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Epistemology of Jainas
from it? He answers that it is the same. Just so, the sun shows itself with all its colours etc., but he is not in reality different from those characteristics; and it is said that just when the sun rises, its collected heat and yellow colour also rise then, but it does not mean that the sun is different from these. So the citta or consciousness takes the phenomena of contact etc. and cognizes them. So, though it is the same as they are; yet, in a sense it is different from them. Vijñana or consciousness means according to Buddhaghosa, both the stage at which the intellectual process starts and also the final resulting consciousness.
It is generally held that Buddhists are Anātmavādins or deny the existence of soul. But, as a matter of fact, they hold that atman or self is not a real and ultimate fact, it is a mere name for a multitude of interconnected facts, which, in the Buddhist philosophy are recognized as elements (dharmas). Buddhism never denies the existence of a personality, or soul, in the empirical sense, it only maintains that it is not an ultimate reality. It is a stream of inter-connected facts. It includes the mental elements and the physical ones as well, the elements of one's own body and the external objects as far as they constitute the experience of a given personality. The representatives of eighteen classess (dhātu) of elements combine together to produce this interconnected stream. There is a special force, called peripi, which holds these elements combined. It operates only within the limits of a single stream and not beyond. This stream of elements kept together, and not limited to present life, but having its roots in past existences and its continuation in future one-is the Buddhist counterpart of the soul or the self of other systems.
Sautrantika Theory of Cognition
Stcherbatsky1 gives the following account of the theory of cognition as admitted by Sarva stivadin and the Sautrantikas :
1. Central Conception of Buddhism, p. 55
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