The Natural Mind

Facade, Laon Cathedral

February 9, 2020

Yesterday a reader made a friendly remark about the way in which I "disseminate the teaching." They had a relatively minor objection about my use of the word natural to describe our ordinary mind and how it works. 

Their opinion, in a nutshell, was that the ordinary mind and its machinations are unnatural, that is, undesirable or wrong in one way or another. It was a stimulating proposition.

I would propose, to the contrary, that anything which exists, in any way, is always natural in one way or another. 

This is consistent with the word’s roots, which are Latin. It means, approximately, that which is born. 

Since creation has always been viewed as a form of birth, all of creation is natural. Even the parts we find unhelpful or reprehensible, and the ones that seem to oppose our spiritual mission.

Brother Lawrence says, in the Practice of the Presence of God,

…God sometimes permits bodily discomforts to cure the distempers of the soul. Have courage. Make a virtue of necessity. 

I would suggest that all of our discomforts, including those caused by the ordinary mind, fall into the above category. All of life serves to cure the distempers of the soul.

A great deal more could be said about this question of the natural mind, but I believe this is simple and direct enough to get the essential point across. Don't dismiss the natural mind or attempt to evade it; look towards it with love and affection, accept its iniquities, and regard it as an ever-present and profitable reminder of our need to improve our inward practice.

The other part of the comment I was interested in was about disseminating “the” teaching. 

What I write is always about life and the things I encounter in it. 

There's no doubt that much of my practice is instilled by and distilled from Gurdjieff’s ideas; but the teacher, if there is one anywhere, is life; and if we don’t habit that and form a sound relationship with it, all else is in vain.

One of my closest male friends came over last night and we spent several hours talking about our work. We both came back again and again to this question of inhabiting life and how vital that is to understanding anything. 

One’s inner work needs to be in life. One ought not mistake ”special conditions,” or books, or this blog space, as the center of gravity for inner work. The center of gravity for work is life as it flows into us. It's certainly possible to see that special conditions and books and this writing and so on are legitimate fragments of that, but don't be identified with them. It’s life as a whole thing that matters; and an exchange with the person at the cash register or the color yellow in a piece of plastic scrap is just as important a piece of life and understanding as all the information in the most lofty philosophical book. 

God's Presence is not in one specific thing or another at the expense of the next one; it is everywhere.

Brother Lawrence's advice unfailingly serves inner effort. One who manages to install his lessons as a permanent feature of Being can never fail to work properly. 

I return once again to Meister Eckhart’s final words:

It often happens that what seems trivial to us is greater in God's sight than what looms large in our eyes. Therefore we should accept all things equally from God, not ever looking and wondering which is greater, or higher, or better. We should just follow where God points out for us, that is, what we are inclined to and to which we are most often directed, and where our bent is. If a man were to follow that path, God would give him the most in the least, and would not fail him.

'It often happens that people spurn the least, and thus they prevent themselves from getting the most in the least, which is wrong.

God is in all modes, and equal in all modes, for him who can take Him equally.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.