793
edits
Changes
→Silence in the Physical
== 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>