RELIGION or POLITICS - Why Buddhism????? (Cont'd)

(Again much of the contents herein are taken from the book "Unlocking the Mysteries of Birth and Death, byDaisaku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai International.)

Greetings good friends, and potential Buddhists. I'm going to start "The Nine Consciousnesses" today and it will take probably all next week before I complete the entire subject matter. So here we go....

BUDDHISM EXPLAINS THAT ERRONEOUS PERCEPTION, CONCEPTION, OR CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING. THE FIRST STEP, FOR EXAMPLE, ALONG THE EIGHTFOLD PATH IS RIGHT VIEW -- TO PERCEIVE THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE. THEREFORE, BUDDHISM REVEALS THAT TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT -- REPLACING DELUSIONS THAT DISTORT REALITY WITH THE WISDOM TO PERCEIVE THE TRUE REALITY  -- IS THE WAY TO EMANCIPATE OURSELVES FROM SUFFERING. THESE IDEAS ARE THE BASIS OF THE NINE CONSIOUSNESSES CONCEPT.

Many attempts have been made in the West to explore the different levels of human conscious-ness, most notably through psychoanalysis and depth psychology. Neurology and neuro-physiology, too, have sought objectively to examine such functions as sensation, emotion, understanding and memory in connection with the workings of the brain. Buddhism, by contrast, examines the depths of our lives more intuitively. Yet a Buddhist concept such as the nine cosnciousnesses yields much insight into the same areas of the human condition addressed by major hypotheses of moern science and medicine.

In Buddhism, consciousness is the translation of the Sanskrit VIJANA, which means ability of discernment, comprehension or perception. Shakyamuni (first Buddha) included the function among the five components -- form, perception, conception, volition and consciousness. Consciousness is usually understood as conscious awareness, the ability to think or a common waking state. In this reading, however, the word CONSCIOUSNESS is used to mean something different. In Buddhism, consciousness implies a capacity or energy that operates whether or not we are consciously aware of it.

Consciousness operates on several levels. The nine consciousnesses concept, developed largely in the T'ien-t'ai and Flower Garland schools of sixth-century China, analyzes the various strata of conseiousness and therby clarifies the operations of life itself. This concept isdifferent from the idea of the Ten Worlds (previously mentioned and will again). In T'ien-t'ai's teaching, however, these two Buddhist theories overlap in that the ninth consciousness can be under-stood as synonymous with the 10th world---Buddhahood. Nichiren did not expound the nine consciousnesses concept, but he adopted its bottom line that the ninth consciousness is equal to Buddhahood.

As we go along here, friends, how important it is to reach the state of Buddhahood, and how realively easy it is to attain. But all in good order and time, See y'all monday and thanks so very much fot taking an interest. It will so well worth your time, you'll see.    Cheers       CJ