Mind & Matter


M:
If one were to mind, wouldn’t that translate to more ‘mindfulness’
And if one were to take a ‘never mind’ approach,
wouldn’t that make one relatively ‘mindless’?

S: Vaguely reminds me of this by George Berkeley,
‘What is mind? No matter.
What is matter? Never mind.’

However, matter can be shaped by mind,
and mind can be influenced by matter too.

(The quote in the badge is by Mark Twain)

2 thoughts on “Mind & Matter

  1. It depends on how you define what is “to mind” and what is “never mind”.

    M: If one were to mind, wouldn’t that translate to more ‘mindfulness’
    HS: no it does not translate to more ‘mindfulness’. Typically when one were to mind, one is filled with preconceptions. E.g. I mind whether you go to school or not. I mind if you don’t tidy up your table. I mind very much that you helped me. In all these cases, I have already formed an interpretation of your possible future action. Once you perform that action, I shall not see your action as it really is, but I would regard your action with my preconception instead. In fact because my preconception is so strong, I’ll probably misunderstand your action. Hence I am probably more paranoid than more mindful.

    M: And if one were to take a ‘never mind’ approach,
    wouldn’t that make one relatively ‘mindless’?
    HS: no, if that ‘never mind’ is an open mind. E.g. if someone brought me salty food, I ‘never mind’. If someone brought me spicy food, I ‘never mind’ as well. When I have salty food, I cherish salty food. When I have spicy food, I cherish spicy food. Hence with an open mind, I can more clearly experience the food as it is. In this way, I am more mindful. Similarly, if I ‘never mind’ about my colleague’s rule behavior towards me, I can be more deeply mindful about my colleague. Did he had a bad day at home? Was he irritated by my behavior? Since I ‘never mind” about his rule behavior, let me forgive him as well and send him some metta 🙂

    What do you think?

  2. Interesting alternate take on the other meanings of the same words! A good reminder that words can be as exacting as limiting too. Amituofo

    (I)

Leave a Reply to Lee Hon Sing Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.