Quotes About the Mind

"Your mind is a fabulous instrument of communication. It can comprehend the past. It can plan for the future. Indeed, the mind is a great membrane between your worldly existence and your spiritual reality."

"When the mind is joined with Spirit, it is in its true role. It recognizes its function and is capable of fulfilling it perfectly."

"It is your little command center for being in the world."

“Ultimately, the only thing that can keep you from Knowledge is the mind. It may seem like the world is dominating you, but in reality it is the mind."

Directives

"Deal with your mind firmly, patiently and compassionately, like a parent raising a child. "

"Your mind is your servant and potentially a servant of God under the direction of Knowledge. Honor its strengths and manage it weaknesses. Feed it well and it will be healthy."

"You must take responsibility for the content of your mind.What are you thinking at this moment? What you are thinking is relevant to what you are experiencing.This is accurate. But beyond this is reality, and that is the great gift. Achieving this, then, is more a settling down than a building up. It is the result of becoming still and observant so that you can penetrate your own interpretation. A still mind is a mind that is collecting its own power. It can direct its full resources in any direction, and that is the definition of power in the world."

"What must be unlearned is your identification with your mind. What separates you from life but your own thoughts? What dominates your attention but your own thoughts? Creating new and better thoughts might seem to open new doorways of experience, but in fact it is the relationship with your mind itself that has to be changed. Better thoughts will not release you. Better thoughts will not free you. Better thoughts will not open your life. It is true that you will need new thoughts to think, and your mind will need to open new pathways so that new experiences can come to you. But having new thoughts is not enough. You must gain an entirely new foundation within your life. Stand within your mind and it will seem to engulf you. Stand outside your mind and you will be able to see through it, direct it and use it."

Mind, heart and spirit

"You can imagine all kinds of things but, really, the mind cannot understand the spirit."

"Between the life of the mind and the life of the heart there is a great gulf, a huge chasm, with no apparent bottom. The distance between the two seems insurmountable. Yet there is a way to bridge it."

"The mind must be renewable. To have your mind be renewed, you must realize that you have a greater foundation than the mind, and you must reclaim your relationship with this foundation, which is your relationship with Knowledge."

Quotes about the personal mind

The personal mind "seeks to use everything for self-assurance, self-glorification and self-protection because it is weak and vulnerable and has no foundation in life."

“People who are obsessed over their thoughts and their feelings and their dreams will never recognize the deeper current of their life because they are not looking in the right place. They are still self-obsessed at the surface of their mind and have not learned to listen more deeply and to develop the patience, the skill, and the perseverance to do this.”

“It is cruel to demand that the personal mind achieve peace, power and harmony. That is like requiring your body not to feel pain. The personal mind was born in conflict and resides in conflict and will achieve peace only in service to the greater Mind.”

The worldly mind and the deeper mind

"You have two minds. You have the mind of the world, conditioned by the world and influenced by the world, a mind that is full of the world’s impressions and influences, and your own responses and decisions in the face of it. But the deeper mind is still connected to Creation. In God’s New Revelation, this is called Knowledge—Knowledge here meaning the deeper mind, the mind that is not part of Separation. The difference between this deeper mind and your surface or worldly mind is the difference between Creation and Separation. You could not separate from God completely. The part of you that did not separate represents Knowledge. The part of you that did separate represents your soul."

Right use of the mind

"Your mind serves two primary functions: It is either contemplating and problem-solving with the power of Knowledge, or it is still. Experiencing peace is a still mind. And to reach this state, you must be able to go beneath the surface of the mind into the well of silence."

"The mind must be employed or allowed to rest, and its employment is not always in a state of work. It may be focused on an enjoyable activity, but it must be focused. When it is not focused, it should be allowed to rest so that you may use it to listen and to look."

"Long ago when I used to work with people one on one. I would practice letting go all my ideas, recommendations and solutions regarding their problem or need. I would instead become very still, listening for what could be done for that person, if anything. Most of the time with my mind very clear and empty, I would receive the key—I would see it, know it and then find an appropriate way to present it. Often it would have little to do with what that person was telling me or what they thought the source of their difficulty was."

"Give the mind one thing to dedicate itself to. This produces equanimity because when the mind is focused, it becomes still—even when it is working very hard. This gives you freedom from past regrets and from future anxieties. It takes you away from fear and into a concentrated state of mind. It generates activity, observation and many other specific tasks."

An instrument for communication

"If the mind is not preoccupied with its own thoughts, it naturally gives and receives communication. In fact, it does this even when it is preoccupied, but it is not aware that this is occuring."

"If you think you are your thoughts and your mind, well, you will not be able to comprehend the Mind, the Will and the Presence of God, for the mind is a vehicle of communication in the world."

"With [a foundation in Knowledge], the mind can become a vehicle of great service, a marvelous instrument of communication--a medium between your Ancient Home and the world in which you now live."

"Your mind is different from your True Being, and as such it is ultimately a vehicle for Knowledge. This is its highest function and highest service. To be a vehicle for Knowledge, the mind must be fresh and renewable. It must be able to think clearly and freely and be able to rethink or recreate its thoughts. It must be pliable and open, accessible to new experience, open to new thresholds of understanding and willing to release its own ideas in order to gain a greater perspective and a greater Wisdom at every important threshold of life."

"The mind is a magnificent organizer and vehicle of communication. But it must be wisely directed and employed for a real purpose. Having a mind is like flying a plane. The plane is always going off course. You have to keep it directed where you want it to go."

Freedom from the oppression of mind

"Gain access to Knowledge and you will become free of the mind."

"Because most people are not aware that Knowledge is a reality beyond their mind, the mind then becomes greatly amplified. People become very involved in it. In fact, just like people can become obsessed with their bodies, they can also become obsessed with their minds-with their feelings, with their thoughts, with their emotional states, with their memories, with their future ideas, with their theories, with their philosophies, with their fears, with their terrors, and so forth. And oh, the mind looks so big and so dominant! And oh, it is so confusing with so many levels! And it seems unfathomable. It is layers and layers and layers of thinking. The mind seems to overwhelm existence, and you feel enslaved to its will and to its impulses. Where can freedom be found? Freedom is found in bringing the mind in service to Knowledge. Freedom is found in reversing the order of authority. If you are a slave to your mind, then the order of authority is reversed from what it should be. If the mind cannot be employed, it will run wild. If the mind cannot be directed, it shoots around in all directions. If the mind cannot have authority within you, it will become a slave to other minds in the mental environment."

"Your future is and will be in the Greater Community. It is not associated with the past. It is new. It is about the present and the future. The future is coming towards you, over the horizons of your life. You can see this if your vision is developed. You can feel this if you are aware of what you feel. You can gain your strength if your mind can become focused and unified."

“In reality, your worldly mind is meant to serve Knowledge, and here its greater strengths, intelligence and capabilities become really utilized, and it is redeemed and given a greater purpose and integration into your life.

But before this can happen, there must be a revolution—a spiritual revolution, a revolution against ideas and obligations, against fear, against guilt, against obsession, against grievances. A revolution to free you to find that which is calling to you and which has been waiting for you for so long.”

"The mind exercises authority because you do not. It is not because the mind is a tyrant or a terrible thing. The mind simply provides assurance when assurance is not provided for it. It is like an orphan child who must fend for itself until it finds a safe parent or guardian."

See Also

Conditioning

Nature and Design

Intelligence

Stillness

Mental Environment

Group mind

Metaphors for the mind

Further Study

• Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume II, Chapter 5: Working With the Mind

• Relationships & Higher Purpose, Chapter 2: Your Relationship With Yourself

• Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 7: How Is Wisdom Achieved In Life

• Preparing for the Greater Community, Chapter 15: Developing Greater Honesty

• Deepening Your Spiritual Practice (November 1, 2008)

• The One God, Chapter 3: The Origin