Mastering the mind

It's a tough one, but its been troubling me for a few days so my two pennies on it ..

Yogis all over the world describe mind as inner instrument. It is the sum total of our memories , manifests our hopes and desires and manages our daily activities. Yet despite the central role it plays we rarely think about the mind itself.

It allows us to see where we are going and shows us how to get there. Yoga philosophy provides a map of the mind that complements the practice of the mind. It opens the door to a new way of seeing human affairs and helps us to solve the puzzle who we are.

The mind is :

Ahamkara( self identity)

Manas ( everyday mind)

Chitta ( unconscious mind)

Buddhi ( silent mental witness)

To gather any experience, a mind must be connected to a body. It is through the channels of the senses and the sense organs ( the eyes, ears, hands, feet etc) that the mind receives impressions from outside, and acts together and thus the mind and body act as a fine tuned subtly integrated team.

The first is the everyday conscious mind, manas. Next is the subtle and quiet witness of experience, buddhi. Third is the sense of individuality or self-identity ahamkara. Finally the mind serves as a storing place of the storing habits, and latent impressions samskaras deposited in the unconscious mind chitta.

The mind indeed is the cause of one’s bondage and one’s liberation. Upanishad verse2.

It is this manas  mind which is the cause of all problems, the in decisive mind because it is a good collector and displayer of information but a poor decision maker. It will decide where to go, what to take along, what to wear what to do, calculate the entire cost of the trip but it will unable to decide whether to go or not. This dithering is what keeps us suspended in limbo. Buddhi values the actions and helps us determine. This mental screen registers as well as colors them forever. We form impressions and keep them for future purposes also. Memories of past encounters, behavior patterns put us on guard and these in turn constantly shape our thoughts.

The Silent witness of our mind is like the COO of any company. It constantly monitors, registers the hustle, bustle passing without interruption through periods of waking sleeping, dreaming and dreamless sleep. Its activity however is a mask of sorts, one that conceals a deeper dimension of life.

The activities of the silent mind are a kind of sleep. They focus on the sensory experience, on the fulfillment of instinctual urges and on the pursuit of the everyday pleasures. Yet, they call to the deeper experiences of life.

Thus,a voice calls from within , saying,” Wake up! Return to yourself.’ Its as if we want to return to the womb, to the purity ,sanctity  which will always call us and ask us to return to the fold. Each one of us , does hear the call ,it of course depends again upon us to act on it or sink deeper into the primeval pleasures of life.

The journey does not end here, with the calling, distractions arise that alert us to the many layers of experiences stored in the chitta , the unconscious mind. Buddhi examines these impressions both in the form of thoughts and feelings and later as habits and behaviors of everyday. In this process, it observes and registers a thought, forms an understanding of its significance and makes a decision. The decision is always wise or foolish. Foolish if it is based on attachment or wise if it is based on the assessment of real needs. It is the decision maker and as it awakens it makes them logical, and then they are more balanced and reflect a calmer mind.

This is the return journey and we recapture our inner self, the journey to the conscious awareness. This is a process which cannot be hurried or hastened , it unfolds gradually , slowly at its own pace at an opportune moment.