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A Greater Psychology, An Introduction to Sri Aurobindo's Psychological Thought
Sri Aurobindo, edited by A. S. Dalal

1 "The subliminal mind in us is open to the universal knowledge of the cosmic Mind, the subliminal life in us to the universal force of the cosmic Life, the subliminal physicality in us to the universal force-formation of Cosmic Matter."

2 "The highest and real truth of existence is the one Spirit, and it is the power of being of this Spirit which manifests itself in all that we experience as universe. This universal Nature is not a lifeless, inert or unconscious mechanism, but informed in all its movements by the universal Spirit."

3 "It is not by 'thinking out' the entire reality, but by a change of consciousness that one can pass from the ignorance to the Knowledge – the Knowledge by which we become what we know. To pass from the external to a direct and intimate inner consciousness; to widen consciousness out of the limits of the ego and the body; to heighten it by an inner will and aspiration and opening to the Light till it passes in its ascent beyond Mind; to bring down a descent of the supramental Divine through self-giving and surrender with a consequent transformation of mind, life and body – this is the integral way to the Truth."

4 "We discover this Self that we are to be not only a static tenuous vacant Atman, but a great dynamic Spirit individual, universal and transcendent….all the inspired descriptions of the seers and mystics cannnot exhaust its contents and its splendor."

5 "Our unity with the world-being is the consciousness of a Self which at one and the same time cosmicises in the world and individualizes through the individual, and both in that world-being and in this individual being and in all individual beings it is aware of the same Self manifesting and experiencing its various manifestations."

6 "The nature of the divine existence is to possess always its unity, but to possess it also in an infinite experience, from many standpoints, on many planes, through many conscious powers or selves of itself, individualities – of the one conscious being."

7 "Spirit is the entire evolutionary process of its own unfolding, from matter to life to mind to higher and superconscient realms of Spirit's own being." Ken Wilber, Foreword

8 "A perception of truth is inherent in the deepest substance of the consciousnes; a sense of the good, true, beautiful, the Divine, is its privilege."

9 "The inner Manas [Mind] has a subtle sight, hearing, power of contact of its own which is not dependent on the physical organs. And it has, moreover, a power not only of direct communication of mind with object,…but direct communication also of mind with mind."

10 "It is only by going inward behind the veil of superficial mind and living within, in an inner mind, an inner life, an inmost soul of our being that we can be fully self-aware."

11 "The mind in us is infinite; it knows not only what has been seen but what has not been seen, not only what has been heard but what has not been heard, not only what has been discriminated by the thought but what has not been discriminated by the thought."

12 "Apparent division can never erect itself into a real separateness; there is supporting and overriding it an indivisible unity which division itself cannot divide."

13 "There is a real and stable power of our being behind the constant mutation of our mental, vital and physical personality, and this we have to know and preserve in order that the Infinite may manifest Himself through it according to His will in whatever range and for whatever purpose of His eternal cosmic activity."

14 "Our apparent separative individuality is only a surface movement and behind it our real individuality stretches out to unity with all things and upward to oneness with the transcendent Divine Infinity."

15 "The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analysing the secrets of the mud from which it grows; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms for ever in the Light."

16 "The central being…is a portion of the Divine Self."

17 "In fact, subjectivity and objectivity are not independent realities, they depend upon each other; they are the Being, through consciousness, looking at itself as subject on the object and the same Being offering itself to its own consciousness as object to the subject."

18 "Mind has a power for truth;….if its passage is through crooked ways of error, still its goal is always Knowledege: there is in it an impulse of truth-seeking, a power of truth-finding and truth-creation. Even if it is only images or representations or abstract expressions of truth that it can show us, still these are in their own manner truth-reflections or truth-formations, and the realities of which they are forms are present in their more concrete truth in some deeper depth or on some higher level of power of our consciousness."

19 "Faith is a spiritual certitude of the spiritual, the divine, the soul's ideal, something that clings to that even when it is not fulfilled in life, even when the immediate facts or the persistent circumstances seem to deny it. This is a common experience in the life of the human being; if it were not so, man would be the plaything of a changing mind or a sport of circumstances."

20 "Since the Self which we come to realise by the path of knowledge is not only the reality which lies behind and supports the states and movements of our psychological being, but also that transcendent and universal Existence which has manifested itself in all the movements of the universal, the knowledge of the Self includes also the knowledge of the principles of Being, its fundmental modes and its relations with the principles of the phenomenal universe."

21 "Matter and our physical brain and nerves and body are the field and foundation for one action of a vital force that serves to connect the Self with the form of its works and maintains them by its direct dynamic. The material movements are an exterior notation by which the soul represents its perceptions of certain truths of the Infinite and makes them effective in the terms of Substance."

22 "To be taken up into the divine Being and be aware of our spititual, infinite and universal consciousness as that in which we now live, is to possess our supreme and integral self, our true individuality; it is our power of self-knowledge."

23 "A spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is…the key-note, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence."

24 "We feel the Self as one in all."

25 "Spirit alone can account for the astonishment that is the glory of evolution." Ken Wilber, Foreword

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite