Our Identities and Mind

This article is categorized under the topics - Yoga and Living. Yoga is a path of self-inquiry that originated in the Indian sub-continent that offers various techniques to realize the "Truth" by looking inwards into oneself. Yoga is one of the many paths that humans have developed over thousands of years to seek God and find the source of everlasting happiness. Living is that aspect of our existence that is driven by the understanding of our own true "Self" (Being), regarding who we are and what the purpose of our life is. 

This article is a brief insight into the relationship between the way our minds function and the identities we choose to take/keep. 

Do you ever recall yourself saying - "I am a Vegan", "I am a European", "I am a big brother", "I am an Apple (company) fan", "I am a news junkie", "I only like Mexican food", "I am a Catholic", "I hate vegetables", "Starbucks coffee is the best", "I am a proud member of LGBTQ community", or "I don't like stupid people" or something on those lines? And have you ever wondered how our mind functions when we identify with these identities/labels?

In ancient Indian scriptures, the Upanishads, mind is described under four distinct dimensions to explain its workings. These four dimensions work together at all times to give rise to our thoughts, influence our thinking, and affect our actions. 

Ahamkara and Buddhi

One of the dimensions of mind is called Buddhi (बुद्धि), which in English language translates closely to Intellect. The function of the Intellect dimension of mind is to analyze, reason, and dissect every piece of information we perceive through our five senses. When we smell, see, touch, hear, or taste something, the function of Intellect is to analyze that information and protect our Ahamkara/Ego. 

This brings us to the next dimension of mind, called Ahamkara (अहंकार), which in English language translates closely to Identity/Ego. It refers to the identities/labels we take on in our everyday life that enable us to interact with the world around us. Be it our citizenship, gender, race, religion, profession, food preferences, likes, dislikes, favourites, and everything else that we identify with. We either consciously decide to take on these identities throughout our life or they are given to us by our caretakers and community. Once we take on an Identity/Ego, the work of Intellect is to protect that identity at any cost. 

Let me give you an example - let's say you took on the Identity that you are a Christian (Either by choice or you were assigned that identity early in life by your parents/caretakers). Once you decide to take on/keep that identity, the full-time job of your Intellect is to protect that identity. Let's say someone talks about Christians in a degrading manner, your Intellect immediately rises up and defends your identity by giving you the words, raising intense emotions, providing you with logic and line of arguments that fits your defence. Your intellect might even find ways to discredit the person and attack that person's identities in order to protect your own identities. Continuing to assume that you took on the identity of a Christian, would you use your logic and intellect the same way if someone says derogatory words about Buddhists? Would you observe the same emotions arise which you had when someone insulted Christianity? What changed between the two scenarios? It is only your identification with one religion vs. the other. If your identities have such a direct effect on your emotions, thoughts, feelings, and quality of life, would you be open to doing a self inquiry into which of the identities you currently hold are absolutely necessary for you? If all the identities you currently hold are not absolutely necessary, which ones are you willing to let go?

Manas and Chitta

The third dimension of mind is called Manas (मानस), which in English language translates to Memory. We traditionally associate memory with the information stored inside our brains. But the memory that is being referred to here is the memory that is stored in every cell of our body. This also includes the memory of events and objects that we store as memories in our mind. Manas not only is the storage of inputs from our five senses & memory of our version of past experiences, but it also includes our evolutionary memory (memory from all of human evolution), elemental memory, atomic memory, karmic memory, articulate memory, inarticulate memory etc. When we take on an Identity, our Intellect taps into our Manas (Memory) to try and protect our identity.  

Taking the same example as above. When confronted with someone discrediting your Christian identity, your intellect will tap into your memory (Manas) and recollects all the past incidents of people saying similar things, provides you with arguments that worked in the past in your favour, and gives you the vocabulary to help your intellect weave an argument and logic to defend your identity. For a moment, imagine that you can no longer remember any instance where anyone has ever discussed about your identity of being a Christian either in a positive or negative manner. You have nothing to work with, no memory of any information about this identity. What would your intellect do in this situation? What logic will it use to defend your Identity? Will it even feel the need to defend that identity? If not, what action would you take in a situation where you have no stored memory or past experience about an identity you have?   

This brings us to the fourth dimension of mind called Chitta (चित्त), which does not have an equivalent word in English, but it represents that dimension of mind that is untouched by memory. In the above scenario if you don't have access to your memory, what will guide your words, your logic, and your actions? It is Chitta. It is also referred to in many mainstream religions as "The will of God".  Chitta is that dimension of life that guides us to have appropriate thought and action for every situation in life as long as we are in-tune with our true nature/Being. We touch this dimension of Chitta most of the times unknowingly. This dimension of mind mostly springs into action when we are faced with situations where we have very short to no time to respond to the situation. Chitta also works when we are in a deep state of love, fascination with music/art/beauty or similar states where we no longer have connection with our identities, and have no need to use our mind to experience the love, beauty, peace within us. We access this dimension more often than we "think". 

How do we develop Ego/Identities? 

At a very early age as a child, we take on the first identity as a separate self. We realize at some point that there is a separate entity called "me". This identity and a sense of separation automatically creates everything else in the world as "other" than me. The all encompassing nature of the entire existence is broken down for the first time as "me" and "others". This event is symbolically referred in Christianity as the "Original Sin", which is this belief that we are separate from our creator, God. As we grow older, our caretakers and community provide us with lots of Egos/Identities about our gender, race, religion, educational degrees, profession, nationality, and this slowly extends to identities of what we are supposed to like and dislike, understand the world in terms of identities of good and bad, and behaviour in terms of identities of acceptable and not acceptable. This huge list of identities continues to pile on for the rest of our lives and before we know it, we take on 100s of identities that drive our every thought, action, and experience of life.      

Test your mind by loosening up your current identities

Test your mind by loosening up an Identity that you currently associate with. Image for a moment that you are no longer a Christian (for a moment you are a Buddhist), or you no longer belong to your Nation (you are now a citizen of another country), or you no longer have a favourite drink. And now imagine a situation when someone tries to attack that old identity of yours' by saying something derogatory about it. Do your emotions rise to the same level as before, and do you feel the same intensity of desire to argue and say something back to that person? If not, what changed? Take a moment, close your eyes, and let go of one Identity that is closest to you for a few moments and observe your thoughts.

Now, what do you want to identify with?

Identities are important for anyone living in a social, religious, and cultural context. Without having identities, it is impossible to function as a participating member of a society or culture. Knowing how our mind works based on the identities we take on, one might be more conscious before taking on a new identity or attach too strongly to an existing identity.

Especially in the current culture where there are new micro-identities popping up everyday around the world because they are constantly working on developing creative ways to expand their economies and find new marketing methods to attract customers to consume more services and products. The new micro-identities popping up everyday range from food choices, technologies, sports teams, fashion brands, life style choices, vehicle brands, types of diseases and medications, age groups and everything else you could imagine. In this ever increasing availability of identities to choose from, it is even more important to be sensible and deliberate about the identities you take or not take. Knowing that your identities influence your thoughts, emotions, and actions, what identities would you like to be identified with, and why? 

Next time before you use an identity by saying "I am ...." or identify someone else by saying "He/she/they are ....", it might be sensible to give some thought into how that identity/ego/label might influence your thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Peace! Aum(OM)! Amen! Inshallah!  

#livingandbeing #mind #ahamkara #Identity #ego #memory #buddhi #intellect #chitta #consciousness #manas #yoga #upanishads #christianity

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