[Advaita-l] Vedantic view of perception

[sriram nagaraj via Advaita-l]

Dear Vidyasankar Ji,

Thanks for your reply. So if I understand right, we infer the existence of the ego "I" due to perception of thoughts, as this would explain in deep sleep, due to non-awareness of thoughts, we infer the non-existence of ego in deep sleep. Moreover, the "is-ness" of thoughts or objects is due to our perception of them, not independently.

So my follow-up question is how do we (if at all possible) infer the existence of the "cause" being ego "I" without the "effect" of perception of thoughts?

Is this the topic of Drik-Drishya Viveka? If so, any pointers to that text are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
 
Sriram Nagaraj

--The inner Light illuminates our minds--




On Thursday, June 26, 2014 4:37 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
 


There have been lots of posts on this list on the mature advaita vedAnta discussion of perception, particularly with respect to the description found in texts like vedAnta paribhAshA. For example, check https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vedanta+paribhasha+advaita-l. 

In brief, the ego doesn't stand on its own, without a thinking mind and the mind itself takes in input from the sensory organs and "goes out" to form an image of their objects in itself. vedAnta discussions of the logistics of sensory perception are far closer to yoga/sAMkhya than to bauddha systems of thought. 

Best regards,
Vidyasankar


> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 13:38:28 -0700
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Vedantic view of perception
> From: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> 
> Dear Members,
> 
> I would like to know of references to the Vedantic view of perception, by which I mean how the cognition of objects/thoughts/emotions happens. Upon the rise of ego, how is it that the ego knows it is experiencing or cognizing objects/thoughts/emotions etc. Is it self-referential i.e. ego sees something and concludes there is an object if so how does the ego know it is seeing/experiencing? The answer cannot be "because it knows", that is a loop. Or is the very definition of ego that which thinks it is cognizing objects outside? In Buddhist literature, a lot of work of Asanga and his (half?) brother (whose name I have forgotten) go in this direction of perception, but I still want to know of Vedantic works that address this point. Since this is not a theological question, I suppose the answer must be same if you are a Vedantist or Buddhist :)
> 
>  
> Regards,
> 
> Sriram Nagaraj
> 
> --The inner Light illuminates our minds--
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