The Buddhist View on Mind
To understand the place of mind from the Buddhist point of view, we must first of all look at the Buddha’s views on the cosmos (universe). According to him, the mind is to be understood in a vast cosmic space.
Biologically humans are weaker. Other animals are born armed for their survival. But human on the other hand, has mind for everything, but not as a weapon. In fact religion is brought out as a component of understanding mind for the existence of human kind.
Buddha realized that mind is not a thing or an entity with a separate existence but that, which arises on conditions.
“Dhuran gaman eaka charan – Asareeran guhaasayan
Ye chiththan sanna messanthi – Mokkhanthi maara bandhana”
This famous gatha describes the nature of mind. It says that mind travels alone, travel long journeys. It doesn’t have a body. Lives in a cave; It’s our body, Mind gets free and detached from “Mara Bandhana” when it liberated from “Mokkha” (foolishness). As Lord Buddha pas preached, mind is colourless, immaterial, and invisible. In other words, mind in Buddhism is an ever changing, constant, quick-moving process. Buddhist view on mind refuses the materialistic aspect of mind. In Buddhism, the mind is treated as an ever changing process of thinking and meditating. It’s said that mind is most of the time out of our control. We should not let our mind to control us instead individuals have to control their minds.
The whole process of thinking is mind, which is the mental process. Thus its status is supreme. Thinking and consciousness are components of that total mental process. Mind as inner world processes is a Buddhist development. Mind is conceived not as a substance but as a process.
The Buddha insisted that the mind is the most significant aspect of the individual. The “patichcha samuppaada” implies that for the individual the twelve links are of a mental character.
Mental and physical factors are conditioning factors and they are relative interdependent and there is nothing absolute and independent. There is no first cause. So mind is not the first cause. It runs through birth as an interdependent interconnected and relative factor. The mind really refers to sensation, perception and thinking or volition in patichcha samuppaada.
Buddhism maintains that all stimuli of senses make the individual move in two directions of attraction and repulsion. One has to attain a position of neutrally through self acquired culture. Both these processes of mental stirring (anarodha and virodha) underlie the genesis of the life process (bhava). In the absence of such activity of the mind, the individual gains no momentum for the regeneration of bhava. All mental and spiritual endeavors of Buddhism aim at bringing about this neutrality.
Mind is where all our emotions and desires are stored. So by attaining “Nibbana”, a person can get rid of all these. Nibbana is the ultimate aim of a Buddhist. It is the ultimate state of mind of an individual who has completely got rid of craving. Here too, the key factor is the mind. Man can put a stop to rebirth by avoiding what is evil, by doing what is good and by purifying his mind by meditation.
Sensation is experienced by the mind. These are sometimes pleasant, sometimes painful and sometimes neutral. Perception means recognition of names of beings, things, places sound, writing etc. Thinking means here volition which are neither good nor evil or thoughts based on the past and imagining of the future, creating good or bad kamma. Consciousness means sense awareness of sound, smell, tastes, forms, feelings and mental objects at the moment.
These four components of the Nama dharma are the creations of the mind. If an individual is not alert and careful he becomes the decisive factors of the mind and obscures the truth. Then falsehood will prevail and cause the mind to defile.
According to Buddhism, a cultivated mind gives spiritual liberation peace, security and happiness. The mind develops wisdom which discriminates right and wrong, good and evil, selflessness and selfishness by being aware of right understanding and right mindfulness at all times. By cultivating the mind, one can eliminate the cycle of rebirth and attain nibbaana the absolute really selflessness. This object can only be achieved by adhering to the Noble Eightfold Path, which embodies morality, mind culture and wisdom (sila, Samadhi, panna). All three aspects can be achieved only through a cultured mind. A cultured mind leads to progress, happiness and nibbana, while an uncultured mind leads to degeneration, destruction and continuance of sansara and suffering.
The development of mind is two-fold.
Development of mental concentration (tranquility or “Samatha bhavana”)
Development of wisdom or clear insight (“Vipassana bhavana”)
The ultimate objective is to reach the unshakable tranquility and purity of mind, which is the foundation of insight leading to deliverance from the cycle of rebirth and misery.
With regard to Buddha’s attitude towards psychology, it is fair to conclude that “Abhidamma” is psychology, as he places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of the role of the mind. We need to recognize the fact that mind is the forerunner of all mental states. Kamma which is the pivot on which Buddha Dhamma revolves is generated by speech, body and mind. It is also a mental factor (cheithasika). The importance of the mind in Buddhism in the five aggregates (panchakkandha), where four of the five are mental components. Of the thirty seven factors of enlightenment the majority of factors listed are mental. In the eightfold path which is the essence of Buddhism all the right factors are “cheithasika” (mental factors). They are beautiful mental factors. Thus the supreme role of mind is stressed. Buddhism based its philosophy on suffering, its diagnosis and cure and treatment. It can be interpreted as psychiatry a branch of psychology. An important role is given to speech in thinking in Buddhism, which is now collaborated by research in psychology. When these facts are evaluated one must conclusively accept the important role played by the mind in Buddhism. A new awareness of inner world mental processes is also a Buddhist development. Buddhism’s preoccupation with analysis of mind resulted in a remarkable revelation of the mental processes.
Thus Buddha Dhamma is teaching of the mind, the operations or processes of the mind, and the deliverance of the mind, it is taught that it is the root of all behaviours. It had an object to serve, the outlook of the individual as merely as an impermanent complex, with no essential reality. In the Nikayas, the outlook and the individual is predominantly one of mind in its manifold workings determining levels of behaviour. In the “Sutras”, the individual is presented as beyond human voluntary control. These prove the power of mind, as explained in Buddhism in various contexts.
Religions have their starting point. Buddhism begins with the Buddha’s search of mind. Buddha’s doctrine is a teaching deep-rooted in psychology. His theories are absolutely unique in the history of religions. Over the decades psychologists have studied the course of mental activities of sensations, perception, speech, thought, consciousness and mind. These studies have forcibly made us aware how close these are to Buddha’s teaching, and yet how far they are. But the similarities are more striking.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:58 am
Biologically humans are weaker. Other animals are born armed for their survival. But human on the other hand, has mind for everything, but not as a weapon. In fact religion is brought out as a component of understanding mind for the existence of human kind