Mother's Chronicles - Book Three

19

Mirra Learns to Discourse

They landed in France.

We presume that Max Theon proceeded to rejoin his wife who had gone to Italy.

As for Mirra, at a guess, she went to her new apartments in Paris' 17^th arrondissement. This was on 49 Rue de Levis, a multistoreyed building. Her flat was on the fifth floor. Her divorce from Henri Morisset was finally decreed in March 1908.

Mirra went out to all kinds of occult reunions, séances and all. And being a thorough 'materialist' she was equally keen on studying human nature; so she went to the theatre.

Once, long ago, Mother was asked by a young chap, "How do you know the character of a person by looking at his eyes?"

She replied, "Not only by looking at the eyes; I

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know a person's character through identification."

Mother never missed a chance to hammer one basic principle into our heads. "One can learn to identify oneself. You have to learn it. It is indispensable if you want to get out of your ego. Because when you are locked up in your ego, you can make no progress."

"How does one do it?" was another question put to her.

Here are some excerpts from her reply in an English translation, as Mother always spoke to us in French.

"When I was in Paris," said Mother, "I used to go to many places where all kinds of meetings were held by people who were making all sorts of research, spiritual - so-called spiritual- and occult, etc. Once 1 was invited to meet a young lady who, 1 believe, was Swedish- who had found a method of knowledge, precisely a method of learning. She explained all that to us. We were three or four. Her French wasn't too good but, anyway, she was quite convinced. She said. 'Here, you take an object or draw a sign on a blackboard or you take a picture it's immaterial, take whatever is easy for you!' She had a blackboard on

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which she drew a kind of semi-geometrical design. 'Well then, you sit in front of the design and concentrate your whole attention on it. You look and look and look, you become this design you are looking at. Nothing else exists in the world except the design, then, all of a sudden, you are through to the other side. And when you have passed to the other side you enter into a new consciousness, and you know. " Oh, my! Is that what happened to Alice Through the Looking Glass?

"We laughed a lot," said Mother remembering, "because it was amusing. But it's very true, it's an excellent way for practising." Actually, it is an age-old method of target-practice. Arjuna, the third Pandavas, learned this method from the royal preceptor Drona, and became the foremost archer of his time.

There is another type of identification which conies easily to us. When we read some wonderful books full of exciting adventures and get right into the story, we feel that what is happening to the hero or the heroine is happening to us. Indeed we could not be any closer to them if we were inside his' or her skin which in a way we are.

Mother encouraged us. "It adds a lot of interest

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to life." Not only that; but also if instead of knocking against things from outside because they are foreign to you, you enter them, then, "you understand. And you live in many places at the same time."

Mirra, we said, went to the theatre. "In Paris there are third- or fourth-grade theatres where sensational dramas are staged. These are the suburban theatres." Mother was giving a description of what prevailed in the early part of the century; things are quite changed now. "The play is not meant for intellectuals, it's for the masses, and all the component parts are always extremely dramatic and moving. And, well, people who go there are, for the most part, very simple souls, and they completely forget that they are in a theatre. They identify themselves with the play. And things such as this happens: On the stage there is the villain hidden behind the door and the hero arrives, naturally unaware that the villain is hiding and that he is going to get killed. Then occupants high up in the gallery —it is called 'the gods' —right at the top of the theatre cry out, 'Beware! He is there!' And not one time but hundreds of times did this occur spontaneously.

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"I saw a similar play, called Le Bossu ('The Humpy'), I think. Anyway, it was a thoroughly sensational drama and was staged at the 'Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin.' In that play there was a room. On the set one could see a big room and next to it a small closet, and ... I no longer remember the story, but inside the closet there was a button which could be pressed, and when the button was pressed the ceilling of the big room came down on the people there, and crushed them inevitably! We were already warned of this by some people who had talked, who had passed on the word. Well then, a villain who was hidden in the small room knew the trick of the button. Then there was the hero who arrived with other people and they began to discuss; besides we knew that the ceiling was going to come down. I didn't utter a word, for I remembered that I was in a theatre, and I was waiting to see how the author was going to get out of this difficulty and save his hero —because obviously he couldn't let his hero be killed like that in front of everybody! But the others weren't at all in that state. Well, well, some spectators shouted, actually shouted, 'Beware of the ceiling!' That's how it went," she observed.

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"These are phenomena of identification. Only they are involontary." And Mother ended her talk.

We have always known Mother to be quite free and at ease when discoursing upon a subject; not only in private conversations but in public too. But that was not always the case.

"I was rather timid by nature and there wasn't much confidence in my own capacity; although the feeling of being able to do anything if necessary was there," said Mother. "Up to the age of twenty or twenty-one, I spoke very little, and never, never anything that resembled a discourse. I didn't participate in conversations; I listened but spoke very little . . . Wait! Yes, I was put in touch with Abdul Baha —of of the Bahai faith —who was then in Paris. A sort of intimacy had grown between us, and I would go to his meetings because I was interested.

"Then one day, when I was in his room he told me,

"'I am sick, I cannot speak; go and speak for me.'

"I said, 'Who, me? But I don't speak.'

"He replied, 'You only have to go there, seat

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yourself, remain still, concentrated, then what you must say will come to you. Go. Do it. You will see."

"Well then," Mother said smilingly. "I did as he bade me. There were about thirty to forty people, I went and sat down in their midst; then I remained very still, and ... I remained like that without a thought, nothing. And suddenly I began to speak. I spoke to them for half-an-hour — I don't even know what I told them. When it was over everybody was pleased. I went to find Abdul Baha, who told me, 'You spoke admirably.'

"I said, 'It's not me!'

"Well, from that day onward —I had got the knack from him, you see —I would remain like this, very still, then everything would come."

Mother gave us a straight tip. She said, "Mainly, you have to lose the sense of the T'. That is the great art in everything, for everything, for whatever you do. I have done painting, sculpture, architecture even, I have done music —for all, but all, if you are able to lose the sense of the T', you become open to ... to the knowledge of the thing."

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