Consciousness is not the substratum of our everyday world

I have touched on the importance of consciousness or vijñāna a few times.  Unlike the western notion of consciousness, Buddhist consciousness is more subtle.  It not only contains spacetime with its countless worlds, it includes cycles of birth and death otherwise known as saṃsāra and the conscious agents who are going through this.  I should mention, also, that consciousness, according to the Buddha, is like a magical illusion (māyā). 

Vijñāna also contains within it the notion of duality (dvaya) both external (the individual and the world) and internal (observer  and observed thought and sensory phenomena).  But with this duality there is an implicit unseparatedness which is still no unity since the two sides of vijñāna would have to be transcended in order to reach unity or oneness. 

To attain unity, the adept must reach the origin of vijñāna before it becomes dyadic in order to transcend it.  From Zen’s perspective, the only way to reach unity is by intuiting the uncreated or the same, the unconditioned, which answers neither to the observer or the observable or even thinkable phenomena.

With the overcoming of vijñāna, no longer being enclosed by it, one passes through vijñāna.  It’s no longer a limit which is also a resistance (i.e., matter) but now permeable since it is illusory.  Spirit (ātman) passes through it which is not to be confused with a self, individual or subject.  It is the Buddha-nature according to the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra.

I am sure some will be aghast at this part of Buddhism.  But if we take into consideration where science is at today, following their logic,  the world we believe and trust in is not real at all.  This is to say, objects in spacetime are not as fundamental as we imagine.  Truth be told, our reality is an illusion, nevertheless, sufficient to make the bulk of humans accept it as non-illusory truth.  Buddhism overturns this belief.  Yes, there is something which supersedes vijñāna.  Vijñāna is not the substratum of our everyday world.  It is only useful for keeping us in the illusory Darwinian fitness game.

Comments

[dave b]

"Unlike the western notion of consciousness"

There really isn't one though. There's a Star Trek notion of consciousness. But consciousness is not really a term in Western religion or philosophy (I only count ancient philosophy).
Consciousness in the West is an atheist term for losers who deny the soul. The only other usage is simple talking about a loss of consciousness in the ER.