The Function of the Mind is to Execute

The great fear of the ego in all spiritual work is that it is somehow going to be annihilated or obliterated if it lets presence unfold completely.

The cosmic joke about relying on presence-awareness to navigate life and make decisions is that it makes the mind more functional, not less. Why? Because the conditioned mind is relieved of doing a job that is not qualified to do. The conditioned mind does not know what the hell you are supposed to be doing! It never did. It stepped in as a surrogate captain at an earlier developmental stage to ensure that we survived in a world where most of us were not seen and connected with. It was always meant to be relieved of duty!

By way of example... you cannot "spreadsheet out" whether your current relationship is the right one, or whether you have outgrown it, or whether you are just at a growth point together that simply requires care and attention. This is deep, intuitive work! There is no pro/conning it as if it were some kind of crossword puzzle. You must allow yourself to be radically vulnerable and honest, and you must allow yourself to actually know beyond all the fears, programming and "what ifs." You must ground and get quiet and get in touch with the part that really does know.

When presence is actually lived in situations like this - not just visited occasionally in meditation for moments of relief - the mind begins to function completely differently.

What the mind really wants to do is execute, not decide. My marriage is ending? Here's the list of things that need to happen. It's time to change the way I eat? Here's what I need to buy at the store and order online. I need to focus more on creating beauty around me and I get a picture of flowers and a shrine? Here's a list of materials I need to make all that happen.

When the mind is relieved of the job it cannot do (guide the flow of our life), it reclaims vast quantities of enormously potent energy that can then be channeled into creation, manifestation and execution. It's the role it wanted all along!