25
Now, what is mind? It is a mysterious something which is considered to be the seat of consciousness—of sensations, emotions, volitions and thoughts. Psychological analysis shows it to be apparently a congeries of mental states, and possibilities of mental states, connected by what is called memory, and considered to have a distinct existence apart from any of its particular states or ideas. Now in what entity has this mysterions something its potential or actual existence? Memory and expectation which form, as it were, the real foundation of what is called individuality, or Ahankâram, must have their seat of existence somewhere. Modern psychologists of Europe generally say that the material substance of Brain is the seat of mind; and that past subjective experiences, which can be recalled by memory, and which in their totality constitute what is called individuality, exist therein in the shape of certain unintelligible mysterious impressions and changes in the nerves and nerve-centres of the cerebral hemispheres. Consequently, they say, the mind—the individual mind—is destroyed when the body is destroyed; so there is no possible existence after death.
But there are a few facts among those admitted by these philosophers which are sufficient for us to demolish their theory. In every portion of the human body, a constant change goes on without intermission. Every tissue, every muscular fibre and nerve-tube, and every ganglionic centre in the brain is undergoing an incessant change. In the course of a man's lifetime there may be a series of complete transformations of the substance of his brain. Nevertheless the memory of his past mental states remains unaltered. There may be additions ot new subjective experiences and some mental states may be altogether forgotten, but no individual mental state is altered. The person's sense of individuality remains the same throughout these constant alterations in the brain substance.*[1] It is able to survive all these changes,
- ↑ * This is also sound Buddhist philosophy, the transformation iu question being known as the change of the skandhas.—Ed.
