MIND OF MAN

 

The mind is defined in Buddhism as a non-physical phenomenon that perceives, thinks, recognizes, experiences and reacts to the environment. And all these phenomena can be

designated as an aspect called thought. Mind fundamentally are of two types the conceptual and the non-conceptual mind or we may also say it as the rational and intuitive mind respectively. Understanding the functioning of the mind is the basis of Buddhist philosophy. And as Buddha states " All things are preceded by the mind, led by the mind and created by the mind ". The conceptual or the rational mind is what everybody of us is maintaining in all our activities of everyday life which are connected to the external or the visible physical world most of the time. The intuitive mind is that what we get into and access only during introspection or at the time of meditation when we focus upon our inner self and experience the inner blissful joy that is present at the innermost core of our being. But most of us never access it due to our lack of focus on the inner self since we are always connected, attached and distracted by the external world that constitutes the attributes that are designated as things, events people and ideas. And it is the ego of man that drives him in each of these aspects. The negative role that ego plays is, it connects our mind as stated above to the illusory manifestation of nature in those four attributes and everything in the external world. In this way, the ego drives the mind away from the focus of the inner self or most appropriately the consciousness which is the ultimate reality, the very core of our being as we exist but never realize this fact. Thus, it is this ego that makes it the most difficult for a man to control his mind. In the Pali scriptures of Buddhism heart and mind are one (Chitta) , but in English, we have to differentiate between the two to make the meaning clear.

To illustrate the Buddhist approach to the mind, let us compare our body and mind to a computer. In this simile, the body is the hardware and the mind is the software. As mentioned above the mind is defined as a non-physical phenomenon with  those stated attributes which are not unlike the

computer. Although software needs to be registered in something like the hard drive before it can do anything, in itself a program represents a lot of thinking by the software manufacturer  Without the software  (mind), the hardware (body) is just a dead thing  The hardware (body) is of course important in what the computer can do; how fast it is, which programs can be run and how the computer can interact with the world. However good the hardware is, it is ultimately only the program that can be run is that makes it all the more significant. And that is the reason why the mind occupies a very important position. The software ( mind)  needs to use the senses of the hardware, like the keyboard , the mouse , a video camera , a modem etc to receive the input of the outside world . And therefore maintaining the software in the proper condition in absolutely necessary i.e. keeping the mind in the right state is key to the quality of life for  optimum level of performance in every field of activity

HUMAN SUFFERING AND ITS CAUSES.

 

It is a perception to which is attached certain emotions that arises from a tragic or sorrowful event, the outcome of it being mental pain or suffering. This happens only when we attach our thought to an object or an event or a person whom you love or hate. Hence these attachments of the external world to which we cling our mind lead to the sense of suffering. But as always the inexorable law of impermanence works and so with time suffering gradually subsides. Thus the suffering is also transient. Length of time for which the sense of suffering torments the mind varies from person to person and depends on the level of mental resilience of the person. The sooner a person can detach himself from that event, the sooner he becomes resilient to that painful event   By detaching I mean the ability of a person to "letting go"  or dissociating from that event or person which caused the suffering. As very rightly said by Buddha the enlightened one "Suffering arise when we resist the flow of life by clinging to fixed forms which are things, events, people or ideas". Everything in this physical world is transient and hence impermanent. Thus every good or bad time eventually passes away with the flow of time. The common man is mentally conditioned to happiness at the time of good days and sad at the time of bad days. But as we know, time the inexorable parameter of nature perpetually flows in the forward direction. And it requires man also to align himself to this flow irrespective of whether one is passing thru good or bad times.