Mind-set or worldview or philosophy – these are all mental frameworks by which we think, interpret and create our world. They are the operating systems by which the mind operates. Most mind-sets are not compatible. For instance Mystery and rationalism. Mystery will not condescend to be judged in the arena of reasoning. Likewise rationalism will not be threatened by the possibility it may not be able to explain the mysterious…the rationalist therefore dismisses the mysterious.
These two common philosophies of thought or mind are then mutually exclusive. Our thinking mind defines our world. So when I get angry at my wife for not fulfilling my wishes I operate from a masculine dominant mind-set (which is just a sub-set of mind which may or may not fit into the framework of another larger more clearly defined system of thought, i.e. christianity).
Perhaps my wife came from a culture of ultra-equality where men and women share work and equally meet one anothers needs irrespective of gender roles. She sees the world quite differently than I and so she sees no warrant for my anger. Standing back from the conflict with ‘clear-mind’ we can see that both are merely thought sets, operating systems. One may be more accurate than the other or both equally true or false, or maybe one fits a larger context such as being morally right and therefore overpowers the other, etc. The fact is they are both relative and not ultimately a total account of reality. So we can see that rational thought has its realm of application but it can not upon its own philosophy falsify the mind-set of mystery. It is incapable of passing any ultimate judgment upon that which it can not know.
The fundamental dilemma is falling for a particular framework of mind and taking it to be a complete account for reality. When ‘what is’ doesn’t coincide with our mental framework we incur suffering. We wonder why things didn’t work out according to our mental constructs. We get ‘stuck inside the box’ as they say. Being ‘outside the box’ requires that we stand back as the witness to all our mental activity and realize the processes by which it attempts to interpret our experiential world. From the aspect of simply being aware of it all the mind is just another arising in consciousness. It has no substance yet manifests infinite suffering for ourselves and others who are equally enslaved to its demands to rule our consciousness.
When I discussed this with my three month old son this was his response:
