A mind is composed of multiple material parts, the arrangements of which allow for process and pattern.

A mind can include nonliving elements as well as multiple organisms, may function for brief as well as extended periods, is not necessarily defined by a boundary such as an envelope of skin, and consciousness, if present at all, is only partial.

Responses of awe and recognition are responses to pattern—a kind of knowing—leading to respect for the systemic integrity of nature, in which we are all, plants and animals alike, part of each other’s environment.

Gregory Bateson, Steps To An Ecology Of Mind