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The Power of a Quiet Mind · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Modern civilization puts a premium on the mental process.
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  We educate our children with a focus on the mind.
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  We want them to learn verbal skills, reading skills, logical
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  skills and measure them on their abilities in these areas with
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  various forms of standardized tests, by which we then classify
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  them based on their capabilities.
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  In this regard, we undervalue different forms of intelligence
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  that may be based on the capacities of the physical body,
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  the vital nature or the emotional being.
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  Empathy and insight are less valued than mental linear logic.
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  We fill the minds of the children with facts, arguments
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  and chatter. We create an atmosphere with
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  social media, Internet, mass media, constant blaring of music
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  or talk radio that eliminates silence of the mind and keeps
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  the mind occupied and vibrating with the energies moving in the
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  external world. We raise generations of human
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  beings who are alienated from the quiet mind and its powers of
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  receptivity, intuition and understanding.
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  Spiritual disciplines try in many cases to break the habits
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  of mental chatter. Raji Yoga in particular asked
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  the practitioner to focus on observing the mind stuff chitta
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  and bringing it into a state of quiescence such that it becomes
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  like a body of water without a ripple or like a mirror that
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  reflects the exact image it receives without distortion.
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  Other disciplines use mantras to 1st remove the distracting
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  forces that vibrate the mind stuff and then the mantra itself
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  can be dispensed with. Visualization, contemplation on
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  the infinite universe, devotional aspiration and
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  consecration all can help a seeker out of the realm of
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  mental chatter. Srioro Bindo describes his own
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  experience with a practice that brought him silence of the mind.
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  This state is not a dull, empty and ignorant state, but one that
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  is alert, luminous and receptive.
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  When the mind falls silent, new higher powers of awareness are
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  able to enter and act. For those who have been
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  habituated to the mental process, the quieting of the
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  mind initially is a scary event. They wonder if they are losing
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  their minds, if they are becoming incompetent to think
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  and act, if they have lost their ability to live and act in the
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  society and carry out whatever role they have to play in a
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  certain state. If they pass over the border
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  into another level of consciousness, a state akin to
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  what is known as Samati, they even become afraid that they are
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  going to die. This is the fear of the ego
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  consciousness when it loses its limiting frame.
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  The seeker eventually learns to accept the status of quiet mind
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  and receptivity, and he can then benefit from the status.
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  Rene Descartes famously proclaimed cogito ergo sum.
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  I think therefore I am. He epitomized the predominant
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  attachment to the mental being and its association and
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  identification with the ego consciousness.
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  In the future, as the spiritual consciousness takes on its
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  leading role as the next stage in the evolution of
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  consciousness, it will not be correct to associate existence
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  with thinking. Rather, existence will be
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  understood as a status of being that can observe, know and
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  respond through powers that are not necessarily routed through
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  the verbal center of the being the mother observes.
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  Quote. The noise made by all the words,
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  all the ideas in your head is so deafening that it prevents you
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  from hearing the truth when it wants to manifest.
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  To learn to be quiet and silent. When you have a problem to
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  solve, instead of turning over in your head all the
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  possibilities, all the consequences, all the possible
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  things one should or should not do.
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  If you remain quiet with an aspiration for goodwill, if
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  possible a need for goodwill, the solution comes very quickly
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  and as you are silent, you're able to hear it.
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  When you are caught in a difficulty, try this method.
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  Instead of becoming agitated, turning over all the ideas and
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  actively seeking solutions of worrying, fretting, running here
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  and there inside your head, remain quiet and according to
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  your nature, with ardor or peace, with intensity or
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  widening, or with all these together, implore the light and
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  wait for it to come. In this way the path would be
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  considerably shortened. And quote reference 3 or old
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  into and the mother looking from within.
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  Chapter 4. Ordeals and Difficulties Pages
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  one O 2 to one O 3.