Mother of Dreams

From the words of the Mother (Mirra Alfassa):

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"O Consciousness, immobile and serene, Thou watchest at the confines of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou confidest Thy secret. These can become Thy sovereign will which chooses without preference, executes without desire."

-  Prayers and Meditations, 10 November 1914 

 This immobile Consciousness is the "Mother of Dreams" ["The Mother of Dreams", a poem by Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems, p. 67 ], the sphinx of eternity who keeps vigil on the confines of the world like an enigma to be solved. This enigma is the problem of our life, the very raison d'etre of the universe. The problem of our life is to realise the Divine or rather to become once again aware of the Divine who is the Universe, the origin, cause and goal of life. Those who find the secret of the sphinx of eternity become that active and creative Power. To choose without preference and execute without desire is the great difficulty at the very root of the development of true consciousness and self-control. To choose in this sense means to see what is true and bring it into existence; and to choose thus, without the least personal bias for any thing, any person, action, circumstance, is exactly what is most difficult for an ordinary human being. Yet one must learn to act without any preference, free from all attractions and likings, taking one's stand solely on the Truth which guides. And having chosen in accordance with the Truth the necessary action, one must carry it out without any desire. If you observe yourself attentively, you will see that before acting you need an inner impetus, something which pushes you. In the ordinary man this impetus is generally desire. This desire ought to be replaced by a clear, precise, constant vision of the Truth. "

Collected Works Of The Mother - Questions And Answers Volume 4 pp.1-2 - 21 December 1950

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What I love about the Mother's teachings is that you can dip in seemingly anway at random, and find the most profound advice as how to live a spiritual life.   The above passage shows how one can live a truly spiritual life, summed up in koan-like brevity and precision. 

To choose without preference and execute without desire

Yet how hard it is to put this simple advice into practice!  I have decided, as much as I am acapable of - which probably is very little indeed!, to at least make a very halting and start, try to live by choosing without preference, and acting without desire.  But to do this means going against the weight of the egoitistic, self-absorbed and deluded consciousness, the stirred up self-righteous pompous vital with its preachiness, the over-excitable monkey mind or mental with its endless plans that all too often anount to nothing....

 Just a bit earlier today I was sitting by the window, thinking about the Mother's words, anfd I thought well I'll go on the computer now, and act rightly.  And guess what happened, straight away I was caught up in glamour and delusion and the veil of maya!  It is not that i did anything wrong, anything dishonourable or in any way against my own moral principles.  I didnt.  But just by the act of thinking and writing I lost that feeling or intimation of the beautiful silent mind or immobile consciousness, the "mother of dreams", and was plunged into the surface consciousness where one is pulled willy-nilly, tossed like a leaf on a gale by all the formations that impinge upon us and result in us beiung puppets of whatever forces and movements are in the atmosphere, rather than masters of our circumstances.

But I did decide I would write this blog entry, and in this regard I feel it is a good entry, so here it is.

 There is more to write, but i'll leave that for next time, rather than be caught up in too many words!  In silence and simplicity is wisdom.