"mind" is both intellect and feeling, heart and mind...?

evolve

in the book, "the art of happiness" there's a quote by dalai lama which says " When I say 'training the mind,' in this context I'm not referring to 'mind' merely as one's cognitive ability or intellect. Rather, I'm using the term in the sense of the Tibetan word Sem, which has a much broader meaning, closer to 'psyche' or 'spirit', it includes intellect and feeling, heart and mind."

I always referred to 'mind' as an intellect thing, it's interesting to see it as just as much heart or 'spirit' hmm... but I don't know? what's your thoughts on the heart or 'spirit' aspect of mind?

Cloud

Everything mental, all "experience", is what mind means. It's all-inclusive.

Kangaroo

Take a moment and disect yourself. Are you still you?

ownerof1000oddsocks

emotional quotient and intellectual quotient are both measures of 'mind', but (I suppose) IQ is- or has been- the most common reference point for mind.

Here's an interesting thread on hyper-empathy. consider the implications of this thread upon the different 'minds' you encounter and what that means in terms of experience. It's way more complicated than my feeble mind can comprehend:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt86894.html

http://www.empathogens.com/empathy/mirror-touch.html

Jeffrey

Yes, that's what my lama teaches. She says that you might say heart is more non-conceptual, but that line of thinking can be too rigid. I'm not sure why, the latter, but that's what I recall from the correspondance course I am taking.

She says that you can be guided by the wishes in 'your heart of hearts', for example when you think of what your goals are. The objects are all fleeting and impermanent, but there is always a wish of the heart. The mind sounds more like the analysis and distinctions a person makes. But just look at your reading my words. Isn't there a heart in seeing them? Or is it just intellect? I think some people develope 'in their heads' a little too much and it can be a good exercise to notice emotions and wishes.

taiyaki

Paraphrasing Reggie Ray's idea of enlightenment:

The movement from left brain dominance to being grounded more in the body or soma.

What that includes is right brain functioning (intuition) and importantly the heart or the center for feeling. And its not that the left brain ends its functioning, the left brain or conceptual mind becomes a tool rather than our whole sense of being becoming a slave to it.

So according to reggie the mind becomes the whole being and everything else. Inwardly nothing, outwardly nothing. Utterly open. Nothing happening other than experiencing, experiencing itself.

Kind of like an empty hallow body.

And according to Reggie, which is the basic tantra or vajrayana world view is that this body and mind are exactly enlightenment. This whole mandala is in fact the pure realm, the divine reality. We just cannot see it because of ignorance & afflictive emotions.

So some thoughts for you!

Here is the talk I completely butchered and you may enjoy. It is the second talk by Reggie Ray!

http://teachingwhatweneedtolearn.com/listen/

sova

"mind" includes your whole experience.

mental, physical, emotional, and whatever other fancy-al words we have in western psychology for what comprises a human's experience.

I totally agree that this includes both "spirit" and "intellect" ... I think the trickiest part in translating this stuff to English is that science says that the brain equals the mind, but really in Buddhism the physical body is regarded as a physical manifestation of Mind, and in my experience this is much more conducive to philosophical/spiritual/social inquiry than trying to break everything down into easy-to-digest words (without trying to penetrate deeper into understanding them)

just my two cents, but I won't charge you the $0.02 this time... lol jk

evolve

thanks for all the interesting info everyone