How is Consciousness (rnam shes) Related to Wisdom (ye shes)? The Eighth Karma pa on Buddhist Differentiation and Unity Models of Reality

The Eighth Karma pa, Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507–1554), argues that human beings possess two concurrent but nonconvergent modes of awareness: conditioned consciousness (rnam shes) and unconditioned wisdom (ye shes). Recognizing their difference is key to realizing their underlying unity, which resolves a Buddhist philosophical tension between a model that sharply differentiates conventional and ultimate truths and a model that identifies them as one. The article includes a translation and critical edition of the Karma pa's short text replying to Bla ma Khams pa's queries on whether two minds can exist in one person.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study examines how Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), the Eighth Karma pa of the Karma Bka’ brgyud lineage, articulates and defends a key distinction between consciousness (rnam shes) and wisdom (ye shes). The first paper focuses on the author’s clarification of the distinction both as an accurate account of the nature and structure of human consciousness and as an indispensable principle of Buddhist soteriology. Arguing that human beings have two “concurrent but nonconvergent” modes of awareness, conditioned and unconditioned, Mi bskyod rdo rje urges the practitioner to discern amidst the adventitious flux of dichotomic thoughts an innate nondual mode of awareness that is regarded as the ground and goal of the Buddhist path. That the recognition of their difference is the key to realizing their underlying unity is central to the Karma pa’s response to the perennial Buddhist problem of reconciling two divergent Buddhist models of reality: [1] a differentiation model based on robust distinctions between conventional and ultimate truths or realities (saṃvṛtisatya versus paramārthasatya) and their associated modes of cognition and [2] an identification (yuganaddha) model of the two realities (satyadvaya : bden gnyis) which emphasizes their underlying unity. This article concludes with an annotated translation and critical edition of a short text by the Karma pa on the subject entitled “Two minds in one person? A Reply to the Queries of Bla ma Khams pa” (bla ma khams pa’i dris lan mi gcig sems gnyis).