I thought it is time to clarify how the mind-body complex along with consciousness works.
Please refer to my blog on the Koshanas - https://www.mayoan.com/post/26-the-panchakoshanas-or-5-sheaths .
The Intelligence or Buddhi is related to the brain organ of the gross physical body (Annamayakoshana).
The Mind or collection of thoughts is related to the chakras of the astral body (Manonmayakoshana).
The Consciousness is what remains further inside – in the Pranamayakoshana, Vignanamayakoshana and Anandamayakoshana as tanmatras, impressions, intuitions, enlightenment etc.,
Let me write my understanding of certain terms before I try to explain the inner workings.
The terms are lined up from deep inside (Ahankara) to the outside (physical gross-body) basis:
1. Ahankara: This is the ‘I’ ness rooted in the soul. This is the strong basement upon which the super-structure of consciousness-mind-body complex is built.
2. Chittam: Locus of all impressions. It operates in both the modes – pull and push. Please refer to my other blog - https://www.mayoan.com/post/39-chittam-or-the-impressions-of-the-soul .
Pull mode: Sensory organs (both Karmendriyas and Gnanendriyas) in the gross body pulls thoughts from the chittam into the mind and then the intelligence (processing by brain with co-relations and context building), possibly commands an action out of it.
Push mode: The karmic store creates and raises thoughts into the mind. This can be aided by certain triggers released ‘inside’ by the sensory organs of the gross body.
For example, if a person is karmically destined to be in USA in a certain phase of life, a sensory act of seeing a bird in flight, may trigger a thought to buy a ticket to USA that raises up into the mind. Then the brain-based intelligence adds additional context related to schedule, visa proceedings, expenses, outcome etc.,
3. Mind or Manas : This is centred in the heart and related to the astral body (not gross body) and literally for an ordinary person, it is a storm of thoughts that constantly plays out in the mind (conscious or sub-conscious) because of constant pull and push functions mentioned above. Hence meditation can help such persons to calm down a stormy mind and therefore to have a calm external disposition. A stormy mind (say with repetitive same stressful thoughts) can lead to an agitated-stressful brain organ.
Conscious thoughts: These are thoughts that are actively processed by the brain. This can again be of 2 kinds – that which is accompanied by a mind-voice (also raised while reading a book), or that which just remains as a thought in working. In the vak system this occurs in the Madhyama phase.
(please refer to my blog - https://www.mayoan.com/post/33-the-vak-system-or-the-system-of-speech-in-humans and https://www.mayoan.com/post/29-communications-flow-between-astral-physical-bodies )
Sub-conscious thoughts: These are the thoughts that has manifested in the Pashyanthi phase and briefly felt in the Madhyama phase in an abstract manner or in an out-of-focus manner. Psychologists have to curate these thoughts from Madhyama to understand the psyche of a person because it is difficult for an ordinary person to lie in the Para/Pashyanthi phases, but it is easy for that person to lie in the Madhyama/Vaikhari phases.
The above conscious or unconscious thoughts(tamil word for this is 'ennam') can come from brain-based-cache like memory system or Chittam-hard storage like impression based system.
Please note that - at least some of the brain based superficial thoughts that originated in an outside-to-inside manner - can never reflect in Pashyanthi (or the stored tanmatra for that Pashyanthi) unless it is meant to be stored as an impression in the chittam. It depends on the intensity of the thought (or the physical experience that resulted in the thought) to get registered in the Chittam. I think this tanmatra of a powerful thought stored as an impression in the Chittam, and the 'adhi sakthi' (dark energy) from the MAHAT is the Para form of the speech when this is raised again from stored impressions into the mind.
4. Buddhi or Intelligence: This is centred in the throat chakra and the brain part of the gross body plays a vital role in this function. This is where a thought is processed and additional information, additional contexts, plan of action etc., are decided. I think the current body of science related to biology has to enhance based on the new understandings coming from the consciousness-mind-body complex.
What thoughts are processed by the brain from the manas is decided by the value systems adopted by the host. Sometimes the actions expended from thoughts are challenged by the same value systems adopted by the host. This act of thinking (tamil word for this is 'sinthanai') in the brain can also be in a Conscious or Subconscious manner.
5. Action by Karmendriyas/ Gnanendriyas: Based on the finalized thoughts, commands are issued by brain to the Karmendriyas to either turn or walk or take or speak or excrete or copulate. The brain can also issue commands to the Gnanendriyas to smell (to process the smell entering the nose) or taste (to taste the food placed on the tongue) or see (followed by processing of the sight) or touch (to feel the temperature) or to hear (to focus on a particular feeble sound).
The actions in the brackets above are the follow-up actions of the brain!
Please note that these Gnanendriyas based action can be conscious or subconscious. Sometimes the Karmendriyas based action can also be subconscious (like in driving).
To put everything in the perspective let us recap the above concepts through a simple exercise. This time we will revisit the above concepts through an earthly example in an outside-to-inside manner.
Let us say Mr.X is walking along a downtown street.
1. His eye sees a Red-Velvet cake.
2. His brain picks up the information and by co-relations, it immediately adds some context – like – ‘It looks good!’, ‘It looks hygiene’ etc.,), Here, I believe in the modern science which talks about a cache memory system operating out of the brain organ. The immediate reactions may be coming from this cache system. Imagine brain-based memory as a ‘cache memory system’ and the ‘Chittam based impression’ as a ‘hard drive storage system’).
3. Now because of the thought flux, some thoughts based on additional but related contexts are elevated into the mind from the Chittam. As an example, these can be the below ones:
- Conscious thoughts: About ‘his age’, ‘his heath’, ‘his calorie adds’ etc.,
- Subconscious thoughts: About ‘his scare on the last visit to the clinic’, ‘his deceased wife likes it too’, etc.,
4. Let us say, there is a + ve karmic load on Mr.X at this juncture in his life. So, one of the +ve karma is related to the ‘joy’ of moving to a higher position with higher remuneration’ that further leads to a multitude of pleasant experiences. It is waiting to materialize based upon a trigger event.
5. Mr. X’s brain quickly analysis all pros and cons and decides to intake the Red-Velvet cake into the gross body.
6. Mr. X’s brain orders his feet to walk towards the bakery, orders his hands to pick up his wallet, and certain subconscious thoughts triggers his light salivation at the thought of eating this delicacy and so on. Thus the Red-Velvet is purchased and eaten.
7. The Law of Karma may decide this action of soulful eating to be the trigger and arranges certain happy sequences of events to happen in Mr.X’s life.
Consider- a normal person who was immersed in earthly activities in the past, and at the time of retirement, say, he turns spiritual and seeks peace and becomes a recluse. His life is then considered to be consisting of 2 grand phases - Evolution and Involution.
Consider my blog on the Varnashramadharma at - https://www.mayoan.com/post/17-varnashramadharma-in-my-point-of-view .
Evolution : This is when he goes through the first 3 phases of the 'asrama' dharma. This is heavily dominated by physical activities.
Involution - This is when he goes through the last 2 stages of the 'asrama' dharma. This is heavily oriented towards mental/meditational activities.
While it is possible that a single life may contain remnants of both evolution and involution, It is also possible that a soul's progression from being in evolution and then further into involution may span several births. To give a very crude example, a soul starting as a fish can evolve successfully by birthing into higher organisms in multiple births before it takes the human form (as a great guru or rishi) and attains mukthi.
Probably, I will write more about evolution and involution as it applies to a soul's journey later. For now, it is good to know that the 'asrama' dharma talks about this concept in a single human's life.
Part-2 of this blog can be found at - https://www.mayoan.com/post/42-workings-of-the-consciousness-mind-body-complex-part-2 .
Hari Om !