What Do Buddhists Mean by "Mind"?

[@jonwesick2844]

Few know that Ernst Stavro Blofeld translates Buddhist texts when he's not busy being a Bond villain.

[@Smoggyrob1]

Nice video. Can you make another short video on the subject?

[@HardcoreZen]

I can add more confusion. Sure.

[@fancee_shmancee]

Love your topics, questions I ask myself often

[@1invag]

I remember this episode of tng, the character was called the traveller. I can relate 😂 for me, it essentially is encapsulating the whole life's about the journey not the destination deal. Like when they talk about the watchers in the bible, there's your attention that moves from object to object subject to subject, moment to moment. But all the while that which is watching... This is where I run out of steam to describe what I mean 😂

[@barence321]

Love the outfit!

[@ryancagerbaker]

Head, shoulders, hears and knows, hears and knows! 🧘🏻‍♂️

[@ldydyk]

Ha! I know this "MIND" of which you speak! Joking, of course. Thank you, Brad

[@slomo4672]

4:05 native Chinese speaker here. hui in hui hai rhymes with way and h is pronounced. Hai is pronounced high.

[@gav-gf7cr]

I have a request 🙂 When you quote books, could you put the bibliographic reference in the video description?

[@EricJohnson-c4z]

"That which is not dependently originated, such a thing does not exist. Therefore, that which is not empty of inherent existence, such a thing does not exist." -- Nagarjuna

[@chrxmeface]

re-explain this as if im 12 and dumb

[@gojuglen]

@@chrxmeface I think its saying... everything that exists, does not exist of its own accord. No thing, is self created and separate from other things. All things are therefore empty of a separate permanent self. It could be then, there is no Pure Mind, Pure source...everything is co dependent and impermanent.

[@shokuchideirdrecarrigan7402]

Thank you.

[@jonwesick2844]

I think Hui should rhyme with "way" based on 6 months of Mandarin classes.

[@SaxonShore]

Arch Drood Julian Cope vibes going on there

[@rafaelecattonar1506]

Can you do a video explaining the similarities and differences between Zen Buddhism, Tien (Vietnamese) Buddhism and Chan (Chinese) Buddhism? I know they are almost the same, but I would like to know more. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@HardcoreZen]

@@rafaelecattonar1506 They’re different makes for the same stream of practice and philosophy. How is Italian Catholicism different from French Catholicism?

[@rafaelecattonar1506]

@@HardcoreZen I think Italian and French Catholicism are almost the same.

[@jussiklemola5379]

I’ve only superficially acquainted myself with both zen and whatever it is that they call ”yoga philosophy” in the west today, but to me this concept of mind you talk about here bears a resemblance to the concept of purusha that they use in different schools of hinduism. I know, or at least assume, you’re not an expert on the latter, but would really like to hear your thoughts on the relation between zen and the hinduist schools of thinking. To me, Dogen’s instruction to think the thought of not-thinking, and Patanjalis sutra: yoga citta vrtti nirodhah, don’t really seem too far from each other, more just like different means to the same end?

[@333bjoern]

Whats the difference between "mind" and consciousness? In quantum physics the measurement creates the outcome. Does our consciousness create our reality? So in meditation, stripped of thoughts and concepts of reality, in (rather) pure consciousness, what do we experience?

[@t.c.bramblett617]

These Ch'an dudes really keep blowing my nonexistent/existent mind when I read them. Question: Is the mind blown, or is it doing the blowing? ;)

[@blackbird5634]

If you learn to sit Zazen you got it. Do that and never mind the word salad that comes with ''Buddhism.'' The rest of it is just hauling sand to the beach. You don't need it.

[@t.c.bramblett617]

But my beach needs more sand! MORE!

[@morgennebel803]

​@@t.c.bramblett617 Is is the beach that needs more sand or the sand that needs more beach?

[@smlanka4u]

The mind is knowingness.

[@joeg3950]

Zazen! Viva Ziggy!

[@bartfart3847]

They were all on Drugs. / Excellent Video Brother. I totally agree with you on mind. My 11 year old daughter asked if the Emptiness/Mind that I believe in is God. I told her she would have to find out for herself. We are now meditating on a regular basis and she loves it.

[@sawtoothiandi]

idea, just popt into brain there.. is meditatin' a little like putting your brain in airplane mode 🤔

[@matthewfiles4584]

Thank you swami, that was tasty....

[@R_Priest]

"Karma" is complicated, so let's discuss "Mind"! Maybe something they both have in common is that neither really exists. No Karma, No Mind.

[@JimTempleman]

The term 'mind' in Zen is used to refer to the illuminated mind, and the discriminating mind, and the two working together. You have to take the context in which the statement is made into account, to determine which one they are referring to. This is one of the inherent difficulties in interpreting Zen texts. And yes, when deeply practicing prajna paramita Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, clearly saw: … that all dharmas are marked by emptiness; … Therefore, given emptiness, there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, NO MIND; no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of MIND; no realm of sight, … no realm of MIND consciousness. He was describing the illuminated mind, exclusive of the discriminating MIND. (Perhaps they were just trying to blow our mind.)

[@RC-qf3mp]

Sounds like they were trying to articulate what western philosophers call “intentionality” - the feature of our mindedness such that thought/feeling/perception etc is always ABOUT something. There’s never an ‘emptiness’ of mind, it’s always thinking ABOUT something. Our way being minded is like an arrow or vector, it always has a direction. It’s not just… THERE. Which is what makes meditation so interesting and peculiar. And why it makes sense to focus on the breath or the sensation of the butt on the ground, because the mind is STRUCTURALLY vector-ial or ‘intentional’.

[@JimTempleman]

​@@RC-qf3mp Personally I believe that there are two aspects (or even 'components') of mind. One looks for the differences between things; that's the discriminating mind. And the other sees the similarities and associations among things; that's the illuminated mind. When you study something, you generally apply both analysis (discrimination) and synthesis (putting things together) to make sense of, and develop it further. Most of the time, most people focus of discriminative thinking, rather than integrative perception. In meditation we can learn to shift awareness into the illuminated mind, which we are usually unaware of, because it exists in the background (unconscious) of our composite mind.

[@JimTempleman]

​@@Robert85364 There is only one mind, made of two 'parts.' Just because you silence one of them doesn't mean it goes away. You're just not aware of it for the time being. There are always two living, functioning parts. That's why everyone has Buddha nature. 'Neurology' is a poor term to choose. It means: "the branch of medicine concerned with the study and treatment of disorders of the nervous system." Better to just call it neuroscience. > "Then there is no right way, you are the one who chooses for yourself in what terms to read the thing, how to live etc." Yes, there are many different paths up the same hill. But I strongly suspect it can readily be misused; especially on oneself. > "But you can do without any model and orientation, just live without doing philosophy" I'm not sure what you mean by that. That's not the path too it. But once your there, and are 100% sure you've settled in, then yes there have been schools that assume that within illumination morality takes care of itself. But Zongmi questioned this. And look at all the cases of high-level teachers 'doing the wrong thing.' In terms of neuroscience, the discriminating mind is closely coupled with the limbic (self-serving reinforcement) system, but the illuminating mind is not. Yet the illuminating mind still seeks to satisfy the needs of the discriminating mind. I suspect this is why Mahayana Buddhism adopted the Bodhisattva path, so that one channels their insights into helping others. Two and a half millennia of Buddhist practice suggests that one must still maintain the right orientation. Delusion has the amazing ability to creep back in, and subtly redirect good intentions. Frankly, this topic requires further research. The safer approach is to listen to the guidance given by the wisest of the past.

[@R_Priest]

@@Robert85364 _" It seems that there are literally two minds."_ If you think of the mind as 2 but with different functions, one thinking and other not-thinking, that's probably a mistake.

[@1337-t8l]

It's like the exact center of everything. A balance of all opposites. "Where the self is one with the entire universe."

[@matthewmarkjohnson]

and the relationship of emptiness to mind is?.......

[@R_Priest]

Same-same. Big Mind is empty. Small mind is empty. The appearances in mind are empty. Appearing and disappearing... empty.

[@Aldarinn]

So is Mind the same as Sunyata or Emptiness?😮

[@HardcoreZen]

@@Aldarinn That’s another term often used to name the unnamable indescribable something.

[@Aldarinn]

@@HardcoreZen Thank you for replying, and I am glad to get to speak to you!

[@revdrjon]

If it is not "that which sees, hears, feels, and knows", perhaps "mind" is a poor English translation of the subject of discussion?

[@EricJohnson-c4z]

Reality has no words attached to it, so why all this talk about "Mind"?

[@RC-qf3mp]

How does this concept of ‘mind’ relate to the issue that ‘mindfulness’ in the old Sanskrit (and perhaps in Asian languages generally) is better translated as ‘heartfulness’ (i.e., not ‘mind’ in a western sense as the seat of Reason, but a more expansive notion of ‘mind’)? In any case, i think the best Western philosophy on these topics starts with Heidegger and Wittgenstein who got us AWAY from the Cartesian thinking of ‘mind’ as a ‘thinking thing’ in contrast to an ‘extended thing’ (physical substance with three dimensions). For Heidegger, the core issue isn’t ‘mind’ or even ‘intentionality’ (which was his teacher, Husserl’s main preoccupation). The core issue is BEING, not mind, not consciousness. What is interesting and peculiar about us is not our capacity for thought, but our entire way of being. And different entities have their own ways of being - of coming into appearance and going away. We are an openness to being - a kind of emptiness or clearing that gets filled by what comes and goes. Talking about a ‘mind’ introduces a Cartesian confusion that there some’s hidden essence or Thing that I *really* am, like a Ghost inside the machine. No - I’m not INSIDE my head, I’m not a brain, I’m not a mind. Of course, the brain is important for our being the kind of being that we are, and for our way of being, but i am not a part of my body, and I’m not even a ‘body’ as extended stuff. I AM way of being. There’s no thinking THING, but there is thinking. Thinking can happen, just as running can happen, or typing comments can happen, or remembering a song can happen. All those are ways we can be. But there’s not some soul or mind or brain that DOES the thinking. I just am a peculiar way of being that is open to the beings that come and go and can relate to them in various ways. At a transcendental level, i am the emptiness that gets filled by the world.

[@R_Priest]

Yes... Heidegger was on the right track. Now, don't reify "being", and you get closer to the truth. No being but only doing, and closer to the truth still. No doing, but just appearing, and closer to the truth still...

[@chrxmeface]

Huangbo also talked about the "Void" that most men fear and do not dare go into. "People do not dare to forget mind; they fear falling into a void where there is nothing to get ahold of. They do not know that emptiness fundamentally has no void; there is only one reality realm, that’s all." So if you do Zen practice correctly, there is a scary junction you come across that feels like death and like completely losing ones mind, and most give up here. But if you stick through it, then all of a sudden you drop into the Void and everything is One, Free, Transcendent, beyond everything, and on and on. Unfortunately extremely very few understand this or know about this, 99.999% of Zen Practitioners are pre-void. The post voiders are lone wolf anonymous style

[@cudniantic]

i was just sitting today and had this experience...its been happening for a while to me....just need to ground myslef with some good bread and yoghurt and im good 😅

[@macdougdoug]

I wanna say Hwee High

[@black_eagle]

Most of the time, the poetic language of the old masters doesn't convey much meaning to my mind. It just sounds like vague, pretty words and nonsense.

[@HardcoreZen]

The secret is: It’s not poetic. It’s as literal as any scientific treatise.

[@bartfart3847]

I can see your point. Not very practical in today' s society. However, as a 15 year old so so many years ago, the "pretty words" captured my imagination and led me down the Buddhist Path. It's art. Not everyone's cup of green tea.

[@BullyMaguire4ever]

The language sounds poetic to the logical mind but non-duality is tricky to point to with language, and the dualistic mind can not grasp non-dual reality, and sees expressions of it as poetic language.