Read Summary of '''[[Calm Summary|Calm]]'''
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=Why Is Calm Important?=
The first step is perfect calm and equanimity.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/calm#p7</ref>
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Calm, even if it seems at first only a negative thing, is so difficult to attain, that to have it at all must be regarded as a great step in advance.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p1</ref>
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It is in calm that one can unify one's being around the highest aspiration.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/14-february-1935#p2</ref>
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We always tell people to be calm and detached and look upon these things not as their true selves but as an outer part that has to be worked upon quietly until it is what it should be.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-difficulties-of-human-nature#p30</ref>
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Man, too, becomes perfect only when he has found within himself that absolute calm…. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/reality-omnipresent#p5</ref>
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To fix the calm and strength is the main thing now—more important than fresh experiences; these will come fast enough if the calm and strength become durable, are made the habit and stuff of the consciousness.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p55</ref>
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It is only by remaining perfectly peaceful and calm with an unshakable confidence and faith in the Divine Grace that you will allow circumstances to be as good as they can be. The very best happens always to those who have put their entire trust in the Divine and in the Divine alone.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-divine-grace-and-difficulties#p1</ref>
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There is a place in the inner being where one can always remain calm and from there look with poise and judgment on the perturbations of the surface consciousness and act upon it to change it. If you can learn to live in that calm of the inner being, you will have found your stable basis. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p24</ref>
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You must will with persistence, but not get impatient. Through calm determination you will achieve it more quickly. By getting restless, one wastes more time than one saves. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/13-december-1934#p2</ref>
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Yes, you are right; I am always there in your heart, but something in your outer consciousness is too active and makes too much noise for you to be aware of this presence. It is only in silence and calm that you can become aware of it.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/25-september-1935#p2</ref>
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You must learn to be calm and quiet even in the midst of difficulties. This is the way to overcome all obstacles. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/calm#p9</ref>
==In Different Parts of Being==
===Physical===
To relieve tension, ten minutes of real calm, inner and outer, are more effective than all the remedies in the world. In silence lies the most effective help.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/30-january-1939#p8</ref>
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...calm, naturally sheltered from every kind of possible fear, and without any disgust, without any recoiling, nothing; like that: a perfect indifference with a complete calm. Then nothing bad can happen, absolutely nothing. Even if it is truly an enemy who comes to attack you, he becomes powerless.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/9-march-1955#p33</ref>
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The power to bear is found in calm and quietness.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/5-july-1934</ref>
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It is good health, a solid body, well poised; when one does not have the nerves of a little girl that are shaken by the least thing; when one sleeps well, eats well.... When one is quite calm, well balanced, very quiet, one has a solid basis and can receive a large number of forces.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/15-april-1953#p13</ref>
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If the calm and silence are perfectly established in the physical, then if inertia comes it is itself something quiet and unaggressive, not bringing such disturbances. But to get rid of inertia altogether a strong dynamic calm is needed.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p31</ref>
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The first thing necessary in such matters [sex-dreams and emissions] is to be perfectly calm and refuse to be upset by these difficulties. If they rise one must take it that they do so in order to be worked out.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/sex#p172</ref>
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If one remains calm and firm within, these surface reactions quickly disappear and their rejection helps the remnants of the old nature to disappear.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p14</ref>
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The main difficulty seems to be that you are too subject to an excitement of the nerves—it is only by bringing quietude and calm into the whole being that a steady progress in the sadhana can be assured.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/illness-and-health#p126</ref>
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What is needed is the establishment of the calm and wide consciousness at the base of the whole Nature so that when the lower nature appears, it will not be as an attack or struggle but as if a Master of forces were there seeing the defects of the present machinery and doing step by step what is necessary to remedy and change it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-difficulties-of-yoga#p35</ref>
'''Illness'''
The imperative condition for cure is calm and quietness. Any agitation, any nervousness prolongs the illness.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/peace-and-quiet-faith-and-surrender#p21</ref>
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What you have to do is to remain calm and confident and not worry or be restless—be perfectly quiet and prepared to rest as long as rest is needed. There is nothing to be anxious about; rest, and the health and strength will come.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/specific-illnesses-ailments-and-other-physical-problems#p9</ref>
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To bear illness with calm, equanimity, endurance, even recognition of it, since it has come, as something that had to be passed through in the course of experience. But to accept and enjoy it means to help it to last and that will not do; for illness is a deformation of the physical nature just as lust, anger, jealousy etc. are deformations of the vital nature and error and prejudice and indulgence of falsehood are deformations of the mental nature. All these things have to be eliminated and rejection is the first condition of their disappearance while acceptance has a contrary effect altogether.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/illness-and-health#p66</ref>
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The nervous (vital-physical) being supports the body—if it is calm and strong and solid, then the body is well supported and can withstand illness and weakness or, if illness comes, it will bear and more easily get rid of it. If the nervous being is weak, then it is the opposite. If the nervous being is not merely weak, but nervous and unstable, over-sensitive, vehement or excitable, then there is much fluctuation, restlessness, exaltation and depression in the being—there may even be a wrongly acute creative imagination which brings in disorders into the body that are nervous and not physical—there is no physical illness of the heart but there are pains and palpitations, nothing physically wrong with stomach and intestines and yet there is inability to digest—nervous dyspepsia; pains are created in different parts of the body and so on—sometimes there is hysteria.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/illness-and-health#p56</ref>
===Mental===
This force, received in calm and silence, will do its work of illumining and will create in the brain, if necessary, the cells required for understanding. Thus, when one re-reads the same thing some months later, one finds that the thought expressed has become much clearer and closer and even at times quite familiar.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/2-november-1959-1#p5</ref>
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So long as the mind is restless, it is not possible to get at the inner Truth. calm, peace, quietude—that is the first necessary condition.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace-the-basis-of-the-sadhana#p27</ref>
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The best attitude is to be quiet and calm, and to let the experience follow its course, observing it without thinking about it.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/experiences-and-visions#p16</ref>
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"First of all you must be quiet." The whole thing was very vivid and I appreciate the power of your thought―but I insist on the necessity of being calm and quiet. It is indispensable.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/quiet#p19</ref>
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It is the calm and still mind much more readily and with a much greater purity than the mind in agitation and action that opens to the Infinite, reflects the Spirit, becomes full of the Self and awaits like a consecrated and purified temple the unveiling of the Lord of all our being and nature. It is true also that the freedom of this silence gives a possibility of a larger play of the intuitive being and admits with less obstruction and turmoil of mental groping and seizing the great intuitions, inspirations, revelations which emerge from within or descend from above. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-intuitive-mind#p5</ref>
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This complete detachment, impossible without an entire self-government, equality, calm, "śama", "samatā", "śānti", is the surest step towards the purification of the buddhi. A calm, equal and detached mind can alone reflect the peace or base the action of the liberated spirit.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/purification-intelligence-and-will#p11</ref>
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Quiet, quiet and more quiet, calm strength, calm gladness are what are needed in mind and nerves and body as a basis for the siddhi—precisely because the Force, the Light, the Ananda that come down are extremely intense and need a great stillness in the being to bear and support them.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-descent-of-the-higher-powers#p12</ref>
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You are not at any time out of our minds. We are there with you in your difficulties and troubles—remain calm and assured and you will feel the inner help. Do not yield to depression for depression only gives the opposition and difficulties a hold upon you; call quietly and persistently for strength and the strength will come. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p14</ref>
===Vital===
It is only in the calm that one can know and do. All that is done in agitation and violence is an aberration and a folly. The first sign of the divine presence in the being is peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/messages-for-the-annual-re-opening-of-classes#p18</ref>
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If the departed one is a person one loves, one should concentrate one's love on him in peace and calm, for that is what can most help the one who has departed.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/16-january-1970#p4</ref>
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One has only to persist with a calm confidence and the vital will stop going on strike. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-xi#p11</ref>
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These ordeals laid a special emphasis on the mastery of passions and desires, on the establishment of an unshakable calm, and above all on the absence of all fear, for in this endeavour an unflinching fearlessness is an essential condition of safety. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-fear-of-death-and-the-four-methods-of-conquering-it#p20</ref>
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What you have to aspire for and bring down in you is the peace of the Mother's consciousness. Peace, calm, equanimity in the emotional being and the rest of the vital especially—it is that which will purify the emotions and deliver the vital.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-nature-of-the-vital#p80</ref>
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A calm and equality in the vital as well as in the mind which has become the fundamental character of the inner nature. Suggestions then may still come, things go wrong outside, but the being remains invulnerable. Either of these two things is sufficient in itself—and in proportion as they grow, even the existence of the hostile forces becomes less and less of a phenomenon of the inner life—though they may still be there in the outer atmosphere.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/dealing-with-hostile-attacks#p51</ref>
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Only calm in the vital is hardly sufficient [to have psychic experiences]. There must be something throwing out the ego from the vital.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/ego-and-its-forms#p69</ref>
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Tell the vital that complaining and revolting only hampers you from getting what it wants—it is only when it is calm and confident that things can be done.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wrong-movements-of-the-vital#p63</ref>
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Not to judge anyone but oneself until one can see things from a calm mind and a calm vital is an excellent rule. Also, do not allow your mind to form hasty impressions on the strength of some outward appearance, nor your vital to act upon them. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p23</ref>
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By bringing down strength and calm into the lower vital (region below the navel) [fear can be eliminated]. Also by will and imposing calm on the system when the fear arises. It can be done in either way or both together.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/fear#p15</ref>
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You are too easily invaded by these things [from outside]. You must call for a calm quietness in the vital and physical and a Force in you and around you which will repel all foreign forces the moment they appear. If there is entire quietude and strength in the nerves, these outside forces will not easily be able to touch you.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p27</ref>
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Even to have the quietude and calm somewhere behind or in a passive way is more important and helpful than it seems. It provides a sort of permanent ground on which ultimately a lasting peace, power and joy can be built. If one can feel one part of the being always quiet in spite of the disturbances in another part, then one has made the first firm step towards a permanent change.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p33</ref>
==For Sadhana==
It is the first secret of Yoga, to maintain the inner calm always and from that calm to meet everything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p62</ref>
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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#p2</ref>
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Always you must remain calm, untouched and unmoved; the strength of the Yogi lies there. An entire calmness and quietness will disarm even dangerous and ferocious animals when they confront you.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/30-june-1929#p5</ref>
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For everything—to live the spiritual life, heal sickness—for everything, one must be calm.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/31-march-1951#p25</ref>
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To be calm, undisturbed and quiet is not the first condition for sadhana but for siddhi. It is only a few people (very few, one, two, three, four in a hundred sadhaks) who can get it from the first. Most have to go through a long preparation before they can get anywhere near it. Even afterwards when they begin to feel the peace and calm, it takes time to establish it—they swing between peace and disturbance for a fairly long time until all parts of nature have accepted the truth and the peace. So there is no reason for you to suppose you cannot progress or arrive. You are finding a great difficulty with one part of your nature which has been accustomed to open itself to these feelings, separation from the Mother and attachment to relatives, and is not willing to give them up—that is all. But everybody finds such obstinate difficulties in that part of the nature, even the most successful sadhaks here. One has to persevere until the light conquers there.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace-the-basis-of-the-sadhana#p28</ref>
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A sattwic gladness and calm and confidence is the proper temperament for this Yoga; gloom, depression and weeping should not be indulged in, as they stand in the way of the opening, unless the tears are the psychic weeping of release or adoration or a moved love and bhakti. The progress made in controlling the sex and other rajasic movements of the lower vital is a good preparation, but not enough; by itself it is only the negative side, though indispensable. Aspire for a positive sattwic opening for strength, for light, for peace and do not worry or repine if the progress is slow at first, nor grudge the time and labour of preparation necessary before there can be a rapid advance in the Yoga.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/sorrow-and-suffering#p14</ref>
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Wideness and calmness are the foundation of the Yogic consciousness and the best condition for inner growth and experience. If a wide calm can be established in the physical consciousness, occupying and filling the very body and all its cells, that can become the basis for its transformation; in fact, without this wideness and calmness the transformation is hardly possible.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace-the-basis-of-the-sadhana#p20</ref>
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A great wave (or sea) of calm and the constant consciousness of a vast and luminous Reality—this is precisely the character of the fundamental realisation of the Supreme Truth in its first touch on the mind and the soul. One could not ask for a better beginning or foundation—it is like a rock on which the rest can be built. It means certainly not only a Presence, but the Presence—and it would be a great mistake to weaken the experience by any non-acceptance or doubt of its character.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/experiences-of-the-self-the-one-and-the-infinite#p9</ref>
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At a higher stage of development when the inner calm is established, one simply observes the defects of the nature as defects of a machinery that one has to put right and calls down the Light and Force for its rectification. In the beginning however the movement of repentance even helps provided it does not bring discouragement or depression.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/depression-and-despondency#p33</ref>
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...calm and peace in the whole being are the necessary foundation of all siddhi.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wrong-movements-of-the-vital#p52</ref>
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If you keep the wideness and calm as you are keeping it and also the love for the Mother in the heart, then all is safe—for it means the double foundation of the Yoga—the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace, freedom and security from above and the openness of the psychic which keeps all the effort or all the spontaneous movement turned towards the true goal.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-psychic-and-spiritual-realisations#p14</ref>
==For Ananda==
To be full of peace, the heart quiet, not troubled by grief, not excited by joy is a very good condition. As for Ananda, it can come not only with its fullest intensity but with a more enduring persistence when the mind is at peace and the heart delivered from ordinary joy and sorrow. If the mind and heart are restless, changeful, unquiet, Ananda of a kind may come, but it is mixed with vital excitement and cannot abide. One must get peace and calm fixed in the consciousness first, then there is a solid basis on which the Ananda can spread itself and in its turn become an enduring part of the consciousness and the nature.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p55</ref>
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But calm, peace, shanti are the necessary basis for any establishment of other things. Otherwise there is no solid foundation in the consciousness; if there is only unrest and movement, bhakti, Ananda and everything else can only come and go in starts and fits and find no ground to live on. It must, however, be not a mere mental quiet, but the deep spiritual peace of the shantimaya Shiva. It was this that touched you (descending through the head) in this experience. For the rest it is a resumption of the piercing of the veil, the beginning of the power of inner experience as opposed to the lesser experiences of the surface, the opening of the inner being, which is necessary for bringing the Yogic consciousness. A certain amount of vital purification has taken place which made the resumption of this kind of experience possible.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p95</ref>
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This calm, peace and surrender are the right atmosphere for all the rest to come, knowledge, strength, Ananda. Let it become complete.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace-the-basis-of-the-sadhana#p1</ref>
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There are two conditions, one of Ananda, another of great calm and equality in which there is no joy or grief. If one attains the latter, afterwards a greater more permanent Ananda becomes possible.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p66</ref>
==For Descent of Force==
It is only in peace and calm that the Divine Force expresses itself and acts.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/calm#p14</ref>
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Peace, calm, Quiet as a Basis for the Descent.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-descent-of-the-higher-powers#p9</ref>
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Calm of the Self must be fixed—otherwise the active Descent may find the forces it awakes seized on by lower Powers and a confusion created. That has happened with many.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-descent-of-the-higher-powers#p11</ref>
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You must remain calm and strong and go straight, using the power of Truth and the Divine Force supporting you to overcome the difficulties and set straight what has been made crooked by the falsehood.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-difficulties-of-yoga#p32</ref>
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Only the safest is to bring down first an absolute calm and peace for that makes the descent of the rest more secure; otherwise it may be difficult for the external nature to contain or bear so much Force, Light, Knowledge or Ananda. All these things together make what we call the higher, spiritual or divine consciousness.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-psychic-and-spiritual-realisations#p27</ref>
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The method of the Divine Manifestation is through calm and harmony, not through a catastrophic upheaval. The latter is the sign of a struggle, generally of conflicting vital forces, but at any rate a struggle on the inferior plane.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-hostile-forces-and-the-difficulties-of-yoga#p19</ref>
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The power of expression comes by getting into touch with the inner source from which these things come. A calm and silent mind is a great help for the free flow of the power, but it is not indispensable, nor will it of itself bring it.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-power-of-expression-and-yoga#p3</ref>
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The one thing important is to increase calm and peace and the descent of the Divine Force, to grow in equality and inward light and consciousness. Outward things have to be done with a great quiet, doing whatever is necessary but not exciting or upsetting yourself about anything. It is only so that you can advance steadily and quickly. When you feel the Mother's Force about you, the peace closely round you that is the one thing of importance—these small outward things can be settled in a hundred different ways, it doesn't really matter.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p72</ref>
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...aspire for calm, peace, purity, etc. in the mental and emotional being and allow what is descending to establish it in her.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/descent-and-the-lower-nature#p8</ref>
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The more the calm, peace, joy and happiness descend and take possession, the stronger the foundation. It is the sign of the contact.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/bhakti-devotion-worship#p57</ref>
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Remain calm and detached, calling in the Mother's force and light for transformation of this defective play into the true nature—not getting impatient if it is not done at once, but going on steadily and giving time for the change. The full change indeed cannot come till all is ready for the descent of a greater, calmer, larger consciousness from above and that is only possible when the ordinary consciousness has been made thoroughly ready for it.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p36</ref>
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If you want the divine life, you must remain absolutely ''unexcited and quiet''. Not careless, but always on your guard, sober, vigilant. "Madcaps" cannot contain the Power of the Mother, only those who are calm, poised, balanced. So do not be "something of a madcap".<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/vigilance#p8</ref>
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One may get influences from above, but so long as the mind is not full of the higher calm, peace, silence, one cannot be in direct contact. These influences get diminished, mentalised, vitalised and are not the powers of the higher planes in their native character. Nor is this sufficient to get control of the hidden forces of all the planes of consciousness, which is perhaps what he means by occultism.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-to-the-higher-planes#p3</ref>
==For Work==
What you write about the work is correct; to work in this calm ever-widening consciousness is at once a sādhanā and a siddhi.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-experiences-in-the-state-of-samadhi#p26</ref>
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What you have to do, what is right to be done, should be done in perfect calmness with the support of the Divine Force. All that is necessary for a successful result, can be done—including the securing of the support of those who are able to help you. But if this outer support is not forthcoming, you have not to be disturbed but to proceed calmly on your way. If there is any difficulty or unsuccess anywhere not due to your own fault, you have not to be troubled. Strength, unmoved calm, quiet, straight and right dealing with all things you have to deal with must be the rule of your action.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/practical-concerns-in-work#p35</ref>
=How Can One Achieve Calm?=