I heard a talk last Sunday on Palm Sunday and Easter. The talk of the risen Christ reminded me of how some people use the term Ascension. It’s a word I generally avoid as people use it to mean quite a few different things. But in it’s highest meaning, it is the awakening of the body, the physical as cosmic.
While in previous stages of development we have awoken to pure Being and the divine, gradually that awakeness moves forward (down) into all layers of experience. First we become cosmic on the level of consciousness, then, with the shift to Unity, on the level of intellect. Then mind, emotions and finally, the body.
We then recognize there is only one Cosmic Body and we are that. This is the body of white light, born of the Divine Mother. This is the Christ body, indicating Jesus of Nazareth had risen to such an exalted state that he was living the cosmic right in the physical. Not just recognizing oneself as that but fully embodying it. He became deathless, even in the body.
We might debate the known details of the life of Jesus; what he actually said and when he actually said it for example. But that is just details of the person. What has risen lives with us to this day, embodying the love of God and the sword of truth.
The second coming is not when he returns to us but when we return to him, to our own divine and cosmic nature. This remains with us at all times. It is only for us to discover this in ourselves.
Davidya
Remembering these astonishing words…
‘The aim of supramental Yoga is to change into this supreme Truth-consciousness, but this truth is something beyond mind and this consciousness is far above the highest mind-consciousness. For truth of mind is always relative, uncertain and partial, but this greater Truth is preemptory and whole. Truth of mind is a representation, always an inadequate, most often a misleading representation, and even when most accurate, only a reflection, Truth’s shadow and not its body. Mind does not live in the Truth or possess but only seeks after it and grasps at best some threads from its robe; the supermind lives in Truth and [is] its native substance, form and expression; it has not to seek after it, but possesses it always automatically and is what it possesses. This is the very heart of the difference.
‘The change that is effected by the transition from mind to supermind is not only a revolution in knowledge or in our power for knowledge. If it is [to] be complete and stable, it must be a divine transmutation of our will too, our emotions, our sensations, all our power of life and its forces, in the end even of the very substance and functioning of our body. Then only can it be said that the supermind is there upon earth, rooted in its very earth-substance and embodied in a new race of divinised creatures.
‘Supermind at its highest reach is the divine Gnosis, the Wisdom-Power-Light-Bliss of God by which the Divine knows and upholds and governs and enjoys the universe.’
-– Sri Aurobindo ‘Seven drafts on Supramental Yoga
“…when I had this experience (not of the divine Presence, which I had already felt in the cells for a long time, but the experience that the Divine ALONE is acting in the body, that He has BECOME the body, yet all the while retaining his character of divine omniscience and omnipotence) well, the whole time it remained actively like that, it was absolutely impossible to have the LEAST disorder in the body, and not only in the body, but IN ALL THE SURROUNDING MATTER. It was as if every object obeyed without even needing to decide to obey: it was automatic. There was a divine harmony in EVERYTHING (it took place in my bathroom upstairs, certainly to demonstrate that it exists in the most trivial things), in everything, constantly. So if that is established in a permanent way, there CAN NO LONGER be illness it is impossible. There can no longer be accidents, there can no longer be illness, there can no longer be disorders, and everything should harmonize (probably in a progressive way) just as that was harmonized: all the objects in the bathroom were full of a joyful enthusiasm – everything obeyed, everything!
As it was the first experience, it started to fade slightly when I began having contact with people; but I really had the feeling that it was a first experience, new upon earth. For I have experienced an absolute identity of the will with the divine Will ever since 1910, it has never left me. It isn’t that, it’s SOMETHING ELSE. It is MATTER BECOMING THE DIVINE. And it really came with the feeling that this thing was happening for the first time upon earth.”
– The Mother (Mirra Alfassa) (From the Agenda, June 6, 1958)
Hi Jose
Yes, Aurobindo was a remarkable teacher. We could describe what he calls “supermind” as the lively inner surface of self aware consciousness.
In this quote, he uses “supermind” in 2 ways. The first is what I refer to as universal mind, the mind of the universe, the mind arising from the self-aware consciousness that contains our universe. This level is also known as the celestial or as Ritam Bhara Praygyan, that consciousness which accepts only truth.
In the last part, he mentions a higher value I would describe as the cosmic or divine mind. The mind from which all of creation arises, including this universe. (its a big place)
The other quote is from a very different place. In this, she is describing a first experience of the perfection in herself and around her. She then projects, based on that experience, what it would be like to live that.
And while it’s true that such a body free from illness is possible, this is a very advanced level of development that is still very rare in the current time. Enlightenment is an inner thing at first.
But meantime, stepping into that flow of divine harmony is a major upgrade in quality of life.
I would also note the big difference between an experiential recognition and a change in being. The first can indeed change our life. But as long as there isn’t a change in being, it remains relative, much as Aurobino said.
Further – this sense of the fresh newness of it is common with some kinds of experiences and early shifts. Some even teach that their awakening is the first true one or similar. But that is not the case. There have been times in the cycles of the ages where such things were common and some lived for thousands of years. But that was quite a long time ago. It is certainly fresh in our current time.
Very interesting post ….again 😉 !
One question: Is it at first stressful for the human body when the cosmic moves into the bodily level (i mean when this frequency moves into the body)?
with love
Michael
Hi Michael
Not at all. The cosmic is well beyond the energy structures. And we’re already cosmic. This is basically just recognizing it and making the adaptations to that.
Energetic intensity is mostly in the initial rise to awakening. The post-awakening descent can have occasional moments, or when some deeper thing finally lets loose. But it’s clearing that brings that, not realizations.
Ahh ok, thanks for making this clear to me!!
With love
Michael
You’re welcome.
Of course converting the physical stuff of the body into a light form may well have some intensity to it. Thats not been experienced yet.
Thank you for this lovely, inspiring article David. Not my experience but something I look forward to when appropriate for me.
BTW, that is some church you go to, wow!
You’re very welcome, Rose.
Well – the talk didn’t cover most of this. But it was a modern take on the last week in the life of Jesus. The circumstances were curious too. It was the final talk of a 44 year old New Thought church that voted to close a short time later. The membership was voting for community over traditional services. The speaker was not New Thought but rather what Americans would call a Methodist minister who has shifted to Evolutionary Spirituality coming from the Integral folks. His talk was bracketed by a powerful jazz & gospel singer, in a room by the water.
Do you know someone who has experienced a beginning of this physical to light form transformation?
Do you think this could (at least starting) happening for you in this life time?
M
Hi Michael
I’ve heard of it but no one has shared that with me. I’m not sure you could say there is a “beginning”. I have little context for this but it would not surprise me if this is more a realization, a deeper recognition that you are nothing but light in a literal, physical, embodied sense. But this is just conjecture.
As for the future state, the tastes I’ve had are beyond my conception so I can’t add much.
Today, I was at a church that did some songs from JC Superstar, with a great sax player. I was reminded of another detail – effulgence. This is mentioned in the Yoga Sutra.
Essentially, it means you glow. Some of the aura shifts into visible light. This is often portrayed in religious art as a glow or a halo.
In the examples I’ve met in prior lifetimes, this can be an effect of a manifest light body. But it can also be an effect of the mastery of a form of prana (life force). The degree of this varies by the degree of expression taking place. Smaller when quiet, larger and brighter when inspired.
Hi David!
just another question: You wrote”a manifest light body”.
What does that mean or when does one have fully manifested one?
Thanks for taking your time an answering my questions!!
(i am in a question mode 😉
with love
Michael
Hi Michael
Well – if the cosmic body is manifest, it would be as a light body, a body of white light. Because such a body would not be constrained by it’s physicality, it would be very flexible and would meet the qualities described in the Yoga Sutra.
However, again we’re just exploring here. This is based only on old indirect experience.
Also, the appearance is not it so we cannot assume one equals the other, as per my prior comment.
ok. David.
questioning is satisfied 😉
And when the mind is satisfied, it can rest and we can be. 😉
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