Pramanas And Language Dispute Between Dinnaga Dharmakirti And Akalanka

SR No.: 269198
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Piotr Balcerowicz
Publisher: Piotr Balcerowicz
Publication Year: 2005
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 5 MB

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PIOTR BALCEROWICZ
co-reference between perceptible data of experience and verbal symbols no perception would be possible.
XI
Above remarks about conceptual character of perception in Akalanka's thought hold true in the case of all conventional varieties of perception. A separate, though related question is whether Akalanka consistently ascribed conceptual character to all other kinds of perception as well, especially to the highest form of perception proper (mukhya-pratyakşa), viz. to absolute knowledge (kevala-jñāna), or to two inferior kinds of perception proper (mukhya-pratvaksa). viż. clairvoyance and mind-reading, which corresponded to what other schools would call 'yogin's perception' (yogi-pratyaksa).
As we know, for Dinnāga and Dharmakirti alike, all subcategories of perception did not differ qualitatively in terms of their non-perceptual character. Dinnāga emphasised that also perception which meditation adepts (yogins) could acquire through their spiritual practices was nonconceptual in character:
Yogins have the insight into the object as such which (sc. the insight) is unrelated to the spiritual preceptor's account. Also the seeing of the object as such, in the case of yogins, which (sc. the seeing) is uncontaminated by notions inculcated] by scriptural testimony is perception. 98
Dharmakirti directly referred to this passage in his Pramānavārttika and acknowledged that also such yogic perception, which seems to be ultimate perception in mundane world, is absolutely free of any conceptual inner states and conceptually constructed ideas:
[Perceptual) cognition of yogins was described before [by Dinnāga). This (i.e., perception) of these (i.e., yogins), which arises through meditation (and) in which the net of conceptuality has been shattered off, manifests itself as purely lucid."
98 PS / PSV, 1.6cd: rnal 'byor rnams kyi bla mas bstan ma 'dres pa yi don tsam mthong | rnal 'byor barnams kyis kyang lung las rnam par rtog pa dang ma 'dres pa'i don tsam mthong ba ni mngon sum mo For Sanskrit text see Hattori (1968: 94, nn. 1.48, 1.49), PS3 ( = DKC, p. 106.1), cf. Hayes (1988: 136, 170, n. 18): yogināṁ gurunirdeśâvyatibhinnârtha-mātra-drk // yoginām apy agama-vikalpâvyavakirņam arthamātra-darśanam pratyakşam. PS 1.6cd is quoted by Akalanka in RVār 1.12, p. 54.14.
99 PV 2.281: prāg-uktam yoginām jñānam teşām tad bhāvanā-mayam / vidhūta-kalpanā-jālam spastam evāvabhāsate //