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Appendix A
The Nature of THE Mind
Definitions of Mind
For a deeper look into Eastern and Western approaches to the mind and how the mind’s weaknesses and strengths affect our spiritual growth, I am including the following definitions.
Western and Eastern Concepts of the Mind
From Spirit and the Mind, I wrote, “Modern Western psychiatry and ancient Hindu tradition agree on the major components of mind. Both agree that it is comprised of thoughts, has reasoning ability, is aware of itself, and relates to the outer world through the senses. It operates according to the pleasure/pain principle. It has both conscious and unconscious needs, impulses, and desires that motivate and direct it toward gratification in the outer world.”
We can see the above described functions in Swami’s definition of antahkarana, the inner instrument that Westerners call the “mind.”
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