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

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is in the quiet mind that the true observation and knowledge come.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p40</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface and you will feel your true being within separate from them, observing but not carried away, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to be rejected and to accept and keep to all that is true consciousness and true experience.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p10</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">But if you remain very quiet, only if you observe—as though you were silently looking at something, you understand—then you will begin seeing more precisely, and little by little distinguishing between different categories of things. You will be able to know what one thing is and what another etc., whether it comes from you or from outside, whether it is on a material plane or on another plane. All this is learnt through a very quiet observation, quiet but very sharp, you understand; because there are very tiny shades, very tiny, between different things, and when you get used to distinguishing these nuances, you can discern exactly what it is. (The Mother,20 October 1954) </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/20-october-1954#p46</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p76</ref></span>

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

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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. </span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p99</ref></span>