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Samadhitantram
of either dravya or guṇa independent of each other.
Qualities (guna) remain permanently in the substance (dravya) while modes (paryaya) change.
General (sāmānya) and specific (viseṣa) qualities (guna): All objects have two kinds of qualities (guna) - the general (sāmānya), and the specific (viseṣa). The general qualities express the genus (jāti) or the general attributes, and the specific qualities describe the constantly changing conditions or modes. Consciousness (cetană) is a specific (viseṣa) attribute of the soul when viewed in reference to nonsouls but a general (sāmānya) attribute when viewed in reference to other souls. In a hundred pitchers, the general quality is their jar-ness, and the specific quality is their individual size, shape or mark. Thousands of trees in a forest have tree-ness (vrkṣatva) as the general (sāmānya) attribute but each tree has specific (viseṣa) attributes, distinguishing these as neem tree, oak tree or palm tree.
Acārya Samantabhadra's Svayambhustotra:
यथैकशः कारकमर्थसिद्धये समीक्ष्य शेषं स्वसहायकारकम् ।
तथैव सामान्यविशेषमातृका नयास्तवेष्टा गुणमुख्यकल्पतः ॥ ( १३-२-६२)
Just as the two mutually supportive causes, the substantial cause (upādāna karana) and the instrumental cause (nimitta kāraṇa), result in the accomplishment of the desired objective, in the same way, your doctrine that postulates two kinds of attributes in a substance, general (samanya) and specific (viseṣa), and ascertains its particular characteristic (naya) depending on what is kept as the primary consideration for the moment while keeping the other attributes in the background, not negating their existence in any way, accomplishes the desired objective.
When our expression makes the general (samanya) aspect as its subject, the specific (viseṣa) aspect becomes secondary and when the expression makes the specific aspect as its subject, the general aspect becomes secondary; this is achieved by using the word 'syāť' in
(XXVI)
