MACHINE ASR ACCESSIBILITY AID

Episode08_radio.mp3

Collection

Part 10 · VIDEHA MITHILA MAITHILI DISCUSSION CRITICISM SERIES PART 10

Status

asr-draft

Human verified

No

Editorial review

not-reviewed

ASR model

small

Detected language

en (0.953852)

Duration

52:27

Source

Open preserved recording

Timestamped machine output

1. 0:04–0:11Art 2. Examination of the Doctrine Denying External Reality.
2. 0:11–0:14Introduction to the Subject of Debate.
3. 0:14–0:19When the Vijnavdine maintains that nothing exists outside consciousness,
4. 0:19–0:23what room remains for the existence of the Self?
5. 0:23–0:31Very well, let the Vijnavdine be asked whether his meaning is that the two components of a cognitive state,
6. 0:31–0:37The knowable object and the knowing consciousness are ultimately real but mutually non-different
7. 0:37–0:45or that both belong to one generic kind or that the knowable component is imaginary.
8. 0:45–0:49Statement of the defects in the Vijnavdines inference
9. 0:49–0:55Whatever reason is advanced to prove the probandom of the first of the three inferences
10. 0:55–0:58necessary co-appearance, cognitionhood,
11. 0:58–1:03humanosity, or anything else is plainly defective.
12. 1:03–1:05Explanation of the defect.
13. 1:05–1:10The admission in the preceding inference that cognitions
14. 1:10–1:14having mutually incompatible forms such as blue and white
15. 1:14–1:20arise gives birth to a monster that destroys those very cognitions.
16. 1:20–1:23Further explanation of the defect.
17. 1:23–1:34If the stated cognitions apprehend mutually incompatible objects, how can one cognition, while remaining one, be not different from many objects?
18. 1:34–1:39If it does not apprehend them, how does it possess their forms?
19. 1:39–1:46Self-aware cognition cannot remain unconscious of the form of its own object.
20. 1:46–1:50Ratnakritya's answer and its refutation.
21. 1:50–1:59It may be objected that difficulty arises only when mutually incompatible properties appear together in external objects.
22. 1:59–2:05If, despite such appearance, external objects were regarded as non-different,
23. 2:05–2:17the successful activities arising from them and the movements toward them would intermingle and no distinction among external objects would remain.
24. 2:17–2:22Consciousness, however, faces no such difficulty.
25. 2:22–2:31The existence of consciousness does not depend upon producing any successful activity but only upon luminosity.
26. 2:31–2:37A person desiring an object does not go in search of consciousness.
27. 2:37–2:45The activity of consciousness is nothing beyond the natural flow of self-luminous moments of consciousness.
28. 2:45–2:53The person desiring these activities is likewise neither different from nor outside this flow.
29. 2:53–3:01Non-difference is the ultimate and final nature of consciousness because all consciousness is self-aware.
30. 3:01–3:05A satirical reply to the preceding answer.
31. 3:05–3:07Dear brother,
32. 3:07–3:14Does this mean that just as creatures that are natural enemies, such as snake and mongoose,
33. 3:14–3:20abandon their innate hostility when they approach the hermitage of a peaceful sage, so mutually
34. 3:20–3:27opposed objects such as blue and white abandon their natural opposition when apprehended
35. 3:27–3:36by cognition? Or do they retain their opposition but abandon its consequence, mutual difference?
36. 3:36–3:44of the two alternatives. The first alternative is untenable. If objects whose presence and
37. 3:44–3:50absence are respectively pervaded by the absence and presence of the other are not regarded
38. 3:50–3:59as mutually opposed, all opposition would disappear from the world. The answer, nothing is wrong,
39. 3:59–4:02Let it be so is improper.
40. 4:02–4:08The opposed nature of objects cannot be abolished in this way because mutual exclusion is the
41. 4:08–4:12very nature of opposition.
42. 4:12–4:18Establishing this exclusion is establishing difference itself, therefore the second alternative
43. 4:18–4:21cannot stand either.
44. 4:21–4:24Objection to the refutation and the answer.
45. 4:24–4:31It may be said that the distinct successful activities of external objects were presented
46. 4:31–4:38as the basis of their opposition, this rule applies only to external objects not to cognition
47. 4:38–4:41or consciousness.
48. 4:41–4:47Therefore cognition need not be different even when its objects differ.
49. 4:47–4:50But this reasoning is not rational.
50. 4:50–4:56If apparent coexistence of incompatible properties is taken as the ground for difference among
51. 4:56–5:04objects, what benefit is gained by mentioning the individual limitation of successful activities?
52. 5:04–5:07If none, why mention it?
53. 5:07–5:14The individual limits of successful activities themselves remain only if the activities
54. 5:14–5:20differ because incompatible properties visibly coexist in them.
55. 5:20–5:26to the refutation and its refutation. Where is the rule that different objects cannot
56. 5:26–5:34appear in one cognition? Different objects certainly can appear in one cognition. No,
57. 5:34–5:41our meaning in saying that the appearances of different objects do not overlap is not
58. 5:41–5:48this. We mean only that blue itself does not appear as yellow and yellow itself does
59. 5:48–5:55not appear as blue. This is the basis of all opposition.
60. 5:55–6:01Justification of the refutation. If this were not so, knowledge and ignorance
61. 6:01–6:09to would not remain mutually opposed. For example, that which is said to be not known
62. 6:09–6:16is known, since we can say, this known horse and so forth is not known, ignorance would
63. 6:16–6:23thereby become manifest. Do knowledge and ignorance not appear respectively in the forms
64. 6:23–6:30of ignorance and knowledge? Yes, but when distinct objects such as blue and yellow are
65. 6:30–6:37cognized together, is blue cognized as yellow in that cognition, so that opposition among
66. 6:37–6:44the objects would disappear? Therefore, opposition at the level of objects and opposition at
67. 6:44–6:56The level of cognition should be regarded as alike, and each should be understood as possessing an equal capacity to remove identity with its own object.
68. 6:56–7:06To regard one as superior to the other is mere partiality, like the well-known proverb about the beggar and the housewife.
69. 7:06–7:09Refutation of an earlier view.
70. 7:09–7:18The foregoing refutation also disposes of the Buddhist's earlier assertion that there is no differentiation within cognition.
71. 7:18–7:26The cognition of distinct forms as distinct forms is precisely the differentiation of cognition.
72. 7:26–7:30Another refutation of the objection.
73. 7:30–7:45If all externally real things are momentary, then by the time a person who cognizes to external objects such as blue and yellow together tries to know their mutual difference, both will already have perished.
74. 7:46–7:52How then, can that same person know the objects and their difference successively?
75. 7:52–8:05There is no certainty that another person cognizes this difference, and if there is doubt about the cognition of difference, there will be doubt about the difference itself as well.
76. 8:05–8:13But if neither an object nor its cognition can be known by anything different from it, how can doubt arise?
77. 8:13–8:23The Buddhist seeks to establish the identity of the noble and cognition on the ground that no distinction is apprehended within cognition.
78. 8:23–8:32If that very non-distinction is in turn established on the ground of their identity, the fault of circularity follows.
79. 8:32–8:37Therefore, presenting identity as the reason is pointless.
80. 8:37–8:45pointless. Refutation of the objection that pure cognition is undifferentiated. Then cognition's
81. 8:45–8:53uniform luminosity may remove its multiplicity or differentiation, while the manifest coexistence
82. 8:53–9:01within it of incompatible properties may remove its unity. But what effect can these negations
83. 9:01–9:07have upon the purely luminous nature of the cognition of blue, yellow, and the like,
84. 9:07–9:11which is supposedly devoid of both unity and multiplicity.
85. 9:12–9:20None. This reply resembles the weeding of a field by barbarians, when told to remove the weeds,
86. 9:20–9:26they uprooted the crop as well. To be one means to possess a determinate form,
87. 9:26–9:33while to be many means to poses indeterminate or mutually distinct forms.
88. 9:33–9:37If cognition has neither unity nor multiplicity,
89. 9:37–9:42it can assume neither the form of blue nor the combined forms of blue and yellow.
90. 9:42–9:47Consequently, no form whatever remains in it.
91. 9:47–9:52Refutation of the objection that the appearance of incompatible properties
92. 9:52–9:55in cognition is illusory.
93. 9:55–10:00The argument for the non-differentiation of cognition would then be this,
94. 10:00–10:07only the real coexistence of incompatible properties appearing in something determines its differentiation,
95. 10:07–10:12whereas here their appearance is merely illusory.
96. 10:12–10:14Very well.
97. 10:14–10:22If so, it has been established by your own admission that cognition is pure and formless like crystal,
98. 10:22–10:27and that the distinct forms appearing in it are not its own.
99. 10:27–10:31Therefore, whether those forms are real or unreal,
100. 10:31–10:36the inference of identity between cognition and its object from their
101. 10:36–10:42co-appearance is initiated by the defect of an example lacking the probandom.
102. 10:42–10:47Objection that difference is unreal and reply
103. 10:47–10:51is not the mere unreal difference that appears in conceptual cognition
104. 10:51–10:58but not in non-conceptual cognition sufficient for the practical usage of difference?
105. 10:58–11:06No. Such difference cannot remain immune from the objections concerning its reality or unreality
106. 11:06–11:11and its appearance or non-appearance in cognition.
107. 11:11–11:18Defense of the objection and its refutation. Is it only a non-existent or unreal and unknown
108. 11:18–11:27difference that is apprehended? Yes, but the meaning of the word apprehension must be clarified.
109. 11:27–11:33Does it mean being the cause of practical activity concerning the apprehended object?
110. 11:33–11:41No. If practical activity is something different from cognition, then being itself unreal because
111. 11:41–11:47it is different from cognition, how can it generate a distinction?
112. 11:47–11:53If practical activity is cognition itself, why should its cognitive relation, without
113. 11:53–11:59any regulator, be fixed upon one particular object rather than another?
114. 11:59–12:05Is the relation of distinct practical activities to distinct differences determined by the
115. 12:05–12:08causal capacities of those activities?
116. 12:08–12:10No.
117. 12:10–12:12This is a Buddhist oddity.
118. 12:12–12:18They are prepared to maintain that practical activity is a kind of cognition, that its
119. 12:18–12:25object is an unreal difference and that, even in the absence of any other regulator, the
120. 12:25–12:31capacities of the causes of practical activity determine their relation, yet they are unwilling
121. 12:31–12:38to admit a cognitive relation between non-conceptual cognition and its real object.
122. 12:38–12:45This resembles a man afflicted with a digestive disorder who abandons pure milk and longs
123. 12:45–12:48for rice water.
124. 12:48–12:49Objection to the refutation
125. 12:49–12:55Are the differences among external objects not themselves non-different from the form
126. 12:55–13:02of the cognition that apprehends them, just as the external objects themselves are held
127. 13:02–13:04to be cognitive in nature?
128. 13:04–13:11If difference is definitely unreal, how can it be the form of a real cognition?
129. 13:11–13:17And if difference is non-different from the form of cognition, how can it be unreal?
130. 13:17–13:21Let the Buddhist attend to this dilemma.
131. 13:21–13:23Suppose difference is real.
132. 13:23–13:29If cognition does not apprehend the substrate and the counter-positive of the difference,
133. 13:29–13:32how can the difference be known?
134. 13:32–13:38And if it apprehends both along with the difference, how can a single cognition be non-different
135. 13:38–13:40from all of them?
136. 13:40–13:44Should cognition be regarded as having a variegated form?
137. 13:44–13:46No.
138. 13:46–13:52The very consideration of the alternatives, whether the variegated form is one or many
139. 13:52–13:55eliminates this possibility.
140. 13:55–14:01If the forms are many, how can they be non-different from one cognition?
141. 14:01–14:07If cognition to becomes many in accordance with the differences among the form, what,
142. 14:07–14:13after all, is the defect in an object different from cognition being known by cognition?
143. 14:13–14:15There is none.
144. 14:15–14:22But on this view the knowable, knower relation between two different things, object and cognition
145. 14:22–14:29cannot be determined by a process initiated by either one because no such regular process
146. 14:29–14:30exists.
147. 14:30–14:36Nor can the relation be determined by generic similarity, otherwise the cognitive relation
148. 14:36–14:43would not remain confined to a particular object, and any object could become the object of
149. 14:43–14:45any cognition.
150. 14:45–14:52A known cow possessing cowness does not become a non-cow in relation to some other thing.
151. 14:52–15:00If so, the same defect also applies to the view that cognition and its object are identical.
152. 15:00–15:07The usage cognition Knows itself cannot be grounded in a process since an action of a thing upon
153. 15:07–15:10itself is impossible.
154. 15:10–15:16Nor can it be grounded in generic similarity otherwise cognition would take all things as
155. 15:16–15:18its object.
156. 15:18–15:25No rule has been observed according to which a cow is generically a cow only in relation
157. 15:25–15:29to itself and not in relation to other things.
158. 15:29–15:35Nor does cognitions being self-revealing make it revealing of other cognitions, otherwise
159. 15:35–15:41every cognition would take every other cognition as its object.
160. 15:41–15:45Objection to the reply and rejoinder.
161. 15:45–15:51Should we, on the basis of the object's illuminated nature, merely deny the difference between
162. 15:51–15:56cognition and its object without affirming their identity?
163. 15:56–15:57No.
164. 15:57–16:04The negation of difference is itself the positive affirmation of identity.
165. 16:04–16:10Objection that variegated cognition is neither different nor non-different and reply.
166. 16:10–16:16Then let variegated cognition be devoid of both difference and non-difference.
167. 16:16–16:22If its form is different from cognition, cognition cannot illuminate it.
168. 16:22–16:29If it is non-different, then, because cognition is one, its form too will be one, there will
169. 16:29–16:37then be no variegation in a cognition that apprehends blue, yellow, and the like together.
170. 16:37–16:40This position is untenable.
171. 16:40–16:46Just as the simultaneous affirmation of mutually opposed properties in a single substrate
172. 16:46–16:51is incoherent, so too is their simultaneous negation.
173. 16:51–16:58If it is said, let us accept even this negation, the Buddhist will have to follow in the footsteps
174. 16:58–17:05of the Jant teacher by accepting every undesirable possibility, becoming shameless like a Dighambara
175. 17:05–17:06adherent.
176. 17:06–17:13Refutation of the objection that variegatedness transcends all determination.
177. 17:13–17:19Then variegated cognition would be devoid of all four mutually opposed properties, difference,
178. 17:19–17:25identity, absence of difference and absence of identity.
179. 17:25–17:31The variegated is indeed a wondrous entity, cognition is real although neither one nor
180. 17:31–17:33many.
181. 17:33–17:38Let us take this miracle to be the meaning of the word variegated.
182. 17:38–17:45Very well if so, why not regard cognition as possessing all four properties?
183. 17:45–17:50The ground for calling cognition miraculous is equal on both views.
184. 17:50–17:57Moreover, the impossibility of each one of the four predications necessarily entails the
185. 17:57–18:03opposite predication because the negation of an impossible predication is the affirmation
186. 18:03–18:06of its contrary.
187. 18:06–18:09Another refutation of the objection.
188. 18:09–18:16If cognition is truly devoid of all four properties, that is merely another way of saying that
189. 18:16–18:22these properties, though different from cognition, are either known or unknown.
190. 18:22–18:29It is incorrect to call them unknown, for they are being known through these very words.
191. 18:29–18:35If they are admitted to be known, they are known without possessing the defining property
192. 18:35–18:39of nobility identity with cognition.
193. 18:39–18:47One must then regard a single cognition as many, and a curious kind of non-dualism will result.
194. 18:47–18:53But two strange assumptions are already present here, that an object lacking the defining mark
195. 18:53–19:00of nobility is nevertheless known, and that its cognition is neither one nor many.
196. 19:00–19:06It is therefore more rational to accept a duality of strange entities.
197. 19:06–19:13On this admission, both the cognition of many distinct objects and the unity of that cognition
198. 19:13–19:16are preserved.
199. 19:16–19:23Examination of the view that an object is non-different from cognition because it is illuminated.
200. 19:23–19:26The argument for identity would then be this.
201. 19:26–19:32We admit that neither the internal agent in the form of cognition nor the external
202. 19:32–19:39The object fulfills the definition of nobility, nevertheless, the illumination of blue, yellow,
203. 19:39–19:45and the light cannot be denied, and this alone is what we assert.
204. 19:45–19:46No.
205. 19:46–19:52This view resembles an attempt to save a cow that has already been sold.
206. 19:52–19:58What, after all, is this illumination that remains wholly unimpaired in the object
207. 19:58–20:04even though the object does not satisfy the definition of norability.
208. 20:04–20:10It is not a relation to illuminating cognition, for the Buddhists themselves have explained
209. 20:10–20:17that a mere relation, in the absence of any process initiated by cognition or illumination,
210. 20:17–20:22cannot determine which cognition knows which object.
211. 20:22–20:28Nor is it identity with illumination, for then variegated cognition would become many
212. 20:28–20:35by being identical with its several objects. Therefore, one who wishes to preserve the
213. 20:35–20:42illumination of objects must explain their nobility or else deny their illumination.
214. 20:42–20:49Otherwise, the Buddhist especially Jhana, who preserves the illumination of internal
215. 20:49–20:55and external objects even though they utterly fail to satisfy the definition of nobility
216. 20:55–21:02resembles a man who, holding a piece of gold in his hand, tries to tie a knot in the sky
217. 21:02–21:05in order to keep it safe.
218. 21:05–21:10Refutation of the second alternative stated at the beginning.
219. 21:10–21:16The foregoing denial of the nobility of an external object also refutes the second
220. 21:16–21:19of the initial alternatives.
221. 21:19–21:25Merely admitting generic similarity between an object and cognition does not satisfy the
222. 21:25–21:32definition of nobility, because the undesirable consequence remains that, if cognition and
223. 21:32–21:39object are generically similar, any object may become the object of any cognition.
224. 21:39–21:44The cognition of a pot is generically similar to a tree as well.
225. 21:44–21:51But if the external object is inert, how can it be illuminated or conscious?
226. 21:51–21:57If it is illuminated, it must be admitted to be generically similar to cognition.
227. 21:57–22:03This difficulty is the same for both the inert and the conscious.
228. 22:03–22:10According to philosophers who do not regard cognition as self-aware, cognition illuminates
229. 22:10–22:13another thing but not itself.
230. 22:13–22:20According to those who accept self-aware cognition, cognition illuminates itself but is inert with
231. 22:20–22:25respect to another thing and therefore cannot know it.
232. 22:25–22:32If one cognition can somehow know another cognition as well, it can also know an external object,
233. 22:32–22:39the reason in the inference would then extend to the counter example and become inconclusive
234. 22:39–22:41through deviation.
235. 22:41–22:49of generic similarity between the object and cognition. If an external object is regarded
236. 22:49–22:55as dissimilar to its cognition, does it never satisfy the definition of nobility, whereas
237. 22:55–23:01if generic similarity is admitted their material cause will regularly be the same, so that
238. 23:01–23:08cognitions having the forms of blue, yellow, and so forth, though mutually distinct,
239. 23:08–23:13may be established as knowing one another as well as themselves.
240. 23:13–23:15No.
241. 23:15–23:21In order to explain the mutual cognition of distinct forms, one must regard either the
242. 23:21–23:27common material cause as a specific regulator or the capacity of the causal complex as
243. 23:27–23:33a general regulator, otherwise the cognition of a pot would not remain confined to the
244. 23:33–23:38pot but could also take a tree as its object.
245. 23:38–23:44Once such a regulator must be admitted, that very regulator can just as easily explain
246. 23:44–23:50why cognition is confined to a particular object that is dissimilar to and different from
247. 23:50–23:52itself.
248. 23:52–23:58Therefore, the defect previously pointed out reappears in the reason.
249. 23:58–24:02Consideration of the third initial alternative.
250. 24:02–24:10Then let the third alternative, that the known object is unreal, be accepted as correct.
251. 24:10–24:15It is impossible to define the knowable as either different from or non-different from
252. 24:15–24:22cognition, and if the knowable cannot be defined, one cannot even rely upon the capacity of
253. 24:22–24:26the causal complex to determine the cognitive relation.
254. 24:26–24:33Inquiry into causes is meaningful only in the case of entities rationally established, not
255. 24:33–24:36in the case of irrational entities.
256. 24:36–24:43Very well, then we ask, does the impossibility of formulating a definition of nobility abolished
257. 24:43–24:49the nobility of the external object or its reality itself?
258. 24:49–24:56Refutation of the First Alternative above The First Alternative is unacceptable.
259. 24:56–25:03The existence of an object manifestly perceived cannot be denied merely because its definition
260. 25:03–25:05has not been settled.
261. 25:05–25:12The uncertainty of a definition may also arise from the complexity or subtlety of what is
262. 25:12–25:14to be defined.
263. 25:14–25:21If knowable external objects were not actually known, it would be rational to deny knowledge
264. 25:21–25:24of them, but they are clearly known.
265. 25:24–25:27refutation of the second alternative.
266. 25:27–25:32The second alternative is also unacceptable.
267. 25:32–25:38The impossibility of defining the knowable would establish its unreality only if the
268. 25:38–25:44impossibility of definition were invariably connected with unreality itself.
269. 25:44–25:50But if definition is impossible whether the knowable is real or unreal, why are you
270. 25:50–25:53especially attached to unreality?
271. 25:53–26:02If it is said that unreality itself is the definition of the noble, we ask, why not reality?
272. 26:02–26:07If reality is a defective definition, so is unreality.
273. 26:07–26:13Formulation and refutation of another definition of nobility.
274. 26:13–26:19Let the definition of nobility then be being the object of practical activity produced
275. 26:19–26:21by cognition.
276. 26:21–26:29Well, let us accept this. But how is it determined that one particular practical activity is
277. 26:29–26:36produced by one particular cognition and not by another? If it is held that a particular
278. 26:36–26:43causal complex produces only a particular cognition and no other cognition, this is possible
279. 26:43–26:50in the case of a real object, not an unreal one. This is the distinctive character of
280. 26:50–26:59practical activity. When a real object is known, desire arises, desire produces effort, effort
281. 26:59–27:07produces action, and action leads to the attainment of the real object. An unreal object cannot
282. 27:07–27:15be attained and therefore no such sequence occurs in relation to it. If it is attained, it
283. 27:15–27:17It is not unreal.
284. 27:17–27:24If practical activity itself is false, the definition of nobility collapses, because the
285. 27:24–27:30very practical activity upon which the definition is based is unreal.
286. 27:30–27:34The extreme proposal and its refutation.
287. 27:34–27:41Let the world then be regarded as wholly inconceivable, because it is noable as neither different
288. 27:41–27:45from nor identical with cognition.
289. 27:45–27:50Well, does this mean the denial of all true knowledge concerning the world, or does it
290. 27:50–27:52lead to nihilism?
291. 27:52–27:56The first alternative is impossible.
292. 27:56–28:02Does all inquiry yield only the conclusion that nothing beyond ordinary experience is
293. 28:02–28:03real?
294. 28:03–28:05No.
295. 28:05–28:12Even without inquiry every person readily accepts conclusions of this kind, the uneducated
296. 28:12–28:14to possess such a notion.
297. 28:14–28:21More can inquiry be expected merely to turn one away from actions such as sacrifice and
298. 28:21–28:29killing which are held respectively to produce the imaginary fruits of heaven and hell.
299. 28:29–28:35If inquiry turns one away from heaven and hell, then, by generating the conviction that
300. 28:35–28:42everything is false or irrational, it can also turn one away from the desired goals
301. 28:42–28:44of this life.
302. 28:44–28:49Otherworldly and worldly goals stand on the same footing.
303. 28:49–28:54Are worldly goals observed, whereas otherworldly goals are not?
304. 28:54–29:00If observed means known, both are equally knowable.
305. 29:00–29:06If it means perceived by the senses, then no one in this world could act toward anything
306. 29:06–29:11known by inference or another non perceptual means.
307. 29:11–29:17Are the imperceptible but known things of this world perceived earlier or later?
308. 29:17–29:21Yes, and so are otherworldly things.
309. 29:21–29:28Otherworldly and worldly pleasures and pains are alike in nature and are therefore equally
310. 29:28–29:31capable of being perceived.
311. 29:31–29:37Is there a natural indifference in people's minds towards supernatural pleasures?
312. 29:37–29:44This does not establish the necessity of inquiry, even without inquiry people may naturally be
313. 29:44–29:48disinclined toward other worldly things.
314. 29:48–29:55Nor is it the case that inquiry merely intensifies this disinclination, for it can also produce
315. 29:55–30:00aversion toward worldly activities.
316. 30:00–30:02Conclusion of the Discussion
317. 30:02–30:09The Buddhist strategy of debate resembles the well-known inference of a young monkey.
318. 30:09–30:15Hearing of the prowess of Hanumna, son of the wind, it was fired by rivalry and made
319. 30:15–30:18a mighty leap to cross the ocean.
320. 30:18–30:24After jumping some distance it fell into the sea and declared, this ocean is surely
321. 30:24–30:30boundless, no one can cross it, the tail in the Ramya must be false.
322. 30:30–30:35The Buddhist assertion above is equally pointless.
323. 30:35–30:41The conclusion that the world is inconceivable because it cannot be known or defined is something
324. 30:41–30:49an ordinary person knows without inquiry, therefore an inquiry that yields such a conclusion is
325. 30:49–30:51futile.
326. 30:51–30:56Is it not proper to undertake inquiry even if it bears no fruit?
327. 30:56–30:58No.
328. 30:58–31:04It is possible that the inquiry has reached such a conclusion only because of the Buddhist's
329. 31:04–31:06lack of skill.
330. 31:06–31:12A person blind from birth cannot see or define a blue object, but ordinary people do not
331. 31:12–31:18on that account regard blue objects as unknowable or indefinable.
332. 31:18–31:23Examination and refutation of the second alternative above.
333. 31:23–31:28Would emptiness then be the state of supreme peace and bliss?
334. 31:28–31:29No.
335. 31:29–31:36If emptiness has not been established, how can it be said that the world has dissolved
336. 31:36–31:38into emptiness?
337. 31:38–31:44It is easy to make such an irresponsible assertion on any occasion.
338. 31:44–31:50If emptiness is established by a proof different from itself, that proof too must be admitted
339. 31:50–31:58as real, and the definition of nobility must necessarily be satisfied in its case.
340. 31:58–32:05If this other proof is not different from intellect or cognition, there will be no difference between
341. 32:05–32:10the world and emptiness, since both are objects of cognition.
342. 32:10–32:16How then, can there be emptiness while the world remains unafuted?
343. 32:16–32:23How can the proof be different from cognition, if it requires a proof different from itself
344. 32:23–32:28in order to establish itself, an infinite regress follows.
345. 32:28–32:33An unestablished proof cannot establish emptiness.
346. 32:33–32:38If you regard the emptiness of the world as self-established or self-luminous, you
347. 32:38–32:43have arrived upon the path of Vednita.
348. 32:43–32:45Exposition of the Vedantic view.
349. 32:45–32:52The Vedintin now presents his own view, to which the Buddhist position appears close.
350. 32:52–32:59The ultimate reality, being self-established, is of the nature of experience.
351. 32:59–33:06Because the world is unreal and empty, reality is not delimited by any temporal boundary and
352. 33:06–33:08is therefore eternal.
353. 33:08–33:15For the same reason it is unrestricted by spatial boundaries and is therefore all-pervasive.
354. 33:15–33:22Again, for the same reason it is devoid of every characteristic and hence cannot be apprehended
355. 33:22–33:24by thought.
356. 33:24–33:29All thought operates through the relation of qualifier and qualified, whereas ultimate
357. 33:29–33:33reality transcends that relation.
358. 33:33–33:39For the same reason there is no difference within it, and it therefore transcends all
359. 33:39–33:42difference or duality.
360. 33:42–33:47Because the world is wholly unreal, duality is impossible.
361. 33:47–33:53Since nothing different from it exists, it has no counter-positive, and is therefore
362. 33:53–33:55positive in nature.
363. 33:55–34:02Nevertheless, in contrast to the irrationally supposed reality of the world, it is sometimes
364. 34:02–34:09called emptiness. What relation, then, thus pure experience, understood as the exclusion
365. 34:09–34:16of the world, bear to the world if the relation of knower and known is not admitted. Surely
366. 34:16–34:24the world is not unknowable. The reply is that in reality there is no relation, but
367. 34:24–34:30through error a known known relation appears between them, resembling the relation of substrate
368. 34:30–34:37and dependent. The Nayikas to admit such a relation between space and the ground of
369. 34:37–34:44the celestial world. The only difference in Vednata is that the relation qualifies the
370. 34:44–34:51knowable alone. Ignorance itself is illusorily transformed into the various objects that
371. 34:51–34:59serve as the objects of distinct practical dealings. Experience to appears manifold because
372. 34:59–35:05it is qualified by different limiting agents superimposed by ignorance.
373. 35:05–35:11This manifold appearance resembles the division of one all-pervasive space into many parts
374. 35:11–35:19by a pot, a hollow in a tree, a heart, and the countless objects experienced in a dream.
375. 35:19–35:22But let this web of words end here.
376. 35:22–35:27The seller of ginger has no need to worry about the boat.
377. 35:27–35:34of the logical conclusion. For the reasons already stated, setting aside the
378. 35:34–35:41Vedantic discussion of emptiness, the reality of both conceptual and non-conceptual experience
379. 35:41–35:48must be admitted. Consequently, the acceptance of an object distinct from experience is unavoidable.
380. 35:49–35:56Once the object is established, there must be some definition or determinant of objecthood.
381. 35:56–36:12If the external object is not denied and its cognition is regarded as impermanent, the determinant may be regarded as a property of cognition or as a property common to cognition and the external object.
382. 36:12–36:19If external reality is denied, the determinant will be a property of cognition alone.
383. 36:19–36:30If cognition is regarded as eternally real, as in Vednata, the determinant must be held to be a property of the noble object alone.
384. 36:30–36:34What is to be defined here is the cognitive relation.
385. 36:34–36:43This relation is an intrinsic nature of a real cognition, the property of being a cognition of a particular object.
386. 36:43–36:50object. Because it is a natural property of cognition, it requires no cause beyond the
387. 36:50–36:58causes of cognition itself. And because its nature consists in being related to one particular
388. 36:58–37:04object, it does not establish a relation with any other object.
389. 37:04–37:08Defense of the Nya, Vaika account of the cognitive relation.
390. 37:08–37:14The question may be asked, what is the effect of this cognitive relation?
391. 37:14–37:21The answer is outwardly, it initiates practical activity concerning the relation between cognition
392. 37:21–37:26and its object, inwardly, it manifests cognition.
393. 37:26–37:32If it is further asked why cognition is such as to induce practical activity, the
394. 37:32–37:38answer is that the causal complex producing cognition has the capacity to confer such
395. 37:38–37:41causal efficacy upon it.
396. 37:41–37:47This answer is analogous to the answer given when one asks about the casualty of a cause
397. 37:47–37:50with respect to its effect.
398. 37:50–37:56If this answer is wrong and a cause is held to produce some additional assistance in the
399. 37:56–38:04effect that assistance, being itself an effect, would require a second assistance within it
400. 38:04–38:08and that a third, yielding an infinite series of
401. 38:08–38:13Assistances. If an assistance produced by the cause is not
402. 38:13–38:18required for the effect, why does any cause not produce any effect whatsoever?
403. 38:19–38:24The answer is that a particular cause produces only a particular
404. 38:24–38:29effect. Admit in the same way that a cognition knows only a
405. 38:29–38:37particular object. What is the meaning of knowing or making something an object? Then the meaning
406. 38:37–38:46of producing must likewise be clarified. Production is bringing an effect into existence. Very
407. 38:46–38:53well in that case, the arising of cognition as a cognition of a particular object is
408. 38:53–39:01precisely it's knowing that object. Likewise, with respect to the assistance supposedly produced
409. 39:01–39:07in an effect, as in the case of cognition, there is no assistance over and above the arising
410. 39:07–39:16of the effect itself. Objection to the defense and its refutation. If the cause-effect relation
411. 39:16–39:23to is suspended because of the foregoing objections, that would be extreme rashness.
412. 39:23–39:28Things would then be either eternal or wholly non-existent.
413. 39:28–39:34If the cognitive relation is also removed, either cognition will exist continuously or
414. 39:34–39:41there will be no cognition at all, one of these two will become the ultimate reality.
415. 39:41–39:45Can the causal relation not be merely conceptual?
416. 39:45–39:49Then the cognitive relation may likewise be conceptual.
417. 39:49–39:56If there is a powerful proof against the reality of the knowable object and the effect, let
418. 39:56–40:03both relations be regarded as conceptual, otherwise let both be real.
419. 40:03–40:07These are the only two alternatives.
420. 40:07–40:13Refutation of the skya and related views concerning the substrate of the cognitive relation.
421. 40:13–40:16The true situation is this.
422. 40:16–40:23In the Buddhist view, the cognitive relation cannot qualify both cognition and its object.
423. 40:23–40:30Permanent, whether real or unreal, objects also appear in cognition if the relation were
424. 40:30–40:35a property of both, cognition too would have to be regarded as permanent.
425. 40:35–40:43Therefore, it is proper to regard cognition alone as the substrate of the relation.
426. 40:43–40:49cognitive cognition as a modification of the intellect is held to be eternal while its
427. 40:49–40:55object is mutable, then according to the SCIA view the object cannot be the substrate of
428. 40:55–41:01the relation, since the SCIA system has already been rationally refuted.
429. 41:01–41:06Discussion of this matter is impossible unless the disappearance of the earlier object
430. 41:06–41:13and the appearance of the later object are admitted, and that is opposed to the skya view.
431. 41:14–41:20Momentary cognition too cannot be the substrate of the relation if the knowable object is unreal,
432. 41:20–41:27for no relation can be established with the unreal, and if cognition has no form of its
433. 41:27–41:35own for it to apprehend. Nor can blue, yellow, and the light be held to be superimposed upon
434. 41:35–41:42cognition because being unreal they are not available even for superimposition.
435. 41:42–41:45Objection to the refutation and reply.
436. 41:45–41:53Do unreal externally imagined objects such as blue and yellow themselves appear as qualifying
437. 41:53–41:54cognition?
438. 41:54–41:55No.
439. 41:55–42:02What does unreal mean absent at the time and place of cognition utterly devoid of every
440. 42:02–42:10characteristic or merely of the nature of a particular exclusion. Under the first alternative,
441. 42:10–42:17although the object is unreal, space and time would have to be admitted as real. Under the
442. 42:17–42:26second, an unreal object being devoid of characteristics cannot qualify cognition. Under the third,
443. 42:26–42:32If unreal blue is the exclusion of the non blue, the non blue will be real.
444. 42:32–42:38If the non blue is unreal, its excluder blue will be real.
445. 42:38–42:44If both blue and non blue are unreal, neither can qualify any cognition.
446. 42:44–42:48Objection to the reply and rejoinder.
447. 42:48–42:54Do blue and the light not qualify cognition precisely in their unreal form?
448. 42:54–42:59Very well, then in what other form do they qualify it?
449. 42:59–43:03In the forms of blue, yellow, and the like?
450. 43:03–43:10If so, these forms are different from unreal blue and yellow, being different, they will
451. 43:10–43:11be real.
452. 43:11–43:17If they are not different, they too cannot qualify cognition.
453. 43:17–43:20Objection to the rejoinder and reply.
454. 43:20–43:27An objection may be raised, impelled by certain extraordinary latent impressions, an unreal
455. 43:27–43:31object appears in cognition and qualifies it.
456. 43:31–43:35Let this possibility be admitted.
457. 43:35–43:41There is no doubt about the causal efficacy of an unreal appearance, the doubt is how
458. 43:41–43:48an unreal object devoid of form and characteristics can itself become a qualification of something
459. 43:48–44:04The emphasis lies on the fact that blue, yellow and the like may be devoid of characteristics in their unmanifest aspect, but in their appearance as blue and yellow they must possess some characteristic.
460. 44:04–44:10Are they called unreal merely because they do not withstand rational examination?
461. 44:10–44:19examination. Know that merely restates in other words that blue and yellow are unreal because
462. 44:19–44:26irrationality and possession of characteristics cannot coexist. If the two are not opposed,
463. 44:26–44:32it follows that blue and yellow possess some form or characteristic even though they do
464. 44:32–44:40not withstand your examination. In that case your examination itself is defective since
465. 44:40–44:45it does not affect even the shadow of blue and yellow.
466. 44:45–44:51Only two parts lie before you, either take refuge in the Vedantic doctrine of an indefinable
467. 44:51–44:58appearance or emerge from the Buddhist intellectual quagmire of unreal appearance and together
468. 44:58–45:04with the Nyāvāikas, accept the reality of the external world.
469. 45:04–45:07Brief statement of the conclusion.
470. 45:07–45:14For this reason, no cognitive relation is possible unless the mutual differences among knowable
471. 45:14–45:19objects and their difference from cognition are admitted.
472. 45:19–45:25If these differences are denied, the powerful Vedantic position must be accepted.
473. 45:25–45:31Otherwise, the world must be admitted as real and irrefutable.
474. 45:31–45:37In neither case is there any place for the Buddhist view.
475. 45:37–45:41of the self-contradictory character of the Buddhist view.
476. 45:41–45:48With regard to the inquiry that is held to ground the view that the world is unreal, inexplicable
477. 45:48–45:55by rational examination, or indeterminate by proof, one may ask, what, after all, is
478. 45:55–45:59this inquiry, and what is its nature?
479. 45:59–46:05The answer may be that a proof supported by a negative reduction is the proper object
480. 46:05–46:12of rational inquiry. But if the proof itself does not withstand rational examination, what
481. 46:12–46:20uses such proof, which resembles the conjecture of an uncultivated person? A fool saw an elephant
482. 46:20–46:28at the gate of a royal palace and began to speculate, is this darkness swallowing radishes?
483. 46:28–46:34Or is it a cloud that thunders and showers lightning? Or is it a kinsman, since the
484. 46:34–46:41The teacher has said that one who accompanies us as far as the palace gate or the cremation
485. 46:41–46:43ground is a kinsman?
486. 46:43–46:48Or is it the shadow of something standing upon the earth?
487. 46:48–46:51He then refuted his own fantasies.
488. 46:51–46:53It is not darkness.
489. 46:53–46:57For darkness would not slap with two winnowing basket like yours.
490. 46:57–46:59It is not a cloud.
491. 46:59–47:02For a cloud does not have four pillars.
492. 47:02–47:03It is not a kinsman.
493. 47:03–47:10For a kinsman does not swing a great club, it is not a shadow, for a shadow does not
494. 47:10–47:15swallow hundreds of human heads, therefore it is nothing at all.
495. 47:15–47:21Would such conjecture and its cancellation abolish the reality of the elephant?
496. 47:21–47:29Or should another fool, who says, what exists, exists, be regarded as more trustworthy?
497. 47:29–47:35If the nature of the world can be determined through rational examination, the doctrines
498. 47:35–47:42of its unreality and the like stand refuted by themselves, there is no need to await
499. 47:42–47:44replies to them.
500. 47:44–47:48Defense and refutation of Buddhist inquiry
501. 47:48–47:55The Buddhist may say that a syllogism establishing irrationality may itself accord with common
502. 47:55–48:02reason, the irrationality thereby established, would then escape the defect stated above.
503. 48:02–48:09Yes, but the soundness of the auxiliary causal complex of the proof must likewise accord with
504. 48:09–48:16the rules of common reason. Once those rules are broken, the resulting inquiry becomes
505. 48:16–48:23nothing more than the arbitrary utterance of words. In general, only a sentence whose
506. 48:23–48:30component words are connected by expectancy, semantic fitness, and proximity, which is
507. 48:30–48:37unambiguous, whose meaning is not contradicted by another means of knowledge, which is free
508. 48:37–48:43from contradiction with the speaker's own words, actions, or cognition, and which does
509. 48:43–48:50not necessarily entail a view opposed to its own meaning, can be an instrument of verbal
510. 48:50–48:52knowledge.
511. 48:52–48:56An example is, this mountain has fire.
512. 48:56–49:03A sentence lacking these conditions is not an instrument of true verbal cognition.
513. 49:03–49:06The following sentences fail to satisfy them.
514. 49:06–49:13This mountain, devdatta is fair, the reservoir filled with water has fire, the mountain attained
515. 49:13–49:20by devdatta has fire, a white wooden elephant is running, a hurry has holes, my mother
516. 49:20–49:27is barren, I am mute, I do not know this, and the elephant entering my ear trumpets and
517. 49:27–49:31says, prescribe a remedy for this.
518. 49:31–49:33The purpose of a syllogism.
519. 49:33–49:41The purpose of a syllogism, or of any of its members, is establishment and refutation.
520. 49:41–49:46Establishment is accomplished by a reason possessing the five characteristics that
521. 49:46–49:52secure the invariable concomitance between reason and probandom and the presence of the
522. 49:52–49:54reason in the subject.
523. 49:54–50:01For example, a continuous column of smoke is rising from here is a valid reason for the
524. 50:01–50:05probandom there is fire here.
525. 50:05–50:09Being a reservoir is a pseudo reason for that probandom.
526. 50:09–50:14The auxiliary of a valid reason is a negative reduction.
527. 50:14–50:20Nature consists in showing an undesirable consequence based on the invariable
528. 50:20–50:25concomitance between the absence of the probanden and the absence of the reason.
529. 50:25–50:32An undesirable consequence is of two kinds, abandonment of something validly
530. 50:32–50:39established or acceptance of something contradicted. For example, if water did
531. 50:39–50:46not relieve the pain of thirst, it would not be drunk, if it produced burning in another
532. 50:46–50:53body, it would produce burning in my body as well is a valid reduction. It's opposite,
533. 50:53–50:59if water did not relieve thirst, it would not be white like the sky, if it caused burning
534. 50:59–51:07in another's body, it would produce fragrance in mine is a defective argument. A defect capable
535. 51:07–51:14of refutation is one that does not entail a conclusion opposed to its own assertion,
536. 51:14–51:21is invariably connected with the refutation of the opposing reason, and is already established.
537. 51:21–51:28In the inference of fire on a mountain, existence, is not a valid reason because it deviates
538. 51:28–51:36from fire, therefore deviation is an appropriate defect to charge against it. A defect that
539. 51:36–51:43does not satisfy these conditions, does not refute anything. For example, the statement
540. 51:43–51:50this smoke does not establish fire, because there is doubt concerning an utterly unknowable
541. 51:50–51:57condition that determines its invariable concomitance, or because it possesses existence and is opposed
542. 51:57–52:04to the presence of fire in its substrate, does not refute the probandom. Perception,
543. 52:04–52:16and the other means of knowledge also produce inquiry only as auxiliaries to inference because they operate with the aid of reduction and necessary relation.
544. 52:16–52:21Therefore, the same explanation applies to them as well.

Plain text

Art 2. Examination of the Doctrine Denying External Reality. Introduction to the Subject of Debate. When the Vijnavdine maintains that nothing exists outside consciousness, what room remains for the existence of the Self? Very well, let the Vijnavdine be asked whether his meaning is that the two components of a cognitive state, The knowable object and the knowing consciousness are ultimately real but mutually non-different or that both belong to one generic kind or that the knowable component is imaginary. Statement of the defects in the Vijnavdines inference Whatever reason is advanced to prove the probandom of the first of the three inferences necessary co-appearance, cognitionhood, humanosity, or anything else is plainly defective. Explanation of the defect. The admission in the preceding inference that cognitions having mutually incompatible forms such as blue and white arise gives birth to a monster that destroys those very cognitions. Further explanation of the defect. If the stated cognitions apprehend mutually incompatible objects, how can one cognition, while remaining one, be not different from many objects? If it does not apprehend them, how does it possess their forms? Self-aware cognition cannot remain unconscious of the form of its own object. Ratnakritya's answer and its refutation. It may be objected that difficulty arises only when mutually incompatible properties appear together in external objects. If, despite such appearance, external objects were regarded as non-different, the successful activities arising from them and the movements toward them would intermingle and no distinction among external objects would remain. Consciousness, however, faces no such difficulty. The existence of consciousness does not depend upon producing any successful activity but only upon luminosity. A person desiring an object does not go in search of consciousness. The activity of consciousness is nothing beyond the natural flow of self-luminous moments of consciousness. The person desiring these activities is likewise neither different from nor outside this flow. Non-difference is the ultimate and final nature of consciousness because all consciousness is self-aware. A satirical reply to the preceding answer. Dear brother, Does this mean that just as creatures that are natural enemies, such as snake and mongoose, abandon their innate hostility when they approach the hermitage of a peaceful sage, so mutually opposed objects such as blue and white abandon their natural opposition when apprehended by cognition? Or do they retain their opposition but abandon its consequence, mutual difference? of the two alternatives. The first alternative is untenable. If objects whose presence and absence are respectively pervaded by the absence and presence of the other are not regarded as mutually opposed, all opposition would disappear from the world. The answer, nothing is wrong, Let it be so is improper. The opposed nature of objects cannot be abolished in this way because mutual exclusion is the very nature of opposition. Establishing this exclusion is establishing difference itself, therefore the second alternative cannot stand either. Objection to the refutation and the answer. It may be said that the distinct successful activities of external objects were presented as the basis of their opposition, this rule applies only to external objects not to cognition or consciousness. Therefore cognition need not be different even when its objects differ. But this reasoning is not rational. If apparent coexistence of incompatible properties is taken as the ground for difference among objects, what benefit is gained by mentioning the individual limitation of successful activities? If none, why mention it? The individual limits of successful activities themselves remain only if the activities differ because incompatible properties visibly coexist in them. to the refutation and its refutation. Where is the rule that different objects cannot appear in one cognition? Different objects certainly can appear in one cognition. No, our meaning in saying that the appearances of different objects do not overlap is not this. We mean only that blue itself does not appear as yellow and yellow itself does not appear as blue. This is the basis of all opposition. Justification of the refutation. If this were not so, knowledge and ignorance to would not remain mutually opposed. For example, that which is said to be not known is known, since we can say, this known horse and so forth is not known, ignorance would thereby become manifest. Do knowledge and ignorance not appear respectively in the forms of ignorance and knowledge? Yes, but when distinct objects such as blue and yellow are cognized together, is blue cognized as yellow in that cognition, so that opposition among the objects would disappear? Therefore, opposition at the level of objects and opposition at The level of cognition should be regarded as alike, and each should be understood as possessing an equal capacity to remove identity with its own object. To regard one as superior to the other is mere partiality, like the well-known proverb about the beggar and the housewife. Refutation of an earlier view. The foregoing refutation also disposes of the Buddhist's earlier assertion that there is no differentiation within cognition. The cognition of distinct forms as distinct forms is precisely the differentiation of cognition. Another refutation of the objection. If all externally real things are momentary, then by the time a person who cognizes to external objects such as blue and yellow together tries to know their mutual difference, both will already have perished. How then, can that same person know the objects and their difference successively? There is no certainty that another person cognizes this difference, and if there is doubt about the cognition of difference, there will be doubt about the difference itself as well. But if neither an object nor its cognition can be known by anything different from it, how can doubt arise? The Buddhist seeks to establish the identity of the noble and cognition on the ground that no distinction is apprehended within cognition. If that very non-distinction is in turn established on the ground of their identity, the fault of circularity follows. Therefore, presenting identity as the reason is pointless. pointless. Refutation of the objection that pure cognition is undifferentiated. Then cognition's uniform luminosity may remove its multiplicity or differentiation, while the manifest coexistence within it of incompatible properties may remove its unity. But what effect can these negations have upon the purely luminous nature of the cognition of blue, yellow, and the like, which is supposedly devoid of both unity and multiplicity. None. This reply resembles the weeding of a field by barbarians, when told to remove the weeds, they uprooted the crop as well. To be one means to possess a determinate form, while to be many means to poses indeterminate or mutually distinct forms. If cognition has neither unity nor multiplicity, it can assume neither the form of blue nor the combined forms of blue and yellow. Consequently, no form whatever remains in it. Refutation of the objection that the appearance of incompatible properties in cognition is illusory. The argument for the non-differentiation of cognition would then be this, only the real coexistence of incompatible properties appearing in something determines its differentiation, whereas here their appearance is merely illusory. Very well. If so, it has been established by your own admission that cognition is pure and formless like crystal, and that the distinct forms appearing in it are not its own. Therefore, whether those forms are real or unreal, the inference of identity between cognition and its object from their co-appearance is initiated by the defect of an example lacking the probandom. Objection that difference is unreal and reply is not the mere unreal difference that appears in conceptual cognition but not in non-conceptual cognition sufficient for the practical usage of difference? No. Such difference cannot remain immune from the objections concerning its reality or unreality and its appearance or non-appearance in cognition. Defense of the objection and its refutation. Is it only a non-existent or unreal and unknown difference that is apprehended? Yes, but the meaning of the word apprehension must be clarified. Does it mean being the cause of practical activity concerning the apprehended object? No. If practical activity is something different from cognition, then being itself unreal because it is different from cognition, how can it generate a distinction? If practical activity is cognition itself, why should its cognitive relation, without any regulator, be fixed upon one particular object rather than another? Is the relation of distinct practical activities to distinct differences determined by the causal capacities of those activities? No. This is a Buddhist oddity. They are prepared to maintain that practical activity is a kind of cognition, that its object is an unreal difference and that, even in the absence of any other regulator, the capacities of the causes of practical activity determine their relation, yet they are unwilling to admit a cognitive relation between non-conceptual cognition and its real object. This resembles a man afflicted with a digestive disorder who abandons pure milk and longs for rice water. Objection to the refutation Are the differences among external objects not themselves non-different from the form of the cognition that apprehends them, just as the external objects themselves are held to be cognitive in nature? If difference is definitely unreal, how can it be the form of a real cognition? And if difference is non-different from the form of cognition, how can it be unreal? Let the Buddhist attend to this dilemma. Suppose difference is real. If cognition does not apprehend the substrate and the counter-positive of the difference, how can the difference be known? And if it apprehends both along with the difference, how can a single cognition be non-different from all of them? Should cognition be regarded as having a variegated form? No. The very consideration of the alternatives, whether the variegated form is one or many eliminates this possibility. If the forms are many, how can they be non-different from one cognition? If cognition to becomes many in accordance with the differences among the form, what, after all, is the defect in an object different from cognition being known by cognition? There is none. But on this view the knowable, knower relation between two different things, object and cognition cannot be determined by a process initiated by either one because no such regular process exists. Nor can the relation be determined by generic similarity, otherwise the cognitive relation would not remain confined to a particular object, and any object could become the object of any cognition. A known cow possessing cowness does not become a non-cow in relation to some other thing. If so, the same defect also applies to the view that cognition and its object are identical. The usage cognition Knows itself cannot be grounded in a process since an action of a thing upon itself is impossible. Nor can it be grounded in generic similarity otherwise cognition would take all things as its object. No rule has been observed according to which a cow is generically a cow only in relation to itself and not in relation to other things. Nor does cognitions being self-revealing make it revealing of other cognitions, otherwise every cognition would take every other cognition as its object. Objection to the reply and rejoinder. Should we, on the basis of the object's illuminated nature, merely deny the difference between cognition and its object without affirming their identity? No. The negation of difference is itself the positive affirmation of identity. Objection that variegated cognition is neither different nor non-different and reply. Then let variegated cognition be devoid of both difference and non-difference. If its form is different from cognition, cognition cannot illuminate it. If it is non-different, then, because cognition is one, its form too will be one, there will then be no variegation in a cognition that apprehends blue, yellow, and the like together. This position is untenable. Just as the simultaneous affirmation of mutually opposed properties in a single substrate is incoherent, so too is their simultaneous negation. If it is said, let us accept even this negation, the Buddhist will have to follow in the footsteps of the Jant teacher by accepting every undesirable possibility, becoming shameless like a Dighambara adherent. Refutation of the objection that variegatedness transcends all determination. Then variegated cognition would be devoid of all four mutually opposed properties, difference, identity, absence of difference and absence of identity. The variegated is indeed a wondrous entity, cognition is real although neither one nor many. Let us take this miracle to be the meaning of the word variegated. Very well if so, why not regard cognition as possessing all four properties? The ground for calling cognition miraculous is equal on both views. Moreover, the impossibility of each one of the four predications necessarily entails the opposite predication because the negation of an impossible predication is the affirmation of its contrary. Another refutation of the objection. If cognition is truly devoid of all four properties, that is merely another way of saying that these properties, though different from cognition, are either known or unknown. It is incorrect to call them unknown, for they are being known through these very words. If they are admitted to be known, they are known without possessing the defining property of nobility identity with cognition. One must then regard a single cognition as many, and a curious kind of non-dualism will result. But two strange assumptions are already present here, that an object lacking the defining mark of nobility is nevertheless known, and that its cognition is neither one nor many. It is therefore more rational to accept a duality of strange entities. On this admission, both the cognition of many distinct objects and the unity of that cognition are preserved. Examination of the view that an object is non-different from cognition because it is illuminated. The argument for identity would then be this. We admit that neither the internal agent in the form of cognition nor the external The object fulfills the definition of nobility, nevertheless, the illumination of blue, yellow, and the light cannot be denied, and this alone is what we assert. No. This view resembles an attempt to save a cow that has already been sold. What, after all, is this illumination that remains wholly unimpaired in the object even though the object does not satisfy the definition of norability. It is not a relation to illuminating cognition, for the Buddhists themselves have explained that a mere relation, in the absence of any process initiated by cognition or illumination, cannot determine which cognition knows which object. Nor is it identity with illumination, for then variegated cognition would become many by being identical with its several objects. Therefore, one who wishes to preserve the illumination of objects must explain their nobility or else deny their illumination. Otherwise, the Buddhist especially Jhana, who preserves the illumination of internal and external objects even though they utterly fail to satisfy the definition of nobility resembles a man who, holding a piece of gold in his hand, tries to tie a knot in the sky in order to keep it safe. Refutation of the second alternative stated at the beginning. The foregoing denial of the nobility of an external object also refutes the second of the initial alternatives. Merely admitting generic similarity between an object and cognition does not satisfy the definition of nobility, because the undesirable consequence remains that, if cognition and object are generically similar, any object may become the object of any cognition. The cognition of a pot is generically similar to a tree as well. But if the external object is inert, how can it be illuminated or conscious? If it is illuminated, it must be admitted to be generically similar to cognition. This difficulty is the same for both the inert and the conscious. According to philosophers who do not regard cognition as self-aware, cognition illuminates another thing but not itself. According to those who accept self-aware cognition, cognition illuminates itself but is inert with respect to another thing and therefore cannot know it. If one cognition can somehow know another cognition as well, it can also know an external object, the reason in the inference would then extend to the counter example and become inconclusive through deviation. of generic similarity between the object and cognition. If an external object is regarded as dissimilar to its cognition, does it never satisfy the definition of nobility, whereas if generic similarity is admitted their material cause will regularly be the same, so that cognitions having the forms of blue, yellow, and so forth, though mutually distinct, may be established as knowing one another as well as themselves. No. In order to explain the mutual cognition of distinct forms, one must regard either the common material cause as a specific regulator or the capacity of the causal complex as a general regulator, otherwise the cognition of a pot would not remain confined to the pot but could also take a tree as its object. Once such a regulator must be admitted, that very regulator can just as easily explain why cognition is confined to a particular object that is dissimilar to and different from itself. Therefore, the defect previously pointed out reappears in the reason. Consideration of the third initial alternative. Then let the third alternative, that the known object is unreal, be accepted as correct. It is impossible to define the knowable as either different from or non-different from cognition, and if the knowable cannot be defined, one cannot even rely upon the capacity of the causal complex to determine the cognitive relation. Inquiry into causes is meaningful only in the case of entities rationally established, not in the case of irrational entities. Very well, then we ask, does the impossibility of formulating a definition of nobility abolished the nobility of the external object or its reality itself? Refutation of the First Alternative above The First Alternative is unacceptable. The existence of an object manifestly perceived cannot be denied merely because its definition has not been settled. The uncertainty of a definition may also arise from the complexity or subtlety of what is to be defined. If knowable external objects were not actually known, it would be rational to deny knowledge of them, but they are clearly known. refutation of the second alternative. The second alternative is also unacceptable. The impossibility of defining the knowable would establish its unreality only if the impossibility of definition were invariably connected with unreality itself. But if definition is impossible whether the knowable is real or unreal, why are you especially attached to unreality? If it is said that unreality itself is the definition of the noble, we ask, why not reality? If reality is a defective definition, so is unreality. Formulation and refutation of another definition of nobility. Let the definition of nobility then be being the object of practical activity produced by cognition. Well, let us accept this. But how is it determined that one particular practical activity is produced by one particular cognition and not by another? If it is held that a particular causal complex produces only a particular cognition and no other cognition, this is possible in the case of a real object, not an unreal one. This is the distinctive character of practical activity. When a real object is known, desire arises, desire produces effort, effort produces action, and action leads to the attainment of the real object. An unreal object cannot be attained and therefore no such sequence occurs in relation to it. If it is attained, it It is not unreal. If practical activity itself is false, the definition of nobility collapses, because the very practical activity upon which the definition is based is unreal. The extreme proposal and its refutation. Let the world then be regarded as wholly inconceivable, because it is noable as neither different from nor identical with cognition. Well, does this mean the denial of all true knowledge concerning the world, or does it lead to nihilism? The first alternative is impossible. Does all inquiry yield only the conclusion that nothing beyond ordinary experience is real? No. Even without inquiry every person readily accepts conclusions of this kind, the uneducated to possess such a notion. More can inquiry be expected merely to turn one away from actions such as sacrifice and killing which are held respectively to produce the imaginary fruits of heaven and hell. If inquiry turns one away from heaven and hell, then, by generating the conviction that everything is false or irrational, it can also turn one away from the desired goals of this life. Otherworldly and worldly goals stand on the same footing. Are worldly goals observed, whereas otherworldly goals are not? If observed means known, both are equally knowable. If it means perceived by the senses, then no one in this world could act toward anything known by inference or another non perceptual means. Are the imperceptible but known things of this world perceived earlier or later? Yes, and so are otherworldly things. Otherworldly and worldly pleasures and pains are alike in nature and are therefore equally capable of being perceived. Is there a natural indifference in people's minds towards supernatural pleasures? This does not establish the necessity of inquiry, even without inquiry people may naturally be disinclined toward other worldly things. Nor is it the case that inquiry merely intensifies this disinclination, for it can also produce aversion toward worldly activities. Conclusion of the Discussion The Buddhist strategy of debate resembles the well-known inference of a young monkey. Hearing of the prowess of Hanumna, son of the wind, it was fired by rivalry and made a mighty leap to cross the ocean. After jumping some distance it fell into the sea and declared, this ocean is surely boundless, no one can cross it, the tail in the Ramya must be false. The Buddhist assertion above is equally pointless. The conclusion that the world is inconceivable because it cannot be known or defined is something an ordinary person knows without inquiry, therefore an inquiry that yields such a conclusion is futile. Is it not proper to undertake inquiry even if it bears no fruit? No. It is possible that the inquiry has reached such a conclusion only because of the Buddhist's lack of skill. A person blind from birth cannot see or define a blue object, but ordinary people do not on that account regard blue objects as unknowable or indefinable. Examination and refutation of the second alternative above. Would emptiness then be the state of supreme peace and bliss? No. If emptiness has not been established, how can it be said that the world has dissolved into emptiness? It is easy to make such an irresponsible assertion on any occasion. If emptiness is established by a proof different from itself, that proof too must be admitted as real, and the definition of nobility must necessarily be satisfied in its case. If this other proof is not different from intellect or cognition, there will be no difference between the world and emptiness, since both are objects of cognition. How then, can there be emptiness while the world remains unafuted? How can the proof be different from cognition, if it requires a proof different from itself in order to establish itself, an infinite regress follows. An unestablished proof cannot establish emptiness. If you regard the emptiness of the world as self-established or self-luminous, you have arrived upon the path of Vednita. Exposition of the Vedantic view. The Vedintin now presents his own view, to which the Buddhist position appears close. The ultimate reality, being self-established, is of the nature of experience. Because the world is unreal and empty, reality is not delimited by any temporal boundary and is therefore eternal. For the same reason it is unrestricted by spatial boundaries and is therefore all-pervasive. Again, for the same reason it is devoid of every characteristic and hence cannot be apprehended by thought. All thought operates through the relation of qualifier and qualified, whereas ultimate reality transcends that relation. For the same reason there is no difference within it, and it therefore transcends all difference or duality. Because the world is wholly unreal, duality is impossible. Since nothing different from it exists, it has no counter-positive, and is therefore positive in nature. Nevertheless, in contrast to the irrationally supposed reality of the world, it is sometimes called emptiness. What relation, then, thus pure experience, understood as the exclusion of the world, bear to the world if the relation of knower and known is not admitted. Surely the world is not unknowable. The reply is that in reality there is no relation, but through error a known known relation appears between them, resembling the relation of substrate and dependent. The Nayikas to admit such a relation between space and the ground of the celestial world. The only difference in Vednata is that the relation qualifies the knowable alone. Ignorance itself is illusorily transformed into the various objects that serve as the objects of distinct practical dealings. Experience to appears manifold because it is qualified by different limiting agents superimposed by ignorance. This manifold appearance resembles the division of one all-pervasive space into many parts by a pot, a hollow in a tree, a heart, and the countless objects experienced in a dream. But let this web of words end here. The seller of ginger has no need to worry about the boat. of the logical conclusion. For the reasons already stated, setting aside the Vedantic discussion of emptiness, the reality of both conceptual and non-conceptual experience must be admitted. Consequently, the acceptance of an object distinct from experience is unavoidable. Once the object is established, there must be some definition or determinant of objecthood. If the external object is not denied and its cognition is regarded as impermanent, the determinant may be regarded as a property of cognition or as a property common to cognition and the external object. If external reality is denied, the determinant will be a property of cognition alone. If cognition is regarded as eternally real, as in Vednata, the determinant must be held to be a property of the noble object alone. What is to be defined here is the cognitive relation. This relation is an intrinsic nature of a real cognition, the property of being a cognition of a particular object. object. Because it is a natural property of cognition, it requires no cause beyond the causes of cognition itself. And because its nature consists in being related to one particular object, it does not establish a relation with any other object. Defense of the Nya, Vaika account of the cognitive relation. The question may be asked, what is the effect of this cognitive relation? The answer is outwardly, it initiates practical activity concerning the relation between cognition and its object, inwardly, it manifests cognition. If it is further asked why cognition is such as to induce practical activity, the answer is that the causal complex producing cognition has the capacity to confer such causal efficacy upon it. This answer is analogous to the answer given when one asks about the casualty of a cause with respect to its effect. If this answer is wrong and a cause is held to produce some additional assistance in the effect that assistance, being itself an effect, would require a second assistance within it and that a third, yielding an infinite series of Assistances. If an assistance produced by the cause is not required for the effect, why does any cause not produce any effect whatsoever? The answer is that a particular cause produces only a particular effect. Admit in the same way that a cognition knows only a particular object. What is the meaning of knowing or making something an object? Then the meaning of producing must likewise be clarified. Production is bringing an effect into existence. Very well in that case, the arising of cognition as a cognition of a particular object is precisely it's knowing that object. Likewise, with respect to the assistance supposedly produced in an effect, as in the case of cognition, there is no assistance over and above the arising of the effect itself. Objection to the defense and its refutation. If the cause-effect relation to is suspended because of the foregoing objections, that would be extreme rashness. Things would then be either eternal or wholly non-existent. If the cognitive relation is also removed, either cognition will exist continuously or there will be no cognition at all, one of these two will become the ultimate reality. Can the causal relation not be merely conceptual? Then the cognitive relation may likewise be conceptual. If there is a powerful proof against the reality of the knowable object and the effect, let both relations be regarded as conceptual, otherwise let both be real. These are the only two alternatives. Refutation of the skya and related views concerning the substrate of the cognitive relation. The true situation is this. In the Buddhist view, the cognitive relation cannot qualify both cognition and its object. Permanent, whether real or unreal, objects also appear in cognition if the relation were a property of both, cognition too would have to be regarded as permanent. Therefore, it is proper to regard cognition alone as the substrate of the relation. cognitive cognition as a modification of the intellect is held to be eternal while its object is mutable, then according to the SCIA view the object cannot be the substrate of the relation, since the SCIA system has already been rationally refuted. Discussion of this matter is impossible unless the disappearance of the earlier object and the appearance of the later object are admitted, and that is opposed to the skya view. Momentary cognition too cannot be the substrate of the relation if the knowable object is unreal, for no relation can be established with the unreal, and if cognition has no form of its own for it to apprehend. Nor can blue, yellow, and the light be held to be superimposed upon cognition because being unreal they are not available even for superimposition. Objection to the refutation and reply. Do unreal externally imagined objects such as blue and yellow themselves appear as qualifying cognition? No. What does unreal mean absent at the time and place of cognition utterly devoid of every characteristic or merely of the nature of a particular exclusion. Under the first alternative, although the object is unreal, space and time would have to be admitted as real. Under the second, an unreal object being devoid of characteristics cannot qualify cognition. Under the third, If unreal blue is the exclusion of the non blue, the non blue will be real. If the non blue is unreal, its excluder blue will be real. If both blue and non blue are unreal, neither can qualify any cognition. Objection to the reply and rejoinder. Do blue and the light not qualify cognition precisely in their unreal form? Very well, then in what other form do they qualify it? In the forms of blue, yellow, and the like? If so, these forms are different from unreal blue and yellow, being different, they will be real. If they are not different, they too cannot qualify cognition. Objection to the rejoinder and reply. An objection may be raised, impelled by certain extraordinary latent impressions, an unreal object appears in cognition and qualifies it. Let this possibility be admitted. There is no doubt about the causal efficacy of an unreal appearance, the doubt is how an unreal object devoid of form and characteristics can itself become a qualification of something The emphasis lies on the fact that blue, yellow and the like may be devoid of characteristics in their unmanifest aspect, but in their appearance as blue and yellow they must possess some characteristic. Are they called unreal merely because they do not withstand rational examination? examination. Know that merely restates in other words that blue and yellow are unreal because irrationality and possession of characteristics cannot coexist. If the two are not opposed, it follows that blue and yellow possess some form or characteristic even though they do not withstand your examination. In that case your examination itself is defective since it does not affect even the shadow of blue and yellow. Only two parts lie before you, either take refuge in the Vedantic doctrine of an indefinable appearance or emerge from the Buddhist intellectual quagmire of unreal appearance and together with the Nyāvāikas, accept the reality of the external world. Brief statement of the conclusion. For this reason, no cognitive relation is possible unless the mutual differences among knowable objects and their difference from cognition are admitted. If these differences are denied, the powerful Vedantic position must be accepted. Otherwise, the world must be admitted as real and irrefutable. In neither case is there any place for the Buddhist view. of the self-contradictory character of the Buddhist view. With regard to the inquiry that is held to ground the view that the world is unreal, inexplicable by rational examination, or indeterminate by proof, one may ask, what, after all, is this inquiry, and what is its nature? The answer may be that a proof supported by a negative reduction is the proper object of rational inquiry. But if the proof itself does not withstand rational examination, what uses such proof, which resembles the conjecture of an uncultivated person? A fool saw an elephant at the gate of a royal palace and began to speculate, is this darkness swallowing radishes? Or is it a cloud that thunders and showers lightning? Or is it a kinsman, since the The teacher has said that one who accompanies us as far as the palace gate or the cremation ground is a kinsman? Or is it the shadow of something standing upon the earth? He then refuted his own fantasies. It is not darkness. For darkness would not slap with two winnowing basket like yours. It is not a cloud. For a cloud does not have four pillars. It is not a kinsman. For a kinsman does not swing a great club, it is not a shadow, for a shadow does not swallow hundreds of human heads, therefore it is nothing at all. Would such conjecture and its cancellation abolish the reality of the elephant? Or should another fool, who says, what exists, exists, be regarded as more trustworthy? If the nature of the world can be determined through rational examination, the doctrines of its unreality and the like stand refuted by themselves, there is no need to await replies to them. Defense and refutation of Buddhist inquiry The Buddhist may say that a syllogism establishing irrationality may itself accord with common reason, the irrationality thereby established, would then escape the defect stated above. Yes, but the soundness of the auxiliary causal complex of the proof must likewise accord with the rules of common reason. Once those rules are broken, the resulting inquiry becomes nothing more than the arbitrary utterance of words. In general, only a sentence whose component words are connected by expectancy, semantic fitness, and proximity, which is unambiguous, whose meaning is not contradicted by another means of knowledge, which is free from contradiction with the speaker's own words, actions, or cognition, and which does not necessarily entail a view opposed to its own meaning, can be an instrument of verbal knowledge. An example is, this mountain has fire. A sentence lacking these conditions is not an instrument of true verbal cognition. The following sentences fail to satisfy them. This mountain, devdatta is fair, the reservoir filled with water has fire, the mountain attained by devdatta has fire, a white wooden elephant is running, a hurry has holes, my mother is barren, I am mute, I do not know this, and the elephant entering my ear trumpets and says, prescribe a remedy for this. The purpose of a syllogism. The purpose of a syllogism, or of any of its members, is establishment and refutation. Establishment is accomplished by a reason possessing the five characteristics that secure the invariable concomitance between reason and probandom and the presence of the reason in the subject. For example, a continuous column of smoke is rising from here is a valid reason for the probandom there is fire here. Being a reservoir is a pseudo reason for that probandom. The auxiliary of a valid reason is a negative reduction. Nature consists in showing an undesirable consequence based on the invariable concomitance between the absence of the probanden and the absence of the reason. An undesirable consequence is of two kinds, abandonment of something validly established or acceptance of something contradicted. For example, if water did not relieve the pain of thirst, it would not be drunk, if it produced burning in another body, it would produce burning in my body as well is a valid reduction. It's opposite, if water did not relieve thirst, it would not be white like the sky, if it caused burning in another's body, it would produce fragrance in mine is a defective argument. A defect capable of refutation is one that does not entail a conclusion opposed to its own assertion, is invariably connected with the refutation of the opposing reason, and is already established. In the inference of fire on a mountain, existence, is not a valid reason because it deviates from fire, therefore deviation is an appropriate defect to charge against it. A defect that does not satisfy these conditions, does not refute anything. For example, the statement this smoke does not establish fire, because there is doubt concerning an utterly unknowable condition that determines its invariable concomitance, or because it possesses existence and is opposed to the presence of fire in its substrate, does not refute the probandom. Perception, and the other means of knowledge also produce inquiry only as auxiliaries to inference because they operate with the aid of reduction and necessary relation. Therefore, the same explanation applies to them as well.

← Transcript index