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Reflections on Mother's guidance for establishing inner peace
The question was posed: “How can we establish a settled peace and silence in the mind?”
The Mother responds:
“First of all, you must want it. … And then you must try and must persevere, continue trying. What I have just told you is a very good means. Yet there are others also. You sit quietly, to begin with; and then, instead of thinking of fifty things, you begin saying to yourself, ‘Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, calm, peace!’ You imagine peace and calm. You aspire, ask that it may come: ‘Peace, peace, calm.’ And then, when something comes and touches you and acts, say quietly, like this, ‘Peace, peace, peace.’ Do not look at the thoughts, do not listen to the thoughts, you understand. You must not pay attention to everything that comes. You know, when someone bothers you a great deal and you want to get rid of him, you don’t listen to him, do you? Good! You turn your head away (gesture) and think of something else. Well, you must do that: when thoughts come, you must not look at them, must not listen to them, must not pay any attention at all, you must behave as though they did not exist, you see! And then, repeat all the time like a kind of — how shall I put it? — as an idiot does, who repeats the same thing always. Well, you must do the same thing; you must repeat, ‘Peace, peace, peace.’ So you try this for a few minutes and then do what you have to do; and then, another time, you begin again; sit down again and then try. Do this on getting up in the morning, do this in the evening when going to bed. You can do this… look, if you want to digest your food properly, you can do this for a few minutes before eating. You can’t imagine how much this helps your digestion! Before beginning to eat you sit quietly for a while and say, ‘Peace, peace, peace!’ and everything becomes calm. It seems as though all the noises were going far, far, far away (Mother stretches out her arms on both sides) and then you must continue; and there comes a time when you no longer need to sit down, and no matter what you are doing, no matter what you are saying, it is always ‘Peace, peace, peace.’ Everything remains here, like this, it does not enter (gesture in front of the forehead), it remains like this. And then one is always in a perfect peace… after some years.”
“But at the beginning, a very small beginning, two or three minutes, it is very simple. For something complicated you must make an effort, and when one makes an effort, one is not quiet. It is difficult to make an effort while remaining quiet. Very simple, very simple, you must be very simple in these things. It is as though you were learning how to call a friend: by dint of being called he comes. Well, make peace and calm your friends and call them: ‘Come, peace, peace, peace, peace, come!'” CWMC Vol 6
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REFLECTIONS FROM DON:
Although I’ve read this passage hundreds of times, I took much more time to reflect on it and began to see it in a new light.
STUDENT: How to establish peace and silence?THE MOTHER: You must want it, first of all.
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This calls to mind Ramakrishna’s story about the disciple who asked the guru, “When will I see God?” The guru thrusts the disciple’s head under the surface of a nearby pond and holds it there as the disciple struggles. Finally the guru releases the student and asks, “What did you think about most?” “Air, air, that’s all I could think of.”
And the guru replies, “When your need for God is as strong as your need for air was just now, you can be sure the vision of God will come quite quickly.So the lesson to me is, “What is it in me that does NOT want God?”
And I see the love of drama, the love of complaining, the love of receiving compliments, the love of pleasure, the love of battling pain, and so much more.
THE MOTHER: You must try and must persevere, continue trying.
And how many of us have moments of intense yearning, and we may even spend a few hours, or show how TRULY devoted we are and take off a weekend, or even a week.
But no, the Mother tells us, you must persevere, CONTINUE trying, to try without ceasing, to pray without ceasing, as St. Paul put it. “I sleep but my heart is awake,” it is written in the Song of Solomon.
THE MOTHER: you aspire
Ah, so it is not just mindlessly repeating the word peace. It is the aspiration of our souls, and to continue, to persevere, to truly want peace, silence, contact with the eternal.
THE MOTHER: do not look at the thoughts, do not listen to the thoughts… you must not pay attention to everything that comes….
And look at us, complaining about every little problem, every perceived insult, glowing about every received compliment. Who among us is willing to follow Mother’s instructions right to the end – to stop listening to that mountebank, as Sri Aurobindo called it, that vital character whose very life blood is drama, complaints, protestations, separative existence?
MOTHER: and there comes a time when… no matter what you are doing… one is always in a perfect peace… after some years.And She gives yet another fundamental clue. The effort She is pointing to is paradoxical – a kind of effortless effort.
MOTHER: It is difficult to make an effort while remaining quiet. Very simple, very simple, you must be very simple in these things. It is as though you were learning how to call a friend: by dint of being called he comes. Well, make peace and calm your friends and call them: ‘Come, peace, peace, peace, peace, come!
So, to keep trying, to persevere, to not give undue attention to the various vital, mental physical deformations (which does NOT mean to ignore them altogether, but to see them with love, in peace) and to make an effortless effort, inviting calm and peace as dear friends (and ultimately, when the deformations are transformed we realize all the energies of our being are our friends because all the energies, no matter how apparently false or bent, are Divine).
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