Mind and Consciousness in Buddhist Philosophy

Abstract

The mind is often understood as a faculty that manifests itself in mental phenomena like sensation, perception, thinking, reasoning, memory, belief, desire, emotion, and motivation. Consciousness is an intrinsic causal power. It is a quality of state of being aware, especially of something within oneself. In Buddhism, consciousness has been translated from the Sanskrit word “vijñāna” and refers to one’s self-awareness and one’s capability to discern the various energies that influence our lives. Consciousness is the state through which we can see, hear, feel, etc. It is the state of realizing or noticing that something exists.  All the mental phenomena are meant by consciousness. We can say that the mind is a physical entity, whereas consciousness is an operational phenomenon of the mind.