"It is evident that in one life, we do not and cannot labour out and exhaust all the values & powers of that life..."

 [Sri Aurobindo - "Essays on Philosophy and Yoga"]

a quote from Sri Aurobindo

posted: 9-22-2012

Truth

"- Truth is hard to find because of apparent contradictions, so you have to search for it."

"- Thank God, truth is not hard to find! It swirls around us and is in everything, there for us to connect with. Contradictions are illusions that result from flawed paradigms and from non-truths which we have grasped as true - usually because of some pressure to do so.

In this I am not contradicting the above, - I see what (truth) is said here. And this is one of the most beautiful truths - that the yardstick by which we recognize truth lies within us and is an integral part of us, guiding us. Truth is easy to find because we have only to allow this guide to direct our attention. This is true observation. Realization results. Anyone who looks for Truth and writes (about) truths, would be very displeased when his words are used to pressure others into accepting something which - though perhaps "true" - yet is not the complete truth which we are only capable of grasping through our own inquiry. To use words this way is to fail to understand the depth of real truths.
The truth is that truths do not express well in words - truth being the food on which our souls feast. Words are too thin and pasty to sustain our soul. Truths cannot be confined within the bounds of mere words. So my words (and everyone else's who is searching for Truth) merely contain hints of the truth. That is all that words can do. For myself, I find little difficulty discovering truths even among words designed to deceive (as for example in most political speech.) But my delight with truth is often so direct and great that I am not motivated to wonder at the moment of realization whether some speaker of words, himself understands the truths that I have just discovered.
What is the point?
Am I going to revere the messenger more than the message?
Or do I imagine that I have some divine mission to speak against lies when truth is so easy to find for those who will sincerely look for it?
-- Ah, there is a difficulty! For if I succeed, how will I fend off all those who will begin to look on me with the reverence more properly reserved for truth (and that within us that is the true revealer of truth.)

Let us then enjoy truth."

[C.N., December 2008]
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"A strong one-sided truth, when set forth as the whole truth, creates a strong light but also a strong confusion; for the very strength of its element of truth increases the strength of its element of error."
[Sri Aurobindo]

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posted: December 22, 2008

Under Time and Conditions

"In Brahman there is no effort.
He wills and His Will spontaneously produces its effect. But it produces it in time, space and causality. To demand a result now here and under given conditions is Ajnanam = ignorance by will to do it by oneself.
Care not about time, space or conditions; but will, and leave the result to God. Nothing but God exists.



Adopt the attitude I have described here and apply it to every individual act or attitude.
You have nothing else to do.
Be not troubled,
be not anxious,
be not in haste,
you have all eternity before you, ...................why be in haste?
Only do not be apathetic or dull, neither idly waste your time."
[adapted from: "automatic writings" in: "records of Yoga", Sri Aurobindo]

October 08, 2008

Beauty

Beauty

Beauty is the special divine Manifestation in the physical as
Truth is in the mind,
Love in the heart,
Power in the vital.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beauty is the way in which the physical expresses the Divine -
but the principle and law of Beauty is something inward and spiritual
and expresses itself through the form.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beauty is Ananda taking form - but the form need not be a physical shape. One speaks of a beautiful thought, a beautiful act, a beautiful soul. What we speak of as beauty is Ananda in manifestation;
beyond manifestation beauty loses itself in ananda,
beauty and Ananda become indistinguishably one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Sri Aurobindo, "Integral Yoga")
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seeing beauty is also:
seeing the soul behind, the spirit,
seeing two lines , hues, harmonies and expressive dispositions... thus bringing into the object something that is in oneself, transmuting it by adding out of one's own being to it - as the artist too does something of the same kind but in another way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
(idem, adapted)

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June 02, 2008