The mind is not brain activity, the mind is reasoning, logic, putting 2 and 2 together to see how 4 is made and taking 4 and understanding that 4 is composed of four ones or two, two’s. Analyzing and reasoning and logic is what develops the true mind. You talk to many people who have done well in school and you find that they really are neophytes as far using logic and reasoning goes. Yes Artie.
Artie: So would you equate the brain with computer program and the mind with a computer programmer?
JJ: Yes kind of, when you develop the mind you realize that you are not a computer but when you just use the brain you function as a computer and you do not question because you pretty much do what you are told to do. When you begin to use the mind you realize that you are a larger being than you thought you were and that you can decide for yourself how you are going to be programmed and so to a degree you start to be your own programmer.
Audience: Inaudible
JJ: Yes to a degree but once you are talking about principles you are getting more into the intuitive area. I was on a mission when I was a young guy for the Mormon Church before they threw me out. They gave me this new companion and he had a 4.0 in college. Back in those days this was no easy accomplishment as compared to today where they give out good grades like candy. This was 1964-1965. We had to learn these six missionary lessons and memorize them word for word. I just could not believe this guy was a 4.0 because every time he gave a lesson he had to go through and re-memorize the whole thing over and over.
This is what really got me thinking about intelligence, I had like a 2.2 and he had a 4.0 and I never had to review at all; I was always ready to go. Then when we were given a new lesson I would read it over once and then just go and give it and he had to read it over and over and study it for like a month and I thought how in the world did this guy get a 4.0? I just did not understand it.
But then once I came to various realizations about what true intelligence was it began to fall into place. I had come across quite a number of other people that had also had good grades and I found that a lot of people that got close to a 4.0 grade average were not very bright in a lot of ways. On the other hand, there are always exceptions. I had a good friend of mine who had a 4.0 in college and he was very bright and he also played football. His 4.0 was in engineering and he had good emotional intelligence. This guy really had it all together and he was quite the guy and I really admired him a lot, so there are exceptions to every rule. If any of you people achieved high grades I am not putting you down at all.
Audience: Chuckling!
JJ: So the next step is to develop the mind and as we develop the mind we let the emotional and instinctive self go below the threshold of consciousness and we concentrate on reason, wisdom, philosophy. When we get into philosophy, we begin to think a lot about things. The person may go through different religious thinking and he may study different philosophers, he may go into business, which requires a lot of common sense. Business really teaches people to develop the mind because you cannot operate a business without knowing how things work and how to make it better, isn’t that right Wayne, Wayne has a business and it about drives him crazy I will tell you! Chuckling Anybody else have a business? You have a business right? Don’t you think that operating your business is good mental development?
Audience: Yes!
JJ: It forces you to concentrate on common sense. We may be lazy and not want to develop common sense but once you lose money it wakes you up and you pay attention.
Audience: The thing about my business is that it is below the level of consciousness, there are so many times that I do the same thing over again!
JJ: I understand that, I make signs and what I do is I listen to audio books while I am making signs so I am concentrating on the book and my hands are just doing the sign work.
Wayne from Audience: In my business you cannot anticipate all the stupidity with both employees and customers.
Audience: Laughing!
JJ: Laughing! Do you guys remember the story about Wayne where this guy took out the wrong tree in a clients backyard? I have heard a lot better stories than that from Wayne but I did not want to embarrass him by putting the real whoppers in my book “The Immortal.” He tells me some things and when I was writing about Wayne I thought, well I had better not put this in, for one thing people will not believe it and for another thing I do not know if Wayne would want it in there! Laughing! I think that was true about the guy who took out the wrong tree, Wayne you have had that happen several times, right.
Wayne: One was a about a $12,000 mistake.
JJ: Boy that will make you really start to examine yourself really quick when you make a mistake that big. That’s what business does, you will be gliding along and everything will be going fine and then something major will happen and then you step back and say wait I must be doing something wrong and we have to sharpen our edges here. It really forces you to think.
The business world is one of the main areas where we learn to think and reason. Religion and philosophy also requires us to figure things out. Now the trouble with religion is most people in religion are not thinking about it and they just take things in like a sponge. For instance, they will say, well yes when I take the Eucharist it turns into the actual body of Jesus and they do not even think about how silly that sounds. Maybe they say well yes there is a heaven and hell and I guess if I do not believe the right way then I am going to burn for all eternity. They do not think about the fact that the Bible says the God loves us more than we love our own children and why would he burn us for all eternity? They do not think about that but when the person develops the mind they will still think about religion but they will start analyzing and will think, “does this make sense?”
Would I take one of my children and throw him into a bunch of fires and have him burn forever and then after he burns up he is put back together so he burns again and he suffers over and over for all eternity, like the old time preachers say?
So they start thinking about these things and think, well this can’t be right because it makes no sense. And then often times people will create friction among the true believers so to speak. In the past these people that were developing their minds and asking questions were often put in prison or to death and had all kinds of bad things happen to them. We are very fortunate that we live an age where we can voice what we feel without somebody with a lot of authority coming after us and putting us in chains and torturing us to death. Probably all of us in the past have gone through that at one time or another.
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