An “Outside-the-box” Article by Joe Zug
Copyright 2006, Joe Zug, Mind Skills Institute, LLC, Salt Lake City, UT
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Yes, I am basically left-brained. That means that I use my mind to articulate detail more so than do typically right-brained people. This just means that this is my strength that I was endowed with before my birth into this incarnation. This article is in no way offered as a personal defense of my own tendency to value the mind. The intention of this article is to back off in perspective and objectively view the mind as the “observer” referred to in the movie, “What The Bleep Do We Know?” I invite you to join with me in this consideration of the rightful place of the mind. It will be most helpful if you are able to open your mind and relax its judgmental tendencies as well as any previously developed prejudices you may now hold regarding the mind.
The human mind is actually just a tool. As with any tool, its value comes from the works it is capable of producing while being used by some human being. Any tool in the hands of a novice is usually a disaster just waiting to happen. Any tool in the hands of a master craftsman is a beauty to behold as it is skillfully used to create or repair something.
You probably remember the song, “In the Master’s Hands.” The song’s story line begins with an old violin being sold to the public at an auction. After seeking and getting little interest in the violin, the auctioneer invites an old gentleman to step up and play something on it. As he does, he releases from it some of the most melodious sounds that the audience had ever imagined. Afterward, the auctioneer resumes with enthusiastic invitations for bids that begin at much, much higher numbers. The point: The violin, the tool, became much more valued when it was observed in the master’s hands – one capable of using it as originally intended.
In current spiritual and/or New Age circles, the mind is almost exclusively referred to as a synonym for the ego. It is reasonable to make this mistake based on the reality that the ego is constantly attempting to occupy the center stage of the mind. Since the ego fears ever losing control of the mind and it is always occupying it, it is natural to attribute “guilt by association” to the mind for all of the attitudes and behaviors of the ego.
As a tool only, the mind is actually benign or neutral. As with any tool, it can be used by whoever occupies it to create or repair something or it can be used to damage or destroy something. It can promote or prevent. It can emphasize either the positive or the negative. The attitudes and intentions of the holder determine the application and then the reputation of the tool. This is the point being made by the bumper stickers that say, “Guns don’t kill – People do.” Thus we see that the mind when occupied by the ego behaves like and advances the agenda of the ego. No wonder that the mind has the reputation akin to that of the ego.
The mind, as a tool, can just as well be used by the higher self to advance its agenda. Take careful note at this point to distinguish between the uses of the mind as employed by the ego and by the higher self.
Remember that the ego arises in our early years in each of our incarnations for the purpose of providing us with protection from things and situations that we fear based on our perceptions. The ego uses the mind to identify and apply rational, left-brained thoughts for providing this protection. Ego is actually a mindset or belief system that eventually and always personifies itself into a child/“boy” much like the wooden puppet, Pinocchio. Upon our mortal death, the ego disappears.
Our higher self has always and forever existed and it will continue to do so into infinity. As a particle of God, the higher self is infinite in its existence by definition. The higher self never competes with the ego. It just patiently waits for the ego to relax and release it command of the mind. Such times tend to be rare. Rather than protection from things feared, the higher self is devoted to experiencing and enjoying new, different and “better” possibilities. It is through its direct connection to God that it receives and transmits to us flashes of insight, inspiration, revelation and discovery. Such communications come in the space of only a moment in time, yet they may be quite complex. The higher self experiences these communications with an instantaneous, complete comprehension that does not involve the mind. It is after such spiritual down-loads that the higher self uses the mind as a tool for relating the information to this three-dimensional world and to other people who live in it.
By remembering some of your personal experiences of receiving ideas and information that you know you had never thought of, read about or been told by others, you can verify this reality about how the higher self communicates with us. Note also that it is not the same instant, inner knowing by which you received such information that you then explain what you received to others. It is your mind that you use as a tool for translating the instant down-load into examples, metaphors, sequences, applications, etc. that other human minds can understand. It is by the use of your mind that you begin to plan, organize, implement and evaluate the new information. You question, categorize, compare, contrast, test and experiment with the new information in order to associate and integrate it with the present day world of time and space.
The physical world is so unlike the higher realm to which you had access during the moment of the down-load. Interfacing with the physical world is one of the things for which the mind was designed. There is always a higher purpose for our having received these insights. To not use the mind to physically benefit from the down-loaded gifts from God is actually an affront to God/our higher self.
Thus, the higher self can and does make positive uses of the mind. These uses are in stark contrast to those negative uses employed by the ego.
Another positive use of the mind by the higher self occurs in one form of meditation (I call it contemplation rather than meditation when done this way). When you set an intention to explore or contemplate a particular issue or get an answer to a particular question during a given meditation, you are obviously using the mind. You intentionally or consciously ask questions, consider options and a host of other mental considerations in this process. It is our intentional seeking for an answer that invites our higher self to move its answer into our consciousness. Such seeking evidences our readiness.
Similarly, we can make an assignment to the higher self, just before we go to sleep, to find a solution to a vexing problem or to direct us in achieving a particular goal. It is the higher self that searches, finds and presents the solution usually upon waking in the morning. Yet, it is the mind that must be used to identify and clarify the problem or the specific goal we want to achieve.
In conclusion, we must remember that regarding the mind – “It ain’t all bad.” We do actually live in a three-dimensional, physical world that is far different from the world we seek to ascend into and from which we now receive our inspirations. Our mind is the unique tool we have been given to enable us to function in this world and to translate and integrate the gifts of information from the world beyond. How, without the mind would we ever be able to transfer our insights to others and thereby serve them and promote Universal Oneness. In its ideal applications the mind is used to identify whatever we want from the world beyond and to then understand, communicate about and implement it into this world.
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P.S. I acknowledge that this article addresses this issue of the mind only from the perspective identified in the last paragraph. I also acknowledge that there are likely levels of awakening beyond my experience that do not require as much, if any, use of the mind. What is offered herein is intended for the great number of those who are now coping with the challenges of this physical world as they continue to seek their next level of awakening.
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