Darsanamarga Section Of Abhidharmasamuccaya And Its Interpretation By Tibetan Commentators

SR No.: 269632
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L Schmithausen
Publisher: L Schmithausen
Total Pages: 17
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 3

Darśanamärga section of the Abhidharmasamuccaya
261
The Abhidharma samuccaya offers four definitions, or characterizations, of the darśanamārga, three being styled a "summary" (samāsataḥ," mdor bsdu na), the fourth being "detailed" (prabhedataḥ, 18 rab tu dbye na). All these definitions can be traced back to other, mostly clearly older, sources, though to this a proviso applies in the fourth case.
The first definition characterizes the darśanamārga as "a concentrative absorption and comprehension ... consisting in non-perception, or non-apprehension" (anupalambhaḥ samā dhiḥ prajñā ..., mi dmigs pa'i tin ne 'dzin dan ses rab ...), 19 i.e., as another passage of the AS 20 makes clear, non-perception of [the dichotomy of] what is apprehended and what apprehends (grāhya and grāhaka, gzun ba and 'dzin pa), i.e. of object and subject imagined as separate entities.
This definition of the darśanamārga as "non-perception" or "nonapprehension" (anupalambha), reminiscent of the terminology of the Prajñāpāramitā, 21 closely resembles the characterization of the darśanamārga found in the Yogācāra works ascribed to Maitreya (nātha) 22 and especially in some verse fragments closely related to these, one of which is actually quoted in the AS as stemming from a Sūtra. 23 According to the Maitreya texts, "non-perception" does not mean complete cessation of all experience but only cessation of ordinary experience, viz. experience dichotomized into object and subject, this cessation resulting at the same time in the manifestation of non-dichotomic absolute reality (dharmadhātu, chos dbyins). 24
The second definition of the As describes the darśanamārga as a comprehension in which what is cognized and what cognizes are completely
17 AS 66,3 = AAĀ 347,1.
AS 66,6 = AAA 347,2; ASBH 77,1 has prabhedaśaḥ. 19 AS 66,3.; cp.AAĀ 347,2.
AS 82,18. See E.Conze, Materials for a Dictionary of the Prajñāpāramitā Literature. Tokyo
1973, 35f. 22 cp., e.g., Mahāyanasüträlankāra XI.478; Madhyāntavibhāga (ed. Nagao) 1.7-8; Dharma
dharmatāvibhāga (ed. Nozawa) 15,8-10 (+ 48,21ff.) und 17,7ff. 2 AS 82,23; in Mahāyānasamgraha (ed. Lamotte) III.17 the same verse is traced to a
Yogavibhāga which is ascribed to Maitreya by Kuei-chi (cp. R. Yüki, Yuishiki-gaku Tenseki-shi. Tokyo 1962, 60).- Another pertinent verse is quoted, without indication of its source, in Trimśikābhāşya (ed. Lévi) 42,5-8. 24 Cp., e.g., Mahāyānasūträlankāra XIV.23ff. and VI.7-8; Dharmadharmatāvibhāga 15,9f.
(+ 49,2f.).