19 | Buddha and Lao Tzu on Consciousness and “Things”

Welcome to the Cow Behind the Barn: A podcast exploring humanity, the world, and the divine, as experienced and interpreted by an artist. I’m Kevin Caldwell, a co-finder of the Table Collective.

“Does anything in the cosmos have consciousness, and if so, what things (everything?), what type of consciousness, how?” 

This question surfaced during the last few Episodes, as I have been exploring the nature of consciousness and feeling my way along towards an approach to that mysterious theme. I eventually landed on that question as a way to focus what I am looking for when I turn to religious heritages, physics, philosophy and art for answers.

In the last Episode I began with animism and the Bhagavad Gita. For those who may be just beginning to follow along here is a summary:

In animism, everything or at least most everything, is conscious in some way.  There are forms of animism which would suggest that there are multiple spirits or energies or forces that are conscious, and forms which say it is the same spirit animating everything. Animism sees all of life as a reciprocal relationship with the spirits or spirit of all things.

In the Gita there is a big “S” Self, a big “C” Consciousness, which is the Self and Consciousness of our every small “s” self.  This Self pervades everything and the visible, natural world, is a manifestation of its energy. What we experience as our individual consciousness is actually part of the natural world and is not our true self.

In this Episode I will continue with two more of the world’s religious heritages, the teaching of the Buddha and of Lao Tzu.

 

The Focus

I have placed some limitations on myself. 

I am only looking at what I referred to as 1, 2, and 3 dimensional levels of consciousness, and am primarily looking at non-human aspects of our world. (I explained my way of seeing consciousness in terms of four dimensions in prior sessions. For now: each level is marked by the interplay of what a “subject”, a thing or being, experiences, and by the ways that they may be aware of that experience or may be aware of being aware).

What do Buddha and Lao Tzu say about the nature of consciousness?

 

The Buddha

One of the core elements in the Buddha’s teaching is what he called “non-Self”, or “un-self.”  This is a complex idea and easily misunderstood,

Let’s begin from the context of the Buddha’s teaching summarized in the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path: 

The Four Truths are: that human beings suffer, that suffering is due to craving and attachment, that liberation from the suffering caused by craving and attachment is possible, and that there is a path to such liberation. 

The path to liberation is the Eight-Fold Path. To fully explore this would require multiple Episodes all on its own. But for our purposes here it can be summarized like this: in eight different ways Buddha describes the path as a process of learning to see things as they are.

And the self is one of the things the Buddha said we need to see as it is. The self is not what we think. In fact, it is non-self.

If the Buddha were asked to comment on my several dimensions of consciousness and awareness and being aware of being aware, he might say, “Kevin there is no permanent ‘something’ that experiences events and stimuli, nothing permanent in you or in any subject that is aware or is aware of being aware.” There is no self “doing that.”

How might the Buddha respond to my Episode 2 question, “where and when did I begin?” For example, is there an “I” in the question? If so, what is it? If not, then who is the I asking it?

Here is my summary of the Buddha’s reply.

The self is not a “thing” in me that is “having experiences” or being aware of them. What I am, what I call me, is the constant flow of experiences and mental states, the flow of what Buddha refers to as “dependent originations” because each new experience or perception or idea or feeling or sensation or awareness is dependent on whatever sparked it, and also on whatever experience or mental state preceded it. The mental state of this moment originates from prior experiences and from the things being experienced. Hence the term, dependent origination.

Buddha would say about my ideas of consciousness and awareness, that consciousness is part of that flow, it is an example of one of the things that is dependent on something else for its origins.

Buddha describes five main links on that chain of dependent origination, five of bundles of experiences and responses:

Form: The body, or matter, made up of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water

Feeling: Sensations or feelings

Perception: Perceptions of sense objects…things our eyes see, our ears hear, etc.

Mental formations: The things we think, the concepts we form in our minds, the ideas we come up with.

And the fifth of these:

Consciousness: defined as the awareness of having sensations, perceptions and mental formations.

In short, I am the series of experiences, feelings, mental formulations and the awareness of having these. There is no “I” that is having those experiences and states of mind. The I is those experiences and states of mind, and they are “me.”

The chain of dependent origination which is me is also interconnected with other things and selves, because my experiences and perceptions originate in response to other things. There is a web of interconnection and originations that is the source of our experiences and events, and thus the flow that is who we are is a connected flow.

Thus, when the Buddha speaks of “non-self” he is not saying the self does not exist, but that it exists in a certain way, again, as the flow of our experiences and awareness.

I want to bring in a poem here that I have shared in another Episode and then ask us to reflect on it, my poem “Flying Feathered Thing.”

 

A Flying Feathered Thing

What you see is a flying thing

All vanes and plumes and hollow shafts

Hooked quills, blood feathers, pins

In flight from nest to limb

To wind to branch, 

Back again.

 

You see the feathered thing

Tracing air, open winged,

On waves invisible as light.

 

You see.

But I know.

 

There is no bird,

No follicles, no skin,

Only feathers, covering layers of feathers,

Attached to and held together in 

A hollow fullness.

 

These feathers that I am,

This I that is a we,

This single plural of feather.

First, second, third person.

 

“I” is not here,

Yet this reeling feeling

Of feather lifting feather in the wind,

A shape of move and hover,

That is me.

 

I am the feathered flying thing you see.

 

A good deal of the practices that come from Buddhist traditions of meditation ask us to focus on awareness and attentiveness, or mindfulness. One approach is to take time to notice what your body is feeling, what your emotions are, what thoughts arise spontaneously in your mind. Simply be aware of them. Such self-awareness will begin to spill over into daily life, and we will find ourselves acting differently towards people and circumstances. Maybe try it for even 5 minutes a day for the next few days and see what happens.

Back to the Buddha.

Earlier I said I would not be talking about human beings however so far, I’ve focused a lot on humans. It enabled me to describe consciousness on Buddha’s terms. What about other things and consciousness?

In Buddhist teaching, inanimate objects do not experience consciousness in the same way that sentient beings do. Although the Buddha and I would use the term “experience” in different ways, I think he would say that inanimate objects and things “experience” events and stimuli without being aware of that experience. In keeping with an earlier example, the rock experiences being crushed, but is not aware of it.

However, there are some schools of Buddhist thought which suggest that even inanimate objects have a potential for enlightenment, and that there may be some kind of interconnectedness with “consciousness” at a fundamental level, even if such objects and things do not have awareness. 

In addition, I would assume that inanimate objects would, as with human beings, have no inherent consciousness. Whatever consciousness may apply to them would also be the flow experiences, feelings, thoughts (if that applies), etc. 

Now I turn to Lao Tzu.

 

Lao Tzu

I introduced Lao Tzu in prior Episodes, so I will just summarize here. He was a central figure in Chinese culture and philosophy and wisdom in the 6th century BCE, and generally considered the founder of Taoism. His 81stanza poem, the Tao Te Ching is a poetic as well as philosophical masterpiece. The title, Tao Te Ching, serves as a summary of what his work is:

“Ching” refers to a book or work, in this case the poem itself. 

The term “Tao” is the way everything works and at the same time the Tao is the working of everything. It is the flow of how everything happens, and the flow of everything that happens, at least when things, especially people, act in keeping with the Tao. How to act in keeping with the Tao is the main theme of the Tao Te Ching.  

“Te” is given by the Tao to each specific thing or person. Te can be translated in several ways but in this connection, Te is the unique, true nature of a person or object or animal or plant, etc. The Te of each being is what makes it what it is and is the source of that thing’s unique way of being what it is. Te is what makes  a thing or person different from each other thing and person.  

This interplay of Tao and Te is expressed frequently in the Tao Te Ching.  For example, in stanza 21 Lao Tzu says, “the capacity of Te is only to follow Tao.”  Te is unique, but it follows and comes from Tao, much as a child comes from and follows and imitates its mother.                                                      

So, in stanza 51 he says, “your Te is born with you, but you cannot possess it. It does things for you, yet it is not dependent upon you. It grows, but you do not know that it is your master. This is the primal Te.”

Te and Tao are not interchangeable, not identical, but they are inseparable, interconnected.

Here is an illustration.

All birds fly, every fish swims (they do more than that, this is just an illustration). They fly and swim because of the Tao, it is their natural way. 

At the same time birds and fish individually have their own unique Te which is what makes “this fish” swim differently from “that fish.” All fish swim, but each fish has a way it swims.  

The same is true of everything, and of human beings.

The relationship of Tao and Te also sheds light on how each specific thing or person is connected to all others, the rest of the world, and the entire cosmos. Each thing or person has its own Te, and since that Te flows from the Tao, and since the Tao is the way of all things, then no individual thing is independent. 

Everything is interconnected through its Te to the Tao, and through the Tao to the Te of everything else. Each thing, and each person, is interconnected no matter how individual and unique it, or we, may be.

What are the implications of this for the self and consciousness? I will focus on human selves because Lao Tzu is not clear about whether other things have “selves.” 

One of the things that makes humans unique from other things and objects in Lao Tzu’s view is that humans can choose to live out of harmony with the Tao. Humans can disrupt the natural way as we attempt to alter our circumstances and environment in order to meet desires or ambitions for things that are not in keeping with our Te or the Tao. 

Humans create things, and customs, rules and regulations, and ways of doing things together or for others, or against others. As a result, the environment which is natural and in accord with the Tao and most favorable to the fulfillment of our unique Te is lost. 

This causes people to make yet more and more changes in the attempt to satisfy new desires and ambitions to adjust the results of our prior actions and efforts. The outcome of all of this is that we increasingly live in ways that are contrary to our Te and out of harmony with the Tao. 

As a result, we develop an outer self, a false self, a set of impulses that multiply and are destructive of our Te, and of the social and natural environment in which we find ourselves.

There is a song I think is especially fitting here, as it explores this idea of false and true self from an artist’s point of view, it’s my home made recording of my song, Masked Man.

 

Masked Man

I hold up my compassion, wield it like a warrior shield

I deflect the tender touches inviting me to yield

I never peel back my armor on this empty battle field

I fear that everything I’ve been hiding will be naked and revealed

And they’ll see underneath it all, underneath it all I’m bleeding

 

That morning in Seattle when we couldn’t see the rain

It was wrapped inside the fog that soaked the city like a stain

You and me in that hotel room deaf and silent once again

Me stripped down to nothing, ‘til just one thing still remained

My fear of everything, everything I’m needing

 

There’s a man that I am watching, a painted smile upon his face

He keeps me at a distance, from his frightened hiding space

Everyone who knows him sees that he has everything in place

I catch him in my mirror sometimes and see the mask that is my cage

And he’s the frightened animal, the animal I’m feeding

 

Underneath the mask

Underneath it all I’m bleeding

Everything I’m needing, and the animal I’m feeding

All underneath the mask…repeat and out

 

In Lao Tzu’s way of seeing, the masks we wear are our outer selves. They are forged by our inner wounds, neediness, and hungers. They cover over the ways we are out of harmony with the Tao, and disruptive of our Te. 

The Tao, in giving all things our Te, gives us our true or inner self, in contrast to that outer self. The Te aligned with the Tao is our true, personal identity, our true self.

Thus, Taoism views the self as part of a larger cosmic network of selves and things. The goal is to live in harmony with this interconnectedness rather than to control or dominate it. Only in such harmony is any self its true self, only in such harmony do Te and Tao flow together.

What about consciousness?

My descriptive approach to consciousness revolves around my understanding that every thing and person is conscious in the sense of “experiencing” events and stimuli, but not all things have awareness, or an awareness of being aware. 

The Tao Te Ching encourages transcending the outer self, or false self. Crucial to that process is the intentional cultivation of being aware of one's thoughts and actions in order to live in alignment with the Tao, and with our Te. This includes cultivating an awareness of being a part of a larger whole rather than simply separate entities. This enables us to let go of excessive self-importance and focus on living in harmony with the world around us; this can only be achieved through self-awareness.

 

In Taoism then, consciousness, identified here with awareness, is not something that just “is.” It is something to be sought and cultivated.

 

Buddha and Lao Tzu, Summary and Comparison

I won’t review everything we have explored in the views of consciousness as seen in the Buddha and Lao Tzu. I think a few very short summary statements can serve as a comparison.

Here is where they both agree:

• Consciousness is intricately connected with awareness, and being aware of being aware (and so, of being aware of being aware of what one is aware of).
• Consciousness is something that can and should be cultivated. in Lao Tzu, for the purpose of living in harmony with the Te and the Tao. For the Buddha it is in order to achieve liberation from the cycle of craving and suffering.

Here is where they differ:

• For the Buddha consciousness is not ontological, it has no “being” in and of itself. 
• For Lao Tzu, it seems implicit that there is a someone, a self, who does the cultivating, someone who seeks to be aware, and so to adjust to the Tao.
• In the teaching of the Buddha, the teaching itself is the way, or path, to liberation.
• For Lao Tzu, the way, the Tao, is not a path or way that leads us to something, it is the way everything functions. In my own words, for the Buddha the way leads to liberation, for Lao Tzu the way leads to itself.

A final comparison:

• While they differ in their views of the self and consciousness in some significant ways, both present a vision of reality in which all things are connected. No being, including you or I, exists as independent, isolated purely individual selves. 

 

Conclusion:

My focus in the prior Episode which explored the Gita and animism was on the nature of consciousness. In a way that reflected my own interests. This look at the Buddha and Lao Tzu served as a reminder to me that in addition to the appropriate questions about consciousness as an idea, what it is, there is a very crucial practical aspect relative to how to cultivate it, how to grow and develop it, and so how to cultivate ourselves. 

Had I been thinking of that in the last Episode, I would have drawn out the things the Gita offers in this regard, for like the Buddha, the Gita addresses both the “what” and the “how” of consciousness. Hopefully, I can return to that.

I will want to explore more comparisons the way Gita and animism see consciousness with the views of the Buddha and Lao Tzu. But first I want to continue drawing from other religious wells. I will turn next to the so-called western religious heritages to see what they have to say about consciousness and the self.

Until next time…