..續本文上一頁the knower”. The two actually go together. One can stop ”the doer” for a little while in the jhanas, but later it comes back again. One even can stop ”the doer” for aeons by going to the jhana realms after one dies. However, it will still come back again. Once there is a ”knower” it will react to what it knows, and it will create ”doing”.
”The knower” is usually called consciousness or citta (mind), which is what knows. That knowing is often seen to be the ultimate ”self”. Very often people can get the perception, or the paradigm, in their minds of perceiving something in here, which can just know and not be touched by what it knows. It just knows heat and cold, pleasure and pain. It just knows beauty and ugliness. However, at the same time (somehow or other), it can just stand back and not be known, and not be touched by what”s actually happening. It is important to understand that the nature of consciousness is so fast, so quick, that it gives the illusion of continuity. Owing to this illusion, one misses the point that whatever one sees with your eyes, or feels with the body, the mind then takes that up as it”s own object, and it knows that it saw. It knows that it felt. It”s that knowing that it saw, knowing that it felt, that gives the illusion of objectivity. It can even know that it knew.
When philosophy books talk about ”self reflection” or ”self knowledge”, the fact that not only do "I know", but that "I know that I know", or that "I know that I know that I know", is given as a proof of the existence of a self. I have looked into that experience, in order to see what actually was going on with this ”knowing” business. Using the depth of my meditation, with the precision that that gave to mindfulness, to awareness, I could see the way this mind was actually working. What one actually sees is this procession of events, that which we call ”knowing”. It”s like a procession, just one thing arising after the other in time. When I saw something, then a fraction of a moment afterwards I knew that I saw, and then a fraction of a moment afterwards I knew that I knew that I saw. There is no such thing as, "I know that I know that I know". The truth of the matter is, "I know that I knew that I knew". When one adds the perspective of time, one can see the causal sequence of moments of consciousness. Not seeing that causal sequence can very easily give rise to the illusion of a continuous ”knower”. This illusion of a continuous ”knower” is most often where people assume that their ”self” resides.
However, as it says in the suttas, one can see that even knowing is conditioned (sankhata) (MN 64). One can see that this too rises because of causes, and then ceases when the causes cease. This is actually where one starts to see through the illusion of objectivity. It is impossible to separate the ”knower” from the known. As the Buddha said many times, "In all of the six senses, such as the mind base, when mind base and mind objects come together it turns on mind consciousness. The coming together of the three is called phassa (contact)" (eg. MN, 28). Consciousness is conditioned, it has its causes, and it”s not always going to be there. During the experience of jhana one is totally separated from the world of the five senses. All five senses have disappeared. All that”s left is mind, mind base, mind experience. One then knows clearly what mind (citta) is.
Understanding the Nature of Consciousness
Once one knows what mind consciousness is (mind activity, the mind sense), then one can actually notice outside of the jhanas, in ordinary worldly consciousness, that whatever one sees is followed immediately by a different type of consciousness. Different types of consciousness are arising and passing away, one after the other. Maybe it”s ano…
《Anatta》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…