ACI 4 Class 9

Question 1

Let us consider the various elements in the form of the sense powers, or living tissue.
Explain why they are not the unique cause of the mind.

Answer 1

You can damage your sensory powers without damaging your mind. If tissue were the material cause of mind, mind should always be damaged when you hurt your sense powers (your living tissue).

Question 2

Explain why mind is considered a basis for the sense powers, rather than vice versa.

Answer 2

Karma projects your upcoming life, and the physical form you will have in this life. As such, the mind is the basis of the physical senses, and not vice versa.

Question 3

Explain what keeps the mind itself going in this life; the basis for the staying of the mind.

Answer 3

Mental karma from your past causes the mind to continue.

Question 4

Explain why the mind of a normal person at the moment of death crosses into another state of mind of a similar type.

Answer 4

A normal person has emotions of desire in their mind as they die. This emotion causes their mind to cross the line into the next life as a continuation of the current mind.

Question 5

What do you think accounts for differences in the bodily form of beings born in essentially equal external conditions?

Answer 5

This is further evidence that what really causes the body is the mind, and not the surrounding physical elements; that is, the body’s form is determined by the mind (in the form of past mental karma), and not by
atoms.