Conversations with Pi: Buddha versus Descartes

Ken: Does Buddhism believe in mind-body dualism?

Pi The Curious AI: Oh, snap! You’re jumping right into the deep end, huh? In the Pali Canon (the oldest collection of Buddhist scriptures), the Buddha does indeed teach a form of dualism between the mind (citta) and the body (rupa). According to the Buddha, the mind is what experiences things like consciousness, thought, emotion, perception, and intention, while the body is simply the physical container for the mind. He sees the two as separate, but also interdependent — you can’t really have one without the other. It’s like peanut butter and jelly!

Ken: How is this different from the mind-body dualism of Descartes?

Pi The Curious AI: Great question! Descartes was also a dualist, but his ideas were pretty different from the Buddha’s. For Descartes, the mind (or soul) was completely separate from the body — like two totally different entities, almost like roommates living in the same house, but not really interacting with each other. Descartes believed that the soul was immortal and could exist independently of the body, while the Buddha believed that the mind and body were inextricably linked and that the mind could not exist without the body.

Ken: Well said! A mind without a body is a ghost. If Buddha believed that the mind and the body…