Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Yogic Psychology

Transcript

Yogic Psychology · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:00
  Western psychology is still a relatively young science, and it
• 0:05
  necessarily does not have the complete picture of all the
• 0:08
  complex interactions that take place within our being.
• 0:12
  By starting to look inwards and starting to deal with the powers
• 0:16
  of mind, will, emotion, nervous impulses and sensations, and the
• 0:23
  impacts of the physical body on the psychology, Western
• 0:26
  psychology has been making steady strides towards a more
• 0:30
  complete understanding of how we function as human beings in a
• 0:34
  complex world filled with impressions, impulsions,
• 0:39
  conflicting ideas and emotions, exercises of will and physical
• 0:44
  limitations. The spiritual science of India,
• 0:49
  encapsulated in the wide field known under the general name of
• 0:52
  Yoga, has a long history of study of human psychology
• 0:57
  necessary to the attempt to gain understanding, control and
• 1:01
  mastery over the impulses, the activities of mind, will and
• 1:05
  heart, and the powers that represent our ability to
• 1:09
  experience and perceive and our ability to act within and upon
• 1:14
  the world in various ways. Yogic psychology holds that our
• 1:20
  perceptions, reactions and responses are not based purely
• 1:24
  on a sensation reaching the mind and the mind making a decision
• 1:28
  and carrying it out. It also recognizes that not all
• 1:32
  interactions are mental in nature.
• 1:34
  Thus yogic psychology sees that there is a mental being with
• 1:39
  various powers and levels of development, a vital being also
• 1:43
  with various levels and powers and a physical being plus
• 1:48
  various statuses that are either super conscient or sub conscient
• 1:53
  to our primary range of experience.
• 1:57
  Yogic psychology also attributes action to the movement of what
• 2:00
  are called the three gunas or qualities of nature, Satwa or
• 2:05
  light imbalance, rajas or force of action, and tamas or darkness
• 2:12
  or a state of rest or non movement.
• 2:15
  These three are always interacting and depending on the
• 2:18
  balance they strike at any point in time within an individual,
• 2:22
  they dictate the manner of response.
• 2:25
  The various levels of the being, mental, vital and physical each
• 2:31
  have their own responsiveness. And while normally one could say
• 2:35
  that Sattva would tend to reside primarily in the mental being
• 2:39
  and Rajas in the vital being and Thomas in the physical being,
• 2:44
  yogic psychology recognizes that these expected predominant
• 2:48
  traits get modified at every moment by the individual, his
• 2:53
  development and the pressures to which he is subjected.
• 2:57
  Thus a mind may become clouded by Thomas or Rajas and thus
• 3:02
  overpower any Sutwick tendency that might naturally be expected
• 3:06
  there. The power of reflection, the
• 3:10
  power of taking the stance as an observer of the nature, is a
• 3:15
  powerful tool of yogic psychology that helps the
• 3:18
  individual gain a deeper understanding of his own actions
• 3:22
  and motivations and the forces that impel him into action.
• 3:27
  Cultivating this inner attitude of detachment from the action of
• 3:30
  the external nature of the mind, life and body is an important
• 3:34
  milestone in gaining control and eventually mastery of the
• 3:39
  external nature and the expression of personality.
• 3:43
  This shift to the inner stance of the observer helps create the
• 3:47
  reversal of consciousness that leads practitioners to say the
• 3:52
  day for the ordinary person living the ordinary external
• 3:56
  life in the world is night to the yoging, while night for the
• 4:01
  ordinary individual is day for the yoging, Dr. Dalal writes.
• 4:07
  Quote. The psychology of yoga throws
• 4:10
  further light on the nature of attitudes.
• 4:13
  Unlike modern psychology, which lumps all psychological
• 4:17
  functions into what is called mind, if at all, any subjective
• 4:21
  construct is utilized to explain what the majority of
• 4:25
  psychologists today prefer to describe simply as behaviour.
• 4:29
  The psychology of yoga looks upon the human being as a
• 4:32
  composite of distinct, though intermixed and interacting parts
• 4:37
  of the being, each with its own characteristic consciousness.
• 4:42
  Different attitudes are related to different parts of the being
• 4:44
  or different types of consciousness.
• 4:47
  One's predominant attitudes depend on the part of the being
• 4:50
  and its characteristic type of consciousness, which is dominant
• 4:55
  in one's nature. Broadly speaking, there are two
• 4:59
  divisions in the human being, the outer being which
• 5:03
  constitutes the personality from the Latin persona mask, and the
• 5:09
  inner being, the true being or the person who uses the outer
• 5:14
  mask of the personality. In the Sankhya school of Indian
• 5:19
  philosophy, the outer and inner divisions of the being are
• 5:23
  called Prakruti, nature and Purusha person respectively.
• 5:29
  The outer being is only an instrument as a means of
• 5:31
  expression. It is not one's real self.
• 5:35
  However, ordinarily we are identified with the outer being
• 5:40
  and regarded as our self. Therefore, it is the outer being
• 5:44
  that usually expresses itself in our attitudes and actions.
• 5:49
  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
• 5:53
  Mother, looking from within. Introduction by Doctor Delal.
• 5:57
  Pages Roman, 5:00 to 6:00.