What is Holistic Self-development
Holistic self development means developing the full potential of each part of our being - mind, heart, vital force, and body – and aligning each with our true self or innermost being.
The first step in this process is to become conscious of our various parts and their current nature and workings in daily life. The second is to develop the full potential of each aspect of our being by aligning it with our true self. When this happens, we begin to live harmoniously with the world around us: family and friends, neighbors, community and even nature and the universe.
Step 1: Our various parts and their current nature and workings
Let us consider the mind and its workings in daily life. One of the most important functions of the mind is the power of discrimination. But notice that the mind’s ability to discriminate between things such as right-wrong, proper-improper, moral-immoral, etc. is mostly dependent on our shifting beliefs, values, mental convictions/preferences and even our religious orientation.
What about the heart, the seat of emotions? The heart brings very positive and uplifting emotions such as love, hope, happiness, and faith. But for many of us, these emotions are temporary states that fluctuate from one minute to the next. And as the main seat of desires, the emotional heart is constantly seeking gratification. Desires have this insatiable energy which creates a perpetual sense of lacking or being without something.
Now consider the vital force which relies on our personal energy, drive, and ambitions. Like our oscillating emotions, our vitality is in a constant state of fluctuation. We have days that we feel like we could climb mount Everest and other days where we just want to sit in front of the TV.
Lastly, is the current nature of the body. Our physical body is a mass of ingrained habits and instincts, relies on mechanical routines and is driven by physical impulses and sensations that cause it to resist change. In fact, the body is the most resistant to change. This is one of the reasons why many spiritual traditions in the East ignore the body and see it as a hinderance or obstacle on the spiritual path.
Step 2: Full development of each of our parts
Despite the typical daily functioning of the mind, heart, vital force, and body, each has a higher, more dharmic purpose in life: to become an instrument for something more essential and truer.
- The purpose or dharma of the mind is to be an instrument of truth, wisdom, self- and world-knowledge rather than an instrument of shifting mental convictions and beliefs and opinions;
- the heart, an instrument for finding lasting joy, love and harmony in all things in life instead of surface desires, passions, likes-dislikes;
- the vital force, an instrument of true progress and effective power rather than self-assertion and personal drives and ambitions, and
- the body, an instrument of beauty and perfection in form – strength, flexibility, and adaptability – rather than an instrument driven by habits, instincts, and sensations.
Aligning with our true self and harmonizing with the world
This higher dharmic purpose begins to unfold as our outer nature and actions align with our true self, allowing its nature and qualities such as sincerity, gratitude, generosity, equanimity, goodwill to others, etc. to come forward and transform and harmonize our outer nature AND it links us to the larger oneness of the universe because our true self is part of that larger oneness.
Radhe
La Grace Center
South Carolina, USA
Keywords: integrated, mind, body, intellectual (intellect), development, dharma, heart, emotions, body, true self, sincerity, gratitude, generosity, equanimity, goodwill, transform, emotions, happiness, love, hope, faith, desires, oneness
Thanks so much Radhe, for this clear orientation to becoming conscious and aligning our mind, emotions, life and body with our true Being.
ReplyDeleteIn reading this as a psychologist, it strikes me as remarkable how completely in tune with the latest psychological and nuerological science it is.
For example, let’s look at dealing with a feeling of irritation in light of what you write:
1. Someone has cut me off in traffic, and a feeling of irritation arises. Immediately I shift attention inward, recognizing that it is NOT the external event or person which is the “cause” of the irritation.
2. Becoming conscious of the complex play of thoughts, emotions, impulses, and physical sensations, I see:
(A) mentally, a set of beliefs, assumptions, prejudices, biases etc that intensify the irritation;
(B) a set of past emotional associations the fuel the irritation;
(C) a set of basic survival-oriented impulses, related to the “fight or flight” mode, and
(D) I can sense in my body various reactions in the gut, the tensing of muscles, more rapid breathing and heart beat, etc
3. If there is sufficient Silence underlying the play of thoughts, emotions, etc, I do not need to make a conscious effort to “change” this play. Stepping back into the Silence, opening the deeper “Heart” (the innermost Being), there is a natural, spontaneous intention to allow the mind, emotions, life and body to manifest more fully what you elegantly describe as their fundamental purpose or dharma.
The only thing I would add is that I find, in everyday experience, it’s important to do that initial shift back, whether into the openness, the vastness of the blue sky of Silence, or within, to the warmth and peace of the innermost Peace. Otherwise, the mind and reactive emotions may take over and subvert the quiet observation of the play of mind, emotions, life and body.
Radhe's explanation along with Don's example brings the concepts to life, accessible to practice in small things, daily moments. Have experienced this so many times - this shifting into an inner consciousness and its immediate impact on action in that moment, and on the state of being, the inner dialogue. Of course, the challenge is how to remain centred within so that there is no need to shift - the action, the reaction, everything flows from the inner poise. I see that the more one practices (like anything), the easier it is to access that Silence within, but if an interaction is too disturbing emotionally, the noise tends to resurface later on. So, along with the Silence, vigilance and not giving in to these movements of the mind or vital that tend to replay the disturbance - that too is important.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful initiative! And what the world needs today
ReplyDeleteGood start to provide a basis for understanding the evolution of consciousness
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next installment. Thanks
ReplyDeleteA good place to start would be some of the courses being offered under All Life is Yoga program by SAIEN - quite a few offer practical tools. Check these out - https://integraledu.in/all-life-is-yoga/
ReplyDeleteThanks Radhe for this so clear sharing.
ReplyDeleteLet's continue in this beautiful journey.
Sabina - Centro Sri Aurobindo e Mère ITALY
Thank you, Radhe and Don! Very nice overview of the major levels of consciousness in Integral Yoga. I would like to add some observations here. I like the separation of the vital realm on the emotional heart and impulsive vital force. The higher and the lower vital, as it were.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a sensing the body, the physical vital: sensation in the body, it is the lowest level. These three levels are represented by Anahata, Manipura and Svadhishthana Chakras in the subtle body.
Similarly one could speak of the mental levels of consciousness, of the physical mind, with its repetitive dynamism and formulation in speech (Vishuddha). It's higher mind as a will power to conceptualize and formulate the vital drive of the being, his Will (Ajna), and the top of Mind, the Self of Mind, or Illumined Mind (Sahasrara), overviewing all in the most comprehensive fashion.
Or we have the Sense-Mind (manas), Buddhi (higher mind) and above.
Hi Anon - thanks for the further clarification of the levels. A few observations to make them more experientially vivid:
DeleteHere's a simple one - when you study animal intelligence, and FEEL the parallels in yourself, it's astonishing how you can almost taste, viscerally TOUCH the inner unicellular consciousness, the insect, fish, amphibian, reptilian, mammalian, etc kinds of consciousness. You get a feel that it's almost impossible to get from ordinary self observation of the vast varieties of physical, vital and mental consciousness.
here's one a bit more - well, challenging. When the mind and vital are utterly quiet, they're no longer seen as "levels." You suddenly SEE it's the One Consciousness AS mind, AS life, AS physical consciousness.
Our ordinary surface physical/vital/thinking mind divides everything up. Then all that gets quiet, and look at the words RIGHT HERE - what are these shapes? Infinite Consciousness knowing itSelf as words, shapes, feeling itself vitally, knowing itself mentally (and above-mentality), sensing itself physically.
Thank you Radhe for bringing in so much clarity and simplicity to the various parts of our being. Sri Aurobindo's writings to me are like an onion, with each peel a new depth and layer is unravelled and getting the experience of others on the path, helps with that. Thank you Don for putting it in an example, which makes it easy to apply in our everyday life.
DeleteMy personal experience is that it is difficult to see these parts of ourself with the mind. As Don said, the mind divides and tries to see things in parts whereas if one was to step back , be in silence, invoke peace and ask for an inner guidance and then sense, one is able to see clearly where each movement or impulse comes from, what is the body's reaction, the state of the emotions, the thoughts generated and where the impulse for action is stemming from. It is highly complex and initially it feels like being in a chaotic and busy marketplace, but with practice, it does get easier and one is able to bring a certain inner organisation of the various parts ,centred around our innermost core and that is when one can see the different parts as distinct but intermingling with each other constantly.
(Don here - can't sign in as Don from my iPad). Hi Monica, beautiful and comprehensive answer - see the whole play from that place of inner or higher clarity and wisdom. I would just add one clarification about the mind. While it's true that the aspect of the mind most encouraged by modern culture tends to be one that analyses and divides, both Mother and Sri Aurobindo (and many modern psychologists and neuroscientists like Les Fehmi and Iain McGilchrist) have noted that the mind itself, not just the higher levels of consciousness, has an integrative as well as dividing aspect).
ReplyDeleteHere is a wonderful passage from the Mother on education:
Indeed, as the child grows older and progresses in his stud- ies, his mind too ripens and becomes more and more capable of forming general ideas, and with them almost always comes a need for certitude, for a knowledge that is stable enough to form the basis of a mental construction which will permit all the diverse and scattered and often contradictory ideas accumulated in his brain to be organised and put in order. This ordering is indeed very necessary if one is to avoid chaos in one’s thoughts. All contradictions can be transformed into complements, but for that one must discover the higher idea that will have the power to bring them harmoniously together. It is always good to consider every problem from all possible standpoints so as to avoid partiality and exclusiveness; but if the thought is to be active and creative, it must, in every case, be the natural and logical synthesis of all the points of view adopted. And if you want to make the totality of your thoughts into a dynamic and constructive force, you must also take great care as to the choice of the central idea of your mental synthesis; for upon that will depend the value of this synthesis. The higher and larger the central idea and the more universal it is, rising above time and space, the more numerous and the more complex will be the ideas, notions and thoughts which it will be able to organise and harmonise.
****
This, I am quite sure, is not just for children but for all of us. I've been studying Her writings on education since 1976 and still find more each day to learn from them. Here is a collection of all of Her writings on education: https://auromaa.org/sri-aurobindo-ru/workings/ma/12/vol_12_e.pdf
(Don again). Ah, I found it. In a much earlier writing ("The Supreme Discover") the Mother gives a specific example of the highest idea with which to organize all one's thoughts and ideas:
DeleteIF WE want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a landmark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life.
Each individual should build up this mental synthesis ac- cording to his own tendencies and affinities and aspirations. But if we want it to be truly living and luminous, it must be centred on the idea that is the intellectual representation symbolising That which is at the centre of our being, That which is our life and our light.
This idea, expressed in sublime words, has been taught in various forms by all the great Instructors in all lands and all ages.
The Self of each one and the great universal Self are one
***
In Questions and Answers, 1950-51, She gives us an exercise to review our day, each evening, and not just to organize the movements of the mind, life and body in light of the Self (the Soul and Self, actually, if possible) but to go over one's mental synthesis as well. This makes the mind a far more integrated, balanced, sattwic instrument, not merely the dividing analytic machine which so much of our limited, dis-integral education encourages.