Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The vivid story of a wood-seller poking sticks into the meditating Buddha’s ear and nose near Bodh Gaya — only to find him completely unresponsive — anchors Khensur Rinpoche’s 54-minute commentary from the Awareness and Knowledge series. Rinpoche works through the logical technique of three and four possibilities to map relationships between mind, mental consciousness, and secondary mental factors like feeling, explaining why, for instance, eye consciousness is a mind but not a mental consciousness. The central doctrinal point is that sense consciousness ceases in deep meditative equipoise on emptiness, while mental consciousness continues and can still experience bliss. A Q&A section covers where the eye direct perceiver physically resides within the eyeball, why the optic nerve is not an awareness, gut feelings as mental consciousness, and how conceptual consciousness differs from direct perception by engaging only one factor at a time. Suited to students with prior exposure to Buddhist epistemology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 18 AK 1988-11-17.mp3
UUID: 16b95943-258d-4f54-98e7-3f87624e4641
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-11-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 54.0 minutes
Words: ~2,277
Is the secondary, the secondary mental factor of feeling accompanying the accompanying an eye consciousness. The secondary mental factor of feeling accompanying an eye consciousness is not is neither. That is to say it’s not a mind and it’s not a mental consciousness. So, in a when we begin to understand this presentation of the various categories of awareness and knowledge, we make use of trying to find the relationship between various consciousness with one another. And we use this technique of four possibilities or three possibilities in order to give rise to qualms, order to give rise to doubts and try to come in understanding what are the relationships between these various categories.
For example, you know, we said that the the the eye consciousness is a mind, but it is not a mental consciousness. Therefore, you know, we want to know why is that? Why is an eye consciousness a mind? And then we have to give a reason. And then we say, well, why is it not a mental consciousness?
Then we have to give a reason. So in dependence upon this, determining the relationship between these two, then we come to we develop many doubts or qualms. So in a way So then we say, why is eye consciousness a mind because it’s a main mind? And why is it not a mental consciousness? Because it’s a sense consciousness.
It’s not a sense it’s not a mental consciousness because it’s a sense consciousness. But if we take the example of mental consciousness, we said that mental consciousness was a mind, but was a mind and a mental consciousness. Now why is mental consciousness a mind? Because, no, made a mistake. So, okay.
We gave as an example of the feeling, the secondary mental factor, which accompanies the mental consciousness. Secondary mental is the secondary mental factor of feeling which accompanies a mental consciousness as an example of something which is mind and not a mental, which is not mind, which is not mind and is a mental consciousness. Why is it not mind? Because it’s a secondary mental factor. Feeling is a secondary mental factor.
It’s not a main mind. It’s a secondary mind, mental factor. And but k. So then we say, is this mental factor of feeling accompanied by accompanying a mental consciousness. Why is it a mental consciousness?
And then we would just cite the definition that we’ve given for mental consciousness. That is because it is a knower that has produced in dependence upon its own uncommon powering condition, a mental sense power. For that reason, it is a mental consciousness. And then an example of something which was both was is a is a main mind, a main mental mind, a mental mind, a mental mind. So it is a main a mental mind is a mental mind, because it is a main it is a main mind.
Mental mind is a mind because it’s a main mind. Mental mind is a mind because it’s a main mind. And it is also a mental consciousness because it is a knower that is produced in dependence upon its own uncommon empowering condition, a mental sense power. That is the definition of mental consciousness. Then on the other hand, something which was not both, something which is not both.
And we gave the mental factor feeling which accompanies the eye consciousness. The mental factor feeling which accompanies the eye consciousness. It is not a mind because it’s not a main mind. And it is not a mental consciousness because it is not a mental consciousness because it is a sense consciousness. And this this feeling which accompanies the the eye consciousness is not a main mind because it is a mental factor.
It’s not a main mind because it is a mental factor, secondary mental factor. So from this way of relating, we can develop many qualms. When we debate, this is one way of our style of debating in this method. So do you know if you train in this well, then you’ll be able to do you’ll you’ll be able to you’ll know how to debate very well. So in order to in order to debate well, we have to study well.
So the then the definition of sense consciousness. Definition of sense consciousness is a knower that is produced in dependence upon its own uncommon empowering condition, a physical sense power. A knower that is produced in dependence upon its own uncommon, empowering condition, a physical sense power is the definition of sense consciousness. So examples of sense consciousness are the five sense direct perceivers. Example, the eye sense direct perceiver, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body sense direct perceivers are all sense consciousnesses.
So these sense consciousnesses are not stable consciousnesses because they, in such times as when we sleep and if we’re meditating well, in these, sense consciousness, there’s a cessation. They’re non operative. They cease operating when we sleep and when we, for example, meditate well. They are Temporary. They offer it temporarily.
But whereas as as opposed to the stability of the mental consciousness. For us, when we meditate, the sense consciousness has not ceased operating. Have itches and we hear things and all these, we get, we smell things. For us, when we’re meditating, the sense consciousness is still operative. Yes.
But in such states when one first has is meditating within a, meditative equipoise on emptiness, for example, then all the various sense consciousness are inoperative. It’s only the mental consciousness which perceiving emptiness is operating. All the others have collapsed and ceased to operate. So it said that the Buddha performed ascetic practices for six years. Place where he performed is he performed austerities for six years.
It was near Bodh Gaya. And once when he was in meditation, someone came who was selling wood and he came and he was wondering, Is this really a person? Because the Buddha was just sitting there very still and he took a stick and he stuck it in his ear and stuck it in his nose The Buddha didn’t move at all because his sense consciousness were not operating. So during this period he went through austerities And he kept reducing the amount of food that he ate from a handful of grain down to the point where he was eating one grain of rice a day until where he ceased eating altogether. Some of you have seen images where he’s nothing but skin and bones at this point.
But he was in meditative equipoise on emptiness, and his sense consciousness were not operating, but his mind was experiencing bliss. His mental consciousness was experiencing bliss during this time. And likewise, in deep sleep, there is no the sense consciousness are not operating. During deep sleep, if if a thief were to come in our room, we wouldn’t be able to see them or hear Our sense consciousness are not operating. When the morning comes and somebody calls us, then we wake up and we say, Oh, I heard something.
And immediately our ear consciousness begins to operate again. And initially when we begin to develop the understanding of compassion, love, understanding of emptiness. These are all developed through the mental consciousness. They are not understood by the sense consciousnesses. In developing calm abiding samadhi, a very powerful concentration, some people, they stare at their eyes at a physical object.
And the eye consciousness cannot develop calm abiding. It’s developed by means of the mental consciousness. So this is not the way to develop calm abiding. We could, for example, take a picture of the Buddha and examine it well, analyze it, and then we would try to have it appear to our mental consciousness. We would develop that image in our mental consciousness as an object for us to develop calm abiding with.
So we’ve come almost to the last of the two in this particular division, that is, minds and mental factors. And this is extremely important to come to an understanding of minds and mental factors, because we understand what types of minds are be skillful, what types are unskillful, what types are to be cultivated, what types are to be abandoned. So we’ll take this up next time. It’s an extremely important section. But for now we’ll just answer questions.
So it’s very excellent that you’ve been able to, many of you have been able to come regularly. He knows that many of you are working, that you’re busy, that you have other things to do. It’s really excellent that you’ve been coming regularly. Now we’re coming to what Rinpoche considers the most important of this study, that is minds and mental factors, coming to an understanding of the skillful and non skillful states of mind. So he hopes that whether you’d be coming regularly or not, that you’ll be able to attend this particular session.
Yeah. Where where does the eye direct perceiver reside? The eye Eye direct direct perceiver. Where does it reside? Within the eyeball, there’s a subtle matter, a round matter, very subtle matter.
Within this subtle matter resides the eye direct perceiver. The are the optic knowers part of the direct perceiver? Are the optic knowers part of the direct perceiver? Or are they not? Part of the direct perceiver.
So the optic nerve is not a sense direct perceiver or the eye direct perceiver because, it is physical. And the eye direct perceiver is nonphysical, it’s an awareness. And this is true in general. The brain or the knowers are physical, whereas the awareness is non physical. Within the mind.
And and the mind roughly we say resides at the heart. Very roughly we say the mind resides at the heart. When you sort of get a knowing feeling in your gut that’s that seems to be more right than anywhere else here or here. Is that the mind? So Okay.
Yeah. So that’s that would be your And that’s your mental consciousness. Your mental consciousness Your mind and the mental factors which associate with the mind are located in the heart area. Whereas the I consciousness and the eye main mind and the mental factors associated with that reside in the eye. That way you get gut feeling about something still in the mind mental.
It’s not feeling to do with sort of feeling, mixture of mind and feeling. It’s more to do with mental consciousness that’s perceiving that that’s choosing to be apart or something. Not quite you ask him to show that? Know, Why not? Where where you like you get a a sort of perception.
You feel, well, that’s right. And you feel it there. So Yeah. So they said that’s a mental consciousness. So it’s not mixed with feeling.
Feeling. Not mixed with feeling. Do a question? Well, to to sort of is is that feeling intuition to to get a feeling of knowing that you feel that really feels right from here. It’s not, you you haven’t deduced it, you’re just saying, well that feels right.
So that your mental perceiver is identifying that feels right or sometimes you might say, that feels right here or sometimes just in the mind, know, by introducing it, say, that appears to be right but they’re very So if we get into a more detailed discussion of mind, then we get into there are many different levels of subtlety of mind. And the most subtle mind resides in the heart. This is the mind which originally entered into the union of the ovum and sperm of the mother and father. And from this the body grew out from the heart area. And this is where the most subtle mind resides.
But there are more type of grosser, coarser types of minds which reside in different areas other than the heart. Conceptual consciousness, is that the same as a sense consciousness? A pardon? Is a specific conceptual consciousness, yeah, the same as a sense consciousness? Specific conceptual consciousness.
Did I say specific? Yeah. There’s a sentence before that was the conceptual consciousness is able to understand all phenomena and a specific conceptual consciousness is only able to perceive one. Yeah. And I was wondering if that were if that was referring to the sense consciousness.
So what was meant was, in general, conceptual conscious can understand all phenomena, any phenomena, any phenomena, any phenomena. But when we talk about you know, when it conceives of a flower, there are many phenomena that establish simultaneously with that flower. The flower’s impermanence is a factor of it being a product, a factor of it being a thing. But it eliminates all these other factors and only one of those factors appears to it. That’s why it’s called an eliminative engager.
And it so it only takes one factor as as as its appearing object. So it only realizes the flower. Whereas only one thing, only one factor appears to it. That is the flower itself or the impermanence of the flower. Only one of these can appear to it at a time.
Whereas for a direct perceiver, all these simultaneously established factors appear to it at the same time. So in general we can say conceptual consciousness can understand any object, but once turns to a particular phenomena, only one factor appears to it. At a time? At a time. Thanks.
Yeah. Has the ears have consciousness. Do think? Alarm clock rings. I don’t know if that’s the right question.
What does it do so?