Three Minds: Consciousness, Subconscious,

and Unconscious
Posted on May 23rd, 2013
Categories: Psychology, Video
A lot of different literature uses different terms. Which one is which?
Which one is correct? Are they the same or different? What is the
difference between the subconscious mind and the unconscious mind?
Even some experts in the field of psychology struggle with defining the
terms and they are often, mistakenly, used interchangeably.
The mind could be divided into three systems: the conscious mind, the
subconscious mind, and the unconscious mind.1
The consciousness mind is you awareness at the present moment. You
are aware of something on the outside as well as some specific mental
functions happening on the inside. For example, you are ware of your
environment, your breathing, or the chair that you are sitting on.
The subconscious mind or the preconscious mind consists of
accessible information. You can become aware of this information once
your direct your attention to it. Think of this as memory recall. You walk
down the street to your house without consciously needing to be alert to
your surroundings. You can talk on the cell phone and still arrive home
safely. You can easily bring to consciousness the subconscious
information about the path to your home. You can also easily remember
phone numbers that you frequently use.
It is possible that some of what might be perceived to be unconscious
becomes subconscious, and then conscious (e.g. a long-forgotten
childhood memory suddenly emerges after decades). We can assume that
some unconscious memories need a strong, specific trigger to bring them
to consciousness; whereas, a subconscious memory can be brought to
consciousness more easily.
The unconscious mind, consisting of the primitive, instinctual wishes as
well as the information that we cannot access. Although our behaviors
might indicate the unconscious forces that drive them, we dont have
easy access to the information stored in the unconscious mind. During
our childhood, we acquired countless memories and experiences that
formed who we are today. However, we cannot recall most of those
memories. They are unconscious forces (beliefs, patterns, subjective
maps of reality) that drive our behaviors.

Mental Sheath

According to Indian psychology, there are five sheaths which together form human
consciousness. The mind exists in a separate sheath called the mental sheath, which incorporates
the memory, reflective and sensory functions of the mind.

Antahkarana the conscious mentality is divided into four powers:

1. chitta or basic mental consciousness: It is largely subconscient; it has, open and hidden, two
kinds of action, one passive or receptive, the other active or reactive and formative. The chitta
passively receives all impacts and impressions, and stores them in an immense reserve of passive
subconscient memory on which the mind as an active memory can draw. Even the things which
escape the attention of our mind, but have been the object of our outer senses, are snapped by the
citta. These impressions form a chaotic jumble in the citta, from which they surge up into our surface
consciousness, in waking, and often in sleep, in various fantastic combinations. This action of the
citta is automatic and unpredictable. The active and formative part of the citta is responsible for most
of the impulses and habits of our aboriginal animal nature and the automatic emotional reactions,
citta vr ttis, which rise in response to the outer stimuli. In plant life the citta is the source of the
sensations of pleasure and pain, comfort and discomfort, which have more a nervous than a feeling
value. In the animal, a life-mind and a sense-mind evolve out of this primal citta, and the nervous-
physical sensation of the plant life assumes a mental hue and acquires a rudimentary mental value.
And yet the mind that has developed in the animal is involved in the action of the senses, and the
hungers and craving of the physical life it cannot get beyond them. From this welter of the citta,
instincts come and impulses, by it are formed the vital and physical habits of the animal, which are
nothing better than crystallizations of the samskras or impressions of its past evolution with certain
characteristic evolutionary modifications. The citta is an immense sea of amorphous or half-formed
elements, out of which develop the various faculties and functions of the evolving being.

2. manas, the sense mind: In man the chitta develops the life-mind and the sense-mind to a much
greater extent than in the animal. The sense-mind throws out a thought-mind, a very elementary
state of which we find in some of the advanced species of animals; but in the generality of men this
thought-mind is tied to the sense-mind and can, with a greater precision, be called a sensational
thought-mind. This sensational thought-mind works on the basis of the data of the senses, and
cannot rise superior to them and move in an ether of unfettered thinking. Or, it works on the basis of
the subjective reactions generated in the citta by the outer impacts.

3. buddhi, the intelligence: Buddhi is a construction of conscious. being which quite exceeds its
beginnings in the basic citta; it is the intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. It is in its
nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental
activity. There are three steps of the action of the buddhi: (1) understanding, (2) reason and (3)
intelligence proper.

4. ahakra, the ego-sense.

(Derived from Rishabchands Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo)

Discussion with Sri Aurobindo

Disciple : What is meant by Buddhi ?

Sri Aurobindo : Buddhi is what I call the pure mind. It is the intellect. It combines the intellect and
the will. It is the faculty of thinking and reflection. It reasons. It tries to answer the question, What is
the truth ? What is it that I must do? and also, How must I do it ? And when this pure mental
faculty develops we find it has a certain power of perception and mental vision. It creates forms and
speech.

Disciple : What is Manas ? What is the difference between Buddhi and Manas ?

Sri Aurobindo : When we use Manas in the general and wider sense it means the mind, meaning the
whole mental activity reflection, emotion and mental sensation, all taken together. But when we
use Manas in Philosophy we mean by it the sense-mind. It is located near the heart. For instance,
sometimes when people get presentiments they get it in the Manas, in the sense-mind. That is
why in the Upanishads Manas is called the sixth sense.

While Buddhi in the Vedanta generally means the intelligence with the will. It finds out the truth or
tries to find it out and then decides to act according to it.

Then there is the mental-physical which is not the same thing as the physical-mind. It is not this
which is behind matter and supports it. It is certain habitual, mental movements repeating
themselves without any act of pure reasoning. Even if there is reasoning in it, it is mechanical. It
goes on moving in its round even when the other parts of the mind are not conscious of it. It goes on
mechanically repeating old ideas and sanskaras etc. There is neither vital urge in it, nor any creative
activity of the mind proper.

(A.B. Purani. Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, second series, pp 227-228)

Diagram

This diagram shown below is subject to change ! For another take on this, see mind map @
Swami Jnaneshvara Bharatis site
Buddhi-Manas-Chitta-Ahankara

Here is another useful picture. (Yes, I am aware it is used in context of the Homunculus argument,
and the infinite regress problem associated with it.)
Chitta-Vritti in the Mind

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cartesian_Theater.jpg

https://sites.google.com/site/gisd7thgradescience/