[MD] awareness and consciousness

[MarshaV]

      "An awareness of difference, we see, does not arise outside of context, since differences are only meaningful between phenomenon.  "Objects", that is, give rise to cognitive awareness only insofar as they stand out within a surrounding context.  But a distinction is not a "thing."  "Difference," as Bateson points out, "being of the nature of relationship, is not located in time or space … Difference is precisely _not_ substance … Difference … has no dimensions.  It is _qualitative_ not _quantitative" (Bateson, 1979, emphasis in original).  This applies, we submit, to dharma as well.  That is, dharmas are neither substances nor "things" in and of themselves.  As Piatigorsky points out:

              "a _dharma_, in fact, 'is' no thing, yet a term _denoting_ (not being) a certain
               relation or type of relation _to_ thought, consciousness or mind.  That is,
               _dharma_ is not a concept in the accepted terminological sense of the 
              latter, but purely _relational notion_.

     "These distinctive events, these dharmas that co-arise with cognitive awareness, are relational in yet another, more reflexive, sense as well: while dharmas may ultimately refer to experiential phenomena, what _counts_ as a dharma in any system of description must itself be distinguished from other dharmas. …"  

    (Waldron, W.,'The 'Buddhist Unconscious': The Alaya-Vijnana in the 
        Context of Indian Buddhist Thought', p.52)


Marsha:
Static patterns (dharma) co-arise with cognitive-awareness.  Now is that cognitive-awareness always a matter of the twin reification of self and other.  Also, as far as I understand it, objects mean objects of perception an well as objects of conceptions.  The buddhist define six sense: sight, sound, smell, tastes, tactile  and mind.   


Marsha 

On Apr 25, 2012, at 8:39 AM, MarshaV wrote:

> 
> 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. …" 
>            (Waldron, W.,'The 'Buddhist Unconscious': The Alaya-Vijnana in the 
>                     Context of Indian Buddhist Thought', pp.51-52)
> 
> 
> 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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