The concept of consciousness in Upanişads and early Advaita Vedānta

Philosophy

Authors

  • Sergey L. Burmistrov Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Department of Central and Southern Asia; 18, Dvortsovaya emb., Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russia

Keywords:

Advaita Vedānta, Upanişads, philosophy of mind, levels of consciousness, Ātman, Gaudapāda

Abstract

In the article reveled, that conception of mind in Advaita Vedānta is determined by religious ideas of Vedas and Upanişads. Central concept of Advaitist philosophy of mind is the concept of Ātman as a «blind spot» of empirical consciousness, unitary in all individual persons. It has a sacral nature and makes cognition possible, being itself incognizable. The main problem in Advaitist discourse is that a person identifies himself with an empirical, changeable and determined level of consciousness. The solution is the identification of the Self with Ātman as the mind level, free of causal determination.

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Published

2013-06-30

Issue

Вестник 2013 Выпуск 2 (14)

Section

Статьи

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