Book ChapterDOI
Handbook of Indian Psychology: A Buddhist Theory of Unconscious Mind ( Ālaya-Vijñāna )
William Waldron
- pp 105-128
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In this article, the authors trace the development of this distinctively Buddhist concept of unconscious mind back to the early texts of the Pāli Canon and explain how this came about within Buddhist traditions, how and why an explicit notion of unconscious mental processes, called ālaya-vijnāna, developed within classical Indian Yogācāra Buddhism.Abstract:
Freud shocked the Western world just over a hundred years ago with his audacious assertion that our actions, thoughts and feelings are largely determined by processes occurring outside our conscious awareness. We have accommodated ourselves to this “dethroning” of the rational ego, but the sting still remains: our experience is inescapably shaped by cognitive structures and processes we neither clearly control nor even fully discern. We are not, it seems certain, truly in charge. Although this same basic message is currently couched in the unquestioned voice of science, rather than the questioned voice of psychoanalysis, this irrevocable loss of our autonomous self, like the sudden death of a close friend, haunts us still. This was not what happened in India some fifteen centuries ago when Buddhist and Hindu yogis and philosophers systematically examined and analysed how unconscious processes determine the shape of our experiences and delimit the autonomy of our actions. But since these observations arose out of traditions that had long before deconstructed any autonomous ego, the idea of unconscious mental processes upheld, rather than undermined, their overall moral vision. Paradoxically, the loss of an autonomous self proved a gain in understanding of self. This essay aims to explain how this came about within Buddhist traditions, how and why an explicit notion of unconscious mental processes, called ālaya-vijnāna, developed within classical Indian Yogācāra Buddhism. We shall note in passing parallels found in modern psychology or cognitive science. Briefly, we will trace the development of this distinctively Buddhist concept of unconscious mind back to the early texts of the Pāli Canon.read more
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References
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Philosophy in the flesh : the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought
George Lakoff,Mark Johnson +1 more
TL;DR: The Cognitive Science of Philosophy: A Cognitive Science Of Basic Philosophical Ideas as mentioned in this paper The Cognitive science of philosophy is a branch of the philosophy of early Greek metaphysics and philosophy of philosophy.
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The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain
TL;DR: Deacon as mentioned in this paper provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness, drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the coevolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions.
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Yoga: Immortality and Freedom
TL;DR: In this article, Eliade provides a comprehensive survey of yoga in theory and practice from its earliest foreshadowings in the Vedas through the twentieth century, including Patanjali, author of the Yoga-sutras; yogic techniques such as concentration "on a single point," postures, and respiratory discipline; and Yoga in relation to Brahmanism, Buddhism, Tantrism, Oriental alchemy, mystical erotism, and shamanism.
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Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism
TL;DR: The Cultural and Social Setting of Buddhist Thought: 1. The origins of rebirth 2. The Doctrine of Not-Slef: 3. The denial of self as 'right view' 4. Personality and Rebirth: 5. The individual of 'conventional truth' 6. Continuity: 7. Conditioning and consciousness 8. Momentariness and the bhavanga-mind Conclusion Notes Bibliography Glossary and index of Pali and Sanskrit terms General index as mentioned in this paper.