What is consciousness?

What is consciousness?

According to the Buddha, everything that is true, happens can be known thoroughly as such and such and so if there is such a thing call consciousness that people keep referring to, it can be thoroughly known and defined and it reflects people’s lack of true understanding that they find it mysterious, ‘undefinable’ or difficult to pin down (vague).

Consciousness is simply awareness, when a person is aware he is conscious, when he is not aware he is not conscious of what he is not aware of.

Consciousness can either be an independent entity or it is a dependant entity, the result or product of something else.

Consciousness is not constant; it is an individual (separate) faculty that has beginning (eg when you awake) and ending (when you sleep) and it is not standalone but it is dependent on, orchestrated by, produced by a person’s mental force. Just as a TV or computer screen is dependent on electricity or power or force to come to life, consciousness is dependent on mental force to come alive and with the switching off of power or mental force either voluntarily (where the person is a master of himself) or involuntarily, consciousness comes to an end temporarily or permanently (the person departs or dies).

CONSCIOUSNESS IS SIMPLY A PERSON’S AWARENESS AND IT IS NOT SEPARATE OR INDEPENDENT BUT DEPENDENT ON MENTAL FORCE TO COME ALIVE AND IT IS NOT PERMANENT AND CAN BE SWITCHED ON AND OFF EITHER TEMPORARILY (SLEEP/WAKE) OR PERMANENTLY (BIRTH/DEATH). A PERSON’S CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT UNCHANGING BUT IT CAN CHANGE IN QUALITY AND EXPANSE.

A person’s consciousness or awareness may be restricted in those who are lowly to his surrounds, his body, he has no access to the minds of others or it may be unrestricted as in the case of the Buddha to stretch even to what is happening in heaven, hell, he can encompass your mind in his mind.

A PERSON’S CONSCIOUSNESS OR AWARENESS CAN BE RESTRICTED EVEN SEVERELY OR IT MAY BE LIMITLESS, HE IS AWARE OF THINGS EVEN IN HEAVEN, HE CAN ENCOMPASS OTHER BEINGS’ CONSCIOUSNESS OR AWARENESS INTO HIS OWN.

A person’s consciousness has qualities that differ from person to person and it can change in the same person. Thus the ordinary person’s consciousness is beset by suffering, stress, constant prolonging, changing of speed and strength of his mental force, constant thinking, emotions, pain and pleasure. As a person successfully develops his mind, his suffering significantly diminishes as his thinking ceases, his liking and disliking ceases, his experience of pain and pleasure ceases.

CONSCIOUSNESS IS LIKE THE CANVASS ON WHICH EVERYTHING IS PAINTED, IT IS LIKE THE TV SCREEN ON WHICH ALL PICTURES AND ACTIONS TAKE PLACE AND THIS SCREEN OR CONSCIOUSNESS IS DEPENDENT ON ELECTRICITY, DEPENDENT ON MENTAL FORCE TO SUSTAIN IT, THAT POWER OR MENTAL FORCE CAN BE SWITCHED ON OR OFF. THERE IS NO NEED TO MAKE MUCH OR BELITTLE CONSCIOUSNESS, IT IS JUST SUCH AND SUCH AND THE PROGENY OF FORCE THAT THE BUDDHA SAID IS SUFFERING, UNSATISFACTORY AND TO BE ABANDONED. THE PERSON WHO IS ENLIGHTENED HAS CEASED FABRICATING AND WITH THE END OF FABRICATING, CONSCIOUSNESS CEASES AND HE CUTS HIS TIES WITH EXISTENCE AND ITS MASS OF SUFFERING.