Our mind is incapable of seeing the truth and whatever it judges it judges by its own limited capacity. When we judge our actions with it, and that is the thing we habitually do, we often deceive ourselves; we deceive ourselves in good faith. But with the psychic fully conscious this does not happen. The answer that comes from it is the straight answer and a valid answer. Going further, by identification with the supreme Consciousness we do not annul our true individuality. But to express the supreme Consciousness we should be made of sufficiently luminous and purified substance. There is the experience of transparent fluidity, but concretisation needs a kind of “opacity”, an opacity in Matter. The direct contact of the psychic being with the substance of the body gives the sensation of “felt vision”. When the Supramental manifests, there comes a clarity of vision that does not diminish. It is that which is being built up. Evidently there is a precision that can come from a more exact vision, without division and without separation. And it is that precision which will be the precision of the supramental vision. That is something in preparation. The same holds true for the vital. The vital gives an intensity which nothing else seems to give; this same intensity exists in the supramental, but without division. It is an intensity that does not separate. It is that intensity which must flow in the life and in the body.

25 September 1968

Here is a question on Aphorisms from some old papers: “When I hear of a righteous wrath, I wonder at man’s capacity for self-deception.”

It is wonderful!

And there was a question, again from Aphorisms: “It is always ‘in good faith’ that one deceives oneself: it is always for the good of others that one acts or in the interest of humanity and for serving you, it goes without saying. How does one come to deceive oneself and how to know it truly?”

It is terribly true.

Even yesterday, without even reading the note, I had a long vision on the subject; it is astonishing. But it was on such a different plane... Yes, when you take the higher part of your mind as judge of your action, then you can “deceive yourself in good faith”. That is to say, the mind is incapable of seeing the truth and it judges by its own capacity, which is limited, which is unconscious of the truth; so for the mind, it is in good faith, it does as well as it can. It is this.

Naturally, for those who are fully conscious of their psychic, it is not possible to deceive themselves, for if they refer their problem to the psychic, they can from there have the divine answer. But even for those who are in relation with their psychic, the answer has not the same character as the mind’s, which is precise, categorical, absolute, asserting itself; it is something more of a tendency than an assertion, something which can still have different interpretations in the mind.

After having looked at it, I came to the conclusion that it is impossible to reproach a human being who does as well as he can according to his consciousness, for how can he go beyond his consciousness?... This is just the error that the majority of people make: they judge one another according to their own consciousness, but the other has not their consciousness! Therefore they cannot judge.

But every manifestation is necessarily limited, unless it comes out of itself and unites itself with the supreme Consciousness, then there... In what conditions can that be done? It is the problem of identification with the Supreme, which is the Supreme One—One which is All.

There is a human thought that has the conception that identification with the supreme Consciousness can come only by annulling the individual creation, but Sri Aurobindo precisely has said that it is possible without abolishing the creation. They have this notion that creation must be abolished, for they limit the creation to the human level—it is impossible for man, but it is possible for the supramental being. And it is this that will make the supramental being essentially different: he will be able, without losing a limited form, to unite his consciousness with the supreme Consciousness.

But as soon as you want to express it, it is gone. That is to say, the substance of which we are built up is not sufficiently purified, enlightened to express the supreme Consciousness without deforming it.

It is a certain opacity in Matter, in the substance that makes it unable to manifest the Consciousness... and it is this same opacity that gives it the sense of existing.

This is part of the experience of these last days. I have lived for... I do not know, for weeks, in a kind of fluidity—transparent fluidity—and as this transparent fluidity is replaced by this something that I call now “opacity”, there comes a kind of concretisation of the existence of the body.

So, the direct contact of the psychic being with the substance of the body, without any intermediary, gives the sensation... is it a “sensation”? I do not know; it is not a sensation, it is not a perception; it is a kind of “felt vision” (and this vision is very precise, very precise) of the value of vibrations in relation to a higher vibration which is ... more directly the expression of the supreme Vibration.

It is very difficult to express, but the body is going through an experience which it never had; it is as though passing from an imprecision to a precision, from a kind of fluidity to... it is not a concrete thing, but from a thing fluid—fluid and imprecise—to a thing precise. All the happenings, no matter how small, which vary, are the occasion for a new perception. Before, everything was fluid and imprecise; now it is beginning to be more precise—more precise, more exact. But it loses a little of its fluidity.

It is very difficult to express.

I had never thought of it. It is strange, it is not willed. Just now I have had the experience. So it is not yet very clear. Indeed, the mind gives a precision that is lacking when it is not there. Its role in creation is just to give precision, to explain, and at the same time to limit.

An ordinary mind could ask: “But what is the advantage of this imprecision?”

There is no advantage!

It is altogether certain that when the Supramental manifests, it will replace the mental precision that diminishes—the precision that limits and therefore falsifies things in part—by a clarity of vision, another kind of vision that does not diminish. It is that which is being built up.

Indeed, it can be said: in order to give precision, the mind limits and separates; and evidently there is a precision that can come from a more exact vision, without division and without separation. And it is that precision which will be the precision of the supramental vision. With the precision will come, at the same time, the vision of the relation of all things to one another, without separating them.

But that is something in preparation. It comes as a flash, for a minute, and then lapses back into its old way.

The same can be said of the vital. The vital gives an intensity which nothing else seems capable of giving; well, this same intensity exists in the Supramental, but without division. It is an intensity that does not separate.

These two experiences I have had, but very momentarily. These are things that are being worked out just at present.