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Read more about '''[[Imagination Compilation|Imagination]]''' from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.  
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Read more about '''[[Stillness Compilation|Stillness]]''' from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.  
 
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In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us.
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THE MOTHER
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In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us.
 
In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us.
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Stillness, the emptiness of mind and vital and cessation of thoughts and other movements. In this state, the consciousness goes inside in a deep stillness and silence. This condition is favourable to inner experience, realisation, the vision of the unseen truth of things, though one can get these in the waking condition also.
 
Stillness, the emptiness of mind and vital and cessation of thoughts and other movements. In this state, the consciousness goes inside in a deep stillness and silence. This condition is favourable to inner experience, realisation, the vision of the unseen truth of things, though one can get these in the waking condition also.
 
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-experiences-in-the-state-of-samadhi#p2</ref>
 
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/inner-experiences-in-the-state-of-samadhi#p2</ref>
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 +
Everyone has in himself a being which he calls the “Self”, and which is completely silent and immobile. So, if one becomes conscious of this being in himself, one has the experience of the silent Self. It is an immobile and silent being which is within, which is like an aspect of the true being and also an aspect of the witness. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/13-october-1954#p13</ref>
  
 
==In the Physical Being ==
 
==In the Physical Being ==
  
Stillness and meditation, it is not only in meditation that one can reach the Divine consciousness, you will learn that one can remain in contact with the Divine even while playing or doing gymnastics or walking or doing anything.
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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. To remain like a wall, absolutely motionless to wade off attacks. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/22-february-1956?search=physical+immobility#p9,p10,p11,p12</ref>
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/ascetic-practices#p13</ref>
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==In the Mental Being==
 
==In the Mental Being==
  
Stillness of the mind means, first, the falling to rest of the habitual thought movements, thought formations, thought currents which agitate this mind-substance.
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The normal activity of our minds is for the most part a disordered restlessness, full of waste and rapidly tentative expenditure of energy in which only a little is selected for the workings of the self-mastering will.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p17</ref>It is the substance of the mental being that is still, so still that nothing disturbs it. If thoughts or activities come, they do not rise at all out of the mind, but they come from outside and cross the mind as a flight of birds crosses the sky in a windless air. It passes, disturbs nothing, leaving no trace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/03/july-25-1962#p115</ref>
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<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p6</ref>Stillness of the mind means, first, the falling to rest of the habitual thought movements, thought formations, thought currents which agitate this mind-substance.
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<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p17</ref>It is the substance of the mental being that is still, so still that nothing disturbs it. If thoughts or activities come, they do not rise at all out of the mind, but they come from outside and cross the mind as a flight of birds crosses the sky in a windless air. It passes, disturbs nothing, leaving no trace.
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<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/03/july-25-1962#p115</ref>
  
 
A mind that has achieved this calmness can begin to act, even intensely 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/agenda/03/july-25-1962#p115</ref>
 
A mind that has achieved this calmness can begin to act, even intensely 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/agenda/03/july-25-1962#p115</ref>
 
The normal activity of our minds is for the most part a disordered restlessness, full of waste and rapidly tentative expenditure of energy in which only a little is selected for the workings of the self-mastering will,
 
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p6</ref>
 
  
 
In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p15</ref>
 
In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p15</ref>
How the two things can go together, you see, there is a moment when the two—aspiration and passivity—can be not only alternate but simultaneous. You can be at once in the state of aspiration, of willing, which calls down something—exactly the will to open oneself and receive, and the 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.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/21-april-1954#p26</ref>
 
  
 
=Why is Stillness Important?=
 
=Why is Stillness Important?=
  
If 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 is capable of a spiritual ardour and tranquil passion of delight, a rapturous, all-understanding and all-possessing equality of the perfected soul, an intense and even wideness and fullness of its being embracing all things. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/equality-and-the-annihilation-of-ego#p10</ref>
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When there is a complete 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 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 Nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-evolution-of-the-spiritual-man#p6</ref>
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Peace and stillness are the great remedy for disease.
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<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/peace-and-quiet-faith-and-surrender#p27</ref>
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Only when the mind is thus entirely still, like clear, motionless and level water, in a perfect purity and peace of the whole being and the soul transcends thought, can the Self which exceeds and originates all activities and becomings, the Silence from which all words are born, the Absolute of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our being. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p15</ref>
  
 
=How to Practice Stillness?=
 
=How to Practice Stillness?=
  
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. And, 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.There is no need to struggle, just remain turned upward.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. Even if a thousand images or the most violent events pass across it, the calm stillness remains as if the very texture of the mind were a substance of eternal and indestructible peace.
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A constant aspiration for that [''to be constantly governed by the Divine''] is the first thing—next a sort of stillness within and a drawing back from the outward action into the stillness and a sort of listening expectancy, not for a sound but for the spiritual feeling or direction of the consciousness that comes through the psychic. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/becoming-conscious-in-work#p36</ref>
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-the-ego#p8 </ref><ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/04/april-16-1963#p3</ref>
 
 
 
==What Must One keep in Mind?==
 
 
 
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p15</ref>
 
 
 
==Challenges Faced==
 
 
 
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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/philosophical-thought-and-yoga#p17</ref>
 
 
 
=Yogic Understanding of Stillness=
 
 
 
==Ascent==
 
 
 
As the mind progresses in purity, capacity of stillness or freedom from absorption in its own limited action, it becomes aware of and is able to reflect, bring into itself or enter into the conscious presence of the Self, the supreme and universal Spirit, and it becomes aware too of grades and powers of the spirit higher than its own highest ranges. It becomes aware of an infinite of the consciousness of being, an infinite ocean of all the power and energy of illimitable consciousness, an infinite ocean of Ananda, of the self-moved delight of existence. That's what it has managed to get: a complete stillness and an INTENSE aspiration. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-divine-shakti#p10</ref>
 
 
==Descent==
 
  
The other is the descent of the peace, silence, the spiritual freedom and wideness and the powers of the higher consciousness as they develop into the lower down to the most physical and even the subconscient.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-and-descent#p16</ref>
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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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-release-from-the-ego#p8</ref>
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>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/oneness#p6</ref>
 
  
==How Mother Works?==
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=Stillness in Yoga=
  
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>  
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There are two movements that are necessary—one is the ascent through the increasing of peace and silence to its source above the mind,—that is indicated by the tendency of the consciousness to rise out of the body to the top of the head and above where it is easy to realise the Self in all its stillness and liberation and wideness and to open to the other powers of the Higher Consciousness. The other is the descent of the peace, silence, the spiritual freedom and wideness and the powers of the higher consciousness as they develop into the lower down to the most physical and even the subconscient.
 +
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/ascent-and-descent#p16</ref>
  
==Transformation==
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A deep, intense or massive substance of peace and stillness is 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 sense of physical 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 end 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.
And we can say 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. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/oneness#p6</ref>
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<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/descent-and-other-kinds-of-experience#p7</ref>
  
  

Latest revision as of 10:46, 10 January 2022


Read more about Stillness from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.


Image1.png

In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us. THE MOTHER


In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us. THE MOTHER

What is Stillness?

Stillness, the emptiness of mind and vital and cessation of thoughts and other movements. In this state, the consciousness goes inside in a deep stillness and silence. This condition is favourable to inner experience, realisation, the vision of the unseen truth of things, though one can get these in the waking condition also. [1]

Everyone has in himself a being which he calls the “Self”, and which is completely silent and immobile. So, if one becomes conscious of this being in himself, one has the experience of the silent Self. It is an immobile and silent being which is within, which is like an aspect of the true being and also an aspect of the witness. [2]

In the Physical Being

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. To remain like a wall, absolutely motionless to wade off attacks. [3]

In the Mental Being

The normal activity of our minds is for the most part a disordered restlessness, full of waste and rapidly tentative expenditure of energy in which only a little is selected for the workings of the self-mastering will. [4]Stillness of the mind means, first, the falling to rest of the habitual thought movements, thought formations, thought currents which agitate this mind-substance. [5]It is the substance of the mental being that is still, so still that nothing disturbs it. If thoughts or activities come, they do not rise at all out of the mind, but they come from outside and cross the mind as a flight of birds crosses the sky in a windless air. It passes, disturbs nothing, leaving no trace. [6]

A mind that has achieved this calmness can begin to act, even intensely 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. [7]

In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. [8]

Why is Stillness Important?

When there is a complete 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 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 Nature. [9]

Peace and stillness are the great remedy for disease. [10]

Only when the mind is thus entirely still, like clear, motionless and level water, in a perfect purity and peace of the whole being and the soul transcends thought, can the Self which exceeds and originates all activities and becomings, the Silence from which all words are born, the Absolute of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our being. [11]

How to Practice Stillness?

A constant aspiration for that [to be constantly governed by the Divine] is the first thing—next a sort of stillness within and a drawing back from the outward action into the stillness and a sort of listening expectancy, not for a sound but for the spiritual feeling or direction of the consciousness that comes through the psychic. [12]

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. [13]

Stillness in Yoga

There are two movements that are necessary—one is the ascent through the increasing of peace and silence to its source above the mind,—that is indicated by the tendency of the consciousness to rise out of the body to the top of the head and above where it is easy to realise the Self in all its stillness and liberation and wideness and to open to the other powers of the Higher Consciousness. The other is the descent of the peace, silence, the spiritual freedom and wideness and the powers of the higher consciousness as they develop into the lower down to the most physical and even the subconscient. [14]

A deep, intense or massive substance of peace and stillness is 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 sense of physical 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 end 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. [15]



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Read more about Stillness from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

References