What is the mind?

Do we experience Consciousness? Yes. Definitely. It is a unique experience and I always have immediate access to this experience.

Likewise, do we experience mind? No. We experience thinking, but we can't say that we experience mind. I never experience my own mind and I've never seen anyone else's mind. No neurologist has ever seen a mind.

In short, the mind is very much just a concept. In other words, it doesn't exist any more than unicorns.

I think that this is important to see. Why? Because mind is referenced so often in conversation that we naturally presume that there is such a thing. Just because we are able to conceptualize something doesn't mean that it exists. Unicorns and unconsciousness are examples of such concepts that come to mind.

It would be an interesting experiment to ask people on the street to define the mind. I could be wrong, but I think most people see their mind this way:

It's me. It/me exists somewhere inside the skull of my head. It/me is the witness to everything that has ever happened to this body.

With this way of seeing myself, it is therefore clearly understood that my fate is tied to the body, and the certainty of this body dying is 100%. It/me disappears every night when I sleep and it permanently disappears when my body dies.

On the path to liberation, teachers usually define mind in one of two ways; and sometimes they switch back and forth.

1) The 'mind' is defined as a collection of mentations.

We can further organize these mentations/perceptions into 3 buckets; thinking, bodily sensations and the 5 ways in which we experience the world (sense perceptions). In other words, 'mind' is a convenient way to describe a collection of perceptions that represent the totality of the human (phenomenal) experience. As they say, all experience is mind.

I prefer not to think of the above as a definition of mind, but rather as a temporary localization within Consciousness, like a whirlpool in a river. This 'whirlpool' creates a kind of portal into a particular view of reality. Adyashanti described himself onetime as an aperture (which is defined as an opening, hole or gap). He did this as a way of trying to communicate the nothingness of himself. An aperture, as way of communicating self, is consistent with my experience (and a helpful pathway that leads back to my true nature).

Whatever our definition of mind, it will always be nothing more than a concept. That said, I prefer the following definition of mind, which is the point of the blog.

2) The mind is the current thought.

This includes memories and imaginations that appear (and always includes an element of time with it). Time adds a dimension that makes the objects of perception....feel real.

Without the dimension of thought/time added to my experience, I'm basically looking at a light show. It is an interesting experiment to remove time from my perceptions of the world.

It/me/mind/time 'appears' temporarily as the current thought, otherwise, it's not there. It doesn't exist. Where am "I" when there are no thoughts?" This is a very interesting contemplation.

It is this same understanding from which Rupert Spira says that we experience death every time a thought comes to an end, (although we usually don't notice this gap because the next thought appears to take it's place so quickly).

I can now clearly see that the ever present witness of my experience is not my mind. The witness of my experience MUST be something else. This is huge. This understanding always enables us to put space between ourselves (Consciousness) and our thoughts/mind.

If the mind were the witness, my experience would not be continuous, since thoughts are always appearing and disappearing. There are gaps in between but "I" don't disappear every time a thought disappears! This may not sound like much but it's huge. It just needs to be seen/understood.

We all understand that we are the witness of our experience. We also understanding that our experience is continuous, therefore, the Witness of my experience can't be the mind. It must be something else. I AM what sees the mind. The truth is simple. Unfortunately, our 'minds' often prefer complexity.

I can also easily understand (through my direct experience) that all of the mentations in the whirlpool have the same relationship with the Witness/Consciousness; they come and go. They appear and disappear in Consciousness. In other words, Consciousness is the Reality of all perceptions.

Before the thought appears there is Awareness. During the thought there is Awareness. After the thought has disappeared there is Awareness. It is impossible to separate a thought from Awareness because it's reality is Awareness (likewise we could never separate the gold from the ring).

The simple concepts in this blog can lead a truth seeker to a mind-blowing understanding of their current experience. There is only Consciousness. It is impossible to experience anything other than Consciousness. I can further understand that my current experience is not localized in time & space, as I have always believed. As I said, mind-blowing.

"See what the mind is doing, don't defend it, have a laugh with it, work with it...but stand in your true nature, stand as pure Consciousness" - Jac O'Keeffe