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Hmm yes. The cerebral / analytical part is a particular type of grasping, clinging in the mind. It is similar to the scientific urge to take things apart, to divide them up to see how they work. It is almost the same thing. It also engages the imagination, and it is very tempting to the mind because it makes it feel as if it has a grasp on things.

Ten years of relaxing and sleeping and learning to soft-focus the mind has almost gotten me to the point where I can leave science behind. Looking into dreams and sleep has been a real help. Have I mentioned that prior to this ten-year exploration I had a passionate cerebral career as a software architect and games designer?

I have come to think that analysing the mind with the mind is a futile effort, but there are other areas one can explore which take one closer to beholding the mind. One has to get really comfortable with looking at the mind, it takes time and solitude.

The intellect is a tool like anything else. If clung to or seen as absolute it can be a hindrance. But giving up on your ability to discern when its safe to cross the street or what types of food are better to eat for your health is losing balance.

Many highly realized people are quite smart and knowledgeable.

Once labelled, it is tasted, and then it cannot be unstained so easily. Samsaric lifestyles vs spiritual lifestyles, a dichtomy which carries different adjectives or atributes.

After practising for a few years now (2019- ), I realise the importance of sitting and walking meditation, of time off screens, of balance in food, word and thought; kindness, recollectedness, equanimity. All these concepts and their behavioural manifestations are very powerful. I still do feel, and my text shows I think, how I cannot escape being analytical and cerebral. It does become a hindrance in the practice, sometimes even thinking of what this session meant, how it was so important and necessary.

I sense that the sitting and walking does help to overcome this, but this path is inevitably quite hard and boring. This last aspect is important to notice because it is in the mundane and wholesome where you find an ease hard to define. And a passionate career too, when you can. But the former feeling/state does remain in many more contexts.