 In the teachings of the Buddha, which is available in the Nikāya-s, consciousness is described as one link in the twelve-link-causal chain (dvādaśānga-bhavacakra) that is responsible for the birth and bondage of human beings. Consciousness is the link between the past and the present. It arises out of ignorance (avidyā) and mental formations (karma) and gives rise to name and form (nāma-rūpa), i.e., the psycho-physical constituents of a person in bondage. One should remember that each of the twelve links in the bhava-cakra is both conditioned and that which conditions. One’s consciousness is conditioned not only by what one experiences in this world but also by the way one reacts to these experiences. If a person realizes that pleasurable experiences of this world are all temporary then he can control his cravings and the chain will snap ultimately leading to his liberation. On the other hand, if he craves for and clings to apparently pleasurable experiences, that will lead him to future births and the wheel of saṃsāra goes on and on for him with all its associated pains. The Buddha thus with his doctrine of dependent origination (pratītya-samutpāda) explains the nature of saṃsāra  and of the I-consciousness, though he never admitted a permanent Self. I-consciousness, says the Buddha, is a collection of five-fold aggregates (paῆca-skandha-samāhāra). The aggregates are of matter (rūpa), sensation (vedanā), perception (sanjῆā), dispositions (saṃskāra) and consciousness (vijῆāna). Consciousness is of six kinds – visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactual/bodily and mental. Corresponding to each consciousness there is a dedicated object-structure, viz, visible forms correspond to eye-consciousnes, sound to ear-consciousness, odour to nose-consciousness, taste to tongue-consciousness, tangible things to body-consciousness and ideas to mind-consciousness. Consciousness in Early Buddhism stands for a simple awareness of the presence of an object. This view of the mental can be branded as liberal naturalism on two grounds, (a) both material and non-material elements of nature can causally interact and (b) all experiences of an individual in his empirical journey are explainable with reference to ‘the space of reasons’.