Hey brave souls! The topic for July 9, 2025, was consciousness, a link in the chain dependent co arising (patticasamupada!)
Here is a definition from our teacher Peter Carlson of Orlando Insight Meditation Group (OIMG.)
“The traditional view of paticcasamuppada in early Buddhism extends over the course of several rebirths, while other commentators after the origin of Buddhist teachings describe this system as a conceptual way to understand how the various functions of the Five Aggregates create a “self” almost instantaneously and “blends” the fabrications into the stream of subjective awareness we live through. I find the second interpretation more useful in the practice of vipassana.”
Here is a definition of consciousness by Peter :
“Consciousness, called vinnana (vih-nyah-nah), represents the medium upon which the karmic formations are reflected, like the screen upon which a motion picture is projected and reflected. In the same way that a screen has no opinion regarding the projection, consciousness in the absence of craving and clinging has no self. A moment of consciousness reflects the karmic formations, sensitized by the emergence of the conditioned mental phenomena. The sensitized moment of consciousness has a lingering quality—an example being the enduring afterimage of light that occurs after looking at a bright light, then closing the eyes. This lingering “glow” in the mind, although very brief, predisposes the shaping tendencies of sankhara during the successive thought-moments of subjective life experience, creating the blending of different selfing moments into “I am” and “this is the world”. Buddhist psychology describes “binding moments of consciousness” that blend the brief selfing moments into a coherent stream of consciousness. This is a fundamental aspect of ignorance, a blending of consciousness moments, much as the untrained mind blends the images of a film strip to produce the illusion of forms moving on a screen. ”
Per Joseph Goldstein, Consciousness is the mental conditioner that knows other conditioners, like desire, or joy. consciousness operates in the same way no matter what the formation. Consciousness arises in the same moment as whatever formation is known. Consciousness arises and falls with great rapidity. No matter what the formation, consciousness knows and is dependent on conditioners. for example seeing consciousness depends on an object, the eye, attention and light.
Next week, we will study practical skills to develop insight on the formation of consciousness.
with much lovingkindness
Andy
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