What does buddhism say about mind and heart?
Upvote:0
What point of view does buddhism have on heart and mind. I mean in terms of differences, dominance, reality, etc.
The meaning of "heart" and "mind", their differences, and their tendency to dominate a personality can be understood in several ways, according to buddhist dhamma.
One possible interpretation within buddhist doctrine is the concept of the five spiritual faculties (indriyas) which aids on the path to enlightenment. Here, heart or mind can be considered corresponding to the factors listed below. They are:
- Faith (saddha), to overcome doubt in buddhist teachings.
- Persistence (viriya), to overcome tiredness/laziness and to achieve right effort.
- Mindfulness (sati), to overcome thoughtlessness.
- Concentration (samadhi), to overcome distraction and deepen your focus.
- Wisdom (panna), to overcome lack of understanding of the four noble truths.
According to the Sona sutta in Anguttara Nikaya, these factors needs to be balanced in order to work in favor of attaining further cultivation.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.055.than.html
Another interpretation of the aspects of heart and mind that comes to mind is the idea of general personality traits with regards to meditation. Each type is described with a particular temperament, and is therefore recommended a specific meditation practice (kammatthana). From this perspective, someone may be inclined to being faithful (heart), or to a more intellectual proclivity (mind), among others:
Six main character types are recognized — the greedy, the hating, the deluded, the faithful, the intelligent and the speculative — this oversimplified typology being taken only as a pragmatic guideline which in practice admits various shades and combinations.
The ten kind of foulness and mindfulness of the body, clearly intended to attenuate sensual desire, are suitable for those of greedy temperament.
Eight subjects — the four divine abidings and four color kasinas — are appropriate for the hating temperament.
Mindfulness of breathing is suitable for those of the deluded and the speculative temperament.
The first six recollections are appropriate for the faithful temperament.
Four subjects — mindfulness of death, the recollection of peace, the defining of the four elements, and the perception of the repulsiveness in nutriment — are especially effective for those of intelligent temperament.
The remaining six kasinas and the immaterial states are suitable for all kinds of temperaments. But the kasinas should be limited in size for one of speculative temperament and large in size for one of deluded temperament.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/gunaratana/wheel351.html
Upvote:1
Venerable Ānanda approached the Buddha and asked about the five lower fetters. After learning about the practice for giving up the five lower fetters, Venerable Ānanda had one more question:
MN64:16.1: “Sir, if this is the path and the practice for giving up the five lower fetters, how come some mendicants here are released in heart while others are released by wisdom?”
The Buddha answered simply:
MN64:16.2: “In that case, I say it is the diversity of their faculties.”
And Venerable Ānanda was happy with that...
In other words, we're all different. Another sutta explains further. For example, those with serenity of heart should seek those with discernment:
AN4.94:2.1: As for the person who has serenity but not discernment: they should approach someone who has discernment ...
And those with discernment should seek those with serenity of heart:
AN4.94:3.1: As for the person who has discernment but not serenity: they should approach someone who has serenity ...
We're all different. And we can all help each other because of those differences.
Upvote:2
In spiritual traditions, the heart is not the physical heart, but the intuition, the non-discursive or non-conceptual mind.
The conceptual mind gradually auto-emerges thanks to the mechanism known as Dependent Origination. As conceptual mind develops, it constructs an experience of a world, Samsara. Or we could say, the conceptual mind and Samsara are one and the same. All our griefs and worries exist inside the framework of conceptual mind. For example the concept of Death is like that, it's an abstract concept, in reality there is no death but endless transformation.
The non-conceptual mind aka heart does not operate in such terms, so it does not have the same issues. The Buddhism I was taught is pretty much in favor of re-discovering and utilizing one's "heart". In Early Buddhist texts the process of letting go of the concepts until only the non-conceptual remains is described as "animitta" or The Signless.
You can read more about it in this nice article: http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/Articles/Signless%20Meditations%20in%20Pali%20Buddhism_JIABS_Harvey_1986.pdf
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