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Becoming Aware of and Distinguishing the Source of Vibrations Impacting our Lives · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Our consciousness tends to be so fluid and so mixed
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  that it is difficult, if not practically impossible,
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  to distinguish what represents our own internal
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  process and what is coming to us from outside, from
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  our interaction with others, from environmental
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  influences. None of these things remains
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  pure and unadulterated. There
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  is a constant mixing process that goes on. We
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  can observe the thoughts, we can observe the
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  emotions, we can observe the vital reactions, we can
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  observe the physical responses, but we generally
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  are not able to separate the various elements or
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  threads that constitute each of these things and see
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  clearly what we are taking on and how it is impacting
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  us from our external life. If
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  we can identify one clear benefit from a period of
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  separation from the life of the world, through
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  withdrawing to the cave, the ashram, the monastery,
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  the mountain or the desert or the forest, it is that
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  we can theoretically use that time, examining our
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  own process and thus establish what may be
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  considered a baseline representing our current
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  organized being and personality. Obviously,
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  this is itself constructed from our earlier life, the
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  impact of our forebears and any family or social
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  influences that help create the identity we consider to
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  be ourselves. As an observational stage,
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  however, the value comes when we eventually return
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  to the larger act of life in the world, as we can
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  begin to distinguish what we knew to be our own
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  baseline from new energetic responses and effects that
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  we begin to experience. This
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  helps us to create a differential diagnosis and
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  gain clarity about the mix of vibrations that is
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  always occurring and how it impacts us and how it
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  changes us. At the same time, we may be
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  able to observe how our own characteristic vibrations
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  go out and impact others in the world and change
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  their responses. The mother observes, quote, are
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  you able to know when you are with others what comes
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  from you and what from the others, to what extent
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  their way of being, their particular vibrations act
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  upon you? You are not aware of this at
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  all. You live in a kind of
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  approximate consciousness, half awake, half asleep, in
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  something very vague, where you have to grope like
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  this in order to catch things. But
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  do you have a precise, clear, exact notion of what
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  goes on in you, why it goes on in you, and then
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  this, the vibrations which come to you from outside
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  and those which come from within you? And
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  then again, what can come from others, changing all
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  this, giving another orientation? You
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  live in a kind of hazy fluidity, certain small
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  things suddenly crystallize in your consciousness. You
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  have just caught them for a moment and it is just
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  clear enough like that as though there was a
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  projector, just something passing on the screen and
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  becoming clear for a second. The
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  next minute, everything has become vague, imprecise, but
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  you are not aware of this because you have not even
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  asked yourself the question, because you live in this
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  way, end quote. Reference, Shri Aurobindo and the
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  mother, the hidden forces of life, chapter 3, hidden
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  forces around, pages 66 to 67.