Mind is an important term in spirituality, but our concept of it differs a lot from that in the East. There, mind is considered to be material, not conscious, whereas in the West, it is conceived of as conscious. Sant Kirpal Singh gives the following explanation:
Mind gets consciousness from the soul. It is the soul which recognizes God, not mind. When the outgoing faculties are stilled, mind is at a standstill and intellect also ceases to work – then He will come up. But it is the soul that recognizes God, not the mind. Like knows the like. Mind is material. It is the essence of the negative power. Soul alone can know God. That is why it is said ‘know thyself’. All Masters have said like that. You are not mind, you have got a mind. You are a soul. You have a body, you have outgoing faculties, you have got an intellect, you have got a mind. It is you, a conscious entity, a drop of the Ocean of All Consciousness. So like knows the like.
Sant Kirpal Singh describes the four attributes of the mind in the following way:
Chit. It may be likened to a lake in which countless streams of impressions are imperceptibly pouring in all the time.
Manas. It is the thinking faculty of the mind which cogitates over such impressions as rise on to the surface of the lake in the form of ripples and waves just as the breeze of consciousness blows over the waters of the chit-lake and sets in motion an endless chain of thoughts one after the other.
Buddhi or intellect. It is the faculty of reason, ratiocination, discrimination and finally decision, after considering the pros and cons as presented by the manas. It is the grand arbiter that tries to solve the problems of life which come before it.
Ahankar or ego. It is the self-assertive faculty of the mind, for it likes to assume credit for all the acts done, and thus prepares a rich harvest of karmas that keep one moving up and down in giant wheel of life.
All actions leave an impression behind which dull minds fail to decipher. Only when the mind develops, and this it does when we travel within and upwards, the memory revives and the records become intelligible.
Mind-stuff is made of a highly rarefied matter or Satva substance in the elements. Gossamer-like it spreads in the body with its tentacles deeply rooted in the senses, working through sense organs. Its base also goes far above, rooted as it is in the universal or cosmic mind chid-akash. It serves as a link between the material body and the conscious spirit or soul in the body which is enlivening both the mind and the body. Like fire, it is a good servant but a bad master. (…)
So long as the soul is in the mind zone it is a prisoner. It is engulfed by the mind and is subject to it and has to obey the dictates of the mind. The mind and the soul combined in their turn are locked up in forms – causal, astral, and physical successively. The mind feels shy of going in and coming in touch with the Sound Current, for there it loses its identity and freedom. Instead, it is prepared to go to the extent of sitting in trenches in the face of bullets to win a bottom victory, or will gladly face the risks of crossing the Atlantic to gain a name or establish a record.
All conceptions in the mind are desires. At present the mind desires those things it cannot get. When it realizes the truth, the whole of nature will be at its beck and call. Mind is nothing but a storehouse of karmic impressions coming down from the beginning of time in an endless series of incarnations. The body cannot but perform karmas, and karmas fashion the body and all that is of the body and bodily relations. The entire world is a play of karmic impressions stored in the mind by the people of the world. This is why the world is termed as “mano mai shriti” or creations of the mind.
The mind by itself is not conscious. It is the consciousness of the soul that the mind reflects. Anyone whose soul is under the mind’s influence and control becomes an image of the mind, for he forgets his true self. We call this ego or I-hood for one thinks, “I am everything”. God plus mind is man and man minus mind is God.
