... consciousness is not the first aim of the Yoga; the first aim is to open it to a higher spiritual consciousness and for this also a quiet mind is the first need. The first step is a quiet mind—silence is a farther step, but quietude must be there, and by a quiet mind I mean a mental consciousness within which sees thoughts arrive to it and move about, but does not itself feel that it is thinking... changes into peace or even into an equal Ananda undisturbed by anything that can happen. The quiet and calm have to be increased so as to be a firm basis for the love and Ananda Quiet Mind A quiet mind is a mind that does not get disturbed, is not restless and always vibrating with the need of mental action. It is not possible to make a foundation in Yoga if the mind is restless... vital-physical, and lays one open to the action of the wrong forces. To work but quietly so as to have a steady progress is the right way. Page 143 1) A quiet mind makes consciousness easier. 2) If you keep a quiet mind and a constant contact with myself and the Mother and the true Light and Force, then things will become easy and straight—it is the only way to get to the realisation ...
... Y has sent another letter. He says that the distinctions between the quiet mind, the calm mind and the silent mind are not clear. SRI AUROBINDO ( after reading the letter): A quiet mind is not necessarily free from thoughts. Thoughts can come but the mind is free from disturbance. The mental activity can go on in a quiet mind without the mind getting disturbed in any way. It is a negative state... state, you may say. In the silent mind also, thoughts can come but they are on the surface, while the silence remains behind, watching the thoughts without taking part in them. NIRODBARAN: In the quiet mind thoughts can come; they can also come in the silent mind. What is the distinction then? SRI AUROBINDO: In the silent mind, the mind may be completely silent without allowing any thoughts to enter... surface and the activity goes on on the surface while the silence remains intact behind. You can say that what is behind is silent while the surface is quiet. Do you understand? You can call the quiet mind a negative state whereas the silent mind is a positive one. The silent mind is the Purusha and the quiet is the activity of energy or Prakriti in a particular way. My mind is now silent. If I allow ...
... straining with revulsions of despondency and turning away from hope and endeavour. We spoke of a steady opening to the Divine with a flow of the force doing its work in the adhar, a poised opening with a quiet mind and heart full of trust and the sunlight of confidence; where do you find that we said a helpless waiting must be your programme? As for light-heartedness and insouciance, the Mother never spoke... successfully disturbed by wrong forces (Asuras, Apsaras etc.), they left it and sought for a new one.) Moreover, your meditation is lacking in quietude, you meditate with a striving mind—but it is in the quiet mind that the experience comes, as all Yogis agree—the still water that reflects rightly the sun. Your vital besides is afraid of quietude and emptiness, and that is because, probably, the strife and... defects of which you speak are common to all human nature and the external being of every sadhak is full of them; to become aware of them is necessary for the transformation, but it must be done with a quiet mind and with the faith and surrender to the Divine and assured aspiration to the higher consciousness which are proper to the psychic being. The transformation of the external being is the most difficult ...
... When the Mother reappeared, I brought her my flowers. I had hurriedly collected them from our own garden. They were Quiet Mind placed within the Divine's Presence. At the moment of offering them, Quiet Mind tumbled off and fell to the ground. The Mother laughed: "Your quiet mind has fallen down. Well, I'll replace it with this"—and Page 85 she gave me a tiny pink flower which ...
... when it doesn't do it rather by taking a hasty look and saying "so it is" or "so it is not". But you can't get the inner or upper mind unless this old mental activity becomes a little quiet. A quiet mind does not involve itself in its thoughts or get run away with them by them; it stands back, detaches itself, lets them pass without identifying itself, without making them its own. It becomes the... from the point of view of your obsession about inability, hopelessness, past failure enforcing future failure. The right way to read these things is not to be mentally active, but receive with a quiet mind leaving the knowledge given to go in and bear its fruit hereafter at the proper time, not ask how one can practise it now or try to apply it to immediate circumstances in which it may not fit.... to present a quiet front to the speech and action and event that disturb it. The will to do so was growing and where the will affirms itself, success in the end must come. Then the fixing of the quiet mind will provide the ground that is needed for peace and silence. It is the sensitiveness and the self-doubt that come across now and bring the relapse into despondency. If these can go, the way will ...
... feels, "was the original conception of the Buddhist teaching". The 13th and 14th verses are about the need to have a quiet mind for the unsteady mind is like a house with a leaky roof. Most Buddhist schools give a key place to meditation as the means of achieving the quiet mind. From every point of view, then, it is good to practise silence regularly, for a few minutes at least twice a day, "but... for the next step might be his not doing such things at all. To do wrong while knowing what is right can cause acute mental distress. Thus, to do the right thing always is to be able to preserve a quiet mind. The popular notion of heaven for the doers of good and hell for evil-doers must not be taken literally. The Mother says that what the Buddha insisted on was that "you create, by your conduct and ...
... Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 1 PEACE AND SILENCE The year 1933 What is meant by a quiet mind and a quiet vital? A quiet mind means a mind not restless with all sorts of thoughts. A quiet vital is a vital not restless and troubled by all sorts of impulses and desires. Peace is said to be... the mind to remain quiet while rejecting a movement? Is it not that the rejection moves the mind away from quietness? Do you imagine that a quiet mind cannot reject anything and it is only the unquiet mind that can do it? It is the quiet mind that can best do it. Quiet does not mean inert and tamasic. What is meant by the words: "Meet things without any superficial and unnecessary... very quiet in your mind and do not disperse it. It is a little difficult to keep the silence whilst reading and working. What should I do? The same thing—do all with a quiet mind, not throwing yourself out in what you do, but seeing quietly what is done and what happens. Whilst doing physical work is it possible to maintain the silence unaffected by the thoughts ...
... dream in which I went for blessings and you gave me three flowers: "mental honesty", next "surrender", and last, I think, "quiet mind". It is very good. It is very necessary! ( Laughter ) It is a fact. You have only to take it like that and make an effort to have a quiet mind, see that this mind surrenders and becomes perfectly honest. It is very good, it is a programme—and later to be concentrated ...
... settled peace and silence in the mind. Otherwise you may have experiences, but nothing will be permanent. It is in the silent mind that the true Page 149 consciousness can be built. A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface and you will feel your true being within separate from them, observing but not carried... consciousness, otherwise there is no firm standing ground for the divine play. Active experience of the joy, peace, love, etc. when the direct contact is there; but even when it is not there, a quiet mind, heart and vital waiting and aspiring for the contact and the Presence—this should always be the condition. Page 155 No disturbance or confusion due to mere vital-physical impressions ...
... This Will must be founded on a right consciousness which sees what is wrong, ignorant, selfish, egoistic, moved by desire in the nature and puts it right. It needs a quiet mind [ to know the Divine Will ]. In the quiet mind turned towards the Divine the intuition (higher mind) comes of the Divine's Will and the right way to do it. Once the mental silence is attained, then in that the mental ...
... For a long time I remained quiet after seeing the Mother. I am getting many experiences, but the consciousness gets diverted by suggestions and by activity. 1) A quiet mind makes consciousness easier. 2) If you keep a quiet mind and a constant contact with myself and the Mother and the true Light and Force, then things will become easy and straight—it is the only way to get to the realisation ...
... your own choice and the way of attainment depends upon the nature of the objects. Also your position will be whatever you make it. What you have to do first is, to recover your health; then with a quiet mind to determine your aim in life according to your capacities and preference. It is not for me to make up your mind for you. I can only indicate to you what I myself think should be the proper aims... being and build up a harmony of mind and character. Only you must understand the thing rightly, not indulging false and morbid ideas about it and you must use the right means. What is needed is a quiet mind and a quiet will, patient, persistent, refusing to yield either to excitement or discouragement, but always insisting tranquilly on the change needed in the being. A quiet will of this kind can not ...
... very far. And what else is there? Until new spiritual values are discovered, no big creation is possible. March 25, 1934 The first step is a quiet mind—silence is a further step, but quietude must be there; and by a quiet mind I mean a mental consciousness within which sees thoughts arrive to it and move about but does not itself feel that it is thinking or identifying itself with the... the thoughts or call them its own. Thoughts, mental, movements may pass through it as wayfarers appear and pass from elsewhere in a silent country—the quiet mind observes them or does not care to observe them but does not become active or lose its quietude. Silence is more than qui- etude; it can be gained by banishing thought altogether from the inner mind keeping it quite outside; but more easily ...
... higher consciousness and transformed by the descent of the higher consciousness. Does a quiet mind mean focussing attention one-pointedly on a particular subject? As for instance, while aspiring one should not allow any other thoughts than of the Divine in the quiet mind. A quiet mind is a mind that does not get disturbed, is not restless and always vibrating with the need of mental ...
... your own choice and the way of attainment depends upon the nature of the objects. Also your position will be whatever you make it. What you have to do first is, to re-cover your health; then with a quiet mind to determine your aim in life according to your capacities and preference. It is not for me to make up your mind for you. I can only indicate to you what I myself think should be the proper aims... being and build up a harmony of mind and character. Only you must understand the thing rightly, not indulging false and morbid ideas about it and you must use the right means. What is needed is a quiet mind and a quiet will, patient, persistent, refusing to yield either to excitement or discouragement, but always insisting tranquilly on the change needed in the being. A quiet will of this kind cannot ...
... revulsions of despondency and turning away from hope and endeavour. We spoke of a steady opening to the Divine with a flow of the force doing its work in the ā dhār [vessel], a poised opening with a quiet mind and heart full of trust and the Page 201 sunlight of confidence; where do you find that we said a helpless waiting must be your programme? As for light-heartedness and insouciance... easy. It is sometimes done by a sudden miracle as in my own case, but that is rare. Some get it done by a slow process of concentration, but that may take a very long time. It is easier to have a quiet mind with things that come in passing on the surface, as people pass in the street, and one is free to attend to them or not—that is to say, there develops a sort of double mind, one inner silent and ...
... you do it and what happens within you. Meanwhile, the first thing you must do is to throw out this perilous stuff of despondency and its accompaniments and recover a quiet and clear balance. A quiet mind and a quiet vital are the first conditions for success in sadhana. April 7, 1931 I suppose I am silent, first, because I have no "free-will" and, secondly, because I have no Time... work to the Divine in an atmosphere of peace and joy and gratitude, feelings which are helpful to Bhakti than to have a gloomy or struggling meditation. The first thing to get in meditation is a quiet mind and if possible a happy, at least a quiet vital. You have certainly had better things in meditation than groping or barren darkness—and there is no reason why it should not bring these better things ...
... the wit of lyricism like Lovelace's in his celebrated farewell to his mistress: Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Page 104 Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind To wars and arms I fly. True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field, And with a larger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. Yet this inconstancy... taken in a literal sense, for a nunnery is the very place where love between man and woman cannot happen; but the vision impinges on us as right because of certain words used - "chaste breast", "quiet mind" - and because of the hell-let-loose of war which stands opposed to the peacetime pursuits of love, the violences of Mars which make the excitements of Eros seem in comparison an almost conventlike ...
... is my mind that obstructs by its struggle. Your mind has obstructed the free flow of the poetry—but what it has obstructed more is the real peace and Ananda that is "deep, great and wide". A quiet mind turned towards the ভূমা is what you need. 28 July 1936 Literary Activity and Sadhana I have no hesitation at all and feel very glad when I tell you of my aspiration to do the sadhana through... keep the mind quiet and turn it always to the Divine? Do you mean to say that in order to have quietness of the mind one must do nothing? Then neither the Mother nor I nor anyone else here has a quiet mind. 6 April 1937 What is the need for so many here to learn French? Are you preparing them for giving lectures or opening centres in France or French-knowing countries? Are life and mind ...
... Quietness of Mind Silence is a state of the consciousness which comes of itself from above when you open to the Divine Consciousness—you need not trouble about that now. Page 159 A quiet mind, receiving things and looking at them without effervescence or haste, not rushing about or throwing up random ideas, is what is necessary. It is not an undesirable thing for the mind to fall... inference—when it does not do it rather by taking a hasty look and saying "So it is" or "So it is not". But you can't get the inner or upper mind unless the old mental activity becomes a little quiet. A quiet mind does not involve itself in its thoughts or get run away with by them; it stands back, detaches itself, lets them pass, without identifying itself, without making them its own. It becomes the witness ...
... divine aid to get rid of them. So long as the mind does not fall quiet, it is not possible to deal finally with the vital being from which these forces rise. The way to realise is through a quiet mind and a vital free from desires. To reject the desires and demands of the vital and to quiet the excessive activity of the mind, so that a true consciousness and spiritual perception and knowledge... call to the divine Mother to enter there and purify the mind and vital and unveil the psychic being so that her constant guidance and presence in it may be felt always and (3) to concentrate in the quiet mind and (in the head) open oneself first to the divine force and light which is always above the mind and call to it to descend into the body and the whole being—either of these or both, according to ...
... choice and the way of attainment depends upon the nature of the object. Also your position will be whatever you make it. What you have to do is, first of all, to recover your health; then, with a quiet mind to determine your aim in life according to your capacities and preferences. It is not for me to make up your mind for you. I can only indicate to you what I myself think should be the proper aims... being and build up a harmony of mind and character. Only you must understand the thing rightly, not indulging in false and morbid ideas about it and you must use the right means. What is needed is a quiet mind and a quiet will, patient, persistent, refusing Page 304 to yield either to excitement or discouragement, but always insisting [tranquilly] 2 on the change needed in the being. A quiet ...
... them the key to all realisation—a quiet mind that knows how to keep quiet for hours together without roving. You must not believe however that it is a very easy thing to do, but they have no other object. They do not concentrate upon any thought, they do not try to understand better, to know more, nothing of the kind; for them the only way is to have a quiet mind and sometimes they pass through years ...
... must know and then act, whereas men act and then try to know through their action. 26 August 1966 2 The more we know the more we can see that we do not know. Quiet Mind, Calm Mind, Silent Mind Quiet mind: the best way of learning. Perfect quietness in the mind: essential condition for true progress. Quietness established in the mind: the essential condition of its ...
... senses back when they are inclined to rush out, draw them away from their objects,—as the tortoise draws in his limbs into the shell. (iii) Senses thus drawn back enter into the quiet mind; (iv) The quiet mind draws back into the quiet intelligent will, buddhi; (v) The quiet intelligent will draws back into the soul and its self-knowledge, which observes quietly the action of the three ...
... consciousness, with a clear practical mind, looking at physical conditions and physical realities. You must accept these first, or you will never be able to change and perfect them. You must recover a quiet mind and intelligence. If you can once firmly do these things, the Greater Truth and Consciousness can come back in its proper time, in the right way and under the right conditions. [7] Pondicherry ...
... the eye-brow centre and the muladhara. All that is in place in ordinary meditation, so long as there is not the complete silence of the mind and the automatic action in the silence. But the quiet mind is entirely necessary if you meditate with the Mother. Otherwise the mind goes on with its activities Page 529 on its own lines and cannot be conscious of or receptive to the Mother's ...
... straining with revulsions of despondency and turning away from hope and endeavour. We spoke of a steady opening to the Divine with a flow of the force doing its work in the adhar, a poised opening with a quiet mind and heart full of trust and the sunlight of confidence; where do you find that we said a helpless waiting must be your programme? As for light-heartedness and insouciance, the Mother never spoke ...
... easy. It is sometimes done by a sudden miracle as in my own case, but that is rare. Some get it done by a slow process of concentration, but that may take a very long time. It is easier to have a quiet mind with things that come in passing on the surface, as people pass in the street, and one is free to attend to them or not—that is to say, there develops a sort of double mind, one inner silent and ...
... into the true attitude in which you can see things simply and naturally; do not allow yourself to be flung off the track by suggestions of the old kind. The only sure basis on which you can go is a quiet mind and confidence in yourself and the Mother. 1 October 1933 I am not doing any drawing or painting based on inspiration from Nature because I am not inclined to it nowadays. Instead I feel a ...
... no solution seems possible. 15 April 1934 J. Krishnamurti At one time I tried to come into imaginative contact with J. Krishnamurti. I imagined as follows: He has acquired a quiet Page 181 mind and a semi-quiet vital and has glimpses through them of the Self. He receives some things intuitively in his mind. But he goes no further than that. He has neither the knowledge nor the ...
... do at the moment. Especially in the beginning the one great necessity is to get the mind quiet, reject at the time of meditation all thoughts and movements that are foreign to the sadhana. In the quiet mind there will be a progressive preparation for the experience. But you must not become impatient if all is not done at once; it takes time to bring entire quiet into the mind; you have to go on till ...
... signs of having a special call to it. All I can suggest to him is to practise some kind of Karmayoga—remembering the Supreme in all his actions from the smallest to the greatest, doing them with a quiet mind and without ego-sense or attachment and offering them to Him as a sacrifice. He may also try or aspire to feel the presence of the Divine Shakti behind the world and its forces, distinguish between ...
... within us awakes and sees by an inner vision images of all things in this world and other worlds—this power of vision has its use, though one has not to be attached to it; one can let them pass with a quiet mind, neither fixing on them nor driving them away. This kind of vision [ seeing water, a rose, a tiger ] almost anybody can have except those who live too much in the mind. For others it is very ...
... the sadhana. In whatever condition, the faith and the fixed idea of surrender must be kept before the mind. As for the brief movements of restlessness, they will still down if this is kept and the quiet mind and vital reassert themselves quickly. The physical does not get tired of the blankness. It may feel tamasic because of its own tendency to inertia, but it does not usually object to voidness ...
... idea why he wants to change [ his work ]. If he wants to make himself some day fit for the spiritual life, the first thing to be avoided is vital restlessness. To do the work one has to do with a quiet mind, making an offering of it to the Divine and trying to get rid of egoism and vital desire, is the best way to prepare oneself. The bitterness you feel is that of a restless and dissatisfied ...
... above the ordinary consciousness one was free from difficulties and that this was what one felt—I thought you meant that this was your own experience. So I put the question, as the experience of the quiet mind is one that can easily be broken by the invasions of the vital or the inertia of the physical being. The experience of the deeper freedom and calm which belongs to the self remains, but it can be ...
... deliver you. The Divine presence, calm, peace, purity, force, light, joy, wideness are above, waiting to descend in you. Find this quietude behind and your mind also will become quieter and through the quiet mind you can call down the descent first of the purity and peace and then of the Divine Force. If you can feel this peace and purity descending into you, you can then call it down again and again till ...
... "opening" mean? Is it "not to keep anything secret from the Mother"? Page 150 That is the first step towards opening. 17 June 1933 How does one "open"? By faith and surrender in a quiet mind. 18 June 1933 To be open is simply to be so turned to the Mother that her Force can work in you without anything refusing or obstructing her action. If the mind is shut up in its own ideas ...
... closed the argument. What are we to do with the Manas? Get it to be still, says the Yogin. While it is busy, knowledge is impossible. You can get only fragments of knowledge. That is true and the quiet mind is no doubt essential to the Yogin. But what of the senses? Concepts in the Manas you may get rid of, but what are you to do with the percepts? You cannot stop seeing, hearing etc., except when you ...
... with sincerity and perseverance one is sure to succeed. Now from the point of view of Yoga, it is always better to attach no importance to superficial things and to keep an inner poise and a quiet mind, taking refuge in the Divine and giving importance only to the real relation with the Divine. ...
... you. 14 April 1959 Concentrate on your work—it is that that gives you strength. Blessings. 10 September 1961 Continue doing your work with a simple and peaceful heart and a quiet mind. The aspiration will come gradually according to the need. 21 April 1965 Page 317 I have been feeling for quite some time that I should limit my outward activity and confine ...
... the full answer. But short of it the best answer is: poetry and music. They seem to hail from outside us but they have come from the poet's and the musician's depths and if one listens with a quiet mind they will reveal their secret source, the God-haunted movement which runs below the echoes they make to the roaring, the purling, the whispering, the kissing by which the cosmos communicates with ...
... ly disturbed by wrong forces (Asuras, Apsaras, etc.), they left it and sought for a new one. Moreover, your meditation is lacking in quietude, you meditate with a striving mind—but it is in the quiet mind that the experience comes, as all Yogis agree—the still water that reflects rightly the sun. Your vital besides is afraid of quietude and emptiness, and that is because, probably, the strife and ...
... the mind quiet and turn it always to the Divine? Do you mean to say that in order to have quietness of the mind one must do nothing? Then neither the Mother nor I nor anyone else here has a quiet mind. Doing nothing with the mind is not quietude or silence. It is inactivity that leaves the mind thinking mechanically and discursively instead of concentrating on an object - that is all ...
... spoken about the indispensable necessity of youth —fresh life and living aspiration, that is the contribution of the young.... But what is lacking there, what has to be acquired is a peaceful and quiet mind and a wider consciousness. With strong vitality there must be pure luminosity, with motion there must be vision. It is this that is the contribution of old age. With long experience comes wisdom ...
... first there is quite a large action of the semi-automatic mind, which continues the original movement. Little by little this action becomes calm and stops. I find myself then face to face with the quiet mind : but there is another activity of the mind, a kind of inner language which seems to be aroused by myself. It is with this thought that I tell myself, for instance : "Now I am observing my thoughts ...
... Divine ) to be embroidered. From these pieces were made window-curtains, table-cloths, piano covers etc. for Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s rooms. It was a work that demanded, as well as promoted, a quiet mind and body, thus providing ample scope to concentrate on the Divine. Perhaps that is why most sadhikas did some embroidery in their spare time, and also to create something to offer to Mother on ...
... With my blessings for the realisation of your highest aspiration.) There was another very beautiful quotation on the back of the card: The Grace is always with you. With a quiet mind, concentrate on your heart. You will certainly get its help and guidance. The Mother Page 94 ...
... for following the Mother's will are to turn to her for Light and Truth and Power, to aspire that no other force shall influence or lead you, to make no demands or conditions in the vital, to keep a quiet mind ready to receive the Truth but not insisting on its own ideas and formations; finally to keep the psychic awake and in front, so that you may be in constant contact and know truly what her will is; ...
... and firmly life and its difficulties will never be able to go through the still greater inner difficulties of the sadhana. The very first lesson in this Yoga is to face life and its trials with a quiet mind, a firm courage and an entire reliance on the Divine Shakti. It is true that a great patience and steadfastness is needed. Be then firm and patient and fixed on the aims of the sadhana, but ...
... control over one's thoughts as well as over one's acts and prevent the bad ones from having Page 334 their play. But this mental control is not enough for the sadhak. He must attain to a quiet mind and in the silence of the mind receive only the Divine thought-forces or other divine Forces and be their field and instrument. To silence the mind it is not enough to throw back each thought ...
... object, e.g. the Divine—there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it. Meditation means thinking on one subject in a concentrated way. In concentration proper there is not ...
... quiet foundation that helps the opening. All this struggling and confusion and harassing self-depreciation is the old wrong way of proceeding; it is mental and vital and cannot succeed; it is in the quiet mind that the opening must come. Then the psychic being, the soul in you, begins to come forward. The soul knows and sees the Truth; the mind and vital do not—until they are enlightened by the soul's ...
... Why get excited over these small things or let them disturb you? If you remain quiet, things will go much better and, if there is any difficulty, you are more likely to find out a way in a quiet mind open to the Peace and Power. That is the secret of going on, not to allow things and happenings, not even real mistakes, to upset you, but to remain very quiet, confiding in the Power to lead you ...
... you do it and what happens within you. Meanwhile the first thing you must do is to throw out this perilous stuff of despondency and its accompaniments and recover a quiet and clear balance. A quiet mind and a quiet vital are the first conditions for success in sadhana. To live within does not mean to give up reading and writing or other external activities; I shall try to explain to you what ...
... ordinary rajasic movements of the nature (desire, grief, attachment and other reactions), which is very necessary in order that peace may come. It is what we may call the quiet vital—and it is in the quiet mind and the quiet vital that the true spiritual consciousness can most easily come. Page 115 × The correspondent ...
... human nature that has to be changed before it can hold what descends—incapacity and limitation of the mind, insufficient purity in the heart and elsewhere, restlessness etc. To contain the descent a quiet mind and pure heart are needed. That is why there is the restlessness and sense of incapacity in her. That is a quite common experience. If she wants to go farther, she must aspire for calm, peace, purity ...
... easy. It is sometimes done by a sudden miracle, as in my own case, but that is rare. Some get it done by a slow process of concentration, but that may take a very long time. It is easier to have a quiet mind with things that come in passing on the surface, as people pass in the street, and one is free to attend to them or not—that is to say, there develops a sort of double mind, one inner silent and ...
... that comes to you, all your experiences and progress to the Mother. What should I do to keep the silence alert and constant while reading, talking and working. The same thing—do all with a quiet mind, not throwing yourself out in what you do, but seeing quietly what is done and what happens. 16 January 1934 ...
... from the point of view of your obsession about inability, hopelessness, past failure enforcing future failure. The right way to read these things is not to be mentally active, but receive with a quiet mind leaving the knowledge given to go in and bear its fruit hereafter at the proper time, not ask how one can practise it now or try to apply it to immediate circumstances in which it may not fit. I ...
... of the pressure put by the Mother to see and do things in the true light. What you feel coming down is the true consciousness with the presence and action of the Mother. Mother gave me a quiet mind today. Ever since pranam I have been feeling her atmosphere; some force which I feel to be hers is upon my head and around me. My restlessness is much less, almost gone. It is the Mother's touch ...
... will are to turn to her for Light and Truth and Strength, to aspire that no other force shall influence or lead you, to make no demands or conditions Page 254 in the vital, to keep a quiet mind ready to receive the Truth but not insisting on its own ideas and formations,—finally, to keep the psychic awake and in front, so that you may be in constant contact and know truly what her will ...
... "Aspire for the rest of the divine consciousness, but with a calm and deep aspiration. It can be ardent as well as calm, but not impatient, restless or full of rajasic eagerness. "Only in the quiet mind and being can the supramental Truth build its true creation." Sweet Mother, what is the Sat-Purusha? The Purusha? What is it in the being? Knowledge. The conscious being. What is this ...
... truth to greater truth, from happiness to increasing happiness. Page 99 It is in a sincere consecration to the Divine that we can find relief from our too human sufferings. The quiet mind one gets through meditation is indeed of short duration, for as soon as you come out from meditation you come out at the same time from the quietness of mind. The true lasting quietness in the vital ...
... (not with this little consciousness), I see that it's a thing of GREAT importance. It will have a great action. So, I want to clear the way for you now, for us to have time. I will surely need a quiet mind to prepare the work. 3 Yes, yes of course. To finish this reading and assimilate it quietly. I don't feel capable of writing at all, unless I can receive the inspiration. But you ...
... succeed in establishing mental silence. But how can one fix this as a constant experience? Because the moment one throws oneself into activity, the mental disturbance begins again! One can have a quiet mind without being in a complete state of silence; one can carry on an activity without being disturbed. The ideal is to be able to act without coming out of the mental quietude. One can do everything ...
... understanding. I want the peace to come into your mind and also the quiet, patient wisdom which prevents one from jumping to hasty conclusions and judgments. It is always better to keep a quiet mind and to abstain from rushing to conclusions before you have the necessary information. 12 April 1932 Tell your vital not to judge on appearances and to collaborate. All is well in the long ...
... poise. 13 July 1935 Have you no intention of working physically yourself? Yet, it is quite indispensable for the welfare of the body. 30 January 1945 Page 325 With a quiet mind and a peaceful heart, let us do the work happily. 16 May 1954 All work must be play, but a divine play, played for the Divine, with the Divine. To work for the Divine is very good, ...
... is my mind that obstructs by its struggle. Your mind has obstructed the free flow of the poetry—but what it has obstructed more is the real peace and Ananda that is "deep, great and wide". A quiet mind turned towards the ভূমা 19 is what you need. I have written poems without much obstruction, but they didn't give me any joy except the last one: The Bird of Light, 20 which gave me just ...
... reporting it to the Mother. She answered me: Now, from the point of view of Yoga, it is always better to attach no importance to these superficial things and to keep an inner poise and a quiet mind, taking refuge in the Divine and giving importance only to the relation with the Divine. I fought down my indignation and recovered my composure. My true self implored the Mother to assist me ...
... the propitious milieu of the mental and vital silence already created. (vii)The indication from above or within may come in either of three different ways. (a) It may possibly come in the quiet mind as a sure knowledge as regards the course of action the sadhaka should follow at that moment, (b) Or, it may come in the emotional heart in the form of a sure feeling, and indicate to the sadhaka ...
... it? They are not here to enlighten him. It is certainly superfluous to intervene in another person's sadhana — but you should receive all remarks and criticisms about yourself with a quiet mind and without any reaction against the critic. What is this prevalent talk about the 'advanced sadhaks'? Is it not nonsense, since we are all quite incapable of knowing who is more ...
... Integral Yoga - Major Aims, Methods, Processes and Results PART THREE Spiritual Experiences on the way to the Supermind On the way from the Quiet Mind and Silent Mind or Purified Mind, and while crossing from Higher Mind to the Supermind, several higher and penultimate spiritual experiences are attained. In the specialized systems of yoga these ...
... look upon it as my mother. I revere and adore it. What does a son do when he sees a demon sitting upon his mother's chest and about to drink her life-blood? Does he sit down to his meals with a quiet mind and enjoy himself in the company of his wife and children? Or, does he run to the rescue of his mother? / know I have the power to redeem this fallen race. 40 It is not physical power -I ...
... its guidance of the nature makes for the greatest spontaneity in loving concentration. Page 373 meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking on one subject for observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it."¹ Another thing which is very helpful in concentration is calm and peace. According to Sri Aurobindo ...
... do not think that any part of my being will ever accept them, and yet I pray for Your help and protection. Yes, the help and protection are always with you—but you must quiet your mind or get out of it, look at it from above and control all these absurd suggestions. Always with you my dear child 2 March 1936 ... (Correspondence with Dyuman) Dyuman's Correspondence with The Mother 2 March 1936 My dear Mother, My mind has become very active. It catches all sorts of nasty suggestions, two of which are prominent: "Relieve me from Aroumé" and "Can't You manage to send me away from here?" What is this nonsense. Surely you will not listen to that! I do ...
... One suggestion comes: "When a plant is suffering, meditate upon it. The mind will bring many ideas, but quietly wait. If not at once, eventually the real cause will become evident if you draw near the plant and meditate upon it now and then." Is this a right suggestion? You can try the meditation but unless you quiet your mind completely it will not be of much help. In connection with the grubs... grubs eating the roots of the plants, I can do two things: either free the mind from fear and develop an inner quiet and confidence in Your grace, or take precautionary measures such as applying soot-water, permanganate of potash etc. In the latter solution I have little faith, but I can do so if that be Your will. Why this or that? Can you not rely on the Grace always, whatever is the exterior ...
... Mother? Even with a little of that attitude, the descent was taking place in you. If you want to get back your faith and keep it, you must first quiet your mind and make it open and obedient to the Mother's force. If you have an excited mind at the mercy of every influence and impulse, you will remain a field of conflicting and contrary forces and cannot progress. You will begin to listen to... instead of the Mother's knowledge and your faith will naturally disappear and you will get into a wrong condition and a wrong attitude. March 1928 Put your faith in the Divine Shakti, set your mind at rest and let the Mother's Force work. 26 August 1933 There is no reason to be discouraged. Three years is not too much for the preparation of the nature and it is usually through fluctuations ...
... consciousness'. My own method is not to quiet the mind, for it is eternally quiet, but to turn upward and inward. You, I suppose, would have to quiet it first, which is not always easy. Have you tried it? "It is precisely the people who are careful, self-critical, anxious for perfection who have interrupted visits from the Muse. Those who don't mind what they write, trusting to their genius... of flying on the wings of inspiration, the sense of the poetic part of me caught in the mere mind and rendered vague and ineffective—all this is most unpleasant. Sometimes I fear the present lack of fluency may become a permanent defect. What method would you advise to counteract it ? Quieting the mind ? What do you do to get inspiration ?) "Poetry seems to have intervals in its visits... unknowable vast behind 13 Thy gold apocalypse of shadowless mind! 14 Sri Aurobindo's Comment "That is extraordinarily fine throughout. But it is too fine for any need of remarks. Lines 3,4,5, also 10,11,12,13,14, Illumined Mind with Overmind Intuition touch—the rest Higher Mind suffused with Illumined Mind." * (The Muse is again away and I am feeling impatient ...
... h between the bubbling of ideas and an inner vision of necessities. The mind must be quiet and silent before you can receive an inspiration from above. * A very very quiet head is indispensable for a clear understanding and vision and a right action. * How to stop discussions in the mind? The first condition is to talk as little as possible. The... that it is incapable of knowing the Truth and, in those who aspire sincerely, to the necessity of being quiet and opening in silence to the higher regions which can give you knowledge. 27 September 1969 * Mother, a free, quiet, silent mind is such a nice thing; I would like to have more of that. I want to be free from the constant whirlwinds of thoughts and... silent meditation. 23 March 1966 * How to get rid of mental inertia? The cure is not in trying to wake up the mind but in turning it, immobile and silent, upward towards the region of intuitive light, in a steady and quiet aspiration, and to wait in silence, for the light to come down and flood your brain which will, little by little, wake up to this influence and ...
... [18] A flowering plant sheds its withered flowers, even so, O Bhikkhu, shed your attachments, your likes and dislikes. [19] Quiet in body, quiet in speech, quiet in mind, deep in concentration, all world's desires ended, the Bhikkhu attains perfect Peace. Page 246 [20] Move the self by the self, establish... without meditation one can have no knowledge. One who has both knowledge and meditation, can reach Nirvana. [14] The Bhikkhu who has entered the house of emptiness, whose mind is quieted, who clearly distinguishes the Divine Law attains superhuman delight. [15] Each time he concentrates on the appearance and disappearance of the contingents, he enjoys... good to control one's ear, good to control one's nose, good to control one's tongue. [2] It is good to control one's body, good to control one's speech, good to control one's mind; it is good to have control everywhere. The Bhikkhu who has control everywhere is freed from all sorrows. [3] One who has control over his hands, who has control over his feet ...
... bile, but open and receptive—gets more established the more you have these experiences. There is a big difference between a dead, lackluster, unresponsive silence and the receptive silence of a quieted mind. It makes a big difference. And it results from these experiences. All the progress we make is always, quite naturally, the result of truths coming down from above. It has an effect: all these... always an action. Even those things which seem purely intellectual certainly have an effect on the structure of the brain. And these kinds of revelations happen only in a silent mind—or at least a mind at rest. Unless the mind is absolutely tranquil and still, it doesn't come. Or if it does come, you don't even notice anything with all the racket you're making! And of course, these experiences help the... manage to convey an impression of it. But as for speaking of the Other Thing, I am quite aware that.... Because even when you're right in the Experience, the only thing you feel like doing is... keeping quiet. You can't talk. As soon as you utter a word, poof! It all clouds over. It's useless. But physically, for instance, you see this object [Satprem picks up a paperweight]. Now, I see it in a certain ...
... When I think of the Mother's compassion, I start weeping with gratefulness. Never before in my life have I felt so much Page 162 affection. If my mind is a bit quiet, will I be able to feel her help? Yes, it is by quieting the mind that you will become able to call the Mother and open to her. The soothing effect was a touch from the psychic—one of the touches that prepare the opening of... the Mother's arms is the symbol of the psychic being. The soul in direct touch with the divine Truth is hidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature ( manas, prāṇa, anna of the Taittiriya Upanishad); one may practise Yoga and get illuminations in the mind and the reason, power and all kinds of experiences in the vital, even physical siddhis, but if the true soul-power behind and... supreme Ananda. If the soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then the Yoga can be done; otherwise (by the mere power of the mind or any other part) it is impossible. It is this new birth, this awakening of the psychic consciousness, that the Mother is offering in the vision. If the golden Purusha refuses it, it must be because ...
... keeping very quiet in your mind. I am always helping you, but it is only when your mind is quiet that you can receive the help. It is true that I am very busy and during the 2 months of athletics I cannot give interviews so you must be patient. Do not worry, I am not unwell—I am quite all right. With my love and blessings. Unfortunately my petty mind was not always quiet and silent. It... understand, something in your mind and your vital revolted, was dissatisfied and depressed and created all the trouble. Well, now there is nothing else to do but to be sincere to your higher aspiration and not only want the Divine but agree full-heartedly to the Divine Will and give yourself without demands; then and then only you will recover your poise, quietness of mind and happiness. It goes without... quite sure whether she had heard my call, even if it had not been sincere. She affirmed: I always hear your call and answer at once. But no, I was not convinced of this. The little physical mind doubted everything. I was too opaque to receive and accept anything she bestowed on me. And that was the tragedy. I wrote a letter to the Mother in French. It is translated in English: Sweet ...
... so as to leave Page 213 the mind unoccupied and clear; otherwise it will be pushed two ways and not in the condition of ease and clearness necessary for the concentration. Inspiration and the Silent Mind When I ask for "advice" I want to know how to direct my consciousness. Should I concentrate on anything in particular or just quiet my mind and turn it upwards and inwards? And I... whenever they feel inclined are rare birds, now-infant phenomena. I don't know about the direction of consciousness. My own method is not to quiet the mind, for it is eternally quiet, but to turn it upward and inward. You, I suppose, would have to quiet it first which is not always easy. You have tried it? 5 October 1936 Do you mean that the method you advised [to "sit in vacant meditation... meditation and see what comes from the intuitive Gods"] can really do something? It was a joke. But all the same that is the way things are supposed to come. When the mind becomes decently quiet, an intuition perfect or imperfect is supposed to come hopping along and jump in and look round the place. Of course, it is not the only way. I understand that you wrote many things in that way, but people ...
... because the mind is not looking at things from the right angle. The Mother has a special kindness for X and every day at Pranam she is trying to put a sustaining force upon him. He must learn to be very quiet in mind and vital and consecrate himself so that he may become conscious as well as receive. The Divine Love, unlike the human, is deep and vast and silent; one must become quiet and wide to... that is the usual senseless idea of the vital-physical mind and has no value. 17 January 1937 It is not Mother who makes you cry. It is forces from the vital Nature that make you sorrowful and think of dying and of the past. What comes from Mother is love and light and peace and joy and the spiritual life of the future. Never mind about the purity of the body. The love of the Mother purifies... human nature do not count against that love. The only thing is that you must become aware of it always there. For that it is necessary for the psychic to come in front—for the psychic knows, while the mind, vital and physical look only at surface appearances and misinterpret them. It is that for which the Mother's force is working, and whenever the psychic comes near the surface, you have felt love and ...
... —different people's good influences may also conflict. PURANI: What one has gained from one may go counter to what one gets from another. Now I understand why you asked Dr. Kantilal to quiet his mind. His mind seems to be roaming about from place to place. (Sri Aurobindo was smiling at this.) ...
... and vision and a right action. Please help me to distinguish between the bubbling of ideas and an inner vision of necessities. The mind must be quiet and silent before you can receive an inspiration from above. The mind must remain quiet to let the Force flow through it for an integral manifestation. How does one teach a student to think correctly? Mental capacity is developed... shall try to work with the help of intuition. Help me in my efforts. Calm the vital. Silence the mind. Keep the brain silent and still like an even surface turned upwards and attentive. And wait.... 29 September 1967 It is not by mental activity that you can quiet your mind, it is from a higher or deeper level that you can receive the help you need. And both can be reached in... discussions in the mind? The first condition is to talk as little as possible. The second is to think just of what you are doing at the moment and not of what you have to do or of what you have done before. Never regret what is past or imagine what will be. Check pessimism in your thoughts as much as you can and become a voluntary optimist. Mother, a free, quiet, silent mind is such a nice ...
... unconscious—have caused the happy condition to withdraw? A very small thing will sometimes bring a fall of consciousness when the thing is not yet pakka 8 . One has to pick oneself up again quietly without minding the interruption. Mother, from your look at pranam it seemed to me you didn't or don't like our taking food exclusive of Asram food... How did you read food into the Mother's look... If it was like the pictures, it may have been a mental image. On the other hand it may not have been, especially as you did not ask for it. Krishna may have appeared in that form because for your mind it was easiest. I am surprised to see that within a few days J has written more poems than my whole output in a year. No, I am not jealous but I wonder how and why I don't get sufficient inspiration ...
... one Page 27 lives only in the mind and its questioning and ideas, it is not possible. The test of capacity is to be able to quiet the mind, to feel a greater Divine Power at work in one, the Power of the Mother, and to be able to trust to it and aid its workings by the rejection of all that contradicts them in the nature. To quiet your mind means to stop thinking about the things that... vital, not of the inner life. They must quiet down and give room for the inner life. At first the result may be a neutral quiet, but one has often to pass through that to arrive at a more positive new consciousness. When the mind thus falls quiet the thoughts of the past, all sorts of repetitive or mechanical thoughts begin to rise up—these come from the physical mind or the subconscient. One has to refuse... else as something outer and superficial. How can the mind find out or decide what is the right thing to do for your sadhana? The more it is active in that way, the more confusion there will be. In sadhana the mind has to be quiet, fixed in aspiration towards the Divine—the true experience and change will come in the quietude of the mind from within and from above. It is also a mistake to ...
... consciousness'. My own method is not to quiet the mind, for it is eternally quiet, but to turn upward and inward. You, I suppose, would have to quiet it first, which is not always easy. Have you tried it ? It is precisely the people who are careful, self-critical, anxious for perfection who have interrupted visits from the Muse. Those who don't mind what they write, trusting to their genius... flying on the wings of inspiration, the sense of the poetic part of me caught in the mere mind and rendered vague and ineffective - all this is most unpleasant. Sometimes I fear the present lack of fluency may become a permanent defect. What method would you advise to counteract it ? Quieting the mind ? What do you do to get inspiration ? Poetry seems to have intervals in its visits... There are exceptions, of course. 'The poetic part caught in the mere mind' is an admirable explanation of the phenomenon of interruption — it was the same with myself in the old days. Fluent poets are those Page 47 who either do not mind if they do not always write their very best or whose minds are sufficiently poetic to make even their 'not best’ verse pass muster ...
... vital and outer mind also and in that complete quietude the true perceptions will come. The Mind and the Psychic Most people begin with the power [ of Yoga ] working in the Page 7 mind—it is only when the mind and vital have been changed to some extent that the psychic is ready to come forward. The chief obstacle in you is the mind. If you can quiet your mind and give the psychic... to come as a habit, mechanically,—these sometimes come up when one tries to be quiet. They must be allowed to pass away without attending to them until they run down and the mind becomes still; to struggle with them and try to stop them is no use, there must be only a quiet rejection. On the other hand if thoughts come up from within, from the psychic, thoughts of the Mother, of divine love and joy... Sadhana on the Level of the Mind Sadhana on the Level of the Mind The Mind and Sadhana Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter I The Mind and Other Levels of Being The Mind and the Divine Consciousness The ways of the Divine are not like those of the human mind or according to our patterns and it is impossible to judge them or to lay down for Him what He shall ...
... whom I know get peace by concentration on breath and by repeating a mantra—say, Ramanama—with each breath. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, that is quite a well-known method. Any kind of concentration that quiets the mind gives peace. SATYENDRA ( looking at N and smiling ): If Nirod's path had been of Brahmic consciousness he would have got it by now. His is of the psychic, perhaps. NIRODBARAN: I may get it... peace and calm remains in all the activities of the mind. The test comes when it descends into the vital. Unless the vital is purified, one may fail. This is called falling from yoga, yogabhrashta , as happened here in the early years. When the Brahmic consciousness descended into the vital, all broke down. NIRODBARAN: But one can keep it in the mind. It need not come into the vital. SRI AUROBINDO:... the term loosely. Peace and calm is only a part of that consciousness and not the whole of it. One may be in contact with it or able to go into it at will or there may be the reflection of it in the mind and the vital. All that is partial. One has to go further, into the higher consciousness above the head and remain there. NIRODBARAN: Then I suppose one won't be disturbed by these things. SRI ...
... pure instrument of the spirit. Page 122 The Mind and the Vital It is evident that your sadhana has been up till now in the mind—that was why you found it easy to concentrate at the crown of the head because the centre there directly commands the whole mental range. The mind quieted and experiencing the effects of the sadhana quieted the vital disturbance, but did not clear and change the... ss in such a way that the inner mind gets covered up and all the old thoughts and feelings return for a time. It is the physical mind that becomes active and gives its assent. If the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing the vital movement, but not giving its assent, then to reject it becomes more easy. This established quietude and detachment of the mind marks always a great step forward... desire-soul opens to experience before the mind has been touched by the things of the spirit. Aspire always for the mind and psychic being to be filled with the true consciousness and experience and made ready. You must aspire especially for quietness, peace, a calm faith, an increasing steady wideness, for more and more knowledge, for a deep and intense but quiet devotion. Do not be troubled by your ...
... direct touch and influence. (3) Meanwhile he can try to prepare himself by personal meditation if he likes. The method is to quiet the mind and, Page 817 in order to do so, to concentrate on an aspiration for faith in the Divine Power, peace and calm in the mind, single-minded sincerity in the heart, and a conscious opening to the Light and Truth and Power. 14 September 1928 An ... where that leads it. If there are any elements of utility in it for future work, those will be taken up when the time comes; if not, it must be left to fade away of itself. But it should be in the quiet and silence you first assigned to it—not as a public movement, for then it would soon cease to be at all pure and genuine. 28 November 1936 Page 819 ... sadhaks profit psychically when they live spiritually in close contact with each other? It depends on themselves. If they grow psychically and spiritually and live within and above, instead of in the mind and vital and body, then there can be a psychic and spiritual solidarity created useful for the divine work. At present that does not exist, except in future potentiality. 18 April 1935 For some ...
... law of their being, possess more or less the faculty of intuition. When the mind is perfectly silent, pure like a well-polished mirror, immobile as a pond on a breezeless day, then, from above, as the light of the stars drops in the motionless waters, so the light of the supermind, of the Truth within, shines in the quieted mind and gives birth to intuition. Those who are accustomed to listen to this... That and perceive his own mind, Page 167 life and body as only one presentation of the Self, and all whom we, at present, conceive of as others will be to his consciousness his own self in other minds, lives and bodies. He will be able to feel his body one with all bodies, as he will be aware constantly of the unity of all matter; he will unite himself in mind and heart with all existences;... illuminating as the coming one.... After the bad dreams of the night the world will awaken to a new consciousness. The civilisation which is ending now in such a dramatic way was based on the power of mind, mind dealing with matter and life. What it has been to the world, we have not to discuss here. But a new reign is coming, that of the Spirit: after the human, the divine. Yet, if we have been fortunate ...
... working is going on inside to be very quiet in speech and as sparing as possible. At other times it does not so much matter. Page 483 Fear of the Descending Force The first condition of progress in sadhana is not to fear, to have trust and keep quiet during an experience. What happened was simply that the Force came down and tried to quiet the mind and hold the body still so that it might... the world without anything at all except the force itself, is one that comes especially when the mind and vital have not assimilated the Power. It is the feeling of something extraordinary to them and omnipotent; the idea of breaking or crushing is suggested by the rajas in the vital. Afterwards when quietly assimilated this sensation disappears and only the feeling of calm strength and immovable firmness... longer and longer till it is stable. The sadhak on his side has to keep his consciousness as quiet and still as possible to receive it. The Peace, Power, Light, Ananda of the higher spiritual consciousness are there in all veiled above. A certain opening upwards is needed for it to descend—the quietude of the mind and a certain wide concentrated passivity to the descending Influence are the best conditions ...
... your mind to be too active and to live in a turmoil, do not jump to conclusions from a superficial view of things; always take your time, concentrate and decide only in quietness. * The Truth-Consciousness must pervade all the being, dominate all the movements and quiet the restless physical mind. These are the preliminary conditions for the manifestation. * The quite mind one gets... into your mind and also the quiet, patient wisdom which prevents one from jumping to hasty conclusions and judgments. * The more a mind is ignorant the more easily it judges everything it does not know or is incapable of understanding. * A very very quiet head is indispensable for a clear understanding and vision and a right action. * We must always keep in mind the big... gets through meditation is indeed of short duration, for as soon asyou come out from meditation you come out at the same time from the quietness of mind. The true, lasting quietness in the vital and the physical as well as in the mind, comes from a complete consecration to the Divine; for when you can no more call anything, not even yourself, yours, when everything, including your body, sensations ...
... the Force only if he resists it—otherwise it brings peace and calm and happiness and strength. It is probably some other part of the mind—the vital mind or physical mind—it is these usually that resist. Usually the descent in the head helps to quiet the mind. If you mean the descent of the higher consciousness, that is felt in the heart region, not only in the centre, just as it is felt... that of the personal mind and will. The higher consciousness Page 441 can by what it brings correct or rebuild what is defective in the personal nature. The consciousness is always there above you. It is when one opens oneself and calls it that it descends and works—whether in meditation or in work. What comes from above can come when one is in a clear mind or when the vital... illumined mind, only part Page 447 of its truth and force can manifest and be effective—so much only as can get through this less receptive consciousness. And even what gets through is less true, mixed with other matter, less overmental, more easily modified into something that is part truth, part error. When this diminished indirect Force descends farther down into the mind and vital, ...
... completely reversing the meaning of the preceding versions and contradicting. Sri Aurobindo's often-repeated advice to quiet the mind -make the building brain pause - in order to receive messages from beyond or behind our ordinary consciousness. Page 41 which keeps me in mind of what the name given me by Sri Aurobindo - 'Amal Kiran (The Clear Ray)" - commands me to do. My destiny is to ... whole glory and grope of our endless Yoga. (21.4.1986) Your quotation of the Savitri lines on the black Inconscient brought back to my mind one of my cheeky criticisms of Sri Aurobindo in my chosen role (quite understood by him) of a modern mind previewing the unusual poem before it would Page 39 break into publication. I had jibbed at what struck me as abstractness in his... heaven, Then leave the naked brain.... Unformulable mysterious movements of the mind are said to take place exceeding the range and grasp of the physical conceiving consciousness. A sort of reverse movement, not anything arising from our life but visiting it from the Higher, the Illumined, the Intuitive Mind occurs when Savitri's future father Aswapati has returned from his supra-mundane travels: ...
... up to it and under another control does not help. 8 March 1936 That is what must be done. Trust in the Mother and will only to be open to her always and as quietly confident as may be. The work to be done is too great for the outer mind to understand how it is to be done; it is only by growing light and experience that one day it begins to understand—it is also too great and difficult for it to... Mother. Mother, how can one always receive Ananda from you? By thinking less and less of oneself and more and more of the Divine. Mother, how can I open myself to you? By quieting the mind and vital, by concentrating more on the Mother and by calling for her Force to enter and work in the being. Mother, why is one harmed when one enters into relation with someone? It is... afterwards it grows in hold and duration till it is ready for permanence. It is a new birth in the nature and so it can't come all at once, but once begun it grows till it is perfect. Of course the more quiet the consciousness can remain in a steady way, the more the condition is favourable for this to be. 19 July 1936 The first thing one has to be careful not to do, is not to shut oneself in any way ...
... blinding storm of passions, into the partial poise and quiet of the thinking mind. But since we find even this poise precarious and this quiet ¹ The Science of Living by the Mother, ² ibid. Page 198 besieged and obscured by the waves of the vital and the disintegrating inertia of the body, we have to renounce the mind's customary, mechanical movements and its separative... dividing and limiting operation of the mind, we shall realise the unity of universal existence and the truth of both our essential and phenomenal being. But the pleasures of reasoning and speculation have so enthralled us that we think we can know everything by means of them, and even if, as in spiritual life, we feel the need of silencing or at least quieting the mind, we cannot easily arrive at a total... descends, the mind, surrendered to it, will be not only lit up with knowledge, but transformed in all its operations, —its thought, reason, imagination, perception, memory,— all changed in their basic stuff and substance. It will become an inspired instrument of a developing concord and harmony, instead of being, as it is now, a confused creator of division and discord. A quiet and aspiring mind is the nursery ...
... tells us that if we quiet our minds and concentrate our hearts upon the divine reality within us as well as everywhere we shall become conscious of the centre of our being, which is naturally a representation of this reality. Thus we establish contact with what is intrinsically and effortlessly tolerant, loving, kind and joyful. A little daily exercise in such quieting and concentrating will... and Shiva-peace in him: If we think of Sri Aurobindo as an Avatar, I would say that in traditional terms he could be considered as much an incarnation of Shiva as of Vishnu. If you can very quietly open your wife's eyes to this vision, much if not all of the division she feels between her religious life and your Yogic practice will vanish. I would wish your wife and you to live in... which strike to your mind the greatest note of originality. Also tabulate in numerical order the various steps leading to "the height of the great argument", as Milton would have put it. You have both to enjoy and to absorb the splendid process - or rather the grand procession of Sri Aurobindo's illumined thought. If enjoyment has not been there, you will not be able to set the mind of your audience on ...
... not in question. One can get rid of this kind, if the will is determined to do so. If you want to get back your faith and keep it, you must first quiet your mind and make it open and obedient to the Mother's force. If you have an excited mind at the mercy of every influence and impulse, you will remain a field of conflicting and contrary forces and cannot progress. You will begin to listen to... increase if anything in you assents to them and accepts, and the more the mind gives value to them and dwells on them, the more they grow. The only way is to remain quiet, dissociate yourself and refuse to accept it or make much of it, allow the calm and strength that the Mother has been putting around you to enter your mind and permeate your nervous system. To do otherwise Page 803 is... if, dropping all exaggerated ideas of "sin" and unfitness, you look quietly at them and recognise and reject them. Tranquillise in yourself all over-eager demands and desires, all excitement and exaggeration of opposite feelings and impulses; seek first intensity of devotion but also calm strength, purity and peace. Allow a quiet and steady will to progress to be settled in you; learn the habit of ...
... image or name of the Divine Mother, whichever comes easiest to you. (2) A gradual and progressive quieting of the mind by this concentration in the heart. (3) An aspiration for the Mother's presence in the heart and the control by her of mind, life and action. Page 225 But to quiet the mind and get the spiritual experience it is necessary first to purify and prepare the nature. This sometimes... psychic, the mental—for when the psychic is forward, there is no lack of life and joy in the prayer, the aspiration, the seeking, no difficulty in having the constant stream of bhakti and when the mind is quiet and inturned and upturned there is no difficulty or want of interest in meditation. Meditation by the way is a process leading towards knowledge and through knowledge, it is a thing of the head... easiest of all. Many find it easy to think of the Mother when working; but when they read or write, their mind goes off to the thing read or written and they forget everything else. I think that is the case with most. Physical work on the other hand can be done with the most external part of the mind, leaving the rest free to remember or to experience. A Defence of Works In spite of your disclaimer ...
... stillness of the mind can one hope to receive occasional glimpses of the power and the glory of this Future Man: When the mind is perfectly silent, pure like a well-polished mirror, immobile as a pond on a breezeless day, then, from above, as the light of the stars drops in the motionless waters, so the light of the supermind, of the Truth within, shines in the quieted mind and gives birth... a great spiritual centre today. I am not surprised ... I am happy! That was a marvellously sincere and marvellously accurate assessment. Dr. Okhawa seemed to be a little exhausted, and he quietly listened when Gokakand I described the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of ,Education that was coming up under the aegis of the Ashram and the direct inspiration and guidance of the Mother. ... along with Katoh, and she waved us all an affectionate good-bye.'" III In July 1917, the Richards went to Akakura Spa, 2500 feet above the sea level, a rare beauty spot and a place for quiet and relaxation. Four years earlier, Kakuzo Okakura, one of the leaders of the Japanese renaissance and preservers of her cultural heritage, had died at Akakura. He had visited India, and won the ...
... it is a different cup of tea - or, to hark back to Rigvedic terminology, a different goblet of Soma, the nectar of Immortality. Your friend appears to make his followers believe that by merely quieting the mind and the vital nature one can have the power to supramentalise the physical instrument by means of a mantra. No follower of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can subscribe to this facile sadhana, this... Sri Aurobindo and the Mother -yes, by the Mother even in the period when she was busy with the Mantra's magic - is the sine qua non. What I understand your author to harp on is that a little quieting of the mind and of the vital being are all that is required as the background to the Mantric practice. Naturally, one has to reduce the great Supramental Yoga to this if one's purpose is to catch the ear... my own room a painting of the flower whose significance is: "Krishna's light in the mind." In later times I remember her once telling 1. Letters on Savitri in the Centenary Edition of Savitri, p. 759. Page 258 me during an interview: "If I told you what Sri Aurobindo and I think of your mind, you would get puffed up." I refrained from asking what they thought. I tried to remain ...
... spontaneous movement turned towards the true goal. To quiet the mind in such a way that no thoughts will come is not easy and usually takes time. The most necessary thing is to feel a quietude in the mind so that if thoughts come they do not disturb or hold the mind or make it follow them, but simply cross and pass away. The mind first becomes the witness of the passage of thought and not the... surface mind or emotions, a tapasya of some kind may seem to build up something of these things, but the results are usually uncertain and fragmentary compared to the result of the two radical ways. That is why in this Yoga we insist always on an "opening"—an opening inwards of the inner mind, vital, physical to the inmost part of us, the psychic, and an opening upwards to what is above the mind—as i... of knowledge—one rejects from oneself the identification with the mind, vital, body, saying continually "I am not the mind", "I am not the vital", "I am not the Page 328 body", seeing these things as separate from one's real self—and after a time one feels all the mental, vital, physical processes and the very sense of mind, vital, body becoming externalised, an outer action, while within ...
... Perhaps someone may say "But surely, Socrates, after you have left us you can spend the rest of your life in quietly minding your own business." This is the hardest thing of all to make some of you understand. If I say that this would be disobedience to God, and that is why I cannot "mind my own business", you will not believe that I am serious. If on the other hand I tell you that to let no day pass... give us licence. On the contrary, you must make it clear that anyone who stages these pathetic scenes and so brings ridicule upon our city is far more likely to be condemned than if he kept perfectly quiet. But apart from all question of appearances, gentlemen, I do not think that it is right for a man to appeal to the jury or to get himself acquitted by doing so; he ought to inform them of the... alternative penalty shall I propose to you, gentlemen? Obviously it must be adequate. Well, what penalty do I deserve to pay or suffer, in view of what I have done? I have never lived an ordinary quiet life. I did not care for the things that most people care about: making money, having Page 73 a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities political ...
... ness'. My own method is not to quiet the mind, for it is eternally quiet, but to turn upward and inward. You, I suppose, would have to quiet it first, which is not always easy. Have you tried it? "It is precisely the people who are careful, self-critical, anxious for perfection who have interrupted visits from the Muse. Those who don't mind what they write, trusting to their genius... vision is a part of the inner Mind and perhaps should be called a province rather than a plane. There arc many kinds of vision in the inner Mind and not dynamic vision only. So, to fix invariable characteristics for the poetry of the inner Mind is not easy or even possible. It is a thing to be felt rather than mentally definable." (I don't know what to do with this mind of mine. As a poetic instrument... the unknowable vast behind 13 Thy gold apocalypse of shadowless mind! 14 SRI AUROBINDO'S COMMENT That is extraordinarily fine thioughout. But it is too fine for any need of remarks. Lines 3 4, 5, also 10,11, 12, 13, 14, Illumined Mind with Overmind Intuition touch—the rest Higher Mind suffused with Illumined Mind." * (The Muse is again away and I am feeling impatient ...
... Perhaps someone may say "But surely, Socrates, after you have left us you can spend the rest of your life in quietly minding your own business." This is the hardest thing of all to make some of you understand. If I say that this would be disobedience to God, and that is why I cannot "mind my own business", you will not believe that I am serious. If on the other hand I tell you that to let no day pass... give us licence. On the contrary, you must make it clear that anyone who stages these pathetic scenes and so brings ridicule upon our city is far more likely to be condemned than if he kept perfectly quiet, a But apart from all question of appearances, gentlemen, I do not think that it is"! right for a man to appeal to the jury or to get himself acquitted by doing so; he ought to inform them of... alternative penalty shall I propose to you, gentlemen? Obviously it must be adequate. Well, what penalty do I deserve to pay or suffer, in view of what I have done? I have never lived an ordinary quiet life. I did not care for the things that most people care about: making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities — political appointments, secret societies ...
... any mechanism! After writing all those thousands of pages in the Arya, Sri Aurobindo used to tell his disciples that He had not written all that to “teach” them anything, but to quiet their minds. Once the mind is quiet, we can set to work—to the real microscopic vision of every instant, the hunting down of the meaning in everything. And truly, in this age when we frolic on dead moons with tungsten... is a Yoga meant for life and life only, 16 Sri Aurobindo exclaimed one day, when asked once again if He had withdrawn to seek some salvation or other. It is The Mind that seeks its salvation, the Mind that invents disciplines, the Mind that builds heavens and windmills (and hells, too), but life is not saved in the least, even after millions of hours of meditation and miles of discipline. A power... France's intellectual quality, the quality of her mind, said Mother, the day she is truly touched spiritually, it will be something exceptional. Sri Aurobindo had a great liking for France. I was born there—certainly for a reason. In my case, I know it very well: it was the need of culture, of a clear and precise mind, of refined thought, taste and clarity of mind—there is no other country in the world for ...
... weak point in you, and you have to remain as quiet as you can, reject it and open yourself. I judge from what you have written that it was the physical and vital-physical consciousness that it made restless and inclined to revolt and it did not take the whole of your consciousness. If you can keep it localised like that when it comes and remain quiet in mind and heart and reject it, then it will not be... quietude, not allow depressing Page 564 or disturbing thoughts or feelings to enter you or take hold of your mind or your speech—there is no true reason after one has gained the inner quietness and wideness why that should be allowed to lapse and these things enter. And if the mind keeps its quietude and receptivity to higher forces only, it can then easily pass on that quietude and receptivity... gives it free play. He must learn to keep calm and quiet in the mind and vital being, to refuse to regard the illness and the tendency to it in the body as something normal to it, regarding it rather as something imposed from outside, and he must believe firmly that it must and will go. If he can keep this attitude and open to the true force, the mind and nervous being once strengthened, the illness ...
... ions: we can build theories and hypotheses of the process of Mind, but a veil is still there over the inner secret of ourselves, our consciousness, our total nature. It is only when we follow the yogic process of quieting the mind itself that a profounder result of our self-observation becomes possible. For first we discover that mind is a subtle substance, a general determinate—or generic inde... self-existence. Next we see that the determinations of our mind do not all proceed from itself; for waves and currents of mental energy enter into it from outside: these take form in it or appear already formed from some universal Mind or from other minds and are accepted by us as our own thinking. We can perceive also an occult or subliminal mind in ourselves from which thoughts and perceptions and w... superior mind energy works through us or upon us. Finally we discover that that which observes all this is a mental being supporting the mind substance and mind energy; without this presence, their upholder and source of sanctions, they could not exist or operate. This mental being or Purusha first appears as a silent witness and, if that were all, we would have to accept the determinations of mind as a ...
... we can build theories and hypotheses of the process of Mind, but a veil is still there over the inner secret of ourselves, our consciousness, our total nature. It is only when we follow the yogic process of quieting the mind itself that a profounder result of our self-observation becomes possible. For first we discover that mind is a subtle substance, a general determinate — or generic... outer mind, vital and body] are small, but not unimportant in spite of their apparent insignificance — because they are a necessary passage of transmission between the soul and the outer world. Letters on Yoga, pp. 311-12 (a) The Outer (Surface) Mind Mind and Consciousness ...in ourselves consciousness seems to be identical with Mind; in any case Mind is so... self-exceeding, and, as thinking mind is the highest step she can now attain, the perfected mental man is the rarest and highest of her normal human creatures. To go farther she has to bring into the mind and make active in mind, life and body the spiritual principle. The Life Divine, pp. 717-20 The Physical Mind The true thinking mind does not belong to the physical ...
... —that's the way of effort). One day you suddenly find yourself on the G.T.R. when you least expect it. The other is to quiet the mind to such a point that a greater Mind of mind can speak through it. (I am not here talking of the supramental). You will do neither. Your mind refuses to be quiet—your vital kicks at the necessity of effort. One too active, the other too lazy. How can I show you the G.T.R. when... last admission does away with the whole two pages of special pleading. Is silencing the mind to be done only at the time of writing or at other times too, or one can't be done without the other? Silencing the mind at the time of writing should be sufficient—even not silencing it, but its falling quiet to receive. Suppose I find two lines: Forgive me, Master, if I doubt thy Light Guiding... right thing, sometimes it inserts itself between two blunders, sometimes it waits till the noise quiets down. But even this jumping need not be a mental effort—it is often only a series of suggestions, the mind of itself seizing on one or eliminating another, not by laborious thinking and choice, but by a quiet series of perceptions. This is method no. 2. No. 3 is your Herculean way, quite the slowest and ...
... activities of the mind. You can only quiet them so that the Truth may come down and take up the Transformation. Disciple : If the mind is silenced, will the Truth come down ? Sri Aurobindo : If you do nothing else but merely silence the mind you will have a silent mind and nothing else. Disciple : When a developed mind opens to the Truth and an underdeveloped mind opens to it which... expression of the Spirit. Mind, emotion and other psychological activities are only intermediate terms. Mind is more or less a channel and so is heart. The body is merely the mould. Two things are necessary in this yoga : balance and a strong hold on the earth. By balance I mean the different parts of the being adjusted to one another, or some steadiness, a quiet poise somewhere in the man... general idea is that for the experiena of the Brahmic consciousness one must be always in drawn. But that is not quite true. I first had the silent Brahmic consciousness at Baroda as soon as I quieted my mind. It came, of course, to the mental being and I kept it for about a month. But I Was not unconscious, I saw people and things as Maya – all things only small and the One, the Reality, behind them ...
... that's the way of effort). One day you suddenly find yourself on the G.T.R. when you least expect it. The other is to quiet the mind to such a point that a greater Mind of mind can speak through it. (I am not here talking of the supramental.) You will do neither. Your mind refuses to be quiet - your vital kicks at the necessity of effort. One too active, the other too lazy. How can I show you the G.T.R.... trivial for the vital mass-mind to chew or gobble. 62 But of course these cautions apply only to advice or comments or instructions regarding the sadhana of individual disciples. The broad general statements, the enunciations of principle, the elaborations of theory, the differentiations between states of mind, the precise definitions of terms (like 'peace', 'calm', 'quiet', 'silence' ; or Sadhana... sadhak: The difference between a vacant mind and a calm mind is this: that when the mind is vacant, there is no thought, no conception, no mental action of any kind, except an essential perception of things without the formed idea; but in the calm mind, it is the substance of the mental being that is still, so still that nothing disturbs it.... A mind that has achieved this calmness can begin to ...
... midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodging. My mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images, and emotions called up by the reading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once, without warning of any kind, I found myself... Centenary edition, Pondicherry, 1972, p.301. Page 181 Appendix XIV It is only when we follow the yogic process of quieting the mind itself that a profounder result of our self- observation becomes possible. For first we discover that mind is a subtle substance, a general determinate — or generic indeterminate — which mental energy when it operates throws into forms or particular... self-existence. Next we see that the determinations of our mind do not all proceed from itself; for waves and currents of mental energy enter into it from outside: these take form in it or appear already formed from some universal Mind or from other minds and are accepted by us as our own thinking. We can perceive also an occult or subliminal mind in ourselves from which thoughts and perceptions and w ...
... fully conscious on the physical plane. It also did not go away or last only for a few moments. ... It lasted for months. It came upon me as soon as I could quiet the mind completely. I saw it above the mind and it was that which was reflected in the mind." ² 6 May. Tirupati came again to Pondicherry. A stiff letter telling him to go back was sent by Sri Aurobindo. 12 May. Talk on Gustav Gillet's... his back to him and sat quietly for a few minutes. He then turned to Bharati and said, "Mr. Bharati! I am not going to budge an inch from Pondicherry. I know nothing will happen to me. As for yourself you can do what you like." After that he sat silent in his chair. Bharati and others dropped the idea of going either to Djibuti, or Indochina or Tripoli, which was in their minds. In April 1913 Sri... of his family. When the time of his death was near this Yogi called his devotees to him. K. V. R. Iyengar asked him about the spiritual guide he must take for his future progress. The Yogi remained quiet for a time and then said that a great Yogi would come from the North whose help he could take. Iyengar then asked him how he would recognise that particular great Yogi, as so many yogis came to the ...
... behind the mind, behind the vital, in the psychic centre that one can find the quietness that never wavers. 15 September 1934 The pressure is constantly there. Grant me quietness, my sweet Mother. I never cease pouring peace and quietness and calm on you why don't you accept them? 17 September 1934 Page 59 What must I do to accept the peace and quietness and calm?... her ideas were so lacking in humility. Ignorance always lacks humility—the more ignorant the mind, the more it judges and the more it revolts. 13 March 1936 What must one do to illumine the mind? Make it calm and quiet—in calm it can receive the light. 14 March 1936 My mind is always the same, ever full of thoughts. It has never learned to be silent. This is precisely... September 1934 The mind wants to know how this crisis came and why it has remained so long. What should one do when this happens? It has been quite a widespread attack. When this happens, the best thing is to remain quiet without getting agitated either inwardly or outwardly. 14 September 1934 Even when I am in a good state of consciousness, the mind is not always at peace. There ...
... two parts of the mind, the active part, which is a factory of thoughts and the quiet masterful part which is at once a Witness and a Will, observing them, judging, rejecting, eliminating, accepting, ordering corrections and changes, the Master in the House of Mind, capable of self-empire, samrajya. The Yogi goes still further, – he is not only a master there but even while in mind in a way, he gets... the way of effort). One day you suddenly find yourself on the G.T.R. when you least expect it. The other is to quiet the mind to such a point that a greater Mind can speak through it (I am not here talking of the Supramental). 301 But then, asked a disciple, if it is not our own mind that thinks, if thoughts come from outside, how is it that there is such a difference between one person's thoughts... the mind is quiet. We have all experienced certain problems which are "mysteriously" solved during sleep, precisely when the thinking machine is hushed. There will no doubt be errors and stumblings before the new functioning is securely established; the seeker must be ready to be often mistaken; in fact, he will notice that mistakes are always the result of a mental intrusion; each time the mind intervenes ...
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