"Philosophers used to refer to 'mind and matter' as the two basic Principles of the world. But they fail to come to a unanimous conclusion as to what the mind is.
Psychologists began their task by probing the nature of the mind. But, when they cannot specify and characterize the mind, they turn to the behaviour of animals and men. Thus Psychology becomes 'the study of behaviorism' rather than 'the science of the mind.'
Today's science possesses no instrument to detect the mind. So scientists tend to deny the existence of the mind and fondle the theory that the brain functions as the mind. This theory cannot explain the strange phenomena of telepathy, clairvoyance, extra sensory perception, psychokinesis, out-of-body experiments, life after death, etc., which cannot be denied by science to-day. Besides brain-research has revealed that, although the brain functions as a super-computer if requires an external agent to run it just as ordinary computers need to be programmed by men. Isn't that external agent the mind?
Abhidhamma describes the mind as a combination of citta (consciousness) and cetasikas (mental factors or concomitants of the mind). There are 52 cetasikas or mental factors — some can defile the mind, some can purify the mind and some are neutral. The total number of possible combinations between citta and cetasikas is 121.
These combinations account for the various states of the mind. They explain fully why the mind is sometimes bad and sometimes good, sometimes sad and sometimes happy, sometimes wicked and sometimes noble, etc." ~ Dr. Mehm Tin Mon Saddhhama Jotikadhaja, Ph.D
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