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Embracing the Quietude and the Silence of the Mind · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In Western society, people are inculcated from early childhood
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  in the idea that they need to be active in order to succeed in
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  the world. The outlook is extremely focused
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  on an outward perspective. The body, life force and mind
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  have to be trained and harnessed into action.
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  Time not spent in active efforts at development and putting the
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  powers of being to work is considered to be time wasted.
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  People who do not focus on putting the powers of mind, life
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  and body to work in the world in a noticeable way are considered
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  to be dreamers and are not taken seriously.
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  Conversely, vacation times and the period known as retirement
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  after the active working life has been completed are treated
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  as times for the individual to simply cease from efforts.
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  Countless numbers of people head to the beach and simply sleep
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  and absorb the sun during their vacations.
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  The absence of the rajasic, mental and vital activity
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  frequently falls into a temasic torpor and lassitude.
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  While this is the basic standard of Western society, there is no
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  doubt that the underlying attitudes involved have crept
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  into the Eastern view of modern day life as well.
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  This is now something of a worldwide phenomenon.
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  These attitudes colour the view people have about the process of
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  meditation in general and the need to quiet or silence the
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  mind. Before meditation or the silence
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  of the mind can actually take place, the individual has to
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  overcome the basic mindset that equates quiet with the wasting
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  of time. When the practitioner begins to
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  experience the quietude of the mind, one of the first issues he
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  faces is the fear that the emptiness he is experiencing in
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  the mind is somehow a negative event.
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  He may feel he is on the point of dying and losing his
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  identity. He may feel like he is becoming
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  incompetent without the thought processing that formerly
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  occupied his mind. He may feel like he is losing
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  something essential to his being.
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  Whatever feeling arises, he needs to find a way to overcome
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  it. Let the silence seep into the
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  mind stuff and turn with aspiration to become receptive
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  to the higher spiritual force that informs and manages without
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  the constant flow of words or images that constitutes the
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  normal mental space. Those individuals who have
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  depended on the mentality for their action in the world, who
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  have a career and an act of external life, sometimes fear
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  that they will not be able to function.
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  For these individuals, it may be best for them to create a time
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  and space for letting the being separate itself from the
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  activity and retrain the mind to honour and appreciate the
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  quietude until such time as a new mode of action develops that
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  can continue to work within the silence and quietude.
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  Sriorobindo writes Quote Keep the quietude and do not mind if
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  it is for a time and empty quietude.
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  The consciousness is often like a vessel which has to be emptied
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  of its mixed or undesirable contents.
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  It has to be kept vacant for a while till it can be filled with
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  things new and true, right and pure.
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  The one thing to be avoided is the refilling of the cup with
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  the old turbid contents. Meanwhile, wait, open yourself
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  upwards, call very quietly and steadily, not with a too
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  restless eagerness for the peace to come into the silence, and
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  once the peace is there, for the joy and the presence.
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  End Quote reference Shrioro Bindo Basis of Yoga Chapter 1
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  column Peace and Equality page 8.