Letters on Yoga p636)

"...the silent mind and the quiet mind are differing orders of perception:

"The first step is a quiet mind - silence is a further step, but quietude must be there: and by a quiet mind I mean a mental consciousness within which sees thoughts arrive to it and move about but does not itself feel that is thinking or identifying with thoughts or call them my own. Thoughts, mental movements may pass through it as wayfarers appear and pass from everywhere through a silent country - the quiet mind observes them , but , in either case does not become active or loose its quietude; "Silence" is more than quietude: it can be gained by banishing thought altogether from the "inner mind" keeping it voiceless or quiet outside; one feels it coming down, entering and occupying or surrounding the personal consciousness which then tends to merge itself in a vast impersonal silence."

and the dangers:

"Only, when there is peace and a mental stillness , the vital mind tries to rush in and occupy its place or else the mechanical mind tries to raise up for the same purpose its round of trivial thoughts. What the sadhak has to do is to be careful to reject, to hush the outsiders, so that during meditation at least the peace and quietude of the mind and vital may be complete. This can be best done if you keep a strong silent will That will is the will of the purusha behind mind (manomaya purusha) ; when the mind is at peace.."

to get at the consciousness of the inner (manomaya) (behind the mind) and pranamaya purusha (behind the vital) is always a step towards unveiling the psychic being

i believe the steps outlined by Sri Aurobindo here, to be those which leads to the path beyond the post-modern mind on which those who follow can escape servitude to the will to technology, domination by virtual fascism, enslavement to samsaric imagination (imaginito phantastica) and disappearance into the machine.

rc