My understanding of the structure of the human mind took the form coinciding with

the understanding of  “How Buddhism works”.

So, they were developed in a two-way traffic.  “Assuming, if the Buddhism works, the mind

needs to have such and such structure” in the same time “If the mind have such structure,

Buddhism must be working in this way”.  So that it was like working on a Zigsaw Puzzle

which got the fuzzy pictures on both side.  I might be wrong, hence it is a Hypothesis, yet still

so far the Buddhism picture seemed to fit well, therefore the other side should work as well.

( This is a quick summery of it, as somebody said, a blog got to be in 100 word to be read by others)

——————–

In any life form, selfish Ego is the fundamental of its instinct, to eat, to sleep, avoid the pain are

all for the survival of the Self.   Sex is in its extension toward the extended time scale.

In the simple organism, those activities was often programmed chemically, so that in that level,

the boundary between physiology  and the instinctive activity is rather vague, still  its indicate

the deepest origin of even highly developed organism, like a  mind of humankind today.

When the life form evolved and started to have a complexed behaviour, more than an instant reaction,

(with supporting nervous system and information process power,  which we call intelligence )

even a simple animal start to have each distinctive behavioral pattern.

——————–

In order to make sure own survival, they start to act more proactive, selecting suitable environment,

seeking better hunting ground, picking the sign of danger and avoid a direct encounter etc by fully

utilizing its  intelligence—– in other words, use memories and the knowledges for the necessary decision.

And this decision can be projected in the time scale as well, to the future, such as to avoid possible

danger or wait a play to come, even sense the change of  weather from the sign to seek the shelter.

Its mean, they not only see an object in their front but also able to imagine which has not appeared  yet.

( Incidentally,  I used this idea to define the level of life organism to social organization, how high it is evolved,

by measuring the length of the projected time scale, such as an action to catch a play with a fraction of a

second projection,  to years long development plan of the Government —— in the Thesis for my Degree)

So, it is safe to say, even a simple animal having abstracted cognitive  notion and its future projection.

——————–

In my view,  originally the emotion seems to have developed to support this projection by preparing the

physiological condition of the body with the appropriate hormone balance.——- (Since it is a chemical

based effect, it last longer and deep.  And hard to control by any logical persuasion.  Therefore

it may need to remove the cause in the first place ——and this is what the Buddhism is doing)

——————–

During the process of evolution, the human brain not only increased its size but also the amount of

informations stored, and more importantly, it acquired the sorting and filing systems as well.

Same kind of informations or data will be filed in close association or as a group.

And later, each group started to have an own  [Tag ] which is the abstract notion of the contents,

such as fish, bird, hot or color red (which include 100s of hue) etc.  (note; it’s not yet by the word)

This abstracted  notion was the essential for the omnivores mankind’s survival, for them

to know which is the kind to chase, otherwise run for life, before actuary encounter face to face.

And with the development of the notion, it enabled the brain to have a process of the information purely

from the memory with its own cause, and also give the category to each vague feelings.

Those ability lead to the development of the internally generated signal flow and the process.

—–This is the birth of the Mind.

( On this stage, it would be functioning like, the one came across a dead snake, first alerted with fear,

then moment later, as realizing it is dead, start to play it with stick,  even try to carry back.——this is a

highly complexed behavior involving inference, further observation,  judgement—-there is the Mind )

——————–

When the human brain further evolved and acquired the language, those Notion [ Tag ] was

given each Name or the Word such as Fish or Bird, Good, Cold, etc etc.

And with further development, when human started to form social system, the linguistic

communication become the essential  tool for the survival.

On the end, the human intellectual system, based on the linguistic Notion ( Thinking ) started to

have the dominance in their Mind, and even created purely abstructic System of Notion, such as

Idearism, Metaphysical Notion, the God, even a Deluded Idea. etc etc.

(Which may completely remote from the life’s reality —-and the two systems started to alienate )

In the same time, this Notion based system has masked all the original information system which

had been evolved from the time of primitive life and containing most of the fundamental rules of the life.

Which is Buddhist calls as the Dharma. —– And this hidden [ Primary  System ] is the Subconscious.

——————–

The paradox is, even though most of the mental process was carried out subconsciously, as the

neural net work such as sensory nerve are connected to the [ Primary System ] first, yet still, as

the display unit is the very [ Conscious System ] we wrongly believe that the Mind is in our Conscious.

It is exactly the same misunderstanding that the display or monitor screen is the TV.    🙂

(As the Mind has such multilayered structure, we need to uncover layer by layer to find the Dharma.

——and this is what the Buddhism’s practice for)

In the same historical origin, the Self having multi layered structure too.  (such as Ego, inner Self )

——————–

(Copy righted by Yoshi Imamura / 2010 )