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Understanding the Cycles and Phases of Spiritual Development · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Several days ago, a Seeker raised a question, rephrased
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  here. I read SRI aurobindo his
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  writings regularly and for a time they stay active within me
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  but then it falls away and I feel blank inside.
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  Am I losing the benefit of Sri? Aurobindo is teaching and if so,
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  how can I ensure that it stays active within me?
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  There are periods of active development and growth and then
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  there are other periods that are times of assimilation.
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  During the assimilation period, not much of anything is visible
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  on the surface of the being. And thus, we may believe that
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  our spiritual progress has been somehow suddenly arrested.
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  We may experience a feeling of emptiness or dryness.
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  Then when the needed inner development is ready, it appears
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  as if miraculously There is a phenomenon which is called the
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  all-or-nothing response for instance if we are in a darkened
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  area we see only Darkness, we will not perceive light until
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  sufficient photons are available and firing our vision cells in
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  our eyes. Thus we do not see a gradual
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  increase of light but an appearance of Darkness followed
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  by a period of sudden light. Three-hour window describe
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  something in the evolutionary development, which is akin to
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  this when he discusses the concept of The evolutionary
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  psaltis the sudden leap in Consciousness, that appears to
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  have no direct precursor and thus no immediately preceding
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  species. This helps explain what
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  anthropologists consider to be the gaps.
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  In the fossil record that seemed to imply a break in The
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  evolutionary cycle of development.
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  An analogous process occurs in the development and growth of
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  Consciousness. As the individual undertake
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  sadhna. If the Seeker has the basic
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  understanding of the phases, the light phase and the dark phase
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  of the development, taking place internally and recognizes that
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  the process continues. Even if unseen, then Faith,
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  patience. And persistence will eventually
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  be rewarded with the next stage of Consciousness manifesting in
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  the Seeker, when all things have been prepared behind the scene,
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  dr. Dalal writes, quote, whatever
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  the path. Followed the process of inner
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  growth, involves a transformation of the normal
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  State of Consciousness, a progressive, Awakening of inner,
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  and higher states of being culminating, in a total reversal
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  of Consciousness, a new birth, One feature of the reversal of
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  Consciousness which gives it the appearance of a sudden
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  revolution rather than a gradual change is that it involves a
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  process similar to what has been called.
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  Unconscious incubation. The term incubation has been
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  used in Psychology to denote a period of time during which no
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  conscious effort is made to solve a problem, but which
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  terminates with the solution citation from Arthur Reber the
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  penguin dictionary of psychology.
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  Hence, the advice to sleep over an insoluble problem, waiting
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  for the solution to emerge, a somewhat similar phenomenon is
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  involved in the reversal of Consciousness.
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  It is a sudden happening preceded by a more-or-less long
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  period of preparation which takes place behind the veil of
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  the surface Consciousness and of which the Seeker is therefore
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  unaware, The mother observes quote for a long time.
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  You have the impression that nothing is happening, that your
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  Consciousness is the same as usual, and if you have an
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  intense aspiration, you even feel a resistance as though, you
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  were knocking against a wall, which does not yield.
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  But when you were ready within a last effort, the picking in the
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  Shell of the being and everything opens, and you are
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  projecting Did into another consciousness.
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  Reference SRI aurobindo and the mother growing within the
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  psychology of inner development introduction page, Roman 21.