Questions tagged [consciousness]
The consciousness tag has no usage guidance.
78
questions
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What are the five kinds of seeds?
In the Seeds Sutta (SN 22.54), we find there are five kinds of seeds, which can grow, when they are fertile, undamaged and securely planted on the ground with water to nourish them.
Water is delight ...
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4answers
111 views
Are the differences between Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism merely semantic/perspective?
having studied Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, I've seen that the differences between the two are almost non-existent.
This video does a good job at fleshing out the Vedanta and Buddhist perspective ...
2
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5answers
101 views
How can the world's youth discover careers that are aligned with consciousness and Buddhism?
Millennial's and the young workforce are faced with a difficult choice of discovering alternate careers/gigs. Can spirituality, universal consciousness, meditation, environment trigger a human-plus ...
3
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6answers
216 views
Why are plants not sentient beings?
Why in Buddhism plants are not recognized as sentient beings?
Can it be immoral to kill a plant? Can a plant be reincarnated as an animal? Is a plant alive?
Edit: I read somewhere a theory ...
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7answers
189 views
Where is the consciousness located? Cosmic Consciousness?
I recently became aware of questions regarding the location of consciousness. The argument put forward is that the consciousness is separate to the body. This is not something I considered before.
...
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2answers
84 views
Does anyone recognise this haiku?
I was staying at samye ling Tibetan monastery in Scotland and writing a lot of poetry. I wrote this haiku in one go without any consideration or counting syllables, and did not feel as if I wrote it. ...
2
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6answers
127 views
Is being conscious of actions' consequences enough to attain nibbana?
I apologize if this has an answer on this site or if this does not make any sense. I am wondering if being conscious alone is enough to attain nibbana? If not, why?
I think conscious person will (...
0
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5answers
89 views
Is Buddhist lifestyle harmless to living beings?
Is the Buddhist lifestyle harmless to living beings? Lot's of creatures are being killed in various human activities (walking, farming, building, etc.) Did Buddhists found a way to live while not ...
2
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2answers
93 views
How can the sixth channel of dhatus be understood?
Could someone help clarifying the sixth channel of the eighteen dhatus - that is - the mental objects (dharma-dhatu), the mental faculty (mano-dhatu) and the mental consciousness (mano-vijƱÄna-dhatu)...
3
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8answers
134 views
Which specific process determines where consciousness will alight?
As the title indicates, I don't know how the mind "picks" which sensation to focus on. Considering the huge amount of sense-data being received by the mind each moment, which condition directs ...
0
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4answers
101 views
Is there a proper name for my recent experience?
I don't meditate often, and I've never had an experience like the following while meditating, but I feel that the following experience probably has a proper name in Buddhism (or Hinduism for that ...
0
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3answers
133 views
Does ViññÄį¹a generate NÄmarÅ«pa in the sense that would make “uploading concsciousness” impossible?
Does ViƱƱÄį¹a generate NÄmarÅ«pa in the sense that would make "uploading concsciousness" to a computer impossible?
I was reading this question on philosophy.stack
I'd suspect that it's impossible to ...
1
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1answer
68 views
Growth, increase, landing, establishing of consciousness
The following quotes talk about consciousness. Through relishing, intending or having underlying tendencies, consciousness would grow, increase, mature, land, establish.
What does growth, increase, ...
3
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5answers
377 views
Comparing Chinese Agama the ? Bundles of Reeds Simile with Pali Nalakalapiyo Sutta
In commenting a post, I have just been introduced to the "two bundles of reeds leaning up against each other" Sutta. The comments have just been moved to chat and I hope it would be kept for awhile ...
0
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2answers
126 views
Other types of consciousness (viññÄį¹a) in Theravada?
There are the six types of consciousness (viƱƱÄį¹a) based on MN 38, namely those related to the six sense media: eye, ear, nose, tongue, touch or mind.
In MN 49, there was a "consciousness without ...
2
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6answers
283 views
What is the invisible consciousness or consciousness without surface?
From MN 49 (trans. Sujato):
Consciousness that is invisible, infinite, radiant all roundāthatās
what is not within the scope of experience based on earth, water,
fire, air, creatures, gods, the ...
1
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3answers
236 views
How is re-linking consciousness reconciled with MN 38?
In the essay "Buddhist Reflections on Death", V.F. Gunaratna wrote:
The terminal thought goes through the same stages of progress as any
other thought, with this differences that whereas the ...
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3answers
127 views
Where does the consciousness (cittas) originate inside the body?
I have heard that all consciousness arise in hadaya vatthu rupa (blood inside the heart) except the five doors perceiving consciousness (Cakku vinnana, Sota vinnana, Ghana vinnana, Jeevha vinnana, ...
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3answers
101 views
If consciousness arises from mental formations is it correct to say that consciousness has a specific tone or opinions with it?
Example:
I see something moving, there's contact.
Then there's an unpleasant feeling and perception recognize it as a spider.
Mental formations on how to deal with the "threat" of a spider arises.
A ...
1
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2answers
95 views
Harmlessness to non-sentient nature and can consciousness (pure awareness) exist?
Buddhism teaches us to practice harmlessness. Would it be considered harmless to go around destroying non-'sentient' parts of nature? Can consciousness, particularly the pure awareness aspect, reside ...
1
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2answers
85 views
VijñÄna and ÅÅ«nyatÄ… How are they seen as different?
Consciousness is often used to describe ÅÅ«nyatÄ by some teachers but in Buddhism consciousness is one of the aggregates.
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6answers
164 views
Does the Consciousness vanish when the objects of consciousness are removed?
In the following excerpt from the book Yoga Sutras by Edwin Bryant, the author is arguing that the fundamental difference between Buddhist and Hindu philosophy is that Buddhists believe that when 'all ...
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2answers
1k views
Meditation, sleep paralysis, spinal vibration
I have meditated off and on since childhood, before I knew what it was, and since my 30s I have been interested in the spiritual concepts of Buddhism. I had an experience in 2010 wherein I awoke from ...
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2answers
95 views
Is Vinanna a Reification of Recognition?
I read on the Internet that Experience (Vijnana) which is really nothing but reification of Recognition (or Interpretation) of new observations in terms of internalized old observations.
Is this ...
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3answers
144 views
Seeing there is no subject experiencing subject and object?
I'm energetically trying to uproot the view of self, meaning, the sense that there is a subject of experience.
I have read/heard authors such as Sam Harris and Joseph Goldstein say that the self as a ...
6
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8answers
380 views
What is the substantial cause of an instance of consciousness?
Context: I'm considered a skeptic of rebirth in my tradition which is the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. I'm asking this question to help me understand what other traditions think. In my tradition ...
3
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2answers
149 views
Are there any detail exposition of Consciousness without surface (viññanam anidassanam)?
I asked this question recently to understand why consciousness is different from the intellect itself and considering the answer given I now think that Consciousness is not something higher than ...
1
vote
2answers
313 views
What is intellect-consciousness and why is it different from intellect itself?
In SN 35.93 quoted below, it reads intellect-consciousness arises in dependence on the intellect and ideas, but if this consciousness is also a thinking about the work of intellect on ideas then it in ...
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2answers
252 views
Is the new “Spread Mind” philosophy actually Buddhism?
I recently stumbled upon a fascinating series of conversations on consciousness in the New York Review of Books by an MIT Fulbright scholar named Riccardo Manzotti. That series led me to his The ...
6
votes
8answers
951 views
Hesitation between Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta
I hesitate between Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.
Buddhism pleases me very much for its willingness to seek an end to suffering, being depressed it speaks to me a lot.
But intellectually, ...
4
votes
8answers
1k views
After samadhi what?
Last year I experienced samadhi, full state of awareness. Mind's
thoughts stopped for days and I can't describe with feelings and words
the complete experience.
It was like the wheels of my mind ...
0
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3answers
119 views
Which consciousness/es are involved in meta-congnition (thinking about thinking)?
Which consciousness/es are involved in meta-congnition (thinking about thinking)? And can the skandhas exist without them?
I'm asking because I'm interested in whether animals without metacognition ...
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1answer
37 views
Ideal Experience in Buddhism
Sometimes, I tell myself that a moment wherein I'm devoid of craving, ignorance and aversion is a moment inherently good. I tell myself that if I remove the addictive (and aversive) states within ...
2
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2answers
398 views
What is life-continuum?
In the book Path Of Purification It talks about
The explanation of the meaning here( " talking about the five jhana mastery mostly mastety if Adverting " ) is this. When he emerges from the first ...
1
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4answers
158 views
Once ignorance is removed ,is the cessation of suffering automatic?
As per my understanding the only effort I have to make for the cessation of suffering is to realize the Truth as it removes the ignorance. Once I have removed the ignorance rest of the things happen ...
7
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3answers
576 views
Insight in Buddhism
What is "insight" the "knowing that I know" in Buddhism?
I understand the concept of consciousness a bit better but what about having Insight.
2
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2answers
49 views
Sutta Reference - Sound and musical instruments metaphors in the Suttas
I am looking for a specific sutta wherein the conditionality and insubstantiality of the existential process of a sentient being, or consciousness, is made plain by use of the simile of a resonating ...
2
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4answers
698 views
What are the similarities between quantum physics and buddism?
What are the similarities between modern physics/quantum physics and Buddism?
Although i know little about this, like Budha said that conciousness creates everything, emptyness and dependent ...
1
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4answers
141 views
why can't the spirtual experience explained from logic
I have heard that when a meditators do a very deep meditation and experiences supernatural phonomenon that experience can't be expressed with words and logic. What does that mean. I remember Albert ...
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4answers
108 views
do you know consciousness?
Language can be a confuser here so feel free to switch consciousness with knowing or awareness. I just ask because many of the texts I read speak early on the path to realization that knowing the Self ...
2
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6answers
157 views
Why do i look sad, while doing things consciously?
I have started doing things consciously, i don't want to laugh anymore, i just want to maintain that inner peace felt in doing things meditatively.
But people have started asking that "i am looking ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views
Is consciousness immaterial?
I've been doing a lot of scripture reading on consciousness (vijnana, mana, citta, etc) in the pali canon and Mahayana doctrines. Buddha never seemed to accept materialism, or that mind was material, ...
1
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3answers
316 views
How is rebirth to be understood?
I have some questions regarding this Buddhadhasa text saying there is no rebirth in Buddhism.
Is rebirth not what enlightenment is supposed to bring an end to? Is there no rebirth because rebirth is ...
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6answers
787 views
Consciousness and Name-Form
In the twelve nidanas in the dependent origination it is said that through ignorance arises constructive activities (Sankskara). I do understand that. But the fact that I am still having trouble ...
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1answer
229 views
What is difference (Vedic) Consciousness versus Pali Text terms “Deathless”, “Awakened Awareness”?
Would you kindly give your input on these Pali text quotes and comments?
They are derived from "Questions on the Five Skhandas", specifically Dhammadhatu's answer regarding the common reference "...
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10answers
3k views
How does Buddhism explain consciousness if there is no self?
One major differing point between Hinduism and Buddhism is the understanding of the self. Buddhist reject the Brahminical notion of an eternal, non-material soul substance that is distinct from the ...
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2answers
159 views
the Pair of Knowing and Object
I am searching for a precise understanding of what Buddhist authors mean by the "pair" of "knowing" and "object". For example
...we see that what we call "self" is simply the pairwise progression ...
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3answers
592 views
Are the formless jhanas without any consciouness of form at all?
I don't understand the formless jhanas.
Does this meditator completely lose consciousness of form, or are they meditating on something formless and, apart from that, as before?
I've read the ...
2
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3answers
99 views
Doubt in being mindful when two tasks are going to happen?
When we are doing some work(eating food--first task).. we hear something important or some noise(second task), which might require us to pay attention to it(to second task)..
(means if we want to be ...
2
votes
3answers
258 views
Mindfullness or Self Consciousness (Introvert's Struggle)
I am trying to achieve consciousness and that is my target to achieve it,...
I am struck in Strange State .. as Bruce lee said, in Enter The Dragon:
Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. ...
