The Brain, Mind, & Thoughts
As we aspire to establish mindfully conscious living, it is important to clarify some of the terminologies that are often used inconsistently and interchangeably—namely, the brain, the mind, thoughts, and mindfulness. Neuroscientists are still exploring the relationship between the brain and the mind and are yet to find out exactly how the mind uses the brain; however, one thing is certain that the mind is an aggregate manifestation of continuous neural processes that are regulating and responding to the flow of signals transmitted through the binary system of 86 billion neurons and roughly quadrillion synapses. In the past, some had suggested that the mind is what the brain does, but it is more accurate to say that the mind stimulates the brain in particular ways to pave and re-pave neuronal pathways. We will discuss more on topics such as neuroplasticity, myelination, and neural integration later.
Our thoughts are constantly emerging, transient mental events that play out in the field of consciousness like natural phenomena. We may be reluctant to admit it, but we have very little control over the happenstances of endless bubbling thoughts, called mindstream (citta-saṃtāna). It is actually liberating to realize that thoughts are just thoughts and they are neither reality about a particular situation nor truth about ourselves in any given moment. The fact is that our cognitive processes tend to make unreliable, incidental assumptions, often elaborating on their own content with a sprinkle of imagination to fill the gap. When we experientially learn and accept that we have little or no control over the ceaseless flow of mindstream, paradoxically we start to have control over how we conduct our lives.
While the original usage of the word, mindfulness, goes back much further, the relatively new application as the translation of sati or sammā-sati (wholesome awareness in Pali) from Buddhist text was popularized by Thomas William Rhys Davids in the early 20th century (ca.1910). Mindfulness can be described as sustained inward attention and mental acuity required to observe and investigate the nature of one’s mind in relation to here & now experience, and it also refers to the meditative practice of holding inward attention in the present moment (Pali: Satipatthāna). Depending on the context, the words, metacognition or meta-awareness, are also interchangeably used to denote the awareness of one’s thought processes, emotional states, and bodily sensations, especially in the field of cognitive psychology. In short, mindful awareness or metacognition helps us become acquainted with the inherently subjective, transient nature of our internal experiences, and see them clearly for what they are instead of perpetuating the patterns of habitual mis-takes based on overidentification and reactive judgment. We will discuss more about our common mis-takes.
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