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Epistemology of Jainas
(4) The illumination or projection of the new object. This stage varies according to the two schools of the Vedanta.
The Buddhist holds a different process:
(1) Contact or contiguity as the case may be.
(2) Inarticulate cognition of the particular object-instants
(artha-kṣaṇa).
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(3) Mental creation of the name, class etc.
In the Abhidharma philosophy the sense cognition is known as Pañcadvara vIthi. It is explained through the simile of a man sleeping under a mango-tree.
A man is lying under a mango-tree lost in deep sleep. A fruit drops down and rolls by his side. He is suddenly woke up and tries to find out what has disturbed him. He sees the mango fruit nearby; picks it up and smells and examines. Hav. ing been ascertained that it is quite ripe and good, he eats it. In this process:
(1) The deep sleep is compared to the passive state of mind, when it is having its own course, undisturbed by any kind of impression, either objective or ideational. This state of mind is called Bhavanga.
(2) Getting up and trying to find out what has disturbed him, is like that lazy state of mind when the subject feebly strives to make out whether the stimulus came through the eye, or the ear, or the nose, or the tongue or the skin (touch). This is called Pañcadväravajjana or turning to impressions at the five doors of senses.
(3) 'Seeing the mango fruit' is like the arising of the particular sensation, either of the eye or any other four doors of senses. It is sensation, pure and simple, free from any reflection over it. This state is known as 'Viññāna' or consciousness.
(4) The picking up the mango fruit' is like the mind receiving the stimulus as an independent object existing outside in the world of reality. This is called 'sampaticchana' or the recei. pient consciousness.
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