August
August 4, 1962
Would you like me to show you something you said last time?
What are you talking about? You don’t have anything from me! “Finally,” I thought, “for once I didn’t say a word!”
You haven’t been saying much lately….
(With an ironic smile) I’ve made a conscious effort not to! Things are progressing, but they won’t be interesting till a whole curve is completed. It’s better not to talk in the middle of it. So read to me.
***
(Mother listens to a passage from Satprem’s manuscript concerning the vital and the mechanism by which vibrations enter one’s being.)
What you say about all those things entering through the centers is perfectly correct.
Interestingly enough, these last few days I have been making a sort of detailed study of the various kinds of vibrations, how they approach you and enter the various centers…. I don’t know how to explain it – certain differences between vibrations resemble differences in tastes. There’s a whole gamut, you see, all vibrations, nothing but vibrations, and the differences between them resemble differences in taste or color or intensity, perhaps differences in force as well – essentially, of course, they are differences in quality.
I’ve been observing all this in a neuro-physical realm, subtle-physical, that is – but it’s still physical – and in a complete mental silence where all judgments (you know, “judgments”) have disappeared, along with a certain way of observing things. That’s why I can’t talk about it.
These vibrations have various qualities; if they were expressed through a mental observation, it would be done through such things as taste, color, and so forth, everything I’ve just mentioned[[ It is very interesting to note that all these perceptions we consider physical, material (taste, color, etc.), Mother attributes to the mind. What then, is true physical perception? ]] – but that’s not how they’re expressed. They come almost exclusively
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as sensations, but those sensations … some, I mean some vibrations, have rounded edges. Some come horizontally (I was in fact studying everything that comes horizontally), others result from the state of consciousness (vertical gesture from top to bottom). While at the same time, others are…. Yes, it’s like looking through a high-powered microscope: some are rounded, others pointed; some are darker, some brighter. Some are very upsetting to the body, and some even feel dangerous. On the other hand, certain ones make the body receptive to the vibration, which we might call “the Lord’s Vibration,” the supreme Vibration. You see, all this is the outcome of a discipline, a tapasya, for preparing the body to receive the Lord’s Vibrations (the first step is receiving, being able to receive them; afterwards you have to hold on to and then manifest them). Those vibrations are unmistakable, they are something else entirely. But other vibrations are helpful, beneficial, while still others are disruptive, contradictory.
And each one is beginning to reveal its own particular nature. There are those stemming from people’s thoughts (I sense them in my body, not in the mind: the material consequence of people’s psychological state, and even their state of health). Some things are general and last a bit longer; others are momentary, lasting only a few seconds. The first step is to study the different vibrational qualities – you could practically draw diagrams: if we had a machine sensitive enough to record these things, it would produce all kinds of zigs and zags.[[ Like the needle of an electroencephalograph. ]] Certain vibrations immediately stop or change or are dissolved or repelled. Others are adopted, as it were, and transformed. The majority are simply pushed back and worked on from a distance – quite a distance! I keep them at a fair distance (Mother laughs). Very few are let in. But some are let in for the sake of the experience, to see how much they upset the body. There’s also the effect of people’s permanent auras: I know a certain person is arriving by his aura’s effect on the body; because (laughing) each vibration has its particular effect on the body – perfectly prosaic things, maybe, but by studying them you realize that each thing has its own law.
The interchange of vibrations among people is something tremendous, and we’re swimming in it all, all, all the time – even when we’re alone! Because these things travel: for instance, it’s enough for someone’s thought to come and strike against yours, and for you to think of him (which means responding) – there is
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an immediate effect in the body. So to imagine that solitude would make yoga any easier is sheer childishness.
The only possible solution is so perfect a union with the supreme Vibration that everything is automatically put under His influence; and in that case it is easier to feel wider, higher, vaster than the world (to take just the earth: the terrestrial world) than an individual. [[Mother comments on this sentence in the conversation of August 11. ]] For it is easier to do this (embracing gesture), to take everything in, to embrace and change it from outside, than to change it from inside. At present, the two movements are simultaneous, and staying “inside” was [[Satprem later remarked to Mother that it should be “is” instead of “was,” since “the two things are simultaneous.” The two movements are simultaneous, so it’s “staying inside is,” no? (Mother laughs) It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter! Of course, our past, present and future tenses!… (Laughing! Mon petit, I feel I am moving on in this yoga as fast as a jet plane – everything’s zooming past in reverse! ]] the result of all those years of experience in drawing the Supreme Presence down into the most material world – for that, you have to accept (how can I put it?…) corporeal oneness.
Formerly (I mean before last April 13), the process was different; now it has totally changed. This body is nothing but a field of experience, it’s no longer an individuality – not at all, at all, at all. But it’s a very … willing field of experience. And the experience is going on in a particular realm by day and in another by night – it’s beginning to clarify the whole subconscient. From this angle, there is a very rapid progress.
So there’s a countless series of experiences coming one after the other, one after the other, like that; but there’s no coordination between them, no unified “whole.” I don’t even know if that is possible [[In fact, the coordinated “whole” will begin to emerge in 1975, when Satprem writes the trilogy, Mother. It will be “one thing after the other” right up to the end, with no links: the virgin forest. ]] – at any rate, it will be for much later on.
So there you are.
Millions of imperceptible notations coming one on top of another.
(silence)
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And through certain things, I can perceive the very clear, precise and absolute Direction coming from the Supreme. And He is arranging all those things – forms, various intellectual forms – exactly as they should be. Because here (pointing to the crown of the head), and even from here (lower) down to here (the forehead), it’s all immobile…. All these vibrations come, pass through, whirl around, they come from everywhere, but here (the head) nothing moves, there’s no response. And yet I have seen that on the intellectual level there are a number of … what Sri Aurobindo calls frames, certain principles of organization [[What might be called "reference points" or "coordinates." ]] giving a precise orientation to the yoga’s action. One of them, the strongest, is my translation of The Synthesis of Yoga. I do a page almost every day and on that page I invariably find an idea or a sentence that EXACTLY expresses the field of experiences I was in that day and the night before; and some of the details…. And interestingly enough, certain points in the pages you read me today were the EXACT “frame” of a series of experiences I’ve been having – almost word for word, with the same words. [[Some days later, Mother added: “This shows that you belong to the same ‘line of descent,’ and that your intellectual activity is enough. You see, I insist that my mind remain still … so (laughing) yours does the work!” ]] That sort of thing. It’s like intellectual forms being assembled to give the field of experience precision, because there’s nothing here (the forehead), it’s blank – yet some form is necessary! Well, the forms Sri Aurobindo has given predominate, but what you write has its place, and a very precise and interesting place: the way of thinking. And I see that there’s an immense field of intellectual thought, intellectual formulation, with varying degrees of intensity and precision, serving as a SIEVE for the Supreme’s Will to pass through. And the sieve – this sort of immense universal sieve – is what gives the precision. [[Mother comments on this passage in the conversation of August 11. ]] It’s very interesting. That way, the mind remains perfectly still – it has nothing to do, everything is done for it! It is nothing but a mirror – a living mirror where everything gets inscribed and which can reflect back its image without becoming active.
The nature of my nights is changing, the nature of my days is changing.
And then there’s a first small beginning, quite small, indicating how the Power will function. But it’s … (Mother gestures into the far distance) it’s merely a slight tinge.
But when it functions, things will really start moving.
Well, I’ve been chattering away again. That means more work for you!
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No, it’s not work!
All right then, see you Wednesday, mon petit.
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