Intermediate Mind - (1505)

Post Revised: 24/02/2024

Introduction

As you know from the previous post a human being actually has three minds: the sensorial mind, intermediate mind and the inner mind.

(Did you know that? That you actually have three minds?)

This post is an effort to expand upon the sub-topic of the intermediate mind. 

In Charge of Believing

The intermediate mind is the one in charge of believing. The sensual mind does not believe and the inner mind does not believe either.

In Gnosis, beliefs are not encouraged as they limit us. As soon as we believe something we believe that we know and we then turn our consciousness off. The consciousness in us is active when we do not know and are looking to know. As soon as we think or believe we know we begin to fall into sleep of the consciousness.

Potential Troublemaker

In some ways the intermediate mind is the one that gives the Gnostic person the most trouble.

None the less it is useful and needed for certain stages and functions of life and the esoteric work.

Why is it Called the Intermediate Mind?

It is called the intermediate mind precisely because of this function of believing. It is not completely sensual and it is not completely the inner mind. It does not have the direct knowledge and conscious faith of the inner mind, nor does it have the direct contact with the five senses that the sensual mind has. Believing is in the middle between the data sources of the senses and the consciousness.

The intermediate mind can believe in both the senses and the consciousness, but it does not have direct contact with either one.

The intermediate mind does not reject the intangible things, which the sensual mind does. Note, the sensual mind does this only because things beyond the senses are outside of its ability to perceive. The intermediate mind believes in God, the Spirit, magic, angels, the soul, the devil, hell, heaven, everlasting life and supernatural things, though as you know believing is not knowing.

It Reasons and Has Concepts

The intermediate mind also reasons and it also has a vast quantity of concepts as does the sensual mind.

Beliefs are Strong Just as the Intermediate Mind is

However beliefs are and can be very strong and because of that, we can go to war or we can actually find some kind of solace and a set of guidelines to live an ethical life, as well as for an upright way of conducting ourselves in life’s difficult and varied circumstances and situations.

Role or Function of the Intermediate Mind

The role of the intermediate mind is to lay down the way to gain access to the inner mind. We need the intermediate mind when we are asleep or when we don’t have the inner mind open yet. When we are awakened we use more our inner mind, and the intermediate takes a less prominent place. The sensual mind is still used as long as one still has a physical body.

The intermediate mind certainly has a use and a function. The intemediate mind also has its good uses and its negative uses. The good uses are that in religious and esoteric studies, it allows us to accept and respect the teachings as well as allowing us to think about there being a creator, a Universal Spirit and that we have an essence and an inner Divinity.

Just the same as all good middle-men, the function of the intermediate mind is to take one to meet the other, and so when we don’t transition from the intermediate mind to the inner mind we leave the function of the intermediate mind incomplete.

The problem is when we get stuck in the intermediate mind then we get stuck in beliefs and dogmas and we end up not working on ourselves. We work on ourselves when something even though it be very small touches our inner mind, opening it a little. Even a slight opening of the inner mind for a few days makes us very different.

Intermediate Mind and the Ego

The role of the intermediate mind here in relation to the ego is critical. The majority of our work on the ego is working on dissolving the beliefs of the ego that the ego in the intermediate mind has.

In that way the intermediate mind is a force to reckon with when it comes to the work on the ego. The intermediate mind is very strong in believing and this makes the ego strong as well.

Using the intermediate mind we believe in the proposals and theories of the ego, and that is what gives the ego its power. We through the intermediate mind believe in the concepts of the ego and the reasoning of the ego.

We have always to surpass beliefs and arrive at the consciousness and the same is true with the work on the ego. So we have to surpass the ego’s use of the intermediate mind which can be done by the constant and deep questioning of the ego’s beliefs.

End (1505).