Olivia Goldhill (qz.com, 12/24/16); Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Scientists say “mind” isn’t confined to brain, or even to this body
Ever wonder what’s going on in another person’s mind? Ever get a compliment for having a great mind, or ask if someone is out of theirs? Ever try to expand or free the mind?
But what is a mind? Defining the concept is a surprisingly slippery task. The mind is the seat of consciousness, the essence of our being [aware]. Without a mind, we cannot be considered meaningfully alive. So what exactly, and where precisely, is it?
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| This whole tail and bulb is a brain. |
[According to Buddhism, "mind" (
mano or
nama)
is a
mind-body process comprised partly of consciousness (
vinnana), which is composed of
mind-moments and
mental factors (
cittas and
cetasikas). It is located physically in the area of the heart, and this can be directly investigated and confirmed by gaining absorption, emerging, and reviewing the area of the heart to see the mind door. If one looks between the ears, one will not see mind. See the meditation techniques of
Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw for details.]
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| Yeah, this part got no blood, a stroke of insight... |
Traditionally, scientists have tried to define "mind" as the product of brain activity: The brain is the physical substance, and mind is the conscious product of those firing neurons, according to the classic argument.
But growing evidence shows that the mind goes far beyond the physical workings of the brain. [And the size of "the brain" is underestimated because most of it is not in the cranium but extends down the brainstem and spinal column. See
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor holding one whole brain.]
No doubt, the brain plays an incredibly important role. But the human mind cannot be confined to what’s inside the skull, or even the body, according to a definition first put forward by Dr. Dan Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA's School of Medicine and the author of
Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human.
He first came up with the definition more than two decades ago, at a meeting of 40 scientists across disciplines, including neuroscientists, physicists, sociologists, and anthropologists.
The aim was to come to an understanding of the mind that would appeal to many and serve as common ground, satisfying those wrestling with the question across various academic fields.
After much discussion, they decided that a key component of the mind is “the emergent self-organizing process, both embodied and relational, that regulates energy and information flow within and among us.”
It’s not catchy. But it is interesting with meaningful implications. The most immediately shocking element of this definition is that our mind extends beyond our physical selves.
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| The Buddha on mind-body |
[In Buddhism, "self" (
atta or
atman) is defined in a very detailed way as those things (groups or clusters of things) we cling to as a self. The Buddha called them the
Five Aggregates or heaps -- form, feelings, perceptions, formations (such as volitions), and consciousness. When one speaks of a self, it is usually in reference to one or more of these. Or these things are regarded as the property and possession of a self. This is the "me," the "I," the "ego," or the possessions of a "self." Ultimately, however, it is an illusion. There is no self behind these
impersonal processes. But because there exists the thought that there is, clinging happens. What clings? There is no clinger, but form forms, feelings feel, perception perceives, mental formations
will (among other things), and
consciousness is conscious. The
Abhidharma explains all of this is minute detail; moreover, it may be known-and-seen directly and enlightenment realized by calm meditation and liberating-
insight.]
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| We're looking at the prefrontal cortex (TED). |
In other words, our mind is not simply our perception of experiences, but those experiences themselves. Dr. Siegel argues that it’s impossible to completely disentangle our subjective view of the world from our interactions.
“I realized if someone asked me to define the shoreline but insisted, is it the water or the sand, I would have to say the shore is both sand and sea,” says Dr. Siegel. “You can’t limit our understanding of the coastline to insist it’s one or the other.
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| Is the "shoreline" land OR sea? Which one? |
“I started thinking, maybe the mind is like the coastline — some inner and inter process. Mental life for an anthropologist or sociologist is profoundly social. Your thoughts, feelings, memories, attention, what you experience in this subjective world is part of mind.”
The definition has since been supported by research across the sciences, but much of the original idea came from mathematics.
Dr. Siegel realized the mind meets the mathematical definition of a complex system in that it’s open (which means it can influence things outside itself), chaos capable (which, simply put, means it’s roughly randomly distributed), and non-linear (which means a small input leads to large and difficult to predict result).
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