Physical mind

(Satprem:) “How would you define the physical mind in contrast with the material mind?

(Mother, 1965:) The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called ‘physical mind’ is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years.”

(Mother to Satprem, 1965:) “That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education.”

(Mother, 1972, message for the fourth anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation:) “It is only when the Supramental manifests in the body-mind that its presence can be permanent.”

(Satprem, 1960:) “Doing japa seems to exert a pressure on my physical consciousness, which goes on turning! How can I silence it? As soon as my concentration is not absolute, the physical mind starts up — it grabs at anything, anything at all, any word, fact or event that comes along, and it starts turning, turning. If you stop it, if you put some pressure on it, then it springs back up two minutes later ... And there is no inner consent at all. It chews on words, it chews on ideas or feelings — interminably. What should I do?

(Mother:) Yes, it's the physical mind. The japa is made precisely to control the physical mind.
         What you are speaking of, this sort of sound-mill, this milling of words interminably repeating the same thing, I've suddenly caught it two or three times (not very often and with long intervals). It has always seemed fantastic to me! How is it stopped? ... Always in the same way. It's something that takes place outside, actually; it's not inside — it's outside, on the surface, generally somewhere here (Mother indicates the temples), and the method is to draw your consciousness up above, to go there and remain there — white. Always this whiteness, white like a sheet of paper, flat like a plate of glass. An absolutely flat and white and motionless surface — white! White like luminous milk, turned upwards. Not transparent: white.
         When this mill starts turning — usually it comes from this side (Mother indicates the right side of the head) — it takes hold of any sound or any word at all, and then it starts turning, harping on the same thing. This has happened to me a dozen times perhaps, but it doesn't come from me; it comes from outside, from someone or something or some particular work. So then you take it — as if you were picking it up with pincers, and then ... (She lifts it upwards), then I hold it there, in this motionless white — no need to keep it there for long!
         Aren't you aware of this thing up above, this white plate at the crown of the head? It's what receives intuitions. It's just like a photographic plate, and it's not even active — things pass right through it without our even realizing it. And then if you concentrate just a little, everything stops, everything stops.”

(Mother to Satprem, 1960:) “During these last days, I was face to face with a problem as old as the world which had taken on an extraordinary intensity.
         It's what Sri Aurobindo calls disbelief, and it's located in the most material physical consciousness – it isn't doubt (which mainly belongs to the mind), it is almost like a refusal to accept the obvious as soon as it doesn't belong to the little daily routine of ordinary sensations and reactions – a sort of incapacity to accept and recognize the exceptional.
         This disbelief is the bedrock of the consciousness. And it comes with a ... (‘thought’ is too big a word for such an ordinary thing) a mental-physical activity which makes you ... (I am forced to use the word) ‘think’ things and which always foresees, imagines or draws conclusions (depending on the case) in a way which I myself call DEFEATIST. In other words, it automatically leads you to imagine all the bad things that can happen. And this occurs in a realm which is absolutely run-of-the-mill, in the most ordinary, restricted, banal activities of life – such as eating, moving ... in short, the coarsest of things.
         It's fairly easy to manage and control this in the realm of thought, but when it comes to those reactions that rise up from the very bottom ... they're so petty that you can barely express them to yourself. For example, if someone mentions that so-and-so ate such-and-such a thing, immediately something somewhere starts stealing in: “Ah, he's going to get a stomach-ache!” Or you hear that someone is going somewhere – “Oh, he's going to have an accident!” ... And it applies to everything; it's swarming down below. Nothing to do with thought as such!
         It's quite a nasty habit, for it keeps the most material state in a condition of disharmony, disorder, ugliness and difficulty.
         I tried every possible way ... To get out of it is relatively easy. But then it doesn't change.
         The problem appeared again to me very intensely when I read Sri Aurobindo's The Yoga of Self-Perfection. I was confronted with a whole formidable world to be transformed – to transform what is already luminous is quite easy, but to transform that! ... ugh – this stuff of life, so low and so coarse, so ordinary ... it's much more difficult.
         For the last several days, I've been at grips fighting with it. How can I stop this idiotic, coarse and above all defeatist automatism from constantly manifesting? It's truly an automatism; it doesn't respond to any conscious will, nothing. So what will it take to ... ? And it's QUITE INTIMATELY related to the body's illnesses (the old habits the body has of coming out of its rhythmic movement, of entering into confusion) – the two things are very intimately linked.
         I'm deep in the problem.
         For me, ‘the problem’ doesn't mean explaining the thing (it's easy to explain), but controlling, mastering and transforming it. That will take some time.
         We shall see.”

(Mother to Satprem, 1971:) “I heard something written by Sri Aurobindo, saying that for the Supramental to manifest upon earth the physical mind must receive it and manifest it — and it is just the physical mind, that is to say, the body-mind, the only thing that remains in me now. And then, the reason why only this part has remained became quite clear to me. It is on the way to being converted in a very rapid and interesting manner. This physical mind is being developed under the supramental Influence. And it is just what Sri Aurobindo has written, that this is indispensable so that the Supramental can manifest itself permanently upon earth.
         So, it is going on well... but it is not easy (Mother laughs).
         ...

(Satprem:) “But it must be something very radical.

But it is radical, my child! You can’t imagine, it is like... I could say truly that I have become another person. There is only this (Mother touches the outer form of her body) which remains as it was.... To what extent will it be able to change? Sri Aurobindo has said that if the physical mind were transformed, the transformation of the body would follow quite naturally. We shall see.”

(Mother, 1953:) “The Supermind had descended long ago — very long ago — into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light.”

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See also

• Japa
• Material mind
• Mind of Light