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The Material Consciousness and Its Resistance to Change · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There is a proverb that says that changing human nature is
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  like trying to straighten out a dog's tail.
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  As soon as the hold is taken off of the tail, it reverts to its
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  usual shape. When we reach the level of the
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  material consciousness, we are at the point where the solidity
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  of matter makes change much more challenging than in the more
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  flexible levels of the mental consciousness, the vital
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  consciousness, etcetera. Another proverb states that you
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  cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
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  We all can recognize that training the body to enhance the
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  capacity or skill set or overcome some limitation is a
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  process that takes time and much consistency in order for it to
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  be achieved. There are, however, embedded
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  deep in the physical consciousness, layers of
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  material consciousness that are so dense and solid that they do
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  not respond to our normal mental and vital methods of exerting
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  pressure for change. At this level are what can be
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  called reflexes. The action is virtually
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  automatic. When a stimulus is applied in a
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  certain place, the material consciousness responds with a
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  known and predictable response. Some of these reflexes or
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  mechanical reactions are embedded in what we call
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  instincts. They are birds that build a nest
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  in a very specific manner from generation to generation.
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  Salmon are known to return to the exact location where they
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  are born to spawn the next generation.
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  Monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles from Mexico
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  to Canada and back, going and coming to specific locales from
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  generation to generation in migrations that span 4 to 5
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  generations of the monarch. These types of instinctive
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  behaviour are illustrative of the way nature has fixed certain
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  routines. The individuals are replaced,
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  the formations remain the same. In a similar way, the human
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  being also has some deeply embedded behaviours that defy
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  our attempts to modify them. Alpha male behaviour and the
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  response to that by others in the society.
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  Pecking orders, fight or flight reactions, responses to trauma,
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  the flood of various hormones and neurotransmitters under
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  specific conditions all represent virtually automatic
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  reactions. Then there are the automatic
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  reactions based in attraction, repulsion, the survival
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  instinct, disgust or revulsion, trust and fear, hunger and
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  thirst, all of which can arise without our conscious
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  intervention when certain forces impinge upon us.
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  These and other similar long established habits of the nature
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  are part of nature's process to ensure that change does not
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  devolve into chaos. It establishes A conservative
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  principle to make change take place through a long period of
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  modification, testing, and establishment of a new principle
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  of action. This occurs both at the
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  individual level and at the level of society.
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  At a certain point, however, this conservative principle can
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  lead to stagnation and decay if there is no opportunity for
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  change, growth, development and modification.
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  A fixed and unchanging response, which lacks adaptability and
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  flexibility, eventually fails the test of nature.
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  Nature thus has developed also progressive principles that can
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  lead to new manifestations and changes in these deeply embedded
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  responses. Changes at this level can seem
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  to be impossibly slow, but eventually they take hold.
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  The conservative nature and principle of this mechanical
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  consciousness will eventually adopt the modification and then
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  in its turn make it into a fixed routine or dogmatic approach
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  until the next phase of development Finally can
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  breakthrough the dense temasek formation that is created.
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  At that level, we can appreciate that the vital force has a
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  limited yet real power to effectuate change in material
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  nature. The mental power has shown a
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  greater capacity to bring about change at the level of matter
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  and the material consciousness. Although this too is limited, we
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  can understand that a new higher power of consciousness and
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  action, embodying the next phase of the evolution of
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  consciousness may be able to create a faster and more supple
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  response to understand and breakthrough the resistance of
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  the material consciousness. While at the same time ensuring
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  that this is not simply wild change for the sake of change,
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  but is actually bringing our existence to its next level of
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  fulfillment. Sri Robindo notes quote.
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  What you describe is the material consciousness.
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  It is mostly subconscient, but the part of it that is conscious
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  is mechanical, inertly moved by habits or by the forces of the
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  lower nature, always repeating the same unintelligent and
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  unenlightened movements. It is attached to the routine
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  and established rule of what already exists, unwilling to
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  change, unwilling to receive the light or obey the higher force,
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  Or if it is willing, then it is unable.
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  Or if it is able, then it turns the action given to it by the
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  light or the force into a new mechanical routine, and so takes
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  out of it all soul and life. It is obscure, stupid, indolent,
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  full of ignorance and inertia, darkness and slowness of Thomas.
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  It is this material consciousness into which we are
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  seeking to bring first the higher divine or spiritual light
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  and power and Ananda and then the Super mental truth which is
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  the object of our yoga. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri or Bindo Faces of Yoga Chapter 5.
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  Physical consciousness, subconscious sleep and dream
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  illness. Pages 83 to 84.