THIS THING CALLED MIND
Sitting down and experiencing peace is one thing; actually using it to transform my life is quite another. A great deal goes on between the intention and the action and sometimes we catch ourselves saying, I didn't want to do that, but...' or 'Sorry I didn't mean to say that'. To be able to be in full control of our lives we need not only to know, but also to understand the process through which an intention becomes an action.
For instance, a variety of raw materials goes into a car manufacturing plant; sheet metal, nuts and bolts, electrical wiring, paint etc. These raw materials are like my experiences and intentions. As they pass through the plant, they are processed and eventually emerge as a car, which we can think of as an action. But imagine that there is a consistent fault in the car. I could set about repairing each car that came off the production line but this would be time consuming and hard work. It would also be very frustrating as I would consider that the factory had not been built to produce faulty cars.
So it is not good trying to start to change my life by just superficially changing my actions. It can work to a limited extent but I will be continually faced by 'faulty' actions from the 'production line' and it will seem like very hard labour with not much reward. Instead I need to check the raw materials of my experience and also become familiar with the 'production process' of my desires and actions. It is not enough for the engineer to roughly know
what happens on the factory floor. To repair a fault he needs a detailed working knowledge of everything going on. The better he understands the machinery, the better he is at ironing out the fault. So the more we understand about how we work, the easier it is for us to el iminate the actions that we don't want. Through meditation we are checking the raw materials, ensuring that only the best quality is used and making sure that nothing is in short supply.
So what is the process of manufacture? The first and most obvious thing that comes between an experience and an action is a thought. These thoughts occur in our minds. In Raja Yoga we do not see the mind as a physical thing but as a faculty of the soul and therefore non-physical. So through the mind we imagine, think and form ideas. This thought process isthe basis ut all our emotions, desires and sensations and it is through this faculty that in an instant we can re-live a past experience, produce happiness or sadness, or take ourselves to the other side of the world.
When we have the thought, 'T want acup of tea', the relevant actions seem to follow automatically. But, is thought the only link between experience and action? What about the expression Think before you speak'? Undoubtedly there must be thought before we open mouths or nothing would emerge, so what is meant here? There seems to be two aspects to thought. The first is the thought itself, the second is the awareness and understanding of that thought. It is the intellect which is used to understand the thoughts and through this second faculty of the soul, we assess the value of what emerges in the mind. So in the expression 'think before you speak' we are being asked to use our intellect and consider whether our thoughts are worth uttering. Some other functions of the intellect are reasoning, realisation, discrimination, judgement and the exercise of will power.
This last power is the most crucial faculty as through the intellect I exercise control over myself and especially my mind. The purpose of meditation is to fill the intellect with power, so making me clearheaded and perceptive as well as developing firm resolve. We recognise the intellect by the effect that it has. For instance, someone explains something and you fail to understand it. So they try explaining it in three or four different ways, but still you don't understand. Finally the fifth time, you 'see the light' or 'the penny drops', that is you realise what it is they mean. This realisation is the intellect working.
Another example might be the process that goes on when you are trying to sort out which plan of action to take when faced with a choice of two or three possibilities. Here you weigh up the advantages and disadvantages until your power of judgement tells you which plan is the most suitable. Like the mind, the intellect is a subtle non-physical thing and belongs to the soul, not the body.
There is a third faculty of the soul which comprises the impressions left on the soul by actions we have performed. These impressionscan be referred to as 'sanskaras'. (This is in fact a Sanskrit word for which there is no simple translation). Habits, emotional tendencies, temperaments, personality traits are all built up by sanskaras imprinted on the soul through each action it has performed. Sanskaras create my personality in the same way that individual frames on a feature film make up a story. Every action is recorded, whether it is a physical movement, a word or even a thought. As we live our lives so we are making an imprint on the celluloid, the soul. All the thoughts that occur in my mind are due to my sanskaras. So my most fundamental feature as a soul, my personality, is determined by these sanskaras.
The mind, intellect and sanskaras function together in a cyclic pattern which determines how I behave, what thoughts I have and even what mood lam in. First the mind produces thoughts, evidence which the intellect judges, and on the basis of that judgement an action is performed or perhaps not performed. The action (or non-action) creates a sanskara which in turn becomes part of the evidence in the mind.
A good illustration of this is to see how a habit is formed, for instance, smoking. The first time we are offered a cigarette many thoughts, both for and against arise in the mind. "It's bad for my health..., I wonder what it tastes like... It is very easy to get addicted... Everyone else does it..."etc. On the basis of these thoughts the intellect makes a decision. Let's suppose that it makes the decision to try a cigarette. A sanskara is created by that action and the next time we are offered a cigarette that previous action becomes part of the evidence in the mind as a memory that "I smoked one before". If we decide to smoke one again, then just like planing a groove in a piece of wood, that sanskara becomes deepened until eventually the evidence in the mind urging me to smoke has become so overwhelming that no evidence for not smoking remains. The intellect has now become very weak, even defunct. There is no longer a choice or judgement to make just the strong thought rising in the mind, "Have a cigarette" and I perform the action automatically. So we can see that as far as habits go, I am no longer in control; my past actions in the form of sanskaras are ruling my present.
However, I can use this mechanism to create peaceful, positive sanskaras. As I sit in meditation I experience myself as a peaceful soul. This experience forms a sanskara so that the next time I am about to get angry, through force of habit, the mind will also present contrary evidence; T am a peaceful soul'. This forces the intellect to make a decision. As the intellect gains strength of will through meditation, then it becomes more and more easy to act on peaceful sanskaras as opposed to negative sanskaras. Thus the intellect begins to control both the mind and actions. I, the soul, become the master of the present not the slave of the past. Gradually I reach a position where I choose to put into action only those thoughts which will lead me to experience permanent happiness and contentment.
Meditation practice
Take one aspect of yourself that you want to change. A few times a day create just one or two very powerful, positive thoughts that will help change that negative habit or character trait, putting into it all the energy and enthusiasm you can muster. This will create a very powerful sanskara, so that when that positive thought for change comes into your mind again it will bring with it the experience of enthusiasm. This will help you to put that intention into action at the appropriate time.
For example if you want to give up the habit of criticising people, throughout the day keep creating the positive thought; 'let me see everyone as peaceful souls and instead of criticising their weaknesses, I will only see their virtues and specialities.' Or, I must first change my own weaknesses before criticising the weaknesses of others.
