We are continuing to study the Functioning of the Mind.
In the previous class we discussed the difference between thoughts and thinking and that we do not have to think a thought…
As we studied in the previous class: a thought may enter our Intellectual center, but we do not have to accept them as our own. We are not our thoughts… even though there may be thoughts in our Intellectual Center, we do not have to take them as our own, as ourselves.
Now let us continue our study of the Intellectual Center and the Mind
[Part 4] The Struggle of the Opposites – 1
“A great master said: “Seek enlightenment for all else will be added on to you.”
Enlightenment’s worst enemy is the “I” or Ego. It is necessary to know that the “I” or Ego is a knot in the flow of existence, a fatal obstruction in the flow of life free in its movement.
A master was asked: “Which Path is the way?”
“What a magnificent mountain!”, he said referring to the mountain where he had his haven.
“I do not ask you about the mountain, instead I ask you about the path.”
“As long as you cannot go beyond the mountain, you will not be able to find the way,” answered the master.
Another monk asked the same question to that same master:
“There it is, right before your eyes,” the master answered him.
“Why can I not see it?”
“Because you have egotistical ideas.”
“Will I be able to see it, sir?”
“As long as you have a dualistic vision and you say: I cannot and so on, your eyes will be blinded by that relative vision.”
“When there is no I nor you, can it be seen?”
“When there is no I nor you, who wants to see?”
The foundation of the “I” is the dualism of the mind. The “I” is sustained by the battle of the opposites.
All thinking is founded on the battle of the opposites.
If we say: So and so is tall; we want to say that they are not short.
If we say: We are entering; we want to say that we are not exiting.
If we say: We are happy; with that we affirm that we are not sad, etc.
The problems of life are nothing but mental forms with two poles: one positive and the other negative.
Problems are sustained by the mind and are created by the mind.
When we stop thinking on a problem, it inevitably ends.
Happiness and sadness; pleasure and pain; good and evil; victory and defeat, constitute the battle of the opposites upon which the “I” is founded.
The entire miserable life that we live goes from one opposite to another: victory, defeat; like, dislike; pleasure, pain; failure, success; this, that, etc.”
-paraphrase from Ch 1.02 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
The Struggle of the Opposites – 2
“We need to free ourselves from the tyranny of the opposites.
This is only possible by learning to live from instant to instant without abstractions of any kind, without dreams, without fantasies.
Have you observed how the stones of the road are pale and pure after a torrential rain?
One can only murmur an “Oh!” of admiration.
We should comprehend that “Oh!” of things without deforming that divine exclamation with the battle of the opposites.
Joshu asked the master Nansen: “What is the TAO?”
“Ordinary life,” replied Nansen.
“What does one do to live in accordance with it?”
“If you try to live in accordance with it, it will flee away from you; do not try to sing that song, let it sing itself. Does not the humble hiccup come by itself?”
Remember this phrase: “Gnosis lives in deeds, withers away in abstractions, and is difficult to find even in the noblest of thoughts.”
They asked the master Bokujo: “Do we have to dress and eat daily? How could we escape from this?”
The master replied: “We eat, we get dressed.”
“I do not comprehend,” said the disciple.
“Then get dressed and eat,” said the master.
This is precisely action free of the opposites: Do we eat, do we get dressed?
Why make a problem of that? Why think of other things while we are eating and getting dressed?
If you are eating, eat; if you are getting dressed, get dressed and if you are walking on the street, walk, walk, walk, but do not think of something else, do only what you are doing, do not run away from facts, do not fill them with so many meanings, symbols, sermons and warnings.
Live them without allegories, live them with a receptive mind from instant to instant.
Comprehend that we are talking to you about the path of action, free from the painful battle of the opposites.
Action without distractions, without evasions, without fantasies, without abstractions of any kind.
Change your character, beloved, change it through intelligent action, free from the battle of the opposites.
When the doors are closed to fantasy, the organ of intuition is awakened.
Action, free from the battle of the opposites, is intuitive action, full action; and where there is plenitude, the “I” is absent.
Intuitive action leads us by the hand to the awakening of consciousness.”
-paraphrase from Ch 1.02 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
The Struggle of the Opposites – 3
“Let us work and rest happily abandoning ourselves to the course of life.
Let us exhaust the turbid and rotten water of habitual thinking and in the emptiness will flow Gnosis and with it: the happiness of living.
This intelligent action, free from the battle of the opposites elevates us to a point in which something must break.
When everything works well, then the rigid roof of thinking breaks and the light & the power of the Inner-Self enters like a flood into the mind which has stopped dreaming.
Then in the physical world and outside of it, during the sleep of the material body, we live totally conscious and enlightened enjoying the joy of life in the superior worlds.
This continuous tension of the mind, this discipline, takes us to the awakening of consciousness.
If we are eating and thinking about business, it is clear that we are dreaming.
If we are driving an automobile and we are thinking of our fiancée, it is logical that we are not awake, we are dreaming.
If we are working and we are remembering our child’s godfather or godmother, or our friend, or brother, etc., it is clear that we are dreaming.
People who live dreaming in the physical world, also live dreaming in the internal worlds during hours in which the physical body is sleeping.
One needs to cease dreaming in the internal worlds.
When we stop dreaming in the physical world, we awaken here and now, and that awakening appears in the internal worlds.
First seek enlightenment and all else shall be added on to you.
Whosoever is enlightened sees the way, whosoever is not enlightened cannot see the way and can easily be led astray from the path and fall into the abyss.
Terrible is the effort and the vigilance needed from second to second, from instant to instant, in order to not fall into illusions.
A minute of unawareness is enough and the mind is already dreaming upon recalling something, upon thinking of something different from the job or deed that we are living at the moment.
When in the physical world we learn to be awake from instant to instant, then we shall live awake and self-conscious from instant to instant in the internal worlds during the hours of sleep of the physical body and also after death.
It is painful to know that the Consciousness of all human beings sleeps and dreams profoundly not only during those hours of rest of the physical body, but also during that state ironically called the ‘vigil state’.
Action free from mental dualism produces the awakening of the consciousness.”
-paraphrase from Ch 1.02 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
[Part 5] The Need to Dominate the Mind
“It is clear that we need to become independent from the mind.
Right now, the mind is certainly a prison where we are all prisoners.
We need to break out of that prison if we really want to know what liberty is, that liberty which does not belong to time, that liberty which is not of the mind.
First, we should remember that the mind is something that is not of the Being.
We need to learn how to dominate the mind, not others’ minds, but our own, if we want to become independent of it.
To do so, it is indispensable to learn to see the mind as something that we should dominate, as something that we need to tame.
Let us remember the Divine Master Jesus entering Jerusalem on his donkey on Palm Sunday; that donkey is the mind which we need to subdue.
We should ride the donkey, and not have the donkey ride us.
Unfortunately, people are victims of the mind since they do not know how to ride it.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
The Essence should Discipline the Mind
“When it is said that we should dominate the mind, the one who has to dominate the mind is the Essence, the Consciousness.
By awakening Consciousness we have more power over the mind and thereby, we become conscious of what is unconscious in us.
It is urgent and un-delayable to dominate the mind, converse with it, recriminate it, strike it with the whip of willpower and make it obey.
Before all else, we should not become identified with the mind …because if we feel ourselves being the mind, if we say: “I am reasoning! I am thinking!”, then we are affirming an absurdity …because the Being does not need to think.
The Being is the life which throbs in each atom just as it throbs in each Sun.
What thinks is not the Being.
We do not have the entire Being incarnated, but we have incarnated a part of the Being which is the Essence or Buddhata, (that part of Soul which exists in us, the spiritual, the psychic material).
It is necessary for this living Essence to impose itself upon the mind.
We need to subdue the mind and interrogate it.
However, we do not need to subdue other people’s minds because that is black magic.
What we need is to subdue our own mind and dominate it.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
[Part 6] Second Half – The Mind!
We must get beyond the Mind, in order to experience what is truly real and this is possible through meditation, prayer and by practicing all the methods given in the Gnostic Teachings.
In order to get out of the prison of the Mind, the Essence needs to dominate the Mind.
We can use the following methods to achieve this:
1. understanding the mechanism of the Mind
2. using the key of Synthesis (that is: the synthesis of the opposites of thesis & antithesis)
3. observing what is Inattentive within ourselves,
4. analyzing or Dissecting Doubts,
5. and Commanding the Mind, that is: calling the mind to order with the whip of willpower.
*A) Understanding the Mechanism of the Mind (Mental Dualism and Comparing).
As we have noted, the Mind is Dualistic and sees everything through “the battle of the opposites”, which implies that: the Mind works through ‘Comparing’. It is always comparing one thing with another and therefore does not let things ‘be as they are’.
Instead it always wants to understand one thing through its subjective association(s) with another thing or things.
*B) Using the key of Synthesis.
Since the Mind uses the mechanism of ‘Comparing’, we can counteract this by analyzing the spectrum of its comparison.
When we look at the Mind’s ‘comparing’, we see that in order for the Mind to ‘know’ (which is certainly not a real ‘knowing’, but rather an ‘assuming’) what the Mind really does is pick a certain point within the full spectrum of the opposites that it has used to ‘compare’.
In order to counteract this, we simply analyze the spectrum in order to determine the ‘big picture’.
We may begin by looking at the opposite of the conclusion that the Mind is telling us or wants us to have (the ‘assuming’).
Then we can ask ourselves “why?”, why is one opposite better than the other? What makes it so? What is in-between these two opposites? What is outside of them?
These types of questions allow us to see the ‘Thesis’ and ‘Antithesis’, or the ‘Affirmation’ and ‘Negation’, of the particular thing we are trying to comprehend. This is the ‘Discussion’.
A thorough look at the spectrum gives us a full ‘Discussion’ of the subject matter, within which we can find the ‘Solution’ or ‘Synthesis’ of what the Mind was presenting to us in a skewed way. This is ‘Wisdom’.
*As always, we can use prayer and listen to our Intuition to help this process, so that we can arrive (as quickly as possible) at the Comprehension of the subject matter (the Truth behind the illusion).
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
Using the Synthesis to Dominate the Mind
“The dominion of the mind goes beyond the struggle of the opposites.
What do we do when a thought of hatred, an evil memory assaults us? Well then we have to try to comprehend it, to try to see its antithesis which is love.
If there is love, why is there hatred? What for?
When there surges forth, for example, the memory of a lustful act. Then one has to pass through the mind the sacred chalice and the sacred lance, one has to say: “Why do I have to profane the sacred with my morbid thoughts?”
If the memory of a tall person surges forth, one should see them as short and this would be correct since the key is in the synthesis.
Knowing how to always find the synthesis is beneficial because from the thesis one has to pass on to the antithesis, however, the truth is not found in the antithesis nor in the thesis.
In the thesis and in the antithesis there is discussion and that is what is really wanted:
1. affirmation,
2. negation,
3. discussion
4. and solution.1) Affirmation of a bad thought,
2) negation of the same through comprehension of the opposite,
3) discussion: one has to discuss what is real from one and the other until one arrives at wisdom
4) and then the mind becomes quiet and in silence (solution).This is how one should practice.
All of this is part of the conscious practices, of the observation of what is inattentive within ourselves.
But if we simply say: it is the memory of a tall person and we put a short person in front of it, period, this is not correct.
What is correct would be saying tall and short (so what?), they are nothing but two aspects of the same thing, what matters is not what is tall or short but what there is of truth behind all of this.
Tall and short are two illusory phenomena of the mind.
In this way one arrives at the synthesis and at the solution.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
*C) Observing what is Inattentive within ourselves.
The Disorder of the Mind
“We need to study the disorder of the Mind because it is only in this manner that we can establish order.
We need to know what, in us, is attentive, and what, in us, is inattentive.
Always, when we enter meditation, our mind is divided into two parts:
1. the part which pays attention, the attentive part
2. and the inattentive part.It is not the attentive part that we need to focus on, but rather, it is precisely on what is inattentive in us.
When we are able to comprehend in depth what is inattentive in us and study the procedures so that the inattentive becomes attentive, then we will have achieved the stillness and silence of the mind.
But we have to be wise in meditation, judging ourselves, and knowing what is inattentive in us.
We need to make ourselves conscious of what exists in us that is inattentive.”
“When we observe what is inattentive in us, we also see the struggle of … the opposites in the mind.
This is when we have to tear those antitheses or opposites apart to see what they have that is true within them.
One should also dissect memories, emotions, desires and preoccupations which are ignored or those that we do not know where they come from or why they emerge.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
Making the Inattentive Attentive or Converting Subconsciousness into Consciousness
“The inattentive is what is formed
• by the subconscious,
• by the incoherent,
• by the amount of memories that surge forth in the mind,
• by the memories of the past that assault us over and over,
• by the debris of the memory, etc.The elements which constitute the subconscious should neither be accepted nor rejected, but one has to simply make oneself conscious of what there is of inattentive in us, and in this manner what is inattentive becomes attentive in a natural and spontaneous manner.
This is what we want: for the inattentive to become attentive.
One has to make a continuous meditation of daily life.
Meditation is not only that action of quieting the mind when we are at home or in the sanctuary; but it also encompasses the thread of daily living so that life immediately becomes a constant meditation.
The mind in itself is the Ego. Ignorance is what there is in the mind.”
Why? Because we only see part of a thing with the mind, we do not see it as it is in itself, we only see our subjective concept or perspective of it…
“Real wisdom is not in the mind. It is beyond the mind.
The mind is ignorant and because of this it falls into many serious errors.
The mind has not made anyone happy. True happiness is far beyond the mind.
Dreams belong to the unconscious. When one awakens consciousness, one leaves dreams behind.
Dreams are nothing but projections of the mind.
What is important in us is to awaken consciousness to stop dreaming, to stop thinking.
This thinking, which is cosmic matter, is the mind.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
The Mind as a Type of Matter
“What we need is to become independent, to come out of that dungeon of matter because the mind is matter.
We have to come out of matter, to live … as beings, as happy creatures beyond matter.
Matter does not make anyone happy, matter is always gross although it assumes beautiful forms.
If what we seek is happiness, then matter will always be painful.
If we are looking for authentic happiness we will not find it in matter but in the spirit.
What we need to know is how to free ourselves from the mind, this is the objective of our exercises and studies.
As we have said: in us exists, for example, 3% of consciousness and 97% of subconsciousness.
So what we have of consciousness should direct itself to what we have of unconscious or subconscious in order to recriminate it and make it see that it has to become conscious.
This matter of the conscious part directing itself to the subconscious part is a very important exercise that can be practiced at dawn, so that in this manner, the unconscious parts become conscious, little by little.”
The Exercise given is to Meditate at Dawn, with the Consciousness focused on what is Inattentive
so that we can become Conscious of what is Inattentive/Unconscious in us…
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
*D) Analyzing or Dissecting Doubts.
Dissecting Doubts and Dominating the Mind
“To become independent of the mind is important so as to know what is real, not to know it intellectually but to really and truly experience it.
While paying attention to what is inattentive in us, we can see different forms of skepticism, of disbelief, of doubt, etc.
If a doubt crosses the mind, we should dissect the doubt. When a doubt has been properly studied, when it has been dissected, it does not leave any trace whatsoever in the memory, it disappears. But when a doubt persists, when we want to incessantly combat it, then a conflict is formed.
Every doubt is an obstacle or impediment for meditation. But it is not by rejecting doubts that we are going to eliminate them, rather it is by dissecting them to see what they hide, what is real within them.
So, we need to analyze the doubt, tear it to pieces and reduce it to dust, not by fighting it, but by opening it up with the scalpel of self-criticism, by carrying out a rigorous dissection of it.
It is only in this manner that we will come to discover what was important in the doubt, what was real and what was unreal in it. Therefore, doubts sometimes serve to clarify concepts.
When one eliminates a doubt through rigorous analysis, when one dissects it, one discovers a truth; and from that truth something more profound comes: more knowledge, more wisdom.
Wisdom comes from direct experience, from our own experimenting, and through profound meditation.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
*E) Subduing the Mind, Commanding or “Calling the Mind to Order” with the Whip of Willpower.
Interrogating the Mind
“There are times that we need to talk with the mind, because many times, when we want the mind to be still, when we want the mind to be in silence, it persists in its stubbornness, in its useless chattering, in the struggle of the opposites. Therefore it is necessary to interrogate the mind, to say to it:
“Well mind, what is it that you want? Well, answer me!”
If the meditation is profound, then a representation can emerge within us; in that representation, in that figure, in that image, is the answer.
We should then converse with the mind and make it see the reality of things, until we make it realize that its answer is wrong. We must make it realize that its preoccupations are useless and the reason why these preoccupations are useless. And, in the end, the mind remains still, in silence.
But, if we notice that illumination does not emerge, that the chaotic state, the incoherent confusion (with its struggle and incessant chattering) still persists within us, then, we have to call the mind to order once again, interrogating it:
“What is it that you want?
What are you looking for?
Why do you not leave me in peace?”One needs to speak clearly and converse with the mind as if it was a strange individual, because certainly it is a stranger, since it is not of the Being. We need to treat it like a strange subject, we may even need to recriminate it and scold it.”
“When we wisely see that there is a need to call the “attention” of the mind, then there is a critical point where one has gotten tired of the mind that does not want to obey, then there is no choice but to recriminate it, to speak to it forcefully, to deal with it face to face, as with a strange and unfavorable subject.
One has to lash it with the whip of willpower, recriminate it with harsh words until one makes it obey. One has to converse many times with the mind so that it will understand. If it does not understand, then one has to strongly call it to order.
To not identify with the mind is critical. One has to whip the mind, subjugating it, dominating it. In this manner we come out of the mind and arrive at the Truth; that which is certainly not of time [ie beyond time].”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.05 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
[Part 7] Conclusion: Fear, the Science of “Probationism” and using our Willpower
“Probationism is the science that studies the mental essences which imprison the soul. It is the science of esoteric ordeals.
Probationism is that internal wisdom which permits us to study the prisons of the mind. It is the pure science which permits us to know the errors of individual minds in depth.
The human mind should liberate itself from fear and cravings. It should liberate itself from the desires of accumulation, from attachments, hatred, egotism, violence, etc. The human mind should liberate itself from the reasoning processes that divide the mind into the battle of the antitheses.
A mind divided by the depressing process of options cannot serve as an instrument to the Intimus or Inner Being.
We have to learn to exchange the reasoning process for the beauty of Comprehension.
The process of conceptual election divides the mind and gives birth to lost action and to useless effort. Desire and cravings are obstacles for the mind. Those shackles lead the human being to all types of errors, the result of which is Karma.
Fear causes the mind to have the desire for security. The desire for security enslaves the willpower, converting it into a prisoner of definitive self-imposed barriers, within which hide all human miseries.
Fear brings all types of inferiority complexes. The fear of death causes men to arm themselves, and assassinate one another. The man who carries a revolver at his waist is … a fearful man. The brave man does not carry weapons because he does not fear anyone.
The fear of life, of death, of hunger, of misery, of coldness and nakedness, engender all types of inferiority complexes. Fear leads people to violence, hatred, exploitation, etc.
The minds of people live from one prison to another, and each prison is a school, a religion, a mistaken concept, a prejudice, a desire, an opinion, etc.
The human mind should learn to flow seriously, in an integral way, without the painful process of reasoning which divides it with the battle of the antitheses. The mind should become like a child in order for it to be able to serve as an instrument to the Intimus or Inner Being.
We should always live in the present because life is only an eternal instant. We should liberate ourselves from all types of preconceptions and desires. We should move only under the impulses of the Intimus or Inner Being.
Covetousness, anger, lust, have their den in the mind … and lead souls to the Avitchi.
The human being is not the mind. The mind is merely one of the four bodies of sin. When the human being becomes identified with the mind then they go into the abyss. The mind is merely a donkey upon which we should ride in order to enter the celestial Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
When the mind besieges us with useless representations, let us talk to it in this manner:
“Mind, remove these representations, I do not accept them from you, you are my slave and I am your lord!”
When the mind besieges us with representations of hatred, fear, anger, cravings, covetousness, lust, etc., then let us talk to it in this manner:
“Mind, remove these things from me, I do not accept them from you, I am your master, I am your lord and you should obey me because you are my slave until the end of time!”
Now we need Human Beings of Willpower … who do not let themselves be enslaved by the mind.”
-paraphrase from Ch 3.06 of The Revolution of the Dialectic
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