3 minute read

Mind And Pleasure

Mind And Pleasure

What is the mind? Don’t mistake it for the brain.
The brain is physical and it is located inside the physical head.
A perceiving mind is not a matter, but it matters a lot.
This non-matter which matters is not located in one place.
The whole body is the home of the mind.

How the whole body has a mind?
Let’s understand, what is the mind.
This English term mind is very confusing.
In Indian Yogic terms, there is nothing called a mind.
In Yoga we have terms like Manas, Chitta, Buddhi, Ahamkar, Pragya.
Manas is not Mind. Buddhi is not Intellect.
Ahamkara is not Ego. There is no equivalent Chitta in English.
Pragya has many meanings in English.

Scope of the English word mind is following 11 activities
defining, feeling, thinking, sensing, perceiving, intuiting,
judging, associating, discriminating, assimilating, and creating.
(feel free to add more if I missed adding that here)

In Yoga Manas is a pool of thought and nothing else.
Once thoughts disappear there is no Manas.

Buddhi is a facility to analyze events, objects around us
in the smallest possible units and
seeing the sequence and parallelism etc.

Ahamkara is self-identification with the help of things
that are associated with you. Including body, mind, intellect,
relations, car, bank balance, property, position, relations, etc.

Chitta is a memory (Smriti) pool. There are two kinds of memories.
One, which is part of your body cells
which makes your body structure,
color of your skin, the shape of your body parts, etc.
The second kind of Chitta is, which is non-local, universal.
You can connect to it and access the huge amount of information stored there.
It is timeless, space-less but available to you
only when you slip temporarily in that timelessness.

Pragya is intelligence and wisdom to assimilate
and understand the oneness of entire existence.

Because of English education, most of us
will not be able to understand these terms at the experiential level,
so I will continue using the term mind.

Today somebody in my circle asked me
can we measure the mind?
Based on my experience I can say the mind is not measured. It measures.
It is like a scale. Scale measures but not measured, except for calibration purposes.
In the case of mind, what is that which works as a calibrator of mind?
Every scale has a unit of measurements
and for the mind, the Unit is a pleasure.

Pleasure for every mind is different.
Therefore in a human to human relative sense,
it looks there is no need for a calibrator.
With the expansion of Pragya mind calibrates itself.
Pleasure comes through mental or physical actions
but it is perceived only by the mind.
Pleasure is no different from pain.
It is like a coin of exchange that has
two parts called pleasure and pain.
But, we still referring to that coin as pleasure.

Pleasure and pain are closely related to
your association with those objects
on which the events are happening.

Too much cold and heat on our skin give us too much pain.
The same cold and heat on your friend’s skin give less pain to you.
And the same cold and heat on some poor person’s skin,
that is breaking the stone on the road, give you further less pain.
The same cold and heat on someone who is far away from your land,
language, religion makes you indifferent,
unless you are a human rights professional
and make your money by that sensationalization work.
Too much temperature torture
to a terrorist or criminal in jail gives you pleasure.

This way you can expand this concept of pleasure and pain
from heat and cold to your wealth, position, respect, status, title, etc.
In a nutshell of whatever mind is aware
and attached it feels pleasure and pain.

Sometime back I mentioned Prisoner of Mind,
In that sense, you feel pleasure and pain till
the time you are a prisoner of the mind.

Is it possible to break the prison of mind?
Yes, it is possible. It is as easy as seeing your eyes
without using any reflection like the mirror, water etc.
Is it easy? Of course Yes and No, simultaneously.

How to see your own mind without any help from outside?
No help from friends, books, religion, etc.
How to introspect your own mind?
If you find something then share techniques with me.

Hari Om Tat Sat
Yours Truly Hari