A Podcast Featuring Sri Aurobindo Studies
Sept. 21, 2024

The Power of Thought to Shape Our External Existence and Its Significance

The Power of Thought to Shape Our External Existence and Its Significance

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter II Power of Thought, pp. 23-25 This episode is also available as a blog post at https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2024/09/17/the-power-of-thought-to-shape-our-external-existence-and-its-significance/

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When we begin to reflect on the
role of thought in the creation

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of forms in the world.
It becomes clear that it is an

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important part of the process of
converting pure conscious

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awareness into the world of
vital action and physical

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substance.
Thought is a tool of

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consciousness.
When properly utilized, it has

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the power to shape matter and
life.

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We see this in the way we
manipulate material substance in

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the world.
We are now able to edit genetic

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sequences as well as liberate
energy from matter.

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The basic building blocks of
material forms and living beings

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are being harnessed and
redirected.

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The power of thought, however,
is not necessarily always

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beneficent.
It can be applied for negative

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or positive aims based on the
intention and the care taken in

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applying this tool.
As we become aware of the power

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of thought to shape the
direction we take in life, it

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becomes ever more evident and
important to us to choose our

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thoughts wisely, to focus them
on creation and support of

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harmony, compassion, goodwill,
light and clarity of purpose,

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rather than directing them into
negativity, hostility, hatred,

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division and the pursuit of
mindless distraction.

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Sri Orobindo notes in his
Thoughts and Glimpses quote,

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thought is not essential to
existence nor its cause, but it

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is an instrument for becoming.
I become what I see in myself.

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All the thought suggests to me I
can do.

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All the thought reveals in me I
can become.

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This should be man's unshakable
faith in himself, because God

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dwells in him.
End Quote.

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The Mother elaborates.
Quote.

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Sri Aurobindo declares that
thought is not essential to

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existence.
It is not the cause of

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existence, but is just the
process, the instrument of

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becoming.
For thought is a principle of

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precise formulation which has
the power of creating forms.

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And as an illustration, Sri
Aurobindo says that all that one

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thinks one is 1 can, by the very
fact of that thinking, become.

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This knowledge of the fact that
all that one thinks 1 can be is

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a very important key for the
development of the being, and

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not only from the point of view
of the possibilities of the

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being, but also from that of the
control and choice of what one

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will be, of what one wants to
be.

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This makes us understand the
necessity of not admitting into

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ourselves any thought which
destroys aspiration or the

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creation of the truth of our
being.

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It reveals the considerable
importance of not allowing what

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1 doesn't want to be or doesn't
want to do to formulate itself

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into thought within the being,
because to think these things is

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the beginning of their
realization.

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From every point of view, it is
bad to concentrate on what 1

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doesn't want, on what one has to
reject what one refuses to be,

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for the very fact that the
thought is there gives to things

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one wants to reject, a sort of
rite of existence within

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oneself.
This explains the considerable

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importance of not letting
destructive suggestions,

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thoughts of ill will, hatred,
destruction enter, for merely to

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think of them is all ready to
give them a power of

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realization.
Fioro Bindo says that thought is

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not the cause of existence but
an intermediary, the instrument

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which gives form to life, to
creation, and the control of

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this instrument is of foremost
importance if one wants disorder

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and all that is anti divine to
disappear from creation.

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One must not admit bad thoughts
into oneself under the pretext

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that they are merely thoughts.
They are tools of execution and

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one should not allow them to
exist in oneself if one doesn't

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want them to do their work of
destruction.

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End Quote Reference Sri Oro
Bindu and the Mother Powers

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within, Chapter 2, Power of
Thought, pages 23 to 25.