Nalanda Buddhism Certificate Course 1

Tibet House New Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course NCC1

8th Session Notes /04/07/2022) Wed

 Proper study and understanding of the seven fold division of mind is very important to  understand Buddhist psychology. They are:

1.      Direct valid perceiver (Tib: dngon sum)

2.      Inferential cognizer (Tib:rjes pa)

3.      Subsequent cognizer (Tib:bcad shes)

4.      Correctly assuming consciousness (Tib:yid dpyad)

5.      Non-discerning direct perceiver (Tib:snang la ma gnas pa)

6.      Doubting consciousness (Tib:the tshom)

7.      Deceptive (wrong) consciousness (Tib:log shes)

 1. Direct valid perceiver: A non-mistaken knower that is free from conceptuality. It has four categories:

a)     Sense direct perceiver: A direct perception through our senses

b)    Mental direct perceiver: A mental perception like presence of a lung, things about past and present.

c)     Self cognition direct perceiver (Tib:rang rig mngon gsum): The mind is said to be self cognizing mind. It has an ability to see itself and other. When a light in introduced in a dark room, we could see things. We could also see the light. It could illuminate other and self too. Mind has an aspect or ability to know or perceive itself. (Some schools don’t accept this.)

d)    Yogic direct perceiver: Its direct perception of subtle phenomena by the Arhats, seeing impermanence and emptiness through refined practice of the five paths.

 2. Inferential cognizer: Inference through knowledge and confidence like dated of birth, dependent on testimony, knowing presence of fire on seeing smoke etc. Emptiness is to be realized through power of fact not by inference.

 3. Subsequent cognizer: Things seen after the direct valid cognition. It is said to really on the teachings, not on the person; really not on provisional teachings but on the ultimate teachings. Within the teachings of ultimate reality, we must really on direct valid perceiver rather than on conceptual realization.

 4. Correctly assuming consciousness: We may not know how e=mc2 is derived, but we assume it is correct. We may not have realized emptiness but we can talk and faith in it.

 5. Non discerning direct perceiver: Your mind is focused on something and you don’t see things before you.

 6. Doubting consciousness (Tib:the tshom): It has three kinds, a mind titled toward fact, non-fact, and neutral.

 7. Deceptive (wrong) consciousness (Tib:log shes): When we see an object, misperception may occur at two levels: appearance and apprehension levels. When mistake happens at appearance level, it is called mistaken mind (Tib:'khul shes). When mistake happens at apprehension level, it is called deceptive mind. We shall explain more in the next session.

 These seven fold division of mind should be on our fingertips, it's important to understand our mind.

 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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