The Universal Family

To the mind, what appears to it is assumed to be reality and not just a metaphor of reality.

To the mind, “I am” is a thought that defines a separate embodied self which is real.

The mind believes it knows because it mistakes rational logic and recognition and thought as knowing.

This belief by the mind that it knows reality is called ego.

But this type of knowing is better called simply “recognition” than knowing, so as not to confuse it with true knowing, which is only possible by awareness.

This is why the mind can be likened to an adolescent or less mature form of intelligence than the pure knowing awareness that is actually its parent and that truly knows.

The mind may rationally calculate 2 + 2 = 4 which is very useful. It may also label a tree a tree which is useful. It may also have a language that it can communicate with which is very useful.

However, the understanding of the significance of these phenomena comes not from the mind but from awareness.

Notice, it is only in the gap between thoughts that understanding flourishes, and the only thing present in the gap between thoughts is awareness; therefore, where can understanding come from but the silent source of awareness?

The mind does not like to admit this, especially if it is used to being in control.

In fact, what appears to the mind can only be known to be real by the awareness of it, and this realness or isness of what appears is not dependent on its form but is universally the same isness or realness of all appearances regardless of their form.

Notice, as we look at an object in the room and experiment with our imagination to change its shape and colour as if by magic, that our awareness of its reality or isness is constant.

This invisible isness is known directly by the awareness of it, as the mind cannot see it, yet it is the reality of everything the mind is perceiving at this moment.

The problem is when the parent of awareness focuses its attention so much on the content of its adolescent mind and the sensations of its body it loses connection with itself as awareness.

Then we think we are what appears to the mind, and we become the adolescent who believes the mind is the source of knowing and mistake intellectual recognition for knowing.

We then make the mistake of claiming we know the self is a separate object because that is how things appear to the mind, and we conflate it with the human body because we are making what appears to the mind reality.

As soon as we objectify ourselves like this, we instantly trigger psychological suffering.

What was originally a fascinating experience of thought and sensation that drew us in suddenly becomes a terrifying mortal reality of the body that we somehow think we are, and we must control, fix, get, avoid, or change it because we have lost the peaceful, permanent, safe context of our true nature as awareness.

To some extent, we are always dancing on the edge of fascination with the experiences of mind and body that we are aware of, running the risk of getting lost in them and identifying with them.

Psychological suffering is defined as any thought that asserts that the self is limited in time and space.

This thought creates unpleasant emotions that resist the natural flow of life to protect an illusory separate self.

This situation is not the fault of the mind, for it is only doing its best to keep safe in the absence of its true parent's awareness of knowing itself.

This psychological suffering clouds the awareness of the body and its needs, further adding to the problem as the body needs balanced comfort and must be listened to.

It is our vehicle, and not listening to the body will mean more tension and possibly illness, which is a shame as it is our beautiful vehicle.

The body senses if it is in physical danger, in the right social company, or existentially disoriented.

The mind believes psychological suffering is a result of trying to protect the body, but this is not true, for it only gets in the way of that protection.

Because the mind is used to believing it knows the self is a limited object based on its limited intelligence of rational logic, it is possible to quieten the mind by the same process of logic.

If the mind believes it is the source of awareness and there is a limited embodied self, we can ask it to provide convincing rational evidence this is true.

As it never has such evidence, it will desist from advancing any limiting thought predicated on this belief.

Thus, through a combination of awareness, understanding that it is the only source of true knowing, and using the mind's own rationality to quieten itself, we can remain as the open, undefinable, unlimitable, safe, whole, aware reality we truly are.

We can know through experience as we are the source of everything.

We can understand we are the awareness that knows everything that happens, in which everything happens and of which everything is made.

Then we return to our natural state of wholeness.

Then, we can assume our correct position as the always peaceful parent of our adolescent mind and enjoy its intelligence without getting lost in it.

Because psychological suffering may have been experienced by then, tension in the body may have been triggered.

However, experiencing our natural state of wholeness, we can allow the body to release this in its own time, as we would allow a child to cry if it was upset while offering it loving reassurance.

If the child knows it is safe because its parent is present, it will, as a matter of course release the tension in its own time.

Then the Universal Family of Awareness, Mind and Body is happy and comfortable and can joyfully celebrate its aliveness again.

Love

Freyja