Mind: The Creator with Ven. Robina Courtin 

bayreuth79 Many reasons are available in teachings elsewhere. Francis Story's Rebirth: As Doctrine and Experience might throw some light.

I agree with you that it seems unknowable and she is making some lofty claims with little to no evidence.

You would know if you do the work to understand your mind and cultivate more self awareness. How to people know they go to heaven? Hell? Nowhere?

One name for the 4-step purification practice she described is "The Four Opponent Powers" www.lamayeshe.com/article/purifying-four-powers

Vajrasattva (Google it and get an initiation if you can) 35 Confession Buddhas Prostrations Confession generally - as Kofi says, with the 4 Opponent Powers to make it powerful. Or 'simply' allowing oneself to feel our emotional reactions, fully, without acting on them. *by 'simply' I don't mean it is easy :)

She often speaks of the four Rs of purifying negative actions: reliance, regret, repair and resolve.

Your model of the mind is apparently the materialistic one, very common in our Western world. Buddha's model of mind or consciousness is derived from his own experience. He found the mind to be not physical (although not denying the brain). He saw the mind as like a river of mental moments, one leading to the next. and therefore without beginning or end. It's for you to decide which model to work with. The materialistic one or the Buddhist one. As for a thought to appear in your mind. Do you really believe that a thought is somehow randomly generated by your brain, before you become even conscious of it? That is very illogical and even scary. Because if that were true you would have absolutely no control over your thoughts. Your brain would run the show, not you. I would say just the opposite. Your mind or consciousness itself initiates that thought, and producing that thought goes hand in hand with a little electrical current in your brain. In Buddhism it is explained that mind or consciousness always runs together with a subtle form of energy (or wind as they call it) like a rider on a horse. The rider being the mind and the subtle energy or wind being the horse. Buddhism teaches that the mind operates not only a gross level (indeed connected to the brain and nervous system), but also at a subtle and even at a very subtle level. It is the combination of this subtlest form of mind and wind (or energy) that survives the brain at death and will continue to future lives. I will stop here. If you are interested, I would suggest looking into it. If not, just leave it.

Walter- Sorry, but changes in brain chemistry or brain structure (injury) dramatically affects our thoughts. ''The brain would run the show, not you''. What on earth are you talking about? The brain is the structure that allows for me to experience consciousness, thus the statement that my ego (superficial self) exists as result of my brain is accurate enough. When brain tissue is deprived of oxygen, we lose consciousness. Where do you think this 'you' is located? It sounds like you identify with consciousness, and it seems pretty clear that consciousness is produced by the brain. Our brain anatomy functions in very complex ways so as to allow for the production of thoughts.. and different areas of the brain are responsible for different things (memory, homeostasis, balance, habit, emotion, higher order functions, motivation, addiction, etc). We have free will for the most part but our brain gives us consciousness and functions in very specific ways so as to produce a large percentage of our lived experiences, impulses, desires, personality, mental issues etc. If you want me to believe in consciousness that exists without a brain, prove it. I don't know that simply believing that consciousness doesnt exist in thin air and in rocks makes me a strict materialist. I'll change my mind when I am presented with good reason to. My brain does not run my thoughts on its own, as I have intention and freedom of choice(or at least the illusion of such). But the brain allows you to be aware, and it affects and organizes your thoughts in ways that are affected by your individual anatomy, genes, neurochemistry and environment. I could believe in a kind of subtle consciousness in terms of a pre-conscious energy, or potential to be conscious, as the atoms that make me are not special, but to equate potential to be conscious with consciousness as living beings experience it sounds ludicrous and like a stretch.

TofuDream good points. I believe Buddhism doesn’t deny the reality of the material world, but rather sees the “spiritual” and material as two sides of the same coin. It’s known as a “non-dualistic” philosophy. Is the mind the result of the brain though? Well, if we put a human being in a depravation tank long enough, won’t this individual star hallucinating and loose coherence and even become confused about his or her identity? At some level the activity in our brains occurs symbiotically with our environment, and considering that even far and remote objects like the moon affect the tides of enormous physical bodies such as oceans, we can say that in a way that the mind is expressed by the relationships between the specific individual and the universe at large. Our unique individuality gives us a unique perspective, but we don’t exist independently from an eternal ever changing and evolving whole. In that sense, “what is the mind” marks the beginning of both a scientific and a spiritual inquiry.

Jarrad, humans are not the only sentient beings with a mind. Think about this.

The mind has no substance, so comparing it to a computer is missing the point.

Reduce the play back speed to 75%

Namaka Lis I agree with your points about karma and how it's used to justify someone suffering say a genetic disease or social injustice. I've been into Buddhism and Hinduism for as long as I can remember but have only really tried wrapping my head around the differences recently. From what I understand, Buddha was pissed off with these unfair justifications too, much of his philosophy was developed in contrast to Hindu philosophy, though followers of both I think fall into the same trap of identification with an individual self. Karma makes sense when you look at it from a collective perspective. Whatever we may reincarnate as could be ultimately affected by the action of which ever individual may have come before, 'the butterfly effect'. It's basically just cause and effect and how actions of those gone before us can influence future generations. Science is only just discovering the biological basis of this in the form of epigenetics. It's mind-blowing in a way!

TofuDream I’ve been suffering from deeply troubling illness for 20 years. Believing in karma puts the responsibility of this reality in my own hands. If I didn’t believe in karma, I would then be a victim of my circumstances and feel utterly powerless. Because I see this illness as being inherently mine, I also feel that is in my power to transform it. In fact, seeing things from this point of view my illness has enabled me to reach to the core of my being to find the source of personal change and evolution.

No one ever talked about ‘fault’. Karma is easy to understand. It’s cause and effect. Period. We are responsible for what we do. We are responsible for dealing with what happens to us. No one ever said that we are to ‘blame’ when someone else harms us.

First of all, karma is not about blame or punishment. You don't understand. Secondly, why do you say there is zero evidence that karma is a natural law. It is no different from the natural law of relativity can that only be explained with mathematics. Quantum physics actually validates the law of karma but that would mean you would have to do some more studying and use your intelligence. Are you up for it?