The Twin Mode Mind

The idea that nature operates in twin modes is very old:

The Upanishads proclaim Brahman as the timeless, formless reality from which time-bound Maya presents a world. The birth of Western philosophy saw Parmenides and Heraclitus assert opposing views of Being and Becoming, which Plato then addressed. Equally old is the idea that mind is everywhere in nature, not just in creatures with brains.

But the suggestion that human minds may operate in twin modes, timelessly and in time, arose only in 1974 with Krishnamurti and Anderson. The profound relationship between nature and sages may derive from the twin mode mentality they share.

Modern physics also suggests that time is based on an underlying timelessness. Our conventional perspective of time, space and separate objects is matched by one where they are absent. Time and timelessness are thriving subjects in today’s Western philosophy.

But there is nothing esoteric about nature and human minds operating in twin modes. To the contrary, in plain view is the caring economy, with timeless qualities to set beside the time-rich technology which so dominates our lives. Studies of indigenous people suggest that our modern social malaise stems from a neglect of timelessness. The Twin Mode Mind proposes remedial policies to restore fractured relationships.

The arts hint at a twin-mode mentality, too. Actors follow a script in time, but also play a part in a volatile manner for a convincing performance. Painters such as Turner, Monet and Toyo depict a borderless world, related to Buddhism’s sunyata, in contrast to one of sharp separation.

Nor need any of this be treated as separate subjects. The Twin Mode Mind integrates them into a coherent whole, in non-specialist language. It takes a journey from the familiar, human mentality, through that of the ecosphere to the universal mind.

It prepares for that journey with seven introductory essays related to our ordinary, daily lives. It begins with caring, the most down-to-earth and widespread aspect of mind in everyday life. Everyone has been cared for as a child, for example, most have cared for children and many for the old, sick or infirm. It then considers how mind relates to welfare, consumerism and the resulting damage to the environment.

But mind is also a central issue for those interested in contemplation. Mind is often taken to mean thinking or behaving. Little attention is given to the mind simply Observing, without any attempt to change what it Observes. This distinction between thinking and Observing is one of the differences between the two mental modes proposed.

The essays also consider a central feature of the human mind: conflict. They explain the internal conflict within almost all individuals and the external battles between them. They also elucidate why a very few people, the “sages”, appear able to live without such conflict. What is their differentiating factor and is it something added to or subtracted from the customary mind?

The journey proper begins with the twin perspectives of humans, travels through those of the ecosphere and arrives at the twin views of the Universe. While all three stances, human, ecosphere and universal, have both views, they are not equally easy to spot. The time-based perspective dominates the human views, while the timeless one becomes more apparent in the universal views. The views from the ecosphere are a blend, where neither dominates the other.

Each part of the journey has seven stages, with each of the seven matched by stages in the other parts. Human intelligence, for example, flows into ecospherical and then universal intelligence. This journey is one dimension to the material in the book. Another is from the practical to the philosophical:

This second dimension is spanned by two concluding essays. The first conjectures that the origin of the twin modes is the Ground, the Absolute, that which is independent of context or standpoint. The second proposes to broaden the remit of parliament, to represent all components of the ecosphere, not just humans.