Practices in the Integral Yoga

Win Your Little Victories
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If through an effort of inner consciousness and knowledge, you
can truly overcome in yourself a desire, that is to say, dissolve and
abolish it, and if through inner goodwill, through consciousness
light, knowledge, you are able to dissolve the desire, you will be,
first of all in yourself personally, a hundred times happier than if
you had satisfied this desire, and then it will have a marvellous
effect. It will have a repurcussion in the world of which you have
no idea. It will spread forth. For the vibrations you have created
will continue to spread. These things grow larger like the snow-ball.
The victory you win in your character, however small it be, is
one which can be gained in the whole world...
	If you really want to do something good, the best thing you can
do is to win your small victories in all sincerity, one after another,
and thus you will do for the world the maximum you are able to.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.64

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The Psychic Mirror
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This is life. One stumbles and falls on the first occasion. One tells
oneself: "Oh! one can't always be so serious", and when the other
part returns, once again, one repents bitterly: "I was a fool, I have
wasted my time, now I must begin again...." At times there is one
part that's ill-humoured, in revolt, full of worries, and another
which is progressive, full of surrender. All that, one after the
other.
	There is but one remedy: the signpost must always be there, a
mirror well placed in one's feelings, impulses, all one's sensations.
One sees them in this mirror. There are some which are not very
beautiful or pleasant to look at; there are others which are
beautiful, pleasant, and must be kept. This one does a hundred
times a day if necessary. And it is very interesting. One draws a
kind of big circle around the psychic mirror and arranges all the
elements around it. If there is something that is not all right, it
casts a sort of grey shadow upon the mirror: this element must be
shifted, organised. It must be spoken to, made to understand, one
must come out of that darkness. If you do that, you never get bored.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.32

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Strengthen the Will
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Sadhak:
	Mother, how can one strengthen one's will?

Mother:
	Oh, as one strengthens muscles, by a methodical exercise. You
take one little thing, something you want to do or don't want to do.
Begin with a small thing, not something very essential to the being,
but a small detail. And then, if, for instance, it is something
you are in the habit of doing, you insist on it and compel
yourself to do it as you compel yourself to lift a weight - it's the
same thing. You make the same kind of effort, but it is more of an
inner effort. And after having taken little things like this - things
relatively easy, you know - after taking these and succeeding with
them, you can unite with a greater force and try a more complicated
experiment. And gradually if you do this regularly, you will
end up by acquiring an independent and strong will.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.40


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Stepping Back
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Most of you live on the surface of your being, exposed to the touch
of external influences. You live almost projected, as it were,
outside your own body, and when you meet some unpleasant
being similarly projected you get upset. The whole trouble arises
out of your not being accustomed to stepping back. You must
always step back into yourself - learn to go deep within - step back
and you will be safe. Do not lend yourself to the superficial forces
which move in the outside world. Even if you are in a hurry to do
something, step back for a while and you will discover to your
surprise how much sooner and with what greater success your
work can be done. If someone is angry with you, do not be caught
in his vibrations but simply step back and his anger, finding no
support or response, will vanish. Always keep your peace, resist
all temptation to lose it. Never decide anything without stepping
back, never speak a word without stepping back, never throw
yourself into action without stepping back. All that belongs to the
ordinary world is impermanent and fugitive, so there is nothing in
it worth getting upset about. What is lasting, eternal, immortal
and infinite - that indeed is worth having, worth conquering,
worth possessing. It is Divine Light, Divine Love, Divine Life - it
is also Supreme Peace, Perfect Joy and All-Mastery upon earth
with the Complete Manifestation as the crowning. When you get
the sense of the relativity of things, then whatever happens you
can step back and look: you can remain quiet and call on the
Divine Force and wait for an answer. Then you will know exactly
what to do. Remember, therefore, that you cannot receive the
answer before you are very peaceful. Practise that inner peace,
make at least a small beginning and go on in your practice until it
becomes a habit with you.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.47-48


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Concentrate in the Centre of Aspiration
----------------------------------------
It is always better to try to concentrate in a centre, the centre of
aspiration, one might say, the place where the flame of aspiration
burns, to gather in all the energies there, at the solar plexus centre
and, if possible, to obtain an attentive silence as though one
wanted to listen to something, extremely subtle, something that
demands a complete attention, a complete concentration and total
silence. And then not to move at all. Not to think, not to stir, and
make that movement of opening so as to receive all that can be
received, but taking good care not to try to know what is
happening while it is happening, for if one wants to understand or
even to observe actively, it keeps up a sort of cerebral activity
which is unfavourable to the fullness of the receptivity - to be
silent, as totally silent as possible, in attentive concentration,
and then be still.
	If one succeeds in this, then, when everything is over, when one
comes out of meditation, some time later - usually not immediately
 - from within the being something new emerges in the
consciousness : a new understanding, a new appreciation of things,
a new attitude in life - in short, a new way of being.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.66-67

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Dynamic Meditation
------------------
I think the most important thing is to know why one meditates;
this is what gives the quality of the meditation and makes it of one
order or another.
	You may meditate to open yourself to the divine Force, you
may meditate to reject the ordinary consciousness, you may
meditate to enter the depths of your being, you may meditate to
learn how to give yourself integrally; you may meditate for all
kinds of things. You may meditate to enter into peace and calm
and silence - this is what people generally do, but without much
success. But you may also meditate to receive the Force of
transformation, to discover the points to be transformed, to trace
out the line of progress. And then you may also meditate for very
practical reasons: when you have a difficulty to clear up, a solution
to find, when you want help in some action or other. You may
meditate for that too.
	I think everyone has his own method of mediatation. But if one
wants the meditation to be dynamic, one must have an aspiration
for progress and the meditation must be done to help and fulfil this
aspiration for progress. Then it becomes dynamic.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.67

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Meditation and Progress
-----------------------
Mother:
The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual
progress. It is a proof of your progress when you no longer have to
make an effort to meditate. Then you have rather to make an
effort to stop meditating: it becomes difficult to stop meditation,
difficult to stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to
the ordinary consciousness. Then you are sure to progress, then
you have made real progress when concentration in the Divine is
the necessity of your life, when you cannot do without it, when it
continues naturally from morning to night whatever you may be
engaged in doing. Whether you sit down to meditation or go about
and do things and work, what is required of you is consciousness;
that is the one need - to be constantly conscious of the
Divine.

Sadhak:
But is not sitting down to meditation an indispensable discipline,
and does it not give a more intense and concentrated union with
the Divine?

Mother:
That may be. But a discipline in itself is not what we are seeking.
What we are seeking is to be concentrated on the Divine in all that
we do, at all times, in all our acts and in every movement. There
are some here who have been told to meditate; but also there are
others who have not been asked to do any meditation at all. But it
must not be thought that they are not progressing. They too follow
a discipline, but it is of another nature. To work, to act with
devotion and an inner consecration is also a spiritual discipline.
The final aim is to be in constant union with the Divine, not only in
meditation but in all circumstances and in all the active life.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.67-68

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Remember and Offer
------------------
Sadhak:
	When we are concentrated in mental movements or intellectual
pursuits, why do we sometimes forget or lose touch with the
Divine?

Mother:
	You lose it because your consciousness is still divided. The Divine
has not settled in your mind; you are not wholly consecrated to
the Divine Life. Otherwise you could concentrate to any extent
upon such things and still you would have the sense of being
helped and supported by the Divine.
	In all pursuits, intellectual or active, your one motto should be,
"Remember and Offer". Let whatever you do be done as an
offering to the Divine. And this too will be an excellent discipline
for you; it will prevent you from doing many foolish and useless
things.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.70


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Make the Gift of Your Will
--------------------------
	You can at every minute make the gift of your will in an aspiration
- and an aspiration which formulates ittself very simply, not just
"Lord, Thy will be done", but "Grant that I may do as well as I can
the best thing to do."
	You may not know at every moment what is the best thing to do
nor how to do it, but you can place your will at the disposal of the
Divine to do the best possible, the best thing possible. You will see
it will have marvellous results. Do this with consciousness,
sincerity and perseverance, and you will find yourself getting
along with gigantic strides. It is like that, isn't it? One must do
things with all the ardour of one's soul, with all the strength of
one's will; do at every moment the best possible, the best thing
possible. What others do is not your concern - this is something I
shall never be able to repeat to you often enough.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.98

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One's Own Way of Thinking
-------------------------
One needs years of very attentive, very careful, very reasonable,
very coherent work, organisation, selection, construction, in
order to succeed simply in forming, oh, simply this little thing,
*one's own way of thinking!*
	One believes he has his own way of thinking. Not at all. It
depends totally upon the people one speaks with or the books he
has read or on the mood he is in. It depends also on whether you
have a good or bad digestion, it depends on whether you are shut
up in a room without proper ventilation or whether you are in the
open air; it depends whether there is sunshine or rain! You
are not aware of it, but you think all kinds of things, completely
different according to a heap of things which have nothing to do
with you!
	And for this to become coordinated, coherent, logical thought,
a long thorough work is necessary.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.118


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Before Going to Sleep
---------------------
One thing you can do in all security is, before going to sleep, to
concentrate, relax all tension in the physical being, try... that is, in
the body try so that the body lies like a soft rag on the bed, that it is
no longer something with twitchings and cramps; to relax it
completely as though it were a kind of thing like the rag. And then,
the vital: to calm it, calm it as much as you can, make it as quiet, as
peaceful as possible. And then the mind also - the mind, try to
keep it like that, without any activity. You must put upon the brain
the force of great peace, great quietitude, of silence if possible, and
not follow ideas actively, not make any effort, nothing, nothing;
you must relax all movement there too, but relax it in a kind of
silence and quietitude as great as possible.
	Once you have done all this, you may add either a prayer or on
aspiration in accordance with your nature to ask for the consciousness
and peace and to be protected against all the adverse
forces throughout the sleep, to be in a concentration of quiet
aspiration and in the protection; ask the Grace to watch over your
sleep; and then go to sleep. This is to sleep in the best possible
conditions. What happens afterwards depends on your inner
impulses, but if you do this persistently, night after night, night
after night, after some time it will have its effect.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.144


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Say Only the Indispensable Words
--------------------------------
I suggest that every one of you should try - oh! not for long, just
for one hour a day - to say nothing but the absolutely indispensable
words. Not one more, not one less.
	Take one hour of your life, the one which is most convenient for
you, and during that time observe yourself closely and say only the
absolutely indispensable words.
	At the outset, the first difficulty will be to know what is
absolutely indispensable and what is not. It is already a study in
itself and every day you will do better.
	Next, you will see that so long as one says nothing, it is not
difficult to remain absolutely silent, but as soon as you begin to
speak, always or almost always you say two or three or ten or
twenty useless words which it was not at all necessary to say.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.150


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Gossiping Degrades You
----------------------
There is a state in which a simple conversation which obliges you
to remain on the level of ordinary life gives you a headache, turns
your stomach and, if it continues, may give you a fever. I am
speaking of course about the gossip-type of conversations. I
believe that apart from a few exceptions, everybody indulges in
this exercise and talks of things about which he should keep silent
or chatters about other things. It becomes so natural that you are
not troubled by it. But if you continue this way, you hinder your
consciousness completely from rising up; you bind yourself with
iron chains to the ordinary consciousness and the work in the
subconscious is not done or has not even begun. Those who want
to rise up have already enough difficulties without looking for
encouragements outside.
	Naturally, the effort to keep the consciousness at a high level is
tiring in the beginning, like the exercises you do to develop your
muscles. But you do not give up gymnastics because of that! So
mentally also you must do the same thing. You must not allow
your mind to stoop low: gossiping degrades you and, if you want to
do yoga, you must abstain from it, that's all.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.150