with translation by Gareth Sparham, Sherab Gyatso, and Tsepak Rigzin
Snow Lion Publications
Ithaca, New York Table of Contents
SECTION I: THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK
Introduction 15 Tibetan Philosophy and Neuroscience? 15 How This Material Is Presented 16 Sources of This Material 17 1 The Usefulness of an Exchange: A Discussion with His Holiness the Dalai Lama 19 Usefulness of an Exchange for Practitioners and for Academic Study 19 A Scientific Perspective on Ancient Debates of Tibetan Buddhism 22 SECTION II: A GLIMPSE OF THE TIBETAN VIEW OF MIND 2 Approaching the Tibetan View of Mind 25 A Little Philosophical Game, from Two Cultural Perspectives 26 Meeting the Tibetan Lamas 26 3 A Very Different Metaphor of MindHis Holiness the Dalai Lama 29 The Tibetan Approach to MindA Painting with No Wall 29 4 A Discussion with the Venerable Lobsang Gyatso: Mind and Mental Factors 31 The Presentation of Mind and Mental Factors in Tibetan Buddhism 31 Consciousness as Clear and Knowing 36 Consciousness as Authoritative Regarding Appearance 36 Intensity of Clarity 37 Awareness Is Non-Physical 38 Awareness and Physical Being 39 Awareness Can Increase and Decrease without Limit 40 SECTION III: BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE 5 Is Buddhism Scientific? No 45 A Difference in Authority: Meditative Observation vs. Empirical Verification 46 A Different Dualism: The Mind-Body Problem and the Subject-Object Problem 48 Difference in Method: Description vs. Mechanistic Analysis 50 The Buddhist Perspective on the MindDescriptions of Consciousness 50 The Neuroscience Perspective on the BrainMechanisms of Behavior 52 Different Views of Causation 53 The Importance of the Differences Between the Two Systems 55 6 A Discussion with Kamtrul RinpocheA Different Authoritative Base 57 The Power of Two Types of Authority: Observation and Reason 58 SECTION IV: PERCEIVING THE REAL 7 Perception in Tibetan Abhidharma and Western Neuroscience 63 The Sautrantika View of Direct Perceivers 63 Definition of a Direct Perceiver 63 The Mode of Functioning of Direct Perception in Tibetan Buddhism 65 Divisions and Types of Direct Perceivers 65 The Two Truths in Brief 67 Conceptual TruthsThe Objects of Thought 67 Nonconceptual TruthsThe Objects of DirectPerception 68 Direct Perceivers Know Their Objects Completely and with Bare Awareness 69 Mechanisms of Direct Perception 70 The Conditions of Direct Perception 70 Aspected Direct Perception 71 The Units of Direct Perception 72 The Understanding of Perception from Contemporary Neuroscience 75 Definition of Perception 75 The Functions of Perception 76 The Measurement of Perception 77 Mechanisms of PerceptionVision 78 The Visual Processing Hierarchy of the Brain 79 Awareness Takes Place over Time and Space 82 Perceptual Illusions 82 Comparing the Two Systems of Thought 84 The Question of Aspected Perception 84 Where Is the Aspect of Aspected Awareness? 84 Is the Medium of the Aspect Static and Passive, As in a Mirror Reflection? 86 How Many Aspects Appear to Consciousness at Once? 87 What is a Particular, a Unit of Perception? 88 Does One Partless Particle of Perception Equal One Photon? 89 Is There a Partless Particle of Perception at All? 90 Recognizing Aggregated Objects 91 What Can Neuroscience Learn from the Buddhist Presentation of Perception? 92 8 A Discussion with His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Aspects of Perception 94 How the Aspect of an Object Is Cast to the Perceiving Mind 95 Separating the Individual Functions of the Perceiving Mind 97 9 A Discussion with Lati Rinpoche: Perception and the Illuminating Nature of Mind 101 Direct Perception: Its Causes and the Role of the Previous Moment of Mind 103 Consciousness Is Not the Brain 104 The Illuminating Element of Mind 105 The Causal Sequence of the Mind Stream 106 The Flow of Bodily Energy and the Illuminating Essence 108 SECTION V: IDEAS OF REALITY 10 Concepts in Tibetan Abhidharma and Western Neuroscience 113 The Use of Concepts in Tibetan Buddhism 113 What Conceptual Thoughts Arethe Sautrantika Perspective 114 Definition of a Conceptual Consciousness 114 What Conceptual Thoughts Are For 117 The Purpose of Conceptual Thought Is to Understand What Is Not at First Perceived 117 How Conceptual Thought Grasps Reality 118 Two Types of Thought and Their Objects 119 Conventional and Ultimate Minds 119 The Objects of Conceptual and Directly Perceiving Minds 120 Objects of a Direct Perceiver 121 Objects of a Conceptual Mind 122 The Mistakes of a Mistaken Mind and the Truth of Conceptuality 123 Mistakes of What Appears to the Mind 124 Mistakes of What the Mind Ascertains 124 The Negative Mode of Action of the Mind in Thought 126 Negative and Positive Phenomena 127 Non-Affirming Negatives 128 Affirming Negatives 129 Mental and Objective Affirming Negatives 129 Double Negative Exclusion Objects 131 The Mode of Action of Conceptual Thought in Terms of Its Object 131 The Objects of a Conceptual Mind: Meaning Generalities and Double Negative Exclusions 132 The Reason for the Presentation of Exclusions Rather than Positive Phenomena 134 Presentation of How a Conceptual Consciousness Is Induced 135 Conceptuality in the Presence of an Object Being Observed 135 Conceptuality Induced by Memory 137 Conceptuality Induced by Reason 139 Concepts in Contemporary Neuroscience 140 Conceptuality as a Neural EngineMetaphors from Physical Science 141 The Parallel Processing Hierarchy in Brief 144 Where Is the Mental Semblance? 145 The Standard TheoryGenerating Concepts from Positive Features 147 A Source of the Generality of Thought 147 Contrast with the Samkhya View 148 Concepts as Descending Exclusions 149 Ascending Perceptual Information 149 Descending, Negative Conceptual Information 150 Inseparable Mixing of the Object of Engagement and the Meaning Generality 150 Comparing the Two Systems and Considering Unanswered Questions 151 Some Debated Points within the Gelugpa Presentation of Sautrantika 151 Term and Meaning GeneralitiesSeparate or United? 151 Separate Components of Concepts 152 A United Meaning of the Term 153 Separate Representations of Terms and Meanings in the Brain 153 The Mode of Arising of Mental Direct Perceivers 155 Alternating Production 155 Production of Three Types 156 Production at the End of a Continuum 156 Concurrent Perceptual and Conceptual Thought 156 Spanning the Two TruthsGeneral and Specific Objects 158 11 A Discussion with Gen DamchoObjects of Thought 161 The Meaning Generality or Mental Semblance of an Object of Thought 161 Realization of an Object Through Conceptuality or Direct Perception 162 The Four Types of Objects of a Mind 163 Objects of a Conceptual Mind 164 Objects of a Directly Perceiving Mind 167 The Reason for Positing Exclusion Objects (Isolates) 170 Conceptual Awareness of a Mental Object 175 A Refutation of the Ultimacy of Perception by Neuroscience and Prasangika Madhyamika 176 12 A Discussion with Lati RinpocheIdeas, Concepts, and Terms 178 Can a Concept Exist in the Absence of a Term? 178 Conceptualizing Objects through Exclusion 181 How Conceptualization Arrives at Its Exclusion Object 184 Objects of ThoughtDouble Negatives 187 A View from Neuroscience 187 A View from Tibetan Buddhism 189 Forming a Concept by Introduction and Verbal Designation 190 The Necessity of a Term for a Concept 191 Are Concepts Positive or Double Negative? 193 A Stable Memory is Dependent on the Use of a Term 194 SECTION VI: MEMORIES OF EXPERIENCE 13 A Discussion with Kamtrul Rinpoche: Memory and the Freedom of the Mind 199 A Western View of Awareness and Memory Based on Neural Activity 199 Memory and Taming the Wild Horse Mind 202 14 A Discussion with Lati Rinpoche: Memory and the Subtle Channels of the Mind 206 An Introduction to Channels and Pathways within the Nervous System 206 The Flow of Mind Like Water in a River 207 The Importance of Having a Term for Having a Concept 211 15 A Discussion with Gen Damcho: Objects of the Mind and Memory 213 Perceiving Objects at the Mind Door 213 Retrieving Concepts from Memory 215 Memories As Potentials for Future Thoughts 216 SECTION VII: CONCLUSIONS: WHAT CAN BE LEARNED? 16 The Mind from Inside and Out 223 New Ideas for Western Science 223 Forming a Link Between Subjective Experience and Empirical Science 223 Philosophical Underpinnings and a Definition of Consciousness 224 The Issue of the Subject 224 New Ideas for Buddhism 225 Subtle Channels and Physical Anatomy 226 Mechanistic Analysis 226 Brain Plasticity and the Buddhist Idea of Transformation 227 Tibetan Buddhism and Western Science Complementary Views 228 Knowledge of Mind and Its Limits 228 Sense of Self 229 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 231 NOTES 233