Subjectivity, Selfhood and the Use of the Word ‘I’

A Buddhist philosophical analysis distinguishes six modes of conscious attention tied to sensory modalities, plus a seventh, 'defiled mind' (klisṭamanas), which Asaṅga posits as a more basic form of self-awareness. This seventh mode is associated with the 'notion of I' and represents a modification of the traditional five-skandha system. The paper examines how these concepts, developed by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, address self-consciousness and conscious attention to oneself within Buddhist philosophy of mind.

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Abstract

Subjectivity, Selfhood and the Use of the Word 'I' JONARDON GANERI I. Asan ˙ga and Vasubandhu on Self-Consciousness and Conscious Attention to Oneself A well-known Buddhist philosophy of mind has it that conscious experience is a synthesis of five forms of activity: the processes of registering, appraising, stereotyping, readying, and consciously attending.1These philosophers say that the last of these, conscious attention, is relative to a perceptual modality, so that, for example, consciously attending to what is being visually registered is different in kind from consciously attending to what is being registered in touch.2They say as well that one can also consciously attend to what is going on in one's mind.This is a mode of conscious reflecting (mano-vijn ˜a ¯na); it is a way of being self-aware, of consciously attending to one's own psychological state.To these six varieties of conscious attention Asan ˙ga adds a seventh, which he calls simply manas 'mind'/'consciousness', or else 'defiled mind' (klis ˙t ˙amanas).3It is, he seems to think, a distinct and more basic mode of being 1 The five so-called skandhas or 'ingredients' that combine into individual thoughts or experiences: ru ¯pa, vedana ¯, sam ˙jn ˜a ¯, sam ˙ska ¯ra, and vijn ˜a ¯na.For details, see Ganeri (forthcoming).This flexible doctrine is transformed in various ways by later Buddhist thinkers, beginning with Asan ˙ga and Vasubandhu in the c. 4th ce.2 S ˙ad : vijn ˜a ¯nadha ¯tavas ´caks ˙ura ¯dya ¯s ´raya ¯ru ¯pa ¯dya ¯lambana ¯vijn ˜a ¯ptayah : (Vasubandhu, Pan ˜caskandhaka 135).3 Thereby adding a new sense for this term, which in its everyday use in Abhidharma is simply synonymous with conscious attention (citta, vijn ˜a ¯na).Kramer (2008) translates klis ˙t ˙a-manas as 'notion of I', and observes that the incorporation of this new concept represents a modification in the traditional system of the five skandhas, a modification that is evident in Sthiramati's commentary on Vasubandhu's Pan ˜caskandhaka.She says: 'In particular the function of vijn ˜a ¯na-skandha-the original role of which was