182: Consciousness and its Associates

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Namo tasabhoto rahato samabudasa nammo tasabhagwato rahato sama budasa Namo Tasabhagwato Rahato Sama Sambudasa Tiravara Buddhism series Dhamma talk number five. Today's title is Consciousness and Its Associate. At one time, one of the yogi asked a question, What is consciousness? And I answered in a one-line answer. Today I'll take this as an opportunity to give thee a fuller rounded answer what consciousness is. In Pali it's called Jaita Vijnana Mno. These are all Pali words and it is translated into English as consciousness. But it is not a sufficient that word consciousness is not sufficient to cover the full meaning of Jita. But that was the only one available in English to explain what Jita is. That's what consciousness is. One line answer. That awareness, this particular awareness, is bare awareness. Simply having a sense of the existence of an object. Just sensing there's an object, there's something. That's it. That degree, that level of awareness. Let's call it bare awareness. It is not like awareness. When we meditate, that awareness in meditation is called mindfulness, mindful awareness. Or even reach the level of the awareness of attention. When you give attention, there's a certain degree of awareness. Not that kind of awareness either, even lesser quality. It's simply a bare awareness. Simply know. There is an object. To understand that I like to explain this way. We all know motion detector. Motion detector fully operating. Whenever there is a motion, it detect it and confirm it by beeping. Beep, beep, beep, beep. There's emotion. It doesn't know that's a cat or a dog or a child or anything. Simply emotion. Other than that knows nothing. Just like that, consciousness knows there's an object. That's it. That is consciousness. That is Jaitat or Vinyanat or Mano. So when we say consciousness, an object or a thing comes along with it because it is the awareness of the object, consciousnesses. So without the object there's no awareness. So that means when we say consciousness, there is an object. It comes automatically with it. Consciousness cannot arise without an object. It depends on the object to arise. So to have an object, let's call it our own. Little definition. This is the first law of consciousness. Not in the scripture. We are making it up. Consciousness depends on the object to arise. The first law of consciousness. For our own purpose of understanding. Another requirement for consciousness to arise is mental factors in Pali Kochi the Sika, English mental factors. That's another requirement, which means consciousness cannot arise without the mental factors. Mental factors cannot be there without consciousness. Consciousness alone by itself cannot understand or paint an object, so to speak. So they have their own job. Consciousness is simply to know the existence of a sense, the existence of an object, and mental factor is to understand the object, to paint the object, to describe the object. There are fifty-two kinds of mental factors. Consciousness is like a colorless water, pure colorless, and mental factors like coloring powder. If you put red it becomes a red water, if you put green, it becomes green water, blue water, and so on. They color so that we can describe it, understand it. Before it was colorless. Consciousness by itself cannot reach the object. It needs the tools or the mental factors to reach and to paint and to describe and understand the object. That is mental factors, Jesika. Okay, so to understand these things, I like to use an analogy. Let's use computer. Fully operating computer. In a functioning computer, there's electricity running. Electricity is like a consciousness. Hardware, and basic operating program. It's just like a physical body and the sensitivities. And the software that you put in are like mental factors, JDC got. And the directives sent to the keyboard via the keyboard to the computer. It's like an external object. Those are the sensitivities, and the outside objects are like somebody pressing the keyboard, sending comment, sending comment, sending object, sending object. So all these collectively, electricity, hardware of the computer, software, and the keyboard is the complete functioning computer. The same way consciousness, your physical body and sensitivities, and the external object are collectively called as human beings. That's a all-rounded way of describing what human being is. So consciousness and mental factors, they arise together and also they disappear together. And they both take the same object. If the consciousness sends the rows, the mental factors also take the rows as an object. If the consciousness arises through the eye, which means eye consciousness. The mental factors also use the eye base. The same thing, nose base, ear base, tongue base, body base, mind base. They use the same base to arise. And this requirement between consciousness and jetisiga, mental factors, let's call it the second law of consciousness. These are not in the scripture. I just try to put what is necessary. The first one, the first requirement dependent, is object, first law. The second one is mental factors, JDSika, second law. We know that there are fifty-two mental factors. Buddha enumerated and taught us there are fifty-two of them. Out of the fifty-two, seven backtaven mental factors always arise with every type of consciousness. There are 121 types of consciousness, and whenever any one of these 121 arises, these seven mental factors arise instantly together with them. Thirteen mental factors, which also include the aforementioned seven mental factors. So whichever type of consciousness they associate with, they become it. But if they are without wholesome consciousness or unwholesome consciousness, or resultant consciousness, or functional consciousness, they are immoral. They are neutral. So these thirteen types of consciousness are called variables. They can be either one. Now they will call it LGBTQ or something like that. Variables. Another group of fourteen mental factors belong to the unwholesome nature. In other words, they are fourteen mental factors of unwholesome nature, and the remaining twenty-five belongs to the wholesome or beautiful nature. So there are three groups. First group is immoral or variables, thirteen of them. Second group is unwholesome or immoral. Fourteen of them. Altogether fifty-two. So depending on which mental factors arise, a certain type of consciousness arises. So let's go back to the original seven. The seven immoral or variable mental factors that arise together with every type of consciousness are called universal mental factors. Because they are universal, they are common to every consciousness. So their name is called universal mental factors. These are mental these mental factors, their names are one mental contact pasat. Two feeling vidana. Three perception sinya. Four volition jetana five akada one pointedness. Six life cultivatariat and seven attention manasikara. So I'll stay straight out in English. These sevens are mental contact, feeling, volition, one point and eyes, perception, life faculty, and attention. And these sevens are essential mental factors in cognitive process. We cognize objects, we cognize situation, condition. Whenever we are cognizing a thing or an object, these seven mental factors are functioning. Without them you can't cognize. So they are very important to the cognitive process. That's why we are going to touch one by one. The first one in Pali is pasha, translated as mental contact. When an external object strikes one of the six sensitivities and the corresponding consciousness come together. So when those three come together at that moment, pasa mental contact arises. That is what pasa is, mental contact is. Whenever those three elements come together, pasa is formed. When there is a pasa, there's a feeling. Feeling arises. Due to mental contact, because of mental contact, feeling arises. That means pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings arise due to the coming together of the three elements, mental contact. When you said that way, it sounds like mental contact and feeling are appearing, appearing sequentially, chronologically. But the true fact is they both arise together at the same time. However, in this particular case, mental contact is the leader, and feeling is the follower. So that's a second universal mental factor, Vedana. The third one is called sannya. It's translated into English as perception. So this perception. What this perception does was it is recording and remembering based on the marks of the object, based on the sign of the object, in the way in whichever way it perceived. If they are ten people looking at the same object, they might be perceived similarly or differently or exactly the same. They are variables. That sannya may be perceiving exactly as the object is, as it is. Or it may be perceiving wrongly. To give you an example how one can perceive wrongly is a bird had an encounter with a man. The man showed it off, throw a stone, fly away, scared. The next time he's hungry, he came back to the firm. The firm. And then the bird saw the scarecrow. And the bird thought scarecrow is a man. So didn't approach the field and flew away. The bird perceived the scarecrow as a human being. That's a wrong perception. So regardless, when the same object arises again to that person, when the same object appears again, Sanya Sanya perception would still recognize it according to the way. According to the mark, it was recorded at the first time. If it is rightly recorded, you will remember the object. But even if it is wrongly recorded, it would still recognize the object. That is sanya, perception, the third mental universal mental factor. And the fourth one is in Pali called chitana. In English, volition. Buddha said, Kama is chitana. Chitana is karma. We all know what karma is. So chitana and karma are synonymous. Of course, if you split in details quite deeply, you will see a few variations. But at this stage, this is good enough. Chaitana is karma, karma is chitana. This chitana determines the ethical aspect of a condition with an object. And its job is to force to force associated mental factors. When chitana is arising, there are many other mental factors arising as well, as a group. But this mental factor, chitana, force the all other associated mental factors engage with the object. In other words, it pushed them to engage with the object. That's what Chaitana does. And this jitana or karma is also called as Sankara. Independent origination. The same thing, it's karma, jitana, but there it used the word sankara. Independent origination. So that is the fourth. Universal mental factor, jetana, volition. The fifth one is Ikagata. Translated as one pointedness. Here ikha means one. Agga means object. If you combine the two become ekagada. One with the object. This ekagada makes one with the object. In other words, it is concentration. Samadhi. When you are practicing samadhi meditation, what are you doing? You are trying to become one with the object. So samadhi concentration ikagada. They are all one and the same in terms of meaning. And its job, the function, job. I use the word job, but proper word is called function. Its job is to unite the associated mental factors. When we are talking about one, there are a whole bunch of them that its associates are there. And this Ikagada one-pointedness job is to unite them together. Anybody who sees an object, who engages with an object, who touch an object, there's that one pointedness. Penetrative, penetrate into the object. But of course, depending on the condition, depending on the person, that degree or intensity of one-pointedness varies. That is one-pointedness, another universal mental factor. Number five. So number six is Jiu Dendriya, translated as life faculty. There are two types of life faculty, physical and mental. But in here it is referring to the mental life faculty. And this life faculty maintains the lifespan of the associated mental factors. It always comes back to the group of friends, associates that arise together, that come together, that work together. So this life faculty maintains the lifespan of the associated mental factors. It makes sure they don't disappear before their lifespan. Every object has a lifespan. Arising, existing, and disappearing, three-faced. That is their lifespan. And before the end of the lifespan, this life faculty makes sure they don't go disarray or disappear. That's his job. But be mindful, be careful. This life faculty does not cause these associated mental factors to arise. It is not the cause. It is simply the maintenance person. It maintains. So that they have a full and complete existence. That it is, that is its job. That's a sixth universal mental factor. And the last one is called manasikara. Translates as attention. This manasikara's job is to turn the associated mental factors towards the object. In other words, you and a group of friends were there, and suddenly there was an eagle flying, you saw it, and you just pointed. Hey, there's an eagle, point at the finger, and all your friends turn in that direction. That's called drawing attention. That's attention. That is the job of attention. In here, attention of the other mental factors which are arising with it. Without attention, mind wanders aimlessly. The wandering mind. The drifting mind. That's there's no attention. And it is a vital mental factor. It's a vital to to cognize an object. If you don't have attention, you won't cognize the object. Only when you have attention on it, you will cognize the object. It's a vital factor, vital to. Just to understand it, nowadays we know people with ADD, attention deficit disorder. They cannot concentrate on anything. Their mind is always dispersing, drifting. That means they cannot put any attention onto an object. So those is the seven universal mental factors. So this will give you a fairly rounded understanding of what consciousness is. Consciousness cannot arise alone. When consciousness arises, there's an object. When consciousness arises, there's the mental factors. Seven of the fifty-two always arises with every type of consciousness. And their qualities are explained here. And they are vital for cognitive process. So by understanding what consciousness is and what its mental associates are, may you be able to understand theoretically what your experiential experience and meditation are and bridge the gap.