Read Summary of '''[[Inner Attitude Summary|Inner Attitude]]'''
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=What are the Essential Components of the Right Inner Attitude?=
The Yogic attitude consists in calm, detachment, equality, universality—added to this the psychic element, bhakti, love, devotion to the Divine. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/equality-the-chief-support#p17</ref>
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The only true attitude for a Yogi is to be plastic and ready to obey the Divine command whatever it may be...." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/14-march-1951#p1</ref>
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... the true attitude, is a perfect equality which enables us to accept success and failure, fortune and misfortune, happiness and sorrow with the same tranquil joy…
[Based on Aphorism 3 - O Misfortune, blessed be thou; for through thee I have seen the face of my Lover.] <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-34#p6</ref>
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The right attitude is to see that as a separate being, as an ego, one has no importance whatever and the insistence on one's own desires, pride, position etc. is an ignorance, but one matters only as a spirit, as a portion of the Divine, not more than others, but as all souls matter to the Soul of all. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/ego-and-its-forms#p15</ref>
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''What is the meaning of "you must take the right attitude"?''
The right attitude is the attitude of trust, the attitude of obedience, the attitude of consecration. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/2-february-1955#p1,p2</ref>
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A sort of witness attitude, in which the inner consciousness looks at all that happens as a spectator or observer, observing things but taking no active interest or pleasure in them. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p16</ref>
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It is this[witness] attitude that gives the greatest calm, peace, samata in face of the riddle of the cosmic workings. It is not meant that action and movement are not accepted but they are accepted as the Divine Working which is leading to ends which the mind may not always see at once, but the soul divines through all the supreme purpose and the hidden guidance. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p28</ref>
==What Is the Right Attitude in the Mental Being?==
===Towards Learning===
The true attitude is to take life as a field of perpetual study, where one must never stop learning and think that one knows everything there is to know. One can always know more and understand better. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p287</ref>
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...the only true attitude is one of humility, of silent respect before what one does not know, and of inner aspiration to come out of one's ignorance …
[Based on Aphorism<10>—My soul knows that it is immortal. But you take a dead body to pieces and cry triumphantly, "Where is your soul and where is your immortality?"] <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-10#p7</ref>
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... if there is a student who has the absolutely right attitude, the will to learn in everything, so that not a word is pronounced, not a gesture made, but it becomes for him an opportunity to learn something—his presence can… help the class to rise in education. If, consciously, he is in this state of intensity of aspiration to learn and correct himself, he communicates this to the others… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/2-june-1954#p19</ref>
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===Towards Teaching===
One must be a great yogi to be a good teacher. One must have a perfect attitude to be able to exact a perfect attitude from the students… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/14-november-1956#p54</ref>
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The attitude of the teacher must be one of a constant will to progress, not only in order to know always better what he wants to teach the students, but above all in order to be a living example to show them what they can become. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p228</ref>
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The attitude of consciousness which is required is an inner certitude that, in comparison with all that is to be known, one knows nothing; and that at every moment one must be ready to learn in order to be able to teach. This is the first indispensable point. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p156</ref>
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''A difficult period is beginning. What would be the true attitude for the teacher?''
The psychic inspiration alone is true. All that comes from the vital and the mind is necessarily mixed with egoism and is arbitrary. One should not act in reaction to outer contact, but with an immutable vision of love and goodwill. Everything else is a mixture which can only have confused and mixed results, and perpetuate the disorder. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mothers-action-in-a-class-of-children-aged-seven-to-nine#p36</ref>
===Attitude While Reading Scriptures/Sacred Text===
...not the pride of the Pandit dealing with words as he chooses, but the humility of the seeker after truth in the presence of one of its masters is, I have thought, the proper attitude of the exegete. In the presence of these sacred writings, so unfathomably profound, so infinitely vast in their sense, so subtly perfect in their language, we must be obedient to the text and not presume to subject it ignorantly to our notions. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/17/a-commentary-on-the-isha-upanishad#p7</ref>
===In Reading===
Dedication to the Divine [is the right attitude in reading]. To read what will help the Yoga or what will be useful for the work or what will develop the capacities for the divine purpose. Not to read worthless stuff or for mere entertainment or for a dilettante intellectual curiosity which is of the nature of a mental dramdrinking. When one is established in the highest consciousness, one can read nothing or everything: it makes no difference—but that is still far off. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/mental-development-and-sadhana#p21</ref>
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===In Writing===
For writing, even more than for speaking, if you aspire to remain in the best attitude for advancing swiftly towards the Divine, you should make it a strict rule to speak (and even more to write) only what is absolutely indispensable. It is a marvellous discipline if you follow it sincerely. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/control-of-speech#p55</ref>
==Challenges and Right Attitude in the Vital Being==
===Towards Desire, Ego===
...to quiet the mind and get the spiritual experience it is necessary first to purify and prepare the nature. This sometimes takes many years. Work done with the right attitude is the easiest means for that—i.e. work done without desire or ego, rejecting all movements of desire, demand or ego when they come, done as an offering to the Divine Mother, with the remembrance of her and prayer to her to manifest her force and take up the action so that there too and not only in inner silence you can feel her presence and working. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/combining-work-meditation-and-bhakti#p42</ref>
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To be perfectly sincere it is indispensable not to have any preference, any desire, any attraction, any dislike, any sympathy or antipathy, any attachment, any repulsion. One must have a total, integral vision of things, in which everything is in its place and one has the same attitude towards all things: the attitude of true vision… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/19-december-1956#p21</ref>
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It is often the experience that when one gives up the insistence of desire for a thing, then the thing itself comes. The right attitude is to wait on the Divine Will and seek that only—desire always creates perturbation and even its fulfilment does not satisfy… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/desire#p20</ref>
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Demand and desire are only two different aspects of the same thing—nor is it necessary that a feeling should be agitated or restless to be a desire; it can be, on the contrary, quietly fixed and persistent or persistently recurrent. Demand or desire comes from the mental or the vital and a psychic or spiritual need is a different thing. The psychic does not demand or desire; it aspires; it does not make conditions for its surrender or withdraw if its aspiration is not immediately satisfied—for the psychic has complete trust in the Divine or in the guru and can wait for the right time or the hour of the divine grace. The psychic has an insistence of its own, but it puts its pressure not on the Divine, but on the nature, placing a finger of light on all the defects there that stand in the way of the realisation, sifting out all that is mixed, ignorant or imperfect in the experience or in the movements of the Yoga and never satisfied with itself or with the nature till it has got it perfectly open to the Divine, free from all forms of ego, surrendered, simple and right in the attitude and all the movements. This is what has to be established entirely in the mind and vital and in the physical consciousness before supramentalisation of the whole nature is possible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/desire#p40</ref>
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...it is the failure of the right attitude that comes in the way of passing through ordeals to a change of nature… The mind for instance gets the experience of the One in all, but the vital cannot follow because it is dominated by ego-reaction and ego-motive or the habits of the outer nature keep up a way of thinking, feeling, acting, living which is quite out of harmony with the experience… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p17</ref>
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It is the ego that is self-important and makes much of itself, but depression, self-depreciation and the feeling that others do not like or appreciate your company is also a working of the ego. The first is ‘rajasic’ ego, the second ‘tamasic’ ego. To be occupied always with oneself and the action of others on oneself is ego. One who is free from ego does not trouble about these things. In Yoga one must be unattached and indifferent to these things, concerned only with Sadhana and the Divine and towards others the attitude must be one of quiet goodwill without any demand or expectation. If one can't arrive at this yet, one must always endeavour to arrive at that and not feed the lower vital movement by brooding on these other things. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/ego-and-its-forms#p38</ref>
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These [feelings of hopelessness] are the feelings of the tamasic ego—the reaction to a disappointment in the rajasic ego. Mingled with the true attitude and experience or running concurrently along with it was a demand of the vital, "What I am having now, I must always have, otherwise I can't do sadhana; if I ever lose that, I shall die"—whereas the proper attitude is, "Even if I lose it for a time, it will be because something in me has to be changed in order that the Mother's consciousness may be fulfilled in me not only in the self but in every part." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/ego-and-its-forms#p43</ref>
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...Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you... you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/12-november-1952#p6</ref>
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If there were not a resistance in vital human nature, a pressure of forces adverse to the change, forces which delight in imperfection and even in perversion, this change would effect itself without difficulty by a natural and painless flowering… because everything in you desired that change and your vital was willing to recognise imperfections, to throw away any wrong attitude—e.g., the desire for mere fame—and to be dedicated and perfect… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/asceticism-and-the-integral-yoga#p22</ref>
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The fear, anger, depression etc. which used to rise when making the japa of the names came from a vital resistance in the nature (this resistance exists in everyone) which threw up these things because of the pressure on the vital part to change which is implied in sadhana. These resistances rise and then, if one takes the right attitude, slowly or quickly clear away. One has to
observe them and separate oneself from them, persisting in the concentration and sadhana till the vital becomes quiet and clear. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-experiences-in-the-state-of-samadhi#p32</ref>
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...to seek suffering and pain is a morbid attitude which must be avoided, but to run away from them through forgetfulness, through a superficial, frivolous movement, through diversion, is cowardice. When pain comes, it comes to teach us something. The quicker we learn it, the more the need for pain diminishes, and when we know the secret, it will no longer be possible to suffer, for that secret reveals to us the reason, the cause, the origin of suffering, and the way to pass beyond it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/13-february-1957#p8</ref>
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The main obstacle in your sadhana has been a weak part in the vital which does not know how to bear suffering or disappointment or delay or temporary failure. When these things come, it winces away from them, revolts, cries out, makes a scene within, calls in despondency, despair, unbelief, darkness of the mind, denial—begins to think of abandonment of the effort or death as the only way out of its trouble. It is the very opposite of that equanimity, fortitude, self-mastery which is always recommended as the proper attitude of the Yogi... It takes time, steadfast endeavour, long continued aspiration and a calm perseverance to get anywhere in Yoga; that time you do not give yourself because of these recurrent swingings away from the right attitude. It is not vanity or intellectual questioning that is the real obstacle—they are only impedimenta,—but they could well be overcome or one could pass beyond in spite of them if this part of the vital were not there or were not so strong to intervene. If I have many times urged upon you equanimity, steadfast patience, cheerfulness or whatever is contrary to this spirit, it is because I wanted you to recover your true inner vital self and get rid of this intruder. If you give it rein, it is extremely difficult to get on to anywhere. It must go,—its going is much more urgently required than the going of the intellectual doubt. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/attacks-by-the-hostile-forces#p16</ref>
===Attitude Towards Work===
The field of work does not change. What you are doing now, you will continue to do. It is in the attitude in the work, especially in the relation with the other workers, that the change must take place. Each one sees the work in his own way and believes it is the only true way, the only way that expresses the Divine Will. But none of these ways is completely true; it is only by rising above these divided conceptions that one can reach a better understanding of the Divine's Will. This means mutual understanding and collaboration instead of opposition and clash of wills and feelings. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/collaboration-and-harmony-in-work#p1</ref>
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To concentrate on a close collaboration in the work would be obviously a more useful attitude than to concentrate on mutual grievances. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/collaboration-and-harmony-in-work#p36</ref>
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You take up some work which is quite material, like cleaning the floor or dusting a room; well, it seems to me that this work can lead to a very deep consciousness if it is done with a certain feeling for perfection and progress; while other work considered of a higher kind as, for example, studies or literary and artistic work, if done with the idea of seeking fame or for the satisfaction of one's vanity or for some material gain, will not help you to progress. So this is already a kind of classification which depends more on the inner attitude than on the outer fact. But this classification can be applied to everything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/30-may-1956#p25</ref>
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Whatever is our work and whatever we do, we must do it sincerely, honestly, scrupulously, not in view of any personal profit, but as an offering to the Divine, with an entire consecration of our being. If this attitude is sincerely kept in all circumstances, whenever we need to learn something to do the work more effectively, the occasion to acquire this knowledge comes to us and we have only to take advantage of the opportunity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/work-as-on-offering-to-the-divine#p44</ref>
==What Is the Right Attitude in the Physical Being?==
===Towards Body===
Any rational system of exercises suited to one's need and capacity will help the participant to improve in health. Moreover it is the attitude that is more important. Any well-planned and scientifically arranged programme of exercises practised with a yogic attitude will become yogic exercises and the person practising them will draw full benefit from the point of view of physical health and moral and spiritual uplift. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/general-messages-and-letters#p25</ref>
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She had an accident in the knee long ago and this leg is a little weaker than the other one—there was a possibility of an upsetting. She noticed that so long as she had the correct attitude she felt nothing, there was nothing, it seemed to have gone altogether. As soon as she fell back into the ordinary consciousness, the illness returned… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/11/10-december-1969#p1</ref>
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It is true, the body must have much goodwill—mine happens to have goodwill. And it is not a mental goodwill, it is truly a bodily goodwill. It accepts all inconveniences.... But it is the attitude that is important, not the consequences (I am sure that the inconveniences are not indispensable); it is the attitude that is important. Well, it must be like this (gesture of open hands). In fact I have found that in the majority of cases surrender to the Divine does not necessarily mean trust in the Divine—because you surrender to the Divine, you say, "Even if you make me suffer, I surrender myself", but it is an absolute lack of trust! Yes, it is really amusing, surrender does not imply trust; trust is something else, it is... a kind of knowledge—an "unshakable" knowledge which nothing can disturb—that it is we who change into difficulties, sufferings and miseries what, in the Divine Consciousness, is... perfect Peace. It is we who bring about this little transformation. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/11/18-december-1971#p28</ref>
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...I have always felt that this attitude of my body perceiving its own imperfection was indispensable in order to keep a living and constant humility in the physical consciousness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/sadhana-of-the-body#p21</ref>
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"In fact, Mother, what is the yogi's attitude towards the outward appearance?"
The usefulness of seeing clearly instead of being blind.
The usefulness of no longer being deceived by outward appearances.
The usefulness of knowing the true purpose of life instead of living in ignorance and falsehood.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/27-december-1968#p1</ref>
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''What is the meaning of "outer aspiration" and "outer attitude"? What is the best outer attitude?''
Unless one practises yoga in the physical being (outer being), it remains ignorant—even its aspiration is ignorant and so is its goodwill; all its movements are ignorant and so they distort and disfigure the Divine Presence.
That is why the yoga of the body-cells is indispensable. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/25-february-1967#p2</ref>
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It [the true physical mind] can press upon it [the physical vital] the true attitude and feeling, make the incoming of the wrong suggestions and impulsions more difficult and give full force to the true movements. This action of the physical mind is in dispensable for the change of the whole physical consciousness even to the most material, though for that the enlightening of the subconscient is indispensable. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-mind#p49</ref>
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====To Women about Their Body====
''What attitude should a girl take towards her monthly periods?''
The attitude you take towards something quite natural and unavoidable. Give it as little importance as possible and go on with your usual life, without changing anything because of it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/to-women-about-their-body#p6,p28</ref>
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''Why are some girls completely run down during their periods and suffer from pain in the lower back and abdomen while others may have slight or no inconvenience at all?''
It is a question of temperament and mostly of education. If from her childhood a girl has been accustomed to pay much attention to the slightest uneasiness and to make a big fuss about the smallest inconvenience, then she loses all capacity of endurance and anything becomes the occasion for being pulled down. Especially if the parents themselves get too easily anxious about the reactions of their children. It is wiser to teach a child to be a bit sturdy and enduring than to show much care for these small inconveniences and accidents that cannot always be avoided in life. An attitude of quiet forbearance is the best one can adopt for oneself and teach to the children.It is a well-known fact that if you expect some pain you are bound to have it and, once it has come, if you concentrate upon it, then it increases more and more until it becomes what is usually termed as "unbearable", although with some will and courage there is hardly any pain that one cannot bear. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/to-women-about-their-body#p33</ref>
===Towards Food===
It is particularly noticeable that all the digestive functions are extremely sensitive to an attitude that is critical, bitter, full of ill-will, to a sour judgment...And there is only one cure: to deliberately drop this attitude, to absolutely forbid yourself to have it and to impose upon yourself, by constant self-control, a deliberate attitude of all-comprehending kindness. Just try and you will see that you feel much better. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/the-bhikkhu#p25</ref>
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...an attitude of indifference towards it: that is the main thing. Get the idea of food out of your consciousness, do not attach the slightest importance to it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/the-ordinary-life-and-the-true-soul#p1</ref>
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It is an inner attitude of freedom from attachment and from greed for food and desire of the palate that is needed, not undue diminution of the quantity taken or any self-starvation. One must take sufficient food for the maintenance of the body and its strength and health, but without attachment or desire. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/greed-for-food#p7</ref>
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If one were to study the problem attentively enough, one would find out to what an extent these so-called needs of the body depend on the mental attitude. For example, the need to eat. There are people who literally die of hunger if they have not eaten for eight days. There are others who do it deliberately and observe fasting as a principle of yoga, as a necessity in yoga. And for them, at the end of eight days' fasting, the body is as healthy as when they started, and sometimes healthier! Finally, for all these things, it is a question of proportion, of measure.It is obvious that one can't always live without eating. But it is as obvious that the idea people have about the need to eat is not true. Indeed, it is a whole subject for study: The importance of the mental attitude in relation to the body. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/16-may-1956#p8,9</ref>
===Sports===
...keeping an attitude which could be called "fair play", that is, doing one's best and not caring about the result; if one can put in the utmost effort without being upset because one has not met with success or things have not turned out in one's favour, then it is very useful. One can come out of all these competitions with a greater self-control and a detachment from results which are a great help to the formation of an exceptional character… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/1-may-1957#p5</ref>
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You may be engaged in the most active action, for example, in playing basketball, which needs a great deal of movement, and yet not lose the attitude of inner meditation and concentration upon the Divine. And when you get that, you will see that all you do changes its quality; not only will you do it better, but you will do it with an altogether unexpected strength, and at the same time keep your consciousness so high and so pure that nothing will be able to touch you any longer. And note that this can go so far that even if an accident occurs, it will not hurt you. Naturally, this is a peak, but it is a peak to which one can aspire. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/17-february-1951#p41</ref>
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''Yes, but if I want to progress in sports, for instance, then that would be a personal progress, wouldn't it?''
...the value of the will depends on your aim. If it is in order to be successful and earn a reputation for yourself and be better than others—all sorts of ideas like that—then that becomes something very egoistic, very personal and you won't be able to progress—yes, you will make progress but still it won't lead you anywhere. But if you do it with the idea of being open, even in the physical, to the divine Influence, to be a good instrument and manifest Him, then that is very good… Physical things are not necessarily more egoistic than mental or emotional ones... Egoism does not lie in that, egoism lies in the inner attitude. It does not depend on the field in which you are concentrated, it depends on the attitude you have. It does not depend on what you do, it depends on the way you do it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/17-february-1954#p15</ref>
=Why Is It Important to Have the Right Attitude?=