The paper follows the story of a Buddhist hermeneutical principle stressing the primacy of higher cognition (jñāna) over ordinary consciousness (vijñāna) in determining the truth. The principle was first enunciated in the Catuḣpratisaraṅasūtra, a famous stanza which sets forth flexible criteria for the interpretation of the Buddhist teachings. After a discussion of the Catuḣpratisaraṅasūtra verse, I briefly look into how jñāna was understood in the Pali Canon and Abhidharma literature. I also point out the existence of passages in early Buddhist sources and scholastic treatises revealing that at least some communities regarded contemplatives, presumably having access to the higher cognition, as trustworthy interpreters of abstruse meditative states. The Yogācāra tradition opened a new page in the understanding of the vijñāna-jñāna relation by connecting it to the triadic model of wisdom, i.e. wisdom derived from listening (㸼rutamayī prajñā), from reflection (cintāmayī prajñā), and from meditative cultivation (bhāvanāmayī prajñā). I translate and analyse passages from the Bodhisattvabhūmi and Saṁdhinirmocanasūtra as well as the Akṡayamatinirde㸼asūtra and Abhidharmakosabhāṡ ya. The new developments in the Yogācāra tradition allowed the principle of jñāna-over-vijñāna primacy to become welded into the yogic path. In a third stage, the principle influenced the logico-epistemological discussions of yogic perception ( yogipratyakṡ a) and yogic cognition ( yogijñāna). To understand this, I translate and examine relevant passages from the works of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. Drawing upon the Yogācārin model, Dharmakīrti explains that the contemplative must first grasp the objects through cognition born of listening, ascertain them through reflection based on reasoning ( yukti), and finally cognise them through meditative cultivation. This leads to valid perception ( pramāṅaṁ pratyakṡ am). The paper also tackles the formation of the Catuḣpratisaraṅasūtra. According to my hypothetical scenario, the text was compiled in Northern India, around the 1st century CE, in Sautrāntika/(pre-Vijñānavāda) yogācārin circles and later gained popularity in both Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna. Finally, I briefly discuss the order and wording differences of the verse in various sources, focusing on the Mahāvyutpatti version.
目次
Once upon a Post-Canonical Time 221 Early Buddhism and Abhidharma 218 Early Mahāyāna and Yogācāra Literature 212 Buddhist Logic and Epistemology 204
