The direct valid cognition of the five-sense organs and the mental consciousness.
The fundamental cognitive approaches that humans use to perceive the world involve the following factors: the five-sense organs, the five sensory consciousnesses, the five simultaneous sensory awarenesses, the mental consciousness, and the simultaneous mental awareness. To make it simple, let us call all of these forms of simultaneous awareness "knowers." All these factors form the bedrock of our understanding, the very tools with which we build all human knowledge and technology. Remember: In every form of human perception, be it the symphony of light, the rumble of vibrations, the bouquet of aromas, the dance of flavors, the sensations of physical bodies, and the whispers of thoughts, these knowers must engage individually or collectively. The specific knower, or the simultaneous mental awareness, that goes hand in hand with the mental consciousness is termed as self-knowing consciousness in Pramana and the self-knowing aspect of the mental consciousness in Yogacara.
What do the five simultaneous sensory awarenesses mean? When we are looking at something, the simultaneous visual awareness needs to be in play for perception; otherwise, things will not be perceived visually. In other words, looking but not seeing. During meditation, if you are gazing forward while your mind is concentrated on the lower abdomen fully, your visual perception may become somewhat blurry. With a high level of concentration, the sensation of heaviness in the body might vanish, and you might even lose awareness of surrounding sounds. Why does this happen? It is because the corresponding sensory awarenesses are not actively contributing. When one or all of the sensory awarenesses are not lending a hand, the corresponding sensory abilities gradually fade out. It is akin to when we are deeply engrossed in a phone call, our eyes cannot pick up on things around us. All of our attention is on the phone. At that moment, the other sensory awarenesses remain inactive, only the auditory awareness is engaged actively.
A man enthralled by a gripping TV show is oblivious to his girlfriend's calls from the other side of the living room, no matter how loudly she calls. The girl is so irritated that she might dart across the room to slap him, "Can't you hear me?" Why does this happen? His visual awareness and auditory awareness are glued to the show on the screen, and the mental awareness is engaged deeply in the process of experiencing the pleasure derived from the TV show. In that moment, the outside world, including his girlfriend's voice, fades into a muted hum.
Normally, our five simultaneous sensory awarenesses are well balanced, each receiving equal attention. However, in high-pressure situations, like storming a prison to rescue a hero, some of the simultaneous sensory awarenesses take the lead. A Chinese idiom goes: "eyes and ears everywhere." His ears and eyes become sharpened weapons, scanning for any hint of danger. Although his mental consciousness is evenly spread across the five-sense organs, in this scenario, the main players are the ear and eye, and the nose and tongue play a quieter role. Why? For humans, the nose and tongue perceive less likelihood of danger. It is a different story for a dog, though. Its super-charged sense of smell becomes its primary weapon, sniffing out threats while its eyes and ears provide backup.
Beneath every human action, cognition reigns as the hidden king. By learning to navigate this inner landscape, we can attain liberation and uncover the ultimate truth. That is the journey I am hoping to embark on with you through this conversation about cognition.
The five simultaneous sensory awarenesses refer to simultaneous visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile awarenesses. Additionally, there is the simultaneous mental awareness, termed self-aware consciousness in Pramana. This signifies our awareness of our own thoughts, an ability that the mental consciousness possesses to know its activities. Yogacara terms it the self-knowing aspect of consciousness, which defines and reinforces perceiving ability and perceived form. In essence, knowing what we are thinking is enough, and memorizing the term "simultaneous mental awareness" is not necessary. This term is merely a linguistic convenience for communication and is absent from Pramana.
Do our five senses and mental consciousness provide the most basic way of knowing the world and ourselves? Absolutely. Could a newborn baby think from the moment he is born? No. At first, newborn babies use sight, touch, and other senses to find their mothers. The eyes of a newborn need to see the outside world in order for the retina to develop fully. It is actually very simple to make a newborn blind or become a one-eyed person. If you put a patch on one eye of a newborn and just let him see with one eye, then remove the patch until he is one year old, one of his eyes will no longer be able to see and eventually become a one-eyed person. On the surface, his two eyes are the same, but one of the eyes has lost its visual ability because the optic nerve needs to be developed through practice.
This direct cognition is the basic way of all human cognition. All knowledge, whether it is thinking or technology, must be based on it. We experience a lot of things, and our knowledge becomes vast. At first, we accumulate. Later, we reflect and contemplate. When we reflect and contemplate, we know what we are reflecting and contemplating. Then, we summarize, classify, and generalize the content of our thinking, extracting meaning from our experiences and turning them into knowledge. And finally, we write books and pass them on to future generations.
In short, all human knowledge is based on the six basic cognitive methods: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mental consciousness. The mental consciousness includes both mental consciousness and five simultaneous sensory awarenesses. These are the basic ways in which humans perceive the world.
Excerpted from:Cognition and Expression Part One
