The Three Minds

The second, third and fourth bodies are mental bodies, three functional minds.

Most human beings identify with their physical body and think of them in physical terms. In terms of Yogic Anatomy, each human is however a complex being made up of ten bodies: the physical body, three mental bodies, and six energy bodies.

The negative (protective) mind, or second body, gives form to the creativity of your Soul Body with the gifts of containment, form, and discernment (The Aquarian Teacher, p. 201). Two is connected to the great gift of saying NO! The negative mind has a function of protection. The capacity of the negative mind is to analyse the situation and assessing whether there is any danger involved. What is there that you need to consider? The negative mind stores the memories, the past experiences, and sends you warning signals. As the two is also associated to water, it will carry these signals and the stored memory, like floating water. You will not be able to shut it off.

Two is also separation from the One – GOD. This body will make you experience the sensation of “longing to belong”, which in essence, is what drives you to connect to God within yourself. The negative mind is the driving force behind your feeling of wanting to unite with the One. If your Negative Mind is under-developed, this longing to belong feeling may become self-destructive.

The virtue of the Second Body is loyalty. Guru Angad from (Ang, or part of the body), the second of the gurus, was known for his absolute loyalty to Guru Nanak. His discipleship was subjected to various tests by Guru Nanak himself, following which he came to be renowned as an embodiment of obedience and service to the Guru and humanity. Guru Nanak chose him as his successor instead of his own sons. Guru Angad devised the Gurmukh alphabet, and stood for a casteless and classless society, in which no one was superior to the other. He understood how the world is an extension of the divine thread.

The key to balancing your negative mind is to value your discipline, your obedience. Obedience means to bow down to your SELF, to your own soul’s desire, as in the mantra “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo“, meaning I bow to the highest wisdom within myself.

The positive (expansive) mind, or Third Body, is the one which argues with your negative mind and throws in the “Yes we can!” Its qualities are positivity, equality and trust. When your third body is strong, you have a good sense of humour and a string sense of hope.

The affirmative mind will affirm everything that comes up from your subconscious. This is the point where actions become visible – we are moving towards shape. Patterns and habits are shapes which carry you through time. This may also imply that it brings up trauma from the subconscious which translate into these patterns and behaviours. In extreme cases of an unbalanced Third Body, your navel center becomes blocked, with a tendency to obesity, depression or inorganization. If the structure that is the vehicle of life becomes more important than everything else, you may lose the essence of life. You may become prone to daily injections from the world around you, sabotaging who you are. Therefore, a strong third chakra – or third body, can protect you from paralysis with negativity.

Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh guru, is associated to equality, hope of the hopeless, shelter of the shelter less and strength to those without strength.

To balance the positive mind, you can also read the Anand Sahib: Song of Bliss by Guru Amar Das. The Anand Sahib offers a simple wisdom to develop the perfect human psyche. The perfected human psyche is a mind that can participate in the social reality of the world without losing sight of the Divine Light within everything and every one. In 40 steps, Guru Amar Das gives us the essential lessons to live life to the fullest and to unfold our highest human potential. It is said that the person who recites this Holy Bani daily with dedication, attention and comprehension, will achieve Anand (Complete Happiness or Bliss) in life.

The last of the three mental bodies is the neutral (meditative) mind.

The meditative mind comes into place once you have laboured through the other two minds – there is no shortcut to it! The neutral mind balances the arguments from the negative mind with the elements from the positive mind. You will see everything being rid of shape. What remains is a neutral yet compassionate determination of your path. Strong neutral mind can evaluate and determine the best course within 9 seconds.

If you have a weak neutral mind, you are victim to the perpetual duelling between your positive and your negative minds… you will have trouble making up your mind! The neutral mind slows the process down and let’s you see everything from an objective and devotional place.

One of its greatest attributes is to let you see everything that has happened to you (positive and negative) in terms of blessings, gifts and lessons. Obstacles become opportunities: you will see life from a new perspective, but… meditation is the key. Meditation will train your mind not to react over wildly.

The 4 is also associated to the Heart Cakra, where you move from “me” to the others. Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, represents service and compassion. Ram Das means servant of God.

Yogi Bhajan talked a lot about Guru Ram Das in his teachings on Kundalini Yoga. He would say that Guru Ram Das holds the Golden Chain, that Guru Ram Das is the Lord of Miracles. Volunteering and selfless service to others (Seva) can boost and strengthen your neutral mind, as does opening to the heart, meditating, and keeping a deep connection with your community – the Sangat. The Mind becomes a monster when it becomes your master. The mind is an angel when it is your servant. Yogi Bhajan