Taking It All In F.S.C. Northrup’s reference to “the undifferentiated continuum” and “the differentiated continuum” suggests that these continuums meet seamlessly at their fulcrum, balancing each other out metaphorically. In its implied relationship to awareness in the human psyche, the undifferentiated aspect would seem to be equivalent to what Eastern mystics, such as Huang Po specifically, term “original mind”—awareness (as per the definition sometimes given of rigpa, in Dzochen) “which existed before we saw ourselves as a self”; that would be pre-egoic, to the extent that “ego” is a conscious construct of one’s psyche. Therefore, since thought patterns are the framework of the egoic construction, rigpa is sometimes also described comparatively as “awareness free of distorting thought patterns.” From the standpoint of Northrup’s terminology, the differentiated continuum represents the end (of the spectrum) which is not free of confused thinking. In a simplification, one might speak of a scale, with “absolute awareness” at one end, and “relative awareness” a component interfacing that. “Relative awareness” is more readily understood by most people, since it is the “state of mind” which the “individual person” identifies oneself with (and by). This cognition recognizes each form encountered as separate in its context: the “I” against the backdrop of the universe. From here, as the Buddhists suggest, Samsara arises. This is the dualistic mind, which places value on the antagonistic polarities of such contentious images as
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