Dementia

After two weeks regarding the positive sides of becoming old, a sense of balance demands the other side of the picture. Because we are regarding the mind here, I will look at this side of becoming older in a more problematic way. In October and November I will have to give two lectures on dementia, one in Amsterdam, the other in Bern. Therefore I am gathering my knowledge about this condition of the mind and body.

I have stated my absolute sureness that the mind doesn't age. In dementia, it is not the ageing of the mind that leads to the diminishing of memory and intellectual qualities, it is the body that is becoming old. In regular medicine dementia is seen as a disorder that is based on decline of the brain. It can be an organic disease that lies as the basis, but mostly it is seen that poor circulation to the brain is the cause. So prevention of dementia is then equivalent to prevention of arteriosclerosis. The lifestyle measures that can be taken are those of diet and exercise.

Through the vigorous habit of self-examination, self-knowledge and mindful awareness of the mind in its relation to the corporal functions, I have learned to acknowledge what dementia truly is. If we don't see the mind as a result of the body, but we see the body as an instrument of the mind, then we can acknowledge dementia as a detachment of the mind from the body. The mind turns away from the body in a slow process that doesn't begin at 65, but that begins, let us say, at 35, maybe still earlier. The body is the instrument which is in contact with the surroundings. We have our senses that perceive the surrounding world with everything in it, and we are the mind that thinks and experiences what we perceive. The more the mind accompanies sense-perceptions, the better they are remembered. But the more we 'mind the senses', i.e. the more we perceive, the more we remember - if only the mind was aware of this. So it is the wakeful combined activity of perception and mindful thinking that gives us the ability to remember. It is the love for the surrounding world that keeps the mind in contact with the world. The mind sees the mind. If we look at the world not only through the senses at the material side but, with the mind, also to the spirit of the world, then we cannot develop dementia. Of course, the brain must stay fit. But in spiritual views we always have to turn around cause and effect: we say - the brain ages because we don't love the spirit of the surrounding world; and not - we lose contact with the world because our brain ages.

But there still is another side. The mind sees the mind. So I want to emphasise that a mind that is not seen by other minds ... will have a far greater risk of developing dementia. So we don't just have responsibility for our own mind and body, we also have responsibility for all the minds that surround us. If we don't 'see' them, they cannot remain in existence.

Now I have to say something. A statement like this will immediately hurt the people who have to live with a parent, family members or friends that have developed dementia. They will probably become furious with me, because they have to think about their own lack of mindfulness. But these kinds of reflections are never there to accuse someone or to say things in an absolute way. If an illness or a decline of functions present themselves, there is always a bouquet of causes, not only one cause. If someone isn't seen by other people it is always partly his/her own fault, of course. But we can try to think about such things, without involving ourselves - that can wait until later.

I just wanted to say here is that the best prevention of dementia is the knowledge that the mind sees the mind. The mind can act freely into old age if 'he' stays in direct contact with the world, through the corporeal senses. The mind must keep his interest in the life of the body on earth. But that works in two directions: the mind sees as mindful the mind of the world and its beings; and the mind is being seen as mindful by the beings in the world that can see the mind.
In eastern religious philosophy this 'supreme polarity that is not polar' that is found in all polarities is  expressed in this diagram.  Our western mind requires the transition through the rational forms, but will in time again understand this symbol, which also expresses the healthy equilibrium between our own mind and the mind of the world, in two directions.

 
Simplified form of Lai Zhide's "Taiji River Diagram" (1599)Dementia by Mieke Mosmuller