Ascent and Integration Define Spiritual Progress for the Seeker

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Transforming human nature does
not happen overnight.

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There are thus periods when the
spiritual force is actively

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experienced and descending into
the being, and then there are

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other periods where it needs to
adjust the responses of the

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mind, the life energy and the
physical body to both hold and

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accommodate the impact of the
force and thereby create the

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needed changes.
Fiora Bindo describes this

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process as one of assent and
integration.

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Both are essential elements in
the transformational process,

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and the seeker soon learns that
he can only receive a certain

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amount of force at a time until
the being is widened, the

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receptivity is enhanced, and the
necessary changes are being made

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to use that force.
If the seeker pulls the force,

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it can be spilled if the being
is not prepared to hold it, and

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this can lead to various forms
of imbalance, disruption, or

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disturbances.
Eventually, the seeker also

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recognizes that the yoga is not
fixated on accumulating

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experiences, but on the actual
work of change needed to

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manifest the next stage of the
evolution of consciousness.

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A work that involves addressing
virtually every part of the

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being, every response, every
reaction, every habit, every

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instinct, every trained action
to open the being to a new way

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of seeing, acting and
responding.

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Thus the need for perspective,
receptivity, continual faith and

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patience with the process.
Srioro Bindo writes quote.

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The length of your period of
dullness is also no sufficient

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reason for losing belief in your
capacity or your spiritual

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destiny.
I believe that alternations of

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bright and dark periods are
almost a universal experience of

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yogis, and the exceptions are
very rare.

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If one inquires into the reason
of this phenomenon, very

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unpleasant to our impatient
human nature, it will be found,

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I think, that they are in the
main too.

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The first is that the human
consciousness either cannot bear

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a constant descent of the light
or power or ananda, or cannot at

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once receive and absorb it.
It needs periods of

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assimilation.
But this assimilation goes on

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behind the veil of the surface
consciousness.

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The experience or the
realization that has descended

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retires behind the veil and
leaves this outer or surface

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consciousness to lie fallow and
become ready for a new descent.

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In the more developed stages of
the yoga, these dark or dull

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periods become shorter, less
trying, as well as uplifted by

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the sense of the greater
consciousness, which, though not

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acting for immediate progress,
yet remains and sustains the

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outer nature.
The second cause is some

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resistance, something in the
human nature that is not felt.

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The former descent is not ready,
is perhaps unwilling to change.

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Often it is some strong habitual
formation of the mind or the

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vital, or some temporary inertia
of the physical consciousness,

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and not exactly a part of the
nature.

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And this, whether showing or
concealing itself, thrusts up

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the obstacle.
If one can detect the cause in

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oneself, acknowledge it, see its
workings, and call down the

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power for its removal, then the
period of obscurity can be

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greatly shortened, and their
acuity becomes less.

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But in any case the divine power
is working always behind, and

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one day, perhaps, when one least
expects it, the obstacle breaks,

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the clouds vanish, and there is
again the light and the

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sunshine.
The best thing in these cases

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is, if one can manage it, not to
fret, not to despond, but to

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insist quietly and keep oneself
open, spread to the light, and

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waiting in faith for it to come.
That, I have found, shortens the

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ordeals.
Afterwards, when the obstacle

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disappears, one finds that a
great progress has been made,

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and that the consciousness is
far more capable of receiving

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and retaining than before.
There is a return for all the

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trials and ordeals of the
spiritual life.

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End Quote.
Reference Srioro Bindo, Bases of

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Yoga, Chapter 3 in difficulty,
pages 45 to 47.