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The Distinction Between Spiritual and Psychic · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The distinction between spiritual and psychic comes down
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  to the experiential basis. For the most part, as mental
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  beings, we have a tendency to try to define, delineate,
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  classify and analyze, creating fine differences and trying to
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  then categorize based on these differences.
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  Trior, Ovindo and the Mother have described the psychic, the
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  soul, as a spark of the divine in the individual being.
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  Spiritual is a term that relates to the universal existence.
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  Both terms share the common link to the divine reality, while the
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  experience from one to the other may vary based on the level and
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  the frequency of the vibration that each one represents.
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  The falling away of the individual ego personality and
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  the shifting of the standpoint of the consciousness to what the
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  Vedic grishes termed the Truth, the Right, the vast is the
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  experience that is termed spiritual.
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  When the seeker enters this experience, there is no element
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  of the ego present. In fact, when the consciousness
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  first crosses over the boundary, there can frequently be the
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  rising of the sense of fear that one is dying or leaving one's
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  existence, as the awareness recognizes that an entirely
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  different order of reality is now being presented.
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  If the seeker at that moment allows the fear to rule, then he
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  is immediately brought fully back into the individual mind,
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  life and body. The experience of the psychic or
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  soul spark is of a different character.
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  There is frequently a sense, not necessarily of wideness or an
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  abstract void, but of a flame of aspiration, consecration, self
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  giving, that is associated with the role of the soul in
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  eventually turning the external being toward the divine.
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  Essentially, the two different experiences share the common
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  basis in the divine consciousness.
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  The disciple asks, is there a difference between the spiritual
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  and the psychic? Are they different planes?
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  The Mother answers quote yes, the psychic plane belongs to the
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  personal manifestation. The psychic is that which is
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  divine in you, put out to be dynamic in the play.
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  But when we speak of the spiritual, we are thinking of
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  something that is concentrated in the Divine rather than in the
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  external manifestation. The spiritual plane is something
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  static behind and above the outward play.
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  It supports the instruments of the nature, but is not itself
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  included or involved in the external manifestation here.
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  But in Speaking of these things, one must be careful not to be
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  imprisoned by the words we use. When I speak of the psychic or
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  the spiritual, I mean things that are very deep and real
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  behind the flat surface of the words and intimately connected
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  even in their difference. Intellectual definitions and
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  distinctions are too external and rigid to seize the true
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  truth of things. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the psychic being soul,
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  its nature, mission and evolution.
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  Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the
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  Psychic Being. Page 36.