Changes

<span style="color:#000000;">Besides, for inner growth, I do not believe that words are necessary. In silence all our help is there at its most powerful. (The Mother, 6 September 1939) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/6-september-1939#p3</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Already someone has told me, quite rightly, that while practising this half-silence, or at any rate this continence of speech, 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></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It must have been the descent of the higher silence, the silence of the Self or Atman. 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 activity of Nature, aloof, detached and self-existent. Even if thoughts come across this silence, they do not disturb it; the Self is separate from the thinking mind also. In this connection the feeling "I think" is a survival from the old consciousness; in the full silence what one feels is "thought occurs in me"—the identification with thoughts as well as with the perception of objects ceases. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-descent-of-the-higher-powers#p26</ref></span>

<span style="color:#000000;">This simply means that one suddenly comes under the influence of a higher force of which one is not conscious; one is conscious only of the effect, but not of the cause. That's all. It's nothing more than that. If you were conscious you would know what makes you silent, what makes you meditate, what kind of force has entered into you or acts upon you or influences you and puts you in the silence. But as you are not conscious, you are aware only of the effect, the result, that is, the silence that comes into you. (The Mother, 24 August 1955) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/24-august-1955#p48</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Or else, one may have an experience which is almost its very opposite but which comes to the same thing. Suddenly one plunges into a depth, one moves away from the thing one perceived, it seems distant, superficial, unimportant; one enters an inner silence or an inner calm or an inward vision of things, a profound feeling, a more intimate perception of circumstances and things, in which all values change. And one becomes aware of a sort of unity, a deep identity which is one in spite of the diverse appearances. (The Mother, 26 December 1956) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/26-december-1956#p19</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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 tranquility, the light can manifest itself and open up new horizons to man's capacity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mental-education#p22</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The recurrence of the experience of the receding away of thoughts, the cessation of the thought-generating mechanism and its replacement by the mental self-space, is normal and as it should be; for this silence or at any rate the capacity for it has to grow until one can have it at will or even established in an automatic permanence. For this silence of the ordinary mind-mechanism is necessary in order that the higher mentality may manifest, descend, occupy by degrees the place of the present imperfect mentality and transform the activities of the latter into its own fuller movements. The difficulty of its coming when you are at work is only at the beginning—afterwards when it is more settled one finds that one can carry on all the activities of life either in the pervading silence itself or at least with that as the support and background. The silence remains behind and there is the necessary action on the surface or the silence is our wide self and somewhere in it an active Power does the works of Nature without disturbing the silence. It is therefore quite right to suspend the work while the visitation of the experience is there—the development of this inner silent consciousness is sufficiently important to justify a brief interruption or pause. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/three-experiences-of-the-inner-being#p4</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It is in the silence of a peaceful mind that one can best commune with Nature. (The Mother, 13 November 1969) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/13-november-1969#p1</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">When one begins to feel the inner being and live in it (the result of the experience of peace and silence) the ordinary time sense disappears or becomes purely external. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/science-and-yoga#p56</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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. (The Mother, 24 August 1955) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/24-august-1955#p42</ref></span>

<span style="color:#000000;">There is another phenomenon which is considered spiritual, but which is spiritual only indirectly: it is when you find yourself near someone who has controlled his thought and achieved mental silence. You suddenly feel this silence coming down into yourself and something which was impossible for you half an hour earlier suddenly becomes a reality. This is a rather unusual phenomenon. (The Mother, 22 January 1951) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/22-january-1951#p16</ref></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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></span>

<span style="color:#000000;">I have said that the most decisive way for the Peace or the Silence 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></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The danger of the mental forces is that when the higher consciousness descends they tend (unless there is a deep silence) to become active in the consciousness for forming ideas of a mental type which can always be misapplied. First, there should be a basis of entire calm, peace and silence—if there is activity, it should be that of a knowledge coming down and the mind silent receiving it accurately. This you can easily have, provided the mind is quiet. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/descent-and-the-lower-nature#p14</ref></span>

<span style="color:#000000;">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></span>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Those who are at the bottom of the scale, who have never trained their minds, find it necessary to speak in order to think. It happens even that it is the sound of their voice which enables them to associate 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 is to say, to be in contact with the idea and express it through a wide variety of words and phrases. There are 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 is to say, to stop the movement of associating the words that constantly move about like passers-by in a public </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">square, and to contemplate an idea in silence.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p89</ref></span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p6</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">It In the entirely silent mind there is not necessary [in a calm mind] that usually the static sense of the Divine without any active movement. But there should be no can come into it all higher thoughtand aspiration and movements. When there There is then no thought, it is absolute silence. But the mind is said to be calm when thoughts, feelings, etc. may pass through it, but it one feels a fundamental silence behind which is not disturbed. It feels that the thoughts are not its own; it observes them perhaps; but it is not perturbed by anythingany movement.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calmsilence#p58p6</ref></span>

== <span style="background-color:transparentIt 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;color:#000000it observes them perhaps;"but it is not perturbed by anything. <ref>Silence http://incarnateword.in the Physical/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p58</spanref> ==

<div style="color:#000000;">''What is meant by = Silence in the "silence of the physical consciousness" and how can one remain in this silence?''</div>Physical ==

<div style="color:#000000;">The physical consciousness ''What is not only meant by the consciousness "silence 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 physical consciousness" and responds to them by reactions of pleasure and pain which welcome or repel. This makes how can one remain in our outer being a constant activity and noise that we are only partially aware of, because we are so accustomed to them.</div>this silence?''

<div style="color:#000000;">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.</div>

<div style="color:#000000;">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</divref>

If the peace and silence continue to come down, they usually become so intense as to seize the physical mind also after a time. <div style="colorref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#000000;">(The Mother, 15 October 1959)p79</divref>

<div style="color:#0066cc;">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/cwmcwsa/1631/15difficulties-of-the-octoberphysical-1959nature#p2p28</ref></div>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If the peace physical being has felt and assimilated the silence continue to come downand peace, they usually become so intense as then inertia ought not to seize the physical mind also after a timerise up.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2931/concentrationdifficulties-andof-the-physical-meditationnature#p79p29</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p28</ref> <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">If the physical being has felt and assimilated the silence and peace, then inertia ought not to rise up.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/difficulties-of-the-physical-nature#p29</ref></span> <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Certainly, peace, purity and silence can be felt in all material things—for the Divine Self is there in all.</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p27 http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p27</ref>

<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">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.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-subconscient-and-the-integral-yoga#p49</ref></span>

<div style="color:#000000;">Generally, when you have what you call dreamless sleep, it is one of two things; either you do not remember what you dreamt or you fell into absolute unconsciousness which is almost death—a taste of death. But there is the possibility of a sleep in which you enter into an absolute silence, immobility and peace in all parts of your being and your consciousness merges into Sachchidananda. You can hardly call it sleep, for it is extremely conscious. In that condition you may remain for a few minutes, but these few minutes give you more rest and refreshment than hours of ordinary sleep. You cannot have it by chance; it requires a long training. </div> <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">(The Mother, 21 April 1929)</span><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/21-april-1929#p11</ref> <span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The sleep you describe in which there is a luminous silence or else the sleep in which there is Ananda in the cells, these are obviously the best states. The other hours, those of which you are unconscious, may be spells of a deep slumber in which you have gone out of the physical into the mental, vital or other planes. You say you were unconscious, but it may simply be that you do not remember what happened; for in coming back there is a sort of turning over of the consciousness, a transition or reversal, in which everything experienced in sleep except perhaps the last happening of all or else one that was very impressive, recedes from the physical awareness and all becomes as if a blank. There is another blank state, a state of inertia, not truly blank, but heavy and unremembering; but that is when one goes deeply and crassly into the subconscient; this subterranean plunge is very </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">undesirable, obscuring, lowering, often fatiguing rather than restful, the reverse of the luminous silence.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#0066cc;"><ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/sleep#p50</ref></span>

The sleep you describe in which there is a luminous silence or else the sleep in which there is Ananda in the cells, these are obviously the best states. The other hours, those of which you are unconscious, may be spells of a deep slumber in which you have gone out of the physical into the mental, vital or other planes. You say you were unconscious, but it may simply be that you do not remember what happened; for in coming back there is a sort of turning over of the consciousness, a transition or reversal, in which everything experienced in sleep except perhaps the last happening of all or else one that was very impressive, recedes from the physical awareness and all becomes as if a blank. There is another blank state, a state of inertia, not truly blank, but heavy and unremembering; but that is when one goes deeply and crassly into the subconscient; this subterranean plunge is very undesirable, obscuring, lowering, often fatiguing rather than restful, the reverse of the luminous silence. <div style="colorref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/sleep#000000;">p50</divref>