Theosophical Independence Vol. 6 - 2   April  2007

 The following article is adapted from a talk given at an interlodge symposium held on February 3, 2007 in Philadelphia.

 “The Duality of Mind”

  Mind is one principle yet it has a duality.  It is like the moon - it is one sphere yet it has a perpetual bright side and a perpetual dark side.  The Mind is one principle, one thing, with two aspects.  It has a bright, immortal aspect which we call the Higher Mind; it has a dark, mortal aspect which we call the lower mind.  It is the lower mind that we are most familiar with.  That is the one that we use to define ourselves as these distinct personalities, each of us with our own name, our own address, our own job, our own preoccupations, our own likes and dislikes.

  The lower mind tends to be self-involved, self-ish.  It is mostly concerned with its own welfare, how it is going to survive, how it is going to preserve itself, improve its fortune, and tends not to have much concern for others unless they can be of advantage.  The chief powers of the lower mind are the intellect, reason and analysis.  And these are very helpful, very valuable powers indeed, for with them we can make a shopping list, drive a car, cook a meal, get a job, keep the job; we can even use it to help us understand philosophical ideas, at least from an intellectual basis.  But the lower mind can also get us into a lot of trouble when it is not guided and controlled by the Higher Mind and that is the condition of Humanity, by and large, at this stage in our evolution.  There is a disconnection between the Higher Mind and lower mind and the lower mind is on its own, pretty much.

  This gets us into trouble in many ways.  First of all, we know that this analytical, intellectual mind may not always be accurate.  It can make mistakes; it is subject to error. So the lower mind, looking out at the world, creates errors; creates illusions, delusions; creates a false sense of its own self. This illusoriness of the lower mind comes about in other ways as well because the lower mind has a tendency to look outward; it is a materially oriented mind, it is interested in the world of things, sensations.  And so it only sees a portion of reality, the outer, superficial portion of reality, and is ignorant of the inner, deeper, more meaningful and permanent, spiritual reality.  And so it sees things in this false, material way. 

  Without the guidance of the Higher Mind, the lower mind tends to be cold, heartless and even cruel.  It is because the lower mind is not guided by the Higher that the powers of the intellect are used not only for creative but for so many destructive purposes:  how to cheat one’s business partner, how to make a weapon. It is the intellectual mind that knows how to do it and does it.  Without the guidance of the Higher Mind, the lower mind falls under the influence of the lower principles, the mortal principles, the body and the passions and the desires.  These things, the body and the passions and desires, are in and of themselves quite natural, as we see in the animal kingdom.  But, when the intellect makes its presence felt in that world of the passions without the light of Spirit, it turns those passions into vices.  Even love, what we call love, from the lower mind point of view, really has a selfish component to it.  This kind of love is interested in its own self being served, it is a conditional love - I love if I get this in return; if I don’t get it in return, I won’t love.  That is the way the lower mind thinks.

  Finally, without the guidance of the Higher Mind, the lower mind tends to be fast and noisy.  In fact, it jumps from one point to another quickly, sometimes to a pleasant point, sometimes to an unpleasant one.  But it is always restless, always chattering, so in the East it is called the “monkey mind.”  And it is not easy to control.  Because it is so fast and noisy, it drowns out the softer, tenderer, calmer voice of the Higher Mind, which is always speaking but can’t be heard.

  So all this is in contrast to the Higher Mind itself.  What is that?  The Higher Mind is our true Self; it is what we really are.  Unlike the lower mind, which only lasts for a single lifetime, the Higher Mind lasts forever; it has always been there, it is what we call the Reincarnating Ego - Ego is Latin for the pronoun I, the permanent me.  It is immortal.  Unlike the Higher Mind, the lower mind has memory of only a single life, but the Higher Mind retains the memory of all its past lives.  So it has a vast store of knowledge and wisdom and discernment.  The chief power of the Higher Mind is intuition, the ability to look directly upon ideas.  It can instantaneously grasp the inner meaning of an event, or a series of events, a concept or an action.  The lower mind is analytical: it breaks things up, classifies them, divides.  The Higher Mind is synthetic: it merges, it combines, it puts together, it unites.  The Higher Mind is closest to the two highest principles in our nature, Atma, Buddhi -Spirit and the highest aspect of Soul.  And so its outlook is spiritual.  In it are all the noble virtues: patience, compassion, forbearance, altruism.

  Our dilemma is that these two, the Higher Mind and the lower mind, are disconnected, but they can be connected.  A bridge can be constructed between them.  In Sanskrit, that bridge is called Antaskarana.  We have a sense of what this bridge is when we have moments of intuition, a sudden insight, a flash of understanding.  It is also present when we have the pangs of conscience - it is the Higher Self talking to the lower and the lower hearing it. 

  QUOTES OF INTEREST

  For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions.  Seek O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul.  The Voice of the Silence

  The Living Power of Theosophy must become the power by which we live.  As we have a material instrument and an energizing mind, and as we are in being spiritual, we must live as spiritual beings our religion of Joyous Immortality which ensouls and illumines the mind.  Aided by the philosophy of Theosophy we must let that mind energize our house of flesh, so that the latter is no more a palace of pleasure, but a Temple of the Living God, the Ruler who rules from within.

    Living the Life

   Stepping outside oneself in order to look within need not be regarded as an unnatural operation, nor as a hazardous withdrawal from the only reality we are sure of. The self we can step out of cannot be our true being, for with the Self there is neither going nor returning — only existence. The Self governs the apprehension of truth. The soul looks directly upon ideas, but such is the refraction introduced by the medium of the other self, or the not-self, that the mind does not focus on realities. The power to focus on the real in all things and beings is the only power “conferred” by Theosophy... Study of Theosophy, therefore, is the exercise of discernment and discrimination, rather than the accumulation of mental luggage, no matter how attractively packaged or compactly arranged.  Theosophy Magazine Volume 35       “How to Study”

   

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