This has been a pivotal understanding for me in the deepening and stabilization of awakening.
If we know ourselves (even for a few brief moments) as God, Emptiness, Consciousness, Awareness, All That Is, Truth or whatever word we choose, then we also know that this can never be known, produced or spoken of by the mind.
THE MIND CAN NEVER HAVE OUR 'BEST INTERESTS' AT HEART.
This has been a pivotal understanding for me in the deepening and stabilization of awakening.
If we know ourselves (even for a few brief moments) as God, Emptiness, Awareness, All That Is, Truth, Life or whatever word we choose, then we also know that this can never be known, produced or spoken of by the mind.
And yet, so often, even when we know ourselves as That, we still listen to the commentary of the mind.
Off to one side we hedge our bets just a little, and retain an underlying assumption or core belief that the mind might, after all, have a modicum of validity and that it can be used to make at least some valid judgements about our lives and about how our ‘spiritual journey’ is ‘progressing’. The mind isn’t all that bad, is it?
The commentary of my mind, particularly about my ‘spiritual progress’ or lack thereof, was based on an underlying certainty that my mind (identified as ‘me’) is basically of profound goodwill and can therefore be trusted to a degree. Although I could quite easily identify negative voices, I did not see that beneath them was the core assumption that my mind was ‘looking out for me’ and always had my best interests at heart. But in believing that, I stumbled.
The mind is indeed doing the best job it can, and that job is 100% well-intentioned and protective. The mind is not ‘bad’. But within its limited operating framework it does not know, and indeed cannot ever know who I truly am. So if the mind can never know my true nature, how then can the mind’s commentary ever have validity?
Spirituality is that which is beyond the mind … and the mind can never be the expert, organizer, watchman, champion, judge or jury of that which is beyond it. It is impossible.
Our ‘best interests’ are in knowing what we truly are. In that knowing is supreme intelligence and peace. In that knowing Life is lived through this body cleanly, unmediated and joyously. In that knowing is Love. In that Knowing suffering ceases. We are That Knowing and always have been. Full stop. The mind is not needed.
The mind can never have our best interests at heart.