More…
"One of the standard definitions of cognitive awareness (vijnana) is that
it arises as "the discrete discernment [of objects]". Two important
implications follow from this. The first is articulated well enough in early
Buddhism" that all conditioned phenomena appear impermanent and changing. The
second is brought out more clearly in the Abhidharma traditions: that cognitive
awareness is not only conditionally arisen, but it arises as a function of
discerned distinctions. If we examine the implications of this definition, we
can more deeply appreciate the nature of the Abhidharma project, the status of
its dharma, and the entire series of theoretical problems that followed from
this innovative mode of analysis.
"As we have seen, cognitive awareness arises when a stimulus appears
within an appropriate sense domain, impinges upon the sense-faculties (or
mind), and there is attention thereto. Cognitive awareness would not arise
without the occurrence of this stimulus, without some impingement upon the
sense organs and faculty. To speak of the arising of cognitive awareness is
therefore to speak of an event, a momentary interaction between sense organ and
their correlative stimuli. To say that "everything is impermanent," then, is
not so much a declaration about reality as it is, as a description of cognitive
awareness as it arises. Cognitive awareness is thus --- by definition ---
temporal and processual.
"It is also discriminative. Gregory Bateson makes a suggestively
analogous point:
our sensory system … can only operate with _events_, which we call
_changes_ … it is true that we think we can see the unchanging … the
truth of the matter is that … the eyeball has continual tremor,
called
_micronystagmus_. The eyeball vibrates through a few second of arc
and
thereby causes the optical image on the retina to move relative to
the
rods and cones which are the sensitive end organs. The end organs are
thus in continual receipt of events that correspond to _outlines_ in
the
visible world. We _draw_ distinctions; that is, we pull them out.
Those
distinctions that remain undrawn are _not_.
(Bateson, 1979: 107, emphasis in
original)
Without an awareness of such distinctions, without such stimuli, there would be
no discernment of discrete objects, or separate "things." This is arguably
already implied in the term vi-jnana, whose prefix, vi, imparts a sense of
separation or division (cognate with Latin "dis"), suggesting a "discerning or
differentiating awareness". Cognitive awareness, in other words, necessarily
arises as a function of discernment. …"
Marsha
On Apr 25, 2012, at 5:44 AM, MarshaV wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> I can tell this topic and associated books are going to require multiple
> readings. I must admit this much detail makes me wail in agony so I present
> a paragraph to maybe peak someone else's interest.
>
> "Abhidharma thus became, in Bhikkhu Bodhi's words, a "phenomenological
> psychology" whose "primary concern ... is to understand the nature of
> experience, and thus the reality on which it focuses is conscious reality,
> the world as given in experience". But what does a "phenomenological
> psychology" mean? And what is a "unit or constituent of experience"? And
> how is all this related to vijnana, the central concept of this book? ...".
> (Waldron, W.,'The 'Buddhist Unconscious': The Alaya-Vijnana in the
> Context of Indian Buddhist Thought', p.51)
>
>
> Marsha:
> "Conscious reality, the world as given in experience"? Experience? Value?
> Consciousness? There's "Consciousness can be described as a process of
> defining Dynamic Quality." (LC). And "‘Static quality’ refers to anything
> that can be conceptualised and is a synonym for the conditioned in Buddhist
> philosophy." (MoQ Textbook). Gee, how can anyone help but be interested in
> learning more.
>
>
> Marsha
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