Tagged: viññāṇa
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Bucknell - Conditioned Arising Evolves (1999)
1Roderick S. Bucknell's article argues that the well-known twelve-link chain of Conditioned Arising (paṭicca-samuppāda) is a simplified and structurally distorted version of a more complex, branching ancestral doctrine that was altered during early oral transmission. He posits that different textual versions, such as the "looped," "branched," and "Sutta-nipāta" accounts, represent fragments or derivatives of this original form, in which consciousness (viññāṇa) arose from two distinct causal sources - one from ignorance and activities, and another from the interaction of sense organs (saḷāyatana) and sense objects, for which `nāma-rūpa` was the original collective term. The process of memorization and recitation, particularly in reverse, likely flattened this branching structure into a linear sequence, which in turn necessitated a scholastic reinterpretation of key terms like `nāma-rūpa` (as mind-body) and `viññāṇa` (as rebirth consciousness) to make the new, simplified chain coherent.
Norman - Aspects of Early Buddhism (1990)
2In early Buddhism, the denial of a permanent self (attā) raises the question of what transmigrates through saṃsāra, with the Buddha refuting the idea of a permanent consciousness (viññāṇa) and instead proposing the doctrine of dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda). This causal chain explains how suffering arises from conditions like ignorance (avijjā) and craving (taṇhā), and liberation (nibbāna) is achieved by breaking this chain. The Pāli canon presents multiple, sometimes conflicting, paths to this goal, including the Buddha's own attainment of bodhi through meditative states (jhānas) and the destruction of the āsavas ("afflictions"), and the more widely taught Eight-Fold Path which leads to the cessation of suffering (dukkha-nirodha). Ultimately, nibbāna is not a state of being for a soul but is described as the uncompounded (asaṅkhata) and indescribable reality that remains when the conditioned elements (khandhas) that constitute an individual cease, thus ending the cycle of rebirth.
Polak - Can Cessation Be a Cognitive State (2023)
3In the early Buddhist Nikāyas, the concept of *nirodha* (cessation) describes a special meditative state, achievable in life, that should be understood not as insentience but as a unique form of cognition. This state involves the cessation of the psychophysical constituents (*khandha-s* and *salāyatana-s*), which the article interprets, using modern philosophy of mind, as the cessation of ordinary, constructed phenomenal consciousness (*viññāna*). While this reportable, self-referential experience is suspended, a deeper, functional mind (*citta*) continues to operate in a non-introspectable, globally unavailable way. The soteriological purpose of this is to bypass the distorting nature of phenomenal consciousness—which is a constructed representation rather than a direct perception of the present—thereby allowing for a tacit, ineffable insight into reality as it is. This cognitive state is thus apophatic, transcending the familiar categories of self, time, and space that structure phenomenal experience, and results in a profound but non-reportable transformation.
Polak - The Pleasure of Not Experiencing Anything (2023)
4Grzegorz Polak's article reconstructs the philosophical basis for the early Buddhist claim that the pleasure (*sukha*) of nibbāna lies in the absence of experience (*vedayita*). The author argues that *vedayita* and the five aggregates (*khandhas*) do not represent all cognition but a specific type of introspectable, reportable "access consciousness" that is inherently fabricated (*saṅkhāra*) and tied to a mistaken sense of self. Drawing on modern cognitive science, the paper posits that this form of consciousness is not continuous and its very generation is correlated with a subtle tension and fundamental discomfort (*dukkha*). Consequently, states of deep absorption or "flow" are pleasurable due to a lower frequency of this self-conscious awareness. The ultimate psychological transformation, therefore, involves ceasing to identify with one's consciousness, which allows for its absence to be realized not as annihilation, but as a profound, non-introspectable comfort (*sukha*) while the organism remains intelligently and receptively engaged with the world.
Sharma - Rune E. A. Johansson's Analysis of Citta (2018)
5In his critique of Rune E. A. Johansson's analysis, Arvind Sharma examines and refutes the theory that *citta* (mind) exists as a core personality factor separate from the five *skandhas* and survives death. Johansson argues that *citta* is an enduring element, distinct from *viññāna* (consciousness), which attains *nibbāna* and continues in a diluted, impersonal state after an *arahant's* death, citing as evidence the ability of *arahants* to recognize one another and scriptural accounts like the story of Vakkali. Sharma contends that this evidence is insufficient to challenge the standard Theravāda position that an *arahant's* post-mortem state is unpredictable. He counters that Johansson relies on a weak "argument from silence" and offers an alternative interpretation wherein an *arahant's* enlightenment is recognized precisely through the *non-recognizability* of their consciousness, rather than through an identifiable, surviving *citta*.