Consciousness, Karma & "Rebirth"

[Xangsamhua]

Reading this morning Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan's:The Quantum and the Lotus I was struck by these comments from Ricard (a Buddhist monk):

Consciousness also shapes what we perceive as "our" world. The world we perceive isn't an illusory projection generated by a truly existing mind (as idealists would have it) but rather has been fashioned by the mind, as a vase is thrown by a potter. This fashioning is achieved by the tendencies that consciousness has accumulated during countless existences. The shared experiences of consciousness of similar kinds are what we call "collective karma", and explain why we all see the world in a similar way, whereas our very different individual experiences are what we call "individual karma". (p.169-70)

I understand from this that consciousness is "retained" in a flow of continuity from its manifestation in one life form to another and takes on the character of "karma", i.e. the effects of causation from one instant to another and proceeding from one "birth" to another, whether that birth be in human or other form. To be manifested in a lower, i.e. more conditioned and "ignorant" form, consciousness must have become degraded through the actions (causes and effects) of its previous manifestation/s.

It seems that this karmic consciousness is driven to be embodied; it does not continue in a purely 'mental', or non-material way, because consciousness and matter are in constant interplay; they are interdependent, and matter seeks consciousness as consciousness seeks matter. However, the embodiment of a continuing consciousness in temporary material forms is not part of a "grand narrative" as such – it's not as though it proceeds from a design. Rather, it is simply the working out of cause and effect in a continuum, i.e. karma, and is not so much a cosmic morality play, but the simple cause-effect process of actions having consequences. And consciousness (and, by implication, karma), as a cosmic and epiphenomenal force, doesn't disintegrate and disappear. It is subject to the same laws of physics as matter.

If this is what karma and rebirth are about, I'm comfortable in working with it. But is it what the Buddha taught?

[fabianfred]

I would say it is pretty close.

I have always thought that the records of all our past actions and thoughts are kept in the sub-conscious, which only a few are able to access.

The karma causes rebirth....so an arahant has stopped producing both positive and negative karma, only neutral karma which has no result, so has removed the cause for rebirth.

[Xangsamhua]

I would say it is pretty close.

I have always thought that the records of all our past actions and thoughts are kept in the sub-conscious, which only a few are able to access.

The karma causes rebirth....so an arahant has stopped producing both positive and negative karma, only neutral karma which has no result, so has removed the cause for rebirth.

Thanks Fred.

According to Ricard in the same book (p. 162):

Buddhism distinguishes three levels of consciousness: gross, subtle, and extremely subtle. The first of these is the level of the biochemical workings of the brain. The second is the subjective experience that we customarily call consciousness, that is to say the mind's faculty to, among other things, examine itself, to ponder its own nature and exercise freedom of choice. The third level, that of the extremely subtle, which is the most important, is also called "the fundamental luminosity of the mind". This is a state of pure awareness that transcends the perception of a subject/object duality in the world and breaks free from the constraints and traps of discursive thought.

At first I thought you might have been referring to one of these levels of consciousness in your use of the term "sub-conscious, but on looking back I think you may be referring to "store-consciousness", a Yogacara concept. Wikipedia says this (in Eight Consciousnesses):

Also note that of each of us, our "being" is created by our own Store consciousness according to the karma seeds stored in it, and in that sense, in "coming and going" we definitely do not own the "no-coming and no going" Store consciousness, but rather we are owned by it.

Ricard seems to be talking about subtleness and accessibility of consciousness at the three levels; the Wikipedia article discusses the functions of consciousness.

[moe666]

Read Sri Aurobindos A Question of Re-Birth for a different view.of which there are many.