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**AlbrtJhnsqw** · 05-26-2011, 11:42 AM

Did anyone ever ask the Buddha (as recoded in the Pali texts) about what happens when a person becomes unconscious, and then after a period of time regains consciousness?

The Buddha did not indulge in such speculations. They are irrelevant to the matter of suffering and its extinguishment.

Specifically, the context I am referring to is that a person has some attachment to s sense of "me", and then after a period of being unconscious, such as in a coma, upon regaining consciousness they assume that same thought of who they were before. They sort of pick up where they left off even though they've been unconscious for a while. There are some schools that regarded this as a sort of of subconscious continuity. There are plenty of sects who do indulge in such pointless speculations. Largely in attempts to get around the Buddha's refutation of speculations of an Atta, "consciousness", or "entity", or other homunculus that would survive death to prop up a karma/reincarnation-superstition strategy.

I'm going to be up front here--I am not looking for a debate. This is a question that came up centuries later in the Mahayana schools. Really, I am not trying to pose a loaded question or anything. I merely want to know if this 'conscious-unconscious-conscious again' thing was ever addressed in the Pali literature.

Thanks. I have been all over the Nikayas and not seen such a topic as you describe come up at all. The folks who believed in reincarnation superstitions in the Buddha's time did not question it or have to come up with that violent of sophistic gyrations in order to support their speculations. Mainly because they simply took their superstitions for granted and were not up against a need to circumvent a declaration of Anatta like the Buddha's, or his own refutation of a "consciousness" entity that survived death. But mahayanists -- following in the footsteps of the Brahmin-abhidhammists -- have had to devise strategies to get around Anatta in general and and MN 117 in particular, in order to remain nominally "Buddhists" and still hold their reincarnation superstitions to be the "highest teachings".

05-26-2011, 11:42 AM	#6
AlbrtJhnsqw Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 377 Senior Member	Did anyone ever ask the Buddha (as recoded in the Pali texts) about what happens when a person becomes unconscious, and then after a period of time regains consciousness? The Buddha did not indulge in such speculations. They are irrelevant to the matter of suffering and its extinguishment. Specifically, the context I am referring to is that a person has some attachment to s sense of "me", and then after a period of being unconscious, such as in a coma, upon regaining consciousness they assume that same thought of who they were before. They sort of pick up where they left off even though they've been unconscious for a while. There are some schools that regarded this as a sort of of subconscious continuity. There are plenty of sects who do indulge in such pointless speculations. Largely in attempts to get around the Buddha's refutation of speculations of an Atta, "consciousness", or "entity", or other homunculus that would survive death to prop up a karma/reincarnation-superstition strategy. I'm going to be up front here--I am not looking for a debate. This is a question that came up centuries later in the Mahayana schools. Really, I am not trying to pose a loaded question or anything. I merely want to know if this 'conscious-unconscious-conscious again' thing was ever addressed in the Pali literature. Thanks. I have been all over the Nikayas and not seen such a topic as you describe come up at all. The folks who believed in reincarnation superstitions in the Buddha's time did not question it or have to come up with that violent of sophistic gyrations in order to support their speculations. Mainly because they simply took their superstitions for granted and were not up against a need to circumvent a declaration of Anatta like the Buddha's, or his own refutation of a "consciousness" entity that survived death. But mahayanists -- following in the footsteps of the Brahmin-abhidhammists -- have had to devise strategies to get around Anatta in general and and MN 117 in particular, in order to remain nominally "Buddhists" and still hold their reincarnation superstitions to be the "highest teachings".
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