A Podcast Featuring Sri Aurobindo Studies
Nov. 17, 2022

Understanding the Cycles and Phases of Spiritual Development

Understanding the Cycles and Phases of Spiritual Development
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/understanding-the-cycles-and-phases-of-spiritual-development/
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Several days ago, a Seeker
raised a question, rephrased

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here.
I read SRI aurobindo his

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writings regularly and for a
time they stay active within me

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but then it falls away and I
feel blank inside.

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Am I losing the benefit of Sri?
Aurobindo is teaching and if so,

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how can I ensure that it stays
active within me?

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There are periods of active
development and growth and then

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there are other periods that are
times of assimilation.

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During the assimilation period,
not much of anything is visible

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on the surface of the being.
And thus, we may believe that

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our spiritual progress has been
somehow suddenly arrested.

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We may experience a feeling of
emptiness or dryness.

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Then when the needed inner
development is ready, it appears

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as if miraculously There is a
phenomenon which is called the

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all-or-nothing response for
instance if we are in a darkened

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area we see only Darkness, we
will not perceive light until

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sufficient photons are available
and firing our vision cells in

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our eyes.
Thus we do not see a gradual

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increase of light but an
appearance of Darkness followed

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by a period of sudden light.
Three-hour window describe

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something in the evolutionary
development, which is akin to

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this when he discusses the
concept of The evolutionary

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psaltis the sudden leap in
Consciousness, that appears to

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have no direct precursor and
thus no immediately preceding

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species.
This helps explain what

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anthropologists consider to be
the gaps.

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In the fossil record that seemed
to imply a break in The

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evolutionary cycle of
development.

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An analogous process occurs in
the development and growth of

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Consciousness.
As the individual undertake

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sadhna.
If the Seeker has the basic

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understanding of the phases, the
light phase and the dark phase

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of the development, taking place
internally and recognizes that

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the process continues.
Even if unseen, then Faith,

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patience.
And persistence will eventually

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be rewarded with the next stage
of Consciousness manifesting in

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the Seeker, when all things have
been prepared behind the scene,

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dr.
Dalal writes, quote, whatever

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the path.
Followed the process of inner

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growth, involves a
transformation of the normal

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State of Consciousness, a
progressive, Awakening of inner,

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and higher states of being
culminating, in a total reversal

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of Consciousness, a new birth,
One feature of the reversal of

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Consciousness which gives it the
appearance of a sudden

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revolution rather than a gradual
change is that it involves a

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process similar to what has been
called.

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Unconscious incubation.
The term incubation has been

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used in Psychology to denote a
period of time during which no

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conscious effort is made to
solve a problem, but which

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terminates with the solution
citation from Arthur Reber the

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penguin dictionary of
psychology.

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Hence, the advice to sleep over
an insoluble problem, waiting

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for the solution to emerge, a
somewhat similar phenomenon is

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involved in the reversal of
Consciousness.

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It is a sudden happening
preceded by a more-or-less long

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period of preparation which
takes place behind the veil of

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the surface Consciousness and of
which the Seeker is therefore

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unaware, The mother observes
quote for a long time.

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You have the impression that
nothing is happening, that your

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Consciousness is the same as
usual, and if you have an

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intense aspiration, you even
feel a resistance as though, you

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were knocking against a wall,
which does not yield.

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But when you were ready within a
last effort, the picking in the

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Shell of the being and
everything opens, and you are

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projecting Did into another
consciousness.

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Reference SRI aurobindo and the
mother growing within the

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psychology of inner development
introduction page, Roman 21.