http:\/\/www.telos.org.in\/telos-model<\/a><\/p>\nThe simple answer is no. But more on that in a moment.<\/p>\n
The first thing this made me think of is how to talk about these subtle yogic realities.\u00a0 I recall having a very interesting discussion on the integral psychology online forum back in the late 90s.\u00a0 I made the following case, and as best as I can recall, there was initial skepticism but eventually ,generally agreement:<\/p>\n
*** Traditionally, there has been a general warning against sharing spiritual\/inner experiences. This makes perfect sense to me in regard to one\u2019s personal spiritual growth. However, if it is the case (and I know many people disagree) that scientific research is reaching a point where the investigation of subtle realities is becoming a part of basic research and experimentation.<\/p>\n
If this is the case (or, to the extent it already is the case \u2013 as can be seen in over 125 years of parapsychological research as well as more recent explorations of lucid dreaming and subtle energies, with great methodological sophistication) then it is simply impossible to avoid having researchers discuss the experience of these realms in great depth.<\/p>\n
And since the exploration of the inner world is very different from the general method of exploring the outer world. If you and I are chemists, and we\u2019re examining the chemical composition of a particular substance, we don\u2019t need to (or at least, we don\u2019t think we need to \u2013 this will change too, I think) pay any attention to what each other is feeling, experiencing, sensing, intuiting, imagining, etc).\u00a0\u00a0 But if we\u2019re exploring methods for training people to become aware of the kinds of extremely subtle perceptions involved in remote viewing or psychokinesis, well at some point, we\u2019re going to be sharing rather esoteric experiences which are very much the kind that traditional yogis warned should either not be shared or only shared with great caution, sincerity and humility.****<\/p>\n
So, keeping the above in mind, I\u2019ll say a bit more about Manoj\u2019s question.<\/p>\n
Speaking from a purely intellectual (surface, non experiential) standpoint, my understanding is the English phrase \u201cnon dual awareness\u201d has been used by many contemporary meditation teachers \u2013 particularly those associated with Advaita Vedanta like many students of Ramana Maharshi \u2013 to refer to the timeless, spaceless, non-dual awareness of the Self.\u00a0 One may be, as I understand it, full \u201cSelf-realized\u201d and still be functioning with the ordinary reasoning mind \u2013 probably with much intuitive influence, at the very least.<\/p>\n
The knowledge by identity \u2013 at the level of what Sri Aurobindo calls the intuitive mind \u2013 may come into play sporadically \u2013 very rarely for the non Self realized person, but perhaps not even on a regular basis for someone who has stabilized Self realization.\u00a0 Far, far beyond that, there is the knowledge by identity of the Supramental level of consciousness. Having neither significant intellectual understanding nor experiential realization of that level, I\u2019ll leave it at that as far as the Supramental goes. I could gather any number of quotations, but I\u2019d like to stick either with what I mentally understand, even if only in the dimmest way, or better, with what I have some intuitive appreciation of.<\/p>\n
But to get back to the issue of \u201ctalking about inner experience\u201d \u2013 this really goes to the heart of what I am interested about in regard to Indian psychology in general and Sri Aurobindo\u2019s integral psychology in particular.\u00a0 My dream is to have a few dozen people who are deeply moved by and devoted to this work, who have developed a level of trust, humility, sincerity and openness, who can actually make use of their efforts to understand integral psychology as a means of developing a more and more intuitive consciousness.<\/p>\n
When we finish work on our current website \u2013 www.remember-to-breathe.org<\/a> – which we expect to do in about 2 years, we hope to focus on developing another site devoted to this kind of integral psychology project.<\/p>\nSo in conclusion, it would be interesting, in the meantime, if we had the opportunity right here on this blog to have a conversation which may involve this kind of deep exploration and sharing of experience, developing the kind of trust, humility, and sincerity that is necessary to do it in a mature, responsible way.\u00a0 I\u2019m very grateful to Manoj for asking this question.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say more about the details of his question and how it relates to the evolution of consciousness soon, either in another post or in the comments section of this post.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently (1-6-14) received a very interesting question about the introductory blog post on the evolution of consciousness (here: http:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/the-evolution-of-consciousness-introduction\/ Here it is: \u201cReading the following paragraph \u201cHayward goes even further, speaking from a Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhist) perspective, saying that there is an initial nondual (without the apparently separate \u201cI\u201d) awareness which is the foundation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipi.org.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}