那麽，究竟何謂心智？顯然，心智，就是我們全部的覺知或意識；心智，是生命存在的全部方式，是思維的全部過程。心智，是大腦的產物，大腦塑造了心智。若沒有大腦，就沒有心智，但心智又是與大腦相分別的，是大腦的衍生物。如果大腦是局限的、受損的，那麽心智也必然是受損的。大腦，記錄了每壹種覺受、每壹種苦樂感受；大腦及其全部組織、以及所儲存的所有反應模式，構成了所謂的心智，雖然心智的運轉獨立於大腦。
妳們不必接受我的說法。妳們可以自己體驗，自行看清真相。
——克裏希那穆提《生命書：365觀心日課》（The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti）
漢語中的“心”字，除了解剖學的意義的心臟，更指人的思維認知能力。中國古人認為人的思維器官是心，而西方近現代醫學證明，思維（mind，thinking）器官是腦，這是壹個有趣的中西錯位。
壹般把mind和“心”進行對譯，比如英人蒲樂道翻譯《黃檗禪師傳心法要》時，就把禪家的“心”譯為mind。如果再做分別，進壹步表達玄學、形而上意義時，漢語壹般用“靈”字；與此大致對應，現代英語表達形上意趣時，趨向用heart壹詞，以與mind做區分。
此時，“心”與mind，“靈”與heart有了大致的對應關系，但出現了錯位混亂，因為詞典上“心”也是heart。
為了回避這壹尷尬，當代漢語又喜歡把mind譯作大腦，把heart譯作心，這種譯法有清晰的區分辨析力，很快被中文讀者接納。
其實，除了必須做區分的少數語境，漢語並不把“心/靈”做涇渭分明的區分，甚至佛籍中在必需時也有“俗諦曰智，真諦?曰慧”的分別，但通常都合為心靈、智慧，禪宗中以壹個“心”字指代全部的俗諦、真諦。
所以，漢語的意趣中，分別只是權宜而已，而融合則是旨歸。
了解了以上，在漢英之間穿梭，才不至於迷亂，免得為壹堆漢英名相而膠柱鼓瑟。終歸，文字只是“指月手”，閱讀文字時，須得其意而忘其言。
… What is the mind? When I put that question, please don’t wait for a reply from me. Look at your own mind; observe the ways of your own thought. What I describe is only an indication; it is not the reality. The reality you must experience for yourself. The word, the description, the symbol, is not the actual thing. The word door is obviously not the door. The word love is not the feeling, the extraordinary quality that the word indicates. So do not let us confuse the word, the name, the symbol, with the fact. If you merely remain on the verbal level and discuss what the mind is, you are lost, for then you will never feel the quality of this astonishing thing called the mind.
So, what is the mind? Obviously, the mind is our total awareness or consciousness; it is the total way of our existence, the whole process of our thinking. The mind is the result of the brain. The brain produces the mind. Without the brain there is no mind, but the mind is separate from the brain. It is the child of the brain. If the brain is limited, damaged, the mind is also damaged. The brain, which records every sensation, every feeling of pleasure or pain, the brain with all its tissues, with all its responses, creates what we call the mind, although the mind is independent of the brain.
You don’t have to accept this. You can experiment with it and see for yourself.
SEPTEMBER 22