Supporting Non-Duality and Awakening in Asheville and Beyond
How the Mind Supports Enlightenment
At the risk of being ostrocized by this Beloved Community focused on tuning into the Oneness of Life within All Being, there is something I would like to share in support of this endeavor.
Mind has it's place.
Mind is a critical and key component in the support of the ongoing embodiment of Enlightenment, the unification within the nervous system of directly knowing that emptiness is form and form is emptiness.
Why or how could anyone who has experienced the Truth of the Oneness of All Life say this? Especially when the majority of Advaita Vedanta teachers whom we revere for their essential Insights of No Mind claim otherwise?
One word ... Inquiry.
One must use the mind to truly inquire into the question of 'What is True Here?' on an ongoing and sustainable basis.
This includes the initial phases of the search for enlightenment when habitual and conditioned thoughts are being questioned for their validity, as well as supporting a continous deepening of the central nervous system's capacity to judiciously select integrative language, concepts, emotions, intuitions, sensations etc. that most significantly reverberates and resonates with Oneness each moment ... the unification of form and formlessness.
As our central nervous systems evolve through ongoing inquiry, our minds become able to hold multiple perspectives at once. Where once there was division ... I am vs. I am not ... there is now integration, greater empathy, and creative responses to former obstacles. We can put ourselves within anyone or any thing's 'shoes' so to speak. We are able to directly experience ourselves as any 'form' on this planet, this solar system and beyond.
Through an inquiring mind, we are able to embody the deepest level of our nature as Formless Awareness infused within all Form.
Consider the way light shines through a prism. Enlightenment through the mind functions similarly ... the inquiring mind is able to reflect greater and deeper aspects of Reality.
Science is now telling us this capacity is indeed occuring at an evolutionary scale within our biology, uniting our brain hemispheres with our hearts to embody a Heart Mind experiential reality. Through an inquiring mind, Formless Awareness is experiencing Itself as a species on the cusp of being able to consciously evolve ourselves.
When embodiment reoccurs each morning upon Awakening, it is through a complete embrace of inquiry through the conscious mind that unfolds a continuous experience of Enlightenment.
Ever in This Reality with You,
Catherine
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Kurczak on
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Someone once described the current theme of Non Dualism as similar to what Protestantism was to Catholicism. Seemed very appropriate.
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Permalink Reply by Don Salmon on -
There's a story I heard many years ago about a Catholic priest who lost his faith. The background is, as Ryan hints, that the Catholics - especially the Jesuits, which was the order this priest had belonged to - have had a long history of rich intellectual inquiry. In contrast, the Protestants have tended to emphasize "good works" and "grace" - particularly, the idea that nothing you can 'do" (that is, nothing like meditation "practice") can get you closer to God (or closer to waking up, if you like:>). And along with this, they tend to not only downplay but put down the mind.
Well, a friend heard about the priest who lost his Catholic faith. The friend said to the ex-priest, "Well, have you now become a Protestant?"
To which the ex-priest replied,
"Are you serious? I may have lost my soul, but I haven't lost my mind."
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Permalink Reply by Catherine on
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Hilarious! Thanks for sharing both of you! I've added a bit more texture to this line of inquiry in a new blog post 'Inseparable Insights Into Infinity' on blissblog.net and will also add it to my page here as well. Cheers and Love, Catherine
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Permalink Reply by Don Salmon on
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Hey Catherine - I just took a look at your blog - very nice! You mentioned Ken Wilber a few times... you might be interested in Integral Asheville. Check out the meetup page. We meet 2x a month, the 2nd and 4th Thursday.
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Hi Don! Yes, love Integral Asheville and, unfortunately, have only been able to attend once before we had our little one. Our now 9 month old continues to keep us very busy with the exception of internet exchanges during nap times. It is a fabulous opportunity however to experience the evolution of consciousness first-hand! Cheers, Catherine
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Permalink Reply by Norio Xoximei Kushi on
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What is the mind? Can a mind be located in space/time? Who or what evolves or becomes enlightened? Are not evolution and enlightenment only concepts which supports the idea of a self, a separate "me," which can only exist in the conceptual reality of linear time? Discover what thinking is, discover from where thinking originates and one will never search again for truth or question what reality is. When the human brain sees the complete cycle of each thought, the human brain has the capacity to exist in silence. When the brain is silent, the brain exists simultaneously in the infinite and the finite.
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Hi Norio! Thanks so much for this lovely additional sharing of key questions and overall inquiry which one's brain (and central nervous system) can use to discover Itself as both infinite and finite ... as both a human being with all our localized time-space experiences and Beyond yet Ever Present. Peace and Love, Catherine
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Permalink Reply by Don Salmon on
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H Norio and Catherine: the nondual world sometimes makes a duality out of thinking and non thinking, self and non self, evolution and Being. If dynamic unfolding is as much a reflection of the unknowable as stillness, vastness, openness and Silence, then evolution is not only a concept supporting a separate "me." Shankara and to a lesser extent, Nagarjuna, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta and other non dualists have a tendency to privilege one side of the duality while espousing a non dual view.
Very tricky stuff! (and yet so simple:>))
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Beautiful additional thinking and sharing here, Don! Yes, the gist of this post, and my other post along the same lines is the huge contributions to humankind that nondual teachers have made are now supporting conscious evolution of our species in 'form'. The gift of inquiry is one that keeps on giving! Blessings, Catherine
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Permalink Reply by Don Salmon on
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Yes, in "form"... sweet:>)
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