At Times It is Necessary to Pull Back

From Identification with Our Surface Movements

What is the meaning of “the mental witness”?

The witness we have spoken about several times already,  Only here it is in the mind. There are witnesses everywhere.  It is a capacity of the being to detach itself, to stand back and look at what is happening, as when one looks at something happening in the street or when one looks at others playing and does not himself play, one remains seated, looking at the others moving but does not move.  That’s how it is.  In all the parts of the being there is one side which can do this; put itself at the back, remain quiet and look, without participating.  This is what is called the witness.  One has many witnesses inside oneself, and often one is a witness without even being aware of it.  And if you develop this, it always give you the possibility of being quiet and not being affected by things.  One detaches oneself from them, looks at them as at a dramatic scene, without participating in it.  This does not change things  very much. (6-426)

Sweet Mother, what does “the reduction of the mental being to the position of a witness” mean?

Have you ever felt this?  As though you were a little behind or above things, and were looking at them taking place but were not doing anything yourself?  Witness means an observer, someone who looks on and does not act does not act himself.  So, when the mind is very quiet, one can withdraw a little in this way, from circumstances and look at things as though he were a witness, a spectator, and not participating in the action himself.  This gives you a great detachment, a great quietude, and also a very precise sense of the value of things, because it cuts the attachment to action.  When you know how to do this with yourself, when you can withdraw and watch yourself acting, you learn many things about yourself.  When you are all mixed up and take part in the action, you do not observe yourself acting, you don’t know what you are like.  But when you draw back and look at yourself, you can perceive many imperfections which you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. (6-360)

~ Mira Alfassa

From  “Search for the Soul in Everyday Living”

The Mother: compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

"The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress.  It is a proof of your progress when you no longer have to make an effort to meditate.  Then you have rather to make an effort to stop meditating: it becomes difficult to stop meditation, difficult to stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to the ordinary consciousness.  Then you are sure to progress, then you have made real progress when concentration in the Divine is the necessity of your life, when you cannot do without it, when it continues naturally from morning to night whatever you may be engaged in doing.  Whether you sit down to meditation or go about and do things and work, what is required of you is consciousness; that is the one need - to be constantly conscious of the Divine."

Mirra Alfassa – Also Known as “The Mother”

"The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress.

It is a proof of your progress when you no longer

have to make an effort to meditate.

Then you have rather to make an effort to stop meditating:

it becomes difficult to stop meditation,

difficult to stop thinking of the Divine,

difficult to come down to the ordinary consciousness.

Then you are sure to progress, then you have made real progress

when concentration in the Divine is the necessity of your life,

when you cannot do without it, when it continues naturally

from morning to night whatever you may be engaged in doing.

Whether you sit down to meditation or go about and do things and work,

what is required of you is consciousness;

that is the one need - to be constantly conscious of the Divine."

~ Mirra Alfassa – Also Known as The Mother”

Questionaire:  How can one dissolve in the Divine and lose one’s ego?

The Mother:  First one must become a conscious, well-knit individualized being who exists in himself, by himself, independently of all his surroundings, who can hear anything, read anything, see anything without changing.  He receives from the outside only what he wants to receive; he automatically refuses all that is not in conformity with his plan and nothing can leave an imprint on him unless he agrees to receive the imprint.  Then one begins to become an individuality!  When one is an individuality, one can make an offering of it.  

For that, first of all, you must become conscious of it, you see, put it right in front of you, and cut the links which attach it to your consciousness.  It is a work of inner psychology, you know.  One can see, when one studies oneself very attentively.. for example, if you observe yourself, you see that one day you are very generous.  Let us take this, it is easy to understand.  Very generous: generous in your feelings, generous in your sensations, generous in your thoughts and even in material things; that is, you understand the faults of others, their intentions, weaknesses, even nasty movements.  You see all this, and you are full of good feelings, of generosity.  You tell yourself, “Well… everyone does the best he can!” – like that.

Another day – or perhaps the very next minute – you will notice in yourself a kind of dryness, fixity, something that is bitter, that judges severely, that goes as far as bearing a grudge, has rancor, would like the evil-doer punished, that almost has a feeling of vengeance; just the very opposite of former!  One day someone harms you and you say “Doesn’t matter! He did not know”… or “He could not understand!”  The next day – or perhaps an hour later – you say, “He must be punished!  He must pay for it!  He must be made to feel that he has done wrong! – with a kind of rage; and you want to take things, you want to keep them for yourself, you have all the feelings of jealousy, envy, narrowness, you see, just the very opposite of the other feeling.

This is the dark side.  And so the moment one sees it.. one puts on it the light of the other part, one tries to bring them face to face; and with the knowledge and light of the other… one compels it to remain quiet.. There are instances in which one can put upon this being – or his shadow – put upon it such an intense light that it transforms it, and it changes into what is the truth of your being.

Excerpt From: Search for the Soul in Everyday Living

Conversations with “The Mother”

Compiled by Wayne Bloomquist  

There is such a great difference between feeling vaguely, having a hesitant impression of something, or a force, a movement, an impulse, an attraction, of something which drives you in life – but it is still so vague, so uncertain, it is hazy – there is such a difference between this and having a clear vision, an exact perception, a total understanding of the meaning of one’s life.  And only then does one begin to see things as they are, not before.  Only then can one follow the thread of one’s destiny and clearly see the goal and the way to reach it.  But that happens only through successive inner awakenings, like doors opening suddenly on new horizons – truly, a new birth into a truer deeper more lasting consciousness.

Until then you live in a cloud, gropingly, under the weight of destiny which at times crushes you, give you the feeling of having been made in a certain way and being unable to do anything about it.  You are under the burden of an existence which weights you down, makes you crawl on the ground instead of rising above and seeing all the threads, the guiding threads, the threads which bind different things into a single movement of progression towards a realization that grows clear.

One must spring up out of the half-consciousness which is usually considered quite natural – this is your “normal” way of being and you do not even draw back from it sufficiently to be able to see and wonder at this incertitude, this lack of precision; while, on the contrary, to know that one is seeking and to seek consciously, deliberately, steadfastly and methodically, this indeed is the exception, almost “abnormal” condition.  And yet only in this way does one begin to truly live.  (9-18-19)

From: The Mother - From Semi-conscious to Conscious

Search for the Soul in Everyday Living pgs 102 -103

Compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

"To make yourself blank in meditation creates an inner silence;

it does not mean that you have become nothing or have become

a dead and inert mass.  Making yourself an empty vessel, you

invite that which shall fill it."

~ The Mother

From:  Search for the Soul in Everyday Living

Compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

pg. 80

The Mother

Concentration and Meditation

There is another kind of meditation which consist of being as quiet as one can be without trying to stop all thoughts, for there are thoughts which are purely mechanical and if you try to stop these you will need years, and into the bargain you will not be sure of the result; instead of that you gather together all your consciousness and remain as quiet as possible, you detach yourself from external things as though they do not interest you at all, and all of a sudden, you brighten the flame of aspiration and throw into it everything that comes to you so that the flame may rise higher and higher, higher and higher; you identify yourself with it and you go up to the extreme point of your consciousness and aspiration, thinking of nothing else – simply an aspiration which mounts and mounts and mounts, intensifying itself more and more in a constant concentration.  And there I may assure you that what happens is the best that can happen.  That is, it is the maximum of your possibilities which is realized when you do this….

…Do not fall into the very common error of believing that you must sit in an absolutely quiet corner where nobody passes by, where you are in a classical position and altogether immobile, in order to be able to meditate--it is not true.  What is needed is to succeed in meditating under all circumstances, and I call “meditating” not emptying your head but concentrating yourself in a contemplation of the Divine; and if you keep this contemplation within you, all that you do will change its quality--not its appearance, for apparently it will be the same thing, but its quality.  And life will change its quality, and you, you will feel a little different from what you were, with a peace, a certitude, an inner calm, an unchanging force, something which never gives way.  

In that state it will be difficult to do you harm—the forces always try, this world is so full of adverse forces which seek to upset everything… but they succeed in a very small measure, only in the measure necessary to force you to make a new progress.

Each time you receive a blow from life, tell yourself immediately, “Ah, I have to make a progress”; then the blow becomes a blessing.  Instead of tucking your head between your shoulders, you lift it up with joy and you say, “What is it I have to learn?  I want to know.  What is it I have to change?  I want to know.”  This is what you should do.

The Mother – (1878-1973)

The Mother was born in Paris as Mira Alfassa.  She was a devote of Sri Aurobindo

The above was an excerpt from one of her collected works  “Search for the Soul in Everyday Living”

Compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

The Mother

Love:  The Joy of Identity

Student Question:  Before our nature is transformed, can a person love another truly?

The Mother:  Love another? I have said there that it is impossible. I have said that if one wants to know what love is, one must love the Divine.   Then there is a chance of knowing what love is.  I have said that one grows into the likeness of what one loves.  So if one loves the Divine, gradually, through this effort of love, one grows more and more like the Divine, and then one can be identified with the divine love and know what it is, otherwise one can’t.

Inevitably, love between two human beings, whatever it may be, is always made of ignorance, lack of understanding, weakness and that terrible sense of separation.  It is as though one wanted to enter the presence of a unique Splendor and that the first thing one did was to put a curtain, two curtains, three curtains between oneself and the Splendor, and one is quite surprised to have only a vague impression and not at all the thing itself.  The first thing to do is to remove the curtains, to take them all away, to go through and find oneself in the presence of the Splendor.  But if you put veil after veil between it and yourself, you will never see it.  You may have a sort of vague feeling like “Oh! There is something”, but that is all.

Student Question:  In order to know how to love truly, should the nature be transformed?

The Mother:  The quality of love is in proportion to the transformation of your consciousness.  

If you have the consciousness of an animal, you will love like an animal.

If you have the consciousness of an ordinary man, you will love like and ordinary man.

If you have the consciousness of an elite being, and if you have god’s consciousness,

you will love like a god.  And so by the effort for progress and inner transformation,

by aspiration and growth, you pass from one consciousness to the other and your

consciousness becomes vaster and vaster, well, the love you experience will be vaster and vaster.

“Love is, in its essence, the joy of identity; it finds its expression in the bliss of union.”

The Mother – (1878-1973)

The Mother was born in Paris as Mira Alfassa.  She was a devote of Sri Aurobindo

The above was an excerpt from one of her collected works  “Search for the Soul in Everyday Living”

Compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

Excerpt on "Who Am I"

The  first consideration is to begin with the faith that there is something other than the physical reality. The second condition is to try to find what that is, and the best field of action is oneself. So one must begin by studying oneself a little, and manage to discern between what depends exclusivley on the body and what on something else which is not the body.  One can begin like that.  One can begin by observing one's feelings or thoughts in their working.  If one begins to find out, to understand what a feeling is and what a thought is, and how it works, then one can already go quite far on the path with that.  One must at the same time observe how his feelings and thoughts have an action on the body, what the reciprocity is.  And then, there is another exercies which consist in looking into oneself for what is perisistent, what is lasting, soemthing which makes one say, "I", and which is not the body... What is it that can trace a curve in the movement of the being.  If one seeks carefully enough, it leads you quite far.  Naturally if one seeks far enough and with enough persistence, one reaches the psychic.

~ The Mother

Search for the Soul in Everday Living

An Anthology of the Mother's writings

compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

pgs 6-7

You must not judge from an outer success or a semblance of defeat.  We may say – and generally this is what almost always happens – we could say that the Divine gives what one desires, and of all lessons this is the best!  For, if your desire is inconscient, obscure, egoistic, you increase the unconsciousness, the darkness and egoism within yourself; that is to say, this takes you farther and farther away from the truth, from consciousness and happiness.  It takes you far away from the Divine.  And for the Divine naturally, only one thing is true – the divine consciousness, the Divine Union.  And each time you put material things in front, you become more and more materialistic and go farther and farther away from full success.

~ The Mother (Mira Alfassa)

Expanding One’s Mental Perception

“Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act.  All living thought is a world in preparation; all real act is a thought manifested.  The material world exists, because an idea began to play in divine self-consciousness.”

“Thought is not essential to existence nor its cause, but it is an instrument of becoming; I become what I see

in myself.  All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become.  This should

be man’s unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.”

~  The Mother

From:  The Soul and Its Powers

Compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

Many Blows are Needed

Mother, even when one tries to think that one is powerless, There is something which believes one is powerful. So?

Ah, yes, ah, yes!  Ah, it is very difficult to be sincere.  That is why the blows multiply and sometimes become terrible, because that’s the only thing which breaks your stupidity.  This is the justification of calamities.  Only when you are in an acutely painful situation and indeed before something that affects you deeply, then that makes the stupidity melt away a little.  But as you say, even when there is something that melts, there is still a little something which remains inside. And that is why it lasts so long…

How many blows are needed in life for one to know to the very depths that one is nothing, that one can do nothing, that one does not exists, that one is nothing,  that there is no entity without the divine, Consciousness and the Grace. From the moment one knows it, it is over; all difficulties have gone.  When one knows it integrally and there is nothing which resists… but till that moment.. and it takes very long.

~ The Mother

The Most Important Surrender

The most important surrender is the surrender of your character, your way of being, so that it may change.  If you do not

surrender your very own nature, never will this nature change. It is this that is most important.   You have certain ways of understanding, certain ways of reacting, certain ways of feeling, almost certain ways of progressing, and above all, a special way of looking at life and expecting from it certain things – well, it is this you must surrender.  That is, if you truly want to receive the divine Light and transform yourself, it is your whole way of being you must offer – offer by opening it, making it as receptive as possible so that the divine Consciousness which sees how you ought to be, may act directly and change all these movements into movements more true, more in keeping with your real truth. This is infinitely more important than surrendering what one does.  

It is not what one does (what one does is very important, that’s evident) that is the most important thing but what one is.  Whatever the activity, it is not quite the way of doing it but the state of consciousness in which it is done that is important.  You may work, do disinterested work without any idea of personal profit, work for the joy of working, but if you are not at the same time ready to leave this work, to change the work or change the way of working, if you cling to your own way of working, your surrender is not complete.  You must come to a point when everything is done because you feel within, very clearly, in a more and more imperious way, that it is this which must be done and in this particular way, and that you do it only because of that.  You do not do it because of any habit, attachment or preference, nor even any conception, even a preference for the idea that it is the best thing to do – else your surrender is not total.

~ The Mother

From: The Sunlit Path

"I think the most important thing is to know why one meditates;

this is what gives the quality of the meditation and makes it of one order or another.

You may meditate to open yourself to the divine Force,

you may meditate to reject the ordinary consciousness,

you may meditate to enter the depths of your being,

you may meditate to learn how to give yourself integrally;

you may meditate for all kinds of things.

You may meditate to enter into peace and calm and silence

- this is what people generally do, but without much success.

But you may also meditate to receive the Force of transformation,

to discover the points to be transformed,

to trace out the line of progress.

And then you may also meditate for very practical reasons:

when you have a difficulty to clear up, a solution to find,

when you want help in some action or other. You may meditate for that too.

I think everyone has his own method of meditation.

But if one wants the meditation to be dynamic,

one must have an aspiration for progress and the meditation must be done

to help and fulfill this aspiration for progress. Then it becomes dynamic."

~ Mira Alfassa – The Mother

"The true lasting quietness... comes from a complete consecration to the Divine"

~ The Mother (Mira Alfassa)

‎

"Do not pretend - be.  Do not promise - act. Do not dream - realize."

~ The Mother (Mira Alfassa)

“Whoever has courage can give courage to others, just as the flame of the candle can light up another.”

~ The Mother – Mira Alfassa

Questionner:  Sweet Mother, when we are faced with a difficulty, does this mean that the Divine is trying to make us conscious of the defects of our nature?

The Mother:  If you face it, yes.  That is, as soon as you are in front of a difficulty, if instead of giving way like a coward you begin trying to conquer it, then you may be sure that the Divine is behind you.  But if you are cowardly, the Divine will not be there.  That is, your cowardice cuts you off from the Divine.  But if you resist and want to conquer, you may be sure that the Divine will be there to help you.  There's not the shadow of a doubt about it.

~ The Mother

From: Search for the Soul

compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

©1990

You must distrust your mind altogether when you want to enter the world of experiences.  It is enough for the mind to be just slightly roused for it to say, "Ah, what is going on?"

First condition, know how to keep silent.  And not only keep your tongue quiet, but silence your mind, keep the head silent.  If you wish to have a true, sincere experience upon which you can build, you must know how to be silent, otherwise you have nothing but what you fabricate yourself, which is equivalent to zero.  

~ The Mother

From: Search for the Soul

compiled by Wayne Bloomquist

©1990