I am writing a paper on mind vs. the brain and consciousness. Any thoughts?
Personally I think the mind IS the brain. If we are anything, we’re a collection of memories, idea, thoughts, preferences, opinions, genetic and environmental influenced influences etc… I’m not one to bring spirituality, soul, or any magic to the equation… I say that because I think it is an important point. You will get many different responses about this subject… probably as many different responses as there are people.
I’m looking forward to everyone’s thoughts!
(Some time back I had written this. Please see if it is useful.)
We often see terms ? brain, mind, thinking ? randomly used in our vernacular. Yoga proposes this: A multilayered human being has three distinct selves that act in tandem. A physical body exists as a consortium of functioning organs at a cellular level, with a (physical) brain as its thinking instrument. It is ordinarily this body that one identifies as ?I.? But that?s only an outer shell. Cells are composed of molecules. At a molecular level, there is astral body with a virtual team of subtle controllers with mānas as its thinking instrument that interpenetrates the brain. Molecules comprise atoms. At an electronic or atomic level, there is causal body with even more subtle energy sources and forces with buddhi as its thinking instrument that interpenetrates mānas.
If these are the thinking instruments, then what is the mind? Mind is independent of the bodies. Mind on any scale, whether individual or Universal, is independent of their offsprings, the bodies or the objects. The all-pervading Universal Mind is so subtle that it is omnipresent; present in the physical brain too. But in doing so, it makes the brain ?think?. This indulgence robs its universality and a part of it becomes laden with individual impressions; a part relatively less subtle and more opaque that reside in the body as an individual mind. When it induces brain to think, the mind conjures from the sensory data, a perceived form of any object through that process. Then, it is not the object but its form or appearance that becomes a part of the personal reality.
The mind is our greatest tool, but indulgence and ignorance ordinarily keeps it abysmally deficient. Where does the mind reside? What are its characteristics? How does it work? One ?knows? this invisible mind inside the body for sure and yet it remains an enigma. It appears to be subtle. As the invisible air provides proof of its existence in the wind, mind is evidenced in thinking.
The mind doesn?t seem to be an organ, yet its presence is unmistakable. Is mind matter? or is it just a subtle process of the brain? If mind makes us aware of ourselves and of the objects around us, each object must have a mind in some form; there must be a mind of an atom and a Mind of the Universe.
What is mind? In the process of thinking, the individual mind collaborates with the brain. The brain produces thoughts as its activity, which creates waves and leaves the subtle individual mind perpetually unsettled. The human brain works continuously, except in deep sleep, and makes us believe that thoughts occur in real time, moment by moment. The brain is a processing powerhouse, but it remains enslaved and conditioned by the mind. The mind is a very subtle, brittle, and malleable substance that is invisible, and interpenetrating. Thinking instruments (like the brain) and the mind go hand-in-hand, but they are distinct from each other.
The brain is a physical organ, fairly inert. The brain stores data and processes thoughts through interaction (exchange of mild electrical charge) between various parts of its functional network. The mind provides energy for this interaction when it interpenetrates the brain.
In yogīk framework, the mind, the substance that flows through the brain, is the erstwhile Universal Mind, which is expected to remain only a catalyst, but instead becomes a resident of the brain, thus gets ?individualized.? The mind does not belong to a body as an organ nor does it reside at a given location. It manifests itself in various ways depending on which aspects of it are at work. Maharshi Vyasa, one of the most insightful commentators on Yoga-Sutra, has enumerated these aspects of mind:
A. Sanskārās:
a. Mind, a manipulator of thoughts: Our functionality, a legacy of past incarnations with seeds that materialize as body features, susceptibility to illness, talents, actions etc that define a personality and the state of health. This influences the choices in the thought-processes.
b. Mind, a pre-processor of thoughts: Our Structure of predispositions, accumulation of preferences, likes and dislikes, repressed impressions etc that sustain ego and impulsive reflex thinking. They act as pre-processors before the thoughts form and dictate reflexive thinking.
B. Memory:
a. Mind, a consolidator of habits: Autonomous body functions, a legacy of human evolution that brings automated body functions like metabolism, heart-beating, breathing etc. They convert repetitive thoughts into behavioral habits.
b. Mind, a supplier of subjective bias: Latent impressions of past experiences unavailable to normal awareness, spring up in the process of ?new? cognition and in dealing with the unknown. They sculpt the ?learning? by adding the subjective bias.
C. Mind, a driver of thoughts: Prāṇa energy in its purest form is the Universal Mind and various grades of contaminated prāṇa is the individual mind. This energy drives the thinking process.
D. Mind, a distractor: Universal Mind pulsates with Cosmic Rhythm; individual mind loses its ability to be in tandem with that and instead remains just fickle and vulnerable to changes in the gross bodies. This makes the mind unstable and inherently incapable of concentration.
E. Mind, a power: Universal Mind is a mother and the controller of all gross matter; while the individual mind becomes subservient to the gross matter. Individual mind in its process of becoming the Universal Mind regains that control in the form of psychic powers, called siddhīs.
[QUOTE=YogiDiva;50473]I am writing a paper on mind vs. the brain and consciousness. Any thoughts?[/QUOTE]
Well, what is mind anyway? The fact is, English is a very bad language to write with stuffs about mind, brain and consciousness. Things are never clear, the very language creates a cultural delusion that these stuffs are intertwined.
Wittgenstein once said that there can’t be a theory of language. Same applies to mind and consciousness. I don’t think brain is versus mind-consciousness. Brain is a physical structure to transmute experiences…