Deha
Shilpa Ashok Pandit
February 8, 2023 DOI: 10.4324/9781003336204-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that consciousness in Indian psychology is embodied rather than otherworldly, drawing on a three-body framework shared with Buddhist texts in which embodied consciousness experiences the world and recognizes the self as either emptiness or fullness. The chapter contends that Yoga's stages and sensory cognition illuminate embodied consciousness, and questions whether the body itself is a real category given its constitution by chemicals, molecules, bacteria, microbiome, and viruses. |
Abstract
Consciousness is experienced as embodied in the human experience. The chapter disabuses the notions that consciousness in Indian psychology is otherworldly and, therefore, disembodied. Indeed, IKS presents a nuanced conceptualization of three bodies. These three bodies are also seen in Buddhist texts. One of the three bodies is the physical body; the rest are the bodies in consciousness. The embodied consciousness experiences the world just as it utilizes the body-mind to recognize the self – whether as emptiness in Buddhism or fullness in Vedānta. The chapter discusses the key mainstream ideas of physicalism and functionalism in reference to consciousness. The body-mind relationship of the embodied consciousness is discussed in reference to Yoga and its stages that address the body, the prana and the senses, augmented with the relevant research literature on Yoga in contemporary psychology. The chapter discusses the embodied consciousness in states of consciousness such as dreaming and altered states during wakefulness. The chapter particularly addresses the dynamic polarities in the body, the sensory cognition as the gateway to understanding the embodied consciousness. Finally, the chapter discusses the outcomes of a consistent mind-body practice that prepares the person to ageing and death. The chapter closes with the question on the idea of the body itself as a real category, recognizing that body as such does not exist, constituted it is of chemicals and molecules; bacteria, microbiome and viruses.