Mind and Consciousness As Viewed by the Buddhist

Is the mind a quality of consciousness? No, the mind cannot be a quality of consciousness as it (the mind) arises through the outflow from the brain.

It is an impossibility for conscious to be aware of the mind, since the mind being aware indicates consciousness, whilst consciousness is a quality of the mind.

Is consciousness a quality of the mind? Yes, for the mind is conscious of self and others.

With respect to the consciousness-only school of Buddhism, consciousness itself arises from the mind, which itself arises from the brain's activities.

If the brain dies, so too does consciousness and the mind. Therefore, it can be said that consciousness is also a quality of the active brain.

Thus, consciousness is vaguely aware of itself but to be conscious of consciousness is redundant in syntax. This is why such consciousness is called awareness. Another term used is meta-consciousness, though I haven't heard of it or read of it.

If we replace consciousness with awareness, then the questions are better answered.

Is the mind a quality of awareness? No, because you need a mind to be aware of itself and consciousness.

Is awareness a quality of the mind? Yes, because the mind can be aware of itself and consciousness.

However, could the mind become a quality of awareness? It is possible, despite syntactical errors.

Then it is possible for consciousness to be aware of consciousness, and for the mind to be aware of consciousness. However, the mind can be aware of itself too. Such a mind is known as the diamond mind. Being aware of itself implies clarity of mind as well as mental transparency (the ability to see things through).

Thus awareness is not equal to consciousness but are two facets of the mind..

Since both the mind and consciousness can be aware of consciousness, it follows that the mind is similar to consciousness.

Yet the mind cannot be equal to consciousness since without the mind, it is gone.

Yet is an unconscious mind aware? No, it cannot use the senses.

You'll find that using the senses one can find out a lot about the mind: it can experience phenomenon, both inner (of the mind) or outer (material). Also, the mind can experience phenomenon that has no existence outside fictional works be it in print, on the big and silver screen, especially video.

As well, the mind can be aware of the fact that every character and sentient being in a manga is a conscious entity and thus possesses consciousness, despite the fact that every character and sentient being have no physical existence apart from a poor sketch of each character.

Going further, since Amida Buddha has a cover story, it depicts a mythical king who pledged allegiance ot a Buddha of a bygone era before the historical Buddha, and consequently founded a Buddha world called "The Pure Land of Bliss." After many lifetimes he became the twin Buddhas, Amida Buddha and Amitayus Buddha (Boundless Light of Wisdom and Boundless Life of Compassion respectively. These twins meditated for many eons and soon merged as one, called Amida Buddha.

How is this related to awareness and consciousness? Metaphorically, awareness denote a generalization of the feeling of being aware that is shared between all sentient beings. In contrast, consciousness is the generalization of the feeling of being consciousness. Just as one can be conscious of having a mind, a mind can be aware of being conscious. Thus being conscious and being aware are almost alike just a Amida and Amitayus are alike and just as Wisdom and Compassion are alike.

Compassion applies being able to be selfless enough to lose self-consciousness. Ergo it is associated with awareness. Thus one can be aware of being compassionate, yet have an awareness of compassion.

Wisdom on the other hand applies to experiencing phenomenon from a personal point of view, must as being conscious is. Thus one can be conscious of being wise, and wisdom is thus the shared view of being wise.

Thus awareness of compassion is possible and being conscious of wisdom is too possible.

Likewise one can be aware of being wise, and be conscious of compassion.

Therefore wisdom and compassion are but two facets of the diamond mind.