Sri Aurobindo and the Philosophy of Mind – The Article
marcomasi.substack.com
Sri Aurobindo and the Philosophy of Mind – The Article
The article on Integral Review
For those interested in the philosophy of mind and who would like to build bridges with Eastern philosophy, here is my paper on the metaphysics of Sri Aurobindo which tries to relate his vision with contemporary consciousness studies.
A not-too-short article. However, it will save you tons of time! Because it is a synthesis of all of Sri Aurobindo's metaphysics on consciousness, the mind, life, and evolution that, otherwise, you would have to assemble by reading through thousands of pages of his writings.
Go to: https://tinyurl.com/SriAurobindoConsciousness
In the Sevenfold Chord of Being (part 1 of Life Divine) he refers to the psyche, the psychic being, as the projection of the Anandamaya plane. At the very least, Satchitananda is elsewhere posited as a transcendent principle, beyond the 5 planes. At least that's my understanding.
here's the passage from that chapter:
In addition, there is a fourth principle which comes into manifestation at the nodus of mind, life and body, that which we call the soul; but this has a double appearance, in front the desire-soul which strives for the possession and delight of things, and, behind and either largely or entirely concealed by the desire-soul, the true psychic entity which is the real repository of the experiences of the spirit.
And we have concluded that this fourth human principle is a projection and an action of the third divine principle of infinite Bliss, but an action in the terms of our consciousness and under the conditions of soul-evolution in this world. As the existence of the Divine is in its nature an infinite consciousness and the self-power of that consciousness, so the nature of its infinite consciousness is pure and infinite Bliss; self-possession and self-awareness are the essence of its self-delight. The cosmos also is a play of this divine self-delight and the delight of that play is entirely possessed by the Universal; but in the individual owing to the action of ignorance and division it is held back in the subliminal and the superconscient being; on our surface it lacks and has to be sought for, found and possessed by the development of the individual consciousness towards universality and transcendence.
We may, therefore, if we will, pose eight[2] principles instead of seven, and then we perceive that our existence is a sort of refraction of the divine existence, in inverted order of ascent and descent, thus ranged, —
Existence Matter
Consciousness-Force Life
Bliss Psyche
Supermind Mind
The Life Divine: 1 (pp. 277-278). Lotus Press. Kindle Edition.
Love it. Wonderful essay. Small quibble - I've never heard Sat Chit Ananda equated with the Anandamaya plane. My understanding is that Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is transcendent to all 5 planes. Do you have a reference for this equivalence?