may help the vital envelope strengthen its ability
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  to resist the disease. The use of specific medicines,
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  including homeopathy, which works on the vibrational level,
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  may aid the body in its own response to a situation.
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  The question is not solved by taking an extreme position that
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  does not recognize time, process and circumstances.
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  Rather, the constant pressure of the spiritual force can take the
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  temporary and intermediate aid of mental, vital and physical
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  support systems to address illness and help the seeker
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  maintain a strong foundation for the spiritual work to be done,
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  Sri Aurobindo writes quote Certainly one can act from
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  within on an illness and cure it.
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  Only it is not always easy as there is much resistance in
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  matter. A resistance of inertia, an
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  untiring persistence is necessary.
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  At first. One may fail altogether, or the
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  symptoms increase, but gradually the control of the body or of a
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  particular illness becomes stronger again.
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  To cure an occasional attack of illness by inner means is
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  comparatively easy. To make the body immune from it
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  in future is more difficult. A chronic malady is harder to
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  deal with, more reluctant to disappear entirely, than an
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  occasional disturbance of the body, so long as the control of
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  the body is imperfect. There are all these and other
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  imperfections and difficulties in the use of the inner force.
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  If you can succeed by the interaction in preventing
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  increase, even that is something.
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  You have then by Abyasa to strengthen the power till it
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  becomes able to cure. Note that so long as the power
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  is not entirely there, some aid of physical means need not be
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  altogether rejected. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo, Faces of Yoga, Chapter 5.
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  Physical consciousness, subconscious sleep and dream
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  illness. Pages one O 5 to one O 6.