The Nature of Mind

December 10, 2020 by Juan Dalisay Jr

We said that ideas and feelings are subdivisions of experience:

• experiencer
• experience
  • feelings
  • ideas

Experiences are powered by 2 Forces:

• The Negative Force leads to experiences
• The Positive leads to the understanding of those experiences

But what about the experiencer or the mind that experiences those ideas and feelings?

For the experiencer to actually experience the infinite combination of ideas and feelings, it needs a container for them. This metaphysical container or arena is called a mind which is designed to hold and process its own ideas and feelings, which are collectively called ‘perceptions’.

Thus, an experiencer has 2 parts:

• mind as the container for experiences
• consciousness as the perceiver of that container

Metaphysical Mind, Physical Mind

Our system splits reality into a metaphysical domain and a physical domain. This leads to every mind having 2 parts in terms of structure:

1. A metaphysical mind

This is the mind that occupies the metaphysical domain, and is called the soul. Philosophers call this the higher mind, spiritual mind, or subjective mind.

2. A physical mind

This is the mind that occupies the physical domain. This is what scientists believe in. Philosophers call this the lower mind, crude mind, or objective mind.

Living Mind, Non-Living Mind

In terms of activity, physical minds are then classified into two:

• A physical mind that can do its own actions or expressions is called a ’living thing’ by humans
• A physical mind that cannot express nor act is called a ’non-living thing'

‘Life’ therefore is an expressive mind that inhabits a physical body.

A ‘virus’ is in-between a non-living idea and a living or expressive mind, that manifests as DNA or RNA. It has to use living things to spread itself as its means of expression or action.

From the viewpoint of the Creator:

• the DNA of viruses and bacteria are simple ideas
• the souls of humans and cats are complex ideas.

But from the viewpoint of viruses and bacteria, they themselves are minds, just as cats and dogs are see themselves as minds (cause) and not as ideas (effect).

Likewise, we see ourselves as the cause of our own actions instead of being the effect of the Creator (working through us).

Dharma, Tao, or The True Nature

The independence of the minds of bacteria, cats, dogs, and humans from each other then implies that they have their own innate and unique expressions and experiences different from those of others. Otherwise, they would just be one entity and not separate entities.

This innate uniqeness to experience and express Existence is an identity’s dharma or tao. Socrates calls this as a thing’s ‘True Nature’* and has been explained in our Law of Conservation of Idea.

*The English word ‘Nature’ is ambiguous and so we use ‘Dharma’ instead to specify the True Nature passively, and Tao to specify It actively

Lao Tzu calls acting within one’s True Nature as being with the Tao.

A Dynamic Existence

Since each mind is unique, and since everything is a mind, then all minds must move to keep its uniqueness and separation from others. <!– with each mind being an idea from the viewpoint of the Creator, then we establish this principle of uniqueness as The Law of Conservation of Idea.

• The need to be unique causes the separation between minds and objects.
• This creation of separation then creates change and movement. –> Under this paradigm, movement is originally caused by internal differences and not by external forces.

Even the external forces from heat really come from the internal nature of hotness that easily affects or moves objects that are internally predisposed to be affected by heat.

Movement arises from the differences in internal natures. This explains why:

• some objects are easily moveable, while others are difficult to move
• some people are easy to convince, others are very difficult to convince
• some animals are easy to train, others are not easy to train
• some societies advance rapidly, others stay backward

Is there anything in Existence that is not moveable or changeable?

The One is Not Affected

The only entity that does not move is the entity that created the ideas, minds, and feelings in the Universe.

• The Ancient Greeks call it The One
• Hindus call it Nirguna Brahma
• Buddhists call it Sunya or Void

Having explained the nature of the mind, we next explain the nature of consciouness which is ‘inside’ the mind.