{"id":4180,"date":"2013-07-13T01:53:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4180"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:53:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:59","slug":"07-psychic-education-vol-12-on-education-volume-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/12-on-education-volume-12\/07-psychic-education-vol-12-on-education-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-07_Psychic-Education.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n


\n\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>Psychic Education and Spiritual Education
\n<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nS<\/font><\/span>o far we have dealt only with the education that can be given to
\nall children born upon earth and which is concerned with purely human
\nfaculties. But one need not inevitably stop there. Every human being carries
\nhidden within him the possibility of a greater consciousness which goes beyond
\nthe bounds of his present life and enables him to share in a higher and a
\nvaster life. Indeed, in all exceptional beings it is always this consciousness
\nthat governs their lives and organises both the circumstances of their
\nexistence and their individual reaction to these circumstances. What the human
\nmental consciousness does not know and cannot do, this consciousness knows and
\ndoes. It is like a light that shines at the centre of the being, radiating
\nthrough the thick coverings of the external consciousness. Some have a vague
\nintimation of its presence; a good many children are under its influence, which
\nshows itself very distinctly at times in their spontaneous actions and even in
\ntheir words. Unfortunately, since parents most often do not know what it is and
\ndo not understand what is happening in their child, their reaction to these
\nphenomena is not a good one and all their education consists in making the
\nchild as unconscious as possible in this domain and concentrating all his
\nattention on external things, thus accustoming him to think that they are the
\nonly ones that matter. It is true that this concentration on external things is
\nvery useful, provided that it is done in the proper way. The three lines of
\neducation \u2013 physical, vital and mental \u2013 deal with that and could be defined as
\nthe means of building up the personality, raising the individual out of the
\namorphous subconscious mass and making him a well-defined self-conscious
\nentity. With psychic education we come to the problem of the true motive of
\nexistence, the purpose of life on earth, the discovery to which this life must
\nlead and the result of that discovery: the consecration of the individual to
\nhis eternal principle. Normally this <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 30<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

discovery is associated with a mystic feeling, a religious life,
\nbecause it is mainly the religions that have concerned themselves with this
\naspect of life. But it need not necessarily be so: the mystic notion of God may
\nbe replaced by the more philosophical notion of truth and still the discovery
\nwill remain essentially the same, but the road leading to it may be taken even
\nby the most intransigent positivist. For mental notions and ideas have only a
\nvery secondary importance in preparing one for the psychic life. The important
\nthing is to live the experience; that carries with it its own reality and force
\napart from any theory that may precede or accompany or follow it, for most
\noften theories are no more than explanations that one gives to oneself in order
\nto have, more or less, the illusion of knowledge. Man clothes the ideal or the
\nabsolute he seeks to attain with different names according to the environment
\nin which he is born and the education he has received. The experience is
\nessentially the same, if it is sincere; it is only the words and phrases in
\nwhich it is formulated that differ according to the belief and the mental
\neducation of the one who has the experience. All formulation is thus only an
\napproximation that should be progressive and grow in precision as the
\nexperience itself becomes more and more precise and co-ordinated. Still, to
\nsketch a general outline of psychic education, we must give some idea, however
\nrelative it may be, of what we mean by the psychic being. One could say, for
\nexample, that the creation of an individual being is the result of the
\nprojection, in time and space, of one of the countless possibilities latent in
\nthe supreme origin of all manifestation which, through the medium of the one
\nand universal consciousness, takes concrete form in the law or the truth of an
\nindividual and so, by a progressive development, becomes his soul or psychic
\nbeing. <\/span><\/p>\n

I must emphasise that what is stated briefly here does not claim
\nto be a complete exposition of the reality and does not exhaust the subject far
\n\u2013 from it. It is only a very summary explanation for a practical purpose, to
\nserve as a basis for the <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 31<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

education which we intend to consider now. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is through this psychic presence that the truth of an
\nindividual being comes into contact with him and the circumstances of his life.
\nIn most cases the presence acts, so to say, from behind the veil, unrecognised
\nand unknown; but in some, it is perceptible and its action recognisable and even,
\nin a very few, the presence becomes tangible and its action fully effective.
\nThese go forward in life with an assurance and a certitude all their own; they
\nare masters of their destiny. It is for the purpose of obtaining this mastery
\nand becoming conscious of the psychic presence that psychic education should be
\npractised. But for that there is need of a special factor, the personal will.
\nFor till now, the discovery of the psychic being and identification with it
\nhave not been among the recognised subjects of education, and although one can
\nfind in special treatises useful and practical hints on the subject, and
\nalthough in exceptional cases one may have the good fortune of meeting someone
\nwho is capable of showing the way and giving the help that is needed to follow
\nit, most often the attempt is left to one’s own personal initiative. The
\ndiscovery is a personal matter and a great determination, a strong will and an
\nuntiring perseverance are indispensable to reach the goal. Each one must, so to
\nsay, trace out his own path through his own difficulties. The goal is known to
\nsome extent, for most of those who have reached it have described it more or
\nless clearly. But the supreme value of the discovery lies in its spontaneity,
\nits ingenuousness, and that escapes all ordinary mental laws. And that is why
\nanyone wanting to take up the adventure usually first seeks out some person who
\nhas successfully undertaken it and is able to sustain him and enlighten him on
\nhis way. Yet there are some solitary travellers and for them a few general
\nindications may be useful.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The starting-point is to seek in yourself that which is
\nindependent of the body and the circumstances of life, which is not born of the
\nmental formation that you have been given, the language you speak, the habits
\nand customs of the environment in<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 32<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>which you live, the country
\nwhere you are born or the age to which you belong. You must find, in the depths
\nof your being, that which carries in it a sense of universality, limitless
\nexpansion, unbroken continuity. Then you decentralise, extend and widen
\nyourself; you begin to live in all things and in all beings; the barriers
\nseparating individuals from each other break down. You think in their thoughts,
\nvibrate in their sensations, feel in their feelings, live in the life of all.
\nWhat seemed inert suddenly becomes full of life, stones quicken, plants feel
\nand will and suffer, animals speak in a language more or less inarticulate, but
\nclear and expressive; everything is animated by a marvellous consciousness
\nwithout time or limit. And this is only one aspect of the psychic realisation;
\nthere are others, many others. All help you to go beyond the barriers of your
\negoism, the walls of your external personality, the impotence of your reactions
\nand the incapacity of your will. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, as I have already said, the path to that realisation is long
\nand difficult, strewn with snares and problems to be solved, which demand an
\nunfailing determination. It is like the explorer’s trek through virgin forest
\nin quest of an unknown land, of some great discovery. The psychic being is also
\na great discovery which requires at least as much fortitude and endurance as
\nthe discovery of new continents. A few simple words of advice may be useful to
\none who has resolved to undertake it.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The first and perhaps the most important point is that the mind is
\nincapable of judging spiritual things. All those who have written on this
\nsubject have said so; but very few are those who have put it into practice. And
\nyet, in order to proceed on the path, it is absolutely indispensable to abstain
\nfrom all mental opinion and reaction. <\/span><\/p>\n

Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment
\nor happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you
\nas an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required. <\/span><\/p>\n

Try to take pleasure in all you do, but never do anything<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 33<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

for the sake of pleasure. <\/span><\/p>\n

Never get excited, nervous or agitated. Remain perfectly calm in
\nthe face of all circumstances. And yet be always alert to discover what
\nprogress you still have to make and lose no time in making it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Never take physical happenings at their face value. They are
\nalways a clumsy attempt to express something else, the true thing which escapes
\nour superficial understanding. <\/span><\/p>\n

Never complain of the behaviour of anyone, unless you have the
\npower to change in his nature what makes him act in this way; and if you have
\nthe power, change him instead of complaining. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever you do, never forget the goal which you have set before
\nyou. There is nothing great or small once you have set out on this great
\ndiscovery; all things are equally important and can either hasten or delay its
\nsuccess. Thus before you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the
\nfood you are about to eat may bring your body the substance it needs to serve
\nas a solid basis for your effort towards the great discovery, and give it the
\nenergy for persistence and perseverance in the effort.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before you go to sleep, concentrate a few seconds in the
\naspiration that the sleep may restore your fatigued nerves, bring calm and
\nquietness to your brain so that on waking you may, with renewed vigour, begin
\nagain your journey on the path of the great discovery. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before you act, concentrate in the will that your action may help
\nor at least in no way hinder your march forward towards the great discovery. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you speak, before the words come out of your mouth,
\nconcentrate just long enough to check your words and allow only those that are
\nabsolutely necessary to pass, only those that are not in any way harmful to
\nyour progress on the path of the great discovery. <\/span><\/p>\n

To sum up, never forget the purpose and goal of your life.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 34<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The will for the great
\ndiscovery should be always there above you, above what you do and what you are,
\nlike a huge bird of light dominating all the movements of your being. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before the untiring persistence of your effort, an inner door will
\nsuddenly open and you will emerge into a dazzling splendour that will bring you
\nthe certitude of immortality, the concrete experience that you have always
\nlived and always shall live, that external forms alone perish and that these
\nforms are, in relation to what you are in reality, like clothes that are thrown
\naway when worn out. Then you will stand erect, freed from all chains, and
\ninstead of advancing laboriously under the weight of circumstances imposed upon
\nyou by Nature, which you had to endure and bear if you did not want to be
\ncrushed by them, you will be able to walk on, straight and firm, conscious of
\nyour destiny, master of your life. <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet this release from all slavery to the flesh, this
\nliberation from all personal attachment is not the supreme fulfilment. There
\nare other steps to climb before you reach the summit. And even these steps can
\nand should be followed by others which will open the doors to the future. These
\nfollowing steps will form the object of what I call spiritual education. <\/span><\/p>\n

But before we enter on this new stage and deal with the question
\nin detail, an explanation is necessary. Why is a distinction made between the
\npsychic education of which we have just spoken and the spiritual education of
\nwhich we are about to speak now? Because the two are usually confused under the
\ngeneral term of \u201cyogic discipline\u201d, although the goals they aim at are very
\ndifferent: for one it is a higher realisation upon earth, for the other an
\nescape from all earthly manifestation, even from the whole universe, a return
\nto the unmanifest. <\/span><\/p>\n

So one can say that the psychic life is immortal life, endless
\ntime, limitless space, ever-progressive change, unbroken continuity in the
\nuniverse of forms. The spiritual consciousness, on the other hand, means to
\nlive the infinite and the eternal, to be projected beyond all creation, beyond
\ntime and space. To  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 35<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

become conscious of your psychic being and to live a psychic life
\nyou must abolish all egoism; but to live a spiritual life you must no longer
\nhave an ego. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here also, in spiritual education, the goal you set before you
\nwill assume, in the mind’s formulation of it, different names according to the
\nenvironment in which you have been brought up, the path you have followed and
\nthe affinities of your temperament. Those who have a religious tendency will
\ncall it God and their spiritual effort will be towards identification with the
\ntranscendent God beyond all forms, as opposed to the immanent God dwelling in
\neach form. Others will call it the Absolute, the Supreme Origin, others
\nNirvana; yet others, who view the world as an unreal illusion, will name it the
\nOnly Reality and to those who regard all manifestation as falsehood it will be
\nthe Sole Truth. And every one of these expressions contains an element of
\ntruth, but all are incomplete, expressing only one aspect of that which is. Here
\ntoo, however, the mental formulation has no great importance and once you have
\npassed through the intermediate stages, the experience is identical. In any
\ncase, the most effective starting-point, the swiftest method is total
\nself-giving. Besides, no joy is more perfect than the joy of a total
\nself-giving to whatever is the summit of your conception: for some it is the
\nnotion of God, for others that of Perfection. If this self-giving is made with
\npersistence and ardour, a moment comes when you pass beyond the concept and
\narrive at an experience that escapes all description, but which is almost
\nalways identical in its effects. And as your self-giving becomes more and more
\nperfect and integral, it will be accompanied by the aspiration for
\nidentification, a total fusion with That to which you have given yourself, and
\nlittle by little this aspiration will overcome all differences and all
\nresistances, especially if with the aspiration there is an intense and
\nspontaneous love, for then nothing can stand in the way of its victorious
\ndrive. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is an essential difference between this identification and
\nthe identification with the psychic being. The latter can be<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 36<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

made more and more lasting and, in certain cases, it becomes
\npermanent and never leaves the person who has realised it, whatever his outer
\nactivities may be. In other words, the identification is no longer realised
\nonly in meditation and concentration, but its effects are felt at every moment
\nof one’s life, in sleep as well as in waking. <\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, liberation from all form and the identification
\nwith that which is beyond form cannot last in an absolute manner; for it would
\nautomatically bring about the dissolution of the material form. Certain
\ntraditions say that this dissolution happens inevitably within twenty days of
\nthe total identification. Yet it is not necessarily so; and even if the
\nexperience is only momentary, it produces in the consciousness results that are
\nnever obliterated and have repercussions on all states of the being, both
\ninternal and external. Moreover, once the identification has been realised, it
\ncan be renewed at will, provided that you know how to put yourself in the same
\nconditions. <\/span><\/p>\n

This merging into the formless is the supreme liberation sought by
\nthose who want to escape from an existence which no longer holds any attraction
\nfor them. It is not surprising that they are dissatisfied with the world in its
\npresent form. But a liberation that leaves the world as it is and in no way
\naffects the conditions of life from which others suffer, cannot satisfy those
\nwho refuse to enjoy a boon which they are the only ones, or almost the only
\nones, to possess, those who dream of a world more worthy of the splendours that
\nlie hidden behind its apparent disorder and wide-spread misery. They dream of
\nsharing with others the wonders they have discovered in their inner
\nexploration. And the means to do so is within their reach, now that they have
\narrived at the summit of their ascent. <\/span><\/p>\n

From beyond the frontiers of form a new force can be evoked, a
\npower of consciousness which is as yet unexpressed and which, by its emergence,
\nwill be able to change the course of things and give birth to a new world. For
\nthe true solution<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 37<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

to the problem of suffering, ignorance and death is not an
\nindividual escape from earthly miseries by self-annihilation into the
\nunmanifest, nor a problematical collective flight from universal suffering by
\nan integral and final return of the creation to its creator, thus curing the
\nuniverse by abolishing it, but a transformation, a total transfiguration of
\nmatter brought about by the logical continuation of Nature’s ascending march in
\nher progress towards perfection, by the creation of a new species that will be
\nto man what man is to the animal and that will manifest upon earth a new force,
\na new consciousness and a new power. And so will begin a new education which
\ncan be called the supramental education; it will, by its all-powerful action,
\nwork not only upon the consciousness of individual beings, but upon the very
\nsubstance of which they are built and upon the environment in which they live. <\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast
\nwith the types of education we have mentioned previously, which progress from
\nbelow upwards by an ascending movement of the various parts of the being, the
\nsupramental education will progress from above downwards, its influence
\nspreading from one state of being to another until at last the physical is
\nreached. This last transformation will only occur visibly when the inner states
\nof being have already been considerably transformed. It is therefore quite
\nunreasonable to try to recognise the presence of the supramental by physical
\nappearances. For these will be the last to change and the supramental force can
\nbe at work in an individual long before anything of it becomes perceptible in
\nhis bodily life. <\/span><\/p>\n

To sum up, one can say that the supramental education will result
\nno longer in a progressive formation of human nature and an increasing
\ndevelopment of its latent faculties, but in a transformation of the nature
\nitself, a transfiguration of the being in its entirety, a new ascent of the
\nspecies above and beyond man towards superman, leading in the end to the
\nappearance of a divine race upon earth. <\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0<\/font><\/span>Bulletin<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/i>, February 1952<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 38<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n <\/font><\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Psychic Education and Spiritual Education \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0   So far we have dealt only with the education that can be given to all children born…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-on-education-volume-12","wpcat-118-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180","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=4180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}