TRUTH.
The nature of truth and the human capacity to have it, to retain it, and to achieve more of it are topics that have occupied philosophers at least since the moment when the goddess told parmenides that she would teach him all things, both the unshaken heart of well rounded truth and the opinion of immortals in which there is no true reliance.
aristotle provides a robust and substantial account of truth which displays and explains truth as a fundamental ineliminable datum for philosophical enquiry
To be continued.
The nature of truth and the human capacity to have it, to retain it, and to achieve more of it are topics that have occupied philosophers at least since the moment when the goddess told parmenides that she would teach him all things, both the unshaken heart of well rounded truth and the opinion of immortals in which there is no true reliance.
aristotle provides a robust and substantial account of truth which displays and explains truth as a fundamental ineliminable datum for philosophical enquiry
Sri
Aurobindo sees evolution primarily as an ongoing evolution of consciousness. He
holds that the human
mind is much too imperfect a type of consciousness to be the final resting
point of nature, and
that just as life developed out of matter, and mind out of life, a still higher
form of consciousness
is bound to develop out of the mind. For his evolutionary ontology of consciousness,
Aurobindo bases himself on the Veda¯ntic view of consciousness, which says that
consciousness
is pervasive throughout reality and that it manifests as a range of ever-higher gradations
of consciousness and being. In matter, consciousness is fully engrossed in its
own existence
and shows itself only as matter’s habit of form and its tendency to obey fixed
laws. In plant and
animal life, consciousness begins to emancipate a little, there are the first
signs of exchange,
of giving and taking, of feelings, drives, and emotions. In the human mind we
see a further
emancipation of consciousness in the first appearance of an ability to ‘‘play
with ideas in one’s
mind’’ and to rise above the immediate situation. The mind is characteristically
the plane
of
objective, generalized statements, ideas, thoughts, intelligence, and so on.
But the mind is also an
inveterate divider, making distinctions between subject and object, I and thou,
things and
other
things. Within the
Vedic tradition, the ordinary human mentality is considered to be only the most primitive
form of mental consciousness, the most ego-bound, the most dependent on the
physical
senses. Above it there is the unitary Higher Mind of self-revealed wisdom, the
Illumined Mind where
truths are seen rather than thought, the plane of the Intuitive Mind where
truth is
inevitable
and perfect, and finally the cosmic Overmind, the mind of the Gods,
comprehensive, all-encompassing.
But in all these mental planes, however far beyond our ordinary mentality,
there is
still a trace of division, the possibility of discord and disharmony. One has
to rise beyond all of them
to find a truly Gnostic consciousness, intrinsically harmonious, perfect, one
with the divine
consciousness that upholds the universe.
Many
spiritual traditions have claimed that it is possible to connect or even merge
with an absolute
consciousness beyond mind, but, according to Aurobindo, it is at this moment
for the first time
becoming possible to let a supramental consciousness enter into one’s being and transform
it in every respect. The comprehensive, supramental transformation of all
aspects of human
nature is the central theme of Aurobindo’s work. While at present this can be
done only to a
limited extent, and at the cost of a tremendous individual effort, he predicts
that eventually the
supramental consciousness will become as much an intrinsic, ‘‘natural’’ part of
earthly life as our
ordinary mentality is now.
In this chapter
a comparison is drawn between Aurobindo’s evolutionary conceptualization of consciousness
and the concepts of consciousness more commonly encountered in contemporary
consciousness
studies. A number of ontological and epistemological questions arising out of
this comparison
are discussed. A short indication is given of the ‘‘inner gestures’’ that can
help to put
an
individual on the path toward the ultimate transformation of consciousness and
being, which Aurobindo proposes.To be continued.