Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 — 1988-10-13

Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)

Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 — 1988-10-13

Play EpisodePause Episode

Mute/Unmute EpisodeRewind 10 Seconds1xFast Forward 30 seconds

00:00/

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 55-minute talk from his series on Buddhist philosophy of mind, Khensur Rinpoche makes consciousness theory vivid with a detailed anatomical tour: the eye sense power is shaped like an open flower inside the eyeball, the ear like a cone, the nose like two long musical horns, the tongue like an upside-down half-moon. These images anchor his account of why each of the five sense consciousnesses perceives only its own specific objects. He defines a direct perceiver — “a new, incontrovertible, non-mistaken knower free from conceptuality” — and distinguishes four types: sense, mental, self-knowing, and yogic. Śāntideva’s medicinal-root image opens the talk by grounding motivation, and Rinpoche closes with practical instruction on guarding the senses against attachment and aversion.

So it’s Rinpoche thinks it’s very excellent that that we’ve come together for this hour and a half. Many of you have gone through a great deal of trouble having perhaps come a long distance to attend this evening’s talk. Or perhaps you’ve had a busy schedule. Many of you’ve done a lot of work today, but still you’ve come here. Therefore having gone through all this trouble, you know, doing this, we shouldn’t waste this hour and a half that we’re together.

We should try to make sure that it’s of great benefit and there are some great results arising from it. So, in a sense we’re striving to become Mahayanas, great practitioners of the great vehicle, among self and others, others should be held as most important. So therefore, if we can develop the thought, set our motivation such that, that, you know, I’m just one person. Others are equal to, in extent to the, to space itself. And I’m going to listen to this teaching in order to attain enlightenment for the sake of all, all of, of all others, with such a motivation, with such an intention, then there is extremely a great deal of benefit to be derived from the time we spend together, and there is a great blessing.

How can we reason this out? How can we understand this great benefit that’s going to arise simply by means of our intention? If we have a medicinal root, then everything that arises from a medicinal root will be a benefit. All the various leaves, the bark, the branches of plant which arises will have medicinal properties. On the other hand, if the roots themselves are of a poisonous variety, everything which arises from that will also have a poisonous potential, the various leaves in bark, etcetera.

Therefore, it’s dependent upon our root, our motivation. So the, the, Śāntideva has said that, that in dependence upon a good heart, we attain the paths and stages. In dependence upon a good heart, we abide in the paths and stages, and therefore all arises in dependence upon a kind heart. So whatever we do, whatever activities, whether it’s meditation, various types of practices, whether we’re saying mantras for example. And if they are done with a motivation, an altruistic motivation, then we can expect great benefit.

It is a very extremely positive action. So this is extremely important to set the proper motivation and Rinpoche has explained it tonight, but henceforth he will not go into it as extensively. So, you know, we’re beginning the explanation of knowledge and awareness. So the study of awareness and knowledge is extremely important, all the various types of mind which arises. Whether we can begin to develop the various types of minds by understanding which are constructive states and which are destructive states.

Recognizing these, can begin to eliminate destructive states which bring us suffering and begin to develop constructive states of mind which bring us happiness. So, you know, we’ll begin this evening’s discussion with the direct the first of the seven consciousness, which is called a direct perceiver. And the definition of a direct perceiver is a new, incontrovertible, non mistaken knower that is free from conceptuality. A new, incontrovertible, non mistaken knower that is free from conceptuality. So we’ve already talked about a number of these terms.

We’ve talked about new and incontrovertible, So, we’ve had four terms this definition. We’ve explained, for example, free from conceptuality, what that means. New, incontrovertible. And also non mistaken. Non mistaken simply means that we know how the, we are not mistaken with respect to the object.

If we see a yellow piece of paper, when actually there is a white piece of paper due to a disease, for example, then this would be mistaken. If we see, if we look up in the sky and we see two moons due to a fault in the eye, when actually there’s only one moon, we call this mistaken. So we can divide direct perceivers into four types. There are sense direct perceivers, don’t know what to see what order. Sense direct perceivers, mental direct perceivers, self knowing direct perceivers, and yogic direct perceivers.

Now, when we took so we’re going to begin the discussion with sense direct perceivers. The senses, when we say sense, we mean, for example, the eye, the ear, the nose, So when we talk about the sense direct perceivers, there are the various senses. For example, there’s the eye sense, the ear sense, the nose sense. So the direct perceiver, which arises in dependence upon a sense power, such as the eye sense, the nose sense power, is what we call a sense direct perceiver. A direct perceiver which arises in dependence upon a sense power is a sense direct perceiver.

So, you know, we’re just going through these roughly. When we talk about a mental direct perceiver, you know, at night when we’re in deep sleep, at night when we’re in deep sleep, the various sense consciousnesses are not operating. For example, the eye sense consciousness, the hearing consciousness, These are not operating. The consciousness which is operating is the mental direct perceiver, the mental consciousness. This is what we mean when we say mental direct perceiver.

So this third direct perceiver is self knowing direct perceiver. The first two that we’ve already named, the sense direct perceiver and mental direct perceiver, they do not know themselves. Sense direct perceivers do not understand, do not know sense direct perceivers. Mental direct perceivers do not understand, know mental direct perceivers. They do not know themselves.

So when we talk about a self knowing direct perceiver, we’re talking about a consciousness which actually knows itself and knows other consciousnesses. So it knows itself knows other consciousness, therefore it’s referred to as self knowing. So in general, we can talk in respect to consciousnesses. We can say that there are other knowers and self knowers. Now, these four direct perceivers, three are other knowers.

They know something other than themselves. But this fourth, the self knowing direct perceiver, not only knows others, but it also knows itself. Not only does it know other consciousness, but it also is able to know itself. Therefore, it’s called a self knower. The others are other knowers.

So then this fourth, to give a rough idea, understanding of what it means, is that first we, we develop what is called calm abiding, Samatha. Then we develop special insight, Vipassana. And these two are joined together, union of calm abiding and special insight. And dependence upon this, we directly perceive such phenomenons as selflessness and impermanence, subtle impermanence. This consciousness which is perceiving it is what is known as a yogic direct perceiver.

It is a, it is a mental consciousness which directly perceives phenomena such as selflessness and impermanence, in dependence upon the union of calm abiding and special insight. So there are five types of sense direct perceivers. There are five types because there are five sense powers. Sense direct perceivers arise in dependence upon sense powers. There is the power, there is the eye sense power, the ear sense power, the nose sense power, the tongue sense power, and the body sense power.

In dependence upon these, the according, the respective sense consciousness arises. The eye sense consciousness, the ear sense consciousness, nose, tongue, body sense consciousness. So the glorious Chukilongbo, remember Chukilongbo, I was quoting from the Indian master. Because Because it is the uncommon cause, its name is applied to the sense power. This is just a quotation which will have to be explained.

Because it is the uncommon cause, its name is applied to the sense power. So I didn’t translate that very well, this quotation. It should read something like, because it is the uncommon cause, its name is taken from the sense power. Because it is the uncommon cause, its name is taken from the sense power. Now what this means is that the eye sense consciousness sees various forms and colors.

For example, it sees the color yellow, the color blue. It sees shapes, for example, square shapes, round shapes. It sees long shapes, short shapes. And these all, So just as, for example, the uncommon cause of a barley pliancy is a barley seed. Likewise, uncommon cause of the eye consciousness, which sees all these various forms and colors, is the eye sense power.

So the eye sense power is the uncommon cause of the eye consciousness. So the name that is given to the consciousness is taken from the uncommon cause upon which it depends for its development. In this case, because the consciousness depends upon the eye sense power for its development, we call it the eye consciousness. So when we talk about the actual eyes, when we talk about the eye sense power, we’re talking about a subtle clear matter within the eyeball. In the case of the eye sense power, it’s shaped like a flower, like an open flower.

This subtle clear matter is, which is the eye sense power. In the case of the ear consciousness, the ear consciousness hears beautiful sounds, unbeautiful sounds, ugly sounds. The various types of sound are the object of the ear consciousness. These arise in dependence upon the ear sense power. The ear sense power is a subtle clear matter which is shaped like a cylinder.

Oh, so it I see. It’s a a cone. A cone. The ear sense power is is is shaped like a cone. So in dependence upon the eye sense power, the ear sense power, we are able to understand sounds, various types of sound.

People talking, very beautiful sounds, good sounds, whatever type of sound. So, in the nose is located the nose sense power and in dependence upon the nose sense power. The nose sense power acts as the uncommon cause for the nose consciousness. So this nose sense power, nose sense power, it. There’s two long horns.

You know, the kind that you make you blow out of, musical horns. They’re shaped like two long, cylindrical, musical horns in your nose. So again, the in dependence upon the uncommon cause, the tongue sense power arises the tongue consciousness. And this is shaped like a half moon. It’s like a half.

Oh, it’s upside down. With the round on top and the flat bottom on the bottom. Dependence upon the tongue consciousness, can understand sweet taste and sour taste, all the various varieties of taste. So the next is the body consciousness. This arises in dependence upon its uncommon cause, which is the body sense power.

The body sense power exists throughout the body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes, but not the nails, not the toenails. In dependence upon this, the eye, the body consciousness arises. In dependence upon the body’s sense consciousness, body sense consciousness, we can understand softness or coldness, heat. So in dependence upon these five sense powers arises the five sense consciousnesses. Each of these, in dependence upon these five sense consciousnesses, we can know the five sense objects.

The five sense objects, visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangible objects. For example, the eye sense consciousness knows visible forms. It can only know visible forms. It cannot know taste. It cannot know smells.

It cannot perceive them. Each of these sensed consciousnesses has its own special object. All the various objects of use are known through these various five consciousnesses. So the glorious Dharmakīrti has said that each of the consciousness knows their own distinct object, That they do not know other objects other than their own distinct object. Meaning that the eye consciousnesses know only objects of the eye consciousness, that is to say visible forms.

They cannot understand sounds or tastes. So each of consciousness is specific to its own object. Where some people assert that there are, there’s only one consciousness, rather than being a variety of consciousness. State, for example, that if a person were staying in a room, in this room there was a door and there was a window to the north and south and east and west, that this person could look out of the door and see what’s out the window in the east, see what’s out the window in the west. This is all the same person.

To exemplify, it’s as if we borrowed our body from our parents, and within this, this, this body is like our house, and within this house is our mind, and through the various senses, we know all the various objects. So these five sense consciousness, they allow us to know all the various objects that we make use of. And then dependence upon knowing these, coming in contact and knowing with these various sense objects, experience happiness, we experience suffering at different times and different situations. We take an example of, you you see a person over there and you know, that’s really a fine person. You think, oh, that’s really a fine person.

And dependence upon thinking that’s a fine person, you develop maybe attachment toward that person. So this attachment has developed from this eye sense power, from this eye sense consciousness. And the dependence upon this attachment which has arisen as it increases in its power, our mind becomes agitated, we aren’t able to experience happiness, and eventually we experience suffering. Another example, if we base this example on a male, on a man, and this man, he sees a very beautiful woman And he develops attachment for this woman. But he develops in seeing this woman, he develops a happy feeling.

He develops happy feelings upon seeing this woman. And then dependence upon this, he makes a great deal of effort to So in dependence upon seeing this beautiful woman by means of the eye consciousnesses, by the eye consciousness, there arises a happy feeling. And thinking about this object which brought us the happy feeling, develop attachment and develop and develop develop attachment, then our mind is no longer able to be happy. But on the other hand, someone another person might see the same person, but they see this person not as pleasing, but as in fact they see this person as ugly. And depending upon the eye consciousness, they see this person as ugly.

That is, and it depends upon the eye consciousness, unhappy feelings arise. The first is the eye consciousness seeing this person, the eye consciousness arises, in dependence upon eye consciousness, unhappy feelings arise. Then in dependence upon this, we begin to, unhappy feelings we begin to see this person as an enemy, as someone who we develop aversion. And dependence upon this, we develop anger. We want to strike out at this object, and our mind is, we’ve lost all our happiness.

So we can see that in dependence upon the various consciousness, the eye consciousness, nose consciousness, etcetera, we generate both attachment and aversion to the various objects. And this disturbs, and by means of this we experience suffering. Therefore, the great beings such as the Buddhas and, those great renunciates say that it’s necessary to guard the senses. And what they mean by this, in guarding the senses, is that we shouldn’t just make unnecessary For example, when they say when you walk, then you should only look to that portion that is necessary to see that by looking around at the various things around you, there’s the danger that the attachment or aversion will arise, you know, disturbing your own happiness. So therefore, control the senses.