Moving to a Higher Centre
Man has moved to a mental centre from his original physical center. This is the slow evolution he has undergone. ‘Yoga' means to hasten this slow process of evolution. When man has been centered for a long time, for centuries, on a particular plane, the different levels of that center or plane become filled and overfilled with experiences, and the species slowly moves to the next higher plane. All efforts of civilisation, education, learning and yoga are various measures to make this process of evolution conscious and therefore quicker. Life and yoga are the same in their type of process; only their speed is different. There is a way for an aspirant of yoga to quicken the process of evolution and move to a higher center. The questions before us are:
Can we make a single one of our movements conscious?
If we make it conscious, do we move to a higher center with respect to this movement?
What are the definite indications of such a movement?
What is the prime mover in such a process?
Are there minimum requirements for one to move from one plane to another?
Are these movements exclusive to yoga?
There are three main centers or planes - physical, life (vital) and mental. The life plane can be subdivided into different parts and expressed as aspects of experience, such as knowledge of life, strength in life, alertness, weight of experience, length of experience, etc. In man's evolution, he lives in the life plane until his experiences gather and fill him with knowledge, strength, effectivity, alertness, keenness, and satisfaction. When he feels there is nothing more for him to acquire at that plane, his higher part at the next level begins to reveal itself, i.e. his Mind. From that time on, his primary motive is to know in great detail whatever presents itself before him.
This shift from life to mind takes a very long time. However, when a person makes a decision to complete his existence at one level, the life plane, he can make the shift more quickly. The movement to a higher plane is best made when everything in the lower plane is complete. But it can also be made by an effort of will, by a new attitude, or with the help of the Divine Grace, even before the right time. If this is done, the uncompleted arrears in the previous plane get completed much more quickly because the central will of the person is now active.
By observing one's life, understanding the different components of an act, desiring to move upwards and to grow, making a decision to complete the work in one plane, and through any other conscious effort, a person can help quicken the process. To be conscious is to be greater and therefore more powerful. Trust or faith in the existence of a higher plane or a higher Consciousness also generates great energy and power to move upward rapidly.
Sincerity means to bring the different parts of the being to the same level. In this context, if a person wants to move his personality to the mental plane, sincerity would imply the submission of the vital or life level to the mind. As stated above, the lower plane moves to the higher by fulfilling itself, and this is a slow process. The higher plane can bring up the lower by fulfilling the lower from above, and this process is rapid. The lower plane must accept the will of the higher plane, which is sincerity or surrender. Another way of explaining this is having the right attitude to progress. In life, the process of the lower moving to the higher is understood to be ‘casual' and therefore slow, while the higher bringing up the lower is ‘serious'. We know people to be casual, meaning they will not take initiative to do anything. Serious people make sure that things move.
Can we make a single one of our movements conscious? If so, how? We can take the example of writing. Let us say we have been asked to write an article on our home town. We begin to write, and the act of writing is satisfying. If we subject this movement of writing to observation or analysis and make it conscious, ordinarily we will discover the following: our memory is packed with practically all the facts needed about our town; we have read every article written about it and we have enough experience in writing essays. We accept the assignment, collect all the facts, arrange them in order and then set them down. The writing comes out well and we are happy. But this is an unconscious or half-conscious act and the satisfaction we feel at the end confirms that we have done it according to our earlier vital or mental training. We have not made any essential progress through the performance of this act.
Writing is composed of: a) thought content, b) organisation of thought or mental composition, c) the act of letting the thought move to composition and the composition into the act of writing, and finally, d) the evaluation of the writing in one's emotions. If the remembered facts are drawn upon, the thought content of the article becomes a production of the memory. If one relies on his earlier writing experience in ordering the facts, it becomes another exercise in composition, an act of the mental muscle. The act is a physical one.
Instead of this, if one presents the thought content to his mind as soon as it comes into his memory, it becomes thinking. If one silences the mind, or in other words, refuses to accept the facts of the memory, the same facts become enlivened. The facts pass into the mind from our memory and stimulate thinking. Many new ideas or a new way of presenting the ideas would arise. If we refuse to think, the mind becomes silent. The facts convert themselves into thoughts and finally reveal the hidden ideas inside. The mind becomes still, the ideas are alive, all issuing from the same facts. Sometimes fresh ideas will enter the mind. If one refuses to organise these live ideas by drawing upon his college writing habits, they arrange themselves in order of density in time. That is why we speak of ideas taking time to sink in.
When this process is followed, after an interval of time, something suggests to us to write. Writing then is not centered in the physical part of the mind but issues out of the higher mental silence. We can observe our hand writing and the act of writing is fresh. There is no feeling of satisfaction at the end, but the joy of the mind spreads to the hand. When the writing is over, usually it is forgotten but the joy lingers. In this process, the physical act is upgraded to nervous, mental joy. The mental thought process of the physical mind is upgraded to issue out of stillness. The physical-mental activity becomes conscious and turns into a mental-spiritual act.
The mechanism of this process is to deny the known lower process. The moment a person refuses to follow the lower form of writing an essay with mental repetition, a silence fills the mind and everything follows smoothly. By making the act of writing conscious, thinking rises to become silence.
In the same way, our emotional impulses can be subjected to this process. For example, if we analyse our emotional need for companionship, make the decision to rise above it, and deny the impulse, this would immediately generate soft feelings of affection and love.
This process can be applied to all of our acts on any plane. The indications that such a movement upward is right are: a general incursion of peace or silence; our nerves become calm; a fresh surge of energy and a general sense of upliftment.
The prime mover in this process of upward progress is the decision of the will, the attitude that all of our energies must be given to this process. In other words, sincerity, or bringing the lower planes of the act on a par with the higher parts of the act. The minimum requirement is the readiness of the plane or the readiness of the soul. Another way of saying it is, we must seriously want it.
When we condemn ourselves as unfit, we are using a defence mechanism not to move upward. This is a self-justification which suits our laziness and unwillingness.
We love to be clumsy. We do with our hands what our mind should really organise. When a lower part does the work of a higher part, clumsiness results. The mind should think, plan and order, and hand the plan over to the body to execute. If we do not use our mind to think out the order in which our house should be kept and if we proceed to haphazardly put things anywhere, we see a perfect expression of clumsiness. To do each part of a work by the part of the being intended for it is to act consciously. One cannot think with his hands while arranging things.
To sit down, dissect each of our acts and delegate each part of the act to its respective part of the being is progress in life.
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69-physical ac is upgraded-
69-physical ac is upgraded- physical act is upgraded