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=== Divine Presence ===
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">Remember first that an inner quietude, caused by the purification of the restless mind and vital, is the first condition of a secure sadhana. Remember, next, that to feel the Mother's presence while in external action is already a great step and one that cannot be attained without a considerable inner progress. Probably, what you feel you need so much but cannot define is a constant and vivid sense of the Mother's force working in you, descending from above and taking possession of the different planes of your being. That is often a prior condition for the twofold movement of ascent and descent; it will surely come in time. These things can take a long time to begin visibly, especially when the mind is accustomed to be very active and has not the habit of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">mental</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">silence</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">. When that veiling activity is there, much work has to be carried on behind the mobile screen of the mind and the sadhak thinks nothing is happening when really much preparation is being done. If you want a more swift and visible progress, it can only be by bringing your psychic to the front through a constant self-offering. Aspire intensely, but without impatience.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p22</ref> 
== 4. Challenges ==
=== Misconception that one will Lose their Ability to Think ===
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">I emphasise this fact because there are quite a few people who, when </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">mental</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">silence</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">has been transmitted to them by occult means, are immediately alarmed and afraid of losing their intelligence. Because they can no longer think, they fear they may become stupid! But to cease thinking is a much higher achievement than to be able to spin out thoughts endlessly and it demands a much greater development.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p90</ref>
=== Abolishing the Ego - Getting Rid of Moral Egoism ===
<div style="color: #000000;">First of all, you must want to do it, and there are very few people who want to. And that is exactly what they say, it is this justification of their way of being, "That is the way I am made, I can't do otherwise. And then, if I change this, if I change that or if I do without this thing or if I get rid of that other, I shall no longer exist!" And if one doesn't say this openly, one thinks it…. One pushes it away in certain very obvious things; for example, if there is something good and someone rushes forward to make sure of having it first, even jostling his neighbour then here one becomes quite aware that this is not very elegant, so one begins to suppress these crudities, one makes a big effort—and one becomes highly self-satisfied: "I am not selfish, I give what is good to others, I don't keep it for myself", and one begins to get puffed up. And so one is filled with a moral egoism which is much worse than physical egoism, for it is conscious of its superiority.</div>
<div style="color: #000000; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0;">And then there are those who have left everything, given up everything, who have left their families, distributed their belongings, gone into solitude, who live an ascetic life, and who are terribly conscious of their superiority, who look down at poor humanity from the height of their spiritual grandeur—and they have, these people, such a formidable ego that unless it is broken into small bits, never, never will they see the Divine. So it is not such an easy task. It takes a lot of time. And I must tell you that even when the work is done, it must always be begun again.</div><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/19-april-1951#p8</ref> 
=== Downward Pull of Imperfections ===
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