Nalanda Buddhism Certificate Course 1

Tibet House New Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course NCC1

9th Session Notes /03/07/2022) Sun

 Deceptive (wrong) consciousness (Tib:log shes), is the last from the seventh division of mind we studied earlier.

 Let us say, you love flower and you are given a flower. You look at it and feel joy and happiness. There is an interaction between subject mind and object flower. If the interaction is not there, no feeling comes. It is the interaction between subject and object that give rise to all emotions and reactions. Two activities are there: Appearance and apprehension.

 There is an act of appearance of the object to the subject as to how the flower appears to my mind. We don't say mind appears to the subject. The act of appearance is related to the subject. There is an act of apprehension of the object by the subject, mind apprehends the flower. There is an act of appearance and act of apprehension by object and subject.

 When we see an object, misconception may occur at two levels:

¾   At appearance level: When mistake happens at appearance level, it is called mistaken mind or consciousness (Tib:'khurl shes).

¾   At apprehension level: When mistake happens at apprehension level, it is called deceptive mind or consciousness (Tib:log shes).

 They look same, but it is not. This mistake is ignorance. Ignorance is the root cause of our misery. It occurs due to our misconception of what is reality. We don't see reality. What we see and what reality is, there is contradiction. This is misconception. It occurs at two levels: When the mind is mistaken at the act of appearance and when the mind is mistaken at the act of apprehension.

 Snow is white. If you see through a blue goggle, it appears blue. But your mind knows it is white. Your mind is mistaken at appearance level but not at the apprehension level. So it is mistaken mind and not deceptive mind. This distinction is very important.

 Whatever is deceptive mind should necessarily be mistaken mind. Whatever is mistaken mind may not be a deceptive mind. Whatever is a girl is human being; whatever is human being may not be a girl.   

 Mistaken mind is a mind which is mistaken with respect to the object of appearance. Deceptive mind is a mind which is mistaken with the object of apprehension.

 Exercise: Think of H.H. the Dalai Lama. What appears, picture, image, memory etc. Image becomes the object of appearance and Dalai Lama is your object of apprehension. What you apprehend is not the image but Dalai Lama. But what appears is an image.

 When conceptual mind works, image has to come. This image is known as image of meaning generality (Tib:don spyi), a mental image.

 I asked you to think of Dalai Lama, not the picture or image of Dalai Lama. We see that only through a picture or image we can think of Dalai Lama. That image becomes the object of appearance and Dalai Lama is the object of apprehension. When conceptual mind works, image has to come. This image is known as Meaning Generality.

 A conceptual mind is a mind apprehends its primary object through meaning generality. Direct mind is a mind which directly perceives the object without using meaning generality.

 Meaning generality is a mental image which comes to our mind through which the conceptual mind apprehends the primary object.

 Sense direct perceiver doesn't use meaning generality. Mental direct perceiver, close your eyes and think of anything. All clairvoyance things happen at mental consciousness level not at sensory level. Conceptual mind is seen as a direct perceiver.

 All afflictions (deceptive mind) are conceptual mind, anger, attachment, etc.

 Three fold division of mind:

1.      Conceptual consciousness (Tib:rtag pa): Conceptual consciousness that mix a meaning generality as their apprehended object on the appearance level

2.      Non-conceptual non-mistaken consciousness that take a specifically characterized phenomenon as their apprehended object

3.      Non-conceptual mistaken mind consciousness that take a clearly appearing non-existent as their apprehended object.

 Two fold divisions of mind:

¾   Prime cognizers and non-prime consciousness

¾   Conceptual and non-conceptual consciousness

¾   Mistaken and non-mistaken consciousness

¾   Mental and sense consciousness

¾   Awareness which are eliminative engagers and collective engagers

¾   Mind and mental factors

 Mental consciousness and sense consciousness (Tib: yid shes dang dbang shes) are both mind. Sense consciousness is what you get depending on your senses and mental consciousness are those which are not directly dependent on the five senses.

 Is feeling of gratitude a mental consciousness or sense consciousness?

 All afflictions are necessarily mental consciousness (except for Sauvatantrika and Vaibashika). Sense consciousness shuts down at the time of death, but mental consciousness does not. It ejects from the body and go to the next body.

 Meditation should be through mental consciousness and not through sense consciousness. Meditation is to purify our mind to achieve Buddhahood, this process relates to mental consciousness. Feeling is with all primary mind. Meditation is to purify our mental defilement and this defilement is to be removed from our mental consciousness. Our mental consciousness should become Buddha. Let us not forget that sense consciousness in only a mind.

 Eliminative engager awareness and collective engager awareness (Tib:sel 'jug dang sgrub 'jug): Selective mind is eliminative engager, it selects or picks up from many. A notebook with many pictures, what each student see is very selective. When you become Buddha or omniscient you see all the details and nothing is left out. You are aware of everything. We usually behave in an eliminative way in dealing with other people and objects.

 What I could get from this person concept is the failure of modern education. All conceptual mind use generic image or meaning generality wherein an image is created by our mind. All conceptual minds are selective engager or eliminative engager awareness. Our mind create an image and try to select and eliminate the rest.

 All non-conceptual minds are collective engager. It does not eliminate anything, it picks or selects everything. Eye consciousness is not conceptual mind, it is not eliminative engager. All conceptual minds are mental consciousness. Two mental consciousnesses cannot co-exist but a mental consciousness and sense consciousness can co-exist. Mental consciousness exist all the times, sense consciousness comes and goes.

 Next division: mind and mental factors, we need to see which of the seven fold division of mind are Conceptual or non-conceptual (C & NC), Mistaken or non-mistaken (M & NM), and Sense consciousness and mental consciousness (SC & MC):

 1.      Direct valid perceiver /NC / NM / SC /  

2.      Inferential cognizer / C / M / MC /

3.      Subsequent cognizer / Can have both C & NC / Can have both / have SC&MC /

4.      Correctly assuming consciousness /C / M / MC /

5.      Non-discerning direct perceiver / NC / Can have M&NM /

6.      Doubting consciousness / C / M / ? /

7.      Deceptive (wrong) consciousness / Can have both C & NC / M / ? ?/

 Mind has two functions: to see other things and to see itself like a bulb light. All agrees to this but not the Parasangika school. Seeing itself is a self cognizing mind and seeing other is other cognizing mind. We need to which of the seven minds are mistaken or non-mistaken minds?

 All minds should necessarily have object of appearance and all mind should necessarily engage but it may not discern. Object of appearance and apprehension are there but not discerning.

 Self cognizing mind is a non-conceptual mind, but in a deep sleep, it is a non discerning mind. All mind has two functions. It apprehend other things and it self too. Label given to other is other cognizing mind, and to self is self cognizing mind. Other cognizing mind can be conceptual or non conceptual, but self cognizing mind is always non-conceptual because it never uses meaning generality and it is always mental consciousness. Self cognizing mind is always direct perceiver but may not be direct valid perceiver.

 Note: This is a student's note. Error and omissions are bound to be there. A serious student should study the actual teachings of the teacher, Geshe Dorjee Damdul la, from www.tibethouse.in website. I write these notes to help my understanding and recollections. (Tib:Rang gi yid la nges phyir ngas dhi brtsams).

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