Mind as a creator

The answer to your question lies in the ‘nama-kaya’ ‘rupa-kaya’ – The mind-body relationship in the scriptures. It is too complex for me to write in English, so I will write a bit on it in my native Sinhala Language towards the end. Otherwise refer to DN 15: The Great Discourse on Causation (Mahānidāna Sutta) - Dīgha Nikāya

In the scriptures, the term samphassa is used in compounds. Then in D.15, a twofold division occurs: patigha samphassa contact by sensorial reaction, and adhivacana-samphassa verbal or conceptual, i.e. mental contact. Our simulations have two aspects to it. First is impact-stimulation (patigha samphassa) that depends on Rupa(Materiality). The other is designative-stimulation (adhivacana-samphassa) which depends on Nama( the faculty through which the external world is understood). This makes discernment or our ability grasp and understand and naming of sense objects possible. This conditions both the naming forms and named forms. Now I will try to explain this in simpler terms.

Nama is Mentality (mind & thoughts). Rupa are the material forms. ‘Nama’ and ‘rupa’ are linked together like flowers and their scent. They are born together. Our cognitive perception (Sanna) ( awareness of colour, shape, sound, smell, taste & touch) helps us to describe something or someone as short, tall, small, dark, fair, thin, stout etc. etc. Such descriptions are called ‘Nama-kaye adhivacana-samphassa.’ Such descriptions are possible because of the varied nature of Rupa. For example in our group there varied Rupa, named ‘Saptha Visuddhi’, ‘Dhammadhatu, ChrisW, Sominda, Lanka… etc. etc. In other words this is Rupa-Kaye patigha samphassa.

සංඥාව කියන්නේ හදුනාගන්නවා හදුනාගන්නවා කියන අර්ථයෙනි.හදුනගන්නේ මොනවද? වර්ණයි හදුනා ගන්නේ[මහා වේදල්ල සුත්‍රය] එතකොට සංඥාවෙන් හදුනාගත්තදේ තමයි දැනගන්නේ.දැනගන්නේ නම් වශයෙන් හෝ උස මිටි,දිග කොට,කළු සුදු හෝ විවිද වර්ණ, කෙට්ටු මහත........ ආදී විවිධ නාම ඔස්සේය. ඒක නිසා තමයි අපි දැනගත්ත දෙයක් කියද්දී නම හෝ එහි මොනයම් හෝ ලක්ෂණයක් භාවිතා කරන්නේ.විවිධ නම් හෙවත් නාම කායේ අධිවචන පවතින්නේ රූපයේ විවිධ ස්වරූප හෙවත් රූපකායේ පටිග සම්පසය නිසයි.ඒ කියන්නේ "ගස මල නිමල් කමල් "ආදී නම් තියෙන්නේ රූපයේ විවිධත්වය නිසයි.හිතන්න,ඉතා සමාන නිමුන්නෝ දෙන්නෙක් ඉන්නව. මෙයාලට නම් දෙකක් තිබුන කියල දැක්කහම එයාලව නමින් දැනගන්න බැහැ…… තෙරුවන් සරණයි!

Mind is;

Citta - the six senses, when combined with objects, gives rise to such:

• chakkhu (eye) viññāṇa (consciousness)
• sotha (ear) viññāṇa
• ghana (nose) viññāṇa
• jiwha (tongue) viññāṇa
• kaya (body) viññāṇa
• mana (brain) viññāṇa.

Vingnana (or viññāṇa) is the ability to recognize things separately.

Cetasika (mental factors) include:

• vedana (feeling, physical and mental categorized as good bad and neutral)
• sangna (recognition/signals)
• sankhara (thinking, speaking and action)

Going further,

Buddha compares viññāṇa to an illusionist (because what you recognize as things separately don't show their true nature).

Buddha compares sankhara to mirage (when you explore it, the original what you saw isn't there anymore).

Mind is used in a broader sense because English and psychology don't do deep enough to reach the level Lord Buddha has broken things down.

What people call "world" is the combination of these six receptors, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, brain. When an object, that is picture, sound, smell, taste, touch and thoughts connect with these receptors giving rice to the above six viññāṇa, we call it passa (contact / touch in a general sense).

So who's this creator? Viññāṇa, the illusionist.

On a side note, please note that one of the Cetasika, which is Sankhara is also called Cetana (Chetana) and that means kamma (karma).

Is mind and thoughts are two different things? or same thing?

Buddhism talks about "six senses" rather than five.

For example, in the Sabba Sutta

What is the All? Simply the

1. eye & forms,
2. ear & sounds,
3. nose & aromas,
4. tongue & flavors,
5. body & tactile sensations,
6. intellect & ideas.

This, monks, is called the All.

So, "mind" and "thoughts" are two different things, in the same way that "ear" and "sounds" are two different things.

But we are conscious of these things making "contact" (e.g. we're conscious of sounds contacting the ear, and conscious of ideas contacting the intellect). Or the theory of the Five Aggregates suggests that mental factors arise as a result of contact between consciousness and form.

The Pali words here translated as "intellect & ideas" are mano and dhamma.

mano and dhamma appear in the first line of the first verse of the Dhammapada. The commentary suggests that dhamma includes feelings, perceptions, and mental formations (indeed dhamma is a word with many meaning, see for example this short definition and long definition).

The commentary also suggests that mind is a necessary precondition for mental factors.