It is amazing how ancient Indians were preoccupied with coming up with various theories about the mind. These theories were not aimed at understanding the mind, the way our modern neuroscience does. But they were driven by practical applications.
One such theory of mind was Buddhist theory of mind as recorded in the Buddhist scripture, namely the Abhidamma Pitaka. Based on this theory, Buddhists developed various meditative practices. We will discuss this Buddhist theory of mind in this episode.
On one occasion, Buddha recollects his early journey on the spiritual path. He had his initial training under the tutelage of many well-known Gurus of his times. Some of them were scholarly Brahmins and some ardent ascetics. Buddha being a sincere student, could easily grasp whatever his teachers taught him. He was even able to attain the same peaks, which his teacher had attained. But he was not quite satisfied with that.
Buddha jovially says that he held his breath “as long as his ears popped out”, and he starved “as long as his belly touched his back” 😉. But he did not think he had reached anywhere. And finally, he gave up all those practices, and immersed himself in meditation. He kept observing himself – both his body and mind. And finally attained the realization.
The main part of Buddha’s realization was that there is nothing that is permanent. Everything, body as well as mind, is continuously changing. And this continuously changing body and mind is what actually constitutes our existence as an individual. He also understood the root cause of all our suffering, and a way of coming out of that.
Buddha did not talk much about the mind and the science of it. But later Buddhists recorded some of the comments made by Buddha, as an elaborate theory of mind. They came up with what they called Abhidamma. Abhidamma is Buddhist theory of the mind.
As per Abhidamma, mind is a non-material entity, which generally co-exists with the material body. But at times, this mind can exist independent of the body, in certain planes of existence. Also, this mind is capable of ‘creating’ bodies. It can also attain certain magical powers, since it has control over the material things.
Abhidamma calls the mind as Chitta. This Chitta is momentary and lasts only for 17 ‘thought moments’. A thought moment is one billionth of the time taken to blink the eyelids. After this duration, a Chitta gets replaced by another Chitta. Before that happens, its contents are transferred to the newly formed Chitta.
There can be as many as 79 different types of Chitta, each arising on a specific occasion. The contents of the Chitta are called Chetasika. They may represent emotions, feelings, pleasure, pain, record of actions taken by the individual, and so on. Different Chittas coordinate, to process the inputs provided by the body through the senses. Similarly, different stages within the lifetime of a Chitta, the Kamma of an individual gets recorded. The Kamma are the record of actions taken by the individual.
Just like the Chitta, body is also transient – arising and perishing with the Chitta. A continuously changing sequence of body in conjunction with a continuously changing sequence of Chitta, is what gives rise to the impression of an individual. But in reality, there is no individual. Abhidamma does not believe in any soul, that is at the receiving end of the Chitta. It says that there is nobody who experiences whatever goes on in the Chitta. There is only experience, but no ‘experiencer’!
Why did the Buddhists arrive at this theory of mind? Not for the sake of knowing what it is. But to use this theory to achieve their goal of life. Buddhists believed that root cause of all the misery gone through by an individual, is the birth as an individual. Only if you are born, do you undergo miseries. And this birth happens due to the ‘desire’ to be born! Where is this desire? Where else, but in the Chitta.
Buddhists theory of mind has detailed description of how this desire arises in the Chitta and how the corresponding side effects, or Kamma as they are called, get recorded. These Buddhists came up with meditative practices, that can prevent these Kamma being recorded. No Kamma, means no possibility of future birth. And cessation of birth bestows freedom from suffering.
Strangely, Buddhists believed in rebirth, though they said that there is no permanent entity called soul! How do they explain rebirth when there is no transmigrating soul? They say that the last Chitta of a dying person gets copied into the Chitta of the fetus in the womb of the would be mother. Then on, the sequence of Chitta and body continues in another location, as another individual.
The contents of the Chitta, especially the Kamma related ones, carry forward in the next individual. It is as if the same individual is continuing in another place with a new sequence of body and mind. This would go on until the liberation or nirvana is attained.
Though this Buddhist theory of mind does not stand anywhere in the light of what we know today as the functioning of the mind in terms of neuroscience, it seems to be useful in achieving what the Buddhists meant to achieve, namely freedom from miseries.
At least to the extent that Buddhist model of the mind responds to the same input with expected output, we can say that their model is one of the possible descriptions of the Mind. It may not be correct in today’s scientific terms, but serves some purpose. At least that is what Buddhists believe.
As we discussed in the previous episode, in cases dealing with things beyond our understanding, we may resort to this criterion for accepting a specific theory.
Vipassana or passive observation of the mind is one of the powerful techniques of Buddhism. This technique is based on this theory of Abhidamma. Irrespective of the correctness of Abhidamma, many modern psychologists believe that Vipassana is a useful practice. They use this Vipassana as a remedy to many psychological problems and for minimizing stress. Many Gurus also offer them by giving scientific sounding names such a ‘insight meditation’.
Though Buddhists never associated Chitta with the brain, there are scientific studies conducted, that show that Buddhist meditative techniques like Vipassana have profound influence on the functioning of the brain. Some of these are beneficial and some controversially harmful. But there are no two words that these methods do modulate the functioning of the brain, though never anticipated by the original Buddhists who came up with their theory of mind.
But opponents of Buddhist theories always poked holes in their theory. These people had their own counter theories. One of the most prominent one was the Samkhya theory of mind. Patanjali’s Yoga assumes this Samkhya theory of the mind.
Surprisingly, even this theory does not associate the mind directly with the brain. All the same, the practices based on this Samkhya theory, namely Yoga, are believed to take one to the same end result that Buddhist theory of mind promises to take. We will see more on this Samkhya theory of the mind in the next episode.
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