Here's a consolidation of all the previous posts written by me in this thread:
The concept of mind as a real entity is based on spiritual knowledge. Let us first have some understanding of how a mind works and evolves from the point of view of spiritual knowledge.
Mind is a real entity and is part of the inner reality along with the soul. It is the soul that does the real learning and mind projected from it reflects the development of the soul and actions and reactions of the mind are in accordance with that development . When one is trying to develop one's mind it becomes a permanent feature only at the level of the soul where the soul holistically considers the experiences of the various births. The development is projected as part of natural features in the mind during the next birth. There can be exceptions when experiences deep enough to touch the soul can happen and increase the abilities of the mind during one’s current life.
There are actually two factors with respect to how a mind works, being nature and environment. In one's natural state, tendencies exist in a balanced way and so it is desirable to act in accordance with one's nature. It is the environment that disturbs the balance and makes one act and react in an undesirable way. It is when a guidance becomes useful so that it may help in coping with the pressures of the environment .
So, mind development is about maintaining one's nature and acting in a balanced way and optimally using one's potential in the current birth. To understand how to be in accordance with one’s nature, we have to understand the various functions of the mind.
The different functions of a mind are performed through intellect, ego, citta and lower mind. Citta is about the past, lower mind is about the present and these two pieces of info are used and acted upon by intellect and ego.
Intellect tries to see the connections in pieces of information while ego sees the pieces in isolation. Each grows when their function is performed satisfactorily and upon prevailing over the other. Ego grows first because it is easier to see isolated pieces of information. The experiences are stored as memories in the citta. Ego keeps growing till the memories begin to become hurtful. Then discrimination starts and connections are sought to be found by the So intellect. It is also possible for other ways of evolution, for example ego and intellect growing in tandem. How far ahead intellect is over the ego can be a good indicator of how evolved a person is.
Let us also try to have a mundane understanding of how a mind can evolve and see if we make use of both the spiritual and the mundane knowledge to have a good understanding of mind.
Mind is at work when we act or react. When one acts or reacts there are overt factors and subtle factors that determine the action or the reaction of the person. The subtle factors are the important ones when one has the objective of mind development. One should understand such factors well to overcome them.
The factors that can subtly influence in a situation are: one's accomplishments or lack of them, one's perceived intelligence, one's perceived beauty, one's family background, one's caste , religion and nationality, one's past experiences to name a few. These can subtly influence one's actions and reactions in a situation irrespective of what the situation is about.
People's actions and reactions may be categorized as unreasonable, reasonable and perfect. Many times people act or react adversely. There are two major reasons why people act or react adversely. They are (i) They think that they may be physically hurt or their physical comforts may be taken away (ii) They think that they may be mentally hurt or their mental peace may be taken away. Actions and reactions based on the above two reasons can be classified as reasonable actions or reactions. Also it is necessary to remember that people act or react adversely when any group they belong to is threatened.This is also a reasonable action or reaction.When people act or react adversely not for the above reasons but because they are inclined in that way, such actions and reactions are unreasonable. In general actions and reactions based on subtle factors are unreasonable.
A perfect reaction is that which rises above any action and one acts in a totally equable way in any situation.
The best way to counter a reasonable action being a force, is to use wisdom first in countering that action. The next step if wisdom does not give the desired effect is to use one's intelligence in one's reaction. Th major difference between using wisdom and intelligence is that in the former one is spontaneous and balanced where as in the latter one plans and executes the plan with lesser regard to being balanced. As a final resort, one can retaliate using mental force. However at the slightest opportunity when the situation abates , one should resort back to using wisdom again.
In the case of unreasonable actions, one has to do the reverse. Start with force and even deception but in the same spirit as Lord Krishna does in Mahabharat because you are pitted against a wall. If the situation abates raise the level to intelligence or wisdom.
The perfect reaction whether for a reasonable action or an unreasonable action is to transcend over those actions and not be affected. This shows in your words and deeds.
