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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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