One of the most important things that I learned in school was that “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,”
and those are sage words, perhaps more than anyone of us could appreciate at the time. Mastery managing them requires multiple realms of expertise ranging from medical impact on the body that we can all understand to complex skills like engineering and mathematics. The entire process of working with the mind has a rich history going into our past and has a fascinating future given all of the advances we see to this very day. Perhaps the most important and considerably underappreciated aspect of them is that they help us to extract the rich and valuable bounty of the earth and, in the process, keep thousands and thousands of people employed during the trying times of the economy we are facing today. Come to think of it: the actual quote was, “A mine is a terrible thing to waste.”
Long time Grant. Hope you are doing well.
Talking about mind, Buddha, Mahavira and other enlightened beings experienced realities beyond the mind and taught a way for us to experience it ourselves. All one needs to do is to calm the mind and in the silence we can see (perceive) the reality beyond. We get rid of cravings and aversions and experience bliss. This helps us know the mind as just a sense organ like the nose, ears, skin, tongue. It is not a source of knowledge. Knowing is beyond the mind. After this experience we can use the mind to achieve great things.