Mental Activity (སེམས་, sems / citta)
སེམས་ (Sanskrit citta) is ordinarily rendered “mind”, which misleads in two directions at once: it suggests a faculty, and it suggests something set apart from the emotions. Neither holds. In the pramāṇa tradition སེམས་ is an activity, the event of experiencing, and it covers that event in its whole range: sense perception, emotion, conceptual cognition (Berzin: “conceptual thought”, རྟོག་པ་), and every mental factor.
Definitions
Dharmakīrti (Gelug Presentation, via Berzin)
མཚན་གཞི་ (Definiendum): སེམས་ (sems, citta) — mental activity / mind
མཚན་ཉིད་ (Definiens): གསལ་རིག་ཙམ་ (gsal-rig tsam) — mere clarity and awareness
- གསལ་ (gsal, clarity): giving rise to a cognitive appearance (སྣང་བ་) of something — the arising of a mental-hologram of an object simultaneously with cognitively engaging it. “Clarity” does not require the object to be in focus; a blur or a confused idea also counts.
- རིག་ (rig, awareness): cognitively engaging (འཇུག་པ་) with something — the taking of an object. Every moment of mental activity takes an object (including the absence of something). Does not require conscious awareness or knowledge of what the object is.
- ཙམ་ (tsam, mere): “merely” — excluding (1) the notion that a thing-like mind does this, and (2) a separate “me” using the mind as an instrument.
མཚོན་བྱེད་ (Illustration): Any moment of sensory cognition (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling), mental cognition (thinking, remembering, imagining), or self-awareness
“Mental activity is the mere making of something cognitively clear and the mere making of an awareness of something (གསལ་རིག་ཙམ་).”
Source: Classical definition transmitted via Gelug monastic textbooks; berzin-science-of-mind (Mind as Mental Activity, Basic Distinctions among Cognitive Objects)
Giving rise to a cognitive appearance and cognitively engaging with something are one event under two descriptions, not two acts. The arising of a mental-hologram of a sight is the seeing of that sight; there is no prior arising and then a subsequent engagement with what arose.
Scope
The definition is intentionally broader than common English uses of “mind”:
- Sense perception — visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile cognition
- Conceptual thought — thinking, remembering, imagining, verbalising
- Emotion — what Western traditions divide as “heart” is included within sems
- Subliminal cognition — mental activity need not be conscious; it may be subliminal (བག་ལ་ཉལ་) and lack cognitive certainty
The rational/emotional split that English carries between “mind” and “heart” therefore has no purchase on སེམས་, since both fall under the one activity. Chinese and Mongolian translators chose their word for “heart” to render it, for that reason (berzin-science-of-mind).
What སེམས་ excludes
- A thing or a faculty (“my mind”, “a good mind”): there is no machine-like mind standing behind the activity
- A receptacle (“keep this in your mind”): there is no box
- Spirit (Geist, esprit): nothing animating is being posited
A fourth exclusion is the one that does philosophical work. ཙམ་ (“mere”) rules out a separate agent who uses mental activity as an instrument. Without that clause the definiens would be satisfied just as well by a self that has a mind and looks through it, which is the position the definition exists to block.
The mirror analogy
Berzin prises the two halves of the definiens apart with a single comparison (berzin-science-of-mind, Basic Distinctions among Cognitive Objects). གསལ་ is the respect in which mental activity is like a mirror: devoid of anything tangible or obstructive that would prevent a cognitive aspect of something from arising in it, and in that respect as vast and expansive as space. རིག་ is the respect in which it is unlike a mirror. A mirror does not experience what falls on it; mental activity individually and subjectively experiences its object. The comparison thus gives out precisely at the half of the definition that matters, which is why both terms are needed and why neither can be dropped as redundant.
Relationship to Momentariness
Mental activity is nonstatic (impermanent), changing from moment to moment, and each moment gives rise to its cognitive appearance and engages its object. That fits Dharmakīrti’s momentariness doctrine without strain: mental events are themselves moments of causal efficacy (dreyfus-recognizing-reality).
The Four Noble Truths and Mind
All four noble truths (འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞི་) directly concern mental activity:
- Suffering is experienced with the mind
- The cause of suffering is the mind’s confusion and disturbing attitudes
- True cessation (འགོག་བདེན་) occurs on the mind, which is the location of what gets stopped
- The path (ལམ་བདེན་) is a pathway mind, a type of mental activity that acts as the path
Berzin objects to the standard rendering “true path” on the ground that it suggests a course one walks along rather than a state of mind (berzin-science-of-mind, Mind as Mental Activity).
Gelug vs. Non-Gelug
Both traditions share the formal definition word for word. What they dispute is how far cognitive engagement reaches:
- Gelug: sensory non-conceptual cognition directly and decisively engages a commonsense object through a fully transparent mental-hologram
- Non-Gelug: sensory non-conceptual cognition engages only a momentary mental hologram directly; the commonsense object is reached only through subsequent conceptual cognition
Sources
- berzin-science-of-mind — chapters Mind as Mental Activity and Basic Distinctions among Cognitive Objects
- dreyfus-recognizing-reality — treatment of sems in the context of Dharmakīrti’s ontology