Heavy Mind, Light Mind

“This person has a kind heart. That person is so mean.”

Have you ever wondered what the mind is and where is it? Is it in the heart?

What is the mind?

The Buddha taught that humans are composed of the five aggregates:

– The first aggregate is the body.
– The second is the consciousness, which functions to perceive. When consciousness is pure, it is called “Knowing mind.”
– The third is perception, which functions to recognize and remember things that have happened.
– The fourth is feeling, which perceives sensations.
– The fifth is mental formations (Sankhara), or mind formations, which accumulate cooked feelings and emotions—both positive and negative, attachment, craving, and delusion.

The Buddha discovered that all things are a stream of energy that is constantly changing. The mind is also an energy (mind energy), and it is very powerful. It can command the brain and send signals to different parts of the body, influencing thoughts, speech, and actions.

Where is the mind?
The mind resides in the body from head to toe.
Wherever there is a feeling, there is the mind.

The body serves as a temporary home for the mind.
When the mind leaves the body, the body becomes a corpse and cannot live anymore.

According to the laws of physics, energy never disappears. It only changes form, so does the mind.

– If a person only does good deeds, their mind will be light. When it leaves the body, it will rise to heaven or the divine realm.

– If the mind accumulates bad deeds like greed, anger, delusion, envy, sadness, and various unwholesome deeds, it becomes heavy. When it leaves the body, a heavy mind will go down to the lower realms, to one of the four destinations of suffering: hell, hungry ghosts, animals, and demons.

A heavy mind and a light mind have different origins, and their destinations are also different.

Master Acharavadee Wongsakon
26.04.2025