{"id":121,"date":"2010-03-27T12:54:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-27T19:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetolteciching.com\/blog\/?p=121"},"modified":"2021-01-30T23:04:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T06:04:25","slug":"one-mind-and-its-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/one-mind-and-its-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"One Mind and Its Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is One Mind and each of us is one of Its Ideas.<\/em><\/p>\n

Such is the script inscribed on the memory stone of my dying.<\/p>\n

Some six years ago, I was fortunate enough to die, fully conscious, for the two or three minutes it took the emergency room staff to revive me.\u00a0 And, as validated in The<\/em> Tibetan Book of the Dead<\/em><\/a>, I experienced those few moments in the after-life state as a much longer period of time.\u00a0 As it happened to me, I catapulted out of my body into a sphere of conscious light<\/em>, a single radiant presence within which everything that exists, had existed, or ever will exist, was present at the same time.\u00a0 Each of us was likewise a sphere of conscious light, a microcosm of the greater sphere of which we were a part.<\/p>\n

Each of us was, in fact, an Idea within the One Mind.\u00a0 This constituted our true self<\/em> or essential identity, our meaning<\/em> as established in relation to all the other Ideas in reality.\u00a0 We were constantly coming into contact with other Ideas in both intentional and accidental ways.\u00a0 And “contact” there<\/em> was of a very specific kind, for the act of one sphere touching another meant that all that those Ideas held instantaneously passed between them without friction or resistance.\u00a0 I learned much more in that brief stay there<\/em> than I could in many lifetimes here<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I mention my personal experience to make it clear that I am not constructing a mental framework for intellectual amusement.\u00a0 What happened to me went straight to my heart, only later to be sorted out and given words.\u00a0 Which has made me realize that we Ideas are not cold fragments of rationality and reason but, rather, warm reflections of passion and compassion.<\/p>\n

It is this profoundly moving emotional aspect of the nature of Ideas that has most greatly impacted me in the time since I returned to my body.<\/p>\n

I understand One Mind<\/em> to mean that everything, material and immaterial, is of one substance, is of one unitary indivisible nature.\u00a0 One Being.\u00a0 One Presence, Alive and Aware<\/em> throughout all Creation.<\/p>\n

Likewise, I understand Idea<\/em> to refer to each and every thing, material or immaterial, animate or inanimate, as an elemental and intrinsic Thought in the Living Awareness of the One Mind.\u00a0 Each stone.\u00a0 Each star.\u00a0 Each molecule.\u00a0 Each electron.\u00a0 Each plant.\u00a0 Each animal.\u00a0 Each person.<\/p>\n

To be clear, what opened my eyes\u2014and my heart\u2014is that I found that the same law-of-contact<\/em> among Ideas applies here<\/em> as much as it does there<\/em>:\u00a0 Even when we are not aware of it, whenever our sphere touches another, everything that we Ideas hold passes between us without friction or resistance.\u00a0 And what passes between us is our own individual unique reflection of heart-mind<\/em> awareness.<\/div>\n

Which is why the ancient indigenous lifeways feel so natural to me.\u00a0 And why I choose the lifeway of an animist.<\/p>\n

It is that singular word Spirit<\/em> that combines the twin concepts of heart and mind\u2014of profound emotion and identifying thought\u2014into a single harmonious symbol.\u00a0 It is in the ancient lifeways that we find an un-self-conscious participation in the natural world based on the sense of self-knowing:\u00a0 Since everything is Spirit, then everything shares a common way of being.\u00a0 And since I am half form and half formless\u2014which is to say, half body and half spirit\u2014then other things are likewise half form and half formless.<\/p>\n

Every other thing in creation, in other words,\u00a0 is likewise alive and aware<\/em>, just as I am, each of us sacred vessels of the One Spirit.<\/p>\n

Every other thing in creation, therefore, is likewise a person<\/em>, whether a human being or not, and is to be treated with all the respect and purity of intent with which one would address the One Spirit itself.<\/p>\n

Such a lifeway arises from a deep-seated love of Nature.\u00a0 A constant sense of awe in the face of Creation.\u00a0 A sincere appreciation of the sacredness of everything<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it leads to spontaneous and natural intimacy<\/em> between Ideas.\u00a0 Immediate communion<\/em> between the individual and the One.\u00a0 Universal loving-kindness<\/em> among all Creation.<\/p>\n

Everything arises from the same font of Spirit.\u00a0 Form Itself is<\/em> Spirit.\u00a0 There is no other<\/em> from which we must protect ourselves or which we ought to fear.\u00a0 The material universe and all its stones and rivers and trees and animals and people arise from the same origin.\u00a0 Belong to the same family.\u00a0 Deserve the same peace and prospering.\u00a0 When we treat nature and humanity and all our creations as The Sacred<\/em>, as the living awareness of the One Mind, all the walls around us crumble, our hearts open in gratitude, and our every thought, word, and deed manifests good will.<\/p>\n

I repeat here<\/em> what I learned there<\/em> when I came into contact with other spheres of conscious light:\u00a0 This road\u2014the road of treating everything as a sacred person, including other people and including ourselves\u2014this road is the shortcut to peace of mind, bliss, and self-liberation.\u00a0 It is a straight-forward discipline that trains us to see through the surface of appearances and into the living meaning<\/em> of whatever has engaged our attention.\u00a0 It is a wide open gateway to awakening here<\/em> in this lifetime to our own individual and timeless Idea.\u00a0 It is the well-worn path of freedom in every sense.<\/p>\n

It is, in a word, the path of the spirit warrior, of men and women who sincerely undertake the task of defeating their enemy-within<\/em> by moving away from<\/em> self-defeating thoughts, feelings, and memories and towards<\/em> a self-liberating presence within the ongoing universal Act of Creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is One Mind and each of us is one of Its Ideas. Such is the script inscribed on the memory stone of my dying. Some six years ago, I was fortunate enough to die, fully conscious, for the two … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[10,70,67,69,29,65,64,68,33,54,40,66,50],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inner-activism","tag-animism","tag-communion","tag-conscious-light","tag-idea","tag-identity","tag-nde","tag-near-death-experience","tag-one-mind","tag-social-transformation","tag-spirit","tag-spirit-warrior","tag-tibetan-book-of-the-dead","tag-world-view"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}