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The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 1 · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  As long as we set our standpoint in the external surface
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  consciousness, we do not have the leverage nor the tools to
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  easily remove an embedded reaction.
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  We tend to take steps to suppress rather than expunge the
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  unwanted energy. This may take the form of an
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  ascetic denial or an avoidance of interaction with anything
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  that might trigger the reaction, such as escape to The Cave, the
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  monastery, the forest or the desert.
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  Or it may take more severe form such as physical self torture or
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  extreme forms of fasting, et cetera.
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  Another aspect of suppression is the attempt to regulate things
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  in other people that one struggles with internally, and
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  thus shift the focus on to creating rules, laws,
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  regulations or moral controls of some sort to enforce one's own
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  issues on to others who may not necessarily follow the same
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  ideas, principles or guidelines for their lives.
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  One way or the other, however, suppression leaves the seeds of
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  the reaction in place and subject to bursting out.
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  When and if an opportunity arises, the reaction actually
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  can be greater due to the suppression when it does erupt.
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  When enforced upon others, it tends to create smouldering
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  resentments and eventual rebellion.
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  Through the technique of the separation of the witness
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  consciousness from the external nature and the resultant non
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  attachment, the observing consciousness can begin to
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  control these reactions. First, by shifting the attention
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  and focus to the higher energies and sources that are the
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  objective of the seeker, and 2nd, through this status of non
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  attachment, refusing to accept or admit the energy that is
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  trying to take control of the nature.
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  A disciple asks. Mother, last time you said that
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  often there is in US a dark element which makes us commit
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  stupidities. So you said that when one is
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  conscious of this element, it must be pulled out.
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  But does pulling it out mean, for example, when one is
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  conscious, that this element comes to make us do stupid
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  things? Then if by an effort of will one
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  abstains from doing it, can one say that one has pulled it out?
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  The mother responds. One has sat upon it.
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  Then how to pull it out For that, first of all, you must
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  become conscious of it. You see, put it right in front
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  of you and cut the links which attach it to your consciousness.
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  It is a work of inner psychology.
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  You know one can see when one studies oneself very
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  attentively. You see that one day you were
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  very generous. Generous in your feelings,
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  generous in your sensations, generous in your thoughts and
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  even in material things. That is, you understand the
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  faults of others, their intentions, weaknesses, even
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  nasty movements. You see all this and you are
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  full of good feelings, of generosity.
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  You tell yourself, well, everyone does the best he can.
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  Like that, another day, or perhaps the very next minute,
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  you will notice in yourself a kind of dryness, fixity,
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  something that is bitter, that judges severely, that goes as
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  far as bearing a grudge. Has rancor would like the
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  evildoer punished? That almost has a feeling of
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  vengeance. Just the very opposite of the
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  former. One day someone harms you and
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  you say doesn't matter. He did not know, or he couldn't
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  do otherwise, or that's his nature, or he could not
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  understand. The next day, or perhaps an hour
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  later, you say he must be punished, he must pay for it.
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  He must be made to feel that he has done wrong with a kind of
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  rage. And you want to take things, you
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  want to keep them for yourself. You have all the feelings of
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  jealousy, envy, narrowness. You see just the very opposite
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  of the other feeling. This is the dark side.
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  And so the moment one sees it, if one looks at it and doesn't
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  say it is I. If one says no, it is my shadow,
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  it is the being I must throw out of myself.
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  One puts on it the light of the other part.
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  One tries to bring them face to face and with the knowledge and
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  light of the other. One doesn't try so much to
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  convince, because that is very difficult, but one compels it to
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  remain quiet, first to stand farther away.
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  Then one flings it very far away so that it can no longer return,
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  putting a great light on it. There are instances in which it
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  is possible to change, but this is very rare.
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  There are instances in which one can put upon this being, or the
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  shadow put upon it such an intense light that it transforms
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  it and it changes into what is the truth of your being.
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  But this is a rare thing. It can be done, but it is rare.
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  Usually the best thing is to say no, this is not I, I don't want
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  it. I have nothing to do with this
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  movement. It doesn't exist for me.
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  It is something contrary to my nature.
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  And so by dint of insisting and driving it away, finally one
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  separates oneself from it. End Quote.
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  Reference. Fioro, Vindo and the Mother
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  Looking from within. Chapter 4, Ordeals and
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  Difficulties, pages 83 to 85.