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A metaphorical framework used by Sāṃkhya and Yoga to describe how consciousness and mind interact illusorily, with consciousness reflecting in the mind and vice versa.
1 chapter across 1 book
Chapter 2 will explore the philosophical traditions of Sāṃkhya and Yoga, which developed a notion of mirror reflection to explain the illusory interaction between consciousness and the mind, regarded as ontologically distinct entities. These two schools made an implicit connection between the mental representation of external objects by the mind and the mental representation of consciousness. The chapter discusses early theories of external objects reflected in the mind, consciousness reflected in the mind, and the mind reflected in consciousness in the Yogasūtrabhāṣya, attributed to Vedavyāsa (fourth-fifth centuries ce), as recorded in Bhavya’s Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā (sixth century ce), in the Yuktidīpikā (seventh to eighth centuries ce), and other texts, presenting entirely unexplored theories of reflection. It also sheds a new light on the later Vācaspati Miśra’s (tenth-century) theory of reflection of consciousness in the mind and Vijñānabhikṣu’s (sixteenth-century) theory of mutual reflection of consciousness in the mind and then back in consciousness. Finally, it engages, for the first time, with the philosophically creative, but little-known interpretation of theories of reflection in Sāṃkhya and Yoga by Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya.Chapter 2 examines the Sāṃkhya and Yoga philosophical traditions' use of mirror reflection metaphors to explain the illusory interaction between consciousness and mind, considered ontologically distinct. It traces early and later theories of reflection from classical texts such as the Yogasūtrabhāṣya and Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā through to later thinkers like Vācaspati Miśra and Vijñānabhikṣu, highlighting unexplored and mutual reflection theories. The chapter also introduces Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya's innovative interpretations of these reflection theories, situating them within a broader historical and philosophical context that contrasts Brahmanical non-reductionism with Buddhist and contemporary critiques.