Do you have a citation for that part of the Surangama? Just curious to see the context.PadmaVonSamba wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 3:35 pm In the Surangama Sutra, the Buddha points out to Ananda that if Ananda covers his eyes so they can’t function, can’t “see”, how does he know he can’t see? There is still visual awareness or visual consciousness, thus, the experience of various sense consciousnesses do not rely on the functioning of the sense organs themselves. From this, it can be at least theorized that consciousness does not rely completely on the functioning of the physical body, although I think it can be argued that a functioning brain may still be required for some experience of awareness to occur, if only in a reflective sense.
Here's a stab at an analysis of that - Technically, if there is no contact between the visual object and eyes, there is no eye consciousness. Ananda knows he can't see because he notes, in mind consciousness, the absence of eye consciousness impinging on mind consciousness. That is itself a function of mind consciousness - mind consciousness takes as its object both consciousness of the 5 sense organs as well as the previous instances of mind consciousness.
We can theorize all sorts of possibilities for the relation of consciousness and matter. Many of those theories will depend on how we define the various parts - matter and consciousness, in the least. Depending on how they are defined, we'll get different theories. Through ordinary observation we can't really know, both us Buddhists and those Materialists. Buddhists rely on the Buddha to inform our views on those matters that lie beyond our ordinary perceptions.