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Psychic
Education and Spiritual Education
The
first and perhaps the most important point is that the mind
is incapable of judging spiritual things. All those who
have written on this subject have said so; but very few
are those who have put it into practice. And yet, in order
to proceed on the path, it is absolutely indispensable to
abstain from all mental opinion and reaction.
Give
up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment
or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take
whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately
make whatever progress is required.
Try
to take pleasure in all you do, but never do anything for
the sake of pleasure.
Never
get excited, nervous or agitated. Remain perfectly calm
in the face of all circumstances. And yet be always alert
to discover what progress you still have to make and lose
no time in making it.
Never
take physical happenings at their face value. They are always
a clumsy attempt to express something else, the true thing
which escapes our superficial understanding.
Never
complain of the behaviour of anyone, unless you have the
power to change in his nature what makes him act in this
way; and if you have the power, change him instead of complaining.
Whatever
you do, never forget the goal which you have set before
you. There is nothing great or small once you have set out
on this great discovery; all things are equally important
and can either hasten or delay its success. Thus before
you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that
the food you are about to eat may bring your body the substance
it needs to serve as a solid basis for your effort towards
the great discovery, and give it the energy for persistence
and perseverance in the effort.
Before
you go to sleep, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration
that the sleep may restore your fatigued nerves, bring calm
and quietness to your brain so that on waking you may, with
renewed vigour, begin again your journey on the path of
the great discovery.
Before
you act, concentrate in the will that your action may help
or at least in no way hinder your march forward towards
the great discovery.
When
you speak, before the words come out of your mouth, concentrate
just long enough to check your words and allow only those
that are absolutely necessary to pass, only those that are
not in any way harmful to your progress on the path of the
great discovery.
To
sum up, never forget the purpose and goal of your life.
The will for the great discovery should be always there
above you, above what you do and what you are, like a huge
bird of light dominating all the movements of your being.
Before
the untiring persistence of your effort, an inner door will
suddenly open and you will emerge into a dazzling splendour
that will bring you the certitude of immortality, the concrete
experience that you have always lived and always shall live,
that external forms alone perish and that these forms are,
in relation to what you are in reality, like clothes that
are thrown away when worn out. Then you will stand erect,
freed from all chains, and instead of advancing laboriously
under the weight of circumstances imposed upon you by Nature,
which you had to endure and bear if you did not want to
be crushed by them, you will be able to walk on, straight
and firm, conscious of your destiny, master of your life.
And
yet this release from all slavery to the flesh, this liberation
from all personal attachment is not the supreme fulfilment.
There are other steps to climb before you reach the summit.
And even these steps can and should be followed by others
which will open the doors to the future. These following
steps will form the object of what I call spiritual education.
But
before we enter on this new stage and deal with the question
in detail, an explanation is necessary. Why is a distinction
made between the psychic education of which we have just
spoken and the spiritual education of which we are about
to speak now? Because the two are usually confused under
the general term of "yogic discipline", although
the goals they aim at are very different: for one it is
a higher realisation upon earth, for the other an escape
from all earthly manifestation, even from the whole universe,
a return to the unmanifest.
So
one can say that the psychic life is immortal life, endless
time, limitless space, ever-progressive change, unbroken
continuity in the universe of forms. The spiritual consciousness,
on the other hand, means to live the infinite and the eternal,
to be projected beyond all creation, beyond time and space.
To become conscious of your psychic being and to live a
psychic life you must abolish all egoism; but to live a
spiritual life you must no longer have an ego.
February
1952
- The Mother
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