What is Involution?

Involution: A rolling or turning inward.
A retrograde change of the entire body.
The inner path of a spiritual aspirant 
towards Self-realization.

"I wanted to know more. I wished to experience a wider truth, a deeper meaning; 
                      beyond the non-fiction of disease and genetics."

This project goes by its name "Involution" for several reasons. As someone diagnosed at an early age with a progressive, peripheral deteriorating , nerve and muscle disorder; where I experience the shrinking of nerves and wasting of muscles in my arms, hands, feet and legs; medicine and science layed the foundation of what I came to learn as a disease I would suffer from for the rest of my life.  I experienced  deep unrest with this diagnosis.  However, this became the catalyst of what would become a great and wonderous  journey. I had questions and chose to offer up my many inquiries to the realm of mind, conciousness and spirit.

"Why was I given this condition?" was a question medical doctors could no longer satisfy my involving mind.  I wanted to know more. I wished to experience a wider truth and a deeper meaning beyond the non-fiction of disease and genetics.

Today, what I have discovered is my own truth, which is World-Centric and avaiable for all. Alongside healthy nutrition, emotional and spiritual wellness and a daily yogic practice and an integral approach to mind, body and spirit; transforming  every so-called limtation is an opportunity for enlightenment, and of course, music. To me, this is a form of self-regenertaion; self-empowement and self healing. The inspiring of our own cure from within. In the midst of limitation, as the limitation and through the limitation itself.

               As the Integral thought philosopher Ken Wilber teaches and encourages: 

       "Make the subject, the object of illumination."

The term "Involution" refers to different things depending on who is writing or speaking about it. A formal definition, according to Wikipedia would be: "the process of involving or complicating, or the state of being involved or complicated." Regarding the artist experiencing periods of "artistic involution."

In mathematics, Involution refers to a function, transformation, or operator that is equal to its inverse, i.e., which gives the identity when applied to itself.

A physiological definition of Involution refers to the shrinking of muscles or a return of an organ to a former size. A normal process of turning or rolling inward characterized by a decrease in the size of an organ caused by a decrease in the size of its cells, such as postpartum involution of the uterus. 

Involution is the process by which the uterus is transformed from pregnant to non-pregnant state. It is a physiological process occurring after e.g. parturition; the hypertrophy of the uterus has to be undone since it does not need to house the fetus anymore. 
This process is primarily due to the hormone oxytocin.

Many women are surprised when they still have contractions AFTER the baby is born. This process is Involution; the process by which the uterus attempts to return to its prepregnancy size and condition. Subinvolution is a medical condition in which after childbirth, 
the uterus does not return to its normal size.

At a cellular level, micro-involution is characterized by the process of proteolysis of the basement membrane (basal lamina) The cell literally goes into a state of atrophy. 

The consequent reduction in cell number and reorganization of stromal tissue leads to the reduction in the size of the organ. 

In general, Involution is the progressive degeneration occurring naturally with age, resulting in shrivelling of organs, cells or tissues.

Accounting for the shrinking that happens to old people, In general, Involution is the progressive degeneration occuring naturally with age, resuting is shriveling of organs, cells or tissues.


This happens on a macro scale also. Involution refers to a process that occurs prior to evolution which in turn gives rise to the cosmos. Involution and evolution are part of a complex sequence of cosmic cycles, called Round. When the universe attains a stage of sufficient density, the individual spirit is able to descend and participate in the evolution. Involution thus refers to the incarnation of spirit in an already established matter, the necessary prerequiste of evolution.

In some cases it is an aspect of evolution, and still in others it is a process that follows the completion of evolution in the human form. Meaning, humans are the totality of evolution becoming concious of itself.

This involution follows the reverse stages to the sequence of evolution, for example, Spirit to soul to mind to life to matter. Once the stage of insentient, lifeless matter is attained, then something like the "Big Bang" occurs, whereupon matter and manifest world come into concrete existence, from which stage evolution follows.

The integral philosopher Ken Wilber refers to Involution in his online chapter of Kosmic Karma, employing concepts from Plotinus, Advaita Vedanta, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sri Aurobindo. According to Wilber, the cosmic evolution described in his previous works is preceded by an Involution of Spirit into Matter.

In integral thought, Involution is the process by which the Divine manifests the cosmos. The process by which the creation rises to higher and higher states of consciousness, is the evolution. Involution prepares the universe for the Big Bang; evolution continues from that point forward.

In a spiritual sense, the term Involution comes from the idea that the divine involves itself in all of creation. After the creation, the Divine (i.e. the Absolute, Brahman, God) is both the One (the Creator) and the Many.

Involution or involving or infolding of spiritual potencies into material vehicles which coincidentally and contemporaneously, through the compelling urge of the infolding energies, unfold their own latent capacities, unwrap them, roll them forth; and this is the evolution of matter - Gottfried de Purucker.

It is that period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness and the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man manifests, is called Involution.

Its purpose is to slowly carry life lower and deeper into denser and denser matter for the building of forms, till the nadir of materiality is reached. From that point, life begins to ascend into higher worlds. 

This succeeding period of existence, during which the individual human being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "spiritual evolution."


It is that period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness and the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man manifests, is called Involution.

In the cosmology of Surat Shabda Yoga, Involution and evolution apply to both the macrocosm, the whole of creation, and the microcosm, the constitution of an individual soul. 

Meher Baba uses the term "Involution" to mean the inner path of a spiritual aspirant toward Self-realization. He divides Involution into seven stages he calls "planes," and describes different experiences and powers had on each plane, until the Goal of full enlightenment is achieved at the seventh plane.

For Sri Aurobindo, Involution is the process by which the Omnipresent Reality, i.e. the Absolute, Brahman, God, extends Itself to create a universe of separate forms from out of Its own Force/Energy.

Sat, Chit-Tapas, and Delight/Ananda are the three aspects of Satchitananda, and are mentioned in terms of Involution. Spirit or consciousness manifests as these three, and then as the intermediate link of Supermind, which is transitional between the higher and lower (matter, life, and mind) nature.

    The seed that already has the essence of the tree that will emerge from it.

Evolution is thus the movement forward by which the created universe evolves from its initial state of inconscience (i.e. as matter), evolves animated life forms and mental beings (i.e. humans), and continues to evolve spiritual properties, and in that process rediscovers its Source. 

Such an evolution of animated forms is only possible because at each stage of development, the developing entity contains within itself the conception of what it may become.

Thus, the evolution of animated life out of matter supposes a previous Involution of that animated capacity. This is akin to a seed that already has the essence of the tree 
that will emerge from it.

Each plane emerges from an earlier plane through the evolutionary process, which takes place in chronological time. But in a parallel construction, each of these new planes can be understood as being a descendent of its corresponding higher order plane from the Infinite.

        The reason for Involution is Delight. 

When mentality emerged in the universe, the universal plane of Mind was implanted to a degree in those beings harboring that mentality. The evolution is the development of all entities in the cosmos, including humans, in order to attain their fulfillment, 
including the discovery of spiritual Delight. 

Delight is the reason for creation, by which The Absolute extends its Delight of Being into multiplicity, losing itself in the inconscience and then through Delight rediscovering Itself through individuals realising their Divine nature and proceeding to spiritual realisation. 

In other words, the universe was created so that the Delight of the Infinite Spirit can manifest in all the forms of creation. When we discover our higher nature, the soul and spirit, we experience the Delight for which we came into being and of which we are a part.

Delight was, and always is, the experience of the Source Creator - the Delight of Being (the Spirit or Absolute) moving to Delight of Becoming (temporal existence, the cosmos). Being throws itself forward into a multiplicity of forms, becoming lost in the inconscience of matter, and then through evolution it partakes in the Delight of rediscovering the Spirit which had been hidden in the interim.

"When we follow the spiritual life we see deep within us the fountain of Joy and Delight. This Delight continuously increases in our awakened being. The seeker in us knows perfectly well that our origin was Delight. From Delight we came into existence. In Delight we grow or expand our consciousness. At the end of our journey's close, into Delight we retire.

Delight is our origin, and our goal is to go back consciously to the Source, which is all Delight.

Frustration can be removed totally from our lives only when we enter 
into the Source of all existence.When we enter into the Source of our own existence and the world’s existence, we are approaching the Reality. This Reality is our constant Delight, 
and Delight is the Breath of God" - Sri Chinmoy

It is my delighted intention to share with you what I have gained through the spiritual journey, music and a relationship with Involution as body and spirit.

To our Involutions!

Sonny

Sources: Ken Wilber, The Yoga of Sri Chinmoy, Wikipedia, Gottfried de Purucker, Sri Aurobindo, Sonny Davis, LonerWolf