Wisdom of the Thai Forest: Mind and Body

Ajahn Thate via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew; Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I'm so beautiful! But not for long.

A basic tenet of "the Dharma," the Buddha's teachings, is that mind-and-body or nama-rupa work together inter-dependently in a feedback loop, but the mind controls the body.

The mind orders the body to do this or that activity. And when the body wears down, the mind is necessarily put through some hardship for it.

Mind does not reside under the control of the nervous system, although the brain may be regarded as a central office along with the whole spinal column and its tendrils (the CNS and PNS).

We're going to live forever; we can afford to.

When the body dies, disintegrating in accordance with the nature of its various elements, the mind will have to reappear.*

[*If the necessary conditions of unawareness (ignorance), craving and attachment (clinging), and karma are still present [and they would be unless one were fully enlightened and no longer engaged in karma (actions with the ability to produce fruits and mental-resultants) rather than mere kriyas  (simple functional actions).]

That is to say, the mind will have to be reborn on this or that or any of the 31 Planes of Existence to continue experiencing the results of skillful and unskillful karma (actions), which are a wellspring of disappointment (dukkha), manifesting as delight and suffering, pleasure and distress.