Transformation of Shadow
What is Shadow?[1]2
How to Deal with “Shadow” ?[2]4
Transformation[3]5
Aids in the Process of Transformation[6]6
Challenges Faced During the Process[23]12
Suffering and Role of Shadow[26]14
Mirroring[27]15
Recommended Practices for Transformation of the Shadow[30]19
Yogic Discipline and Transformation of the Shadow[31]20
What is Shadow?
… life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility of expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in a concrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the realisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is an education pursued more or less consciously, more or less willingly.
(The Mother,
3 February 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/3-february-1954#p15
This shadow was like a sign of what you had to conquer in your nature in order to be able to realise what you have come to do. If you have a part to play, a mission to fulfil, you will always carry in yourself the main difficulty preventing you from realizing it, so that you have within your reach the victory you must win.
(The Mother,
3 February 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/3-february-1954#p16
Shadow is the symbol of the inconscient. This is where men rest at night from the effort of the day to become conscious. When consciousness becomes all-powerful, shadow will no longer be necessary and will disappear.
(The Mother, 4 September 1967)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/4-september-1967#p2
There is only one soul and one existence; therefore we all see one objectivity only; but there are many knots of mind and ego in the one soul-existence, therefore we all see the one Object in different lights and shadows.
(The Mother, 22 September 1969)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-154-155-156#p3
The obstinate pertinacity with which we cling to our meagre, fragmentary, night-besieged and grief-besieged individual existence even while the unbroken bliss of our universal life calls to us, is one of the most amazing of God's mysteries. It is only equalled by the infinite blindness with which we cast a shadow of our ego over the whole world and call that the universal being. These two darknesses are the very essence and potency of Maya.
(The Mother,6 June 1970)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-538#p1
Atheism is the shadow or dark side of the highest perception of God. Every formula we frame about God, though always true as a symbol, becomes false when we accept it as a sufficient formula. The Atheist and Agnostic come to remind us of our error.
(The Mother,7 June 1970)
Perfect love casts out fear; but still keep thou some tender shadow and memory of the exile and it will make the perfection more perfect.
(The Mother,24 March 1970)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-414-415-416-417-418-419-420#p7
...all moral suffering moulds your character and leads you straight to ecstasy, when you know how to take it.
(The Mother,10 August 1963)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-93#p2
And when you see a very black shadow somewhere, very black, something that's truly painful, you know, you can be sure that you have in you the possibility of the corresponding light.
(The Mother, 21 December 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/21-december-1955#p50
That is why the journey is so long, that is why it is difficult. For if one truly consented to cease to exist, everything would become so easy, so swift, so luminous, so joyful—but perhaps not in the way men understand joy and ease. In truth, there are very few people who do not enjoy fighting. There are very few who could accept the absence of night, few can conceive of light except as the opposite of darkness: "Without shadows there would be no picture. Without struggle, there would be no victory. Without suffering there would be no joy." That is what they think, and so long as one thinks in this way, one is not yet born into the spirit.
(The Mother, 26 November 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/26-november-1958#p15
And when Sri Aurobindo writes that the body is "only an instrument and a shadow," he is speaking of the body as it is now and will probably continue to be for a long time to come. It is only the instrument of the Self, a very inadequate expression of this Self, and a shadow—a shadow, something vague and obscure in comparison with the light and precision of the eternal Self.
(The Mother, 26 November 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-11#p8
Always you will see that within you the shadow and the light are equal: you have an ability, you have also the negation of this ability… It is up to you to know how to use the one to realise the other.
(The Mother, 21 April 1929)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/17-february-1951#p23
How to Deal with “Shadow” ?
One must learn always not only intellectually but also psychologically, one must progress in regard to character, one must cultivate the qualities and correct the defects; everything should be made an occasion to cure ourselves of ignorance and incapacity; life becomes then tremendously interesting and worth the trouble of living it.
(The Mother, 27 January 1972)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/students#p24
To be able to receive the new consciousness without deforming it: One must be able to stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness without casting a shadow.
(The Mother, 16 April 1969)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/the-new-consciousness#p2
...the physical body is truly nothing but a very disfigured shadow of the eternal life of the Self. But this physical body is capable of progressive development; through each individual formation, the physical substance progresses, and one day it will be capable of building a bridge between physical life as we know it and the supramental life which is to manifest.
”
(The Mother, 28 November 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-11#p17
It is that everyone possesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in an increasing degree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal proportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be a coward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked impulses… In certain cases this education will encourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary, those that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are favourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the opposite will happen. And in this way the individual's character will crystallise according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material and vital life, unless a higher element comes in time, a conscious will which, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them by a logical and clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean by a rational method of education.
(The Mother, August 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p6
I remember a painter with whom I had a talk about the possibility of immortality and who asked me what a new world would be like. I told him things would be, for instance, luminous in themselves and there would no longer be this kind of reflected light which comes here upon earth from the sun. And as I was speaking I saw his face becoming longer, more and more grave; finally he said, "But then how can one do painting without the shadow which brings out the light of things?..." I told him, "You have given exactly the key to the problem."
(The Mother,
3 February 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/3-february-1951#p47
They [desire and attachment] can sense the slightest weakness and strike where you are defenceless. The victories you win are only fleeting and the same battles are repeated indefinitely. The enemy whom you thought you had defeated rises up again and again to strike you. You must have a strongly tempered character, an untiring endurance to be able to withstand every defeat, every rebuff, every denial, every discouragement and the immense weariness of finding yourself always in contradiction with daily experience and earthly events.
(The Mother, February 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-fear-of-death-and-the-four-methods-of-conquering-it#p11
Transformation
What is Transformation?
It means the tapasya for the character, and for changing the psychological movements of the being, precisely to conquer the desires, conquer the passions, overcome egoism, get rid of fears. This is the inner tapasya.
(The Mother, 24 November 1954)
This vital education has two principal aspects, very different in their aims and methods, but both equally important. The first concerns the development and use of the sense organs. The second the progressing awareness and control of the character, culminating in its transformation.
(The Mother,August 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p8
Why Transform?
Why this joy, this gladness, when the world is forever burning? O you who are enveloped in shadows, why do you not seek the light?
(The Mother,25 April 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/old-age#p1
Aids in the Process of Transformation
This is the dark side. And so, the moment one sees it, if one looks at it and doesn't say, "It is I", if one says, "No, it is my shadow, it is the being I must throw out of myself", one puts on it the light of the other part, one tries to bring them face to face; and with the knowledge and light of the other, one doesn't try so much to convince—because that is very difficult—but one compels it to remain quiet... first to stand farther away, then one flings it very far away so that it can no longer return—putting a great light on it.There are instances in which one can put upon this being—or this shadow—put upon it such an intense light that it transforms it, and it changes into what is the truth of your being.
(The Mother,25 April 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/28-july-1954#p74
Prayer
There is a kind of prayer at once spontaneous and unselfish which is like a great call, usually not for one's own self personally, but like something that may be called an intercession with the Divine. It is extremely powerful. I have had countless instances of things which have been realised almost instantaneously due to prayers of this kind. It implies a great faith, a great ardour, a great sincerity, and a great simplicity of heart also, something that does not calculate, does not plan, does not bargain, does not give with the idea of receiving in exchange. For, the majority of men give with one hand and hold out the other to get something in exchange; the largest number of prayers are of that sort. But there are others of the kind I have described, acts of thanksgiving, a kind of canticle, and these are very good.
(The Mother,8 July 1953)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/8-july-1953#p15
Trust
If the trust is there, spontaneous, candid, unquestioning, it works better than anything else, and the results are marvellous. It is with the contradictions and doubts of the mind that one spoils everything, with this kind of notion which comes when one is in difficulties. one builds a wall between oneself and the force one wants to receive. The psychic being has this trust, has it wonderfully, without a shadow, without an argument, without a contradiction. And when it is like that, there is not a prayer which does not get an answer, no aspiration which is not realised.
(The Mother,17 November 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/17-november-1954#p14
Surrender
The real bar to self-surrender, whether to the Universal or to the Transcendent, is the individual's love of his own limitations. For, in the Divine you do not really lose your individuality: you only give up your egoism and become the true individual, the divine personality which is not temporary like the construction of the physical consciousness which is usually taken for yourself.
(The Mother,1930 - 1931)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/knowledge-by-unity-with-the-divine-the-divine-will-in-the-world#p4
The most important surrender is the surrender of your character, your way of being, so that it may change.
(The Mother,26 April 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/28-april-1951#p32
Human nature is made up of imperfections, even its righteousness and virtue are pretensions, imperfections and prancings of self-approbatory egoism.... What is aimed at by us is a spiritual truth as the basis of life, the first words of which are surrender and union with the Divine and the transcendence of ego. So long as that basis is not established, a sadhak is only an ignorant and imperfect human being struggling with the evils of the lower nature.... What is created by spiritual progress is an inner closeness and intimacy in the inner being, the sense of the Mother's love and presence etc."
(The Mother,24 February 1965)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/24-february-1965#p6
It is certainly not by becoming morose and melancholy that one draws near the Divine. One must always keep in one's heart an unshakable faith and confidence and in one's head the certitude of victory. Drive away these shadows which come between you and me and hide me from your sight. It is in the pure light of certitude that you can become conscious of my presence.
(The Mother)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-iv#p13
No, some begin with an offering and end with surrender. It depends upon the character of each one.
(The Mother, 22 February 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-february-1951#p11
Most people seem to look upon surrender as an abdication of the personality; but that is a grievous error.For the individual is meant to manifest one aspect of the Divine Consciousness, and the expression of its characteristic nature is what creates his personality.
(The Mother, 4 August 1929)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/4-august-1929#p5
The Divine's glory transforms defeats into eternity's victories, shadows have fled before His radiant brightness.
(The Mother,9 Dec 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-divine-is-with-you#p57
Purity
Mental purity: a mirror which does not distort.
(The Mother,24 September 1945)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/purity#p11
Perfect mental purity: a spotless mirror constantly turned towards the Divine.
(The Mother,24 September 1945)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/purity#p12
Freedom from Attachment
When you can live in light and joy, are you going to cling to shadow and suffering?
(The Mother,27 June 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/the-path#p31
The other category of suffering, whose initial cause is the pain of separation created by the adversary, is totally opposite in nature: it is the suffering that comes from divine compassion, the suffering of love that feels compassion for the world's misery, whatever its origin, cause or effect. But this suffering, which is of a purely psychic character, contains no egoism, no self-pity; it is full of peace and strength and power of action, of faith in the future and the will for victory; it does not pity but consoles, it does not identify itself with the ignorant movement in others but cures and illumines it.
(The Mother, 5 February 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/5-february-1956#p4
The only way of being truly free is to make your surrender to the Divine entire, without reservation, because then all that binds you, ties you down, chains you, falls away naturally from you and has no longer any importance. If someone comes and blames you, you may say, "On what authority does he blame me, does he know the supreme will?" And the same thing when you are congratulated.
(The Mother, 10 February 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/10-february-1951#p8
Choices and Willpower
For knowledge and power are essentially the same thing—that is to say, you must not admit in any part of your being this shadow of bad will which is in contradiction to the central will for progress and which makes you impotent, without courage, without strength in the face of an evil that you must destroy.
(The Mother,21 March 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/the-sage#p19
But the thought "What's the use?" must not come in to weaken the will. The idea that one is born with a certain character and can do nothing about it is a stupidity.
(The Mother, 23 December 1950)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/23-december-1950#p9
One can come out of all these competitions with a greater self-control and a detachment from results which are a great help to the formation of an exceptional character… if when playing or taking part in tournaments and competitions, you keep the right spirit, it is a very good education, for it compels you to make a special effort and to exceed your ordinary limits a little. It is certainly an opportunity to make conscious many of your movements which otherwise would always remain unconscious.
(The Mother, 1 May 1957)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/1-may-1957#p7
Perseverance
It is willing to endure the utmost with a smile if it is a condition of the transformation. Neither complaining nor grumbling, it endures happily because it is for the sake of the Divine that it does so. It has the unshakable conviction that the victory will be won.
(The Mother, 1930-31)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/endurance-the-vitals-hunger-for-praise-signs-of-the-converted-vital#p6
Discipline
… it is the necessity of an inner discipline. Without discipline you won't be able to get anywhere, without discipline you can't even live the normal life of a normal man. But instead of having the conventional discipline of ordinary societies or ordinary institutions, I would have liked and I still want you to have the discipline you set yourselves, for the love of perfection, your own perfection, the perfection of your being.
(The Mother, 13 June 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/13-june-1956#p52
Organising Mind
If the mind is not wise and clear-sighted, the poor body suffers the consequences of the orders it receives. I do not speak of the orders it receives from the vital. The mind with its rigid principles and the vital with its excesses and outbursts and passions are quick to destroy the body's equilibrium and to create a condition of fatigue, exhaustion and illness.
(The Mother, 25 January 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-january-1951#p18
Well, for oneself, one must organise one's own things—and at the same time one's own ideas—in the same way, and must know exactly where things are and be able to go straight to them, because one's organization is logical… put their ideas into order and can also organise their character and can finally control their movements. And then, if you make progress, you succeed in governing your physical life; you begin to have a control over your physical movements.
(The Mother, 3 February 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/3-february-1954#p10
Sincerity
But it is only when you look yourself in the face, in the light of your highest consciousness, that whatever you want to eliminate from your nature will disappear. Without this striving for absolute sincerity, the defect, the little shadow, will stay in a corner biding its time to come out.
(The Mother, 6 January 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/6-january-1951#p25
The method for each individual is worked out as the activity proceeds, for each ego has its own character and needs a particular method. The only qualities indispensable for all are absolute perseverance and sincerity. The least tendency to deceive oneself makes success impossible.
(The Mother, 9 Devember 1971)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/9-december-1971#p4
For that [to find out what it is that you are meant to realise] you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are to do or that you are to do, in this lies your talent or genius, etc. That will carry you away from the right track. It is not the liking or disliking of your external being, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in that one; it is not for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I said, you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge.
(The Mother, 12 November 1952)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/12-november-1952#p6
Happiness and Optimism
Happy heart: smiling, peaceful, wide open, without a shadow.
(The Mother)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/happiness#p1
The first necessity is to abstain from thinking of anyone in a depreciatory way. When we meet a person, our criticising thoughts give to him, so to say, a blow on the nose which naturally creates a revolt in him. It is our mental formation that acts like a deforming mirror to that person, and then one would become queer even if one were not.
(The Mother,18 July 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/judging-others#p11
There is a certain category of people who are perfectly adapted to Nature's ways: these are the optimists. For them the days are brighter because of the nights, colours are vivid because of the shadows, joy is more intense because of suffering, pain gives a greater charm to pleasure, illness gives health all its value…
(The Mother,August 1953)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-four-austerities-and-the-four-liberations#p75
… they should have developed in their character and action a great deal of patience, endurance, kindness, understanding and impartiality. They should have no likes or dislikes, no attractions or repulsions.
(The Mother, 5 July 1961)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p19
Realisation
It is the realisation which is expressed in action. There is a realisation in inaction like that of those who enter into contemplations from which they don't come out, and who don't move; and then there is a dynamic realisation which transforms all your action, all your movements, all your way of being, your character.
(The Mother,15 June 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/15-june-1955#p2
Psychic and Aspiration
As soon as the presence of the psychic consciousness is united with the aspiration, the intensity takes on quite a different character, as if it were filled with the very essence of an inexpressible joy.
(The Mother, 1 August 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/1-august-1956#p46
This delight, this wonderful laughter that dissolves every shadow, every pain, every suffering! You only have to go deep enough within yourself to find the inner Sun, to let yourself be flooded by it; and then there is nothing but a cascade of harmonious, luminous, sunlit laughter, which leaves no room for any shadow or pain.
(The Mother,14 January 1963)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-81-82-83#p11
Humour and Embracing Shadow
On the contrary, He has a sense of humour—Sri Aurobindo has told us many times already that the Supreme has a sense of humour, that we are the ones who want to make Him into a grave and invariably serious character—and He may find it very amusing to come and embrace an unbeliever. Someone who has only the day before declared, "God does not exist. I do not believe in Him. All that is folly and ignorance....", He gathers him into His arms, He presses him to His heart—and He laughs in his face.
(The Mother,5 December 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-12#p7
Aesthetic Sense
A methodical and enlightened cultivation of the senses can, little by little, eliminate from the child whatever is by contagion vulgar, commonplace and crude. This education will have very happy effects even on his character. For one who has developed a truly refined taste will, because of this very refinement, feel incapable of acting in a crude, brutal or vulgar manner. This refinement, if it is sincere, brings to the being a nobility and generosity which will spontaneously find expression in his behaviour and will protect him from many base and perverse movements.
(The Mother, August 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/vital-education#p11
Equanimity
...they should have developed in their character and action a great deal of patience, endurance, kindness, understanding and impartiality. They should have no likes or dislikes, no attractions or repulsions.
(The Mother,5 July 1961)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p19
Challenges Faced During the Process
There are physical movements, effects of the pressure of the Yoga, which sometimes create ungrounded fears that may do harm if the fear is not rejected… You must keep an unshaken confidence and feel that whatever happens is the thing that had to happen. Once you have chosen the path, you must boldly accept all the consequences of your choice.
(The Mother, 16 June 1929)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/16-june-1929#p18
You know perhaps that in all schools of initiation it used to be said that it takes thirty-five years to change one's character! So you must not expect the thing to be done in a minute.
(The Mother, 10 February 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/10-february-1951#p11
The subconscient is the main cause why all things repeat themselves and nothing ever gets changed except in appearance. It is the cause why people say character cannot be changed, the cause also of the constant return of things one hoped to have got rid of forever... All too that is suppressed without being wholly got rid of sinks down there and remains as seed ready to surge up or sprout up at any moment.
(The Mother, 16 March 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/16-march-1955#p1
If you see more clearly and see things which are not very pretty, it is not the fault of the Supermind, it is your fault! It gives you a light, a mirror in which you can see yourself better than you did before, and you are a little troubled because it is not always very pretty?
(The Mother, 11 July 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/11-july-1956#p21
One can at times see a sort of shadow pass which comes from the mind or the vital; but these are interventions of no importance which cannot at all change the nature of the psychic inspiration, if one does not let them have the upper hand.
One must have a very considerable strength and independence of character to come out of it, for usually you have to break through with much motion and that has serious repercussions on your life.
(The Mother, 20 June 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/20-june-1956#p84
I shall not do it, I shall not move; even if I have to bind myself hand and foot, I shall not do it." It is a partial success—but it is a great victory because, due to this, next time you will be able to do a little more.
(The Mother, 5 August 1953)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/5-august-1953#p46
Only, between your soul and your active consciousness there are two characters who are in the habit of making a lot of noise, the mind and the vital. And because they make a lot of noise, while the soul does not, or, rather, makes as little as possible, their noise prevents you from hearing the voice of the soul.
(The Mother,14 November 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-9#p8
Desire
Desires are waves of the vast sea of the obscure lower nature and they pass from one person to another. Men do not generate a desire in themselves, but are invaded by these waves; whoever is open and without defence is caught in them and tossed about.
(The Mother, 4 August 1929)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/4-august-1929#p5
Habits
Social habits are something terrible… when you understand that, you can look at yourself doing, objectivise yourself, laugh a little at all those multiple small bondages of habit, traditions, the education you have received, and then put the light, consciousness, aspiration for surrender to the Divine on these things, and try to receive the divine inspiration to do things as it's necessary, not according to habits, not according to one's vital impulses, not according to all the vital impulses and personal wills which one receives from others and which push him to do things which perhaps he would not have done without all that.
(The Mother, 20 July 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/20-july-1955#p9
Changing the character is what comes last. One must control bad habits, the old habits, for a very long time for them to drop off and the character to change… Your body, for instance, has certain reactions to cold, heat, hunger, and you are in the habit of having these reactions, and this habit has made a kind of formation in your physical nature, that is, a crease, a fixed crease of the body, and that's how it is. Formations are the result of habits.
(The Mother, 21 April 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/21-april-1951#p7
Suffering and Role of Shadow
For you are always under the illusion that pain belongs to you. This is not true. Pain is something thrust upon you. But in one case, you are open to the adverse forces you want to reject from yourself, and in the other you are not, you are already too far away from them to be affected by them any longer; and so, instead of feeling the negative side they represent, you feel only the positive side the Divine represents in the experience. It is the divine Grace which makes you progress, and with the divine Grace you feel the divine Joy.
(The Mother, 7 March 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/7-march-1956#p29
And this is true even in the physical field. A lion sitting and looking at you always seems to be telling you, "Oh, how fidgety you are!" It looks at you with such a peaceful air of wisdom! And all its power, energy, physical strength are there, gathered, collected, concentrated and―without a shadow of agitation―ready for action when the order is given.
(The Mother, 17 October 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/17-october-1956#p19
Indeed, it is better not to care at all about what others think of you, whether it is good or bad. But in any case, before reaching this stage, it would be less ridiculous to try to find out the impression you make on others simply by taking them as a mirror in which you see your reflection more exactly than in your own consciousness which is always over-indulgent to all your weakness, blindness, passions, ignorance.
(The Mother, 14 November 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/14-november-1956#p24
Mirroring
Self-Observation
But if you want to know things as they really are, you must be absolutely like a mirror: silent, peaceful, immobile, impartial, without preferences and in a state of total receptivity. And if you are like that, you will begin to see that there are many things you are not aware of, but which are there, and which will start becoming active in you.
(The Mother, 19 May 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/19-may-1954#p15
But the best way of listening is this. It is to be like a still mirror and very concentrated, very silent.
(The Mother, 20 October 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/20-october-1954#p65
...the true way is that you should be like a mirror and reflect faithfully whatever you see. Don't give your personal colouring and be quite dispassionate. If there is something wrong in the mirror itself, then I can correct it. But you must try to make sure that your mirror does not distort the picture.
(The Mother, Jan 1971)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/general-2#p46
As when one goes on the discovery of one's inner being, of all the different parts of one's being, one very often has the feeling that one is entering deep into a hall or room, and according to the colour, the atmosphere, the things it contains, one has a very clear perception of the part of the being one is visiting. And then, one can go from one room to another, open doors and go into deeper and deeper rooms each of which has its own character.
(The Mother, 17 August 1955)
In the light of this perfected consciousness, things appear as they are and not as they want to appear. Your consciousness becomes a screen or mirror; but this is when you are in a state of contemplation, a mere observer; when you are active, it is like a searchlight.
(The Mother, 30 June 1929)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/30-june-1929#p7
By closely observing your own character, become aware of what needs to be transformed in order to achieve the ideal condition. Then set to work sincerely, observing your inner as well as your outer movements. And each time you discover something that contradicts the ideal you have set for yourself, make an effort to correct it.
(The Mother, 1 December 1971)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/1-december-1971#p2
Mind predominates. Everything proceeds from mind. If a man speaks or acts with a purified mind, happiness accompanies him as closely as his inseparable shadow.
(The Mother, 6 Sep 1957)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p10
What we call our consciousness is this original Consciousness reflected in a somewhat foggy mirror (sometimes very foggy, sometimes very deformed), a reflection in the individual mirror. Then through this reflection, if we go back slowly to the origin of what is reflected, we can enter into contact with the Consciousness—the True Consciousness.
(The Mother, 22 March 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/22-march-1951#p10
If in your mind you go over the various movements and reactions of the day like one repeating indefinitely the same thing, you will not progress. If this reviewing is to make you progress, you must find something within you in whose light you yourself can be your own judge, something which represents for you the best part of yourself, which has some light, some goodwill and which precisely is in love with progress.
(The Mother, 15 January 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/15-january-1951#p4
But before one reaches a higher state of consciousness, there is a stage where one can develop in oneself the faculty of reason a clear, precise, logical reason, sufficiently objective in its vision of things. And when one has developed this reason—well, all impulses, feelings, desires, all disturbances can be put in the presence of this reason and that makes you reasonable. Most people, when something troubles them, become very unreasonable.
(The Mother, 20 January 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/20-january-1951#p20
But to rise above the mental consciousness, not into a higher speculative mind, but far beyond all mental movements is not an easy thing.
(The Mother, 27 July 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/27-july-1955#p6
It is the same for sports, for games; you can observe this easily, there is always a flagging of the consciousness when accidents occur, or a lack of attention, a little absent-mindedness; suddenly one thinks of something else, the attention is drawn elsewhere—one is not fully conscious of what one is doing and the accident happens.
(The Mother, 2 April 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/2-april-1951#p6
Even the man of knowledge acts according to his own nature.... As a fire is covered over by smoke and a mirror by dust, as an embryo is wrapped by the amnion, so knowledge is enveloped by desire.
(The Mother, 4 April 1956)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/4-april-1956#p17
...they should have developed in their character and action a great deal of patience, endurance, kindness, understanding and impartiality. They should have no likes or dislikes, no attractions or repulsions.
(The Mother,5 July 1961)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p19
And in fact this is what happens most often. When you are able to see in the consciousness of others the result of what you have tried to communicate, it always gives you the feeling of... you know what distorting mirrors are?
(The Mother, 5 March 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/5-march-1958#p14
When you have a question to solve, whatever it may be, usually you concentrate.
(The Mother, 23 July 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/23-july-1958#p9.
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.
(The Mother, 23 July 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/23-july-1958#p10
Even the most rebellious are slaves, because the only thing that liberates you is precisely the act of passing behind the veil and discovering what lies beyond it. Once you have seen, you know who you are and once you have established your true identity, you have the key to the true transformation.
(The Mother, 24 October 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-7#p10
Do not try to appear virtuous. See how much you are united, one with everything that is anti-divine. Take your share of the burden, accept yourselves to be impure and false and in that way you will be able to take up the Shadow and offer it. And in so far as you are capable of taking it and offering it, then things will change.
(The Mother,21 January 1962)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-70#p17
And so what is noteworthy is that the vibration, what one might call the quality of the vibration that comes from the Lord, is constructive—it builds and it is peaceful and luminous; while the other vibration of desire, or any similar vibration, complicates, destroys, confuses and twists things—confuses and distorts them, twists them. And this takes away the light; it produces a greyness, which can be intensified by violent movements into very dark shadows. But even when there is no passion, when passion does not intervene, it is like that. The physical reality has become nothing but a field of vibrations that mingle and unfortunately also clash and conflict with one another; and the clash, the conflict is a climax of this kind of turmoil and disorder and confusion created by certain vibrations which are in fact vibrations of ignorance—because we do not know. They are vibrations of ignorance and they are too small, too narrow, too limited—too short. The problem is no longer perceived from a psychological point of view at all; there are only vibrations.
(The Mother, 4 November 1963)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-95#p7
Psychic Consciousness and Mirroring
If only you were an experienced observer, if you could tell what goes on in a person, simply by looking into his eyes!... It is said the eyes are the mirror of the soul.
(The Mother, 8 January 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/8-january-1951#p25
Your normal self is merely a shadow of your true individuality which you will realise only when this normal individual which is differently poised at different times, now in the mental, then in the vital, at other times in the physical, gets into contact with the psychic and feels it as its real being. Then you will be one, nothing will shake or disturb you, you will make steady and lasting progress and be above such petty things as greed for food.
(The Mother, 9 August 1929)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/the-ordinary-life-and-the-true-soul#p5
You can be a different person at different moments in your life. I know people who took decisions, had a strong will, knew what they wanted and prepared to do it. Then there was a little reversal in the being; another part came up and spoilt all the work in ten minutes.Hence it is evident that it is very important to become aware of the psychic being; one must have a kind of signpost or a mirror in which all things are reflected and show themselves as they truly are.
(The Mother, 1 April 1953)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/1-april-1953#p8
Psychic memories have a very special character and a wonderful intensity. But that cannot be narrated in this way… But if at the time of waking up you are not in a hurry, you are not obliged to leave your bed, on the contrary you can remain there as long as you wish, you need not even open your eyes; you keep your head exactly where it was and you make yourself like a tranquil mirror within and concentrate there. You catch just a tiny end of the tail of your dream. You catch it and start pulling gently, without stirring in the least. You begin pulling quite gently, and then first one part comes, a little later another. You go backward; the last comes up first. Everything goes backward, slowly, and suddenly the whole dream reappears.
(The Mother, 6 May 1953)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/6-may-1953#p10
There is the capacity for a direct vision of things. It is like a mirror in which all things are reflected, whatever they may be.
(The Mother, 27 January 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/27-january-1954#p36
It is not the same thing in everyone; in each one it is different. It is the point in his nature or character through which he can touch the psychic and where he can receive the psychic influence.
(The Mother, 28 December 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/28-december-1955#p8
If you have the good sense and intelligence to do this each time you are shocked by another person's behaviour, you will realise that in life your relations with others are like a mirror which is presented to you so that you can see more easily and clearly the weaknesses you carry within you… And the best way to the true attitude is simply to say, "All those around me, all the circumstances of my life, all the people near me, are a mirror held up to me by the Divine Consciousness to show me the progress I must make. Everything that shocks me in others means a work I have to do in myself."
(The Mother, 7 November 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-8#p8
Recommended Practices for Transformation of the Shadow
The greatest obstacle to the transformation of one's own character is hypocrisy. If you always keep this in mind when dealing with a child, you can do him a lot of good. Of course, you must not sermonise or lecture him, etc. You should simply make him understand that there is a nobility in the being, a great purity, a great love of beauty, which is so powerful that even the most wicked and criminal people are forced to acknowledge a truly beautiful or heroic or selfless act.
(The Mother, 6 January 1951)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/6-january-1951#p28
The teacher should not be a book that is read aloud, the same for everyone, no matter what his nature and character. The first duty of the teacher is to help the student to know himself and to discover what he is capable of doing.
(The Mother, 15 January 1972)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p184
This is perceived more easily when one is able to silence one's mind, hold it still and attentive, arresting its usual functioning, as if the mind were changed into a kind of mirror turned towards a higher faculty in a sustained and silent attention. That too one can learn to do. One must learn to do it, it is a necessary discipline.
(The Mother, 23 July 1958)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/23-july-1958#p8
Yogic Discipline and Transformation of the Shadow
Here too yogic discipline will come to our aid by helping us to build characters of such nobility that they can become instruments of the truth.
(The Mother, November 1949)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correct-judgment#p6
… let us say a change in their character or a change in the circumstances or a set of things—and then, they want it at once; and as this usually does not happen all at once, they pull it down from above. This is what he calls "clutching". They seize it, pull it towards themselves. But in this way one has neither the real thing nor the true movement. One can only have an imitation of the true thing.
(The Mother, 8 December 1954)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/8-december-1954#p14
But you have never noticed that it is different? For example, your physical consciousness or your subtle physical consciousness, your vital consciousness or the consciousness of your higher or lower vital, your psychic consciousness, your mental consciousness, each one is completely different! So when you sleep you have one consciousness, and when you are awake you have another. In your waking state you look at things projected outside you, in your sleep state you see them interiorised. So it is as though in one case you were pushed altogether outside yourself, in front, and in the other it is as though you were looking at yourself in an inner mirror.
(The Mother, 27 February 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/27-april-1955#p31
I think it is the ego that makes each one a separate being, in all possible ways. It is the ego which gives the sense of being a person separate from others. It is certainly the ego which gives you the sense of the "I", "I am", "I want", "I do", "I exist", even the very famous "I think therefore I am" which is... I am sorry but I think it is a stupidity—but still it is a celebrated stupidity—well, this too is the ego. What gives you the impression that you are Manoj is the ego, and that you are altogether different from this one and that one; and what prevents your body from melting away like that, dissolving in a common mass of physical vibrations, is the ego; what gives you a definite form, a definite character, a separate consciousness, the sense that you exist in yourself, independently of all others, indeed, something like that; if one does not reflect, spontaneously one has the sense that even if the world disappeared, one would be there, one would remain what one is. This of course is the super-ego.
(The Mother,12 January 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/12-january-1955#p24
In fact it is the sublimest of adventures, and if one has in him in the slightest the true spirit of adventure, it is worth risking all for all. But those who are afraid, who wonder, "Am I not going to let go the substance for the shadow?" according to the most banal proverb one can imagine, those who tell themselves, "Bah! After all it is better to profit by what one has than to risk losing everything, we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, let us take precautions"... unfortunately this is very widespread, extremely widespread... well, about those who are in this state of mind, I can assure you of one thing: that even when the thing occurs before their very nose, they will not perceive it. They will say, "It is good, in this way I won't regret anything." It is possible. But perhaps later they will; this we do not know.
(The Mother,12 October 1955)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/12-october-1955#p19
"A divine life on earth need not be a thing apart and exclusive having nothing to do with the common earthly existence: it will take up human being and human life, transform what can be transformed, spiritualise whatever can be spiritualised, cast its influence on the rest and effectuate either a radical or an uplifting change, bring about a deeper communion between the universal and the individual, invade the ideal with the spiritual truth of which it is a luminous shadow and help to uplift into or towards a greater and higher existence.... It is obvious that if the Supermind is there and an order of supramental being is established as the leading principle in earth-nature, as mind is now the leading principle, but with a sureness, a complete government of the earthly existence, a capacity of transformation of all upon their level and within their natural boundaries of which the mind in its imperfection was not capable, an immense change of human life, even if it did not extend to transformation would be inevitable."
(The Mother,7 August 1957)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/7-august-1957#p10
"It may well be that the evolutionary urge would proceed to a change of the organs themselves in their material working and use and diminish greatly the need of their instrumentation and even of their existence. The centres in the subtle body, sūkṣma śarīra, of which one would become conscious and aware of all going on in it would pour their energies into material nerve and plexus and tissue and radiate them through the whole material body; all the physical life and its necessary activities in this new existence could be maintained and operated by these higher agencies in a freer and ampler way and by a less burdensome and restricting method. This might go so far that these organs might cease to be indispensable and even be felt as too obstructive: the central force might use them less and less and finally throw aside their use altogether. If that happened they might waste by atrophy, be reduced to an insignificant minimum or even disappear. The central force might substitute for them subtle organs of a very different character or, if anything material was needed, instruments that would be forms of dynamism or plastic transmitters rather than what we know as organs. This might well be part of a supreme total transformation of the body, though this too might not be final. To envisage such changes is to look far ahead and minds attached to the present form of things may be unable to give credence to their possibility. No such limits and no such impossibility of any necessary change can be imposed on the evolutionary urge.... What has to be overpassed, whatever has no longer a use or is degraded, what has become unhelpful or retarding, can be discarded and dropped on the way. That has been evident in the history of the evolution of the body from its beginning in elementary forms to its most developed type, the human, there is no reason why this process should not intervene in the transition from the human into the divine body. For the manifestation or building of a divine body on earth there must be an initial transformation, the appearance of a new, a greater and more developed type, not a continuance with little modifications of the present physical form and its limited possibilities."
(The Mother,10 July 1957)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/10-july-1957#p1
There. This is the situation. It has grown considerably worse since the last war; it grows worse year by year, and one finds oneself in such a ridiculous situation that, unfortunately, as one is at the end of one's resources, to simplify what has been made so complicated, there is an idea in the earth-atmosphere—an idea which might be called preposterous, but unhappily it is much worse than preposterous, it is catastrophic—the idea that if there were a great upheaval, perhaps it would be better afterwards.... One is so jammed between prohibitions, impossibilities, interdictions, rules, the complications of every second, that one feels stifled and really gets the admirable idea that if everything were demolished perhaps it would be better afterwards!.... It is in the air. And all the governments have put themselves in such impossible conditions; they have become so tied up that it seems to them they will have to break everything to be able to move forward.... (Silence) This is unfortunately a little more than a possibility, it is a very serious threat. And it is not quite certain that life will not be made still more impossible because one feels incapable of emerging from the chaos—the chaos of complications—in which humanity has put itself. It is like the shadow—but unfortunately a very active shadow—of the new hope which has sprung up in the human consciousness, a hope and a need for something more harmonious; and the need becomes so much more acute as life, as it is at present organised, becomes more and more contrary to it. The two opposites are facing each other with such intensity that one can expect something like an explosion....
(The Mother,7 August 1957)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/7-august-1957#p17
Learn steadiness of character, perseverance. Be worthy of trust so as to become one day the true disciple of that great Soul."
(The Mother,22 March 1957)
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/22-march-1957#p19
Here too yogic discipline will come to our aid by helping us to build characters of such nobility that they can become instruments of the truth.
(The Mother,November 1949)