Buddha Abhidhamma - Ultimate Science - BuddhaNet

19
What is the Mind?
Philosophers used to refer to ‘mind and matter’ as the two basic
principles of the world. But they fail to come to a unanimous
conclusion as to what the mind is.
Psychologists began their task by probing the nature of the
mind. But, when they cannot specify and characterize the mind,
they turn to the behavior of animals and men. Thus psychology
becomes ‘the study of behaviorism’ rather than ‘the science of
the mind.’
Today’s science possesses no instruments to detect the mind.
So scientists tend to deny the existence of the mind and fondle
the theory that the brain functions as the mind. This theory cannot
explain the strange phenomena of telepathy, clairvoyance, extrasensory
perception, psychokinesis, out-of-body experiments, life
after death, etc., which cannot be denied by science to-day. Besides
brain-research has revealed that, although the brain functions as
a super-computer, it requires an external agent to run it just as
ordinary computers need to be programmed by men. Isn’t that
external agent the mind?
Abhidhamma describes the mind as a combination of citta
(consciousness) and cetasikas (mental factors or concomitants of
the mind). There are 52 cetasikas or mental factors—some can
defile the mind, some can purify the mind and some are neutral.
The total number of possible combinations between citta and
cetasikas is 121.
These combinations account for the various states of the mind.
They explain fully why the mind is sometimes bad and sometimes
good, sometimes sad and sometimes happy, sometimes
wicked and sometimes noble, etc.
In the practical aspects of His teaching, Lord Buddha
described several ways for developing samàdhi (concentration).