What is the difference between mind and brain?
I was curious for a long time about the difference between mind and brain. I asked around, but nobody had an answer for me. So I continued on with life, now and then, pondering this question, but when no one has an answer for you, it turns more into a fleeting thought.
Over the last few years, I was diving deeper and deeper into my SELF. My experiences have taught and allowed me to differentiate between mind and brain. The mind is like a river. It needs and loves to flow. If you block it by building a dam, it will begin to overflow and drown the nature that surrounds it.
In our case, our brain is nature and it is being drowned by the power and over flow of our mind.
We have built a dam around our necks, that traps the mind in our heads. I think, this was important for the evolution of the brain. The question is, if we didn’t park the mind in our heads, would the human brain have evolved to where it is today? Would technology and science, for example, have reached the heights and not to forget the speed at which it is evolving, without having the mind so focused on the development of the brain?
These questions I don’t have answers too. I just have my perspective through the lens of my experiences to share. See, there is another part of human evolution occurring right now and I’m not sure if enough people are necessarily taking notice. We have been driving our brains in fifth gear for a long time and are beginning to wear out the engine. Just take notice of the increase in mental illnesses. Do you think that its a coincidence that yoga and meditation have entered into the spotlight? Even group activities like cross-fit and marathons? All these are activities that help us connect our mind and bodies.
I see all of this as our bodies saying, hey, its time to break the dam. The next stage and evolution of the brain, of humans, is to bring the rest of our body on board. Our heart, our gut, everything from neck down.
How? By sharpening the mind with meditation techniques and practice of your choice.
Many will say that meditation is not for me because I just can’t stop myself from thinking. Meditation is exactly for those who cannot stop thinking (this guy included).
Yoga, cross-fit and running are amazing when connecting with the body, but not enough. Meditation is what sharpens the mind, when learned and grasped, it takes us to the next level of our being, which is full mind and body connection. Being so disconnected from our bodies, parking the mind in the head is a result of need, because the systems we have built (i.e. corporate workplaces) have expired, but we haven’t had the courage and awareness to collectively change the systems we are currently playing in.
The importance of bringing the body, the whole body on board is to begin collectively and at a mass scale, build systems from the heart and soul, rather then just our heads, our brains.
We are also running the business of religion from our heads, not our hearts and definitely not our souls. Religion is of no use to most of us today, because it is a system to access the soul, the spirit, your true being. It’s a different level. A level, regardless of religion, we have moved far away from. We have boxed religion within our brain, and have tried to make it a logical system, but prayers aren’t logical, they are mysterious and magical.
There is no access to soul, to source, if our minds and bodies are not synced first.
My grandmother was my guru. I see clearly now what she was actually doing. She was a simple woman, no hijab, no fluff and bullshit that all religions have these days, just simple prayer, five times a day. But she also had a tasbeeh (prayer beads) which by definition 'involves repetitive utterance of short sentences' (thank you Google), and the tazbeh was used as a counter. Essentially, my grandmother repeated mantras. I developed this awareness only after training in transcendental meditation last year and experiencing the benefits of mantras. It was the meditation technique, combined with prayers, that she was able open the doors to the soul via meditation and dropped the mysterious prayers into the fountain of the Universe.
If we want to get to the level of the spirit, which again is the inevitable path, it’s not whether you choose to come along or not, its a matter of us all hitting the tipping point of a wider collective awareness. It’s happening and the seeds are being planted and nurtured very heavily. Those already there are making it fucking rain.
Your brain (actually, its our ego) communicates to you that meditation is not for you, the ego, whom's sole purpose is to keep the SELF suppressed and on the bench. It’s up to you, but sooner or later, it will be time for your ego to let the SELF play, to break the dam and let the river of energy flow freely.
Parking the mind in our head, results in the rest of the body resembling a neglected garden, filled with weeds. I view meditation as the bodies Weedwacker. Meditation sharpens our minds. It’s a way to reset your being by scanning, maintaining and resetting the body and removing all those unwanted weeds by the roots that are no longer serving you.