The Many Layers Of The Mind

We have spoken of the many layers of the totality of our being in previous lessons, and now we shall explain how each one has its own mind. There is the mind of each of the physical senses, the mind of discrimination of good and bad, the mind of thought and creativity, the mind of the soul, and many many other minds. There is the self, the soul, the intellect, ego, personality, prejudices, etc.

Each mind thinks and sees itself as the only mind in your being. But the essential self, the soul, through its mind, observes all the other minds combined. When you can see yourself think and act, and look upon your many minds objectively, then you are detached and observing from your higher mind. If you think you know yourself, then you are looking through one of the many minds and are just a tiny temporary fragment of your whole being, but you think you are everything you are. This is why people are so unreliable. They think they know themselves and so do not audit their words and thoughts with the knowledge that what they are thinking at the moment is temporary and subjective, coming from only one of their minds. This is one reason why we practice the speech diet, so that you will develop the ability to hold your tongue until you are sure of what you are saying before you say it.

This is a tricky thing to accept in the western world of psychiatry. Basically it is saying that we are all multiple personality disorder. Perhaps it was thought out when the organization was looking for a new field that they could have a reason to catch every mortal human as a client. If you take the basic natural state of being human and call it an illness, then you guarantee that every human is a potential patient. That combined with the gullibility of humans, they have a real winner.

For those seeking freedom from their own mind, it is the same as any practice on the path of self refinement. You accept your present situation, do nothing to counter it, but just observe it. Even if you do not see your fragmentation right now, if you begin to observe objectively, willing to accept that you may not like what you find in your self, then you will begin to see these things if you look for them.

If only you could see the simplicity in all we have in front of us on the path to Truth. There is nothing to do, but merely to sit back and watch. It is the turning on of the light that makes the monsters leave the child’s room at night. However, not only must we begin to watch, we must know what to look for. This school, or one of the many that have been in existence for thousands of years, can give you exercises to follow, if you can understand them. That is the reason a teacher or school is needed, someone who has already walked the path is the only capable guide. You cannot guide yourself across the barren desert if you have never been there before.

A true teacher is like a guide. He or she will take their charge across the desert, then once crossed, they leave them and go to guide another traveler. This is to help you know that a true teacher is a guide to bring you to your destination. If you follow as quickly as the guide can lead, you will achieve your goal, but if you dally and take your time, napping daily, then you may never reach the oasis.

Back to the minds. Do you notice how easily your manner is changed by simply dressing differently, in tattered house cloths, or in very expensive dresses and gowns? You may like to try this experiment, it works for both men and women, to the degree you are comfortable with, although with today’s styles, women will find it easier to do than men. For men, just try dressing like a bum, not shaving for a few days, then keep yourself clean shaven and proper, dressing in only the finest cloths you have for a few days.

For women, try dressing in men’s style cloths for a few days, no makeup or hair style, then for the next few days, do yourself up and dress in the most feminine cloths you have, no pants or jackets, only dresses and skirts, feminine blouses and such.

Observe how different you feel about yourself, how different you act and speak, how you notice yourself. This will prove how manipulateable mortal humans are, if simply changing your cloths can effect you so deeply. I remind you, no practice or teaching is of any value until you have tested and proven it for yourself. The guide leads you through the desert, he does not carry you.

As you begin to see how you are many more people than you think, and how each of your minds takes charge without your knowledge or permission, easily twisting you to its desires, then you will start to notice when that happens. Eventually you will be able to see the different minds, and you will start to see yourself acting or speaking from each mind with each ones particular attitudes.

Once you have attained a clear state of awareness of this fragmentation, then you will develop the strength to stop the uncontrolled life of being manipulated by whichever mind is in control, and select which mind you wish to function from at each moment. This is the state of balance where you can have all the emotions, but they do not overpower your actions and thoughts, and can take years to develop.

Imagine any argument you have had, especially with someone you love or care about. Can you remember how you said things that you knew where mean or not necessary, but you could not control yourself? Or perhaps how you felt one way, then the next day after talking to someone about the fight, or just simply sleeping on it, you felt completely different? This is a perfect example of a person who is not aware of their multiple minds. Depending on what you where arguing about, it was a specific mind that was related to that subject. Then as the argument progressed, did you notice how it may have taken a turn to an entirely different subject? This happens when one of the other minds jumps in and takes over.

Your many minds sometimes work like a tag team race. When one is running out of energy, another jumps in to take the fight in another direction to keep it going. The goal of the union of the many minds is to keep us so confused that we can never see them and what they do to us. When we say union, we are not referring to a harmonious union as in the union with the Divine. Rather it is like the Teamsters. A Mafia organized union of disgruntled workers who are doing whatever they can to hurt management and maintain control of the company. I hope these examples are clear and can reach you, we try to bring things to words that you understand to give you a picture. Once you have the picture, it should trigger another light in your unified soul mind that all of a sudden makes sense of it all, and that picture has nothing to do with the analogy. We must use mortal human words to reach mortal humans. When you have separated the yellow and blue and shine green, then you will be an immortal human and not require such words.

The mortal and immortal parts of our being are now mixed together, like yellow pieces and blue pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and mixed in the same box. These pieces are transparent like colored glass. They make up two puzzles, one of all yellow and the other of all blue, one the mortal and the other immortal. (These two choices of color are just analogous for this teaching.)

First we must see that there is a puzzle that needs solving and not just a bunch of broken glass, and that the beginning is in separating our mortal and immortal selves. Once the two colors are separated, and you have two separate piles of pieces, the two sides can see each other and now recognize their own duties, capabilities and limitations that the other color must take care of. You see that you are both mortal and immortal. Prior to this clear vision which comes from the separation of parts, you think you understand that you are both, but you really are just one big mess. That is just knowledge of certainty, and not truth of certainty, therefor, limited in its usefulness.

The work of awakening can be said to be the sorting out and putting together of the two puzzles. Once they are completed, they make a simple sheet of pure color each. Then the final step is to place the two sheets one on top of the other. When you mix yellow and blue, you get green. And when the two parts of our being, the mortal and immortal, material and spiritual sides are sorted out, clearly assembled, and placed one on top of the other, they cease to be blue and yellow, but only one color, green. Green is the highest level of spiritual development in the Sufi Path. (Although I used the colors randomly, it turned out that there was a significance in their finality. I would say that everything in this world is like that. Much of what we do and see may seem irrelevant, but as the Kaballah teaches, not even a leaf falls from a tree that does not have a spiritual significance.)

Even though there is now only one color that you project, that of green, you are still the two separate sheets of yellow and blue. It is the laying one on top of the other that brings enlightenment but even with this level achieved, the two parts are still individual and useful each in their own place. It is like a combination lock, separate numbers used in unison can open the lock. So you become each and both at the same time, separate and united at the same time, mortal and immortal simultaneously.

This is how you can live in the world and still be pure inside, yet normal people will not recognize your level. They will only see the yellow, while the blue exists within, only showing its green light in the presence of those who can stand to see it. It is the same with seeing God. You can see the yellow, the material manifestation of Its existence, you may have the spiritual experience and see the blue light of Gods spirit, but to see the two together, the green light of Khidr, that is only for the ones that cultivate the strength to bear the experience of such power.

You can become filled with energy and love as well as special abilities to succeed at whatever you desire, even if that is finding your lost car keys, you can live in this world and the next, you can have no fears, no attachments, no concerns. All this if you can meld the two realms, you will live in both realms and so not fear either.

This lesson is for advance seekers on the path who have worked on cleansing their heart in the practices of giving for the sake of giving, living as a child of each moment, and releasing desires, among other practices. This is mentioned so that you realize that this lesson is not something that will be easy to achieve or comprehend, but comes after much preparation. Nonetheless, any of you who read these words can work with them to the best of your ability, and that will benefit you as much as it can, even help you progress quicker. Eventually, perhaps week by week, if you reread it, it will continually make more and more sense to you.