"The pain inflicted by caning is so severe that victims often lose consciousness," states the report.
One formal definition indicating the range of these cognate meanings is given in Webster's Third New International Dictionary stating that consciousness is: "(1) a. awareness or perception of an inward psychological or spiritual fact: intuitively perceived knowledge of something in one's inner self.
Thus, by stating that, "that which is cause and result is mere consciousness," Śāntarakṣita is stating that conventional truths are of the nature of consciousness.
Neuroscientific evidence suggests that a number of animal species (notably mammals, but also birds, and even some invertebrates, such as the octopus) can feel pain, and most likely manifest some form of consciousness, including cognitive states that could be termed "emotions".
Stroud's [57] Discrete Moment Hypothesis, states that consciousness is comprised of distinct and non-overlapping conscious 'moments', within which all time-order information is lost, while the Continuous (Traveling) Moment Hypothesis considers conscious 'moments' to correspond to continuously moving segments of the incoming sensory information.
Phenomenal consciousness (P-consciousness) refers to experiential states -- that is, mental states that are subjectively experienced by someone.
Furthermore, as described [50], the contents of GABA in the cerebral tissue increase 15% under sleep state than that under consciousness state.
But Einstein put it more eloquently when he stated that, "The consciousness that created the problem will be unable to solve it".
This clue identifies consciousness as an evolved state that begins with primitive instincts and responses in lower animals.
He also states that this mystical consciousness has an ocean-like calmness, tranquillity, confidence and serenity (WWR, Section 71), adding that if one were to ask for a positive characterization of the mystical state, we could refer loosely to words and phrases such as "ecstasy," "rapture," "illumination" and "union with God".
