Chapter 59The Physical Consciousness · The Physical Nerves and the Subtle Nerves

It [the true activity of the senses] is to record the divine or true appearance of things and return to them the reaction of an equal Everything has a physical part — even the mind has a physical part; there is a mental physical, a mind of the body and the material. So the emotional being has a physical part. It has no location separate from the rest of the emotional. One can only distinguish it when the consciousness becomes sufficiently subtle to do so.

That is the nature of the mental physical to go on repeating without use the movement that has happened. It is what we call the mechanical mind — it is strong in childhood because the thinking mind is not developed and has besides a narrow range of interests. Afterwards it becomes an undercurrent in the mental activities. It must now have risen up with the other characteristics of the mental physical because it is in the physical that the action has come down. Sometimes also when there is silence of the mind, these things come up till they also are quieted down.

* The mechanical mind is a sort of engine — whatever comes to it it puts into the machine and goes on turning it round and round — no matter what it is.

* From what you describe it seems that you have got into contact with the mechanical mind whose nature is to go on turning