Science of Consciousness: A Synthesis of Vedanta and Buddhism

The synthesis between Vedanta and Buddhism has been attempted in this study on the ground that the former is the philosophy of ‘being’, whereas the latter happens to be the philosophy of becoming. The being and becoming both are important for proper understanding of the Absolute Reality and its manifestation. In synthesizing, we have mainly concentrated on consciousness because of two reasons: (i) in consciousness, both being and becoming are involved, and (ii) pure consciousness happens to be the essence of human nature. In Buddhism, the concepts like Citta Nirvana, Bhavanga Citta and Alayavijnana having bearing on pure-consciousness, which happens to be the Upanisadic Atman and the Vedantic Brahman. Since these concepts represent the essence of human beings, the similarities among the Upanisads, Vedanta and Buddhism have been established. However, the differences between Vedanta and Buddhism (Yogacara Vijnanavada) on several issues like momentariness, changing reality, etc. will continue because these are merely modes of manifestations or appearances. It has also been shown that the concepts like One and Many, Time and Space of Buddhism and Vedanta have scientific support, Time and Space have no independent existence in Buddhism and Vedanta. In fact, both being the manifestations of consciousness, become the objects of consciousness. It means that Buddhism and Vedanta have treated time and space in relative framework. So is the case with science.