{"id":2652,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2652"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:01","slug":"24-the-subconscient-and-the-inconscient-vol-28-letters-on-yoga-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/28-letters-on-yoga-i\/24-the-subconscient-and-the-inconscient-vol-28-letters-on-yoga-i","title":{"rendered":"-24_The Subconscient and the Inconscient.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\tChapter Ten <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Subconscient and the Inconscient <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Subconscient in the Integral Yoga
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In our Yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores
\nthem up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange
\nforms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. For if these impressions rise up most in dream in an incoherent
\nand disorganised manner, they can also and do rise up into our waking consciousness as a mechanical repetition of old thoughts,
\nold mental, vital and physical habits or an obscure stimulus to sensations, actions, emotions which do not originate in or from
\nour conscious thought or will and are even often opposed to its perceptions, choice or dictates. In the subconscient there is
\nan obscure mind full of obstinate sanskaras, impressions, associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by our past,
\nan obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires, sensations and nervous reactions, a most obscure material which governs
\nmuch that has to do with the condition of the body. It is largely responsible for our illnesses; chronic or repeated illnesses are
\nindeed mainly due to the subconscient and its obstinate memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the
\nbody consciousness. But this subconscient must be clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being such as the inner
\nor subtle physical consciousness, the inner vital or inner mental; for these are not at all obscure or incoherent or ill-organised,
\nbut only veiled from our surface consciousness. Our surface constantly receives something, inner touches, communications
\n   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
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\n

or influences, from these sources but does not know for the most part whence they come. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The subconscient is below the waking physical consciousness
\n\t\u2014
\nit is an automatic, obscure, incoherent, half-unconscious realm into which light and awareness can with difficulty come. The
\ninner vital and physical are quite different \u2014they have a larger, plastic, subtler, freer and richer consciousness than the surface
\nvital and physical, much more open to the Truth and in direct touch with the universal. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The subconscient is not the whole foundation of our nature; it
\nis only the lower basis of the Ignorance and governs mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again
\naffect the higher parts of the nature. While it is necessary to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with
\nthis dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being. One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask
\nof false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching
\nand expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine,
\nturned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned
\ninto an instrument no longer of the upsurgings of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering
\nalways that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into
\nthe whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are.
\nThis should be the main preoccupation. To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression
\nand should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising
\n\tthe other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and
\n\treliance on <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Subconscient is the basis of much of the lower activities
\n\u2014that is now generally admitted. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The subconscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the
\nwhole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape
\nin the conscious part and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source. <\/p>\n

There are three occult sources of our action
\n\u2014the superconscient, the subliminal, the subconscient, but of none of them are
\nwe in control or even aware. What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source
\nof all is the general Nature, \u2014universal Nature individualising itself in each person; for this general Nature deposits certain
\nhabits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us, and that, whether formed now or before
\nour birth, is what we usually call ourselves. A good deal of this is in habitual movement and use in our known conscious part on
\nthe surface, a great deal more is concealed in the other unknown three which are below or behind the surface. <\/p>\n

But what we are on the surface is being constantly set in motion, changed, developed or repeated by the waves of the
\ngeneral Nature coming in on us either directly or else indirectly through others, through circumstances, through various agencies or channels. Some of this flows straight into the conscious part and acts there, but our mind ignores its source, appropriates
\nit and regards all that as its own; a part comes secretly into the subconscient or sinks into it and waits for an opportunity of
\nrising up into the conscious surface; a good deal goes into the subliminal and may at any time come out
\n\u2014or may not, may
\nrather rest there as unused matter. Part passes through and is rejected, thrown back or thrown out or spilt into the universal
\nsea. Our nature is a constant activity of forces supplied to us out<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

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\n

of which (or rather out of a small amount of it) we make what we will or can. What we make seems fixed and formed for good,
\nbut in reality it is all a play of forces, a flux, nothing fixed or stable; the appearance of stability is given by constant repetition
\nand recurrence of the same vibrations and formations. That is why our nature can be changed in spite of Vivekananda’s saying
\nand Horace’s adage and in spite of the conservative resistance of the subconscient, but it is a difficult job because the master
\nmode of Nature is this obstinate repetition and recurrence. <\/p>\n

As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from
\nus by rejection but come back, it depends on where you throw them. Very often there is a sort of procedure about it. The mind
\nrejects its mentalities, the vital its vitalities, the physical its physicalities
\n\t\u2014these usually go back into the corresponding domain
\nof general Nature. It all stays at first, when that happens, in the environmental consciousness which we carry about with us,
\nby which we communicate with the outside Nature, and often it persistently rushes back from there
\n\t\u2014until it is so absolutely
\nrejected, or thrown far away as it were, that it cannot return upon us any more. But when what the thinking and willing
\nmind rejects is strongly supported by the vital, it leaves the mind indeed but sinks down into the vital, rages there and tries to
\nrush up again and reoccupy the mind and compel or capture our mental acceptance. When the higher vital too
\n\t\u2014the heart
\nor the larger vital dynamis rejects it, it sinks from there and takes refuge in the lower vital with its mass of small current
\nmovements that make up our daily littleness. When the lower vital too rejects it, it sinks into the physical consciousness and
\ntries to stick by inertia or mechanical repetition. Rejected even from there it goes into the subconscient and comes up in dreams,
\nin passivity, in extreme tamas. The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance. <\/p>\n

As for the waves that recur from the general Nature, it is the natural tendency of the inferior forces there to try and
\nperpetuate their action in the individual, to rebuild what he has unbuilt of
\ntheir deposits in him, so they return on him, often with an increased force,
\neven with a stupendous violence, when they <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

find their influence rejected. But they cannot last long once the environmental consciousness is cleared
\n\u2014unless the “Hostiles”
\ntake a hand. Even then they can indeed attack, but if the sadhak has established his position in the inner self, they can only attack
\nand retire. <\/p>\n

It is true that we bring most of ourselves
\n\t\u2014or rather most
\nof our predispositions, tendencies of reaction to the universal Nature \u2014from past lives. Heredity only affects strongly the external being; besides, all the effects of heredity are not accepted even there, only those that are in consonance with what we are
\nto be or not preventive of it at least. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical
\nactivities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the
\nbeing, so the subconscient is below the body consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature
\nfrom there. <\/p>\n

Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and
\nsupports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that
\ncomes up in the physical nature. <\/p>\n

Men are not ordinarily conscious of either of these planes
\nof their own being, but by sadhana they can become aware. <\/p>\n

The subconscient retains the impressions of all our past
\nexperiences of life and they can come up from there in dream forms. Most dreams in ordinary sleep are formations made from
\nsubconscient impressions. <\/p>\n

The habit of strong recurrence of the same things in our
\nphysical consciousness, so that it is difficult to get rid of its habits, is largely due to a subconscient support. The subconscient is full of irrational habits. <\/p>\n

When things are rejected from all other parts of the nature,
\nthey go either into the environmental consciousness around us through which we communicate with others and with universal
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

Nature and try to return from there or they sink into the subconscient and can come up from there even after lying long
\nquiescent so that we think they are gone. <\/p>\n

When the physical consciousness is being changed, the chief
\nresistance comes from the subconscient. It is constantly maintaining or bringing back the inertia, weakness, obscurity, lack
\nof intelligence which afflict the physical mind and vital or the obscure fears, desires, angers, lusts of the physical vital, or the illnesses, dullnesses, pains, incapabilities to which the body-nature is prone. <\/p>\n

If light, strength, the Mother’s consciousness is brought down into the body it can penetrate the subconscient also and
\nconvert its obscurity and resistance. <\/p>\n

When something is erased from the subconscient so completely that it leaves no seed and thrown out of the circumconscient so completely that it can return no more, then only can
\nwe be sure that we have finished with it for ever. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

About the subconscient
\n\u2014it is the submaterial base of the being and is made up of impressions, instincts, habitual movements
\nthat are stored there. Whatever movement is impressed on it, it keeps. If one impresses the right movement on it, it will keep and
\nsend up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature.
\nWhen the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also,
\nmakes a bedrock of itself there also. Then no farther trouble from the subconscient will be possible. But even before that one
\ncan minimise the trouble by putting the right will and the right habit of reaction on the subconscient parts. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

All that one does and thinks leaves its trace in the subconscient. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Yes, the subconscient
\n\tis a cosmic as well as an individual plane.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n


\nThe Subconscient in Traditional Indian Terminology
\n<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I don’t know that there is any [term corresponding to the sub-<\/i>
\nconscient in Patanjali or the Sankhya<\/i>] \u2014this plane was spoken of more as inconscient than subconscient
\n\t\u2014it is practically the
\nindiscriminate or jaḍ<\/font>a prakri<\/font>ti<\/i>, perhaps \u2014or the seed state. In the Veda it is symbolised by the cave of the Panis. Perhaps by
\nlooking through books like the Yogavasishtha one could find something about the subconscient in fact though not in express
\nterms. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

You had asked the other day about the subconscient, what it was. In the vision you describe you were shown the universal
\nsubconscient in the figure of Patala, a place without light of consciousness and, because universal, therefore without bounds
\nor end \u2014the dark unconscious infinite out of which this material universe has arisen
\n\u2014it is walled with darkness on all sides, it
\nseems also to have no bottom. The Light comes from above from the higher consciousness and coming down through the
\nmind and heart and vital and physical has to pour down into this subconscient and make it luminous. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

“Patala” [in an experience described by the correspondent<\/i>] is
\na name for the subconscient \u2014the beings there had no heads, that is to say, there is there no mental consciousness; men have
\nall of them such a subconscient plane in their own being and from there rise all sorts of irrational and ignorant (headless)
\ninstincts, impulsions, memories etc. which have an effect upon their acts and feelings without their detecting the real source. At
\nnight many incoherent dreams come from this world or plane. The world above is the superconscient plane of being
\n\t\u2014above
\nthe human consciousness \u2014there are many worlds of that kind; they are divine worlds.
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n


\nThe Subconscient and the Superconscient
\n<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Below the feet is the subconscient, just as above the head is the
\nsuperconscient. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Subconscient and the Subliminal
\n\t<\/a> <\/b> <\/p>\n

Subliminal is a general term used for all the parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often
\nused in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean
\nalways what is below <\/i>the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic
\nare not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

What he [a correspondent<\/i>] has written about the subconscient
\nand the outer nature is true. But the role of subliminal forces cannot be said to be small, since from there come all the greater
\naspirations, ideals, strivings towards a better self and better humanity without which man would be only a thinking animal
\n\t\u2014
\nas also most of the art, poetry, philosophy, thirst for knowledge which relieve if they do not yet dispel the ignorance. <\/p>\n

The role of the superconscient has been to evolve slowly the spiritual man out of the mental half-animal. That also cannot
\nbe called an insignificant role. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Subconscient Memory and Conscious Memory
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exact images are retained by the subliminal memory. All that is subliminal is described by ordinary psychology as subconscient;
\nbut in our psychology that cannot be done, for the consciousness that holds them is as precise and far wider and fuller than
\nour waking or surface consciousness, so how can it be called subconscient? Conscious memory is that which can bring up at
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t223<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

any moment we like the memory of a thing, it is under our control. Subliminal memory can hold all things, even those which
\nthe mind cannot understand, e.g. if you hear somebody talking Hebrew, the subliminal memory can hold that and bring it up accurately in some abnormal state, e.g. the hypnotic. Subconscient memory is a memory of impressions; when they come up as
\nin dream, either the result is something incoherent or fancifully rearranged or it is only the essence of the thing, its psychological
\ndeposit that comes up, e.g. sex, fear, some particular libido as the psychoanalysts call it, but the expression given to the latter
\nneed not be the same as memory would give; it may repeat the same forms if it gets hold of the mechanical mind in the physical
\nto help its expression, but also it may be quite different from anything in real life. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The clear memory of words, images and thoughts is an action of
\nthe conscious mind, not the unconscious. Of course the memory goes behind, so to speak, in the back part of the mind, but it
\ncan be brought out. Also the memory can be lost or defaced, so that one remembers wrongly or forgets altogether, but that is
\nstill an imperfect action of the conscious mind, not an action of the subconscious. What the subconscious keeps is a mass of impressions, not of clear or exact images and these can come up as in dreams in an incoherent jumble distorted altogether or else in
\nthe waking state as a mechanical recurrence or repetition of the same suggestions, impulses (subconscient vital) or sensations.
\nThere is a recognisable difference between the two functionings. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

It [the memory of things<\/i>] is not in the mind alone; it is stored in the subconscient (mind, vital and physical) as impressions
\n\u2014
\nalso in the inner being all is present but held back as a store of past experience. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

All that our consciousness meets in day-to-day experience is
\n   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
\n\t\t\t224<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 registered in subconscient memory and from there can be brought up to the mind or come of itself. But what we call
\nmemory is when the thing registered is kept in the conscious mind at its back and brought forward at will
\n\u2014that is conscious
\nmemory. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

No
\n\u2014that [the record of Chitragupta<\/i>] is quite different [from<\/i>
\nthe cosmic subconscient<\/i>], since it belongs to something where
\nthe records are precise and accurate. The subconscient is a suppressed and obscure seed state where things are emerging out
\nof the indeterminate inconscience of original Nature but are yet fluent and imprecise, having all the potentiality of determination
\nin them, but not yet determinate. The past things fall back into it not as memories, but as impressions which is a quite different
\nthing. When they come up from there it is in all sorts of queer forms with variations and mixtures. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

There is very often a complaint of this kind [weakening of memory<\/i>] made during the course of the sadhana. I suppose that the usual action of memory is for a time suspended by the mental
\nsilence or else by the physical tamas. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

By the change of consciousness there can be a more conscious and perfect functioning of the memory replacing the old mechanism. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Subconscient and the Inconscient
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The subconscient is universal as well as individual like all the other main parts of the nature. But there are different parts
\nor planes of the subconscient. All upon earth is based on the Inconscient as it is called, though it is not really inconscient
\n\tat all, but rather a complete "sub"-conscience, a suppressed or involved
\n\tconsciousness, in which there is everything but nothing <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
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\n

\nis formulated or expressed. The subconscient lies in between this Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body. It contains the
\npotentiality of all the primitive reactions to life which struggle out to the surface from the dull and inert obscurity of Matter and form by a constant development a slowly evolving and self-formulating consciousness; it contains them not as ideas or
\nperceptions or conscious reactions but as the fluid substance of these things. But also all that is consciously experienced sinks
\ndown into the subconscient, not as precise though submerged memories but as obscure yet obstinate impressions of experience,
\nand these can come up at any time as dreams, as mechanical repetitions of past thought, feelings, action etc., as “complexes”
\nexploding into action and event etc. etc. The subconscient is the main cause why all things repeat themselves and nothing
\never gets changed except in appearances. It is the cause why people say character cannot be changed, the cause also of the
\nconstant return of things one hoped to have got rid of for ever. All seeds are there and all the sanskaras of the mind and vital
\nand body, \u2014it is the main support of death and disease and the last fortress (seemingly impregnable) of the Ignorance. All too
\nthat is suppressed without being wholly got rid of sinks down there and remains in seed ready to surge up or sprout up at any
\nmoment. <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
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Chapter Ten   The Subconscient and the Inconscient   The Subconscient in the Integral Yoga   In our Yoga we mean by the subconscient that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-28-letters-on-yoga-i","wpcat-53-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}