The Three Views of Consciousness and Light
1.
There are three views or orientations relative to consciousness
that have historically been adopted by the schools of the Great Tradition.
Each of these views is justified as a mode of orientation under one or
another circumstance of attention, but each view is only one alternative
way of characterizing the same subject. Even so, the historical application
of these three views has tended to represent one or the other of them as
the only correct view. It is this tendency that has caused the general
historical conflict among the schools or traditions that represent the
point of view of one or the other of the first six stages of life, and,
in particular, it has caused the schismatic conflict among the separate
schools of Buddhism and between the traditions of Buddhism and Advaitism.
These three views of consciousness are similar to the
views that have been historically proposed (in both scientific and spiritual
traditions) relative to the subject of light, or energy. Light or energy
is often used as a metaphor for consciousness in the considerations of
philosophy. And, ultimately, the subject of light or energy is identical
to the subject of consciousness. Consciousness, it will be Realized, is
the ultimate Identity or Real Condition of light or energy (and thus all
phenomena).
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