INTRODUCTION TO THE MIND
When it comes to the subject of the mind, a lot of different ideas have been offered by various scholars in attempts to describe its nature and very much so its function. For most people, the mind is this faculty that is only subjected to the capabilities of our brains. While this is not totally inaccurate given that the human mind works by leveraging our powerful brain's ability to process complex amounts of information; beyond its connection to the brain, however, the scope of the mind is in fact not only limited to our brains’ processing capabilities but extends to a broader dimension of our consciousness that we could refer to as the "Mental Field" –– a vast field of energy that records and stores every single piece of information about everything that has ever happened since the beginning of existence.
To begin to understand such an abstract part of our consciousness, I will explore a few concepts that I believe are key to forming a solid idea on the nature of the mind.
Concept 1: The mind in connection to the brain
I look at the mind as this vast field of information that our brain connects to and sources information from in order to operate. The brain basically operates based on the information it is able to retrieve from our mental field. It is the organ designed to receive information from the mind, but also to send out information back to the mind to aid the creative process. And so, we could say that the brain acts as both a receptor and transmuter of information that are stored in our mental energy field. As the research of Dr Paul Badcock points out, "human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are rooted in the brain where a complex network of cells receives information from the internal and external environment, transforming this information into our experience of ourselves, the world around us, and our relationships with it". So, very much like a radio would tap into or be tuned to a frequency and broadcast information to the outside, our brain (radio) also taps into our mental field (our frequency) in order to translate very complex amounts of information into languages and expressions that we understand as humans.
From a universal perspective, each of us in our own way uses our brain to tap and tune in to parts of what could be described as the “Universal Mind” or “Universal Mental Field” (a universal energy field that contains the totality of the collective consciousness). The set of information each of us uniquely tunes and taps into within this Universal mind forms the basis of what we see as our "Individual mind" or "unique mental energy field", though the totality of the mental field is in fact one at its source and therefore, much more extensive than the set of information we are all individually subjected to. Put simply, your individual mind is only a representation of the totality of information that your brain is attuned to within the one Universal mind.
However, beyond its connection to the brain, the mind is another dimension of life in itself. It is an aspect of our consciousness that has its own intelligence and a very unique purpose. To further understand its function as part of the Trinity (Mind-Body-Soul), here are a few more concepts worth exploring:
Concept 2: The mind as a catalyst for awareness and expression of consciousness
The mind is the tool or medium through which consciousness becomes aware of itself and expresses itself. Metaphysically speaking, consciousness becomes aware of itself through the observation (focused attention) of a mind. In a human sense, this essentially means that the mind helps us make sense of our current reality (through awareness), and then inspires us to create what we see as our future reality (through expression) based on what we observe as absolute truth.
As individual pieces of consciousness, we uniquely tap into the mind to also become aware of ourselves and everything around us and then based on the information we've gathered through awareness, we uniquely express (create) our future reality according to what we've observed as being absolutely true. I find in my experience that what we believe to be true is always in correlation with our main focus of attention (the observation that caught most of our attention) regarding any given subject/object. Thus, the saying by Marcus Aurelius, “our life is what our thoughts make of it”. That is so because the only reality that exists out there, is the one we observe and perceive to be true in our minds. It is true that we tend to only view things the way we are (meaning from our main focus of attention), but not always the way things really are. And so, it is important to always keep an open mind as reality may not be as rigid as we might think!
Concept 3: The mind as a tool to aid the creative process
The mind is the starting point for all creative processes. Every creative process starts in the mind and is led by the mind. As creators, our mind is that aspect of our consciousness which is responsible for perceiving, conceptualizing and then creating reality. The mind uses information gathered through memory (past experiences) to perceive and understand the nature of our present reality, and then through its ability for imagination, it creates our future reality. When it comes to the creative process, translating ideas from a state of non-existence into materialization and manifestation is a process that starts from the conceptualisation and imagination of a mind. And so from a creative point of view, the mind is responsible for turning the unmanifested (thoughts and ideas) into manifested (matter/form). It is the mind's ability to focus its attention and concentrate on any given subject for a certain period of time (momentum) that starts the 'creating' of anything in the physical. The building that you see across the road was once an idea in someone's mind (formless and inwardly focused) before the idea found momentum, and then expression to be manifested outward into a physical form that we can all see.
Every creative process starts by sustaining our focus and attention in the direction of our intentions. And so, changing one's reality could simply be a matter of redirecting our point of attention (which is really our point of attraction) by taking our focus off the present reality we are observing and placing our attention on the thrill (that exciting feeling of newness) of the future reality that we intend to bring about. True intentions are deliberate and non-resistant by nature. For example –– If you intend to go out later for example and then fix your mind’s attention in the direction of what you've intended to do (i.e. being out), you will be quickly made aware of the very next thing you can do to bring your intention into reality. By following up on those impulses (inspirations) you will be more than likely to find yourself out later. On the other side, if you intended to go out but instead decided to fix your mind’s attention on your present reality (ignoring the thrill of the future reality that you want to bring about) by lamenting about the fact that you've been indoors for too long let's say, you will naturally create resistance which will prevent any momentum from taking place regarding your intention. You have in a sense failed to make room for your desire to find outward expression and become a reality.
It is the same creative process that is applied even when it comes to subtler things that we do all the time but do not always consciously think about. The act of walking, moving or talking are examples of pure creative processes that we can call “flow”. When we're in the flow, our intention and attention are happening simultaneously. As you intend it, your mind immediately focuses in the direction of your intention and so it happens.
Concept 4: The mind is yours, but it isn't you
By now, you probably have already figured out this much given the concepts we’ve been exploring so far. Indeed, if the mind is the catalyst for awareness and expression of consciousness, then it is clear that we are not the mind, we are not our thoughts, but we are the underlying consciousness that observes and experiences these thoughts using the mind. Who we are isn't at all about the thoughts that we think, but about the consciousness that is 'doing the thinking'. This truth is subjective to whoever has experienced their essence beyond thoughts and how they have experienced it, so it is difficult to quite put a finger on it but it is the same truth that fundamentally lies deep within all of us whether we are aware of it or not.
Most people see themselves as the accumulation of mental chatter constantly playing inside their heads and because this chatter has been going on for as long as they can remember, they end up believing that this is who they are. Many of us fall into the trap of losing ourselves in our mental chatter thinking that they define who we are, and this is unfortunately the source of most of the suffering we see in the world. I believe that many of the mental health struggles that our society faces today can be solved by simply realising that we are not the accumulation of our thoughts, but that which is beyond thought. I have written more on this in my blog here if you'd like to read more.
Concept 5: The mind relative to the Ego ID
Many of us are probably already familiar with the concept of the ego, nevertheless, I still feel like this is an important topic to explore in relation to the mechanism of the mind. Simply put, the ego can be defined as a mental concept, an idea of ourselves that we created in the mind (since childhood) through the accumulation of certain experiences that have caused us to form a psychological impression of who we are and how we relate to our environment. As we create anything in life through the observation and focused attention of our mind, our ego was also created by focusing our attention/observation on experiences that we believed had defined who we are and our place in the world. As such, the ego could be said to be the result of our self-identification with those past experiences.
Because the ego basically gave us our first sense of self-identity (our 'me, myself and I'), we naturally tend to attach (self-identify) ourselves to the experiences that have contributed to its formation. From the very moment the ego was formed, we've continued to entertain beliefs that reinforced the sense of identity that it gave us as a way to ensure our survival. Without being aware of it, we sought to feed it, grow it and mould it in efforts to maintain its aliveness and therefore, avoid the imminent death of the "Self".
However, I found that to properly leverage the creative power of our mind, it is necessary to detach ourselves from all identifications of the ego ID. Detaching from the burden of our ego literally frees up a tone of misused mental energy from our system, which then opens us up to amazing possibilities as creators. I have written more on this subject here if you'd like to continue reading.