November 6, 2012 by Dr. Catherine Schultz, Ph.D.
How the Mind supports Enlightenment
At the risk of being ostracized by those who are 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
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