At the feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo

30 January 1933

MYSELF: Again the old things are pushing themselves up driving me to anger! And the anger brought the usual result!

SRI AUROBINDO: It is really simply the recurrence of an old habit of the nature. Look at it and see how trifling is the occasion of rising of this anger and its outburst — it becomes more and more causeless and the absurdity of such movements reveals itself. It will not really be difficult to get rid of it if when it comes you look at it calmly — for it is perfectly possible to stand back, in one part of the being observing in a detached equanimity even while the anger rises on the surface, as if it were someone else in your being who had the anger. The difficulty is that you get alarmed, grieved and upset and that makes it easier for the thing to get hold of your mind which it should not do.

Help we are giving you — stand back so as to be able to feel it and not the obsession of these surface movements.

(30.1.33)