Water buffalo: a person who realizes original face through practice. (Tanahashi, 348)Unconditioned: Completely at rest, beyond cause and conditions, nonthinking, nonintending, nonattaining. Unconstructed. (Ibid., 348)
Turning Body and Mind: to have freedom of body and mind where a barrier is no longer an obstacle. (Ibid., 345)
Harmonizing Body: to adjust or arrange for one's activity to be calm and peaceful, so it accords with the buddha way. (Ibid., 291)
Harmonizing Mind: to tame mind, or to take care of mind so that its undivided nature is actualized. (Loc. cit.)
| 5.0000 | The Structure of the Mind |
|---|---|
| 5.0100 | By structure we mean "the elements of an entity or the position of such elements in their relationship to each other; the composition of conscious experience with its elements and their combinations." (Woolf) . |
| 5.0110 | We posit here that mind in itself has no structure as such. Rather, mind is a theoretical construct we have created. |
| 5.0111 | We have created the theoretical construct of mind so that we can give what we perceive some form of order and consistency. We perceive external reality as being consistent, so too the "mechanism" by which we perceive must have some consistency as well. This mechanism we have labeled mind. |
| 5.0112 | The order that we perceive, we imply, is the order we have given to our perceiving apparatus. We order the means which we label perception and the perception itself. |
| 5.0113 | What knowledge we have of mind we have extrapolated from what we think mind is. What we think mind is we have extrapolated from what we think we perceive. Thus, do we form a gestalt of mind. In this section, we discuss various gestalts of mind. |
| 5.0114 | What we create as mind is not mind. The content of thought is not what the thought describes. The definition is not the defined. The map is not the territory. |
| 5.0115 | Our structuring of the mind limits mental structuring of a reality, real or imagined. |
| 5.0116 | Our mental structuring of a reality limits the structuring of the mind. |
| 5.0120 | We know our structure of the mind, rather than having knowledge of the structure of our mind, the moment we move out of the perceptual limitations of mind and apprehend its structure in and as our perceptual act. (Hegel) |
| 5.0121 | What we apprehend of the mind's structure is not our perception of mind or its structure. |
| 5.0122 | We know the mind's structure in the sense of apprehending the mind by being present to its structure, the structure of reality. What we know, in this sense, precludes verbalization. |
| 5.0130 | Reality is, mind is, we are. Simplicity. |
| 5.1000 | Western Conceptions of The Mind's Structure |
| 5.1100 | Mind-Dust Theory |
| 5.1101 | The physical universe exists. Atoms compose this universe. These atoms are the essential components of matter and thus are material. |
| 5.1102 | Associated with material atoms are particle. These particles are the medium through which the atoms can maintain the structure they form. |
| 5.1103 | These particles are known as mind. |
| 5.1104 | Various combinations of particles individuate. Particular individuated particle-combinations form the human mind as distinct from other recombinant forms known as other-than-human minds. |
| 5.1110 | The structure of the mind is identical with the inherent structure of the (human) form. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.1200 | Mind-Stuff Theory |
| 5.1201 | Physical atoms exist and compose physical things in the act of physical existence. |
| 5.1202 | Psychic particles exist and compose psychic things in the act of psychical existence. |
| 5.1203 | Physical atoms and psychical particles are either side of the same coin. They are analogous to one another. |
| 5.1204 | Psychical particles structure the mind just as physical atoms structure physical things. |
| 5.1210 | The structure of the mind is analogous with the structure of physical reality. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.1300 | Gestalt Theory |
| 5.1301 | Parts of a whole cannot exist before the whole exists. |
| 5.1302 | Parts of a whole derive their character from the structure of the whole. The parts configure the whole and are a configuration of the whole. |
| 5.1303 | Mind is characteristic of the structural capabilities of the whole. A human whole gives a pattern to the mind and to every other part thereof. |
| 5.1310 | The structure of the mind predicates and is predicated upon the structure of the whole. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.1400 | Systems Theory |
| 5.1401 | Each part is in process with every other part. This process processes the whole. Each part is a whole process in itself. Each whole is in itself a part of a greater whole in itself. |
| 5.1402 | The processing of the parts (wholes) gives structure to the whole (part). |
| 5.1410 | The structure of the mind is the processing of all interrelating parts of the whole (human, human race, humanity, cosmos). |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.2000 | Eastern Conceptions of The Mind's Structure |
| 5.2001 | Let us note that eastern conceptions differ qualitatively in substance and form from western counterparts. This is due in large part to the linguistic presuppositions of language. For example, in Chinese, there is no verb "to be" and thus a wholistic conceptualization of whatever is the norm. |
| 5.2002 | Thus, we have had to stretch some of our language use to make such a concept of "mental structuring" fit a typically western concept. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.2100 | Shao Yung's Theory |
| 5.2101 | The mind is the Great Ultimate. It is The One. |
| 5.2102 | The mind generates the Two, yin and yang. It does so without any activity. Yin and yang, as they change and transform, are The Spirit. |
| 5.2103 | Spirit establishes form. Form makes things concrete. |
| 5.2104 | The mind that retains its essential unity can respond to everything. |
| 5.2110 | The structure of the mind is the singular, elemental unity of all that is. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.2200 | Hsun Tun's Theory |
| 5.2201 | The mind is the agent of collection of sense knowledge. |
| 5.2202 | The mind collects knowledge according to its classification. |
| 5.2203 | The mind may not register the knowledge. When it does not register knowledge, it does not understand it. Thus are humans different or similar according to what knowledge they register. |
| 5.2210 | The structure of the mind is a processing of sense knowledge at variable rates and quantities. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.2300 | T'ien T'ai's Theory |
| 5.2301 | The mind (of Pure Nature) manifests all phenomena. |
| 5.2302 | All manifestations are the mind in its totality. |
| 5.2303 | The mind does not change. It is. |
| 5.2310 | The structure of the mind is the totality of all that is and is not, there being no part nor whole. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.2400 | Chang Tsai's Theory |
| 5.2401 | The mind is the unity of nature and consciousness. |
| 5.2402 | Differences occur due to change expressed in the activity of the external world acting upon the mind. This change is fundamentally a process of fusion and intermingling. |
| 5.2403 | The mind can include the whole of what is experiencable. Each human can expand and include everything as an image of his/her own self. |
| 5.2410 | The structure of the mind is possible ever-inclusive pivotal locus unifying itself in response to the external world. |
| Return to Index | |
| 5.3000 | Concluding Remark on the Mind's Structure |
| 5.3100 | "The mind of a perfect (human) is like a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects nothing. It reflects but does not hold. Therefore, the perfect man can act without effort." (Tsu) |
| 5.3101 | Need we say that the structure of the mind is best described as that of a mirror? |
| 5.3102 | A mirror knows no duality, holding both the image and the reflection one within the same. |
| Return to Index |
White Robed Monks of St. Benedict