Chapters 6-8 Summary and Analysis

There was a reality in experiences of consciousness that could not be defined since they were so subjective. Defining consciousness was a difficult matter, especially for scientists who used a third person method for understanding things. Still, scientific investigation was beginning to recognize that the study of consciousness was an area worth pursuing. One method of going about this was to study behaviorism. This attempted to define consciousness in terms of language of external behavior.

The definition of consciousness and everything it entailed had been a big part of Buddhist philosophical thinking for a long time. It was very important since it was thought to be a defining characteristic of sentience. In fact, the Buddha wrote in scripture that consciousness played a key role in determining the course of human suffering and happiness. Part of the problem in defining...