Four states of mind from a yoga perspective
The word "mind" is commonly used in Western psychology to denote the work of the psyche, including memory, understanding, desire and feeling, but in the psychology of yoga there is a much deeper and more detailed analysis.
Just like we have five perception abilities: hearing, vision, smell, taste and touch, in order to perceive the external gross manifestation of the world, we have more subtle functions that work from the inside.
According to yoga philosophy, there are four states of mind - manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta - together they are called antahkarana (antah means internal; karana means instrument), located in the subtle body.
The physical body acts under the guidance of the antahkarana, establishing contact with physical senses to interact with the physical world of objects.
The interaction of citta with manas, buddhi and ahamkara in together forms the antahkarana. These four layers of the mind - manas, buddhi, ahamkara and citta - interact with the organs associated with sensory perception (jnanindriyas) and the organs associated with action (karmaindriyas) and create in us feelings, emotions and experiences of the physical world.
Antahkarana - its four layers:
Manas is the part of the mind that interacts with the external the world and receives information through the senses from the outside world. It is the thinking and speaking voice inside the head.
Buddhi is the ability that contains intuitive wisdom . Buddhi is the power of the mind. This is the ability to understand and decide what is right and what is wrong.
Ahamkara is the sense of “I” or self-identification , association of oneself with a separate and individual personality. Aham means Self and Akara means form. I am a performer.
Chitta is the totality of the mind field, which includes includes the three cognitive functions of Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkara. Chitta is the repository of all expressions, experiences and accumulated experiences. It has the ability to remember, save and restore.
To understand the functions of the antahkarana, you can imagine the object on some distance under a large tree. You cannot see the object clearly because it is in the dark shadow of a tree. Your antahkarana understands the object, but cannot determine what the object actually is. "What is it? Is it a man sitting under a tree, a bear or a stone?" The mind fluctuates between different opinions or actions. This function of thinking is called manas (thinking mind). The mind then continues searching within and pulls out some past impression that is related or similar to the sought object. With this memory you identify the object as a bear. This ability to reason (true or false) to determine the true object is buddhi, which means intellect. The function of retrieving recollection from memory is citta. The passage of these states leads to recognition of the object, and you determine: “I understand that this is a bear (sitting under a tree). A factor of separation is created, and you realize that you are a person different from everything else. This is called ahamkara, or ego.
These four functions: manas, buddhi, chitta and ahamkara represent four different states of mind (antahkarana) and help us understand and experience life in the form of the individual self, separate from the cosmic self.
Imbalance in the four states of mind is the root cause of our restless minds. Yoga offers a healthier way to regulate these layers of the mind, recommending that practitioners understand and observe the four layers of the mind through yogic practices such as breathing and meditation to avoid wrong impressions from dominating the mind.