by Robert Wilkinson
Over the years, I’ve mentioned that we have a Higher Mind and a lower mind. Each of these has a strong pole and a weak pole. Knowing our way around these four qualities can help us master any situation we confront.
I last gave this to you 3 years ago. I’ve rewritten key parts and fleshed out some of the original content. So why is it important to know the differences between the Higher and lower mind?
By knowing the qualities of the mind, we can determine what part of our mind is dominant in any given situation. That can help us to view the dynamics of what’s happening with a relative degree of objectivity. Then we can be more dispassionate in consciously choosing how to respond when confronted with attitudes arising from our lower self, or the lower self of another.
The lower mind's weak pole is reason and its strong pole is desire. That's why any desire can be reasoned out. The lower mind tends to be led by our desires, and justify those desires before, during, and after the fact. We can always find a reason for doing or not doing anything governed by our desire mind.
As you can easily see, when the lower self has a desire it has reasoned it should pursue, it can lead to all kinds of mischief. Two obvious examples are people who desire to hurt another (or self) through destructive behavior, and those whose desire leads them to refuse to grow despite all signals that it's time to give up abusive behaviors and attitudes. When the lower mind has reasoned some desire is good, it will pursue that desire regardless of consequences.
The Higher Mind's weak pole is intellect. That's why intellect alone is not strong enough to give up a desire that's been reasoned out, including the desire to stay willfully ignorant. That's different than simple ignorance. When it's time to choose a different way of living, and yet a being desires the same patterns, that's willful ignorance. Willful ignorance is always consciously or unconsciously chosen by ego-mind.
The Higher Mind's strong pole is the only solution to the lower mind's malfunctioning. The strong pole is Will, in the sense of Spiritual Will. When we apply our Spiritual Will in any moment, old ways are transcended immediately, and the desire mind and its rationalizations have no hold on our awareness and the choices we must make.
Though rationalizations may arise in the lower mind to justify its view, as we learn to apply our Spiritual Will to further our Higher Self, eventually the lower mind's hold on its view gives way. Then our Spiritual Will can focus our intellect to use the power of our Higher Self's ability to choose how to respond to any given thing. When this is at work, we know how to use our Will in applying our Love, Wisdom, and/or Intelligence in Action in ways that benefit us and all we are connected to.
This is where we hit the rub of evolution itself, since energy being energy, it can be used for good or ill even when a being is working from their Higher Mind as they see it. An evil magician and good magician use the same tools and energies, but the former uses it for ego gratification while the latter uses it for the service of humankind. That's why we must learn to examine the desires of self and others to see why they exist and how they have been rationalized, if we are to understand which desires are selfish and separative and which desires serve the greatest good.
Spiritual Will and intellect are great tools to reference when we confront coercive people and situations, since they transcend the reasoning and rationalizations present in coercion. Once these are countered, then it is easy to get to the raw desire lurking underneath the rationalizations. Then, by applying our Spiritual Will on behalf of our highest good and the highest good attainable in the situation, we further the greater good, even when it means withdrawing from that situation.
As I've noted many times, all dualism arises in the mind. The Higher Mind and the lower mind are where the Higher Triad of Atma-Buddhi-Manas meets the lower triad of body, feelings, and rational mind. In knowing the battleground of the mind, with its eternal compare and contrast, sequence and selection function, we can know when Higher or lower elements are at work.
As we learn to spot when the elements of the lower mind are at work, we learn how to apply our intellect and Spiritual Will appropriate to the situations we confront. That eventually makes us masters of any situation we find ourselves in, since then we can act or not act with infinite detachment, dispassion, discrimination, and generate the positive intention appropriate to our understanding.
Though this process initially requires consistent self-discipline of our lower minds by our Higher Self, we find over time that the rewards are endless. By striving to practice our Spiritual Will focused through the lens of intellect, we can move through life's dualities without becoming confused or disoriented by any internal or external dilemma, desire, or rationalization.
As we come out of the rationalized desires of the lower self into enlightened (Higher) Self-interest, we can shine the light of awareness in any situation we confront. Over time that creates patterns of referencing the Love, Wisdom, and Intelligence of our Higher Self, and eventually that puts us at a level of consciousness that is beyond the pushes and pulls of the denser planes of existence. The more we live that, the less suffering we'll experience, and the more shadows we'll dispel as we walk our Eternal Walk.
Copyright © 2010, 2015 Robert Wilkinson
So clear, such a synthesis. Brilliant piece of work.
Blessings be to all
Posted by: Nic | November 07, 2015 at 03:44 AM