The Limits of the Mind

Hi All,

Tonight's entry is about something I just realized I have been bumping my head against fairly steadily for a long time - the limitations of the human mind. Allow me to elaborate.

Have you ever tried to think your way out of thinking?

For those of you who have, you know that it is usually nothing more than an exercise in futility, for thinking generally leads to more thinking, as has been the case with me on this fine evening, and realizing it inspired me to write and share my thoughts and feelings on the matter.

I have been thinking about a great many things which define my life as it currently is, and upon speaking with my dear friend Shambunata who is recovering from hernia surgery in Ottawa right now, I realized that in trying to answer the bigger questions in my life which relate primarily to love matters and career, I was driving madly with my mind to find concrete answers to hold onto and act from, but I simply could not.

Know the feeling? I thought you might :)

The Zen Buddhists have an interesting way of dealing with this dilemma, and that is through the use of koans. The use of koans is not solely restricted to demonstrating the limitations of our minds, but they are a handy tool to achieve the objective. For instance, can you tell me what your face looked like before you were born, or what the sound of one hand clapping is? Probably not, and as such, what does that tell you about the nature of your mind?

Our minds have limits, like most other aspects of us, and as such if you use only your conscious thinking as a compass to let you know whether or not you are on your right track, then you may very well be met with disappointment.

So what does that mean and why I am sharing this with you?

It means that sometimes when we are searching for answers we must listen to other parts of who and what we are that have the ability to "know" things. For example, our unconscious minds are constantly communicating with us through the language of symbols in our dreams, and dream interpretation can be a fascinating journey!! We also have our intuition, that subtle something rather which FEELS what is right or wrong for us, or for someone else, or for a group of things. We all have intuitive abilities, some more than others as is the case with any ability, and the neat thing is that we can all work to ENHANCE our intuitive abilities simply by feeding them energy and attention. We have to LISTEN to them and ask that they become louder and clearer, and, as is the case with dreams, in time we will see that our prayers have been answered. Often times this requires slowing down our pace of living, for we did not evolve in such a busy or noisy world as it is today, and, I believe anyway, our intuition did not previously have so much competition! But, no matter, it is still not that hard to attune to, regardless of how many pretty billboards are stealing away your attention :)

What you may find interesting when you start exploring these things, presuming that you haven't already, is that your conscious mind or ego may not react well to your trusting another source of information over "it", and herein lies a classic spiritual obstacle we must overcome in order to "let go, and let God".

I'm going to let you in on a little secret - there is a part of us, a BIG part, that is All-knowing and Un-limited and Omnipresent and UniVersal, and I believe it is that part of us which has all the Answers to all the most important Questions we could ever want to know. The tricky part begins in quieting the ego and mind in order to hear the Divine Whisper within us, and THEN, if we actually get to a place where we hear this Whisper, to actually follow along with what It tells us. If only more of us strived to do this, so much inner and outer turmoil would be avoided and abandoned!!!

How do I know this? I don't know, really, I just do...

"All of the Answers dwell within, as do the Heavens and Hells and Stars and Earth, all there ad infinitum to be tasted and tested for all eternity." - A.D.B.