Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
The Mother's Empty Vessel
To empty the mind of expectation and ‘become an empty vessel,’ then let a single sincere aspiration (for peace, strength, knowledge, etc.) draw down what is asked for — a passive, receptive form of meditation.
The Mother’s empty vessel in 5 lines: Sit simple as a child — expect nothing, insist on nothing. Make yourself an empty vessel; let the surface mind go quiet. Keep perfect sincerity (don’t fake or colour anything). Let one deep aspiration rise — peace, strength, light, knowledge. Receive what comes, in the measure you can receive it, without grasping.
What it is
A receptive (passive) meditation the Mother taught as a counterpart to active concentration. Instead of forcing or pursuing an experience, you make yourself empty — drop expectation, demand and mental commentary — and become “an empty vessel.” Then a single, sincere inner aspiration does the work: you quietly ask, from the depth of yourself, for what you genuinely need (peace, strength, light, knowledge), and let it come.
Her governing image: “Making yourself an empty vessel, you invite that which shall fill it.”
The Method
From her talk of 23 June 1929 (CWM 3):
- Sit, candid and simple. “When you sit in meditation you must be as candid and simple as a child, not interfering by your external mind, expecting nothing, insisting on nothing.” Drop the agenda.
- Empty yourself. Let the surface mind go quiet — stop interfering, analysing, anticipating. “Making yourself an empty vessel, you invite that which shall fill it.” The emptiness is the invitation.
- Hold perfect sincerity. Maintain “a state of perfect and absolute sincerity in all the consciousness.” Do not pretend to feel what you don’t, and do not twist or colour what arises to flatter what you wanted — sincerity is the safeguard against self-deception.
- Let one aspiration rise. “Once this condition is there, all the rest depends upon the aspiration deep within you. If you ask from within for peace, it will come; if for strength, for power, for knowledge, they too will come.” Choose one — a wordless, heartfelt asking from within, not a mental list.
- Receive without grasping. Whatever comes, comes “in the measure of your capacity to receive it.” Do not seize or evaluate; simply let the vessel fill. Then sit in that, quiet. (Sourcing note: all quoted phrases are the Mother’s, from CWM 3, 23 June 1929. The numbered ordering is a faithful restatement of the method she describes in that talk.)
Source & Lineage
This is from the earliest published Questions and Answers talks the Mother gave to disciples at Pondicherry (1929–1931, CWM 3), where she laid out the practical psychology of Integral Yoga. → — the Mother; partner Sri Aurobindo.
It pairs with her active heart-concentration as the two complementary modes she taught: active (gather and concentrate) and passive (empty and receive).
The Traditions' versions
Open-monitoring / “choiceless awareness” (Krishnamurti, vipassana) — receptive, non-interfering attention.
- Quaker waiting worship — emptying expectation, waiting in silence for what comes.
- Centering Prayer / apophatic contemplation — releasing thought, consenting to presence.
- Coué’s effortless autosuggestion — receptivity over willpower; “don’t force it.”
- Neville’s receptive SATS — relaxed, drowsy receptivity to an impressed state.
Common refinements
Trying to “make it happen.” The method is receptive; effort defeats it. Empty, then wait.
- Asking for ten things. One sincere aspiration at a time; a shopping list scatters the focus.
- Pretending / auto-suggesting a feeling. Her sincerity rule forbids manufacturing or exaggerating an experience. Let it be what it honestly is.
- Confusing blankness with dullness. The vessel is alert-empty, not drowsy-vacant; keep a quiet wakefulness.
- Refinement: if the mind won’t empty, give it the single aspiration as its only “content” and let everything else fall away around it.