Changes within a Transforming Consciousness

Excerpt from InterviewThe following is an excerpt from the Growth Online interviewThe Future Evolutionary Individual and Collective Life on Earth[size=12]
Growth Online: So what is this first stage, and why is it so important?
RP: The first stage of this Triple Transformation of the individual that Sri Aurobindo envisions -- to get us from here to the supramental there, from his current status of pain and suffering and ignorance and falsehood, to a future supernature -- he calls the Psychic Transformation.
He argues that we cannot possibly move towards this new evolutionary individual if we live our lives the way we do now. Even if we open to the Force, or make some basic changes to our way of living, or even make sincere efforts to change our character and nature, there will still be little change to our permanent human nature. We will in essence remain who we are. Stuck on the surface of life, driven by the pushes and pulls of the social environment, driven by our emotions, our passions, our needs, our overwhelming fixation on ourselves and our ego-sense. Thus he asks us to first break the chains that bind us to this ordinary existence that we have been experiencing for 100,000 years. To do this he asks us to make the Psychic Transformation.
Essentially the psychic change is to connect to our inner being, our inner personal souls, and establish that connection on a permanent basis. He calls the inner personal soul, the "psychic being", thus the need for the psychic transformation. Once we establish the permanent link with our inner being down to our personal soul, our psychic being, we have initiated the great change that moves us away from our ordinary nature toward our supernature.
Growth Online: So how does one do this, how does one connect to one's soul? And do we really have a soul to begin with? And if so what is it, and what do we do with it?
RP: Excellent questions! (laughter)
(pause) Let's me try to explain this with a real world example. Let's see-
A man is walking down the street. He sees the street, the sky, and the people passing by. He decides to withdraw inward into his inner being. Even as walks, he feels a connection in his chest, behind his heart, deep within himself. He has withdrawn from the surface, the normal outer connection to life, from the inputs of his senses; even as he walks vigorously along the way and is aware of his surroundings.
At another point on this inner and outer journey he goes deeper still within. He thinks about the very purpose of his existence; why he came on this earth, why he is in this body he occupies. He remembers that he has an evolving soul deep within. He knows that in this soul being, this psychic being lays the purpose and connection of his purpose of being on this earth.
He then tries to make connection with his soul, his psychic being. Suddenly he feels some inner stirring, some subtle connection inside; something that he senses that is related to his very reason for being on earth. He senses a live essence of being, a driving influence stirring deep within. It is his soul being, there alive, stirring, influencing, guiding, providing the spark and foundation for his existence. He has made first contact with his psychic being, his personal soul and inner guide.
Over the next few days he periodically reconnects to his inner being and to his psychic, soul being. He notices that as a result of being centered there he has a very different sense of things; a totally different feeling within, and a very different perspective of things life around him.
For one he notices that he has withdrawn from the push and pulls of the surface workings of life, even as he is still fully engaged in that life and work. He also senses that he has withdrawn from his ego-sense and perspective that he normally experiences when he lives solely at the surface of life. There is less of a sense of an "I," of a "me," in which one tends to isolate one's self from life; where one experiences the world from a separative, me-orientation. As a result of moving away from this separative, ego-centered consciousness, he senses a wider and truer existence around him. He senses greater possibilities surrounding him because he is not wedded to the I that sees things from one side, one perspective, one truth. Instead he becomes aware of new perspectives, more truths, more sides of truths, more possibilities, more choices, and therefore more potential courses of actions. From moment to moment he becomes more aware too of the right choices, the best way to proceed, the best courses of action. Over time he begins to have a keener sense of things; he touches on the myriad of subtle forces and energies and powers that are in the atmosphere.

At another point in his journey into his inner being, in these depths apart from the surface, he consciously experiences his psychic soul being acting as his guide and mentor. He notices now that whenever he does something wrong, takes the wrong attitude, or moves impulsively in the wrong way, he senses an instruction or insight from his inner guide, reminding him of his limiting way, and a better way to act or a better course of action for the future. In that way his personal soul is continually steering him in the right direction; giving him subtle nudges, suggestions, and indications of how he should change himself in the future.

Growth Online: So his soul being becomes a kind of moral compass?
RP: Well, he doesn't receive this soul guidance and influence as some sort of moral imperative; instead the guiding influence just wells spontaneously within him at just the right moment. The guidance is spontaneous, practical, and creatively insightful. As a result of the influence of the inner guide, over time he is able to see his strengths and weaknesses of character in a more illuminating light. He gains a new clarity and insight into his nature, and feels a glad compulsion to improve himself; to take steps to overcome his limitations in his nature.
Also, as we connect to our soul being, we begin to sense a wider existence than our own self. We begin to make connections with greater and wider currents of life. For example, we sense the environment around us differently, as an extension of ourselves, not as a separate entity. Likewise, we begin to feel that everything is a part of ourselves, and we are part of everything. This perception extends outward across space, as we feel a connection with the society, the earth, even the universe itself and its forces and powers. We might for example feel a deep kinship with the unfolding of human progress, world events, new developments on earth, or the destiny of the race. Perhaps we might begin to sense that the world's destiny is tied up in our own and visa versa. Or we might begin to understand the reason for this universe, for our own place in the universe, and the relationship between the two.
As a result of these associations we begin to shift our center of awareness from our ego-centered individual consciousness to being an individual with a more universal consciousness.
Also, we increasingly experience the subtle hidden forces and powers of life. For example, we continually experiences synchronicities, have psychic experiences, see the interrelatedness of distant events with our own, and other such phenomenon. We more clearly perceive the connections between the outer existence and our inner status; how a change in the inner reflects in the outer, and how life continually responds on the outside to positive movements within us. As a result of this awareness of this correlation, we learn the subtleties, of action, of thought, of attitude, and emotion and impulse and judgment; and we see how their movements reflect instantaneously in the outer life. As a result we accumulate a great knowledge of how to act, and how to make life continually respond in a positive way. This invariably leads to the possibility of great success and accomplishment in life. We have then in essence opened the portals to the infinite potential to emerge into life. And ironically by living in the deepest depths of the soul being we are able to elicit the greatest responses from the outer life. From within we begin to become masters of the outer life.


For the full Article see: http://gurusoftware.com/Gurunet/Interviews/EvolutionaryBeing.htm