Consciousness refers to the subjective experiences we experience every moment, such as thoughts, emotions, feelings, and perception. In cognitive psychology, it means 'aware of cognitive phenomena such as memory, thinking, and physical senses about s ...
Consciousness refers to the subjective experiences we experience every moment, such as thoughts, emotions, feelings, and perception. In cognitive psychology, it means 'aware of cognitive phenomena such as memory, thinking, and physical senses about stimuli in the external environment'.
The study of consciousness is accompanied by the study of neuroscience and brain science. However, the brain science of consciousness is still a challenge. The connection between consciousness and the brain has not yet been explained. No scientific tool can prove consciousness or read the content of consciousness. It is true that the subjective flow of consciousness shows a specific activity pattern in the brain, but the specific relationship between the two is not known at all.
Types of consciousness include phenomenon consciousness, self-reflection consciousness, and self-consciousness. The phenomenon consciousness exists here now as a sensory experience. This corresponds to pre-five-vijñāna. The consciousness of self-reflection corresponds to the 6th mano-vijñāna with a thinking mind. Self-consciousness is a ritual about me, which is close to the 7th manas in Buddhism.
In the early Buddhism, the vijñāna is mentioned in three scenes. It appears in six ways among vijñāna of pañca-skandha, 12 pratītyasamutpāda, and 18 Dhātus. However, when explaining vijñāna of pañca-skandha in the scripture, six vijñāna are mentioned as their types, and the occurrence is grasped as nama-rupa, so these three are not different in the end.
Nevertheless, its use is clearly different. And what explains this well is the mind method of vijñapti-mātra. In vijñapti-mātra, the mind is subdivided into pre-five-vijñāna, 6th, 7th, and 8th. This is fully commensurate with modern consciousness understanding.