Mind (pronounced /ˈmaɪnd/) is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term is often used to refer, by implication, to the thought processes of reason. Mind manifests itself subjectively as a stream of consciousness.

Theories of mind and its function are numerous. Earliest recorded speculations are from the likes of Zoroaster, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Adi Shankara and other ancient Greek, Indian and, later, Islamic philosophers. Pre-scientific theories grounded in theology concentrated on the supposed relationship between the mind and the soul, our supernatural, divine or god-given essence. Most contemporary theories, informed by scientific study of the brain, theorize that the mind is an epiphenomenon of the brain which has both conscious and unconscious aspects.

Which attributes make up the mind is much debated. Some argue that only the higher intellectual functions constitute mind, particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions—love, hate, fear, joy—are more primitive or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind as such. Others argue that various rational and emotional states cannot be so separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and should therefore be considered all part of what we call the mind.

In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: the private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads." Thus we "make up our minds," "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No one else can "know our mind." They can only interpret what we consciously or unconsciously communicate.

Mind refers to the collective aspects of intellect and consciousness which are manifest in some combination of thought, perception, emotion, will and imagination.

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• Whatever an enemy might do to an enemy, or a foe to a foe, the ill-directed mind can do to you even worse. Whatever a mother, father or other kinsman might do for you, the well-directed mind can do for you even better.
  • Gautama Buddha, Cittavagga The Mind

• The mind is the clear (transparent or translucent) faculty of knowing to which things can appear and be ascertained. The primordial mind is pure. It is empty of itself, of inherent existence. This is our Buddha nature. This is our Bodhi mind. It is one thing to have clarity, it is another to use it.
  • Ross Moore teaching at Tara Institute, Melbourne. Nov.2004

• If the mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
  • Suzuki, Shunryu, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind; p. 21.

• The mind within the senses does not dwell, It has no place in outer things, like form, And in between, the mind does not abide; Not out, not in, not elsewhere can the mind be found. Something not within the body, and yet nowhere else, That does not merge with it nor stand apart— Something such as this does not exist, not even slightly. Beings have nirvana in their nature.
  • Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara), Chapter 9 verse 102--103, Shambala Publications ISBN 1-57062-253-1

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Wed Nov 18 19:17:54 2009