Integral yoga
Integral Yoga is the spiritual philosophy and practice developed by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Central to this philosophy is the concept of involution, a process in which the Spirit plunges into the "Inconscience" of Matter, followed by evolution, where the Spirit progressively manifests itself back through the material world.
According to Sri Aurobindo, the current status of humanity is not final; rather, man is a "transitional being" in an intermediate stage of evolution, destined to unfold the Spirit and manifest the Supramental consciousness to transform earthly life. While unassisted natural evolution is a slow process taking centuries or many births, Integral Yoga is defined as a "rapid and concentrated conscious evolution" capable of accelerating this change in a single lifetime. To achieve this, the practice utilizes a "triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender," leading to a "triple transformation": the psychic change, the spiritual change, and the supramental transmutation.
Worldview
Spirit - Satchitananda
Spirit or satchitananda is the Absolute, the source of all that exists. It is the One, having three aspects: Sat, Citta, and ananda.Involution
Involution is the extension of Spirit, the Absolute, to create a universe of separate forms. Being manifests itself as a multiplicity of forms, meanwhile becoming lost in the inconscience of matter. The first manifestation of Spirit in the process of involution is as Satchitananda, and then as Supermind, the intermediate link between the higher and lower nature.According to Aurobindo the world is a differentiated unity. It is a manifold oneness, that generates an infinite variety of lifeforms and substances. The lifeforms and substances are stretched out on a wide range, from physical matter to a pure form of spiritual being, akin to the five koshas or sheaths, where the subject becomes fully aware of itself as spirit:
- Material: a submerged consciousness concealed in its action and losing itself in the form.
- Vital: an emerging consciousness, a consciousness half delivered out of its original imprisonment which has become of vital craving and satisfaction or repulsion.
- Mental: an emerged consciousness reflecting fact of life in a mental sense, perceptive and ideative. It modifies the internal and attempts to modify conformably the external existence of the being.
Evolution
Through evolution Spirit rediscovered itself as Spirit. Evolution follows a developmental trajectory from the original inconscience of matter into life, to mind, and then to spiritualized mind, culminating in The Supermind or Truth Consciousness. Evolution is teleological, since the developing entity contains within itself already the totality toward which it develops. It is not a mechanistic or deterministic teleology, but a "manifestation of all the possibilities inherent in the total movement."The goal of integral yoga
The goal of Integral yoga is to become aware of the Divine, to integrate the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of ourselves, and to manifest the Divine at earth. According to Sri Aurobindo, all life is Yoga, while Yoga as a sadhana is a methodised effort towards self-perfection, which brings to expression the latent, hidden potentialities of being. Success in this effort unifies the human individual with the universal and transcendental Existence. Integral yoga reunites "the infinite in the finite, the timeless in the temporal and the transcendent with the immanent.Three types of being
Sri Aurobindo discerns three types of being: the Outer being, the Inner being, and the Psychic Being.The Outer Being
The Outer Being includes the physical, vital and mental levels of Being, which characterises our everyday consciousness and experience. This includes several levels of the subconscient: a mental subconscient, a vital subconscient, and a physical subconscient, down to the material Inconscient. Integral Yoga involves going beyond this surface consciousness to the larger life of the Inner Being, which is more open to spiritual realisation.The Inner or Subliminal Being
The Inner Being, or Subliminal, includes the inner realms or aspects of the physical, vital and mental being. They have a larger, subtler, freer consciousness than that of the everyday consciousness. Its realisation is essential for any higher spiritual realisation.The Inner Being is also transitional between the surface or Outer Being and the Psychic or Inmost Being. By doing yoga practice, the inner consciousness is being opened, and life turns away from the outward to the inward. The inner consciousness becomes more real than the outer consciousness, and becomes a peace, happiness and closeness to the Divine.
The Psychic Being
The Psychic Being is Sri Aurobindo's term for the Personal Evolving Soul, the principle of Divine spirit in every individual. The Psychic is the "Innermost Being", the permanent being in us that stands behind and supports the physical, vital and mental principles. It "uses mind, life and body as its instruments," undergoing their fate yet also transcending them.In Integral Yoga the goal is to move inward and discover the Psychic Being, which then can bring about a transformation of the outer nature. This transformation of the outer being or ego by the Psychic is called Psychicisation; it is one of the three necessary stages in the realisation of the Supramental consciousness. This Psychic transformation is the decisive movement that enables a never-ending progress in life, through the power of connecting to one's inner spirit or Divine Essence. The Psychic begins its evolution completely veiled and hidden, but grows through successive lifetimes, and gradually exerts a greater influence, taking on the role of spiritual Guide.
Central Being
Central Being refers to the transcendent and eternal spirit, as opposed to the incarnate and evolving Soul, which he calls the Psychic Being. Sometimes it refers to both of them together as the essential spiritual core of the being. The Central Being "presides over the different births one after the other but is itself unborn". This transcendent Central Being or Spirit is also designated as the Jiva or Jivatman, although the meaning of these terms in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy differs greatly from that of much of conventional VedantaLevels of being
The levels of being ascend from the inconscient to the Supermind.Inconscient
Inconscient Matter is the lowest level of involution. Spirit is still present in the inconscient: "The Inconscient is the Superconscient's sleep." The Inconscient is also the instrument of the Superconsciousness which has created the Universe. According to Satprem, the Inconscient lies at the bottom of the physical subconscient, and "life emerged... at the border between the material inconscient and the physical consciousness... in our body.Subconscient and subtle or subliminal conscient
The physical, vital and mental levels of being contain both a subconscient and a subtle or subliminal part.The subconscient
The subconscient parts are the submerged parts. It contains "obstinate samskaras, impressions, associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by the past." According to Satprem, there are several levels of the subconscient, corresponding with the different levels of our being: a mental subconscient, a vital subconscient, and a physical subconscient, down to the material Inconscient.According to Aurobindo, the body is partly a creation of the inconscient or subconscient. According to The Mother, the ordinary, false consciousness, which is common to material body-consciousness, is derived from the subconscient and the inconscient. According to Aurobindo, the outer being depends on the subconscient, which hinders the spiritual progress. Only by living in the inner being can this obstacle be overcome.
According to Sharma, the subconscient is "the inconscient in the process of becoming conscient." It is a submerged part of the personality without waking consciousness, but which does receive impressions, and influences the conscious mind. According to Sharma, it includes the unconscious mind which is described by psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, though it includes much more than the unconscious of psychology.
The subtle or subliminal conscient
The subtle or subliminal is the subtle, higher counterpart of the subconscient. According to Sharma, "it has an inner mind, an inner vital being, and an inner subtle physical being, wider than man's consciousness." It can directly experience the Universal, and "it is the source of inspirations, intuitions, ideas, will... as well as... telepathy clearvoyance."Gross body
The gross body commonly referred to in yoga constitutes mainly of two parts the material physical body and the nervous system normally refer to as vital vehicle in Integral yoga.Physical
The Physical level refers to both the physical body and the body's consciousness. The body is just as conscious as the vital and mental parts of the being, only it is a different type of consciousness. The Physical not only shades upwards to higher ontological levels, but also downwards into the Subconscient.The Subtle physical is Sri Aurobindo's term for a subtler aspect of the physical nature. This has many qualities not found in the gross physical nature. In The Agenda, The Mother often refers to it. It might be compared to the etheric body and plane, or even the astral body and plane. The term "subtle physical" is used to distinguish it from gross or outer material physical.
Vital
The Vital level of the being refers to the life force, but also to the various passions, desires, feelings, emotions, affects, compulsions, and likes and dislikes. These strongly determine human motivation and action through desire and enthusiasm.Unlike Western psychology, in which mind, emotions, instincts, and consciousness are all lumped together, Sri Aurobindo strongly distinguishes between the "Vital" and the "Mental" faculties.
In addition to the individual Vital faculty, Sri Aurobindo refers to a Vital Plane or Vital world, which would seem to be partly equivalent to the astral plane of popular occultism and New Age thought.