An Illusory Recording Device

These are my thoughts on the mind. Zen thoughts from the mind looking at itself. . Crazy thoughts. Don’t believe in them!

The mind is an illusory recording device.  

What else could it be? 

It records all it can perceive in the universe and holds it in memory in order to recognise what is and what is not. Its function is to collect knowledge to survive, to try and find an improved quality of life. However…

The past is no more, the present is immediately gone, and the future is not yet.  When thinking about these tenses, the mind is using memories of what it already knows.. And that it past! Nothing is stable and permanent as everything is in a state of flux. Yet the mind believes in stillness.  But is it ever still?  Thoughts coming and going, even in the shape of dreams whilst we sleep.  In dreamless sleep we do not know anything, The mind may be stopped, but we are not aware and we cannot remember it.  It is said that an enlightened person can be aware of the unknowable. Aware of no-mind?

The belief in the ability to make the unknown, known is powerful.  It is said that an enlightened person can be aware the unknowable. How can he know it?  It is said that if we try to know it, then it is not going to happen.  This, I would imagine is a koan.

We use the word knowledge, and the mind collects it as if it is of the ultimate importance, yet all knowledge changes. Knowledge is subject to the laws of evolution along with everything else in the universe.  But the recording-device brings about the illusion that knowing can be permanent.   Even that the here-and-now is permanent, but it is momentary and cannot be tied down. The here-and-now indicates that which is constantly in a state flux.But yet it is true that now is gone and the only knowledge of it is  a recording in the mind –just a memory. Now is indivisible. To the mind is divided into now, and now, and now… like a clock ticking away. The seconds that we believe are divided are not really divided at all!  But look carefully… where is a second divided? Query this and notice what the mind does. If you can do this, you are witnessing the mind. But who is witnessing the mind?  Where has the time gone? Where has the moment gone.. immediately gone.