The Mechanical Mind is even less intelligent than Physical Mind. It's purpose is to do things by rote and repetition. It's very useful when you're typing on your computer for instance. It remembers again and again what keys to use without your higher mind having to "think" about the repetitiveness of it. It's the mind that drives the car when you've been thinking about something else and don't even remember driving to work.

So what happens when it breaks down, when it's not perfectly attuned? It usually begins with something simple like singing a few lines of a song over and over again, repeating a phrase over and over again and it even annoys you. "Why am I doing this? I don't even like this song or phrase!" Or when it begins to tell you over and over again you're not good enough, tall enough, old enough, or young enough; then it's really annoying. Well, you're in the mechanical mind loop. You have to hit reset by just telling it, "STOP IT!"

Notice, while all these parts of mind have a task to perform, we use different techniques to deal with them depending on "who they are." In the next few posts we'll deal with the vital mind which won't take a simple "stop it" as a reset button; techniques become more complex as we deal with higher aspects of mind.

Again, we ask you to observe your own mind(s). Be able to differentiate the various parts and respond accordingly.

As a refresher, when not properly tuned-up the physical mind will manifest doubt (not an emotion, but a feeling) and the mechanical mind will go into a constant repetitive pattern. When you examine your own life you will notice specific instances and various manifestations. For instance, doubt can mask itself as intellectual skepticism, or just plain contrariness to anything new. Mechanical mind can mask itself as the cup of coffee you make but don't drink, or checking the mailbox every 10 minutes when you have something else to do. Look for the subtle circumstances.

Also, notice if some of these habits serve you. Just because they come from a "lower" level of mind doesn't mean you must rid yourself of them unless they are causing suffering in your life. There is story of a disciple coming to the Buddha bragging about how he could now walk on water. The Buddha asked the disciple how long it took to learn this task and what else did he learn from it. The disciple explained it took 20 years and he was so busy learning it he didn't have time for anything else. The Buddha suggested that, for the cost of five rupees to the boatman per crossing, the disciple's time might have been spent in a more valuable way. In other words, if it doesn't bother you, don't bother it.

It might also be interesting to note that when we treat these aspects of mind as tools, we can literally use them as they are meant to be used by the TRUE SELF. They are tools and not identities. By the way, who is the "you" that uses these tools?

CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION

In the West, we typically make the rather crude distinction between "matter" and "mind", and tend to leave it at that. From our predominantly materialist perspective we assume consciousness and mind somehow evolved "out of" matter through some mysterious (and unexplained!) random process of material interaction and combination. One can imagine the bumper-sticker reading, "consciousness happens."

Articulating with brilliant clarity the accumulated wisdom of the East, Sri Aurobindo points out that consciousness could not have evolved out of something into which it was not already "involved". Everything is made "out of" consciousness, in varying degrees of evolution. Ken Wilber has described this concept as the "spectrum of consciousness."

Man is a mental being, and tends to "mentalize" everything; to render everything in terms of ideas, thoughts and concepts and to organize and relate these to each other intellectually-rationally. A familiar expression of this 'human' viewpoint is, "everything is Mind." So, from this mental viewpoint, lets look at our development so far.

The story of human development is the story of the evolution of consciousness. What we're doing, essentially, is becoming "more conscious."

The earliest stage of the evolution of consciousness is the physical, or material. Here we see consciousness at its "densest," its "most rigid" or "lowest" level. Interaction or relationship on the physical level is characterized in the terminology of physics, chemistry and astronomy...the "mineral kingdom".

Next comes the "vital," or life, the plant and animal realms. Here, we can see more evidence of what we ordinarily think of as consciousness in the growth and responsiveness of plants, the more complex and autonomous life of insects and fish and the suggestions of "intelligence" in the higher animals, apes and whales.

Then comes the "mental" stage of consciousness. Notice, we don't say "finally", because there's no evidence that evolution is "over". It has often been said this stage marks the "beginning" of consciousness, but it is truer to say that at the mental level we see the beginning of "self-consciousness." That is, the ability to objectify, or observe, ourselves as though we were somehow separate from our own awareness.

It is important to note that, in the process of development, we have not actually separated from the physical and vital stages. Our consciousness has definitely evolved beyond those levels, yet we continue to be physical, vital beings endowed with mentality. Our bodies are made of the same matter as the planet and stars. Our life is the same vitality as the moss and monkey. It is only in our self-consciousness mentality we seem to be distinct from other forms of life-and even that distinction is being questioned in the cases of the higher apes and cetaceans.

In fact, we seem to be embodiments of a rather wide spectrum of consciousness, embracing as we do the physical, vital and mental range. Our "mind" is mixed into all levels of our being that have already evolved. Further, our mental consciousness seems to be almost completely at the service (almost the slave) of our "lower" physical and vital needs, desires and passions. If we are to accelerate our evolution, this state of affairs needs to be reversed. Indeed, if our aim is simply a happier, more fulfilled life, we would do well to put our lower nature into the service of what is highest and most evolved in us. In other words, strive for self-mastery.

We have already spoken about some of the impediments to self-mastery that are presented by the mechanical and physical mind, and we will next turn our attention to some of the commonest challenges posed by the vital mind.