The mind never sleeps

The mind keeps on working, churning out thoughts, pictures, smells and words that never seem to end. One thought, one image leading to another in endless succession and the ego chases after these thoughts and images without letup but never really able to catch them or hold them long enough to make real sense of who or what they are. The Buddhists have likened the mind to a thought machine that must keep on producing thoughts that in turn push and impel the ego to possess and act upon. The Taoists have identified certain internal organs in the human body to be the seat of emotions and feelings i.e. the kidneys are the seat of fear, the lungs control sorrow, the stomach houses anxiety, the heart holds court over love while anger finds shelter in the liver.

While Western science and philosophy place all cognitive thought in the brain which might be the obvious place for controlling them, Oriental sciences recognize that the human person is an integral being and cannot be dichotomized into the western style of a man having body and soul. Indian philosophy recognizes a much more realistic idea of man as a whole being with everything being a facet or layer of mind. Hence, Tantrik Philosophy accepts seven layers of the mind with the lowest layer being the body, also called "the food layer" and the highest layer of the Causal mind is called "Hiranmaya kosa"

If we accept that mind is indeed more complicated than being merely a part of the body-mind dichotomy, we must therefore confront ourselves with the idea that there are areas of the mind which transcend that of our own unit mind or the mind that is bounded by our ego. Could that Transcendent mind be shared by all unit minds? Carl Jung caught a glimpse of it and called it the Unconscious though he could not describe it adequately. Sigmund Freud correctly guessed that dreams had a major impact on a person's life although he never really understood the mechanism of dreams.

Much of western research including that of Pavlov and the behaviorists were mostly based as are most of western philosophy on the excursions of the mind using that facility called the Intellect. Much if not all of western discussions, dissertations and research including dialectics and existentialism are based on the Intellect and the ability to Reason. Any researches into the Intuition has been relegated to the s0-called Paranormal investigations. Many of these researches focused on the fanciful and magical befitting more a carnival show than serious research. The Russians pursued this line of research more vigorously as did the Americans in secret facilities in order to find uses for it in warfare.

It is only recently that serious attention has been paid to Intuitional Sciences that have been practiced for thousands of years in India, Tibet and China. The Tantrik yogis of Tibet have developed the skill to control their Manipura Chakra which controls the element of fire to regulate their body temperature such that they are able to withstand the sub-zero temperatures of the Humalayas without wearing heavy clothing. They were known as the "sky-clad yogis" being garbed only in thin cotton sheets. In recent demonstratons, modern-day yogis who have mastered techniques developed thousands of years ago, were able to dry up wet blankets placed over them using only their body temperatures to evaporate the water-logged fabrics and these demonstrations were performed in freezing temperatures with the yogis wearing nothing but loincloths.

----0000----

For mental health, try meditation.