That something greater exists
I find in my readings that many of the experiences I have had, many of the thoughts to which I have been exposed – to which I have exposed myself – along my seeking path, have been spoken before. Some of them in ancient texts, whose context and imagery demand a certain patience and quiet of mind to embrace; others whose proponents are recent, almost contemporaries. These voices have of course fed many seekers and writers, and the most current theories and practices usually owe a great debt to a long lineage of similar travelers, each one standing on the well-lit path of someone who had spoken before.
If something sounds great, keep the speaker humble by reminding him (non-cited references usually from a him) or her that they are just the instrument, while the musician… the musician is the music itself.
Sri Aurobindo sought deeply and long, moved from political activism to an existential inquiry – one which never divorced itself from the world in which we live and breath. His thoughts followed direct experience, an experience which inherently inhabits this body and this mind, and found that there was something beyond both. The idea that there is a greater life available, here for us now… the fact that someone has said: “You know, there is something more…” That can be your freedom. You can question yourself. You may let go of certainties that confine you to smaller ideals, and to shallower connections to others than what is truly possible. Here and now.
“It is only if there is a greater consciousness beyond Mind, and that consciousness is accessible to us, that we can know and enter into the ultimate Reality. Intellectual speculation, logical reasoning as to whether there is or is not such a greater consciousness cannot carry us very far. What we need is a way to get the experience of it, to reach it, enter into it, live it. If we can get that, intellectual speculation and reasoning must fall necessarily into a very secondary place and even lose their reason for existence. Philosophy – intellectual expression of the Truth may remain, but mainly as a means of expressing this greater discovery and as much of its contents as can at all be expressed in mental terms to those who still live within the mental intelligence…
“… To pass from the external to a direct and intimate inner consciousness; to widen consciousness out of the limits of the ego and the body …. this is the integral way to the Truth. It is this … that we aim at in our yoga.”
- Sri Aurobindo, The Integral Yoga: Letters