The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analyzing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms for ever in the Light above.... The superconscient, not the subconscient, is the true foundation of things.... You must know the whole before you can know the part and the highest before you can truly understand the lowest. That is the promise of the greater psychology awaiting its hour."
Sri Aurobindo
This phrase, "All Life is Yoga", appears on the frontispiece of Sri Aurobindo's book, "The Synthesis of Yoga". It refers to his vision of the universe as an evolutionary process in which the hidden or involved Divine consciousness in matter is seeking to reunite with its source, the Divine Spirit. "Yoga" refers to any process by which an apparently separate or finite consciousness attains (or regains) union with the Infinite Divine Reality. In Sri Aurobindo's vision, the consciousness of all individuals and all beings is seeking this reunion; hence the phrase, "All Life is Yoga".
According to Sri Aurobindo, we have - in the depths of our heart - a means for direct, experiential access to the universal force of evolution, the force which is leading the world toward rejoining (i.e. yoking) with its Divine Source. Focusing on the center of the chest, concentrating on the feeling of aspiration in the center of our being, we come into contact with the energy ("shakti") which moves the universe. Eventually, we learn to connect with the same energy in all parts of our being - physical, vital, mental and spiritual. By consciously connecting with this energy, we become integrated individually - within ourselves; universally - with the All, the Divine in everything and the Divine as everything - and with the transcendent - the Absolute which is beyond all human imagining. This is the source and the means of a truly integral transformative practice.
Don Salmon
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