Question and answer 7

If mind, intellect, memory and ego are really all one thing, why does each get spoken of as sitting somewhere different?

It has been said in various ways — that the mind's seat is the throat, the intellect's the face or the Heart, memory's the navel, the ego's the Heart or the whole body. But the scriptures settle it plainly: the Heart alone is the seat of that one inner faculty, call it mind, which all of these together simply are.

If these four — mind, intellect, memory, ego — are a single thing, why are separate seats declared for them?

Although it has been variously said that the seat of the mind is the throat, of the intellect the face or the Heart, of memory the navel, and of the ego the Heart or the whole body, it is nonetheless said, as the settled conclusion in the scriptures, that the Heart alone is the seat of that single inner faculty called 'mind' which is the sum of all these.