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Read Summary of '''[[Silence Summary|Silence]]'''
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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>
== 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 means, 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 firststep 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. <center>~</center> Silence is more than quietude; it can be gained by banishing thought altogether from the inner mind keeping it voiceless or quite outside; but more easily it is established by a descent from above—one feels it coming down, entering and occupying, or surrounding the personal consciousness which then tends to merge itself in the vast impersonal silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p36</ref> === Calm === Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p11</ref> <center>~</center> 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 falling thoughts are not its own; it observes them perhaps; but it is not perturbed by anything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p58</ref> === Peace === Peace is a calm deepened into something that is very positive amounting almost to a tranquil waveless Ananda. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p12</ref> <center>~</center> The silence and peace are themselves part of the higher consciousness—the rest comes in the silence and peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p20</ref> <center>~</center> When the mind is silent, there is peace and in peace all things that are divine can come. When there is not the mind, there is the Self which is greater than the mind. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p21</ref> <center>~</center> It is from the Silence that the peace comes; when the peace deepens and deepens, it becomes more and more the Silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p29</ref> === Continence of Speech === First condition, know how to keep silent. And not only keep your tongue quiet, but silence your mind, keep the habitual thought movementshead silent. If you wish to have a true, sincere experience upon which you can build, you must know how to be silent, thought formationsotherwise you have nothing but what you fabricate yourself, thought currents which agitate is equivalent to zero. All that one can say is, "Heavens, what a fashioner my mind is!" <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/19-march-1951#p34</ref> <center>~</center> Already someone has told me, quite rightly, that while practising this mindhalf-substance. That reposesilence, vacancy or at any rate this continence of movementspeech, one achieves quite naturally the mastery of numerous difficulties in one's character and also one avoids a great many frictions and misunderstandings. This is true. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/impurity#p27</ref> <center>~</center> To remain in silence as much as possible is good for many a sufficient mental silencetime. But entire retirement is seldom found to be helpful—the lower movements may remain quiescent owing to want of stimulus from outside, but do not disappear. For that you must be able to get an inner quietude and a mastery over the outer movements which will resist any atmosphere. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2831/philosophical-thoughtspeech-and-yoga#p21p74</ref>
== 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>
<center>~</center> In silence, the consciousness grows. It aspires to know You more and more perfectly. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/3-april-1972#p1</ref> <center>~</center> = Why Silence and Yoga = Philosophy knows nothing about peace and silence or the inner and outer vital. These things are discovered only by Yoga. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-intellect-and-yoga#p2</ref> <center>~</center> Obviously to live in the silent Brahman, the best way is to live within where one can have the silence and resist all outward pulls. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p57</ref> <center>~</center> But Yoga is not a mental field, the consciousness which has to be established is not a mental, logical or debating consciousness—it is even laid down by Yoga that unless and until the mind is stilled, including the intellectual or logical mind, and opens itself in quietude or silence to a higher and deeper consciousness, vision and knowledge, sadhana cannot reach its goal. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/doubt-and-faith#p1</ref> == Descent of Peace == There are two movements that are necessary—one is the ascent through the increasing of peace and silence to its source above the mind,—that is indicated by the tendency of the consciousness to rise out of the body to the top of the head and above where it is easy to realise the Self in all its stillness and liberation and wideness and to open to the other powers of the Higher Consciousness. The other is the descent of the peace, silence, the spiritual freedom and wideness and the powers of the higher consciousness as they develop into the lower down to the most physical and even the subconscient. To both of these movements there can be a block—a block above due to the mind and lower nature being unhabituated (it is that really and not incapacity) and a block below due to the physical consciousness and its natural slowness to change. Everybody has these blocks but by persistent will, aspiration or abhyāsa they can be overcome. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-and-descent#p16</ref> <center>~</center> I have said that the most decisive way for the Peace or the Silence Important? to come is by a descent from above. In fact, in reality though not always in appearance, that is how they always come;—not in appearance always, because the sadhak is not always conscious of the process; he feels the peace settling in him or at least manifesting, but he has not been conscious how and whence it came. Yet it is the truth that all that belongs to the higher consciousness comes from above, not only the spiritual peace and silence, but the Light, the Power, the Knowledge, the higher seeing and thought, the Ananda come from above. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-psychic-and-spiritual-realisations#p18</ref> <center>~</center> If your consciousness rises above the head, that means that it goes beyond the ordinary mind to the centre above which receives the higher consciousness or else towards the ascending levels of the higher consciousness itself. The first result is the silence and peace of the Self which is the basis of the higher consciousness; this may afterwards descend into the lower levels, into the very body. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-and-descent#p9</ref> <center>~</center> The silence in the head and heart and the emptiness are both necessary and desirable. When they are there, the consciousness finds them natural and they give it the sense of lightness and release; that is why the thoughts or speech of the old kind are foreign to it and when they come give fatigue. This silence and emptiness must grow, so that the higher consciousness with its knowledge, light, Ananda, peace can come down in it and progressively replace the old things. They must indeed occupy not only head and heart but the whole body. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/experiences-of-the-self-the-one-and-the-infinite#p25</ref> <center>~</center> Descents of peace are good, but an increasingly stable quietude and silence of the mind is something more valuable. When that is there then other things can come—usually one at a time, light or strength and force or knowledge or ananda. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p75</ref> == Release of the Spirit == 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>
But for the knowledge of the Self it is necessary to have the power of a complete intellectual passivity, the power of dismissing all thought, the power of the mind to think not at all which the Gita in one passage enjoins. This is a hard saying for the occidental mind to which thought is the highest thing and which will be apt to mistake the power of the mind not to think, its complete silence for the incapacity of thought. But this power of silence is a capacity and not an incapacity, a power and not a weakness. It is a profound and pregnant stillness. Only when the mind is thus entirely still, like clear, motionless and level water, in a perfect purity and peace of the whole being and the soul transcends thought, can the Self which exceeds and originates all activities and becomings, the Silence from which all words are born, the Absolute of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our being. In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. Therefore to us the name of That is the Silence and the Peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p18 </ref>
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>
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>
<center>~</center> In silence lies the greatest devotionsource of the highest inspirations. (The Mother, 6 April 1972) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1716/6letters-to-a-young-aprilsadhak-1972xii#p1p8</ref>
In the silence of our heart there is always peace and joy. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p8</ref>
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>
As for calm and silence, there is no need of the subconscient supramental to get that . One can get it even on the level of Higher Mind which is best dealt with when the opening next above the human intelligence. I got these things in 1908, twenty-seven years ago and I can assure you they were solid enough and marvellous enough without any need of the consciousness supramentality to make it more so! Again, a calm that "seems like motion" is a phenomenon of which I know nothing. A calm or silence which can support or produce action—that I know and that is what comes down from above I have had—the proof is completethat out of an absolute silence of the mind I edited the Bande Mataram for four months and wrote 6½ volumes of the Arya, not to speak of all the letters and messages etc. Then one becomes aware etc. I have written since. If you say that writing is not an action or motion but only something that seems like it, a jugglery of the subconscient as consciousness,—well, still out of that calm and silence I conducted a separate domain pretty strenuous political activity and can bring down into it have also taken my share in keeping up an Asram which has at least an appearance to the silence physical senses of being solid and all else that comes from above. material! <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/3128/the-subconscient-and-thesupermind-integralor-yogasupramental#p49p45</ref>
== Silence, Sleep and Sachidananda for Receptivity ==
Naturally, all these discussions (or exchanges of opinion) are purely mental and have no value from the viewpoint of the Truth. Each mind has its way of seeing and understanding things, and even if you could unite and bring together all these ways of seeing, you would still be very far from attaining the Truth. It is only when, in quietnessthe silence of the mind, you can lift yourself above thought, peace and silence that the spiritual forces actyou are ready to know by identity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/quietopinion-and-truth#p26p5</ref>
The only cure for insomnia is to get rid of the need for sleep by knowing how to obtain mental silence in the head and heart and the emptiness are both necessary and desirableat will. When they are thereyou can obtain silence at will, you must put your body into a position of absolute repose, stretched out comfortably on the consciousness finds them natural and they give it the sense of lightness and releasebed; that then you go within yourself until there is why the thoughts or speech of the old kind are foreign to it and when they come give fatigue. This perfect mental silence and emptiness must grow, so enter a state that the higher consciousness with its knowledge, light, Ananda, peace can come down in it and progressively replace the old things. They must indeed occupy not only head and heart but the whole bodyis something like a very deep sleep. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/17/30/experiences-of-the-self-the-one-and-themay-infinite1966#p25p3</ref>
== Connecting to Divine Silence for Progress ==
Silence... Oh! It is quite possible for thoughts better to pass without disturbing the silence—but for that you must be perfectly detached from the thoughts and indifferent practise it than to themtalk about it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2910/silenceaphorism-111-112#p4</ref>
== Silence in Education ==
''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?''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>
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:
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 minimum .'' 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 necessaryto 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. I 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 most undisciplined children life of the earth are usually memorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there and care to take the most intelligenttrouble, 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 tamed able to leave aside all your sensations and put a stop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must feel get out of the pressure vital; you must become free from the slavery of an intelligence 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 more powerful than their ownwritten in the earth's memory. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/23-june-1929#p9</ref> <center>~</center> No, you don't understand. And for To go to thatplace, one 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 come down disturb you, you go within yourself and completely stop your mind, and you send your mental messenger to that place.... It is preferable to their levelhave someone who can guide you there, because otherwise you can lose your way and above all know how 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 remain unaffected by 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, and you may transcribe physically, if you can, what they doyou have found, and then you get up and start your life as before.... In factThis 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 yogic problemmistake. <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 keep all that within you, quietly, without agitation and present it very calmly before the highest part of your consciousness, with an attempt to maintain an attentive silence, and wait, then perhaps, slowly, as if coming from a far distance and from a great height, something like a light will manifest and you will know a little more of truth. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1204/mothers20-actionjanuary-1951#p23</ref> <center>~</center> Thus a division is created between the mind that thinks and wills and the mind that observes and the Purusha becomes the witness only; he sees, he understands the process and laws of his thought, 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-aand-classthe-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 total silence ofyour whole being—mental, vital and physical. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/6-childrenjuly-aged1933#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, its knowledge, vision and will. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-teninward-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 todo without it) is obviously a disability from the spiritual point of view. There are also certain stages in the sadhana when one has to go inward and silence is at that time very necessary while unnecessary speech becomes a dispersion of the energies or externalises the consciousness. It is especially this chat for chat's sake tendency that has to be overcome. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-elevenyoga#p4p8</ref> <center>~</center>
Ah! From the practical point of view, you must be in a state of inner silence, with a mental activity exclusively occupied with forming the thing you want to do, the progress you want to accomplish, that is to say, the mental construction you need for your work. And your capacity for observation—it is infinitely preferable, I could say absolutely indispensable, to use it to observe your field of action, the processes you employ for your action, the results obtained, the principle you can arrive at from the experience, the knowledge you can obtain, indeed, all these things... but not to turn back on yourself and look at yourself acting. (The Mother, 19 January 1955) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/19-january-1955#p26</ref>
The Gita promises us freedom for the spirit even in the midst of works and the full energies of Nature, if we accept subjection of our whole being to that which is higher than the separating and limiting ego. It proposes an integral dynamic activity founded on a still passivity; a largest possible action irrevocably based on an immobile calm is its secret,—free expression out of a supreme inward silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-surrender-in-works-the-way-of-the-gita#p11</ref>
<center>~</center>
The Supreme pours Himself out of an eternal peace, poise and silence into an eternal activity, free and infinite, freely fixing for itself its self-determinations, using infinite quality to shape out of it varied combination of quality. We have to go back to that peace, poise and 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 world. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-modes-of-the-self#p11</ref>
It is possible only when one has had the experience of complete silence in the mental region and when the spiritual force with its light and power descends through the mind and makes it act directly without its following its usual method of analysis, deduction, reasoning. All speech these faculties which are usually considered the normal activities of the mind, must be stopped, and yet the spiritual Light, Knowledge and Power must be able to transform them into a channel of direct expression, without using these means to express themselves. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/17-september-1958#p8</ref> <center>~</center> I said once that, to speak usefully for ten minutes, you should remain silent for ten days. I could add that, to act usefully for one day, you should keep quiet for a year! Of course, I am not speaking of the ordinary day-to-day acts that are needed for the common external life, but of those who have or believe that they have something to do for the world. And the silence I speak of is the inner quietude that those alone have who can act without being identified with their action, merged into it and blinded and deafened by the noise and form of their own movement. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/26-may-1929#p30</ref> <center>~</center> It is in the silence of the mind that the strongest and freest action comes prepared out can come, e.g. the writing of a book, poetry, inspired speech etc. When the mind is active it interferes with the inspiration, puts in its own small ideas which get mixed up with the inspiration or starts something from a lower level or simply stops the eternal Silenceinspiration altogether by bubbling up with all sorts of mere mental suggestions. So also intuitions or action etc. can come more easily when the ordinary inferior movement of the mind is not there. It is also in the silence of the mind that it is easiest for knowledge to come from within or above, from the psychic or from the higher consciousness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1031/aphorismthought-277and-278knowledge#p1p65</ref> <center>~</center>
=== Working in Silence ===
Work is always best done in silence except so far as it is necessary to speak for the work itself. Conversation is best kept for leisure hours. So nobody should object to your silence during work. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/interactions-with-others-and-the-practice-of-yoga#p53</ref>
<center>~</center> One can have a quiet mind without being in a complete state of silence; one can carry on an activity without being disturbed. The ideal is to be able to act without coming out of the mental quietude. One can do everything while keeping the mind quiet, and what one does is better done. (The Mother, 7 December 1966) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/7-december-1966#p7</ref> <center>~</center>
What has to happen is that this inner consciousness should be always there not troubled by any disturbance with the constant silence, inner happiness, calm quietude, etc., while the outer consciousness does what is necessary in the way of work etc. or, what is better, has that done through it—it is the latter experience that you have some days as someone pushing the work with so much continuous force without your feeling tired. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p74</ref>
<center>~</center>
It is precisely by action in silence that we can best do our work much more than by speech or writing, which can only be subordinate and secondary. For in this Yoga those will succeed best who know how to obey and follow the written and spoken word, but can also bear the silence and feel in it and receive (without listening to other voices or mistaking mental and vital suggestions and impulsions for the divine Truth and the divine Will) help, support and guidance. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-lower-vital-being#p36</ref>
If you don''(Another child) Mothert do that, when you speak we try to understand with the mindare wasting your time, but when you communicate something in silenceand, on what part of into the being should we concentrate?bargain, wasting mine. That'' It is always better, for meditation—you see, we use the word "meditation"s a proved fact. I thought I had already told you this several times, 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 centrestill perhaps I didn't tell you clearly enough. If you come here, come with the centre intention of aspiration, one might say, the place where the flame of aspiration burns, to gather listening 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 What happens you will know later; the effect of opening so as to receive all that can be received, this silent attitude you will recognise later; but taking good care not to try to know what is happening while it is happeningfor the moment, for if one wants to understand or even the only thing to observe actively, it keeps up a sort of cerebral activity which do is unfavourable to the fullness of the receptivity—to be like this (gesture), silent, as totally silent as possibleimmobile, in an attentive concentration, and then be stillconcentrated. (The Mother, 5 June 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/0908/525-junejuly-19571956#p19p14</ref>
== Listening to music in Silence = Becoming Conscious ===
== Fighting in Silence =Few Helpful Activities and Qualities =
== Art = Reading ===
== Understanding a teaching in silence = Witness Without Involvement ===
There are witnesses everywhere. It is a matter capacity of attention. If you concentrate your attention on the being to detach itself, to stand back and look at what is being saidhappening, with as when one looks at something happening in the will to understand it correctlystreet or when one looks at others playing and does not himself play, one remain seated, looking at the silence others moving but does not move. That’s how it is created spontaneously—it is attention that creates the silence. (The Mother, 12 March 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/12-march-1951#p12</ref>
= Impediments in Attaining Silence =
I have seen many cases in which Sri Aurobindo had given silence to somebody, had made his mind silent, and that person came back to him in a kind of despair, saying: "But I have become stupid!" For his thought was no longer excited. (The Mother, 30 January 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/30-january-1957#p12</ref>
A silence, an entry into a wide or even immense or infinite emptiness is part of the inner spiritual experience; of this silence and void the physical mind has a certain fear, the small superficially active thinking or vital mind a shrinking from it or dislike,—for it confuses the silence with mental and vital incapacity and the void with cessation or non-existence: but this silence is the silence of the spirit which is the condition of a greater knowledge, power and bliss, and this emptiness is the emptying of the cup of our natural being, a liberation of it from its turbid contents so that it may be filled with the wine of God; it is the passage not into non-existence but to a greater existence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-divine-life#p16</ref>
<center>~</center> You must dismiss the fear of the concentration. The emptiness you feel coming on you is the silence of the great peace in which you become aware of your self, not as the small ego shut up in the body, but as the spiritual self wide as the universe. Consciousness is not dissolved; it is the limits of the consciousness that are dissolved. In that silence thoughts may cease for a time, there may be nothing but a great limitless freedom and wideness, but into that silence, that empty wideness descends the vast peace from above, light, bliss, knowledge, the higher Consciousness in which you feel the oneness of the Divine. It is the beginning of the transformation and there is nothing in it to fear. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-universal-or-cosmic-consciousness#p37</ref> ==Resistance to Face Themselves== In making a noise? Because they like to deaden themselves. In silence they have to face their own difficulties, they are in front of themselves, and usually they don't like that. In the noise they forget everything, they become stupefied. So they are happy. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/26-january-1955#p13</ref> ==Interference of Lower Nature== The descent of the peace is often one of the first major positive experiences of the sadhana. In this state of peace the normal thought-mind (buddhi) is apt to fall silent or abate most of its activity and, when it does, very often either this vital mind can rush in, if one is not on one's guard, or else a kind of mechanical physical or random subconscient mind can begin to come up and act; these are the chief disturbers of the silence. Or else the lower vital mind can try to disturb; that brings up the ego and passions and their play. All these are signs of elements that have to be got rid of, because if they remain and other of the higher powers begin to descend, Power and Force, Knowledge, Love or Ananda, those lower things may come across with the result that either the higher consciousness retires or its descent is covered up and the stimulation it gives is misused for the purposes of the lower nature. This is truethe reason why many sadhaks after having big experiences fall into the clutch of a magnified ego, upheavals, ambition, exaggerated sex or other vital passions or distortions. It is always well therefore if a complete purification of the vital can either precede or keep pace with the positive experience—at least in natures in which the vital is strongly active. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-mind#p48</ref> ==External Interference== To try to solve this problem ascetics used to go away into forests and sit under a tree; there, of course, they had not to fear any contagion from other human beings. But it is very difficult to go to the very end of this resolution, for it quickly gets known that a saint is sitting under a tree in meditation, and immediately everybody rushes there! Not only does he not escape from the difficulty, but he increases it, for there is not a thing more dangerous than to teach others. You know just a little and you begin to teach others, and you are immediately compelled to say more than you know, because people put questions to you which you cannot answer, unless you are a hero of silence. In the world, those who want to pass themselves off as spiritual teachers—when people come and ask them something they do not know, altogether truethey invent it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/5-february-1951#p12</ref> ==Lack of Control== Man is the first animal on earth to be able to use articulate sounds. Indeed, he is very proud of this capacity and exercises it without moderation or discernment. The world is at deafened with the sound of his words and sometimes one almost misses the harmonious silence of the plant kingdom. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-four-austerities-and-the moment -four-liberations#p34</ref> == Misconception that one will Lose their Ability to Think == 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/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p90</ref> == Abolishing the Ego - Getting Rid of Moral Egoism == First of all , you must want to do it, and there are very few people who want to. And that is silenced exactly what they say, it is this justification of their way of being, "That is the way I am made, I can't do otherwise. And then, if I change this, if I change that or if I do without this thing or if I get rid of that other, I shall no longer exist!" And if one doesn't say this openly, one thinks it…. One pushes it away in order certain very obvious things; for example, if there is something good and someone rushes forward to make sure of having it first, even jostling his neighbour then here one becomes quite aware that man may become this is not very elegant, so one begins to suppress these crudities, one makes a big effort—and one becomes highly self-satisfied: "I am not selfish, I give what is good to others, I don't keep it for myself", and one begins to get puffed up. And so one is filled with a moral egoism which is much worse than physical egoism, for it is conscious of its superiority. <center>~</center> And then there are those who have left everything, given up everything, who have left their families, distributed their belongings, gone into solitude, who live an ascetic life, and who are terribly conscious of his origin their superiority, who look down at poor humanity from the height of their spiritual grandeur—and they have, these people, such a formidable ego that unless it is broken into small bits, never, never will they see the Divine. So it is not such an easy task. It takes a lot of time. And I must tell you that heeven when the work is done, it must always be begun again. <ref>http://incarnateword.in his folly/cwm/04/19-april-1951#p8</ref> == Downward Pull of Imperfections == … the spiritual emergence has to wait at each step for the instruments to be ready; next, as the spiritual formation emerges, it is mixed inextricably with the powers, motives, impulses of an imperfect mind, life and body,—there is a pull on it to accept and serve these powers, motives and impulses, a downward gravitation and perilous mixture, a constant temptation to fall or deviation, at least a fettering, a weight, a retardation; there is a necessity to return upon a step gained in order to distract himself conceives bring up something of the nature which hangs back and prevents a farther step; finally, there is, by the very character of mind in which it has to work, a limitation of the emerging spiritual light and power and a compulsion on it to move by segments, to follow one line or another and leave altogether or carries out leave till later on the achievement of its own totality. This hampering, this obstacle of the mind, life and body,—the heavy inertia and persistence of the body, the turbid passions of the life-part, the obscurity and doubting incertitudes, denials, other-formulations of the mind,—is an impediment so great and intolerable that the spiritual urge becomes impatient and tries rigorously to quell these opponents, to reject the life, to mortify the body, to silence the worst stupiditiesmind and achieve its own separate salvation, spirit departing into pure spirit and rejecting from it altogether an undivine and obscure Nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-evolution-of-the-spiritual-man#p10</ref>
The descent of the peace difficulty is often one of that the first major positive experiences of things in the sadhanaatmosphere come in even if one does not speak with people. In this state of peace the normal thought-There are always mind (buddhi) waves moving about. It is apt a mastery that has to fall silent or abate most be developed, beginning with a power of its activity silence, exclusion, non-response. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p75</ref> = More on Silence = == Fighting in Silence == Fight, when it doeswhile thy hands are free, very often either this vital mind can rush with thy hands and thy voice and thy brain and all manner of weapons. Art thou chained in, if one is not on onethe enemy's guarddungeons and have his gags silenced thee? Fight with thy silent all besieging soul and thy wide-ranging will-power and when thou art dead, or else a kind of mechanical physical or random subconscient mind can begin to come up fight still with the world-encompassing force that went out from God within thee. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-272-273#p3</ref> == Thoughts and act; these Silence == Those who are at the chief disturbers bottom of the silencescale, who have never trained their minds, find it necessary to speak in order to think. Or else It happens even that it is the lower vital mind can try sound of their voice which enables them to disturbassociate ideas; if they do not express them, they do not think. At a higher level there are those who still have to move words about in their heads in order to think, even though they do not utter them aloud. Those who truly begin to think are those who are able to think without words, that brings up is to say, to be in contact with the ego idea and passions express it through a wide variety of words and their playphrases. All these There are signs of elements higher degrees—many higher degrees—but those who think without words truly begin to reach an intellectual state and for them it is much easier to make the mind quiet, that have is to say, to be got rid stop the movement ofassociating the words that constantly move about like passers-by in a public square, because if they remain and other to contemplate an idea in silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p89</ref> <center>~</center> 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 powers begin to descend, Power thought and aspiration and Forcemovements. There is then no absolute silence but one feels a fundamental silence behind which is not disturbed by any movement. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p6</ref> <center>~</center> It is not necessary [in a calm mind] that there should be no thought. When there is no thought, Knowledgeit is silence. But the mind is said to be calm when thoughts, Love or Anandafeelings, those lower things etc. may come across with the result pass through it, but it is not disturbed. It feels that either the higher consciousness retires or thoughts are not its descent own; it observes them perhaps; but it is covered up not perturbed by anything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and -calm#p58</ref> <center>~</center> It must have been the stimulation it gives is misused for descent of the higher silence, the purposes silence of the lower natureSelf or Atman. This In this silence one perceives, but the mind is not active,—things are sensed, but without any responsive connection or vibration. The silent Self is there as a separate reality, not bound or involved in the reason why many sadhaks after having big experiences fall into the clutch activity of a magnified egoNature, upheavalsaloof, ambitiondetached and self-existent. Even if thoughts come across this silence, exaggerated sex or other vital passions or distortionsthey do not disturb it; the Self is separate from the thinking mind also. It In this connection the feeling "I think" is always well therefore if a complete purification of survival from the vital can either precede or keep pace with old consciousness; in the positive experience—at least full silence what one feels is "thought occurs in natures in which me"—the identification with thoughts as well as with the vital is strongly activeperception of objects ceases. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2830/the-minddescent-of-the-higher-powers#p48p26</ref> == Meditation and Silence ==
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=References=