If it is true as Dr. Donald Hoffman suggests in his book titled, The Case Against Reality, that matter and spacetime arise from consciousness, then what are we to make of this consciousness from a Buddhist perspective?
The English word consciousness is often used in Buddhism to translate vijñāna. Does consciousness work? No, I don't think it does. It leaves out something very important in vijñāna which is the dualizing work of consciousness itself: there always has to be separation between subject and object as implied with the prefix “vi”.
It hardly ever dawns on the human mind, or maybe I should say human consciousness, that it is always looking at the world in two parts, that his, subject and object, or if you prefer, observer and observed. During satori or enlightenment this duality is transcended. The adept goes back to original, non-duality, or advaya.
Any trace of an ‘other’ or object is gone; there is no subject either. In about 1/10 of a second duality has gone back into the original state. In Zen we might call it One Mind or pure spirit or pure Mind. In light of this, thought, which brings with it duality (thinker and thought) only serves to falsify and distort the original state which is absolute, inexpressible, and indeterminate. It transcends every kind of thought, thought being only a construction of spirit or the same, the One Mind.
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