Transparent consciousness

If we imagine that the consciousness which interfaces with our human body is transparent like clear glass then this consciousness, unknowingly, automatically identifies itself with the human body and its passions.  It has no idea that its own body is purely spiritual (this is the manomaya body, a subject found both in the Pali Nikayas and Mahayana Sutras).  Making this blind interfacing more vexing is our addiction to the pleasures of the human body.  The extreme addiction of this blindness leads to materialism.  Such a spiritual body is vehemently denied.   

Switching gears, as we might expect there is a marked difference between those who pass away addicted to the human body and those who have connected with the spiritual body.

“Because, there are two kinds of passing away—[the ordinary] discontinuous passing away and the passing away which is the inconceivable transference.  The discontinuous passing away belongs to the sentient beings, who have reconnection (pratisamdhi) [with sense organs].  The passing away which is the inconceivable transference belongs to the bodies made of mind (manomaya-kaya) of Arhats, Pratyekabuddhas, and of Bodhisattvas great beings, who have attained power, up to their reaching the terrace of enlightenment” (The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala).

We can surmise from this that desire for the human body has, more or less, a blinding effect on consciousness, itself, which cannot detect an incorporeal body.  Suffering, thus, arises as a result of such desire which has riveted consciousness to the human body, or the same, the nâmarûpa (the 4th link of the Twelve Fetters/dvâdasha-nidâna).  As we might guess this leads to the enormous problem of rebirth.  

“Wise Protector, in the same way, after a sentient being dies, his consciousness will take birth again together with the elements of feeling, awareness, and dharmas” (Maharatnakuta Sutra).

 

Comments

[Jure]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCb2fFGz-W8

[MStrinado]

You have a most uncanny knack for compressing the whole karmic-carnal/manomayakayic-spiritual saga into a precise and concise kernel of inconceivable bodhi--marvelously done!