Finite Minds More Refined Than Our Own

"Are there finite minds besides human minds? What about animals, or even angels? Rupert says: ‘Yes – dogs, cats, all animals have finite minds through which consciousness localises itself and knows experience. And there may well be minds far more refined than ours – what tradition calls angels. Milton wrote beautifully of this in Paradise Lost: “Speak ye who best can tell, ye sons of light, angels, for ye behold him.” These would be minds with faculties more refined than our relatively crude apparatus of thought and perception. One clarification: when you ask about minds “before the human mind”, you presume time exists independently. But time is created by the finite mind through its activity. Before the finite mind, there is no “before”. Each mind refracts the eternal according to its own properties – grosser minds refract it into denser appearances, subtler minds into more refined ones. Angels, if they exist, would experience reality in ways we cannot imagine through our relatively limited faculties.’"

From event 21 - 28 November, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta, 21–28 November 2025

Subscribe or purchase View full event recordings