Transformation
We
want an integral transformation, the transformation of the body and all its
activities. But there is an absolutely indispensable first step that must be
accomplished before anything else can be undertaken: the transformation of the
consciousness. The starting-point is of course the aspiration for this
transformation and the will to realise it; without that nothing can be done.
But if in addition to the aspiration there is an inner opening, a kind of
receptivity, then one can enter into this transformed consciousness at a single
stroke and maintain oneself there. This change of consciousness is abrupt, so
to say; when it occurs, it occurs all of a sudden, although the preparation for
it may have been long and slow. I am not speaking here of a mere change in
mental outlook, but of a change in the consciousness itself. It is a complete
and absolute change, a revolution in the basic poise; the movement is like
turning a ball inside out. To the transformed consciousness everything appears not
only new and different, but almost the reverse of what it seemed to the
ordinary consciousness. In the ordinary consciousness you advance slowly, by
successive experiences, from ignorance to a very distant and often doubtful
knowledge. In the transformed consciousness your starting-point is knowledge
and you proceed from knowledge to knowledge. However, this is a beginning; for
the outer consciousness, the various planes and parts of the outer active being
are transformed slowly and gradually as a result of the inner transformation.
There is a partial change of consciousness which makes you lose
all interest in things that you once found desirable; but it is a change of
consciousness and not what we call the transformation. For the transformation
is fundamental and absolute; it is not merely a change, but a reversal of
consciousness: the being turns inside out, as it were, and takes a completely
different position. In this reversed consciousness the being stands
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above life and things and deals with them from there; it is at the
centre of everything and directs its action outwards from there. Whereas in the
ordinary consciousness the being stands outside and below: from outside it
strives to reach the centre; from below, crushed by the weight of its own
ignorance and blindness, it struggles desperately to rise above them. The
ordinary consciousness is ignorant of what things are in reality; it sees their
shell. But the true consciousness is at the centre, at the heart of reality and
has the direct vision of the origin of all movements. Seated within and above,
it knows the source, the cause and effect of all things and forces.
I repeat, this reversal is sudden. Something opens within you and
all at once you find yourself in a new world. The change may not be final and
definitive to begin with; it sometimes requires time to settle permanently and
become your normal nature. But once the change has taken place, it is there, in
principle, once and for all; and then what is needed is to express it gradually
in the details of practical life. The first manifestation of the transformed
consciousness always seems to be abrupt. You do not feel that you are changing
slowly and gradually from one state into another; you feel that you are
suddenly awakened or newly born. No effort of the mind can lead you to this
state, for with the mind you cannot imagine what it is and no mental
description can be adequate.
Such is the starting-point of all integral transformation.
Bulletin, August 1950
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