A Podcast Featuring Sri Aurobindo Studies
Feb. 26, 2023

Methods for Quieting the Activity of the Mechanical Mind

Methods for Quieting the Activity of the Mechanical Mind
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2023/02/24/methods-for-quieting-the-activity-of-the-mechanical-mind/
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The mind seems always to be busy
and we seem to have a constant

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inner commentary about
Sensations, perceptions

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memories.
Anticipated activities, hopes

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and dreams and worries about
situations.

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We need to address.
Then there are the drives and

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Cravings such as hunger thirst
or sensations of discomfort pain

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or desire.
The Mind remains constantly busy

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and there seems to be no way
out.

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When we sit for meditation, we
find it almost impossible to get

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rid of all of this activity.
And in fact, simply because we

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are sitting quietly and trying
to still the mind, we become

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much more aware of the activity,
and when we are involved in our

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constant round of activities
externally, SRI aurobindo treats

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this as a more or less
mechanical action of the mind

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and provides us various tools to
address this.

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The primary Aid is the
separation of the witness

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Consciousness from the active
nature.

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As we shift to this new
standpoint, we begin to

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experience the mechanical action
of the Mind as something

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external to our awareness and
thus, it becomes easier to

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either disregard it or even
reject it.

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It is important.
However to exercise patience any

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impatience represents the
stirring of fridge Asik desire,

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which has the opposite effect
and tends to disturb the Mind

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rather than quiet it.
The long habit of the mechanical

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mind is not something that is
resolved in a day.

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SRI aurobindo notes, quote the
mind is always an activity but

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we do not observe fully what it
is doing but allow ourselves to

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be carried away in the Stream of
continual thinking.

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When we try to concentrate this
stream of self-made mechanical

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thinking becomes prominent to
our observation, it is the first

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normal obstacle.
The other is sleep during

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meditation to Effort for yoga.
The best thing to do is to

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realize that the thought flow is
not yourself.

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It is not you who are thinking,
but thought that is going on.

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In the mind, it is prakrit e
with its thought energy.

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That is Raising all this world
of thought in.

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You imposing it on the purusa,
you as the purusa must stand

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back as the witness, observing
the action, but refusing to

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identify yourself with it.
The next thing is to exercise a

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control and reject the thoughts
Though, sometimes by the very

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Act of Detachment, the thought,
habit Falls away or diminishes

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during the meditation.
And there is a sufficient

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silence or at any rate of
quietude, which makes it easy to

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reject, the thoughts that come
and fix oneself on the object of

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meditation.
If one becomes aware of the

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thoughts, as coming from outside
from the universal nature, then

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one can throw them out before
they reach the mind in that way,

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the Mind finally fall silent.
If neither of these things

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happens, a persistent practice
of rejection becomes necessary.

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There should be no struggle or
wrestling with the thought.

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But only a quiet self separation
and refusal.

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Success does not come at first,
but if consent is constantly

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withheld, the mechanical World
eventually ceases and begins to

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die away and one can then have
it.

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Will an inner quietude or
silence. it should be noted that

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the result of the yogic
processes is not except in rare

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cases, immediate and one must
apply, the will patience till

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they give a result, which is
sometimes long in coming if

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there is much resistance in the
outer nature, And quote,

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reference SRI aurobindo in the
mother growing within the

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psychology of inner development.
Chapter 5 growth of

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Consciousness means and methods
Pages 92 to 93,