Edward’s Diary Entry 121: Mind Map 1 & 2

I was attempting to map out the mind-stuff into a more detailed and useful tool than our simple “Thinking, Feeling, Acting” diagram, so I devised the chart shown below, coinciding with some basic indications from Indian swamis and Hindu and Vedanta literature (where there is much confusion), and of course Inner Engineering by Sadhguru (the modern "living" source of reinterpreted ancient wisdom!), giving a basic fourfold division of the mind into:

1. Intellect – Buddhi (discrimination);

2. Identity – Ahankara (identification);

3. Memory – Manas (pervading entire body);

4. Chitta – pure intellect, true intelligence… (and sometimes calling this Awareness)…

But each one of us has to try to see this from the inside, in our own way, so here is Edward’s description for the time being. But since it is easier to start with the basic, untrained or normal socialised condition (where I come from, too!), let’s look at the mind in the S-A 2 state first. This “normal state” in a worse-case scenario, appears to be as follows:

Automatic Operation of Mind – S-A 2 According to one’s “type” (more thinking, feeling or doing) the mind-body complex works mostly in automatic mode, receiving sense impressions from “outside” and receiving random pushes and shoves from “inside” in the form of:

Intellect Predominance of the thinking or thought process (which may or may not produce feelings), basically division, or yes or no, and connecting with:

Identity Due to past conditioning, the “I” (the Will) gets engulfed in the thought, feeling or action itself, with no noticeable separation in the Mind-Stuff comprising Intellect, Identity and Memory.

Memory (Manas) Occasional Intentional but frequent Automatic “Image picturing” and “Word thinking”, of which one is aware or unaware (unconscious origin), triggering more of the same and occasionally triggering feelings of one kind or another.

Awareness (Chitta) Occasional realisation of “I” as Awareness, usually when the subject is queried, as the Identity usually remembers the last input or the habitual mode of action and invests the sense of “I” in the corresponding thought, idea or feeling and justifies this to him or herself and/or to the enquirer.

Next, a reordering of the Mind-Stuff occurs if we study, analyse, receive inspiration and look inside the mind to see what is happening, giving the better-case scenario as follows:

Semi-Automatic Operation of Mind – S-A 3 According to one’s “type” (more thinking, feeling or doing) the mind-body complex still often works in automatic mode, receiving sense impressions from “outside” and pushes from “inside”, as below, with the novelty that Chitta is now more present, being shown first:

Awareness (Chitta) More frequent realisation of “I” as Awareness, due to the formation of an initial separation in the Mind-Stuff, and motivation to seek and understand the operation of the Mind, or find “Oneself”.

Intellect Greater discrimination of occurrences in the mind, and tracking of the thinking or thought process (which may or may not produce feelings), and incipient ability to control thoughts (repetition, breathing, self-observation, reasoning).

Identity Greater recognition of past conditioning, and rejection of engulfment of “I” in thoughts, feelings or actions, with greater separation in the Mind-Stuff comprising Intellect, Identity and Memory.

Memory (Manas) Automatic “Image picturing” and “Word thinking”, of which one is increasingly aware, but still sometimes unaware (unconscious origin), not always triggering more of the same or sparking off feelings considered (by the Intellect) to be impractical or useless (the negatives or vices, occurring due to wrong thinking or wrong outlook).

More tomorrow, when we look at how "problems" are dealt with by the Mind in S-A 2 and later in S-A 3. Stick around.