June 26, 1968
Have you received news of P.L.?
This morning in fact, I was worrying a bit about him. I feel as if he has been … swallowed up in a hole. I didn’t like that.
* * *
Satprem reads a text of Sri Aurobindo:
“The fear of death and the aversion to bodily cessation are the stigma left by his animal origin on the human being. That brand must be utterly effaced.”
( The Synthesis of Yoga, xx.334)
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I didn’t know that. It’s very interesting!
Very interesting in the sense that before one can reach the condition in which death isn’t necessary, one must absolutely find it … entirely natural, an unimportant event. It’s chiefly that – something of very little importance.
(silence)
The education of the physical consciousness (not the body’s global consciousness, but the consciousness of the cells) consists in teaching them … First of all it’s a choice (it looks like one): it’s choosing the divine Presence – the divine Consciousness, the divine Presence, the divine Power (all that wordlessly), the “something” we define as the absolute Master. It’s a choice of EVERY SECOND between the old laws of Nature – with some mental influence and the whole life as it has been organized – the choice between that, the government by that, and the government by the supreme Consciousness, which is equally present (the feeling of the Presence is equally strong); the other thing is more habitual, and then there’s the Presence. It’s every second (it’s infinitely interesting), and with illustrations: the nerves, for instance … if a nerve obeys all the various laws of Nature and mental conclusions and all that – the whole caboodle – then it starts aching; if it obeys the influence of the supreme Consciousness, then a strange phenomenon takes place … it’s not like something getting “cured” – I might rather say, like an unreality fading away.
And that’s the life of every second, for the smallest thing, the whole bodily functioning: sleep, food, washing, activities, everything, everything – every second. And the body is learning. There are naturally hesitations stemming from the power of habit and also old ideas floating about in the air (gesture of a swarming in the atmosphere): none of that is personal. As a work, it’s tremendous.
And continuous.
Continuous. There was a time when it would be forgotten now and then; now it’s beginning not to be forgotten anymore. It’s continuous. There’s only one thing that interrupts it, it’s the work with the outside, the relationship with others for that action which consists in infusing them – infusing them with divine consciousness. So then, this is the result: first, a very clear vision (not a vision in pictures, a very clear vision) of the state they are in; then, this: enveloping and infusing them with divine consciousness; and then, the effect that has, or hasn’t. That’s the occupation in relationships with people. The other work [on the cells] is the life of every minute.
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It’s growing more and more precise, more and more interesting – but absorbing. [[Mother indeed looks increasingly interiorized and is speaking as though from very deep within.]]
And a consciousness – a perception, rather – a growing perception of a state which … I don’t know how to explain it. There are two simultaneous states: the state of uninterrupted, almost endless continuity, and the state of … toppling over into decomposition (for the body); the two are constantly like this (Mother places one hand closely over the other). And the choice – the constant choice – based, in fact, on a reliance … leaning for support on the divine Consciousness for all things and every second, or ceasing to lean on it. To the cells, that choice appears to be a free choice, with a very strong sense (but not at all formulated in words) of the support constantly given by the supreme Consciousness to help them rely on it alone.
It’s not mentalized – hardly mentalized at all – and almost impossible to formulate. But it’s very clear. Very clear … what is it? It’s not in the sensation – it’s in the state of consciousness. It’s very clear states of consciousness. But hard to express. Continuous states, continuous, continuous: night and day, ceaselessly, continuously. The planes change, the activities change, but it’s continuous. The mode of being or way of being may cease and give place to another, but that state of consciousness is perpetual, uninterrupted, universal, eternal – outside time – outside time, outside space. It’s the state of the consciousness.
(a gust of wind sweeps away
the letters on Mother’s table)
I am bombarded with letters! It’s to stop me.
(silence)
So then, the so-called rest or annulment which is supposed to come from death is neither rest nor annulment: it’s simply a fall backward, from which you have to climb up again. It’s spinelessness that makes you fall backward – because you’ll have to climb up again. It’s nothing else than that. There’s no opposition, no difference [between life and death], all that is … The body is making fan-tas-tic discoveries.
Now and then, there is the old habit [the body's protest]: “Oof!
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Oh, too much, too much!” Just give it a little slap, it gets ashamed and goes back to work. It’s very interesting. Very interesting. So then, till next time.
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