What is the mind?

What is the mind? 

Actually, there are two aspects to the mind. 

There’s mental consciousness, and then there’s the mind itself. We think that consciousness is the mind, that the mind is consciousness. Actually, consciousness is what goes. 

Say that we see a sight in Bangkok: Cakkhu-viññāṇa—eye-consciousness—is what goes to the sight, but the mind doesn’t go. The act of going is what’s called consciousness, but there’s no substance to it.

Sota-viññāṇa: Sometimes we remember sounds from the past. Thoughts of sounds appear in the mind and we focus on them, so that we can remember what this or that person said, how beautiful it was. What we’ve remembered is sota-viññāṇa, consciousness at the ear. 

Then there’s consciousness at the nose. We can recognize what smells are making contact. 

We can remember what smells there were and what things we smelled in the past. The mental current that goes out to know these things is called ghāna-viññāṇa. 

Then there’s kāya-viññāṇa, consciousness at the body. 

We can recognize hot air, cold air. 

We can recognize that “This kind of coolness is the coolness of water; that kind of coolness is the coolness of wind; this kind of heat is the heat of fire; this kind of heat is the heat of hot air; that kind of heat is the heat of the sun.” We can recognize these things clearly. 

We could even write a textbook about them. 

Knowing these things is called kāya-viññāṇa.

Mano-viññāṇa, consciousness at the intellect. Our thinking goes out: to Bangkok, to the forest, to the wilderness, all around the world. Our knowledge of these thoughts is mano-viññāṇa, while the mind is what stays right here in the present. It can’t go anywhere. 

The part of the mind that’s awareness itself can’t go anywhere at all. It stays right here. It goes out only as far as the skin. 

There’s awareness of things beyond the skin, but that awareness isn’t the mind. It’s consciousness. There’s no substance to consciousness, no substance at all, just like the air. So we don’t have to get entangled with it. 

We can separate consciousness out of the mind, separate the mind out of consciousness. 

The mind is like a fire; consciousness, the light of the fire. The light and the fire are two different things, even though the light comes out of the fire. 

When we don’t understand this, that’s called ignorance. 

We conceive consciousness to be the mind, and the mind to be consciousness. 

When we have things all mixed up like this, that’s called ignorance.

~~~

Inner Strength & Parting Gifts: Talks by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.

https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#inner_strength

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22 August 2023