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2.10]
Division of Living Beings
54
Answer - Kevalajñāna (Omniscience) and Kevaladarśana (Perception of Absolute Truth) are two operations of fully developed consciousness, while all others are operations of imperfectly developed consciousness.
Question - How can there be a distinction in operations at the time of full development when the diversity of imperfection allows for variations in operations?
Answer - During the time of full development, the reason for distinguishing operations as Kevalajñāna and Kevaladarśana is solely the dual nature of the subject to be known; that is, every subject is both general and specific, thus the operation of the conscious being that knows it is also of two types: knowledge and perception.
Question - What is the difference between knowledge and ignorance among the eight distinctions of the gross operation?
Answer - There is nothing more than the difference between the co-presence or absence of right perception.
Question - Then why aren't the remaining two kinds of knowledge opposed to ignorance and the perception opposed to non-perception?
Answer - The two kinds of knowledge: Manoparyāya (Mental Construction) and Kevalajñāna cannot be without right perception, hence their opposites are not possible. Among the perceptions, Kevaladarśana cannot be without right perception, but the remaining three perceptions can occur even in the absence of right perception; however, the reason they are not called three non-perceptions is that perception is merely a cognizance of generality. Therefore, no distinction can be made between the perceptions of the right perceiver and the wrong perceiver.
Question - What is the explanation of the aforementioned twelve distinctions?
Answer - The nature of the eight distinctions of knowledge has already been explained. The nature of the four distinctions of perception is as follows: 1. General cognizance arising from the eye is called Chakṣurdarśana, 2. General cognizance arising from any sense other than the eye or from the mind is called Acakṣurdarśana, 3. General cognizance of concrete substances arising from Avadhilabdhī is called Avadhidarśana, and 4. General cognizance of all substances arising from Kevalalabdhī is called Kevaladarśana.
55
Division of Living Beings
Samsāriṇo muktāśca.
There are two divisions: worldly and liberated.
Living beings are infinite. In terms of consciousness, all living beings are the same. Here, their two distinctions are made with respect to the co-presence or absence of the specific qualities of the entities, i.e., one is worldly.
1. See Anuyogadvārā I, Sutra 1 to 33.