Tattva 14 — Intellect (Buddhi)
The intellect: the deciding, discerning faculty — the first and subtlest evolute of nature.
Buddhi is the intellect — the faculty that decides, judges, and discerns, giving experience its definite shape ('this is that'). As the first thing to evolve out of primal nature, it is the subtlest and highest part of the mental apparatus, the clear mirror in which the world is determined and known. It is one of the three components of the 'inner instrument' of the mind.
How it traveled
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- TantrasāraŚrīnagara (Srinagar), Kashmir · 1000explains
Key passages(11)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
That which has a distorted apprehension of Dharma and its opposite and also of right action and its opposite, that intellect, O Pârtha, is Râjasika.
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That which knows the paths of work and renunciation, right and wrong action, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation, that intellect, O Pârtha, is Sâttvika.
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Know the Self to be sitting in the chariot, the body to be the chariot, the intellect (buddhi) the charioteer, and the mind the reins.
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The earth and its subtile elements, the water and its subtile elements, the light and its subtile elements, the air and its subtile elements, the ether and its subtile elements; the eye and what can b
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