F.: Some recent visitors to the site are raising once more some of the questions that past visitors has asked about the differences in the consciousness, the brain, and the “mind”:
From a site visitor: “Going back through some earlier postings I saw where you said that we can either live naturally under the auspices of the brain or supernaturally and unnaturally under the auspices of the ‘mind.’ You mentioned the natural vs. supernatural and unnatural living again this week. Will you please explain? Thx.”
From a site visitor: “Whats the difference between the brain and the ‘mind?’ Is the ‘mind’ the aquired useless knowledge which strengthens the ego and sense of seperation from others? Is the brain the unconditioned consciousness? Does one want to identify with the brain, and disidentify from the mind? Or not identify with either?”
F.: Consciousness, the brain, and the “mind” are all different: the first is temporarily-manifested energy, the second is an assortment of elements functioning under the auspices of multiple forms of energy; and the third is an illusion. To understand the functioning of either consciousness or the brain, you must understand the way that chemical and electrical processes work in the body as well as how energy from the sun (that would otherwise be useless to humans) is made useful via the process of photosynthesis. To understand the functioning of the “mind,” you must understand how persons—via programming and conditioning and enculturation—can be taught lies and then store them away in that seat of delusion called the “mind.” In fact, there is no such thing as a “mind.” There is only the accumulation of old beliefs and traditional ideas and distorted concepts and all the other lies that persons cling to as truth.
The brain—or some component functioning as a brain—is common to most living things, including plants, animals, humans, birds, etc. (Some scientists cite the single-cell amoeba as an example of consciousness functioning even in the absence of a brain. Certain humans have also been shown to be “brain-dead” but the consciousness can remain manifested even then.) Even plants exhibit consciousness and—what appears to be—an ability to “reason,” although what is actually happening is the natural and spontaneous functioning of consciousness. For example, even before the sun comes up each morning, plants adjust the direction that their leaves are facing by micro-millimeters in order to gather as much light as possible. Plants are “aware” of the fact that the sun will rise at a slightly different point along the horizon each morning and they anticipate the slight, daily shifts in the points on the horizon where the sunlight will first appear each day.
Chemical and electrical energy allow the brain to function in a manner that would drive natural behavior and allow the consciousness to continue to function for whatever period it is manifested. The natural processes can be interrupted when the consciousness is bastardized via programming and conditioning and when the false concepts that are taken to be the truth by the illusory “mind” begin to override natural, intuitive functions.
Brains in humans function naturally as long as plant food is consumed to sustain a plant-food-space and to facilitate the cycling of energy-consciousness…as long as illness, disease, etc. are avoided. (Eating animals that ate plants can sustain the manifestation of the consciousness as well as eating the plants directly, but the key is always the plant). On the other hand, the members of only one species on the planet have the burden of having a “mind.” People move to the third level of the “journey” to Realization in order to try to find what is called "peace of mind," but there is no such thing because the “mind” is an illusion, the source of all lack of peace. It is nothing more than the accumulation of false concepts held to be true by the corrupted consciousness. It is that which triggers all delusion, all insane thoughts, endless thinking, mental chatter, etc.
From a site visitor: “Going back through some earlier postings I saw where you said that we can either live naturally under the auspices of the brain or supernaturally and unnaturally under the auspices of the ‘mind.’ You mentioned the natural vs. supernatural and unnatural living again this week. Will you please explain? Thx.”
From a site visitor: “Whats the difference between the brain and the ‘mind?’ Is the ‘mind’ the aquired useless knowledge which strengthens the ego and sense of seperation from others? Is the brain the unconditioned consciousness? Does one want to identify with the brain, and disidentify from the mind? Or not identify with either?”
F.: Consciousness, the brain, and the “mind” are all different: the first is temporarily-manifested energy, the second is an assortment of elements functioning under the auspices of multiple forms of energy; and the third is an illusion. To understand the functioning of either consciousness or the brain, you must understand the way that chemical and electrical processes work in the body as well as how energy from the sun (that would otherwise be useless to humans) is made useful via the process of photosynthesis. To understand the functioning of the “mind,” you must understand how persons—via programming and conditioning and enculturation—can be taught lies and then store them away in that seat of delusion called the “mind.” In fact, there is no such thing as a “mind.” There is only the accumulation of old beliefs and traditional ideas and distorted concepts and all the other lies that persons cling to as truth.
The brain—or some component functioning as a brain—is common to most living things, including plants, animals, humans, birds, etc. (Some scientists cite the single-cell amoeba as an example of consciousness functioning even in the absence of a brain. Certain humans have also been shown to be “brain-dead” but the consciousness can remain manifested even then.) Even plants exhibit consciousness and—what appears to be—an ability to “reason,” although what is actually happening is the natural and spontaneous functioning of consciousness. For example, even before the sun comes up each morning, plants adjust the direction that their leaves are facing by micro-millimeters in order to gather as much light as possible. Plants are “aware” of the fact that the sun will rise at a slightly different point along the horizon each morning and they anticipate the slight, daily shifts in the points on the horizon where the sunlight will first appear each day.
Chemical and electrical energy allow the brain to function in a manner that would drive natural behavior and allow the consciousness to continue to function for whatever period it is manifested. The natural processes can be interrupted when the consciousness is bastardized via programming and conditioning and when the false concepts that are taken to be the truth by the illusory “mind” begin to override natural, intuitive functions.
Brains in humans function naturally as long as plant food is consumed to sustain a plant-food-space and to facilitate the cycling of energy-consciousness…as long as illness, disease, etc. are avoided. (Eating animals that ate plants can sustain the manifestation of the consciousness as well as eating the plants directly, but the key is always the plant). On the other hand, the members of only one species on the planet have the burden of having a “mind.” People move to the third level of the “journey” to Realization in order to try to find what is called "peace of mind," but there is no such thing because the “mind” is an illusion, the source of all lack of peace. It is nothing more than the accumulation of false concepts held to be true by the corrupted consciousness. It is that which triggers all delusion, all insane thoughts, endless thinking, mental chatter, etc.
As far as the types of living that happen, the example given was of the deer which lives naturally under the auspices of the brain while the consciousness is manifested. The other two types that were mentioned are unnatural living and supernatural living, which happen under the auspices of the corrupted consciousness, A.K.A., the “mind” and A.K.A., “beliefs, ideas, and concepts.” Unnatural living is marked by destructiveness (relatively speaking, of course) and supernatural living is marked by magical thinking that can also lead to a dualistic sense of “being better,” of “separation,” and thereby to destructive behavior as well (relatively speaking). The religious wars and religion-based fighting that have dominated the relative existence for more than 2000 years, almost without pause, is an example of the latter.
As for as the question regarding “dis-identification,” persons do not identify with any of the three. No one has either identified with the brain and said, “I am really the gray matter inside my skull”; furthermore, no one has ever said, “I am my mind” (although persons do mistakenly think that their beliefs help define “who they are”). What persons do say, after programming and after bastardization of the consciousness, is “I am ____,” and they fill in the blank with the various roles that have been dreamed up and assigned to them by their cultures. Those roles are assumed as identities because of the “mind” (which is merely the accumulated, nonsensical clusters of ideas, beliefs and concepts that persons believe are true). Thirdly, while persons never identify with the consciousness either, those on the “path” to Realization can identify with the consciousness for a time when they understand the Is-ness (the "beingness") and can say “I AM” without following that statement with any other word. But later, the re-purified consciousness becomes aware that it is not even the temporarily-manifested consciousness, becomes aware that it is actually the Absolute which is abiding temporarily as the pure consciousness, and becomes aware that the abidance as the pure consciousness is finite and that only the Absolute is eternal.
Read past postings on the site for more, if you choose, including the 2006 entries of February 25, March 3, 9, 18, 21, and May 26. For more discussion of the topic, you can type in the words “mind brain” at the top of this page and search the site. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
As for as the question regarding “dis-identification,” persons do not identify with any of the three. No one has either identified with the brain and said, “I am really the gray matter inside my skull”; furthermore, no one has ever said, “I am my mind” (although persons do mistakenly think that their beliefs help define “who they are”). What persons do say, after programming and after bastardization of the consciousness, is “I am ____,” and they fill in the blank with the various roles that have been dreamed up and assigned to them by their cultures. Those roles are assumed as identities because of the “mind” (which is merely the accumulated, nonsensical clusters of ideas, beliefs and concepts that persons believe are true). Thirdly, while persons never identify with the consciousness either, those on the “path” to Realization can identify with the consciousness for a time when they understand the Is-ness (the "beingness") and can say “I AM” without following that statement with any other word. But later, the re-purified consciousness becomes aware that it is not even the temporarily-manifested consciousness, becomes aware that it is actually the Absolute which is abiding temporarily as the pure consciousness, and becomes aware that the abidance as the pure consciousness is finite and that only the Absolute is eternal.
Read past postings on the site for more, if you choose, including the 2006 entries of February 25, March 3, 9, 18, 21, and May 26. For more discussion of the topic, you can type in the words “mind brain” at the top of this page and search the site. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
