Mind is the Bridge Between Matter & Consciousness

The Mind is the bridge between matter and consciousness, between that which is without and what which lay within, between the gross and the subtle.

Man comes to the world through mind; man comes to the body through mind; man comes to desires through mind. So wherever you reach, the reaching is always through the mind. If you create a hell for yourself, you create it through mind. If you create a heaven, that also is through mind.

A Zen patriarch, Hui-Hai, had said, "Mind is heaven and mind is hell." So, whatsoever you are or whatsoever you can be, it will depend ultimately on how your mind works. This working can create something for you which is not; this working can reveal to you that which is. So a mind can create a very illusionary world around it: it is capable. It can dream, and it can dream so real that you cannot even detect that whatever is seen & perceived is not real.



So mind has a projective force; it can project. That which is not, mind can create. And because mind can create that which is not, it can forget that which is. It can just be in such a state that the reality is never in any contact with it; and whatsoever happens, it depends only on the mind. So the mind has to be taken as the root of everything that one can experience. Even if one has to know the Divine, one has to go through mind. Of course, that going is difficult because that going implies dropping of the mind. Even if dropping of the mind is needed, it is through mind – because unless you drop the mind you will never be able to know the true.

Mind is everywhere, either positively or negatively. Whatsoever you are doing – creating an illusory world, or discovering the real, creating a madness for yourself, or creating a meditative state – it is all through mind. Wherever you go, you go through the bridge of the mind. Even if you have to come back to yourself, it will be through mind.

Of course, the coming back to yourself will be negative – the mind will have to be negated. To come back to yourself, the same steps will have to be taken – only the direction will be different. To leave the home, there are steps taken that will lead away, to some other place. To return back, the same steps will need to be taken but in reverse – the direction will be different. So if you can understand how mind goes out, you know that the same path is to be followed back home.

Source: The Ultimate Alchemy Vol.1 Discourse 7

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