WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust
Concentration
The movement that stores up and concentrates is no less needed than the movement that spreads and diffuses.
13 April 1935
*
Concentration does not aim for any effect, but is simple and persistent.
*
Concentration on a precise goal is helpful to development.
*
The more we concentrate on the goal, the more it blossoms forth and becomes precise.
*
The Yogi knows by his capacity for a containing or dynamic identity with things and persons and forces.
11 April 1935
*
"Knowledge can only come by conscious identity, for that is the only true knowledge,--existence aware of itself." (Note1)
There is always some kind of unconscious identification with the surrounding people and things; but by will and practice one can learn to concentrate on somebody or something and to get consciously identified with this person or this thing, and through this identification you know the nature of the person or the thing.
20 May 1955
*
Nothing is impossible for one who is attentive.
*
It is said that the faculty of concentrated attention is at the source of all successful activity. Indeed the capacity and value of a man can be measured by his capacity of concentrated attention. (Note2)
In order to obtain this concentration, it is generally recommended to reduce one's activities, to make a choice and confine oneself to this choice alone, so as not to disperse one's energy and attention. For the normal man, this method is good, sometimes even indispensable. But one can imagine something better.
*
At times I try to silence the mind, at times to surrender and at times to find my psychic being. Thus I cannot fix my attention on a single thing. Which one should I try first?
All should be done and each one when it comes spontaneously.
16 October 1964
Meditation
When you sit in meditation you must be as candid and simple as a child, not interfering by your external mind, expecting nothing, insisting on nothing. Once this condition is there, all the rest depends upon the aspiration deep within you. And if you call upon Divinity, then too you will have the answer.
26 January 1935
*
Each meditation ought to be a new revelation, for in each meditation something new happens.
*
Even if you are not apparently successful in your meditation, it is better to persist and to be more obstinate than the opposition of your lower nature.
*
Mother,
I would like to know from you if it is good for me to devote more time to meditation than I am doing at present. I spend about two hours, morning and evening together. I am as yet not quite successful in meditation. My physical mind disturbs me a lot. I pray to you that it may become quiet and my psychic being may come out. It is so painful to find the mind working like a mad machine and the heart sleeping like a stone. Mother, let me feel your presence within my heart always.
The increase of time given to meditation is not very useful unless the urge for meditation comes spontaneously from inside and not from any arbitrary decision of the mind.
My help, love and blessings are always with you.
17 October 1939
*
To keep constantly a concentrated and in-gathered attitude is more important than having fixed hours of meditation.
*
When you give us a subject for meditation, what should we do about it? Keep thinking of it?
Keep your thought focussed upon it in a concentrated way.
*
And when no subject is given, is it enough to concentrate on your Presence in the heart-centre? Should we avoid a formulated prayer?
Yes, concentration on the Presence is enough.
*
(Examples of subjects for meditation)
New birth. Birth to a new consciousness. The psychic consciousness.
5 July 1957
How to awaken in the body the aspiration for the Divine.
26 July 1957
Turning one's gaze inward. Looking within oneself.
2 August 1957
The ill-effects of uncontrolled speech.
9 August 1957
Note 1: Sri Aurobindo,The Life Divine, Cent. Vol. 18, p. 213.
Note 2: Generally it comes through interest and a special attraction for a subject--Mother's note.