December 1969 |
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03. December 1969 – Living this consciousness What I lived was that there was NOTHING but this Consciousness; now... it’s not a memory, it has stayed on – it has stayed on, but it’s veiled, so it expresses itself THROUGH the usual consciousness which is there (gesture above the head). The usual consciousness is there. And this Consciousness really has an interesting effect on the body, because in this body, with the elements that were there, it has built a vital and a mind. Now I’ve found that the body feels as it used to feel before, that is to say in full possession of its faculty. But the mind and vital are no longer independent in the sense that they do as they like – they are under the complete control of the Consciousness. Then the body still has spots of timidity, but it’s beginning to recapture the state it was in before.... It’s a very slow and long work, but... I don’t know how long it will take, but once it reaches a certain perfection, the body will once again be capable of many things it had lost because of that [the departure of the mind and vital]. It wasn’t a physical deterioration, that’s what deprived it, and it’s beginning to slowly, slowly come back. We’ll see. But it’s a long and slow work. (silence) Formerly, they were the body’s masters, so that’s what was needed: they had to go away. It was through them that the psychic and all the rest used to work – now, that’s over: it’s direct. But then, the body’s possibilities are multiplying again – intensifying, multiplying. Now, I am all the time (I don’t know, at least ten times a day) asked questions, and the answer comes instantly, like this (gesture of descent), with an ease I never had before. All it takes is a few seconds of attention, and it comes. And the answers are much bolder – something that touches an inner truth and isn’t bothered by external reactions. The words are much bolder than before, much clearer... Sometimes, when I write them, I say to myself that it would be amusing if you could see them – most of the time it’s quite personal things, but the form is interesting. |
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10. December 1969 – The Body is learning One must have lived what one wants to teach. To speak of the new consciousness, let it penetrate you and reveal its secrets to you. For only then will you be able to speak of it with competence. To leap into the new consciousness, the first condition is a mental modesty sufficient to be convinced that all one thinks one knows is nothing in comparison with what remains to be learned. All that one has learned externally must be only a foothold enabling one to rise towards higher knowledge. The training of the physical consciousness is continuing at an accelerated pace, very accelerated. The body has some slight difficulty in keeping its equilibrium. It’s as if it were getting blows from every side! (Mother laughs) Inwardly, it’s quite fine. Outwardly, for these last three days things have been very difficult, so it’s been a bit tired – formerly, it no longer knew fatigue, it no longer knew what it was. But that didn’t last: as soon as it had a moment when it could concentrate and get back into the true attitude, that went away And the progress (gesture like a leap), oh, it’s quite out of proportion with the effort. The effort is quite small and the progress is big. One can see that clearly. And then, with other people (close ones, people in a close relationship), it’s the same thing too, the progress is by leaps and bounds – it shakes up the house a little, but it’s by leaps and bounds. With some, like Z for instance, it’s very conscious, she’s very conscious. Long ago, she had an accident to her leg, and that leg is slightly weaker than the other, there’s a possibility of trouble. She’s noticed that as long as she is in the right attitude, she no longer feels ANYTHING; there’s nothing anymore, it seems completely gone. As soon as she falls back into the ordinary consciousness, the pain comes back.... She’s had innumerable experiences. I found that very interesting. Others too. It’s really interesting. Really interesting because it’s clear in a perfectly limpid and obvious way that its NOTHING BUT A STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. When you are in the consciousness (that is, the consciousness which grows truer and truer: not something at a stop but a consciousness in ascent), when you are in that, all goes well; as soon as you go out of it and fall back into the old unprogressive consciousness, or progressive in a very slow and invisible manner, then the disorder comes back. And that’s like a lesson given in a perfectly clear and evident way. It’s really interesting. The body is learning – it learns very fast. (silence) (Laughing) It always says to itself, “We’re really poor devils!” That’s its actual impression I We who are so proud of being human and conscious and capable of being something else than a thinking animal... we’re still all the way down in comparison with... with what has to be conquered – not even the first step of the ascent. We think we’re doing well, we give ourselves a little pat of encouragement!... That’s really the impression: we’re poor devils! (Mother laughs) (silence) Certainly, a great step will be taken when it becomes natural for man to seek to perfect himself instead of expecting perfection in others... That reversal is at the basis of all true progress. The first human instinct is, “It’s the fault of circumstances, it’s people’s fault, it’s... See how this fellow is, how that fellow is, how...” And it goes on indefinitely. The FIRST STEP, the very first step is to say, “If I were as I should be, or if the body were as it should be, all would be perfectly all right for it.” If, to make progress, you wait for others to do so, you can wait indefinitely. That’s the first thing that should be spread everywhere. Never lay the blame on others or on circumstances because whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress, not in the least – and I’ll say, including death. That really seems to be the first lesson to be learned. |
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13. December 1969 – On Aphorisms: 220-223 I keep receiving almost daily some Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo, which I had completely forgotten. There are really quite interesting things.... Some of them give me the exact impression of a clothing (we might say an intellectual clothing, but it’s not that, it’s from a higher mind, but it’s mentalized, that is to say, accessible to thought), a clothing of the experience I had of the supramental Consciousness, in which the difference between good and evil and all that looked like childishness, and Sri Aurobindo expresses it in those Aphorisms in a manner accessible to intelligence. Only... those who understand don’t understand right! Because they understand below. Do you remember those Aphorisms?... In one he says, “If I can’t be Rama, then I want to be Ravana...” and he explains why It’s that series. 220 — "Men talk of enemies, but where are they? I only see wrestlers of one party or the other in the great arena of the universe." 221 — "The saint and the angel are not the only divinities; admire also the Titan and the Giant." 222 — "The old writings call the Titans the elder gods. So they still are; nor is any god entirely divine unless there is hidden in him also a Titan." 223 — "If I cannot be Rama, then I would be Ravana; for he is the dark side of Vishnu." (Rama is a divine incarnation, whereas Ravana is the incarnation of a demon.) (silence) |
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13. December 1969 – Talking about Sri Aurobindo's powers But I can see, that’s what Sri Aurobindo also had: there is a certain power that comes from the contact with the supramental forces, which Sri Aurobindo had, and which I have experienced (when I said, “He takes things away as one would do with one’s hand,” and nothing remains), but it’s not cured, in the sense that out of weakness one lets the ailment come back. I clearly see that, I have the same experience now, but... that’s not what I call “cure”; and I clearly see that to cure, something else would be needed. Something else would be needed. Ultimately to put it quite tritely, one can cure only if the disease isn’t necessary to the individual’s development. One can give the body an indication of the direction it should follow in order to be cured, but... ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it won’t do it. Yes, people call them miracles, but to me, they are incomplete miracles!... In all the transfers (what I call “transfer of power”), at the time of the transfer, there is in the body a sort of disequilibrium, and if you aren’t VERY attentive, or if the disequilibrium is a bit stronger than usual, it results in a pain. If you make the mistake of taking the wrong attitude, the pain turns into an illness. But with the true attitude, the pain can be taken away in a few seconds – that experience occurs almost every day, which is to say that I’ve had it hundreds of times. And for others, it’s the same thing – you can do it for someone else. But all that you can do is... to teach the body the way to cure itself – but it doesn’t learn! (Mother laughs) |
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13. December 1969 – To cure without repression What’s needed is the opposite! Instead of repelling it, to offer it. It’s to put the thing, the movement itself, to CAST it into the Light.... Generally, it squirms and refuses! But... (laughing) it’s the only way. That’s why this Consciousness is so precious.... You understand, what caused the repression is the idea of good and evil – a sort of contempt or shame at what’s regarded as evil – and so one goes like this (gesture of repelling), one doesn’t want to see it, doesn’t want to let it be. What’s needed... The first thing – the first thing to be realized is that the infirmity of our consciousness is what creates this division, and that there is a Consciousness (I am sure of it now), there is a Consciousness in which that doesn’t exist, in which what we call “evil” is as necessary as what we call “good,” and if we could cast our sensation – or our activity or perception – cast it into this Light, that’s what cures. (Mother gave this comment on the last of these Aphorisms: "It means that gentleness without strength and goodness without power are incomplete and cannot entirely express the Divine. I might say that the charity and generosity of a converted Asura are infinitely more effective than those of an innocent angel.") Instead of repressing or repelling it as something one wants to destroy (it can’t be destroyed!), one must cast it into the Light. I had in fact several days of an experience which for that reason was very interesting; instead of trying to drive far away from yourself certain things (which you don’t accept or which cause a disequilibrium in the being), instead of that, accept them, take them as a part of yourself, and... (Mother opens her hands) offer them – they don’t want to be offered, but there’s a way to compel them. A way to compel them: the resistance is lessened to the extent that we can lessen in us the sense of disapproval. If we can replace that sense of disapproval with a higher understanding, then we can do it. It’s much easier. I had a whole baggage which remained like that, of things I did when I was young; it remained like that (gesture on the side), and in fact, after that supramental experience, I was able to gather all of it, and all of a sudden, it got entirely clarified, I understood everything, and... it evaporated. Things I had been dragging along for a very long time – I didn’t want to know, you understand, didn’t want to have anything to do with them anymore – and then it was all over. It melted, it was clarified like... Well, it was in its place. I think that’s it. All, all the movements that pull downward, we must put them in contact with the higher understanding. Only, it’s obviously beyond the mind. Because I said just before that those Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo were an expression intelligible to the intellect, but it still diminishes; it diminishes, it’s no longer that dazzling light of a wordless understanding – THAT is where, that is where things can be arranged. |
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13. December 1969 – Mother receives a message “It is an excellent time to read, meditate, and, little by little, go into a receptive silence that will enable the higher Consciousness to enter the body in order to transform it.” It came like that; that’s how it takes place: all of a sudden, brff! and it stays on, it won’t go away until I’ve written. It’s amusing! It’s amusing because it doesn’t correspond... (I can’t say “to what I think,” because, to tell the truth, I no longer think) to my experience, but to the OTHER person’s need. The answer is dictated FOR the other person. Words, expressions, the turn of phrase, the presentation vary completely according to the person it’s written to. And this consciousness [of Mother] which is there (gesture above) has nothing to do with it at all. It just receives. It receives, and then it comes down and goes like this (hammering gesture) until I’ve written! It won’t go away until it’s written down. That’s very amusing.... That way, one can do a lot of work without getting tired! That's happened to me several times. The other day, for example, I had to write to C.S. [a German translator] — he'd written me some... very often he writes unacceptable things, but I don't say anything; and the other day, I wrote a rather strong letter to tell him, "What does that mean?" But afterwards, I said to myself, "No, you shouldn't budge," and I didn't send my letter... What's to be done? I don't know. It happens to me too. Sometimes I write something, send it, and afterwards I remember what I wrote and say to myself, “Gee! I shouldn’t have said that!...” And later on, I realize it’s quite fine – it’s the reaction that’s a mental reaction. |
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13. December 1969 – Very simple! The Ego has to disappear! It’s concrete? What’s needed... You understand, there’s only ONE way, it’s for the ego to go away, that’s all. That’s the thing. It’s when, instead of an “I,” nothing remains there – completely flat, you know, like this (immense, even gesture, without a ripple), with a sort of... not even expressed with words, but a very STABLE expression of, “What You will, what You will.” (Words become very small.) Really with a concrete sensation that this [the body] doesn’t exist, it’s only “made use of,” as it were, and there’s NOTHING but That. That which goes like this (gesture of exerting a pressure). The impression of That, this conscious immensity which (Mother stretches out her arms)... You eventually see it, you know (“see” it, it’s not a vision with pictures, but a vision... I don’t know with what! But it’s very concrete, much more concrete than pictures), a vision of this IMMENSE Force, this IMMENSE Vibration pressing and pressing and pressing... and then, the world wriggling about underneath (!) and the thing opening – and when it opens, that enters and spreads. It’s really interesting. It’s the only solution, there’s no other. All the rest is... aspirations, conceptions, hopes... it’s still the superman, but not the supramental. It’s a higher humanity that tries to lift its whole humanity upward, but... it’s useless. It’s useless. The image is very clear of all this humanity clinging and climbing, striving to catch like that, but actually not giving itself – it wants to take! And that won’t do. It has to nullify itself. Then something else can come, can take its place. The whole secret is there. For instance, the whole side (all that here, in the Ashram, Y represents) of this humanity that wants to FORCIBLY seize things and lift them here (gesture to the level of the forehead).... It’s interesting (there’s no denying it, it’s interesting!), but it’s NOT THAT! It’s not that! All those possibilities must be exhausted for something in humanity to understand... that there’s nothing but this (Mother opens her hands in a gesture of surrender). There. And then, to let oneself be flattened until one disappears. Ultimately, that’s the most difficult: to learn to disappear. |
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17. December 1969 – Mother's revelation Death is the decentralization of the consciousness contained in the body’s cells. With a whole world of perceptions at the same time (Mother makes a gesture around her), like a general terrestrial consciousness, with examples showing that it’s only when the consciousness contained in the cells is decentralized that one is dead. Otherwise, nothing, not even the heart stopping, can cause death. Naturally, this decentralization stems from innumerable causes, but they are causes we might call psychological. And the cells contained in the body, or composing the body, are held in form by a centralization of the consciousness in them, and as long as that power of concentration is there, the body cannot die. It’s only when the power of concentration disappears that the cells scatter. And then one dies. Then the body dies. The sequel was like this.... (Mother takes another note) The habitual concentration of Nature (produced by Nature) is a MECHANICAL concentration which is subject to all sorts of mechanical laws too, but... (Mother reads out her note) Here is what came: The very first step towards immortality is to replace the mechanical centralization by a willed centralization. ...which comes from the inner Presence, which means that through its will, the divine Presence concentrates the cells. There. In English, I put it like this: Death is the consequence of the decentralization of the Consciousness contained in the cells composing the body. And then: This centralization produced by Nature is mechanical and it must be replaced by a willed centralization. Then... (Mother takes other notes) I am continuing the answers to the Aphorisms, and yesterday... (those Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo are extremely interesting, I had forgotten), yesterday T. asked me a question (because in those Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo speaks of courage and love, meanness and selfishness, nobleness and generosity), so she asked me, “Could you give me the definition of these words?” At first, I thought it wouldn’t come, but all of a sudden it came. So I noted it down, it’s interesting. (Mother reads) COURAGE is the total absence of fear in all its forms. It shouldn’t be understood mentally, it should be understood like this (gesture above the head), because the words have a very vast meaning, as vast as possible, very universal. LOVE is self-giving without asking for anything in exchange. I repeat, it’s not at all on this plane (gesture below), because it was... the exact definition of divine Love as it acts. Then the two dark things: MEANNESS is a weakness that calculates and... (laughing) demands from others the virtues one does not have. SELFISHNESS is to put oneself at the center of the universe and to want everything to exist for one’s own satisfaction. NOBLENESS is to refuse to make any personal calculation. GENEROSITY is to find one’s own satisfaction in the satisfaction of others. Those things come in an imperative way – I don’t try, I don’t call. Even, after I read the questions, I said to myself, “Oh, I’m not going to answer this” – and poff! It’s interesting because the Asura is now thrashing about just like someone who expects to disappear. That’s interesting.... |
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20. Dec 1969 – On Sri Aurobindo's Aphorisms – A vision in the body In those Aphorisms, T. always asks me, “What does Sri Aurobindo mean?” or “What does Sri Aurobindo want?” So I am like this (passive gesture), and he answers me. And it’s really amusing: he answers JUST the sort of things she can understand. That’s what I always find marvelous! All the time I lived with him, I was in a state almost of wonder at that suppleness – extraordinary suppleness – as a result of which, with everyone, he seemed to use the person’s own mind to answer him! That was really marvelous. The standpoint, the attitude, the words, the turn of phrase, everything was what the other was able to understand. That’s why apparently there seem to be contradictions, but it’s only an appearance. (silence) With the passing by – very brief passing by – of the true consciousness, the supramental consciousness, there has been in its wake a certain... it’s between an attitude and a vision in the body (the physical being), and it no longer sees things in the same way at all, the reaction is completely different. That has made a difference... For those few hours, there was nothing but that consciousness, it was wonderful; now there is... what has been formed. But the inner attitude, even in the physical consciousness, is changed; there is a sort of vision of things, a POSITION: the position with regard to the world, the creation, is changed. It’s no longer the same – no longer the same. And then, a sort of clear-sighted sensitivity for all that comes to... to be done or said or decided (it comes from people and circumstances)... How can I put it?... I have refused to be a prophet. This Consciousness which is there (gesture above) feels that in order to be a prophet, one must... coagulate things. That’s giving them a sort of fixity or hardness (how can I explain that?), yes, a fixity they don’t have. Things are seen (they’re seen all the time, constantly), but it takes some time (what, for us, is expressed as “time”) between the vision and the execution (Mother draws a downward curve), and if one is in the true consciousness and the true vision, what was there like that (fluid gesture above) can be changed. You understand, the whole creation is in a movement of such tremendous rapidity that it’s imperceptible for the physical consciousness, but between the moment when things are seen (gesture above) and the moment when they get expressed materially, a change takes place. And if one is very careful – very careful and (what should I call it?) very objective – there is time for a transformation. And it’s that habit of fixing things that prevents the rapidity of the world’s transformation. So then, to prophesy is a way of fixing things, and... the consciousness refuses to do it, it wants to allow things their full suppleness so they may change every moment. Unfortunately, here on earth, everything becomes like this (Mother clenches her two fists), coagulated, and that’s the falsehood of the creation. But we shouldn’t help it! Otherwise, when there are problems to be resolved, I see them: they come and stay and keep at it until the solution is found. And that’s really interesting. For each and every thing. That is to say, to put it in a very ordinary language, all the people who think of me or count on me (“me,” you understand what I mean, “me” isn’t this [Mother points to her body]) and who expect the solution to their problem, it all comes to me constantly, night and day, night and say, along with the solution. But it’s not mental, and therefore not fixed; it’s a supple thing, ever changing; so if you prophesy, you fix one moment – and you spoil everything. Whereas if you let things... All the time, people want you to prophesy, to tell them: “This is how it will be.” I obstinately refuse to do that! We must keep the true attitude and let things-allow them their ascending fluidity. There’s no more “big” or “small,” “important” or “unimportant,” all that is... Sometimes, very small things that the mind regards as completely insignificant have a more intense light than “big” problems, things the mind regards as problems of importance: problems of government, for example, of relations with other countries; sometimes it’s more... insubstantial than very small things that appear to be nothing. All that is linked to the total movement of the creation towards... towards the true awareness. That has become the constant, constant way of being. (silence) It’s very interesting. The first effect of every new progress is a more total and complete perception of the incapacity we live in ordinary life. That’s the first result, because one begins to feel, see, sense, perceive how things should be, and so... (gesture of a gap opening abruptly). It’s really the effect of the Grace if it’s graded and apparently slow, because any rapid movement would produce such a... despair at the opposition between the two that one couldn’t bear it. The body is growing increasingly conscious of its infirmity, its incapacity; the clearer the consciousness becomes, the more conscious the body grows, so one must be very careful because it shouldn’t topple over. |
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20. December 1969 – The body knows nothing Eating is tedious! No, all those difficulties are given me precisely to... it’s not to encourage me to eat! No, there’s an experiment taking place, to find out the way from the old method to the new, and then... The body knows nothing. It knows nothing, it’s absolutely ignorant – no experience, it knows nothing, it only has goodwill (Mother opens her hands). It doesn’t even know... It has (laughing) a certain number of sensations of what takes place, which aren’t always very pleasant, and that’s all, it doesn’t know. It doesn’t know the effect: how, why, all that.... So then, it goes without saying that it’s part of the things demanded: the body has to eat. But to what extent and how?... The transition: how to effect the transition? The pace of the transition, the mode of transition?... It knows nothing. This poor body cannot say anything because it knows nothing; all that it thought it had learned for ninety years has been demonstrated most clearly to be worthless! (Mother laughs) It’s been shown that it has everything to learn. So it’s like that, good willed, but absolutely ignorant. So what it tries to do is to be attentive to the least indication – but the indications are... not very clear. It has become like this: when it puts something into its mouth, it expects a yes or a no; and it’s observing that it absolutely depends on its attitude, that if it doesn’t attach any importance to what it’s doing, things generally go smoothly enough (that is, if it’s busy with something else), but then it doesn’t learn anything! So it doesn’t know. It has reached the point where all the things that are accepted and obvious (from a very young age one is accustomed to things taking place “just like that”) have become absolutely unreal and fantastic! All the things that are beyond arguing, that are self-evident – unreal and fantastic. At times, it wonders how, how a gesture can be made?... You understand, the whole functioning, all, all of it is called into question. |
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24. December 1969 – The Power of OM Oh, a tremendous power – tremendous. The first time I heard it... The first time I heard it... There was a certain Bernard who had spent a year in India, in the Himalayas, and he was visited by yogis whom he didn’t know (he lived in a hut in the Himalayas, all alone). One yogi came to see him; he didn’t say anything, he just sat by his side and then left. And that yogi simply told him, “OM...” Then he came back to France, recounted his experiences in India, and he said that. Me, I knew absolutely nothing of India at the time, and when he uttered the word OM... (Mother brings her arms down), it came: a Force like this, my whole, entire body, everything vibrated in an extraordinary way! It was like a revelation – everything, but everything started vibrating. Then I said, “At last, here’s the true sound!” Yet I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, neither what it meant nor anything. |
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24. December 1969 – Mother's body has become very sensitive One small thing. This body has become very, very sensitive. If someone comes displeased with something I did or said (I don’t know what kind of thing, but it has happened with three people with whom the contact is ordinarily quite good)... It’s something quite recent. This (Mother points to her forehead) is silent, there’s nothing, no perception, and then, all of a sudden, all the nerves (the body’s nerves) are as if tortured. And it comes from the person who’s there – and who shows all the signs of devotion and so on, absolutely no external sign, no spoken or direct manifestation: all the nerves are tortured. That illness I had in France when I left India and went back – it’s the same thing [now], only, extremely acute. Then, when the person is gone and I go within (either alone or with other people who are here), it slowly dies down and goes away. It’s the exact indication of people when they are displeased (displeased with what I said or with what I did, or with the way the Divine treats them through someone else, or...), and it’s their displeasure which causes that. People with quite different characters, all three of them, quite a different position, quite different thoughts.... So I wondered: is this really the action of what’s conventionally called the “adverse forces” through people? I am studying that. It’s unexpected; I know they are coming, but I don’t expect it at all to be that way, it doesn’t correspond to anything at all-suddenly, bah! babah!... (gesture of pain) And when they go away, it calms down; when I concentrate in the true consciousness, then it dies down and the nerves recover. That’s what is called “neuritis,” it’s the nerves that are sick. I had it in France, because when I went away from here, I left my psychic being here, so that was the result.... It’s something... it’s an influence that cuts off, that must cut off the body from its contact with the Divine, probably. It’s under study, you understand. I wasn’t saying anything about it because it’s still under study But the first time it happened was rather long ago, more than a month ago; the last time was yesterday – three times it has happened. Three absolutely, absolutely different people: different in character, in occupation, in everything, in relationship too. |
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27. Dec 1969 – This Consciousness constantly works on the body Oh, but now, the whole being (the body has understood this very clearly), the whole being knows that EVERYTHING comes to make you move forward as fast as possible, everything: obstacles, contradictions, incomprehensions, trivial occupations, everything but everything is to make you move forward. It’s to touch one point, another point, yet another... and make you progress as fast as possible. If we don’t look after this Matter, how is it going to change? It’s very clear, it’s perfectly obvious that all objections, all contradictions only come from a superficial mind that sees nothing but the appearance of things. It’s precisely to warn the consciousness against that, so it isn’t deceived by those things and may see clearly that they are wholly external, superficial, and that, behind it all, all that is done is like an advance as rapid as possible towards... the transformation. (long silence) Intelligence at its higher level very easily understands that it knows nothing and is very easily in the attitude required to progress, but even those who have that intelligence, when they deal with material things, they instinctively feel all that is quite well known and based on established experiences. So there, one is vulnerable. That’s just what is being taught to the body: the inanity of this present way of seeing and understanding things based on the good and the bad, good and evil, the luminous and the dark... all those contradictions; and the whole judgment, the whole conception of life (material life) is based on that – it’s to teach you the inanity of this base. I see that. The work has become very acute, very persistent, as if with a will to go fast. Even the practical part which thought it knew how to live and knew what needs to be done and how it should be done, even it must understand that this isn’t true knowledge, it isn’t the true way of using external things. (silence) There are some amusing things.... This Consciousness which is at work, it seems to be constantly “teasing” the body; it constantly tells the body, “See, you have this sensation; well, what is it based on? You think you know, but do you really know what’s behind?” With all the small things of life, every minute. So then, the body is like this (Mother opens her eyes wide with astonishment), saying to itself, “It’s true, I don’t know anything!” But its reply is always the same, it says, I don’t pretend to know – let the Lord do as He pleases.” That’s the way it is. And then, there is this (if we could get hold of it permanently, it would be fine): the nonintervention in the Lord’s work (to put it quite simply). (silence) There is a FACTUAL demonstration – through the experience of every minute – that when you do things with this sensation of accepted wisdom, or accepted knowledge, of an experience that has been lived and so on, how... “false” it is, if we may say so (or deceptive, at any rate), and that there is something ELSE behind, which uses this (as it uses everything) but isn’t at all tied down to or dependent on this knowledge or what we call the “experience of life” or anything of that sort. It has a much more direct vision, much deeper and farsighted, much wider and much more forward – which no external experience gives.... But that’s a modest development, not flashy, which can’t “show off” anything: it’s a very small thing of each minute – each minute, each second, each thing. As if there were constantly something showing you the ordinary way of living, of seeing and doing things, and then... the true way Both like that. For each and every thing. To such a point that the attitude towards certain vibrations gives you total well-being, or can make you quite sick! And it’s the same vibration. Things like that, bewildering. And every minute it’s like that – every minute, for everything. Yesterday, I heard Sunil’s music (and it was so interesting because of that). It’s very fine, his music, and then this Consciousness showed me how... You see, the consciousness here takes a certain attitude, and it has the whole joy and harmony; the thing remains the same, but then... (Mother makes a gesture of a slight tipping to the left) a very slight change in the attitude of the consciousness, and it becomes almost unbearable! Experiences of that sort, all the time, all the time... to show you that in reality, only ONE THING matters, it’s the attitude of the consciousness: the old attitude of the individual being (Mother makes a gesture of contraction into oneself), or this (gesture of expansion). Probably it must be (to put it into words we can understand) the presence of the ego and the abolition of the ego. That’s it. And then, as I said, for all the most ordinary activities of life, there is the demonstration that if the presence is tolerated (certainly in order to make you understand what it is), it can actually throw you off balance from the standpoint of health, and that the only remedy is the disappearance of the ego – and along with it, the disappearance of the whole discomfort. For the things we regard as the most indifferent, the most... It’s for everything, just everything, all the time, all the time, night and day. But then, added to that is the complication of all the spots of incomprehension and discontent, which express themselves (gesture as of a truckload being dumped on Mother), as though they were unbridled and were coming out into the open. So all that pours down at the same time so that... the experience may be total in every field. It’s like a practical demonstration, every minute, of the presence of death and the presence of immortality, like this (Mother tips her hand slightly to the right and to the left), in the SMALLEST things, in all things, the smallest as well as the greatest, constantly; and constantly you see... whether you are here or there (same gesture tipping to one side or the other). As if every second you were led to choose between death and immortality. And I clearly see that the body needs to have a serious and very thorough preparation to bear out the experience without... without any vibration of alarm or recoil or... so it may keep its constant peace and smile. (long silence) There are things... most unbelievable. As if, in each thing, you were made to live the presence of opposites, so as to find... to find what is when opposites are joined instead of running away from one another, they join. It produces a result. And that’s in practical life. |