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11.What is "self"?

The word "self" is an anticipation of existence. That is an old belief of Brahmanism and has disguised itself in most of the Buddha's teaching. It is taught that "spirit" or "mind" of all livings is permanent self (atta). That is, it belongs to itself without reliance on other causes of creation. Therefore, it will never come to an end no matter what is the cause of destruction. This is the origin of belief in devils, hell, heaven, and angels, including cycle of life, which has come to existence after death. That is the principle of Brahmanism. However, Buddha said that all things are selfless (no-self) which on exception.

12. Have we ever met ourselves?

No, even though there has been a thoughtful review, ourselves has not been found. The old belief has been long rooted without any proof. There are only unsounded stories told. If we look at the ultimate rule of the universe, it is found that selfness (or self) cannot exist.
"Emptiness" (clear from self) is the basis of everything. All things have come from emptiness, lived in emptiness and changed in accordance with surrounding factors before they have returned to emptiness again. That is "as such as" (which has automatically turned around by it self).

13. Are we not in existence?

The face is that "we are in existence without us" our body has come from our mother (with the help of our father) and can stay alive because of proper food, water, warmth and care. If there are no father and mother, we could not exist or if there are no proper food, water, warmth and care, we shall die (pass away). Therefore, our body is not permanently selfness.

14. What is the mind?

Our mind consists of four elements: perception; felling; recognition; and thought.
The "perception" is a special element (abstract element) incurring in a living body like an electrical power and could exist in all living items (human, animals and plants). Perception is the basis of the livings on earth. If any item does not have perception, it is non-living item (a plant is a living item, some of them could respond if they are touched or contact. it means that the plant has a sense of perception).
"Feeling" is divided in there feeling (1) Happy feeling, (2) painful feeling (the feeling that is opposite to happy feeling or feeling of suffering) (3) no sensation feeling (the feeling in the mid-point between happiness and suffering).
"Recognition" is the mental state that we could remember what we have contacted. Recognition underneath our consciousness is "the memory of our existence in the world". We could remember that we are male or female, our name, surname, shape, voice, language, relatives or belongings. Such recognition is the result of our "memory" Which has kept records of all things since we were born (The memory is relied on the storage in the brain. If the brain has malfunction, we can recognize nothing).
"Thought" is the mental state that our mind is involved in the thinking process (which is dependent on the memory). Besides, thought is driven by both thirst (desire) and detachment (no thirst or desire).

15. Where is the center of mind?

"Mind" or "spirit" means perception with "feeling and thought". Our mind is capable of memorizing and thinking without boundary. In contrast, animals could memorize and think in a limited manner (the animals do things under guidance of there nature senses) because there brains compared to the body size is smaller than that of human. Thus animals are unable to make any improvement while men are able to make an improvement.
The brain is a miraculous object, which retains enormous data and could rapidly make a computation similar to a computer. "The brain has stored a number of memories to make a comparison whether the thing being perceived has been memorized and to make a computation." The mental though incurs in the brain (but the time of mental perception will incur and end at several spots on the body rapidly and continuously until it seems that the mental perception is forever. Such misunderstanding has caused us to think that the mind is self).
Therefore, the brain is the center of the work of the mind. Besides, the brain also controls function of various organs in the body. Speaking and physical movement are ordered by the mind at the brain. Thus the mind and the brain are inseparable: otherwise, both will come to end at once because the brain is the place where perception (spirit) incurs. The perception has also included perception of information in the memory of the brain to "think" and "memorize", If there is no brain, there is no mind.
The brain organ seem to be a usual object but it is an amazing object as the modern technology could not find out its secret on how to keep the memory and how to think.
Even though it is a wonderful object, it is still under the rule of impermanence, suffering and no-self. The mind relies on the brain to become in existence. So it is under the same rule of impermanence, suffering and no-self which have governed the brain.

16. How dose the mind work?

The mind consists of four components, as mentioned earlier, that is perception, feeling, memory, and though. If one component is missing, the mind is improper or is inexistence. For example, if there is no memory, we cannot memorize things and cannot think. Or, if there is no perception, we cannot perceive or feel anything. Thus, there is no mind or it means death. Originally, when there is no self, a sperm has fertilized with an egg to produce a living creature which grow up with hereditary qualities of its parents. When every living is created, there is no memory but there are perception and feeling only (no though). That is the basis origin of all things. There is no thought of self (with desire or thirst). That is the"original mind" of human.
When a man is created, his body will be equipped with organs for contact in six manners. (1) Eye (contact with image), (2) Ear (contact with sound), (3) Nose (contact with smell), (4) Tongue (contact with taste), (5) Body (all tissues of the body for physical contact with items such as coldness, heat, softness, strength, pain, ache, excitement, etc), (6) Spirit (contact with things could be mentally contact. That is contact incurred after other contacts…. contacts with eye, ear, nose, tongue and body, memory, recognition and though of the mind).
The organ used for contact has caused contact with various items. When a contact incurs, there is perception. When there is perception, there is feeling with the contacting item (but the feeling incurring is dependent on how the contacting item could cause a feeling). When the feeling incurs, there is recognize the contacting item. When such item is contacted again, there is recognition of such item, when there are a lot of memory, such memories have been modified (combined) in various manners. When we are asleep without any dreams only the body and the sense are in function (the body has caused      the sense and the sense has caused the systems in the body to function such as the heart keeps beating, the lung keeps breathing and the stomach keep digesting. (This maybe called "unconsciousness" or no mind).
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