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It's one of the most indispensable things to do
if one wants to succeed in having self-control and even a limited
self-knowledge: to be able to localise one's consciousness and move it
about in the different parts of one's being, in such a way as to
distinguish between one's consciousness and one's thoughts, feelings,
impulses, become aware of what the consciousness is in itself. And in
this way one can learn how to shift it: one can put one's consciousness
in the body, put it in the vital, put it in the psychic (that's the best
place to put it in); one can put one's consciousness in the mind, can
raise it above the mind, and with one's consciousness one can go into
all the regions of the universe.
But first of all one must know what one's
consciousness is, that is, become conscious of one's consciousness,
localise it. And for this there are many exercises. One of them is very
well known, it is to observe oneself and watch oneself living, and then
see whether it is really the body which is the consciousness of the
being, what one calls 'myself'; and then when one has realised that it
is not at all the body, that the body expresses something else, then one
searches in his impulses, emotions, to see whether it's that, and again
one finds out that it is not that; and then one seeks in his thoughts,
whether the thought is truly himself, what he calls 'myself', and at the
end of a very short time one becomes aware: "No, I am thinking,
therefore 'myself' is different from my thoughts."
And so, by progressive eliminations one
succeeds in entering into contact with something, something which gives
you the impression of being -- "Yes, that's 'myself'. And this
something I can move around, I can move it from my body to my vital, to
my mind, I can even, if I am very ... how to put it? ... very practised
in moving it, I can move it into other people, and it's in this way that
I can identify myself with things and people. I can with the help of my
aspiration make it come out of my human form, rise above towards regions
which are not longer this little body at all and what it contains."
And so one begins to understand what one's
consciousness is; and it's after that that one can say, "Good, I
shall unite my consciousness with my psychic being and shall leave it
there, so that it may be in harmony with the Divine." Or else,
"If by this exercise of rising above my faculties of thinking and
my intellect I can enter a region of pure light, pure knowledge
...", then one can put his consciousness there and live like that,
in a luminous splendour which is above the physical form.
But first this consciousness must be mobile, and one must know how to
distinguish it from the other parts of the being which in fact are its
instruments, its modes of expression. The consciousness must make use of
these things, and you should not mistake these things for the
consciousness. You put the consciousness in these things, so you become
conscious of your body, conscious of your vital, conscious of your mind,
conscious of all your activities through your will for identification.
But for this, first you must be sure that your consciousness is not
entangled, mixed, or joined, so to say, with all these things. It must
not take them for itself, must not be mistaken.
When one thinks of oneself (obviously out of millions of men perhaps
there are not ten who do otherwise), one thinks "Myself ... that's
my body, that's what I call 'myself', what's like this. And so, I am
like that; and then my neighbour, he also is the body. When I speak of
another person, I speak of his body." And so, as long as one is in
this state, one is the plaything of all possible movements and has no
self-control. The body is the last instrument and yet it's this which
one calls 'myself' most of the time, unless one has begun to reflect.
The Mother
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