Open main menu
Integral Education

Changes

Self Observation Compilation (view source)

Revision as of 13:29, 20 January 2023

12,106 bytes removed ,  13:29, 20 January 2023
→‎How to be in a Witness State?
{|class="wikitable" style= "background-color: #efefff; width: 100%;"
|
Read Summary of '''[[Self Observation Summary|Self Observation]]'''
|}
= What is Self-Observation =
 
We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, the object of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion and the subject. In the self-experience of the self-observing inner being, the object is always some state or movement or wave of the conscious being, anger, grief or other emotion, hunger or other vital craving, impulse or inner life reaction or some form of sensation, perception or thought activity. The act is some kind of mental observation and conceptual valuation of this movement or wave or else a mental sensation of it in which observation and valuation may be involved and even lost,—so that in this act the mental person may either separate the act and the object by a distinguishing perception or confuse them together indistinguishably. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-ego-and-self-experience#p5</ref>
 
<center>~</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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34</ref>
 
<center>~</center>
 
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</ref>
 
<center>~</center>
 
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p84</ref>
 
<center>~</center>
 
'''Active and Passive Observation'''
 
Your consciousness becomes a screen or mirror; but this is when you are in a state of contemplation, a mere observer; when you are active, it is like a searchlight. You have only to turn it on, if you want to see luminously and examine penetratingly anything in any place. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/30-june-1929#p7</ref>
= What '''Observation is Self-Observation =Not Discernment'''
...if he [man] is not to remain this being of the surface ignorance seeking obscurely after the truth of things and collecting and systematising fragments and sections of knowledge, For the small limited and half-competent creature capacity of the cosmic Force which he now is in his phenomenal nature. He observation must know himself and discover and utilise all his potentialities: but to know himself and the world completely he must go behind his own and its exterior, he must dive deep below his own mental surface and not be confused with the physical surface capacity of Naturediscernment. 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…Discernment is an intellectual capacity.But this knowledge must be something more than Something like a creed or a mystic revelation; his thinking mind must be able to accept judgment already enters into it, to correlate it with what we call "discrimination": you can distinguish between the principle origin of things one thing and the observed truth of the universe: this is the work of philosophyanother, and in the field reciprocal value of the truth of the spirit it can only these things. But that ought to be done by founded on a spiritual philosophy, whether intellectual in its method or intuitivecorrect observation. (The Motherpower of observation comes first, 18 June 1958) discernment follows. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0903/1830-june-19581929#p3p7</ref>
==What to Observe ==
 
One can prepare the body through a series of observations, studies, understandings,by showing it examples, making it understand things as one makes a child understand them, either by observing its own movements―but generally, in this, one is comparatively blind!―or by observing those of others. And in a more general way, this preparation will be based on recognised studies, on clear facts. Like this, for instance: that a certain number of persons, placed in exactly similar circumstances, experience, each one of them, very different effects. One may go even further: in a given set of definite circumstances, there is a certain number of particular, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditions, and for some the effects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harm. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/4-july-1956#p15</ref>
'''Parts of the Being '''
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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/10-june-1953#p31</ref>
….You may have a mental power of observation, a vital power of observation, a physical power of observation. When you observe ideas, for instance, '''Observing 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 canInner Being'''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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34</ref>
For a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, identifying ourselves with it, we can observe the springs of our thoughts and feelings, the sources and motives of our action, the operative energies that build up our surface personality. For we discover and can know the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives in us, the vital being that secretly feels and acts upon life through us, the subtle-physical being that secretly receives and responds to the contacts of things through our body and its organs. Our surface thought, feeling, emotion is a complexity and confusion of impulsions from within and impacts from outside us; our reason, our organising intelligence can impose on it only an imperfect order: but here within we find the separate sources of our mental, our vital and our physical energisms and can see clearly the pure operations, the distinct powers, the composing elements of each and their interplay in a clear light of self-vision. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledge#p12</ref>
 
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-voices-and-indication</ref>
'''The Three Modes of Nature'''
The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Therefore without a long inner experience, without intimate self-observation and intuitive perception of the Nature-forces it is difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise. Still certain broad indications may help the seeker on the Way of Works to understand, analyse and control by his assent or refusal the combinations of his own nature. These modes are termed in the Indian books qualities, guṇas, and are given the names sattva, rajas, tamas. Sattwa is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and light; rajas is the force of kinesis and translates in quality as struggle and effort, passion and action; tamas is the force of inconscience and inertia and translates in quality as obscurity and incapacity and inaction. Ordinarily used for psychological self-analysis, these distinctions are valid also in physical Nature. Each thing and every existence in the lower Prakriti contains them and its process and dynamic form are the result of the interaction of these qualitative powers. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-three-modes-of-nature#p2</ref>
'''Dreams'''
Now the procedure to deal with dreams and the dreamland. First become conscious—conscious of your dreams. Observe the relation between them and the happenings of your waking hours. If you remember your night, you will be able to trace back very often the condition of your day to the condition of your night. In sleep some action or other is always going on in your mental or vital or other plane; things happen there and they govern your waking consciousness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/21-april-1929#p6</ref>
[[#top|Back to Contents]]<center>~</center>
= Reasons 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 Selfif 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/1-february-Observation =1951#p14</ref>
To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-science-of-living#p5~</refcenter>
The true and ultimateAs the inner consciousness grows by sadhana, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observingthese dream experiences increase in number, reasoningclearness, inquiringcoherence, judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for the right reception accuracy and right action after some growth of a Light from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal..Man experience and consciousness, we can bring an enlightened will, an enlightened thought if we observe, come to understand them and enlightened emotions their significance to the difficult work of his self-development; he our inner life. Even we can more and more subject to these more by training become so conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower selfto follow our own passage, he is man and no longer an animal. When he can begin usually veiled to replace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought our awareness and sight memory, through many realms and will in touch with the Infinite, consciously subject process of the return to the waking state. At a diviner will than his owncertain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of sleep, linked to a more universal and transcendent knowledgesleep of experiences, he has commenced the ascent towards can replace the superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divineordinary subconscient slumber.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2330/selfthree-consecrationexperiences-of-the-inner-being#p17p6</ref>
= How to Observe Oneself =
[[#top|Back to Contents]]
= Why is Self-Observation Important? =
But you must begin when very ...if he [man] is not to remain this being of the surface ignorance seeking obscurely after the truth of things and collecting and systematising fragments and sections of knowledge, the small, limited and consciously, very consciously; you half-competent creature of the cosmic Force which he now is in his phenomenal nature. He must begin with a sense of observation of know himself and discover and utilise all his potentialities: but to know himself and the movements in yourselfworld completely he must go behind his own and its exterior, he must dive deep below his own mental surface and the physical surface of their relation with othersNature. This he can only do by knowing his inner mental, of—preciselyvital, physical and psychic being and its powers and movements and the universal laws and processes of your degree the occult Mind and Life which stand behind the material front of independence, real individualitythe 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 knowing where impulses come from, where other movements come fromthe universe: whether it this is contagion from outside or something that arises from within yourself. A very profound study the work of philosophy, and in the field of the truth of all the movements in oneself is necessary in order to succeed simply in crystallising a being who is spirit it can only be done by a little consciousspiritual philosophy, a little consciouswhether intellectual in its method or intuitive. (The Mother, 22 September 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0609/2218-septemberjune-19541958#p43p3</ref>
You project yourself on the screen and then observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to seeing, you can go one step further and take a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise—arrange, take up all that, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious of your direction and are able to say: "Very well, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the logic of my being. Now, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, and so naturally a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what will happen to me for I myself am deciding it....". (The Mother, 29 July 1953) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/29-july-1953#p47~</refcenter>
It To work for your perfection, the first step is not a physical retirement to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is neededan assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, but an inner detachment from the especially his mental formations nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and vital desiresdoes. To find It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the real self above tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and within acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and live constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in thatus whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, not in all the mind's conceptions or parts, all the vital's reactionselements 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. These Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must be observed arm ourselves with patience and looked at not endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as one's own but long as movements necessary for the success of a surface ignorant natureour endeavour. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3112/interactions-with-others-and-the-practicescience-of-yogaliving#p111p5</ref>
== By Developing a Quiet Mind ==<center>~</center>
It … if each element which comes with its ignorance, its unconsciousness, its egoism, is only when we follow put before the yogic process 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 quieting small hidden folds, little things one had not seen at the mind itself that beginning; one undertakes a profounder result sort of our self-observation becomes possibleinner 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/cwsacwm/2104/indeterminates-cosmic-determinations-and19-theapril-indeterminable1951#p12p14</ref>
A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface and you will feel your true being within separate from them, observing but not carried away, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to be rejected and to accept and keep to all that is true consciousness and true experience. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p10~</refcenter>
But if If you remain very quiethad that observation (from the inner spiritual, not the outer intellectual and ethical viewpoint), only if then it would be comparatively easy for you observe—as though to get out of your difficulties; for instance you were silently looking would find at something, once where this irrational impulse to flee away came from and it would not have any hold upon you understand—then you will begin seeing more precisely. Of course, and little by little distinguishing between different categories of things. You will all that can only be able done to know what one thing is and what another etc., whether it comes from the best effect when you or stand back from outside, whether it is on a material plane the play of your nature and become the Witness-Control or on another planethe Spectator-Actor Manager. All this But that is learnt through a very quiet observation, quiet but very sharp, you understand; because there are very tiny shades, very tiny, between different things, and what happens when you get used to distinguishing these nuances, you can discern exactly what it istake this kind of self-seeing posture. (The Mother, 20 October 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0631/20mental-octoberdifficulties-and-the-need-of-1954quietude#p46p23</ref>
== By Silence ==<center>~</center>
It is really an inner silence that The true and ultimate, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observing, reasoning, inquiring, judging intelligence is needed—a something silent within that looks at outer talk it prepares the human being for the right reception and right action but feels it as something superficialof a Light from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal. ...Man can bring an enlightened will, not an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to the difficult work of his self-development; he can more and more subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as itself he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, he is quite indifferent man and untouched by itno longer an animal. It When he can bring forces begin to replace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, consciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to support speech a more universal and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go transcendent knowledge, he has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he is on and observe without being involved or movedhis upward march towards the Divine. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3123/speech-andself-yogaconsecration#p76p17</ref>
...You must be able = How to silence your head absolutely and be completely detached, not to have (for example, when you are looking for the solution of a problem), not to have already in your head the solution that seems to you right or the best or most profitable. That must not be there. You must become absolutely like a blank paper, with nothing on it. And you proceed in that way, with a very sincere aspiration to know the truth, without assuming beforehand that it will be like this or like that; because otherwise you will see only your own formation. The very first condition is that the head must keep completely silent during the time one is observing. (The Mother, 30 September 1953) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/30-september-1953#p13</ref>Observe Oneself? =
To silence the mind it is not enough to throw back each thought as it comesBut you must begin when very small, that can only be a subordinate movement. One must get back from all thought and be separate from itconsciously, very consciously; you must begin with a silent consciousness observing sense of observation of all the thoughts if they movements in yourself, of their relation with others, of—precisely, of your degree of independence, real individuality, of knowing where impulses comefrom, but not oneself thinking where other movements come from: whether it is contagion from outside or identified with something that arises from within yourself. A very profound study of all the thoughts. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogether. It movements in oneself is then easier necessary in order to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the quietude of the mindsucceed simply in crystallising a being who is a little conscious, a little conscious. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3106/interactions-with22-others-and-the-practice-ofseptember-yoga1954#p99p43</ref>
== By Developing the Witness Attitude ==<center>~</center>
Have you never felt this? As though you were a little behind or above things, and were looking at them taking place but were not doing anything You project yourself? Witness means an observer, someone who looks on the screen and then observe and does not act himself. So, when the mind see all that is very quiet, one can withdraw a little in this way from circumstances moving there and look at things as though he were a witness, a spectator, how it moves and not participating in the action himselfwhat happens. This gives you You make a great detachmentlittle diagram, a great quietudeit becomes so interesting then. And then, and also after a very precise sense of the value of thingswhile, because it cuts the attachment to action. When when you know how are quite accustomed to do this with yourselfseeing, when you can withdraw go one step further and watch yourself actingtake 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 learn many things about yourselfbegin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. When And then you become conscious of your direction and are all mixed up and take part able to say: "Very well, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the actionlogic of my being. Now, you do not observe yourself actingI have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, you don't and so naturally a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what you are likewill happen to me for I myself am deciding it.... 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/0605/1329-octoberjuly-19541953#p2p47</ref>
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 separation and the consequent struggle, want of knowledge, want of harmony, want of oneness. It is essential for him to grow out of separative individuality, to universalise himself, to 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, our soul of life one with the universal Life-soul, our soul of body one with the universal soul of physical Nature. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-perfection-of-the-mental-being#p15~</refcenter>
== Becoming Conscious ==If one begins to find out, to understand what a feeling is and what a thought is, and how it works, then one can already go quite far on the path with that. One must at the same time observe how his feelings and thoughts have an action on the body, what the reciprocity is. And then, there is another exercise which consists in looking into oneself for what is persistent, what is lasting, something which makes one say "I", 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), and then what one is now; it is difficult to say that it is the same person, you see. If one takes only this, still there is something which has the feeling of always being the same person. So one must reflect, seek, try to understand what it is. This indeed can lead you far on the path. Then if one also studies the relation between these different things—between thoughts, feelings, their action on the body, the reciprocal action of the body on these things—and also what it is that says "I" permanently, what it is that can trace a curve in the movement of the being, if one seeks carefully enough, it leads you quite far. Naturally if one seeks far enough and with enough persistence, one reaches the psychic. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/9-march-1955#p23</ref>
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) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/28-november-1956#p19~</refcenter>
== Being Vigilant ==It is not a physical retirement that is needed, but an inner detachment from the mental formations and vital desires. To find the real self above and within and live in that, not in the mind's conceptions or the vital's reactions. These must be observed and looked at not as one's own but as movements of a surface ignorant nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p111</ref>
One can be quiet, 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 vigilant,—watchful so that you may not give assent to wrong movements or the return of the old feelings, darkness, confusion etc. Not fear, but vigilance. If you remain vigilant, then with 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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/fear#p12~</refcenter>
But you have only When we are in contact with the Divine or in contact with an inner knowledge and vision, we begin to observe yourselves... you see all the circumstances of our life in a new light and can observe yourselfhow they all tended without our knowing it towards the growth of our being and consciousness, catch yourself at least a hundred times a daytowards the work we had to do, with a mind which decides everythingtowards some development that had to be made, knows everything, judges everything, knows very well —not only what is seemed good, what bad, what is true, what falsefortunate or successful but the struggles, what is right... And also how one should actfailures, what this person should have donedifficulties, how to resolve that problemupheavals.... 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/cwmcwsa/0629/21the-divine-grace-julyand-1954guidance#p40p33</ref>
== Being Sincere and Impartial By Vigilance ==
For One can be quiet, happy, cheerful without being all that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising in a third personlight or shallow way—and the happiness need not bring any vital reaction. You must not start with an idea All that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are need to do or is to be observant and vigilant,—watchful so that you are may not give assent to dowrong movements or the return of the old feelings, in this lies your talent or geniusdarkness, confusion etc. That will carry Not fear, but vigilance. If you away from the right track. It is not remain vigilant, then with the liking or disliking increase of your external being, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should Force upholding you take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in that one; it is not for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor a power of self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I saidcontrol will come, you must be absolutely impartial a power to see and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects reject the wrong turn or the truth and does not judgewrong reaction when it comes. (The Mother, 12 November 1952) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1531/12-november-1952fear#p6p12</ref>
== Becoming Aware of Desire ==<center>~</center>
For that But you have only to observe yourselves... you must can observe yourself very, very attentively, and if there is anything in you which produces something like catch yourself at least a hundred times a small intense vibrationday, then you may be sure that there lies with a desire. For examplemind which decides everything, you sayknows everything, "This food is necessary for me"—you believejudges everything, 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 knows very well what is a need or a desiregood, you must look at yourself very closely and ask yourselfwhat bad, "What will happen if I cannot get the thing?" Then if the immediate answer what istrue, "Ohwhat false, it will be very bad", you may be sure that it what is a matter of desireright.. It is the same for everything. For every problem you draw backAnd also how one should act, look at yourself and askwhat this person should have done, "Let us see, am I going how to have the thing?" If at resolve that moment something in you jumps up with joyproblem.... All men know, you may be certain there is a desiresee... On If they were at the other handhead of governments, if something tells youfor instance, "Oh, I am not going they would know very well how to manage everything! But people don't listen to get it", and you feel very depressed, then again it is a desirethem... (The Mother, 25 January 1951) that's all! <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0406/2521-januaryjuly-19511954#p3p40</ref>
==Limitations of Self-Observation==<center>~</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'Surface Level Observation'''t approve of. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/28-november-1956#p19</ref>
As a general rule, with a few very rare exceptions, men are content to observe more or less accurately everything that happens around them, and sometimes within themselves, and to classify all these observations according to one superficial system of logic or another. And they call this organisation, these systems, "knowledge". It has never occurred to them, they have not even begun to perceive that all the things they see, touch, feel, experience, are false appearances and not reality itself. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-7#p3~</refcenter>
It is evident that our state on the surface is indeed a state Take one hour 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 ignoranceyour life, at best a mixed knowledge-ignorance. It could not be otherwise since our awareness of the world one which is born of a separative most convenient for you, 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 during that we know ourselves with time observe yourself closely and say 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-knowledgeabsolutely indispensable words. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2103/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledgeanger#p7p15</ref>
One throws oneself out all the time; all the time one lives, as it were, outside oneself, in such == By Developing a superficial sensation that it is almost as though one were outside oneself. As soon as one wants even to observe oneself a little, control oneself a little, simply know what is happening, one is always obliged to draw back or pull towards oneself, to pull inwards something which is constantly like that, on the surface. And it is this surface thing which meets all external contacts, puts you in touch with similar vibrations coming from others. That happens almost outside you. (The Mother, 20 June 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/20-june-1956#p49</ref>Quiet Mind ==
'''Ignorance'''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-the-indeterminable#p12</ref>
As the surface mental entity moving from moment to moment, not observing his essential self but only his relation to his experiences of the Time-movement, in that movement keeping the future from himself in what appears to be a blank of Ignorance and non-existence but is an unrealised fullness, grasping knowledge and experience of being in the present, putting it away in the past which again appears to be a blank of Ignorance and non-existence partly lighted, partly saved and stored up by memory, he puts on the aspect of a thing fleeting and uncertain seizing without stability upon things fleeting and uncertain. But in reality, we shall find, he is always the same Eternal who is for ever stable and self-possessed in His supramental knowledge and what he seizes on is also for ever stable and eternal; for it is himself that he is mentally experiencing in the succession of Time. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-self-consciousness-and-the-ignorance#p15~</refcenter>
'''Observing Invisible Forces'''A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface and you will feel your true being within separate from them, observing but not carried away, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to be rejected and to accept and keep to all that is true consciousness and true experience. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p10</ref>
If we observe a happening, we judge and explain it from the result and from a glimpse of its most external constituents, circumstances or causes; but each happening is the outcome of a complex nexus of forces which we do not and cannot observe, because all forces are to us invisible,—but they are not invisible to the spiritual vision of the Infinite: some of them are actualities working to produce or occasion a new actuality, some are possibles that are near to the pre-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 the nexus, and behind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to actualise. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p7~</refcenter>
= Self Observation There are four movements which are usually consecutive, but which in context of === Personality and Self-Observation == === Three Gunas and Self-Observation === In this progression the first step is a certain detached superiority end may be simultaneous: to the three modes of Nature. The soul observe one's thoughts is inwardly separated and free from the lower Prakriti, not involved in its coilsfirst, indifferent and glad above it. Nature continues to act in watch over one's thoughts is the triple round of her ancient habits,—desire, grief and joy attack the heartsecond, to control one's thoughts is the instruments fall into inaction third and obscurity and weariness, light and peace come back into to master one's thoughts is the heart and mind and body; but the soul stands unchanged and untouched by these changesfourth. Observing and unmoved by the grief and desire of the lower membersTo observe, smiling at their joys and their strainingsto watch over, regarding and unoverpowered by the failing and the darknesses of the thought and the wildness or the weaknesses of the heart and nervesto control, 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 knowledgemaster. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2303/the-three-modes-ofconjugate-natureverses#p13p7</ref>
=== Parts and Planes of the Being === <center>~</center>
What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one's knowing it, and brings up the old ordinary or external consciousness in such a way that the inner mind gets covered up and all the old thoughts and feelings return for a time. It is the physical mind that becomes active and gives its assent. If the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing the vital movement, but not giving its assent, then to reject it becomes more easy. This established quietude and detachment of the mind marks always a great step forward made in the sadhana. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of-being#p45</ref>
<center>~</center>
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 categories of things. You will be able to know what one thing is and what another etc., whether it comes from you or from outside, whether it is on a material plane or on another plane. All this is learnt through a very quiet observation, quiet but very sharp, you understand; because there are very tiny shades, very tiny, between different things, and when you get used to distinguishing these nuances, you can discern exactly what it is.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/20-october-1954#p46</ref>
<center>~</center>
It is really an inner silence that is needed—a something silent within that looks at outer talk and action but feels it as something superficial, not as itself and is quite indifferent and untouched by it. It can bring forces to support speech and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without being involved or moved. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p76</ref>
<center>~</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 You must be able to silence your head absolutely 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 becompletely detached, acting upon its agitation not to quiethave (for example, enlarge, transform it. So too we can rise to a consciousness above and observe when you are looking for the various parts solution of our beinga problem), inner and outer, mental, vital and physical and the subconscient below all, and act upon one or other or not to have already in your head the whole from solution that higher status. It is possible also seems to go down from that height or from any height into any of these lower states and take its limited light you right or its obscurity as our place of working while the rest that we are is either temporarily put away best or put behind or else kept as most profitable. That must not be there. You must become absolutely like a field of reference from which we can get supportblank paper, with nothing on it. And you proceed in that way, sanction or light and influence or as with a status into which we can ascend or recede and from it observe very sincere aspiration to know the inferior movements. Or we can plunge into trancetruth, get within ourselves and without assuming beforehand that it will be conscious there while all outward things are excluded; or we can go beyond even like this inner awareness and lose ourselves in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconsciencelike that; because otherwise you will see only your own formation. There The very first condition is also a pervading equal consciousness into which we can enter and see all ourselves with that the head must keep completely silent during the time one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisibleis observing. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2105/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya30-prakritiseptember-shakti1953#p23p13</ref>
=== Witness and Parts of Being ===<center>~</center>
It To silence the mind it is difficult not enough to say generally what is conscious; but naturally, if something observes, it is always the "witness" element in this part—in throw back 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 thought as it watches you playingcomes, this that can paralyse you considerablyonly be a subordinate movement. There is also a vital witness which looks at you, sees your desires One must get back from all thought and enjoys highly all that happens; be separate from it acts also as , a brake. There is silent consciousness observing the mental witness which judges ideasthoughts if they come, which says, "This idea contradicts this other", and which arranges everythingbut not oneself thinking or identified with the thoughts. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogether. Then there It is then easier to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the great psychic Witness, who is quietude of the inner divinitymind. (The Mother, 22 March 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0431/22interactions-marchwith-others-and-the-practice-of-1951yoga#p6p99</ref>
Sometimes there is no relation among these different witnesses—there ought to be, but it is not always there. But if there is in == By Developing the being a will to become perfect, the relation is established quite quickly; one can refer to another and finally, if there is a sufficient sincerity, sufficient concentration, you come to the supreme inner Witness who can judge all things. But generally it may be said that it is always a part of the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judges. (The Mother, 22 March 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p7</ref>Attitude ==
=== Psychic Being ===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 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-1954#p2</ref>
...behind there is the psychic which supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness, makes one feel that he is the same being even while being absolutely different, absolutely different. If later one observes himself sufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and could do at that time are things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable now, and that he could never do a similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And yet, because within there was the psychic consciousness which is immortal, one has the feeling that it is always the same being which was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with more or less progressive and more or less conscious changes. (The Mother, 29 June 1955) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28~</refcenter>
The ordinary A man with a very developed introspective mind knows itself only as an ego often identifies himself with all the movements witness part of the nature in a jumble his mind 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 observes his own behalf thoughts and in its own waystudies their nature. The two different beings you feel are—one, the psychic being That is a beginning which draws you towards makes it easy for the Mother, the other the external being mostly vital which draws you outward and downwards towards the play of the lower naturefull detachment to come. There For others it is also in you behind the mind the being who observesless easy, the witness Purusha, who but it can stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choosebe done by all. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2830/inner-detachment-and-the-psychicwitness-beingattitude#p84p</ref>
The actions are of importance only as expressing what is in the nature. You have to be conscious of whatever in your actions is not in harmony with the Yoga and to get rid of it. But for that what is needed is your own consciousness, the psychic, observing from within and throwing off what is seen to be undesirable. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/work-and-yoga#p45~</refcenter>
The mental being within watchesYou have to become conscious—that is to say, observes and passes judgment on all that happens there must be something in you. The psychic does which is not watch carried away by thoughts and observe in this way like a witnessfeelings, but it feels looks at them and knows spontaneously in a much more direct observes how they work and luminous way by the very purity of its own nature how they affect you. The part that observes and knows is called the divine instinct within it, and so, whenever it comes Witness sākṣī in man. It is always possible to the front it reveals at once what are the right and what the wrong movements develop this in your natureoneself. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2830/theinner-jivatmandetachment-inand-the-integralwitness-yogaattitude#p40p25</ref>
=== Mind By Sincerity and Self-Observation =Impartiality ==
Gradually, For that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as the action is prolonged if you were observing and the outer being begins to assimilate criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this actionis your life's mission, there awakens a this is your particular capacity of observation, first in the mental consciousnessthis you are to do or that you are to do, and a kind of objectivisation occurs: something in the mind looks onthis lies your talent or genius, observes and translates in its own wayetc. This is what you call understanding, and this is what gives That will carry you away from the impression (smiling) that you are having an experienceright track. But that It is already considerably diminished in comparison with not the experience itselfliking or disliking of your external being, it is a transcription adapted to your mental, or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and physical dimensionsay, that is"I am good for nothing in this matter, something I am useless in that one; it is shrunkennot for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I said, hardened—and it gives you at must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects the same time the impression that it is growing clearer; that is to say, it has become as limited as your understandingtruth and does not judge. (The Mother, 31 October 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0815/3112-octobernovember-19561952#p19p6</ref>
...We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, the object of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion and the subject. In the self-experience of the self-observing inner being, the object is always some state or movement or wave of the conscious being, anger, grief or other emotion, hunger or other vital craving, impulse or inner life reaction or some form of sensation, perception or thought activity. The act is some kind of mental observation and conceptual valuation of this movement or wave or else a mental sensation of it in which observation and valuation may be involved and even lost,—so that in this act the mental person may either separate the act and the object by a distinguishing perception or confuse them together indistinguishably. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-ego-and-self-experience#p5~</refcenter>
So If you observe yourself, you will see that as soon as you do something which disturbs you a little, the man mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is capable of real merit or the more civilised man has a whole mental construction gilding everything. In these conditions it is difficult to which he know oneself. One must conform in order be absolutely sincere to be in harmony with the ideal of the environment in which he lives. But someone who does not conform at least able to the smallest part of this construction would be considered a savage do it 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 see clearly into all the impulses that get hold little falsehoods 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 the mental controlbeing. (The Mother, 15 September 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0604/15-septemberjanuary-19541951#p9p3</ref>
=== Vital and Self-Observation =By Becoming Aware of Desire ==
What happens usually 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 something touches the vitalthere lies a desire. For example, you say, "This food is necessary for me"—you believe, often without one's knowing ityou imagine, you think that you need such and such a thing and brings up you find the necessary means to obtain the old ordinary thing. To know if it is a need or external consciousness in such a way that desire, you must look at yourself very closely and ask yourself, "What will happen if I cannot get the inner mind gets covered up and all thing?" Then if the old thoughts and feelings return for immediate answer is, "Oh, it will be very bad", you may be sure that it is a timematter of desire. It is the physical mind 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 becomes active and gives its assentmoment something in you jumps up with joy, you may be certain there is a desire. If On the whole mind remains quiet and detached observing the vital movementother hand, if something tells you, "Oh, but I am not giving its assentgoing to get it", and you feel very depressed, then to reject again it becomes more easy. This established quietude and detachment of the mind marks always is a great step forward made in the sadhanadesire. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3104/the-vital-and-other25-levels-ofjanuary-being1951#p45p3</ref>
After each crisis there is something gained, if there has been a victory and rejection. The gain is to externalise the vital disturbance, so that even if it returns it will be felt so much an outside force that the observing consciousness (mental, higher vital) cannot be disturbed. If you keep that, it will be an immense advance. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wrong-movements-of-the-vital#p68~</refcenter>
=== Physical and SelfIf you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/21-Observation ===december-1950#p7</ref>
One can prepare the body through a series of observations, studies, understandings,by showing it examples, making it understand things as one makes a child understand them, either by observing its own movements―but generally, in this, one is comparatively blind!―or by observing those of others. And in a more general way, this preparation will be based on recognised studies, on clear facts. Like this, for instance: that a certain number of persons, placed in exactly similar circumstances, experience, each one of them, very different effects. One may go even further: in a given set of definite circumstances, there is a certain number ==By Education of particular, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditions, and for some the effects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harm. (The Mother, 4 July 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/4-july-1956#p15</ref>Senses==
If But it is an inert tamasic passivity subject to any influence and unable to reactthrough sensations that you learn: by seeing, observing, hearing. Classes develop your sensations, studies develop your sensations, then it is subjection to Naturethe mind receives things through sensations. If it is a sattwic passivity By the education of the Witness observing and understanding senses the movements growth of Natureone's general education is aided; if you learn to see well, then it is an intermediate conditionexactly, precisely; if you learn to hear well; if you learn through touch to know the nature of things; if you learn through the see of smell to distinguish between different odours—all these are a powerful means of education. In fact, often necessary they should be used for this, as instruments of observation, control and knowledge. If it one is a luminous passivity open to sufficiently developed, one can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know the Divinevalue, shut to all other influencesthe different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. It is a question of education; that is, then one must work for it is not subjection to Nature but surrender to the Divine. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/06/31/difficulties-of-the-physicalmarch-nature1954#p24p13</ref>
For the giddiness, it may be that in concentration you go partly out of your body; then, if you get up and move before the whole consciousness has come back, there is just such a giddiness as you describe. You can observe in future and see whether it is not this that happens. One has to be careful not to move after deep concentration or trance, till there is the full consciousness in the body. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p59~</refcenter>
== Consciousness 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>
Your consciousness becomes a screen or mirror; but this is when you are in a state of contemplation, a mere observer; when you are active, it is like a searchlight. You have only to turn it on, if you want to see luminously and examine penetratingly anything in any place. (The Mother, 30 June 1929) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/30-june-1929#p7~</refcenter>
However, if one observes things The indispensable starting-point is a little deeplydetailed and discerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most cases, one perceives that itself is a difficult and often a very baffling task. But there is progressone 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, that things become better and betterthe exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, though apparently they do not improvetwo opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. And for 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 consciousness seated 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 little higherconcrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, it all life is quite evident an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that all evil—at least what we call evil—all falsehoodexpress the light, in others, on the contrary, all those that is contrary to express the shadow. If the circumstances and the Truthenvironment are favourable, all suffering, all opposition is the result light will grow at the expense of a disequilibriumthe shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. I believe that one who is habituated And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to seeing things from this the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher plane sees immediately that it 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 like thatwhat we mean by a rational method of education. (The Mother, 8 January 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0412/8-januaryvital-1951education#p13p6</ref>
There are two centres or parts of the consciousness—one is a witness, sākṣī, and observes, the other consciousness is active and it is this active consciousness that you felt going down deep into the vital being. If your mind had not become active, you would have known where it went and what it went there == How to experience or do. When there is an experience, you should not begin to think about it, for that is of no use at all and it only stops the experience—you should remain silent, observe and let it go on to its end. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p8</ref>Observe Thoughts==
At a certain stage of the sadhana, in the beginning (or near it) of the more intense experiences, it sometimes happens The error comes from thinking that there is the intense realisation of some aspect of the Divine, a sort of communion with it, your thoughts are your own and that is seen everywhere you are their maker and all as thatif you don't create thoughts (i. It is a transitory phase and afterwards one gets the larger experience of the Divine in all its aspects and beyond all aspectse. Throughout the experience think), there should will be one part of the being none. A little observation ought to show that observes and understands—for sometimes ignorant sadhaks you are carried away by their experience and stop short there or fall into extravagance. It must be taken as an experience through which not manufacturing your own thoughts, but rather thoughts occur in you are passing. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3031/suggestionsthought-for-dealing-withand-experiencesknowledge#p10p3</ref>
== Thoughts and Self-Observation ==<center>~</center>
Thoughts are not the essence of mind-being, they are only an activity of mental nature; if that activity ceases, what appears then as a thought-free existence that manifests in its place is not a blank or void but something very real, substantial, concrete we may say—a mental being that extends itself widely and can be its own field of existence silent or active as well as the Witness, Knower, Master of that field and its action. Some feel it first as a void, but that is because their observation is untrained and insufficient and loss of activity gives them the sense of blank; an emptiness there is, but it is an emptiness of the ordinary activities, not a blank of existence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p3</ref>
It is only gradually, very slowly, through the movements of life and a more or less careful and thorough education that you begin to have sensations which are personal to you, feelings and ideas which are personal to you. An individualised mind is something extremely rare, which comes only after a long education; otherwise it is a kind of thought-current passing through your brain and then through another's and then through a multitude of other brains, and all this is in perpetual movement and has no individuality. One thinks what others are thinking, others think what still others are thinking, and everybody thinks like that in a great mixture, because these are currents, vibrations of thought passing from one to another. If you look at yourself attentively, you will very quickly become aware that very few thoughts in you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heard, from what you have read, what you have been taught, and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not many. (The Mother, 20 February 1957) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-1957#p6~</refcenter>
To observe your thoughtsIt is only gradually, you must first of all separate yourself from them. In the ordinary statevery slowly, through 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 movements of life and a suddenmore or less careful and thorough education that you begin to have sensations which are personal to you, "What feelings and ideas which are personal to you thinking of?". An individualised mind is something extremely rare, he knows nothing about which comes only after a long education; otherwise it. That is to say, ninetya kind of thought-five times out current passing through your brain and then through another's and then through a multitude of a hundred he will answerother brains, "I do not knowand all this is in perpetual movement and has no individuality." There is One thinks what others are thinking, others think what still others are thinking, and everybody thinks like that in a complete identification between the movement 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 consciousness result of the beingyour own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not many. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0309/conjugate20-february-verses1957#p12p6</ref>
...when undesirable thoughts come, if you look at them, observe them, if you take pleasure in following them in their movements, they will never stop coming. It is the same thing when you have undesirable feelings or sensation: if you pay attention to them, concentrate on them or even look at them with a certain indulgence, they will never stop. But if 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) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p19~</refcenter>
Most people—and not 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 those who are uneducated but even to the well-read—can have the most contradictorydivine light, force, knowledge and the most opposite ideas in their heads without even being aware presence of the contradictions…Divine. ...And if you observe yourselfAspire, you get into contact with the Light and the true Force, reassert your 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 reject these suggestions and voices. Do not to coexist take interest in an absurd waythese voices, keep the mind quiet. (The Mother, 20 February 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0931/20thought-februaryand-1957knowledge#p8p5</ref>
The error comes from thinking that your thoughts are your own and that you are their maker and if you don't create thoughts (i.e. think), there will be none. A little observation ought to show that you are not manufacturing your own thoughts, but rather thoughts occur =Difficulties in you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/thought-andSelf-knowledge#p3</ref>Observation=
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 ==Danger 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</ref>Ego==
== Sense 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 Self Observation ==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</ref>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/purification-intelligence-and-will#p4~</refcenter>
….But it is through sensations that ..if you learn: by seeingdo your tapasya, all the time observingyourself doing it and telling yourself, hearing. Classes develop your sensations"Am I making any progress, studies develop your sensationsis this going to be better, the mind receives things through sensations. By the education of the senses the growth of one's general education is aided; if you learn am I going to see wellsucceed?", exactlythen it is your ego, precisely; if you learn to hear well; if you learn through touch to know the nature of things; if you learn through the see of smell to distinguish between different odours—all these are a powerful means of education. In fact, they should be used for this, as instruments of observation, control which becomes more and more enormous and knowledge. If one is sufficiently developed, one can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know occupies the valuewhole place, the different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. It and there is a question of education; that is, one must work no room for itanything else. (The Mother, 31 March 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0604/3126-marchapril-19541951#p13p35</ref>
== Education and Self-Observation Escape attitude ==
The indispensable starting-point is a detailed and discerning observation of the character Constantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is a difficult observe himself and often a very baffling taskhow he lives. But there For him this is one fact which expressed by the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the labyrinth of inner discoverydesire to escape from boredom. It Indeed, for some people it is that everyone possesses in a large measuremuch more tiresome to remain quiet—seated, 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 thingor to be still. Thus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find So for them it represents an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be escape from boredom: to make a coward in some part lot of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses. In this way life seems noise, to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an idealcommit many stupidities, 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 terribly restless; it is an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willinglytheir way of escaping boredom. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the lightAnd when they sit quietly and look at themselves, in others, on the contrary, those that express the shadowthey are bored. If the circumstances and the environment Perhaps because they are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happenboring. And in this way the individualThat's character will crystallise according to very likely. The more boring one is, 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 disciplinemore one is bored. This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of educationVery interesting people usually are not bored. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1207/vital26-january-education1955#p6p14</ref>
..The child must be taught to observe, to note his reactions and impulses and their causes, to become a discerning witness of his desires, his movements of violence and passion, his instincts of possession and appropriation and domination and ==Focusing on the background of vanity which supports them, together with their counterparts of weakness, discouragement, depression and despair. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p14</ref>Negative==
= Results of SelfTo 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-Observation =towards-overcoming-difficulties#p28</ref>
If you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth. (The Mother, 21 December 1950) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/21-december-1950#p7~</refcenter>
If What you observe yourselfhave to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you—discrimination in the mind, you will see the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that as soon as goes on in you do something which disturbs and around you a little, purity in the vital, calm equanimity, enduring patience, absence of pride and the sense of greatness—and more especially, the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is capable development of gilding everythingthe psychic being in you—surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion. In .. a sufficient foundation and a consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and growing in these conditions it things is indispensable—for perfect purification 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 basis of the mental beingperfect siddhi. (The Mother, 15 January 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0430/15the-januarydanger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-1951purification#p3p14</ref>
… 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 the beginning; one undertakes a sort of inner chase, goes hunting into small dark corners and tells oneself: "What, I was like that! This was there in me, I am harbouring this little thing"—sometimes so sordid, so mean, so nasty. And once it has been discovered, how wonderful! One puts the light upon it and it disappears and you no longer have those reactions which made you so sad before, when you used to say, "Oh! I shall never get there. (The Mother, 19 April 1951) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/19-april-1951#p14~</refcenter>
= Difficulties during SelfTo 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-Observation =and-yoga#p53</ref>
== Danger of the Ego ==<center>~</center>
But to begin with, how many times, if one thinks, if one quite simply observes oneself, does one catch oneself saying, "It is I!" And, then, one congratulates oneself sometimes, one says, "After all I can do something, I am capable!" I am going further: how many people would be capable of doing anything at all if simply deprived of the pleasure of being able to tell themselves, "I have done this, I have realised that, I have made a progress, how well I played this game"? How many people would be able to sincerely do something if this pleasure were taken away? I have known individuals whose mind was much more developed than the rest of the being, they had understood very well (almost too well); they sat down to meditate Despair and all their energy was gone, all vitality evaporated into a kind of peace, not unpleasant, but very stilldespondency are always wrong. There is no more need to do anything, no longer any need to move, one dreams.... Under If you make a tree, arms crossed, one leaves the Divine to do everything for oneself, including feeding you if you need it. This is perhaps very wellmistake, but this shows that the instrument is not ready; quietly observe it is not really at the service of the Divine, it is at the service of the ego, and when correct the ego is taken away, it does nothing any longertendency next time. ThereforeEven if the mistake recurs often, so long as one lives in the ego this illusion is necessary to make you act; it is necessary have only to keep up action until one is completely transformed or, persevere quietly—remembering that nature cannot be changed in any case, till the true consciousness is establisheda day. (The Mother, 5 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0431/5depression-apriland-1951despondency#p14p67</ref>
...if you do your tapasya, all the time observing yourself doing it and telling yourself, "Am I making any progress, is this going to be better, am I going to succeed?", then it is your ego, you know, which becomes more and more enormous and occupies the whole place, and there is no room for anything else. (The Mother, 26 April 1951) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/26-april-1951#p35~</refcenter>
Do not be over-eager for experience,—for experiences you can always get, having once broken It is a subtle law of the barrier between the physical mind and the subtle planes. What action of consciousness that if you stress difficulties—you have to aspire for most is the improved quality observe them, of the recipient consciousness in you—discrimination in the mindcourse, but not stress them, the unattached impersonal Witness look on all they will quite sufficiently do that goes for themselves—the difficulties tend to stick or even increase; on in the contrary, if you put your whole stress on faith and around aspiration and concentrate steadily on what youaspire to, purity that will sooner or later tend towards realisation. It is this change of stress, a change in the vital, calm equanimity, enduring patience, absence of pride poise and the sense attitude of greatness—and more especially, the development of the psychic being in you—surrendermind, 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 that will be the basis of the perfect siddhimore helpful process. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3031/the-dangerdealing-ofwith-the-egodepression-and-the-need-of-purificationdespondency#p14p22</ref>
== Escape attitude Surface Level Observation==
Constantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time As a general rule, with a few very rare exceptions, men are content 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 less accurately everything that happens around them it represents an escape from boredom: to make a lot of noise, to commit many stupiditiesand sometimes within themselves, and become terribly restless; it is their way to classify all these observations according to one superficial system of escaping boredomlogic or another. And when they sit quietly and look at themselvescall this organisation, these systems, "knowledge". It has never occurred to them, they are bored. Perhaps because have not even begun to perceive that all the things they are boring. That's very likely. The more boring one issee, touch, feel, experience, the more one is bored. Very interesting people usually are false appearances and not bored. (The Mother, 26 January 1955) <ref>http://incarnatewordreality itself.in/cwm/07/26-january-1955#p14</ref>
== Focusing [Based on Aphorism 7—What men call knowledge is the Negative ==reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. Reason divides, fixes details and contrasts them; Wisdom unifies, marries contrasts in a single harmony].<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-7#p3</ref>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/steps-towards-overcoming-difficulties#p28~</refcenter>
It is evident that our state on the surface is indeed a subtle law state of the action knowledge, so far as it goes, but a limited knowledge enveloped and invaded by ignorance and, to a very large extent, by reason of consciousness that if you stress difficulties—you have to observe themits limitation, itself a kind of courseignorance, but at best a mixed knowledge-ignorance. It could not stress thembe 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, they will quite sufficiently do that for themselves—the difficulties tend though more direct, is stultified by its restriction to stick or even increase; on the contrarysurface of our being, by an ignorance of our true self, if you put your whole stress on faith and aspiration and concentrate steadily on what you aspire tothe true sources of our nature, that will sooner or later tend towards realisationthe true motive-forces of our action. It is this change 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 stressour mind, emotions, sensations is a change in the poise mystery; our cause of being and attitude our end of being, the mind, that will significance of our life and its activities are a mystery: this could not be the more helpful processif we had a real self-knowledge and a real world-knowledge. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3121/dealingknowledge-withby-depressionidentity-and-despondencyseparative-knowledge#p22p7</ref>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-hostile-forces-and-the-difficulties-of-yoga#p35~</refcenter>
== Overcoming  difficulty ==One throws oneself out all the time; all the time one lives, as it were, outside oneself, in such a superficial sensation that it is almost as though one were outside oneself. As soon as one wants even to observe oneself a little, control oneself a little, simply know what is happening, one is always obliged to draw back or pull towards oneself, to pull inwards something which is constantly like that, on the surface. And it is this surface thing which meets all external contacts, puts you in touch with similar vibrations coming from others. That happens almost outside you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/20-june-1956#p49</ref>
If you had that observation (from the inner spiritual, not the outer intellectual and ethical viewpoint), then it would be comparatively easy for you to get out of your difficulties; for instance you would find at once where this irrational impulse to flee away came from and it would not have any hold upon you. Of course, all that can only be done to the best effect when you stand back from the play of your nature and become the Witness-Control or the Spectator-Actor Manager. But that is what happens when you take this kind of self-seeing posture. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/mental-difficulties-and-the-need-of-quietude#p23</ref>==Observing Invisible Forces==
= Other fields If we observe a happening, we judge and explain it from the result and from a glimpse of Selfits most external constituents, circumstances or causes; but each happening is the outcome of a complex nexus of forces which we do not and cannot observe, because all forces are to us invisible,—but they are not invisible to the spiritual vision of the Infinite: some of them are actualities working to produce or occasion a new actuality, some are possibles that are near to the pre-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 the nexus, and behind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to actualise. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-Observation =shakti#p7</ref>
= Self Observation - Exploring Realms of Consciousness=
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</ref>
== Meditation ==<center>~</center>
... when one comes out of meditation, some time later—usually not immediately—from within behind there is the being something new emerges in psychic which supports the consciousness: a new understandingdevelopment, a new appreciation the growth of things, a new attitude in life—in short, a new way the being and gives this continuity of being. This may be fugitiveconsciousness, but at makes one feel that momenthe is the same being even while being absolutely different, if absolutely different. If later one observes ithimself sufficiently, one finds he can see that something has taken one step forward on the path of understanding or transformation. It may be an illumination, an understanding truer or closer things he understood and could do at that time are things which seem to the truthhim absolutely inconceivable now, or and that he could never do a power of transformation which helps you to achieve a psychological progress or a widening of similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And yet, because within there was the psychic consciousness or a greater control over your movementswhich is immortal, over one has the activities of feeling that it is always the same beingwhich was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with more or less progressive and more or less conscious changes. (The Mother , 5 June 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0907/529-june-19571955#p20p28</ref>
The mind is always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is doing, but allow ourselves to be carried away in the stream of continual thinking. When we try to concentrate, this stream of self-moved mechanical thinking becomes prominent to our observation. It is the first normal obstacle (the other is sleep during meditation) to the effort towards Yoga. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p30~</refcenter>
== Dreams ==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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya-prakriti-shakti#p23</ref>
Now <center>~</center> In this progression the procedure first step is a certain detached superiority to deal with dreams the three modes of Nature. The soul is inwardly separated and free from the dreamlandlower Prakriti, not involved in its coils, indifferent and glad above it. First become conscious—conscious Nature continues to act in the triple round of your dreamsher 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. Observe Observing and unmoved by the grief and desire of the lower members, smiling at their joys and their strainings, regarding and unoverpowered by the relation between them failing and the happenings darknesses of your waking hours. If you remember your night, you will be able to trace back very often the condition thought and the wildness or the weaknesses of your day the heart and nerves, uncompelled and unattached to the condition mind's illuminations and its relief and sense of your night. In sleep some action ease or other is always going on of power in your mental or vital or other plane; the return of light and gladness, it throws itself into none of these things happen there , but waits unmoved for the intimations of a higher Will and they govern your waking consciousnessthe intuitions of a greater luminous knowledge. (The Mother, 21 April 1929) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0323/21the-aprilthree-modes-of-1929nature#p6p13</ref>
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) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/1-february-1951#p14~</refcenter>
As "The Shakti, the power of the inner consciousness grows by sadhanaInfinite and the Eternal descends within us, works, these dream experiences increase in numberbreaks up our present psychological formations, clearnessshatters every wall, coherencewidens, accuracy liberates... she frees the consciousness from confinement in the body; it can go out in trance or sleep or even waking and after some growth enter into worlds or other regions of this world and act there or carry back its experience and consciousness. It spreads out, we canfeeling the body only as a small part of itself, if we observe, come and begins to understand them contain what before contained it; it achieves the cosmic consciousness and their significance extends itself to our inner lifebe commensurate with the universe. Even we 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 by training become so conscious operate immediately upon them as to follow the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our own passagemind, usually veiled to our awareness and memorylife, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, through many realms create immense new powers and movements in place of the process old small functionings of the return nature. We begin to perceive the waking state. At a certain pitch working of this inner wakefulness this kind the forces of sleep, a sleep of experiences, can replace the ordinary subconscient slumberuniversal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working.... " <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3008/three-experiences-of-the7-innernovember-being1956#p6p1</ref>
= Things to Remember =<center>~</center>
If one begins It is thus by an integralisation of our divided being that the Divine Shakti in the Yoga will proceed to find outits object; for 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, merely by external observation 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), 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 forces at play in the feeling of always being 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) <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>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-surrender-in-works-the-way-of-the-gita#p6~</refcenter>
== 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>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body#p7~</refcenter>
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divineperfection-of-the-mental-shaktibeing#p9p15</ref>
..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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body#p4~</refcenter>
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 the compulsion of all this is to the soulby its mental naturegood. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2423/the-divinerelease-from-subjection-to-the-shaktibody#p8p7</ref>
== Shakti and Self-Observation ==<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 is possible for the body only as a small part of itself, and begins Purusha to contain what before contained use it; 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 mindto sanction, life, 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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0824/7the-novemberdivine-1956shakti#p1p9</ref>
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. <refcenter>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>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/man-and-the-evolution#p8~</refcenter>
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 operations, his thought and will can disengage them selves from his sensations and impulses, desires and emotional reactionswe have seen, can become detached from them, observe and control them, sanction or cancel their functioning: he does not as yet know the secrets workings of his being well enough to be aware of himself decisively its Prakriti and with certitude as there is then a mental division of our being in between a life and body, but he has consciousness that impression observes and can take inwardly reserve its willpower and an energy full of the substance of consciousness that positiontakes the forms of knowledge, will and feeling. This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from the compulsion of the soulby its mental nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2224/the-evolution-of-the-spiritualdivine-manshakti#p6p8</ref>
== Chitta and Self-Observation ==<center>~</center>
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 seen to send up to the active mind for use what that mind had not at all observed or attended to or even consciously experienced. This power only acts observably in abnormal conditions, when some part of the subconscious chitta comes as it were to the surface or when the subliminal being in us appears on the threshold and for a time plays some part in the outer chamber of mentality where the direct intercourse and commerce with the external world takes place and our inner dealings with ourselves develop on the surfacebe undesirable. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2429/thework-instruments-of-theand-spirityoga#p6p45</ref>
= Practice of Self-Observation =<center>~</center>
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0328/anger#p15 http://incarnateword.the-jivatman-in/cwm/03/anger-the-integral-yoga#p15p40</ref>
There are four movements which are usually consecutive, but which in the end may be simultaneous: to observe one's thoughts is the first, to watch over one's thoughts is the second, to control one's thoughts is the third and to master one's thoughts is the fourth. To observe, to watch over, to control, to master. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p7</ref>
== Going Within =='''Content curated by Aditi Kaul'''
When we are in contact with the Divine or in contact with an inner knowledge and vision, we begin to see all the circumstances of our life in a new light and can observe how they all tended without our knowing it towards the growth of our being and consciousness, towards the work we had to do, towards some development that had to be made,—not only what seemed good, fortunate or successful but the struggles, failures, difficulties, upheavals. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-divine-grace-and-guidance#p33</ref>
== Positive Attitude ==
 
To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change". You do right to be confident that the change will come. For nothing is impossible in the nature if the psychic being is awake and leading you with the Mother's consciousness and force behind it and working in you. This is now happening. Be sure that all will be done. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p53</ref>
 
Despair and despondency are always wrong. If you make a mistake, quietly observe it and correct the tendency next time. Even if the mistake recurs often, you have only to persevere quietly—remembering that nature cannot be changed in a day. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/depression-and-despondency#p67</ref>
{|class="wikitable" style= "background-color: #efefff; width: 100%;"
|
Read Summary of '''[[Self Observation Summary|Self Observation]]'''  Dear reader, if you notice any error in the paragraph numbers in the hyperlinks, please let us know by dropping an email at integral.edu.in@gmail.com
|}
= References =
Retrieved from "https://iewiki.auroville.org/index.php/Special:MobileDiff/2600...7951"