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Three Dimensions of Consciousness:

A Buddhist Phenomenology of the Mind


B. Alan Wallace
Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies

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The Status of Buddhist Inquiry
An integrated pursuit of virtue,
genuine happiness, and truth

Includes empirical science,
philosophical analysis, and
religious belief
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Buddhist & Scientific Phenomenology
Galileo refined the telescope and used it to make
precise observations of celestial phenomena.

Van Leeuwenhoek used the microscope to make
precise observations of minute life forms.

Gautama refined sustained voluntary attention to
make precise observations of mental phenomena.
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Naturalizing the Mind
William James:

Psychology, indeed, is today hardly more
than what physics was before Galileo...
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The Psyche: The First Dimension
The dualistic mind, including unconscious
mental processes, conditioned by the body,
personal history, physical environment, and
society

Studied indirectly by interrogation and
examination of behavior and the brain, and
examined directly through introspection

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Difficulties of Introspection
William James:

Introspection is difficult and fallible... the
difficulty is simply that of all observation of
whatever kind... The only safeguard is in the
final consensus of our farther knowledge about
the thing in question, later views correcting
earlier ones, until at last the harmony of a
consistent system is reached.
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Three Goals of Buddhist
Attentional Training
Relaxation: the sense of bodily and mental
ease

Stability: stillness and coherence of
attention on a chosen object

Vividness: brightness, resolution, and
focus of attention
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Two Faculties for Refining Attention
Mindfulness: the faculty of sustaining
voluntary attention continuously upon a
familiar object, without forgetfulness or
distraction

Meta-attention: the faculty of monitoring
the quality of the attention, recognizing
excitation and laxity
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Introspection & the Scientific Method
Scientific method (Websters Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary):

Principles and procedures for the
systematic pursuit of knowledge involving
the recognition and formulation of a
problem, the collection of data through
observation and experiment, and the
formulation and testing of hypotheses.
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Imbalances of the Psyche
Conative
Attentional
Cognitive
Emotional



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Meditative Quiescence
Padmasambhava:

Flawless quiescence is like an oil-lamp that is unmoved
by the air. Wherever the awareness is placed, it is
unwaveringly present; awareness is vividly clear, without
being sullied by laxity, lethargy, or dimness; wherever
the awareness is directed, it is steady and sharply pointed;
and unmoved by adventitious thoughts, it is straight.
Thus, a flawless meditative state arises in ones mind-
stream; and until this happens, it is important that the
mind is settled in its natural state.
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The Substrate Consciousness
A vacuous state of consciousness in which
all sensory experience, thoughts, and
mental images have disappeared

The ground-state of the psyche, from
which all mental activities emerge, and
which continues beyond brain death
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Experience of Substrate Consciousness
Ddjom Lingpa:

Awareness is stabilized in an
unfluctuating state, with the experience
of joy like the warmth of a fire,
luminosity like the dawn, and
nonconceptuality like an ocean
unmoved by waves.
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The Substrate
An immaterial mental space, devoid
of thought, in which appearances
are impeded

Aroused by engaging in conceptual
negation and affirmation



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Verification
Perceived directly by first-person
observation with the achievement of
meditative quiescence

Inferred indirectly from a third-person
perspective on the basis of verbal
reports, behavior, and physiological
signs suggestive of past-lives
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Primordial Consciousness
The ultimate, luminous, empty
ground-state of consciousness,
pervading all phenomena

Nondual from the non-local,
atemporal, absolute space of
phenomena
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Absolute Space of Phenomena
Nondual space, imbued with infinite
energy, out of which relative space &
time, mass & energy, mind & matter,
subject & object, existence & non-
existence emerge

Ineffable and inconceivable, but
accessible through direct experience
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Non-dual Consciousness & Space
The ground out of which the substrate
consciousness of each sentient being
emerges from moment to moment

The buddha-nature, and source of
the yearning for virtue, genuine
happiness, and truth

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Verification
Perceived directly by first-person
observation through the cultivation of
contemplative insight

Inferred indirectly from a third-person
perspective on the basis of remote viewing
and precognition




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Human Nature
Physical sciences: robot
Life sciences: animal
Cognitive sciences: human (normal &
subnormal)
Buddhist view: human nature, sentient
being nature, buddha nature
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Western & Buddhist
Mind Sciences
Western brain science

Western & Buddhist behavioral
sciences

Buddhist contemplative science




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Scientific Skepticism
Richard Feinman:

One of the ways of stopping science would be
only to do experiments in the region where you
know the law. But experimenters search most
diligently, and with the greatest effort, in exactly
those places where it seems most likely that we
can prove our theories wrong. In other words we
are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as
possible, because only in that way can we find
progress.
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Buddhist Skepticism
Buddha: Monks, just as the wise accept gold
after testing it by heating, cutting, and rubbing it,
so are my words to be accepted after examining
them, but not out of respect for me.

Dalai Lama: A general basic stance of
Buddhism is that it is inappropriate to hold a
view that is logically inconsistent. This is taboo.
But even more taboo than holding a view that is
logically inconsistent is holding a view that goes
against direct experience.
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Buddhism, Science, and Empiricism
William James:

Let empiricism once become associated with
religion, as hitherto, through some strange
misunderstanding, it has been associated with
irreligion, and I believe that a new era of religion
as well as philosophy will be ready to begin... I
fully believe that such an empiricism is a more
natural ally than dialectics ever were, or can be,
of the religious life.