Module 3 | Reality and the Nature of Mind

Introduction

In this third module, Professor John Dunne discusses two of the most important schools of Buddhist thought, the Pramana (Sanskrit for Valid Cognition) and Mādhyamaka (Sanskrit for Middle Way) schools, and how these traditions describe and understand the fundamental nature of reality. More precisely, Prof. Dunne explains the method proposed by the influential Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti to study reality. In this module, you will learn how, according to certain schools of Buddhist philosophy, our perception of reality is a mental construction created by our cognitive processes. In this light, the separation of the self and the world is an illusory, arbitrary concept.

Lesson 1

The first level of analysis discussed in this lesson examines what is real, what impacts the senses. It involves the conceptual process of experiencing the world and engaging with it, acting based on what we know or infer from our experiences. This process involves what is experienced in the moment and, at the same time, a prediction of what will happen in the future, which can potentially validate our previous inferences about a certain object or phenomenon.

Lesson 2

In the second lesson, Prof. Dunne discusses how our current conceptualisation of the world – our judgements of the objects and phenomena that we perceive – is always based on our past experiences. As Dharmakirti would put it: when we are experiencing the world, we do so because we want to engage with the world (there are things we want to get and things we want to avoid). In other words: the mere presence of a mental event is not of interest for us, unless it is being interpreted in such a way that we are able to act on what we are knowing and/or experiencing.

Lesson 3

Prof. Dunne starts this lesson by using two optical illusions (the Kanizsa triangle and Checker shadow illusion) to show how mental models and projections can impact our perception of reality. This kind of experiments show us that our perception of the world is constrained, opening us up to the question of where exactly these constraints arise from, and how we can recognise them. Prof. Dunne ends this module by pointing out that Dharmakirti makes it clear that the recognition of these patterns and the cognitive separation of mind and world lies at the very basis of our obscured reality, since all of these are – in a way – illusions: based on structures, patterns, and concepts that have their basis in the separation of subject and object, mind and world.

Lecture Notes

We recommend reading the lecture notes before you start watching the content. This will help you to start contemplating some of the topics before you begin to watch the lecture.

 

Download Module 3 Lecture Notes