Consciousness and Mind

Consciousness and Mind

In Western thought consciousness has always been identified with mind, and most of the resent studies on consciousness are focused on the question whether the mind or brain are one and the same. Since the brain is made of matter, the real issue is whether the mind is material or not.

This has never been an issue with the Advaita Vedanta (none duality) which regards the mind as material – being made of subtle elements, just as the body is made of gross elements. Thus, in this regard it matters little whether the mind is identified with the brain.

The central principle is that consciousness is different from the mind and that consciousness does not belong to the mind, but to the Atman (soul, Self).

Nature of the Atman (soul, Self)

Vedanta holds a monistic view of atman (soul, Self). According to it all individual atmans (souls) are parts or reflections of the Supreme Self known as Brahman (God). Other systems of yoga philosophy hold a pluralistic view of atman.

     1.     Atman (Self) as sat (existence)

     a)     Atman (soul) is of the nature of Sat (Sanskrit) or Being. Our very sense of existence, the ever present feeling that ‘I exist’ is due to the atman (soul) in us.

     b)    The atman is our true Self, our true identity, our true unchanging nature. The aggregate of body, senses, mind etc. give rise to the ego which is the false self. It is ever changing and is full of antagonistic elements. The atman (soul, Self) is different from it, but because of ignorance we identify ourselves with the ego system.

     c)     It is the atman soul, (Self) which gives continuity to our self identity. From birth to death the sum of body, mind etc. known as the ego, goes on changing; similarly our experiences of the world around us also go on changing. Yet, in the midst of all these changes, we have an unchanging sense of self-identity in the form of the feeling ‘I am the same person who undergoes all these changes’.

     d)    According to Shankara, being or existence has three levels, the empirical, the illusory, and the transcendent. Corresponding to these, there are three levels of the Self, soul).

     2.     Atman (soul, Self) as chit (consciousness)

     a)     The atman (soul) is also of the nature of chit or pure Awareness. It is the substratum or ground of all knowledge we gain through the senses and mind. We get countless types of knowledge and experiences of the world around us. But there is one unchanging, basic element common to all these myriad experiences in the form of ‘I am aware’. Whatever the nature of our objective awareness is, ‘I am aware,” is common to all of them and this basic awareness comes from the atman (soul, Self).

     b)    Another important idea about consciousness is that pure awareness, chit, by itself cannot know empirical objects. In order to know, the atman soul, (Self) must be associated with the mind.

     c)     Another related idea is that objective knowledge is only possible at the empirical plane of existence. At the transcendental plane the atman (soul, Self) remains in its own nature as pure consciousness.

     d)     In the West, investigation into the nature of sleep was only undertaken in the last century. In India several centuries before the Christian era, these states were studied in depth. The Indian sages came to the conclusion that waking, dream and dreamless sleep states represented three levels of consciousness. The sages also discovered that beyond these three states, there exists a fourth state, known as turiya in which consciousness remains in an unconditional state; it is the true nature of atman soul, (Self).

     3.     Atman (soul, Self) as Ananda (Bliss)

     a)     Atman (soul) is of the nature of Ananda, Bliss. This is a very unique and important concept which is not found in any other system of thought in the world. What it means is, the atman or the true Self, is the substratum not only of cognitive experiences but also of affective or emotional experiences.  

     b)    It is important to note that ananda or joy is not merely a matter of experience but an intrinsic aspect of reality. That is to say, in Vedanta (none duality), joy is not merely an epistemological (relating to knowledge) principle but an ontological or metaphysical principle. The importance of making Ananda an inseparable aspect of the ultimate Reality is that it provides the only satisfactory explanation of what sorrow is. What is sorrow? From the Vedantic viewpoint ananda or joy is man’s intrinsic nature, and the veiling of this joy by ignorance is sorrow. It should be mentioned, that the true nature of atman as sat-chit-ananda is not accepted in Samkhya yoga. Samkhya states that the atman known as Purusha is of the nature of sat (existence) and chit (consciousness) only; ananda belongs not to the atman, but to the mind (chitta).