The History of Buddhist Thought c16.50

c16.50

Another way of finding a permanent substrate is to identify consciousness itself with the ātman. This is treated in the legend of the monk Sāti (Majjh., i, 256), who formed the evil view that consciousness is something which remains consciousness, and as such passes from birth to birth. The whole refutation rests upon the twelvefold Causal Formula. “Consciousness originates from a cause and without a cause there is no arising of consciousness.” It manifests itself through each of the six senses. “Through whatever cause consciousness arises it gets its name from that cause. Through the eye and visible forms consciousness arises, and is known as eye-consciousness.” Consciousness through the other senses is explained in the same way. Here it is not the birth-consciousness of the Causal Formula that is being explained, but the rise of a particular conscious state by stimulus of a sense-organ.