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The following passages come from the Mother’s book, “On Thoughts and Aphorisms,” where she expounds on the following quote by Sri Aurobindo, “Either do not give the name of knowledge to your beliefs only and of error, ignorance or charlatanism to the beliefs of others; or do not rail at the dogmas of the schools and their intolerance.” “If you objectify a little, you will see that you have spontaneously, without realizing it, established as knowledge everything you have learnt, everything you have thought, everything which has given you the impression of being particularly true and of major importance; and you are quite ready to contradict any different notion held by those who say, ‘No, no, it is like this, it is not like that.’ It is rather remarkable that when we have a weakness— for example, a ridiculous habit, a defect, or an imperfection— since it is more or less part of our nature, we consider it to be very natural; it does not shock us. But as soon as we see this same weakness, this same imperfection, this same ridiculous habit in someone else, it seems quite shocking to us, and we say, ‘What! He’s like that?’— without noticing that we ourselves are ‘like that.’ Look upon everything with a benevolent smile. Take all the things which irritate you as a lesson for yourself and your life will be more peaceful and more effective as well, for a great percentage of your energy certainly goes to waste in the irritation you feel when you do not find in others the perfection that you would like to realize in yourself. And the best way to the true attitude is simply to say, ‘All those around me, all the circumstances of my life, all the people near me, are a mirror held up to me by the Divine Consciousness to show me the progress I must make. Everything that shocks me in others means work I have to do in myself.’ And perhaps if one carried true perfection in oneself, one would discover it more often in others.”
