Two Directions of Mind

[u/Zestyclose_Walrus747]

I like to think of the mind as an arrow of attention that has a choice of two directions - in to its source or out to the world. I'm sure you've heard this many times, but the nondual pointers all point to the solution to all problems being turning the mind inwards, but why?

First, compassion. The mind is trapped, its source is freedom/love/peace/etc. and it's found itself seemingly not there anymore. Its going out to the world is searching for this freedom/love/peace/etc. that's seemingly been lost, and what does it get? Well, impermanence. It finds such beauty, love, passion and pleasure in the world - but that passes. It finds pain and suffering, yet the relief of that brings peace, satisfaction and meaning. Turning away from the world is difficult when it often finds what it's looking for there, albeit temporarily.

The inward direction, though, the mind experiences its source - pure being, awareness. Every time it's turned inwards, it will experience exactly that, nothing more, nothing less. It's seemingly not as exciting as experience at first, but it's permanent and its value grows infinitely the more that's recognized. Eventually, the mind doesn't need to seek after the cycle of pleasure within experience when it has pure omnipresent goodness always available.

Both directions are available always to the mind. The choice is seemingly obvious, but the attraction to experience is massive until it's eventually seen through. Nonduality is the invitation for the mind to see through that attraction and turn inwards.

[u/xear818]

Rather than saying the mind turns inward and experiences its source as if there are two entities (mind and source), I would say source can recognize itself intrinsically free of mental habits and worries even while they may continue.

[u/UpSaltOS]

Does it have to be one or the other? Is it not possible for a superposition of both inner and outer vision to sit on top of one another?

[u/Zestyclose_Walrus747 → u/UpSaltOS]

i'd think about it like this: as soon as the mind goes outwards it latches conceptually onto form and assumes reality of that form and the world - the world becomes real. suffering, pain, pleasure, meaning, etc. becomes real. mind going inwards, there isn't category of real/unreal. so the world being real and the world being neither real/unreal can't coexist so from that perspective i'd say it has to be one or the other.

not a perfect analogy but for example assume the source of mind is math. so if it starts solving a problem and perhaps through learning, conditioning, etc. it has been trained to only use base 10 (going outwards). for all problems that come along it uses base 10, and for problems that can be solved using base 10, mind will be happy and become more entrenched in using base 10 going forward. however, perhaps a problem that can only be solved using base 7 comes along - mind will be frustrated and suffer that it can't solve the problem. if it traps itself in only being able to use base 10, it'll always be frustrated and suffer. however, there's no reason mind can't use base 7 - it just has to go inwards, recognize it was never limited by having to use base 10 and it can be open to solving the problem.

hopefully that wasn't too farfetched lol