Three Aspects of Consciousness

     "According to the Indian yogic traditions, which broadly construed include Buddhism, we can distinguish three aspects of consciousness. The first aspect is awareness, which is often likened to a light that reveals whatever it shines upon. The second aspect is whatever the light illuminates, that is, whatever we happen to be aware of from moment to moment. The third aspect is how we experience some of these contents of awareness as “I” or “Me” or “Mine.” To understand how we enact a self, therefore, we need to understand three things— the nature of awareness as distinct from its sensory and mental contents, the mind-body processes that produce these contents, and how some of these contents come to be experienced as the self."

 

       Thompson E. "Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Light on the Self and Consciousness from Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy." Columbia University Press, 2014. http://evanthompson.me/waking-dreaming-being/ 

 

Le Bouddha by Odilon Redon