The Unidirectionality of Mind
The ability of any system to create binary structures, to identify its qualities as objects of interaction while preserving its internal unity and coherence, is traditionally called mind.
In other words, the mind is a property that combines unity and multiplicity, neutralizing and integrating them from the standpoint of unity. At the same time, the ability of each quality or element to serve as an object of awareness is called its being. Put differently, being is a property that combines multiplicity and unity, neutralizing and integrating them from the standpoint of multiplicity. Being and mind define one another and manifest only interdependently.
The levels of such interpenetration differ. At the highest, integral, non-dual level, being and mind are merged into one, dividing in the process of knowing within the primary potential binary unit of the Monad-energy, or, strictly speaking, the level of presence. However, the realization of this binary unit requires the following, more particular, levels — selves, personalities, and the flow of psychic states.
From this point of view it is clear that the mind is at once static and mobile, homogeneous and directed, even and vectorized. The mind as presence, as a luminous capacity, can manifest as vectors — attention. Thus one can distinguish in the mind its immutable, present, static component — Light — and the dynamic manifestation — awareness, arising from attention.
This understanding, in turn, leads to the view that awareness, as the action of mind, is more effective the more attention is present, or, in other words, the more unidirectional the dynamic component of the mind. This idea finds expression in the notion of the necessity of purity of action, purity of energies — that is, essentially, ritual purity, inspiration — one of the cornerstones of Magic.
The higher the unidirectionality of mind, the greater its homogeneity — the fuller its penetration into being, the more clearly it crystallizes those aspects at which it is directed, and thus the more perfectly it accomplishes its task — illuminating being, which is traditionally described as “the entering of Light into the vessel.”
In fact, such unidirectionality of the mind, and therefore its maximal effectiveness, can be achieved by two Ways.
First Way — the exclusion from the mind of the category of time, which is the category of duration. All approaches and techniques aimed at “being here and now,” the famous Zen admonition, “when you wash the cup — wash the cup,” point precisely to this. The mind abandons its temporal dispersion, plunging entirely into awareness of the current flow of being through it. The “concentration” of the mind thereby becomes very high, its focus becomes maximal, and thus the penetration of mind into being, their mutual integration, and consequently their mutual neutralization and fusion into the Great Perfection reach their height. This Way — the way of “non-action,” “wu-wei” — corresponds to the contemplative activity of mind.
Second Way — the exclusion from the mind of the category of space, and is — multivector approach, the category of breadth. This path consists in concentrating awareness into a minimal number of vectors, chains, interlinked sequences of actions that organize the mind’s movement into causal sequences. Highly ordered, ritualized activity corresponds to the transforming activity of mind.
It is clear that a harmoniously developing mind must combine both approaches; however, depending on which is predominantly relied upon, developmental Ways may be contemplatively oriented or transformatively oriented. Nevertheless, irrespective of the emphasis an individual Way of development places, the mind must strive to overcome multiplicity of its manifestations, toward unidirectionality and clear focus, without which the depth of the mind’s penetration into being will not be sufficient for their integration.
I really liked this post. You wrote it quite concisely. After all, the main thing is to find two maximally integrated poles of the binary, which are the path of the magician, and integrate them.
Dear Enmerkar, hello. Recently, I reread your posts tagged Will, and in one of the posts I read the following: ‘Any coupling of the binary poles always requires the existence of a third active principle, since in direct merging they would mutually extinguish potential differences and ultimately yield zero.’ In the current post, there is such a quote: ‘The ‘Concentration’ of consciousness becomes very high, its focus – maximum, therefore the penetration of consciousness into being is also maximum, their mutual integration, and consequently – mutual neutralization, merging into the Great Perfection.’ Please explain why in this case there won’t be the extinguishing of potential differences – these are not the poles of the binary, or they will be conjugated through the world will if the adept renounces personal will through contemplation? Generally, am I right in understanding that in the case of ‘contemplation,’ the adept leaves all attempts to engage their personal will and hands everything ‘to the will of God’?
The poles of the binary are oppositely directed manifestations of one common source. At the same time, the binary does not have actual existence, it merely represents ‘poles of possibilities,’ the actualization of which is possible only through interaction. Accordingly, there are three ways of interaction. The first is to annihilate each other, returning to a potential state. Such interaction occurs when the poles overlap ‘according to the vector principle.’ The second is to create a difference of potential, balancing the repulsive force (which actually produced this binary) with the attractive force (between the poles as complementary parts of the whole), performing some work, creating some third element – ‘androgyne,’ ‘child,’ carrying ‘parts’ constituting each pole. The third option is when the poles ‘reflect’ in each other, activating each other’s ‘reflection,’ without merging, but revealing in each other all the potential possibilities, losing separateness without annihilation; this method is called ‘integration’ of the binary. The first of the quotes you presented refers to the birth of the ‘androgyne’ of the binary, a third element born by its poles and at the same time connecting them and maintaining their separateness. The second quote refers to the creation of ‘integral’ – mutual reflection of the poles.
The interaction of consciousness with being, manifested in the form of the growth of awareness, also has the aspect of the identity of the macrocosm with the microcosm. By becoming aware of a part of the macrocosm, the consciousness actualizes in itself a part identical to the aware part of the macrocosm.
Awareness, as the synchronization of identical parts of the microcosm and macrocosm, requires the unidirectionality of awareness, in both the aspect of excluding the past and future of the magician (focusing attention on here and now) and in minimizing the number of vectors involved in awareness (concentration on action, excluding other actions).
Unidirectionality of awareness does not limit the aware part of being (a cup, a stream, a breeze, a fish in a stream, or all of this collectively) in contemplation, but recommends concentrating on one’s own practices of awareness, in the MOMENT and in the ACTION of their implementation (when you wash the cup – wash the cup).
The category of time, in unidirectional awareness, disappears in the aspect of the past and future of the magician, but is preserved, in the form of the rhythms of ritual (speed of action and perception) and time compressed within and located outside the aware part of being (its past – in creation and future – in transformation and application).
The category of width of awareness in unidirectional awareness disappears in the aspect of chaotic actions concerning a particular object of being, but is preserved in the aspect of the multiplicity of practices and integrated multidimensional perception in awareness of different objects of being.
Thank you.