Ramesh Baleskar on the 'thinking mind' and 'working mind'

Ajay0 · Feb 19, 2022

Ramesh Balsekar was a disciple of the enlightened master Nisargadatta Maharaj, and a spiritual teacher of the nondual tradition.

He is known for his teaching of the 'thinking mind' and 'working mind' so as to shed perspective on the nature of the mind , and to distinguish between practical thinking and egoic thinking.

https://www.eatonsatsang.com/thoughts-thinking

Ramesh Balsekar liked to make a distinction between the "thinking mind" and the "working mind." The latter he describes as that portion of the thought process that allows for ordinary functioning, and is a most useful tool of everyday life. The thinking mind, however, he describes as being driven by those erroneous egoic beliefs that claim independent, autonomous ownership of the actions of the mind/body.
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In the following article, Baleskar elaborates on this concept further...

Ramesh: Duality vs Dualism -- Thinking vs Working Mind -- End of Sufferer/Doer

Is there an impersonal or functional will that is part of the body-mind mechanism?

A concept which I found useful in speaking about this very point is to notionally divide the mind into the working mind and the thinking mind. Thinking mind is a conceptualizing mind, the "me." What is absent after enlightenment is the thinking mind, the "me" distingiushing itself from the other. The conceptualizing thinking mind, the mind which draws upon memories and projects fears, hopes and ambitions: that is absent. The working mind is what remains.

So the working mind couldn't have a set of, for lack of a better word, "ethics" under which it operates?

No, the working mind is merely concerned with what is happening, with what it's doing.

It does not differentiate, it does not make any judgment of what is good or bad?

That is correct.

Consciousness is speaking through you. Are you doing a thinking process at the time that you speak?

No.

Words just come out?

Precisely.

When I'm talking, now, I sort of have an image ahead of me. I'm formulating it as I go along from a whole lot of memories. You don't do any of that?

That is correct.

Is this the silent mind operating? Is the silent mind spontaneously talking?

Yes, or it is the working mind. The silent mind is when the thinking is not present. It is silent. But the working mind must continue; otherwise the body-mind couldn't do whatever it is doing. The thinking mind is what creates problems. The working mind goes about its job and the thinking mind comes and interferes and interupts. It says, "Are you doing that right? Could it be done in a better way? What if you fail? You'll lose your job." So all this thinking mind interupting the working mind produces worry and obviously the working mind cannot function effectively.

When there is this conviction that I can have no control over the results, I can only work, then the thinking mind gradually gets ousted, the working mind has full charge and it works beautifully without the interruptions of the thinking mind. And the working mind at the end of hte day is astonished at how quickly the work's been done, without any sense of tension, simply because there was no interuption from the thinking mind.

So, what this understanding produces is the prevention of the thinking mind from obstructing the working mind.

But the working mind has a function of judgment, deciding that those are tomatoes and are edible and those are stones and are not.

That is correct. Therefore, the working mind may do precisely what the thinking mind also does. But the thinking mind works either in the past or the future. It dwells in its memory and projects into the future. The working mind is concerned with the present moment. That is the big difference. The working mind is not concerned with the past or the future, except insofar as the present work is concerned.

I see, but it draws on memory.

Certainly. Now if it is doing something and says, "The last time I did that it went wrong therefore I must correct the mistake. That is still the working mind. The working mind has to draw on the memory but it doesn't project anything into the future. It draws on the memory only to the extent of the job at hand.
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