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Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge

Garry Jacobs

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Involution creates a Seven-fold IgnoranceOriginal Ignorance of the AbsoluteCosmic Ignorance of the unity of God and Nature Temporal Ignorance of our eternal existenceEgoistic Ignorance of our oneness with othersPsychological Ignorance of the entire fullness of our beingConstitutional Ignorance of our surface mind, life, bodyPractical Ignorance of truth and right action in the world

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Process of Creation by Involution By Self-conception, Supermind projects Brahman as an object to its

own subjective self-experience

By Self-limitation, Mind divides the One into God & Nature, Consciousness & Force, Time & Timeless, Finite & Infinite

By Self-absorption, Consciousness becomes involved in Force as energetic movements of Life and immobile forms of Matter

Ego separates our surface consciousness from the Self in the depths and from other selves

Ignorance separates us from the entirety and integrality of knowledge

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Process of Evolution is by Ascent and Integration

Evolution raises the Force of Consciousness in the manifest being to the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest

Evolution is by a heightening, widening, integration

Values change as we ascend to each new level

Integral transformation to manifest Spirit in Life is the aim of Being in Nature

Evolution is growth out of 7-fold ignorance into integral Knowledge

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Indian Spiritual Tradition

Starts from the surface in one of the parts of being and tries to reach the spirit

It moves to the subtle inner mind – Purusha – and from there to the Superconscient

It regards the individual as temporary

It regards the world as ephemeral or irredeemable

It regards the ego for as creator and rejects the world as incorrigible falsehood, suffering or Maya

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Tradition starts from Mind and accepts as real separation and division into

Absolute and the Relative Immutable Brahman and mutable BrahmanTranscendent and UniversalMatter and Spirit Life and SpiritGod and Nature

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Constitutional IgnoranceWe are unaware of our true selfOur consciousness is founded on the plane of Matter Our predominant principle is mental intelligence supported by the

sense-mindOur mental intelligence is preoccupied with material existenceWe rely on the emphasis of senses on outer actions & appearancesOur lives are a compromise with matter—material vitalismMental, Vital and Physical function separately and in conflictThis is the crux of our Ignorance

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First step toward humanity’s progressThis preoccupation with matter and life is a necessary first stepOutgrowing vital materialism is essential for true happiness and

fullness of beingGrowth into full mental being is first transitional move to freedom

and perfection

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Becoming mental beingsRising in the scale of mind opens the possibility of a higher, wider

existence, consciousness, force, happiness & delight Mind is liberated from tyranny of physical and lifeWe acquire greater knowledge & control over our physical-vital existence Life and body become obedient to higher will, ethical perception and

aesthetic intelligenceOur parts acquire higher values

Mother should be more real to us than property & social approval

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Mind is not enoughSurface mental knowledge of physical universe is imperfect guide Even truths of physical things cannot be entirely knownWe cannot know or make the right use of material existence Mind serves the vital and physical Mind lacks the power to purify and transform life

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We must go beyond and within We must heighten and widen our consciousness universally and

infinitelyWe must infuse, transform and integralize our natural being with

the Being, Consciousness and Delight of Spirit

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Overcoming Constitutional Ignorance We can heighted and widen our natural being and integrate it with

higher spiritual principles

We can rise above mental intelligence to discover higher principles, powers, ranges, instruments beyond mind, vital, physical

We can go within to discover ourselves as Soul or Spirit using mind, life and body as field for experience

Then we can possess the true constitution of our being

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Psychological Ignorance Conquest of Constitutional Ignorance cannot be complete without

conquest of Psychological Ignorance

Psychological Ignorance is a limitation of self-knowledge to surface conscient waking self

Behind the surface is a vast subliminal existence and energy of our secret being

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Surface consciousness is bound, hedged in, encircled

Ego divides us from not selfLimitation of the senses prevents wider knowledge Identification with the body limits us in space and timeIdentification with a class, position, role, social identityLimitation of our beliefs, attitudes and values

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Subliminal Being

SubconscientIntraconscientCircumconscientSuperconscient

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SubconscientSubconscient is below the mind & conscious life – inferior and obscureSubconscient is Inconscience in process of becoming consciousPurely physical – bodily functions and life processesVital elements – unmentalized impulses, urgesSubmerged sense-mind – more operative in the animal and plantMemory of past impressions beneath the surface arising in dreamsEverything rejected from the surface Subconscious is reverse of the surfaceSubconscious supports all in us that refuses to change

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Changing the subconscious

Changing the subconscious is indispensable for higher life and integral transformation of the nature

Subconscious cannot be changed by a descent aloneDescent would plunge us into dull trance or sleep Gaining awareness and control of it are very importantMind can be aware and control only by –

ascending to superconscientlooking down from the heightstransforming the depths by the higher consciousness

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Intraconscient of the Subliminal Intraconscient is still more valuable and potent than Subconscious

The real power is not on the surface

Inner intelligence, sense-mind, vital and subtle physical being

Subliminal mediates between Inconscient and the larger planes of Life and Mind created by the involutionary descent

Subliminal supports our waking consciousness &surface responses

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CircumconscientCircumconscient is an enveloping consciousness which receives

currents from universal Mind, Life and Subtle material forcesWe can control by penetrating the dividing wall and becoming

conscious of themWe become fully aware by going behind the veil of surface mind

and living in the inner mind, life and inmost soulWe can also rise to a higher plane of mind above the waking

consciousness

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SuperconscientSuperconscient & Inconscient were created by a double involutionSuperconscient includes the higher spiritual planes of mind,

supermind and pure spiritual beingAscent beyond normal mind is necessary to reach integral self-

knowledge, consciousness and beingSelf-transcendence involves Ascent, Widening and IntegrationWe must rise into higher planes of Mind to become conscious in

the Superconscient Destiny of man is to unite the sSubconscient with Superconscient

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Temporal Ignorance We live from moment to moment in Time ignorant of past & future

Our view is limited to the present body between a single birth and death

We are ignorant of the karma of past deeds

We do not know what is waiting in future births

Temporal ignorance is dependent upon the constitutional ignorance – living on the surface

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Realizing our ImmortalityOvercoming temporal ignorance is possible only by withdrawing

from absorbing material preoccupation and to live constantly in the inner and higher planes of spiritual Mind and pure Spirit

We have to live in the consciousness of our immortalityWe can awaken to and live consciously in both Timeless

Immortality and Time ImmortalityTimeless Immortality –the Spirit’s timeless existence is the true

immortality Time Immortality –the soul’s perpetual continuity of temporal

existence and experience from life to life

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Overcoming Egoistic Ignorance Ego is falsification of our true individualityEgo separates us from other souls & shuts us up in our individual

experienceEgo prevents us from living as the universal individualEgo separates us from God, our highest Self, the one Self in all

existences, Divine Inhabitant within usEgo cannot survive heightening, deepening and widening of spiritTrue individuality remains after disappearance of egoBy widening, our separate individuality becomes universalBy rising into the supreme infinity and eternity, we become

independent of individual and cosmic existence

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Overcoming Cosmic IgnoranceWe gain knowledge of ourselves as the timeless, immutable Self

possessing itself in and beyond cosmos

We reunite and reconcile the One and the Many

We reconcile eternal unity and eternal multiplicity

We reunite soul with God

We discover the Divine in the universe – basis for the Divine Play in Time

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Overcoming the Original IgnoranceNow we can approach the Absolute as the source of all

circumstances and relationsWe can raise our existence to absolute values that converge into

the Absolute

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Overcoming the Practical IgnorancePractical Ignorance expresses as wrong-doing, suffering, error,

confusion, discord and falsehood

Only when the other six forms of Ignorance are transformed can perfect Knowledge replace the practical ignorance.

False, imperfect values are transformed into divine values of Infinite Being, Consciousness-Force and Ananda

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Mental vs. Supramental Knowledge Mental knowledge is knowledge of the separate parts and their

surface relationship to one anotherSupramental Knowledge is knowledge of the whole and integration

of all its aspects with one another to discoverFinite as frontal appearance of the infiniteIgnorance as limitation of knowledge not its oppositeFormlessness as the basis for all formOneness as the source of the ManySilence as basis for all movementBeing as basis for Becoming – not its oppositeAbsolute as the basis for the Relative

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Conscious Spiritual EvolutionChange from mental into spiritual and supramental way of beingSelf-expansion out of sevenfold ignorance into sevenfold knowledgeNatural completion of upward process of Nature The true spiritual individual emergesSpiritual Evolution transforms life in Ignorance into Divine Life of

truth-conscious spiritLife no longer appears as a formation of things and an action of

beings created by separative Ignorance

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Sincerity Spiritual sincerity is an inner psychic status capable of receiving GracePsychic sincerity brings one in contact with Mother’s consciousnessMental receptivity results in clarity & attracts the knowledge we seek Physical sincerity restores lost objectsBody’s sincerity is receptivity that thrills in gratitudeGratitude is an emotion of the psychic being Sincerity makes gratitude possibleSincerity to Mother is to be aware of God’s intention and act on it – he

tells us that intention in the bookIncreasing sincerity is everlasting opening