________________ 1 Theory of Cognition 79 unique and momentary. A perception involves the participation of at least three things, viz., an object, an organ of sense and a consciousness. It is said in the sutras that a visual perception arises, conditioned by an organ of vision and its object--a rupa. Since all these are momentary, it is difficult to establish a relation between them. Causality demands a temporal sequence. A cause must precede the effect. The object according to the Buddhist is a cause (alambanapratyaya) of its knowledge. Being a cause it must be antecedent to its cognition. The two cannot arise simultaneously and yet stand as cause and effect. But being momentary the object ceases befor its cognition can be produced. A perception of a momentary object is therefore an impossibility. This is well summed up in the following objection raised by the Darshtantika: "The organs and the objects of the five sense-consciousness, being causes of the latter, belong to a past moment. When the object (rapa) and the eye exist, the visual consciousness is non-existing. When the visual consciousness exists, the eye and the object (rupa) are not existing. In the absence of their duration in the moment of the (visual) consciousness there is no possibility of the cognition of the object". "Therefore," concludes the Darshtantika, "all (sense) perceptions are indirect". The object must precede and endure if it is to be available to its cognition, But this goes against the doctrine of momentariness. The Theravadin gets rid of this difficulty by partially abandoning the theory of momentariness. According to him a 'mind moment' (chittakkhana) consists of three ultimate moments, viz., the moments of origin, duration, and death.8 The whole process of cognition (chitta-vithi) takes seventeen such chittakkhanas. The number seventeen would appear arbitrary, but according to the Theravadin it corresponds to the life of a 1 See The Buddhist Doctrine of Universal Flux, pp. 76 ff. 2 Ado. pp. 47-8. 3 uppada-t!hiti-bhanga-vasena khana-ttayan eka-chitta-kkhanam nama. A. Sangaho, IV, 8.
