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Mindful Life Or Mindful Lives? Mindful Life or Mindful Lives? Exploring why the Buddhist belief in rebirth should be taken seriously by mindfulness practitioners Submitted by Jacob Andrew Lucas, to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, June 2018. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. (Signature)…………………………………………………………………………… Abstract This thesis will explore whether those interested in Buddhist practices such as mindfulness but who approach such practices from a broadly secular perspective can be offered reasons to take rebirth seriously as an afterlife possibility. It will begin by exploring some of the history of mindfulness and its adoption from Buddhism to show how foundational cosmological elements such as rebirth have been side-lined as part of a wider movement to bring Buddhism in line with modernist, particularly scientific, discourses. The thesis will investigate the philosophical principles behind the Buddhist multi-life perspective in order to see whether arguments could be rallied in defence of it. This will involve focussing specifically on the argument in defence of rebirth offered by Dharmakīrti and show how its premises draw from philosophical principles adopted by the earliest Buddhist philosophical systems. Dharmakīrti’s argument will be examined within the context of contemporary philosophy of consciousness where philosophers such as Evan Thompson and Galen Strawson have challenged the view that consciousness could arise from entirely unconscious factors. This challenge aligns with a key premise of Dharmakīrti’s argument for rebirth as well as Buddhist Abhidharma principles. Arguments against the emergence of consciousness from unconscious factors strengthen the case for claiming that consciousness cannot simply appear at the beginning of life and disappear at death. Whilst supporting Strawson’s arguments, the thesis will ultimately reject his claim that an individual consciousness could be constructed from, and ultimately collapse into, multiple consciousnesses. From here it will be argued that conscious experiences arise as part of an unbroken stream that can neither arise from nor collapse into rudimentary factors that are devoid of the distinctive characteristics of consciousness. The argument will conclude by suggesting that the stream of consciousness involves an inseparable capacity for retention and recall. This capacity provides the possibility for the sort of psychological continuity between lives that, within traditional Buddhist cosmology, allows an ordinary being to cultivate the extraordinary personal qualities of a Buddha. 2 Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 2 Preface and Acknowledgements .......................................................................... 5 Author’s declaration .......................................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 8 1.1 The Foundations of Buddhism ............................................................................................... 11 1.2 Bringing Rebirth into the Discussion ...................................................................................... 15 1.3 Buddhist Modernism and Buddhist Cosmology ................................................................... 16 1.4 Mindful Life or Mindful Lives? An Overview ......................................................................... 31 2. Buddhist Philosophy and Rebirth .................................................................. 36 2.1 Introduction: How to approach a Buddhist defence of Rebirth? ........................................ 36 2.2 Buddhist Philosophical Principles for Defending Rebirth ................................................... 40 2.3 Abhidharma Principle I – The Chariot Principle ................................................................... 44 2.4 Abhidharma Principle II – The Cluster Principle .................................................................. 49 2.5 Abhidharma Principle III – The Continuity Principle ............................................................ 60 2.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 64 3. Reviewing the Situation: Rebirth in Contemporary Philosophy ............ 66 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 66 3.2 Buddhism in Contemporary Philosophical Discussion ........................................................ 70 3.3 Rebirth in Contemporary Philosophical Discussion ............................................................ 73 3.4 Owen Flanagan’s The Bodhisattva’s Brain ........................................................................... 76 3.5 Nigel Tetley’s The Doctrine of Rebirth in Theravada Buddhism ....................................... 80 3.6 Evan Thompson’s Waking, Dreaming, Being ....................................................................... 83 3.7 Conclusion: Rebirth and the ‘Hard Problem’ of Consciousness ........................................ 90 4. The Characteristics of Consciousness and Matter ................................... 95 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 95 4.2 The Core Characteristics of Consciousness ........................................................................ 96 4.3 Buddhist Approaches to Consciousness and Matter ........................................................ 106 4.4 Mental and Physical Dharmas .............................................................................................. 114 4.5 Inseparable Dharmas of Consciousness and Physicality ................................................ 126 4.6 Consciousness and Objective Evidence ............................................................................. 137 4.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 150 5. Arguments against the Brute Emergence of Consciousness .............. 152 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 152 5.2 Arguments against Physicsalism ......................................................................................... 155 3 5.3 Strawson’s Argument against the Brute Emergence of Consciousness ........................ 162 5.4 Homogeneous Causes and Brute Emergence .................................................................. 170 5.5 Arguments against Potential and Proto-Consciousness .................................................. 175 5.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 184 6. The Constitution of Conscious Experience .............................................. 187 6.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 187 6.2 Conscious Experience: Analysis and Separation .............................................................. 191 6.3 Against Unexperienced Phenomenally Propertied Objects ............................................. 192 6.4 The Inseparability of Consciousness and Phenomenal Properties ................................ 194 6.5 Phenomenal Qualities and the Combination Problem ...................................................... 202 6.6 Conscious Subjects and the Combination Problem .......................................................... 208 6.7 Conclusion: Reconsidering Proto-Phenomenal Qualities ................................................ 218 7. The Unbroken Continuity of Individual Consciousness ........................ 224 7.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 224 7.2 The Temporal Embeddedness of Phenomenal Qualities ................................................. 225 7.3 Phenomenal Consciousness and Its Inseparable Temporal Structure .......................... 230 7.4 Interlude: Abhidharma Philosophy and Time ..................................................................... 241 7.5 Conscious Retention and Mindfulness ................................................................................ 252 7.6 Conclusion: The Impossible Beginnings of Conscious Experience ................................ 257 8. Psychological Continuity Between Lives .................................................. 261 8.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 261 8.2 The Retention and Recollection of Experiences ...............................................................
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