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Read Summary of '''[[Silence Summary|Silence]]'''
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= What is Silence? =
Silence: the condition of the being when it listens to the Divine. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p27 </ref>
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Silence is the absence of all motion of thought or other vibration of activity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p13 </ref>
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The stilling of this current, running, circling, repeating thought-mind is the principal part of that silencing of the thought which is one of the most effective disciplines of Yoga. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/purification-intelligence-and-will#p12</ref>
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Silence is always good; but I do not mean by quietness of mind entire silence. I mean a mind free from disturbance and trouble, steady, light and glad so as to be open to the Force that will change the nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p18</ref>
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The stillness of the mind means, first, the falling to rest of the habitual thought movements, thought formations, thought currents which agitate this mind-substance. That repose, vacancy of movement, is for many a sufficient mental silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p21</ref>
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It is in silence or quietude that we feel most firmly the Something that is behind the world shown to us by our mind and senses. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/reality-and-the-cosmic-illusion#p24</ref>
== Importance Silence as it is Different From Related States== The words “peace, calm, quiet, silence” have each their own shade of meaning, but it is not easy to define them. Peace—śānti. Calm—sthiratā. Quiet—acañcalatā. Silence—niścala-nīravatā. Quiet is a condition in which there is no restlessness or disturbance. Calm is a still, unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect—it is a less negative condition than quiet. Peace is a still more positive condition; it carries with it a sense of settled and harmonious rest and deliverance. Silence is a state in which either there is no movement of the mind or vital or else a great stillness which no surface movement can pierce or alter. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p6,p7,p8,p9</ref> <center>~</center> Silence of the mind, peace or calm in the mind are three things that are very close together and bring each other. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p19</ref> === Quietude === Quiet is rather negative—it is the absence of disturbance. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p10</ref> <center>~</center> The first step is a quiet mind—silence is a farther step, but quietude must be there, and by a quiet mind I mean a mental consciousness within which sees thoughts arrive to it and move about, but does not itself feel that it is thinking or identify itself with the thoughts or call them its own. Thoughts, mental movements may pass through it as wayfarers appear and pass from elsewhere through a silent country—the quiet mind observes them or does not care to observe them but in either case does not become active or lose its quietude.
== Inner Silence ==
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>
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To make yourself blank in meditation creates an inner silence; it does not mean that you have become nothing or have become a dead and inert mass. Making yourself an empty vessel, you invite that which shall fill it. It means that you release the stress of your inner consciousness towards realisation. The nature of the consciousness and the degree of its stress determine the forces that you bring into play and whether they shall help and fulfil or fail or even harm and hinder. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/23-june-1929#p21</ref>
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This condition you had of the inner being and its silence, separated from the surface consciousness and its little restless workings, is the first liberation, the liberation of Purusha from Prakriti, and it is the fundamental experience. The day when you can keep it, you can know that the Yogic consciousness has been founded in you. This time it has increased in intensity, but it must also increase in duration. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p82></ref>
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The condition you describe shows precisely the growth of this inner silence. It has to fix itself eventually as the basis of all spiritual experience and activity. It does not matter if one does not know what is going on within behind the silence. For there are two conditions in the Yoga, one in which all is silent and there is no thought, feeling or movement even though one is acting outwardly as others do—another in which a new consciousness becomes active bringing knowledge, joy, love and other spiritual feelings and inner activities, but yet at the same time there is a fundamental silence or quietude. Both are necessary in the development of the inner being. The absolutely silent state, which is one of lightness, voidness and release, prepares the other and supports it when it comes.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p25</ref>
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Remain very quiet, open your mind and your heart to Sri Aurobindo's influence and mine, withdraw deep into an inner silence (which may be had in all circumstances), call me from the depths of this silence and you will see me standing there in the centre of your being. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-iii#p12</ref>
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All experiences come in the silence but they do not come all pell-mell in a crowd at the beginning. The inner silence and peace have first to be established. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p79</ref>
What one feels first [in the silence] is the pure existence of the self, without any idea, characteristic or movement—existence pure and simple, Sat Brahman—or else one feels that and a vast peace and wideness. Afterwards other things are felt such as Ananda, but always with this as the basis. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/experiences-of-the-self-the-one-and-the-infinite#p7</ref>
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There is no distinction between the Self and the spirit. The psychic is the soul that develops in the evolution—the spirit is the Self that is not affected by the evolution, it is above it—only it is covered or concealed by the activity of mind, vital and body. The removal of this covering is the release of the spirit—and it is removed when there is a full and wide spiritual silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p18</ref>
== Silence in the Physical ==
''Q. What is meant by the "silence of the physical consciousness" and how can one remain in this silence?''
''A.'' The physical consciousness is not only the consciousness of our body, but of all that surrounds us as well all that we perceive with our senses. It is a sort of apparatus for recording and transmission which is open to all the contacts and shocks coming from outside and responds to them by reactions of pleasure and pain which welcome or repel. This makes in our outer being a constant activity and noise that we are only partially aware of, because we are so accustomed to them.
But if through meditation or concentration we turn inward or upward, we can bring down into ourselves or raise up from the depths calm, quiet, peace and finally silence. It is a concrete, positive silence (not the negative silence of the absence of noise), immutable so long as it remains, a silence one can experience even in the outer tumult of a hurricane or battlefield. This silence is synonymous with peace and it is all-powerful; it is the perfectly effective remedy for the fatigue, tension and exhaustion arising from that internal over-activity and noise which generally escape our control and cease neither by day nor night.
This is why the first thing required when one wants to do Yoga is to bring down and establish in oneself the calm, the peace, the silence. (The Mother, 15 October 1959) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/15-october-1959#p2</ref>
If the peace and silence continue to come down, they usually become so intense as to seize the physical mind also after a time. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p79</ref>
Certainly, peace, purity and silence can be felt in all material things—for the Divine Self is there in all. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p27</ref>
== Subconscient ==
As for the subconscient that is best dealt with when the opening of the consciousness to what comes down from above is complete. Then one becomes aware of the subconscient as a separate domain and can bring down into it the silence and all else that comes from above. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-subconscient-and-the-integral-yoga#p49</ref>
== Silence and the Supramental Consciousness ==
The silence of the mind does not of itself bring in the supramental consciousness; there are many states or planes or levels of consciousness between the human mind and the Supermind. The silence opens the mind and the rest of the being to greater things, sometimes to the cosmic consciousness, sometimes to the experience of the silent Self, sometimes to the presence or power of the Divine, sometimes to a higher consciousness than that of the human mind; the mind's silence is the most favourable condition for any of these things to happen. In this Yoga it is the most favourable condition (not the only one) for the Divine Power to descend first upon and then into the individual consciousness and there do its work to transform that consciousness, giving it the necessary experiences, altering all its outlook and movements, leading it from stage to stage till it is ready for the last (supramental) change. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-divine-force-in-work#p7 </ref>
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Every kind of realisation—infinite self, cosmic consciousness, the Mother's Presence, Light, Force, Ananda, Knowledge, Sachchidananda realisation, the different layers of consciousness up to the Supermind—all these can come in the silence which remains but ceases to be blank. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/emptiness-voidness-blankness-and-silence#p37</ref>
= Why is Silence Important? =
In silence lies the greatest devotion. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/6-april-1972#p1</ref>
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In a quiet silence strength is restored. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p10</ref>
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Silence: the ideal condition for progress. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p1</ref>
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Integral silence: the source of true force. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/strength-force-and-power#p4</ref>
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In silence lies the source of the highest inspirations. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-xii#p8</ref>
'''Silence of Vital'''
Silence in the vital: a powerful help for inner peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-vital#p26</ref>
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In the silence of our heart there is always peace and joy. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p8</ref>
'''Silence of Mind'''
Practise silence of mind, it gives power of understanding. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-mind#p85</ref>
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It is only in mental silence that you can hear the voice without distorting it—be very peaceful. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-mind#p92</ref>
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To take this step towards the new creation, one must learn to silence the mind and rise above into Consciousness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/2-april-1972#p1</ref>
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Wait quietly for the exact indication; all mental intervention and decisions are arbitrary. The clear indication comes in the silence of the mind. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-mind#p89</ref>
'''Silence for Sadhana'''
It is in quietness, peace and silence that the spiritual forces act. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/quiet#p26</ref>
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In peace and silence the Eternal manifests. Let nothing trouble you and the Eternal will manifest. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/peace#p19</ref>
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The quietude and silence which you feel and the sense of happiness in it are indeed the very basis of successful sadhana. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p4</ref>
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Besides, for inner growth, I do not believe that words are necessary. In silence all our help is there at its most powerful. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/6-september-1939#p3</ref>
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It is in silence that the soul best expresses itself. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p22</ref>
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If you, in your consciousness, reach a state of silence, you perceive your state of silence everywhere, but others don't necessarily perceive it. You perceive it because you are in that state. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/24-august-1955#p42</ref>
''' For Problem Solving '''
When one has learned to silence the mind at will and to concentrate it in receptive silence, then there will be no problem that cannot be solved, no mental difficulty whose solution cannot be found. When it is agitated, thought becomes confused and impotent; in an attentive tranquillity, the light can manifest itself and open up new horizons to man's capacity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mental-education#p22</ref>
''' To Get Rid of Inertia '''
If the calm and silence are perfectly established in the physical, then if inertia comes it is itself something quiet and unaggressive, not bringing such disturbances. But to get rid of inertia altogether a strong dynamic calm is needed. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p28</ref>
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If the physical being has felt and assimilated the silence and peace, then inertia ought not to rise up. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p29</ref>
For the action is based on the silence and by the silence it is free. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/christianity-and-theosophy#p16</ref>
<center>~</center> In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. (The Mother, 19 December 1971) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/19-december-1971#p1</ref> <center>~</center>
In the silence of the heart, you will receive the command. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p7</ref>
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To know how to observe in silence is the source of skillfulness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/progress-and-perfection-in-work#p63</ref>
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In concentration and silence we must gather strength for the right action. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p16</ref>
For me, for what I am trying to do, action in silence is always much more important.... The force which is at work is not limited by words, and this gives it an infinitely greater strength, and it expresses itself in each consciousness in accordance with its own particular mode, which makes it infinitely more effective. A certain vibration is given out in silence, with a special purpose, to obtain a definite result, but according to the mental receptivity of each person it is expressed in each individual consciousness exactly in the form which can be the most effective, the most active, the most immediately useful for each individual; while if it is formulated in words, this formula has to be received by each person in its fixity—the fixity of the words given to it—and it loses much of its strength and fullness of action because, first, the words are not always understood as they are said and then they are not always adapted to the understanding of each one. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/5-june-1957#p11</ref>
The Supreme pours Himself out only cure for insomnia is to get rid of an eternal peacethe need for sleep by knowing how to obtain mental silence at will. When you can obtain silence at will, poise and silence you must put your body into an eternal activity, free and infinitea position of absolute repose, freely fixing for itself its self-determinations, using infinite quality to shape stretched out of it varied combination of quality. We have to comfortably on the bed; then you go back to that peace, poise and within yourself until there is perfect mental silence and act out of it with the divine freedom from the bondage of qualities but still using qualities even the most opposite largely and flexibly for the divine work in the worldenter a state that is something like a very deep sleep. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2317/the30-modes-of-themay-self1966#p11p3</ref>
== Silence and a modest, humble, attentive receptivity; no concern for appearances or even any anxiety to be—one is quite modestly, quite humbly, quite simply the instrument which of itself is nothing and knows nothing, but is ready to receive everything and transmit everything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-4#p6 http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-4#p6</ref>Progress ==
Certain silences are revelations and are more expressive than words. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p18</ref>
It is necessary in order to develop a deeper consciousness and outlook on things that understands in silence the movements of Nature in oneself and others and is not moved or disturbed or superficially interested and drawn into an external movement. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p45</ref>
= How to Practice Silence? =
Silence... Oh! It is better to practise it than to talk about it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-111-112#p4</ref>
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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>
== Prerequisites for Attaining Silence ==
Remember first that an inner quietude, caused by the purification of the restless mind and vital, is the first condition of a secure sadhana. Remember, next, that to feel the Mother's presence while in external action is already a great step and one that cannot be attained without a considerable inner progress. Probably, what you feel you need so much but cannot define is a constant and vivid sense of the Mother's force working in you, descending from above and taking possession of the different planes of your being. That is often a prior condition for the twofold movement of ascent and descent; it will surely come in time. These things can take a long time to begin visibly, especially when the mind is accustomed to be very active and has not the habit of mental silence. When that veiling activity is there, much work has to be carried on behind the mobile screen of the mind and the sadhak thinks nothing is happening when really much preparation is being done. If you want a more swift and visible progress, it can only be by bringing your psychic to the front through a constant self-offering. Aspire intensely, but without impatience. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p22</ref>
== Establish Silence in Mind ==
If you try to silence your mind directly, it is a hard job, almost impossible; for the most material part of the mind never stops its activity—it goes on and on like a non-stop recording machine. It repeats all that it records and unless there is a switch to stop it, it continues and continues indefinitely. If, on the other hand, you manage to shift your consciousness into a higher domain, above the ordinary mind, this opening to the Light calms the mind, it does not stir any longer, and the mental silence so obtained can become constant. Once you enter into this domain, you may very well never come out of it—the external mind always remains calm. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/8-march-1951#p4</ref>
''Q. How can we establish a settled peace and silence in the mind?''
''A.'' (''After a silence'') I mean that this exclusiveness is a habit. However, when one has done a little yoga seriously, one knows very well that one can think here (''Mother shows the centre of the forehead between the eyebrows, then the right side, then the left'') one can think here, one can think here, one can think in front and, as I was saying just now, one can think much higher—up but naturally, one thinks that all thought-phenomena, concentration, are produced in the brain—and when one thinks up above, here (Mother shows the space above the head), one thinks much better than when one thinks here. It is only that one has never tried to do otherwise. Not "never tried", there are quite a number of people who have tried and have succeeded. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/8-september-1954#p55</ref>
''' Active Method (Used by Sri Aurobindo) '''
There is an active method by which one looks to see where the thoughts come from and finds they come not from oneself, but from outside the head as it were; if one can detect them coming, then, before they enter, they have to be thrown away altogether. This is perhaps the most difficult way and not all can do it, but if it can be done it is the shortest and most powerful road to silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p24</ref>
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The principal business of our mind is either a response of acceptance or refusal to these thought-waves (as also vital waves, subtle physical energy waves) or this giving a personal-mental form to thought-stuff (or vital movements) from the environing Nature Force. It was my great debt to Lele that he showed me this. "Sit in meditation," he said, "but do not think, look only at your mind; you will see thoughts coming into it; before they can enter throw them away from you till your mind is capable of entire silence." I had never heard before of thoughts coming visibly into the mind from outside, but I did not think of either questioning the truth or the possibility, I simply sat down and did it. In a moment my mind became silent as a windless air on a high mountain summit and then I saw a thought and then another thought coming in a concrete way from outside; I flung them away before they could enter and take hold of the brain and in three days I was free. From that moment, in principle, the mental being in me became a free Intelligence, a universal Mind, not limited to the narrow circle of personal thought or a labourer in a thought-factory, but a receiver of knowledge from all the hundred realms of being and free too to choose what it willed in this vast sight-empire and thought-empire. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/thought-and-knowledge#p9</ref>
''' Stillness of the Mind '''
This pure stillness of the mind is indeed always the required condition, the desideratum, but for bringing it about there are more ways than one. It is not, for instance, only by an effort of the mind itself to get clear of all intrusive emotion or passion, to quiet its own characteristic vibrations, to resist the obscuring fumes of a physical inertia which brings about a sleep or a torpor of the mind instead of its wakeful silence, that the thing can be done. This is indeed an ordinary process of the Yogic path of knowledge; but the same end can be brought about or automatically happen by other processes—for instance, by the descent from above of a great spiritual stillness imposing silence on the mind and heart, on the life stimuli, on the physical reflexes. A sudden descent of this kind or a series of descents accumulative in force and efficacy is a well-known phenomenon of spiritual experience. Or again one may start a mental process of one kind or another for the purpose which would normally mean a long labour and yet may pull down or be seized midway, or even at the outset, by an overmind influx, a rapid intervention or manifestation of the higher Silence, with an effect sudden, instantaneous, out of all proportion to the means used at the beginning. One commences with a method, but the work is taken up by a Grace from above, by a response from That to which one aspires or by an irruption of the infinitudes of the Spirit. It was in this last way that I myself came by the mind's absolute silence, unimaginable to me before I had the actual experience. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p19</ref>
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Ah! First you must will it, and then you must say, as to people who make a lot of noise, "Keep quiet, be quiet, be quiet!"; you must do this when the mind comes along with all its suggestions and all its movements. You must tranquillise it, pacify it, make it silent. The first thing is not to listen to it. Most of the time, as soon as all these come, all these thoughts, one looks, seeks to understand, one listens; then naturally that imbecile believes that you are very much interested: it increases its activity. You must not listen, must not pay attention. If it makes too much noise, you must tell it: "Be still! Now then, silence, keep quiet!" without making a lot of noise yourself, you understand? You must not imitate those people who begin shouting: "Keep quiet", and make such a noise themselves that they are even noisier than the others! <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/19-may-1954#p45</ref>
== Silence in Education ==
It would be interesting to formulate or to elaborate a new method of teaching for children, to take them very young. It is easy when they are very young. We need people—oh! we would need remarkable teachers—who have, first, an ample enough documentation of what is known so as to be able to answer every question, and at the same time, at least the knowledge, if not the experience—the experience would be better—of the true intuitive intellectual attitude, and—naturally the capacity would be still more preferable—at least the knowledge that the true way of knowing is mental silence, an attentive silence turned towards the truer Consciousness, and the capacity to receive what comes from there. The best would be to have this capacity; at least, it should be explained that it is the true thing—a sort of demonstration—and that it works not only from the point of view of what must be learned, of the whole domain of knowledge, but also of the whole domain of what should be done: the capacity to receive the exact indication of how to do it; and as you go on, it changes into a very clear perception of what must be done, and a precise indication of when it must be done. At least the children, as soon as they have the capacity to think—it starts at the age of seven, but at about fourteen or fifteen it is very clear—the children should be given little indications at the age of seven, a complete explanation at fourteen, of how to do it, and that it is the only way to be in relation with the deeper truth of things, and that all the rest is a more or less clumsy mental approximation to something that can be known directly. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/5-april-1967#p24</ref>
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''Q. Mother, now there is one question, another important question. You have often told us that it is only in the inner silence that we can find the true answer to a question. What is the best way to make the children discover how this silence is established? Is this how consciousness is substituted for knowledge?''
''A.'' You see, in this system of classes where everyone is sitting down, the teacher is there and they have a limited time in which to do the work, it is not possible. It is only if you have absolute freedom that you can establish the silence when you need to be silent. But when all the students are in class and the teacher is in class... when the teacher is establishing the silence in himself, all the students... then it is not possible. He can establish the silence at home, at night, the day before, to prepare himself for the next day, but you cannot... It cannot be an immediate rule. Naturally, when you are at the very top of the scale and you are used to keeping your mind absolutely silent, you cannot help it; but you have not reached that point, none of you. So it is better not to speak about it. So I think that during the... Especially with this system, classes with a fixed time, with a fixed number of students, with a fixed teacher, and a fixed subject... you must be active while you are there. (The Mother, 11 November 1967) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/11-november-1967#p149</ref>
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A moment of silence and concentration is always good for all the children. But the prayer should not be compulsory. Those who want to do it will be encouraged. I suggest that you put up a notice-board in the classroom with these words written on it in large letters:
“Mother is always here amongst us to help us and guide us.”
Most of the children will understand, and some are capable of feeling. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mothers-action-in-a-class-of-children-aged-seven-to-nine#p8</ref>
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One thing could be done once, at least once: you set a subject, like that, from the course of subjects, you set it and tell them, "For a quarter of an hour we shall remain silent, silent; no noise, no one should make any noise. We shall remain silent for a quarter of an hour. For a quarter of an hour try to remain completely silent, still and attentive, and then we shall see in a quarter of an hour what comes out of it." You can reduce it to five minutes to begin with, three minutes, two minutes, it doesn't matter. A quarter of an hour is a lot, but you should do... try that... see. Some of them will start to fidget. Very few children, perhaps, know how to keep still; or else they fall asleep—but it doesn't matter if they fall asleep. You could try that at least once, see what happens: "Let's see! Who will answer my question after ten minutes' silence? And not ten minutes which you will spend trying to get hold of everything you may know mentally about the subject, no, no—ten minutes during which you will be just like this, blank, still, silent, attentive... attentive and silent." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/11-november-1967#p156</ref>
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If you want my help, it is not by accepting one principle of action and rejecting another that you can have it, but by concentrating before the class, by establishing silence and peace in your heart (and in your head too, if possible) and by calling my presence with a sincere aspiration that I should be behind all your actions, not in the way you think that I would act (for that can only be an arbitrary opinion and therefore necessarily wrong), but in silence and calm and inner spontaneity. This is the only true way of getting out of your difficulty. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mothers-action-in-a-class-of-children-aged-seven-to-nine#p24</ref>
<center>~</center>
And if you do not want your body to fail you, avoid wasting your energies in useless agitation. Whatever you do, do it in a quiet and composed poise. In peace and silence is the greatest strength. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/students#p16</ref>
== Receptivity in Silence ==
... one should never think and plan beforehand what one ought to say or write. One should simply be able to silence one's mind, to turn it like a receptacle towards the higher Consciousness and express as it receives it, in mental silence, what comes from above. That would be true spontaneity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/29-august-1956#p7</ref>
<center>~</center>
''Q. ... Mother, when you speak we try to understand with the mind, but when you communicate something in silence, on what part of the being should we concentrate?''
''A.'' It is always better, for meditation—you see, we use the word "meditation", but it does not necessarily mean "moving ideas around in the head", quite the contrary—it is always better to try to concentrate in a centre, the centre of aspiration, one might say, the place where the flame of aspiration burns, to gather in all the energies there, at the solar plexus centre and, if possible, to obtain an attentive silence as though one wanted to listen to something extremely subtle, something that demands a complete attention, a complete concentration and total silence. And then not to move at all. Not to think, not to stir, and make that movement of opening so as to receive all that can be received, but taking good care not to try to know what is happening while it is happening, for if one wants to understand or even to observe actively, it keeps up a sort of cerebral activity which is unfavourable to the fullness of the receptivity—to be silent, as totally silent as possible, in an attentive concentration, and then be still. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/5-june-1957#p19</ref>
It is a discipline to be followed. For a long time one may try and not succeed, but as soon as one succeeds in making a "mirror", still and attentive, one always obtains a result, not necessarily with a precise form of thought but always with the sensations of a light coming from above. And then, if one can receive this light coming from above without entering immediately into a whirl of activity, receive it in calm and silence and let it penetrate deep into the being, then after a while it expresses itself either as a luminous thought or as a very precise indication here (''Mother indicates the heart''), in this other centre. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/23-july-1958#p10</ref>
It is an admirable state; it is perfect peace of mind. There is no longer any need to accumulate acquired knowledge, received ideas which have to be memorised; it is no longer necessary to clutter one's brain with thousands and thousands of things in order to have at one's command, when the time comes, the knowledge that is needed to perform an action, to impart a teaching, to solve a problem. The mind is silent, the brain is still, everything is clear, quiet, calm; and at the right moment, by divine Grace a drop of light falls into the consciousness and what needs to be known is known. Why should one care to remember—why try to retain that knowledge? On the day or at the moment that it is needed one will have it again. At each second one is a blank page on which what must be known will be inscribed—in the peace, the repose, the silence of a perfect receptivity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-4#p4</ref>
== Knowing in Silence ==
But the timeless self knowledge of this Eternal is beyond mind; it is a supramental knowledge superconscient to us and only to be acquired by the stilling or transcending of the temporal activity of our conscious mind, by an entry into Silence or a passage through Silence into the consciousness of eternity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-self-consciousness-and-the-ignorance#p5</ref>
<center>~</center>
"In Silence is wisdom"—it is in the inner silence of the mind that true knowledge can come; for the ordinary activity of the mind only creates surface ideas and representations which are not true knowledge. Speech is usually only the expression of the superficial nature—therefore to throw oneself out too much in such speech wastes the energy and prevents the inward listening which brings the word of true knowledge. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p9</ref>
<center>~</center> Behind the common idea that a Yogi can know all things and answer all questions is the actual fact that there is a plane in the mind where the memory of everything is stored and remains always in existence. All mental movements that belong to the life of the earth are memorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there and care to take the trouble, can read in it and learn anything they choose. But this region must not be mistaken for the supramental levels. And yet to reach even there you must be able to silence the movements of the material or physical mind; you must be able to leave aside all your sensations and put a stop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must get out of the vital; you must become free from the slavery of the body. Then only you can enter into that region and see. But if you are sufficiently interested to make this effort, you can arrive there and read what is written in the earth's memory. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/23-june-1929#p9</ref> <center>~</center> No, you don't understand. To go to that place, at the time of going you must be able to completely silence the mind (and all the other things I have mentioned), but just for going there. For example, you decide: "Now, I am going to read such and such a chapter of earth's history", then you lounge comfortably in an easy-chair, you tell people not to disturb you, you go within yourself and completely stop your mind, and you send your mental messenger to that place.... It is preferable to have someone who can guide you there, because otherwise you can lose your way and go elsewhere! And then you go. It is like a very big library with many many small compartments. So you find the compartment corresponding to the information you wish to have. You press a button and it opens. And inside it you find a scroll as it were, a mental formation which unrolls before you like a parchment, and you read. And then you make a note of what you have read and afterwards return quietly into your body with the new knowledge from above begins , and you may transcribe physically, if you can, what you have found, and then you get up and start your life as before.... This may take you ten minutes, it may take one hour, it may take half an hour, it depends upon your capacity, but it is important to know the way, as I said, in order not to make a mistake. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/30-september-1953#p6</ref> == Silence in Self-Observation == The best is to keep silent and look well at things, and little by little you make notes within yourself and keep the record without pronouncing any judgement. When you are able to descendkeep all that within you, frequentlyquietly, constantlywithout agitation and present it very calmly before the highest part of your consciousness, with an attempt to maintain an attentive silence, and wait, then uninterruptedlyperhaps, slowly, as if coming from a far distance and to from a great height, something like a light will manifest and you will know a little more of truth. <ref>http://incarnateword.in /cwm/04/20-january-1951#p23</ref> <center>~</center> Thus a division is created between the mind that thinks and wills and the mind's quietude or silencethat observes and the Purusha becomes the witness only; intuitions he sees, he understands the process and inspirationslaws of his thought, revelations born but detaches himself from it. Then as the master of the sanction he withdraws his past sanction from the tangle of the mental undercurrent and the reasoning intellect and causes both to cease from their importunities. He becomes liberated from subjection to the thinking mind and capable of the utter silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-the-heart-and-the-mind#p9</ref> <center>~</center> It is quite possible for thoughts to pass without disturbing the silence—but for that you must be perfectly detached from the thoughts and indifferent to them. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p4</ref> == Silence in Communication == Listen in a greater sighttotal silence of your whole being—mental, a higher truth vital and wisdomphysical. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/6-july-1933#p6</ref> <center>~</center> For it is one of the powers of this inner consciousness to bring about what it sees to be the right thing by simply communicating in entire silence to the consciousness of another. That is the true way of acting—through the power of the inner consciousness, enter into its knowledge, vision and will. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p44</ref> <center>~</center> There are some who have the flow of speech by nature and those who are very vital cannot do without it. But the latter case (not being, able to do without it) is obviously a luminous intuitive discrimination works which dispels all darkness disability from the spiritual point of understanding or dazzling confusions, puts all view. There are also certain stages in order; the sadhana when one has to go inward and silence is at that time very necessary while unnecessary speech becomes a new dispersion of the energies or externalises the consciousness begins . It is especially this chat for chat's sake tendency that has to formbe overcome. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2231/speech-and-yoga#p8</ref> <center>~</center> If you want to be an instrument of the Truth, you must always speak the truth and not falsehood. But this does not mean that you must tell everything to everybody. To conceal the truth by silence or refusal to speak is permissible, because the truth may be misunderstood or misused by those who are not prepared for it or who are opposed to it—it may even be made a starting point for distortion or sheer falsehood. But to speak falsehood is another matter. Even in jest it should be avoided, because it tends to lower theconsciousness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-tripleand-transformationyoga#p26p58</ref> <center>~</center>
== Listening to music Silence in Silence Aspiration ==
It is much quite certain that to create absolute silence is of all things the most difficult, for many things of which one was not aware, become enormous! There were all kinds of suggestion, movements, thoughts, formations which went on as though automatically in the outer consciousness, almost outside the consciousness, on the frontiers of consciousness; and as soon as one wants to be absolutely silent, one becomes aware of all these things which go on moving, moving, moving and make a lot of noise and prevent you from being silent. That is why it is better to eat remain very quiet, very calm and at the meal same time very attentive to something which is above you and to which you aspire, and if there is this kind of noise passing like that around you (Mother moves her hands around her head), not to pay attention, not to look, not to heed it. If there are thoughts which go round and round and round like this (gestures), which come and go, do not look, do not pay attention, but concentrate upwards in silence or at any rate a great aspiration which one may even formulate—because often it helps the concentration—towards the light, the peace, the quietude, towards a kind of inner impassiveness, so that the concentration may be strong enough for you not to attend to all that continues to whirl about all around. But if suddenly you say, "Ah, there's some noise! Oh, here is a thought!", then it is finished. You will never succeed in quietnessbeing quiet. Have you never seen those people who try to stop a quarrel by shouting still louder than the ones who are quarrelling? <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3106/food8-september-1954#p9p32</ref>
== Understanding a teaching in silence Silence, Activity and Action ==
== Sri Aurobindo’s = Listening to Music in Silence ===
<div style="color:#000000;"center>(The Mother, 13 May 1953)~</divcenter>
<div style="color:#000000;"center>There is a greater power in silence than in words, however forceful. The greatest transformations have been achieved in the silence of concentration.~</divcenter>
<div style="color:#000000;"center>In order to allow at all to the higher Light an adequate entry and force of working, it is necessary to acquire a power for quietude of the nature, to compose, tranquillise, impress a controlled passivity or even an entire silence on mind and heart, life and body~</divcenter>
<div style="color:#000000;"center>Now, there is a greater depth of pain which leaves you in an absolute silence and opens the inner doors to greater depths which can put you in immediate touch with the Divine. But this indeed is not expressed in words. It changes your consciousness; but usually a long time elapses before one can say anything about it. ~</divcenter>
== Silent Aspiration = Nearness to Someone Who Has Achieved Silence ===
What the sadhaka has to do is to be careful to reject and hush these outsiders, so that during the meditation at least the peace and quietude of the mind and vital may be complete. This can be done best if you keep a strong and silent will. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/0329/23-june-1929silence#p21p15</ref>
== Establishing Impediments in Attaining Silence ==
== Communicating in Silence External Interference==
I emphasise this fact because there are quite a few people who, when mental silence has been transmitted to them by occult means, are immediately alarmed and afraid of losing their intelligence. Because they can no longer think, they fear they may become stupid! But to cease thinking is a much higher achievement than to be able to spin out thoughts endlessly and it demands a much greater development. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3003/the-inwardconjugate-movementverses#p44p90</ref>
<refcenter>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p58~</refcenter>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>These rare moments of silence and the effort to concentrate together―if not to meditate―are they not an opportunity to receive your force and to open ourselves a little more to you and to Sri Aurobindo, helping to form our collective soul?~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/community-affairs#p144</ref></span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Concentrating together is indeed a very good thing and helps you to become conscious. But </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">it cannot be imposed. I advise you and them to organise this moment of silence daily for all those who want to participate, but without imposing anything on the others. It is not compulsory but it is good.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/community-affairs#p146</ref></spancenter>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>I met an Indian who was a great Gita enthusiast and a very great lover of silence. He used to say, "When I go to my disciples, if they are in the right state I don't need to speak. So we observe silence together, and in the silence something is realised. But when they are not in a good enough state for this, I speak a little, just a little, to try to put them in the right state. And when they are in a worse state still, they ask questions!" (The Mother, 4 April 1956) ~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/4-april-1956#p13</ref></spancenter>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>A moment of ~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">silence</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">and concentration is always good for all the children. But the prayer should not be compulsory. Those who want to do it will be encouraged. I suggest that you put up a notice-board in the classroom with these words written on it in large letters:</spancenter>
In the entirely silent mind there is usually the static sense of the Divine without any active movement. But there can come into it all higher thought and aspiration and movements. There is then no absolute silence but one feels a fundamental silence behind which is not disturbed by any movement. <div style="colorref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#000000;">“Mother is always here amongst us to help us and guide us.”p6</divref>
<div style="color:#000000;"center>Most of the children will understand, and some are capable of feeling.~</divcenter>
It is not necessary [in a calm mind] that there should be no thought. When there is no thought, it is silence. But the mind is said to be calm when thoughts, feelings, etc. may pass through it, but it is not disturbed. It feels that the thoughts are not its own; it observes them perhaps; but it is not perturbed by anything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1229/mothersquiet-action-in-a-class-of-children-aged-seven-toand-ninecalm#p8p58</ref>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"center>If you want my help, it is not by accepting one principle of action and rejecting another that you can have it, but by concentrating before the class, by establishing silence and peace in your heart (and in your head too, if possible) and by calling my presence with a sincere aspiration that I should be behind all your actions, not in the way you think that I would act (for that can only be an arbitrary opinion and therefore necessarily wrong), but in ~</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">silence</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">and calm and inner spontaneity. This is the only true way of getting out of your difficulty.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mothers-action-in-a-class-of-children-aged-seven-to-nine#p24</ref></spancenter>