The Indian Hard Problem of Consciousness

The author reflects on a personal intellectual journey that began with psychology's experimental and statistical focus, which felt shallow and failed to address deep questions about meaning, soul, or God. Studying Tibetan language, Buddhism, and Indian philosophy offered a more resonant framework. The author's research centers on consciousness, particularly through Pāli texts of the Theravāda tradition, examining how these texts relate philosophy to practice. The author argues that prevalent materialism is a dangerous form of nihilism, akin to what Indian philosophy would consider ominous, and contends that a discussion of consciousness freed from dogmatic materialism, while avoiding religious dogma, may help address societal ailments by re-centering first-person experience and meaning.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Consciousness has been a key idea in my thinking for a long time; in academia, it became the locus for the investigation and conceptualization of deeper intuitions that I may have cultivated even as a child.I began my studies at the university in the midst of a fiery search for answers to the big questions of life.These did not seem to be addressed by my studies in psy chol ogy, with its experimental, statistical, and theoretically shallow focuses; no one was talking about deep meaning, about life, about soul, or even psyche, not to mention God.Scans of rat brains seemed beside the point.So, when I started studying the Tibetan language and was introduced to Buddhism and Indian philosophy, I suddenly felt that someone was speaking my language.Within my studies in psy chol ogy, consciousness emerged as my main interest (special thanks go to Benny Shanon).With time, my research delved deeper into the ideas and practices of Buddhist religion.My focus became the Pli texts of the Theravda tradition, and I grew interested in the way these texts formulated the relation between philosophy and practice.To undertake a serious inquiry into the philosophy I needed to find answers to fundamental questions: What is a Bud dha?What are the texts and how and why were they composed?It seems to me a dangerous sign of our times that materialism is so prevalent.Indian philosophy would consider this an ominous form of nihilism.I feel that a discussion of consciousness that would free itself from the grasp of a dogmatic materialism may help cure society of some of its ailments.True, we must keep dogmatic religious assumptions at bay, but still-must we do away with meaning?Can every thing reduce to function?Is God really irrelevant, even when stripped of his or her religious modes and fundamentalist philosophical assumptions?A confident discussion of consciousness, based on true re spect for first-person experience, may or may not allow us, or me, to answer some of these questions.But I do feel it is important, and that the stakes are higher than a few more words printed on the screen or that gather dust on a library shelf.This is how we understand ourselves, and who we expect ourselves to be, what we think is real and pos si ble.Ultimately, I hope that through the study