We have come to understand so far how the western ideas are sitting at the cutting edge of quantum ideas in an attempt to comprehend consciousness. But the study still has a reductionist flavor. We next turn to the east for solace. As the Dalai Lama exhorts us in his recent book[23] – “A neuroscientist maybe can tell us whether a subject is dreaming, but can a neurobiological account explain the content of a dream?

Assuming that the Mind is an emergent property of matter leaves a huge explanatory gap. How do we explain the emergence of Consciousness? What marks the transition from non-sentient to sentient beings? We must ‘emerge’ from the complexity of the descriptive process to understand the ‘mystery’ of Life.”

THE EASTERN MIND

The Vedic concept of consciousness does not dissect the brain and matter into its material constituents. It looks for the ‘spirit of the matter’. It treats the nervous system as ‘continuous’ with a ‘Higher consciousness’ ; the Unknown – this is the cidākāśa of Yoga Vasisṭha or the Brahmn of the Upanishads.

1. The Yoga Vasistha and Consciousness The Yoga Vasistha of Vālmīki [24] dwells extensively on this subject and states in Section III – Utpatti Prakaranam, (Y.V III.17.10) the section dealing with creation :-

cittākāśam cidākāśam ākāśam ca trtīyakam,
dvābhyām śūnyataram viddhi cidākāśam varānane (10)

 O Līlā, there are three types of space – the psychological space, the physical space, and the infinite space of consciousness. Of these the infinite space of consciousness is the most subtle and the other two find expanse in it.[25]