Where is your mind right now?

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IN THIS ISSUE

    1. Introduction
    2. An alternative concept of Mind
    3. Our subscribers' section
    4. Copyright
   5. Un|subscribe & Delivery

Workshop Announcement

Join us to learn how to say "Yes" to life, by tapping into the wisdom and intelligence of your body, heart, and soul.

Embodied Wisdom:
Use the intelligence of your body to change the way you think and feel
Seishindo Personal Development Workshop
with Charlie Badenhop and Dorothy Pietracatella
Washington DC, November 4-5-6, 2005

1. Introduction

In the Intermezzo issues of our newsletter I want to introduce you to various concepts that are essential to the way you experience the world. In reading what is written, I hope you will be drawn to consider and appreciate your life from a new perspective.

Please DO let us know what you think and feel.

In community,
Charlie

2. An alternative concept of Mind

Exploring the concept you have of the term "mind" can give you fresh insight into how you live your life, and how your life might be different if you conceived of your "mind" differently.

If asked to locate their mind, almost all Westerners would quickly point in the direction of their head. Once the well known philosopher Descartes said 360 year ago, "I think, therefore I am." Western people tended to lose touch with life below their neck. Mind was equated with one's ability to think and strategize, and therefore mind seemed to naturally reside inside one's brain. Such a concept of mind can quickly lead one to feel they do not understand their body, and that they have very little idea of what goes on "down there." Westerners tend to identify with their brain, head and face, much more than they do with their body. If we want to know about our health, for the most part we feel that we need to go to someone else and have them tell us whether or not we are in good condition.

On the other hand, if you ask a Japanese person to locate their mind, they will usually indicate the area of their heart. For the Japanese, mind very much relates to one's emotions, and the spirit that a person lives their life with. For the Japanese, mind resides in the body, as well as in the brain. Having such a belief it is of no surprise that all Japanese art forms emphasize the intelligence of the body, and developing the ability to think with and act from one's gut.

In Seishindo we believe that "mind" is a living, sentient, creative process, and that the identity, location, and scope of one's "mind" is always changing. Mind is capable of overcoming physical and temporal constraints, and it uses and manufactures energy in order to support the self and one's surroundings, trade information, and adapt to change. In Seishindo we relate mind to the concept of intuition, and other forms of knowing that are not necessarily rational in nature. Whatever one is able to see, hear, touch, taste, smell, or feel, is part of one's mind at any one given moment.

In Seishindo we also consider mind to be a highly intelligent energy field capable of creating, sustaining, and dissolving experience. Mind can be "dense" or "diffuse" in form, just like H₂O can become ice, water, or mist. In its denser forms mind contracts itself into physical structures, such as the human body, or habitual actions and thought patterns as manifested by our cognitive and emotional self. Although our habits may initially develop due to generative adaptation, in the long run our habits tend to make us less able to change our behavior and less aware. In its subtler forms mind is a life giving force, the essence of which is found in procreation. A healthy mind fosters the creation of new life, a sense of profound well-being, connection to other life forms, and love.

Your mind has a natural tendency to wander. It does so in order to relate one piece of information to another, generate meaning, redefine identity, adapt, and thus learn. The ability to encourage and harness the wandering of your mind helps you to have an expanded understanding of what was previously known.

Information that you do not organize in a way that is meaningful for you will tend to remain random, and thus not readily available for future recall and use. Organization of incoming information is a creative task that requires you to personalize and transform what you experience, and thus bind it to structures that already exist within you.

Context, meaning, sensation, and memory are inseparable, and based upon the unique and subjective model of the world each person constructs. Our most primary frame of reference/context is our sense of self in relationship with Spirit. Expanding your sense of self to include your relationship with Spirit, transforms your primary learning context, the meaning you give to your experience, your sensations and memories, and thus your experience of Life.

Take a breath and consider what you have just read.

Breathing is the body's way of thinking.