The Spiritual Mind: The Difference Between The Ego and the Superconscious

THE COMPLEX MIND

The mind is a complicated apparatus.  It seems full of layers, hidden complex information as well as what is consciously known.  The mind resembles a complicated, never-ending file cabinet drawer full of individual folders.  Each folder represents an image or section of our personal life story, a story we can’t help but become addicted to. 

When you dissect the mind, this lengthy file cabinet drawer, do you think it is in your brain?  It seems that way since reasoning occurs above the neck.  But what if the mind has nothing to do with the brain and has everything to do with the field of consciousness, we are viewing life through. 

If you are aware of something outside of yourself, if your eyes see objects and things around you as separate, then you have a subject and an object, you have two.  You are conscious of something else.  The brain is receiving external or internal information, processes and interprets it, but is it the source of your conscious awareness?

Scientists argue this theory back and forth.  Some believe the brain is the driver of the mind, and others seem to think the mind is dictating to the brain.  Wherever your position or opinion lies, the near-death experience opens the door to a much larger field of awareness outside of the body.  People who are medically pronounced brain dead go on to have experiences that seem more alive than our current state of being.  How is this so?

Because we are in a body, it’s easy to assume that the brain is dictating everything.  All it takes is one life-altering experience for you to think otherwise.  This experience may take you out of your thinking mind and into a vast expansive unlimited space which feels beyond the body, beyond the mind, and beyond thought.  It is here you begin to see there is much more than the eyes are showing you.  There is much more to your true self than even your brain can comprehend. 

This is the doorway into the spiritual mind, or as some refer to as the superconscious.  It is the spiritual mind that calls us away from the petty ego mind and its many layers of confusion.

THE UNCONSCIOUS, CONSCIOUS, AND THE EGO

Thoughts, emotions, feelings, experiences, and memories are both known and unknown.  You can hold on to detailed mental imagery in your mind if you wish to, until one day it is long gone, out of your conscious awareness possibly stored in the unconscious to resurface again at any given moment. 

The unconscious is a treasure trove of your hidden self, experiences during this lifetime and maybe many others.  Not only are these unconscious thoughts suppressed, but they are stacking up one by one on top of the ego mind’s worst fear, the fear of losing itself.  This particular thought stays as deep down as the unconscious mind will bury it, so you never have to think about it.  You will be distracted with a million other experiences in the world before you ever get to the root of the ego’s true dilemma. 

As A Course in Miracles reminds us, the ego has no place in the Holy Spirit’s thought system.  Here is where the ego’s mastery is seen.  Creating a deeper hidden layer of vital information away from your conscious awareness, so you continue to devote yourself to the ego’s game of identification, separation, specialness, and self-gratification.  Layer after layer the ego works to keep its system alive.  What a clever system it is!  Look at how easy it is to fall into its trap! 

When you begin to see that the ego’s small-minded thought system is in direct opposition to the larger spiritual mind, you will then want to know how you can stop the insanity, right?  What are some of the characteristics to watch for to recognize when you are seeing through the ego’s lens, or when you are viewing life through the spiritual eye?

The spiritual mind is the reminder of where our real home lies, in the eternal presence of God.  However, the mind is a powerful tool and creates a direct contradiction to the larger spiritual mind, which is the unconscious and conscious ego mind, or in quite simple terms, the small mind.

THE SUPERCONSCIOUS OR THE SPIRITUAL MIND

First, what is the superconscious, or the spiritual mind?  Some may even refer to this as your higher self.  Whichever term you are comfortable using, remember it’s simply a word to give your mind context, it is the energetic field encompassing the totality of consciousness.  It is expansive, unlimited, and beyond the tunnel vision of our ego identification as a self. It is the energy behind the material realm, or the unseen realm which makes up the seen world.

For example, you identify with your given name.  You think you are that person your entire life.  When you have an experience with the superconscious, or the larger mind, your small identity is not important.  You are in connection with a large powerful field which functions on a higher vibration.  You might even feel this vibrational field physically.  The pure state of being is enough in this state.  There is calm, tranquility, peace, as well as a direct channel for inspiration, creativity, and extending this feeling to others.

To answer the above question, here are a list of identifiers to notice when you are in your small (ego) mind versus the larger (spiritual) mind.

 Small Mind

·         Always working to self-gratify, everything accomplished is only for itself.

·         Seeing yourself as separate from everyone else.  Dividing others into levels, labels, and categories.  Seeing through a hierarchical system.

·         Worrying about the future or meddling over the past.

·         Controlling every aspect of your life.

·         Needing specific outcomes and expectations on yourself and other people.

·         Mentally arguing with what is currently happening, or the now moment.

·         Thinking you should be doing something other than what you are doing.

·         Regretting past decisions.

·         Self-sabotaging thoughts, criticism and judgment of yourself and others.

·         Living in a state of fear or being fearful of what’s to come.

 Large Mind

·         Allowing life to unfold.  You trust you are guided and see the deeper meaning behind any given situation.

·         Compassion, kindness, empathy, and love for everyone no matter the circumstance.

·         Seeing through the veil of separation and feeling the interconnectedness of all things.

·         Being non-judgmental of yourself and other people.

·         Loving another enough to place a boundary if you need to. 

·         Recognizing thought as a means to operate in the world but knowing it is not who you are.

·         Observing, noticing, and watching without attaching to anything.

·         Understanding another person even if you don’t agree with them.

·         Receiving a strong sense of knowing and listening to the call.

·         Being of service without needing anything in return. Simply extending love is pure joy.

Establishing a regular practice of observing who you are choosing to connect with, ego or spirit, will eventually become like riding a bike.  The more you see where the ego creeps in, the easier it will be to let go of its clenching grasp.  One day you’ll smile at it, and even laugh out loud.  Then you know the sacred space within is shining brightly within.  You are in touch with your spiritual side, and that is simply enough.