The Expanded Field of Consciousness Beyond the External Awareness

1
00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:04,320
Consider that we remove
ourselves from active

2
00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:08,280
participation in the external
world and its activities for

3
00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:11,400
some 30% of our lifetimes while
we are asleep.

4
00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:16,480
Sleep provides the physical
body, life, mind complex with

5
00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:20,440
the opportunity to undertake
basic maintenance, repair the

6
00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:25,240
body, soothe the life energies
and refresh the brain function.

7
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,360
What happens to our
consciousness during sleep?

8
00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:35,200
Consider further that we are
constantly receiving and sending

9
00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:40,600
out electrical signals, impulses
and vibrational patterns that we

10
00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,360
are not consciously attending
to, but which nevertheless

11
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:48,440
create their own effects within
us and on the world around us.

12
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:53,200
Reflect on the fact that there
are experiences we have at

13
00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:57,960
various times when our external
consciousness is withdrawn, such

14
00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,240
as experiential dreams where we
are meeting individuals, going

15
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:06,000
to places and taking actions
that are not based in our waking

16
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,320
lives or in near death
experiences or in out of body

17
00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:15,560
experiences, including phenomena
such as astral travel.

18
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,360
It becomes clear that our
consciousness is functioning on

19
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:24,480
other planes and in other
circumstances during the times

20
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:30,120
it is not actively participating
in the external world of our

21
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:34,320
waking state.
Many have reported seeing and

22
00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:38,480
meeting teachers and gurus and
receiving profound insights

23
00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:40,560
while their physical being was
asleep.

24
00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,440
They return from these
experiences with inner growth,

25
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:49,360
new levels of knowledge, and
used the sleep state as a field

26
00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,400
for progress in their yogic
endeavor.

27
00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:56,920
We also know that we process
things on multiple different

28
00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,680
levels at the same time.
People who are questioned about

29
00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:05,440
events under the technique of
hypnosis are able to describe

30
00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,639
specific details that their
waking processing did not grasp.

31
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,960
We filter out much of what
occurs to make our waking lives

32
00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,160
more efficient, but it is
nevertheless received and stored

33
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:22,560
at a subliminal level and
available under the right

34
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,320
circumstances to be brought to
conscious awareness.

35
00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:32,080
Yogis shift their awareness
through a state of yogic trance

36
00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:36,160
such that it is said that day
for the ordinary man is night

37
00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,800
for the Yogi and day for the
Yogi is night for the ordinary

38
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,720
man.
This indicates that there are

39
00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:47,640
other states of awareness
available to human beings than

40
00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:50,360
that of the surface waking
consciousness.

41
00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:56,360
Sri Aurobindo writes quote It is
a mistake to think that we live

42
00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,440
physically only with the outer
mind and life.

43
00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,320
We are all the time living and
acting on other planes of

44
00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,920
consciousness, meeting others
there and acting upon them and

45
00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:10,080
what we do and feel and think
there.

46
00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:14,960
The forces we gather, the
results we prepare, have an

47
00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:19,400
incalculable importance and
effect unknown to us upon our

48
00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:24,000
outer life.
Not all of it comes through, and

49
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,800
what comes through takes another
form in the physical, though

50
00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:30,560
sometimes there is an exact
correspondence.

51
00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:35,440
But this little is at the basis
of our outward existence.

52
00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,640
All that we become and do and
bear in the physical life is

53
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,920
prepared behind the veil within
us.

54
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:47,560
It is therefore of immense
importance for a yoga which aims

55
00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:52,440
at the transformation of life to
grow conscious of what goes on

56
00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:56,240
within these domains, to be
master there and be able to

57
00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:02,200
feel, know and deal with the
secret forces that determine our

58
00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:06,960
destiny and our internal and
external growth or decline.

59
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:12,960
End Quote Reference Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother, The

60
00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:19,399
Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter
2, Hidden Forces within page 29.