Changes

<center>“ O Savitri, from thy hidden soul we come….

---Savitri 7.3.8</center> <center>A stillness absolute, incommunicable,Meets the sheer self-discovery of the soul;A wall of stillness shuts it from the world,A gulf of stillness swallows up the senseAnd makes unreal all that mind has known,All that the labouring senses still would weaveProlonging an imaged unreality.Self’s vast spiritual silence occupies Space;Only the Inconceivable is left,Only the Nameless without space and time:Abolished is the burdening need of life:Thought falls from us, we cease from joy and grief;The ego is dead; we are freed from being and care,We have done with birth and death and work and fate. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/33/the-adoration-of-the-divine-mother#p1,p2</ref> </center> <center>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#p15</ref></center>

StillnessEveryone has in himself a being which he calls the “Self”, the emptiness of mind and Vital which is completely silent and cessation immobile. So, if one becomes conscious of thoughts and other movementsthis being in himself, was one has the coming experience of the state called "samadhi" in silent Self. It is an immobile and silent being which is within, which is like an aspect of the consciousness goes inside in a deep stillness true being and silencealso an aspect of the witness we were just speaking about. This condition It is favourable this silent being which, when it turns to inner experiencethings and looks at them, becomes the witness. But it can turn inwards, realisationnot look on, be in its silent contemplation. It depends on which side one turns to. It is a solid point in the vision of the unseen truth of thingsbeing, though one can get these in which the waking condition alsolight of truth shines.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3006/inner-experiences-in-the-state13-ofoctober-samadhi1954#p2p13</ref>

Stillness You don’t understand how one can be immobile and strong at the same time, is that what is bothering you? Well, I reply that the greatest strength is in immobility. That is the sovereign power. And there is a very small superficial application of this which perhaps you will understand. Someone comes and insults you or says unpleasant things to you; and if you begin to vibrate in unison with this anger or this ill-will, you feel quite weak and powerless and usually you make a fool of yourself. But if you manage to keep within yourself, especially in your head, a complete immobility which refuses to receive these vibrations, then at the same time you feel a great strength, and meditationthe other person cannot disturb you. If you remain very quiet, even physically,and when violence is directed at you, you are able to remain very quiet, very silent, very still, well, that has a power not only over you but over the other person also. If you don’t have all these vibrations of inner response, if you can remain absolutely immobile within yourself, everywhere, this has an almost immediate effect upon the other person.That gives you an idea of the power of immobility. And it is a very common fact which can occur every day; it is not only a great event of spiritual life, it is something of the outer, material life. There is a tremendous power in meditation that one immobility: mental immobility, sensorial immobility, physical immobility. If you can remain like a wall, absolutely motionless, everything the other person sends you will immediately fall back upon him. And it has an immediate action. It can reach stop the arm of the Divine consciousnessassassin, you will learn understand, it has that strength. Only, one can remain must not just appear to be immobile and yet be boiling inside! That’s not what I mean. I mean an integral immobility. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/22-february-1956?search=physical+immobility#p9,p10,p11,p12</ref> <center>~</center>But here in India, that stillness comes from contempt for the body: it must be nullified as much as possible. Its very existence must be nullified. And that's precisely what Sri Aurobindo rose up against, saying, "No! The body must PARTICIPATE in contact with the experience… BE the Divine even while playing or doing gymnastics or walking or doing anything; at every moment, you should remember without distinction between the Divine body and try the rest-to remain be the Divine…. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/october-18-1969#p30</ref> <center>~</center>A quietness in the Divine cells of the body, even a sense of immobility (so that the body seems to be moved rather than to move) is a different thing and easily distinguishable from the inertia. The downflow of peace usually brings much of the static Brahman into the consciousnessdown to the physical, so that one feels the Upanishadic “unmoving it moves”.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1431/asceticdifficulties-of-the-physical-practicesnature#p13p30</ref>

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. But, even in this repose of all thought movements and all movements of feeling, one sees, when one looks more closely at it, that the mind-substance is still in a constant state of very subtle formless but potentially formative vibration—not at first easily observable, but afterwards quite evident—and that state of constant vibration may be as harmful to the exact reflection or reception of the descending Truth as any formed thought movement or emotional movement… When I speak of a still mind, I mean then one in which these subtler disturbances too are no longer there. As they fall quiet one can feel an increasing stillness which is not the lesser quietude of repose and also a resultant clearness as palpable as the stillness and clearness of a physical atmosphere.

<center>~</center>

<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p56</ref> <center>~</center>That is to say, [when there is sometimes stillness and sometimes mechanical thoughts] the Power is still working on the physical consciousness (the mechanical mind and the subconscient) to bring stillness there. Sometimes the stillness comes but not complete, sometimes the mechanical mind reasserts itself. This oscillation usually takes place in a movement of the kind. Even if there is a sudden or rapid transforming shock or downrush, there has to be some working out of this kind afterwards—that at least has always been my experience. For most, however, there comes, first, this slow preparatory process. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agendacwsa/0330/julydescent-and-the-25lower-1962nature#p115p30</ref>

==The Profound Why Stillness=Must be Practised?=

...the power Silence 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 being 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 first natural aim of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our beingYoga.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2330/theemptiness-voidness-purifiedblankness-understandingand-silence#p15p30</ref>

The ego persists You can be at once in itself or in its habitual movementsthe state of aspiration, of willing, which calls down something—exactly the will to open oneself and receive, but and the aspiration which calls down the force you want to receive—and at the place same time be in that state of the complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it is in this immobility that one can be penetrated, that one becomes more and more loosenedpermeable by the Force. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26</ref> <center>~</center>When there is a complete silence in the being, either a stillness of the others are brokenwhole being or a stillness behind unaffected by surface movements, then we can become aware of a Self, crusheda spiritual substance of our being, more and more rejectedan existence exceeding even the soul individuality, becoming weak in their intensityspreading itself into universality, limp surpassing all dependence on any natural form or mechanical in their action, extending itself upward into a transcendence of which the limits are not visible. In the end there It is a constant giving up these liberations of the whole consciousness into spiritual part in us which are the being decisive steps of the Supremespiritual evolution in Nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2322/the-releaseevolution-fromof-the-egospiritual-man#p8p6</ref> <center>~</center> ==Misconceptions about Stillness== The difference between a vacant mind This serene peace and massive stillness has to stabilise itself, fill the whole nature, widen itself until all existence internal and a calm mind is thisexternal seems full of it. This may take time, that when but the mind beginning once there it is vacantsure to take place, there if one is no thoughtsteady and constant. It becomes besides the sure base on which all the rest, no conception—power and strength, no mental action of any kindlight and knowledge, Ananda and divine love, except an essential perception of things without can come in and securely fill the formed idea;consciousness. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2930/quietthe-descent-of-the-higher-consciousness-and-calm#p56force</ref>

The Yogin who has experience knows that ...we habituate ourselves by practice to the small beginnings are sense of the greatest importance and have duty, to be cherished and allowed with great patience a firm fidelity to develop. He knows for instance that the neutral principle, a stoical fortitude or a religious resignation, a quiet so dissatisfying or an ecstatic submission to the vital eagerness of the sadhak God's will. But it is not these things that the first step towards the peace that passeth all understandingGita intends, the small current or thrill of inner delight the first trickling useful though they are in of the ocean of Anandatheir place; it aims at something absolute, unmitigated, uncompromising, a turn, an attitude that will change the play whole poise of lights or colours the key of the doors of the inner vision and experience...<ref>http://incarnatewordsoul.in/cwsa/30/Not the-value-of-experiences#p8</ref><center>~</center>But here in India, that stillness comes from contempt for the body: it must be nullified as much as possible. Its very existence must be nullified. And thatmind's precisely what Sri Aurobindo rose up against, saying, "No! The body must PARTICIPATE in the experience." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/october-18-1969#p30</ref> =Why Stillness must be Practised?= Equality and the Annihilation control of EgoIf we can pass through these two stages of the inner change without being arrested or fixed in either, we are admitted to a greater divine equality which vital impulse is capable of a spiritual ardour and tranquil passion of delightits rule, a rapturous, all-understanding and all-possessing equality but the strong immobility of the perfected soul, an intense and even wideness and fullness of its being embracing all thingsimmortal spirit. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/equalityself-surrender-andin-works-the-annihilationway-of-egothe-gita#p10p25</ref><center>~</center>

<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/peace-and-quiet-faith-and-surrender#p26</ref><center>~</center>The stillness … in the meditation is a very good sign. It comes usually in that pervading way when there has been sufficient purification to make it possible. On the other side, it is itself the beginning of the laying of the foundations of the higher spiritual consciousness.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/descent-and-the-lower-nature#p11</ref><center>~</center>The power of physical immobility is as important in Hathayoga as the power of mental immobility in the Yoga of knowledge, and for parallel reasons.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p5p27</ref>

...'''In Hathayoga''' The first object of the immobility of the "Only solution" Asana is to be in a state get rid of inner stillness that does not seek the restlessness imposed on the body and to know or foresee, and force it to let hold the Force flow through Pranic energy instead of dissipating and squandering it. The experience in the instrument; thenpractice of Asana is not that of a cessation and diminution of energy by inertia, but of a great increase, inpouring, automaticallycirculation of force. The body, what has accustomed to be done work off superfluous energy by movement, is doneat first ill able to bear this increase and this retained inner action and betrays it by violent tremblings; afterwards it habituates itself and, what has to be received when the Asana is received.<ref>http://incarnateword.conquered, then it finds as much ease in/agenda/10/september-10-1969#p8</ref><center>~</center>A mind that has achieved this calmness can begin the posture, however originally difficult or unusual to actit, even intensely and powerfully, but it will keep as in its fundamental stillness—originating nothing from itself but receiving from Above and giving easiest attitudes sedentary or recumbent. It becomes increasingly capable of holding whatever amount of increased vital energy is brought to bear upon it a mental form without adding anything needing to spill it out in movement, and this increase is so enormous as to seem illimitable, so that the body of its ownthe perfected Hathayogin is capable of feats of endurance, calmlyforce, dispassionately, though with unfatigued expenditure of energy of which the joy normal physical powers of the Truth man at their highest would be incapable. For it is not only able to hold and retain this energy, but to bear its possession of the happy power physical system and light of its passage. <ref>http://incarnatewordmore complete movement through it.The life energy, thus occupying and operating in/agenda/03/july-25-1962#p115</ref><center>~</center>...to receive the supreme Force, what's needed isa powerful, unified movement on the contrarytranquil and passive body, freed from the equivalent of stillness—the stillness of sleeprestless balancing between the continent power and the contained, but an ABSOLUTELY CONSCIOUS sleep, absolutely conscious. The body feels the differencebecomes a much greater and more effective force.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agendacwsa/1023/october-18-1969hathayoga#p58p8</ref>

This consciousness we can become aware of when we draw back from the mind and its activities or when these fall silent. But we see first its immobile status, and if we regard only ..to receive the immobility of the selfsupreme Force, we may say of it that it what's needed is not only timeless, but actionless, without movement of idea, thought, imagination, memory, will, self-sufficient, self-absorbed and therefore void of all action of on the universe. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-self-consciousness-and-the-ignorance#p11</ref> <center>~</center>The normal activity of our minds is for the most part a disordered restlessnesscontrary, full of waste and rapidly tentative expenditure of energy in which only a little is selected for the workings equivalent of the self-mastering will...<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p6</ref><center>~</center>In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. Therefore to us the name stillness—the stillness of That is the Silence and the Peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p15</ref><center>~</center>...of a still mindsleep, but an ABSOLUTELY CONSCIOUS sleep, I mean then one in which these subtler disturbances too are no longer thereabsolutely conscious. As they fall quiet one can feel an increasing stillness which is not the lesser quietude of repose and also a resultant clearness as palpable as The body feels the stillness and clearness of a physical atmospheredifference. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p17<agenda/ref><center>~<10/center>We may feel imperfectly by the emotional mind, we may have a sense by the senseoctober-mind or a conception and perception by the intelligent mind of the Spirit present in Matter and all its forms, the divine Delight present in all emotion and sensation, the divine Force behind all life18-activities; but the lower will still keep its own nature and limit and divide in its action and modify in its character the influence from above. Even when that influence assumes its highest, widest, intensest power, it will be irregular and disorderly in activity and perfectly realised only in calm and stillness…<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/oneness1969#p6p58</ref>

==Consequences if not Practiced =Benefits to the Vital Being===

It then reveals itself as A desire, a passion is a constantly swirling very living thing and eddying undercurrent continues to live for a very long time, even independently of habitual conceptsthe being who… is subjected to them, associationsI might say, perceptionsrather than creates them, desires without any real sequencebecause they are things that one is subjected to, order or principle of light. It is that rush upon you from outside like a constant repetition storm that seizes you and carries you away, unless you keep very calm like that, very still, very quiet, as though one were clinging to something solid and immobile in a circle unintelligent and unfruitful. Ordinarily oneself, allowing the human understanding accepts this undercurrent and tries storm to reduce pass over when it begins to a partial order and sequenceblow—it blows, but one must not stir, one must not let oneself tremble or shiver or shake; but by so doing it becomes itself subject to it one must remain altogether immobile and partakes of know that disorderthese are passing storms. And when the storm has blown over, restlessness, unintelligent subjection to habit it passes and blind purposeless repetition which makes the ordinary human reason goes away; then one can heave a misleading, limited deep breath and even frivolous resume one’s normal balance; and futile instrumentthere has been only a minimum destruction. In such cases, generally, things turn out well in the end. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2305/the5-purifiedaugust-understanding1953#p11p28</ref>

=How Best can one Practice Stillness?==Benefits to the Mental Being===

You must be absolutely without any reactionThe normal activity of our minds is for the most part a disordered restlessness, like this (gesture full of waste and rapidly tentative expenditure of energy in which only a little is selected for the workings of immobile offering Upward, palms open)the self-mastering will… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p6</ref> <center>~</center>... And thenjust as the restless active mind seems to seize on and use irregularly and imperfectly whatever spiritual force comes into it, when you are like that ("youbut the tranquilised mind is held," meaning possessed and used by the cells)spiritual force. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p8</ref>We may feel imperfectly by the emotional mind, after we may have a while sense by the sense-mind or a conception and perception comes by the intelligent mind of the category Spirit present in Matter and all its forms, the movement belongs todivine Delight present in all emotion and sensation, the divine Force behind all life-activities; but the lower will still keep its own nature and limit and you just have to follow divide in its action and modify in its character the perceptioninfluence from above. Even when that influence assumes its highest, widest, intensest power, whether it will be irregular and disorderly in activity and perfectly realised only in calm and stillness…<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/oneness#p6</ref> <center>~</center>Behind the mind and using it as its own surface activity there is a stable consciousness in which there is that something must disappear no binding conceptual division between itself in the present and itself in the past and future; and be replaced by something else (which one doesn't know yet)it knows itself in Time, in the present, past and future, but at once, with an undivided view which embraces all the mobile experiences of the Time-self and holds them on the foundation of the immobile timeless self. This consciousness we can become aware of when we draw back from the mind and its activities or whether when these fall silent. But we see first its immobile status, and if we regard only the immobility of the self, we may say of it that it is not only timeless, but actionless, without movement of idea, thought, imagination, memory, will, self-sufficient, self-absorbed and therefore void of all action of the universe. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-self-consciousness-and-the-ignorance#p11</ref> <center>~</center>A mind that something must be transformedhas achieved this calmness can begin to act, even incessantly and powerfully, but it will keep its fundamental stillness—originating nothing from itself but receiving from Above and giving it a mental form without adding anything of its own, calmly, dispassionately, though with the joy of the Truth and the happy power and light of its passage. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agendacwsa/0629/marchquiet-24and-1965calm#p38p56</ref>

==What are the Prerequisites for Practising How Best Can One Practice Stillness?==

...one thing perhaps needs the "Only solution" is to be kept in view—that this pure a state of inner stillness of that does not seek to know or foresee, and to let the mind is indeed always Force flow through the required conditioninstrument; then, automatically, the desideratumwhat has to be done is done, but for bringing it about there are more ways than onewhat has to be received is received.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/september-10-1969#p8</ref> <center>~</center>It is a concentration of energy of consciousness that sustainsQuiet, while it lastsquiet and more quiet, all creationcalm strength, all action calm gladness are what are needed in mind and nerves and kinesis; but it is also body as a concentration of power of consciousness that supports inwardly or informs all statusbasis for the siddhi—precisely because the Force, even the most immobile passivityLight, even an infinite the Ananda that come down are extremely intense and need a great stillness or an eternal silencein the being to bear and support them.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2130/the-origindescent-of-the-ignorancehigher-powers#p7p10</ref> <center>~</center>There is nothing A constant aspiration for that [''to be done with this fickle, restless, violent and disturbing factor but to get rid constantly governed by the Divine''] is the first thing—next a sort of it whether by detaching it stillness within and then reducing it to a drawing back from the outward action into the stillness or by giving and a sort of listening expectancy, not for a concentration and singleness to sound but for the thought by which it will spiritual feeling or direction of itself reject this alien and confusing elementthe consciousness that comes through the psychic.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2329/thebecoming-purifiedconscious-understandingin-work#p11p36</ref> <center>~</center>First, you must become conscious of the receiving of energies, their passing into your being and their expenditure. Next, you must have a sort of higher instinct which tells you whence the most favourable energies come; then you put yourself in contact with them through thought, through stillness or any other process—there are many.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/23-december-1950#p4</ref><center>~</center>You must know what energy you want, whence it comes, of what it is composed. Later comes the control of the energy received. … Ninety per cent of men do not absorb enough energy or they take in too much and do not assimilate what they take—as soon as they have had a sufficient dose they immediately throw it out by becoming restless, talking, shouting, You must know how to keep within you the received energy and concentrate it fully on the desired activity and not on anything else. If you can do this, you won't need to use your will. You need only gather together all the energies received and use them consciously, concentrate with the maximum attention in order to do everything you want.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/23-december-1950#p4</ref> <center>~</center>...The stillness of the two things can go together, you see, there mind is a moment when prepared by the two—aspiration and passivity—can be not only alternate but simultaneousprocess of concentration. You can be at once in In the state science of aspiration, of willing, which calls down something—exactly Rajayoga after the will to open oneself heart has been stilled and receivethe mind prepared, and the aspiration which calls down next step is to subjugate the force you want to receive—and at body by means of ''asan'' or the same time be in that state fixed and motionless seat. The aim of complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it this fixity is in this immobility that one can be penetratedtwofold, that one becomes permeable by first the Force. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26</ref><center>~</center>Well, stillness of the two can be simultaneous without body and secondly the one disturbing forgetfulness of the other, or can alternate so closely that they can hardly be distinguishedbody. But When one can be like that, like a great flame rising in aspiration, sit still and at utterly forget the same body for a long period of time as though this flame formed a vase, a large vasethen the asan is said to have been mastered. In ordinary concentration when the body is only comparatively still it is not noticed, opening but there is an undercurrent of physical consciousness which may surge up at any moment into the upper current of thought and receiving all that comes downdisturb it.<ref>http://incarnatewordThe Yogin seeks to make the forgetfulness perfect.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26</ref><center>~</center>And these two things must be done in In the greatest possible calm, peace and tranquillity. This peace, higher processes of concentration this tranquillity brings about silence in forgetfulness reaches such a point that the mind bodily consciousness is annulled and stillness in the vital.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-7#p16</ref><center>~</center>The cosmos so constructed would acme of the ''samadhi'' a man can be a presentation cut or reflection burned without being aware of something not itself, but always and the physical suffering. Even before the concentration is begun the forgetfulness acquired is sufficient to prevent any intrusion upon the end mind except under a false presentation, a distorted reflection; all cosmic existence would be a Mind struggling to work out fully its imaginations, but not succeeding, because they have no imperative basis of self-truth; overpowered and carried forward by the stream of its own past energies, it would be borne onward indeterminately for ever without issue unless or until it can either slay itself or fall into an eternal stillnessmore than ordinarily powerful physical stimulus.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2112/thena-divinekinchidapi-mayachintayet#p16p2</ref>

==In =Release from the Physical BeingEgo===

So the thing , at first, to be done … is to remain very objective within that peace; then you can benefit from the peace without accepting its limits. You should, for instancebegin with, one must be able to keep that peace in get out of the cells (the brain cells if you feel tired) without allowing yourself to be enclosed like that <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/04/april-16-1963#p3</ref><center>~</center>..ego.Afterwards, it's these habits of static immobility that give this need for trance. It shouldn't has to be necessary…, logically, as things are, it depends on the balance between the body's capacity of receptivity and its external activity: it's obviously far more receptive when it is immobileyou understand, because its energies are occupied with the transformation. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/08/january-18-1967#p21</ref><center>~</center>...a sort certain state of infinite Power, which could be the creative Powerinexistence. And directed by an unmanifest Consciousness.... If Then you can make anything out of this, good for you! <ref> http://incarnateword.in/agenda/03/november-27-1962#p22</ref><center>~</center>There begin to perceive things as they are no more ideas, no more feelings, almost no more sensations, it'sfrom a little higher up... this and that (same gesture of tipping over But if you want to one side or to the other), this kind of shift, and a shift SO VERY differentknow things as they really are, you know, and in total immobility! <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/11/july-11-1970#p67</ref><center>~</center>It is when one is full of peace that one laughs most gladly. It is an inner condition, not something external must be ''absolutely'' like being silent or not laughing. It is a condition of serenity and stillness within in which there is no disturbance even if things go wrong or people are unpleasant or the body feels unwell—the state of serene inner gladness remains the same. It is self-existent. <ref>httpmirror://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p48</ref><center>~</center>You can be at once in the state of aspirationsilent, peaceful, of willingimmobile, which calls down something—exactly the will to open oneself and receiveimpartial, without preferences and the aspiration which calls down the force you want to receive—and at the same time be in that a state of complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it is in this immobility that one can be penetrated, that one becomes permeable by the Forcetotal receptivity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26</ref><center>~</center>Well, the two can be simultaneous without the one disturbing the other, or can alternate so closely that they can hardly be distinguished. But one can be And if you are like that, like a great flame rising in aspiration, and at the same time as though this flame formed a vase, a large vase, opening and receiving all you will begin to see that comes down. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26</ref><center>~</center>...to be alone somewhere or other and stay like this (gesture there are many things you are not aware of withdrawal into absolute stillness), until everything is back to normal again. Then everything is back to normal, the Lord's Presence is but which are there again. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/08/march-15-1967#p10</ref>When we get back into our own conscious being, when we stand back from our own action and see how it is done, we discover that it is our whole being which stands behind any particular act or sum of activities, passive in the rest of its integrality, will start becoming active in its limited dispensation of energy; but that passivity is not an incapable inertia, it is a poise of self-reserved energyyou. A similar truth must apply still more completely to the conscious being of the Infinite, whose power, in silence of status as in creation, must also be infinite. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/the-origin-of-the-ignorance#p8</ref>

==In Then you will be able to be ''in'' these things instead of being exclusively enclosed within the Mental Being==little point you are in the universe.

An effort? One must, yes, one must want itThere are all kinds of ways of getting out of yourself. But it is the will an effort?... Naturally, one must think about it, must indispensable if you want it. But the two to begin to know things can go together, you see, there is a moment when the two—aspiration as they are and passivity—can be not only alternate but simultaneousin terms of yourself. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/2119-aprilmay-1954#p26p15,p16,p17</ref> <center>~</center>This cannot be done without ...an uncompromising abolition of the ego-sense at its very basis and source. ... This, if persistently done, changes in the end the mental outlook on oneself and the whole world and there is a kind of mental realisation; but afterwards by degrees or perhaps rapidly and imperatively and almost at the beginning the mental realisation deepens into spiritual experience—a realisation in the very substance of our being. More and more frequent conditions come of something indefinable and illimitable, a peace, a silence, a joy, a bliss beyond expression, a sense of absolute impersonal Power, a pure existence, a pure consciousness, an all-pervading Presence. …In the beginning when the restless confusion and obscuring impurity of our outward nature is active, when the mental, vital, physical ego-sense are still powerful, this new mental outlook, these experiences may be found difficult in the extreme: but once that triple egoism is discouraged or moribund and the instruments of the Spirit are set right and purified, in an entirely pure, silent, clarified, widened consciousness the purity, infinity, stillness of the One reflects itself like the sky in a limpid lake.

<center>~</center>…instead of thought governing life, it's consciousness. And when the consciousness remains quietly open to the Divine, all goes well. A lot of things constantly come into the consciousness, from the whole world, it would seem...all the things that negate or oppose the Divine Action.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/13/august-30-1972#p5</ref><center>~</center>A lonely power, peace and stillness is the last word of the philosophic equality of the sage; but the soul in its integral experience liberates itself from this self-created status and enters into the sea of a supreme and all-embracing ecstasy of the beginningless and endless beatitude of the Eternal. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/equality-and-the-annihilation-of-ego#p10</ref><center>~</center>...once that triple egoism is discouraged or moribund and the instruments of the Spirit are set right and purified, in an entirely pure, silent, clarified, widened consciousness the purity, infinity, stillness of the One reflects itself like the sky in a limpid lake.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-the-ego#p8</ref><center>~</center>

==In the Vital Physical Being==

stillnessFor example, you see, some people suffer from unbearable toothache. It depends above all… some people are more or less what I call “coddled”, that is, unable to resist any pain, to bear it; they immediately say, “I can’t! It is unbearable. I can’t bear any more!” Ah, this indeed changes nothing in the circumstances; it does not stop the emptiness suffering, because it is not by telling it that you don’t want it that you make it go away. But if one can do two things: either bring into oneself—for all nervous suffering, for example—bring into oneself a kind of mind and vital and cessation immobility, as total as possible, at the place of thoughts and other movementspain, was this has the coming effect of the state called "samadhi" an anaesthetic. If one succeeds in which bringing an inner immobility, an immobility of the consciousness goes inside in a deep stillness and silence. This condition is favourable to inner experiencevibrations, realisationat the spot where one is suffering, it has exactly the same effect as an anaesthetic. It cuts off the contact between the vision place of pain and the unseen truth of thingsbrain, and once you have cut the contact, though one if you can get these in keep this state long enough, the waking condition also<ref>http://incarnatewordpain will disappear.in/cwsa/30/inner-experiences-in-You must form the-state-habit of-samadhi#p2</ref><center>~</center>doing this...firstBut you have the occasion, all the time, that by this passivity in ourselves we arrive from particular and broken knowledge at the opportunity to do it: you get a greatercut, get a knock, you see, one and always gets a unifying knowledge;secondlylittle hurt somewhere—especially when doing athletics, that ifgymnastics and all that—well, in these are opportunities given to us. Instead of sitting there observing the state of passivitypain, we open ourselves entirely trying to what is beyondanalyse it, we can become aware of a Power acting concentrating upon us it, which we feel makes it increase indefinitely…. There are people who think of something else but it does not last; they think of something else and then suddenly are drawn back to be not our own in the limited egoistic senseplace that hurts. But if one can do this… You see, but universal or transcendentalsince the pain is there, and it proves that this Power works through us for a greater play of knowledgeyou are in contact with the nerve that’s transmitting the pain, a greater play of energyotherwise you wouldn’t feel it. Well, action and resultonce you know that you are in contact, which also we feel you try to be not our own, but accumulate at that of the Divinepoint as much immobility as you can, of Sachchidananda, ourselves only its field or channel.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/to stop the-origin-vibrations of-the-ignorance#p7</ref><center>~</center>It is pain; you will perceive then that it has the silence effect of the mind a limb which goes to sleep when you are in an awkward position and vital—silence implying here not only cessation that all of thoughts but a stillness of the mental sudden… you know, don’t you?… and vital substancethen, when it stops, it begins to vibrate again terribly. There are varying degrees Well, you deliberately try this kind of depth concentration of this stillness.<ref>http://incarnateword.immobility in/cwsa/29/silence#p2</ref><center>~</center>At first it comes and stays only during meditation or, without the sense of physical inertness or immobility, a little while longer and afterwards is lostpainful nerve; but if at the sadhana follows its normal coursepainful point you bring as total an immobility as you can. Well, you will see that it comes more and moreworks, lasting longeras I told you, and in like an anaesthetic: it puts the end an enduring deep thing to sleep. And then, if you can add to that a kind of inner peace and inner stillness and release becomes a normal character of trust that the consciousnesspain will go away, the foundation indeed of a new consciousnesswell, calm and liberatedI tell you that it will go.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3006/descent-and-other-kinds17-ofnovember-experience1954#p7p22</ref> <center>~</center>And these two things must So the thing to be done … is to remain very objective within that peace; then you can benefit from the peace without accepting its limits. You should, for instance, be able to keep that peace in the greatest possible calmcells (the brain cells if you feel tired) without allowing yourself to be enclosed like that. ...There is always a vibration subtler than his vibration of peace, peace and tranquillitythat one must remain free, without getting enclosed in the other. This For example, if something pulls and causes a mental tension in the head, just keep in contact with that peace(oh, he does have a capacity of mental immobility), and let it penetrate you, this tranquillity brings about silence but without concentrating all your being on it: allow the rest of your activity to unfold as usual in an infinity. It’s only the vibrations of the physical mind and stillness that you should keep in the vitalthat stability.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwmagenda/1004/aphorismapril-716-1963#p16p3,p4</ref>

==What One must be Aware of During Practice?In the Vital Being==First, you must become conscious of the receiving of energies, their passing into your being and their expenditure. Next, you must have a sort of higher instinct which tells you whence the most favourable energies come; then you put yourself in contact with them through thought, through stillness or any other process—there are many. You must know what energy you want, whence it comes, of what it is composed. Later comes the control of the energy received. Ninety per cent of men do not absorb enough energy or they take in too much and do not assimilate what they take—as soon as they have had a sufficient dose they immediately throw it out by becoming restless, talking, shouting, You must know how to keep within you the received energy and concentrate it fully on the desired activity and not on anything else. If you can do this, you won't need to use your will. You need only gather together all the energies received and use them consciously, concentrate with the maximum attention in order to do everything you want.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/23-december-1950#p4</ref>

=What Stillness means at It is when one is full of peace that one laughs most gladly. It is an inner condition, not something external like being silent or not laughing. It is a Yogic Level=condition of serenity and stillness within in which there is no disturbance even if things go wrong or people are unpleasant or the body feels unwell—the state of serene inner gladness remains the same. It is self-existent. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p48</ref> <center>~</center>It is the silence of the mind and vital—silence implying here not only cessation of thoughts but a stillness of the mental and vital substance. There are varying degrees of depth of this stillness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p2</ref> <center>~</center>To go within yourself, that is the first step.And then, once you have succeeded in going within yourself deeply enough to feel the reality of that which is within, to widen yourself progressively, systematically, to become as vast as the universe and lose the sense of limitation.These are the first two preparatory movements.And these two things must be done in the greatest possible calm, peace and tranquillity. This peace, this tranquillity brings about silence in the mind and stillness in the vital. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-7#p13,p14,p15,p16</ref>

==How it is in In the Mental Being?==

Even if a thousand images or Equally must the most violent events pass across it, the calm stillness remains as if sense-mind be stilled and taught to leave the very texture function of thought to the mind were a substance of eternal that judges and indestructible peaceunderstands. A When the understanding in us stands back from the action of the sense-mind that has achieved this calmness can begin to act, even incessantly and powerfullyrepels its intermiscence, but it will keep its fundamental stillness—originating nothing from the latter detaches itself but receiving from Above the understanding and giving it can be watched in its separate action. It then reveals itself as a mental form without adding anything constantly swirling and eddying undercurrent of its ownhabitual concepts, calmlyassociations, dispassionatelyperceptions, though with the joy desires without any real sequence, order or principle of the Truth and the happy power and light of its passage.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p56</ref><center>~</center>The first [calmness with disturbances on the surface] It is the ordinary fundamental calm of the individual Adhar—the second [perfect stillness a constant repetition in the body a circle unintelligent and in the surrounding atmosphere] is the fundamental limitless calm of the cosmic consciousness, a calm which abides whether separated from all movements or supporting themunfruitful.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p67</ref><center>~</center>This [limitless stillness] is Ordinarily the calm of the Atman, the Self above, silent, immutable human understanding accepts this undercurrent and infinite.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p68</ref><center>~</center>These [tranquillity and stillness] are general words, of tries to reduce it to a general partial order and not a special Yogic significance. ...sequence; but in the calm mind, by so doing it becomes itself subject to it is the substance and partakes of the mental being that is stilldisorder, so still that nothing disturbs it. If thoughts or activities comerestlessness, they do not rise at all out of unintelligent subjection to habit and blind purposeless repetition which makes the mindordinary human reason a misleading, but they come from outside limited and even frivolous and cross the mind as a flight of birds crosses the sky in a windless airfutile instrument. It passesThere is nothing to be done with this fickle, disturbs nothingrestless, leaving no trace.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-violent and-calm#p56</ref><center>~</center>The first [calmness with disturbances on the surface] is the ordinary fundamental calm disturbing factor but to get rid of the individual Adhar—the second [perfect it whether by detaching it and then reducing it to stillness in the body or by giving a concentration and in singleness to the surrounding atmosphere] is the fundamental limitless calm of the cosmic consciousness, a calm thought by which abides whether separated from all movements or supporting them.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p67</ref><center>~</center>The first [calmness with disturbances on the surface] is the ordinary fundamental calm it will of the individual Adhar—the second [perfect stillness in the body itself reject this alien and in the surrounding atmosphere] is the fundamental limitless calm of the cosmic consciousness, a calm which abides whether separated from all movements or supporting themconfusing element.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2923/quietthe-andpurified-calmunderstanding#p67p11</ref>

But it's incredible!... And then, from time the power of the mind not to timethink, its complete silence for the incapacity of thought. But this power of silence is a little flamecapacity and not an incapacity, it's so lovely! And that Presencea power and not a weakness... That Presence, that Presence... These cells are like children: when they feel, everything, but everything disappears except that Presence; then there It is... like a sigh of reliefprofound and pregnant stillness. But outwardly, it's invisible: if Only when the body were sufferingmind is thus entirely still, it would amount to the same thing. Generallylike clear, when it suffers, it doesn't complain: it calls.... It calls motionless and calls and calls.... And it's quite aware that it's absolutely useless, that if it only knew... how to go into immobility, go into silencelevel water, it would be enough. As soon as it does it...<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/may-10-1969#p42</ref><center>~</center>...the two things can go together, you see, there is a moment when perfect purity and peace of the two—aspiration whole being and passivity—can be not only alternate but simultaneous. You the soul transcends thought, can be at once in the state of aspiration, of willing, Self which calls down something—exactly the will to open oneself exceeds and originates all activities and receivebecomings, and the aspiration Silence from which calls down the force you want to receive—and at all words are born, the same time be in that state Absolute of complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it is all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in this immobility that one can be penetrated, that one becomes permeable by the Forcepure essence of our being. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26<cwsa/ref><center>~<23/center>Well, the two can be simultaneous without the one disturbing the other, or can alternate so closely that they can hardly be distinguished. But one can be like that, like a great flame rising in aspiration, and at the same time as though this flame formed a vase, a large vase, opening and receiving all that comes down.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-aprilpurified-1954understanding#p26p15</ref> ==How does a Yogin Practice Stillness?==

If you suppress [the cittavṛttis], you will have no movements of the chitta at all; all will be immobile until you remove the suppression or will be so immobile that there cannot be anything else than immobility. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/sankhya-and-yoga#p7</ref><center>~</center>==What is it Does Stillness Mean in Different Parts of the BeingYoga?==

Any Yogi who knows something about pranayama or japa can tell you that the running of the name in the breath is not a small phenomenon but of great importance in these practices and, if it comes naturally, a sign that something in the inner being has done that kind of sadhana in the past. As ..for the current bringing it is the familiar sign of a first touch of the higher consciousness flowing down in the form [pure stillness of a stream—like the "wave" of light of the scientist—to prepare its possession of mind, vital and physical in the body] about there are more ways than one. So is the stillness and rigidity of the body in your former experience a sign of the same descent of the higher consciousness in its form or tendency of stillness and silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-value-of-experiences#p10</ref><center>~</center>It is not, for instance, only by an effort of the mind itself to get clear of all intrusive emotion or passion, to quiet its own characteristic vibrations, to resist the obscuring fumes of a physical inertia which brings about a sleep or a torpor of the mind instead of its wakeful silence, that the thing can be done. This is indeed an ordinary process of the Yogic path of knowledge; but the same end can be brought about or automatically happen by other processes—for instance, by the descent from above of a great spiritual stillness imposing silence on the mind and heart, on the life stimuli, on the physical reflexes. A sudden descent of this kind or a series of descents accumulative in force and efficacy is a well-known phenomenon of spiritual experience. Or again one may start a mental process of one kind or another for the purpose which would normally mean a long labour and yet may pull down or be seized midway, or even at the outset, by an overmind influx, a rapid intervention or manifestation of the higher Silence, with an effect sudden, instantaneous, out of all proportion to the means used at the beginning. One commences with a method, but the work is taken up by a Grace from above, by a response from That to which one aspires or by an irruption of the infinitudes of the Spirit.

===Challenges Faced===This [''limitless stillness''] is the calm of the Atman, the Self above, silent, immutable and infinite. But, even <ref>http://incarnateword.in this repose of all thought movements /cwsa/29/quiet-and all movements of feeling-calm#p67, one seesp68</ref> <center>~</center>When we get back into our own conscious being, when one looks more closely at we stand back from our own action and see how itis done, we discover that it is our whole being which stands behind any particular act or sum of activities, passive in the mindrest of its integrality, active in its limited dispensation of energy; but that passivity is not an incapable inertia, it is a poise of self-substance is reserved energy. A similar truth must apply still more completely to the conscious being of the Infinite, whose power, in a constant state silence of status as in creation, must also be infinite. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/the-origin-of-the-ignorance#p8</ref> <center>~</center>Chitta is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness out of which arise the movements of very subtle formless but potentially formative vibration—not at first easily observablethought, emotion, sensation, but afterwards quite evident—and impulse etc. It is these that in Patanjali’s system have to be stilled altogether so that state the consciousness may be immobile and go into samadhi.It [''stopping the movements of constant vibration may the chitta''] has a different function [''in this Yoga'']. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be as harmful quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.If you suppress [''the'' cittavṛttis], you will have no movements of the exact reflection chitta at all; all will be immobile until you remove the suppression or reception of will be so immobile that there cannot be anything else than immobility.If you still, the chitta will be quiet; whatever movements there are will not disturb the descendingquietude.If you control or master, then the chitta will be immobile when you want, active when you want, and its action will be such that what you wish to get rid of will go, only what you accept as true and useful will come. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2829/philosophical-thoughtsankhya-and-yoga#p17p5,p6,p7,p8,p9</ref> =Experiences Through Stillness=

==Experience of the Divine ShaktiExperiences Through Stillness==

==What is it in The Ascent and the Psychic?Descent== But if even for five minutes the body falls into the state of inertia—stillness without aspiration—it's woken up by an anguish as if it were about to die! To that point, you understand. For it, stillness is... Yes, it feels that the highest vibration, the vibration of the true Consciousness, is SO INTENSE that it's... it's the equivalent of the inertia of stillness—with an intensity that's not perceptible (for us). That intensity is so great that, for us, it's the equivalent of inertia. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/october-18-1969#p72</ref><center>~</center>By itself the psychic being at a certain stage might be content to create a formation of truth, good and beauty and make that its station; at a farther stage it might become passively subject to the world-self, a mirror of the universal existence, consciousness, power, delight, but not their full participant or possessor.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/the-double-soul-in-man#p11</ref><center>~</center>...the psychic being came into Nature from the Self, the Divine, and it can turn back from Nature to the silent Divine through the silence of the Self and a supreme spiritual immobility.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/the-double-soul-in-man#p11</ref><center>~</center>The two main members of its physical discipline, to which the others are mere accessories, are āsana, the habituating of the body to certain attitudes of immobility, and ''prāṇāyāma'', the regulated direction and arrestation by exercises of breathing of the vital currents of energy in the body. The physical being is the instrument; but the physical being is made up of two elements, the physical and the vital, the body which is the apparent instrument and the basis, and the life energy, ''prāṇa'', which is the power and the real instrument. Both of these instruments are now our masters.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p5</ref>

==What is it at a Universal Level?== The passive consciousness of Brahman and its active consciousness are not two different, conflicting and incompatible things; they are the same consciousness, the same energy, at one end in a state of self-reservation, at the other cast into a motion of self-giving and self-deploying, like the stillness of a reservoir and the coursing of the channels which flow from it. In fact, behind every activity there is and must be a passive power of being from which it arises, by which it is supported, which even, we see in the end, governs it from behind without being totally identified with it<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/the-origin-of-the-ignorance#p8</ref><center>~</center>After perfect stillness, there is the movement of inner aspiration (…), the surrender, that is to say, the SPONTANEOUS AND TOTAL acceptance of the supreme Will (…). Does the total Will want things to go this way or that way, that is, towards the disintegration of certain elements or towards...? And then again, there are endless nuances: there is the passage from one height to another (…), I mean that you have a certain inner equilibrium, an equilibrium of movement, of life, and it's understood that in order to go from one movement to a higher movement, there is almost always a descent, then a new ascent—there is a transition. So does the shock received impel you to go down in order to climb up again, or does it impel you do go down in order to abandon old movements? Because there are cellular ways of being that have to disappear in order to give way to others; there are others that climb down in order to climb up again with a higher harmony and organization. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/agenda/06/march-24-1965#p38</ref> ==The Ascent== That's what it has managed to get: a complete stillness and an INTENSE aspiration. And it's when stillness is left without aspiration that it falls into a dreadful anguish which instantly wakes it up. That's it, you understand: an INTENSE aspiration. And it's absolutely still, still within, as if all the cells grew still.... That must be it: what we call intense aspiration must be the supramental vibration. It must be the divine Vibration, the true divine vibration,<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/october-18-1969#p71</ref>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<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-and-The other is the descent#p16</ref><center>~</center>It is of the peace, silence, the repeated spiritual freedom and wideness and constant ascent the powers of the lower higher consciousness that enables as they develop into the mind, the vital, lower down to the most physical to come into touch with and even the higher planes up subconscient. To both of these movements there can be a block—a block above due to the supramental mind and lower nature being unhabituated (it is that really and get impregnated with their light not incapacity) and power a block below due to the physical consciousness and influenceits 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/theascent-inwardand-movementdescent#p14p16</ref> <center>~</center>The movement of ascension has different results: it may liberate the consciousness so that one feels no longer in the body, but above it or else spread in wideness with the body either almost non-existent or only a point in one's one’s free expanse. It may enable the being or some part of the being to go out from the body and move elsewhere, and this action is usually accompanied by some kind of partial ''samādhi'' or else a complete trance. Or it may result in empowering the consciousness, no longer limited by the body and the habits of the external nature, to go within, to enter the inner mental depths, the inner vital, the inner (subtle) physical, the psychic, to become aware of its inmost psychic self or its inner mental, vital and subtle physical being and, it may be, to move and live in the domains, the planes, the worlds that correspond to these parts of the nature. It is the repeated and constant ascent of the lower consciousness that enables the mind, the vital, the physical to come into touch with the higher planes up to the supramental and get impregnated with their light and power and influence. And it is the repeated and constant descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force that is the means for the transformation of the whole being and the whole nature. Once this descent becomes habitual, the Divine Force, the Power of the Mother begins to work, no longer from above only or from behind the veil, but consciously in the Adhara itself, and deals with its difficulties and possibilities and carries on the Yoga. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p14</ref> <center>~</center>==The Descent== The other ...the two things can go together, you see, there is a moment when the descent two—aspiration and passivity—can be not only alternate but simultaneous. You can be at once in the state of the peaceaspiration, silenceof willing, which calls down something—exactly the spiritual freedom will to open oneself and wideness receive, and the powers aspiration which calls down the force you want to receive—and at the same time be in that state of complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it is in this immobility that one can be penetrated, that one becomes permeable by the Force. Well, the higher consciousness as they develop into two can be simultaneous without the lower down to one disturbing the most physical other, or can alternate so closely that they can hardly be distinguished. But one can be like that, like a great flame rising in aspiration, and even at the subconscientsame time as though this flame formed a vase, a large vase, opening and receiving all that comes down. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3006/ascent21-andapril-descent1954#p16p26</ref> <center>~</center>This A deep, intense or massive substance of peace and stillness is indeed an ordinary process very commonly the first of its powers that descends and many experience it in that way. At first it comes and stays only during meditation or, without the Yogic path sense of knowledgephysical inertness or immobility, a little while longer and afterwards is lost; but if the sadhana follows its normal course, it comes more and more, lasting longer, and in the same end can be brought about or automatically happen by an enduring deep peace and inner stillness and release becomes a normal character of the consciousness, the foundation indeed of a new consciousness, calm and liberated. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/descent-and-other processes—-kinds-of-experience#p7</ref>for instance, by the <center>~</center>...descent from above of a great spiritual stillness imposing silence on the mind Divine Consciousness and heart, on its Force into the life stimuli, on the physical reflexesbody. A sudden This descent is felt as a pouring in of this kind or a series calm and peace, of descents accumulative in force and efficacy is power, of light, of joy and ecstasy, of wideness and freedom and knowledge, of a Divine Being or a well-known phenomenon Presence—sometimes one of these, sometimes several of spiritual experiencethem or all together. <ref>http://incarnateword. in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p14</ref> <center>~</center>Or again one may start a mental process The descent whether of one kind peace or force or light or knowledge or another for Ananda must the purpose which would normally mean a long labour and yet may pull whole inner being down or to the inner physical. Without that how is the outer to be transformed at all? It is an amazing idea to suppose that the outer can be seized midway, or changed while the inner is left to itself. What you had in the inner being was a static stillness which did not even entirely occupy the inner physical except at times—that was why the outsetdynamic descent was necessary, by an overmind influx, a rapid intervention but in the inner being or manifestation of if possible the higher Silencewhole being, with an effect suddenthe inner outflowing into the outer, instantaneous, out of all proportion not in the outer being to the means used at exclusion of the beginninginner. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2830/philosophical-thoughtascent-and-yogadescent#p15p12</ref>

...as often happens the Force is preparing its own reception and habituating the body to the descent. Having done that sufficiently it is coming down as a massive peace. The higher consciousness in its descent takes several fundamental forms—peace, power and strength, light, knowledge, Ananda. Usually it is the peace that descends first. This is not a mental, vital or physical peace of the ordinary kind, but something from above (spiritual), very firm, solid and concrete. It is its concreteness that makes you feel like a still massive block—a mass of the higher consciousness in place of the more tenuous substance of the ordinary nature.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2330/onenessthe-descent-of-the-higher-consciousness-and-force#p6p16</ref> <center>~</center>One must By the descent the inertia changes its character. It ceases to be careful not a resistance of the physical and becomes only a physical condition to confuse be transformed into the twotrue basic immobility and rest.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/difficulties-experienced-in-the-process-of-descent#p28</ref> <center>~</center>The peace (''śama'') descents that stiffen the body into a concentrated stillness the first touch of something at the end of which is the pure form, tamas presence of the Divine. He is its degraded or perverted form—just as rajas not impatient; he is rather careful not to disturb the degraded or perverse form of Tapasevolution that is beginning. When there is Certainly, some sadhaks have strong and decisive experiences at the transformationbeginning, tamas can be got rid of—but till then but these are followed by a long labour in which there are many empty periods and many periods of struggle.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-value-of-experiences#p8</ref> <center>~</center>The feeling of stoniness is always very usually a possibility first impression in the body of its mixing the stillness in the cells which comes with the peace or stillness so long as that is not perfect and all-pervadingdownflow of the Peace.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2830/feelings-and-sensations-in-the-sankhyaprocess-yogaof-systemdescent#p44p37</ref>

<center>~</center>...with training one can arrive at a point when one remains outwardly conscious and yet lives in the inner being and has at will the indrawn or the out-poured condition; you can then have the same dense immobility and the same inpouring of a greater and purer consciousness in the waking state as in that which you erroneously call sleep. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-experiences-in-the-state-of-samadhi#p29</ref> ==The Challenges one might Experience== === In Ascent === 

That The state now is such that when the body FEELS ITSELF (feels itself, that is to say, [is aware of being a body), INSTANTLY there's a discomfort, whatever the condition. Even when it feels in a state of adoration or aspiration or... it's accompanied by discomfort. And only when there 's no more awareness at all of its separate existence does it feel comfortable. So then, the normal state is sometimes silence, stillness , but... (the image isn't correct—how can I explain?), you see, the Presence, it's not that it flows through, but when it radiates like this (''gesture''), radiates through an activity, then everything is fine and sometimes mechanical thoughtsthere's no more at all the sensation of "this [the body] through which": this through which the Power Divine flows—there isn't. It's like this (''immutable gesture''), still and nonexistent, without any self-awareness, aware only of... the Divine Action, like that. Then everything is still working on fine. And the minute there's even a slight impression of the Thing flowing "through," discomfort comes. You understand, it has become a very acute state.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/october-25-1969#p102</ref> <center>~</center>…instead of thought governing life, it's consciousness. And when the consciousness remains quietly open to the Divine, all goes well. A lot of things constantly come into the consciousness, from the whole world, it would seem...all the things that negate or oppose the Divine Action. They keep coming all the time like this (''same gesture''). But if I can remain quiet (''gesture of offering, hands open''), in an attitude of…(''smiling'') nonexistence, a sort of… I don’t know if it’s transparency—I don’t know if one should say “transparency” or “immobility”—but it’s something in the physical consciousness that’s like this (''same gesture of offering, hands open''). When it stays that way, all is well; but as soon as it starts stirring, that is, as soon as the individuality comes to the mechanical mind forefront in any way, everything becomes detestable. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/13/august-30-1972#p5</ref> <center>~</center>… a complete stillness and an INTENSE aspiration. And it’s when stillness is left without aspiration that it falls into a dreadful anguish which instantly wakes it up. That’s it, you understand: an INTENSE aspiration. And it’s absolutely still, still within, as if all the cells grew still…. That must be it: what we call intense aspiration must be the supramental vibration. It must be the divine Vibration, the subconscient) true divine vibration. ...But if even for five minutes the body falls into the state of inertia—stillness without aspiration—it's woken up by an anguish as if it were about to bring die! To that point, you understand. For it, stillness thereis... Yes, it feels that the highest vibration, the vibration of the true Consciousness, is SO INTENSE that it's... Sometimes it's the equivalent of the stillness comes but inertia of stillness—with an intensity that's not completeperceptible (for us). That intensity is so great that, for us, sometimes it's the mechanical mind reasserts itselfequivalent of inertia. <ref>http://incarnateword. This oscillation usually takes place in /agenda/10/october-18-1969#p72</ref> <center>~</center>… a peace all the same, a movement real peace, a concrete, concrete stillness. So the thing to be done (because that peace is perceptible I’ve had the experience of it so many times) is to remain very objective within that peace; then you can benefit from the kindpeace without accepting its limits. Even You should, for instance, be able to keep that peace in the cells (the brain cells if there you feel tired) without allowing yourself to be enclosed like that. There is a sudden no need to struggle, just remain turned upward….<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/04/april-16-1963#p3</ref> <center>~</center>There are no more ideas, no more feelings, almost no more sensations, it's... this and that (''same gesture of tipping over to one side or rapid transforming shock or downrushto the other''), there has to be some working out of this kind afterwards—that at least has always been my experienceof shift, and a shift SO VERY different, you know, and in total immobility! <ref>http://incarnateword. For mostin/agenda/11/july-11-1970#p67</ref> <center>~</center>This Matter, howeverof course, there comesfrom total unconsciousness, and throughout the ages and all the ways of being, firstit returns to total consciousness—it goes from one extreme to the other; well, it’s these habits of static immobility that give this slow preparatory processneed for trance. It shouldn’t be necessary. Only (how can I explain?…), logically, as things are, it depends on the balance between the body’s capacity of receptivity and its external activity: it’s obviously far more receptive when it is immobile, because its energies are occupied with the transformation.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsaagenda/3008/descent-and-thejanuary-lower18-nature1967#p30p21</ref>

For it is seen that these selves are representations of a divine Entity to which mind, life and body are only forms and instruments: we are then the Soul looking at Nature, knowing all her dynamisms in us, not by mental perception and observation, but by an intrinsic consciousness and its direct sense of things and its intimate exact vision, able therefore by its emergence to put a close control on our nature and change it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-evolution-of-the-spiritual-man#p6</ref> <center>~</center>My impression was that as a result of this the physical cells were going to develop materially and be transformed (I think it will happen—I had a sort of assurance that it will). Because now, as I'm talking to you, I'm looking at it and I see—the effect is still there: no longer with In silence lies the same overwhelming power, but the effect is there and it gives a sort of... (it can't be compared to anything physical)... a sort of warmth; it's not heat, but warmth. Everything is seized by it, both ears (Mother touches her head), everything—here, there, all around! Tremendousgreatest receptivity. And this immobility! As soon as one stops, it is immor... (Mother cuts off her word), it is eternity.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/02/october-15-1961#p17</ref><center>~</center>When there is a complete an immobile silence in the being, either a stillness of the whole being or a stillness behind unaffected by surface movements, then we can become aware of a Self, a spiritual substance of our being, an existence exceeding even the soul individuality, spreading itself into universality, surpassing all dependence on any natural form or vastest action, extending itself upward into a transcendence of which the limits are not visible. It is these liberations of the spiritual part in us which are the decisive steps of the spiritual evolution in Naturedone.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-evolution-of-the-spiritual-man#p6</ref>  =Transformation= It is indeed the beginning of the real transformation—all the rest hitherto has been mainly preparation and clearing of difficulties and impediments through all these years. This serene peace and massive stillness has Let us learn to stabilise itself, fill be silent so that the whole nature, widen itself until all existence internal and external seems full of it. This Lord may take time, but the beginning once there it is sure to take place, if one is steady and constant.This transformation cannot be complete or really executed without the awakening of the truth-mind which corresponds in the mental being to the Supermind and is capable of receiving mentally its illuminations. By the opposition of Spirit and Mind without the free opening of this intermediate power the two natures, higher and lower, stand divided.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/oneness#p6</ref><center>~</center>...as a completely emptied mind substance devoid of energy or light, completely inert, is the condition of neutral peace and empty stillness which is or can be a stage of the liberation. But it can afterwards feel itself filled with infinite existence, consciousness (carrying energy in it) and finally Ananda.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/jainism-and-buddhism#p20</ref><center>~</center>The mind too can rise towards and touch her infinity or merge itself in it in trance make use of samadhi or can lose itself in her universality, and then our individuality disappears, our centre of action is then no longer in us, but either outside our bodied selves or nowhere; our mental activities are then no longer our own, but come into this frame of mind, life and body from the universal, work themselves out and pass leaving no impression on us, and this frame of ourselves too is only an insignificant circumstance in her cosmic vastness. But the perfection sought in the integral Yoga is not only to be one with her in her highest spiritual power and one with her in her universal action, but to realise and possess the fullness of this Shakti in our individual being and nature.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-shakti#p10</ref><center>~</center>The power of Love supramentalised can take hold of all living relations without hesitation or danger and turn them Godwards delivered from their crude, mixed and petty human settings and sublimated into the happy material of a divine life. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2316/the-ascent-of-the19-sacrificedecember-ii1971#p15</ref><center>~</center>The real self is the eternal who is obviously capable of both the mobility in Time and the immobility basing Timep1,—simultaneously, otherwise they could not both exist; nor, even, could one exist and the other create seemings. This is the supreme Soul, Self and Being2 of the Gita who upholds both the immobile and the mobile being as the self and lord of all existence.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/memory-self-consciousness-and-the-ignorance#p11p2</ref><center>~</center>

==Imperfections and Periods of Arrest=References=