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.