Page 14 - NAMAH-Apr-2018

Namah Vol. 26, Issue 1, 24th April 2018

wife made a comment that struck him as and interconnectedness arises.
judgmental — regardless of her intent —
it triggered a fit of rage directed towards Sri Aurobindo describes the essence of the
her, recapitulating the past trauma with his soul or psychic being as follows:
brother. These earlier experiences are stored
in our library of memories, and each time we “It is the very nature of the soul or the psychic
encounter a similar situation, without the being to turn towards the Divine Truth as the
filter of awareness, our response is automatic sunflower to the sun; it accepts and clings
and repetitive. In these moments, we’re reacting to all that is divine or progressing towards
to the present through our ancient history; divinity and draws back from all that is a
the childhood experiences we still harbour in perversion or a denial of it, from all that is
our subconscious. As in the case of the above false and undivine (1).”
patient, this 59-year-old man was reacting
to his wife with the emotional and visceral 8. Evolution in ego-morality
response of that prior 9-year-old boy.
A centrepiece of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga was
As we sit in the stillness of our minds, our the affirmation that man is equipped with an
psyche makes room for layer upon layer intrinsic evolutionary capacity for psycho-
of subconscious thoughts to bubble to the spiritual growth. Behavioural psychologists
surface. Once it is brought to the light of our have subsequently been at work identifying
awareness, a process of unfolding and healing and mapping stages of ego development
begins. The removal of psychological blocks correlated with moral development. The
is imperative, without which we cannot overarching tenant of their mapping is that
ascend up our psycho-spiritual evolution human development grows from a narrow
and without which entry into higher states egocentric human concern to a universal
of consciousness is impossible. human care as an individual grows along
a psycho-spiritual line. The following clinical
7. Accessing the divinity within findings, pointing to the impact that meditation
has to positively impact this development
There is a speck of divinity residing in our line, are impressive.
incarnate self that links us to our greater non-
dual Self, referred to by different names Dr. Jane Loevinger performed clinical studies
in different traditions. We’re primarily working with college students. She found that
detached from our psychic being because 38% of students who meditated regularly
our physical, emotional and mental functions reached their highest ego level, compared to
are so dominant. We’re stuck in this human- only 1% of students who did not (2).
imposed glass ceiling, preventing us from
accessing the psychic self, unable to tap into Dr. Susan Cook Greuter, likewise conducted
higher states of consciousness that reside studies and found that 39% of individuals
within us. As we sit in meditation focused in who meditated regularly reached her highest
the heart chakra, an opening occurs, a knot is development level tested, the ‘integrated’
loosened, a more blissful state of contentment stage, compared to 0.05 of the remaining adult

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