What is intellect-consciousness and why is it different from intellect itself?
Upvote:3
Consciousness ('vinnana') is not thinking. Consciousness is experiencing or knowing.
Dependent on intellect & ideas, intellect-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three is contact. With contact as a requisite condition, there is feeling. What one feels, one perceives (labels in the mind). What one perceives, one thinks about. What one thinks about, one objectifies.
MN 18
The term 'intellect-consciousness' is merely a name for a certain type of consciousness (knowing), similar to when describing different types of paint as 'red paint', 'blue paint', 'house paint', 'wall paint', 'outdoor paint', etc. Intellect-consciousness' refers to a consciousness that arises to experience the intellect & its products.
The 'intellect' (called 'mano') is not 'the power of knowing'. 'Mano' refers to the power of intelligence, reason, thinking & decision making, such as described in verse 1 of the Dhammapada:
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā manoseṭṭhā manomayā. Manasā ce paduṭṭhena bhāsati vā karoti vā Tato naṃ dukkhamanveti cakkaṃ'va vahato padaṃ.
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.
As described, above, 'mano' (translated as 'intellect') is that which thinks & acts rather than is that which knows & experiences.
It helps understanding to view 'consciousness' as a 'mirror' and to view 'intellect & ideas' as objects reflected in that mirror.
Upvote:5
This is just bad translation. "Consciousness" is the common word for vijnana. A better translation of vijnana is "(subjective) experience". Meaning, you see something => you recognize it => you make sense of it => you experience it.
"Intellect" is how they usually translate manas or mind.
So "Intellect-consciousness" or mano-vijnana, is therefore the subjective experience of what's going on one's own mind. It's when you "see" what you're thinking about etc. I think it's called re-representation in modern cognitive science.
It does not require a higher mind or anything like that. Based on my meditation experience, it works as a cycle. Normally the input from sense organs goes to memory to find matching associations, this is how recognition happens, the basis of vijnana. With manovijnana, instead of the sensory organs, our attention grabs data from short term memory, finds matches in long term memory, puts that back in short term memory - voila, manovijnana.
More post
- 📝 What is the recommended time of day for meditation?
- 📝 Where can I do a long retreat?
- 📝 If you are reborn as a Deva, are you to interact with humans?
- 📝 Monks chosen for Tibetan Telepathy
- 📝 How to achieve consciousness in nirvana?
- 📝 Is shellfish aquaculture considered a wrong livelihood?
- 📝 Taking out the plank from one's own eye
- 📝 What is Hardcore (Pragmatic) Dharma?
- 📝 Is what is taught under the term "Radical Buddhism" consistent with Buddhist values?
- 📝 Why is an emaciated Buddha rarely represented in art?
- 📝 What are the cause(s) of a biased or sticky mind?
- 📝 Nibbāna in The Progress of Insight
- 📝 Significance of Three Customs Involving String
- 📝 Explaining non-attachment to the very attached
- 📝 Diminished volition
- 📝 How do you know if you are competent in your job?
- 📝 Questions regarding body scan during the contemplation of anatomical parts in Satipatthana
- 📝 Meditating with an overwhelming emotion
- 📝 What are the Pali or Sanskrit words for these things?
- 📝 "Being" or "Existence" in Paticca Samuppada
- 📝 Does the Buddha suggest a change in practice after the unfolding of Sotapanna?
- 📝 Meditating dead monks
- 📝 Has Ram Bahadur Bomjon already proclamed that he is a Buddha?
- 📝 What does ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ། (translated to the Flower Ornament Sutra) really mean?
- 📝 What does Buddhadasa say about rebirth after the break-up of the body?
- 📝 Permission of parents to be a Monk
- 📝 Is Buddhism methodological solipsism?
- 📝 Where to concentrate exactly during meditation?
- 📝 Why does Mara, the Evil One one comes looking for consciousness at death?
- 📝 Can a monk choose to eat only an animal or plant that had died naturally?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is intellect-consciousness and why is it different from intellect itself?
- 📝 What is the difference between learning the Buddhist way and simply learning from life?
- 📝 What is the different between Nirodha Samapatti and Phala Samapatti?
- 📝 In the five paramitas, what is patience and why is it on the list?
- 📝 What are the rotating cylinders in monastries, and why are they there?
- 📝 What is the reason why Buddhist monks don't work to support themselves? Do the monastic rules prohibit them from working?
- 📝 What is the sutra where the Buddha emits fire and water from his body?
- 📝 Iconography in Buddhism - from the Greeks? And why isn't the Buddha bald?
- 📝 What is Zen, what are Zen beliefs, and why is it called Buddhism?
- 📝 What does "Namaste" mean in Buddhism context and why is it even associated with Buddhism?
- 📝 What happens if you drop and break a plate of fruit from the Buddha's altar?
- 📝 If you Consolidate the Satipatthana Instruction from the Tripitaka what would the additions and variation in Comparison to Maha Satipatthana Sutta
- 📝 What is the difference between 'Witnessing' and 'Mindfulness' from the context of meditation?
- 📝 Why is swastika in buddhism is in this 卍 format and not in this 卐 format? What is the difference between the two? What is the meaning of each sign?
- 📝 What is "Patigha", and how does it differ from "Dosa"?
- 📝 What is meant by "divorcing the view and the action" and why is it considered so dangerous?
- 📝 In what form or fashion might it be ethical to "bestow" consciousness on an AI? A question and conversation with ChatGPT:
- 📝 What are the views considered "false convictions", and why are they false?
- 📝 What and why is "perception of the dimension of nothingness"?
- 📝 What to do after becoming free from suffering and attachments?
- 📝 What is anger. How it is different from violence?
- 📝 What are the main differences -- in meditation practice and discipline -- between different schools of Theravada?
- 📝 What is the different between first path attainer from a meditative commoner?
- 📝 What exactly differentiates Vipassana from Samatha meditation?
- 📝 What are the differences between vipassana and mindfulness meditation?
- 📝 Any authentic sutta from any tradition that gives guidance on what kind of partner to choose?
- 📝 What is the meaning behind different robe colors?
- 📝 What is the difference between craving and clinging?
- 📝 What are the differences/similarities in the concept of faith as used in Buddhism and Christianity?
- 📝 What is the difference between rebirth and reincarnation?