Spirit and Matter...

Without keeping steadily in view this original
mentalness of things and hence their original oneness
with self and Mind, the mystic must naturally get
confused if not deceived by what he takes to be the
opposition of Spirit and Matter. The mystic looks
within, to self; the materialist looks without, to
world. And each misses what the other finds. But to
the philosopher neither of these is primary. He looks
to that Mind of which both self and world are but
manifestations and in which he finds the
manifestations also. It is not enough for him to
receive, as the mystic receives, fitful and occasional
illuminations from periodic meditation. He relates
this intellectual understanding to his further
discovery got during mystical self-absorption in the
Void that the reality of his own self is Mind. Back in
the world once more he studies it again under this
further light, confirms that the manifold world
consists ultimately of mental images, conjoins with
his full metaphysical understanding that it is simply
Mind in manifestation, and thus comes to comprehend
that it is essentially one with the same Mind which he
experiences in self-absorption. Thus his insight
actualizes, experiences, this Mind-in-itself as and
not apart from the sensuous world whereas the mystic
divides them. With insight, the sense of oneness does
not destroy the sense of difference but both remain
strangely present, whereas with the ordinary mystical
perception each cancels the other. The myriad forms
which make up the picture of this world will not
disappear as an essential characteristic of reality
nor will his awareness of them or his traffic with
them be affected. Hence he possesses a firm and final
attainment wherein he will permanently possess the
insight into pure Mind even in the midst of physical
sensations. He sees everything in this multitudinous
world as being but the Mind itself as easily as he can
see nothing, the imageless Void, as being but the Mind
itself, whenever he cares to turn aside into
self-absorption. He sees both the outer faces of all
men and the inner depths of his own self as being but
the Mind itself. Thus he experiences the unity of all
existence; not intermittently but at every moment he
knows the Mind as ultimate. This is the philosophic or
final realization. It is as permanent as the mystic's
is transient. Whatever he does or refrains from doing,
whatever he experiences or fails to experience, he
gives up all discriminations between reality and
appearance, between truth and illusion, and lets his
insight function freely as his thoughts select and
cling to nothing. He experiences the miracle of
undifferentiated being, the wonder of undifferenced
unity. The artificial man-made frontiers melt away. He
sees his fellow men as inescapably and inherently
divine as they are, not merely as the mundane
creatures they believe they are, so that any traces of
an ascetical holier-than-thou attitude fall completely
away from him..................Paul Brunton