Mind, Brain & Buddhism
What is mind?And where is mind?Is the mind same as the brain?Buddhism often articulates about mind and matter or mind and body.This means that the mind and the body (matter) cannot be understood independently of one another.Basically, mind is a pattern of consciousness that is born from awareness.In fact, mind is known as consciousness in individuality and it is more objective and involves clear discrimination – differentiates and understands the characteristics of objects.If one refers to the cycle of Dependent Origination, manas that unfolds against the backdrop of consciousness (preliminary) is an architect that activates mind and body creations.Mind and body are simply two aspects of the same thing.
In the dependent nature, everything that exists would comprise with energy and energy is nothing more than mere vibration. Therefore, manas would vibrate in a certain unique frequency – a wave of collated high and low vibrations.This blueprint of vibrations would subsequently bring forth the conflation of mindand body. The principle in effect: the lower the frequency, the slower the vibration; the higher the frequency, the faster the vibration.Slower vibration would lead to the body and the sense bases formation and faster vibration would lead to the mind formation.Collectively, it brings about a new life existence with a unique individuality that would not allow the disruption by any kind of external interference; thus it maintains a self-identity.
In other words, mind and body are present in every created thing as one integrated whole.Even an atom has a kind of mind that is unique or individualised.The nucleus of the atom, around which electrons vibrate in standing waves, constitutes the atom’s individuality.As a result, one atom distinguishes from another atom – just as one person is different from another person or as one thing is different from another thing.Therefore, the origin of individuality is the same as the origin of the mind. Nevertheless, the mind is comprised with two terms i.e. prevailing conscious and subtle conscious.Both the prevailing and subtle mind consciousnesses would arise in the sentient beings but for other things, merely subtle mind consciousness would arise. In addition, it is the mind, the consciousness of individuality, which holds together the atoms and molecules as one integrated body in a lifetime.Scientifically, the atoms are held together by covalent chemical bonds but the synergies of it would give rise to the mind, the consciousness of individuality.
For general understanding, consciousness is synergy.Synergy is generally defined as the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc.In other words, synergy is energy that expands through cooperation and it is a key to the geometric expansion of consciousness.When the nervous system in a new body is formed, sense consciousness would arise simultaneously.Sense consciousness is a subtle synergy resulted from the interaction of subtle mind consciousness in the new body i.e. the electrochemical transmission along the neurons throughout the nervous system.Moreover, the central nervous system especially the brain would comprise with the highest density of neurons in the entire nervous system of the new body and this circumstance would give rise to another type of synergy identified as prevailing mind consciousness – a prevalent synergy.
The prevailing mind consciousness is regarded as the ‘working’ consciousness or the mind-in-comand i.e. the mind that can lead, take charge, concentrate, make decision and convey action.Basically, prevailing conscious mind is closely related to the physical body or more specifically, the brain.This means there would be a biological clock being attached within it i.e. there would be duration for staying awake and for resting.Without the brain, there would be no prevailing mind consciousness in existence. In other words, mind consciousness and brain are symbiotic; one never exists without the other.The brain is actually a coagulated form of the conflated prevailing and subtle mind consciousnesses itself - just as water looks like ice, the mind looks like the brain, and the body.With high density of neurons, the brain could perform a variety of complex functions beside transmitting signals and sending messages to each other parts of the body. Among the complex functions are controlling, regulating, analysing, organising, wishing, interpreting, memorising, etc. – for these complex functions are basically, the roles of prevailing and subtle mind consciousnesses.
On the other hand, subtle mind consciousness is somehow independent from the physical body.For general understanding, subtle mind consciousness does not consume as much energy as prevailing mind consciousness.Subtle mind consciousness can process and store information without a lot of work or the intervention of prevailing mind consciousness. In other words, subtle mind consciousness could operate in the absence of prevailing mind consciousness with the least of energy consumption on 24 hours/day and 365 days/year - this would mean a plenty of energy reserves for prolonging the lifespan of a body in a lifetime.In fact, for over 90% of the time in a lifespan, the body is administered by subtle mind consciousness and it simply operates like a radar detector – sensing all spectrums of vibrational frequencies from the surroundings and across the time stream (past, present and future).As such, one would notice that an enlightened subtle mind consciousness would operate like a long range radar detector which is highly luminous and vigilant to any development of circumstances and surpassing time.When one has reached the maturity of a lifespan, the mind and body would go through a dying process, inevitably.And the first type of consciousness to depart the body would be the prevailing mind consciousness.In the sentient beings, the prevailing mind consciousness that bonds strongly the atoms and the molecules together would die out and evolve into other energies concurrently.This incidence would lead to an impulse occurrence with a demonstration of a final burst of energy nearing the moments of death.Subsequently, the segregating process would conquest with most of the subtle mind consciousness departing the death body.
For an ignorant being, during a disintegrating process, the elements of prevailing consciousness or so-called the ‘chain of consciousness’ would die out and the force of Ignorance (an outward tendency force) would overcome the force ofAwakening (an inward tendency force). The elements of subtle consciousness would then liberate into fragments.The amount of liberated fragments is very much dependent on the level of Ignorance or Awakening within the being.And for an ignorant being, the level of Ignorance would surpass the level of Awakening and this would mean the intensity of Ignorance is higher than the intensity of Awakening.A higher intensity of Ignorance would mean a higher intensity of becoming.A higher intensity of becoming would mean a higher amount of liberated fragments.On the other hand, for an awakened being, the amount of liberated fragments is much lesser than an ignorant being because there is lower intensity of Ignorance as compared with the intensity of Awakening.Also, the dispersion of liberated fragments is more confined and restricted to much fewer new individuals.
As a conclusion, mind and brain are two aspects of the same thing.In fact, the brain is a coagulated form of the mind itself.The prevailing mind consciousness and sense consciousness would not arise without the manifestation of a physical body.In other words, there is a need for the existence of a physical body or precisely, a brain, beforethe attaining of a full enlightenment by individuals is made possible.This is because prevailing mind consciousnessis a necessity for conjuring up one’s sheer determination to end the state of suffering conclusively; without it, the achieving of full enlightenment is impossible.On the other hand, subtle mind consciousness that is somehow independent from the physical body and would continue to play a significant role in the wheel of life.During the segregating process, sense consciousness and the lingering subtle mind consciousness would evolve into other energies concurrently with the body decomposing process.At the end of the day, the fragmented subtle mind consciousness with some retained subtle information within the elements of subtle memory would sustain freedom of sorts and waiting for the next aligning process and the new balance phenomena to arise, thus depicting the continuous flow or repeating cycle of birth, life, death and re-birth - known as samsāra.
Last edited by Buddhitakso on 23-10-2013 06:52 PM
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