Is the mind a covering on consciousness or does the mind contain the covering?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so when we say that the mind is the covering but then we say the mirror of the mind is covered by the dust so is it the consciousness that is covering what exactly is it yes so there are terms and there are concepts it’s important to not get confused about this the terms are verbal tools concepts are thought units so concept is like a suitcase a term is like a handle for lifting the suitcase sometimes when we are at the baggage claim sometimes if we once it happened that I was travelling from one place to another just when I was going out of the house where I was staying the bag handle broke it broke and then the devotee said we don’t have time so the devotee gave me another suitcase so when I got a new suitcase now generally because I can’t physically carry my suitcase so others carry it so by the time I came to the next place I came to baggage claim I had forgotten what my suitcase looks like so I only remembered the handle it was a red handle so in all the suitcases the red handles I was taking out and looking at the number this is my suitcase so what may happen is the same kind of handle might be attached to many different suitcases so the handle is like the term and the suitcase is the concept so sometimes the same term may refer to different concepts and in English the word run I read an article has run run amok has run run mad the word run has almost like 700 meanings to it so he says are you running for elections that is very different from are you going for a run is the machine running well well the machine is not running physically there are so many different meanings so basically let’s focus on concepts rather than getting on terms now so the soul is the source of consciousness just like say this bulb is the source of light the consciousness however refers to two things conscious refers to the observer of the territory as well as the light that helps you to observe the territory that means when the light is coming here the light is simply illuminating and we as another person are seeing but with respect to consciousness it is consciousness that is the light and consciousness is also the seer who uses the light to see so in that sense the word consciousness has two different meanings since my consciousness has gone down now what is consciousness gone down the soul always has consciousness but consciousness has gone down means that the light is getting directed towards lower things more sensual things more self-centered things that means I as the observer can see that there is this big room but my torch light is not looking at what is above in the room it is all looking down and if I want to look at some object which is above then I have to lift the torch light so the consciousness is both the holder of the flashlight and it is the light of the flashlight both ways now when this light is coming out what makes it go up and down that is normally we could say the way we hold the flashlight we can look it up we can look it down but in the case of this flashlight the flashlight itself has a covering to it and that covering sometimes if we have some movable movable say glass structure in front of a flashlight then if that movable structure moves up then we start seeing what is above the bulb basically the bulb angle changes and sometimes it can move downwards we are holding the flashlight the same way but if the front panel changes then the focus can change we do not have to move it physically so like that for the soul in front of it covering it is a subtle body and the subtle body has the subtle body which acts as a covering can cause the soul consciousness to move up or to move down now when we say that the mind is like a mirror which is covered by dust that is making things a little more complicated so we could say the mind is a covering but the mind is a dual function covering that means the mind has it’s like say if now I have these specs the specs are also covering on my eyes but this is a covering that enables me to see better but on the other hand if somebody puts blindfold on my eyes that’s also covering but that is a covering that prevents me from seeing so there is some covering that can enhance vision there is some covering that can block vision so similarly for us within the mind there are different impressions stored and some impressions they can deaden our vision and some impressions can sharpen our vision so for example if somebody is good at music what does it mean somebody is good at music what is it, is it their hands are better they may be able to play instruments better but it’s not just physical hands it’s the subtle mind if they have practiced music in this life or may be in previous life those impressions are stored then their musical instincts become very strong so in the subtle body again putting terms aside I will use English terms over here that among the impressions that are there in the mind we can say there are two kinds of impressions, there are instincts and there are impulses so instincts are like programmed intelligence just know it if somebody somebody has very good say home design or interior design instincts just come to a house for the first time and they say you know if you put curtain of this color over here, if you put this picture over here, you move the sofa over here your house will look much better somebody may stay in their house for 6 months still they can’t figure it out so where is this this is actually the instinct that is stored in the mind and similarly there are impulses also there impulses are we could say instincts are positive they are programmed impulses are short term and unintelligent so somebody is say somebody has taken drugs and as soon as they as soon as they come to a particular place where can I get drugs where can I get drugs somebody is very attached to cricket then as soon as they they are travelling somewhere they come to a home where is the TV, I want to see the cricket match so their vision gets directed to particular things based on what the impressions are stored so we could say if you want to become more specific it is not that the mind is the covering but what is in the mind is the covering but for a functional purpose to make the analysis simple although the mind can also have positives in its covering but prominently we are troubled by the negatives within the mind that’s why we equate the mind with its negatives sometimes so that’s why we often say the mind is the enemy but actually it is not the mind which is the enemy, it is the impressions stored in the mind that is the enemy but for functional purposes we say mind is the enemy just like we may say that say Pakistan is the enemy of India now it is not that every Pakistani is the enemy of India there might be many Pakistanis are peace loving but overall the way the state of Pakistan functions is hostile to India so in a functional sense we say the mind is the mind is the covering for the soul but when we say the cleaning the mirror of the mind what that means is removing the negative impressions in the mind the impulses from the mind so that we can function positively thank you