Changes

= Importance of What is Self-Observation =

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">There are four necessities of man's self-expansion if he is not to remain this being We have in all functionings of the surface ignorance seeking obscurely after mentality four elements, the truth object of things and collecting and systematising fragments and sections mental consciousness, the act of knowledgemental consciousness, the small limited occasion and halfthe subject. In the self-competent creature experience of the cosmic Force which he now self-observing inner being, the object is in his phenomenal nature. He must know himself and discover and utilise all his potentialities: but to know himself and always some state or movement or wave of the world completely he must go behind his own and its exteriorconscious being, anger, he must dive deep below his own mental surface and the physical surface of Nature. This he can only do by knowing his inner mentalgrief or other emotion, hunger or other vitalcraving, physical and psychic being and its powers and movements and the universal laws and processes impulse or inner life reaction or some form of sensation, perception or thought activity. The act is some kind of the occult Mind mental observation and Life which stand behind the material front conceptual valuation of the universe….But this knowledge must be something more than a creed movement or wave or else a mystic revelation; his thinking mind must mental sensation of it in which observation and valuation may be able to accept it, to correlate it with the principle of things involved and the observed truth of the universe: this is the work of philosophyeven lost, and —so that in this act the field of mental person may either separate the truth of act and the spirit it can only be done object by a spiritual philosophy, whether intellectual in its method distinguishing perception or intuitiveconfuse them together indistinguishably. (The Mother, 18 June 1958) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0921/18memory-juneego-and-self-1958experience#p3p5</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The Upanishad tells us that 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 Self-existent has so set the doors train of ideas, the soul that they turn outwards and most men look outward into the appearances logic of things; only the rare soul that ideas, it is ripe for a calm thought and steady wisdom turns its eye inward, sees not altogether the Self and attains to immortality. To this turning same power of the eye inward psychological self-observation as when you look at a friend doing athletics and </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">analysis see whether he is a great and effective introductionmaking his movements correctly or not. We can look into That is, the inward capacity of ourselves more easily than we can look into the inward of things external to us because attention is there, in things outside usboth cases, we are but it works in a different field. It can't be said that it is one part of the first place embarrassed by being observing the form and secondly we have no natural previous experience of that in them which is other than their physical substance….psychological self-knowledge others; it is only the experience faculty of the modes observation developing in each part of the Selfbeing—that is, it is not the realisation faculty of the Self in its pure beingconcentration and attention.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2306/the27-status-ofjanuary-knowledge1954#p7p34</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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.~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-consecration#p17</refcenter>

= What to Observe = == Many voices == <span style="backgroundThis sensational thought-color:transparent;color:#000000;">There are many voicesmind 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 not divineinvolved in the sense-mind and therefore altogether governed by it and carried on its stream of sensations, sense-perceptions, impulses; this may be only a voice of desireit is instinctive. All that keeps one faithful Man is able to the Truth use a reason and will, a self-observing, thinking and insists on peaceall-observing, purityan intelligently willing mind which is no longer involved in the sense-mind, devotionbut acts from above and behind it in its own right, sinceritywith a certain separateness and freedom. He is reflective, has a spiritual change certain relative freedom of the nature can be listened to with profit; the rest must be observed with discrimination intelligent will. He has liberated in himself and not followed blindly. Keep has formed into a separate power the fire of aspiration burning, but avoid all impatient hastebuddhi. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3024/innerpurification-voicesintelligence-and-indicationwill#p4</ref> == The three Guna’s ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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 ~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-three-modes-of-nature#p2</refcenter>

= Process The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of Selfthe 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-Observation =being#p84</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>You project yourself on the screen and then observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to seeing, you can go one step further and take a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise—arrange, take up all that, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious of your direction and are able to say: "Very well, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the logic of my being. Now, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, and so naturally a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what will happen to me for I myself am deciding it....". (The Mother ,29 July 1953) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/29-july-1953#p47</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">But you must begin when very small, '''Active and consciously, very consciously; you must begin with a see of observation of all the movements in yourself, of their relation with others, of—precisely, of your degree of independence, real individuality, of knowing where impulses come from, where other movements come from: whether it is contagion from outside or something that arises from within yourself. A very profound study of all the movements in oneself is necessary in order to succeed simply in crystallising a being who is a little conscious, a little conscious. (The Mother,22 September 1954) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p43</ref>Passive Observation'''

<span style="background-color:transparentYour consciousness becomes a screen or mirror;color:#000000but this is when you are in a state of contemplation, a mere observer;">It when you are active, it is not like a physical retirement that is neededsearchlight. You have only to turn it on, but an inner detachment from the mental formations and vital desires. To find the real self above if you want to see luminously and within and live examine penetratingly anything 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 natureany place. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3103/interactions-with-others-and30-the-practice-ofjune-yoga1929#p111p7</ref>

= Conditions for Self-'''Observation =is Not Discernment'''

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is only when we follow the yogic process of quieting the mind itself that a profounder result of our self-observation becomes possible. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/indeterminates-cosmic-determinations-and-the-indeterminable#p12</ref>=What to Observe ==

<span style="background-colorOne 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:transparent;colorthat a certain number of persons, placed in exactly similar circumstances, experience, each one of them, very different effects. One may go even further:#000000;">It 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 quiet mind that the true observation and knowledge comeeffects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harm.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2908/quiet4-andjuly-calm1956#p40p15</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on '''Parts of 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.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p10</ref>Being '''

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">But if you remain very quiet, only if you observe—as though Have you were silently looking at something, you understand—then you will begin seeing more precisely, and little by little ever practised distinguishing between different categories of things. You will be able to know what one thing is and comes from your mind, what another etc.comes from your vital, whether it what comes from your physical?... For it is mixed up; it is mixed up in the outward appearance. If you or from outsidedo not take care to distinguish, whether it is on makes a material plane or on another planekind of soup, all that together. All this So it is learnt through a very quiet observationindistinct and difficult to discover. But if you observe yourself, quiet but very sharpafter some time you see certain things, you understand; because feel them to be there are very tiny shades, very tinylike that, between different 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, and when you get used have to distinguishing these nuancesgo still further inside, or otherwise you can discern exactly what 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 isjust a beginning. (The Mother,20 October 1954) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0605/2010-octoberjune-19541953#p46p31</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It For a larger mental being is really an there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner silence 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 is needed—a something silent within build up our surface personality. For we discover and can know the inner being that looks at outer talk secretly thinks and action but perceives in us, the vital being that secretly feels it as something superficialand acts upon life through us, not as itself 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 quite indifferent a complexity and untouched by it. It can bring forces to support speech confusion of impulsions from within and action or it impacts from outside us; our reason, our organising intelligence can stop them by withdrawal or 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 let them go on see clearly the pure operations, the distinct powers, the composing elements of each and observe without being involved or movedtheir interplay in a clear light of self-vision. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3121/speechknowledge-by-identity-and-yogaseparative-knowledge#p76p12</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...You must be able to silence your head absolutely and be completely detached, not to have (for example, when you are looking for the solution '''The Three Modes of a problem), not to have already in your head the solution that seems to you right or the best or most profitable. That must not be there. You must become absolutely like a blank paper, with nothing on it. And you proceed in that way, with a very sincere aspiration to know the truth, without assuming beforehand that it will be like this or like that; because otherwise you will see only your own formation. The very first condition is that the head must keep completely silent during the time one is observing. (The Mother , 30 September 1953) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/30-september-1953#p13</ref>Nature'''

<span style="backgroundThe 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-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To silence observation and intuitive perception of the mind Nature-forces it is not enough difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise. Still certain broad indications may help the seeker on the Way of Works to throw back each thought as it comesunderstand, that can only be a subordinate movementanalyse and control by his assent or refusal the combinations of his own nature. One must get back from all thought These modes are termed in the Indian books qualities, guṇas, and be separate from itare given the names sattva, rajas, a silent consciousness observing tamas. Sattwa is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and light; rajas is the thoughts if they comeforce of kinesis and translates in quality as struggle and effort, but not oneself thinking or identified with passion and action; tamas is the thoughtsforce of inconscience and inertia and translates in quality as obscurity and incapacity and inaction. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogetherOrdinarily used for psychological self-analysis, these distinctions are valid also in physical Nature. It is then easier to reject thoughts or let Each thing and every existence in the lower Prakriti contains them pass without their disturbing and its process and dynamic form are the quietude result of the mindinteraction of these qualitative powers. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3123/interactions-with-others-andthe-thethree-practicemodes-of-yoganature#p99p2</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>Have you never felt this? As though you were a little behind or above things, and were looking at them taking place but were not doing anything yourself? Witness means an observer, someone who looks on and does not act himself. So, when the mind is very quiet, one can withdraw a little in this way from circumstances and look at things as though he were a witness, a spectator, and not participating in the action himself. This gives you a great detachment, a great quietude, and also a very precise see of the value of things, because it cuts the attachment to action. When you know how to do this with yourself, when you can withdraw and watch yourself acting, you learn many things about yourself. When you are all mixed up and take part in the action, you do not observe yourself acting, you don't know what you are like. But when you draw back and look at yourself, you can perceive many imperfections which you wouldn't have seen otherwise. (The Mother,13 October 1954) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/13-october-1954#p2</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>It has been seen that a most effective way of purification is for the mental Purusha to draw back, to stand as the passive witness and observe and know himself and the workings of Nature in the lower, the normal being; but this must be combined, for perfection, with a will to raise the purified nature into the higher spiritual being. When that is done, the Purusha is no longer only a witness, but also the master of his prakriti, īśvara. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-action-of-the-divine-shakti#p7</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The witness Purusha in As the mind observes that the inadequacy of his effortinner consciousness grows by sadhana, all the inadequacy these dream experiences increase in fact number, clearness, coherence, accuracy and after some growth of man's life and nature arises from the separation experience and the consequent struggleconsciousness, want of knowledgewe can, want of harmonyif we observe, want of onenesscome to understand them and their significance to our inner life. It is essential for him Even we can by training become so conscious as to grow out of separative individualityfollow our own passage, usually veiled to universalise himselfour awareness and memory, through many realms and the process of the return to make himself one with the universewaking state. This unification can be done only through the soul by making our soul At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of mind one with the universal Mindsleep, our soul a sleep of life one with the universal Life-soulexperiences, our soul of body one with can replace the universal soul of physical Natureordinary subconscient slumber. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2430/thethree-perfectionexperiences-of-the-mentalinner-being#p15p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:[[#000000;">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 top|Back 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) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/12-november-1952#p6</ref>Contents]]

== Being Vigilant =Why is Self-Observation Important? =

<span style="background...if he [man] is not to remain this being of the surface ignorance seeking obscurely after the truth of things and collecting and systematising fragments and sections of knowledge, the small limited and half-colorcompetent creature of the cosmic Force which he now is in his phenomenal nature. He must know himself and discover and utilise all his potentialities:transparent;color:#000000;">One but to know himself and the world completely he must go behind his own and its exterior, he must dive deep below his own mental surface and the physical surface of Nature. This he can be quietonly do by knowing his inner mental, happyvital, cheerful without physical and psychic being all that in a light or shallow way—and and its powers and movements and the universal laws and processes of the happiness need not bring any vital reaction. All that you need to do is to be observant occult Mind and vigilant,—watchful so that you may not give assent to wrong movements or Life which stand behind the return material front of the old feelings, darkness, confusion etcuniverse. .. Not fear, but vigilance. If you remain vigilantBut this knowledge must be something more than a creed or a mystic revelation; his thinking mind must be able to accept it, then to correlate it with the increase principle of things and the observed truth of the Force upholding you, a power universe: this is the work of self-control will comephilosophy, a power to see and reject in the wrong turn or field of the truth of the wrong reaction when spirit it comescan only be done by a spiritual philosophy, whether intellectual in its method or intuitive.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3109/fear18-june-1958#p12p3</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-july-1954#p40</refcenter>

== Becoming Aware To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of Desire ==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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-science-of-living#p5</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>For that you must observe yourself very, very attentively, and if there is anything in you which produces something like a small intense vibration, then you may be sure that there lies a desire. For example, you say, "This food is necessary for me"—you believe, you imagine, you think that you need such and such a thing and you find the necessary means to obtain the thing. To know if it is a need or a desire, you must look at yourself very closely and ask yourself, "What will happen if I cannot get the thing?" Then if the immediate answer is, "Oh, it will be very bad", you may be sure that it is a matter of desire. It is the same for everything. For every problem you draw back, look at yourself and ask, "Let us see, am I going to have the thing?" If at that moment something in you jumps up with joy, you may be certain there is a desire. On the other hand, if something tells you, "Oh, I am not going to get it", and you feel very depressed, then again it is a desire. (The Mother, 25 January 1951) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-january-1951#p3</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>But a time comes when instead of doing things automatically, impelled by a consciousness and force of which one is quite unaware—a time comes when one can observe what goes on in oneself, study one's movements, find their causes, and at the same time begin to exercise a control first over what goes on within us, then on the influence cast on us from outside which makes us act, in the beginning altogether unconsciously and almost involuntarily, but gradually more and more consciously; and the will can wake up and react. Then at that moment, the moment there is a conscious will capable of reacting, one may say, "I have become conscious." This does not mean that it is a total and perfect consciousness, it means that it is a beginning: for example, when one is able to observe all the reactions in one's being and to have a certain control over them, to let those one approves of have play, and to control, stop, annul those one doesn't approve of. (The Mother, 28 November 1956) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/28-november-1956#p19</refcenter>

= Limitations 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/mental-difficulties-and-the-need-of Self-Observation =quietude#p23</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">As a general ruleThe true and ultimate, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observing, reasoning, inquiring, with judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for the right reception and right action of a few very rare exceptionsLight from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal. ...Man can bring an enlightened will, men are content an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to observe the difficult work of his self-development; he can more or less accurately everything that happens around them, and sometimes within themselves, and more subject to classify all these observations according to one superficial system more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of logic or anotherdesire. And they call this organisationIn proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, these systems, "knowledge"he is man and no longer an animal. It has never occurred When he can begin to themreplace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, they have not even begun consciously subject to perceive that all the things they seea diviner will than his own, touchlinked to a more universal and transcendent knowledge, feel, experience, are false appearances and not reality itselfhe has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divine. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1023/aphorismself-7consecration#p3p17</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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, How 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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledge#p7</ref>Observe Oneself? =

<span style="background-color:transparentBut you must begin when very small, and consciously, very consciously;color:#000000;">One throws oneself out you must begin with a sense of observation of all the time; all the time one livesmovements in yourself, of their relation with others, of—precisely, of your degree of independence, as it werereal individuality, outside oneselfof knowing where impulses come from, in such a superficial sensation that where other movements come from: whether it is almost as though one were contagion from outside or something that arises from within yourself. A very profound study of all the movements in oneself. As soon as one wants even is necessary in order to observe oneself succeed simply in crystallising a being who is a littleconscious, control oneself a little, simply know what is happening, one is always obliged to draw back or pull towards oneself, to pull inwards something which is constantly like that, on the surface. And it is this surface thing which meets all external contacts, puts you in touch with similar vibrations coming from others. That happens almost outside youconscious. (The Mother , 20 June 1956) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0806/2022-juneseptember-19561954#p49p43</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">As You project yourself on the surface mental entity screen and then observe and see all that is moving from moment there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to momentseeing, not observing his essential self but only his relation to his experiences of the Time-movementyou can go one step further and take a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise—arrange, in take up all 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 put each thing in the presentits place, putting it away organise in the past which again appears such a way that you begin to be have a blank straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious of Ignorance your direction and non-existence partly lightedare able to say: "Very well, partly saved and stored up by memoryit will be thus; my life will develop in that way, he puts on because that is the aspect logic of a thing fleeting and uncertain seizing without stability upon things fleeting and uncertainmy being. But in realityNow, we shall findI have arranged all that within me, he is always the same Eternal who is for ever stable and self-possessed each thing has been put in His supramental knowledge its place, and what he seizes on so naturally a central orientation is also for ever stable forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and eternal; I know what will happen to me for I myself am deciding it is himself that he is mentally experiencing in the succession of Time. </span>...". <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2105/memory-self29-consciousness-and-thejuly-ignorance1953#p15p47</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If we observe one begins to find out, to understand what a feeling is and what a happeningthought is, we judge and explain how it from works, then one can already go quite far on the path with that. One must at the result same time observe how his feelings and from a glimpse of its most external constituentsthoughts have an action on the body, what the reciprocity is. And then, there is another exercise which consists in looking into oneself for what is persistent, circumstances or causes; but each happening what is the outcome of a complex nexus of forces lasting, something which makes one say "I", and which we do is not the body. For obviously, when one was very small, and cannot observethen when each year one grows up, if one takes fairly long distances, because all forces are to us invisiblefor example a distance of about ten years,—but they are not invisible very different "I"s from what one was when as small as this (gesture), and then what one is now; it is difficult to say that it is the same person, you see. If one takes only this, still there is something which has the spiritual vision feeling of always being the same person. So one must reflect, seek, try to understand what it is. This indeed can lead you far on the path. Then if one also studies the relation between these different things—between thoughts, feelings, their action on the Infinite: some body, the reciprocal action of them are actualities working to produce or occasion a new actualitythe body on these things—and also what it is that says "I" permanently, some are possibles what it is that are near to the pre-existent actuals and in can trace a way included curve in their aggregate; but there can intervene always new possibilities that suddenly become dynamic potentials and add themselves to the nexusmovement of the being, if one seeks carefully enough, it leads you quite far. Naturally if one seeks far enough and behind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to actualisewith enough persistence, one reaches the psychic. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2107/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya9-prakritimarch-shakti1955#p7p23</ref>

== Three Guna’s It is not a physical retirement that is needed, but an inner detachment from the mental formations and Selfvital 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-Observation ==yoga#p111</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-three-modes-of-nature#p13</refcenter>

= Parts When we are in contact with the Divine or in contact with an inner knowledge and Planes vision, we begin to see all the circumstances of our life in a new light and can observe how they all tended without our knowing it towards the Being =growth of our being and consciousness, towards the work we had to do, towards some development that had to be made,—not only what seemed good, fortunate or successful but the struggles, failures, difficulties, upheavals. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-divine-grace-and-guidance#p33</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;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. (The Mother, 10 June 1953) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/10-june-1953#p31</ref>= By Vigilance ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To work for your perfectionOne can be quiet, the first step is to become conscious of yourselfhappy, of the different parts of your cheerful without being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so all that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, a light or shallow way—and the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills happiness need not bring any vital reaction. All that drive you need to action. It do 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 be observant 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 judgmentvigilant, —watchful so that we can hope you may not give assent to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire wrong movements or the capacity return of knowing the truth of our beingold feelings, that is to saydarkness, what we are truly created forconfusion etc. Not fear, what we can call our mission upon earthbut vigilance. If you remain vigilant, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts with the truth increase of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the partsForce upholding you, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work power of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Thereforeself-control will come, in order a power to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience see and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for reject the wrong turn or the success of our endeavourwrong reaction when it comes. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1231/the-science-of-livingfear#p5p12</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>….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. (The Mother, 27 January 1954) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">For But you have only to observe yourselves... you can observe yourself, catch yourself at least a hundred times a larger mental being is there within usday, with a larger inner vital beingmind which decides everything, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousnessknows everything, judges everything, and by entering into this or becoming itknows very well what is good, identifying ourselves with itwhat bad, we can observe the springs of our thoughts and feelingswhat is true, the sources and motives of our actionwhat false, the operative energies that build up our surface personalitywhat is right... For we discover and can know the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives in usAnd also how one should act, the vital being that secretly feels and acts upon life through uswhat this person should have done, the subtle-physical being how to resolve that secretly receives and responds to the contacts of things through our body and its organsproblem.... Our surface thoughtAll men know, 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 you see... If they were at the separate sources head of our mental, our vital and our physical energisms and can see clearly the pure operationsgovernments, the distinct powersfor instance, the composing elements of each and their interplay in a clear light of self-visionthey would know very well how to manage everything! But people don't listen to them... </span>that's all! <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/06/21/knowledge-by-identity-and-separativejuly-knowledge1954#p12p40</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p23</refcenter>

== Witness But a time comes when instead of doing things automatically, impelled by a consciousness and force of which one is quite unaware—a time comes when one can observe what goes on in oneself, study one's movements, find their causes, and at the same time begin to exercise a control first over what goes on within us, then on the influence cast on us from outside which makes us act, in the beginning altogether unconsciously and almost involuntarily, but gradually more and more consciously; and the will can wake up and react. Then at that moment, the moment there is a conscious will capable of reacting, one may say, "I have become conscious." This does not mean that it is a total and perfect consciousness, it means that it is a beginning: for example, when one is able to observe all the reactions in one's being and to have a certain control over them, to let those one approves of have play, and Parts to control, stop, annul those one doesn't approve of Being ==. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/28-november-1956#p19</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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. (The Mother, 22 March 1951) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p6</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Sometimes there is no relation among these different witnesses—there ought to beTake one hour of your life, 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 which is a sufficient sinceritymost convenient for you, sufficient concentration, you come to the supreme inner Witness who can judge all things. But generally it may be said and during that it is always a part of time observe yourself closely and say only the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judgesabsolutely indispensable words. (The Mother, 22 March 1951) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0403/22-march-1951anger#p7p15</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A man with = By Developing 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>Quiet Mind ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p25</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>...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. (The Mother, 29 June 1955) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the There are four movements of the nature in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks "I am doing this, feeling that, thinkingwhich are usually consecutive, but which in joy or in sorrow etc." The first beginning of real self-knowledge the end may be simultaneous: to observe one's thoughts 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 beingfirst, 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 to watch over one's thoughts is the Mothersecond, to control one's thoughts is the other the external being mostly vital which draws you outward third and downwards towards the play of to master one's thoughts is the lower naturefourth. There is also in you behind the mind the being who observesTo observe, the witness Purushato watch over, who can stand detached from the play of the natureto control, observing it and able to choosemaster.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2803/the-psychicconjugate-beingverses#p84p7</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/work-and-yoga#p45</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The mental being within watches, observes and passes judgment on all What happens usually is that happens in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way like a witnesssomething touches the vital, but often without one's knowing it feels , and knows spontaneously brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness in such a much more direct way that the inner mind gets covered up and all the old thoughts and luminous way by feelings return for a time. It is the very purity of physical mind that becomes active and gives its own nature assent. If the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing the divine instinct within itvital movement, and sobut not giving its assent, whenever it comes then to the front reject it reveals at once what are the right becomes more easy. This established quietude and what detachment of the wrong movements mind marks always a great step forward made in your naturethe sadhana. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2831/the-jivatmanvital-and-inother-thelevels-integralof-yogabeing#p40p45</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">GraduallyBut if you remain very quiet, as the action is prolonged and the outer being begins to assimilate this actiononly if you observe—as though you were silently looking at something, there awakens a capacity of observation, first in the mental consciousnessyou understand—then you will begin seeing more precisely, and a kind little by little distinguishing between different categories of objectivisation occurs: something in the mind looks on, observes and translates in its own waythings. This You will be able to know what one thing is and what another etc., whether it comes from you call understandingor from outside, and this whether it is what gives you the impression (smiling) that you are having an experienceon a material plane or on another plane. But that All this is already considerably diminished in comparison with the experience itselflearnt through a very quiet observation, it is a transcription adapted to your mentalquiet but very sharp, vital and physical dimensionyou understand; because there are very tiny shades, that isvery tiny, something that is shrunkenbetween different things, hardened—and it gives and when you at the same time the impression that it is growing clearer; that is get used to saydistinguishing these nuances, you can discern exactly what it has become as limited as your understandingis. (The Mother, 31 October 1956) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0806/3120-october-19561954#p19p46</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>...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><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-ego-and-self-experience#p5</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;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 It is really an inner silence that is needed—a something silent within that looks at least to the smallest part of this construction would be considered a savage outer talk and would be thrown out of the society immediately. In factaction but feels it as something superficial, people who are criminals or half-mad are those who obey their impulses without any mental controlnot as itself and is quite indifferent and untouched by it. There isn't a single person among you who gives way without control It can bring forces to all the impulses that get hold of him. You have only to observe yourselves living, you spend your time saying, "No, this I support speech and action or it can't do", stop them by withdrawal or "This I it can", let them go on and observe without being involved or in restraining one movement or encouraging anothermoved. This is mental control. (The Mother , 15 September 1954) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0631/15speech-septemberand-1954yoga#p9p76</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">What happens usually is that something touches the vitalYou must be able to silence your head absolutely and be completely detached, often without one's knowing itnot to have (for example, and brings up when you are looking for the old ordinary or external consciousness solution of a problem), not to have already in such a way your head the solution that seems to you right or the inner mind gets covered up and all the old thoughts and feelings return for best or most profitable. That must not be there. You must become absolutely like a timeblank paper, with nothing on it. It is the physical mind And you proceed in that becomes active and gives its assent. If the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing way, with a very sincere aspiration to know the vital movementtruth, but not giving its assent, then to reject without assuming beforehand that it becomes more easywill be like this or like that; because otherwise you will see only your own formation. This established quietude and detachment of The very first condition is that the mind marks always a great </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">step forward made in head must keep completely silent during the sadhanatime one is observing. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3105/the-vital-and-other30-levels-ofseptember-being1953#p45p13</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">After To silence the mind it is not enough to throw back each crisis there is something gainedthought as it comes, if there has been that can only be a victory subordinate movement. One must get back from all thought and rejection. The gain is to externalise be separate from it, a silent consciousness observing the vital disturbancethoughts if they come, so that even if it returns it will but not oneself thinking or identified with the thoughts. Thoughts must be felt so much an as outside force that things altogether. It is then easier to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the quietude of the observing consciousness (mental, higher vital) cannot be disturbedmind. If you keep that, it will be an immense advance. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wronginteractions-with-movementsothers-ofand-the-vitalpractice-of-yoga#p68p99</ref>

== Physical and Self-Observation By Developing the Witness Attitude ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">One can prepare the body through Have you never felt this? As though you were a series of observationslittle behind or above things, studiesand were looking at them taking place but were not doing anything yourself? Witness means an observer, understandingssomeone who looks on and does not act himself. So,by showing it exampleswhen the mind is very quiet, making it understand one can withdraw a little in this way from circumstances and look at things as one makes though he were a child understand themwitness, either by observing its own movements―but generallya spectator, and not participating in this, one is comparatively blind!―or by observing those of othersthe action himself. And in This gives you a more general waygreat detachment, this preparation will be based on recognised studiesa great quietude, on clear facts. Like this, for instance: that and also a certain number very precise sense of the value of personsthings, placed in exactly similar circumstancesbecause it cuts the attachment to action. When you know how to do this with yourself, experiencewhen you can withdraw and watch yourself acting, each one of them, very different effectsyou learn many things about yourself. One may go even further: When you are all mixed up and take part in a given set of definite circumstancesthe action, there is a certain number of particular, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditionsyou do not observe yourself acting, you don't know what you are like. But when you draw back and for some the effects are catastrophiclook at yourself, while others escape without any harmyou can perceive many imperfections which you wouldn't have seen otherwise. (The Mother, 4 July 1956) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0806/413-julyoctober-19561954#p15p2</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p24</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">For A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the giddiness, it may be that in concentration you go partly out witness part of your body; then, if you get up his mind and observes his own thoughts and move before studies their nature. That is a beginning which makes it easy for the whole consciousness has full detachment to come back, there is just such a giddiness as you describe. You can observe in future and see whether For others it is not this that happens. One has to less easy, but it can be careful not to move after deep concentration or trance, till there is the full consciousness in the bodydone by all. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3130/difficultiesinner-ofdetachment-and-the-physicalwitness-natureattitude#p59p</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Your consciousness becomes a screen or mirror; but this You have to become conscious—that is when to say, there must be something in you are in a state of contemplationwhich is not carried away by thoughts and feelings, a mere observer; when but looks at them and observes how they work and how they affect you are active, it . The part that observes and knows is like a searchlightcalled the Witness sākṣī in man. You have only It is always possible to turn it on, if you want to see luminously and examine penetratingly anything develop this in any placeoneself. (The Mother, 30 June 1929) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0330/30inner-detachment-and-the-junewitness-1929attitude#p7p25</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">However, For that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if one observes things you were observing and criticising a little deeplythird person. You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, one perceives that there this is progressyour particular capacity, this you are to do or that things become better and better, though apparently they you are to do not improve. And for a consciousness seated a little higher, it is quite evident that all evil—at least what we call evil—all falsehoodin this lies your talent or genius, all that etc. That will carry you away from the right track. It is contrary to not the Truthliking or disliking of your external being, all suffering, all opposition is your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the result true line of a disequilibriumyour growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I believe am useless in that one who is habituated to seeing things from this higher plane sees immediately that ; 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 thatreflects the truth and does not judge. (The Mother , 8 January 1951) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0415/812-januarynovember-19511952#p13p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p8</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">At a certain stage =By Becoming Aware 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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p10</ref>Desire ==

= Thoughts For that you must observe yourself very, very attentively, and Selfif there is anything in you which produces something like a small intense vibration, then you may be sure that there lies a desire. For example, you say, "This food is necessary for me"—you believe, you imagine, you think that you need such and such a thing and you find the necessary means to obtain the thing. To know if it is a need or a desire, you must look at yourself very closely and ask yourself, "What will happen if I cannot get the thing?" Then if the immediate answer is, "Oh, it will be very bad", you may be sure that it is a matter of desire. It is the same for everything. For every problem you draw back, look at yourself and ask, "Let us see, am I going to have the thing?" If at that moment something in you jumps up with joy, you may be certain there is a desire. On the other hand, if something tells you, "Oh, I am not going to get it", and you feel very depressed, then again it is a desire. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-january-Observation =1951#p3</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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.~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p3</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is only graduallyIf you observe yourself attentively, very slowly, through the movements of life and a more or less careful and thorough education you will see that before acting you begin to have sensations which are personal to youneed an inner impetus, feelings and ideas something which are personal to pushes you. An individualised mind is something extremely rare, which comes only after a long education; otherwise it is a kind of thought-current passing through your brain and then through another's and then through a multitude of other brains, and all In the ordinary man this impetus is in perpetual movement and has no individualitygenerally desire. One thinks what others are thinking, others think what still others are thinking, and everybody thinks like that in This desire ought to be replaced by a great mixtureclear, because these are currentsprecise, vibrations constant vision of thought passing from one to another. If you look at yourself attentively, you will very quickly become aware that very few thoughts in you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heard, from what you have read, what you have been taught, and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not manyTruth. (The Mother, 20 February 1957) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0904/2021-februarydecember-19571950#p6p7</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To observe your thoughts, you must first =By Education 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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p12</ref>Senses==

<span style="background-colorBut it is through sensations that you learn:transparent;color:#000000;">by seeing, observing, hearing.Classes develop your sensations, studies develop your sensations, the mind receives things through sensations..when undesirable thoughts come, By the education of the senses the growth of one's general education is aided; if you look at themlearn to see well, observe themexactly, precisely; if you learn to hear well; if you take pleasure in following them in their movements, they will never stop coming. It is learn through touch to know the same thing when you have undesirable feelings or sensation: nature of things; if you pay attention learn through the see of smell to them, concentrate on them or even look at them with distinguish between different odours—all these are a certain indulgencepowerful means of education. In fact, they will never stopshould be used for this, as instruments of observation, control and knowledge. But if you absolutely refuse to receive and express themIf one is sufficiently developed, one can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know the value, after some time they stopthe different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. You It is a question of education; that is, one must be patient and very persistentwork for it. (The Mother , 22 September 1954) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/2231-septembermarch-1954#p19p13</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>Most people—and not only those who are uneducated but even the well-read—can have the most contradictory, the most opposite ideas in their heads without even being aware of the contradictions….And if you observe yourself, you will see that you have many ideas which ought to be linked by a sequence of intermediate ideas which are the result of a considerable widening of the thought if they are not to coexist in an absurd way. (The Mother, 20 February 1957) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-1957#p8</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The error comes from thinking that your thoughts are your own child must be taught to observe, to note his reactions and impulses and that you are their maker causes, to become a discerning witness of his desires, his movements of violence and passion, his instincts of possession and appropriation and if you don't create thoughts (i.e. think)domination and the background of vanity which supports them, together with their counterparts of weakness, there will be none. A little observation ought to show that you are not manufacturing your own thoughtsdiscouragement, but rather thoughts occur in youdepression and despair.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3112/thought-andvital-knowledgeeducation#p3p14</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/thought-and-knowledge#p5</refcenter>

= Sense and Self Observation = <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">This sensational thoughtThe indispensable starting-mind which point is based upon sense, memory, association, first ideas a detailed and resultant generalisations or secondary ideasdiscerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is common to all developed animal life a difficult and mentality…often a very baffling task.The intelligence But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and will of which can serve as the animal are involved clue in the sense-mind and therefore altogether governed by it and carried on its stream labyrinth of sensations, sense-perceptions, impulses; it is instinctiveinner discovery. Man It is able to use that everyone possesses in a reason large measure, and willthe exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, a self-observingin almost equal proportions, thinking which are like the light and all-observingthe 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, an intelligently willing mind which is no longer involved the courageous man will be a coward in some part of his being and the sense-mindgood man will suddenly have wicked impulses. In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but acts from above and behind it also with contrary elements representing in its own right, with a certain separateness concrete manner the battle he has to wage and freedomthe victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. He Consequently, all life is reflectivean education pursued more or less consciously, has a more or less willingly. In certain relative freedom 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 intelligent the shadow; otherwise the opposite willhappen. He has liberated 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 himself time, a conscious will which, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and has formed into clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean by a separate power the buddhirational method of education.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2412/purificationvital-intelligence-and-willeducation#p4p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">….But it is through sensations The error comes from thinking that you learn: by seeing, observing, hearing. Classes develop your sensations, studies develop thoughts are your sensations, the mind receives things through sensations. By the education of the senses the growth of one's general education is aided; if own and that you learn to see well, exactly, precisely; are their maker and if you learn to hear well; if you learn through touch to know the nature of things; if you learn through the see of smell to distinguish between different odours—all these are a powerful means of educationdon't create thoughts (i.e. In factthink), they should there will be used for this, as instruments of none. A little observation, control and knowledge. If one is sufficiently developed, one can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know the value, the different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. It is a question of education; ought to show that isyou are not manufacturing your own thoughts, one must work for itbut rather thoughts occur in you. (The Mother , 31 March 1954) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0631/31thought-marchand-1954knowledge#p13p3</ref>

<span style="backgroundThoughts are not the essence of mind-color:transparentbeing, they are only an activity of mental nature;color:#000000;">The indispensable startingif that activity ceases, what appears then as a thought-point free existence that manifests in its place is not a detailed and discerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most casesblank or void but something very real, substantial, concrete we may say—a mental being that extends itself is a difficult and often a very baffling task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew widely and which can serve be its own field of existence silent or active as well as the clue in the labyrinth Witness, Knower, Master of inner discoverythat field and its action. It is that everyone possesses in Some feel it first as a large measurevoid, but that is because their observation is untrained and the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light insufficient and the shadow loss of activity gives them the same thing. Thus someone who has the capacity sense of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find blank; 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 idealemptiness there is, 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 it 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 emptiness of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital lifeordinary activities, unless not 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 blank of educationexistence. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1230/vitalthree-experiences-of-the-educationinner-being#p6p3</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>..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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p14</refcenter>

= Results It is only gradually, very slowly, through the movements of Selflife and a more or less careful and thorough education that you begin to have sensations which are personal to you, feelings and ideas which are personal to you. An individualised mind is something extremely rare, which comes only after a long education; otherwise it is a kind of thought-current passing through your brain and then through another's and then through a multitude of other brains, and all this is in perpetual movement and has no individuality. One thinks what others are thinking, others think what still others are thinking, and everybody thinks like that in a great mixture, because these are currents, vibrations of thought passing from one to another. If you look at yourself attentively, you will very quickly become aware that very few thoughts in you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heard, from what you have read, what you have been taught, and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not many. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-Observation =1957#p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>If you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth. (The Mother, 21 December 1950) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/21-december-1950#p7</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If you observe yourselfWhen one practises Yoga and observes the thoughts, you will see one sees that as soon as you do something which disturbs you a littlethey come from outside, from universal Nature, from the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is capable of gilding everythingmental, vital or subtle physical worlds etc. In these conditions it The proper thing is difficult then to know oneself. One must be absolutely sincere stand back from these thoughts, voices or suggestions, to be able reject them or else control them, to do it make the mind free and quiet and open only to see clearly the divine light, force, knowledge and the presence of the Divine. ...Aspire, get into all contact with the little falsehoods of Light and the mental beingtrue Force, reassert your will to reject these suggestions and voices. (The MotherDo not take interest in these voices, 15 January 1951) </span>keep the mind quiet. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0431/15thought-januaryand-1951knowledge#p3p5</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">… if each element which comes with its ignorance, its unconsciousness, its egoism, is put before the will to change and one remains awake, compares, observes, studies and slowly acts, that becomes infinitely interesting, one makes marvellous and quite unexpected discoveries. One finds Difficulties in oneself lots of small hidden folds, little things one had not seen at the beginning; one undertakes a sort of inner chase, goes hunting into small dark corners and tells oneself: "What, I was like that! This was there in me, I am harbouring this little thing"—sometimes so sordid, so mean, so nasty. And once it has been discovered, how wonderful! One puts the light upon it and it disappears and you no longer have those reactions which made you so sad before, when you used to say, "Oh! I shall never get there. (The Mother, 19 April 1951) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/19Self-april-1951#p14</ref>Observation=

= Difficulties during Self-Observation =Danger of the Ego==

== Danger But to begin with, how many times, if one thinks, if one quite simply observes oneself, does one catch oneself saying, "It is I!" And, then, one congratulates oneself sometimes, one says, "After all I can do something, I am capable!" I am going further: how many people would be capable of doing anything at all if simply deprived of the pleasure of being able to tell themselves, "I have done this, I have realised that, I have made a progress, how well I played this game"? How many people would be able to sincerely do something if this pleasure were taken away? I have known individuals whose mind was much more developed than the rest of the being, they had understood very well (almost too well); they sat down to meditate and all their energy was gone, all vitality evaporated into a kind of peace, not unpleasant, but very still. There is no more need to do anything, no longer any need to move, one dreams. ...Under a tree, arms crossed, one leaves the Divine to do everything for oneself, including feeding you if you need it. This is perhaps very well, but this shows that the instrument is not ready; it is not really at the service of the Divine, it is at the service of the ego, and when the ego is taken away, it does nothing any longer. Therefore, so long as one lives in the ego this illusion is necessary to make you act; it is necessary to keep up action until one is completely transformed or, in any case, till the Ego ==true consciousness is established. (The Mother, 5 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/5-april-1951#p14</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>But to begin with, how many times, if one thinks, if one quite simply observes oneself, does one catch oneself saying, "It is I!" And, then, one congratulates oneself sometimes, one says, "After all I can do something, I am capable!" I am going further: how many people would be capable of doing anything at all if simply deprived of the pleasure of being able to tell themselves, "I have done this, I have realised that, I have made a progress, how well I played this game"? How many people would be able to sincerely do something if this pleasure were taken away? I have known individuals whose mind was much more developed than the rest of the being, they had understood very well (almost too well); they sat down to meditate and all their energy was gone, all vitality evaporated into a kind of peace, not unpleasant, but very still. There is no more need to do anything, no longer any need to move, one dreams.... Under a tree, arms crossed, one leaves the Divine to do everything for oneself, including feeding you if you need it. This is perhaps very well, but this shows that the instrument is not ready; it is not really at the service of the Divine, it is at the service of the ego, and when the ego is taken away, it does nothing any longer. Therefore, so long as one lives in the ego this illusion is necessary to make you act; it is necessary to keep up action until one is completely transformed or, in any case, till the true consciousness is established. (The Mother ,5 April 1951) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/5-april-1951#p14</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...if you do your tapasya, all the time observing yourself doing it and telling yourself, "Am I making any progress, is this going to be better, am I going to succeed?", then it is your ego, you know, which becomes more and more enormous and occupies the whole place, and there is no room for anything else. (The Mother, 26 April 1951) </span> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/26-april-1951#p35</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p14</ref>= Escape attitude ==

== <span style="background-colorConstantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time to observe himself and how he lives. For him this is expressed by the desire to escape from boredom. Indeed, for some people it is much more tiresome to remain quiet—seated, or to be still. So for them it represents an escape from boredom:transparentto make a lot of noise, to commit many stupidities, and become terribly restless;colorit is their way of escaping boredom. And when they sit quietly and look at themselves, they are bored. Perhaps because they are boring. That's very likely. The more boring one is, the more one is bored. Very interesting people usually are not bored. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/26-january-1955#000000;">Escape attitudep14</spanref> ==

<div style="color:#000000;">Constantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time to observe himself and how he lives. For him this is expressed by the desire to escape from boredom. Indeed, for some people it is much more tiresome to remain quiet—seated, or to be still. So for them it represents an escape from boredom: to make a lot of noise, to commit many stupidities, and become terribly restless; it is their way of escaping boredom. And when they sit quietly and look at themselves, they are bored. Perhaps because they are boring. That's very likely. The more boring one is, =Focusing on the more one is bored. Very interesting people usually are not bored.</div><span styleNegative="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 26 January 1955)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/26-january-1955#p14</ref></u></span>

== Focusing on To be always observing faults and wrong movements brings depression and discourages the Negative ==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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p28</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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.~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p28</ref></u></spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It What you have to aspire for most is a subtle law the improved quality of the action of recipient consciousness in you—discrimination in the mind, the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that if goes on in you and around you stress difficulties—you have to observe them, of coursepurity in the vital, but not stress themcalm equanimity, they will quite sufficiently do that for themselves—the difficulties tend to stick or even increase; on the contraryenduring patience, if you put your whole stress on faith absence of pride and aspiration and concentrate steadily on what you aspire tothe sense of greatness—and more especially, that will sooner or later tend towards realisation. It is this change the development of stressthe psychic being in you—surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion... a sufficient foundation and a change consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and growing in these things is indispensable—for perfect purification is the poise and attitude basis of the mind, that will be the more helpful processperfect siddhi.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3130/dealingthe-danger-of-withthe-depressionego-and-despondencythe-need-of-purification#p22p14</ref></u></span>

<div style="color:#000000;"center>It is difficult to observe the difference between the action of the hostile Force and the pressure of the lower Nature because it is the latter that the Force takes hold of for its purpose. But there is in the Force a suggestive character, a conscious arrangement of the attack so as to upset or destroy the sadhana which there is not in the ordinary movement of the lower Nature—for that only comes to satisfy itself and then ceases.~</div><div style="color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-hostile-forces-and-the-difficulties-of-yoga#p35</ref></u></divcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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.~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/mental-difficulties-and-the-need-of-quietude#p23</ref></u></spancenter>

= Other fields of SelfDespair 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/depression-Observation =and-despondency#p67</ref>

== Meditation Surface Level Observation==

<div style="color:#000000;">... when one comes out of meditation, some time later—usually not immediately—from within the being something new emerges in the consciousness: As a new understandinggeneral rule, with a new appreciation of thingsfew very rare exceptions, a new attitude in life—in short, a new way of being. This may be fugitive, but at men are content to observe more or less accurately everything that momenthappens around them, if one observes itand sometimes within themselves, and to classify all these observations according to one finds that something has taken one step forward on the path superficial system of understanding logic or transformationanother. And they call this organisation, these systems, "knowledge". It may be an illuminationhas never occurred to them, an understanding truer or closer they have not even begun to perceive that all the truththings they see, or a power of transformation which helps you to achieve a psychological progress or a widening of the consciousness or a greater control over your movementstouch, feel, experience, over the activities of the beingare false appearances and not reality itself.</div>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000[Based on Aphorism 7—What men call knowledge is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. Reason divides, fixes details and contrasts them;">(The Mother Wisdom unifies, 5 June 1957)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>marries contrasts in a single harmony].<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0910/5-juneaphorism-19577#p20p3</ref></u></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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.~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p30</ref></u></spancenter>

== <span style="background-color:transparentOne throws oneself out all the time;color:#000000;">(The Mother all the time one lives, as it were, outside oneself, in such a superficial sensation that it is almost as though one were outside oneself. As soon as one wants even to observe oneself a little, control oneself a little, simply know what is happening, one is always obliged to draw back or pull towards oneself, to pull inwards something which is constantly like that, on the surface. And it is this surface thing which meets all external contacts, 21 April 1929)</span>puts you in touch with similar vibrations coming from others. That happens almost outside you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0308/2120-apriljune-19291956#p6p49</ref>

<div style="color:#000000If we observe a happening, we judge and explain it from the result and from a glimpse of its most external constituents, circumstances or causes;">It but each happening is the outcome of a tremendous field complex nexus of observation—there is no end forces which we do not and cannot observe, because all forces are to us invisible,—but they are not invisible to the discoveries you can make in your dreams. But there is one important pointspiritual vision of the Infinite: you must not go some of them are actualities working to sleep when you produce or occasion a new actuality, some are very tired, for if you do, you fall into possibles that are near to the pre-existent actuals and in a sort of unconsciousness way included in which dreams do whatever they like with youtheir aggregate; but there can intervene always new possibilities that suddenly become dynamic potentials and add themselves to the nexus, and you have no reaction. Just as I said that you should not eat without having taken rest, I would advise everyone to rest before going behind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to sleepactualise. And for that, you must know how to rest<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p7</divref>

<span style="backgroundSelf Observation -color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 1 February 1951)</span><span styleExploring Realms of Consciousness="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/1-february-1951#p14</ref></u></span>

<span style="background-color:transparentMan is a type among many types so constructed, one pattern among the multitude of patterns in the manifestation in Matter. He is the most complex that has been created, the richest in content of consciousness and the curious ingeniousness of his building;color:#000000;">As he is the head of the inner consciousness grows by sadhanaearthly creation, but he does not exceed it…. If there is a perfection to which he has to arrive, these dream experiences increase it must be a perfection in numberhis own kind, clearnesswithin his own law of being, coherence—the full play of it, accuracy and after some growth but by observation of experience its mode and consciousnessmeasure, we can, if we observenot by transcendence. To exceed himself, come to understand them and their significance to our inner life. Even we can by training become so conscious as to follow our own passagegrow into the superman, usually veiled to our awareness and memory, through many realms put on the nature and the process capacities of the return to the waking state. At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of sleep, god would be a sleep contradiction of experienceshis self-law, can replace the ordinary subconscient slumberimpracticable and impossible.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3022/threeman-experiences-ofand-the-inner-beingevolution#p6p8</ref></u></span>

<div style="color:#000000;">If one begins to find out, to understand what a feeling is and what a thought is, and how it works, then one can already go quite far on the path with that. One must at the same time observe how his feelings and thoughts have an action on the body, what the reciprocity is. And then, .behind there is another exercise the psychic which consists in looking into oneself for what is persistentsupports the development, what is lastingthe growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness, something which makes one say "I", and which feel that he is not the bodysame being even while being absolutely different, absolutely different. For obviously, when If later one was very smallobserves himself sufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and then when each year one grows up, if one takes fairly long distances, for example a distance of about ten years, they could do at that time are very different "I"s from what one was when as small as this (gesture)things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable now, and then what one that he could never do a similar thing because he is now; it is difficult to say no longer that it is the same person, you seeat all. If one takes only thisAnd yet, still because within there was the psychic consciousness which is something which immortal, one has the feeling of always being the same person. So one must reflect, seek, try to understand what it is. This indeed can lead you far on the path. Then if one also studies the relation between these different things—between thoughts, feelings, their action on the body, the reciprocal action of the body on these things—and also what it is that says "I" permanently, what it is that can trace a curve in the movement of always the same being, if one seeks carefully enough, it leads you quite far. Naturally if one seeks far enough which was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with enough persistence, one reaches the psychicmore or less progressive and more or less conscious changes. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28</divref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>(The Mother, 9 March 1955)~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/9-march-1955#p23</ref></u></spancenter>

<div style="color:#000000;"center>A hidden Power is the true Lord and overruling Observer of our acts and only he knows through all the ignorance and perversion and deformation brought in by the ego their entire sense and ultimate purpose.~</divcenter>

<div style="color:#0066ccThe Shakti, the power of the Infinite and the Eternal descends within us, works, breaks up our present psychological formations, shatters every wall, widens, liberates... she frees the consciousness from confinement in the body; it can go out in trance or sleep or even waking and enter into worlds or other regions of this world and act there or carry back its experience. It spreads out, feeling the body only as a small part of itself, and begins to contain what before contained it;it achieves the cosmic consciousness and extends itself to be commensurate with the universe. It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings of the nature. We begin to perceive the working of the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working...."><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2308/self-surrender7-innovember-works-the-way-of-the-gita1956#p6p1</ref></u></div>

<div style="color:#000000;">It is ordinarily considered thus by an integralisation of our divided being that the Yogin should draw away from action as Divine Shakti in the Yoga will proceed to its object; for liberation, perfection, mastery are dependent on this integralisation, since the little wave on the surface cannot control its own movement, much as possible and especially that too much action is a hindrance because less have any true control over the vast life around it draws off the energies outward. To a certain extent this is true; ..It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and we must note farther that when contact the mental Purusha takes up forces at play in the attitude of mere witness and observer, a tendency to silenceworld, solitudefeels their movement, physical calm distinguishes their functioning and bodily inaction grows can operate immediately upon them as the being. So long as this is not associated with inertiascientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, incapacity body or reject them or unwillingness to actmodify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in a word, with place of the growth old small functionings of the tamasic quality, all this is to the goodnature.</div><div style="color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-releaseascent-fromof-subjection-tothe-thesacrifice-bodyii#p7p29</ref></u></div>

<div style="color:#000000;">It is possible for the Purusha =How to use it on the mental plane itself for be in a constant self-observation, self-development, self-modification, to sanction, reject, alter, bring out new formulations of the nature and establish a calm and disinterested action, a high and pure sattwic balance and rhythm of its energy, a personality perfected in the sattwic principle.</div><div styleWitness State?=="color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-shakti#p9</ref></u></div>

<div style=It is difficult to say generally what is conscious; but naturally, if something observes, it is always the "color:#000000;witness">..with regard to the movements and experiences element in this part—in each part of the body being there is something which is a "witness", which looks on. There is even a physical witness which can get very much in the mind will come to know the Purusha seated within way; for instance, if it aswatches you playing, firstthis 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 or observer of the movements andwhich judges ideas, which says, secondly"This idea contradicts this other", and which arranges everything. Then there is the knower or perceiver of the experiences. It will cease to consider in thought or feel in sensation these movements and experiences as its own but rather consider and feel them as not its owngreat psychic Witness, as operations of Nature governed by who is the qualities of Nature and their interaction upon each otherinner divinity.</div><div style="color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2304/the22-releasemarch-from-subjection-to-the-body1951#p4p6</ref></u></div>

<div style="color:#000000;"center>The Purusha and Prakriti are on the mental level as in the rest of our being closely joined and much involved in each other and we are not able to distinguish clearly soul and nature. But in the purer substance of mind we can more easily discern the dual strain. The mental Purusha is naturally able in its own native principle of mind to detach itself, as we have seen, from the workings of its Prakriti and there is then a division of our being between a consciousness that observes and can reserve its willpower and an energy full of the substance of consciousness that takes the forms of knowledge, will and feeling. This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from the compulsion of the soulby its mental nature.~</div><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-shakti#p8</ref></u></spancenter>

<div style="color:#000000;">"The Shaktiwitness Purusha in the mind observes that the inadequacy of his effort, all the power inadequacy in fact of man's life and nature arises from the Infinite separation and the Eternal descends within usconsequent struggle, workswant of knowledge, breaks up our present psychological formationswant of harmony, shatters every wall, widens, liberates... she frees the consciousness from confinement in the body; it can go out in trance or sleep or even waking and enter into worlds or other regions want of this world and act there or carry back its experienceoneness. It spreads is essential for him to grow out, feeling the body only as a small part of itselfseparative individuality, and begins to contain what before contained it; it achieves the cosmic consciousness and extends itself universalise himself, to be commensurate make himself one with the universe. It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and This unification can operate immediately upon them as be done only through the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in soul by making our soul of mindone with the universal Mind, our soul of lifeone with the universal Life-soul, our soul of body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in place of one with the old small functionings universal soul of the nature. We begin to perceive the working of the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working...physical Nature."</div><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother , 7 November 1956)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0824/7the-perfection-novemberof-1956the-mental-being#p1p15</ref></u></span>

<div style="color:#000000;"center>It is thus by an integralisation of our divided being that the Divine Shakti in the Yoga will proceed to its object; for liberation, perfection, mastery are dependent on this integralisation, since the little wave on the surface cannot control its own movement, much less have any true control over the vast life around it...It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings of the nature.~</div><div style="color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-ascent-of-the-sacrifice-ii#p29</ref></u></divcenter>

<div style="color:#000000;">Man is a type among many types so constructed, one pattern among the multitude of patterns in the manifestation in Matter. He It is possible for the most complex that has been created, the richest in content of consciousness and the curious ingeniousness of his building; he is the head of the earthly creation, but he does not exceed it…. If there is a perfection Purusha to which he has to arrive, use it must be on the mental plane itself for a perfection in his own kindconstant self-observation, within his own law of beingself-development,—the full play of itself-modification, but by observation of its mode and measureto sanction, not by transcendence. To exceed himselfreject, to grow into the supermanalter, to put on bring out new formulations of the nature and capacities of establish a god would be calm and disinterested action, a contradiction high and pure sattwic balance and rhythm of his self-lawits energy, impracticable and impossible</div><div style="color:#0066cc;"><u>a personality perfected in the sattwic principle. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2224/manthe-anddivine-the-evolutionshakti#p8p9</ref></u></div>

<div style="color:#000000;"center>In the animal mind is not quite distinct from its own life-matrix and life-matter; its movements are so involved in the life movements that it cannot detach itself from them, cannot stand separate and observe them; but in man mind has become separate, he can become aware of his mental operations as distinct from his life operations, his thought and will can disengage them selves from his sensations and impulses, desires and emotional reactions, can become detached from them, observe and control them, sanction or cancel their functioning: he does not as yet know the secrets of his being well enough to be aware of himself decisively and with certitude as a mental being in a life and body, but he has that impression and can take inwardly that position.~</div><div style="color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-evolution-of-the-spiritual-man#p6</ref></u></divcenter>

== Chitta ...with regard to the movements and Selfexperiences of the body the mind will come to know the Purusha seated within it as, first, the witness or observer of the movements and, secondly, the knower or perceiver of the experiences. It will cease to consider in thought or feel in sensation these movements and experiences as its own but rather consider and feel them as not its own, as operations of Nature governed by the qualities of Nature and their interaction upon each other. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-subjection-to-the-Observation ==body#p4</ref>

<div style="color:#000000;"center>Chitta, the basic consciousness, is largely subconscient; it has, open and hidden, two kinds of action, one passive or receptive, the other active or reactive and formative. As a passive power it receives all impacts, even those of which the mind is unaware or to which it is inattentive, and it stores them in an immense reserve of passive subconscient memory on which the mind as an active memory can draw.But ordinarily the mind draws only what it had observed and understood at the time,—more easily what it had observed well and understood carefully, less easily what it had observed carelessly or ill understood; at the same time there is a power in consciousness to send up to the active mind for use what that mind had not at all observed or attended to or even consciously experienced. This power only acts observably in abnormal conditions, when some part of the subconscious chitta comes as it were to the surface or when the subliminal being in us appears on the threshold and for a time plays some part in the outer chamber of mentality where the direct intercourse and commerce with the external world takes place and our inner dealings with ourselves develop on the surface.~</div><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-instruments-of-the-spirit#p6</ref></u></spancenter>

= Practice The Purusha and Prakriti are on the mental level as in the rest of Selfour being closely joined and much involved in each other and we are not able to distinguish clearly soul and nature. But in the purer substance of mind we can more easily discern the dual strain. The mental Purusha is naturally able in its own native principle of mind to detach itself, as we have seen, from the workings of its Prakriti and there is then a division of our being between a consciousness that observes and can reserve its willpower and an energy full of the substance of consciousness that takes the forms of knowledge, will and feeling. This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from the compulsion of the soulby its mental nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-Observation =shakti#p8</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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.~</spancenter><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p15 http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p15</ref>]

{|class="wikitable" style= Positive Attitude =="background-color: #efefff; width: 100%;"|Read Summary of '''[[Self Observation Summary|Self Observation]]'''

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To become conscious of what is to be changed Dear reader, if you notice any error in the nature is paragraph numbers in the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change"hyperlinks, please let us know by dropping an email at integral. You do right to be confident that the change will comeedu. 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@gmail.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u>com<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p53</ref></u></span>|}

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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.</span><span styleReferences ="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><u><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/depression-and-despondency#p67</ref></u></span>