Jñanasrimitra

Jñānaśrīmitra (fl. 975-1025 C.E.) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher of the epistemological (pramana) tradition of Buddhist philosophy, which goes back to Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. Jñānaśrīmitra was also known as a Yogācāra Buddhist who defended a form of Buddhist idealism termed Sākāravada which holds that cognitive content or aspects of consciousness ("ākāras") are real and not illusory.^[1][2]

Panorama of the site of Vikramaśīla university, modern day Bhagalpur district, Bihar.

Jñānaśrīmitra was also a skilled poet, a dvāra-paṇḍita (gate-scholar) of Vikramaśīla university, and the teacher of Ratnakīrti. Jñānaśrīmitra was well known by Hindu and Jain thinkers and was one the most significant Buddhist figure of his era.^[3]

Philosophy

Epistemology

Jñanasrimitra's philosophical work focused on Buddhist logic and epistemology (pramāṇa), especially the theory of "exclusion" (apoha) outlined by Dignaga (c. 480 – c. 540 CE) and how it relates to the philosophy of language, meaning and the nature of conceptual thoughts and awareness. The basic theory behind apoha is that meaning comes from what something is not. For example, "cow" gets its meaning by excluding every non-cow. This was the basic theory of language used by Buddhist pramāṇa philosophers. In his Apohaprakaraṇa ("Monograph on Exclusion"), Jñanasrimitra elaborates on the theory of apoha and its relation to epistemology. He also defends the theory from Hindu critics, who posited competing theories of meaning.^[4]

Jñanasrimitra's Vyāpticarcā (Analysis of Pervasion) focuses on inferential relations which in Indian thought is termed vyapti (pervasion). This refers to the epistemic relations between two distinct entities such as smoke and fire. According to Horst Lasic, Jñanasrimitra's position on this topic is that "inference-warranting relations between two distinct entities must be effect-cause relations, and that the presence of such relations can be detected only through a specific sequence of perception and non-apprehension."^[5]

Sākāravada

Jñanasrimitra was a defender of Yogācāra idealism, affirming that "this entire triple-world is established to be nothing but consciousness (vijñaptimātra)."^[6]

Jñānaśrīmitra was a major defender of the Sākāra ("with images") school of Yogācāra Buddhism against Ratnākaraśānti, the principal defender of the rival Nirākāra school.^[1] This doctrine holds that all awareness events arise together with an "ākāra" (appearance, image, phenomenal form).^[2] Jñānaśrīmitra's Sākārasiddhiśāstra is his main defense of Sākāravada while his Advaitabinduprakaraṇa is his main defense of idealism (vijñaptimātratā).^[2]

For Jñānaśrīmitra, the manifestation of consciousness (i.e. prakāśa, the radiance, lucidity or shining forth of awareness) is the ultimate existence. Since consciousness is ultimate, appearances which manifest from consciousness are also real, not illusory.^[2]

Jñānaśrīmitra's Sākārasiddhi argues that the idea that something which is non-existent could manifest from that which is real (i.e. consciousness) is incoherent. This idea he terms asatkhyāti, "the manifestation of the nonexistent". Thus, for Jñānaśrīmitra, if consciousness is real (as all yogacarins agree), then the images which manifest or radiate from it must also be real.^[2] Nirakaravadins like Ratnākaraśānti say that false imagination (vikalpa) can make an unreal object manifest to awareness. Jñānaśrīmitra’s seeks to deny this and prove that if anything manifests to consciousness, it must exist (and further, to prove that what does not manifest, does not exist).^[2]

Ratnākaraśānti argues in his texts that an appearance can, upon analysis, be shown to be unreal, because it can be shown to be illusory by a later cognition that defeats it.^[2] Jñānaśrīmitra's main problem with this view is that if reality is not determined by what manifests to consciousness, how can you have any confidence in any subsequent defeater cognition?^[2] Jñānaśrīmitra argues that this view is epistemically self-defeating, since the defeater cognition is just another manifestation to consciousness which is as unreal as the cognition being defeated. This means that the defender of the view that appearances are unreal cannot have a robust epistemology without any cognition to ground himself on.^[2]

Manifestation and determination

One critique of Jñānaśrīmitra'S Sākāravada view is that if our conventional appearances are true and not in error, we would always already know the ultimate truth and there would be no need for a spiritual path or epistemology.^[2] Furthermore, things appear to be external, but they are agreed by all yogacarins to be mind-only. According to Davey K. Tomlinson, Jñānaśrīmitra's response is to propose "a complex system that sharply divides what is manifest from what is constructed through determination (adhyavasāya) by processes of exclusion (apoha). What is determined, and so what is not manifest, does not ultimately exist—and it’s that that constitutes conventional existence."^[2]

For Jñānaśrīmitra, error and confusion develop out of determination (adhyavasāya) which works through using exclusion (apoha). Thus, the conventional truth (which is illusory) is not what is manifest, but what is determined and imagined by the mind. Regarding external objects, Jñānaśrīmitra says that what it means for them to seem to be “external” is that they are objects of certain kinds of verbal and mental activity (pravṛtti).^[2]

Jñānaśrīmitra's Sākārasiddhi says:

This is how it really works: Right as it is arising with some appearance (ākāra), conceptual construction (vikalpa)—propelled by diverse, beginningless habituations and relying upon a particular causal condition that awakens it—lays down the continuity of a recollection of the accomplishment of an aim (arthakriyā) (a desire and so on), which is conducive to externally directed activity (bahirmukhapravṛttyanukūla). Then, on the part of a person who has some desire for the accomplishment of an aim, there is activity, avoidance, or doing nothing in conformity with the external object.^[2]

Jñānaśrīmitra argues that every moment of awareness arises with an appearance or image (ākāra). Conceptual awareness events also contain attachment and desire, which propels an activity which is directed away from the experience of the image itself. When we experience a cake, we are experiencing a specific variegated appearance. This appearance is such that it can support the conceptual construction of a "cake" (through attachment to pleasure, memory, and karmic habits) in our minds. This leads to an activity, such as attempting to consume the cake.^[2] While the variegated image is true, the conceptual construction of "cake" is an erroneous determination which is bound to the image. This complex erroneous object never manifests to consciousness, only the image does.^[2]

The main difference between determination and manifestation is that determination is focused on differentiation (pariccheda), especially the subject - object distinction (grāhyagrāhakabhāva). This difference, furthermore, is never manifest, because for anything to be manifest is for it to be immediately present to reflexive-awareness (svasamvitti), and a moment of awareness cannot be aware of something differentiated since it is a unitary undifferentiated self-awareness.^[2] This also means each awareness is “locked away” and self contained, without direct access to other awareness events (diachronically or synchronically). Any idea of a sequence of awareness events in time and space, any idea of a ‘person’, is a conceptual construct and so it is only relatively true.^[2] Also, any idea of causality is also just a conventional conceptual truth that does not exist ultimately. This also means all reasoning and epistemology are also conventional, and they cannot disprove the sheer manifestation of awareness itself, which is clearly present, and phenomenally obvious. It is thus an ultimate existent which is irrefutable by proofs or reasons, which rely on determination.^[2]

The variegated image

In his Sākārasiddhiśāstra, Jñānaśrīmitra sees to explain a difficult issue, mainly how a variegated mental image (citravijñāne), like a multi colored butterfly wing, can possibly be experienced. The problem here is that this variegated experience does not seem unitary, but if it is manifold, this seems to refute the idea that an awareness event is an undifferentiated non-dual consciousness. This is the "one or many" argument which is used by various Buddhist philosophers to show that something cannot be real because it cannot be either a single thing nor many things.^[2]

Jñānaśrīmitra argues that this binary opposition (unity and manifoldness) is a type of determination, a conceptual distinction which does not manifest to non-dual awareness. Variegated images are therefore neither unitary nor manifold, they are merely an image in which various elements appear fused together, but they are not themselves distinct elements in opposition to each other (as the opponent claims). This is because differentiation itself is never manifest to any single awareness event. To separate out the various elements of one variegated image is just a relative and conceptual move. The key point for Jñānaśrīmitra is that what makes something metaphysically real is that it manifests to awareness, not whether it can be understood as one thing or as manifold.^[2]

Buddha-nature and Buddhahood

According to Jñanasrimitra, emptiness is an actual reality, the buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha), which is free from all superimposition and denial.^[7] This buddha-nature is described as lucidity (prakāśa) and the real aspects (ākāras) are appearances or manifestations of this ultimately real lucidity.^[7] These "appearances of lucidity" (prakāśarūpa) are also real and free from superimposition and denial, but sentient beings misunderstand their true nature as lucidity.^[7] In this sense, awareness is empty of determination and conceptualization (vikalpa), but not of its own nature as luminosity.^[2]

Furthermore, the ultimately real and non-dual consciousness - manifestation is the field of a Buddha’s awareness (buddhagocara), it is the non-duality that a Buddha knows and which is always present.^[2] This is the citrādvaita (variegated non-duality) which is marvelous (āścarya). This non-dual Buddhahood is not just an imageless consciousness, but it contains immeasurable marvelous qualities. Jñanasrimitra describes it as “variegated by the splendor of the major and minor marks”, and “the storehouse of excellent qualities, devoid of the mass of impure appearances that are connected to habituations to the unreal— but it is not at all without appearances.” These manifestations are the real compassionate manifestations of a Buddha, the sambhoghakayas.^[2]

Works

• Advaitabindu (Drop of Non-dualism)
• Abhisamayahrdaya
• Anekacintamani
• Anupalabdhirahasya
• Apohaprakarana (Monograph on Apoha)
• Bhedabhedapariksa
• Sākārasiddhiśāstra (A Treatise Proving That Awareness Contains an Image)
• Sarvaśabdābhāvacarcā
• Isvaradusana (Disproving God)
• Karyakaranabhavasiddhi
• Ksanabhangadhyaya (On momentariness)
• (Adhyardha)Prajnaparamita(naya)satapancasatika
• Sakarasamgrahasutra
• Sarvajnasiddhi
• Sarvasabdabhavacarca
• Vyapticarca
• Vrttamâlâstuti
• Yoginirnaya(prakarana)

Notes

1. McCrea; Patil, 2010, p. 3.
2. Tomlinson, D.K. The Marvel of Consciousness: Existence and Manifestation in Jñānaśrīmitra’s Sākārasiddhiśāstra. J Indian Philos 50, 163–199 (2022). doi:10.1007/s10781-021-09501-1
3. McCrea; Patil, 2010, p. 2.
4. McCrea; Patil, 2010, p. 20.
5. Horst Lasic, Review of: Parimal G. Patil; Jñānaśrīmitra's Vyāpticarcā: Sanskrittext, Übersetzung, Analyse
6. McCrea; Patil, 2010, p. 21.
7. Brunnholzl, Karl (2014). When the Clouds Part, The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra, pp. 905-906. Boston & London: Snow Lion.

References

• Lawrence J. McCrea, and Parimal G. Patil. Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India: Jnanasrimitra on Exclusion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 216 pp.
• Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana; A History of Indian Logic: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Schools
• Michael Hann (Editor), Mahesh Deokar (Editor); Vrttamalastuti of Jnanasrimitra with Sakyaraksita's Vrttamala(Stuti)Vivrti (Studia Indo Buddhica) Hardcover
• Kellner, Jnanasrimitra's Anupalabdhirahasya and Sarvasabdabhavacarca, A critical Edition with A Survey of His Anupalabdhi-Theory; ISBN (Paperback): 3902501065, 9783902501066
• Hahn, M. 1971. Jñānaśrīmitra’s Vrttamâlâstuti. Ein Beispielsammlung zur altindischen Metrik. Nach dem tibetischen Tanjur zusammen mit der mongolischen Version herausgegeben, übersetzt und erläutert. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Kellner, B. 2007. Jñānaśrīmitra’s Anupalabdhirahasya and Sarvaśabdābhāvacarcā: A Critical Edition with a Survey of His Anupalabdhi-Theory. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde no. 67. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien.

External links