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Seeking and Attaining Mastery Over the Touches of Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Seekers throughout the ages have struggled with the issue of how
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  to deal with the pressures and circumstances of the external
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  world. They recognize the swing of
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  emotions, feelings, and thoughts that occur as they receive input
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  from people and events. They recognize that sometimes
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  this causes them to lose control and do things that are
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  counterproductive or which create enormous internal
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  stresses and disturb the calm of the mind and emotions, the
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  nervous and vital framework, and even the operations of their
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  physical bodies. Sri Aurobindo describes 3 steps
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  that can aid the seeker in gaining mastery over his
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  internal reactions and responses.
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  The first step is one which has been commonly employed, namely
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  to habituate the being to bear stronger and stronger touches as
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  forces from outside create their pressure on the being.
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  It is in the second step where Sri Robindo focuses on a method
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  that, while not unknown to spiritual seekers in the past,
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  has not been put into consistent practice.
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  That is, to create the separation of the witness
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  consciousness and the active nature, the separation of
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  Purusha and Prakriti, and to take the standpoint of the
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  Purusha observing but not intervening in the operations of
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  the external nature, which includes the mental, vital and
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  physical elements of the being. The third step moves a step
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  further and the Pirusha exerts control over the external nature
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  and changes the entire structure of reaction and response.
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  Apropoa this view, Sri Robindo has translated the following
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  verses from chapter 4 of the Shweta Shwatara Upanishad.
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  Quote 2 Winged birds cling about a common tree.
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  Comrades yoke fellows, and one eats the sweet fruit of the
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  tree, the other eats not, but watches.
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  The soul upon a common tree is absorbed, and because he is not
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  Lord, grieves and is bewildered, but when he sees and cleaves to
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  that other who is the Lord, he knows that all is his greatness,
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  and his sorrow passes away from him.
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  End Quote. Trior Bindo notes, quote.
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  The soul which seeks mastery may begin by turning upon these
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  reactions, the encountering and opposing force of a strong and
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  equal endurance. Instead of seeking to protect
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  itself from or to shun an escape the unpleasant impacts, it may
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  confront them and teach itself to suffer and to bear them with
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  perseverance, with fortitude and increasing equanimity or an
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  austere or calm acceptance. This attitude, this discipline,
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  brings out three results. 3 Powers of the soul in relation
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  to things. First, it is found that what was
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  before unbearable becomes easy to endure.
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  The scale of the power that meets the impact rises in
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  degree. It needs a greater and greater
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  force of it, or of its protracted incidents to cause
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  trouble, pain, grief, aversion, or any other of the notes in the
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  gamut of the unpleasant reactions.
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  Secondly, it is found that the conscious nature divides itself
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  into two parts. One of the normal mental and
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  emotional nature, in which the customary reactions continue to
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  take place. Another of the higher will and
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  reason, which observes and is not troubled or affected by the
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  passion of this lower nature, does not accept it as its own,
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  does not approve, sanction or participate.
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  Then the lower nature begins to lose the force and power of its
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  reactions, to submit to the suggestions of calm and strength
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  from the higher reason and will, and gradually that calm and
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  strength take possession of the mental and emotional, even of
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  the sensational, vital and physical being.
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  This brings the third power and result, the power by this
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  endurance and mastery, this separation and rejection of the
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  lower nature, to get rid of the normal reactions, and even if we
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  will, to remold all our modes of experience by the strength of
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  the spirit. This method is applied not only
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  to the unpleasant but also to the pleasant reactions.
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  The soul refuses to give itself up to or be carried away by
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  them. It endures with calm the impacts
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  which bring joy and pleasure, refuses to be excited by them,
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  and replaces the joy and eager seeking of the mind after
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  pleasant things by the calm of the spirit.
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  It can be applied, too, to the thought mind in a calm reception
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  of knowledge and of limitations of knowledge which refuses to be
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  carried away by the fascination of this attractive or repelled
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  by dislike for that unaccustomed or unpalatable thought
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  suggestion, and waits on the truth with a detached
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  observation which allows it to grow on the strong,
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  disinterested, mastering will and reason.
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  Thus the soul becomes gradually equal to all things master of
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  itself, adequate to meet the world with a strong front in the
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  mind and an undisturbed serenity of the spirit.
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  End Quote. Reference 3.
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  Orobindo and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 7.
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  Attitude, pages 70 to 71.