Two Steps to Spiritual Experience

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Spiritual experience, takes
knowing about something to

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knowing it.
What we learn from books.

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What we learn in school, the
facts, we memorize the

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procedures we learn about are
all based in the intellect and

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while they may open the mind to
new things, do not represent

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actual experience.
The famous proverb that one can

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read all the books on swimming.
My butt will not actually know

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how to swim until one gets in
the water and puts the theory

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into practice is an appropriate
one to keep in mind.

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The practice of skills or
methods used by the surface

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being to maneuver through the
external world is relatively

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well-known.
When it comes to spiritual

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experience, we find it difficult
to even understand how to

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proceed.
Some people say that it is

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entirely a matter of Grace, and
of course that is a primary

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characteristic of how people
gain spiritual experience Shri

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Krishna tells Arjuna as much in
the bhagavad-gita when Arjun

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asked to see the universal form
of the deity.

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There is, however, a preparatory
period, as the individual turns

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his attention toward the
spiritual basis of existence

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away from the exclusive focus on
external things.

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The mother provides two
practices that can Aid in this

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preparation.
For those who are sincere in

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their aspiration, spiritual
experience will come as SRI

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aurobindo has noted elsewhere.
You chose has the infinite has

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been chosen by the infinite.
Thus the very fact of the

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aspiration implies that Grace is
already operative whether

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recognized overtly or not.
The mother notes, quote, we

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read, we try to understand.
We explain, we try to know but a

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single minute of true experience
teaches us more than millions of

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words and hundreds of
explanations.

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So the first question is how to
have the experience to go within

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yourself.
That is the first step and then,

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once you have succeeded in going
within yourself, deeply enough

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to feel the reality of that,
which is within to widen

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yourself, progressively
systematically to become as vast

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as the universe and lose the
sense of limitation.

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These are the first to prepare
turning movements and these two

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things must be done in the
greatest possible.

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Calm, peace, and Tranquility
this peace.

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This Tranquility, bring about
silence in the mind and

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Stillness in the vital.
This effort, this attempt must

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be renewed, very regularly
persistently.

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And after a certain lapse of
time, which may be longer or

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shorter, you begin to perceive a
reality.

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That is different from the
reality perceived in the

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ordinary external consciousness.
Naturally by the action of

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Grace, the veil May suddenly be
rent from within and at, once

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you can enter the true truth,
but even when that happens, in

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order to obtain the full value
and full effect of the

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experience, you must maintain
yourself in a state of inner

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receptivity.
And to do that, it is

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indispensable for you to go
within each day and quote,

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reference SRI aurobindo and the
mother living within the yoga

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approach to psychological health
and growth.

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Exercises for growth and
Mastery.

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Awakening the inner
Consciousness Pages 134 to 138.