Use of Mind, Part 1

The theme for today is Use of Mind.

This one might take more than one meeting,
I suppose!

We have the opportunity to make contact
with our own knowledge and wisdom on this topic,
and what we've learned from practice and living:
To bring here
  what we know,
  have made personal
independent of what we've heard about this,
through rumors or authoritative statements
from various sources
that seem better, clearer, wiser, having stood the test of time.

Then quotes are fair game!

How do we bring context to this question?
(Where does it live, when it's not telling its story?)

When the Western tradition
committed itself to the duality of subject and object
this was one of those good/bad moves.
Object was called real
Subject was called not-so-real.
That Subject includes you, experiencer and experiences
and sadly, became somewhat disrespected
off-limits to discussion
and to good clear observation and questioning.
A vagueness crept in
and ... along with that lack of support
a kind of reluctance to state, claim, and communicate
the lived world of qualitative and aesthetic experience.
In a certain way it becomes difficult
to say "I am real"

I have Experience - or -  Experience has Me
These two words should be in quotes
because when we speak of them,
they exist more in the saying, because of the saying
than as actual somethings we can grasp and describe.

I am real.  
But I don't know the real I.
I am more than I know, or can know.

There's a principle in some traditions - "Right use of the mind"
For this, if we "think", using language formulaically,
as if the terms are logical and well-defined
it is a recipe
for losing touch with what it is
that language wants to talk about.
The apparent terms don't exist independently.
No separate "I", no separate "right", no separate "mind".
When they arise, it is together.

And so "I'm going to learn how to do this"
or rather the doing of it
involves a changing, together, of I, right, and mind.

Let's ask the question baldly
"What good is mind?"
"What good is awareness?"
What are they "for"
or rather, what is happening when they are "good"?

There's never going to be a simple answer to this question.
It has facets,
depth
subtlety.

Mind is patient and persistent
with the hard questions.

With questions like this
we can be specific,
but not definitive or complete.

Mind evolved to keep us out of trouble
when a complex world needed exceptions
to what instinct and habits could provide.

Mind knows it's not the whole of "I"
and when to step aside.
Mind has the ability
to split, but also to reconnect
the primal unity - mind, body, feeling, spirit, voice, etc.
Mind can be the host of this party
not a dictator,
not the main entertainment attraction.

Mind can take good advice
from Heart, Spirit, or other characters
of the divided unity.

Mind can remember, remind one
to practice,
to work,
to walk.

We have good habits that are are aligned with reality
and bad ones that put us against it
and lead to problems and suffering.
The same goes with attitudes.
Mind can summon memories
about what we have learned about this
and present-time common sense
of what is self-evident.

How do we know which way to go
when there are obvious
and not-so-obvious choices?
Are there principles?
Or qualitative signs, like beauty, flow, or presence?

Mind may be able to figure out
when to persist with a habit or situation,
and when some experiment is needed.

Mind is somewhat self-recognizing.
Mind needn't take itself too seriously
At least not rigidly, consistently so.
It knows that there are aspects of "self"
or rather, of "itself", the mind
that are delusional
and others worth holding to faithfully.

Mind holds wisdom
inside,
or knows where it lives
nearby.

We can explore the labyrinth
(that we are already in)
or even use a map or two.
Let's sample some ideas about it.
Start anywhere.