Indian Psychology

Indian Psychology

Ever wonder why there is scant study of the brain in Indian Psychology? Given such a rich heritage why were seers of truth not building out on how the brain works? There was no need for it. Like a room you entered (the brain) the meditator used it as a launching pad to jump start out into search for consciousness. Why then the need to describe the room? Pointless it seems.

The pursuit of Indian search was for consciousness: the search for absolute reality. All else is a maya. The ‘Sat’ is the ultimate truth: that truth which is never changing, that which is permanence. Chit is an experience of consciousness; the self is a part of the consciousness, yet consciousness is absolute. Ananda, is the attribute of ultimate bliss: the ultimate to which everything dissolves. Creation is born, sustained, evolved, maintained and dissolved in Ananda: that which is life itself.

The eternity of Ananda (bliss) is juxtaposed to Sat (absolute truth) and to Chit (the ultimate consciousness) to confirm that the wholesome pursuit of life is the search for Satchitananda. 

Indian psychology is more concerned with Waking Up to the self realising the ultimate reality. It has discerned that the body is not the self, nor is the mind, the self. That consciousness exists in the waking, dreaming, sleeping and deep stage - all of these are ONE and parts of the Ultimate Brahman. 
Ultimately the self is dissolved and there is no self - just one consciousness. 

Western literature, on the other hand, have sought to research the brain patterns to discern consciousness. It has carefully sought to look at the 'room within'. It is more concerned with the growing up ie the Psychological maturity of the being.

Hence the difference: the west searches the room, the Eastern mind, enters the room and jumps out!