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.No ConsciousnessIf shifting our awareness can lead to some freedom from suffering, we may feel puzzled whenwe read the Heart Sutra advising us there is  no mind, no consciousness. Many therapists seetheir work as one of increasing awareness, and may feel uneasy at the Heart Sutra s exposition of no consciousness. Not only therapists, but virtually all of us, regard our consciousness as theessence of our selves.During our lives we fear  losing our minds; in the face of death, we areterrified at the prospect of the cessation of consciousness.When the Heart Sutra says  no consciousness it means consciousness, just like sensation, isempty: that is, there are no fixed, essential qualities to distinguish it.Consciousness depends on allthe other skandhas - form, feeling, perceptions, impulses - to constitute it and has no existenceapart from its composite existence.When we are infants, we see our hands waving about in frontof our eyes and begin to realize our sensation of movement is connected to our sensation ofvision; we feel the air on our skin and the touch of the people around us and begin to becomeconscious of both mental and physical boundaries.We become able to identify objects: my crib,my bottle, my mother, my self.Even when our consciousness is aware of objects, it does not standalone; it is dependent on the existence of the object in order for consciousness of the object toarise.All the forms of consciousness arise in a relationship; consciousness is a way of mentallytouching the world  within and the world  without. As  I touch  the world, it may appearthere is a boundary with  my self on one side and  the world s selves on the other side.In fact,though, the selves on either side of the boundary only exist by virtue of their interdependence, byvirtue of their touching each other.When I bump up against you, I discover both you and mebumping each other: I find my self in the act of touching and being touched.I may touch myselftouching myself79 (consciousness being aware of sensation, feeling being aware of thought) or Imay touch myself touching others (my feelings and thoughts leaping alive in response to yours).Our touching self is an experiencing, self-reflecting self, but need not stand apart as aseparate observer; the kind of consciousness involved in touching is not consciousness of anobject, but rather consciousness with a co-participant.80 This is what happens when we touchourselves touching a client.The hypnotist enters trance along with the client; the teacher enterslearning along with the student; the therapist winces at the client s pain and smiles at their joy.When we allow ourselves to touch and be touched, we lose ourselves and find ourselves in lovingcontact.Where am  I as I touch you touching me touching you? It all happens very fast, too fastto separate into a separate  me here and a separate  thing there.Touching is a horizoning ofeach with the other: it generates an awareness of self and other, not as entities separate fromeach other, but as co-participants.We touch others and also touch ourselves.When our body and mind meet each other,consciousness touches itself touching; when consciousness takes itself as an object it becomesrecursive, self-reflective, and self-conscious.At that point, it looks to consciousness like a  trueself  is there.But when I take myself as an object,  who is it that  I am conscious of ? This isan infinitely recursive road: we can be aware of being aware of being aware of being aware.Buddhism doesn t deny we have the conscious experience of being aware of our selves.TheHeart Sutra s  no consciousness simply is a re-minder that consciousness cannot stand alone.Our self consciousness seems to like to think that, since it s aware of our thoughts, feelings, andsensations, it somehow stands above them and is running the show.In fact, our consciousness isdependent on the rise and fall of all the other realms of experience [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]