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Do We Create Our Own Thoughts and Feelings? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Tayar de Chardin described what he called a nuosphere, a belt of
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  mental energy that encompasses the Earth and which moves
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  vibrations that can be perceived at the mental level and
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  converted into thoughts and thought forms.
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  This is similar to the biosphere at the level of the life energy
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  and the ionosphere that protects the planet through absorption
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  and reflection of solar radiation.
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  In our normal ego status, we tend to attach to ourselves the
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  thoughts and ideas and exertions of willpower that we express.
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  We take ownership of them and say that they are my thoughts,
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  my ideas, my will. If we look more closely at the
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  situation, however, we can see that we did not manufacture
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  these things from raw materials or building blocks of thought,
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  but actually received them from the mental atmosphere,
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  internalized them, and then rebroadcast them out while
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  overlooking or forgetting the source from whence they came
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  originally. We sometimes wonder how a
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  similar idea or invention can develop in multiple places
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  around the world at virtually the same time without active
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  connection between the individuals involved.
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  Once we see that these ideas are available and can be received by
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  anyone with the receptivity and preparation to work with them.
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  In some cases, based on the spirit of the times that
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  prepares the mind to address certain ideas that previously it
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  was not prepared to entertain, we can easily understand the
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  facts involved. Similarly, there is a vital
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  atmosphere that communicates emotions and feelings which we
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  can receive and express without necessarily understanding that
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  they have come from outside, vibrated within us, awakened a
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  corresponding vibration which we then express as our own feeling
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  or emotion. The common thread here leads to
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  a new understanding. Once we remove the ego
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  attachment from the center of these phenomena.
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  We recognize then that we are receiving and transmitting
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  stations, not original sources of thoughts, ideas, emotions, or
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  feelings. A disciple asks, But then what
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  is mental and vital will? The mother answers quote that is
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  an expression of something which is not personal.
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  If you analyze carefully, you see, for instance, that all that
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  you think has been thought by others, that these are things
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  which circulate and pass through you, but you have not produced
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  this thought. You are not the originator of
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  this thought. All your reactions come from
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  atavism, from those who gave you birth, and from the environment
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  in which you have lived, from all the impressions which have
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  accumulated in you and constituted something which
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  seems to you yourself, yet which is not produced by you, but
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  merely felt and experienced. You become aware of it in
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  passing, but is it is not you who created it, not you who gave
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  it birth? It could be said that these are
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  like sounds, any kinds of sounds, words, music, anything
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  recorded by an instrument then reproduced by another instrument
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  which plays them back, like a gramophone, for instance.
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  You wouldn't say that the gramophone has created the
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  sounds you hear, would you? That would never occur to you.
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  But as you are under the illusion of your separate
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  personality, these thoughts which cross your mind and find
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  expression, these feelings which pass through your vital and find
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  expression, you think have come from you, but nothing comes from
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  you. Where is the you which can
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  create all that? You must go deep, deep within
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  and find the eternal essence of your being to know the creative
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  reality in yourself. And once you have found that,
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  you will realize that it is one single thing, the same in all
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  others. And so where is your separate
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  personality? Nothing's left any longer.
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  Yes, these are recording and reproducing instruments, and
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  they're always what might be called distortions.
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  They may be distortions for the better, they may be distortions
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  for the worse, they may be fairly great changes.
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  The inner combinations are such that things are not reproduced
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  exactly as they pass from one to the other, because the
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  instrument is very complex, but it is one in the same thing
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  which is moved by a conscious will quite independent of all
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  personal wills. End Quote Reference Sri Robindo
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  and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter Eight
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  Life, A Mass of Vibrations, pages 180 to 181.