________________
238
Roger Jackson
omniscience by showing “The reason for seeking an omniscient one, the way of seeking him, and the identification of the omniscient one."47 Still, in actually commenting on Dharmakirti's verses. rGyal tshab could as well be talking about an authority as about an omniscient one, because his interpretation is quite in line with the apparent intention of Dharmakirti : to ridicule the spiritual relevance of such cognitions as that which knows the number of insects in the world or that which sees great distances; and to affirm the spiritual relevance of a knowledge of what is to be attained and what avoided. However, rGyal tshab believes that verses 1.31-35 are a general demonstration of the Buddha's universal omniscience, for (a) they demonstrate that the Buddha is authoritative about what is to be attained and what avoided by those who strive for freedom; (b) what is to be attained and what avoided by these who strive for freedom is nirvāna and samsāra, (c) everything in the universe can be subsumed under nisvāna and saṁsāra, so (d) one who is authoritative regarding what is to be attained and avoided by those who strive for freedom is authoritative regarding everything in the universe. There is, of course, no indication either in Dharmakirti's root verses or Devendrabuddhi's commentary that the heyopādeya on which the Buddha is authoritative covers everything in the universe, but, as Prajñākaragupta has pointed at, neither is it ruled out, either
There is another verse in the Pramānavārttika that Gyal tshab takes as a basis for proving omniscience : that which introduces the proof of the truth of cessation (nirodhusatya), and which states simply : "(Suffering) is not eternal, because it is possible to stop its cause. "48 rGyal tshab glosses this as follows: "The aggregates of an ordinary being are not an eternal continuum unsuitable for cessation, because (the aggregates') own cause can cease through the stopping power of its contrary condition and through the incompletion of the conditions appropriate (for the aggregates' arising)."49rGyal tshab then devotes four pages to showing that implicit in this verse are proofs of both liberation and omniscience. The proof of liberation basically involves showing that the wisdom that cognizes selfless is the antidote and contrary condition to samsaric suffering, because it opposes the demonstrated cause of that suffering : craving for the self and what pertains to the self, based on the wrong view that there exists a permanent indepen. dent self of persons.50 “Omniscience" is proved as follows:
(The reason, that which is a powerful destroyer, pervades ( the predicate, ) the type (of entity that exists ) in simultaneous combination with the (gradual) eradication of all destructibles of (the appropriate ) type, just as we see that a powerful fire exists in simultaneous combination with the gradual ) eradication of all kinds of destructible cold to which it is proximate the mind that realizes the reality of the four truths, ( in such as selflessness, etc.. is powerfully damaging. It is proven by reason of this statement that the mind that understands the reality of the four truths exists in simultaneous combination with the destruction of infinite damageable (mental) stains
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
