Buddhi is a technical term in the SAMKHYA YOGA system that refers to discriminative intellect. Ulti-mately, one seeks to calm the mind so that the discriminative intellect or buddhi will be able to discern the clear division between the self or soul and the whirling world of phenomena. This dis-cernment is a crucial step in the liberation of the self from the cycle of birth and rebirth. The buddhi is considered to have the greatest predominance of sattva (purity) of anything in existence. Ulti-mately, however, liberation can occur only when buddhi, too, is transcended (in consciousness), as it too is part of the world of phenomena and, in its own way, a hindrance to the highest spiritual realization.
Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Phi-losophy. Vol. 1 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975); Gerald Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, Sankhya: A Dual-ist Tradition in Indian Philosophy, Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Vol. 4 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987); ———, Classical Sankhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Ross/Erikson, 1979); S. K. Saksena, Essays on Indian Philoso-phy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970).
Encyclopedia of Hinduism. A. Jones and James D. Ryan. 2007.