Mind and Consciousness"Return to Contemplation #5: The Mind's Process As Fokusan Gensan once said: "Knowledge, when compared to experience, is like a drop of water falling into the ocean." The good thing about proper knowledge though, is that it can bring you to the point of experience. Eventually there is only one truth and it is nowhere to be found within the mind. When looking at the mind and consciousness in relation to the teachings, you will see that pretty much every practice is aimed at the mind. The purpose of these teachings seem to be to control the mind; to shape it; to recondition it; to make it one-pointed in concentration; to make it more capable of doing certain things, etc. Are not all of the practices in all the scriptures and on all the web pages of this site as well as on those of thousands of other sites aimed at working with the mind? Are they not aimed at changing or transforming something within your personality/abilities/experience? Secretly, all practices have a much deeper purpose than what they refer to. The only truth is not found in any practice that involves the mind. Considering the fact that all practice is done with and by the mind, we can conclude that it is impossible to become truth in practice and mind. When looking at the distinction of the mind and consciousness in relation to people, we will have to conclude that hardly any of us are free. Most of us are completely fixed within the mind, meaning that our experience depends only on the experience of the mind. The one purpose behind every practice is to bring you to the point where you can completely transcend the mind and consciousness then becomes aware of itself. Authentic masters and teachings seem to talk to the mind when they say: "practice this, do that, don't do this, be like him etc." What they are actually doing goes beyond your mind's line of sight. In reality all authentic teachings are not talking to your mind, they are talking to you, to consciousness. You, are clouded by the mind, your experience seems to equal his. You are in a sleeping state. True masters realize this. They realize this and as they seem to speak to the mind, they are actually talking to you by saying: "Psst, You there. I will guide your mind through these stages of practice and purification. I will keep him busy doing all these things until you can take over control and awaken from your sleeping imprisonment. I will promise the mind the most beautiful experiences and abilities which are in reality beyond his comprehension, but he will want to practice purification of itself in order to reach that. What happens then is that the mind's prison walls will become more and more transparent and eventually, you can just walk through it and be free." The most important distinction to realize, is the distinction between consciousness and the mind; between yourself and everything else. We spoke of the true purpose of all practices, well this is it. Their purpose is to bring you to the point where you can clearly see yourself; independent of everything else (everything else equals the mind). You are the observer, you are consciousness, you are never the mind; you can only use the mind. Only the mind can change and transform; the true you is absolutely unchangeable. "Continue to Mind Control Techniques" Return from Mind and Consciousness to Mind Control
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