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conscious mind
when we sleep what is the status of our conscious mind?where it goes.rest or awaken?
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It's allowed... you can't be Mindful 24 hours a day.
Is that what you're asking?
Sleep time? Those "systems" are deactivated and "consciousness" is put on hold.
Where does the teeny tiny piece of Infinite Mind go? You know, that speck of IM which occupies the brain in some inexplicable way?
Who knows? It might not "go" anywhere. Gladly however, it always seems to be there, during waking and sleeping.
Then there's that dreaming thing that happens. Who knows what that is? Just what happens when the body's many "engines" are idling?
IM_H_O of course.
Awareness is always in the background. If it wasn't how could we ever know we had a dream? Hope this clears things up.
1. The ordinary state, in which attention is centered on "me" and "mine".
2. The state of unconscious sleep with dreams. The attention works unconsciously, moving in and out of focus from one content to another, following the unconscious karmic tendencies.
3. The state of unconscious sleep without dreams, during which consciousness rests in its original nature (dharmata), without being aware of itself.
4. The state of conscious sleep with dreams, or "lucid dreaming." Attention is not centered on "me" and "mine" but rather acts as a mirror that reflects without choosing or rejecting. This is a state characteristic of deep meditation.
5. The state of conscious sleep without dreams. This state is characteristic of very advanced meditators, whose carefully trained attention allows them to remain in the unborn and undeceased nature of the Consciousness in which nothing is born and nothing dies.
These states correspond to the different states of bardo described in Tibetan Buddhism. In general, an untrained mind that enters the universe of entheogens tends to fluctuate between states two and three and, rarely, also state four. A well-trained mind can easily recognize that the states generated by entheogens are very similar to the states of deep meditation or lucid dreaming. If the mind is really well trained, the explorer will be able to leave behind the state of lucid dreaming and enter that of conscious sleep without dreams. Entheogens tend to promote in each individual the internal attitudes and karmic tendencies of her or his own mind."
- I don't remember what book I found this from.
Consciousness is not you, not what you are, not your eternal soul or self.
It arises and falls based upon conditions, just like everything else.
http://www.purifymind.com/SurangamaSutraChan.htm
This one is complete I think... sorry the other was only a piece
Nah..., just kidding.
I'm glad to read your posts taiyaki. I'm energized by them. Nice. :thumbsup:
i clear about the consciousness in detail.
you should read a book (Dr. Mehm Tin Mon: The Essence of Buddha-Abhidhamma)
when you reach chapter 4 VäTHI (Cognitive Series) you can understand your
question .Dhamma has the property of Akāliko (immediate results here and now).
Please forgive me , I am not good in eng-language . So I cannot say a lot .
The Skandha of Form and The Skandha of Consciousnss.
At any point in time if one is describing observable consciousness accurately, they must be representing a thought, emotion, taste, tactile sensation, sight, sound, smell or other experience. When one speaks of consciousness in any other terms, they are describing something we do not experience (except as a view/opinion), and right there is where "self" rears its ugly head.
A non-changing, permanent consciousness can only be found in thought... which is an experience, which requires a mind, which requires a brain-body (form). Form is the basis from which all experience springs. Form is empty of self; a mind that clings to the perception of a static consciousness (call it self, call it soul, call it what you will) suffers.
When one is awake (conscious, or at least perceiving a stable "knowing" of awareness) and experiences the cessation of this very consciousness (in meditation), seeing that when all experience of sense impressions and mental activity ceases there is only emptiness, knows the arising and passing of consciousness as momentary experience and breaks through the illusion of static consciousness/self, thereby entering the "stream" leading toward complete liberation (Nirvana) from the cycle of rebirths.
And so we must first strive to see consciousness as it really can be known! Meditation (knowing the mind) is not an option if one is to see.
I'm not sure why thought is non-changing? Do you mean that we can reason that there must either be an infinite regression of minds establishing each other? Or else an unconditioned nature 'behind' the thoughts, don't know how to say it.
Or do you mean thought gives us a mistaken idea? I think thats what you mean
The only real cure for the thought and perception of a static consciousness, a self or soul when it comes down to it, is to see directly through meditation the cessation of that very consciousness. That is the act that leads the mind to stream-entry.
Science hypothesizes that dreams are the brain's way of processing information, and training you. The large majority of our dreams are unpleasant, bizarre or frightening. As a child we dream of the dangers that only children see as a threat... bogeymen, ghosts, creepy crawlies.
As we get older we dream of modern threats... being late to work, our significant other cheating, overdrawing on our account. They think the brain then takes things into a weird place. Bending natural laws and creating bizarre scenarios. This is because the brain is where we can experience the natural world in an abstract form. So that would explain the dreams where you can't seem to turn your head to the right, birds the size of Texas trying to eat you, and you becoming pregnant with kittens. If you think of it in an evolutionary sense, the brain is trying to prepare you for worst case scenarios.
That is why people learn faster when they sleep after studying. They did an experiment on a rat where they had him run through a maze with some sort of brain scanner mapping activity in his brain. When the rat slept, the activity in his brain showed the same pattern as it did in the maze.... so he was running the maze in his dream. This pattern repeated itself, over and over, with sudden variations appearing on the same maze pattern. Almost as if the rat's brain was imagining obstacles or changes in the maze.
We are limited in what we can experience and react to in the physical world. So dreams are a way of continued exploration in an abstract form. You can be a man, or a woman. You can die or you can give birth. You can fly, solve world hunger, or even just get dressed for a work-day. I just find it amazing, that the brain always wants to learn, process, and experience. It never just shuts off.
it should be noted here that it does not mean awareness is an unchanging substance. Throughout Buddhist scriptures, awareness, even things like Buddha-nature and so on are utterly empty and unestablished - empty of inherent existence. Rather, the Buddha is simply pointing out how the manifestation of cognizance is empty, being empty is free from extreme views like consciousness is created from external conditions or exists independent of conditions. Consciousness and the self-luminosity of mind, which manifests via the six modes discussed by cloud, is interdependent with all causal conditions but precisely because it is so, it is therefore empty and unconditioned, without coming from or going to, perpetual, never lost, yet not unchanging or permanent.
"Morever, Ananda, according to your understanding of it, the ear-faculty and sounds are the conditions for the coming into being of the ear-consciousness. But does this consciousness come into being from the ear-faculty such that it is restricted by the boundaries of the ear-faculty? Or does it come into being from sounds, such that it is restricted by the boundaries of sound?
"Suppose, Ananda, that it came into being from the ear-faculty. But without the presence of either sound or silence, the ear-faculty would not be aware of anything. If the ear-faculty lacked awareness, because there would no objects for it to be aware of, then what attributes could the consciousness have? You may insist that it is the ears that hear. But without the presence of sound or silence, no hearing can take place. Also, the ear is covered with skin, and the body-faculty is involved with objects of touch. Could the ear-consciousness come into being from that faculty? Since it cannot, what can the ear-consciousness be based on?
"Suppose the ear-consciousness came into being from sounds. If the ear-consciousness owed its existence to sounds, then it would have nothing to do with hearing. But if no hearing is taking place, how would you know where sounds are coming from? Suppose, nevertheless, that the ear-consciousness did arise from sound. Since a sound must be heard if it is to be what we know as a sound, the ear-consciousness would also be heard as a sound. And when it is not heard, it would not exist. Besides, if it is heard, then it would be the same thing as a sound; it would be something that is heard. But what would be able to hear it? And if you had no awareness, you would be as insentient as grass or wood.
"Do not say that sounds, which have no awareness, and the ear-faculty, which is aware, can intermingle to create the ear-consciousness. There can be no such place where these two can mix together, since one is internal and the other is external. Where else then could the ear consciousness come into being?
"Therefore, you should know that the ear-faculty and sounds cannot be the conditions for the coming into being of the ear-consciousness, because none of these three constituents - ear-faculty, sounds, and ear-consciousness, has an independent existence. Fundamentally, they do not come into being from causes and conditions; nor do they come into being on its own.
~ The Surangama Sutra - A New Translation with Excerpts from the Commentary by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, page 111
This is similar to what Thusness commented on a pali canon sutta that teaches how everything is neither created or self-existent:
"The "world of our senses" is neither existent nor nonexistent; hence neither created nor self-existing.
The 'world' is an activity itself. The senses, the mental factors, the forms do not alienate each other from before beginning. Therefore there is no 'the world' besides these ongoing activities."
Therefore we must understand that when we talk about 'not coming into being from causes and conditions, nor do they come into being on its own', we are talking about the various consciousness 'not having independent existence', 'unestablished' - it is not because there is a permanent and independent substance.
As Nagarjuna said: "That which, taken as causal or dependent, is the process of being born and passing on, is, taken noncausally and beyond all dependence, declared to be nirvāṇa."
Furthermore, consciousness is a constantly changing and perpetual stream of mind-moments.
Shurangama Sutra:
(33) Further, in his practice of samadhi, such a good person's mind is firm, unmoving, and pro
Shuper and can no longer be disturbed by demons. He can thoroughly investigate the origin of all categories of beings and contemplate the source of the subtle, fleeting, and constant fluctuation. But if he begins to speculate about self and others, he could fall into error with theories of partial impermanence and partial permanence based on four distorted views.
First, as this person contemplates the wonderfully bright mind pervading the ten directions, he concludes that this state of profound stillness is the ultimate spiritual self. Then he speculates, "My spiritual self, which is settled, bright, and unmoving, pervades the ten directions. All living beings are within my mind, and there they are born and die by themselves. Therefore, my mind is permanent, while those who undergo birth and death there are truly impermanent."
......
Because of these speculations of impermanence and permanence, he will fall into externalism and become confused about the Bodhi nature. This is the third externalist teaching, in which one postulates partial permanence.
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Finally, if your pure, bright, clear, and unmoving state is permanent, then there should be no seeing, hearing, awareness or knowing in your body. If it is genuinely pure and true, it should not contain habits and falseness.
How does it happen, then, that having seen some unusual thing in the past, you eventually forget it over time, until neither memory nor forgetfulness of it remain; but then later, upon suddenly seeing that unusual thing again, you remember it clearly from before without one detail omitted? How can you reckon the permeation which goes on in thought after thought in this pure, clear, and unmoving consciousness?
Ananda, you should know that this state of clarity is not real. It is like rapidly flowing water that appears to be still on the surface. Because of its rapid speed, you cannot perceive the flow, but that does not mean it is not flowing. If this were not the source of thinking, then how could one be subject to false habits?
If you do not open and unite your six sense faculties so that they function interchangeably, this false thinking will never cease.
That's why your seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are presently strung together by subtle habits, such that within the profound clarity, existence and non-existence are both illusory. This is the fifth kind of upside-down, minutely subtle thinking.
Having transcendental glimpses of the I Am, which at the moment of realization is actually a complete, non-dual, non-conceptual, direct, immediate realization of the self-luminosity As a non-conceptual foreground manifestation of mind-consciousness, or put it simply a non-conceptual thought... Is quickly reified due to our view of duality and inherency... Into a purest unchanging Identity that becomes the 'background' of all phenomena.
That background actually does not exist... It is only a pure foreground non-dual experience captured by the mind as something ultimate. There is actually only foreground experiences... Awareness is the taste, the breath, the smell, the thought, etc. Without the illusion of an agent, background, or observer, every manifestation is seen to be equally pure and luminous.
And I do not try to sustain conscious witnessing in dreams because although possible, it is not necessary. Cos unconscious deep sleep is as pure and empty as conscious state.
That is why I think arising insights is more important and there are many kinds and levels of insights that can occur... See http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html
To see that there is nothing observable or that can be known outside of momentary experience is key to understanding Anatta/Not-Self. We can have all sorts of ideas about the mind and about consciousness, and our perspectives can all be different from one another, but what can you see right now? What can you show to be that is the same for everyone else, not just a thought?