March 3, 2010 – Aspiration and Receptivity

The self-torture of the old monks & penitents was perverse & stupid;
yet was there a secret soul of knowledge behind their perversities.

Sri Aurobindo

(Thoughts and Aphorisms 497))

Aspiration and Receptivity

You can be at once in the state of aspiration, of willing, which calls down something- exactly the will to open oneself and receive, and the aspiration which calls down the force you want to receive- and at the same time be in that state of complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it is in this immobility that one can be penetrated, that one becomes permeable by the Force… One can be like that, like a great flame rising in aspiration, and at the same time as though this flame formed a vase, a large vase, opening and receiving all that comes down.

And the two can go together. And when one succeeds in having the two together, one can have them constantly, whatever one may be doing. Only there may be a slight, very slight displacement of consciousness,almost imperceptible, which becomes aware of the flame first and then of the vase of receptivity – of what seeks to be filled and the flame that rises to call down what must fill the vase…..

– The Mother
The Great Adventure, Page 137