Lamotte And Concept Of Anupalabdhi

Author(s): Ernst Steinkellner
Publisher: Ernst Steinkellner

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LAMOTTE AND THE CONCEPT OF ANUPALABDHI 401
also be assumed of the inclusion of the concept of a resulting veritable "cognition of non-existence" by the term anupalabdhi before Dharmakīrti is more doubtful. But only on such an assumption would we be able to say that nopalabhyate means not only “is not known" but also implies the meaning "does not exist".
At this point we may consider the possibility that, notwithstanding the fact that no elaborate theory of non-perception was propounded before Dharmakīrti, another Buddhist tradition different from the epistemological school may have developed a different theory or may have used the term anupalabdhi etc. differently. As far as I can see we can exclude this possibility.
This can be supported, e.g., by textual instances from the Yogācāra tradition, which can also contribute to further clarification of the semantic history of the term.17
arthānupalambha, the non-perception of something, in the DhDhVV18 48,22 would imply non-existence of something (artha), because in the following sentence this non-existence (arthābhāva) is used as the condition for the non-perception of vijñaptimātra, which again implies its non-existence. But the fact that after the statement of an arthānupalambha an arthābhāva is said to be relied upon, does not mean that arthānupalambha means arthābhāva. It only means that the latter follows from the former, that it is implied by it. Here – and this may be the case in the canonical instances too - the implication is not expressed, nor are the conditions of the arthānupalambha expressed with which the arthābhāva necessarily follows.
Another, more elaborate expression of the way how the notion of non-existence is related to that of non-perception can be found in the Kāśyapaparivarta 102:19 "Mind, Kāśyapa, when being searched for, is not found (na labhyate). What is not found, that is not perceived
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I am obliged to L. Schmithausen for this reference (letter of January 17, 1989). The Dharmadharmatāvibhanga and the Dharmadharmatāvibhanga-Vrtti. Ed. Jõsho Nozawa, in: Studies in Indology and Buddhology. Presented in Honour of Professor Susumu Yamaguchi on the Occasion of his Sidieth Birthday, Kyoto 1955, 9-49. Cf. also Madhyāntavibhāgabhāsya (ed. G. Nagao, Tokyo 1964) 20,3f. on 1.6. Ed. von Staël-Holstein, Shanghai 1926, 149 and quoted in the Siksāsamuccaya (ed. C. Bendall, St.-Pétersbourg 1902) 234, 15-18. Cf. F. Weller, Zum Kāsyapaparivarta, Heft 2, Berlin 1965, 121f.
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