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3. Mind and Brain
(A) Neuroscientists (and others) commonly refer to mind as an entity comprising the operations of the brain during the periods of awareness. No one has any direct perception of this as an entity and, in some senses, we know even less about it than about the brain. It clearly has no physical attributes and one cannot see or hear or touch it. It, however, is useful as a description of the general mode of operation of the brain and is sometimes described as the functional organization of the brain. But the brain performs many functions of which we are not aware and, therefore, the mind is perhaps that part of the brain's functional organization of which we are conscious. But even at best, it is really a vague concept. (B) In Jain philosophy, mental activity is differentiated from physical or muscular entity (which includes vocal activity or speech). All the three are controlled by the non-physical entity 'citta' which is the psychic component of the soul animating the physical body including brain. The term manah is the closest translation of the term mind and is commonly used to distinguish it from the body (śarira). Manaḥ has two functioins
conceiving and perceiving. It is associated with sense-organs in the process of perception and is associated with memory and planning etc. in the process of conception. Thus, in reality, manaḥ is activated only when it functions and becomes amanah (non-mind) during the periods of nonfunctioning. Thus it is to be regarded as an external instrument of mental functions, while citta is its activator and psychic master.
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(xxix)
