The Easiest Route to a Clearer Mind
There is a great deal of focus in our society on the brain, particularly in terms of how it works and what it does for us. The trouble is that the brain is simply the nuts and bolts that go together to make a functioning body part. A far more interesting topic of conversation, as far as I’m concerned, is not ‘brain’ but the Mind.
Most people, if asked, are not entirely clear on what ‘the mind’ actually is. We are all aware that we possess one but our culture does not equip us with the vocabulary needed to create a definitive concept of what it’s function actually is. One of the reasons for this is because, in our science-centric society there is no accurate or reliable way to measure or observe it. The significant and often overlooked detail is that the mind, in contrast to the brain, functions largely in accordance with our individual perception, and therein lies the rub.
Individual perception is entirely and completely different for each and every one of us, but it is also the main component in how we colour our world and make sense of hat is valid and what is not. True, we are capable of plugging in to a kind of hive mind and acting en masse, but our minute to minute experiences are processed entirely individually. It is only when we check in with the group that we begin to pigeon-hole those experiences into something we are prepared to accept as ‘true’.
The origins of the word ‘mind’ are rooted in the Old English and Germanic, gemynd, meaning ‘memory or thought’, however it’s Indo-European origins are far older still.
Translation moves us a little closer to what ‘mind’ actually is, but there is a certain intangible quality to our minds that makes translation fall short in providing an explanation. The mind is, in reality more of a concept than a thing. We all understand intrinsically what we mean when we say it, without ever needing to explain ourselves.
What’s interesting is that in our science obsessed culture we are often happy to disregard the parts of existence that defy easy explanation in favour of a mechanically explainable, binary process. Brain is easy. Mind? Not so much.
If we were to describe to someone, who had no concept of such things, the process of traveling 100 miles across land in just over an hour, we would need to go no further in our explanation than to say we traveled in a vehicle. If pushed as to what that meant we might describe a car. And if pushed further we might describe the mechanical process of how the collection of metal and plastic is able to be built into a machine capable of controlled forward propulsion.
At no point, however are we offering an understanding of how that collection of metal and plastic is able to achieve the seemingly impossible task of making such a quick journey, when it would take well over 30 hours on foot.
What I mean by this is that whilst we can apply the laws of physics to the question, in order to explain the mechanics of those laws, at no point is anyone able to explain why those laws behave the way that they do. No one is capable of speaking about their ‘nature’, without defaulting to known and recognisable frameworks.