What is meant by pure consciousness?
brickmar at EARTHCOM.NET
Thu Nov 13 00:25:08 CST 1997
Allan Curry (Hi, by the way) writes:
>I thought Greg's distinction between consciousness and awareness was a
>one. I've also read the same distinction labelled "consciousness-of" as
>opposed to "consciousness-without-an-object" (pure consciousness).
>Obviously consciousness-of is absent in deep sleep state by definition but
>also by definition consciousness-without-an-object remains precisely
>because the objects (sense perceptions and thoughts) are absent. Actually
>there is only one consciousness but the appearance and disappearance of
>apparent objects in it gives rise to the above distinction. Or so the
>books I read seem to say.
I'm willing to make a leap of faith, but this requires a leap of logic I
can't seem to move on. How does "consciousness-without-an-object" void of
kind of sense data make sense to you? Consciousness, like desire, can be
contemplated apart from the content of any one given object, and each
moment of consciousness may be a relativized emanation from the one
unchanging consciousness--unchanged, because, as unrelativized, it is at
once all moments that ever were or will be, but what is this *pure*
consciousness you speak of? A Zen koan? Like one hand clapping?
Brickmar at earhcom.net
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