Mind and Spirit

Alan Anderson Christopher

Description

The purpose of Mind and Spirit is to sex (divide into the male and female component parts) that which we call mind and that which we call spirit. We most often use these terms in a non-sexual or an androgynous way, as if mind and spirit are sexually neutral. I would suggest that that is not the case, that, in fact, mind and spirit are highly sexual, they being either male or female in nature. "The man and woman spiritual center is that center point of touch/spirit between a man and a woman. It comprises the creative process of male and female individualization and unification. It is the living embodiment of a man and woman in their rhythmic balanced interchange." Mind and Spirit

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy of mind

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 13 novembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781622871933
• Langue: English

Extrait

Mind and Spirit
Christopher Alan Anderson


First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
Mind and Spirit



Christopher Alan Anderson
Mind and Spirit
Copyright 2012 Christopher Alan Anderson
ISBN 978-1622871-93-3

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
September 2012
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ─ electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other ─ except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.
Foundation of Man and Woman Balance
www.manandwomanbalance.com
Note to the Reader:
Mind and Spirit was written in 1987. Later it was combined with three other writings into Selected Writings—Volume 2 and published in 1991. The writing is a bit rough in places. I was only in my thirties at the time. But there are some real jewels to be found throughout as is often the case with original work. Also, the use of the masculine and feminine could be smoother. Sometimes I use man, mankind, him, his, etc., to mean both the man and woman. In any embodiment of text, that takes time to work out.
The purpose of Mind and Spirit is to sex (divide into the male and female component parts) that which we call mind and that which we call spirit. We most often use these terms in a non-sexual or an androgynous way, as if mind and spirit are sexually neutral. I would suggest that that is not the case, that, in fact, mind and spirit are highly sexual, they being either male or female in nature.

C.A.A.— August 27, 2009
Santa Rosa, California
Table of Contents
Part 1—Mind
Dynamic Mind
Sexuality is Individuality
Conceptual Mind
The Panorama of Consciousness
The Schizophrenic Experience
Addiction
Reordering of Mind

Part 2—Spirit
The Oneness Misconception
The Spirit of Man and of Woman
Service to Whom?
Transcendence
The Conversion Experience
Cults
The Man and Woman Spiritual Center
Epilogue: Deceit and the Quest for Truth
Part 1 Mind

Dynamic Mind
What is mind? To answer this question we must engage our thinking faculty. Yes, we must think. We must think not only to answer this question, “What is mind?” but we must also think to ask the question. But isn’t that what “mind” is, that which thinks? When one engages in thinking, is he not then using his mind? But that doesn’t say much about mind does it, to say that mind is “that” which thinks?
Instead of asking the question, “What is mind?” we may rather ask the question, “What is ‘that’ which thinks?” But again, to answer, or ask, that question, or any other, one must think. Maybe it’s better to ask, “What is thinking?” If we can get a handle on thinking, we can then designate that activity a mental process or the working of mind or some such label. The advantage of this is it allows us to think of mind as an activity, an action, or more specifically, an interaction instead of a thing.
We are actually forced into this position through thinking itself. To think constitutes a thinker and a “thing” thought upon. It requires a subject-object, a this-as-opposed-to-that or duality. One cannot think without there being at least two differentiating things, which thinking itself brings about. Upon this realization it can be concluded that the question, “What is mind?” is somewhat contradictory. That question infers there is this singular thing called mind. Mind is such and such. But to get to such an answer we must engage our thinking which itself constitutes a duality. When one is thinking about mind, mind only exists as part of a relationship with something else. Therefore mind cannot be some singular thing at some given place but must exist as part of a relationship of things.
Or we could designate mind to be a specific activity or process of things thereby labeling that given interaction “mind.” That would be fine and is, in fact, what we must do.
So, we may now say that mind is the activity of thinking. We can further say that the activity of thinking constitutes a duality. There is a basic relationship or interaction involved.
What is the basic activity involved in thinking? The basic activity is twofold. First of all, thinking constitutes the act of concentration, a focusing upon something. It is through the action of concentration that one focuses upon something to specify its identity in relation to all other things. To think is a concentrative focus that specifies something unique in existence in relation to everything else, thus the duality of life.
Secondly, thinking constitutes a release of that concentrative focus where one is no longer straining to hold things defined and unique. The effort to concentrate is fatiguing. Fatigue brings on the need to rest. When one desires rest, he lets go of the focus he is holding. He releases that identification. He decentrates or exhales into the non-differentiated state where all is non-distinct, as in an equilibrium. Thus the unity of things.
Just as effort is fatiguing, so, too, is rest rejuvenating. From the state of rest from thinking one again will concentrate to bring into his focus that which is of his desire to identify. So we can see here that the two aspects of thinking, concentration or the bringing something into focus and decentration or the releasing of that focus, work in a cyclic fashion together, each bringing on the need of the other. This is what is referred to by the term dynamic mind.
As stated, mind is not some singular thing existing at some given place but rather a dynamic activity constituting an action-rest sequence of thinking which takes into account an inherency of relationship between things. It is this inherency of relationship that we wish to delve into. But for the moment let us consider the idea that when a person refers to “his mind,” that he actually means his own cyclic thinking, his action-rest process in interaction with all things. He is just referring to his capacity to think, to conceptualize, to abstract, to deduce, to hold an idea singular and specific in his consciousness and not some mysterious external force or thing called mind that somehow is working in him or through him.
Mind, then, may simply be viewed as that which comprises the two aspects, or one process, of thinking. We engage in a categorical mistake when we consider mind as something separate from thinking. Just as a university is the name for all the various departments and not some specific building, so, too, is mind the whole of what comprises the action-rest sequence of thought.
If mind is not some singular thing, how is it that humans possess the gift of thought, of consciousness, while other forms of life do not? Physiologically, we must look to our nervous systems, brain size, etc., to consider why we possess the capacity to hold ideas in our “minds,” to think, and to be conscious of that operation. Why we possess such a capacity is partly a question of evolution as well as a metaphysical question. Somewhere we must enter the metaphysical arena and look at the force or desire that is inherent in any action of thinking and rest from thinking. Dynamic mind is not without a desire.
Sexuality is Individuality
Mind may be viewed as an activity or process called thinking that identifies something in relation of something else through concentration and then rests from that endeavor unifying the relationship through decentration. The purpose of concentration is to define, identity, or individualize a something. This effort may simply be called individualization. The purpose of decentration is to rest from the effort of individualization; it is to release or relax which then unifies the separate parts of the relationship into a oneness of rest. This resting may simply be called unification.
Individualization and unification are the two aspects of the activity of mind inherent in mind because of that exact desire. The desire is two-way, to individualize something in relation to something else through concentration and to unify separate things through decentration. This two-way desire is the creative breath of existence itself. Notice, too, that it is an activity. It is the life element, the breath, the cyclic interaction between identification of something in relationship through effort and the unification of things through rest.
Creation is the individualization of something from the non-distinct state of unity. Decentration is the uniting of separate things from the distinct state of individuality. Creation-decreation is the two-way cyclic interaction between individualization and unification which occurs through those two exact desires. One desire is to specify an individuality, unique and separate; the other desire is to bring together separate individualities as one. Each desire brings on the need of the other-- effort, rest, effort, rest and so on.
This mind dynamic, the creative-decreative thinking process, is a sexual process. The sexual is a self-other differentiation in a creative-decreative interchange. The two aspects of the sexual process are the desires to individualize and to unify. Male is begot from female to specify his individuality in relation to hers through that effort, and then he dies back into female uniting his being with hers upon which the next cyclic reproduction will occur. Female begets male from herself upon which she again prepares herself, her individualization, to receive male into herself to thus continue the process.
We might say that male divides from female to identify, define, and secure that exact male and female relationship. A man’s existent purpose, his primordial essence, is to hold specific individuality in relation to all else, female. That is how he secures her, he holds her in relationship to himself. To do so necessitates periodic rest. The effort to individualize i