What exactly is the mind?
If you look carefully, you will find that when you say mind, you cannot conceive of mind without thought. When you say mind, it means that however high or low the mind is functioning on this earth, there is thought. When the mind is functioning in the higher spheres it may be subtle thought, but it is thought all the same. So we can, in a way, say that the mind is a complete bundle or collection of thoughts. All thoughts together form the mind.
There is no separate entity called mind that is thinking - thinking itself is mind. When there are thoughts, automatically there is the mind. Therefore, from this we can imply that where there is no thought, there is no mind, in the ordinary sense of the term.
The other thing is, think carefully and see – Can you think without a language? Try.
Whenever you think, there is language, whatever the language may be. Now, the rishis and the yogis who have gone into this subject in practice, have said that there is something called mind, where there is no language; there is thought which has no language and that is Consciousness.
You cannot really call it the mind. Because the mind means thought and thought means language and if there is something without that thought, you cannot conceive of it ordinarily. But apparently it exists.
One more lead to this, to show that there is something that exists, which is not thought and yet it could be called the mind or consciousness, is, if you look very carefully, you will find that thought is not a continuous process. Although from birth to death we keep thinking. There is no time when we are not thinking except when we sleep.
Even in dreams, there is thought. It appears to us that there is no gap. Now, right now you are thinking. Immediately there is another thought. There is no gap. But if you look carefully, you will realise that it is just like a movie – in the movies there are many frames and they are moved at a particular speed. When they are moved at that speed, you see it as a continuous whole. When you take one frame, it is a frozen action. It is not continuous. Only when it moves, it is continuous.
In the same way, the mind or thought is not continuous. There is a chain of thoughts and they are so fast, one thought coming and disappearing and another coming up, so fast, that you cannot see the interval between the thought that has gone and the thought that has arisen. You cannot see the interval because it is so quick. We are saying, that there is an interval.
On the surface, thought comes and thought goes, continuously. We are saying it is possible sometimes to glimpse the gap between one thought that has arisen and disappeared, before the next arises. If you see the gap, you have reached That, which is without language. Meditation from this point of view means, to take a glimpse of that gap.
The gap is the ground on which the thought moves. And that ground is the ocean, on which thoughts arise like waves, come and disappear. But the ocean remains the same. When the wave comes up it appears to be individual but it goes back again to the sea and it is the same, there is no difference. So the zen teachings say that the problem is that we think that we are the waves. The moment we begin to glimpse or even understand that we are the ocean and all thoughts are just rising and disappearing into it, that is our primordial state. That is the gap between thoughts.
Continued in Mind II ...
If you look carefully, you will find that when you say mind, you cannot conceive of mind without thought. When you say mind, it means that however high or low the mind is functioning on this earth, there is thought. When the mind is functioning in the higher spheres it may be subtle thought, but it is thought all the same. So we can, in a way, say that the mind is a complete bundle or collection of thoughts. All thoughts together form the mind.
There is no separate entity called mind that is thinking - thinking itself is mind. When there are thoughts, automatically there is the mind. Therefore, from this we can imply that where there is no thought, there is no mind, in the ordinary sense of the term.
The other thing is, think carefully and see – Can you think without a language? Try.
Whenever you think, there is language, whatever the language may be. Now, the rishis and the yogis who have gone into this subject in practice, have said that there is something called mind, where there is no language; there is thought which has no language and that is Consciousness.
You cannot really call it the mind. Because the mind means thought and thought means language and if there is something without that thought, you cannot conceive of it ordinarily. But apparently it exists.
One more lead to this, to show that there is something that exists, which is not thought and yet it could be called the mind or consciousness, is, if you look very carefully, you will find that thought is not a continuous process. Although from birth to death we keep thinking. There is no time when we are not thinking except when we sleep.
Even in dreams, there is thought. It appears to us that there is no gap. Now, right now you are thinking. Immediately there is another thought. There is no gap. But if you look carefully, you will realise that it is just like a movie – in the movies there are many frames and they are moved at a particular speed. When they are moved at that speed, you see it as a continuous whole. When you take one frame, it is a frozen action. It is not continuous. Only when it moves, it is continuous.
In the same way, the mind or thought is not continuous. There is a chain of thoughts and they are so fast, one thought coming and disappearing and another coming up, so fast, that you cannot see the interval between the thought that has gone and the thought that has arisen. You cannot see the interval because it is so quick. We are saying, that there is an interval.
On the surface, thought comes and thought goes, continuously. We are saying it is possible sometimes to glimpse the gap between one thought that has arisen and disappeared, before the next arises. If you see the gap, you have reached That, which is without language. Meditation from this point of view means, to take a glimpse of that gap.
The gap is the ground on which the thought moves. And that ground is the ocean, on which thoughts arise like waves, come and disappear. But the ocean remains the same. When the wave comes up it appears to be individual but it goes back again to the sea and it is the same, there is no difference. So the zen teachings say that the problem is that we think that we are the waves. The moment we begin to glimpse or even understand that we are the ocean and all thoughts are just rising and disappearing into it, that is our primordial state. That is the gap between thoughts.
Continued in Mind II ...
