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Read Summary of '''[[Self Observation Summary|Self Observation]]'''
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= 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>
= What 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 Selfnot 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> '''Observation =is 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, the train of ideas, the logic of the ideas, it is not altogether the same power of observation as when you look at a friend doing athletics and see whether he is making his movements correctly or not. That is, the capacity of attention is there in both cases, but it works in a different field. It can't be said that it is one part of the being observing the others; it is the faculty of observation developing in each part of the being—that is, the faculty of concentration and attention. For the capacity of observation must not be confused with the capacity of discernment. Discernment is an intellectual capacity. Something like a judgment already enters into it, what we call "discrimination": you can distinguish between the origin of one thing and of another, and the reciprocal value of these things. But that ought to be founded on a correct observation. The power of observation comes first, discernment follows. (The Mother, 27 January 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p34</ref>
...We have in all functionings of '''Observing 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>Inner Being'''
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>
[[<center>~</center> It is a tremendous field of observation—there is no end to the discoveries you can make in your dreams. But there is one important point: you must not go to sleep when you are very tired, for if you do, you fall into a sort of unconsciousness in which dreams do whatever they like with you, and you have no reaction. Just as I said that you should not eat without having taken rest, I would advise everyone to rest before going to sleep. And for that, you must know how to rest. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/1-february-1951#top|Back to Contents]]p14</ref>
= Reasons for Self-Observation =<center>~</center>
To work for your perfection, As the first step is to become conscious of yourselfinner consciousness grows by sadhana, 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 dream experiences increase 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 naturenumber, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinksclearness, feelscoherence, says accuracy and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal after some growth of our highest idealexperience and consciousness, 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 observe, come to progress understand them and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of their significance to our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what inner life. Even we can call by training become so conscious as to follow our mission upon earthown passage, then we mustusually veiled to our awareness and memory, in a very regular through many realms and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth process of our existence, whatever is opposed the return to itthe waking state. In At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this way, little by little, all the partskind of sleep, 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 sleep of perfection. Thereforeexperiences, 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 can replace the success of our endeavourordinary subconscient slumber. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1230/thethree-scienceexperiences-of-livingthe-inner-being#p5p6</ref>
The true and ultimate, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observing, reasoning, inquiring, judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for the right reception and right action of a Light from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal..Man can bring an enlightened will, an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to the difficult work of his self-development; he can more and more subject to these more conscious and reflecting guides the inferior function of desire. In proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, he is man and no longer an animal. When he can begin to replace desire altogether by a still greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, consciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and transcendent knowledge, he has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he is on his upward march towards the Divine.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-consecration#p17</ref>
= How [[#top|Back to Observe Oneself =Contents]]
= Why is Self-Observation Important? =
...if he [man] is not to remain this being of the surface ignorance seeking obscurely after the truth of things and collecting and systematising fragments and sections of knowledge, the small limited and half-competent creature of the cosmic Force which he now is in his phenomenal nature. He 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 the physical surface of Nature. This he can only do by knowing his inner mental, vital, physical and psychic being and its powers and movements and the universal laws and processes of the occult Mind and Life which stand behind the material front of the universe. ...But this knowledge must be something more than a creed or a mystic revelation; his thinking mind must be able to accept it, to correlate it with the principle of things and the observed truth of the universe: this is the work of philosophy, and in the field of the truth of the spirit it can only be done by a spiritual philosophy, whether intellectual in its method or intuitive. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/18-june-1958#p3</ref>
But you must begin when very small, and consciously, very consciously; you must begin with a sense of observation of all the movements in yourself, of their relation with others, of—precisely, of your degree of independence, real individuality, of knowing where impulses come from, where other movements come from: whether it is contagion from outside or something that arises from within yourself. A very profound study of all the movements in oneself is necessary in order to succeed simply in crystallising a being who is a little conscious, a little conscious. (The Mother, 22 September 1954) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p43~</refcenter>
You project To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself on , of the screen different parts of your being and then observe 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 see all conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is moving there an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and how it moves and what happenssincerity. You make a little diagramFor man's nature, it becomes so interesting then. And thenespecially his mental nature, after has a spontaneous tendency to give a whilefavourable explanation for everything he thinks, when you are quite accustomed to seeingfeels, you can go one step further says and take a decisiondoes. Or even a still greater step: you organise—arrangeIt is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, take up all thatbefore the tribunal of our highest ideal, put each thing in with a sincere will to submit to its placejudgment, organise that we can hope to form in such ourselves a way discernment that you begin never errs. For if we truly want to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of your direction and are able our being, that is to say: "Very well, 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 will be thus; my life will develop in that . In this way, because that is little by little, all the parts, all the logic elements of my our beingcan be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. NowThis work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its placeorder to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and so naturally endurance, with a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what will happen determination to me prolong our life as long as necessary for I myself am deciding it.the success of our endeavour...". (The Mother, 29 July 1953) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0512/29the-julyscience-of-1953living#p47p5</ref>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p111~</refcenter>
== By Developing … 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 Quiet Mind ==sort of inner chase, goes hunting into small dark corners and tells oneself: "What, I was like that! This was there in me, I am harbouring this little thing"—sometimes so sordid, so mean, so nasty. And once it has been discovered, how wonderful! One puts the light upon it and it disappears and you no longer have those reactions which made you so sad before, when you used to say, "Oh! I shall never get there. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/19-april-1951#p14</ref>
It is only when we follow the yogic process of quieting the mind itself that a profounder result of our self-observation becomes possible. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/indeterminates-cosmic-determinations-and-the-indeterminable#p12~</refcenter>
A quiet mind does not mean If you had that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at allobservation (from the inner spiritual, but that these will be on not the surface outer intellectual and ethical viewpoint), then it would be comparatively easy for you will feel to get out of your true being within separate difficulties; for instance you would find at once where this irrational impulse to flee away came from them, observing but and it would not carried awayhave any hold upon you. Of course, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to can only be rejected and done to accept the best effect when you stand back from the play of your nature and keep to all become the Witness-Control or the Spectator-Actor Manager. But that is true consciousness and true experiencewhat happens when you take this kind of self-seeing posture. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2931/peacemental-difficulties-and-the-need-of-quietude#p10p23</ref>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-vital-and-other-levels-of-being#p45~</refcenter>
But if you remain very quietThe true and ultimate, as distinguished from the immediate or intermediate importance of our observing, only if you observe—as though you were silently looking at somethingreasoning, you understand—then you will begin seeing more preciselyinquiring, judging intelligence is that it prepares the human being for the right reception and little by little distinguishing between different categories right action of thingsa Light from above which must progressively replace in him the obscure light from below that guides the animal. ... You Man can bring an enlightened will be able , an enlightened thought and enlightened emotions to know what one thing is the difficult work of his self-development; he can more and more subject to these more conscious and what another etcreflecting guides the inferior function of desire.In proportion as he can thus master and enlighten his lower self, whether it comes from you or from outside, whether it he is on a material plane or on another planeman and no longer an animal. All this is learnt through When he can begin to replace desire altogether by a very quiet observationstill greater enlightened thought and sight and will in touch with the Infinite, quiet but very sharp, you understand; because there are very tiny shades, very tiny, between different thingsconsciously subject to a diviner will than his own, linked to a more universal and when you get used to distinguishing these nuancestranscendent knowledge, you can discern exactly what it he has commenced the ascent towards the superman; he ison his upward march towards the Divine. (The Mother, 20 October 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0623/20-octoberself-1954consecration#p46p17</ref>
== By Silence =How to Observe Oneself? =
It But you must begin when very small, and consciously, very consciously; you must begin with a sense of observation of all the movements in yourself, of their relation with others, of—precisely, of your degree of independence, real individuality, of knowing where impulses come from, where other movements come from: whether it is really an inner silence contagion from outside or something that is needed—a something silent arises from within that looks at outer talk and action but feels it as something superficial, not as itself and yourself. A very profound study of all the movements in oneself is quite indifferent and untouched by it. It can bring forces necessary in order to support speech and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without succeed simply in crystallising a being involved or movedwho is a little conscious, a little conscious. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3106/speech22-andseptember-yoga1954#p76p43</ref>
...You must be able to silence your head absolutely and be completely detached, not to have (for example, when you are looking for the solution 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) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/30-september-1953#p13~</refcenter>
To silence You project yourself on the mind screen and then observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it is not enough becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to throw back 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 thought as it comesthing in its place, organise in such a way that can only be you begin to have a subordinate straight movementwith an inner meaning. One must get back from all thought And then you become conscious of your direction and are able to say: "Very well, it will be separate from itthus; my life will develop in that way, a silent consciousness observing because that is the thoughts if they comelogic of my being. Now, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, but not oneself thinking or identified with the thoughtsand so naturally a central orientation is forming. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogetherI am following this orientation. It is then easier One step more and I know what will happen to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the quietude of the mindme for I myself am deciding it....". <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3105/interactions-with-others-and29-the-practice-ofjuly-yoga1953#p99p47</ref>
== By Developing the Witness Attitude ==<center>~</center>
Have you never felt this? As though you were If one begins to find out, to understand what a feeling is and what a little behind or above thingsthought is, and were looking how it works, then one can already go quite far on the path with that. One must at them taking place but were not doing anything yourself? Witness means the same time observe how his feelings and thoughts have an observer, someone who looks action on and does not act himself. Sothe body, when what the mind reciprocity is very quiet. And then, one can withdraw a little there is another exercise which consists in this way from circumstances and look at things as though he were a witnesslooking into oneself for what is persistent, what is lasting, a spectatorsomething which makes one say "I", and which is not participating in the action himselfbody. This gives you a great detachmentFor obviously, a great quietudewhen one was very small, and also then when each year one grows up, if one takes fairly long distances, for example a distance of about ten years, they are very precise sense of the value of thingsdifferent "I"s from what one was when as small as this (gesture), because and then what one is now; it is difficult to say that it cuts is the attachment to actionsame person, you see. When you know how to do If one takes only this with yourself, when you 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 withdraw and watch yourself acting, lead you learn many things about yourselffar on the path. When you are all mixed up and take part in Then if one also studies the relation between these different things—between thoughts, feelings, their actionon the body, you do not observe yourself actingthe reciprocal action of the body on these things—and also what it is that says "I" permanently, you don't know what it is that can trace a curve in the movement of the being, if one seeks carefully enough, it leads you are likequite far. But when you draw back Naturally if one seeks far enough and look at yourselfwith enough persistence, you can perceive many imperfections which you wouldn't have seen otherwiseone reaches the psychic. (The Mother, 13 October 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0607/139-octobermarch-19541955#p2p23</ref>
A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the witness part of his mind and observes his own thoughts and studies their nature. That is a beginning which makes it easy for the full detachment to come. For others it is less easy, but it can be done by all. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p~</refcenter>
You have to become conscious—that It is to say, there must be something in you which not a physical retirement that is not carried away by thoughts and feelingsneeded, but looks at them an inner detachment from the mental formations and vital desires. To find the real self above and observes how they work within and how they affect you. The part live in that observes and knows is called , not in the mind's conceptions or the Witness sākṣī in manvital's reactions. It is always possible to develop this in oneselfThese must be observed and looked at not as one's own but as movements of a surface ignorant nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3031/innerinteractions-with-detachmentothers-and-the-witnesspractice-of-attitudeyoga#p25p111</ref>
==By Becoming Conscious ==<center>~</center>
But a time comes when instead of doing things automatically, impelled by a consciousness When we are in contact with the Divine or in contact with an inner knowledge and force of which one is quite unaware—a time comes when one can observe what goes on in oneselfvision, study one's movements, find their causes, and at the same time we begin to exercise a control first over what goes on within us, then on see all the influence cast on us from outside which makes us act, circumstances of our life in the beginning altogether unconsciously and almost involuntarily, but gradually more and more consciously; a new light and the will can wake up and react. Then at that moment, observe how they all tended without our knowing it towards the moment there is a conscious will capable growth of reacting, one may say, "I have become conscious." This does not mean that it is a total our being and perfect consciousness, it means that it is a beginning: for example, when one is able to observe all towards the reactions in one's being and work we had to have a certain control over themdo, towards some development that had to let those one approves of have playbe made,—not only what seemed good, fortunate or successful but the struggles, and to controlfailures, stopdifficulties, annul those one doesn't approve ofupheavals. (The Mother, 28 November 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0829/28the-divine-grace-novemberand-1956guidance#p19p33</ref>
== By Vigilance ==
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/fear#p12</ref>
So the man of real merit or the more civilised man has a whole mental construction to which he must conform in order to be in harmony with the ideal of the environment in which he lives. But someone who does not conform at least to the smallest part of this construction would be considered a savage and would be thrown out of the society immediately. In fact, people who are criminals or half-mad are those who obey their impulses without any mental control. There isn't a single person among you who gives way without control to all the impulses that get hold of him. You have only to observe yourselves living, you spend your time saying, "No, this I can't do", or "This I can", or in restraining one movement or encouraging another. This is mental control. (The Mother, 15 September 1954) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/15-september-1954#p9~</refcenter>
But you have only to observe yourselves... you can observe yourself, catch yourself at least a hundred times a day, with a mind which decides everything, knows everything, judges everything, knows very well what is good, what bad, what is true, what false, what is right... And also how one should act, what this person should have done, how to resolve that problem.... All men know, you see... If they were at the head of governments, for instance, they would know very well how to manage everything! But people don't listen to them... that's all! (The Mother, 21 July 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-july-1954#p40</ref>
== Being Sincere and Impartial ==<center>~</center>
For that you must be absolutely sincere But a time comes when instead of doing things automatically, impelled by a consciousness and impartial. You must force of which one is quite unaware—a time comes when one can observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your lifewhat goes on in oneself, study one's missionmovements, this is your particular capacityfind their causes, this you are and at the same time begin to do or that you are to doexercise a control first over what goes on within us, then on the influence cast on us from outside which makes us act, in this lies your talent or geniusthe beginning altogether unconsciously and almost involuntarily, etcbut gradually more and more consciously; and the will can wake up and react. That will carry you away from Then at that moment, the right track. It moment there is not the liking or disliking a conscious will capable of your external beingreacting, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and one may say, "I am good for nothing in this matterhave become conscious." This does not mean that it is a total and perfect consciousness, I am useless in it means that one; it is not a beginning: for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I saidexample, you must be absolutely impartial when one is able to observe all the reactions in one's being and unconcerned. You should be like to have a mirror that reflects the truth certain control over them, to let those one approves of have play, and does not judgeto control, stop, annul those one doesn't approve of. (The Mother, 12 November 1952) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1508/1228-november-19521956#p6p19</ref>
== Becoming Aware of Desire ==<center>~</center>
For that you must observe yourself veryTake one hour of your life, very attentively, and if there is anything in you the one which produces something like a small intense vibration, then you may be sure that there lies a desire. For example, you say, "This food is necessary most convenient for me"—you believe, you imagine, you think and during that you need such and such a thing and you find the necessary means to obtain the thing. To know if it is a need or a desire, you must look at time observe yourself very closely and ask yourself, "What will happen if I cannot get the thing?" Then if say only the immediate answer is, "Oh, it will be very bad", you may be sure that it is a matter of desireabsolutely indispensable words. It is the same for everything. For every problem you draw back, look at yourself and ask, "Let us see, am I going to have the thing?" If at that moment something in you jumps up with joy, you may be certain there is a desire. On the other hand, if something tells you, "Oh, I am not going to get it", and you feel very depressed, then again it is a desire. (The Mother, 25 January 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0403/25-january-1951anger#p3p15</ref>
==Limitations of Self-ObservationBy Developing a Quiet Mind ==
'''Surface Level Observation'''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 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 A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that our state these will be on the surface is indeed a state of knowledgeand you will feel your true being within separate from them, so far as it goesobserving but not carried away, but a limited knowledge enveloped able to watch and invaded by ignorance judge them and, reject all that has to a very large extent, by reason of its limitation, itself a kind of ignorance, at best a mixed knowledge-ignorance. It could not be otherwise since our awareness of the world is born of a separative rejected and to accept and surface observation with only an indirect means of cognition at its disposal; our knowledge of ourselves, though more direct, keep to all that is stultified by its restriction to the surface of our being, by an ignorance of our true self, the true sources of our nature, the true motive-forces of our action. It is quite evident that we know ourselves with only a superficial knowledge,—the sources of our consciousness and thought are a mystery; the true nature of our mind, emotions, sensations is a mystery; our cause of being and our end of being, the significance of our life and its activities are a mystery: this could not be if we had a real self-knowledge and a real world-knowledgeexperience. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2129/knowledge-by-identity-and-separative-knowledgepeace#p7p10</ref>
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. (The Mother, 20 June 1956) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/20-june-1956#p49~</refcenter>
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'Ignorance''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>
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>
What happens usually is that something touches the vital, often without one'''Observing Invisible Forces'''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>
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 in context of === Personality 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 Self-Observation == === Three Gunas and Self-Observation === In this progression the first step is a certain detached superiority to the three modes little by little distinguishing between different categories of Naturethings. The soul You will be able to know what one thing is inwardly separated and free what another etc., whether it comes from the lower Prakritiyou or from outside, not involved in its coils, indifferent and glad above whether itis on a material plane or on another plane. Nature continues to act in the triple round of her ancient habitsAll this is learnt through a very quiet observation,—desire, grief and joy attack the heart, the instruments fall into inaction and obscurity and wearinessquiet but very sharp, light and peace come back into the heart and mind and bodyyou understand; but the soul stands unchanged and untouched by these changes. Observing and unmoved by the grief and desire of the lower membersbecause there are very tiny shades, smiling at their joys and their strainingsvery tiny, regarding and unoverpowered by the failing and the darknesses of the thought and the wildness or the weaknesses of the heart and nervesbetween different things, uncompelled and unattached when you get used to the mind's illuminations and its relief and sense of ease or of power in the return of light and gladnessdistinguishing these nuances, you can discern exactly what 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 knowledgeis. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2306/the20-three-modes-ofoctober-nature1954#p13p46</ref>
=== Parts and Planes of the Being === <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>
You must be able to silence your head absolutely and be completely detached, not to have (for example, when you are looking for the solution 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/30-september-1953#p13</ref>
<center>~</center>
To silence the mind it is not enough to throw back each thought as it comes, that can only be a subordinate movement. One must get back from all thought and be separate from it, a silent consciousness observing the thoughts if they come, but not oneself thinking or identified with the thoughts. Thoughts must be felt as outside things altogether. It is then easier to reject thoughts or let them pass without their disturbing the quietude of the mind. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p99</ref>
== By Developing the Witness Attitude ==
There is Have you never felt this? As though you were a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousnesslittle behind or above things, one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by thoughts and feelingswere looking at them taking place but were not doing anything yourself? Witness means an observer, grief someone who looks on and joy and all kinds of reactionsdoes not act himself. So, when 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 mind is very quiet, enlarge, transform it. So too we one can rise to withdraw a consciousness above little in this way from circumstances and observe the various parts of our beinglook at things as though he were a witness, inner and outera spectator, mental, vital and physical and not participating in the subconscient below allaction himself. This gives you a great detachment, a great quietude, 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 a very precise sense 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 value of reference from which we can get supportthings, sanction or light and influence or as a status into which we can ascend or recede and from because it observe cuts the inferior movementsattachment to action. Or we When you know how to do this with yourself, when you can plunge into trancewithdraw and watch yourself acting, get within ourselves and be conscious there while all outward you learn many things about yourself. When you are excluded; or we can go beyond even this inner awareness all mixed up and lose ourselves take part in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconsciencethe action, you do not observe yourself acting, you don't know what you are like. There is also a pervading equal consciousness into But when you draw back and look at yourself, you can perceive many imperfections which we can enter and see all ourselves with one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisibleyou wouldn't have seen otherwise. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2106/brahman-purusha-ishwara-maya13-prakritioctober-shakti1954#p23p2</ref>
=== Witness and Parts of Being ===<center>~</center>
It is difficult to say generally what is conscious; but naturally, if something observes, it is always A man with a very developed introspective mind often identifies himself with the "witness" element in this part—in each part of the being there is something which his mind and observes his own thoughts and studies their nature. That is a "witness", beginning which looks onmakes it easy for the full detachment to come. There For others it is even a physical witness which can get very much in the way; for instanceless easy, if but 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 be done by all that happens; it acts also as a brake. There is the mental witness which judges ideas, which says, "This idea contradicts this other", and which arranges everything. Then there is the great psychic Witness, who is the inner divinity. (The Mother, 22 March 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0430/22inner-detachment-and-the-marchwitness-1951attitude#p6p</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 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) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p7~</refcenter>
You have to become conscious—that is to say, there must be something in you which is not carried away by thoughts and feelings, but looks at them and observes how they work and how they affect you. The part that observes and knows is called the Witness sākṣī in man. It is always possible to develop this in oneself. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-detachment-and-the-witness-attitude#p25</ref>
The witness Purusha in the mind observes that the inadequacy of his effort, all the inadequacy in fact of man's life == By Sincerity 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-perfection-of-the-mental-being#p15</ref>Impartiality ==
=== Psychic Being ===For that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are to do or that you are to do, in this lies your talent or genius, etc. That will carry you away from the right track. It is not the liking or disliking of your external being, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in that one; it is not for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I said, you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/12-november-1952#p6</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 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 If you feel observe yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then , you will see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. The two different beings as soon as you feel are—one, the psychic being do something which draws disturbs you towards the Mothera little, the other the external being mostly vital which draws mind immediately gives you outward and downwards towards the play a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is capable of the lower naturegilding everything. There In these conditions it is also in you behind difficult to know oneself. One must be absolutely sincere to be able to do it and to see clearly into all the mind little falsehoods of the mental being who observes, the witness Purusha, who can stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choose. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2804/the15-psychicjanuary-being1951#p84p3</ref>
The actions are ==By Becoming Aware 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/work-and-yoga#p45</ref>Desire ==
The mental being within watchesFor that you must observe yourself very, very attentively, observes and passes judgment on all that happens if there is anything in you. The psychic does not watch and observe in this way which produces something like a witnesssmall intense vibration, then you may be sure that there lies a desire. For example, but it feels you say, "This food is necessary for me"—you believe, you imagine, you think that you need such and knows spontaneously in such a much more direct thing and luminous way by you find the necessary means to obtain the thing. To know if it is a need or a desire, you must look at yourself very purity of its own nature closely and ask yourself, "What will happen if I cannot get the divine instinct within thing?" Then if the immediate answer is, "Oh, itwill be very bad", you may be sure that it is a matter of desire. It is the same for everything. For every problem you draw back, look at yourself and soask, whenever it comes "Let us see, am I going to have the front it reveals thing?" If at once what are that moment something in you jumps up with joy, you may be certain there is a desire. On the right other hand, if something tells you, "Oh, I am not going to get it", and what the wrong movements in your natureyou feel very depressed, then again it is a desire. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2804/the-jivatman-in-the25-integraljanuary-yoga1951#p40p3</ref>
=== Vital and Self-Observation ===<center>~</center>
If you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/21-december-1950#p7</ref>
==By Education of the Senses==
After each crisis there But it is something gainedthrough sensations that you learn: by seeing, observing, hearing. Classes develop your sensations, studies develop your sensations, if there has been a victory and rejectionthe mind receives things through sensations. The gain By the education of the senses the growth of one's general education is aided; if you learn to externalise see well, exactly, precisely; if you learn to hear well; if you learn through touch to know the vital disturbance, so that even nature of things; if it returns it will be felt so much an outside force that you learn through the observing consciousness (mentalsee of smell to distinguish between different odours—all these are a powerful means of education. In fact, higher vital) cannot they should be disturbedused for this, as instruments of observation, control and knowledge. If you keep one is sufficiently developed, one can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know the value, the different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. It is a question of education; thatis, one must work for it will be an immense advance. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/06/31/wrong-movements-of-themarch-vital1954#p68p13</ref>
=== Physical and Self-Observation ===<center>~</center>
One can prepare the body through a series of observations, studies, understandings,by showing it examples, making it understand things as one makes a The 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 must be based on recognised studiestaught to observe, on clear facts. Like thisto note his reactions and impulses and their causes, for instance: that to become a certain number discerning witness of personshis desires, placed in exactly similar circumstanceshis movements of violence and passion, experience, each one his instincts of possession and appropriation and domination and the background of vanity which supports them, very different effects. One may go even further: in a given set of definite circumstances, there is a certain number together with their counterparts of particularweakness, definite individuals, in apparently quite identical conditionsdiscouragement, depression and for some the effects are catastrophic, while others escape without any harmdespair. (The Mother, 4 July 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0812/4-julyvital-1956education#p15p14</ref>
If it is an inert tamasic passivity subject to any influence and unable to react, then it is subjection to Nature. If it is a sattwic passivity of the Witness observing and understanding the movements of Nature, then it is an intermediate condition, often necessary for knowledge. If it is a luminous passivity open to the Divine, shut to all other influences, then it is not subjection to Nature but surrender to the Divine. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p24~</refcenter>
For The indispensable starting-point is a detailed and discerning observation of the giddinesscharacter to be transformed. In most cases, it may be that itself is a difficult and often a very baffling task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the labyrinth of inner discovery. It is that everyone possesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in concentration you go partly out an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of your body; thencharacter, in almost equal proportions, if you get up which are like the light and move before the whole consciousness shadow of the same thing. Thus someone who has come backthe capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, there is just such the courageous man will be a giddiness as you describecoward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses. You can observe In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in future a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and see whether it the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is not an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary, those that happensexpress the shadow. One has If the circumstances and the environment are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher element comes in in time, a conscious will which, refusing to be careful not allow Nature to move after deep concentration or trancefollow her whimsical ways, till there will replace them by a logical and clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is the full consciousness in the bodywhat we mean by a rational method of education. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3112/difficulties-of-the-physicalvital-natureeducation#p59p6</ref>
== Consciousness and Self-Observation How to Observe Thoughts==
Your consciousness becomes a screen or mirror; but this is when The error comes from thinking that your thoughts are your own and that you are in a state of contemplation, a mere observer; when their maker and if you are activedon't create thoughts (i.e. think), it is like a searchlightthere will be none. You have only A little observation ought to turn it onshow that you are not manufacturing your own thoughts, if but rather thoughts occur in you want to see luminously and examine penetratingly anything in any place. (The Mother, 30 June 1929) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0331/30thought-juneand-1929knowledge#p7p3</ref>
However, if one observes things a little deeply, one perceives that there is progress, that things become better and better, though apparently they do not improve. And for a consciousness seated a little higher, it is quite evident that all evil—at least what we call evil—all falsehood, all that is contrary to the Truth, all suffering, all opposition is the result of a disequilibrium. I believe that one who is habituated to seeing things from this higher plane sees immediately that it is like that. (The Mother, 8 January 1951) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/8-january-1951#p13~</refcenter>
There Thoughts are two centres or parts not the essence of mind-being, they are only an activity of the consciousness—one mental nature; if that activity ceases, what appears then as a thought-free existence that manifests in its place is not a witnessblank or void but something very real, sākṣīsubstantial, concrete we may say—a mental being that extends itself widely and observescan be its own field of existence silent or active as well as the Witness, the other consciousness is active Knower, Master of that field and its action. Some feel it first as a void, but that is this active consciousness that you felt going down deep into because their observation is untrained and insufficient and loss of activity gives them the vital being. If your mind had not become active, you would have known where it went and what it went there to experience or do. When sense of blank; an emptiness there is an experience, you should not begin to think about but it, for that is an emptiness of no use at all and it only stops the experience—you should remain silentordinary activities, observe and let it go on to its endnot a blank of existence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestionsthree-experiences-forof-dealingthe-withinner-experiencesbeing#p8p3</ref>
At a certain stage of the sadhana, in the beginning (or near it) of the more intense experiences, it sometimes happens that there is the intense realisation of some aspect of the Divine, a sort of communion with it, and that is seen everywhere and all as that. It is a transitory phase and afterwards one gets the larger experience of the Divine in all its aspects and beyond all aspects. Throughout the experience there should be one part of the being that observes and understands—for sometimes ignorant sadhaks are carried away by their experience and stop short there or fall into extravagance. It must be taken as an experience through which you are passing. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/suggestions-for-dealing-with-experiences#p10~</refcenter>
== Thoughts It is only gradually, very slowly, through the movements of life and Selfa more or less careful and thorough education that you begin to have sensations which are personal to you, feelings and ideas which are personal to you. An individualised mind is something extremely rare, which comes only after a long education; otherwise it is a kind of thought-current passing through your brain and then through another's and then through a multitude of other brains, and all this is in perpetual movement and has no individuality. One thinks what others are thinking, others think what still others are thinking, and everybody thinks like that in a great mixture, because these are currents, vibrations of thought passing from one to another. If you look at yourself attentively, you will very quickly become aware that very few thoughts in you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heard, from what you have read, what you have been taught, and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not many. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/20-february-Observation ==1957#p6</ref>
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. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p3~</refcenter>
It is only graduallyWhen one practises Yoga and observes the thoughts, one sees that they come from outside, very slowlyfrom universal Nature, through from the movements of life and a more mental, vital or less careful and thorough education that you begin subtle physical worlds etc. The proper thing is then to have sensations which are personal stand back from these thoughts, voices or suggestions, to youreject them or else control them, feelings and ideas which are personal to you. An individualised make the mind is something extremely rare, which comes only after a long education; otherwise it is a kind of thought-current passing through your brain free and then through another's quiet and then through a multitude of other brains, and all this is in perpetual movement and has no individuality. One thinks what others are thinkingopen only to the divine light, others think what still others are thinkingforce, knowledge and everybody thinks like that in a great mixture, because these are currents, vibrations the presence of thought passing from one to anotherthe Divine. .. 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 taughtAspire, get into contact with the Light and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experiencetrue Force, reassert your own reflectionwill to reject these suggestions and voices. Do not take interest in these voices, your purely personal observation?—Not manykeep the mind quiet. (The Mother, 20 February 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0931/20thought-februaryand-1957knowledge#p6p5</ref>
To observe your thoughts, you must first of all separate yourself from them. In the ordinary state, the ordinary man does not distinguish himself from his thoughts. He does not even know that he thinks. He thinks by habit. And if he is asked all of a sudden, "What are you thinking of?", he knows nothing about it. That is to say, ninety-five times out of a hundred he will answer, "I do not know." There is a complete identification between the movement of thought and the consciousness of the being. <ref>http://incarnateword.=Difficulties in/cwm/03/conjugateSelf-verses#p12</ref>Observation=
...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 ==Danger of 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) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/22-september-1954#p19</ref>Ego==
Most people—and not only those who are uneducated but even 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-read—can 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 most contradictoryrest of the being, the most opposite ideas in they had understood very well (almost too well); they sat down to meditate and all their heads without even being aware 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 contradictions….And Divine to do everything for oneself, including feeding you if you observe yourselfneed it. This is perhaps very well, you will see but this shows that you have many ideas which ought to be linked by a sequence the instrument is not ready; it is not really at the service of intermediate ideas which are the result of a considerable widening Divine, it is at the service of the thought if they are not 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 coexist keep up action until one is completely transformed or, in an absurd wayany case, till the true consciousness is established. (The Mother, 20 February 19575 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0904/205-februaryapril-19571951#p8p14</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 in you. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/thought-and-knowledge#p3~</refcenter>
When one practises Yoga ...if you do your tapasya, all the time observing yourself doing it and observes the thoughtstelling yourself, one sees that they come from outside"Am I making any progress, from universal Nature, from the mental, vital or subtle physical worlds etc. The proper thing is then this going to stand back from these thoughts, voices or suggestionsbe better, am I going to reject them or else control themsucceed?", to make the mind free and quiet and open only to the divine lightthen it is your ego, forceyou know, knowledge which becomes more and the presence of the Divine….Aspire, get into contact with the Light more enormous and occupies the true Forcewhole place, reassert your will to reject these suggestions and voices. Do not take interest in these voices, keep the mind quietthere is no room for anything else. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3104/thought26-andapril-knowledge1951#p5p35</ref>
== Sense and Self Observation Escape attitude ==
This sensational thought-mind which Constantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time to observe himself and how he lives. For him this is based upon senseexpressed by the desire to escape from boredom. Indeed, memory, associationfor some people it is much more tiresome to remain quiet—seated, first ideas and resultant generalisations or secondary ideas, is common to all developed animal life and mentality…be still.The intelligence and will of the animal are involved in the sense-mind and therefore altogether governed by So for them it and carried on its stream represents an escape from boredom: to make a lot of sensationsnoise, sense-perceptionsto commit many stupidities, impulsesand become terribly restless; it is instinctivetheir way of escaping boredom. Man is able to use a reason And when they sit quietly and willlook at themselves, a self-observing, thinking and all-observingthey are bored. Perhaps because they are boring. That's very likely. The more boring one is, 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 more one is reflective, has a certain relative freedom of intelligent willbored. He has liberated in himself and has formed into a separate power the buddhiVery interesting people usually are not bored. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2407/purification26-intelligence-andjanuary-will1955#p4p14</ref>
….But it is through sensations that you learn: by seeing, observing, hearing. Classes develop your sensations, studies develop your sensations, ==Focusing on the mind receives things through sensations. By the education of the senses the growth of one's general education is aided; if you learn to see well, exactly, 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 and knowledge. If one is sufficiently developed, one can know the nature of things through sight; through the see of smell one may also know the value, the different nature of things; by touch one can recognise things. It is a question of education; that is, one must work for it. (The Mother, 31 March 1954) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/31-march-1954#p13</ref>Negative==
== Education To be always observing faults and Selfwrong 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-towards-overcoming-Observation ==difficulties#p28</ref>
The indispensable starting-point is a detailed and discerning observation of the character to be transformed. In most cases, that itself is a difficult and often a very baffling task. But there is one fact which the old traditions knew and which can serve as the clue in the labyrinth of inner discovery. It is that everyone possesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be a coward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses. In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly. In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary, those that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher element comes in in time, a conscious will which, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of education. <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p6~</refcenter>
..The child must be taught What you have to observeaspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you—discrimination in the mind, to note his reactions the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that goes on in you and impulses and their causesaround you, purity in the vital, to become a discerning witness of his desirescalm equanimity, his movements of violence and passionenduring patience, his instincts absence of possession and appropriation and domination pride and the background sense of vanity which supports themgreatness—and more especially, together with their counterparts the development of weaknessthe psychic being in you—surrender, discouragementself-giving, depression psychic humility, devotion... a sufficient foundation and a consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and despairgrowing in these things is indispensable—for perfect purification is the basis of the perfect siddhi. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1230/vitalthe-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-educationpurification#p14</ref>
= Results of Self-Observation =<center>~</center>
If you To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe yourself attentively, you these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change". You do right to be confident that the change will see that before acting come. For nothing is impossible in the nature if the psychic being is awake and leading you need an inner impetus, something which pushes with the Mother's consciousness and force behind it and working in you. In the ordinary man this impetus This is generally desirenow happening. This desire ought to Be sure that all will be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truthdone. (The Mother, 21 December 1950) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0431/21speech-decemberand-1950yoga#p7p53</ref>
If you observe yourself, you will see that as soon as you do something which disturbs you a little, the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself—this mind is capable of gilding everything. In these conditions it is difficult to know oneself. One must be absolutely sincere to be able to do it and to see clearly into all the little falsehoods of the mental being. (The Mother, 15 January 1951) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/15-january-1951#p3~</refcenter>
… 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 Despair and quite unexpected discoveriesdespondency are always wrong. One finds in oneself lots of small hidden folds, little things one had not seen at the beginning; one undertakes If you make a sort of inner chasemistake, goes hunting into small dark corners quietly observe it 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 nastycorrect the tendency next time. And once it has been discoveredEven if the mistake recurs often, 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 only to say, "Oh! I shall never get therepersevere quietly—remembering that nature cannot be changed in a day. (The Mother, 19 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0431/19depression-apriland-1951despondency#p14p67</ref>
= Difficulties during Self-Observation =<center>~</center>
== Danger It is a subtle law of the Ego ==action of consciousness that if you stress difficulties—you have to observe them, of course, but not stress them, they will quite sufficiently do that for themselves—the difficulties tend to stick or even increase; on the contrary, if you put your whole stress on faith and aspiration and concentrate steadily on what you aspire to, that will sooner or later tend towards realisation. It is this change of stress, a change in the poise and attitude of the mind, that will be the more helpful process. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/dealing-with-depression-and-despondency#p22</ref>
But to begin with, how many times, if one thinks, if one quite simply observes oneself, does one catch oneself saying, "It is I!" And, then, one congratulates oneself sometimes, one says, "After all I can do something, I am capable!" I am going further: how many people would be capable of doing anything at all if simply deprived of the pleasure of being able to tell themselves, "I have done this, I have realised that, I have made a progress, how well I played this game"? How many people would be able to sincerely do something if this pleasure were taken away? I have known individuals whose mind was much more developed than the rest of the being, they had understood very well (almost too well); they sat down to meditate and all their energy was gone, all vitality evaporated into a kind of peace, not unpleasant, but very still. There is no more need to do anything, no longer any need to move, one dreams.... Under a tree, arms crossed, one leaves the Divine to do everything for oneself, including feeding you if you need it. This is perhaps very well, but this shows that the instrument is not ready; it is not really at the service of the Divine, it is at the service of the ego, and when the ego is taken away, it does nothing any longer. Therefore, so long as one lives in the ego this illusion is necessary to make you act; it is necessary to keep up action until one is completely transformed or, in any case, till the true consciousness is established. (The Mother, 5 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/5-april-1951#p14</ref>==Surface Level Observation==
As a general rule, with a few very rare exceptions, men are content to observe more or less accurately everything that happens around them, and sometimes within themselves, and to classify all these observations according to one superficial system of logic or another...if you do your tapasyaAnd they call this organisation, all the time observing yourself doing it and telling yourselfthese systems, "Am I making any progress, is this going knowledge". It has never occurred to be betterthem, am I going they have not even begun to succeed?"perceive that all the things they see, then it is your egotouch, you knowfeel, which becomes more and more enormous and occupies the whole placeexperience, are false appearances and there is no room for anything else. (The Mother, 26 April 1951) <ref>http://incarnatewordnot reality itself.in/cwm/04/26-april-1951#p35</ref>
Do not be over-eager for experience,—for experiences you can always get, having once broken the barrier between the physical mind and the subtle planes. What you have to aspire for most [Based on Aphorism 7—What men call knowledge is the improved quality reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the recipient consciousness in you—discrimination in the mind, the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that goes on in you veil and around you, purity in the vital, calm equanimitysees. Reason divides, enduring patience, absence of pride fixes details and the sense of greatness—and more especiallycontrasts them; Wisdom unifies, the development of the psychic being marries contrasts in you—surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion... a sufficient foundation and a consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and growing in these things is indispensable—for perfect purification is the basis of the perfect siddhisingle harmony]. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3010/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-ofaphorism-purification7#p14p3</ref>
== Escape attitude ==<center>~</center>
Constantly man rushes into external action in order not to have time to observe himself and how he lives. For him this It is expressed by evident that our state on the desire to escape from boredom. Indeedsurface is indeed a state of knowledge, for some people so far as it is much more tiresome to remain quiet—seatedgoes, but a limited knowledge enveloped and invaded by ignorance and, or to be still. So for them it represents an escape from boredom: to make a lot very large extent, by reason of noiseits limitation, to commit many stupiditiesitself a kind of ignorance, at best a mixed knowledge-ignorance. It could not be otherwise since our awareness of the world is born of a separative and become terribly restlesssurface observation with only an indirect means of cognition at its disposal; it our knowledge of ourselves, though more direct, is their way stultified by its restriction to the surface of escaping boredomour being, by an ignorance of our true self, the true sources of our nature, the true motive-forces of our action. And when they sit quietly It is quite evident that we know ourselves with only a superficial knowledge,—the sources of our consciousness and look at themselvesthought are a mystery; the true nature of our mind, emotions, they are bored. Perhaps because they are boring. That's very likely. The more boring one sensations isa mystery; our cause of being and our end of being, the more one is bored. Very interesting people usually significance of our life and its activities are a mystery: this could not boredbe if we had a real self-knowledge and a real world-knowledge. (The Mother, 26 January 1955) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0721/26knowledge-by-identity-and-januaryseparative-1955knowledge#p14p7</ref>
== Focusing on the Negative ==<center>~</center>
To be always observing faults and wrong movements brings depression and discourages One throws oneself out all the time; all the faithtime one lives, as it were, outside oneself, in such a superficial sensation that it is almost as though one were outside oneself. Turn your eyes more As soon as one wants even to the coming Light and less observe oneself a little, control oneself a little, simply know what is happening, one is always obliged to any immediate darkness. Faithdraw back or pull towards oneself, cheerfulnessto pull inwards something which is constantly like that, confidence in on the ultimate victory are the things that helpsurface. And it is this surface thing which meets all external contacts,—they make the progress easier and swifterputs you in touch with similar vibrations coming from others. That happens almost outside you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3108/steps-towards20-overcomingjune-difficulties1956#p28p49</ref>
It is a subtle law of the action of consciousness that if you stress difficulties—you have to observe them, of course, but not stress them, they will quite sufficiently do that for themselves—the difficulties tend to stick or even increase; on the contrary, if you put your whole stress on faith and aspiration and concentrate steadily on what you aspire to, that will sooner or later tend towards realisation. It is this change of stress, a change in the poise and attitude of the mind, that will be the more helpful process. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/dealing-with-depression-and-despondency#p22</ref>==Observing Invisible Forces==
It is difficult to If we observe the difference between the action of the hostile Force a happening, we judge and the pressure of the lower Nature because explain it is from the latter that the Force takes hold result and from a glimpse of for its purpose. But there most external constituents, circumstances or causes; but each happening is in the Force outcome of a suggestive charactercomplex nexus of forces which we do not and cannot observe, because all forces are to us invisible, a conscious arrangement —but they are not invisible to the spiritual vision of the attack so as Infinite: some of them are actualities working to upset produce or destroy occasion a new actuality, some are possibles that are near to the sadhana which pre-existent actuals and in a way included in their aggregate; but there is not in the ordinary movement of the lower Nature—for can intervene always new possibilities that only comes suddenly become dynamic potentials and add themselves to satisfy itself the nexus, and then ceasesbehind all are imperatives or an imperative which these possibilities are labouring to actualise. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3121/the-hostile-forcesbrahman-andpurusha-theishwara-difficultiesmaya-ofprakriti-yogashakti#p35p7</ref>
== Overcoming  difficulty =Self Observation - Exploring Realms of Consciousness=
If you had 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 observation (from has been created, the richest in content of consciousness and the curious ingeniousness of his building; he is the head of the inner spiritualearthly creation, but he does not the outer intellectual and ethical viewpoint)exceed it…. If there is a perfection to which he has to arrive, then it would must be comparatively easy for you to get out a perfection in his own kind, within his own law of being,—the full play of it, but by observation of your difficulties; for instance you would find at once where this irrational impulse to flee away came from its mode and it would measure, not have any hold upon youby transcendence. Of courseTo exceed himself, all that can only be done to grow into the best effect when you stand back from superman, to put on 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 capacities of a god would be a contradiction of his self-seeing posturelaw, impracticable and impossible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3122/mental-difficultiesman-and-the-need-of-quietudeevolution#p23p8</ref>
= Other fields of Self-Observation =<center>~</center>
...behind there is the psychic which supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness, makes one feel that he is the same being even while being absolutely different, absolutely different. If later one observes himself sufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and could do at that time are things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable now, and that he could never do a similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And yet, because within there was the psychic consciousness which is immortal, one has the feeling that it is always the same being which was there and continues to be there and will continue to be there with more or less progressive and more or less conscious changes. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/29-june-1955#p28</ref>
<center>~</center>
== Meditation ==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>
<center>~</center> In this progression the first step is a certain detached superiority to the three modes of Nature... when one comes out of meditationThe soul is inwardly separated and free from the lower Prakriti, some time later—usually not immediately—from within the being something new emerges involved in its coils, indifferent and glad above it. Nature continues to act in the consciousness: a new understandingtriple round of her ancient habits,—desire, a new appreciation of thingsgrief and joy attack the heart, a new attitude in life—in shortthe instruments fall into inaction and obscurity and weariness, a new way light and peace come back into the heart and mind and body; but the soul stands unchanged and untouched by these changes. Observing and unmoved by the grief and desire of being. This may be fugitivethe lower members, but smiling at that momenttheir joys and their strainings, if one observes it, one finds that something has taken one step forward on regarding and unoverpowered by the failing and the path darknesses of understanding the thought and the wildness or transformation. It may be an illuminationthe weaknesses of the heart and nerves, an understanding truer or closer uncompelled and unattached to the truth, mind's illuminations and its relief and sense of ease or a of power in the return of transformation which helps you to achieve a psychological progress or a widening light and gladness, it throws itself into none of these things, but waits unmoved for the consciousness or intimations of a greater control over your movements, over higher Will and the activities intuitions of the beinga greater luminous knowledge. (The Mother , 5 June 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0923/5the-junethree-modes-of-1957nature#p20p13</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 =="The Shakti, the power of the Infinite and the Eternal descends within us, works, breaks up our present psychological formations, shatters every wall, widens, liberates... she frees the consciousness from confinement in the body; it can go out in trance or sleep or even waking and enter into worlds or other regions of this world and act there or carry back its experience. It spreads out, feeling the body only as a small part of itself, and begins to contain what before contained it; it achieves the cosmic consciousness and extends itself to be commensurate with the universe. It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings of the nature. We begin to perceive the working of the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working...." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/7-november-1956#p1</ref>
Now the procedure to deal with dreams and the dreamland. First become conscious—conscious of your dreams. Observe the relation between them and the happenings of your waking hours. If you remember your night, you will be able to trace back very often the condition of your day to the condition of your night. In sleep some action or other is always going on in your mental or vital or other plane; things happen there and they govern your waking consciousness. (The Mother, 21 April 1929) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/21-april-1929#p6~</refcenter>
It is a tremendous field thus by an integralisation of observation—there is no end to our divided being that the discoveries you can make Divine Shakti in your dreams. But there is one important point: you must not go the Yoga will proceed to sleep when you its object; for liberation, perfection, mastery are very tireddependent on this integralisation, for if you dosince the little wave on the surface cannot control its own movement, you fall into a sort of unconsciousness 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 which dreams do whatever they like with youthe world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and you have no reaction. Just can operate immediately upon them as I said that you should not eat without having taken restthe scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, I would advise everyone to rest before going to sleep. And for thatreshape, you must know how to restcreate immense new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings of the nature. (The Mother, 1 February 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1523/1the-ascent-of-the-februarysacrifice-1951ii#p14p29</ref>
As the inner consciousness grows by sadhana, these dream experiences increase ==How to be in number, clearness, coherence, accuracy and after some growth of experience and consciousness, we can, if we observe, come to understand them and their significance to our inner life. Even we can by training become so conscious as to follow our own passage, usually veiled to our awareness and memory, through many realms and the process of the return to the waking state. At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of sleep, a sleep of experiences, can replace the ordinary subconscient slumber. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p6</ref>Witness State?==
= Things It is difficult to Remember =say generally what is conscious; but naturally, if something observes, it is always the "witness" element in this part—in each part of the being there is something which is a "witness", which looks on. There is even a physical witness which can get very much in the way; for instance, if it watches you playing, this can paralyse you considerably. There is also a vital witness which looks at you, sees your desires and enjoys highly all that happens; it acts also as a brake. There is the mental witness which judges ideas, which says, "This idea contradicts this other", and which arranges everything. Then there is the great psychic Witness, who is the inner divinity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p6</ref>
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. (The Mother, 9 March 1955) <refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/9-march-1955#p23~</refcenter>
= Yogic Experience =Sometimes there is no relation among these different witnesses—there ought to be, but it is not always there. But if there is in the being a will to become perfect, the relation is established quite quickly; one can refer to another and finally, if there is a sufficient sincerity, sufficient concentration, you come to the supreme inner Witness who can judge all things. But generally it may be said that it is always a part of the mind, more or less enlightened, in a little closer contact with the inner being, which observes and judges. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p7</ref>
== Divine as Observer ==<center>~</center>
A hidden Power is 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 true Lord separation and overruling Observer the consequent struggle, want of our acts and 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 he knows through all the ignorance and perversion and deformation brought in 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 ego their entire sense and ultimate purposeuniversal soul of physical Nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2324/self-surrender-in-works-the-wayperfection-of-the-gitamental-being#p6p15</ref>
== Purusha and Self-Observation ==<center>~</center>
It is ordinarily considered that the Yogin should draw away from action as much as possible and especially that too much action is a hindrance because it draws off the energies outward. To a certain extent this is true; and we must note farther that when the mental Purusha takes up the attitude of mere witness and observer, a tendency to silence, solitude, physical calm and bodily inaction grows upon the being. So long as this is not associated with inertia, incapacity or unwillingness to act, in a word, with the growth of the tamasic quality, all this is to the good.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body#p7</ref>
 
<center>~</center>
It is possible for the Purusha to use it on the mental plane itself for a constant self-observation, self-development, self-modification, to sanction, reject, alter, bring out new formulations of the nature and establish a calm and disinterested action, a high and pure sattwic balance and rhythm of its energy, a personality perfected in the sattwic principle. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-shakti#p9</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 ...with regard to the movements and Prakriti are on experiences of the mental level body the mind will come to know the Purusha seated within it as in , first, the rest witness or observer of our being closely joined the movements and much involved in each other and we are not able to distinguish clearly soul and nature. But in , secondly, the purer substance knower or perceiver of mind we can more easily discern the dual strainexperiences. The mental Purusha is naturally able 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 native principle of mind to detach itself, as we have seen, from the workings of its Prakriti and there is then a division of our being between a consciousness that observes and can reserve its willpower and an energy full of the substance operations of consciousness that takes Nature governed by the forms qualities of knowledge, will Nature and feeling. This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from the compulsion of the soulby its mental naturetheir interaction upon each other. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2423/the-divinerelease-from-subjection-to-the-shaktibody#p8p4</ref>
== Shakti and Self-Observation ==<center>~</center>
"The Shakti, the power of the Infinite Purusha and Prakriti are on the Eternal descends within us, works, breaks up our present psychological formations, shatters every wall, widens, liberates... she frees the consciousness from confinement mental level as in the body; it can go out rest of our being closely joined and much involved in trance or sleep or even waking each other and enter into worlds or other regions of this world we are not able to distinguish clearly soul and act there or carry back its experiencenature. It spreads out, feeling But in the body only as a small part purer substance of itself, and begins to contain what before contained it; it achieves mind we can more easily discern the cosmic consciousness and extends itself to be commensurate with the universedual strain. It begins The mental Purusha is naturally able in its own native principle of mind to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the worlddetach itself, feels their movementas we have seen, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as from the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action workings of its Prakriti and results in there is then a division of our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers being between a consciousness that observes and can reserve its willpower and movements in place an energy full of the old small functionings substance of consciousness that takes the natureforms of knowledge, will and feeling. We begin to perceive This detachment gives at its highest a certain freedom from the working compulsion of the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working..soulby its mental nature.." (The Mother, 7 November 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0824/7the-novemberdivine-1956shakti#p1p8</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 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/work-and Self-Observation ==yoga#p45</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 animal mind is not quite distinct from its own life-matrix The mental being within watches, observes and life-matter; its movements are so involved in the life movements passes judgment on all that it cannot detach itself from them, cannot stand separate and observe them; but happens in man mind has become separate, he can become aware of his mental operations as distinct from his life operations, his thought and will can disengage them selves from his sensations and impulses, desires and emotional reactions, can become detached from them, observe and control them, sanction or cancel their functioning: he you. The psychic does not as yet know the secrets of his being well enough to be aware of himself decisively watch and with certitude as a mental being observe in this way like a life and bodywitness, but he has that impression it feels and can take inwardly that position. <ref>http://incarnateword.knows spontaneously in/cwsa/22/a much more direct and luminous way by the-evolution-very purity of-the-spiritual-man#p6</ref> == Chitta its own nature and Self-Observation == Chitta, the basic consciousness, is largely subconscient; divine instinct within it has, open and hiddenso, two kinds of action, one passive or receptive, the other active or reactive and formative. As a passive power whenever it receives all impacts, even those of which the mind is unaware or comes to which it is inattentive, and it stores them in an immense reserve of passive subconscient memory on which the mind as an active memory can draw.But ordinarily the mind draws only what front it had observed and understood reveals at once what are the time,—more easily what it had observed well right and understood carefully, less easily what it had observed carelessly or ill understood; at the same time there is a power wrong movements in consciousness to send up to the active mind for use what that mind had not at all observed or attended to or even consciously experienced. This power only acts observably in abnormal conditions, when some part of the subconscious chitta comes as it were to the surface or when the subliminal being in us appears on the threshold and for a time plays some part in the outer chamber of mentality where the direct intercourse and commerce with the external world takes place and our inner dealings with ourselves develop on the surfaceyour nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2428/the-instrumentsjivatman-ofin-the-spirit#p6</ref> = Practice of Self-Observation = Take one hour of your life, the one which is most convenient for you, and during that time observe yourself closely and say only the absolutely indispensable words. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p15 http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p15</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/conjugateintegral-versesyoga#p7p40</ref>
== Going Within ==
 
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 =='''Content curated by Aditi Kaul'''
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>
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= References =
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