• Divine Symbolism

  IDEAS FOR JANUARY 29 CLASS ON SYMBOLISM

  Posted by La Grace on February 3, 2023 at 10:21 am

  PREPARATION FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, SYMBOLS PRESENTATION

  WHAT IS INTEGRAL YOGA?

  1.  Guidelines for answering question #1:

  (a) you’re giving the answer to an 8th grader, around 12 or 13 years old. They have average language ability, so your answer has to be rather simple.

  To give you idea of that level of language, they have often assessed the “average” level of word complexity of various American presidents. Obama often spoke at around a 10th grade level (he had been a professor, after all).  George Bush 1 spoke at an 8th grade level, Bush 2 at a 6th grade level, and Trump was generally assessed as speaking at a 3rd grad level. So keeping that in mind..

  (b) you can only use English ,and the following frequently used terms are not allowed: “remember and offer,” “aspiration, rejection and surrender,” “Psychic being,” “vital,” – in other words, talk as if you were walking down the street on a sunny day, and some kid came up to you with her phone and said to you, “I don’t know what it is, but there’s a kind of glow about you, can you tell me more about who you are and what you do to get that glow?”

  And that’s your introduction to telling her/him about Integral Yoga.

  1. QUESTION: What is a symbol?

  Vladimir actually gave a beautiful, simple answer to this, paraphrasing that marvelous passage from Sri Aurobindo. If you remember that, that’s ok, but please try to modify it a bit so you’re saying it in your own language.

  #3: QUESTION: How does knowing about symbols help us with the Integral Yoga?

  in other words, there must be some way that contemplating symbols in our lives can help shift our consciousness and radically new-shape our minds and bodies (oops, just gave you some clues how to define IY in different language)

  #4 (Last question) Do only SOME symbols help with IY or can ALL symbols help? (ie, another hint as to what symbols are – do some forms help or all forms)

  In other words – we usually use flowers, incense, beautiful pictures of Mother and Sri Aurobindo or other seers and saints, pictures of ocean, night views, swans and other inspiring animals, etc.  Let’s say there are “positive” (inspiring, transparent to Divinity) symbols, neutral and “negative” symbols.

  EXAMPLE: neutral symbols. Could you have these in your meditation room and contemplate them to help you open to the Divine: a hammer, nails, a photo of a muskrat, hair clippings from your cat or dog – as in: “ALL SYMBOLS ARE YOGA”:>)))

  EXAMPLE: negative symbols: I won’t mention any here. But the Dalai Lama gives a very powerful exercise on equanimity and cultivating compassion that is similar to this one I’m suggesting on symbols:

  1. Bring to mind someone who evokes deep feelings of reverence, love, compassion, empathy, etc.  Soak yourself in the evoked feelings and imagine then yourself as a Divine center emanating those feelings to all living beings throughout the universe.
  2. Bring to mind someone for whom you feel neutral: a local cashier, a neighbor you hardly know, someone you read about in the news, etc.  See if you can generate the same feelings of love, delight, caring, kindness, etc toward them and all loving beings.
  3. Finally, bring to mind someone for whom you usually feel intensely negative feelings (I won’t give examples but I’m sure you won’t have much trouble – WARNING: don’t do this with someone with whom you have some kind of traumatic connection – it can be the most powerful way to do it this way but if you’re not sufficiently detached/stepped back it may strengthen the neural pathways in your brain associated with the traumatic memories).  You generate the same feelings of love and care toward them (this may take some months but it’s worth it if you stick with it and open to Mother’s support the whole way) and then extend those to all living beings in the universe:

  SUMMARY:

  1. What is IY? (in English, simple 8th grade language, no commonly used IY terms)
  2. What is a symbol?
  3. How does contemplating symbols help with IY (purification, awakening and bringing forward of the psychic being and Self, awakening the cosmic consciousness, psychic and spiritual transformation, etc
  4. Do only commonly used obviously “inspiring” symbols help with IY or can we open to the hidden Divine in ALL symbols and make use of them to deepen/strengthen/widen/heighten our sadhana?

  La Grace replied 1 year, 9 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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