On Consciousness
11/25/2017 Matthieu Ricard
Huffpost
Buddhism speaks of six,
seven, or eight aspects of consciousness. It speaks first of the
ground or basic consciousness, which has a global, general
knowledge that the world is there and that I exist. Then there are
five aspects related to the five sensory experiences: seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. The seventh aspect is
mental consciousness, which associates abstract concepts to the
first six aspects. Sometimes there is considered to be an eighth
aspect of conscious-ness that is related to afflictive mental
states that distort reality (hatred, craving, etc.). But even more
fundamental than all these states and aspects is primary
consciousness, what is called the continuum of the luminous
fundamental consciousness.
In Buddhism, the
matter/consciousness duality, the so-called mind-body problem, is a
false problem given that neither of them has an intrinsic,
independent existence. According to some Buddhist teachings that
analyze phenomena at a more contemplative level, the primordial
nature of phenomena transcends notions of subject and object or
time and space. But when the world of phenomena emerges from
primordial nature, we lose sight of this unity and make a false
distinction between consciousness and the world. This separation
between the self and the non-self then becomes fixed, and the world
of ignorance, samsara, is born. The birth of samsara did not happen
at a particular moment in time. It simply reflects at each instant,
and for each of our thoughts, how ignorance reifies the
world.
Buddhism’s conception is
thus radically different from Cartesian dualism, which postulates
on one side a truly existing solid material reality and, on the
other side, a completely immaterial consciousness, which cannot
have any real connection with matter. The Buddhist analysis of
phenomena recognizes the lack of intrinsic reality of all
phenomena. Whether animate or inanimate, they are equally devoid of
autonomous, ultimate existence. Thus, a merely conventional
difference exists between matter and consciousness.
Because Buddhism refutes
the ultimate reality of phenomena, it also refutes the idea that
consciousness is independent and exists inherently, just as much as
it refutes that matter is independent and exists inherently. This
fundamental level of consciousness and the world of apparent
phenomena are linked by interdependence, and together they form our
world of thought and the exterior physical reality is a mere
illusion. There’s only one reality or, rather, only one lack of
intrinsic reality! Buddhism does not adopt a purely idealist point
of view or argue that the outer world is a fabrication of
consciousness. It just points to the fact that without
consciousness, one cannot claim that the world exists because that
statement already implies the presence of a
consciousness.
This might sound puzzling, but it resembles the
answer given by some cosmologists when asked what was there before
the Big Bang. They say that this question does not make sense
because time and space began with the Big Bang. Likewise, anything
we can ever say about the world, the brain, and even consciousness
begins with consciousness. Even the question, “But couldn’t a world
totally deprived of life and sentience exist on its own?” as well
as any answer that you might like to give to this question—all of
this presupposes consciousness. Of course, it would be foolish to
deny the existence of lifeless worlds because most planets are
indeed lifeless, but without consciousness, in a way, there is no
question, no answer, no concepts, no “world” as an object of
experience.