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If you are truly conscious, do you know who you really are?
Coacharya
Brain is tangible and a part of our body. Mind, who knows, may be a collection
of many things. Intelligence is probably part of the mind, or is it the brain,
because I can or I know someone who can measure it. Awareness; of course
I know; it is mindfulness when I can see, smell, taste and feel the raisin; but
wait, why can’t I listen to it? Consciousness; who cares, any way; I function,
however badly; that’s what matters to me.
If you are one of those who would respond this way, perhaps best if you stop
reading now, though you are the one who probably needs to read the rest of it
the most. Like you say, who cares?
Let is start with the brain first. Daniel J Siegel’s Hand Model of the brain is
very helpful to understand the triune theory model and the brain functions,
described in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-m2YcdMdFw.
The best I could get, thanks to Google, was that the human brain has 100
billion cells and the human body 37.2 (that’s right) trillion cells (that’s right
though sometimes it says 100 trillion) a ratio of 372. I could also get that the
mass ratio of brain to body is 40. Neuroscience tells us that body mind
intelligence is cellular. This cellular intelligence, be it in the brain, blood, or
bones, is the similar in quantity though varying in its specific quality of
function. We also know thanks to Candace Pert that it is not only the neurons
and synapses of the brain that transmit emotions, but as well blood.
Vedic Hindu psychology does not mention the brain even in passing, when
classifying 4 mind functions of senses, memory, intelligence and ego. Aligning
with Siegel’s brain model, senses would lie on the periphery at the back and
sides of the skull, memory on the middle as the hippocampus in the limbic
brain, intelligence both in the hypothalamus and in the frontal cortex, and ego
or identity depending on the quality in all three parts of the triune brain. Vedic
system says that these body mind functions are spread through the body
mind as matter as well as energy.
One could perhaps use the words Potentiality and Actuality to compare
Consciousness and Awareness. Consciousness is Potentiality. It pervades all
possibilities and has the non-local potential to exist everywhere anytime.
Awareness is Actuality of that potential, which is time, space and therefore
situation relevant.
The first level of awareness is the mindful and wakeful state in which we think,
sense and believe we know who we are. We are awake in body and mind in
the state of gross awareness. This is not considered true awareness.
In the second level of awareness, the mind is awake but the body is not. We
sense, feel and think, though the body does not respond to these. We are in
the Dream state of subtle awareness. This is more powerful from an energy
perspective.
In the third state of awareness, a level higher in energy, both mind and body
are in deep sleep. Yet, body mind functions in a state of extremely subtle
seed level of awareness, which if learn to access can help us create our
future. Not surprisingly, Vedic psychology refers to this deep sleep state as
the true state of awareness called prajna.
In the fourth and ultimate state of awareness, which Vedic psychology simply
calls the Fourth State Turiya, we are beyond the entanglement of thoughts,
feelings and identity, though we can think, feel, and possess an identity. It is a
witnessing state of detachment called the ‘No Mind’ by Zen, and
‘Mindlessness’ by Coacharya.
Appendix:
Vedic psychology and physiology, over 5000 years old probably the oldest
studies in these fields, describe the following as elements of construction,
function and action of body mind, and this list is not exhaustive.
2 sources of creation, active and passive
14 worlds we live in, lokas
9 influencing planets, grahas
4 states of awareness, avastas
5 nature elements, bhutas
5 sense organs of knowledge, jnanendriyas
5 sense organs of action, karmendriyas
5 subtle elements, tanmatras
5 energy sheaths, koshas
7 body mind constituent elements, dhaturs
7 energy centers, chakras
5 mind movements, kleshas
3 body mind forces, gunas
6 emotional evils, arishadvargas
3 body mind health states, doshas
4 purposes of life, purusharthas
4 stages of life, asrama
15 codes of conduct, yama and niyama