It’s not surprising that some scholars of Vedanta forget that the mind is inert (jada) or unconscious by nature and only ‘thinks as it were’ (Brh.Up.) due to its pervasion or transfusion by pure consciousness. The mind then is material interacting with other material entities and objects. Epiphenomenalism and the causal problem are not a topic in advaita per se and they arise only as controversion. Why those scholiasts forget the jada nature is probably due to their entrancement by problems spawned by Western epistemology.
That is a very large discussion which I will get to in time. In this note I consider the materiality of the Body/Mind/Spirit complex and its tendency to therefore fall under the sway of multiple cybernetic factors, feedback loops, the bogus homeostasis of gratified desires and if we want to stay within the purlieus of Vedanta, the good old time gunas. To get those loops to move in an upward and not a downward spiral requires an admission that struggling at the level of vasanas (tendencies, dispositions) leaves us in the toils of cybernetic control. Strictly; upwards, downwards and sideways are paths in the maze of maya. Ironically by using feedback loops we can revert to the source of consciousness which frees. Pranayama, mantra, prayer and ritual are enabling practices that we are told advance the dawn of knowledge (vidya) but however perfectly performed are not liberating of themselves. The jnani (enlightened one) can say:
“I am the Self of all, as the intellects of all beings are illumined by Me who am of the nature of the Light of Consciousness only.” (Upadesa Sahasri Chap. XIV on Dream and Memory: #7)
6 comments:
That's a beautiful quote. Reminds me of the old Neoplatonist expression "lux perpetua". How did you get into Vedanta if you don't mind my asking?
Hi Mark,
During my travelling days in '71 I was in India. Here's a memoir of that time:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~ombhurbhuva/babasplace.htm
Michael
Thanks Michael. I'll follow that up.
Very interesting! In the western philo world are there any takers for the old Indian distinction between mind and consciousness/self?
That last quote reminds me of Averroes' idea of the Unity of the Intellect.
Yohan:
Functionalism as a materialism gets to the jada idea by eliminating consciousness as an element. There is nothing but the material brain doing everything. In Vedanta the mind is the whole body transfused by consciousness. If I might speculate the chakras are ancient phylogenetic centres of awareness - the very much wilder shores of the bicameral.
Bergson’s memory thesis is also an interesting sort of panpsychism. For him the brain is an organ of action. Memory is not stored in the brain which he holds would be impossible as the constant updating of it would exhaust its capacity.
Averroes - Pass, don’t know that one.
Yohan:
https://paulschweizer.academia.edu/research#papers
Came across this man tonight from the school of informatics in Edinburgh. He has a good paper on the jada aspect of Sankhya/Yoga.
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