The Great Way of the Mind

[JustLikeYou]

Thank you for the praise, third-density-being. For the record, the threads you'll find in this forum are my earliest writings on the archetypes---so early I consider them rough and outdated. That doesn't mean you can't find value in them (which is why I've left them as they are), but rather that they are no longer an accurate reflection of my own approach to the archetypes.

You make an excellent point about the relationship between mind and spirit, one I that hadn't occurred to me before. My current approach to the mind is that its function is to produce and manage what I call a "Story," which is the entire mythic account you apply to your experience as a means of connecting the world to your own sense of purpose and value. The Story limits the body's function insofar as the body cannot extend beyond the boundaries of the Story. Thus, if a human never imagines that Earth revolves around the Sun, he will never perceive the data he records as supporting the hypothesis.

The Story also limits the spirit's function. This is what I call the connection between belief and faith. Most people think that faith is a matter of belief. This is not so. If it were, then faith would be an entirely mental event, because it is the mind that, through conceiving and investing in a Story, comes to believe it. Faith is when we place absolute trust in a mysterious source. The beliefs that accompany faith are merely a Story that is meant to put a name to the mysterious source. If, however, there is no space within our Story for a mysterious source, then there will be no space for faith to grow and eventually flourish.

This is why the deeply religious always experience faith within the context of their religion. They think that the mystical experiences they have that confirm their faith are confirming the Story that accounts for the mysterious source in which they have faith, but it only confirms the benevolence and value of that mysterious source. The Story is simply a mental model that provides fertile ground for the spirit to blossom. Thus, if we do not think miracles are possible, we will not see them because any faith we might have had lands on rocky and treacherous land. A skeptic is doomed to being proven right until he decides to open his mind.

I gather that you doubt that your intuition about this point is accurate because it seems as if it gives priority of Choice to the mind rather than the spirit. Ra, in fact, indirectly supports this view when they say:

105.19
"It is well to recall that the difference betwixt mind/body/spirits and mind/body/spirit complexes is a forgetting within the deeper mind."

83.19
"The mechanism of the veiling between the conscious and unconscious portions of the mind was a declaration that the mind was complex. This, in turn, caused the body and the spirit to become complex."

Clearly, the conscious/unconscious divide in the mind governs the separation between conscious and unconscious in both body and spirit. Translating this to my Story terminology, that means that the great freedom of humankind is to imagine a Story for itself. How, indeed, could we do this without the forgetting? By virtue of forgetting everything, we have the freedom to invent who we shall be. This act of invention lies squarely within the mind. Although body and spirit will have their say in the matter, the mind holds the reigns within our 3d illusion.