Why do I call it Two Minds Meet? There are a few reasons:
1) Every time we dialogue here, two minds are meeting. The root of dialogue, dia + logos, means "two speaking." It was Socrates' favorite method, no? In early Western civilization, the Greeks also used Logos with a capital L to mean the Order or "Mind" that holds the universe together.
In the East, the philosopher-prince Gotama Siddartha, aka The Buddha, preferred dialogue over lecturing to convey his deep ideas. So when he proclaims all things are empty, impermanent, and without any substance, he's not laying down absolute doctrine. He is merely opening up the beginning of what will usually be a fascinating conversation with whoever happens to be hanging around the banyan tree with him that day.
At Two Minds Meet, you never know where the conversation might go. It's like jazz and blues: Each post will have a hook (dominant theme), as well as form and meter (structure, groove, and tempo). But it can also get highly improvisational. The main thing is to keep it swinging, and to really listen to the other players before you respond. That makes for good music!
So, Two Minds Meet gives us a framework, whether we are discussing the Fragments of Heraclitus, fine funky music, how to properly gut an old commercial building, or the intricate meditations of Shingon Buddhism.
Why Else Two Minds Meet?
2) In the fields of psychoanalysis and depth psychology, there are basically two levels of mind: The conscious mind comprised of the ego and persona that rules the waking world. It dictates all the preferred or acceptable behaviors, needs and desires of individuals in this society or that.
Underneath that lives the unconscious mind with its shadow and anima/animus figures, that rules the dream world. It is where secretive or publicly disallowed ideas and desires swim around; the things we think, say, and do only in private. But it is also the creative zone where all of our artistic and inventive potential is buried, yet percolating. It is loaded with gold. We also have from the field of psychology other notions of Two Minds: active and receptive mindstates, masculine and feminine, left brain/right brain, and so on.
At Two Minds Meet I am particularly interested in exploring not only these various pairs but their interaction...And there’s a third reason why I chose Two Minds Meet:
3) In the Perennial Philosophy of the Old Silk Road, there is the common idea that in addition to one’s apparent Individual Mind with its conscious and unconscious contents, there exists a boundless, mysterious level of mind or consciousness with which one either relates or identifies. Religious metaphors for this mystery are God and Nirvana. Psychological terms include the transpersonal psyche, the non-ordinary state, and super-consciousness. For simplification, we could call it the Unborn Mind. At Two Minds Meet, I am interested in exploring the place where Individual Mind and Unborn Mind meet.
Regardless of which two minds we might be discussing, the various scenarios in which they happen to meet is no clean line or straight edge, but instead a continually shifting boundary, a fuzzy interface. It is a permeable membrane where energy, ideas, and information pass back and forth. Imagine a funky jazz-rock jam, a swirling, swinging, meandering process of listening and responding. Or imagine a shoreline where the crested waves of the deep ocean have broken and are now delivering their frothy sea foam up onto the firm smooth sand.
This is where Two Minds Meet. Can’t wait to see what topic comes up first...I'll get back to you in the next post...
1) Every time we dialogue here, two minds are meeting. The root of dialogue, dia + logos, means "two speaking." It was Socrates' favorite method, no? In early Western civilization, the Greeks also used Logos with a capital L to mean the Order or "Mind" that holds the universe together.
In the East, the philosopher-prince Gotama Siddartha, aka The Buddha, preferred dialogue over lecturing to convey his deep ideas. So when he proclaims all things are empty, impermanent, and without any substance, he's not laying down absolute doctrine. He is merely opening up the beginning of what will usually be a fascinating conversation with whoever happens to be hanging around the banyan tree with him that day.
At Two Minds Meet, you never know where the conversation might go. It's like jazz and blues: Each post will have a hook (dominant theme), as well as form and meter (structure, groove, and tempo). But it can also get highly improvisational. The main thing is to keep it swinging, and to really listen to the other players before you respond. That makes for good music!
So, Two Minds Meet gives us a framework, whether we are discussing the Fragments of Heraclitus, fine funky music, how to properly gut an old commercial building, or the intricate meditations of Shingon Buddhism.
Why Else Two Minds Meet?
2) In the fields of psychoanalysis and depth psychology, there are basically two levels of mind: The conscious mind comprised of the ego and persona that rules the waking world. It dictates all the preferred or acceptable behaviors, needs and desires of individuals in this society or that.
Underneath that lives the unconscious mind with its shadow and anima/animus figures, that rules the dream world. It is where secretive or publicly disallowed ideas and desires swim around; the things we think, say, and do only in private. But it is also the creative zone where all of our artistic and inventive potential is buried, yet percolating. It is loaded with gold. We also have from the field of psychology other notions of Two Minds: active and receptive mindstates, masculine and feminine, left brain/right brain, and so on.
At Two Minds Meet I am particularly interested in exploring not only these various pairs but their interaction...And there’s a third reason why I chose Two Minds Meet:
3) In the Perennial Philosophy of the Old Silk Road, there is the common idea that in addition to one’s apparent Individual Mind with its conscious and unconscious contents, there exists a boundless, mysterious level of mind or consciousness with which one either relates or identifies. Religious metaphors for this mystery are God and Nirvana. Psychological terms include the transpersonal psyche, the non-ordinary state, and super-consciousness. For simplification, we could call it the Unborn Mind. At Two Minds Meet, I am interested in exploring the place where Individual Mind and Unborn Mind meet.
Regardless of which two minds we might be discussing, the various scenarios in which they happen to meet is no clean line or straight edge, but instead a continually shifting boundary, a fuzzy interface. It is a permeable membrane where energy, ideas, and information pass back and forth. Imagine a funky jazz-rock jam, a swirling, swinging, meandering process of listening and responding. Or imagine a shoreline where the crested waves of the deep ocean have broken and are now delivering their frothy sea foam up onto the firm smooth sand.
This is where Two Minds Meet. Can’t wait to see what topic comes up first...I'll get back to you in the next post...
Posts
Absolutely stunning and well explained! I can't wait to see where this all goes and hope to be an active part of it.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait either.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds heavenly
ReplyDeletebut
Poets struggle with love lost and then use pretty words to pour their angst on to paper
They don't live their love but live their pain
So what I wonder is
can love be magical once it is off the paper and breathing real air?
hmmm.... as I think about it
the magic comes in moments sandwiched in between practicality
and that's not so bad. I guess
thank you
Kate43, thanks for your comment...Interesting that you shifted it to the subject of love, but now after conversing with you I realize you were commenting on Post 47 which included some love poetry of Rumi. It's all related anyway, right?And your insights are appreciated!
ReplyDelete