CONSCIOUSNESS AWARE OF ITSELF

The founder of Classical Positivism, Auguste Comte (1798-1857), asked how it was possible for human consciousness to be aware of itself.  Indeed, this has been a puzzle for all western philosophers, and so far it remains a mystery.

Philosophers of Vedanta, however, stated their view of it centuries ago.  The consciousness that is aware of itself in humans, they said, is the Atman, which is the subjective aspect of Brahman, or God.  The Atman, like Brahman, is pure consciousness.  As the epithet sat-chit-ananda puts it, the Brahman, and therefore also the Atman, is absolute Existence, absolute Consciousness, and absolute Bliss.

The Buddha's position on this, by contrast, is found in his doctrine of Anatman.  This states that there is not such thing as the Atman.  In the Buddha's view, the ability of human consciousness to be aware of itself is simply the nature of this consciousness.  It is tathata or suchness.  It is a peculiarity of humans, in other words, a phenomenon that has evolved from the earliest times of humans.  This consciousness, the Buddha went on to say, is one of the five skandhas, so called, that aggregation of elements constituting an individual.  When a person dies, this collection, including consciousness, disperses, disappears.  In Vedanta, the consciousness of the Atman is immortal, conversely.