From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!newsserver.sfu.ca!grady Tue Nov 19 11:09:36 EST 1991
Article 1262 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!newsserver.sfu.ca!grady
>From: grady@newsserver.sfu.ca (A. Brian Grady)
Subject: Re: MIND, BRAIN, CONCIOUSNESS
Message-ID: <1991Nov11.075704.27792@newsserver.sfu.ca>
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
References: <1991Oct29.214816.23349@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 91 07:57:04 GMT
Lines: 30

In <1991Oct29.214816.23349@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu> las@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu writes:

>to ask for a defenition of what is meant by the following terms:

>a) mind
>b) brain
>c) conciousness.

>I once asked a Zen master this question. First he laughed at me, and
>then he said:

>"Brain happens to conciousness. Mind happens to brain after brain is
>happening to conciousness". I smiled and thanked him. you can 
>imagine how I felt.  Does this make sense to any of you? I would 
>appreciate an  honest reply. I know that Zen masters are notorious
>for not making sense.

I have an idea what he might have meant. This is a Buddhist
speaking, and Buddhists sometimes talk about consciousness in a
TRANSpersonal sense. If the universe is Consciousness, then it follows that
brains happen to this antecedent. Perhaps he was putting a capital
letter on it, and would distinguish Consciousness from your own
little brain-based consciousness.
It's important to keep in mind that Zen masters are likely more into
Buddhism than they are into solutions to the mind-body problem,
particularly physicalist ones!

For what it's worth.   Brian Grady
A



