[Advaita-l] Vedantic view of perception

Vidyasankar Sundaresan via Advaita-l advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Thu Jun 26 16:37:28 CDT 2014


There have been lots of posts on this list on the mature advaita vedAnta discussion of perception, particularly with respect to the description found in texts like vedAnta paribhAshA. For example, check https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vedanta+paribhasha+advaita-l. 
 
In brief, the ego doesn't stand on its own, without a thinking mind and the mind itself takes in input from the sensory organs and "goes out" to form an image of their objects in itself. vedAnta discussions of the logistics of sensory perception are far closer to yoga/sAMkhya than to bauddha systems of thought. 
 
Best regards,
Vidyasankar
 
> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 13:38:28 -0700
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Vedantic view of perception
> From: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> 
> Dear Members,
> 
> I would like to know of references to the Vedantic view of perception, by which I mean how the cognition of objects/thoughts/emotions happens. Upon the rise of ego, how is it that the ego knows it is experiencing or cognizing objects/thoughts/emotions etc. Is it self-referential i.e. ego sees something and concludes there is an object if so how does the ego know it is seeing/experiencing? The answer cannot be "because it knows", that is a loop. Or is the very definition of ego that which thinks it is cognizing objects outside? In Buddhist literature, a lot of work of Asanga and his (half?) brother (whose name I have forgotten) go in this direction of perception, but I still want to know of Vedantic works that address this point. Since this is not a theological question, I suppose the answer must be same if you are a Vedantist or Buddhist :)
> 
>  
> Regards,
> 
> Sriram Nagaraj
> 
> --The inner Light illuminates our minds--
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