The Consciousness of Mind...

He is quite right in questioning the usefulness of getting involved in an endless study of the intricate classifications of his surroundings, if they are illusory.

From the standpoint of the Ultimate Path such a study is a waste of time and therefore is not indulged in.

The aim of this path is to know the ultimate reality--knowing which, all its illusory reflections are naturally understood.

However, he must be careful in the use of the word "illusory." The world is not illusory but the apprehension of it through the senses is.

Each object regarded separately as an independent entity is illusory but regarded as what it is in its formless essence it is real.

To put this in plainer language: everything seen is merely an idea in the mind.

Ideas come and go and in this sense only are unreal; but the stuff out of which they are formed--that is, Mind--does not come and go and constitutes the ultimate basis of all ideas and therefore of their ultimate reality.

He seeks to understand what this Mind is.


Paul Brunton