The Brain as Bio-hardware and the Original Mind
Phaul asked me to explain a statement I made:
"Our consciousness and awareness of being is OUTSIDE of our human form and is channeled THROUGH the brain. The nervous system and all the synapse clicking away in the brain is a relay between the experience of the body and the imagination which is, indeed, God.”
What I meant by this was not that the mind is outside of the body, but that it only temporarily joins the physicality it permeates within from without. Physical bodies are arrangements which come and go, and the connection is real despite the mind being eternal and the body illusionary.
I want to introduce you to Lu Chiu-yuan and Yang Chien of twelfth century China. You may know that Abdullah told Neville Goddard that they had been philosophers together in ancient China. I am NOT saying that these two were Abdullah and Neville, nor that they originated the idea of the Original Mind. Indeed, they would argue that Original Mind was what Confucius and his predecessors were teaching, but, well, listen to Yang on page 581 of A History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 2. I suggest you scroll back to page 573, or even 565, for context (sorry, I keep rereading the book over and over; it has long been one of my favorites). I placed the translator’s comments in brackets:
“The process of change [yi, the same word as that used in the title of the Book of Changes] is the self and none other. It is not right to regard it simply as a book and not as the self. Nor is it right to regard it as the transformation of the cosmos and not of the self. The cosmos (lit., “Heaven and Earth”) is my own cosmos, and its transformation is my own transformation; they are in no way external (to the self). Selfishness sunders it (the self) from (the cosmos), and results in diminution of the self. . . . The constituents of the self are something more than mere blood, breath, and physical form. My nature is limpid and pure, and not a mere physical thing. It is penetrating and limitless, and not a mere physical quantity. Heaven is a symbol that lies within my own nature; earth is a shape that lies within my own nature. That is why it is said, ‘In Heaven there are the (different) symbols completed, and on Earth there are the (different) symbols formed’ [Book of Changes, Appen. III, p. 348]. All are equally produced by me. Undifferentiably intertwined, they are neither internal nor external (to the self); all permeate one another, without distinction or difference. By observation of a single line (in the hexagrams of the Book of Changes), the meaning (of the self) becomes brilliantly apparent. . . .
“From the fact that we are capable of experiencing the true mind through its feeling of distress when a child is about to fall into a well, (it is evident that) its marvelous quality of ‘no thinking, no planning’ [an allusion to the Book of Changes appen. III, p. 389] is originally possessed by everyone, and that its essence of pure realness and utter clarity, and its substance of illimitable broadness, are originally possessed by everyone. In times of ordinary eating and drinking this mind constantly manifests itself, as it also does in times of hurry and uncertainty; the only thing is that men themselves are not conscious of it.
“This mind is fundamentally one and not dual; it is never sundered and then afterward renewed. Never is there a time when it is at first not like this, and then again like this, or at first like this, and then again not like this. Day and night it remains one; from antiquity until today it has remained one. It is neither stronger in youth nor weaker in old age. . . . By according with this original mind of mine in my movements, I can fly, remain hidden, be circumspect, or cautious [an allusion to the symbolism of certain lines in the first hexagram of the Book of Changes, pp. 57-58]. . . . Whether I accept office or retire from it, remain in it for long or speedily withdraw, I can in every case accord with what is proper.” &etc.
It’s a good thing I have the book, so that I can share this page with you. I would agree with Lu Chiu-yuan on page 575, that such consciousness of mind was what Confucius and Mencius and their ancient predecessors were teaching. Engaging the Original Mind is how I understand the Great Learning. Again, I am NOT saying that Neville was Yang or any of these characters in a previous life, but I would not have been surprised to have read Yang's discourse in one of Neville’s lectures.
Ref. Genesis 2:7, When God (we) breathe/send our spirit into humanity, they do not become separate from me.
"Our consciousness and awareness of being is OUTSIDE of our human form and is channeled THROUGH the brain. The nervous system and all the synapse clicking away in the brain is a relay between the experience of the body and the imagination which is, indeed, God.”
What I meant by this was not that the mind is outside of the body, but that it only temporarily joins the physicality it permeates within from without. Physical bodies are arrangements which come and go, and the connection is real despite the mind being eternal and the body illusionary.
I want to introduce you to Lu Chiu-yuan and Yang Chien of twelfth century China. You may know that Abdullah told Neville Goddard that they had been philosophers together in ancient China. I am NOT saying that these two were Abdullah and Neville, nor that they originated the idea of the Original Mind. Indeed, they would argue that Original Mind was what Confucius and his predecessors were teaching, but, well, listen to Yang on page 581 of A History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 2. I suggest you scroll back to page 573, or even 565, for context (sorry, I keep rereading the book over and over; it has long been one of my favorites). I placed the translator’s comments in brackets:
“The process of change [yi, the same word as that used in the title of the Book of Changes] is the self and none other. It is not right to regard it simply as a book and not as the self. Nor is it right to regard it as the transformation of the cosmos and not of the self. The cosmos (lit., “Heaven and Earth”) is my own cosmos, and its transformation is my own transformation; they are in no way external (to the self). Selfishness sunders it (the self) from (the cosmos), and results in diminution of the self. . . . The constituents of the self are something more than mere blood, breath, and physical form. My nature is limpid and pure, and not a mere physical thing. It is penetrating and limitless, and not a mere physical quantity. Heaven is a symbol that lies within my own nature; earth is a shape that lies within my own nature. That is why it is said, ‘In Heaven there are the (different) symbols completed, and on Earth there are the (different) symbols formed’ [Book of Changes, Appen. III, p. 348]. All are equally produced by me. Undifferentiably intertwined, they are neither internal nor external (to the self); all permeate one another, without distinction or difference. By observation of a single line (in the hexagrams of the Book of Changes), the meaning (of the self) becomes brilliantly apparent. . . .
“From the fact that we are capable of experiencing the true mind through its feeling of distress when a child is about to fall into a well, (it is evident that) its marvelous quality of ‘no thinking, no planning’ [an allusion to the Book of Changes appen. III, p. 389] is originally possessed by everyone, and that its essence of pure realness and utter clarity, and its substance of illimitable broadness, are originally possessed by everyone. In times of ordinary eating and drinking this mind constantly manifests itself, as it also does in times of hurry and uncertainty; the only thing is that men themselves are not conscious of it.
“This mind is fundamentally one and not dual; it is never sundered and then afterward renewed. Never is there a time when it is at first not like this, and then again like this, or at first like this, and then again not like this. Day and night it remains one; from antiquity until today it has remained one. It is neither stronger in youth nor weaker in old age. . . . By according with this original mind of mine in my movements, I can fly, remain hidden, be circumspect, or cautious [an allusion to the symbolism of certain lines in the first hexagram of the Book of Changes, pp. 57-58]. . . . Whether I accept office or retire from it, remain in it for long or speedily withdraw, I can in every case accord with what is proper.” &etc.
It’s a good thing I have the book, so that I can share this page with you. I would agree with Lu Chiu-yuan on page 575, that such consciousness of mind was what Confucius and Mencius and their ancient predecessors were teaching. Engaging the Original Mind is how I understand the Great Learning. Again, I am NOT saying that Neville was Yang or any of these characters in a previous life, but I would not have been surprised to have read Yang's discourse in one of Neville’s lectures.
Ref. Genesis 2:7, When God (we) breathe/send our spirit into humanity, they do not become separate from me.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
5:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home