Who Knows?
Neurologist Robert Burton, M.D., says that certainty -- the sensation of "knowing" -- does not arise from our knowledge. Instead, certainty is an involuntary brain function that has nothing to do with reason.
"Feeling correct or certain isn't a deliberate conclusion or conscious choice," Burton writes in Salon. "It is a mental sensation that happens to us."
Dr. Burton points out that we can have the "feeling of knowing" without actually knowing. For example, if you are asked a question and believe you know the answer but cannot think of it -- it's on the tip of your tongue -- you feel a sensation of certainty even though you cannot answer the question.
The sensation of certainty doesn't arise from any one spot in the brain. Rather, it arises from our brains' neural networks, and it can involve many parts of our brains at once. It is an involuntary mental sensation that feels like a thought, but is not. Dr. Burton speculates that the sensation evolved as a reward for learning. Because the sensation of certainty is satisfying, we are compelled to know.
However, because the sensation of certainty is not generated by reason, it can get us into trouble. A sensation of certainty can create a predisposition to accept data that supports the certainty but reject data that doesn't. I'm sure you've known people who will not change their minds once they are certain of something, no matter how much contrary evidence you show them.
In Buddhism, what we might think of as knowledge of something is assigned to the third skandha, perception. When an organ comes into contact with an object and identifies it, or when an idea is conceptualized, this is the work of the third skandha.
The sensation of certainty, on the other hand, might properly belong to the second skandha, which is the skandha of physical and mental sensations, both painful and pleasurable. If we can understand that the sensation of certainty is a sensation, and is not a thought, and is not generated by reason, perhaps we won't assign so much importance to it.
And isn't it interesting that Dr. Burton says no one creates certainty? Instead, it is a sensation that is created by neural activity in the brain. It only feels as if it is "us." And the Buddha taught that the same is true of all of the activities of the skandhas.
Update: I spoke to a senior student in my sangha, and he said the sensation of certainty belongs to the third skandha because it is irreducible. I will have to look into this. Yes, I'm still learning, too. For certain.
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Comments
probably conceptualization — certainty has as its basis a collection merely labeled by an ignorant mind which conceptualizes a construct which ignorance then reifies it.
probably a key factor is “feeling” not sensation. sensation is just a reflexive physical response upon which other mental factors (feeling, attention etc) operate. certainty is the imposition of the key poison– ignorance.
The neurologist (and he could be wrong, of course) is suggesting that certainty is a pure sensation disconnected from conceptualization or reason. It feels like conceptualization, but it isn’t, which is why it’s an interesting (if nerdy) exercise to consider where it fits into the skandhas. But my senior says it’s all third skandha, anyway.
I read the article of Burton, then wondered about the extra topics that he includes and his tone of voice, to get the picture quite clear after reading the editor’s choice of 3 letters by his readers. I found it did not contradict anything that Barbara has written on the topic in her post. But still, the whole topic of certainty and uncertainty, of belief and science, and eventually of contemplation and agression was worth looking into for me.
The five sense bring in unexpressed form, we need the consciousness to express the unexpressed form, the consciousness will use mental action to expressed the unexpressed form.The dharma object will transform into the four state of mind. reception,conception,mental function and consciousness .Five equal one is unexpressed form.The mental action will go out slightly and we will still have pleasurable and unpleasurable feeling, but we are not so attached .when we have six in one we have full emotion and our conception will have joy,sorrow,fear,hate ect
When we say five, it is unexpressed form, it is only a picture at this moment still our mental actions will go out a little, but we are not attached so much, we still have pleasurable and unpleasable feeling but only slightly, but six in one we have full emotion.Joy , sorrow, etc.
when we contact our mind has already gone out. The touch is already contain four in one is still unexpressed form.
These five scandals have many steps
but the most importance thing to know is the mental action and unexpressed form.
this unexpressed form is hidden in your consciousness.It means the inner mental actions go together with the object outside.