The Mind and its Concepts

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There is a tendency in our mind-dominant culture to conceptualize everything. 

Because the mind is in the driver's seat for most of us, this conceptualization happens seamlessly like an automatic gear shift in an engine.  The mind is automatic  as your clutch doeswithout us knowing it.  .  And even when we're talking about dimensions of experience that transcend concepts (think love, beauty, awe, wonder) the mind still wants to conceptualize it. 

 

On the one hand, we should give the mind a pat on the back.  It's doing everything in it's power to "make sense" of life.  And there's definitely a time and place for that.  But, just as it's so easy to get stuck in the stories of ourselves, it's just as easy to get stuck in other concepts too. 

 

When we label something, we assign a word to it (i.e. "love" "beauty" "awe" "wonder") but that doesn't mean we know what it is.  These words are conceptualizations of something deeper than the mind. 

 

As our inward exploration deepens and we begin to awaken, we see the mind continually clinging to concepts and images, continually trying to manipulate the situation to "get love"

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