Alamban Pariksha

Author(s): Dinnaga, Dharmapala, N Aiyaswami Shastri
Publisher: Adyar Library

Page 65

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE ALAMBANAPARĪKṢĀ
WITH COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM VINITADEVA'S COMMENTARY
A TREATISE ON THE EXAMINATION OF THE OBJECT-[-CAUSE]
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
ADORATION TO ALL BUDDHAS AND BODHISATTVAS!
THOSE who accept that there exists an external thing which serves as the object-cause (alambana) of the consciousness of the eye, etc. imagine either atoms to be [the ultimate object]; because they serve as causes of the consciousness; or aggregates of atoms; because the consciousness arises representing the image of the aggregates. Now [says the author:]
1. Though atoms serve as causes of the consciousness (vijñapti) of the sense-organs, they are not its actual objects like the sense-organs; because the consciousness does not represent the image of the atoms.