The phenomenon of consciousness has occupied the minds of thinkers since the time of the first civilizations. Each culture and accompanying religious cults formed its own idea of the source, development and purpose of consciousness, but in the main these ideas converge: both the Abrahamic and Vedic religions clearly distinguish between the concepts of consciousness and soul.
Monotheistic Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Islam and Christianity, define consciousness as an indivisible whole, belonging exclusively to the earthly dimension. These religions identify consciousness with the earthly personality of a person, formed by upbringing and the environment, see in it the cause of all unseemly acts and sins, as well as an obstacle to spiritual growth and the acquisition of salvation by the soul, which is recognized as the main goal of the life path in the Abrahamic religions. The literary sources of Judaism, Islam and Christianity call consciousness an illusory, false entity that can turn a person into a slave to his earthly needs, and consider it necessary to suppress the manifestations of such consciousness, promoting various restrictions and an ascetic lifestyle.
In both Abrahamic and Vedic religions, consciousness is presented as a kind of "superstructure" that a person creates during earthly life, a kind of "interface" of the soul, which allows you to function in reality and perform life tasks.
At the same time, in the Vedic religions - Brahmanism, Hinduism and Buddhism, consciousness is not considered a false entity, but just a product of an active mind, behind which the true spiritual essence of a person is hidden. As in the Abrahamic religions, the spiritual practices of Hinduism and Buddhism are aimed at weakening the power of consciousness so that the soul can fully manifest itself, and the carrier, a human being, achieve enlightenment, bodhi. But these spiritual and physical practices do not welcome the complete suppression of consciousness, do not recognize its manifestations as sinful or unclean. Vedic religions do not equate liberation from the power of consciousness with its denial, in fact, equalizing in rights the earthly consciousness and the human soul.
The Abrahamic religions characterize consciousness as indivisible, false, and finite. The Vedic states that consciousness, like the soul, is beginningless and endless. In addition, Hinduism and Buddhism have created a detailed classification of states of consciousness for the purpose of the practice of freeing the soul from the power of the conscious mind.
So, in Buddhism, consciousness is often identified with perception and there are five categories of consciousness, in accordance with the senses. And from the point of view of the micro- and macrocosm in Hinduism and Buddhism, there are four states of consciousness - wakefulness, dreaming sleep, dreamless sleep and turiya - a state of complete spiritual awakening. Also in Buddhism, consciousness is characterized as a process of cognition or awareness, which, accordingly, has four levels - awareness in relation to oneself, to thoughts, sensations and the surrounding reality.
