 Recognizing Parts of Our Being, Part IBy Helen & Peter Evans Most letters we receive from people who have read our contemplations say they have actually tried some of the exercises or experimented with some of the ideas in their own lives. Contemplation is work. Putting into practice a new idea is work. It requires being conscious, and that's what the spiritual path is about; becoming more conscious, more aware of our true nature and living from that consciousness. The path is not about adding more information to our already overwhelming store of information. As we become more conscious we become "different" beings, if you will. We perceive the world differently because we are truly different. We are transformed. So, how do we participate in our own transformation? We can sit back and wait and natural evolution will do the job, but it may take 20,000 lifetimes. Or we can consciously work at accelerating the process. We can meditate, we can contemplate, we can try some exercises during our days. Although many like to think of the spiritual path as something very occult and full of fantasy, it might be easier to think of ourselves as receiving stations for the Divine. The better equipped we are, the better we can receive the energies and wisdom. If you're going to build a radio or TV you must learn its parts and what they do. Eastern Wisdom has spent thousands of years investigating the nature of existence, Divine and Human and everything in between. Western psychology has just begun in the last 100 years or so. Therefore we'll use some of the Eastern terminologies and examples. First, an outline of different parts of the mind. In this rough sketch we acknowledge our gratitude to Sri Aurobindo (and his many predecessors) for blazing the trail. The "One Mind" (some call it God) can manifest on many levels Unconscious This is basically the consciousness of the rocks, and the inanimate objects. Subconscious This is part of the mind that sees, hears and remembers every single thing we experienced. Sometimes we act from subconscious motivations and our ordinary surface mind is just not aware of "why" we do these things, but these motivations are all "beliefs" we accepted as our own sometime in our lives. Ordinary Waking Consciousness This is where we think we live most of our lives, although it comprises only a small portion of our consciousness; 10% or less. Yet we want to know God from this level. It's like plugging in the toaster and expecting to get your favorite TV show. This level of mind is not equipped to "know" God. It can 'think' about or 'wonder' about God, but we must expand or "change" our mind to really 'know' God. As Sri Aurobindo says, "this mind is so thick, so sticky, it absorbs, discolors and pulls everything down into its obscure gravitation-we cannot for long contain joy or suffering, cannot bear much light; it is all too small, spasmodic, quickly extinguished. All in it are subject to a thousand conditions." The Higher Mind This level of consciousness is less opaque, more free. It is more 'detached' and less prone to judge what it sees from emotional or egoistic notions of "good vs bad" or "right vs wrong". It is less subject to the innumerable conditions of the lower levels, which create confusion and suffering. We begin to know things "as they are" rather than simply how they affect to us. The Intuitive Mind Here, we have glimpses of large "clumps of meaning" through flashes of intuitive knowing, clarity. This is the beginning of knowledge by "identity," rather than by intellectual "understanding." Further knowing is not a matter of lifting ourselves higher, but of clearing obstructions between us and what is already all there. The Illumined Mind This is a still higher state or condition of consciousness. The sticky fog of dualism which chokes ordinary waking consciousness is burned away by the steady illumination which characterizes this level. Everything is unified in a great, joyous harmony. Life is vaster, more true, more vivid. One is in the presence of Truth, but beyond any rational understanding of it. It simply is. The Overmind This is the peak of human consciousness. Cosmic consciousness but without the loss of the individual. The Supermind Simply beyond the mind. Ordinarily, when speaking of "changing our minds," we're really talking about exchanging one idea for another. This won't do much to change our lives, though. However, when we exchange a small or limiting belief for a larger, more liberating belief, then, changes automatically begin happening in our lives. When we recognize what we believe defines our participation in the One Mind, then we begin to see ourselves moving, somewhere on the continuum of consciousness, between the unconscious and the supramental, and begin to choose to change "our minds" in ways that enable us to partake more fully in the "One Mind." Now the exercise is to notice one part of the ordinary waking consciousness called the Physical Mind. The Physical Mind's job is to make sure things are done. However, when we dwell only in this part of ourselves we can be overcome with doubt. Scheduling properly and doing the task to completion can be replaced by a habitual loop of doubt. To isolate and know this part of your mind, do this simple exercise Pay full attention to setting your alarm clock, closing a door or turning off the stove. Now, if you give your physical mind free rein, it will probably continue to ask you if you did indeed do the task. The following is an excerpt from The Mother's experiment with this part of the mind "...the truth is the physical mind is truly, completely stupid! I removed my control and left the control to the physical mind - it is the physical mind which doubts. So I made the following experiment I went into a room, then came out of the room and closed the door. I had decided to close the door; and when I came to another room, this mind, this material mind, the physical mind said, "Are you sure you have locked the door?" Now, I did not control, you know, I said, "Very well, I obey it!" I went back to see. I observed the door was closed. I came back. As soon as I couldn't see the door any longer, it told me, "Have you verified properly?" So I went back again. And this went on til I decided "Come now, that's enough isn't it? Closed or not, I am not going back any more to see". This could have gone on all day. It is made like that. It stops being like that only when a higher mind, the rational mind tells it, "keep quiet!" - end of excerpt We bet all of you have had occasion to check and double check and triple check some detail. Please remember the physical mind has a purpose and it's only when it's not properly integrated or not properly controlled we have constant doubts. It's like a pager that will keep on beeping until we shut it off. So we ask you, do you know your physical mind?
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