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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Thoughts on Consciousness (Vijñāna)


"Seeking the divine knowledge" by beaudeeley

“In my defintion of consciousness, consciousness is the same thing as life. What wisdom traditions also call spirit.” - Deepak Chopra

“Being spiritual has nothing to do with what you believe and everything to do with your state of consciousness.” - Eckhart Tolle

“We are the voice of an infinite consciousness that flutters on the wings of spirit.” - Mooji

Why do you call it 'consciousness'? Because it cognizes, thus it is called consciousness.” - The Buddha, SN 22.79

As western spirituality has evolved terminology of “consciousness” has become the new currency in which spiritual matters are discussed. Considering the history of the word "soul" previously used in religious traditions and the attitudes of those who are former subscribers it naturally has a less than desired associated feeling. Given this historical course it is natural to demonstrate apprehension towards using the word soul, thus vocabulary will need to be expanded. To meet this need words such as "consciousness" and "true-self", in which invoke a mystical attitude, are often popular towards our inner life. It is improper, in my opinion, to associate consciousness as a "soul" like entity as it inadvertently causes a passiveness on how malleable, useful, and real consciousness is (our inner life must not be a mystery to us). Thus, it is worthwhile to have an existential understanding of consciousness before discussing further "spiritual" matters. The following discusses how consciousness is cognition, a process (action), and briefly applies this understanding.

To begin with, by consciousness it infers awareness, or responsiveness, of one's surroundings or, in other words, it is called consciousness because it cognizes. To say “conscious awareness” (which is a common term I've observed) it is linguistically redundant, if there is consciousness there will be awareness. This is because it requires the senses, in which respond to stimuli to its corresponding sense consciousness (i.e. eye-consciousness for visual stimuli). Aside from possible brain damage, we differentiate between each sense-consciousness and don't confuse visual stimuli for smell stimuli (there's a moment of consciousness for each unit of stimuli input). Obviously as humans we have many units of consciousness including ones for awareness of the various mental stimuli (thoughts, emotions, etc.).

Therefore to refer to "consciousness" as a type of inner being (soul-like) misrepresents just how dynamic, interconnected, and fluid the collection of consciousness' that eventually results in "I am". Moments of consciousness pass with such fluidity that it gives an appearance of a 'being', but similar to the quantum world when we look close enough consciousness is a series of events (action) (not a single 'thing', meaning it's existence as a being is unsubstantiated). In short, I'm stating it does not have an inherent, independent existence of its own (not soul-like), but has a very conditioned existence in relation to the whole of the cosmos. Subconscious and post processing events occur that iterate upon the incoming cognition that create a facade of being, but consciousness only has a momentary existence. The views of meaning with consciousness are inferred due to ignorance (not used in a derogatory manner, but in reference to its Buddhist definition).

This practically means that despite how complicated our experiences are we can work with both the physical and mental units of consciousness and understand them with clarity. For example, when one experiences anger instead of propagating "I am angry" an intentional unit of consciousness may occur to observe the anger's mental and physical components, and (eventually) the statement of it's "I am". The goal opens one up to her potential and into what it means to be fully human. Instead of the victim of "circumstances" we see someone transcend into the hero of her own life story.

In conclusion, being pragmatic in understanding the term 'consciousness' you are able to empirically discover consciousness in an intentionally useful manner. This does not leave one without mystery, as is popular in the common "carrot on the stick" beliefs, yet this offers a balanced attitude in which addresses the malleability of consciousness. Instead of the finality of belief we may begin to experiment and work with consciousness in such a way that makes our spirituality more intentional. Meditative practices (to be discussed later) such as anapanasati (mindfulness) can quickly confirm and observe consciousness' moment by moment existence.

Thoughts? Questions? Please share them!

Questions to consider:
Why do I want consciousness to have soul-like qualities?
Can I confirm these things in the here and now?
How do beliefs affect my understanding and views?

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