Episode 082 - A Tale of Two Cities

Stop Making Yourself Miserable

In the last few episodes, we’ve talked about the fact that many of us suffer from a case of mistaken identity in which have come to believe that we are actually the contents of our neural template, which is largely responsible for forming our ordinary mind. We looked at some of the limitations of it, especially that it is, by nature, always dissatisfied, that it has the element of fear deeply rooted in its awareness and that it cannot dwell in present time. We also discussed the existence of its voice, called our inner critic which feeds us over 30,000 negative messages every day. And we touched on the phenomenon of self-sabotage, in which we often become our own worst enemy.

In this episode, we’re going to look a little deeper into the make-up of our overall intelligence by considering some of the differences between our ordinary mind and our higher mind.

Now, even though we have made tremendous advances in neurology, the brain sciences, psychiatry, and psychology, we still know very little about the actual potential of our intelligence. Current thinking is that is far greater than we currently imagine. So, let’s dig into it.

Obviously, even though, in reality we each have only one intelligence, the easiest way to examine it is by separating it into two distinct parts – our ordinary mind and our higher mind.

In that regard, I am going to present some information from a tremendous resource, “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying,” which gives a terrific overview of the key teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. This classic compilation of wisdom was first published in 1982, with a thirtieth anniversary edition released in 2012.

As an aside, I find that even though it may be thousands of years old, Ancient Wisdom often captures the obstacles facing us in modern times with uncanny clarity, as though it were written today.

I remember once reading a description of our ordinary life as lived through the filter of our ordinary mind which said something like this, “When we are children, all we think about is - my toys, my toys, my toys. Then we get older and it becomes – my mate, my mate, my mate. Finally, when we become adults, it turns into – my worries, my worries, my worries. And it just stays there.” Sound familiar? I guess on a certain level, some things never change.

Anyway, let’s use some of the text from the “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” to help shed some light on the ordinary mind and then on the higher mind.

The Ordinary Mind

Let’s remember that after years of neural firing and the establishment of billions of neural pathways, our brain sets up our neural template, which is an incredibly interconnected matrix of all the information stored in our brain. By around age five, we become increasingly identified with this template, which is also called our Ordinary Mind and we basically start filtering our life entire through it.

It’s important to understand that we can’t function in the world without it. Afterall, among many other critical tasks, we use it to navigate our way through life. The problem is that even though it is an incredibly multi-faceted tool, it is also severely limited. For the most part, we are given no training in using it at all and we can easily become over-identified with it. If it gets out of control, it can be the cause of endless trouble for us. So, let’s take a look at what we are dealing with here.

The Tibetan book says that while the ordinary mind does possess discriminating awareness, its focus is largely external, always making us look outside of ourselves. It also possesses a basic sense of duality – good and bad, light and dark, which makes it constantly grasping or rejecting. And it is discursive, which means it is always digressing from one subject to another, often focusing on a projected and falsely perceived external reference point.

After this, the text really gets down to brass tacks. Even though this is thousands of years old, see if it sounds familiar to you:

“So, the Ordinary Mind is the part of the mind that thinks, plots, desires, manipulates, that flares up in anger, that creates and indulges in waves of negative emotions and thoughts, that has to go on and on and on, asserting, validating, and confirming its existence by fragmenting, conceptualizing, and solidifying experience.

“The Ordinary Mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning. The Ordinary Mind can seem like a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstances.

“Seen from one angle, the ordinary mind is flickering, unstable, grasping, and endlessly minding others business, its energy consumed by projecting outwards. The ordinary mind can be thought of as a Mexican jumping bean, or as a monkey hopping restlessly from branch to branch on a tree.

“Yet seen in another way, the ordinary mind has a false, dull stability, a smug and self-protected inertia, a stone-like calm of ingrained habits. The Ordinary Mind is as cunning as a crooked politician, skeptical, distrustful, expert at trickery and guile, ingenious in the games of deception. It is within the experience of this chaotic, confused, undisciplined, and repetitive, ordinary mind that, again and again and again, we undergo change and death.”

So, while we do have this vast neural network that makes up our Ordinary Mind, and we can’t live without, it is critically important to understand its limitations. Again, this mind is not our true identity and it is certainly not the sum total of our intelligence. Far from it.

Here are some things to remember about it, so you can avoid its pitfalls, which in many ways are the source of most human problems, both individual and societal:

1. It is dualistic, constantly fluctuating, and reactive in nature.

2. It generally vacillates between attachment and rejection, which leads to endless desires and negative emotions and thoughts.

3. It is unstable and reactive in nature. It projects constantly flickering reactions to an endless parade of external circumstances.

4. It fragments and conceptualizes experiences and its assumptions and conclusions can be significantly flawed.

5. It is continuously vulnerable to external influences and circumstances which change constantly.

6. By the nature of its insecure and skeptical foundation, it is cunning, and skilled in deception and trickery.

7. Despite its apparent instability, it also possesses inherent inertia and is resistant to change due to ingrained habits and patterns.

So, this is quite a list. Again, it’s just a summary of some of the characteristics of the limiting aspects of our ordinary mind. They are common to us all and personally, as intense as they may be, take it from me, my own ordinary mind makes them look pretty tame.

Anyway, we can all benefit by gaining a simple awareness of them and understanding and eventually transcending these limitations is a central goal to many of the spiritual and contemplative practices contained in Ancient Wisdom. According to it, a higher state of awareness can be achieved, bringing a state of consciousness that exists beyond the dualistic and reactive tendencies of the Ordinary Mind, resulting in a state of peace, equanimity, and ultimate freedom from suffering.

This is a great introduction to looking into the other part of our intelligence, which is said to be the primary foundation of our identity: Our Higher Mind.

The Higher Mind

We all start out life with the awareness of only our Higher Mind and if you’ve ever spent time with a baby or toddler, you know how magical and creatively intelligent this level of consciousness is. Its learning capacity alone is truly astonishing.

Here is what the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying says about it:

“Then there is the very nature of mind, its innermost essence, which is absolutely and always untouched by change or death. At present, it is hidden, within our own mind, enveloped and obscured by the mental scurry of our thoughts and emotions.

“Just as clouds can be shifted by a strong gust of wind to reveal the shining sun and wide-open sky, so, under certain special circumstances, some inspiration may uncover for us glimpses of this nature of mind. These glimpses have many depths and degrees, but each of them will bring some light of understanding, meaning and freedom.

“This is because the nature of mind is the very root itself of understanding. In Tibetan, we call it ‘Rigpa,’ our primordial, pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant, and always awake. It could be said to be the knowledge of knowledge itself.

“Do not make the mistake of imagining that the nature of mind is exclusive to our mind only. It is, in fact, the nature of everything. It can never be said too often that to realize the nature of mind is to realize the nature of all things.

“Saints and Mystics throughout history have adorned their realizations with different names and given them different faces and interpretations, but what they are all fundamentally experiencing is the essential nature of the mind. Christians and Jews call it God, Hindus call it the self, Shiva, Brahman, and Vishnu. Sufi Mystics name it the hidden essence, and Buddhists call it the Buddha nature.

“At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize it.”

I don’t know about you, but whenever I come across a great description of this higher state of being, I always feel like something is knocking on some kind of door within me. I know it sounds vague, but I also feel a deep desire to open that door up.

What the Tibetans call the nature of mind, or Rigpa, is another term for the higher mind. Now most of us feel that it is easier to relate to and understand the ordinary mind than it is the Higher Mind, probably because we’ve had much more experience experiencing it. Understanding the Higher Mind can seem much more challenging and I’m very fond of what inner growth teacher Prem Rawat has to say about it. According to him, the Ordinary Mind is finite in nature and therefore, our finite mind can easily understand it. But the Higher Mind is infinite in nature and therefore, we can never truly understand it. According to him, we can just feel it and trust it. And that is far more than sufficient.

Even though we may not be able to comprehend it, here is a very brief summary of some of its remarkable aspects:

1. At its essence, it is immutable, meaning it is not subject to change. Ancient Wisdom says it is not only untouched by change, it is also untouched by transient thoughts and emotions, and incredibly, even by death.

2. It is universal in nature. Not limited by anything, including the individual mind and ego, it is the root of understanding, transcending all other personal boundaries.

3. It is inherently connected to the infinite essence that is at the root of all creation, and is the home of our insight, intuition, inspiration and aspiration.

4. It is the source of all the “better angels of our nature,” including among countless other aspects, love, compassion, integrity, courage, altruism, etc.

5. It represents a constantly expanding horizon for us. Infinite in nature, no matter how much of its positive essence we are able to grasp and experience, there is always more.

6. It exists in the state of the “ever new.” Not subject to the limitations of time and space, it is the essence of the “now” and can never age. Therefore, the ever-enlarging experience of it is always new for us.

7. Whether or not we are currently aware of it, we are infinitely attracted to it. At the essence of our intelligence, we have an intense desire to merge into it.

So, we’ve seen that there are two basic aspects of our intelligence – our ordinary mind and our higher mind, and we’ve taken a quick look at some of the characteristics of each.

Personally, I’ve always been attracted to the idea of the Higher Mind. But like the rest of life’s endeavors, growing from the idea stage into reality is the challenge and probably the opportunity as well. When it comes to the Ordinary Mind, like blindly stepping into a mud puddle, it’s basically effortless. But to grow into the Higher Mind, it seems to take some intention, like you have to want it, like a truly thirsty person needs water.

Yet, voices from Ancient Wisdom through to modern neuroscience assure us that it is, in fact, available to us. Some say that our thirst for it is inborn and fulfilling it is the actual purpose for incarnating here in the first place. Who knows? I guess we each have to figure that one out for ourselves.

Well, once again, this has been a lot of information for one episode. So, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one.