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UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Pratyaksa and Dharmakirti's Soteriology by Christina Roberta Yanko A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES CALGARY, ALBERTA July, 2008 © Christina Roberta Yanko Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44233-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44233-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled, "Pratyaksa and Dharmakirti's Soteriology" submitted by Christina Roberta Yanko in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. Supervisor, Leslie Kawamura, Department of Religious Studies Christopher Framarin, Department of Religious Studies Michael Hawley, Department of Religious Studies, Mount Royal College Date ii ABSTRACT The development of a system of logic by Dharmaklrti (and Dignaga before him) is often considered by modern scholarship to signify a division between logic and religiosity. This logical system, often referred to as the pramana, attempted to rationalize the process of how we gain knowledge through direct perception (pratyaksa) and inference (anumana). Presumably, by understanding how one gains knowledge through a cognitive process, one can ultimately learn how to acquire correct knowledge. While Dharmaklrti's logical system is certainly rational, this does not necessitate its separation from Buddhist religiosity. Upon close scrutiny, one notices that his logic actually works in harmony with Buddhist soteriology, and in fact it serves to make the Buddhist practitioner's mind more receptive to the dharma. In particular, Dharmaklrti's tenet of pratyaksa offers a clear and concise explanation as to how one perceives the world in terms of the particular defining characteristics rather than universals. This leads to the recognition of the momentariness of perceived objects, and ultimately to an absolute awareness of reality. This thesis attempts to show that Dharmaklrti's system of logic, being a "Buddhist" logic, is essentially a system of soteriology by which the practitioner can achieve enlightenment or liberation. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Leslie Kawamura. Without his guidance, breadth of knowledge and attention to detail, this thesis would simply not exist. Further, Dr. Kawamura opened the door for me to experience many new and exciting things that might have once been an impossibility, and for this reason, amongst many others, I am eternally grateful. I am also indebted to Dr. Chris Framarin, who exercised the utmost patience and tenacity while helping me work through my translation, and teaching me Sanskrit in general. I hope that one day I will be fortunate enough to develop his level of kindness. A special thanks goes to Dr. Michael Hawley, the external examiner on my thesis committee, for the careful time and attention put towards reading my thesis and preparing for my examination. Were it not for the continued support from Dr. Anne Moore, it is difficult to imagine myself actually completing my studies. Her constant encouragement (sometimes by force) to keep working to achieve my goals enabled me to overcome some pretty immense obstacles. Many thanks also go to the following: Dr. Parimal Patil for receiving me at Harvard University and presenting me with some very effective tools with which to write this thesis; the Department of Religious Studies and in particular Dr. Virginia Tumasz for helping to find ways for me to make this process financially possible; Yumi Onozawa for the many wonderful and inspirational conversations; Jordan Otrhalek for the morning coffee work sessions that helped get me rolling; Chien Hsu for always trying to clarify my confusion; Sarah Gallant for always smiling at me, no matter what; Cori Bender for keeping me iv together while I was writing, and actually listening to me read my thesis out loud; Willow Keeling for always keeping her door open; Jackie Ho, who taught me so much about how I want to be; Bill and Kinara Labrenz for opening up their home to me and always being a wall of support; and my family for their love and understanding. Finally I want to also mention Mark Segawa, who tirelessly dedicated hours listening to me work out my argument, encouraging me to study, and reminding me that I am actually good enough. It was certainly a struggle, but regardless he answered every single phone call and read every single chunk of illegible writing that I sent his way. Thank you so very much. v DEDICATION For my two beautiful nieces Tobyn and Sophie. I love you both very much. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Dedication vi Table of Contents vii Introduction: 1. Outline and Thesis Statement 1 2. The Issue at Hand 4 3. Chapter Organization 6 Chapter 1 : Dharmaklrti 1.1 Biography 10 1.2 Dharmakirti's Works 12 Chapter 2 : Historical Foundation of the Pramana Tradition 2.1 Samdhinirmocana Sutra 17 2.2 Mahayanasutralankara and Bodhisattvabhumi 20 2.3 Dignaga 23 2.4 Dharmaklrti 25 Chapter 3 : Valid Cognition 3.1 Two Kinds 27 3.2 What Direct Perception is not 29 3.3 Nyaya-VaiSesika 33 vii Chapter 4 : Direct Perception in the Nyaya-bindu 4.1 Four Kinds of Direct Perception 36 4.2 Sense Perception and Causal Efficiency 41 4.3 Mental Cognition 45 4.4 Self-Awareness of the Mind and Mental States 47 4.5 Yogic Perception 49 4.6 Progressive Structure 50 Chapter 5 : Phenomenology 5.1 The Conventional and the Ultimate 53 5.2 What is Being Cognized? 58 Conclusion 61 Bibliography 65 viii 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Outline and Thesis Statement When discussing the soteriological1 value of epistemological literature, certain common quandaries come to mind such as the understanding that religions are faith based, and thus reason and rationality are not applicable. These paradigmatic notions tend to separate epistemology and soteriology into two opposing categories, namely logic and religion. In its most reduced form, logic is "the science of reasoning," whereas religion is said to be concerned with "the belief in and worship of a God or gods."4 While on the one hand logic is considered "scientific" and has to do with "reason,"5 on the other hand religion has to do with "belief6 and "worship"7 of a deity in some form. Epistemology and soteriology divided as such become effectively "trapped" within the very limited boundaries that our language and definitions created. The epistemological literature of the pramana philosophers often suffers a similar fate. Their work is considered to be external to the Buddhist tradition, insofar as the pramana literature is believed to fulfill a completely separate purpose, distinct from 1 Within the context of this thesis I will be understanding "soteriology" strictly from a Buddhist perspective, and thus as literature helping a practitioner achieve nirvana. 2 Recognizing the many different discussions, debates and definitions of both terms "logic" and "religion," the definitions here are taken from the Oxford English Dictionary in order to expound on the most commonly held understandings of these two terms. 3 Catherine Soanes, eds., Oxford English Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) 492. 4 Ibid., 705. 5 "The power to think, understand and draw conclusions logically" (understood as "correctly") Ibid., 695. 6 "A feeling that (something) exists or is true, especially one without proof." Ibid., 70. Thus it is necessarily lacking in empirical truth. 7 "admiration and devotion," Ibid., 979. 2 liturgical scripture, with no Buddhistic benefit. When discussion on religious significance becomes a matter of importance within the pramana literature, one can almost sense a sort of defiance in scholarly material. It is as though this method of reading the text would somehow remove all levels of rationality and reason. However, to the best of my knowledge, there does not seem to be a rule that states no form of rationality may present itself within a religious context, nor one that suggests that religion may not have the right to "transcend" itself into the realm of rationality.