Buddhist Philosophy – Reflexive Awareness vs Consciousness

In the summer of 2022, as part of the Academic Summer Course presented by Rangjung Yeshe Institute’s Buddhist Studies Summer Course and Gomde Austria, Professor John Dunne gave a week-long intensive course on the notion of reflexive awareness (Skt, svasaṃvitti; Tib., rang rig) and its relationship to consciousness in Buddhist theory and practice. We then turned to parallel accounts in Western phenomenology and cognitive science, with special attention to the role that reflexive awareness may play in theories about minimal conscious experience.