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."

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."

A Bridge, A Yoke, The Way

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."

"For you see, you were born with two minds—a mind to think with and a mind to know. The mind that you think with is a product of all of your social conditioning. It is a product of being in the world. It is an accumulation of ideas, associations and patterns of thinking that you have been learning since the day you were born. Much of this is useful, and some of it is hazardous and dangerous to you. Certainly, you have had to learn how to survive in the world—how to survive physically, how to survive socially, how to participate within a family environment, within a culture or perhaps within a religious framework. You have had to learn how to communicate your ideas and feelings. You have had to learn what society has told you you have to learn. As we have said, some of this is useful and important and some of this is hazardous and not in your best interests."

Right Use of the Mind

"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."

An Instrument for Communication

"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."

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."

Metaphors for the Mind

"The mind must be free. It is as if your house were stuffed to the ceiling with all the possessions you have ever owned--everything--and you had not thrown away anything. It is all in there, things great and small, filling your every room and hallway. And you say, "Well, I want to bring new things into my house, but there is no room. I want to create a new feeling and atmosphere in my house, but there is no space for it." Everything is cluttered, and your house becomes increasingly uncomfortable. Your experience of being in it is imprisoning, and you find yourself spending all of your time maintaining all of these possessions."

"Your mind is like the house that you live in, in the world. It is filled with whatever you put there. It is the place from which you look out into the world. It is your shelter and your protection. It is the place where your spirit generally abides. However, if your house becomes too cluttered and too uncomfortable, Knowledge will not abide there. Then, you will find that you are living in a relic of your own past. You will feel like you are a museum keeper, someone who is taking care of old things."

"It is like an orphan child who must fend for itself until it finds a safe parent or guardian."

"The thinking mind must constantly be stirred by new experience and by adaptation to new experience and new understanding in order to be vital and capable of learning. It is like stirring concrete. If you do not keep stirring it and adding water and new things to it, it hardens. And once it hardens, it can only be broken. People who are learning and living The Way of Knowledge are constantly being renewed and refreshed because they are close to life, and they are close to Knowledge. Their thoughts change, grow and evolve. Their ideas change, grow and evolve. Their conclusions change, grow and evolve. They can do this because there is something greater. There is Knowledge, the dynamic force of life within you, within the world and within the Greater Community as well. Knowledge brings you to the edge of life where you have to learn and adapt, communicate and contribute. This keeps you young, alive and close to the heart of life. Your mind, then, becomes constantly relevant to the present and is able to prepare for the future."

"The mind without a true ruler will try to rule itself, and it makes a very poor guide in this respect. Indeed, it becomes more of a tyrant, and it is abusive, arrogant and self-deprecating all at the same time."

See Also

Nature and Design

Intelligence

Stillness

Mental Environment

Group mind

Further Study

Greater Community Spirituality: Working With the Mind

Your Relationship With Yourself

How Is Wisdom Achieved In Life