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018. Model of Nine Levels of Growth - Level 7

In our classification of Man into physical, vital and mental, though we have nine levels, in reality the levels are innumerable and never-ending. In each small act of ours like swallowing a mouthful of food or taking the most important decision of life, there exist strands of mental, physical, and vital intertwined. Only a general idea is attempted here, not a very minute analysis.

From such a view, 7 is the mental part of the physical which puts the physical and vital movements into an organisation that can be identified as skill. To our perception, these skills are subconscious as we are not aware of them. A subconscious skill is one that one cannot be aware of however much he tries, such as the functioning of blood circulation; but the skills acquired by 7 can be seen when we turn our attention towards them. Only they are not in our conscious perception, not so much because it cannot be known as that we do not care to take note of them. Such a subconscious skill resides in 9. When 9 is split into three parts, its mental part is subconscious which controls our involuntary organs.

Bone, flesh, nerves, tissues, ligaments, cartilage are all of different composition. Their composition varies according to their strength. Brain falls under a special category. Brain is the flesh that thinks. By thinking the flesh becomes soft, perhaps softest in the body. It is mellowed by thought. The thinking faculty of Man is carried on not only in the brain but is extended to the seat of reflexes in the spine and ends up in the cells which have a mind of their own, called by Mother "cellular mind."

For our purposes, 7 is the seat of the primary mental activity which mentalises the movements of 9 and the energies of 8. It is in touch with 4 and 1 as they too are of mind, but refuses to respond to the emotion of 4 or the ideas of 1 since it has no faculty of that description. It is just below 3, offering a constant support as foundation. Here too, the organisation, decision and determination of 3 when descending on it leaves it untouched and unmoved. As its own organisation is rudimentary, the highly complex organisation of 3 leaves it baffled. As elsewhere, 7 serves as the foundation to 3, rather offers foundational support.

The mental part turns the energies of sensation into ideas and organises them so that the idea will go back to the body to dominate it. In 7 the energies it receives are energies of physical sensation. So, the maximum possibility here is its conversion into physical ideas. Physically an idea about movement is the process of skill formation. Individual skills inside each elementary act are many. Walking, talking, drinking, driving a nail are such activities. Into any of these rudimentary acts go dozens of physical movements. For instance, in walking hundreds of muscles should learn to coordinate themselves so that the feet are firm on the ground. Walking is a willed movement. A will, a volition should arise. It is a mental movement. The body should enter locomotion if the feet are to move in steps. Blood circulation, breathing, etc. should conform to the requirements of greater energy demanded by walking. Eyes should commission themselves into seeing at a distance for clearance. A simple act of walking, before it evolved into its final shape, fashioned hundreds of individual skills as described above and then submitted them to coordination. All these are organised by 7. The organisation is there, skill formation is also there, but it is the physical skill and organisation of physical skills fashioned out of physical movements. There is no trace of thought or mind here except it is the mind of the body.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of a physical organisation that governs the world. Its organisation, the organisation of 7 and of 3 as well as the organisation of ideas into concepts at 1 have in common AN ORGANISATION. That is a physical organisation at 7 and mental organisation at 1. HE speaks of discovering a higher organisation than this physical organisation to cure the disorders of Life and Mind.

Skill and capacity are its attributes in consciousness and substance.  Skill converts energy by organisation into a usable tool. The essence of the effort is the process of skill formation. A great many skills forming at one level or at one point let their essences collect at that point as capacity. Skill is the process of the individual act yielding results. Capacity is the strength of their essence collected in the substance as foundation. Such a capacity can be drawn into one single skill to fortify it. That makes any skill a talent. The faculty that turns capacity to a skill for it to become a talent is ability.

The principles of formation of skills, capacity, talent, ability, etc. are the same at all levels of personality, be it physical or spiritual. The values at each point that serve as a medium are different in different planes. Coordination as in a gear plate is a physical value while fidelity to facts is a mental value at 3 where it is arriving at a decision.



story | by Dr. Radut