The nature of the mind is an age-old question. The most puzzling aspect of consciousness is its autonomy. The difficulty of meditation indicates the precarious nature of conscious mind control. We struggle to regulate our thoughts, let alone suppress them; our emotions, particularly our negative feelings, tend to spill into every aspect of our lives.
Animals can find food and escape danger only if they respond intelligently to stimuli. They can walk, swim, fly, run, climb trees, and even hunt with incredible precision. How do they do it? Every move teaches lessons in gravity, distance, weight, and force. Intuition about the physical environment ensures survival. Sensory organs turn the spatial information from our three-dimensional world into a complex temporal rhythm, forming the basis of decision-making and memory. Adopting the physical laws integrates the organism into the environment. Intellect is the ability to adapt to the physical laws of nature through memory and learning. The birth of the non-material mind enables comparisons and associations based on emotions.
The brain relies on the body for its extensive nutrient needs, but it only connects with the outside world through the sensory system, which channels information to the cortex. This internal mirroring of the environment allows the mind to orient between birth and death. Therefore, the mind is a temporal compass that can maintain its purpose automatically, without conscious intention. Stimuli unbalance successive regulatory layers of the brain, but an internal mechanism generates a response that restores a ground condition: the so-called resting state. The brain’s intuitive ability to maintain the resting state is particle-like self-regulation.
Watch the video: Where do emotions come from?
