Big Mind & Small Self

Big Mind
Big Mind is everything, embracing all polarities, and it is nothing. It is existence and nonexistence, birth and death, mind and matter, psyche and body, anger and compassion, sadness and joy, delusion and enlightenment.

Big Mind and Small Self
It is also all and any small self, and all and any view that any small self can have. It is the general views of small selves (dualistic) and the specific view of any small self (flavored by the personality and unique experiences of that particular small self).

Small Self and Big Mind
Any (human, at least) small self can open up for a taste of Big Mind, and - with experience - life from a Big Mind view. As it becomes more comfortable and experienced with this, it can bring the Big Mind view more and more fully into its life, in more and more situations.

Small Self
The small self is the organism and personality. Awareness, functioning through/as a small self, naturally perceive the world dualistically. There is inside and outside, me and you, us and them, heaven and earth, birth and death, mind and matter, friend and enemy, right and wrong, delusion and enlightenment. This discernment is essential for its survival. Without it, no species would survive.

When awareness is exclusively identified with small self, all it can see is duality. The world is fragmented. The small self is separate from everything else. This is a precarious situation, as the small self is dependent on the unpredictable behavior of external objects for its survival and happiness. It naturally brings up attachments, which in turn brings suffering.

Big Mind Only
When awareness awakens as Big Mind, there is no separation - and no suffering. Big Mind is suffering, but does not suffer. Big Mind is anger, but not angry. Big Mind is attachment, but not attached. There is a sense of equanimity, compassion, bliss, joy.

And it is tempting for awareness to stay here. Why suffer as small self when I can stay in Big Mind?

Big Mind - Inclusive and Not
Big Mind contains and is everything - beyond all dualities. It is any small self, and any view of small self. But when awareness is exclusively identified as Big Mind, something is left out: the limited view of the small self. Big Mind is the limited view, but not limited to it.

There is a stuckness there - an attachment to Big Mind and avoiding the limited view of small self. Why would awareness willingly be small self, with all its suffering? Because exclusively being Big Mind is stuckness, and also contains suffering.

There is another depth to the realization that Big Mind is really everything. Big Mind includes the limited view of the small self, and it is also this limited view, so awareness can allow itself to also and again live from this limited view. This is a descent that requires a good deal of familiarity with Big Mind and trust in the process.

Big Mind/Small Self Fluidity
It sees that the fluidity of freely moving between the views of Big Mind and small self is more inclusive. More free. Less attached. A richer and more full experience. And more connected with the other small selves - it can participate in human life in a more full and equal way. It willingly becomes more fully human.