Consciousness becomes mind by contracting according to the objects it perceives. This makes us perceive differences and, by doing so, conceals the all-pervasiveness of Consciousness from Itself, creating illusion.
The power of our Consciousness flows outward through the senses, perceiving an object, capturing the impression of the object. The intellect acts like a screen upon which the object is reflected. We mirror the appearance of the form and attribute of the object. The thinking aspect of our mind labels what it perceives, identifying the object, defining it in words. These words create ideas that maintain our illusion of differences. In this process, the power of our Consciousness, our Self, contracts to assume the form of what we are perceiving. We only experience mental perceptions, appearances. We take these appearances as real and identify as our body, our thoughts and our emotions.
Everything we perceive externally as well as what we perceive internally – our thoughts, memories, feelings – are reflections and appearances. Both the internal and external is ‘as we see it’. The world is as we are. We are experiencing our copy, our photograph, of the thing, and how we see it creates our reality of separate things in a world of differences.
This is a great process that allows us to function in the world but has the effect of concealing the Source, the pure Consciousness that is the intelligence and power creating our perceptions. What is concealed is our true Self. This process of the mind can create illusion when focused outwardly, but when turned within, can reveal the true Self, the universal Consciousness that is the intelligence and power we are. So, the mind can lead us into illusion or it can lead us back to its Source and reveal the Self.
Blessings,
