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Gaining Control Over and Mastery of One's Mind and Thoughts · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  As each stage of the evolution of consciousness develops, it
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  brings a greater power of knowledge and action than the
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  prior stage. Inevitably, there's an impact on
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  those prior stages. Life effectuated changes in
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  matter. Mind effectuates changes in life
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  and matter. Although the power is not
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  absolute and there is an interchange, a conservative
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  resistance to transformational change, eventually the new power
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  has its impacts. What is not so frequently
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  described, however, is that with this new power come also new
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  forces that make adaptation at the current level of
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  manifestation harder. Thus, while the mind is able to
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  change matter and even control the vital forces of life to a
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  great degree, it has a hard time seeing and changing things on
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  the mental plane. The principle involved is that
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  as long as one is immersed in a particular framework, he cannot
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  see that framework. What he cannot see, he cannot
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  consciously change. It is thus necessary to find a
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  way to step back from, to shift outside the framework to have a
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  real power of transformation. When we apply this to our mental
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  activities, we can see that the shift to the witness standpoint
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  and receptivity to the next power of consciousness, which is
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  in the process of manifesting, represent the methods needed to
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  gain control and mastery over the action of the mind itself.
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  Sri Rabindra writes quote To reject doubts means control of
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  1's thoughts. Very certainly so, but the
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  control of 1's thoughts is as necessary as the control of 1's
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  vital desires and passions or the control of the movements of
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  1's body. For the yoga and not for the
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  yoga only. One cannot be a fully
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  developmental being even if one is not a control of the
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  thoughts, is not their observer, judge, master, the mental
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  Purusha mano Maya, purusha Sakshi anumanta ishwara.
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  It is no more proper for the mental being to be the tennis
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  ball of unruly and uncontrollable thoughts than to
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  be a rudderless ship in the storm of the desires and
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  passions, or a slave of either the inertia or the impulses of
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  the body. I know it is more difficult
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  because man, being primarily a creature of mental procrity,
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  identifies himself with the movements of his mind, and
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  cannot at once dissociate himself and stand free from the
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  swirl and eddies of the mind Whirlpool.
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  It is comparatively easy for him to put a control on his body, at
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  least on a certain part of its movements.
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  It is less easy, but still very possible, after a struggle, to
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  put a mental control on his vital impulsions and desires.
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  But to sit, like the tantric Yogi on the river above the
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  Whirlpool of his thoughts is less facile.
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  Nevertheless, it can be done. All developed mental men, those
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  who get beyond the average, have in one way or other, where at
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  least at certain times and for certain purposes, to separate
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  the two parts of the mind. The active part, which is a
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  factory of thoughts, and the quiet masterful part which is at
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  once a witness and a will, observing them, judging,
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  rejecting, eliminating, accepting, ordering, corrections
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  and changes. The master in the House of mind
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  capable of self, empire, some rajya.
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  The Yogi goes still farther. He is not only a master there,
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  but even while in mind, in a way, he gets out of it, as it
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  were, and stands above or quite back from it and free.
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  For him the image of the factory of thoughts is no longer quite
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  valid, for he sees that thoughts come from outside, from the
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  universal mind or universal nature, sometimes formed and
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  distinct, sometimes unformed, and then they are given shape
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  somewhere in us. The principal business of our
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  mind is either a response of acceptance or a refusal to these
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  thought waves as also vital waves, subtle physical energy
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  waves or this giving personal mental form to thought stuff or
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  vital movements from the environing nature force.
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  The possibilities of a mental being are not limited.
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  It can be the free witness and master in its own house.
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  A progressive freedom and mastery over 1's mind is
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  perfectly within the possibilities of anyone who has
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  faith and will to undertake it. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, Calm, Peace and
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  Equality, pages 5 to 6.