[FRIAM] There is a Thich Nhat Hanh sized hole in the Universe

[Prof David West]

Thich Nhat Hanh was Vietnamese and his teachings reflect the context of Theravada rather than Mahayana Buddhism and a pedant would notice differences and nuances that are important to scholarship, but not germane here.

The four levels of consciousness is quite useful and accurate as it is. Some minor points of variance.

 -- The sense consciousness is not restricted to the five (six or seven) normally recognized senses, but the totality of our 'input nodes' which are very numerous and offer a near 1-to-1 mapping to all the output sources and human really can directly sense and send signals to the brain from a single photon or a single quantum collapse.

  -- The sense consciousness directly "feeds" the store consciousness and the store consciousness is a "reflection" of the Universe and an "expression" of the Universe. It is also singular, there is but one Store Consciousness - The Atman, to use Vedic terminology, or The Self.

 -- Mind Consciousness is an "extract" of Store Consciousness arising from the influence and action of Manas Consciousness. The compulsion to differentiate between Me and Thee (Me and That) "forces" an attempt to carve out a portion of the Store Consciousness and plant a flag of possession. Thence comes the atman, the self, or the ego-self.

 -- Manas Consciousness is traceable to a specific brain region that becomes 'active' some months after birth and allows an infant to recognize its body as separate and, eventually, the illusion that its Mind Consciousness is separate from Store Consciousness. Meditation lessens activation and may deactivate, temporarily, that area of the brain.

What I think I learned on the topic.

davewest


On Sun, Jan 23, 2022, at 11:08 AM, Steve Smith wrote:
> *There is a Thich Nhat Hanh sized hole in the Universe*
> 
> begins my as-yet unwritten **Ode to Thich Nhat Hanh* *who passed away at 95 <https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/thich-nhat-hanhs-health/thich-nhat-hanh-11-11-1926-01-22-2022/> yesterday.
> 
> I would like to invite everyone's perspectives on his particular interpretation of Buddhism's particular take on the nature of consciousness:
> 
>     The Four Layers of Consciousness <https://uplift.love/thich-nhat-hanh-the-four-layers-of-consciousness/>
> 
> given our never-ending discussions from a mostly different perspective:
> 
> DaveW's studies of Eastern Philosophies.   Glen's talk of diachronic vs episodic self.   The general talk about Consciousness from a Western (esp. Pearcean) perspective here.   Monism/Dualism.  The HARD problem.   etc.
> 
> 
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