The Three Minds: Human consciousness

 

From young age, being inspired by the beauty and grace of Ancient Asian philosophy, I came to learn about the human spirit and mind. One of the most interesting and fundamental philosophies I have learned focuses on the human mind potential. I believe it is the main cause of differences between global ancient wisdom and modern science. I consider it most important to be aware of this principle, especially when making decisions, judging any matters or persons, and establishing theories.

⚪Ancient philosophy introduced me to the three "minds" (aspects or elements) in serve of whole human CONSCIENCE:

• The mind that knows (INTELECT): We are all familiar with our cognitive mind ability and necessity in daily life. Modern society and science are dominating the human thinking capacity and basing any statements almost completely on knowledge-base facts. Indeed, it is important to collect objective facts beyond doubt to support important decisions that may affect the general society. But leaning completely on this aspect, many times affect negatively on our judgement, neglecting the other important two elements below. The mind, with all of our advanced technology, simply CANNOT grasp the whole truth, due to it's tendency to develop biased opinions prematurely.

• The mind that cares (HEART): Showing CARE to one another means paying attention to other beings, ideas or processes. Paying full attention allows proper judgement based on grasping of "the whole picture", when the mind sometimes cannot "make sense" of things. It is through the reflection of others we can learn about any situation, or even about ourself. In order for the heart to carefully judge, it must be "clean" from bias, as in neutral. For that, we must develop MORALS that allows us to collectively make prosperous judgments and not hurt each other. Morals such as respect, manners, empathy etc. The strength of Mankind's survival depends on mutual support and teamwork. Our "heart" is also the meaning we put behind every move, act, decision that we make. It is the real intention that drives and guides our acts and thinking. Without it we get lost in directions and may fall into deceptions.

• The mind that feels (INTUITION; "Gut feelings"): It is our instincts, intuition, intuitive power. We all have it, but most of us neglect it since modern times have indoctrinated us to do so. Our guts are literally "thinking", and it is even backed by science that intestinal molecules have similarity to brain cells in nature. The phrase "keeping our feelings in our tammy" is very real and the unfortunate cause for many abdominal ailments and diseases in modern times. Many people unknowingly grow improperly with their organs being chronically affected by negative emotions stimulated by the "Vagus nerve system", causing them chronic ailments and self distraction. Their intuitive sense is being degenerated slowly and painfully. Intuition is crucially important in making the right decisions, sensing danger or a challenge, knowing the right way to resolve a situation, judging a person, and much more. Yet, many times we cannot rationally explain our mind, but just follow it's guidance.

Practicing those mind aspects can impact the quality of our judgment towards who or what we face, but neglecting any of those may degenerate it. Many of the conflicts in our world are an unfortunate result of misjudgment, arising from lack of practice of one or two of these mind-aspects: rational (critical) thinking, care (paying attention) and Intuition (feeling or sense). These means of judgement are naturally embedded within us as being humans, and must be properly recognized and maintained for the sake of our health and growth. It is our CONSCIENCE. Forgiveness of the past and respect to the present must be practiced daily in order to naturally utilize those mind elements. Ways to practice vary from meditation, listening to others more then talking to them, practicing empathy, showing care and manner beyond one's level of comfort, and avoiding making statements of decisions based on emotions!!

🌿 So in related to medicine, traditional forms have, for centuries, relied of observations of natural happenings and collecting conclusions by care and intuition, while modern science is relaying mostly on rational and objective analytics of natural phenomena. A true form of medicine should be unification of both ways, while paying respect to nature, instead of utilizing a deficient and deceptive thinking, and hurting the public's health.

It is, indeed, one of the most challenging tasks in our life. Yet, we must all be aware of those three elements of consciousness in order to live the global peace we all long to. ✌️