Cognition is the process of receiving information through our five senses, processing that information internally, relating with it based on our root patterns, and responding to life based on our patterns. This is known as cognition.
First, we see something through the eyes. I have taken the example of sight but we can replace it with any other sense: like hearing, smelling, tasting or touching.
There are five jñānendriya and five karmendriya (senses of action) that are the means of communication between the external world and us. Jñānendriya are the senses of perception, the five senses of smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing. The karmendriya are five actions of elimination, procreation, locomotion, grasping and speaking. Each sense is related to one of the energy centers (cakras) in our body-mind system.
First your eye captures this whole scene like a picture and this picture goes to the cakṣu (the energy behind the eyes). Understand, we don’t see with the eye, we see through the eye. There is an energy that is inside or behind the eye that actually sees.
The whole scene is converted into a file like in a digital signal processor in a computer so that our mind can process the data.
The cakṣu is almost like the digital signal processor or DSP in electronics. In a computer, whether it is an audio or visual file, it must be converted into a digital file. In the same way in our inner space whatever we see or hear is converted into a bio-signal file like a digital file.
The file goes to citta, the place where past bio-memories are collected. Citta means mind, inner space. This area is where the work of excluding happens as—‘Na iti, Na iti’—this is not, this is not. The process of neti neti (this is not, this is not) takes place in this area. Upon seeing this file, our citta starts eliminating whatever the object is not.
Take the example of this scene: First you see me, the whole scene is photographed. It goes to cakṣu and becomes a bio-signal file. The file is then taken to citta, bio-memory. Citta says, ‘This is not a tree. This is not an animal. This is not a plant. This is not this. This is not that.’ The excluding process happens in citta. Next, the file goes to manas, another part of the mind. The manas tries to positively identify, ‘This is a human being. He is wearing a saffron robe. He is standing on a stage.’ The identification process, ‘iti, iti’ (this is it, this is it) identification process happens in manas. In citta, ‘neti, neti’ or the ‘not this, not this’ elimination happens.
Once this positive identification happens, the file goes to a third part of the mind called buddhi or intelligence. Buddhi is where the trouble starts. Here the analysis starts, ‘How am I related to this file? How am I connected to this scene? How is it relevant to me? How should I respond to this scene?’ If past bio- memories about me have been good or pleasant according to your intelligence, you cognize and respond in a positive way. You immediately refer to those past memories and review, ‘It was so good at yesterday’s discourse.
Your intelligence refers to the past bio-memory and muscle-memory and makes a decision based upon your cognition of these experiences. If your cognition about the past experiences with me has been positive, your intelligence tells you to stay and listen. If your cognition of the past experiences has been inadequate, unpleasant and you felt bored, your intelligence tells you that this is not the place for you and that you should leave. These are logical decisions based on conscious memories retained by your mind.
Up to this point, your cognition, the transmission of what is perceived by the senses and what is the response based on that pattern is relatively straightforward. It is a conscious process.
From the conscious mind, the information is passed to the unconscious space of the mind, the ego. I call this unconscious space of the mind as the ego, not because it is arrogant, but because it provides you the identity of who you are.
All the major decisions that shape your life are consigned to this unconscious space. This is the repository of all those emotionally-filled memories, the root thought patterns and beliefs about yourself; which constitute what you believe as you, what you project as you, what others expect you to be, and what you expect others or life to be for you and therefore, create your identity. This is what I call the ego.
Root pattern means the first time in your life when your cognitions were imbalanced, disturbed by some external force; and your terrorized being started defining yourself with a disempowering word and started defining the world in that disempowering powerless state; and to compensate from this death, the disempowering inner identity—the inner image, you create a pseudo alternative compensating cognition—the outer image. This is what I call root pattern.
When your root pattern starts, that is moment you feel yourself as an individual identity. If it starts in an accidental moment, your life will be an accident forever. It is an eternal accident. Till you complete with that root pattern, you will continue to have accidents in your life.
Completion takes away the agitated confusion and the alternative compensating image we create in our life. Because we have a very disempowering cognition about ourselves, we go on creating an alternative compensating cognition to compensate with our inadequate cognition. It is like you first declare you are a beggar, forgetting the billions of dollars you have in your bank balance, and then you yourself try to project the rich image to cover your belief that you are a beggar.
To compensate the inadequate cognition which got created unconsciously inside you, which is your inner image, mamakāra, you create an alternative compensating cognition which is your outer image, ahaṁkāra. Till the end you never feel satisfied, because you feel the guilt you showed, which is not true, without realizing your true identity is much more than what you can imagine and show. So, your whole life ends in deep incompletion and the trial and error methods you do with these incompletions.
If you complete now, the first thing you will realize is that the alternative compensating cognition is a lie and it will melt down. Second thing, your disempowering cognition about yourself will melt down. Third, you will realize that your original self is much more than what you projected as your outer image, the alternative compensating cognition. And you will have complete easeness between what you feel as you, what you show as you, and what you are as you.
The conscious mind does not make important decisions. It makes a few decisions that can be reached by its limited intellect. Anything important moves to the unconscious ego or root patterns. Our unconscious handles all life-threatening situations with the disempowering cognitions, the so-called fight-or-flight decisions. Our conscious mind is too slow to handle them.
The effects of your root pattern are your conflicting patterns. Conflicting patterns are the branches which sprout from the root pattern.
When the file reaches the ego, the ego comes to a conclusion based on all the ‘yes’ responses and all the ‘no’ responses based out of your conflicting patterns. Yes or no is not a problem; however, we have wasted so much time and energy on this small decision. Not only that, any decision you take out of powerlessness, restlessness, will lead you to more and more powerless space.
Satva guṇa saṁskāras that lead us to bliss and peace, rājasic guṇa that lead to restlessness and violence, and tamasic saṁskāras that lead to depression.
When we try to work with different types of conflicting patterns, satva, rajas and tamas and all three cross each other, they create hell in our lives. We need intelligence to even look into our lives to find our root pattern, and see how many times we have carried the same pattern. We usually react out of arrogance or guilt. We say, ‘So what if I made a mistake?’ We brush it under the carpet leaving it incomplete. This is one kind of attitude, the attitude of might is right. The other attitude is that of suffering from guilt.
Understand, the first lesson you need to learn is the ability to trust the power of integrity.
If you say, ‘I am free,’ then, you are free! If you say, ‘I am a liar,’ then, you are a liar! If you say, ‘I am powerful,’ then, you are powerful! It is just you! The words you utter to yourself and others is life. What a big relief! It can be great news for you if you start living it. It can be good news for you if you start believing it. It can be bad news for you, if you start worrying about it. But the words you utter towards yourself and to others is you, you, you!
One word can make us do whatever we want. Words that appear in our inner space are mantra (sacred sounds). When put together, all the words that appear in our inner space form our life, especially the words that we repeat unconsciously.
Thoughts that we repeat unconsciously are more powerful than words we use consciously. Your inner space is nothing but the words you repeat, again and again within you. So, now decide consciously that you will repeat the right words within you. Whatever mantra or word we use in our inner space, that dhyāna or meditation automatically happens in our unconscious. If we use the word ‘headache’ again and again, we will be meditating on the headache. If we use the word ‘health’, again and again, we will be meditating on health.
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