Feeling and Recieving

For most, the body and the mind are limited. The body ages and dies and the mind is limited by what it thinks. When most speak of the body, they speak of the physical. When most speak of the mind they speak of the mental, the intellectual. It is important to note that these are classifications of the mind itself. What else could be engaged in this work of classifying?

That being said, there are others who have different understandings and classifications. There are those who perceive differently. In addition to the physical body, they may perceive the subtle body, the energy body, the pain body, the bliss body the no body and so on. To those who have different understandings of the mind, there may be the classification of the working mind, the thinking mind, the free mind, the no mind etc. Prior to these classifying function of mind, no classifications, of course, exist? There is just experiencing. There is just the simplicity of being, of sharing varied, rich and wondrous experiences. But something enters and says, "Hey, your classifications aren't the same as mine. They don't match my experience. That's ego. Ego is the comparative mind.

Classifications belong to the ego. They would not be, were it not for the minds function to label and organize what it perceives into a hierarchy of knowledge. Because it doesn't perceive as a whole but only in parts, it selects its parts as one would select stones to build a house. The sturdy stones comprise the foundation and so on. When the edifice is finished, there is a worldview, a self-concept and a belief system. This self-defining, acquired knowledge is then protected and defended as true.

Arrogance then shows up as the story "my beliefs are better than your beliefs" and so on. The personal self then argues, agrees and disagrees instead of seeing or mutually exploring. The problem arises because human experience is so varied that few will accept life on any ego's terms. Those who do, we classify as believers. Those who don't as infidels. A kind of "majority rule", or collective ego, takes over and the unbelievers are classified as lost souls. They are lost because their experience and perception doesn't match the others.

Worldviews and belief systems are personal. If enough individuals agree, a collective or shared belief system evolves. This is a collective ego. "I see myself in them, they are Ok" is the accompanying story. All of this is after the fact. It is a post-mind affair. It is post-classification, post-organization and post-hierarchy. Prior to these functions, there is just experiencing.

It is the need to share one's inner experience with another that creates this interpersonal play. Relationship and dialogue are born out of this desire to share one's inner experience. The challenge is that no two inner experiences are exactly alike, nor are they expressed the same. When we move from sharing and hearing to "understanding", difficulty arises. To feel you is possible, but in order to understand, in order to make sense of another, we have to translate what is being expressed or emoted into our own language. If the languages are dissimilar, the attempt to translate or interpret may be frustrating for either party. Reassurances such as "I understand you perfectly" are not always possible. What is possible is feeling. What is possible is receiving the person in openness.