Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / The Benefit of Obstacles and Difficulties for the Development of Conscious Awareness
Transcript
- 0:02It is a quality of human nature. When things are going well, we
- 0:07are happy and contented, we tend not to make extraordinary
- 0:11efforts or focus on change. We feel like things are where
- 0:16they should be in our lives and we move into enjoyment mode
- 0:21rather than change mode. In some cases, we believe that
- 0:25things going well as some kind of karmic reward for our good
- 0:29behavior. And thus we try to justify the
- 0:33enjoyment and the lack of effort when we are facing difficulties
- 0:38of some sort, either externally in our lives, our relationships,
- 0:44our ability to meet our needs, Or internally as we struggle
- 0:49with issues of spiritual growth and overcoming the limitations
- 0:53of human nature. We tend to focus our energy and
- 0:58take steps to implement positive changes, that will hopefully,
- 1:03resolve the issues we are facing When milarepa the Great Tibetan
- 1:10Yogi was a youth, he observed, his aunt, and uncle taking
- 1:14advantage of his mother and himself.
- 1:17After the death of his father, he became upset and determined,
- 1:22he would not stand for what had happened.
- 1:24He left his village to find a teacher of black magic and used
- 1:29what he learned to bring about Devastation and destruction on
- 1:32the culprits afterwards upon reflection.
- 1:36Ian he suffered remorse and decided to dedicate his life to
- 1:41the effort to achieve Liberation and thus when seeking out his
- 1:46Guru and undertaking hit the arduous task for which he is
- 1:50rightly renowned and revered. His impetus, was the suffering
- 1:56and difficulties. He experienced.
- 1:59It is that way, with all of us. Those who make music understand
- 2:05clearly, the need for just the right amount of tension to
- 2:09ensure the beauty of the sound. Too little tension on the
- 2:13strings of the violin and there will not be any music too much
- 2:19tension and the strings will snap again.
- 2:23Resulting in no music those who believe a life without any
- 2:28tension, a life of relaxed. He's we yield to Optimum
- 2:33results. Tend to overlook this point.
- 2:38The mother writes quote. And in fact, this perhaps is the
- 2:43reason why things don't always go.
- 2:44Well, for if they went according to a normal usual Rhythm, when
- 2:50would never be conscious of what one is doing, when would do it
- 2:55by habit automatically spontaneously without thinking
- 2:59and would not watch what one is doing.
- 3:02And so one would never be able to acquire self-mastery.
- 3:07It would be something a vague Consciousness in the background
- 3:12expressing itself without your, even watching what you are doing
- 3:16and which would make you act. And then if they're came along
- 3:21some strange or unknown current of force, it could make you do
- 3:26anything at all without your even noticing the process by
- 3:30which it makes you act. And in fact, that is what does
- 3:35happen. It is only when one is fully
- 3:38conscious of the process. When one knows how life works,
- 3:42the movement of life, and the process of life, that one can
- 3:47begin to have control. Otherwise, it first one doesn't
- 3:51even think it all of having any control.
- 3:54But if unpleasant things occur, if for instance you do something
- 3:59which has unfortunate consequences, and you tell
- 4:02yourself, oh but I should stop doing that.
- 4:07Then at that moment, you realize that there is a whole technique
- 4:10of how to live which is necessary to be able to control
- 4:15your life. Otherwise one is a kind of more
- 4:19or less coordinated medley of actions and reactions of
- 4:23movements and impulses, and one doesn't know at all how things
- 4:28happen. This is what is developed in the
- 4:31being by shocks frictions, all the apparent, disorders of life.
- 4:37And what forms the Consciousness in very small children, a small
- 4:42child is altogether unconscious and only gradually very
- 4:47gradually, does he begin to grow aware of things?
- 4:52But unless they take special care, people live almost their
- 4:56whole life without even knowing how they do it, they are not
- 5:01aware of it. So anything at all can happen.
- 5:06But that is the very first little step towards becoming
- 5:10conscious of oneself in the material world.
- 5:14You have vague thoughts and feelings, don't you?
- 5:17Which develop more or less logically in the being rather,
- 5:22less than more, then you have a faint impression of that and
- 5:26again, when you get burned, you realize that something is wrong.
- 5:32When you fall and hurt yourself, you realize that something is
- 5:36wrong. It begins to make you reflect
- 5:39that, you must pay attention to this and that.
- 5:42So as not to fall, not to burn. Burn yourself, not to cut
- 5:46yourself, it Dawns on you gradually with external
- 5:49experience, external contacts. But otherwise one is a half
- 5:55conscious Mass, which moves without even knowing.
- 5:58Why or how? This is the very small beginning
- 6:03of the emergence from the primary state of unconsciousness
- 6:08and quote. Reference SRI aurobindo and the
- 6:12mother growing within the psychology of inner development.
- 6:16Chapter 1 emergence from unconsciousness Pages. 425