One Chitta, Two Chitta, Green Chitta, Blue Chitta…

Continuing along the topic of the last three posts regarding the construction of the mind and the power of the mind, what if the mind is too restless to meditate?  The buddhi is the inner mind that takes us to our essence and the manas is the outer mind that engages with the physical world through the senses. The ahamkara is the sense of “I-am-ness” that forms our identity. This whole complex is referred to as the chitta or our individual consciousness.  According to yoga philosophy the chitta is in constant motion of thought generation from right thinking to wrong thinking. The chitta engages in the retrieval of memories to the spinning of imagination.  The chitta can also enter a deep sleep with a content of, well,..nothing. These are known as the five roaming tendencies of the mind, or chitta.

In these times of information overload, our chitta through the manas mind can go into overdrive. Commentaries, opinions, news, bad news, fake news, conspiracy theories, scientific discoveries further feeds the activity of the individual chitta let alone the day to day experiences of our personal lives.   Through social media we merge our individual chitta into the  millions of other individual chittas roaming with activity of right information, wrong information, memories and imagination. (It appears deep sleep is still kept to oneself.) What is one to do? Turning off the outside chittas helps.  One roaming chitta is enough!  Turn off the radio. Turn of the television. Turn off the computer, tablet, and iphone.

What draws the manas mind to the media?  To be inservice of the ego. What turns the buddhi mind inward? To be in service of your highest self. The buddhi mind is a ballast to right us up when the outside world seems in chaos. If we don’t have a sense of this ballast or higher self, then the ego and the world can be all consuming. In this case we do not seek personal transformation but stress management.  This is the time to attend to self care.

Often with such a strong outward focus of the manas mind it is not possible to sit in meditation.  This is the time to focus on self-care in other ways. Yoga promotes self-care through a healthy life style with healthy foods, a healthy social support system, regular practice of movement/postures, breath awareness, and deep relaxation to nourish and raise vitality in the body and mind. As the flight attendants instruct, “In the possible event of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others”.