Addendum: The Birth of the Mind

The intellect learns through experience. If something is presented to the intellect as a logical idea, it will not commit that idea to memory. Take this as an example: I wish to cross a river, but you tell me that the river is very deep. Unless I have had experiences prior to that moment which lead me to believe you, I will not. For example, if it is in my experience that you are an authority on rivers and their depth, I will be much more likely to believe you. If I saw with my own two eyes you attempt to cross the river and nearly drown, I will most assuredly believe that experience. But, if I have no cause to believe your words to be true, then I must attempt myself to cross the river and learn of its depth through experience. 

The mind is born of circumstances where the intellect is not allowed to learn something by experience, however it is pressed on the individual that information must be assimilated. The intellect refuses to learn information which it does not know for certain via life experience, so the mind is born as a holding tank for the information which is of no use to the intellect. Problems arise as the mind grows and begins to assimilate more information. At some point there is an experience where the mind provides the intellect with an idea and happens to be right. It is these experiences which give the mind credibility.

Here we find a central problem with the learning process, especially as it is handled in schools. We actually foster mindfulness in schools, in a very negative way. What the student learns through negative reinforcement (humiliation, parental punishment, grades, etc.) is that he must learn the information. That is important. The only true knowledge gained is that there is a need to learn this other information. So the intellect, refusing to learn the information itself, creates the mind as a holding tank for the information. Certain bits and pieces may find their way to the intellect and last in memory, but most of it does not. We know that the short term memory of the intellect only lasts for about a minute, so what of all of the information which is retained for hours, days, weeks, or even months if it is forgotten later, not staying in the long term memory? This is far too common to write off as the long term memory of the intellect losing things, so we must attribute it to the mind. The mind holds the information temporarily. 

Children born into money often have strong minds. Remember, a strong mind is a disadvantage. It has nothing to do with a strong intellect. These children grow up receiving so many things day after day that they do not deserve. They are given luxurious meals, endless toys, excellent schooling on topics that they have no personal interest in, and so on. But they do not deserve these things because they have made no action in order to earn them. The ideas that they deserve these things are not assimilated by the intellect, thankfully. It is far too keen to learn wrongful information. So the mind is born and grows to handle all of these ideas.