The Nature of the Mind

We met in january at Amit & Archana's place to discuss a very interesting topic - what is the nature of the mind? I spoke about it from the point of view of Indian traditional schools like Sankhya, Mimamsa and Nyaya. My main aim was to explain how 'experience' travels from the outer world into the inner world of our experiences, feeling and memory.

First of all, it would be interesting to note that according to almost all the schools of philosophies in India, the focus is on the inner world of the individual and not the external world of 'objects' because what is controllable is this inner world.

As experience travels from the outer world of objects into the inner world of the individual through the senses. The first stop after the senses is Manas. If we strip the other mental instruments such as buddhi, Ahamkara and Chitta, the job of manas is to focus attention so that individual's consciousness is connected to the external world of senses or internal world of Memory. Manas makes plans (sankalpa) and thinks of different ways (vikalpa) to run towards or away from the experience. It is like the rat running on the wheel.

The next internal instrument after manas is Buddhi. The job of buddhi is get the experience from manas and Judge it. The judgement may be 'like' in which case buddhi forces the manas to focus the manas on the stimulus further. If the judgement is 'dislike' or 'ignore', manas if forced to look for more stimulating experience. The buddi also is coupled with Chitta (memory store) to identify, classify the experience.

When the experience thus classified moves up to the level of Ahamakara, it is used to 'define' the individual's properties. This needs some explantion - We as individuals have built a self description of ourselves based on our experiences and our reactions to them. These may be of the form - " I am a good worker", " i cant lead but can follow" etc. These stereotypes of ourselves are lodged within to form a platform from which we react. This is false self because such 'self' judgements are only belief's which changes with positive or negative experiences.

Finally, the experience that is thus judged and classified get lodged in the Chitta (memory store) as samskaras (memories of experiences). These samskaras are the most powerful influences of individual's journey of life. It is these samskaras that teach the buddhi how to classify experiences, how to react to stimulus. That is the reason why in our tradition Vidya (education) is held as the most sacred since that is the way good samskaras are created.

Nature of Mind

As we were discussing at the meeting I feel there are 3 "P" in life in 2 categories in my simplified understanding and practical way of using it in life from moment to moment.

The first category "Pain and Pleasure"(Rag/Dvesh/Bhog) and the second is PEACE (Yog)

What makes us to choose the categoty is the NATURE OF THE MIND.

I left flier in the meeting with a flow chart explaining the rationality and practicality of it.

This is guiding me in making right choices in life and move towards Peace

How to Control the Mind - Role Played by Experiences

We all met at Latha’s house on 12/11/2010. This time the attendance was very good and hopefully we have a nice core group. I started off with my talking points on “How to control the Mind” from an Indian Traditions perspective. I wanted to make sure that we do not make ‘meditation’ and ‘control of mind’ synonymous. Indian traditions teach of a hierarchy of mental functions where the ones on the top control the ones in the bottom. These mental functions are (lowest to highest) –

1. Manas – causes attention and its where thoughts arise
2. Buddhi – Causes judgment on the thoughts of Manas
3. Ahamkara - causes awareness of oneself
4. Chitta – Records experiences and provides Buddhi with information, context and meaning for judgment

So these four mental functions mediate between the external world and the experiencing self (jiva). From birth to death, Man takes a journey through ‘experiences’. All of life is but how we react to and handle different experiences that we encounter. At the level of buddhi, we can only judge thoughts as “good or bad”. At the level of Ahamkara, we can be aware of thoughts rising in our manas and how buddhi judges it. But the most important level is that of Chitta, where experiences determine ‘why’ we control the mind or employ various 'meditation' techniques. It is this level that wisdom and personal experiences influence and make control of mind possible according to tradition.

With that I presented my point hoping to stir up a discussion. After the panelists were through, some discussions on meditation went on. I opened up the discussions further by asking the questions on whether “will” is needed in meditation, kind of hinting on buddhi vs chitta. I got suggestions from others but nothing concrete was discussed. Hopefully future discussions center on personal experiences and fallibility, reflecting reality rather than textbook answers.

In essence, the take home point was – We should focus on just doing one thing at a time.

Since this is an evolving group, I would like to draw your attention to an excellent talk on how good ideas are created. We should steer the group into this mode.

Meditation

We all know that

Yesterday is history

Tomorrow is a mystery

Today is a gift

However, our mind is culturally conditioned to think in terms of past and future and ignore the valuable present. This is causing untold human miseries.  Living in the moment is the most important aspect, which is most casually ignored. We have to unlearn the things we learned in the past if necessary to get on a good path. For instance, cigarette smoking is not good.  The only way to get on to good health is to unlearn the habit of smoking.

The modern science yet to fully understand the mind to its fullest extent even with the latest and greatest technology on their side.Ancient Indians studied human mind in details with their excellent brains without any technology aid . They invented a greatest tool that human race ever invented so far. It’s called Meditation which if practiced well makes the world a better place to live. Meditation makes a person to live in happy and peace and  in the moment. I  salute those great gurus like Buddha who taught us that happiness is inside you and not outside. No external stimulus such a driving a nice car makes us happy forever. The external stimulus is an unending path. We are lucky to resolve our mind malady and learn to live in the present moment.  

At the end what matters is

How well did we live  ( Affection and no emotions)

How well did we love ( Love and no attachment )

How well did we learning to  let go things (Detachment)

Why Control Mind? A Indian Tradition Perspective

In the Indian Traditions, there is nothing conceptually equivalent to "Mind". The only one that comes close to it is "Antah-karana" (inner tools). The Indian Traditions have grouped this internal tools on 'functional' basis as - Manas (attention), Buddhi (judgement), Ahamkara (self-awareness) and Chitta (memory). For want of clarity, i take control of mind to actually mean control of manas i.e, control of attention. So question really becomes - Why control our attention?

The Indian traditional method of enquiry uses - Point (siddhanta) and Counter-point (Purva-paksha). Let me frame this question that way.

Why do Ad companies spend billions of dollars on Ads? Why do people wear bizzare clothes / fashion? What do your loved ones look forward to? The answer to all these questions is - ATTENTION. The world is working hard to get your attention and has managed to grab it. If attention is so precious, wouldnt you rather want to be in control of it!!?