Ajahn Brahm: Buddhist idea of consciousness

BSV Dhamma Talks, June 8, 2015; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What if there were a center or teacher, a place or person to awaken consciousness?

 

(Dhamma Talks) Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (lovingly known as Ajahn Brahm) was born Peter Betts in London, England on August 7, 1951. He came from a working-class family and won a scholarship to study theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s.
 

After graduating from Cambridge he taught in high school for a year before traveling to Thailand to become a Theravada Buddhist monk training under Ven. Ajahn Chah. While still a junior monk, he was asked to undertake the compilation of an English-language guide to the Buddhist Monastic Code -- the Vinaya -- which later became the basis for monastic discipline in many Theravada monasteries in Western countries.

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  Consciousness is not limited to brain.

  NOTE: "Consciousness" in Buddhism is not a thing but a process, one of the Five Aggregates of Clinging (khandha). It is impersonal and carries on after death. Beings do not die at death, they do not make an end of rebirth unless they are fully enlightened and liberated from the Wheel of Life and Death called samsara. The study of consciousness (vinnana) can be undertaken as a study of the Abhidharma, the "Higher or Ultimate Teachings" of Buddhism, which is a kind of advanced psychology and physics about ourselves and the world in the highest -- rather than the conventional -- sense. The Buddha never specified the physical base or "seat of consciousness" as he did for the other major senses. But it has always been understood to be in the area of the heart, not the brain. It is in the area of the heart that the "mind door," with its green tint, is located. Green is the color of the heart chakra.

BUDDHIST CENTRE

Registered as a Buddhist not-for-profit association, the Buddhist Society of Victoria (BSV), Australia, welcomes members of all backgrounds and religions. Located in Melbourne, the East Malvern center hosts programs guiding members in meditation as well as practical Buddhist teachings for kids, teens, and adults. The center's spiritual advisor is Ajahn Brahm, abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, Western Australia. Info: bsv.net.au

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