What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

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mikenz66
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by mikenz66 »

SarathW
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by SarathW »

Thanks Mike
I tend to agree with Ven. Sujato than the Ven. Thanissaro.
I think radiant consciousness is mainly a result of developed mind by Samatha meditation.
The Nibbana is the result of discernment development by Vipassana Meditattion.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by cobwith »

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"
Pure is water and it is defiled by waste.
Pure is water and it is cleansed from waste.
Water must be treated to be freed from waste.

Consciousness must be cleansed from what is willed, what is arranged, and what is obsessed over (SN 12.38) to recover its original radiance. And that is through the development of the mind. Not through further fabrications (sakhara), but through fabrications and intentions that help the subduing of the effluents.
Consciousness without feature,
without end,
luminous all around:
Here water, earth, fire, & wind have no footing.
Here long & short
coarse & fine
fair & foul
name & form
are, without remnant,
brought to an end.
Of (the activity of) consciousness,
each is here brought to an end.
— DN 11
Mind is a wider subject. But luminosity seems to apply to it, at consciousness (viññaya) level and determinant/"fabrication" (sakhara) level. In other words, it seems that clean consciousness, and clean perception, feeling and thought, cleansed from their effluents, make up a luminous (developed) mind. "Making up" in the sense that it reaches back its original state.
I would guess that the mind is going through Akuppa-cetovimutti (unshakable/unprovokable deliverance of mind;) the ultimate awareness (mind)-release; and that this release is luminous.
Last edited by cobwith on Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Aloka
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by Aloka »

In "The Island" by Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro, there's a section on "Radiance" in chapter 12 "Knowing Emptiness and the Radiant Mind."

http://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/upl ... e_2015.pdf


:anjali:
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cobwith
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by cobwith »

Loved that sutta (thanks Aloka):
Buddha wrote: “Bhikkhus, this mind is radiant, but it doesn’t show its radiance because passing defilements come and obscure it.
(Pabhassaramidam bhikkhave cittam, tañca kho agantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilittham).
The unwise, ordinary person does not understand this as it is, therefore there is no mind development in the unwise, ordinary person.
“Bhikkhus, this mind is radiant, it shows its radiance when it is unobscured by passing defilements. The wise, noble disciple understands this as it is, therefore there is mind development in the wise, noble disciple.”
~ A 1.61 & .62
The radiance of wisdom (paññapabha).
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SarathW
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by SarathW »

So then, what sort of thought are arising in the radiant consciousness.
Why they do not cloud the radiance of the consciousness?
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by cobwith »

SarathW wrote:So then, what sort of thought are arising in the radiant consciousness.
Why they do not cloud the radiance of the consciousness?
I suppose that, at that level of Akuppa-cetovimutti (please, see the two links in my previous post,) consciousness is unprovoked with the thoughts coming from the nama/rupa khanda. Namely, the thoughts made (mostly) of intentions (cetana,) and mental attentions (manasikāra).

The only "thoughts" that are still arising (and still defiling somewhat) the radiance of consciousness is the Thinking/pondering (verbal determination - Vitakkavicārā vacīsaṅkhāro) coming from Saṅkhārā (see Paticcasamuppada). It is still defiling the radiance of consciousness, because there is still the possibility of saṃsāra. And this possibility of verbal expression, terminology and designation, is inherent to the fact of a still existing Vitakkavicārā vacīsaṅkhāro.

Bhudda wrote: Here consciousness is non-manifestive (has no feature) (abhisaṅkhata viññāṇa) .
...
"Name as well as form are without remnant (are held in check with no trace left)" (ettha nāmañca rūpañca asesaṁ uparujjhati).
DN11
Abhisaṅkhata viññāṇa has been wiped off. Only what comes from Saṅkhārā khanda is left (anidassana viññāṇa).
Metta.
Last edited by cobwith on Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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phil
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by phil »

Bhavanga, right? That's what the classical texts say and this section is ( if I understood correctly ) for what Abhidhamma and the other classical texts say.

Is there an explanation in the ancient texts other than bhavanga? I'd be happy to drop the bhavanga explanation since it isn't pleasing to the cittas that would like to have something more attainable to go for. But the texts say luminous mind means bhavanga, right?
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by Dhammanando »

phil wrote:But the texts say luminous mind means bhavanga, right?
Yes, that is indeed what the commentaries define it as.

Which means that several of the posts in this thread are not at all in line with the rules for the Abhidhamma and Classical Theravada forums. A quick reminder for anyone posting here:

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    Posts should also include support from a reference, a citation (Tipitaka, commentarial, or from a later work from an author representative of the Classical point-of-view).

    Posts that contain personal opinions and conjecture, points of view arrived at from meditative experiences, conversations with devas, blind faith in the supreme veracity of one's own teacher's point of view etc. are all regarded as off-topic, and as such, will be subject to moderator review and/or removal.
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tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


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It turns out otherwise.
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justindesilva
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by justindesilva »

Though it is difficult to quote from scripts I understand that vingana without defilements makes the path for a radiant consciousness. With Nibbana nobody speaks of a radiant consciousness.
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fivebells
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by fivebells »

SarathW wrote:Can someone explain the meaning of the following:

“Radiant is this consciousness,” (pabhassaram idam cittam) says the Buddha in
the Anguttara Nikāya vol. 1, p. 10. According to the commentator the Buddha
was thus referring to the rebirth-consciousness
You may find Thanissaro's commentary on this helpful. (If this strays outside the rules for this forum, I apologize.)
The commentary maintains that "mind" here refers to the bhavanga-citta, the momentary mental state between periods when the mental stream adverts to objects, but this statement raises more questions than it answers. There is no reference to the bhavanga-citta or the mental stream in any of the suttas (they appear first in an Abhidhamma treatise, the Patthana); and because the commentaries compare the bhavanga-citta to deep sleep, why is it called luminous? And why would the perception of its luminosity be a prerequisite for developing the mind? And further, if "mind" in this discourse means bhavanga-citta, what would it mean to develop the bhavanga-citta?

<snip>

A more reasonable approach to understanding the statement can be derived from taking it in context: the luminous mind is the mind that the meditator is trying to develop. To perceive its luminosity means understanding that defilements such as greed, aversion, or delusion are not intrinsic to its nature, are not a necessary part of awareness. Without this understanding, it would be impossible to practice. With this understanding, however, one can make an effort to cut away existing defilements, leaving the mind in the stage that MN 24 calls "purity in terms of mind." This would correspond to the luminous level of concentration described in the standard simile for the fourth jhana: "And furthermore, with the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier disappearance of elation & distress — he enters & remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither-pleasure-nor-pain. He sits, permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness. Just as if a man were sitting covered from head to foot with a white cloth so that there would be no part of his body to which the white cloth did not extend; even so, the monk sits, permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by pure, bright awareness." From this state it is possible to develop the discernment that not only cuts away existing defilements but also uproots any potential for them to ever arise again.
SarathW wrote: I found further information please refer to page 329 of the link below. It does not make any sense to me:

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/buddh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... gsurw6.pdf
This link was mangled somehow to an extant that I was unable to reconstruct it.
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by davidbrainerd »

Translating cittam as consciousness rather than mind is going to create confusion.
SarathW
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by SarathW »

In the following video (Sinhalese Language) Ven. Abhya describes radiant consciousness as Arahattaphala Samadhi.
I think it is incorrect.

https://youtu.be/Hwk-aKhm0f4?t=201


This is very clear from Ven. Sujato's article.

In either case, there is no suggestion here that the “radiant mind” be connected with Nibbana. Quite the opposite: the whole point of the sutta is that it can be defiled, so it cannot be Nibbana.

https://sujato.wordpress.com/2014/10/29 ... iant-mind/
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by aflatun »

nyanasuci wrote:I think that you misunderstood the Sutta you are quoting:
SarathW wrote:'If I were to direct equanimity as pure & bright as this toward the dimension of the infinitude of space and to develop the mind along those lines, that would be fabricated.
It is the directing of the equanimity, the establishing of it, pure and bright, that it is 'fabricated', not the dimension of the infinite space.
Bhante

Could you unpack this a little further? Are you saying the dimension of infinite space is not fabricated? Or something else?

:anjali:
"People often get too quick to say 'there's no self. There's no self...no self...no self.' There is self, there is focal point, its not yours. That's what not self is."

Ninoslav Ñāṇamoli
Senses and the Thought-1, 42:53

"Those who create constructs about the Buddha,
Who is beyond construction and without exhaustion,
Are thereby damaged by their constructs;
They fail to see the Thus-Gone.

That which is the nature of the Thus-Gone
Is also the nature of this world.
There is no nature of the Thus-Gone.
There is no nature of the world."

Nagarjuna
MMK XXII.15-16
SarathW
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Re: What does it mean by radiant consciousness?

Post by SarathW »

“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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