Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 26

NATURE OF VALID COGNITION
of solids.
But this is an argument of despair. The atoms existing side by side without coincidence or merger are not bereft of their size and hence any number of atoms so associated cannot give rise to a bigger dimension. One will have perforce to admit that solidity is only a false appearance.1 So the solid external objects which we encounter in ordinary experience must be dismissed as unreal figments of a pathological imagination. We are not unaquainted with experience of unreal objects as in dream or error. No body can ascribe to these contents of false experience an objective status independent of the subject. They are subjective appearances pure and simple. But the question necessarily arises 'why should there be so much diversity and multiplicity in the contents if they are all fanciful projections ?' The Buddhists answer that they are the outcome of the predispositions and memory traces deposited in consciousness by previous experiences which were also equally false. As these predispositions (vasană) stem from previous experiences and there is no first initial experience as the individual subjects have a beginningless career, there is no logical incompatibility in their previous existence and coming into existence as perceptual data.
crucial
But the realist as represented by Siddhasena poses a question. What is the nature of dispositions (vāsanās)? Are they unconscious qualities or unconscious entities? If they are unconscious and independent of the knowing subject why should the Buddhists demur to accept the independent external objects, both being unconscious in nature. The Buddhist's postulate is that there is no reality outside and beyond consciousness. It is consciousness alone which masquerades as subject and object. simple, compact and there is no of solid material objects as has been found on examination of the atomic theory. But if the dispositions are nothing but consciousness why are they not felt as such? Consciousness is known by itself (svasamvedana). So the postulation of vasanas unperceived and unperceivable as the causes of diversified appearance of contents has no legs to stand upon.
They are all consciousness pure, justification for the assumption
2
Furthermore the denial of external objects makes nonsense of all our experience and moral and intellectual activities. It makes a holo
1. tasmännärtheṣu na jñāne sthulabhāsas tadātmanaḥ/ ekatrapratisiddhatvad bahuşvapi na sambhavaḥ//
15
Pramaṇavārtika, II. 211.
2. Cittamatram bho jinaputra yaduta traidhätukamiti. Vijnaptimätratasiddhi, p. 1.