Vijñāna

• 1. Etymological Roots And Translations

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  The Sanskrit word vijñāna appears in many early Upanishads, where translators have rendered it as understanding, knowledge, and intelligence. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan translated the term by English words such as wisdom, intellectual consciousness, and understanding across various texts like the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanisads. Monier-Williams defined the root meaning as to distinguish, discern, observe, investigate, recognize, know, understand, or explain. V.S.Apte provided a definition for vijñānam that includes discrimination, skill, proficiency, worldly knowledge, business, employment, music, and knowledge of the fourteen lores. The Pali term viññāa serves as one of three overlapping terms used to refer to the mind alongside manas and citta. These three terms are sometimes used in sequence to describe one's mental processes as a whole within the Sutta Pitaka.

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• 2. Buddhist Consciousness Frameworks

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  In the Pali Canon's Discourse Basket, viññāa is discussed as a derivative of the sense bases which form part of the experientially exhaustive All. Six types of consciousness arise based on these sense bases: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, and mind-consciousness. When an ear's receptive field and sound are present, the associated ear-related consciousness arises along with contact and feeling. This chain leads from sensation to craving and ultimately suffering. The Buddha stated in the Sabba Sutta that there is no all outside of the six pairs of sense bases. In the Fire Sermon, the Buddha declared that the All is aflame with passion, aversion, delusion, and suffering. Consciousness cognizes what is sour, bitter, pungent, sweet, alkaline, non-alkaline, salty, or unsalty according to the Khajjaniya Sutta. A 5th-century commentary by Buddhaghosa used an analogy involving a child, a villager, and a money-changer seeing a heap of coins to distinguish perception from consciousness and true understanding.

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• 3. Abhidhamma State Classifications

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  The Patthana text within the Theravadin Abhidharma analyzes different states of consciousness and their functions through the principle of karma. Altogether, the Abhidhamma identifies eighty-nine kinds of consciousness categorized by their karmic results. Fifty-four of these states belong to the sense sphere related to the five physical senses as well as craving for sensual pleasure. Fifteen states fall into the fine-material sphere which relates to meditative absorptions based on material objects. Twelve states exist within the immaterial sphere connected to immaterial meditative absorptions. Eight states are supramundane and relate to the realization of Nibbāna. Normal mental activity consists of a continual succession of single moments of conceptual consciousness called viññāa. Jhānic meditative states are described as being based on five ultimate mental factors including applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, serenity, and one-pointedness. These viññāas are not considered ultimate phenomena because they are based on mental factors known as cetasika.

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• 4. Yogacara Store Consciousness Theory

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  The Yogacara or Cittamatra school considers two additional modes beyond the standard six consciousnesses found in other schools. One mode is called klistamanas which gathers hindrances, poisons, and karmic formations. The ālayavijñāna serves as the consciousness basis of everything and has been translated as store consciousness. Every consciousness is based on this store consciousness phenomenon which explains rebirth. Walpola Rahula noted that the store consciousness concept exists in early texts as well under the term citta. Some Yogācāra schools consider an amalavijñāna or immaculate consciousness as a ninth level of consciousness. This pure consciousness is identified with the nature of reality or Suchness by some traditions. Other Buddhists have suggested hrdaya heart consciousnesses or even theories involving eleven consciousnesses or infinity consciousness. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote about transformation at the base regarding fifty verses on the nature of consciousness in 2001.

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• 5. Hindu Vedanta Philosophical Views

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  Sri Ramakrishna defined vijñāna as knowing God distinctly by realizing His existence through an intuitive experience and speaking to Him intimately. He described sages like Narada who cherished love of God after attaining Knowledge of Brahman as possessing ripe knowledge and devotion. Ayon Maharaj characterized Sri Ramakrishna's views as manifesting what he called a philosophy of Vijñāna Vedānta in his book Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality published in 2018. The six major tenets include the notion that the vijñānī returns from the state of nirvikalpa samādhi to attain richer world-affirming nondual realization. V.S.Apte provided definitions for vijñānam including knowledge beyond the cognisance of the senses found in ancient texts like the Rig Veda and Katha Upanishad. Monier Williams listed meanings such as to hear or learn from, to recognize in, to look upon, or to explain and declare across various classical works.

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• 6. Contemporary Thai Cultural Practices

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  Viññāna is used in modern Thai Buddhism to refer specifically to one's consciousness or life-force after it has left the body at the moment of death. Thais differentiate between winyaan and jid-jai which represents the consciousness while still connected to a living body. Some believe that the jid-jai leaves the body while one dreams at night and can externalize during advanced meditation practice. This externalization occurs even though the consciousness remains connected to the body at such times. The distinction highlights how contemporary practitioners view the separation of mind and body differently than in early canonical texts. Modern usage preserves the ancient concept of consciousness as an animating force that spans multiple lives through karmic continuity.

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