Your question: “How does the mind affect matter?”
The mind does not affect matter that is already in existence. But the mind CREATES matter.
- That is a deep subject and is discussed in “The Origin of Matter – Suddhāṭṭhaka.”
- A simplified version: “Manōpubbangamā Dhammā..“
Question: “How does the mind come up with answers?”
Again, this requires a detailed explanation and requires a bit of background. Mind (or more precisely, the “seat of the mind” hadaya vatthu“) is actually like a mechanical device that generates cittas (loosely translated as “thoughts”) per Paticca Samuppada.
- Thoughts (citta) arise based on sensory inputs (arammana.)
- Many things (in addition to the arammana affect that citta generation: For example, anusaya, gati, etc.
- I have discussed this advanced subject in “Origin of Life.”
- I recently started another approach: “Buddhism – In Charts.” The relevant discussion starts with the subsection: “Recovering the Suffering-Free Pure Mind“; it gets to the discussion on how thoughts arise with sensory inputs in the third post there: “Each Citta Starts with Distorted Saññā.”
- I am not sure how much background you have. A basic post on gati, anusaya: “The Law of Attraction, Habits, Character (Gati), and Cravings (Āsavas)”