(*Categories twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-eight have this same introduction in the CD ROM edition.)
Enlightened Mind, Divine Mind is the composite title under which we originally published the final four categories of Paul Brunton's twenty-eightfold "Ideas'' schemata. These culminating categories of The Notebooks of Paul Brunton Category twenty-five, World-Mind in Individual Mind, brings us nearly full-circle from our starting point in the introduction to volume one, Perspectives. Here we get the details of what we there spoke of as "a condition of mind and heart which is rare in any century.'' Here we get what cannot fail to be recognized as a firsthand, "insider's' account" of that goal which makes sense of spiritual aspiration and inspires continued rational effort, day by day, toward stable and honest self-realization. Here we see a wisdom nourished, rather than challenged, by facts; a serenity comprehending, rather than oblivious of, events; a spiritual maturity fulfilled in, rather than at odds with, efficient practicality. Here, in short, readers can see clearly why we attribute such unusual importance to P.B.'s later writings. Other reliable accounts of lasting, complete enlightenment are either deliberately incomplete or expressed in language appropriate to other times or other cultures than our own. Here is a vivid updating, for modern mentalities, of what a mind continually attuned to God is like and offers its society. This section is convincing testimony that much of what appears in these Notebooks expresses such a mind.
A significant amount of the material in each of the three remaining sections--category twenty-six, World-Idea; category twenty-seven, World-Mind; and category twenty-eight, The Alone--could almost equally be placed in either or both of the others. We have tried to place such paras according to their primary emphasis. We approached individual paras that speak of all three--Mind, World-Mind, and World-Idea--for example, with the questions, "Which of them is this para telling us the most about; which does it discuss most definitively; what is its emphasis?'' Likewise, we asked the same questions of paras addressing only two of the three terms. Nonetheless, there remain paras whose placement is still not obvious. In such cases, we have placed the paras where we hope they will be most useful to the reader's increasingly subtle understanding of P.B. 's thought. Because of the subtlety in many of the sections, we have done a much more extensive job of sequencing paras here than in earlier categories. On some of the placements, we still have friendly disagreement and look forward to responses from readers.
Three subthemes within World-Idea likewise contain similar material to one another. The subtheme "evolution's goal is not merger'' focuses on the problem, "Can there be an understandable purpose to evolution if it leads ultimately to annihilation or its equivalent, featureless merger?'' Although many paras that deal with evolution in general are related to this question, only those paras directly stating or answering it have been placed in the "no merger'' theme--which emphasizes realization of the World-Idea as the goal of evolution. The subtheme "World-Idea guides evolution'' contains most of the paras dealing with the process of evolution, with the World-Idea as the underlying propulsive force guaranteeing that evolution's goals will be achieved. The theme "Purpose of human life'' deals with issues common to these prior two, but separates out the paras emphasizing the World-Idea as the only structure within which human life can have significance.
Editorial conventions here are the same as stated in the introductions to Perspectives and The Quest. Likewise, (P) at the end of a para indicates that it also appears in Perspectives, the introductory volume to this series.