When we are asleep, our first five senses stop working, while our consciousness remains active. During the dream state, our perception is purely based on consciousness activity, as there is no observation of the external world taking place.
What is the origin of dreams? According to Buddhism, dreams originate from the alaya-vijnanam, the storehouse consciousness where an immense amount of information is stored as karmic traces or seeds. Dreams arise through the activation of consciousness. While our flesh eyes are closed and inactive during sleep, we experience various perceptions and activities in the dream state, all of which are ultimately rooted in consciousness.
That is to say, when all of the six senses stop working, our life activities do not disappear or cease completely. Then the question is that, at this moment, which perceives the external world. There must be something fundamental behind the six senses. What is it? You may say it is the “I”, but the “I” is only a word. Plus, we know little about what the “I” is. People also call it the soul, the spirit, and etc. The point is that there is certainly a “thing” behind what we take for granted. Whether you are a scientist, a religious scholar, or a normal person, there must be an ultimate, invisible observer behind you.
Understanding what the invisible master behind our perception is a complex and challenging puzzle that requires profound contemplation. Therefore, we should pause and reflect on who controls our perception of the world through our six senses. For the time being, we can refer to it as the "perceiver," while acknowledging that the six senses act as its instruments.
Since there is the perceiver, you may wonder what the perceived is. It refers to the object that the perceiver perceives, which we commonly refer to as the world. This includes the shapes and colors we see with our eyes, sounds we hear with our ears, smells we detect with our nose, flavors we taste with our tongue, and sensations such as coldness, hotness, softness, hardness, and heaviness that we feel with our body. Additionally, impressions and thoughts that arise in our consciousness are also part of the perceived world.
All of these perceptions, which are processed through our six senses, contribute to our overall understanding of the world. We use intellectual tools such as language and logical thinking to analyze and interpret our perceptions, ultimately forming a selective comprehension of them. This understanding can be applied to both the macro and micro levels, and collectively we refer to it as our worldview.
Excerpted from: Buddhist Worldview and Modern Life
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