Ideals of Optimal Psychological Functioning
Dr. Larry Seidlitz

  “Ideals,” said Sri Aurobindo, are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation.” (Ideal and Progress, p. 1) Ideals are not simply imaginations, constructions of the mind, or potentialities of the future. They are closer to the ultimate Reality than the actual fact. Indeed, the actual fact is really only a distorted reflection of the ideal, which is itself a particular aspect of the Real thrown out into consciousness. They derive their power for actualization from the Reality of the higher planes from which they come, and carry this power with them into this lower plane. The greater the ideal, the higher the plane of consciousness from which it descends, the greater its power for realization. To reveal to humanity a great ideal of spiritual and psychological perfection is to unloose a great power for its uplifting and transformation. There is no greater ideal of spiritual and psychological perfection to which humanity can aspire than that of a divine life in a divine body here on earth as put forward by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

 This notion that the ideal of our optimal psychological functioning already exists on a higher plane of existence itself can seem rather abstract, a principle which we can perhaps accept, but hardly a living truth or concrete experience. When we get glimpses of our inner or higher being in dream-experiences, when there is an inrush of a more powerful personality overtaking for a moment our own, or when we experience a deep layer of peace or light or bliss associated with our greater reality, we can better appreciate the significance and import of this truth. We begin to understand the meaning of that philosophical duality of being and becoming. We are here in the process of becoming what we already are in the secret truth of our being. We don’t need to create our ideal selves from the material of our thoughts and life experiences. Rather, we need to open up to it, coax our ordinary mental and vital activities to turn to it, and call it down into us. We need to materialize a truth which already exists deep within us, embody it, give it form and substance in our outer life.

 Given the intellectual sophistication of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, it is easy to lose sight of the motivational component of the teaching in its metaphysics, cosmology, and epistemology. While these latter aspects are important to an integral psychology, they lose much of their value if stripped of their uplifting impetus to human endeavor. Integral psychology should emphasize its ramifications for life and development, for health, for spiritual growth and transformation. I would argue that an important avenue for achieving its potential for promoting human growth and development is to describe, explain, and to the degree possible, embody and model, its ideals of psychological perfection. Of course, personally striving towards and embodying these ideals will have the greatest uplifting effect on others, and description and explanation will be powerless without them.

 The ideals of optimal psychological functioning in Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s teachings are integral. They encompass the perfection and divination of mind, life, and body as well as the realization of the inner psychic and higher spiritual dimensions of existence. They address each of the many layers and strands of the being. All the outer and inner nature must be purified, elevated, woven round the psychic center of the being, spiritualized, and transformed. The achievement of this task is impossible by human strength alone; it requires the Divine guidance and grace. It will not do to leave out the Divine from the formula of an integral psychology. Nevertheless, effort is an indispensable component of the realization, especially in the earlier stages until the inner contact with the Divine is made, grows strong, and eventually supercedes the individual effort.

 An integral psychology should provide a roadmap for people to traverse in their efforts towards psychological and spiritual perfection. It is not enough simply to paint a detailed picture of the supermind or the cosmic consciousness--people need to understand how to get there. Since people are at different levels of development, it will be useful for an integral psychology to trace the entire trajectory of development from the rudimentary to the heights of consciousness where the inner guidance can take over. And since development must occur on many fronts, in many different aspects of the nature, the ideals of optimal psychological functioning should be both multiform and specific. That is, they should address each of the important aspects of life and the inner and outer being and nature. Not only should the ideal functioning in each of these important dimensions be described, but the signposts of progress and the pitfalls of error should be located.

 Although it is necessary to gauge one’s communication of such ideals to particular individuals and the immediate circumstances, for an integral psychology as a whole, as a body of knowledge, I think it is best to put forth the full height and breadth of the ideals while acknowledging that they can only be realized progressively over time, possibly over lifetimes. I know that as a young adult of 20 years, I became enamoured by Sri Aurobindo’s teachings in large part because they put forth the highest, greatest ideal of any spiritual or other philosophy or psychology I had found. I did not dismiss the teaching because it was greater than me or because it was going to be a long, long journey. I threw myself into it precisely because it showed me what seemed the summit of what it was possible to become. Unlike other spiritual teachings, it gave a meaning and aim to all the parts of my nature. Unlike other psychologies, it didn’t just analyze what I was composed of, it gave a meaning and direction to my life. It gave me something to do, the highest and greatest work possible. I then knew what I had to do, not for the next few months or years, but for my whole life.

 Nevertheless, the issue of how to communicate these ideals to particular individuals in particular contexts is an important one. In one sense, it is always possible to communicate the full ideal in one way, silently, through the simple presence of one’s own being and the expression of one’s inmost nature. And in truth, if one is centered within one’s own psychic being, if one has realized the ideal within oneself, there would be no question of what to say or what not to say. The proper communication would flow out naturally and spontaneously. But still, as we ourselves are traversing the path and may not have arrived, and yet for one reason or another we have the responsibility for assisting others on their path towards psychological health and growth, some mental guidelines may be useful. And for this, an important guideline may be to try to put ourselves in the other’s place, to identify with them, and from that vantage point consider what might be useful for them to hear at that moment and be able to utilize in their own growth. For one individual the ideal towards which they may best strive may be a full and sincere surrender of their whole being to the Divine Consciousness and Force, for another, it may simply be to get out of bed and to take a short walk. The ultimate ideal for all may be the same, a divine life, but how that ideal may be most effectively communicated, in what dose, at what time, differs from one individual to the next.

 Psychological ideals are not something that one can impose on someone, they are an image of something lying within waiting to emerge. The surface of our nature, like the shell of a seed, is often hard and brittle. It protects the inner reality from emerging to soon, while at the same time resisting it. And here we are referring to a deep and multiform inner reality that takes a long time to emerge in its fullness—many lifetimes. There are many layers of its emergence, many different kinds of powers and potentialities--physical, vital, emotional, mental, psychic, and spiritual. They don’t emerge in a single consecutive line, but in a complex swirling action involving all simultaneously in differing degrees and aspects, involving sudden outbursts and regressions. There is no mental rule that can describe the process of this emergence precisely.

 When the facility with abstract thought is well-developed, it may be possible for the individual to conceptualize the high psychological ideals we have here in view and gradually through the mental will to align the various parts of the nature with its aims of perfection. It is in this case that a fuller communication of the larger ideal may be effective. Of course, there may be other parts of the nature unwilling to accept the ideal, unwilling to lend themselves to an effort towards its realization. The acceptance of the ideal by the mental will is important, but it is not sufficient. A strong embrace of the ideal by something deeper within in the heart center is needed to turn the being fully in its direction. Parts of the nature are likely to resist the ideal for a long or short time, and a period of tension and conflict in the nature is usual. It is difficult to know from a mental vantage-point the likely outcome of such a conflict.

 For those in whom abstract thought is relatively undeveloped, it may be more effective to communicate more proximate ideals, things that are less deep below the surface, that may be more easily grasped by the mind and imagination. In other natures that are more emotional and perhaps more closely attuned to the psychic center of the being, the communication of the ideal might be more effectively directed towards the fulfillment of this part of the nature, towards goodness, sweetness, love, refinement of the emotions, purification and uplifting of love towards the Divine. This part of the being may have an even more direct and powerful access to the soul or psychic being, the source from which the ideal of our psychological functioning springs. For those in whom the vital is very strong, in which there is strength but also upheaval and conflict, the communication of the ideal might better be tailored towards action and work in service of the ideal. Here there may be a need for the harnessing of the energies of the nature, a redirecting and focusing of these forces towards a greater aim. Rather than directing these forces entirely inward, it may be useful to direct them outward towards the up-building of the ideal in the world, towards one or several of the many projects and works aimed at the expression of the ideal in the human collectivity. Through dedicated work, gradually the various parts of the being may become coalesced around the ideal. Generally, individuals will have some unique combination of these various tendencies, and an intuitive synthesis of their present abilities and receptivities will be needed in assessing how best to communicate ideals of psychological growth.

 Let us consider now the main ingredients of an integral psychological perfection. A central basis will be the realization of the psychic being, the soul of the individual. In Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, the Divine is simultaneously both One and Many. The Divine is the One Being, the Absolute, and at the same time, it is all these individual existences we see manifested in the universe. Viewed in a personal rather than impersonal perspective, it is as if the unique, infinite, undivided Self put forth in front of itself, in front of its undifferentiated consciousness, an infinite number of differentiated centers of its being and consciousness, various personalities we could say, that yet hold within themselves, standing behind, the undivided Being one and unique. Some of these individual faces of the Divine, in turn, have put forth a representative of themselves to descend into this world of matter, this divided and ignorant world in which we dwell, in order to experience this particular adventure, the possibility of gradually awakening through the process of evolution in a world of material forms. This representative of the Divine within each of us initially identifies itself completely with the outer nature, with the evolving body, life and mind through its recurring births and rebirths. Through long experience, gradually the soul develops and shapes the outer ignorant nature to more faithfully express its inherent divinity, its individual Truth and Nature.  At some point, the outer nature acknowledges and recognizes the divine soul standing behind its multitude of confusing forces and tendencies, opens itself to, and aligns itself with, the soul’s guidance and rule. The divine soul previously identified with its instruments of mind, life, and body, involved in their evolution and gradually opening to divinity, recovers its conscious identity with the Divine in the context of its earthly life. This is the realization the psychic being.

 We can see from this how the realization of the psychic being is central to our psychological perfection, and how our ideal of psychological perfection is a revelation here in our earthly life of the truth of our being on a higher plane of existence. Our true Self that stands above the evolution is already divine and perfect. We must recover the consciousness of our true Self here within the evolution. We must open the soul’s instruments of mind, life, and body to the divinity within so that it may harmonize their movements, uplift their powers and possibilities, and express itself purely and divinely through them. This unification of the divided and conflicting parts of our nature around the true divine Self within is the necessary condition for their own uplifting and perfection.

 But what is the process of realizing the psychic being? Is there anything we can do to bring it about, or is it simply a natural unfolding that must take place according to its own time and inner development? Both are true, it unveils itself when it is ready; but we can assist this unfolding because to the extent we align ourselves with our soul within, it becomes manifest in the outer life. Love, devotion, and gratitude to the Divine for the wonderful opportunity we have been given are direct paths to the psychic realization. As Sri Aurobindo described in his book The Mother, our mental will, our heart’s aspiration, our vital effort and collaboration are all useful and indeed necessary concomitants of the soul’s expression in the outer life. As an adjunct to this positive effort, we must also reject the ignorant movements of our lower nature. This is because most of us readily will embrace the prospect of living a divine life -- just so long as it does not require us to change! However, to become divine, we must also relinquish our mental ideas, constructions, preferences, and habits so that our minds may become silent and express the divine Truth from above; we must reject our vital nature’s desires, demands, cravings, and selfishness so that the divine power and joy of the soul may manifest unimpeded through a consecrated vital nature; we must reject our physical nature’s obscurity, obstinacy, laziness and unwillingness to change so that the Light and Force and Bliss from above may establish itself in the body. Finally, and in summary, we must surrender all ourselves into the hands of the Divine so that the Divine Force may work in us unhindered and liberate the divine from the undivine elements within us, and transform those parts of our ordinary nature that can be made part of a divinised life.

 To seek the Divine, to find the Truth of our being is the first necessity, and should be our first priority, our primary preoccupation and constant endeavor. And yet this may take time. There are likely to be many aspects of our nature that resist, or if not actively resistant, are not yet open to the higher Truth of our being. There are many parts of our nature that seek their own fulfillment and are in conflict with this highest motivation which affects only a portion of our external nature. Perhaps a part of our mind understands that the spiritual path is our true path in life, understands that deep within, in our essence, we are one with the Divine, and that to experience this deepest part of ourselves in its fullness and to express this divinity in our outer life is the true aim of our existence. This mental understanding is essential. We should further understand that to unify ourselves around the deepest truth of ourselves is not only a great lofty ideal that we can with great difficulty and great sacrifice pursue, this unification is the most effective and practical solution to all our difficulties, sufferings, and limitations. And even if we are quite happy and content as we are, this unification of our being will bring the fullest amplitude and intensity to our happiness and to the scope of our life. This is because the Divine is Satchidananda, an infinite existence, consciousness and bliss. This is an ideal that brings with it, even in the first steps towards it, greater freedom, happiness, strength, and wisdom. This mental understanding, however, after a time is likely to be clouded over by competing interests, by other practical necessities, by other desires or ambitions. It may not go away completely, we may be able to bring it back, but it is not likely to hold the whole field of our consciousness for long. We are complex beings with complex lives and all this is not going to disappear overnight because we have hit upon a great philosophical truth or mental realization.

 In fact, in order to make this Truth of our Being effective and dynamic in our outer life, our whole outer life will need to be reorganized, purified, reshaped, and perfected. Actually, all the parts of our nature, the various levels of the mind, the various levels of the vital, even the physical consciousness, must grasp in their own way the problem, the falsity of their own way of being, and must consent to undergo a profound change. It is a long and difficult process, but is made palatable by the fact that the alternative of continuing to live in the ignorance and confusion of our unrefined outer nature is even more painful and interminable. Actually, there is no real alternative, it will have to be faced one day or another, one life or another. It will be better to do it now when we have been shown the possibility and the way and have been promised the help needed to achieve it. If we shirk the possibility this life, we do not know what will be the circumstances of our next life and whether we shall be given again the opportunity.

 Along with our mental understanding of the ideal and the power of our will to turn our life towards it, the higher vital being’s embrace of the ideal is essential, as it holds within it a deeper and stronger well-spring of power and drive that is needed to turn the disparate activities of our ordinary nature towards this higher and difficult aim.  It brings the force, courage, determination, and uplifting impetus to our endeavor. While normally this part of our nature works in pursuit of other aims and ideals that are more or less limited in scope, these energies must be turned and focused on the total self-giving and surrender of all the being to the Divine. Normally the higher vital carries with it an egoistic motive, works for an egoistic return for the energies it expends, expects a return for all its achievements. But as a part of the ideal of an integral perfection, it must learn to give itself unselfishly to the Divine, for the sake of the Divine and not for any egoistic return. It must begin to understand and see that its forces come from the Divine, that in truth it is an instrument of the Divine and not really an original power, it is not our own personal force. It must learn to look back towards its divine fount of Force, lean on that, open itself up to the One Divine Force, the Mahashakti, and transmit that power without interference, without egoistic claim or for egoistic purposes. To the degree that it is able to focus the greater efforts of the life on the central spiritual ideal rather than on other disparate, competing egoistic aims, to the degree it can open itself and feel itself a channel of the Divine Shakti, the greater and more rapid will become the progress towards the ideal.

 One most effective way for this part of the nature to give itself up into the hands of the Divine is through doing work or action not for the sake of the ego, but as an offering to the Divine. Whatever work or action we feel we should do, guided by either our mental reason and will, or if possible by a growing psychic inner guidance, can be offered to the Divine. The Divine is the absolute, he is in all beings and all things, he can accept our offering through whatever object our work is directed. This inner discipline of our attitude in action helps us to wake to the Divine Presence in the world of form and activity, and at the same time helps in the development of the concentration and reorienting of our dynamic life energies on the Divine. In addition, it helps in the growth of love and service and surrender, which are effective in the psychic transformation.

 As the higher vital nature grows in surrender and openness to the Divine Force, the higher Force can begin to act in the whole nature with greater freedom and effectiveness. It can work in many directions, in many ways, both within us for the liberation of our personal nature, and without us for the liberation of others and for the establishment of a Divine life in the world. This action of this higher Force may work concealed from our own awareness, or it may reveal its workings to us. It acts according to its own greater knowledge and wisdom, and is not limited to act according to our narrow conceptions or sensibilities. It releases powers and abilities that were latent, it shapes and perfects other facilities or skills that are partially developed. As we begin to feel the Divine Force working in and through us, our scope of action increases. The work of the Divine in us and in the world is endless. As we grow in this ideal we become a conscious and effective and subtle instrument in this work.

 Not only the higher vital and with its relatively conscious drive, determination, and dynamic life motive must turn exclusively to the divine, but also the lower vital energies in us must be disciplined, must be converted, must be redirected and purified. These are the forces that move in the circles of small desires, cravings, instincts, they include the forces of greed, anger, fear, lust, disappointment, and despair. Naturally, this is an obscure and difficult part of our nature, and often is a considerably large part. Normally it takes up much too large a place; its upheaval, drama, and insistence crowd out the higher and deeper spiritual experiences from settling in. We spend the greater part of our day trying to satisfy its insatiable desires and demands. And when they are not satisfied, then we lash out in fury or sink into despair. To a great degree, with patience and a determined effort, our mental will can and should exert a considerable control over this part of the nature, and it is of course best to learn this control while still young. But by itself, this mental control is likely to be partial. The lower vital is clever in convincing the mind that its movements are proper and justified. Its own obscure consciousness must also gradually wake up to the fact that it is not the master of the being, that it must learn to be an obedient instrument for the expression of the inner and higher truth in the outer life. It must become calm, quiet, receptive to the true inner direction, must put its energies in the service of the greater ideal, must express in the outer life the love and sweetness and joy of the inner.

 There is still another layer of our being which is still more obscure and obstinate than the lower vital, and that is the physical consciousness. Its very character is to be inert, conservative, slow, unresponsive, to cling to its round of mechanical habit, unwilling or unable to receive the higher Light and Force from above. This also has to changed and open to the Divine Forces from above. It is primarily through its progressive opening to the Divine that it can change, and since it is resistant to this opening, it normally takes time to achieve as more and more of it gradually becomes receptive and is changed. Exerting one’s will for this change to occur, placing a pressure on the physical nature to respond and obey is helpful. Also, aspiring to the Divine, to the higher Force above to descend and penetrate into the obscurity of the physical nature also is needed and effective. In addition, the cultivation of one’s physical body and energies through exercise, through training of the body in various physical skills. All of this goes a long way in training the physical consciousness to become responsive and plastic to a higher consciousness, and is one reason that Sri Aurobindo and Mother placed so much stress on the training of the physical body in the Ashram.

 An important aide in gaining freedom from the hold of the movements of the ignorant lower nature is the separation of the witness consciousness, the Purusha, from the movements of the nature, the Prakriti. It is possible for a part of the consciousness to draw back from the movements of our nature--from our thoughts and emotions and activities--into the poise of a pure awareness that observes all that occurs but does not itself act. To enter into this consciousness of the Purusha and stand back uninvolved in the activities of the nature is an important step in the liberation of the true Self from the ignorant lower nature. It brings with it a sense of deepening peace and freedom and wideness, even as the lower nature continues its normal activity. Sri Aurobindo says that as we gain more experience in this subjective consciousness, we find that this seeing of the Purusha is in effect a command. Sri Aurobindo says that “whatever Prakriti perceives to be the pleasure of the Purusha to see, she tends to preserve in his subjective experience or to establish; whatever she perceives it to be his pleasure to cease to see, she tends to renounce and abolish.” (p. 98, A Greater Psychology). Therefore, the discipline of standing back from one’s inner and outer activities in the poise of the witness consciousness is to enter an inner domain from where it begins to possible to exert a greater control and mastery over the whole psychological nature.

 One can develop this ability to stand back from one’s thoughts and inner movements in one of the forms of meditation that Sri Aurobindo recommended. When we sit to meditate, often we are confronted with a flow of thoughts. Sri Aurobindo said that we must realize that this thought-flow is not ourselves, but simply thought-energy of Prakriti imposing it on the Purusha. We must learn to stand back from it, refusing to identify ourselves with it. Sometimes by the very act of gaining a detachment from the thoughts, they diminish or even fall away. But we can also from this poise exercise a quiet rejection of the thoughts. There should be no struggle or wrestling with them, but simply a quiet self-separation and refusal. Sri Aurobindo said that the result often takes time, but if we persistently refuse our consent to the mechanical activity, it eventually begins to die away. While gaining experience in this practice in meditation, we can also begin to cultivate this practice in the midst of our daily life in regard to our emotional and vital reactions as well as our mental and even physical activities. With time this practice prepares the ground for the realization of the spiritual Self spread out in its infinite wideness and peace above our embodied existence.

 As the being grows in quietude and concentrated receptivity to the Divine, the individual may begin to enter into the reaches of the higher mind. Above the intellect is a higher mind, which is steeped in a deep calm and peace and receptive to the higher knowledge from above. Sri Aurobindo called it “a luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge” (A Greater Psychology, p. 144). Unlike the rational mind, it does not progress in a step-like motion towards a conclusion, no deduction or inference, no building of ideas into a larger ordered system. Its knowledge arises out of its oneness and identity with the Spirit, a seeing of the truth that is preexistent within itself. Sri Aurobindo said, it is “a Knowledge formulating itself on a basis of self-existent all-awareness and manifesting some part of its integrality, a harmony of its significances put into thought-form”(Ibid, pp. 144-145). He said it can “express itself in single ideas, but its most characteristic movement is a mass ideation, a system of totality of truth-seeing at a single view”(Ibid, p. 145). Sri Aurobindo indicated that in addition to knowledge, the higher mind also has a powerfully effective will that works on the rest of the being through the power of its innate knowledge. The ordinary mental will, the emotions, the vital nature, even the body consciousness all become in their own way conscious of the higher knowledge put into them and gradually work out and respond to its will, are modified by its vibrations, and charged by its greater wisdom and power.

 Two still higher levels of the mind into which we can open are the illumined mind and the intuition. The illumined mind is a mind of spiritual light. Sri Aurobindo said that a downpour of inwardly visible Light very usually envelops this action (Ibid, p. 146). It works primarily by vision rather than thought. It is a more direct knowledge, a perception of the inner significance and Truth of things, it penetrates more deeply and rapidly. It carries with it also a greater dynamic power, as Sri Aurobindo put it, “a swift, sometimes a vehement, almost a violent impetus of rapid transformation (Ibid, p. 147). The intuition is a still higher power of consciousness nearer to the knowledge by identity. It is a meeting of the consciousness in the subject with the consciousness in the object, a penetration, a commingling of vibrations. It is a revealing touch of the consciousness upon the object, and brings with it an overwhelming and automatic certitude. Sri Aurobindo said that it carries within it four great powers: a revelatory truth-seeing, a truth-hearing or inspiration, a truth-touch or immediate seizing of significance, and an automatic discrimination. 

 The integral perfection envisioned by Sri Aurobindo requires an even higher ascent as the knowledge and powers of these higher mind planes still cannot utterly penetrate and transform matter. Above the intuition is the overmind, a power of the cosmic consciousness. Sri Aurobindo said that when the overmind descends, the centralizing ego-sense is abolished and replaced by a wide cosmic perception and the feeling of a boundless universality. He said that the overmind change is the final consummation of the dynamic spiritual transformation. It takes up the powers of the higher mind, illumined mind, and intuition and raises them to their highest and greatest power, and adds to them a universal wideness of consciousness and force.

 But a still higher knowledge and power is needed for the fullest perfection, the power of the supermind. The supermind is an altogether different type of consciousness than mind and so is difficult to describe. Sri Aurobindo said that “in the supermind all is self-known self-luminously, there are no divisions, oppositions, or separated aspects: (Ibid, p. 159). He said that on its summits it possesses the divine omniscience and omnipotence, and that even in its gradual evolutionary unveiling of its powers it would be free from ignorance and error, and would be flawless in the execution of its will and self-expression.

 This gives us a brief glimpse of the great ideal of psychological functioning that Sri Aurobindo has given to mankind. Never before has such an aim been placed before the mind of humanity. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have not only presented a great ideal for us to gaze at in wide-eyed but helpless astonishment, but they have also given us a road map for its realization. And even more than this, they have realized this perfection in themselves, and have promised to give their tireless help and force and grace to all who would turn towards it. It is a vast ideal, but there are many small steps one can take immediately. One can learn through reading and study about the ideal and about the discipline of yoga required for its realization, about the methods and practices that gradually lead towards a greater and more harmonious and luminous consciousness. One can learn to discipline one’s vital nature, one’s ambitions and desires. One can practice meditation with the aim of standing back from the movements of the mind and emotions and desires. One can learn to offer one’s work, one’s food, one’s activities to the Divine. One can begin to acknowledge the One Divine Being behind the appearances of the world, behind the forces that move in the world, behind the joy and suffering of the world. One can begin to surrender and give oneself to the Divine, to the Absolute, to one’s highest Self, one’s highest ideal.

 These things we can do, and yet it seems often we do not do them, or do them too little. There is a great resistance to our effort. It is important to be cognizant of it. At the base of our existence is the inconscient, it is almost the very opposite of the Divine. It has almost as great a force of resistance as the Divine has force for uplifting. The stark inanimate matter from which this universe began, is stone blindness, its cold refusal still survives in our bones. It really is necessary to counteract it with a strong, determined, sincere effort and aspiration or we will languish. We must push ahead towards the ideal wherever and whenever we see an opportunity. It is so easy to fall asleep, to drift, to get distracted. But every effort brings an advance, every effort makes further advance easier and more inevitable. We do not need to achieve this great ideal by our own unaided effort. The Divine will do the work for us, but we must collaborate, we must open ourselves to the Divine, surrender ourselves into the hands of the Divine. This is our part.

 I want to close by considering again the people with whom we come into contact: our patients, clients, students, children. How can these ideals relate to them? How can these ideals uplift their lives? How can they be communicated to them? How can they become a force for their growth, their spiritual uplifting? It seems to me the most important and effective way is to embody these ideals within one’s own life. When we become centered in our true being and grow spiritually towards our own full potentiality, the force and light and delight of our true being flows out from us in all we do, towards all we meet, all we love. We do not need to ask them to do yoga or seek the supermind. We need to recognize the Divine in them, and we can help them to recognize the Divine in themselves. We do not need to use the term Divine, but we can help them to recognize and express their own inherent divine qualities, their strength and ability, their goodness, their knowledge and wisdom, their love and beauty, their joy and delight. The growing expression of these powers in ourselves will be the greatest aid in the unfolding of these powers in others.