Why is viññāṇa translated as "consciousness"?

am7 · April 6, 2026, 1:33pm

Mn43 defines Viññāṇa and Vedanā(feeling) as follows:

Viññāṇa	Vedanā
They speak of 'Viññāṇa' . How is Viññāṇa defined? It’s called Viññāṇa because it vijānāti. And what does it vijānāti? Sukhantipi vijānāti, dukkhantipi vijānāti, adukkhamasukhantipi vijānāti. ‘this is pleasant’ vijānāti, 'this is painful' vijānāti ‘this is neutral' vijānāti It’s called Viññāṇa because it vijānāti.”	They speak of ‘Vedanā’. How is Vedanā defined? It’s called Vedanā because it vedeti. And what does it vedeti? Sukhampi vedeti, dukkhampi vedeti, adukkhamasukhampi vedeti. 'pleasure' vedeti, 'pain' vedeti, 'neutral' vedeti. It’s called Vedanā because it vedeti.”

Both of these definitions are very similar, Viññāṇa is defined in terms of vijānāti, Vedanā in terms of vedeti - so that does not tell us much, except there is one difference in what these verbs apply for: Sukhantipi vijānāti and Sukhampi vedeti
According to dictionary:
Sukhantipi: sukhaṁ + iti + api: ‘this is pleasant’
Sukhampi: sukhaṃ + api

I am not sure what exactly the api means, but the difference in case of vijānāti is the added iti particle.
Now let’s not forget, that this definition lists 3 feelings as an example, as other suttas also use 6 feelings, even up to 108 feelings, the main point is that the definition of vijānāti and vedeti has something to do with feelings.

What is left is to decide what English word fits well for vijānāti. If we picked for example discern, distinguish (which is in the dictionary entry for vijānāti), then Viññāṇa would be distinguishing knowledge and it would be acquirable - for example the classic example of Pavlov’s dog experiment with a bell - a dog is given meal and a bell is rang, after a while ringing the bell would make the dog expect a meal and begin salivating as it would associate the sound as pleasant. It has acquired distinguishing knowledge that the bell sound is pleasant.