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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0921/18memory-juneego-1958and-self-experience#p3p5</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>The Upanishad tells us that the Self-existent has so set the doors of the soul that they turn outwards and most men look outward into the appearances of things; only the rare soul that is ripe for a calm thought and steady wisdom turns its eye inward, sees the Self and attains to immortality. To this turning of the eye inward psychological self-observation and ~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">analysis is a great and effective introduction. We can look into the inward of ourselves more easily than we can look into the inward of things external to us because there, in things outside us, we are in the first place embarrassed by the form and secondly we have no natural previous experience of that in them which is other than their physical substance….psychological self-knowledge is only the experience of the modes of the Self, it is not the realisation of the Self in its pure being. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-status-of-knowledge#p7</ref></spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The true and ultimateYou may have a mental power of observation, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance a vital power of our observingobservation, reasoninga physical power of observation. When you observe ideas, inquiringfor instance, judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for train of ideas, the right reception and right action logic 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 willideas, an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to it is not altogether the difficult work same power of his self-development; he can more observation as when you look at a friend doing athletics and more subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as see whether he can thus master and enlighten is making his lower selfmovements correctly or not. That is, he the capacity of attention 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 there in touch with the Infiniteboth cases, consciously subject to but it works in a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and transcendent knowledge, he has commenced different field. It can't be said that it is one part of the ascent towards being observing the supermanothers; he it is the faculty of observation developing in each part of the being—that is on his upward march towards , the Divinefaculty of concentration and attention. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2306/self27-january-consecration1954#p17p34</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>There are many voices, and all are not divine; this may be only a voice of desire. All that keeps one faithful to the Truth and insists on peace, purity, devotion, sincerity, a spiritual change of the nature can be listened to with profit; the rest must be observed with discrimination and not followed blindly. Keep the fire of aspiration burning, but avoid all impatient haste. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-voices-and-indication</refcenter>

== The three Guna’s ==ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nature in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks "I am doing this, feeling that, thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc." The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p84</ref>

<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 of Self-'''Active and Passive Observation ='''

<span style="background-color:transparentYour consciousness becomes a screen or mirror;color:#000000;">You project yourself on the screen and then observe and see all that but this 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 in a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise—arrange, take up all that, put each thing in its placestate of contemplation, organise in such a way that mere observer; when 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 wellactive, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the logic of my beinglike a searchlight. Now, I You have arranged all that within meonly to turn it on, each thing has been put if you want to see luminously and examine penetratingly anything in its any 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/0503/2930-julyjune-19531929#p47p7</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">But you must begin when very small, 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 '''Observation 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>Not Discernment'''

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is For the capacity of observation must not a physical retirement that be confused with the capacity of discernment. Discernment is needed, but an inner detachment from the mental formations and vital desiresintellectual capacity. To find Something like a judgment already enters into it, what we call "discrimination": you can distinguish between the real self above origin of one thing and within of another, and live in that, not in the mind's conceptions or the vital's reactionsreciprocal value of these things. These must But that ought to be observed and looked at not as one's own but as movements founded on a correct observation. The power of a surface ignorant natureobservation comes first, discernment follows. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3103/interactions-with-others-and30-the-practice-ofjune-yoga1929#p111p7</ref>

= Conditions for Self-Observation =What to Observe ==

<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 '''Parts of our self-observation becomes possible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/indeterminates-cosmic-determinations-and-the-indeterminable#p12</ref></span>Being '''

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000Have 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 it is mixed up in the quiet mind outward appearance. If you do not take care to distinguish, it makes a kind of soup, all that the true observation together. So it is indistinct and knowledge 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2905/quiet10-andjune-calm1953#p40p31</ref></span>

<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 '''Observing 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p10</ref></span>Inner Being'''

<span style="backgroundFor a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-color:transparent;color:#000000;">But if you remain very quietconsciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, only if you observe—as though you were silently looking at somethingidentifying ourselves with it, you understand—then you will begin seeing more preciselywe can observe the springs of our thoughts and feelings, the sources and little by little distinguishing between different categories motives of thingsour action, the operative energies that build up our surface personality. You will be able For we discover and can know the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives in us, the vital being that secretly feels and acts upon life through us, the subtle-physical being that secretly receives and responds to know what one thing is the contacts of things through our body and what another etcits organs.Our surface thought, feeling, whether it comes emotion is a complexity and confusion of impulsions from you or within and impacts from outsideus; our reason, whether our organising intelligence can impose on it is on a material plane or on another plane. All this is learnt through a very quiet observation, quiet only an imperfect order: but very sharphere within we find the separate sources of our mental, you understand; because there are very tiny shadesour vital and our physical energisms and can see clearly the pure operations, very tiny, between different thingsthe distinct powers, the composing elements of each and when you get used to distinguishing these nuances, you can discern exactly what it istheir interplay in a clear light of self-vision. (The Mother, 20 October 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0621/20knowledge-by-identity-and-octoberseparative-1954knowledge#p46p12</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is really an inner silence that a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is needed—a something silent within that looks not at outer talk once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and action but feels profound internal experience. Therefore without a long inner experience, without intimate self-observation and intuitive perception of the Nature-forces it is difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise. Still certain broad indications may help the seeker on the Way of Works to understand, analyse and control by his assent or refusal the combinations of his own nature. These modes are termed in the Indian books qualities, guṇas, and are given the names sattva, rajas, tamas. Sattwa is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as something superficialgood and harmony and happiness and light; rajas is the force of kinesis and translates in quality as struggle and effort, not passion and action; tamas is the force of inconscience and inertia and translates in quality as itself obscurity and is quite indifferent incapacity and untouched by itinaction. Ordinarily used for psychological self-analysis, these distinctions are valid also in physical Nature. It can bring forces to support speech Each thing and action or it can stop every existence in the lower Prakriti contains them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without being involved or movedits process and dynamic form are the result of the interaction of these qualitative powers. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3123/speechthe-andthree-modes-of-yoganature#p76p2</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To silence Now the mind it is not enough procedure to throw back each thought as it comes, that can only be a subordinate movementdeal with dreams and the dreamland. First become conscious—conscious of your dreams. One must get back from all thought Observe the relation between them and be separate from it, a silent consciousness observing the thoughts if they comehappenings of your waking hours. If you remember your night, but not oneself thinking or identified with the thoughts. Thoughts must you will be felt as outside things altogether. It is then easier able to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing trace back very often the quietude condition of your day to the mindcondition of your night. In sleep some action or other is always going on in your mental or vital or other plane; things happen there and they govern your waking consciousness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3103/interactions-with-others21-andapril-the-practice-of-yoga1929#p99p6</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/13-october-1954#p2</refcenter>~</spancenter>

As the inner consciousness grows by sadhana, these dream experiences increase in number, clearness, coherence, accuracy and after some growth of experience and consciousness, we can, if we observe, come to understand them and their significance to our inner life. Even we can by training become so conscious as to follow our own passage, usually veiled to our awareness and memory, through many realms and the process of the return to the waking state. At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of sleep, a sleep of experiences, can replace the ordinary subconscient slumber. <span style="backgroundref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-color:transparent;color:being#000000;"p6</ref>It has been seen that a most effective way   [[#top|Back to Contents]] = Why is Self-Observation Important? = ...if he [man] is not to remain this being of purification is for the mental Purusha to draw backsurface ignorance seeking obscurely after the truth of things and collecting and systematising fragments and sections of knowledge, to stand as the passive witness small limited and half-competent creature of the cosmic Force which he now is in his phenomenal nature. He must know himself and observe discover and utilise all his potentialities: but to know himself and the workings 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 only do by knowing his inner mental, vital, physical and psychic being and its powers and movements and the universal laws and processes of the occult Mind and Life which stand behind the material front of the universe. ...But this knowledge must be something more than a creed or a mystic revelation; his thinking mind must be able to accept it, to correlate it with the principle of things and the observed truth of the universe: this is the work of philosophy, and in the lowerfield of the truth of the spirit it can only be done by a spiritual philosophy, whether intellectual in its method or intuitive. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/18-june-1958#p3</ref>  <center>~</center> To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the normal different parts of your being; but this and their respective activities. You must be combinedlearn 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 perfectioneverything 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 raise 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 purified nature into capacity of knowing the higher spiritual truth of our being. When , that is doneto 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 Purusha truth of our existence, whatever is no longer only opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a witnesshomogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, but also 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 master success of his prakriti, īśvaraour endeavour. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2412/the-actionscience-of-living#p5</ref> <center>~</center> … 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 in oneself lots of small hidden folds, little things one had not seen at thebeginning; 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/19-divineapril-shakti1951#p7p14</ref> <center>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The witness Purusha in the mind observes If you had that observation (from the inadequacy of his effortinner spiritual, all the inadequacy in fact of man's life and nature arises from not the separation outer intellectual and the consequent struggleethical viewpoint), want of knowledge, want of harmony, want of oneness. It is essential then it would be comparatively easy for him you to grow get out of separative individuality, your difficulties; for instance you would find at once where this irrational impulse to universalise himselfflee away came from and it would not have any hold upon you. Of course, to make himself one with the universe. This unification all that can only be done only through to the soul by making our soul of mind one with best effect when you stand back from the universal Mind, our soul play of life one with your nature and become the universal LifeWitness-soul, our soul of body one with Control or the universal soul Spectator-Actor Manager. But that is what happens when you take this kind of physical Natureself-seeing posture. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2431/themental-perfectiondifficulties-ofand-the-mentalneed-of-beingquietude#p15p23</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">For that you must be absolutely sincere The true and impartial. You must observe yourself ultimate, as if you were distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observing and criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are to do or that you are to doreasoning, in this lies your talent or geniusinquiring, etc. That will carry you away from the right track. It judging intelligence is not that it prepares the liking or disliking of your external human being, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines for the true line right reception and right action of your growth. Nor should you take up a Light from above which must progressively replace in him the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in obscure light from below that one; it is not for meguides the animal. ..." Neither vanity Man can bring an enlightened will, an enlightened thought and arrogance nor enlightened emotions to the difficult work of his self-depreciation development; he can more and false modesty should move youmore subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. As I saidIn proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, you must be absolutely impartial he is man and unconcernedno longer an animal. You should be like When he can begin to replace desire altogether by a mirror that reflects still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the truth Infinite, consciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and does not judgetranscendent knowledge, he has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divine. (The Mother, 12 November 1952) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1523/12-novemberself-1952consecration#p6p17</ref>

== Being Vigilant =How to Observe Oneself? =

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">One can be quietBut you must begin when very small, happy, cheerful without being all that in a light or shallow way—and the happiness need not bring any vital reaction. All that you need to do is to be observant and vigilantconsciously,—watchful so that very consciously; you may not give assent to wrong movements or the return must begin with a sense of observation of all the old feelingsmovements in yourself, darknessof their relation with others, confusion etc. Not fearof—precisely, but vigilance. If you remain vigilantof your degree of independence, then with the increase of the Force upholding youreal individuality, a power of self-control will knowing where impulses comefrom, a power to see and reject the wrong turn 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 wrong reaction when it comesmovements in oneself is necessary in order to succeed simply in crystallising a being who is a little conscious, a little conscious. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3106/fear22-september-1954#p12p43</ref></span>

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

== Becoming Aware 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 Desire ==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....". <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/29-july-1953#p47</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 It is not a physical retirement that is needed, but an inner detachment from the mental formations and vital desires. To find the real self above and within and live in that, not in the mind's conceptions or the vital's reactions. These must be observed and looked at not as one's own but as movements of Selfa surface ignorant nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-Observation =with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p111</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">As a general rule, When we are in contact with a few very rare exceptions, men are content to observe more the Divine or less accurately everything that happens around them, in contact with an inner knowledge and sometimes within themselvesvision, and we begin to classify see all these observations according to one superficial system the circumstances of logic or another. And our life in a new light and can observe how they call this organisationall tended without our knowing it towards the growth of our being and consciousness, these systemstowards the work we had to do, "knowledge". It has never occurred towards some development that had to thembe made,—not only what seemed good, they have not even begun to perceive that all fortunate or successful but the things they seestruggles, touchfailures, feeldifficulties, experience, are false appearances and not reality itselfupheavals. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1029/aphorismthe-divine-grace-and-7guidance#p3p33</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, 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>= By Vigilance ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">One throws oneself out all the time; all the time one livescan be quiet, as it were, outside oneselfhappy, cheerful without being all that in such a superficial sensation light or shallow way—and the happiness need not bring any vital reaction. All that it you need to do is almost as though one were outside oneself. As soon as one wants even to observe oneself a littlebe observant and vigilant, control oneself a little, simply know what is happening, one is always obliged —watchful so that you may not give assent to draw back wrong movements or pull towards oneselfthe return of the old feelings, to pull inwards something which is constantly like thatdarkness, on the surfaceconfusion etc. And it is this surface thing which meets all external contactsNot fear, puts but vigilance. If you in touch remain vigilant, then with similar vibrations coming from others. That happens almost outside the increase of the Force upholding you, a power of self-control will come, a power to see and reject the wrong turn or the wrong reaction when it comes. (The Mother, 20 June 1956) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0831/20-june-1956fear#p49p12</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">As the surface mental entity moving from moment to moment, not observing his essential self but But you have only his relation to his experiences of the Time-movementobserve yourselves... you can observe yourself, in that movement keeping the future from himself in what appears to be catch yourself at least a hundred times a blank of Ignorance and non-existence but is an unrealised fullnessday, grasping knowledge and experience of being in the presentwith a mind which decides everything, putting it away in the past which again appears to be a blank of Ignorance and non-existence partly lightedknows everything, partly saved and stored up by memoryjudges everything, he puts on the aspect of a thing fleeting and uncertain seizing without stability upon things fleeting and uncertain. But in realityknows very well what is good, we shall findwhat bad, he what is always the same Eternal who is for ever stable and self-possessed in His supramental knowledge and true, what false, what he seizes on is right... And also for ever stable and eternal; for it is himself how one should act, what this person should have done, how to resolve that he is mentally experiencing in problem.... All men know, you see... If they were at the succession head of Timegovernments, for instance, they 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/memory-self-consciousness-and-thejuly-ignorance1954#p15p40</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If we 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 happeningcontrol first over what goes on within us, we judge and explain it then on the influence cast on us from outside which makes us act, in the result beginning altogether unconsciously and from a glimpse of its most external constituentsalmost involuntarily, circumstances or causesbut gradually more and more consciously; but each happening and the will can wake up and react. Then at that moment, the moment there is the outcome of a complex nexus conscious will capable of forces which we do not and cannot observereacting, because all forces are to us invisibleone may say,—but they are "I have become conscious." This does not invisible to the spiritual vision of the Infinite: some of them are actualities working to produce or occasion mean that it is a new actualitytotal and perfect consciousness, some are possibles it means that are near it is a beginning: for example, when one is able to observe all the pre-existent actuals reactions in one's being and in to have a way included in their aggregate; but there can intervene always new possibilities that suddenly become dynamic potentials and add themselves certain control over them, to the nexuslet those one approves of have play, and behind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to actualisecontrol, stop, annul those one doesn't approve of. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2108/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya28-prakritinovember-shakti1956#p7p19</ref>

== Three Guna’s Take one hour of your life, the one which is most convenient for you, and Self-Observation ==during that time observe yourself closely and say only the absolutely indispensable words. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p15</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">In this progression the first step is = By Developing 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</ref>Quiet Mind ==

= Parts It is only when we follow the yogic process of quieting the mind itself that a profounder result of our self-observation becomes possible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/indeterminates-cosmic-determinations-and Planes of -the Being =-indeterminable#p12</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so A quiet mind does not mean that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that occur in you, these will be on the many impulses, reactions surface and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's naturewill feel your true being within separate from them, especially his mental natureobserving but not carried away, has a spontaneous tendency able to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says watch and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing judge them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, and reject all that we can hope has to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress be rejected 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 accept and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed keep 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 that is true consciousness and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavourtrue experience. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1229/the-science-of-livingpeace#p5p10</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-colorThere are four movements which are usually consecutive, but which in the end may be simultaneous:transparent;color:#000000;">For a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, identifying ourselves with it, we can to observe the springs of our one's thoughts and feelings, is the sources and motives of our actionfirst, to watch over one's thoughts is the operative energies that build up our surface personality. For we discover and can know the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives in ussecond, to control one's thoughts is the vital being that secretly feels third and acts upon life through us, the subtle-physical being that secretly receives and responds to master one's thoughts is the contacts of things through our body and its organsfourth. Our surface thoughtTo observe, feelingto watch over, emotion is a complexity and confusion of impulsions from within and impacts from outside us; our reasonto control, our organising intelligence can impose on it only an imperfect order: but here within we find the separate sources of our mental, our vital and our physical energisms and can see clearly the pure operations, the distinct powers, the composing elements of each and their interplay in a clear light of self-visionto master. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2103/knowledge-by-identity-and-separativeconjugate-knowledgeverses#p12p7</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 What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one's knowing it, and Parts brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness in such a way that the inner mind gets covered up and all the old thoughts and feelings return for a time. It is the physical mind that becomes active and gives its assent. If the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing the vital movement, but not giving its assent, then to reject it becomes more easy. This established quietude and detachment of the mind marks always a great step forward made in the sadhana. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of Being ==-being#p45</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 But if you remain very quiet, only if you observe—as though you were silently looking at something, you understand—then you will begin seeing more precisely, and little by little distinguishing between different witnesses—there ought categories of things. You will be able to beknow what one thing is and what another etc., whether it comes from you or from outside, but whether it is not always thereon a material plane or on another plane. But if there All this is in the being learnt through a will to become perfectvery quiet observation, quiet but very sharp, the relation is established quite quicklyyou understand; one can refer to another and finallybecause there are very tiny shades, if there is a sufficient sincerityvery tiny, sufficient concentrationbetween different things, and when you come get used to the supreme inner Witness who distinguishing these nuances, you can judge all things. But generally it may be said that discern exactly what it is always a part of the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judges. (The Mother, 22 March 1951) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0406/2220-marchoctober-19511954#p7p46</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the witness part of his mind and observes his own thoughts and studies their nature. That is a beginning which makes it easy for the full detachment to come. For others it is less easy, but it can be done by all. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">You have to become conscious—that It is really an inner silence that is to say, there must be needed—a something in you which is not carried away by thoughts and feelings, but silent within that looks at them outer talk and observes how they work action but feels it as something superficial, not as itself and how they affect you. The part that observes is quite indifferent and knows is called the Witness sākṣī in manuntouched by it. It is always possible can bring forces to develop this in oneselfsupport speech and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without being involved or moved. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3031/inner-detachmentspeech-and-the-witness-attitudeyoga#p25p76</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...behind there is the psychic which supports the developmentYou must be able to silence your head absolutely and be completely detached, not to have (for example, when you are looking for the growth solution of a problem), not to have already in your head the being and gives this continuity of consciousness, makes one feel solution that he is seems to you right or the same being even while being best or most profitable. That must not be there. You must become absolutely differentlike a blank paper, absolutely differentwith nothing on it. If later one observes himself sufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and could do at And you proceed in that time are things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable nowway, and that he could never do with a similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And yet, because within there was very sincere aspiration to know the psychic consciousness which is immortaltruth, one has the feeling without assuming beforehand that it is always the same being which was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with more like this or less progressive and more or less conscious changeslike that; because otherwise you will see only your own formation. (The Mother, 29 June 1955) very first condition is that the head must keep completely silent during the time one is observing. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0705/2930-juneseptember-19551953#p28p13</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nature in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks "I am doing this, feeling that, thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc." The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. The two different beings you feel are—one, the psychic being which draws you towards the Mother, the other the external being mostly vital which draws you outward and downwards towards the play of the lower nature. There is also in you behind the mind the being who observes, the witness Purusha, who can stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choose. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p84</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The actions are of importance only as expressing what is in To silence the nature. You have to be conscious of whatever in your actions mind it is not in harmony with the Yoga and enough to throw back each thought as it comes, that can only be a subordinate movement. One must get rid of back from all thought and be separate from it. But for that what is needed is your own , a silent consciousnessobserving the thoughts if they come, but not oneself thinking or identified with the psychic, observing from within and throwing off what thoughts. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogether. It is seen then easier to be undesirablereject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the quietude of the mind. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2931/workinteractions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p45p99</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The mental being within watches, observes and passes judgment on all that happens in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way like a witness, but it feels and knows spontaneously in a much more direct and luminous way by = By Developing the very purity of its own nature and the divine instinct within it, and so, whenever it comes to the front it reveals at once what are the right and what the wrong movements in your nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-jivatman-in-the-integral-yoga#p40</ref></span>Witness Attitude ==

== Mind Have you never felt this? As though you were a little behind or above things, and Selfwere 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 sense 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/13-october-Observation ==1954#p2</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Gradually, as the action is prolonged and the outer being begins to assimilate this action, there awakens a capacity of observation, first in the mental consciousness, and a kind of objectivisation occurs: something in the mind looks on, observes and translates in its own way. This is what you call understanding, and this is what gives you the impression (smiling) that you are having an experience. But that is already considerably diminished in comparison with the experience itself, it is a transcription adapted to your mental, vital and physical dimension, that is, something that is shrunken, hardened—and it gives you at the same time the impression that it is growing clearer; that is to say, it has become as limited as your understanding. (The Mother, 31 October 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/31-october-1956#p19</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the object witness part of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion his mind and observes his own thoughts and the subjectstudies their nature. In the self-experience of the self-observing inner being, the object That is always some state or movement or wave of a beginning which makes it easy for 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 activityfull detachment to come. The act For others it is some kind of mental observation and conceptual valuation of this movement or wave or else a mental sensation of less easy, but it in which observation and valuation may can be involved and even lost,—so that in this act the mental person may either separate the act and the object done by a distinguishing perception or confuse them together indistinguishablyall. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2130/memoryinner-egodetachment-and-selfthe-witness-experienceattitude#p5p</ref></span>

<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 at least to the smallest part of this construction would be considered a savage and would be thrown out of the society immediately. In fact, people who are criminals or half-mad are those who obey their impulses without any mental control. There isn't a single person among you who gives way without control to all the impulses that get hold of him. You have only to observe yourselves living, you spend your time saying, "No, this I can't do", or "This I can", or in restraining one movement or encouraging another. This is mental control. (The Mother, 15 September 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/15-september-1954#p9</refcenter>~</spancenter>

== Vital You have to become conscious—that is to say, there must be something in you which is not carried away by thoughts and Selffeelings, 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-Observation ==attitude#p25</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one's knowing it, = By Sincerity and brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness in such a way that the inner mind gets covered up and all the old thoughts and feelings return for a time. It is the physical mind that becomes active and gives its assent. If the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing the vital movement, but not giving its assent, then to reject it becomes more easy. This established quietude and detachment of the mind marks always a great </span><span styleImpartiality =="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">step forward made in the sadhana. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of-being#p45</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">After each crisis there is something gained, For that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if there has been you were observing and criticising a victory and rejectionthird person. The gain You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are to externalise the vital disturbancedo or that you are to do, in this lies your talent or genius, so that even if it returns it etc. That will be felt so much an outside force that carry you away from the right track. It is not the observing consciousness (liking or disliking of your external being, your mental, higher or vital) cannot be disturbedor physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. If Nor should you keep take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in thatone; it is not for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I said, it will you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be an immense advancelike a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3115/wrong-movements12-ofnovember-the-vital1952#p68p6</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">One can prepare the body through a series of observationsIf you observe yourself, studies, understandings,by showing it examples, making it understand things you will see that as soon as one makes you do something which disturbs you a child understand themlittle, either by observing its own movements―but generally, in this, one the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is comparatively blind!―or by observing those capable of othersgilding everything. And in a more general way, this preparation will be based on recognised studies, on clear facts. Like this, for instance: that a certain number of persons, placed in exactly similar circumstances, experience, each one of them, very different effectsIn these conditions it is difficult to know oneself. One may go even further: in a given set of definite circumstances, there is a certain number must be absolutely sincere to be able to do it and to see clearly into all the little falsehoods of particular, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditions, and for some the effects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harmmental being. (The Mother, 4 July 1956) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0804/415-julyjanuary-19561951#p15p3</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If it is an inert tamasic passivity subject to any influence and unable to react, then it is subjection to Nature. If it is a sattwic passivity =By Becoming Aware 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</ref>Desire ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">For the giddinessthat you must observe yourself very, very attentively, and if there is anything in you which produces something like a small intense vibration, it then you may be sure that in concentration there lies a desire. For example, you say, "This food is necessary for me"—you believe, you go partly out of your body; thenimagine, 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 up and move before the whole consciousness has come backthing?" Then if the immediate answer is, "Oh, it will be very bad", there you may be sure that it is just such a giddiness as matter of desire. It is the same for everything. For every problem you describe. You can observe in future draw back, look at yourself and ask, "Let us see whether it , am I going to have the thing?" If at that moment something in you jumps up with joy, you may be certain there is not this that happensa desire. One has to be careful On the other hand, if something tells you, "Oh, I am not going to move after deep concentration or tranceget it", and you feel very depressed, till there then again it is the full consciousness in the bodya desire. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3104/difficulties-of-the25-physicaljanuary-nature1951#p59p3</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Your consciousness becomes a screen or mirror; but this is when If you are in a state of contemplationobserve yourself attentively, a mere observer; when you are activewill see that before acting you need an inner impetus, it something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is like a searchlightgenerally desire. You have only This desire ought to turn it onbe replaced by a clear, precise, if you want to see luminously and examine penetratingly anything in any placeconstant vision of the Truth. (The Mother, 30 June 1929) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0304/3021-junedecember-19291950#p7</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">However, if one observes things a little deeply, one perceives that there is progress, that things become better and better, though apparently they 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 falsehood, all that is contrary to =By Education of the Truth, all suffering, all opposition is the result of a disequilibrium. I believe that one who is habituated to seeing things from this higher plane sees immediately that it is like that. (The Mother, 8 January 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/8-january-1951#p13</ref></span>Senses==

<span style="background-colorBut it is through sensations that you learn:transparent;color:#000000;">There are two centres or parts by seeing, observing, hearing. Classes develop your sensations, studies develop your sensations, the mind receives things through sensations. By the education of the consciousness—one senses the growth of one's general education is a witnessaided; if you learn to see well, sākṣī, and observesexactly, precisely; if you learn to hear well; if you learn through touch to know the other consciousness is active and it is this active consciousness that nature of things; if you felt going down deep into learn through the vital beingsee of smell to distinguish between different odours—all these are a powerful means of education. If your mind had not become activeIn fact, they should be used for this, as instruments of observation, you would have known where it went control and what it went there to experience or doknowledge. When there If one is an experiencesufficiently developed, you should not begin to think about itone can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know the value, for the different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. It is a question of education; that is of no use at all and it only stops the experience—you should remain silent, observe and let one must work for it go on to its end. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3006/suggestions-for-dealing31-withmarch-experiences1954#p8p13</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">At a certain stage of the sadhana, in the beginning (or near it) of the more intense experiences, it sometimes happens that there is the intense realisation of some aspect of the Divine, a sort of communion with it, and that is seen everywhere and all as that. It is a transitory phase and afterwards one gets the larger experience of the Divine in all its aspects and beyond all aspects. Throughout the experience there should be one part of the being that observes and understands—for sometimes ignorant sadhaks are carried away by their experience and stop short there or fall into extravagance. It must be taken as an experience through which you are passing. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p10</refcenter>~</spancenter>

= Thoughts The child must be taught to observe, to note his reactions and Selfimpulses 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-Observation =education#p14</ref>

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

<span style="backgroundThe indispensable starting-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It point is only graduallya detailed and discerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is a difficult and often a very slowly, through baffling task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the movements labyrinth of life and inner discovery. It is that everyone possesses in a more or less careful large measure, and thorough education that you begin to have sensations the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are personal to you, feelings like the light and ideas which are personal to youthe shadow of the same thing. An individualised mind is something extremely rareThus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, which comes only after the courageous man will be a long education; otherwise it is a kind coward in some part of thought-current passing through your brain his being and then through another's and then through a multitude the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses. In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of other brainsexpressing an ideal, and all this is but also with contrary elements representing in perpetual movement a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has no individualityto win for the realisation to become possible. One thinks what others are thinkingConsequently, others think what still others are thinkingall life is an education pursued more or less consciously, and everybody thinks like more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in a great mixtureothers, on the contrary, because these those that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are currentsfavourable, vibrations the light will grow at the expense of thought passing from one the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to another. If you look at yourself attentivelythe whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, you will very quickly become aware that very few thoughts unless a higher element comes in in you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heardtime, from what you have reada conscious will which, what you have been taughtrefusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and how many clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not manyeducation. (The Mother, 20 February 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0912/20vital-february-1957education#p6</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">To observe your thoughts, you must first of all separate yourself from them. In the ordinary state, the ordinary man does not distinguish himself from his thoughts. He does not even know that he thinks. He thinks by habit. And if he is asked all of a sudden, "What are you thinking of?", he knows nothing about it. That is = How 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p12</ref></span>Observe Thoughts==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...when undesirable The error comes from thinking that your thoughts come, if are your own and that you look at them, observe them, are their maker and if you take pleasure in following them in their movementsdon't create thoughts (i.e. think), they there will never stop comingbe none. It is the same thing when A little observation ought to show that you have undesirable feelings or sensation: if you pay attention to themare not manufacturing your own thoughts, concentrate on them or even look at them with a certain indulgence, they will never stop. But if but rather thoughts occur in you absolutely refuse to receive and express them, after some time they stop. You must be patient and very persistent. (The Mother, 22 September 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0631/22thought-septemberand-1954knowledge#p19p3</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-1957#p8</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="backgroundThoughts are not the essence of mind-color:transparentbeing, they are only an activity of mental nature;color:#000000;">The error comes from thinking 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 your thoughts are your 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 you are is because their maker observation is untrained and if you don't create thoughts (i.e. think), insufficient and loss of activity gives them the sense of blank; an emptiness there will be none. A little observation ought to show that you are not manufacturing your own thoughtsis, but rather thoughts occur in youit is an emptiness of the ordinary activities, not a blank of existence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3130/thoughtthree-experiences-of-the-andinner-knowledgebeing#p3</ref></span>

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

= Sense It is only gradually, very slowly, through the movements of life and Self Observation =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-1957#p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">This sensational thought-mind which is based upon sense, memory, association, first ideas and resultant generalisations or secondary ideas, is common to all developed animal life and mentality….The intelligence and will of the animal are involved in the sense-mind and therefore altogether governed by it and carried on its stream of sensations, sense-perceptions, impulses; it is instinctive. Man is able to use a reason and will, a self-observing, thinking and all-observing, an intelligently willing mind which is no longer involved in the sense-mind, but acts from above and behind it in its own right, with a certain separateness and freedom. He is reflective, has a certain relative freedom of intelligent will. He has liberated in himself and has formed into a separate power the buddhi. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/purification-intelligence-and-will#p4</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">….But it is through sensations When one practises Yoga and observes the thoughts, one sees that you learn: by seeingthey come from outside, observingfrom universal Nature, hearing. Classes develop your sensationsfrom the mental, studies develop your sensations, the mind receives things through sensationsvital or subtle physical worlds etc. By the education of the senses the growth of one's general education The proper thing is aided; if you learn then to see wellstand back from these thoughts, exactlyvoices or suggestions, precisely; if you learn to hear well; if you learn through touch reject them or else control them, to know make the nature of things; if you learn through mind free and quiet and open only to the see of smell to distinguish between different odours—all these are a powerful means of education. In factdivine light, they should be used for thisforce, as instruments knowledge and the presence of observation, control and knowledgethe Divine. ... If one is sufficiently developedAspire, one can know get into contact with the nature of things through sight; through Light and the see of smell one may also know the valuetrue Force, the different nature of things; by touch one can recognise thingsreassert your will to reject these suggestions and voices. It is a question of education; that isDo not take interest in these voices, one must work for itkeep the mind quiet. (The Mother, 31 March 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0631/31thought-marchand-1954knowledge#p13p5</ref></span>

= Education and Difficulties in Self-Observation =

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The indispensable starting-point is a detailed and discerning observation =Danger of the character to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is a difficult and often a very baffling task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the labyrinth of inner discovery. It is that everyone possesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be a coward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses. In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary, those that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher element comes in in time, a conscious will which, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of education. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p6</ref>Ego==

<span style=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!"background-colorI am going further:transparent;color:#000000;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">..The child must ? How many people would be taught able to observesincerely 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 note his reactions and impulses meditate and all their causesenergy 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 become move, one dreams. ...Under a discerning witness 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 his desiresthe Divine, his movements it is at the service of violence and passionthe ego, his instincts of possession and appropriation and domination and when the background of vanity which supports themego is taken away, it does nothing any longer. Therefore, together with their counterparts of weaknessso 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, discouragementin any case, depression and despairtill the true consciousness is established. </span>(The Mother, 5 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1204/vital5-april-education1951#p14</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If ...if you observe do your tapasya, all the time observing yourself doing it and telling yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus"Am I making any progress, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man is this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought going to be replaced by a clearbetter, am I going to succeed?", then it is your ego, preciseyou know, constant vision of which becomes more and more enormous and occupies the Truthwhole place, and there is no room for anything else. (The Mother, 21 December 1950) </span> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/2126-decemberapril-19501951#p7p35</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If you observe yourself, you will see that as soon as you do something which disturbs you a little, the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is capable of gilding everything. In these conditions it is difficult to know oneself. One must be absolutely sincere to be able to do it and to see clearly into all the little falsehoods of the mental being. (The Mother, 15 January 1951) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/15-january-1951#p3</ref>= Escape attitude ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">… if each element which comes with its ignorance, its unconsciousness, its egoism, Constantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time to observe himself and how he lives. For him this is put before expressed by the will desire to change and one remains awakeescape from boredom. Indeed, comparesfor some people it is much more tiresome to remain quiet—seated, observesor to be still. So for them it represents an escape from boredom: to make a lot of noise, studies and slowly acts, that becomes infinitely interestingto commit many stupidities, one makes marvellous and quite unexpected discoveries. One finds in oneself lots of small hidden folds, little things one had not seen at the beginningbecome terribly restless; one undertakes a sort it is their way 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 nastyescaping boredom. And once it has been discovered, how wonderful! One puts the light upon it when they sit quietly and it disappears and you no longer have those reactions which made you so sad beforelook at themselves, when you used to say, "Oh! I shall never get therethey are bored. Perhaps because they are boring. That's very likely. (The Mothermore boring one is, 19 April 1951) </span>the more one is bored. Very interesting people usually are not bored. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0407/1926-apriljanuary-19511955#p14</ref>

= Difficulties during Self-Observation =Focusing on the Negative==

== Danger of To be always observing faults and wrong movements brings depression and discourages the Ego ==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;">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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/5-april-1951#p14</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">...if What you do your tapasyahave 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 time observing yourself doing it and telling yourselfvital, calm equanimity, "Am I making any progressenduring patience, is this going to be betterabsence of pride and the sense of greatness—and more especially, am I going to succeed?"the development of the psychic being in you—surrender, then it is your egoself-giving, you knowpsychic humility, which becomes more devotion... a sufficient foundation and more enormous and occupies the whole placea consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and there growing in these things is indispensable—for perfect purification is no room for anything elsethe basis of the perfect siddhi. (The Mother, 26 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0430/26the-aprildanger-1951of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p35p14</ref></span>

<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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p14</refcenter>~</spancenter>

== To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change". You do right to be confident that the change will come. For nothing is impossible in the nature if the psychic being is awake and leading you with the Mother's consciousness and force behind it and working in you. This is now happening. Be sure that all will be done. <span style="backgroundref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-color:transparent;color:yoga#000000;">Escape attitudep53</spanref> ==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>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, the more one is bored. Very interesting people usually are not bored. (The Mother, 26 January 1955) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/26-january-1955#p14</refcenter>

== Focusing on Despair and despondency are always wrong. If you make a mistake, quietly observe it and correct the Negative ==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-and-despondency#p67</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><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p28</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is a subtle law of the action of consciousness that if you stress difficulties—you have to observe them, of course, but not stress them, they will quite sufficiently do that for themselves—the difficulties tend to stick or even increase; on the contrary, if you put your whole stress on faith and aspiration and concentrate steadily on what you aspire to, that will sooner or later tend towards realisation. It is this change of stress, a change in the poise and attitude of the mind, that will be the more helpful process. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/dealing-with-depression-and-despondency#p22</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-hostile-forces-and-the-difficulties-of-yoga#p35</ref>=Surface Level Observation==

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If you had that observation (from [Based on Aphorism 7—What men call knowledge is the inner spiritual, not reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the outer intellectual veil and ethical viewpoint)sees. Reason divides, then it would be comparatively easy for you to get out of your difficultiesfixes details and contrasts them; 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 courseWisdom unifies, 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 posturemarries contrasts in a single harmony]. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3110/mental-difficulties-and-the-need-ofaphorism-quietude7#p23p3</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">... when one comes out of meditation, some time later—usually not immediately—from within the being something new emerges in the consciousness: a new understanding, a new appreciation of things, a new attitude in life—in short, a new way of being. This may be fugitive, but at that moment, if one observes it, one finds that something has taken one step forward on the path of understanding or transformation. It may be an illumination, an understanding truer or closer to the truth, 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 movements, over the activities of the being. (The Mother , 5 June 1957) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/5-june-1957#p20</ref>=Observing Invisible Forces==

<span style="background-color:transparentIf we observe a happening, we judge and explain it from the result and from a glimpse of its most external constituents, circumstances or causes;color:#000000;">The mind but each happening is always in activity, but the outcome of a complex nexus of forces which we do not and cannot observe fully what it is doing, but allow ourselves because all forces are to us invisible,—but they are not invisible to be carried away in the stream spiritual vision of the Infinite: some of continual thinking. When we try them are actualities working to concentrateproduce or occasion a new actuality, this stream of selfsome are possibles that are near to the pre-moved mechanical thinking becomes prominent existent actuals and in a way included in their aggregate; but there can intervene always new possibilities that suddenly become dynamic potentials and add themselves to our observation. It is the first normal obstacle (the other is sleep during meditation) nexus, and behind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to the effort towards Yogaactualise. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2921/concentrationbrahman-andpurusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-meditationshakti#p30p7</ref>

== Dreams =Self Observation - Exploring Realms of Consciousness=

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Now Man is a type among many types so constructed, one pattern among the procedure to deal with dreams and multitude of patterns in the dreamlandmanifestation in Matter. First become conscious—conscious He is the most complex that has been created, the richest in content of your dreams. Observe consciousness and the relation between them and curious ingeniousness of his building; he is the happenings head of your waking hoursthe earthly creation, but he does not exceed it…. If you remember your nightthere is a perfection to which he has to arrive, you will it must be able a perfection in his own kind, within his own law of being,—the full play of it, but by observation of its mode and measure, not by transcendence. To exceed himself, to trace back very often grow into the condition of your day superman, to put on the condition nature and capacities of a god would be a contradiction of your night. In sleep some action or other is always going on in your mental or vital or other plane; things happen there his self-law, impracticable and they govern your waking consciousnessimpossible. (The Mother, 21 April 1929)</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0322/21man-and-aprilthe-1929evolution#p6p8</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>It is a tremendous field of observation—there is no end to the discoveries you can make in your dreams. But there is one important point: you must not go to sleep when you are very tired, for if you do, you fall into a sort of unconsciousness in which dreams do whatever they like with you, 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 to sleep. And for that, you must know how to rest. (The Mother, 1 February 1951) ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/1-february-1951#p14</refcenter>

...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. <span style="backgroundref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-color:transparent;color:1955#000000;"p28</ref> <center>~</center>As  There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousness, one on the inner consciousness grows surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by sadhanathoughts and feelings, these dream experiences increase in numbergrief 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, clearnessacting upon its agitation to quiet, coherenceenlarge, accuracy transform it. So too we can rise to a consciousness above and after some growth observe the various parts of experience our being, inner and outer, mental, vital and physical and consciousnessthe 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 canget support, if sanction or light and influence or as a status into which we can ascend or recede and from it observethe inferior movements. Or we can plunge into trance, come to understand them get within ourselves and their significance to our be conscious there while all outward things are excluded; or we can go beyond even this inner lifeawareness and lose ourselves in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconscience. Even There is also a pervading equal consciousness into which we can by training become so conscious as enter and see all ourselves with one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p23</ref> <center>~</center> In this progression the first step is a certain detached superiority to follow our own passagethe three modes of Nature. The soul is inwardly separated and free from the lower Prakriti, not involved in its coils, usually veiled indifferent and glad above it. Nature continues to our awareness 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 memorytheir strainings, through many realms regarding and unoverpowered by the failing and the darknesses of the thought and the process wildness or the weaknesses of the return heart and nerves, uncompelled and unattached to the waking state. At a certain pitch mind's illuminations and its relief and sense of ease or of this inner wakefulness this kind power in the return of sleeplight and gladness, a sleep it throws itself into none of experiencesthese things, can replace but waits unmoved for the intimations of a higher Will and the ordinary subconscient slumberintuitions of a greater luminous knowledge. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3023/the-three-experiencesmodes-of-nature#p13</ref> <center>~</center> "The 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 theforces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working...." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/7-innernovember-being1956#p6p1</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparentIt is thus by an integralisation of our divided being that the Divine Shakti in the Yoga will proceed to its object;color:#000000;">If one begins to find outfor liberation, to understand what a feeling is and what a thought isperfection, and how it worksmastery are dependent on this integralisation, then one can already go quite far on since the path with that. One must at the same time observe how his feelings and thoughts have an action little wave on the bodysurface cannot control its own movement, what much less have any true control over the reciprocity isvast life around it... And then, there is another exercise which consists in looking into oneself for what is persistent, what is lasting, something which makes one say "I", It begins to know inwardly and directly and which is not the body. For obviously, when one was very small, and then when each year one grows up, if one takes fairly long distances, for example a distance of about ten years, they are very different "I"s from what one was when as small as this (gesture), merely by external observation and then what one is now; it is difficult to say that it is contact the same person, you see. If one takes only this, still there is something which has the feeling of always being forces at play in the same person. So one must reflectworld, seekfeels their movement, try to understand what it is. This indeed distinguishes their functioning and can lead you far on operate immediately upon them as the path. Then if one also studies the relation between these different things—between thoughts, feelingsscientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action on the and results in our mind, life, bodyor reject them or modify, the reciprocal action of the body on these things—and also what it is that says "I" permanentlychange, reshape, what it is that can trace a curve create immense new powers and movements in place of the movement old small functionings of the being, if one seeks carefully enough, it leads you quite farnature. Naturally if one seeks far enough and with enough persistence, one reaches the psychic. (The Mother, 9 March 1955) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0723/9the-ascent-of-the-marchsacrifice-1955ii#p23p29</ref>

= Yogic Experience =How to be in a Witness State?==

== Divine 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 Observer ==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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-surrender-in-works-the-way-of-the-gita#p6</refcenter>~</spancenter>

== Purusha Sometimes there is no relation among these different witnesses—there ought to be, but it is not always there. But if there is in the being a will to become perfect, the relation is established quite quickly; one can refer to another and Selffinally, if there is a sufficient sincerity, sufficient concentration, you come to the supreme inner Witness who can judge all things. But generally it may be said that it is always a part of the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judges. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-Observation ==1951#p7</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>It is ordinarily considered that the Yogin should draw away from action as much as possible and especially that too much action is a hindrance because it draws off the energies outward. To a certain extent this is true; and we must note farther that when the mental Purusha takes up the attitude of mere witness and observer, a tendency to silence, solitude, physical calm and bodily inaction grows upon the being. So long as this is not associated with inertia, incapacity or unwillingness to act, in a word, with the growth of the tamasic quality, all this is to the good. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body#p7</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is possible for The witness Purusha in the mind observes that the inadequacy of his effort, all the inadequacy in fact of man's life and nature arises from the Purusha to use it on separation and the mental plane itself for a constant self-observationconsequent struggle, self-developmentwant of knowledge, self-modificationwant of harmony, want of oneness. It is essential for him to sanctiongrow out of separative individuality, rejectto universalise himself, alterto make himself one with the universe. This unification can be done only through the soul by making our soul of mind one with the universal Mind, bring out new formulations our soul of life one with the nature and establish a calm and disinterested actionuniversal Life-soul, a high and pure sattwic balance and rhythm our soul of its energy, a personality perfected in body one with the sattwic principleuniversal soul of physical Nature. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divineperfection-of-the-mental-shaktibeing#p9p15</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>..with regard to the movements and experiences 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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body#p4</refcenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The Purusha and Prakriti are on It is ordinarily considered that the mental level Yogin should draw away from action as much as in the rest of our being closely joined possible and especially that too much involved in each other action is a hindrance because it draws off the energies outward. To a certain extent this is true; and we are not able to distinguish clearly soul and nature. But in the purer substance of mind we can more easily discern must note farther that when the dual strain. The mental Purusha is naturally able in its own native principle takes up the attitude of mind mere witness and observer, a tendency to detach itselfsilence, as we have seensolitude, from physical calm and bodily inaction grows upon the workings of its Prakriti and there being. So long as this is then not associated with inertia, incapacity or unwillingness to act, in a division of our being between a consciousness that observes and can reserve its willpower and an energy full of word, with the substance growth of consciousness that takes the forms of knowledgetamasic quality, will and feeling. This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from all this is to the compulsion of the soulby its mental naturegood. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2423/the-divinerelease-from-subjection-to-the-shaktibody#p8p7</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">"The 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 is possible for the body only as a small part of itself, and begins Purusha to contain what before contained it; use it achieves on the cosmic consciousness and extends mental plane itself to be commensurate with the universe. It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external for a constant self-observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movementself-development, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as the scientist operates upon physical forcesself-modification, accept their action and results in our mind, lifeto sanction, body or reject them or modify, changealter, reshape, create immense bring out new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings formulations of the nature. We begin to perceive the working and establish a calm and disinterested action, a high and pure sattwic balance and rhythm of its energy, a personality perfected in the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working.sattwic principle..." (The Mother, 7 November 1956) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0824/7the-novemberdivine-1956shakti#p1p9</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;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. ~</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-ascent-of-the-sacrifice-ii#p29</refcenter>

== Evolution ...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>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Man 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; he is the head of the earthly creation, but he does not exceed it…. If there is a perfection to which he has to arrive, it must be a perfection in his own kind, within his own law of being,—the full play of it, but by observation of its mode and measure, not by transcendence. To exceed himself, to grow into the superman, to put on the nature and capacities of a god would be a contradiction of his self-law, impracticable and impossible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/man-and-the-evolution#p8</refcenter>~</spancenter>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">In The Purusha and Prakriti are on the mental level as in the animal mind is not quite distinct from its own life-matrix rest of our being closely joined and life-matter; its movements are so much involved in the life movements that it cannot detach itself from them, cannot stand separate each other and we are not able to distinguish clearly soul and observe them; but nature. But in man the purer substance of mind has become separate, he we can become aware more easily discern the dual strain. The mental Purusha is naturally able in its own native principle of his mental operations mind to detach itself, as distinct from his life operationswe have seen, his thought and will can disengage them selves from his sensations the workings of its Prakriti and impulses, desires there is then a division of our being between a consciousness that observes and emotional reactions, can become detached from them, observe reserve its willpower and control them, sanction or cancel their functioning: he does not as yet know an energy full of the secrets substance of his being well enough to be aware consciousness that takes the forms of himself decisively knowledge, will and with certitude as feeling. This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from the compulsion of the soulby its mental being in a life and body, but he has that impression and can take inwardly that positionnature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2224/the-evolutiondivine-of-the-spiritual-manshakti#p6p8</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Chitta, the basic consciousness, The actions are of importance only as expressing what is largely subconscient; it has, open and hidden, two kinds of action, one passive or receptive, in the other active or reactive and formativenature. As a passive power it receives all impacts, even those You have to be conscious of which whatever in your actions is not in harmony with the mind is unaware or Yoga and to which it is inattentive, and get rid of 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 for that what it had observed and understood at is needed is your own consciousness, the timepsychic,—more easily what it had observed well observing from within and understood carefully, less easily throwing off 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 seen 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 surfacebe undesirable.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2429/thework-instruments-of-theand-spirityoga#p6p45</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Take one hour The mental being within watches, observes and passes judgment on all that happens in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way like a witness, but it feels and knows spontaneously in a much more direct and luminous way by the very purity of your life, its own nature and the one which is most convenient for youdivine instinct within it, and during that time observe yourself closely so, whenever it comes to the front it reveals at once what are the right and say only what the absolutely indispensable wordswrong movements in your nature.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0328/anger#p15 http://incarnateword.the-jivatman-in/cwm/03/anger-the-integral-yoga#p15p40</ref>

<span {|class="wikitable" style="background-color:transparent#efefff;colorwidth:#000000100%;">To become conscious |Read Summary of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change". You do right to be confident that the change will come. For nothing is impossible in the nature if the psychic being is awake and leading you with the Mother's consciousness and force behind it and working in you. This is now happening. Be sure that all will be done. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p53</ref></span>''[[Self Observation Summary|Self Observation]]'''

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Despair and despondency are always wrong. If Dear reader, if you make a mistake, quietly observe it and correct notice any error in the tendency next time. Even if paragraph numbers in the mistake recurs oftenhyperlinks, you have only to persevere quietly—remembering that nature cannot be changed in a dayplease let us know by dropping an email at integral. <ref>http://incarnatewordedu.in/cwsa/31/depression-and-despondency#p67</ref></span>@gmail.com|}