March 28, 2006
Mano, Manas & Monkey Brain
Mind & Consciousnesses
Five Skandhas
Eight or Nine Consciousnesses
Ki to Revitalization
Picture these scenarios:
You are driving your car, lost in a reverie or thought.
*You happen to glance at the speedometer, and realize you are speeding.
*You glance in the rear view mirror, and see a red stop light. You do not even recall travelling through the intersection. You wonder if you ran the light.
*You set out to go to the bank, but wind up at the grocery.
So what happened? It appears that most of your attention was focused on something other than driving. Yet you drove succesfully. Most likely, you did not even blow the light. Some part of you was paying attention, saw what was happening, and reacted reflexively, as if running on autopilot. Another part of you was thinking, planning, or daydreaming, etc.
The Vijnanavada or Yogachara School divided the manas/mano mind into two vijnana:
Manas/Mano: These are really the same term and seem mean the brain in general. But in other contexts they can be used to indicate specific mental functions.
Brain Stem-consciousness (manos-vijnana): The aspect of mind that interfaces with the 5 external sensory faculties and operates autonomously or with no conscious effort. Behaviors associated with this are often reflexive. They are apparently instinctive and are modified by conditioning or rote training. The cognitive mind seems to have limited control over this.
Cerebral-consciousness (manas): The self aware cerebral ego-brain that indulges in abstract reasoning and/or emotional drama.
I am going to expand on this. Feel free to comment.
I added a bit more. I like what you {VW} wrote.
I am trying to keep my attention where it should be rather than multi-tasking too much. But I do not see the thinking brain as anything but an ally. At least now that I know how to control it better.
I plan to expand this more. I think the 7th Consciousnesses can be sub-divided into rational and emotional cognition. The latter can be just as devilish. Some of my anti-intellectual friends tell me "don't think, just feel."
r
Robin,
Love the bunny! This is an interesting topic. I’ve seen lots of stuff from lots of sources in recent years about being mindful & living in the present moment. “Now” is all there really is and you don’t want to miss your own life by constantly dwelling on the past and the future. Sounds like sensible advice. Still, the ability to do a repetitive task on automatic pilot while your mind chews on this or that problem must have had some benefit to our development as a species, and perhaps we shouldn’t dismiss this ability as being totally bad. I kind of feel the same way about our being dissatisfied and critical about things. Dissatisfaction can result in creative problem solving. Perhaps everything is exactly the way it should be, including my desire to change it into something better.
VW