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Buddhist Philosophy
[CH. conceiving takes place. This is the stage where the specific distinctive knowledge as the yellow or the red takes place.
Mrs Rhys Davids writing on saññā says: “In editing the second book of the Abhidhamma pitaka I found a classification distinguishing between saññā as cognitive assimilation on occasion of sense, and saññā as cognitive assimilation of ideas by way of naming. The former is called perception of resistance, or opposition (patigha-saññā). This, writes Buddhaghosa, is perception on occasion of sight, hearing, etc., when consciousness is aware of the impact of impressions; of external things as different, we might say. The latter is called perception of the equivalent word or name (adhivachānā-saññā) and is exercised by the sensus communis (mano), when e.g. 'one is seated...and asks another who is thoughtful: "What are you thinking of?” one perceives through his speech. Thus there are two stages of saññā-consciousness, 1. contemplating sense-impressions, 2. ability to know what they are by naming?"
About sankhāra we read in Samyutta Nikāya (III. 87) that it is called sankhāra because it synthesises (abhisankharonti), it is that which conglomerated rūpa as rūpa, conglomerated saññā as saññā, sankhāra as sankhāra and consciousness (viññāna) as consciousness. It is called sankhāra because it synthesises the conglomerated (sarkhatam abhisankharonti). It is thus a synthetic function which synthesises the passive rūpa, saññā, sankhāra and viññāna elements. The fact that we hear of 52 sankhāra states and also that the sankhāra exercises its synthetic activity on the conglomerated elements in it, goes to show that probably the word sankhāra is used in two senses, as mental states and as synthetic activity.
Viññāna or consciousness meant according to Buddhaghosa, as we have already seen in the previous section, both the stage at which the intellectual process started and also the final resulting consciousness.
Buddhaghoṣa in explainingthe process of Buddhist psychology says that “consciousness (citta) first comes into touch (phassa) with its object (ārammaņa) and thereafter feeling, conception (saññā) and volition (cetană) come in. This contact is like the pillars of a palace, and the rest are but the superstructure built upon it (dabbasambhārasadisā). But it should not be thought that contact
1 Buddhist Psychology, pp. 49, 50.
