English
There is neither externality nor subjectivity in pure intelligence, but these are imposed upon it (vifidna-svariipe parikalpita eva atma dharmaé ca). All erroneous impositions imply that there must be some entity which is mistaken for something else; there cannot be erroneous impositions on mere vacuity; so it has to be admitted that these erroneous impositions of various kinds of external characteristics, self, etc. have been made upon the transformations of pure intelligence®. Both Vasubandhu and Sthiramati repudiate the suggestion of those extreme idealists who 1 para-vijhapti-visesadhipatyat paresam jivitendriya-virodhini kacit vikriya utpadyate yaya sabhaga-santati-vicchedakhyam maranam bhavati. Commentary on Vimsatikda, p. 10. 2 karana-ksana-nirodha-sama-kalah karana-ksana-vilaksana-karyasya atma- . labhah parindmah. Sthiramati’s commentary on Trimstka, p. 16. 3 upacarasya ca niradharasyasambhavad avasyam vijniana-parinamo vastuto sty upagantavyo yatra atma-dharmopacarah pravartate. Ibid. Compare Sankara’s commentary on Gaudapiada’s Karika, ‘“‘na hi niraspada mrgatrsnikadayah.” 22 The Sankara School of Vedanta [cH. deny also the reality of pure intelligence on grounds of inter- dependence or relativity (samurti)!. Vasubandhu holds that pure consciousness (vijfiapti-matrata) is the ultimate reality. This ulti- mate consciousness is a permanent entity, which by its inherent power (sakti) undergoes threefold transformations as the inherent indeterminate inner change (vipaka), which again produces the two other kinds of transformations as the inner psychoses of mental operations (manana) and as the perception of the so-called external sensibles (visaya-vijnapti). The apprehension of all appearances or characterized entities (dharma) as cognized objects and that of selves as cognizers, the duality of perceivers and the perceived, are due to the threefold transformations of vipaka, manana and visaya-vijfapti. The ultimate consciousness (vijfiapti-matra) which suffers all these modifications is called Glaya-vijfana in its modified transformations, because it is the repository of all experiences. The ultimate principle of consciousness is regarded as absolutely permanent in itself and is consequently also of the nature of pure happiness (sukha) ; for what is not eternal is painful, and this, being eternal, is happy?. When a saint’s mind becomes fixed (pratisthita) in this pure consciousness (vijfapti-matra), the tendency to dual thought of the subjective and the objective (grahya-grahakanusaya) ceases and there dawns the pure indeterminate (mir-vikalpa) and transcendent (lokottara) consciousness. It is a state in which the ultimate pure consciousness returns from its transformations and rests in itself. It is divested of all afflictions (A/esa) or touch of vicious tendencies and is therefore called andsrava. It is unthinkable and undemonstrable, because it is, on the one hand, pure self-conscious- ness (pratyatma-vedya) and omniscience (sarvajnata), as it is divested of all limitations (G@varana), and, on the other hand, it is unique in itself. This pure consciousness is called the container of the seed of all (sarva-bija), and, when its first indeterminate and inde- finable transformations rouse the psychosis-transformations and ' Thus Lankavatara, one of the most important works on Buddhistic idealism, denies the real transformation of the pure intelligence or Glaya-vijfana. See Lankdvatara, p. 46, published by the Otani University Press, Kyoto, 1923. * dhruvo nityatvad aksayatayd ; sukho nityatvad eva yad anityam tad duhkham ayam ca nitya 1ti asmat sukhah. Sthiramati’s commentary on Trimsikd, p. 44. * Alaya-vijfiana in this ultimate state of pure consciousness (vijnapti-matrata) is called the cause (dhatu) of all virtues, and, being the ultimate state in which the dharmas or characterized appearances have lost all their limitations it is called the dharma-kaya of the Buddha (maha-munih bhimi-paramitadi-bhava- naya@ Rlesa-jneyavarana-prahanat . . .sarva-dharma-vibhutva-labhatas ca dharma- kaya ity ucyate). Ibid. x1] Thought and its Object in Buddhism and Vedanta 23 also the transformations as sense-perceptions, these mutually act and react against one another, and thus the different series rise again and again and mutually determine one another. These trans- formations are like waves and ripples on the ocean, where each is _ as much the product of others as well as the generator of others!. In this view thought (vifiana) is regarded as a real substance, and its transformations are also regarded as real; and it is these transformations that are manifested as the selves and the charac- terized appearances”. The first type of transformations, called vipaka, is in a way the ground of the other two transformations, which contain the indeterminate materials out of which the mani- festations of the other two transformations appear. But, as has already been pointed out, these three different types of trans- formations again mutually determine one another. The wipaka transformations contain within them the seeds of the constructive instincts (vikalpa-vasana) of the selves as cognizers, the constructive instincts of colours, sounds, etc., the substantive basis (asraya) of the attribution of these twofold constructive instincts, as well as the sense-faculties and the localization of space-determinations (sthana-vijnapti or bhajana-loka-sannivesa-vijnapti). They are also associated in another mode with sense-modifications involving the tgiune of the sense (zmdriya), sense-object (visaya) and cognition (and each of these triunes is again associated with a characteristic affective tone corresponding to the effective tones of the other two members of the triune in a one-to-one relation), attention (manaskara), discrimination (sama), volition (cetana@) and feeling (vedana)*. The vipaka transformations have no determinate or limited forms (aparicchinnalambanakara), and there are here no 1 tac ca varttate srotasaughavat. Ibid. p. 21. 2 avasyam vijnana-parinamo vastuto ’sty upagantavy oyatratmadharmopacarah pravarttate. Ibid. p. 16. 3 Feeling(vedand) is distinguished here as painful, pleasurable and as the basic entity which is neither painful nor pleasurable, which is feeling per se (vedana anubhava-svabhava sa punar visayasya ahladaka-paritapaka-tadubhaya-kara- vivikta-svariipa-saksatkarana-bhedat). This feeling per se must be distinguished again from the non-pleasurable-painful feeling existing along with the two other varieties, the painful and the pleasurable. Here the vipdka transformations are regarded as evolving the basic entity of feeling, and it is therefore undifferentiated in it as pleasure or pain and is hence called “feeling as indifference (upeksda)”’ and undifferentiated (avyakrta). The differentiation of feeling as pleasurable or as painful takes place only as a further determination of the basic entity of feeling evolved in the vipadka transformations of good and bad deeds (subhasubha- karma-vipaka). Good and bad (subhdsubha) are to be distinguished from moral and immoral as potential and actual determinations of virtuous and vicious actions. 24. The Sankara School of Vedanta [cH. actualized emotional states of attachment, antipathy or the like, which are associated with the actual pleasurable or painful feelings. The vipaka transformations thus give us the basic concept of mind and its principal functions with all the potentialities of determinate subject-object consciousness and its processes. There are here the constructive tendencies of selves as perceivers, the objective con- structive tendencies of colours, sounds, etc., the sense-faculties, etc., attention, feeling, discrimination, volition and sense-func- tioning. But none of these have any determinate and actualized forms. The second grade of transformations, called manana, represents the actual evolution of moral and immoral emotions; it is here that the mind is set in motion by the ignorant references to the mental elements as the self, and from this ignorance about the self is engendered self-love (atma-sneha) and egoism (atma- mana). These references are again associated with the fivefold universal categories of sense-functioning, feeling, attention, voli- tion and discrimination. Then comes the third grade of trans- formations, which is associated with the fivéfold universal cate- gories together with the special manifestations of concrete sense- perceptions and the various kinds of intellectual states and moral and immoral mental states, such as desire (chandah) for different kinds of sense-experiences, decisions (adhimoksa) in conclusions firmly established by perceptions, reasoning, etc., memory, attentive reflection (samadhi), wisdom (prajfa), faith and firm will for the good (sraddha), shamefulness (hri) for the bad, etc. The term Glaya-viyfiadna is given to all these three types of transformations, but there is underneath it, as the permanent passive ground, the eternal and unchangeable pure thought (vijfiapti-matrata). It may be pointed out here that in this system of philosophy the eternal and unchangeable thought-substance undergoes by virtue of its inner dynamic three different orders of superficial changes, which are compared to constantly changing streams and waves. The first of these represents the basic change which later determines all subjective and objective possibilities; the second starts the process of the psychosis by the original ignorance and false attribution of self-hood to non-self elements, self-love and egoism; and in the third grade we have all the concrete mental and extra-mental facts.