"Wisdom and the great philosophies all come to the same conclusion, where one knows that one is not one's mind - and therefore need not fall victim to it or believing one is it - and with that knowledge and knowing who one actually is, one is relieved of a great burden and freed up to "choice at a higher level".
This is essential knowledge for all to learn, if one is to live a great life and to be happy."
The BuddhaKahuna
Know especially (vitally) that the primitive mind's beliefs are primitive and often inaccurate and plain wrong. Do not allow them to rule. You (the higher brain) must be the determiner of beliefs, for correct beliefs are what lead to success and happiness in life. You can correct your beliefs so therefore you are capable of living your best life - there are no "mysterious forces" in the mind that "take you over."
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CONTENTS
The prerequisites for understanding how the mind works
How The "Mind" Developed
Thinking is physical only
Is the body part of the mind?
Designed for real dangers, not for today
The beauty and limitations of the primitive brain
The highest ability
The Science Of The Mind
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THE PREREQUISITES FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW THE MIND WORKS
In order to understand how the mind works one must know how the mind developed and why it developed that way. So, we address that first.
HOW THE "MIND" DEVELOPED
The short version is that random changes in our physical components simply occurred.
Some of those helped survival or attractiveness (which caused more mating and thus more children), so those changes naturally continued on in the species, while the physical components that didn't work as well for survival disappeared.
THINKING IS PHYSICAL ONLY
The mind is simply an organized physical part of us that is very sophisticated (evolved over time to by far the highest level in the world), with its electrical impulses and pathways and chemicals - all of which are physical.
Many of the same processes and physical components work in our simpler parts, from the simplest in the cells to the intermediate in the organs.
Since all the parts of the body are connected through chemical flow and electrical pathways, all parts of the body are a part of the "thinking" that makes it all work so seemingly miraculously, with the higher level functions being classified by us as "the mind".
IS THE BODY PART OF THE MIND?
Yes.
The allusions to "the intelligence of our body" and to the idea that the entire body is part of our brain are true in reality and not simply crazy metaphysical concepts.
However, this has been carried too far by some, attributed high intelligence to our lesser developed parts. Only the higher brain can do the high intelligence activities, though the lower brains are very useful and supportive.
DESIGNED FOR REAL DANGERS, NOT FOR TODAY
Keys to survival in the early times were the ability to get food, to be included in a group for better survival, pleasure chemicals that encouraged mating, the ability to fight or run if actually threatened, and the ability to scan for and sense danger.
The great irony is that we no longer have great real dangers (starving or being eaten by a tiger) to run from or fight, but that we are so stressed out by brains that are oversensitized to signals telling us there is danger (while there is none that is real). Fewer real dangers, more safety - and yet more stress!!!!! Something is wrong with this picture!!!! Let's see why and what:
Our primitive brains existed first and were very effective in having us survive, sensing danger and emitting strong motivating chemicals to cause us to go into action. We experience those chemicals as "emotions" that we feel (note that everything we feel is physical, not mental). Our thoughts (what we make of something, what we perceive/interpret, whether noticed by our awareness or not) are scanned for danger and reacted to if danger is perceived in them (often erroneously).
THE BEAUTY AND LIMITATIONS OF THE PRIMITIVE BRAIN
The payoff for the primitive brains lies in responding to any possible signal of danger, even if it wasn't real. It paid to err to the side of overresponding, so that it covered all the bases - those are the ways brain behaved that caused people to live and so those genes were the ones that were passed onward.
And the primitive brain is also not a great calibrator of how much to respond, as it just needed to get the job done without alot of thinking. It is not good to rely on it to respond appropriately to other than real dangers.
With lots of things going on today, with lots of busyness, with us thinking we musthave certain things (and that not having them is a loss, which is, to the primitive mind, a threat), the primitive brains are bombarded and can "go crazy", if not managed by the rational brain. The dumber lizard brain (the first to develop and the key senser of danger) and the dumb monkey brain (the second, more sophisticated but still primitive brain) can run us ragged and into unhappiness. Yet many of us let "Dumb and Dumber" run our lives.
THE HIGHEST ABILITY
The highest ability that evolved. but in only one part of us, was the ability to rationally think - and it survived and further evolved because it was so great in helping us survive to pass our genes on in procreation.
Since it is the highest function of a human being it should be used for all of its potential benefits - yet we, incredibly, do not do that.
Instead, we let the primitive brains and the unreasoned thoughts and beliefs rule most of our existence. We let ourselves accumulate ways of (falsely) perceiving and judging things, we make erroneous life decisions, and, consequently, we let our lives be run by things we could have designed much better - if we used our higher brains.
Many decisions are based on childhood thinking, random erroneous inputs from those around us, and on wrong conclusions - yet we allow them to continue in our lives, thinking that is "good enough" and that humans are just "supposed to" live this way or that "life is just tough" or just "too busy" to do anything so intellectual or squishy.
Well, that is absolutely incorrect - and crazy (unintelligent, without the use of reasoning!).
However, this can, with intention and well-directed efforts, be changed, to create a whole new life that is experienced at a much higher level of happiness.
THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND
There is no one on this planet who should not read The Structure Of The Brain. It covers what a miracle it is and how powerful it is, yet it also lays out the functions of the individual parts of the brain and how the chemicals affect our behaviors. It makes it clear, I think, that letting Dumb and Dumber (though good for certain things) run life is really, really dumb!
Scientific studies have proven that we can alter the physical pathways in the brain by doing the same things that caused the original pathways, but choosing what to change rather than having it be as random as it is in life and growing up. We can make the mind less sensitive to false dangers, essentially calming the brain and letting it know we are safe through the use of various relaxation/meditation routines and through the use of newly created internal (and external) conversations that convey the power and confidence to handle what really counts and is controllable in life, so that we experience safety and peace. Read Rewiring The Brain.
One reason you'll want to know about how the mind works is so that you can see, and, of course use, the methods that we believe are directly productive and which we know to be practical.
Read at this point The Physics Of The Mind, a piece that reflects how the chemicals and causes occur, so that you understand how your process works.
