Who are we?
We are Souls and not bodies, not mind, not thoughts. Mind is the instrument; Soul is the power; Body is the vehicle. Soul provides energy to the Mind to operate; the Mind controls the Breath and Body. It is that simple!
What is Mind?
The mind is the finest and most powerful instrument that we possess. Mind means a catalog of thinking, a series of thoughts. It is an obstacle for the ignorant and a means for the wise. It is the cause of both bondage and liberation. The mind is in direct control of the thoughts, senses, breath, and body (including all diseases).
The mind contains vast information in conscious, unconscious, and sub-conscious minds, but there is nothing in mind that we have not heard, seen, thought of, or imagined previously (in previous births or within this birth). In other words, the mind depends totally on prior experiences and presumes future understandings based on that; it has nothing new or original. It means that the mind does have its boundary. It cannot go beyond its limit, but there is something beyond the mind.
It is "The Mind" that stands between ourselves and the ultimate truth (God); All the spiritual practices, techniques, and religions are means to train the mind so that we can have control over the mind and its modifications and then can go beyond the mind. Mind is like a boat that we can use to cross the river. It is also called 'Antahkarana' (Inner Being), which works through the four functions as explained below. Mind/Antahkarana is the place where Illusion/Matrix/Maya resides.
How does the Mind work?
The working of the Mind is fascinating. The totality of the Mind has four functions (Manas, Chitta, Ahamkara, and Buddhi) that operate together. If the Mind Thinks, then it is called Manas. If it Desires something, then it is called Chitta. If it Decides, then it is called Buddhi. If it associates with I'ness, then it is called Ahamkara.
e.g. [You are a Judge when you exercise your judicial powers in the court. You are a cook when you work in the kitchen. You are a president of an association when you sit in the chair in that capacity. You are the same man, but you function differently, and different names call you according to those other functions]
Importer/Exporter (Manas): It is a sensory, processing, thinking mind. It instructs ten senses (5 sense organs and five action organs). It is the lower mind, through which the mind interacts with the external world and takes in sensory impressions and data. It has a habit of putting questions and doubts (opposing sensations, e.g., should I do it or not), but it is not supposed to be the key decision maker in the factory. That is the job of Intellect/Buddhi. If Intellect is clouded, Manas has a habit of questioning and seeking good instruction. Then it often listens to whoever is speaking the loudest in the factory: the wants, wishes, desires, attractions, and aversions stored in the memory bank of the storehouse (Chitta).
An excellent way to cultivate the witnessing of Manas is to be mindful of actions and speech, as well as your senses of smelling, tasting, seeing, touching, and hearing.
Storehouse (Chitta): It is the storehouse of the countless latent impressions and memory of merits-demerits, through which we receive knowledge, Intuitive library, Desire, and Awareness. All the experiences and memories from previous and this birth are stored here. There is a total of 4 levels of storehouse: Consciousness, Unconsciousness, Subconsciousness, and Turiya. In the absence of a clear Intellect/Buddhi, the competing voices of Storehouse/Chitta often drive Manas to take actions in the world that are not so useful.
An excellent way to cultivate the witnessing of Chitta is to be aware of the streams of thoughts, emotions, images, and impressions that arise in front of Manas (on which Manas may or may not act). Notice how the stream of thoughts comes from somewhere and recedes into that place. This place is Chitta.
Ego (Ahamkara): It is the function of the mind to take on identities, to make things "me" or "mine." Ahamkara is the sense of "I-am-ness," the individual Ego, which feels it to be a distinct, separate entity. It provides identity to our functioning, but Ahamkara also creates feelings of separation, pain, and alienation. The ego's purpose is to hold and retain our body and our individuality. But unfortunately, the ego gets involved with other things and tries to get involved with others' individuality.
An excellent way to cultivate the witnessing of Ahamkara is to be aware that rising thoughts and emotions are often colored with either attraction or aversion. Instead of saying, “I need this. Say 'It' needs this”.
Intellect (Buddhi): It knows three things: How to Judge, Discriminate, and Decide. The higher aspect of the mind is the doorway to inner wisdom. Most of the time, buddhi is clouded, and therefore it cannot function as it should. From buddhi, knowledge comes, and from knowledge comes God. If it serves clearly, Manas will accept its guidance. In the factory of life, we want Buddhi to make the choices for the factory. Otherwise, Manas gets its instructions from the habit patterns stored in Chitta that are colored by Ahamkara, the Ego. All the coloring and impressions often cloud over Buddhi in the Chitta.
Thoughts vs Emotions
Thoughts
We are thinking beings. Thoughts are the building blocks of physical experience because our thoughts control all our actions. Everything that humans have done or created came from the mental realm first.
e.g., [A building? First, someone had to conceive the idea of a building, and then someone had to want a building, then they had to figure out the details of how it would be, then the details of how it would be constructed; and then finally, a physical building is built.]
All thoughts have some origin. Our thinking patterns are based on our previous karmas. All thoughts reside in latent form (Samskaras) in the sub-conscious mind, from where they are transferred to the unconscious mind; finally, they come to the conscious mind. The thoughts in the unconscious and subconscious are not under our control; we get aware of thought only when it is available in the conscious mind.
Emotions
Our thoughts control virtually all our actions. And all our thoughts are governed by our emotions. One emotion can disturb our whole being – we lose the power of discrimination, and our entire behavior – mind, action, and speech – becomes abnormal. Our emotional body is like a fish in the lake of life. The fish can't remain calm and quiet if the lake is in turmoil. Similarly, if the mind is in constant crisis, the emotions can never rest, and one can never use them correctly. The mind and emotions are very close, yet they are different in their functions.
Emotion is the motive power in man: it stimulates thought; it impels to action; it is as steam to the engine; without it, man would be inert and passive. Though emotion is a great power, it needs to be directed willfully; otherwise, it disturbs the mind. Emotion is the interplay of Intellect and Desire. It seems so different from Desire that their fundamental identity is somewhat veiled, but we can see this identity either by tracing the development of a desire into an emotion or by studying both sides and finding that both have the same characteristics. Emotion fills the person's surrounding atmosphere with its vibrations and thereby biases the intelligence; everything is seen through this atmosphere and is colored and distorted by it so that things do not reach the intelligence in their proper form and color but arrive twisted and discolored.
e.g. [If a person is underwater and a stick is put near him in the air, and he tries to touch it, his hand will be wrongly directed, for he will put his hand to the place at which he sees the stick and as the rays coming from it are refracted on entering the water, the stick will be, for him, displaced. Similarly, when an impression from the outer world reaches us through an aura over-charged with emotion, its proportions are distorted, and its position misjudged; hence the data supplied to the intelligence are erroneous, and the judgment founded upon them will, therefore, necessarily be wrong, however accurately the intelligence may work.]