Spiritual Progress Requires Non-Attachment to Specific Spiritual Experiences

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The external being wants to have
a stable basis by which it can

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understand and act in the world.
The tools that support the

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stable basis include habit.
Fix Tendencies, instincts,

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education, memory.
And even the way the mental

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processes work, comparing new
impulses of the senses to past

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memory to create pattern,
recognition and fixed lines of

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action.
Psychologists have even

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concluded that neural pathways
are built that through

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repetition lead, the
understanding down well-worn

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ways of understanding and acting
and which tend to solidify the

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life into predictable responses.
These things provide stability,

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and are one of the conservative
mechanisms that ensure that

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there is an orderly progression
in the life that has a basis.

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That is solid steady and sure
the energy required to overcome

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this inertia of the external
being is quite considerable.

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Yet progress can only occur when
an individual is able to pass

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beyond the limits of the past
ways of knowing and acting.

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The same thing happens with
respect to spiritual

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experiences, the individual
wants to continually repeat the

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experiences once they have made
an impression on him and then

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goes about classifying
organizing and remembering those

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experiences and uses this mental
framework to try to recapture

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the magic of that past event.
In a certain way, this may help

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during a period of consolidation
and fixing the experience into

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the external workings of the
Mind, life and body.

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But to the extent, it remains
fixed their, the individual

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cannot progress to the next new
level of understanding and

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experience.
A devotee inquires quote mother,

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why is it that the same
contemplation does not always

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produce the same sensation in
oneself?

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That is for example, when one
looks at the sea or the stars

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and thinks of ones in
significance.

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Then there is a particular
sensation which is produced

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within.
And then at another time when

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one wants to have the same
experience, even if one thinks

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about It, why doesn't it recur?
And quote, the mother notes.

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Quote one can never have the
same experience twice because

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one is never the same person
twice between the first

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experience on the second.
Even if one hour has passed, you

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are no longer the same man and
you can never reproduce

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identically the same thing.
If you take care to become more

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conscious, more sincere, more
concentrated, the experience you

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have will be different, but it
may be deeper and more.

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Clear, but if you cling to
something, you have had and want

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to reproduce the same thing, you
will have nothing at all because

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you can't have the same thing
and you are in a state in which

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you refuse to have a new
experience for you are at

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Attached to the past one.
And usually when one has had an

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experience which was a
revelation, something

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altogether, important one
doesn't want to leave it.

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One is afraid of not having it
any longer.

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And so, in this movement of
clinging onto something when

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prevents oneself from
progressing and puts oneself in

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conditions in which one can't
have the next experience, Well,

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this has to be understood
because it is an absolute Fact.

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One can never have the same
experience twice.

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There may be similar
experiences, very close and

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particularly some which appear
similar, but these experiences,

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if one is absolutely sincere
impartial and like a blank page.

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You will perceive that there is
a difference, sometimes an

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essential one.
Between the two though in

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appearance, they seem very close
but the more ready you are to

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leave behind all that you have
experienced in order to be able

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to go towards something better
and higher.

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The faster you will go.
The more you drag the heavy

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weight of all the past which you
don't want to get rid of the

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slower.
Is your Vance.

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All the past, should always be
simply like a stepping stone or

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a ladder, something to lead you
farther, it should not have any

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other use except to push you
forward and if you can feel this

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and always turn your back on
what is past and look at what

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you want to do.
Then you go much faster, you

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don't waste time on the way.
What makes you lose time, as

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always this clinging, to what
has been to, what is, what

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seemed to you beautiful and good
in.

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What is past.
This must only help you.

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You must not reject it, but it
must help you to go forward.

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It must simply be something on
which you lean to take a step

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forward.
And quote, reference SRI

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aurobindo, and the mother
growing within the psychology of

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inner development.
Chapter 7, growth of

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Consciousness.
Inner experiences Pages, 144 to

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146,