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The Semi-Conscious Life We Lead · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  if we reflect carefully, we will recognize that much of what
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  takes place in our lives occurs without our conscious awareness,
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  participation or control The activity of the cells, the
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  nervous system, the internal organs are all virtually
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  automatic functions that allude conscious oversight.
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  Very rare exceptions involving extreme disciplines.
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  Bring an individual, the ability to slow down the heartbeat or
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  respiration. Normally these things take place
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  unconsciously. If we move to the more purposive
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  actions, we will note that much of what we do is driven by
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  automatic response habit or Instinct consider that life
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  forms on Earth. Generally are known to have
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  elaborate behavioral routines. That cannot be explained by
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  conscious intentional activity but which seemed to be ingrained
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  in them, certain species of birds, for instance can build
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  elaborate nests. One generation after another
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  creates the same type of nests. Salmon return to the stream in
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  which they were hatched swimming.
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  Sometimes thousands of miles across the ocean and against the
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  flow of a river to reach the location to lay their clutch of
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  eggs. Monarch butterflies have a
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  migration pattern between Mexico and Canada that spans four
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  generations of butterflies without the possibility of one
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  generation. Educating the next these are all
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  instances of activities that seem to exhibit a focus and
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  purpose but which in fact are outside the realm of conscious
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  intention. Human being.
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  Similarly, have a large segment of their lives, orchestrated by
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  instinctive and habitual responses, add to this train,
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  behaviors through socialization and education and we can account
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  for an overwhelming proportion of what we believe to be our
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  conscious lives. Some have gone so far as to call
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  our normal human life, a form of sleepwalking.
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  Rarely are we attending and conscious enough to make
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  deliberate decisions and carry them out with a goal or purpose.
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  In mind that goes beyond the fixed boundaries of our ordinary
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  lives. Rarely do we even recognize
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  consciously? The unconscious drives and the
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  Unseen forces that are moving us through our daily life.
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  The mother notes quote people usually do things so
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  automatically and spontaneously without watching themselves
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  doing them that if they were to ask themselves how it comes
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  about they would require some time before the process.
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  Um's conscious to them. You are so used to living that
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  you don't even know how it happens.
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  All the gestures and movements of Life are made spontaneously
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  automatically almost unconsciously in a
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  semi-conscious state and one doesn't even realize.
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  This very simple fact that in order to do something, one, must
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  first know what one is going to do and then must want to do it.
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  It is only when something goes wrong with one of these
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  elements, for instance, the ability to make a plan in one's
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  mind and the ability to carry out this plan.
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  When these to begin to go wrong one, starts worrying about
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  whether ones being is in good order.
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  For example, if one morning on waking up in bed, you do not
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  know or remember that you had to get up wash and dress have your
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  breakfast do. Do this in that you would say to
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  yourself. Why what's the matter?
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  Something is wrong? I don't know what I ought to do
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  anymore. Something must be out of order.
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  And if later knowing what you have to do, you must get up go
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  for your bath dress, you know you have to do it but you can't
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  do it. There is something the stimulus
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  of the will which is no longer working has no effect on the
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  body. Then once again you begin to
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  feel anxious you say, well well could I be ill by any chance?
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  Otherwise you are not even aware that, the whole of life is like
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  that. It seems quite natural to you.
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  It is like that, that means that you act in a way which is hardly
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  semi-conscious. It is automatic.
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  It is a kind of spontaneous habit and you don't watch what
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  you were doing. And so if you want to have some
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  control over your movements, the first thing is to know what is
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  happening. And quote, reference SRI
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  aurobindo, and the mother growing within the psychology of
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  inner development. Chapter 1 emergence from
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  unconsciousness Pages, 3 to 4, And quote, reference SRI
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  aurobindo, and the mother growing within the psychology of
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  inner development. Chapter 1 emergence from
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  unconsciousness Pages, 3 to 4,