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succession the stream of cognition ensues only after there has been a contact of the sense-organ with the object to be grasped, a stream whose initial sector is a most indistinct, relatively indistinct cognition of the form of vyañjanavagraha, the second sector a cognition of the form of arthavagraha and the ultimate sector a cognition of the form of dharaṇā in its capacity as memory.
TATTVARTHA SUTRA
Illustrations
The stream of cognition pertaining to the slow order of succession-a stream whose emergence requires sense-object contact can be clearly understood with the help of the illustration of an earthen bowl. Thus the extremely dry earthen bowl that has just been taken out of a kiln absorbs the single drop of water inserted inside it-so much so that no trace whatsoever is left of this drop. In a like manner this bowl absorbs numerous other drops that have been subsequently inserted inside it one by one. However, in the end there comes a time when the bowl is incapable of absorbing the drops inserted inside it and becomes wet with those drops which are now there to be seen in the form of an accumulated mass.
When the wetness of the bowl became apparent for the first time, even earlier than that there was water in the bowl but it had been so much absorbed by the bowl that it had disappeared altogether and so was invisible; nevertheless, the water was certainly there in the bowl all the while. Only when there was an increase in the quantity of water and a decrease in the bowl's capacity to absorb water did the wetness become visible; then it so happened that the water that had not been absorbed within the body of the bowl began to accumulate at its bottom and became visible. In a like manner, when a sleeping person is addressed the words uttered seem to disappear in his ears. But when as a result of his being addressed twice or thrice his ears become full enough with the words of the form of material particles then like the earthen bowl first becoming wet with the drops of water these ears full with words become
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