In Western culture, “brain” is the same as “consciousness”. In Buddhism, your brain is only a tool that connects to consciousness, like your eyes or ears. Consciousness is the ability to be aware of everything (our own physical senses and the surroundings). This ability has six functions and exists without form.
The relationship between consciousness, body and space
| CONSCIOUSNESS (Function) |
BODY (Tool) |
SURROUNDINGS (Space) |
||
| Eye Consciousness | uses | the eyes | to sense | brightness or darkness |
| Ear Consciousness | uses | the ears | to sense | sound or silence |
| Nose Consciousness | uses | the nose | to sense | smell or lack of smell |
| Tongue Consciousness | uses | the tongue | to sense | taste or tasteless |
| Body Consciousness | uses | the body | to sense | contact or separation |
| Mind Consciousness | uses | the mind | to sense | awareness or lack of awareness |
Levels of consciousness
In Buddhism philosophy, consciousness can be described precisely by level.
For example: You might be wondering whether there is logic behind the people you spend time with, or get on with, or the ones you don’t find you mix well with.
This can be broken down into:
-Habit
-Awareness ability
-Logic ability
-Body awareness ability
-Will
-Intention
Transcribed from a class on the 27th of October, 2013.
MInd consciousness is unlike the other senses. Awareness expands and occupies different states of perception or awareness in a unbounded way. When different states are achieved, changes often occur to the senses but this is due to the state of consciousness achieved. Taste without MInd can be trained but not evolved or transmuted in the way consciousness can.
Hi Audrey – thanks for posting? What do you mean when you say ‘changes often occur to the senses’ ?
In meditation according to what I have learned from my spiritual teacher Sifu and have experienced myself, all the other sense consciousness can be the same like mind consciousness has no boundary. But it is only something you can experience when you know how to do deep meditation. Thank you for your sharing.