Sri Aurobindo : corresp.
THEME/S
MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
How is thought itself to become quiescent?
By the descent of silence in the whole mind down to the physical.
When an impulse comes, the mind feels perplexed and the heart is anguished. They cannot exercise control over it.
The mind and the heart would do better to remain quiet and wait on a higher Force than theirs to do what is necessary.
Should I not persist in making my mind surrender all its workings to the Mother?
A persistent but quiet aspiration for the surrender of the physical mind and vital is the best way.
The mind does not remain now in my control or think properly. It feels pressed down tinder the Force from above.
The best way to meet that is for the mind to be silent and only aspire for the true open and plastic condition.
I have not much knowledge of experience or descent; so I am unable to get the full value out of them. Could you kindly say something in general about the psychic and spiritual experience and the descent from above?
You have to learn by experience. Mental information (badly understood, as it always is without experience) might rather hamper than help. In fact there is no fixed mental
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knowledge for these things, which vary infinitely. You must learn to go beyond the hankering for mental information and open to the true way of knowledge.
Is it not better to keep giving mental knowledge until the experiences come in plenty? As you were giving it in the past, even when there were small experiences, the habit persists, though I don't want to stick to it.
There is something in you that does want to stick to the habit of mentalising about everything. So long as you were not having real experiences it did not matter. But once real experiences begin you have to learn to approach them in the right way.
For the last few days, the mind seems to be losing its power of direction and my being is driven by all sorts of undesirable impulses and doing things suggested by the ordinary forces.
It is probably due to the mental control being removed — what is acting in the things you mention is not the mind but the vital and physical consciousness.
What should take the place of the removed mental control?
The psychic or spiritual control.
What is meant by the spiritual control?
The control from the higher Consciousness above the ordinary mental.
When the mental consciousness finds that what it had accepted was not true, should it not reject it and accept what was true?
It should do so, but it is not always so easy as that.
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There is much unwillingness and resistance.
Since the higher consciousness is active now, I don't feel like doing the mental thinking and perceiving or reading — unless you want me to do it.
What mental thinking and perceiving? Reading? It is not necessary — especially if it disturbs the higher working.
Why do some people here consider you as greater than the Mother? Are not both of you from the same plane? Is it not a veil over the human vision that makes such a distinction?
It is the minds that see surface things only and cannot see what is behind them.
Our correspondence is a great help and enlightenment on the path. But we should not push such a need too far. For, if we depend on your mental help (through questions-answers) too much, the inner guidance or higher knowledge will find it difficult to manifest in us, or at least it will be delayed.
The outer guidance is meant only as an aid to the inner working, especially for the correction of any erroneous movement and sometimes in order to point out the right road. It is not meant except at a very early stage to satisfy mental questionings or to stimulate a mental activity.
A seeker of this Yoga must guard himself against a rigid, dry and self-assertive mind. A wrongly developed intellect realises its own truth in its crooked ways. It builds a world out of itself and believes that to be a unique creation of all-truth! Then of course it becomes as difficult for him as well as for the Divine to pull him out of that grip of falsehood.
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The intellect can be as great an obstacle as the vital when it chooses to prefer its own constructions to the Truth.
What is the subtle meaning of our asking you questions about the Yoga and does it help to surrender?
Questions are meant for getting light on the things that are going on in one. It is the statement of what is going on that helps to surrender.
My mind does not remain as concentrated with open eyes as with closed. Why still the difference?
It is a usual difference for most, until the whole consciousness is unified.
What about reading newspapers? Is it not a vice?
It is only the attachment and diffusion of mind that are objectionable. It is not a vice. One can read if there is no attachment and no diffusion.
Is it possible to remain conscious of the Mother in the midst of intellectual pursuits?
It can be done when you become the witness detached from the mental action and not involved in them, not absorbed in them as the mental doer or thinker.
When there is much tamas it fatigues the mind and this affects my concentration. I ought to disregard all such reactions and go forward.
If the mind gets tired, naturally it is difficult to concentrate — unless you have become separated from the mind.
How to "become separated from the mind"?
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You have to feel yourself even in the mental, vital, physical levels (not only above) a consciousness that is neither mind, life nor body.
Up to the last year the Mother's Force had to continue its pressure on my lower nature to change. But now a mutual understanding seems strangely to emerge between the higher and the lower. Through my mental Purusha the higher consciousness points out to my lower being its obscurity and also shows the right movements in place of the habitual wrong ones. For example, while passing by a woman, the usual reaction was an automatic sex imagination and sensation in my subtle physical. But under the present cooperation the higher asks the lower, "What is the use of all such stupid sensations, you get nothing out of them. Instead, if you open yourself to the Mother you get her love and joy which is wholesome and lasting."
That kind of direct mental enlightenment of the lower parts is very necessary at a certain stage.
I feel nowadays that it is through the silence that I write all my letters to you. That is, I do not need to use my mind for it except when I ask you some mental questions. I would, however, like to ascertain the truth of this fact from you.
It is probably correct — when there is the silence, then it is natural that the writing etc. should come out of the silence — or through it. That may very well have begun.
My inner absorption is deepened to such an extent that it has become difficult to come out to the mind, even for reporting to you my inner experiences.
Yet to write is necessary.
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THE
What is the place of intellect with regard to the inner being and the outer being?
Intellectual activities are not part of the inner being, the intellect is the outer mind.
When does the intellect become an obstacle to the higher realisation?
When it wants to judge things for itself instead of submitting to a higher light.
Can any of the various thoughts that pass through the mind be useful to sadhana?
Not the ordinary random thoughts. If it is an idea or perception with light in it, then it can be of use.
To have a developed intellect is always helpful if one can enlighten it from above and turn it to a divine use.
It is only one man out of thousands who has a trained intellect. In others it is either ill-developed or undeveloped.
I don't find my thinking as before. Either something has gone into it or its activity does not seem as pleasant as before.
I do not see any evidence that your thinking is not just as before. If it is a fact, it may be due to the physical mind coming up — for that is always stupid — or it may be the mind is tired of the old kind of thinking and wants something better.
My physical work goes on smoothly by the Mother's
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Force. But even an inner silence cannot be maintained during mental work.
It is only because it is more difficult to separate from the active mind than from the body consciousness.
During study I have to set aside my response to the spiritual pressure and externalise myself in order to comprehend what I read.
You have to do that until you can develop the power of doing mental work without externalising yourself.
After I wrote to you about study. I find I cannot keep reading properly because I am unable to put aside the pressure. The pressure goes on during the mental activity.
So much the better. The reading must learn to accommodate itself to the pressure — that is, be done by the outer mind while the inner being remains in concentration.
Do people learn philosophy to teach others?
Not always. Some learn in order that the mind may look in a complete and accurate way at things. But that is of course a mental, not a spiritual knowledge.
What subjects do you propose for my reading and what should be done by me as a student?
There is a great mass of necessary information about the world, one's body, the evolution of the earth, the history of the human race that one ought to learn and get then1 also the training of the intellect to deal rightly with facts. All that can be done afterwards, but not so easily or so well,
1 Uncertain reading.
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unless one is exceptionally industrious and intelligent. To neglect one's studies as R and S have done is therefore a mistake.
I wish to read some philosophical books. Will you please give me some names?
I am not sure what books would interest you and I am myself so far away from books that it is difficult to remember names. If you have not read Vivekananda's things, you can read them or any books that would give you an idea of Vedanta schools and Sankhya. There is Mahendra Sircar's "Eastern Lights". It is Indian philosophy you want, I suppose!
What Vivekananda has said in his lectures — is it all truth, something directly inspired?
I cannot say that it is all truth — he had his own opinions about certain things (like everybody else) which can be questioned. But most of what he said was of great value.
I have been reading the philosophical writer Adhar Das. He writes of "unintelligent faith". Is it not a queer specimen of faith?
Intelligent faith is, I suppose, "reasoned" faith; unintelligent faith is faith that believes without reasoning.
(1) If you say "X is equal to Y. Y is equal to Z. therefore X is equal to Z, — so I believe X is equal to Z,", that is intelligent faith. If you simply see at once that X is equal to Z and believe, that is unintelligent faith.
(2) If you refuse to believe and doubt and challenge and argue till all your doubts and challenges and arguments are
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answered to your satisfaction, at least for the time being, then that is intelligent faith. Otherwise it is unintelligent faith.
E.g. You see Nirod and believe he is Nirod, — that is unintelligent faith. If you doubt and say he might be Narbheram or Khirod or Hitler and discuss all the possible arguments for or against his being Nirod, Narbheram, Khirod and Hitler till the whole subject is exhausted until you come to the conclusion either that he is Nirod or that he is Hitler and believe in your conclusion, then that is intelligent faith.
(3) If you believe what Adhar Das believes, that is intelligent faith. If you believe what he does not believe, that is unintelligent faith.
I hope you understand now Adhar Das's statement.
There can be no clearing out of doubts. The mind doubts for the sake of doubting.
It is the stupidity of the mind to want a mental solution for everything.
Doubt and questioning are part of the physical obstruction.
My mind does not remain vigilant all the time. Perhaps if is because it has not the vital's assistance.
It is the mind's business to be on guard, not the vital's. If you mean that the vital is interested in other things and the mind follows, that may be so. But the business of the mind is to recall the vital, not to follow it.
The mind observes and directs the vital, doesn't it?
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It ought to, but in most men the mind is the instrument of the vital.
Nowadays the vital often makes me read and talk about things as an aspiring seeker should not do.
One need not be so strict about it at this stage. All depends on the effect they have on the consciousness. Adverse things of course had better not be talked about.
Have I not to put a cut to all the vital joys?
All that come in the way of the sadhana, for the rest one has to remain unattached, i.e. not minding their absence, not insisting and claiming them till the right consciousness can be brought into them.
Do you not agree that at present what I feel as joy is all a vital joy?
What joy? There are vital joys that are innocent and need not be seriously put down — such as joy in art, poetry, literature. They have not to be put down but put aside only when they interfere with sadhana.
At times the mind is not in a clear condition and is unaware of the reason and effect of the working of the higher Force.
It has only to watch and observe and wait for the knowledge.
You once used the phrase, "the essential power of the higher consciousness". What is the meaning of "essential" here?
Do you not know what "essential" means? There is a
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difference between the essence of a thing which is always the same and its formations and developments which vary. There is, for instance, the essence of gold and there are the many forms which gold can take.
I can understand the silence, peace etc. which the higher consciousness commands. But what makes a power "essential"?
Essence can never be defined — it simply is.
Could it be said that my intellect or inner mind has now detached itself from the lower Prakriti?
The thinking mind generally — except the physical part.
LOSS OF MEMORY IN SADHANA
In which part of the mind is the memory of everything stored?
It is not in the mind alone; it is stored in the subconscient (mind, vital and physical) as impressions — also in the inner being all is present but held back as a store of past experience.
If one shuts out emotions, doesn't one become absent-minded?
Absentmindedness has nothing to do with emotions, it has to do with mind, memory and thoughts.
Why do we sometimes fail to remember certain things even though we try our best to recollect them?
It is the nature of the physical consciousness to forget.
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My memory is very weak and dull. How to set it right?
By training it to remember, practice (abhyasa).
My mind has almost lost its power of memory. Cant remember anything. One minute after reading even your answers to my letters I forget all about them!
There is very often a complaint of this kind made during the course of the sadhana. I suppose that the usual action of memory is for a time suspended by the mental silence or else by the physical tamas.
How then is life to be carried on? The Mother's Force reminds me of what is to be done at the right time.
That happens. The memory comes back in another way of action.
I do not know what to do when I fail to understand your answer properly, as for instance about memory.
It depends on the character of the answer. Sometimes the answer is not intended to be full or explicit — as about the memory, it was simply meant to hint that there would be a change or transformation of the memory as of everything else.
Cannot a power of memory be brought down like peace or strength? How else is this difficulty to be solved?
No. but by the change of the consciousness there can be a more conscious and perfect functioning of the memory replacing the old mechanism.
Just as I seek the Mother's help for opening in me new
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capacities for her work, can I not do the same regarding memory?
Yes, if the consciousness opens itself sufficiently to the action of the higher Force.
P
All sorts of thought-formations take place in my mind, acting this way and that. What is it that brings them about?
It is something in the physical mind which is accustomed to such thoughts and so readily receives them from any force that chooses to put them in.
Sometimes a part of me gets drawn into noting how the Mother puts her hand on a sadhak's head at pranam and also how long she keeps it there. This seems a stupid movement of the physical mind. Why does it go on?
The physical mind is in the habit of observing things with or without use.
Does the inquiry consciousness belong to she intelligence proper?
There is no "inquiry consciousness", there is curiosity in the physical mind or a tendency to inquire in the thinking mind.
What is the difference between a thought of the physical mind and a thought of the mind proper?
The field is different and the capacity.
In the Mother Conversations I have read; "If the central being makes its surrender, these difficulties can be destroyed."
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So I thought: How easy it is to get the difficulties out of the system! What part of the mind is it that thinks like this?
It is the physical mind that would like everything made easy.
The emptiness, pure-existence, silence etc. are spiritual states. But it needs a special knowledge for the mind to take them rightly, otherwise there is the danger of an ignorant resistance. Unfortunately I miss that knowledge.
These are suggestions of the physical mind and lower vital. Nobody has a special knowledge from the beginning.
Is the physical mind right in thinking that I should not write to you about the usual wrong reactions of the outer being?
It may be better, provided that does not mean allowing the reactions to grow and get worse.
Is it really the physical mind that says so? Is it then not true that the normal physical mind would rather enjoy such reactions than feel a wound in reporting about them?
No, it might accept them, but it would not enjoy them. It is something in the vital that enjoys these things in a certain sense of enjoyment.
When I separate myself from the inertia and try to rise higher I feel some positive obstruction. Probably it is between the inner mind centre and the seventh centre (sahasradal padma).
It must be the physical mind interfering and preventing the free ascension.
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Why is my physical mind not happy with your answers to what I write?
Something in your physical mind stiffens and begins to defend its views. It is better to wait till it is more supple and plastic. Mental discussions are not good for sadhana but only for clarifying the intellect which is not so important at this stage as other things.
There is a constant turmoil in the mind, which can't rest without some activity.
Usual restlessness of the physical mind. It does not like to be unoccupied.
From where has this restlessness come?
The restlessness came from activity of the physical mind, dissatisfied with the answers given to it and insisting on its own ideas. This is an old habit of your physical mind.
What should be a sadhak's attitude during the period of loneliness?
He must have confidence in the Divine and remain unmoved even in that loneliness.
And what is its cure?
One should get down the peace and presence in that part to cure the loneliness.
All difficulties cannot disappear at once, but the active resistance can cease.
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MECHANICAL MIND
For a long time I have been trying to reduce the thoughts of the mechanical mind, but to little purpose. Can nothing be done about it? When they are active how am I to remember the Mother and offer my being to her?
You are probably paying too much attention to them.
It is quite possible to concentrate and let the mechanical activity pass unnoticed.
When my mind begins to slacken due to some form of inertia (unwillingness to concentrate), should I try to force it to concentrate or allow it to remain only quiet?
No general rule can be given. The best at this stage is perhaps to let it be quiet for a while and then concentrate.
Will such slackness, inertia, unwillingness to contemplate disappear by themselves?
No. As the higher consciousness comes in, it will push them out.
I am much troubled by the frequency of mechanical thoughts.
Reject always without getting disturbed by the recurrences.
When the tamas prevails over the consciousness, is it advisable to keep the mind occupied with some book in which it generally takes interest?
Yes, if the mind refuses the activity of sadhana, you can do that.
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How shall I be able to master this mechanical condition (in which the mind goes on endlessly with its recurring rounds) in such a way that it is transformed and never appears again?
That is rather difficult. It is only when the subconscient has become enlightened and conscious that one can safely say, "the mechanical condition will never appear again".
As for the submind etc. these things have a habit of sticking so long as the higher dynamic activities are not established. The main thing is that they should not be allowed to invade the inner consciousness.
Is it the mechanical mind in me that keeps the influence of a wrong movement going?
That is probably the thing. Any disturbance is taken up by the mechanical mind and even when the direct cause is no longer there it goes on grinding out like a machine the thoughts and vibrations created.
This long period of assimilation has made some essential change in many parts of my being, including the mechanical mind. Don't you think so?
Certainly.
The mechanical mind is a great obstacle to reconciling my outer work with the inner concentration. It thinks too much and endlessly.
There is always a difficulty in getting rid of a formed habit of the nature.
There are periods when an obstacle that has not been got rid of comes up with a great force. One has to take the
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opportunity to fight it out.
It has to be done whether quickly or slowly. You have to work towards it without getting impatient.
My mechanical mind has become extremely sensitive. Whenever I project outwards for action — even a necessary one — the mechanical mind takes it up for its food and goes on chewing it for quite a time.
That is the nature of the mechanical mind — it is not due to any sensitiveness in it. Only as the outer parts of the mind are more silent and under control, this activity looks more prominent and takes more space. It usually wears itself out, if one goes on rejecting it.
At present, it is specially the mechanical and subconscient minds that are trying now and then to interfere with the inner tranquillity. But now they themselves seem to be tired out by their fruitless knocking about.
That is what must happen. They must become weak and ineffective so that they have no result of disturbance and then they will give up.
STUDY AND SADHANA
At present my sadhana has practically come down to the level of the physical and hence is much retarded. Is this not a good opportunity to train my intellect ?
The best opportunity was when the sadhana was in the mind.
If I don't study like S. how will my mind be trained or enlightened?
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From above. However, there is no harm in training from below also.
Shall I start by taking lessons?
I don't see much use in your taking lessons. What you can do is to read not for pastime but with the clear intention of furnishing your mind with knowledge.
But I would not like to waste my time reading unless it is given me as part of the sadhana.
Yes, reading can be done for the improvement of the mental instrument as part of the sadhana.
Once you wrote to me, "Before you read offer it to the Mother, call down her Force." Is not her Force already within us and working?
If it is there you will have no difficulty.
Is it not possible to do the mental work and sadhana simultaneously as I do with the physical work?
It is not so easy to do mental work and do sadhana at the same time, for it is with the mind that the sadhana is done. If one gets back from the mind as well as the body and lives in the inner Purusha consciousness, then it is possible.
Here the question is of separating myself even from the mind; — a difficult problem no doubt. But is it not to be done one day?
Yes, but it is not done yet.
If I start studying, it must be taken up as seriously as I
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did with the sadhana. As I have to learn English and French several hours have to be sacrificed for it.
Study cannot take the same or greater importance than sadhana.
I have already said that you can spend time in study as the sadhana is not active. If the sadhana were active then study can be done in the spare time i.e., in times not given to work or meditation.
If there is a pressure and a descent then at that time it is better not to read.
There was a strong higher pressure while I was studying. Normally I would have left the reading and attended to the pressure. But today I put a will that study and sadhana both must continue together. Was it correct?
It is all right. A time must come when the reading as well as any other outward occupation does not interfere with the pressure or activity of the higher consciousness.
There was an understanding between us that I should stay above and not pay too much attention to the ordinary movements of my outer being and that I need not report to you about the negative side of my sadhana. But now that the lower nature has become active shall I resume writing about it?
Yes, you can write. The other arrangement was for going on with the positive side of the sadhana and not paying an undue attention to the outer being. But if the outer being imposes attention like that it is better to write about it.
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I am told that in sadhana the outer mind can be developed directly from above. At present I see many changes in my inner being, particularly in 'the inner mind. But the outer mind seems to have remained as ignorant and unchanged as before!
The change there can only come when the higher consciousness takes possession of the physical mind also.
I wonder why any part of my mind identifies itself with the outer vital. Certainly it did not do so before.
You were too much preoccupied with higher experience at that time for the mind to do that. Coming down into the physical the physical mind became strong and it is the physical mind (or part of it) that so identifies itself.
TWO ESSAYS
One day I wrote two essays for my English class. My teacher criticised them in such a way that I sought Sri Aurobindo's opinion on the matter. He made some comments on the essays. These comments and the two essays are both given here.
1. On Peace
Spiritual peace has not the same meaning as peace in our worldly parlance. In the ordinary life, when one is less depressed, disturbed or despondent than people generally are, one thinks oneself at peace.
Our normal consciousness (viz. our mental, vital and physical) — inner and outer — whirls constantly in restless actions. It is always pushed to activity; to pass five minutes
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without some kind of movement would be intolerable to it. That is perhaps the reason why even those who have a philosophical bent are often afraid of silence in the preliminary stage of their practice of Yoga. They take it, or feel it, to be something terrible, blank, fearful. We shall soon see that true silence is never like that. They feel it as such only because they are too mentally oriented.
In the absence of sadhana one can have quietness at the most. Even that can be attained only when one is above pain and suffering, strife and quarrel, gloom and despair, at least for the time being. But then, too, there is no true peace or quietude. These are the fruition of spiritual experience and a yogic practice is necessary for their attainment.
Worldly quietude or peace is very fragile, momentary, variable. Solid, lasting, self-existent, firm are the attributes of a higher peace. One who has that peace can stand against any turbulence or disturbance, shock or attack from the world, and yet hold his inner peace unmoved.
The ordinary peace is confined to the mind, whereas the yogic peace can descend into the vital and the body also. With many it takes up the mind first and then comes down into the other parts. But even if it has settled only in the mind, it casts its influence on the vital, and therefore we feel a kind of rest down to the very physical, as the physical is usually directed and pushed by the vital.
2. On Peace and the Vital
The spiritual peace, when it descends, brings with it such a force and strength that we feel ourselves safe, secure and poised. The vital cravings, dissatisfactions, disturbances touch us no more; and the vital likes and dislikes no longer
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interfere with the freedom of our will and aspiration; also, vital depression and despair are made quiet. These are the usual signs of a deep peace.
A peace in the mind is not enough. It can only quiet the mental disturbance and give scope for free thinking. But even this free thinking is hindered by the upsurging of the vital. For. though we are mental beings, we live largely in the vital. Very few live purely and constantly in the mental consciousness. As we are more in the vital, the descent of peace straight into it is indispensable in order to calm completely our whole mental stuff.
But this peace must descend into the inner vital. The inner vital can open to spiritual things more easily than the outer. To bring down and establish peace in the outer vital needs long years of practice and an arduous sadhana. It is sufficient in the beginning to stabilise it in the inner vital. This will bring as a result a calm aloofness from all the lower vital movements, actions and thoughts.
* * *
Is all this correct?
Perfectly correct.
My teacher rejected the second and third paragraphs. He condemned some of the sentences as rubbish. Are the essays so discouraging?
Certainly not. Why do you suppose X to be an authority on these things? You go to him for English, not for Yoga knowledge.
He censures my use of expressions like "mental stuff",
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"vital mind", etc. At least here, are they used wrongly?
No, they are quite in place.
The difference I made here about the inner vital and the outer vital does not coincide with his knowledge. Is there then anything to be corrected in my reference to the inner and outer vital and the peace?
Nothing at all. Every word is correct. It does not in the least matter whether what you write coincides or not with somebody else's knowledge, so long as it coincides with mine and with your own inner perception and experience.
I have heard that X has studied philosophy widely and is himself the author of a number of books.
All that has nothing to do with ordinary philosophy. Philosophy knows nothing about peace and silence or the inner and outer vital. These things are discovered only by Yoga.
I suppose they have such notions because they are given too much to thoughts.
Yes.
I am a little doubtful about the truth of what I wrote about philosophy; that is why I have asked you a separate question regarding it. I hope you will kindly point out my errors in ideas.
There is no error in these.
The first essay I sent you was written as an initial training for philosophical thought, for X's class. His judgment was that there were many incorrect ideas, particularly about
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philosophy and silence. But you said that there was no error there. In that case should I take all I have written as correct?
There was no error. Ordinary human minds, Europeans especially, are accustomed to regard thought as indispensable and as the highest thing, so they are alarmed of silence. Y when he was here asked for Yoga. I told him how to make his mind silent and it became silent. He immediately got frightened and said, "I am becoming a fool, I can't think", so I took what I had given away from him. That is how the average mind regards silence.
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