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Saturday, March 16, 2019

Suffering

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tragic mask on the façade of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden.
 
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of affective phenomena. The opposite of suffering is pleasure or happiness

Suffering is often categorized as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and frequency of occurrence usually compound that of intensity. Attitudes toward suffering may vary widely, in the sufferer or other people, according to how much it is regarded as avoidable or unavoidable, useful or useless, deserved or undeserved.

Suffering occurs in the lives of sentient beings in numerous manners, often dramatically. As a result, many fields of human activity are concerned with some aspects of suffering. These aspects may include the nature of suffering, its processes, its origin and causes, its meaning and significance, its related personal, social, and cultural behaviors, its remedies, management, and uses.

Terminology

The word suffering is sometimes used in the narrow sense of physical pain, but more often it refers to mental pain, or more often yet it refers to pain in the broad sense, i.e. to any unpleasant feeling, emotion or sensation. The word pain usually refers to physical pain, but it is also a common synonym of suffering. The words pain and suffering are often used both together in different ways. For instance, they may be used as interchangeable synonyms. Or they may be used in 'contradistinction' to one another, as in "pain is physical, suffering is mental", or "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional". Or they may be used to define each other, as in "pain is physical suffering", or "suffering is severe physical or mental pain". 

Qualifiers, such as physical, mental, emotional, and psychological, are often used to refer to certain types of pain or suffering. In particular, mental pain (or suffering) may be used in relationship with physical pain (or suffering) for distinguishing between two wide categories of pain or suffering. A first caveat concerning such a distinction is that it uses physical pain in a sense that normally includes not only the 'typical sensory experience of physical pain' but also other unpleasant bodily experiences including air hunger, hunger, vestibular suffering, nausea, sleep deprivation, and itching. A second caveat is that the terms physical or mental should not be taken too literally: physical pain or suffering, as a matter of fact, happens through conscious minds and involves emotional aspects, while mental pain or suffering happens through physical brains and, being an emotion, involves important physiological aspects. 

The word unpleasantness, which some people use as a synonym of suffering or pain in the broad sense, may be used to refer to the basic affective dimension of pain (its suffering aspect), usually in contrast with the sensory dimension, as for instance in this sentence: "Pain-unpleasantness is often, though not always, closely linked to both the intensity and unique qualities of the painful sensation." Other current words that have a definition with some similarity to suffering include distress, unhappiness, misery, affliction, woe, ill, discomfort, displeasure, disagreeableness.

Philosophy

Hedonism, as an ethical theory, claims that good and bad consist ultimately in pleasure and pain. Many hedonists, in accordance with Epicurus and contrarily to popular perception of his doctrine, advocate that we should first seek to avoid suffering and that the greatest pleasure lies in a robust state of profound tranquility (ataraxia) that is free from the worrisome pursuit or the unwelcome consequences of ephemeral pleasures. 

For Stoicism, the greatest good lies in reason and virtue, but the soul best reaches it through a kind of indifference (apatheia) to pleasure and pain: as a consequence, this doctrine has become identified with stern self-control in regard to suffering. 

Jeremy Bentham developed hedonistic utilitarianism, a popular doctrine in ethics, politics, and economics. Bentham argued that the right act or policy was that which would cause "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". He suggested a procedure called hedonic or felicific calculus, for determining how much pleasure and pain would result from any action. John Stuart Mill improved and promoted the doctrine of hedonistic utilitarianism. Karl Popper, in The Open Society and Its Enemies, proposed a negative utilitarianism, which prioritizes the reduction of suffering over the enhancement of happiness when speaking of utility: "I believe that there is, from the ethical point of view, no symmetry between suffering and happiness, or between pain and pleasure. (...) human suffering makes a direct moral appeal for help, while there is no similar call to increase the happiness of a man who is doing well anyway." David Pearce, for his part, advocates a utilitarianism that aims straightforwardly at the abolition of suffering through the use of biotechnology (see more details below in section Biology, neurology, psychology). Another aspect worthy of mention here is that many utilitarians since Bentham hold that the moral status of a being comes from its ability to feel pleasure and pain: therefore, moral agents should consider not only the interests of human beings but also those of (other) animals. Richard Ryder came to the same conclusion in his concepts of 'speciesism' and 'painism'. Peter Singer's writings, especially the book Animal Liberation, represent the leading edge of this kind of utilitarianism for animals as well as for people. 

Another doctrine related to the relief of suffering is humanitarianism. "Where humanitarian efforts seek a positive addition to the happiness of sentient beings, it is to make the unhappy happy rather than the happy happier. (...) [Humanitarianism] is an ingredient in many social attitudes; in the modern world it has so penetrated into diverse movements (...) that it can hardly be said to exist in itself."

Pessimists hold this world to be mainly bad, or even the worst possible, plagued with, among other things, unbearable and unstoppable suffering. Some identify suffering as the nature of the world, and conclude that it would be better if life did not exist at all. Arthur Schopenhauer recommends us to take refuge in things like art, philosophy, loss of the will to live, and tolerance toward 'fellow-sufferers'. 

Friedrich Nietzsche, first influenced by Schopenhauer, developed afterward quite another attitude, arguing that the suffering of life is productive, exalting the will to power, despising weak compassion or pity, and recommending us to embrace willfully the 'eternal return' of the greatest sufferings.

Philosophy of pain is a philosophical specialty that focuses on physical pain and is, through that, relevant to suffering in general.

Religion

Mahavira, the torch-bearer of ahimsa in Jainism.
 
Suffering plays an important role in a number of religions, regarding matters such as the following: consolation or relief; moral conduct (do no harm, help the afflicted, show compassion); spiritual advancement through life hardships or through self-imposed trials (mortification of the flesh, penance, ascetism); ultimate destiny (salvation, damnation, hell). Theodicy deals with the problem of evil, which is the difficulty of reconciling the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent god with the existence of evil: a quintessential form of evil, for many people, is extreme suffering, especially in innocent children, or in creatures destined to an eternity of torments.

The 'Four Noble Truths' of Buddhism are about dukkha, a term often translated as suffering. They state the nature of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation, the Noble Eightfold Path. Buddhism considers liberation from dukkha and the practice of compassion (karuna) as basic for leading a holy life and attaining nirvana

Hinduism holds that suffering follows naturally from personal negative behaviors in one’s current life or in a past life. One must accept suffering as a just consequence and as an opportunity for spiritual progress. Thus the soul or true self, which is eternally free of any suffering, may come to manifest itself in the person, who then achieves liberation (moksha). Abstinence from causing pain or harm to other beings, called ahimsa, is a central tenet of Hinduism, and even more so of another Indian religion, Jainism

Christianity also believes that human suffering plays an important role in religion. Suffering is only to be thought of as a positive experience in the case of achieving a higher meaning of life, such as Jesus suffering for the lives of other people as was the case during the atonement. Suffering is the time to find God and value faith while doing so. This allows Christians to face reality of human experience with suffering and find an understanding in the divine.

Hinduism and Christianity embrace similar aspects in suffering. Both religions realize the need for God as well as the moral significance for God that suffering provides. This allows enlightenment to be reached and suffering to be seen in the conditions that faith entails rather than an issue. These human experiences with suffering in both Hinduism and Christianity help educators to emphasize the need for dialogue and religious education in schools.

In Islam, the faithful must endure suffering with hope and faith, not resist or ask why, accept it as Allah's will and submit to it as a test of faith (Allah never asks more than can be endured). One must also work to alleviate suffering of others, as well as one's own. Suffering is also seen as a blessing in Islam for the mankind . Through the gift of suffering the Veil of Forgetfulness is torn apart and the sufferer remembers God and connects with him. When people suffer God makes them think of him. Several Islamic Prophet Muhammad's traditions state that, suffering expunges the sins of mankind and cleanses their soul for the immense reward in afterlife.

The Bible's Book of Job reflects on the nature and meaning of suffering. It is supplemented in the Hebrew bible by the passages found in the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Jeremiah which elaborate the emotional and physical suffering of a conquered nation with its vanquished inhabitants forced into the suffering of exile and captivity in a foreign land.

In the New Testament, suffering is portrayed both in the life of Jesus portrayed in the Synoptics, which narrate the suffering of the crucifixion, and in the post-Easter narratives. The suffering associated with punishment is further portrayed in the Apocalypse of John where suffering at the scene of the Last Judgment is depicted as the just recompense for sin and wrongdoing. Pope John Paul II wrote "On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering". This meaning revolves around the notion of redemptive suffering

According to the Bahá'í Faith, all suffering is a brief and temporary manifestation of physical life, whose source is the material aspects of physical existence, and often attachment to them, whereas only joy exists in the spiritual worlds. In the words of `Abdu'l-Bahá, "All these examples are to show you that the trials which beset our every step, all our sorrow, pain, shame and grief, are born in the world of matter; whereas the spiritual Kingdom never causes sadness. A man living with his thoughts in this Kingdom knows perpetual joy. The ills all flesh is heir to do not pass him by, but they only touch the surface of his life, the depths are calm and serene." (Paris Talks, p. 110).

Arts and literature

Artistic and literary works often engage with suffering, sometimes at great cost to their creators or performers. The Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database offers a list of such works under the categories art, film, literature, and theater. Be it in the tragic, comic or other genres, art and literature offer means to alleviate (and perhaps also exacerbate) suffering, as argued for instance in Harold Schweizer's Suffering and the remedy of art.


This Brueghel painting is among those that inspired W. H. Auden's poem Musée des Beaux Arts : 

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
(...)
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; (...) 

Social sciences

Social suffering, according to Arthur Kleinman and others, describes "collective and individual human suffering associated with life conditions shaped by powerful social forces". Such suffering is an increasing concern in medical anthropology, ethnography, mass media analysis, and Holocaust studies, says Iain Wilkinson, who is developing a sociology of suffering.

The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a work by the Union of International Associations. Its main databases are about world problems (56,564 profiles), global strategies and solutions (32,547 profiles), human values (3,257 profiles), and human development (4,817 profiles). It states that "the most fundamental entry common to the core parts is that of pain (or suffering)" and "common to the core parts is the learning dimension of new understanding or insight in response to suffering".

Ralph G.H. Siu, an American author, urged in 1988 the "creation of a new and vigorous academic discipline, called panetics, to be devoted to the study of the infliction of suffering", The International Society for Panetics was founded in 1991 to study and develop ways to reduce the infliction of human suffering by individuals acting through professions, corporations, governments, and other social groups.

In economics, the following notions relate not only to the matters suggested by their positive appellations, but to the matter of suffering as well: Well-being or Quality of life, Welfare economics, Happiness economics, Gross National Happiness, Genuine Progress Indicator

In law, "Pain and suffering" is a legal term that refers to the mental distress or physical pain endured by a plaintiff as a result of injury for which the plaintiff seeks redress. Assessments of pain and suffering are required to be made for attributing legal awards. In the Western world these are typical made by juries in a discretionary fashion and are regarded as subjective, variable, and difficult to predict, for instance in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. See also, in US law, Negligent infliction of emotional distress and Intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Biology, neurology, psychology

Suffering and pleasure are respectively the negative and positive affects, or hedonic tones, or valences that psychologists often identify as basic in our emotional lives. The evolutionary role of physical and mental suffering, through natural selection, is primordial: it warns of threats, motivates coping (fight or flight, escapism), and reinforces negatively certain behaviors. Despite its initial disrupting nature, suffering contributes to the organization of meaning in an individual's world and psyche. In turn, meaning determines how individuals or societies experience and deal with suffering.

Neuroimaging sheds light on the seat of suffering
 
Many brain structures and physiological processes are involved in suffering. Various hypotheses try to account for the experience of suffering. One of these, the pain overlap theory takes note, thanks to neuroimaging studies, that the cingulate cortex fires up when the brain feels suffering from experimentally induced social distress or physical pain as well. The theory proposes therefore that physical pain and social pain (i.e. two radically differing kinds of suffering) share a common phenomenological and neurological basis.

According to David Pearce’s online manifesto The Hedonistic Imperative, suffering is the avoidable result of Darwinian genetic design. Pearce promotes replacing the pain/pleasure axis with a robot-like response to noxious stimuli or with gradients of bliss, through genetic engineering and other technical scientific advances. 

Hedonistic psychology, affective science, and affective neuroscience are some of the emerging scientific fields that could in the coming years focus their attention on the phenomenon of suffering.

Health care

Disease and injury may contribute to suffering in humans and animals. For example, suffering may be a feature of mental or physical illness such as borderline personality disorder and occasionally in advanced cancer. Health care addresses this suffering in many ways, in subfields such as medicine, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, alternative medicine, hygiene, public health, and through various health care providers

Health care approaches to suffering, however, remain problematic. Physician and author Eric Cassell, widely cited on the subject of attending to the suffering person as a primary goal of medicine, has defined suffering as "the state of severe distress associated with events that threaten the intactness of the person". Cassell writes: "The obligation of physicians to relieve human suffering stretches back to antiquity. Despite this fact, little attention is explicitly given to the problem of suffering in medical education, research or practice." Mirroring the traditional body and mind dichotomy that underlies its teaching and practice, medicine strongly distinguishes pain from suffering, and most attention goes to the treatment of pain. Nevertheless, physical pain itself still lacks adequate attention from the medical community, according to numerous reports. Besides, some medical fields like palliative care, pain management (or pain medicine), oncology, or psychiatry, do somewhat address suffering 'as such'. In palliative care, for instance, pioneer Cicely Saunders created the concept of 'total pain' ('total suffering' say now the textbooks), which encompasses the whole set of physical and mental distress, discomfort, symptoms, problems, or needs that a patient may experience hurtfully.

Relief and prevention in society

Since suffering is such a universal motivating experience, people, when asked, can relate their activities to its relief and prevention. Farmers, for instance, may claim that they prevent famine, artists may say that they take our minds off our worries, and teachers may hold that they hand down tools for coping with life hazards. In certain aspects of collective life, however, suffering is more readily an explicit concern by itself. Such aspects may include public health, human rights, humanitarian aid, disaster relief, philanthropy, economic aid, social services, insurance, and animal welfare. To these can be added the aspects of security and safety, which relate to precautionary measures taken by individuals or families, to interventions by the military, the police, the firefighters, and to notions or fields like social security, environmental security, and human security.

Uses

Philosopher Leonard Katz wrote: "But Nature, as we now know, regards ultimately only fitness and not our happiness (...), and does not scruple to use hate, fear, punishment and even war alongside affection in ordering social groups and selecting among them, just as she uses pain as well as pleasure to get us to feed, water and protect our bodies and also in forging our social bonds."

People make use of suffering for specific social or personal purposes in many areas of human life, as can be seen in the following instances:
  • In arts, literature, or entertainment, people may use suffering for creation, for performance, or for enjoyment. Entertainment particularly makes use of suffering in blood sports and violence in the media, including violent video games depiction of suffering. A more or less great amount of suffering is involved in body art. The most common forms of body art include tattooing, body piercing, scarification, human branding. Another form of body art is a sub-category of performance art, in which for instance the body is mutilated or pushed to its physical limits.
  • In business and various organizations, suffering may be used for constraining humans or animals into required behaviors.
  • In a criminal context, people may use suffering for coercion, revenge, or pleasure.
  • In interpersonal relationships, especially in places like families, schools, or workplaces, suffering is used for various motives, particularly under the form of abuse and punishment. In another fashion related to interpersonal relationships, the sick, or victims, or malingerers, may use suffering more or less voluntarily to get primary, secondary, or tertiary gain.
  • In law, suffering is used for punishment; victims may refer to what legal texts call "pain and suffering" to get compensation; lawyers may use a victim's suffering as an argument against the accused; an accused's or defendant's suffering may be an argument in their favor; authorities at times use light or heavy torture in order to get information or a confession.
  • In the news media, suffering is often the raw material.
  • In personal conduct, people may use suffering for themselves, in a positive way. Personal suffering may lead, if bitterness, depression, or spitefulness is avoided, to character-building, spiritual growth, or moral achievement; realizing the extent or gravity of suffering in the world may motivate one to relieve it and may give an inspiring direction to one's life. Alternatively, people may make self-detrimental use of suffering. Some may be caught in compulsive reenactment of painful feelings in order to protect them from seeing that those feelings have their origin in unmentionable past experiences; some may addictively indulge in disagreeable emotions like fear, anger, or jealousy, in order to enjoy pleasant feelings of arousal or release that often accompany these emotions; some may engage in acts of self-harm aimed at relieving otherwise unbearable states of mind.
  • In politics, there is purposeful infliction of suffering in war, torture, and terrorism; people may use nonphysical suffering against competitors in nonviolent power struggles; people who argue for a policy may put forward the need to relieve, prevent or avenge suffering; individuals or groups may use past suffering as a political lever in their favor.
  • In religion, suffering is used especially to grow spiritually, to expiate, to inspire compassion and help, to frighten, to punish.
  • In rites of passage (see also hazing, ragging), rituals that make use of suffering are frequent.
  • In science, humans and animals are subjected on purpose to aversive experiences for the study of suffering or other phenomena.
  • In sex, especially in a context of sadism and masochism or BDSM, individuals may use a certain amount of physical or mental suffering (e.g. pain, humiliation).
  • In sports, suffering may be used to outperform competitors or oneself; see sports injury, and no pain, no gain; see also blood sport and violence in sport as instances of pain-based entertainment.

Eight Consciousnesses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ) is a classification developed in the tradition of the Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental consciousness (manovijñāna), the defiled mental consciousness (kliṣṭamanovijñāna), and finally the fundamental store-house consciousness (ālāyavijñāna), which is the basis of the other seven. This eighth consciousness is said to store the impressions (vāsanāḥ) of previous experiences, which form the seeds (bīja) of future karma in this life and in the next after rebirth.

The eightfold network of primary consciousnesses

All surviving schools of Buddhist thought accept – "in common" – the existence of the first six primary consciousnesses (Sanskrit: vijñāna, Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rnam-shes). The internally coherent Yogācāra school associated with Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu, however, uniquely – or "uncommonly" – also posits the existence of two additional primary consciousnesses, kliṣṭamanovijñāna and ālayavijñāna, in order to explain the workings of karma. The first six of these primary consciousnesses comprise the five sensory faculties together with mental consciousness, which is counted as the sixth. According to Gareth Sparham,
The ālaya-vijñāna doctrine arose on the Indian subcontinent about one thousand years before Tsong kha pa. It gained its place in a distinctly Yogācāra system over a period of some three hundred years stretching from 100 to 400 C.E., culminating in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, a short text by Asaṅga (circa 350), setting out a systematic presentation of the ālaya-vijñāna doctrine developed over the previous centuries. It is the doctrine found in this text in particular that Tsong kha pa, in his Ocean of Eloquence, treats as having been revealed in toto by the Buddha and transmitted to suffering humanity through the Yogācāra founding saints (Tib. shing rta srol byed): Maitreya[-nātha], Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu.
While some noteworthy modern scholars of the Gelug tradition (which was founded by Tsongkhapa's reforms to Atisha's Kadam school) assert that the ālāyavijñāna is posited only in the Yogācāra philosophical tenet system, all non-Gelug schools of Tibetan buddhism maintain that the ālāyavijñāna is accepted by the various Madhyamaka schools, as well. The Yogācāra eightfold network of primary consciousnesses – aṣṭavijñānāni in Sanskrit (from compounding aṣṭa, "eight", with vijñānāni, the plural of vijñāna "consciousnesses"), or Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད་, Wylie: rnam-shes tshogs-brgyad –  is roughly sketched out in the following table. 

The Eightfold Network of Primary Consciousnesses
Subgroups Name of Consciousness Associated Nonstatic Phœnomena in terms of Three Circles of Action
English Sanskrit Tibetan Chinese Physical Form Type of Cognition Cognitive Sensor
I. – VI. Each of these Six Common Consciousnesses –  referred to in Sanskrit as pravṛttivijñānāni – are posited on the basis of valid straightforward cognition, on any individual practitioner's part, of sensory data input experienced solely by means of their bodily sense faculties.
The derivation of this particular dual classification schema for these first six, so-called "common" consciousnesses has its origins in the first four Nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka – the second division of the Tipitaka in the Pali Canon – as first committed to writing during the Theravada school's fourth council at Sri Lanka in 83 (BCE).
Both individually and collectively: these first six, so-called "common" consciousnesses are posited – in common – by all surviving buddhist tenet systems.
I. Eye Consciousness
cakṣurvijñāna Tibetan: མིག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: mig-gi rnam-shes
眼識 Sight(s) Seeing Eyes
II. Ear Consciousness
śrotravijñāna Tibetan: རྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rna’i rnam-shes
耳識 Sound(s) Hearing Ears
III. Nose Consciousness
ghrāṇavijñāna Tibetan: སྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: sna’i rnam-shes
鼻識 Smell(s) Smell Nose
IV. Tongue Consciousness
jihvāvijñāna Tibetan: ལྕེའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: lce’i rnam-shes
舌識 Taste(s) Taste Tongue
V. Body Consciousness
kāyavijñāna Tibetan: ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: lus-kyi rnam-shes
身識 Feeling(s) Touch Body
VI. Mental Consciousness
manovijñāna Tibetan: ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: yid-kyi rnam-shes
意識 Thought(s) Ideation Mind
VII. This Seventh Consciousness, posited on the basis of straightforward cognition in combination with inferential cognition, is asserted, uncommonly, in Yogācāra.
VII. Deluded awareness
manas, kliṣṭa-manas, kliṣṭamanovijñāna, ādānavijñāna Tibetan: ཉོན་ཡིད་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: nyon-yid rnam-shes
末那識 Self-grasping Disturbing emotion or attitude (Skt.: kleśa) Mind
VIII. This Eighth Consciousness, posited on the basis of inferential cognition, is asserted, uncommonly, in Yogācāra.
VIII. All-encompassing foundation consciousness
ālāyavijñāna, bījavijñāna Tibetan: ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: kun-gzhi rnam-shes
藏識, 種子識, 阿賴耶識, or 本識
Memory Reflexive awareness Mind

Origins and development

Early Buddhist Texts ("EBTs")

The first five sense-consciousnesses along with the sixth consciousness are identified in the Suttapiṭaka, especially the Salayatanavagga subsection of the Saṃyuttanikāya:
"Monks, I will teach you the All. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."
"As you say, lord," the monks responded.
The Blessed One said, "What is the All? Simply the eye & forms, ear & sounds, nose & aromas, tongue & flavors, body & tactile sensations, intellect & ideas. This, monks, is called the All. Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,' if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for his statement, would be unable to explain, and furthermore, would be put to grief. Why? Because it lies beyond range."

Also, the early Buddhist texts speak of anusayā (Sanskrit: anuśayāḥ), the “underlying tendencies” or “latent dispositions” which keep beings caught in the circle of samsara. These potential tendencies are generally seen as unconscious processes which "lie beneath" our everyday consciousness, and according to Waldron "they represent the potential, the tendency, for cognitive and emotional afflictions (Pali: kilesā, Sanskrit: kleśāḥ) to arise".

Sautrāntika and Theravāda theories

The Sautrāntika school of Buddhism, which relied closely on the sutras, developed a theory of seeds (bīja, 種子) in the mindstream (cittasaṃtāna, 心相續, lit. "mind-character-continuity") to explain how karma and the latent dispositions continued throughout life and rebirth. This theory later developed into the alayavijñana view.

The Theravāda theory of the bhavaṅga may also be a forerunner of the ālāyavijñana theory. Vasubandhu cites the bhavaṅgavijñāna of the Sinhalese school (Tāmraparṇīyanikāya) as a forerunner of the ālāyavijñāna. The Theravadin theory is also mentioned by Xuánzàng.

Yogācāra

The texts of the Yogācāra school gives a detailed explanation of the workings of the mind and the way it constructs the reality we experience. It is "meant to be an explanation of experience, rather than a system of ontology". The theory of the ālāyavijñana and the other consciousnesses developed out of a need to work out various issues in Buddhist Abhidharma thought. According to Lambert Schmithausen, the first mention of the concept occurs in the Yogācārabhumiśāstra, which posits a basal consciousness that contains seeds for future cognitive processes. It is also described in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha of Asaṅga

Vasubandhu is considered to be the systematizer of Yogācāra thought. Vasubandhu used the concept of the six consciousnesses, on which he elaborated in the Triṃśikaikākārikā (Treatise in Thirty Stanzas).

Vijñānāni

According to the traditional interpretation, Vasubandhu states that there are eight consciousnesses (vijñānāni, singular: vijñāna):
  • Five sense-consciousnesses,
  • Mind (perception),
  • Manas (self-consciousness),
  • Storehouse-consciousness.
According to Kalupahana, this classification of eight consciousnesses is based on a misunderstanding of Vasubandhu's Triṃśikaikākārikā by later adherents.

Ālayavijñāna

The ālayavijñāna (Japanese: 阿頼耶識 arayashiki), or the "All-encompassing foundation consciousness", forms the "base-consciousness" (mūlavijñāna) or "causal consciousness". According to the traditional interpretation, the other seven consciousnesses are "evolving" or "transforming" consciousnesses originating in this base-consciousness. The store-house consciousness accumulates all potential energy as seeds (bīja) for the mental (nāma) and physical (rūpa) manifestation of one's existence (nāmarūpa). It is the storehouse-consciousness which induces rebirth, causing the origination of a new existence.

Role

The ālayavijñāna is also described in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra as the "mind which has all the seeds" (sarvabījakam cittam) which enters the womb and develops based on two forms of appropriation or attachment (upādāna); to the material sense faculties, and to predispositions (vāsanā) towards conceptual proliferations (prapañca). The Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra also defines it in varying ways:
This consciousness is also called the appropriating consciousness ("adana-vijñana") because the body is grasped and appropriated by it.
It is also called the "alaya-vijñana" because it dwells in and attaches to this body in a common destiny ("ekayogakṣema-arthena").
It is also called mind ("citta") because it is heaped up and accumulated by [the six cognitive objects, i.e.:] visual forms, sounds, smells, flavors, tangibles and dharmas.
In a seemingly innovative move, the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra states that the alayavijñana is always active subliminally and occurs simultaneously with, "supported by and depending upon" the six sense consciousnesses.

According to Asanga's Mahāyānasaṃgraha, the alayavijñana is taught by other Buddhist schools by different names. He states that the alaya is what the Mahasamghikas call the “root-consciousness” (mulavijñana), what the Mahīśāsakas call “the aggregate which lasts as long as samsara” (asaṃsārikaskandha) and what the Sthaviras call the bhavaṅga.

Rebirth and purification

The store-house consciousness receives impressions from all functions of the other consciousnesses, and retains them as potential energy, bīja or "seeds", for their further manifestations and activities. Since it serves as the container for all experiential impressions it is also called the "seed consciousness" (種子識) or container consciousness

According to Yogācāra teachings, the seeds stored in the store consciousness of sentient beings are not pure.

The store consciousness, while being originally immaculate in itself, contains a "mysterious mixture of purity and defilement, good and evil". Because of this mixture the transformation of consciousness from defilement to purity can take place and awakening is possible.

Through the process of purification the dharma practitioner can become an Arhat, when the four defilements of the mental functions  of the manas-consciousness are purified.

Tathagata-garbha thought

According to the Laṅkāvatārasūtra and the schools of Chan and Zen Buddhism, the ālāyavijñāna is identical with the tathāgatagarbha, and is fundamentally pure.

The equation of ālāyavijñāna and tathāgatagarbha was contested. It was seen as "something akin to the Hindu notions of ātman (permanent, invariant self) and prakṛti (primordial substrative nature from which all mental, emotional and physical things evolve)." According to Lusthaus, the critique led by the end of the eighth century to the rise of the logico-epistemic tradition of Yogācāra and a hybrid school combining Tathāgatagarbha thought with basic Yogācāra doctrines:
The logico-epistemological wing in part sidestepped the critique by using the term citta-santāna, "mind-stream", instead of ālaya-vijñāna, for what amounted to roughly the same idea. It was easier to deny that a "stream" represented a reified self. On the other hand, the Tathāgatagarbha hybrid school was no stranger to the charge of smuggling notions of selfhood into its doctrines, since, for example, it explicitly defined the tathāgatagarbha as "permanent, pleasurable, self, and pure (nitya, sukha, ātman, śuddha)". Many Tathāgatagarbha texts, in fact, argue for the acceptance of selfhood (ātman) as a sign of higher accomplishment. The hybrid school attempted to conflate tathāgatagarbha with the ālaya-vijñāna.

Transformations of consciousness

The traditional interpretation of the eight consciousnesses may be discarded on the ground of a reinterpretation of Vasubandhu's works. According to Kalupahana, instead of positing such an consciousnesses, the Triṃśikaikākārikā describes the transformations of this consciousness:
Taking vipaka, manana and vijnapti as three different kinds of functions, rather than characteristics, and understanding vijnana itself as a function (vijnanatiti vijnanam), Vasubandhu seems to be avoiding any form of substantialist thinking in relation to consciousness.
These transformations are threefold:
Whatever, indeed, is the variety of ideas of self and elements that prevails, it occurs in the transformation of consciousness. Such transformation is threefold, [namely,]
The first transformation results in the ālāya:
the resultant, what is called mentation, as well as the concept of the object. Herein, the consciousness called alaya, with all its seeds, is the resultant.
The ālāyavijñāna therefore is not an eighth consciousness, but the resultant of the transformation of consciousness:
Instead of being a completely distinct category, alaya-vijnana merely represents the normal flow of the stream of consciousness uninterrupted by the appearance of reflective self-awareness. It is no more than the unbroken stream of consciousness called the life-process by the Buddha. It is the cognitive process, containing both emotive and co-native aspects of human experience, but without the enlarged egoistic emotions and dogmatic graspings characteristic of the next two transformations.
The second transformation is manana, self-consciousness or "Self-view, self-confusion, self-esteem and self-love". According to the Lankavatara and later interpreters it is the seventh consciousness. It is "thinking" about the various perceptions occurring in the stream of consciousness". The alaya is defiled by this self-interest;
[I]t can be purified by adopting a non-substantialist (anatman) perspective and thereby allowing the alaya-part (i.e. attachment) to dissipate, leaving consciousness or the function of being intact.
The third transformation is viṣayavijñapti, the "concept of the object". In this transformation the concept of objects is created. By creating these concepts human beings become "susceptible to grasping after the object":
Vasubandhu is critical of the third transformation, not because it relates to the conception of an object, but because it generates grasping after a "real object" (sad artha), even when it is no more than a conception (vijnapti) that combines experience and reflection.
A similar perspective is give by Walpola Rahula. According to Walpola Rahula, all the elements of the Yogācāra storehouse-consciousness are already found in the Pāli Canon. He writes that the three layers of the mind (citta, manas, and vijñāna) as presented by Asaṅga are also mentioned in the Pāli Canon:
Thus we can see that 'Vijñāna' represents the simple reaction or response of the sense organs when they come in contact with external objects. This is the uppermost or superficial aspect or layer of the 'Vijñāna-skandha'. 'Manas' represents the aspect of its mental functioning, thinking, reasoning, conceiving ideas, etc. 'Citta' which is here called 'Ālayavijñāna', represents the deepest, finest and subtlest aspect or layer of the Aggregate of consciousness. It contains all the traces or impressions of the past actions and all good and bad future possibilities.

Understanding in Buddhist Tradition

China

Fǎzàng and Huayan

According to Thomas McEvilley, although Vasubandhu had postulated numerous ālāya-vijñāna-s, a separate one for each individual person in the parakalpita, this multiplicity was later eliminated in the Fa Hsiang and Huayan metaphysics. These schools inculcated instead the doctrine of a single universal and eternal ālaya-vijñāna. This exalted enstatement of the ālāyavijñāna is described in the Fa Hsiang as "primordial unity".

Thomas McEvilley further argues that the presentation of the three natures by Vasubandhu is consistent with the Neo-platonist views of Plotinus and his universal 'One', 'Mind', and 'Soul'.

Chán

A core teaching of Chan/Zen Buddhism describes the transformation of the Eight Consciousnesses into the Four Wisdoms. In this teaching, Buddhist practice is to turn the light of awareness around, from misconceptions regarding the nature of reality as being external, to kenshō, "directly see one's own nature". Thus the Eighth Consciousness is transformed into the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, the Seventh Consciousness into the Equality (Universal Nature) Wisdom, the Sixth Consciousness into the Profound Observing Wisdom, and First to Fifth Consciousnesses into the All Performing (Perfection of Action) Wisdom.

Korea

The Interpenetration (通達) and Essence-Function (體用) of Wonhyo (元曉) is described in the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith (大乘起信論, Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra, AMF in the excerpt below):
The author of the AMF was deeply concerned with the question of the respective origins of ignorance and enlightenment. If enlightenment is originally existent, how do we become submerged in ignorance? If ignorance is originally existent, how is it possible to overcome it? And finally, at the most basic level of mind, the alaya consciousness (藏識), is there originally purity or taint? The AMF dealt with these questions in a systematic and thorough fashion, working through the Yogacāra concept of the alaya consciousness. The technical term used in the AMF which functions as a metaphorical synonym for interpenetration is "permeation" or "perfumation (薫)," referring to the fact that defilement (煩惱) "perfumates" suchness (眞如), and suchness perfumates defilement, depending on the current condition of the mind.

Eight-circuit model of consciousness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Eight-Circuit Model of Consciousness is a hypothesis by Timothy Leary, and later expanded on by Robert Anton Wilson and Antero Alli, that "suggested eight periods [circuits] and twenty-four stages of neurological evolution". The eight circuits, or eight "brains" as referred by other authors, operate within the human nervous system, each corresponding to its own imprint and direct experience of reality. Leary and Alli include three stages for each circuit that details developmental points for each level of consciousness.

The first four circuits deal with life on earth, and survival of the species. The last four circuits are post-terrestrial, and deal with the evolution of the species, altered states of consciousness, enlightenment, mystical experiences, psychedelic states of mind, and psychic abilities. The proposal suggests that these altered states of consciousness are recently realized, but not widely utilized. Leary describes the first four as "larval circuits", necessary for surviving and functioning in a terrestrial human society, and proposed that the post terrestrial circuits will be useful for future humans who, through a predetermined script, continue to act on their urge to migrate to outer space and live extra-terrestrially. Leary, Wilson, and Alli have written about the idea in depth, and have explored and attempted to define how each circuit operates, both in the lives of individual people and in societies and civilization. 

The term "circuit" is equated to a metaphor of the brain being computer hardware, and that the wiring of the brain as circuitry.

Leary uses the eight circuits along with recapitulation theory to explain the evolution of the human species, the personal development of an individual, and the biological evolution of all life.

The Eight Circuits

Each circuit listed has each name from Leary's book "Exo-Psychology" after the preface, and Wilson's book "Quantum Psychology" pgs.196-201. Note:In other books from Leary, Wilson, and Alli, the eight circuits have different names due to different interpretations and findings of each author. Please reference bibliography section for other works on labeling of each circuit.

1. (Leary) The vegetative-invertebrate circuit (Wilson)The oral bio-survival circuit

This circuit is concerned with nourishment, physical safety, comfort and survival, suckling, cuddling, etc. It begins with one spatial dimension, forward/back.

This circuit is imprinted early in infancy. The imprint will normally last for life unless it is re-imprinted by a powerful experience. Depending on the nature of the imprint, the organism will tend towards one of two basic attitudes:
  • A positive imprint sets up a basic attitude of trust. The organism generally considers the environment benign and accepts and approaches. This is equivalent to a default life position of "you're ok" in the 'life positions' model of Transactional analysis.
  • A negative imprint sets up a basic attitude of suspicion. The organism generally regards the environment as hostile and flees and avoids. This is equivalent to a default life position of "you're not ok" in the 'life positions' model of Transactional analysis.
This circuit is said to have appeared in the earliest evolution of the invertebrate brain and corresponds to the reptilian brain of triune brain theory. This circuit operates in essentially the same way across mammals, reptiles, fish, primates and humans. 

Robert Anton Wilson equated this circuit with the oral stage in the Freudian theory of psychosexual development, and proposed that this circuit is activated in adults by strong opioids.

2. (Leary) The emotional-locomotion circuit (Wilson)The anal territorial circuit

The emotional-territorial circuit is imprinted in the toddler stage. It is concerned with domination and submission, territoriality, etc. 

The imprint on this circuit will trigger one of two states:
This circuit is activated by depressant drugs such as alcohol, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines. This circuit appeared first in territorial vertebrate animals and is preserved across all mammals. It corresponds to the mammalian brain of triune brain theory. Robert Anton Wilson equated this circuit with the anal stage in the Freudian theory of psycho-sexual development. This circuit introduces a 2nd spatial dimension; up/down.

The first and second circuits both imprint in a binary fashion: trust/suspicion and dominance/submission. Thus there are four possible ways of imprinting the first two circuits:

3. (Leary) The laryngeal-manual symbolic circuit (Wilson)The semantic time-binding circuit

This circuit is imprinted by human symbol systems. It is concerned with language, handling the environment, invention, calculation, prediction, building a mental "map" of the universe, physical dexterity, etc. 

This circuit is activated by stimulant drugs such as amphetamines, cathinones, cocaine, and caffeine. This circuit supposedly appeared first when hominids started differentiating from the rest of the primates

Robert Anton Wilson, being heavily influenced by General Semantics, writes of this circuit as the 'time-binding circuit'. This means that this circuit's contents – including human know-how, technology, science etc. - are preserved memetically and passed on from generation to generation, constantly mutating and increasing in sophistication.

4. (Leary) The socio-sexual domestication circuit (Wilson)The socio-sexual circuit

This fourth circuit is imprinted by the first orgasm-mating experiences and tribal "morals". It is concerned with sexual pleasure (instead of sexual reproduction), local definitions of "moral" and "immoral", reproduction, rearing of the young, etc. The fourth circuit concerns itself with cultural values and operating within social networks. This circuit is said to have first appeared with the development of tribes. Some have pointed out that entactogens such as MDMA seem to meet some of the requirements needed to activate this circuit.

5. (Leary and Wilson)The neurosomatic circuit

This is concerned with neurological-somatic feedbacks, feeling high and blissful, somatic reprogramming, etc. It may be called the rapture circuit.

When this circuit is activated, a non-conceptual feeling of well-being arises. This has a beneficial effect on the health of the physical body.

The fifth circuit is consciousness of the body. There is a marked shift from linear visual space to an all-encompassing aesthetic sensory space. Perceptions are judged not so much for their meaning and utility, but for their aesthetic qualities. Experience of this circuit often accompanies an hedonistic turn-on, a rapturous amusement, a detachment from the previously compulsive mechanism of the first four circuits. 

This circuit is activated by ecstatic experiences via physiological effects of cannabis, Hatha Yoga, tantra and Zen meditation. Robert Anton Wilson writes, "Tantra yoga is concerned with shifting consciousness entirely into this circuit" and that "Prolonged sexual play without orgasm always triggers some Circuit V consciousness".

Leary describes that this circuit first appeared in the upper classes, with the development of leisure-class civilizations around 2000 BC.

6. (Leary) The neuro-electric circuit (Wilson)The metaprogramming circuit

Note: Timothy Leary lists this circuit as the sixth, and the neurogenetic circuit as the seventh. In "Prometheus Rising", Robert Anton Wilson reversed the order of these two circuits, describing the neurogenetic circuit as the sixth circuit, and the metaprogramming circuit as the seventh. In the subsequently published "Quantum Psychology", he reverted this back to the order proposed by Leary. 

This circuit is concerned with re-imprinting and re-programming all earlier circuits and the relativity of "realities" perceived. The sixth circuit consists of the nervous system becoming aware of itself. Leary says this circuit enables telepathic communication and is activated by low-to-moderate doses of LSD (50-150 µg), moderate doses of peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and meditation/chanting especially when used in a group or ritual setting. This circuit is traced by Leary back to 500 BC.

7. (Leary) The neurogenetic circuit (Wilson) The morphogenetic circuit

This circuit is the connection of the individual's mind to the whole sweep of evolution and life as a whole. It is the part of consciousness that echoes the experiences of the previous generations that have brought the individual's brain-mind to its present level.

It deals with ancestral, societal and scientific DNA-RNA-brain feedbacks. Those who achieve this mutation may speak of past lives, reincarnation, immortality etc. It corresponds to the collective unconscious in the models of Carl Jung where archetypes reside. 

Activation of this circuit may be equated with consciousness of the Great God Pan in his aspect as Life as a whole, or with consciousness of Gaia, the biosphere considered as a single organism.

This circuit is activated by higher doses of LSD (200-500 µg), higher doses of peyote, higher doses of psilocybin mushrooms, yoga and meditation.

The circuit first appeared among the Hindus in the early first millennium and later reappeared among the Sufi sects.

8. (Leary) The neuro-atomic metaphysiological (Wilson) The non-local quantum circuit

The eighth circuit is concerned with quantum consciousness, non-local awareness (information from beyond ordinary space-time awareness which is limited by the speed of light), illumination. Some of the ways this circuit can get activated are: the awakening of kundalini, shock, a near-death experience, DMT, high doses of LSD and according to Robert Anton Wilson almost any dose of ketamine. This circuit has even been compared to the Buddhist concept of Indra's net from the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Leary's contribution

Leary stated "They[The theories presented in Info-Psychology] are scientific in that they are based on empirical findings from physics, physiology, pharmacology, genetics, astronomy, behavioral psychology, information science, and most importantly, neurology." 

Leary called his book "science faction" or "psi-phy" and noted he had written it "in various prisons to which the author had been sentenced for dangerous ideology and violations of Newtonian and religious laws".

Although Leary propounded the basic premise of eight "brains" or brain circuits, he was inspired by sources such as the Hindu chakra system. 

Leary claimed that among other things this model explained the social conflict in the 1960s, where the mainstream was said to be those with four circuits active and characterized by Leary as tribal moralists and clashed with the counter-culturists, who were then said to be those with the fifth circuit active and characterized as individualists and hedonists.

Leary's first book on the subject, Neurologic, only included seven circuits when it was published in 1973. Exo-Psychology, published in 1977, expanded the number of circuits to eight and clarified the subject. In it, he puts forward the theory that the later four circuits are "post terrestrial;" intended to develop as we migrate off this planet and colonize others. Once we begin space migration, according to Leary, we will have more ready access to these higher circuits. Exo-Psychology was re-published as revised by Timothy Leary with additional material in 1989 under the title Info-Psychology (New Falcon Publishing).

Other authors on the eight circuits

In chaos magic the eight circuits are sometimes related to the eight rays of the symbol of chaos
 
Leary's ideas heavily influenced the work of Robert Anton Wilson. Wilson's book Prometheus Rising is an in-depth work documenting Leary's eight-circuit model of consciousness. Wilson's published screenplay Reality Is What You Can Get Away With uses and explains the model. Wilson, like Leary, wrote about the distinction between terrestrial and post-terrestrial life.

Angel Tech by Antero Alli, is structured around the Eight-circuit model of consciousness. Alli defines the word angel as "a being of light" and tech from the word "techne" meaning "art". The title is defined as "the art of being light". It includes suggested activities such as meditations and construction of tarot-card collages associated with each circuit and imprint.

The model is fairly prominent in chaos magic. This concept has been detailed in "Chaotopia!" by Dave Lee, a leading member of the magic society Illuminates of Thanateros. Leary and Wilson were also members of the society.

Rolf Von Eckartsberg also appears to have been influenced by the model.

Bibliography

  • Alli, Antero. Angel Tech: A Modern Shaman's Guide to Reality Selection, The Original Falcon Press; (1985)(Reprint - 2008). ISBN 978-1-935150-95-4.
  • Alli, Antero. The Eight-Circuit Brain: Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body, Vertical Pool Publishing; (2009). ISBN 978-0-9657341-3-4.
  • Leary, Timothy. The Game of Life, (1979) (Second Edition, 1993), with contributions by Robert Anton Wilson. ISBN 9781561840502
  • Leary, Timothy. The Politics of Ecstasy, (1970) ISBN 1-57951-031-0
  • Leary, Timothy. Neurologic, 1973, with Joanna Leary.
  • Leary, Timothy. Exo-Psychology, 1977.
  • Leary, Timothy. Info-Psychology, New Falcon Publications, (1987)(Seventh Print, 2011), ISBN 1-56184-105-6.
  • Leary, Timothy. What Does WoMan Want?, (1976), 88 books.
  • "Leary's 8 Calibre Brain", Psychic magazine, (April, 1976).
  • Lee, Dave. Chaotopia!, Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN 1-869928-88-1.
  • Valle, R. & von Eckarsberg, R. The metaphors of consciousness. New York: Plenum Press.
  • Wilson, Robert Anton. Prometheus Rising, (1983), New Falcon Publications (Reprint - 1992). ISBN 1-56184-056-4.
  • Wilson, Robert Anton. Quantum Psychology, (1990). ISBN 9781561840717.
  • Wilson, Robert Anton. Reality Is What You Can Get Away With, (1992)(new introduction added, 1996).

Introduction to entropy

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