Inner approach to health
Truth in healing
Abstract
The secret truth behind everything lies in its divinity; it is what makes all evolution possible. So to access one’s Truth is a key for well-being. In this article, the author explains a way of invoking the truth to step forward in the being. To live in this state implies a freedom from all psychological and physical restriction. Finally, when the Truth-Consciousness fully consolidates and descends, the way becomes clear for a divine life upon earth.
“The truth is neither in separation nor in uniformity. The truth is in unity manifesting through diversity (1).”
Introduction
Truth has a dynamic power. It governs every process unwinding in the universe. There is not a single part of the terrestrial existence which does not contain it at its core. Evolution is the gradual manifestation of this Truth. Together with Love, it is the source of all well-being; it has a way of unifying and harmonising the discordant parts of our nature. Illness and disease ultimately cannot persist where Truth resides. Its effect on mind, life and body is instantaneous; it spontaneously aligns and resolves. Establishing it in our nature is critical to our psychological and physical well-being. I have come to look upon it as the central foundation of Integral Health.
My role in this process is to unite with this Truth. The state I seek to unlock lies deeper within, “behind the heart rather than in the heart (2)” and the key to my work is to allow its influence to radiate everywhere outside. Once the inner Agni and aspiration is lit the fusion begins. However, the fire must be tended at all times.
When I am in contact with the Truth, I find it automatically accompanied by knowledge. In this heightened state of consciousness I am usually able to discover the real cause of affliction and untie any knots which tie the disorder together.
“For knowledge, when it goes to the root of our troubles, has in itself a marvellous healing-power as it were. As soon as you touch the quick of the trouble, as soon as you, diving down and down, get at what really ails you, the pain disappears as though by a miracle (3).”
Calling the truth
Whenever I begin this work, I invoke the Truth. For me, it’s not an abstract reality because in the Integral Yoga I have come to recognise the Mother as the embodiment of all Truth. A greater love and intimacy intervenes also when the Mother is invoked. So by calling her Presence, I find that the Truth invariably descends. My consciousness becomes more elevated. The mind becomes still, giving me the poise to enquire inside from a stable station and more probing light. And that is really all I do: I merely observe and the consciousness or hand of the Mother does the rest.
I look disinterestedly at the body from top to bottom and just watch what is there. I know that every disorder feeds from roots within. The key to a healthy body also lies inside. Once the true consciousness is installed inside, it can then resonate on the outside, on the physical, and indeed in the world at large, in a more harmonious way. Every inner movement creates a ripple on the body and, with sufficient attention, they all eventually surface. So I stay grounded. I don’t anticipate distortion; I am merely a spectator watching a scene in a play naturally unfold.
I experience the descending Truth as a concrete dynamic Force. Sometimes I feel the cells expanding under its influence. Perhaps they are being made new! I feel my self being carried and there is always a searchlight that takes me to wherever I need to go. I need to give myself to this light which makes me aware of darker spots trying to hide away unnoticed. This process can never be coerced.
If I perceive disorder, I pause and direct that light onto its very roots. Sometimes the effect is immediate and order is restored immediately. I can then move on. At other times, I need to observe more closely and allow the spirit within to identify in a word or two what is behind the disarray. When that happens, there is an instantaneous release.
The word is important and usually clears a path for the Force to fully flow through the body. It is not a word plucked from the air but sourced from deep within the recesses of the soul. If it is inaccurate it will have little or no effect; if it is false it will create instant disarray in the physical.
The process of connecting the being to the Force involves a simultaneous shift: the inner contact brings a new level of harmony and realignment to the body and rest of my nature. Meanwhile, there is this imprint of light, peace, knowledge, love and bliss which descends from above. It is a dual change and movement of Truth:
“Between psychicisation and spiritualisation there is a difference. The spiritual is the change that descends from above, the psychic is the change that comes from within by the psychic dominating the mind, vital and physical (4).”
Truth inside
The secret truth of the body is its divinity. This is the unique spark that is involved in every facet of planetary existence. Everything here and beyond is true in essence because everything contains it. This fact is equally valid for matter, though clouded by obscurity and inertia and not least the afflictions of the rest of our nature. So one important work in Integral Health is clearing away these obstructions and allowing the Truth to come forward in its entirety. When this occurs it can unite the nature and make it one.
Persistently practising this work is certainly one way of finding one’s own truth. It is the means that I espouse. Habit and atrophy inevitably try to efface any progress so the work needs always to be constantly enlarged and reinforced. Through this, I find I acquire a greater understanding of the contours of my nature. Because I am more familiar with the patterns that arise from it, I am able, to a certain extent, to deal more efficiently with them. More importantly, I see gradually what lies behind the façade. That is ultimately all that matters. Once accomplished, it is a matter of building connections, what amounts to a network, that link the inner core with the frontal nature. Every aspect of us can be made true: it is an assiduous process and probably a lifetime’s work. But it is also a work of such surrender and joy!
Over time, I have tried to identify with what I see deepest inside. It is not a matter of personality for that is altogether a more superficial concept. The sense of identity with what lies behind is altogether more vast and wordless: one just knows because one is that. It can probably never be adequately expressed. Surely accessing this truth is critical to all psychological well-being.
Being in TruthTo be in Truth means to recognise our innate divinity. For me, it implies walking my own path regardless of conditioning and social constructs. It brings freedom, freedom from habit, illness, fear and psychological restriction. It offers a freedom of the spirit. Finally it delivers me a greater freedom in the body.
The Divine is multi-faceted and each one of us represents an embodied aspect that awaits manifestation. Sooner or later, if we look with enough resolution, our individual truth will show itself. It may come as a gradual awakening, a sudden revelation or in fits and starts. Certainly my experience has been more measured.
Each one of us is an essential blueprint in the manifestation; we all have a particular role to play within the cosmic work. But it is not so much what we do as what we are. It is a process of becoming that. We have to know what we are to realise what kind of work we are called to do in the world. Understanding the essence must come necessarily before tracing the destiny.
But what are we in reality? It is not so easy to say because man’s every moment seems to be shadowed by the spectres of the past. So much of what we are and do is simply borrowed: a result of our environment, upbringing and education; “we are made by life and by the hands of others, are clay for many potters…(5)” and even what we like to think is left, which we deem to be most ourselves, seems to be determined by heredity or even the Universal Nature that shapes every man for her own uses (6).
This may be our present reality but it is certainly not our truth. From experience, I find the only way of being and living in my truth is through separating it from what is superimposed and false. It is a matter of knowledge and knowledge can never be owned. It is a divine gift and province of the soul. Effort is not the answer; the key lies in a spontaneous fusion with our source inside. As soon as these layers of conditioning are unpeeled, the truth will certainly emerge. Indeed, it is always waiting to step forward from inside the folds of our nature.
Truth-Consciousness
The Truth embodies a unique plane of consciousness. It represents the next rung in mankind’s ascending evolution. It offers the prospect of a divine life on earth. Even rock and stone will awaken to a new song: imagine a world of such possibility and sweetness! There are majestic realms presiding over our terrestrial existence and secretly they move and animate everything. When we resonate to this Truth they send shafts of Light and Force to saturate our total being. This must be our divine birthright and gateway to true wholeness.
References
1. The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother, Volume 14. 2nd ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust; 2004, p. 198.
2. Sri Aurobindo. Birth Centenary Library, Volume 22. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust; 1970, p. 289.
3. Sri Aurobindo. SABCL, Volume 24. 1970, p. 1394.
4. Ibid. p. 1093.
5. Sri Aurobindo. SABCL, Volume 16. 1971, p. 134.
6. Ibid., pp. 134-5.
James Anderson is a member of SAIIIHR and coordinating editor of NAMAH.
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