Our mind is something that we change, keep things in, and sometimes go out of. But what is our mind? We cannot discuss mind unless we define it. If we ask ten psychiatrists to define mind we will probably get ten different answers. My dictionary, a good friend but not a psychiatrist, defines mind as "the ability to think, feel emotions, and be aware of things." If we ask our psychiatric friends what are thoughts, emotions, and awareness, they will start talking about activity in the brain; they cannot distinguish between the mind and the body.
According to Buddhism, mind and body are mutually dependent but different entities. The substance of mind has nothing to do with atoms and molecules it is awareness itself. Thoughts, emotions, and awareness are mind. Buddhism defines mind as that which is clear and aware.
"Clear" refers to the nature of mind: it is non-physical and it takes the aspect of its object like a mirror takes on the appearance of whatever it faces.
"Awareness," synonymous with consciousness and knowing, is the function of mind. We have six types of awareness - our five senses and our capacity to think. A mirror may reflect things, but it does not know what it is reflecting. A computer may calculate things, but it does not know what it is calculating. Can a computer ever be made to think? His Holiness the Dalai Lama answered that question by saying, "Perhaps, if they can make a computer that is a suitable support for consciousness."
His Holiness was implying that a computer cannot create consciousness and could only gain the capacity to think if a pre-existing mind could take residence within it. Similarly, our mind cannot have been created by our body because awareness is not a material phenomenon, present awareness can only arise from past awareness, therefore our mind had to exist prior to our body and only took residence within it when there was a suitable support for consciousness - a fertilized egg in our mother's womb.
"But," say the scientists, "mind is a product of evolution."
"No," say the Buddhists, "evolution is a product of mind."
Prior to the condensation of our world from a swirling mass of gas, our minds inhabited subtle bodies in an ethereal realm of mental happiness but, as our karma for such bliss began to wane, more base desire for physical pleasure arose as a result of seeds from past lives. Primitive organisms began to evolve and some became suitable bases for consciousness. After dying in the ethereal realm, our minds were reincarnated in bodies that became progressively more complex instruments for experiencing sense pleasure. The difference between animals and plants is that the bodies of animals are for indulging in the pleasures of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and, especially in the human animal, thinking. Whereas the bodies of plants grow and reproduce without any mental involvement from their side.
Even though plants do not have mind, they have a connection with the collective karma of the humans, animals, spirits, and gods who make use of plants. Even the condensation of the earth from hot gas was influenced by our collective karma, and certainly the appearance of the first primitive organisms was connected to our collective karma. Thus mind is the prime mover of the entire universe.
So, what went wrong? Our human bodies are designed to experience pleasure, why is life so miserable? Why do we experience pain, the inability to find pleasure, dissatisfaction with whatever pleasure we do find, and the terrible sadness of being separated from people and objects of pleasure? The problem is that the designer, our mind, is flawed by ignorance.
Unaware of the subjective role played by the mind in our experience of life, we ignorantly believe ourselves to be passive experiencers of a "world out there." When we are in love, the person we love is the most beautiful person in the world. When we are divorcing them, they are the most ugly person in the world, but the person with whom they ran off sees them as most beautiful. Beautiful and ugly come from the mind, not from the side of the object. The primary source of happiness and sadness is our mind, not the outside world, and our problems arise from the impossible belief that we can rid our world of ugliness and fill it with beauty. The Garden of Eden exists in our mind, not out there, and the key to that garden is wisdom and compassion.
Without that key, we shall forever be chasing illusions and running from our shadows. While this world endures, a few will enter the garden, the remainder will continue to experience the highs and lows of the Wheel of Life. At the end of this world, we will again be born in the ethereal world of mental happiness, only to born once more in the realm of sensory desire on a new earth when that karma expires. And so the wheel has been turning since beginning-less time.
By Ven. Thubten Gyatso
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