﻿Author: Astus
Date: Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 at 4:14 am
Title: Re: What is consciousness?
Content:
Lazy_eye said:
Thanks, Astus. Could you explain the relationship between vijñāna and saṃskāra? The latter are said to condition the former (i.e.  saṃskāra precedes vijñāna). But since there is no consciousness yet, where are the saṃskāra occurring?

Astus wrote:
Dependent origination applies to the five aggregates, so it's not that its elements exist in a vacuum but rather point out specific factors of how suffering arises. That formations condition consciousness means one's predispositions influence one's state of mind, one's way of thinking; or in terms of multiple lives it's about how past lives' karma conditions a new being.


Author: Astus
Date: Sunday, February 16th, 2025 at 4:45 am
Title: Re: What is consciousness?
Content:
Lazy_eye said:
What is consciousness (sentience) and why does it arise? Is there some larger consciousness that individual consciousness derives from? Why are there sentient beings? What is the relationship between consciousness and matter?

Astus wrote:
Consciousness (vijñāna) is the act/event of knowing/cognising/being conscious of (vijānāti) something, or what makes something known (vijñapti), thus the six types of consciousness that arise dependent on the six types of sense faculties and sense objects.

'[The aggregate of] consciousness is that which makes known [vijiiapti], [i.e., the apperception,] relative to each [object-field].'
(Abhidharmakośa 1.16a, tr Sangpo, p 231)

'What is the characteristic of consciousness? Knowing is the characteristic of consciousness. It is consciousness by means of which one knows (visible) form, sound, odor, taste, the tangible, mental objects and various realms.'
(Abhidharmasamuccaya, p 4, tr Boin-Webb)

Queequeg said:
In some systems, mind is posited as a primary element, Namely space. That might be a helpful way to understand consciousness as co arisen with the dharmadhatu.

Astus wrote:
The teaching of the six elements includes the consciousness element (vijñānadhātu) as the sixth.


