________________
240
Roger Jackson
mental qualities, including knowledge itself--and this is precisely what contemporary Tibetan scholars do.
A final argument which, although neither original por unique to DharmakIrti, can be extracted from Pramānavārttika, is that omniscience is possible simply because of the nature of the mind. It is said to be defined by clarity and the apprehension of objects.86 Its clarity means that it is intrinsically free from the defilements that obstruct it. If its nature also is the apprehension of objects, it is not difficult to see how one could conclude-as do most Mahāyānists-that when all possible defilements and obstacles are removed, the mind's natural clarity shines forthfully : it is omniscient. DharmakIrti, of course, explicitly declares the mind's natural freedom only from those impurities that are known as kleśāvarana. If there do exist subtle obstacles to full knowledge, too, Iñeyāvarana, then they too are adventitious, and with their removal the mind will be omniscient.
In short, then, it is the common assumption of the Tibetan tradition of the Pramānavārttika interpretation that Dharmakirti. whatever he may have said of the uselessness of knowing the number of insects in the world or seeing great distances. was in fact a believer in omniscience, and in his "pramānasiddhi" chapter set out to prove omniscience, both of a limited and universal type.
V. Concluding Remarks:
Whatever subsequent commentators may have extracted from his writings in the way of proofs omniscience, it still remains the case that neither Dharmakirti nor his "approved" commentator, Devendrabuddhi, give any indication that the Pramānavärttika and Dharmakirti's other logical works take a stand on the possibility of omniscience any stronger than agnosticism. Indeed, DharmakIrti's dismissal of the religious value of extrasensory perception and insistence that the criterion of the Buddha's authoritativeness is his knowledge-in effect--of the four noble truths see most reasonably explicable as a conscious attempt to rest content with religious assertions that are both pragmatic and prudent.
Following in the empirical, anti-speculative spirit of the Buddha of the nikāyas, DharmakIrti insists that the most important quality of any teacher is his knowledge of and ability to communicate practical spiritual truths; the Buddha, because of his understanding and espousal of the four noble truths, is the greatest possible such teacher, for only he has truly understood the key to saṁsāra and nirvana : satkayadrsti, the view that there is a self in perishable composites; and its antidote, prajña, the wisdom that realizes that there is no such self.
DharmakIrti's prudence seems reasonable in the face of arguments against omniscience-adduced by the likes of Kumārila, rGyal tshab summarizes these arguments as follows:
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
