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The Power of Rejection in Gaining Mastery Over the Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Operant conditioning is a phenomenon identified in Western
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  psychology by BF Skinner. His experiments showed that by
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  the results of carrying out specific actions, they can
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  either be encouraged through positive reinforcement or
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  discouraged through negative reinforcement.
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  One of the principles he elicited in his experiments was
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  the impact of the reinforcement over time.
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  Experiments showed that by removing any positive
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  reinforcement, certain behaviors would weaken and fade out over
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  time. Consistent reinforcement led to
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  patterns, habits, and embedded actions.
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  Occasional reinforcement, however, also continued the
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  pattern as an expectation built up that next time the positive
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  reinforcement could come. This principle works in gambling
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  with what are known as one armed bandits slot machines.
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  People get small winnings occasionally, which leads them
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  to continue putting their money into the machine.
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  The longer they play and the more small winnings they get
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  along the way, the more they expect a major jackpot to occur.
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  Of course, the machinery is set up to make such major jackpots
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  extremely rare, and thus there is a huge advantage to the
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  machine over the human playing the machine.
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  If we apply this knowledge to our individual being and our
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  attempt to control and gain mastery over our external
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  nature, we can easily see that the advice provided by the
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  mother is an accurate portrayal of what it actually takes to
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  succeed in the task. The rejection of attention, the
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  rejection of any manifestation of these forces is the only way
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  to eliminate them from the nature entirely.
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  Even occasional indulgence leads to a long and arduous process of
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  continuance of the movements that the seeker desires to
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  overcome. The methods of rejection may
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  include negative approaches such as direct refusal, discipline or
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  denial of various sorts, as well as positive approaches that turn
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  the attention elsewhere to focus on the positive thoughts,
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  feelings, emotions, etcetera that eventually are intended to
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  replace those former movements and activities.
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  Just as Western psychology has discovered, the human instrument
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  can be modified, trained if you will, to adapt to new conditions
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  and carry out new types of behaviors.
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  Yoga is, as Shrioro Bindo has noted, a form of applied
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  psychology. While yogic psychology is
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  clearly much more developed and advanced with understanding
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  based on at least several 1000 years of efforts, it is useful
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  to note where Western psychology is beginning to recognize these
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  things, particularly for those who are accustomed to seeing
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  things in Western terms. The mother writes quote.
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  If you do not accept certain movements, then naturally when
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  they find that they can't manifest, gradually they
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  diminish in force and stop occurring.
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  If you refuse to express everything that is of a lower
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  kind, little by little the very thing disappears and the
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  consciousness is emptied of lower things.
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  It is by refusing to give expression I mean not only in
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  action but also in thought, in feeling.
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  When impulses, thoughts, emotions come, if you refuse to
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  express them, if you push them aside and remain in a state of
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  inner aspiration and calm, then gradually they lose their force
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  and stop coming. So the consciousness is emptied
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  of its lower movements. But, for instance, when
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  undesirable thoughts come, if you look at them, observe them,
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  if you take pleasure in following them in their
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  movements, they will never stop coming.
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  It is the same thing when you have undesirable feelings or
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  sensations. If you pay attention to them,
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  concentrate on them or even look at them with a certain
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  indulgence, they will never stop.
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  But if you absolutely refuse to receive and express them, after
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  some time they stop. You must be patient and very
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  persistent in a great aspiration.
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  If you can put yourself into contact with something higher,
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  some influence of your psychic being or some light from above,
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  and if you can manage to put this in touch with these lower
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  movements, naturally they stop more quickly.
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  But before even being able to draw these things by aspiration,
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  you can already stop those movements from finding
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  expression in you by a very persistent and patient refusal.
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  When thoughts which you do not like come, if you just brush
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  them away and do not pay them any attention at all, after some
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  time they won't come any longer. But you must do this very
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  persistently and regularly. End Quote.
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  Reference. Srioro Bindu and the Mother
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  Looking from Within, Chapter 5. Attitudes on the Path, pages 157
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  to 158.