Stages of Mind

Mind

What is mind ? From the yogic standpoint it is simply the

individualized consciousness, the whole of it, the whole of your

consciousness including your activities which the Western

psychologist puts outside mind. Only on the basis of Eastern

psychology is Yoga possible. How shall we describe this

individualized consciousness? First, it is aware of things.

Becoming aware of them, it desires them. Desiring them, it tries

to attain them. So we have the three aspects of consciousness--

intelligence, desire, activity. On the physical plane, activity

predominates, although desire and thought are present. On the

astral plane, desire predominates, and thought and activity are

subject to desire. On the mental plane; intelligence is the

dominant note, desire and activity are subject to it. Go to the

buddhic plane, and cognition, as pure reason, predominates, and

so on. Each quality is present all the time, but one

predominates. So with the matter that belongs to them. In your

combinations of matter you get rhythmic, active, or stable ones;

and according to the combinations of matter in your bodies will

be the conditions of the activity of the whole of these in

consciousness. To practice Yoga you must build your bodies of the

rhythmic combinations, with activity and inertia less apparent.

The yogi wants to make his body match his mind.

Stages of  Mind

The mind has five stages, Patanjali tells us, and Vyasa comments

that "these stages of mind are on every plane". The first stage

is the stage in which the mind is flung about, the Kshipta stage;

it is the butterfly mind, the early stage of humanity, or, in

man, the mind of the child, darting constantly from one object to

another. It corresponds to activity on the physical plane. The

next is the confused stage, Mudha, equivalent to the stage of the

youth, swayed by emotions, bewildered by them; he begins to feel

he is ignorant--a state beyond the fickleness of the child--a

characteristic state, corresponding to activity in the astral

world. Then comes the state of preoccupation, or infatuation,

Vikshipta, the state of the man possessed by an idea--love,

ambition, or what not. He is no longer a confused youth, but a

man with a clear aim, and an idea possesses him. It may be either

the fixed idea of the madman, or the fixed idea which makes the

hero or the saint; but in any case he is possessed by the idea.

The quality of the idea, its truth or falsehood, makes the

difference between the maniac and the martyr.

Maniac or martyr, he is under the spell of a fixed idea. No

reasoning avails against it. If he has assured himself that he is

made of glass, no amount of argument will convince him to the

contrary. He will always regard himself as being as brittle as

glass. That is a fixed idea which is false. But there is a fixed

idea which makes the hero and the martyr. For some great truth

dearer than life is everything thrown aside. He is possessed by

it, dominated by it, and he goes to death gladly for it. That

state is said to be approaching Yoga, for such a man is becoming

concentrated, even if only possessed by one idea. This stage

corresponds to activity on the lower mental plane. Where the man

possesses the idea, instead of being possessed by it, that

one-pointed state of the mind, called Ekagrata in Sanskrit, is

the fourth stage. He is a mature man, ready for the true life.

When the man has gone through life dominated by one idea, then he

is approaching Yoga; he is getting rid of the grip of the world,

and is beyond its allurements. But when he possesses that which

before possessed him, then he has become fit for Yoga, and begins

the training which makes his progress rapid. This stage

corresponds to activity on the higher mental plane.

Out of this fourth stage or Ekagrata, arises the fifth stage,

Niruddha or Self-controlled. When the man not only possesses one

idea but, rising above all ideas, chooses as he wills, takes or

does not take according to the illumined Will, then he is

Self-controlled and can effectively practice Yoga. This stage

corresponds to activity on the buddhic plane.

In the third stage, Vikshipta, where he is possessed by the idea,

he is learning Viveka or discrimination between the outer and the

inner, the real and the unreal. When he has learned the lesson of

Viveka, then he advances a stage forward; and in Ekagrata he

chooses one idea, the inner life; and as he fixes his mind on

that idea he learns Vairagya or dispassion. He rises above the

desire to possess objects of enjoyment, belonging either to this

or any other world. Then he advances towards the fifth stage--

Self-controlled. In order to reach that he must practice the six

endowments, the Shatsamapatti. These six endowments have to do

with the Will-aspect of consciousness as the other two, Viveka

and Vairagya, have to do with the cognition and activity aspects

of it.

By a study of your own mind, you can find out how far you are

ready to begin the definite practice of Yoga. Examine your mind

in order to recognize these stages in yourself. If you are in

either of the two early stages, you are not ready for Yoga. The

child and the youth are not ready to become yogis, nor is the

preoccupied man. But if you find yourself possessed by a single

thought, you are nearly ready for Yoga; it leads to the next

stage of one-pointedness, where you can choose your idea, and

cling to it of your own will. Short is the step from that to the

complete control, which can inhibit all motions of the mind.

Having reached that stage, it is comparatively easy to pass into

Samadhi.