Psychic Poise — the Standpoint of Balance in the Response to Life Situations

When we are based in the standpoint of the external being, the physical body, the vital being, the mind, the ego-personality, we are continually subject to the reactions of these different elements to circumstances. We experience physical pressures, the promptings of desire and fear, the testing of our ideas, conceptions and ambitions as they attempt to maintain themselves in the face of the world’s forces. We experience happiness, sadness, joy and depression, mental anguish, grief, sorrow, anticipation, and all the other responses that are characteristic of human life in the world.

When the shift takes place to the standpoint of the psychic being, however, the response changes dramatically. The psychic being does not have the same attachment nor the same type of judgment about the situation of the external being. It takes a longer view, with a different objective, and thus, can maintain a sense of poise, or balance, in the way it chooses to respond. it is not ‘reactive’ in the way that the external being is ‘reactive’.

A disciple asks: “Sweet Mother, what does ‘psychic poise’ mean?”

The Mother responds: “Psychic poise means the poise of the being which comes from the fact that the psychic, which governs the movements of the being, is the master of all the movements of the consciousness. The psychic is always well poised. So when it is active and governs the being, it inevitably brings a balance.”

The disciple follows up: ‘”‘Then why is it said: ‘The psychic poise is necessary’?

The Mother continues: “Yes. This means that the help of the psychic poise is necessary. It is not that the psychic being has to become balanced: it is that one must be under the influence of the psychic poise. The psychic is always balanced. But the being is not always under the influence of the psychic which brings the balance. The influence of the psychic gives the balance.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 6 More Lights on the Psychic Being, pp. 179-180