[Buddha-l] Sabba Sutta

[Bruce Burrill]

Here is Bill Waldron's direct response (via me, 
since I asked to respond to jkirk's msg) to the  Alaya-vijnana question:

The mode of nonconscious mental processes called 
Alaya-vijnana influence perception in a variety 
of indispensable ways, all of which are expressed 
in the traditional literature using traditional 
technical jargon. This means that other ways of 
expressing this are all interpretations, useful but not quite the same.

Alaya-vijnana is thought to underlie and support 
ordinary, conscious experience insofar as this 
level of nonconscious mental processes provide an 
elaborate basis for any cognition, any 
perception, to occur at all. Alaya-vijnana is a 
name we give to these supporting processes.

Think of everything that must be happening in 
your brain/mind in order for you to perceive, 
say, a flower, or to understand language. We are 
conscious of only the slightest part of these 
processes. The rest are outside of our awareness, 
but they must be occurring ­this is a safe and 
attested inference­ in order for us to re-cognize anything.

To be more specific, when we cognize a flower, we 
recognize that it is a “flower” because we have 
had previous experience with flowers, which laid 
“impressions” in the brain/mind, that are 
triggered when we see “flowers” again. Included 
in these impressions are names and concepts that 
help us cognize and re-cognize 'flowers.' When we 
hear a language we know, we typically focus on 
the meaning rather than, say, the phonemes, the 
morphemes or the syntax (sounds, words, grammar). 
As with perception, all of this­for the most 
part­operates automatically, unconsciously,, and without special effort.

By contrast, a new-born baby does not have 
the  capacity to distinguish shapes, to cognize 
objects or to understand words. The neural 
networks created through visual experience take 
time; our visual faculties are trained, as it 
were, to see certain visual configurations and 
eventually cognize them as specific “objects.” 
Language­naming and concepts­refers to to and reinforces such re-cognitions.

The capacity to perceive “flowers” is thus a 
learned capacity, and “flowers” are a complex 
product of physical and mental processes, 
processes whose enabling capacities have been 
built up over time and which operate 
automatically and simultaneously in every 
perception. These underlying processes are a bit 
like the roots of a plant, which are in constant 
and supporting interaction with the leaves above 
ground. Perceived objects, in this sense, are 
complex products, rather than simple causes, of perceptual processes.

The underlying (or subliminal “below the 
threshold”) cognitive processes that support and 
underlie perception in this fashion are what are 
referred as Alaya-vijnana. This analysis of 
perception is based upon the Samdhinirmocanca 
Sutra and the Yogacarabhumi, and is largely in 
accord with prevailing analyses in cognitive 
science, such as found in Antonio Damasio's work, for example.

If you want even simpler English (but less direct 
exposition) read Thich Nhat Hanh's Understanding the Mind.

Bill Waldron