Difference between revisions of "Self Observation Compilation"
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<div style="color:#000000;">Have you ever practised distinguishing what comes from your mind, what comes from your vital, what comes from your physical?... For it is mixed up; it is mixed up in the outward appearance. If you do not take care to distinguish, it makes a kind of soup, all that together. So it is indistinct and difficult to discover. But if you observe yourself, after some time you see certain things, you feel them to be there, like that, as though they were in your skin; for some other things you feel you would have to go within yourself to find out from where they come; for other things, you have to go still further inside, or otherwise you have to rise up a little: it comes from unconsciousness. And there are others; then you must go very deep, very deep to find out from where they come. This is just a beginning.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">Have you ever practised distinguishing what comes from your mind, what comes from your vital, what comes from your physical?... For it is mixed up; it is mixed up in the outward appearance. If you do not take care to distinguish, it makes a kind of soup, all that together. So it is indistinct and difficult to discover. But if you observe yourself, after some time you see certain things, you feel them to be there, like that, as though they were in your skin; for some other things you feel you would have to go within yourself to find out from where they come; for other things, you have to go still further inside, or otherwise you have to rise up a little: it comes from unconsciousness. And there are others; then you must go very deep, very deep to find out from where they come. This is just a beginning.</div> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 10 June 1953)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/10-june-1953#p31</u></span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 10 June 1953)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/10-june-1953#p31</ref></u></span> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-science-of-living#p5</u></span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-science-of-living#p5</ref></u></span> | ||
<div style="color:#000000;">….You may have a mental power of observation, a vital power of observation, a physical power of observation. When you observe ideas, for instance, the train of ideas, the logic of the ideas, it is not altogether the same power of observation as when you look at a friend doing athletics and see whether he is making his movements correctly or not. That is, the capacity of attention is there in both cases, but it works in a different field. It can't be said that it is one part of the being observing the others; it is the faculty of observation developing in each part of the being—that is, the faculty of concentration and attention. For the capacity of observation must not be confused with the capacity of discernment. Discernment is an intellectual capacity. Something like a judgment already enters into it, what we call "discrimination": you can distinguish between the origin of one thing and of another, and the reciprocal value of these things. But that ought to be founded on a correct observation. The power of observation comes first, discernment follows.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">….You may have a mental power of observation, a vital power of observation, a physical power of observation. When you observe ideas, for instance, the train of ideas, the logic of the ideas, it is not altogether the same power of observation as when you look at a friend doing athletics and see whether he is making his movements correctly or not. That is, the capacity of attention is there in both cases, but it works in a different field. It can't be said that it is one part of the being observing the others; it is the faculty of observation developing in each part of the being—that is, the faculty of concentration and attention. For the capacity of observation must not be confused with the capacity of discernment. Discernment is an intellectual capacity. Something like a judgment already enters into it, what we call "discrimination": you can distinguish between the origin of one thing and of another, and the reciprocal value of these things. But that ought to be founded on a correct observation. The power of observation comes first, discernment follows.</div> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 27 January 1954)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34</u></span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 27 January 1954)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34</ref></u></span> | ||
<div style="color:#000000;">For a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, identifying ourselves with it, we can observe the springs of our thoughts and feelings, the sources and motives of our action, the operative energies that build up our surface personality. For we discover and can know the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives in us, the vital being that secretly feels and acts upon life through us, the subtle-physical being that secretly receives and responds to the contacts of things through our body and its organs. Our surface thought, feeling, emotion is a complexity and confusion of impulsions from within and impacts from outside us; our reason, our organising intelligence can impose on it only an imperfect order: but here within we find the separate sources of our mental, our vital and our physical energisms and can see clearly the pure operations, the distinct powers, the composing elements of each and their interplay in a clear light of self-vision.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">For a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, identifying ourselves with it, we can observe the springs of our thoughts and feelings, the sources and motives of our action, the operative energies that build up our surface personality. For we discover and can know the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives in us, the vital being that secretly feels and acts upon life through us, the subtle-physical being that secretly receives and responds to the contacts of things through our body and its organs. Our surface thought, feeling, emotion is a complexity and confusion of impulsions from within and impacts from outside us; our reason, our organising intelligence can impose on it only an imperfect order: but here within we find the separate sources of our mental, our vital and our physical energisms and can see clearly the pure operations, the distinct powers, the composing elements of each and their interplay in a clear light of self-vision.</div> | ||
− | + | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledge#p12</ref> | |
− | |||
<div style="color:#000000;">There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousness, one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by thoughts and feelings, grief and joy and all kinds of reactions, the other within calm, vast, equal, observing the surface being with an immovable detachment or indulgence or, it may be, acting upon its agitation to quiet, enlarge, transform it. So too we can rise to a consciousness above and observe the various parts of our being, inner and outer, mental, vital and physical and the subconscient below all, and act upon one or other or the whole from that higher status. It is possible also to go down from that height or from any height into any of these lower states and take its limited light or its obscurity as our place of working while the rest that we are is either temporarily put away or put behind or else kept as a field of reference from which we can get support, sanction or light and influence or as a status into which we can ascend or recede and from it observe the inferior movements. Or we can plunge into trance, get within ourselves and be conscious there while all outward things are excluded; or we can go beyond even this inner awareness and lose ourselves in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconscience. There is also a pervading equal consciousness into which we can enter and see all ourselves with one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisible.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousness, one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by thoughts and feelings, grief and joy and all kinds of reactions, the other within calm, vast, equal, observing the surface being with an immovable detachment or indulgence or, it may be, acting upon its agitation to quiet, enlarge, transform it. So too we can rise to a consciousness above and observe the various parts of our being, inner and outer, mental, vital and physical and the subconscient below all, and act upon one or other or the whole from that higher status. It is possible also to go down from that height or from any height into any of these lower states and take its limited light or its obscurity as our place of working while the rest that we are is either temporarily put away or put behind or else kept as a field of reference from which we can get support, sanction or light and influence or as a status into which we can ascend or recede and from it observe the inferior movements. Or we can plunge into trance, get within ourselves and be conscious there while all outward things are excluded; or we can go beyond even this inner awareness and lose ourselves in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconscience. There is also a pervading equal consciousness into which we can enter and see all ourselves with one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisible.</div> | ||
− | + | <div style="color:#0066cc;"><u> | |
− | + | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p23</ref></u></div> | |
− | <div style="color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p23</u></div> | ||
== Witness and Parts of Being == | == Witness and Parts of Being == | ||
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<div style="color:#000000;">It is difficult to say generally what is conscious; but naturally, if something observes, it is always the "witness" element in this part—in each part of the being there is something which is a "witness", which looks on. There is even a physical witness which can get very much in the way; for instance, if it watches you playing, this can paralyse you considerably. There is also a vital witness which looks at you, sees your desires and enjoys highly all that happens; it acts also as a brake. There is the mental witness which judges ideas, which says, "This idea contradicts this other", and which arranges everything. Then there is the great psychic Witness, who is the inner divinity.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">It is difficult to say generally what is conscious; but naturally, if something observes, it is always the "witness" element in this part—in each part of the being there is something which is a "witness", which looks on. There is even a physical witness which can get very much in the way; for instance, if it watches you playing, this can paralyse you considerably. There is also a vital witness which looks at you, sees your desires and enjoys highly all that happens; it acts also as a brake. There is the mental witness which judges ideas, which says, "This idea contradicts this other", and which arranges everything. Then there is the great psychic Witness, who is the inner divinity.</div> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 22 March 1951)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p6</ | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 22 March 1951)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p6</ref></u></span> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Sometimes there is no relation among these different witnesses—there ought to be, but it is not always there. But if there is in the being a will to become perfect, the relation is established quite quickly; one can refer to another and finally, if there is a sufficient sincerity, sufficient concentration, you come to the supreme inner Witness who can judge all things. But generally it may be said that it is always a part of the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judges.</span> |
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the witness part of his mind and observes his own thoughts and studies their nature. That is a beginning which makes it easy for the full detachment to come. For others it is less easy, but it can be done by all.</span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 22 March 1951)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p7</ref></u></span> |
+ | |||
+ | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the witness part of his mind and observes his own thoughts and studies their nature. That is a beginning which makes it easy for the full detachment to come. For others it is less easy, but it can be done by all.</span> | ||
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p</ref> | ||
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<div style="color:#000000;">...behind there is the psychic which supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness, makes one feel that he is the same being even while being absolutely different, absolutely different. If later one observes himself sufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and could do at that time are things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable now, and that he could never do a similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And yet, because within there was the psychic consciousness which is immortal, one has the feeling that it is always the same being which was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with more or less progressive and more or less conscious changes.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">...behind there is the psychic which supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness, makes one feel that he is the same being even while being absolutely different, absolutely different. If later one observes himself sufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and could do at that time are things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable now, and that he could never do a similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And yet, because within there was the psychic consciousness which is immortal, one has the feeling that it is always the same being which was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with more or less progressive and more or less conscious changes.</div> | ||
− | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 29 June 1955)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> | |
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 29 June 1955)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28</u></span> | + | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28</ref></u></span> |
<div style="color:#000000;">The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nature in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks "I am doing this, feeling that, thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc." The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. The two different beings you feel are—one, the psychic being which draws you towards the Mother, the other the external being mostly vital which draws you outward and downwards towards the play of the lower nature. There is also in you behind the mind the being who observes, the witness Purusha, who can stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choose.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nature in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks "I am doing this, feeling that, thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc." The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. The two different beings you feel are—one, the psychic being which draws you towards the Mother, the other the external being mostly vital which draws you outward and downwards towards the play of the lower nature. There is also in you behind the mind the being who observes, the witness Purusha, who can stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choose.</div> | ||
+ | <div style="color:#0066cc;"><u> | ||
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p84</ref></u></div> | ||
− | < | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The actions are of importance only as expressing what is in the nature. You have to be conscious of whatever in your actions is not in harmony with the Yoga and to get rid of it. But for that what is needed is your own consciousness, the psychic, observing from within and throwing off what is seen to be undesirable.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/work-and-yoga#p45</ref></u></span> | ||
− | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The mental being within watches, observes and passes judgment on all that happens in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way like a witness, but it feels and knows spontaneously in a much more direct and luminous way by the very purity of its own nature and the divine instinct within it, and so, whenever it comes to the front it reveals at once what are the right and what the wrong movements in your nature.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> | |
− | + | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-jivatman-in-the-integral-yoga#p40</ref></u></span> | |
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The mental being within watches, observes and passes judgment on all that happens in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way like a witness, but it feels and knows spontaneously in a much more direct and luminous way by the very purity of its own nature and the divine instinct within it, and so, whenever it comes to the front it reveals at once what are the right and what the wrong movements in your nature.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-jivatman-in-the-integral-yoga#p40</u></span> | ||
== Mind and Self-Observation == | == Mind and Self-Observation == | ||
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<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 31 October 1956)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/31-october-1956#p19</u></span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, the object of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion and the subject. In the self-experience of the self-observing inner being, the object is always some state or movement or wave of the conscious being, anger, grief or other emotion, hunger or other vital craving, impulse or inner life reaction or some form of sensation, perception or thought activity. The act is some kind of mental observation and conceptual valuation of this movement or wave or else a mental sensation of it in which observation and valuation may be involved and even lost,—so that in this act the mental person may either separate the act and the object by a distinguishing perception or confuse them together indistinguishably. </span> | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 31 October 1956)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/31-october-1956#p19</u></span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, the object of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion and the subject. In the self-experience of the self-observing inner being, the object is always some state or movement or wave of the conscious being, anger, grief or other emotion, hunger or other vital craving, impulse or inner life reaction or some form of sensation, perception or thought activity. The act is some kind of mental observation and conceptual valuation of this movement or wave or else a mental sensation of it in which observation and valuation may be involved and even lost,—so that in this act the mental person may either separate the act and the object by a distinguishing perception or confuse them together indistinguishably. </span> | ||
− | <div style="color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-ego-and-self-experience#p5</u></div> | + | <div style="color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-ego-and-self-experience#p5</ref></u></div> | ||
<div style="color:#000000;">So the man of real merit or the more civilised man has a whole mental construction to which he must conform in order to be in harmony with the ideal of the environment in which he lives. But someone who does not conform at least to the smallest part of this construction would be considered a savage and would be thrown out of the society immediately. In fact, people who are criminals or half-mad are those who obey their impulses without any mental control. There isn't a single person among you who gives way without control to all the impulses that get hold of him. You have only to observe yourselves living, you spend your time saying, "No, this I can't do", or "This I can", or in restraining one movement or encouraging another. This is mental control.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">So the man of real merit or the more civilised man has a whole mental construction to which he must conform in order to be in harmony with the ideal of the environment in which he lives. But someone who does not conform at least to the smallest part of this construction would be considered a savage and would be thrown out of the society immediately. In fact, people who are criminals or half-mad are those who obey their impulses without any mental control. There isn't a single person among you who gives way without control to all the impulses that get hold of him. You have only to observe yourselves living, you spend your time saying, "No, this I can't do", or "This I can", or in restraining one movement or encouraging another. This is mental control.</div> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 15 September 1954)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/15-september-1954#p9</u></span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 15 September 1954)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/15-september-1954#p9</ref></u></span> | ||
== Vital and Self-Observation == | == Vital and Self-Observation == | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one's knowing it, and brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness 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 </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">step forward made in the sadhana.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of-being#p45</u></span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one's knowing it, and brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness 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 </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">step forward made in the sadhana.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of-being#p45</ref></u></span> | ||
− | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">After each crisis there is something gained, if there has been a victory and rejection. The gain is to externalise the vital disturbance, so that even if it returns it will be felt so much an outside force that the observing consciousness (mental, higher vital) cannot be disturbed. If you keep that, it will be an immense advance.</span> | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">After each crisis there is something gained, if there has been a victory and rejection. The gain is to externalise the vital disturbance, so that even if it returns it will be felt so much an outside force that the observing consciousness (mental, higher vital) cannot be disturbed. If you keep that, it will be an immense advance.</span> |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wrong-movements-of-the-vital#p68</ref> | ||
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<div style="color:#000000;">One can prepare the body through a series of observations, studies, understandings,by showing it examples, making it understand things as one makes a child understand them, either by observing its own movements―but generally, in this, one is comparatively blind!―or by observing those of others. And in a more general way, this preparation will be based on recognised studies, on clear facts. Like this, for instance: that a certain number of persons, placed in exactly similar circumstances, experience, each one of them, very different effects. One may go even further: in a given set of definite circumstances, there is a certain number of particular, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditions, and for some the effects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harm.</div> | <div style="color:#000000;">One can prepare the body through a series of observations, studies, understandings,by showing it examples, making it understand things as one makes a child understand them, either by observing its own movements―but generally, in this, one is comparatively blind!―or by observing those of others. And in a more general way, this preparation will be based on recognised studies, on clear facts. Like this, for instance: that a certain number of persons, placed in exactly similar circumstances, experience, each one of them, very different effects. One may go even further: in a given set of definite circumstances, there is a certain number of particular, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditions, and for some the effects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harm.</div> | ||
+ | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 4 July 1956)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> | ||
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/4-july-1956#p15</ref></u></span> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If it is an inert tamasic passivity subject to any influence and unable to react, then it is subjection to Nature. If it is a sattwic passivity of the Witness observing and understanding the movements of Nature, then it is an intermediate condition, often necessary for knowledge. If it is a luminous passivity open to the Divine, shut to all other influences, then it is not subjection to Nature but surrender to the Divine.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> | ||
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p24</ref></u></span> | ||
− | + | <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">For the giddiness, it may be that in concentration you go partly out of your body; then, if you get up and move before the whole consciousness has come back, there is just such a giddiness as you describe. You can observe in future and see whether it is not this that happens. One has to be careful not to move after deep concentration or trance, till there is the full consciousness in the body.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u> | |
+ | <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p59</ref></u></span> | ||
= Consciousness and Self-Observation = | = Consciousness and Self-Observation = |
Revision as of 18:30, 14 August 2018
Contents
- 1 Importance of Self-Observation
- 2 What to Observe
- 3 Process of Self-Observation
- 4 Conditions for Self-Observation
- 5 Right Attitude for Self-Observation
- 6 Limitations of Self-Observation
- 7 Personality and Self-Observation
- 8 Parts and Planes of the Being
- 9 Consciousness and Self-Observation
- 10 Thoughts and Self-Observation
- 11 Sense and Self Observation
- 12 Education and Self-Observation
- 13 Results of Self-Observation
- 14 Difficulties during Self-Observation
- 15 Other fields of Self-Observation
- 16 Things to Remember
- 17 Yogic Experience
- 18 Practice of Self-Observation
Importance of Self-Observation
The Upanishad tells us that the Self-existent has so set the doors of the soul that they turn outwards and most men look outward into the appearances of things; only the rare soul that is ripe for a calm thought and steady wisdom turns its eye inward, sees the Self and attains to immortality. To this turning of the eye inward psychological self-observation and analysis is a great and effective introduction. We can look into the inward of ourselves more easily than we can look into the inward of things external to us because there, in things outside us, we are in the first place embarrassed by the form and secondly we have no natural previous experience of that in them which is other than their physical substance….psychological self-knowledge is only the experience of the modes of the Self, it is not the realisation of the Self in its pure being.
[2]
The true and ultimate, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observing, reasoning, inquiring, judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for the right reception and right action of a Light from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal..Man can bring an enlightened will, an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to the difficult work of his self-development; he can more and more subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, he is man and no longer an animal. When he can begin to replace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, consciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and transcendent knowledge, he has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divine. [3]
What to Observe
Many voices
The three Guna’s
The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Therefore without a long inner experience, without intimate self-observation and intuitive perception of the Nature-forces it is difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise. Still certain broad indications may help the seeker on the Way of Works to understand, analyse and control by his assent or refusal the combinations of his own nature. These modes are termed in the Indian books qualities, guṇas, and are given the names sattva, rajas, tamas. Sattwa is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and light; rajas is the force of kinesis and translates in quality as struggle and effort, passion and action; tamas is the force of inconscience and inertia and translates in quality as obscurity and incapacity and inaction. Ordinarily used for psychological self-analysis, these distinctions are valid also in physical Nature. Each thing and every existence in the lower Prakriti contains them and its process and dynamic form are the result of the interaction of these qualitative powers. [5]
Process of Self-Observation
(The Mother ,29 July 1953) [6]
It is not a physical retirement that is needed, but an inner detachment from the mental formations and vital desires. To find the real self above and within and live in that, not in the mind's conceptions or the vital's reactions. These must be observed and looked at not as one's own but as movements of a surface ignorant nature. [8]
Conditions for Self-Observation
Quiet Mind
[9]It is in the quiet mind that the true observation and knowledge come. [10]
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 away, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to be rejected and to accept and keep to all that is true consciousness and true experience. [11]
Silence
It is really an inner silence that is needed—a something silent within that looks at outer talk and action but feels it as something superficial, not as itself and is quite indifferent and untouched by it. It can bring forces to support speech and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without being involved or moved. [13]
(The Mother , 30 September 1953) [14]
To silence the mind it is not enough to throw back each thought as it comes, that can only be a subordinate movement. One must get back from all thought and be separate from it, a silent consciousness observing the thoughts if they come, but not oneself thinking or identified with the thoughts. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogether. It is then easier to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the quietude of the mind. [15]
Right Attitude for Self-Observation
Witness Attitude
(The Mother,13 October 1954) [16]
Being Sincere and Impartial
For that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are to do or that you are to do, in this lies your talent or genius, etc. That will carry you away from the right track. It is not the liking or disliking of your external being, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in that one; it is not for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I said, you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge.
(The Mother ,12 November 1952) [19]
Being Vigilant
But you have only to observe yourselves... you can observe yourself, catch yourself at least a hundred times a day, with a mind which decides everything, knows everything, judges everything, knows very well what is good, what bad, what is true, what false, what is right... And also how one should act, what this person should have done, how to resolve that problem.... All men know, you see... If they were at the head of governments, for instance, they would know very well how to manage everything! But people don't listen to them... that's all! (The Mother,21 July 1954) [21]
Becoming Aware of Desire
(The Mother, 25 January 1951) [22]
Becoming Conscious
Limitations of Self-Observation
Surface Level Observation
As a general rule, with a few very rare exceptions, men are content to observe more or less accurately everything that happens around them, and sometimes within themselves, and to classify all these observations according to one superficial system of logic or another. And they call this organisation, these systems, "knowledge". It has never occurred to them, they have not even begun to perceive that all the things they see, touch, feel, experience, are false appearances and not reality itself. [24]
It is evident that our state on the surface is indeed a state of knowledge, so far as it goes, but a limited knowledge enveloped and invaded by ignorance and, to a very large extent, by reason of its limitation, itself a kind of ignorance, at best a mixed knowledge-ignorance. It could not be otherwise since our awareness of the world is born of a separative and surface observation with only an indirect means of cognition at its disposal; our knowledge of ourselves, though more direct, is stultified by its restriction to the surface of our being, by an ignorance of our true self, the true sources of our nature, the true motive-forces of our action. It is quite evident that we know ourselves with only a superficial knowledge,—the sources of our consciousness and thought are a mystery; the true nature of our mind, emotions, sensations is a mystery; our cause of being and our end of being, the significance of our life and its activities are a mystery: this could not be if we had a real self-knowledge and a real world-knowledge. [25]
Ignorance
As the surface mental entity moving from moment to moment, not observing his essential self but only his relation to his experiences of the Time-movement, in that movement keeping the future from himself in what appears to be a blank of Ignorance and non-existence but is an unrealised fullness, grasping knowledge and experience of being in the present, putting it away in the past which again appears to be a blank of Ignorance and non-existence partly lighted, partly saved and stored up by memory, he puts on the aspect of a thing fleeting and uncertain seizing without stability upon things fleeting and uncertain. But in reality, we shall find, he is always the same Eternal who is for ever stable and self-possessed in His supramental knowledge and what he seizes on is also for ever stable and eternal; for it is himself that he is mentally experiencing in the succession of Time. [27]
Observing Invisible Forces
Personality and Self-Observation
Three Guna’s and Self-Observation
In this progression the first step is a certain detached superiority to the three modes of Nature. The soul is inwardly separated and free from the lower Prakriti, not involved in its coils, indifferent and glad above it. Nature continues to act in the triple round of her ancient habits,—desire, grief and joy attack the heart, the instruments fall into inaction and obscurity and weariness, light and peace come back into the heart and mind and body; but the soul stands unchanged and untouched by these changes. Observing and unmoved by the grief and desire of the lower members, smiling at their joys and their strainings, regarding and unoverpowered by the failing and the darknesses of the thought and the wildness or the weaknesses of the heart and nerves, uncompelled and unattached to the mind's illuminations and its relief and sense of ease or of power in the return of light and gladness, it throws itself into none of these things, but waits unmoved for the intimations of a higher Will and the intuitions of a greater luminous knowledge.
Parts and Planes of the Being
(The Mother , 10 June 1953) [30]
To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour. [31]
(The Mother, 27 January 1954) [32]
Witness and Parts of Being
(The Mother, 22 March 1951) [35]
Sometimes there is no relation among these different witnesses—there ought to be, but it is not always there. But if there is in the being a will to become perfect, the relation is established quite quickly; one can refer to another and finally, if there is a sufficient sincerity, sufficient concentration, you come to the supreme inner Witness who can judge all things. But generally it may be said that it is always a part of the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judges.
(The Mother, 22 March 1951)[36]
A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the witness part of his mind and observes his own thoughts and studies their nature. That is a beginning which makes it easy for the full detachment to come. For others it is less easy, but it can be done by all. [37]
You have to become conscious—that is to say, there must be something in you which is not carried away by thoughts and feelings, but looks at them and observes how they work and how they affect you. The part that observes and knows is called the Witness sākṣī in man. It is always possible to develop this in oneself.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p25
Psychic Being
(The Mother, 29 June 1955) [38]
The actions are of importance only as expressing what is in the nature. You have to be conscious of whatever in your actions is not in harmony with the Yoga and to get rid of it. But for that what is needed is your own consciousness, the psychic, observing from within and throwing off what is seen to be undesirable. [40]
The mental being within watches, observes and passes judgment on all that happens in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way like a witness, but it feels and knows spontaneously in a much more direct and luminous way by the very purity of its own nature and the divine instinct within it, and so, whenever it comes to the front it reveals at once what are the right and what the wrong movements in your nature. [41]
Mind and Self-Observation
(The Mother, 31 October 1956)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/31-october-1956#p19...We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, the object of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion and the subject. In the self-experience of the self-observing inner being, the object is always some state or movement or wave of the conscious being, anger, grief or other emotion, hunger or other vital craving, impulse or inner life reaction or some form of sensation, perception or thought activity. The act is some kind of mental observation and conceptual valuation of this movement or wave or else a mental sensation of it in which observation and valuation may be involved and even lost,—so that in this act the mental person may either separate the act and the object by a distinguishing perception or confuse them together indistinguishably.
(The Mother , 15 September 1954) [43]
Vital and Self-Observation
What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one's knowing it, and brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness 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 made in the sadhana. [44]
After each crisis there is something gained, if there has been a victory and rejection. The gain is to externalise the vital disturbance, so that even if it returns it will be felt so much an outside force that the observing consciousness (mental, higher vital) cannot be disturbed. If you keep that, it will be an immense advance.
[45]
Physical and Self-Observation
(The Mother, 4 July 1956) [46]
If it is an inert tamasic passivity subject to any influence and unable to react, then it is subjection to Nature. If it is a sattwic passivity of the Witness observing and understanding the movements of Nature, then it is an intermediate condition, often necessary for knowledge. If it is a luminous passivity open to the Divine, shut to all other influences, then it is not subjection to Nature but surrender to the Divine. [47]
For the giddiness, it may be that in concentration you go partly out of your body; then, if you get up and move before the whole consciousness has come back, there is just such a giddiness as you describe. You can observe in future and see whether it is not this that happens. One has to be careful not to move after deep concentration or trance, till there is the full consciousness in the body. [48]
Consciousness and Self-Observation
(The Mother, 30 June 1929)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/30-june-1929#p7
There are two centres or parts of the consciousness—one is a witness, sākṣī, and observes, the other consciousness is active and it is this active consciousness that you felt going down deep into the vital being. If your mind had not become active, you would have known where it went and what it went there to experience or do. When there is an experience, you should not begin to think about it, for that is of no use at all and it only stops the experience—you should remain silent, observe and let it go on to its end.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p8At a certain stage of the sadhana, in the beginning (or near it) of the more intense experiences, it sometimes happens that there is the intense realisation of some aspect of the Divine, a sort of communion with it, and that is seen everywhere and all as that. It is a transitory phase and afterwards one gets the larger experience of the Divine in all its aspects and beyond all aspects. Throughout the experience there should be one part of the being that observes and understands—for sometimes ignorant sadhaks are carried away by their experience and stop short there or fall into extravagance. It must be taken as an experience through which you are passing.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p10
Thoughts and Self-Observation
Thoughts are not the essence of mind-being, they are only an activity of mental nature; if that activity ceases, what appears then as a thought-free existence that manifests in its place is not a blank or void but something very real, substantial, concrete we may say—a mental being that extends itself widely and can be its own field of existence silent or active as well as the Witness, Knower, Master of that field and its action. Some feel it first as a void, but that is because their observation is untrained and insufficient and loss of activity gives them the sense of blank; an emptiness there is, but it is an emptiness of the ordinary activities, not a blank of existence.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p3
(The Mother, 20 February 1957)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-1957#p6
To observe your thoughts, you must first of all separate yourself from them. In the ordinary state, the ordinary man does not distinguish himself from his thoughts. He does not even know that he thinks. He thinks by habit. And if he is asked all of a sudden, "What are you thinking of?", he knows nothing about it. That is to say, ninety-five times out of a hundred he will answer, "I do not know." There is a complete identification between the movement of thought and the consciousness of the being.http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p12
(The Mother , 22 September 1954)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p19
(The Mother, 20 February 1957)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-1957#p8
When one practises Yoga and observes the thoughts, one sees that they come from outside, from universal Nature, from the mental, vital or subtle physical worlds etc. The proper thing is then to stand back from these thoughts, voices or suggestions, to reject them or else control them, to make the mind free and quiet and open only to the divine light, force, knowledge and the presence of the Divine….Aspire, get into contact with the Light and the true Force, reassert your will to reject these suggestions and voices. Do not take interest in these voices, keep the mind quiet.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/thought-and-knowledge#p5
Sense and Self Observation
This sensational thought-mind which is based upon sense, memory, association, first ideas and resultant generalisations or secondary ideas, is common to all developed animal life and mentality….The intelligence and will of the animal are involved in the sense-mind and therefore altogether governed by it and carried on its stream of sensations, sense-perceptions, impulses; it is instinctive. Man is able to use a reason and will, a self-observing, thinking and all-observing, an intelligently willing mind which is no longer involved in the sense-mind, but acts from above and behind it in its own right, with a certain separateness and freedom. He is reflective, has a certain relative freedom of intelligent will. He has liberated in himself and has formed into a separate power the buddhi.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/purification-intelligence-and-will#p4
(The Mother , 31 March 1954)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/31-march-1954#p13
Education and Self-Observation
The indispensable starting-point is a detailed and discerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is a difficult and often a very baffling task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the labyrinth of inner discovery. It is that everyone possesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be a coward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses. In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary, those that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher element comes in in time, a conscious will which, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of education.http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p6
..The child must be taught to observe, to note his reactions and impulses and their causes, to become a discerning witness of his desires, his movements of violence and passion, his instincts of possession and appropriation and domination and the background of vanity which supports them, together with their counterparts of weakness, discouragement, depression and despair.http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p14
Results of Self-Observation
(The Mother , 21 December 1950)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/21-december-1950#p7
(The Mother, 15 January 1951)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/15-january-1951#p3
Difficulties during Self-Observation
Danger of the Ego
(The Mother ,5 April 1951)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/5-april-1951#p14
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/26-april-1951#p35
Do not be over-eager for experience,—for experiences you can always get, having once broken the barrier between the physical mind and the subtle planes. What you have to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you—discrimination in the mind, the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that goes on in you and around you, purity in the vital, calm equanimity, enduring patience, absence of pride and the sense of greatness—and more especially, the development of the psychic being in you—surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion... a sufficient foundation and a consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and growing in these things is indispensable—for perfect purification is the basis of the perfect siddhi.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p14
Escape attitude
(The Mother , 26 January 1955)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/26-january-1955#p14
Focusing on the Negative
To be always observing faults and wrong movements brings depression and discourages the faith. Turn your eyes more to the coming Light and less to any immediate darkness. Faith, cheerfulness, confidence in the ultimate victory are the things that help,—they make the progress easier and swifter.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p28
It is a subtle law of the action of consciousness that if you stress difficulties—you have to observe them, of course, but not stress them, they will quite sufficiently do that for themselves—the difficulties tend to stick or even increase; on the contrary, if you put your whole stress on faith and aspiration and concentrate steadily on what you aspire to, that will sooner or later tend towards realisation. It is this change of stress, a change in the poise and attitude of the mind, that will be the more helpful process.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/dealing-with-depression-and-despondency#p22
Overcoming difficulty
If you had that observation (from the inner spiritual, not the outer intellectual and ethical viewpoint), then it would be comparatively easy for you to get out of your difficulties; for instance you would find at once where this irrational impulse to flee away came from and it would not have any hold upon you. Of course, all that can only be done to the best effect when you stand back from the play of your nature and become the Witness-Control or the Spectator-Actor Manager. But that is what happens when you take this kind of self-seeing posture.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/mental-difficulties-and-the-need-of-quietude#p23
Other fields of Self-Observation
Meditation
(The Mother , 5 June 1957)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/5-june-1957#p20
The mind is always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is doing, but allow ourselves to be carried away in the stream of continual thinking. When we try to concentrate, this stream of self-moved mechanical thinking becomes prominent to our observation. It is the first normal obstacle (the other is sleep during meditation) to the effort towards Yoga.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p30
Dreams
Now the procedure to deal with dreams and the dreamland. First become conscious—conscious of your dreams. Observe the relation between them and the happenings of your waking hours. If you remember your night, you will be able to trace back very often the condition of your day to the condition of your night. In sleep some action or other is always going on in your mental or vital or other plane; things happen there and they govern your waking consciousness.
== (The Mother , 21 April 1929) [49]
(The Mother , 1 February 1951) [50]
As the inner consciousness grows by sadhana, these dream experiences increase in number, clearness, coherence, accuracy and after some growth of experience and consciousness, we can, if we observe, come to understand them and their significance to our inner life. Even we can by training become so conscious as to follow our own passage, usually veiled to our awareness and memory, through many realms and the process of the return to the waking state. At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of sleep, a sleep of experiences, can replace the ordinary subconscient slumber. [51]
Things to Remember
(The Mother, 9 March 1955)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/9-march-1955#p23
Yogic Experience
Divine as Observer
Purusha and Self-Observation
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-shakti#p8
Shakti and Self-Observation
(The Mother , 7 November 1956)http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/7-november-1956#p1
Evolution and Self-Observation
Chitta and Self-Observation
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-instruments-of-the-spirit#p6
Practice of Self-Observation
Take one hour of your life, the one which is most convenient for you, and during that time observe yourself closely and say only the absolutely indispensable words.http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p15
Going Within
Positive Attitude
To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change". You do right to be confident that the change will come. For nothing is impossible in the nature if the psychic being is awake and leading you with the Mother's consciousness and force behind it and working in you. This is now happening. Be sure that all will be done.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p53
Despair and despondency are always wrong. If you make a mistake, quietly observe it and correct the tendency next time. Even if the mistake recurs often, you have only to persevere quietly—remembering that nature cannot be changed in a day.http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/depression-and-despondency#p67
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/18-june-1958#p3
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-status-of-knowledge#p7
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-consecration#p17
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-voices-and-indication
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-three-modes-of-nature#p2
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/29-july-1953#p47
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p43
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p111
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/indeterminates-cosmic-determinations-and-the-indeterminable#p12
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p40
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p10
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/20-october-1954#p46
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p76
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/30-september-1953#p13
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p99
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/13-october-1954#p2
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-action-of-the-divine-shakti#p7
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-perfection-of-the-mental-being#p15
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/12-november-1952#p6
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/fear#p12
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-july-1954#p40
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-january-1951#p3
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/28-november-1956#p19
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-7#p3
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledge#p7
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/20-june-1956#p49
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-self-consciousness-and-the-ignorance#p15
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p7
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-three-modes-of-nature#p13
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/10-june-1953#p31
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-science-of-living#p5
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledge#p12
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p23
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p6
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p7
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p84
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/work-and-yoga#p45
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-jivatman-in-the-integral-yoga#p40
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-ego-and-self-experience#p5
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/15-september-1954#p9
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of-being#p45
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wrong-movements-of-the-vital#p68
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/4-july-1956#p15
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p24
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p59
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/21-april-1929#p6
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/1-february-1951#p14
- ↑ http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p6