9 : Expanding Consciousness

The word "consciousness" in Buddhism was translated from the Sanskrit word "vijnana",[4] and refers to one's self-awareness[4] and one's capability to discern the various energies that influence their lives.[4][5]

The Nine Consciousness levels firstly consists of the five senses (touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell.[3]) One is aware of these five consciousness levels from the moment they are born, taking in information about the outside world.[3]

The sixth consciousness is when one learns to understand what is being taken in from the five senses. This is the level that integrates all the sensory input gathered by the first five levels.[6] It achieves this by processing all the data and information, then identifies what is communicated.[7][3] One is able to make judgments about one's external perceptions through this sixth level.[1] An example would be holding an orange, and knowing that it is the orange fruit, instead of simply an orange ball.[2] All six levels form the sentient mind.[4]

The seventh consciousness, unlike the prior six levels, is directed towards one's inner thoughts[8] without sensory input.[7] Also known as "mano" in Sanskrit,[8][9] this level deals with the abstract, and helps us "apprehend and express the unseen, or spiritual, side of life.[6]" One can then distinguish between good and evil, and discern oneself from others.[8][5] Attaining this consciousness also means one would be aware of the self, with the ability to detach or attach.[5][8] Understanding one's self then results in assertiveness over one's gender, identity, nationality, etc.[3]

The next level is the eight consciousness, or in Sanskrit "alaya", better known as the "storehouse consciousness".[7][5] The "storehouse" accumulates all of one's karmic energy through interacting with others,[4] as well as the causes and effects of one's actions.[5] It stores all of one's thoughts, words, and deeds throughout a lifetime.

Daisaku Ikeda, the founding president of community-based Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI)[10] said: "The term storehouse conjures the image of an actual structure into which things of substance can be placed. But in fact it may be more accurate to say that the life current of karmic energy itself constitutes the eighth consciousness.[5]"

Unlike the first seven levels that cease when one dies, the eighth consciousness persists even after death. The karma collected by this consciousness accounts for every aspect of one's life in this lifetime and the next, including one's looks, circumstances, relationships, and health.[3] One's soul[11] is born with the previous lifetime's karma, which results in one's current circumstance in the world.

The ninth and final consciousness, known as the Buddha nature (or Namu-myoho-renge-kyo[3][14]), forms the foundations for one's life. It is the amala-consciousness, meaning the "purest",[4] and cannot be tarnished by any of the karmic energy from the previous eight levels.[3] Hence, a way of ridding oneself of negative karma is by rising above to the ninth consciousness.[12]

As the ninth consciousness is the core of all energy, it also serves as the source for all mental and spiritual activity.[6] If one is able to attain the ninth consciousness, one's soul can coexist peacefully with all lifeforms.[9]

The goal of practicing the nine consciousness is to achieve an "infinitely expanded true self".[4] This is in accordance to Buddhist philosophy, which focuses on being liberated from one's insignificant self to attain a higher state of being. Tapping into the ninth consciousness would equate to tapping into the very core of life.[6]

In his book Awakening through the Nine Bodies, yogi and author Phillip Moffitt recommends an exercise where one places their hands on their thighs and focuses on the right hand. The aim of this exercise is to feel the sensation or lack thereof, in the hands. This includes feeling the weight of one's hands, the blood pulsing through the fingers, and even the heat gathered in the palms. According to Moffitt, consciousness is a process, where the mind focuses on a sensation that one or more of the senses are in contact with the environment. Moffitt terms this stimulation of the senses "sense-consciousness".[15]

To reach the next consciousness, meditation can also help one progress through the nine levels and eventually connect to the inner self by attaining self-awareness.[9][11] The most basic method is by chanting "Namu-myoho-renge-kyo",[7] but meditation can also be as simple as being alone in nature.[11]

Nichiren Daishonin, founder of Nichiren Buddhism, theorised that one can transform one's karma in this lifetime by achieving the final level of consciousness. Nichiren held the belief that each person is highly valued, and our bodies serve as the "palace of the ninth consciousness".[1]

One can access this "palace"[14] by chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo The chant frees one from negative karma, improves the sensory awareness of the sixth and seventh consciousness, and purifies the karmic energy in the eighth. This creates positivity in every situation, an example being viewing a friend's anger when they yell at you as a sign of concern, rather than taking offense to it.[5]

Next, "renge" means lotus flower. The lotus has a strong cultural significance in Buddhism. It is pure and sweet-smelling, despite growing in muddy waters. This represents the ability to thrive amidst the sufferings of daily life.[16] Additionally, Its ability to simultaneously produce both the flower and seed embodies the principle of "cause and effect",[13] bringing to mind the concept of karma. The "cause" here refers to the efforts one puts in to attain Buddhahood, and the "effect" is the actual attainment. This part of the mantra recalls the attainment of the eight consciousness, reminding one that one's karma can be changed anytime.[13]

It must be said that chanting this mantra is not meant to supply one with supernatural abilities, or something that is better than one that one should rely on. But rather, it represents the principle that through consistent effort, one will achieve their goals, or in this case, the different consciousness.[16] Nichiren's advocation for the repeating chanting of this mantra is because it encompasses Buddhism's teachings, and will ultimately lead to enlightenment. He wanted a practical way for people to focus on their minds and manifest their positive thoughts into reality.

One of Buddhism's teachings is to recognise one's innate ability to overcome all challenges in life. This is because one is not separate from the fundamental laws that govern the universe.[16] Similarly, when one reaches the ninth consciousness, one would see their lives the same way the Buddha sees it, filling one with compassion and courage.

Moffitt states that the exploration of the various consciousness is vital to one's spiritual journey. He cites that developing mindfulness, in other words, "conscious of being conscious of a moment's experience", will aid one in attaining the different consciousness. One's journey will no longer face the challenge of one's own reactivity to negative events. Moffitt states that being mindful will lead to being liberated from unnecessary mindsets, including dislikes, fears, and desires.[15]

Buddhism looks to the Buddha as a paradigm for this liberation. The Buddha did not attain freedom from suffering through rituals or his beliefs, but by practicing mindfulness and gaining awareness of his consciousness.

Perhaps no aspect of mind is more familiar or more puzzling thanconsciousness and our conscious experience of self and world. Theproblem of consciousness is arguably the central issue in currenttheorizing about the mind. Despite the lack of any agreed upon theoryof consciousness, there is a widespread, if less than universal,consensus that an adequate account of mind requires a clearunderstanding of it and its place in nature. We need to understand bothwhat consciousness is and how it relates to other, nonconscious, aspectsof reality.

Questions about the nature of conscious awareness have likely beenasked for as long as there have been humans. Neolithic burial practicesappear to express spiritual beliefs and provide early evidence for atleast minimally reflective thought about the nature of humanconsciousness (Pearson 1999, Clark and Riel-Salvatore 2001).Preliterate cultures have similarly been found invariably to embracesome form of spiritual or at least animist view that indicates a degreeof reflection about the nature of conscious awareness.

By the beginning of the early modern era in the seventeenth century,consciousness had come full center in thinking about the mind. Indeedfrom the mid-17th through the late 19th century, consciousness waswidely regarded as essential or definitive of the mental. RenéDescartes defined the very notion of thought (pensée) in terms ofreflexive consciousness or self-awareness. In the Principles ofPhilosophy (1640) he wrote,

Locke explicitly forswore making any hypothesis about thesubstantial basis of consciousness and its relation to matter, but heclearly regarded it as essential to thought as well as to personalidentity.

Despite Leibniz's recognition of the possibility of unconsciousthought, for most of the next two centuries the domains of thought andconsciousness were regarded as more or less the same. Associationistpsychology, whether pursued by Locke or later in the eighteenth centuryby David Hume (1739) or in the nineteenth by James Mill (1829), aimedto discover the principles by which conscious thoughts or ideasinteracted or affected each other. James Mill's son, John Stuart Millcontinued his father's work on associationist psychology, but heallowed that combinations of ideas might produce resultants that wentbeyond their constituent mental parts, thus providing an early model ofmental emergence (1865).

The purely associationist approach was critiqued in the lateeighteenth century by Immanuel Kant (1787), who argued that an adequateaccount of experience and phenomenal consciousness required a farricher structure of mental and intentional organization. Phenomenalconsciousness according to Kant could not be a mere succession ofassociated ideas, but at a minimum had to be the experience of aconscious self situated in an objective world structured with respectto space, time and causality. 781b155fdc