Concept
Vijñāna
Overview
Vijñāna (Sanskrit: विज्ञान) or viññāṇa (Pali: विञ्ञाण) is translated as "consciousness", "life force", "mind", or "discernment".
The term vijñāna is mentioned in many early Upanishads, where it has been translated by terms such as understanding, knowledge, and intelligence.
In the Pāli Canon's Sutta Pitaka's first four nikāyas, viññāṇa is one of three overlapping Pali terms used to refer to the mind, the others being manas and citta. Each is used in the generic and non-technical sense of "mind" in general, but the three are sometimes used in sequence to refer to one's mental processes as a whole. Their primary uses are, however, distinct.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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For as when a thing is understood by anyone, there results in the one who understands a conception of the object understood, which conception we call word; so when anyone loves an object, a certain impression results, so to speak, of the thing loved in the affection of the lover; by reason of which the object loved is said to be in the lover; as also the thing understood is in the one who understands; so that when…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Vijñāna is.
The one part, which really is orthodox, has no other purpose than to make the deliverances of the Vedas clearer, or to derive from the text of these original treatises an ingeniously thought-out Psychology. This system is called Mimansa, and two schools proceed from it. Distinguished from these there are other systems, amongst which the two chief are those of the Sanc’hya and Nyaya. The former again divides into two…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Vijñāna is.
Thus, having started entirely from the passive element in the good, the inquiry could only proceed later to the active element, and investigate the conduct of the man who is called good, no longer with reference to others, but to himself; specially setting itself the task of explaining both the purely objective respect which such conduct produces in others, and the peculiar contentment with himself which it clearly…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Vijñāna is.
Philosophers who discussed Vijñāna
Related ideas
- Idealism
- Karma
- Buddhist meditation
- Walpola Rahula Thera
- Saṃsāra
- Skandha
- Visuddhimagga
- Majjhima Nikāya
- Mahabharata
- Anattā
- Nirvana
- Chandogya Upanishad
- Aṅguttara Nikāya
- Śāriputra
- Bhagavad Gita
- Panchatantra
- Perception
- Abhidharma
- Pali Canon
- Buddhaghosa
- Yogachara
- Dhyana in Buddhism
- Theravada
- Buddhism
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Idealism.