Which Function of My Mind Authored This Thought?

Look around. There is much in our world today that can trouble the human heart.

Fear. Anger. Frustration. Sadness. Confusion. Division. Despair.

We witness them in the news, in our communities, in our families—and sometimes within ourselves.

And because we care, we may find ourselves thinking: I wish things were different. I wish people were kinder. I wish there were less fear and more courage. Less anger and more understanding. Less pessimism and more creativity, optimism and love.

Then another thought arises: But what can I possibly do about it?

 Yoga Science offers a surprisingly practical answer. Begin with the next thought.

Who Authored That Thought?

Every word we speak and every action we take begins with a thought. But where did the thought come from?

Most of us rarely ask. A thought appears on the screen of consciousness and almost instantaneously we claim ownership: “That’s my thought.” But is it?

Yoga Science invites us to become scientists of our own inner experience. Instead of automatically believing, defending, rejecting or acting upon the next thought that appears, we can pause long enough to conduct an experiment: Which function of my mind authored this thought? That question can be liberating.

Yoga Psychology teaches that the mind has four functions: the Ego, the Senses, the Unconscious Mind and the Conscience.

The Senses report what is pleasant and unpleasant. Ego advises from the perspective of our limited individual personality, with its desires, expectations, likes and dislikes. The Unconscious Mind contains the concepts, memories, habits and conditioning accumulated through previous experience.

And sometimes these advisers collaborate. The Senses may announce: I want that. Ego adds: And I deserve it. Then the Unconscious Mind reaches into its vast storehouse and produces a memory, fear, desire or familiar concept supporting their case.

Two or three functions may have collaborated in authoring a single thought. Yet when it appears in consciousness, we ordinarily say: “I think…”

 The Yoga Scientist learns to ask: “Who exactly is this ‘I’?”

Why Do I Keep Thinking This?

Have you ever wondered why certain thoughts return so predictably? The same person says something, and the same irritation appears. The same uncertainty arises, and the same fear begins predicting the future. The same desire appears, and the same argument for satisfying it immediately follows.

Yesterday’s thought becomes today’s thought, which threatens to become tomorrow’s thought. Why?

Imagine water flowing across the earth. Water naturally follows the deepest, widest and least obstructed channel available to it. Consciousness tends to flow similarly through the Unconscious Mind. Yoga Science calls the deeply established impressions and habit patterns within the Unconscious Mind samskaras.

Yoga Science teaches that every thought is a little packet of energy. Each time we think, speak or act in a particular way, we send energy through a familiar channel. The channel deepens. The next time a similar relationship presents itself, consciousness naturally tends to travel that route again.

The familiar thought appears.
The familiar words follow.
The familiar action is taken.
And another trip around the racetrack is completed.

Like a racehorse wearing blinkers, we can become so accustomed to the familiar track beneath our feet that we forget an entire landscape exists beyond it. But it does.

We Are Not Condemned to Travel Yesterday’s Highways Forever

This is where Yoga Science brings extraordinarily good news. A samskara is powerful. But it is not destiny.

The moment we can witness a thought rather than automatically identify with it, another possibility enters consciousness.

This thought has appeared. Which function—or functions—authored it? Perhaps the Senses are seeking a familiar pleasure. Perhaps Ego is defending an expectation. Perhaps an old fear, resentment, habit or faulty concept stored in the Unconscious Mind has been activated.

There is no need to condemn any of them. There is no need to fight the mind. We simply need to know what we are dealing with.

That knowledge helps create vairagya—non-attachment or detachment. And detachment gives us something enormously valuable: the space between stimulus and response.

In that space, we do not have to travel automatically down the old highway. We can consult the one function of mind entrusted with making the decision:

Conscience.

What’s to be done?
What’s not to be done?

The Power to Choose

Sometimes the Conscience will agree with the recommendation made by Ego, Senses or the Unconscious Mind, but sometimes it will not.

Then we arrive at one of the most important moments in our Yoga practice. Will we serve the preya—the familiar, immediately attractive choice that conflicts with our Inner Wisdom? Or will we serve the shreya—what the Conscience advises is to be done?

If we choose the shreya, something remarkable becomes possible. We can sacrifice the preya. Sacrifice does not mean punishment or depriving ourselves of something genuinely beneficial. It does not mean repressing or hating some unwanted part of ourselves. Sacrifice is the mechanism of transformation.

When a preya is willingly sacrificed in service of the shreya, its negative, contractive and debilitating energy can be transformed into a positive, expansive resource of healing energy, willpower and creativity.

Think about what that means. The energy of anger need not merely make us angry or ill. The energy of fear need not merely make us fearful. The energy invested in an old desire or habit need not compel us to repeat yesterday.

The old highway does not have to receive today’s traffic. Energy can be transformed.

 Yoga Scientists Are Engineers

Every relationship presents another opportunity to become the engineer. Fear may offer its familiar highway. We can build another.

Anger may invite us down its well-traveled road. We can build another.

An old desire may insist, This is the only way I can be satisfied. We can build another.

Ego may announce, I’ve always been this way. We can build another.

Every time we sacrifice the preya and serve the shreya, we withdraw energy from an old, unskillful channel and invest it in a new one. We begin filling in one road and constructing another.

Yoga Scientists are engineers. We are reengineering the highways of the Unconscious Mind.

The Perfect Harmonic

And we are not without help. One of the most powerful tools Yoga Science provides for this reengineering process is mantra.

The more faithfully we listen to the Perfect harmonic of the mantra, the more we begin establishing and deepening new channels in the Unconscious Mind—channels of love, fearlessness and strength.

Little by little, consciousness has new pathways through which it can flow. The old road receives less traffic. The new road becomes deeper, wider and increasingly unobstructed. What once required great willpower can gradually become more natural.

This is how a samskara changes.
This is how a habit changes.
This is how a human being changes.

And because every relationship is affected by what we think, say and do, this is also one way the world changes.

What Can I Possibly Do?

So let us return to the question with which we began. We look at the world and see fear, anger, confusion and suffering. Our hearts ache. We wish things were different—kinder, more optimistic, creative and loving.

And we ask: What can I possibly do?

Yoga Science does not ask us to wait for someone else to change first. It places both the opportunity and the power in our own hands.

Begin with the next thought. When it appears, don’t automatically call it mine.

Pause.
Witness it.
Ask which function—or functions—of the mind authored it.
Recognize the samskara.
Practice vairagya.
Consult the Conscience.
Ask what’s to be done and what’s not to be done.
Serve the shreya.
Sacrifice the preya.
Transform the energy.
Listen to the mantra.
Build the new highway.

And then bring that transformed energy into the next relationship—in thought, word and deed.

We may not be able to change every circumstance in the world. But we can increasingly determine the quality of energy we contribute to the world.

We can add fear—or fearlessness. Anger—or understanding.  Selfishness—or love. Habit—or creativity. Darkness—or Light. And every time we choose skillfully, an old highway begins to lose a little of its authority while another becomes more available.

So the next time a familiar thought appears on the screen of consciousness, don’t immediately assume: That’s my thought. Instead, become the Yoga Scientist. And ask:

Which Function of My Mind Authored This Thought?

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