What has been called "purgation of the intellect, memory, and will" actually happens in the deep contemplative state. The faculty of thinking temporarily ceases to function, the awareness of personal identity vanishes for a time, and the ability to direct the muscular movements of the body stops as in a paralysed man. These changes last only for the hour of his meditation practice and are responsible for much interior growth in the shifting of consciousness from the lower nature to the higher self. But there is a more enduring state wherein the "purgation" reappears in another form, better suited to the aspirant's active everyday existence. He finds that the more he inclines to detach himself from worldly things, the less firmly do they lodge themselves in his memory. In this way, and little by little, neither the dead past nor the active present can overcome him and make his mind their prisoner. So, too, the unrealized future does not do the same in the form of fears or anticipations, anxieties or desires. Thus he "purges" memory, he loosens himself from immersion in time and begins to live in the blessedly liberated and liberating Eternal Now. The purgation of intellect shows itself in this active form throughout the day as a perfect tranquillity of the mind which instantly comes into logical thinking activities as and when needed but otherwise remains at peace in the Eternal Stillness. The purgation of the will manifests in a continuous freedom from enslaving passions, from bodily directives and egoistic impulses.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 3 : Practise Detachment > # 2
