Questions on Indian idealism

[birgit kellner]

Thursday, December 21, 2000, 12:16:02 AM, Dmitri wrote:

D> I am interested in various meanings of "aalambana".
D> Monier-Williams gives as one of possible renderings:

D> aalambana 153.2 the natural and necessary connection of a sensation
D> with the cause which excites it (Saahitya-Darpa.na)

D> This meaning is the same as used in Yoga-Suutra (at least, as I understand
D> it).

MW gives a wide variety of meanings, not in a particularly systematic
fashion. I am not familiar with the SD-passage (note that MW adds "(rhetoric)" to
this item, so it might be altogether irrelevant for establishing the
meaning of "Alambana" in epistemological contexts); nor am I familiar
with the passages from YS you refer to. The meaning "... natural and necessary connection" which MW gives for
SD strikes me as strange insofar as I am only aware of "Alambana" as
referring to an object, or a factor, but not to a *relationship*. One
would have to look closer at the passage in question to ascertain
whether MW is correct.

For the AlambanaparIkSA, the relevant context is given with the Abhidharmic distinction between four causal
conditions (pratyaya), i.e. Alambanapratyaya, hetupratyaya,
adhipatipratyaya and samanantarapratyaya. The Alambanapratyaya is the
"causal condition which supports [the effect]", "causal condition on
which [the effect] rests", in the case of perceptual cognition taken
to be its object-support. In his commentary on the AP, VinItadeva
likens the Alambanapratyaya to a walking-stick which supports someone.
This analogy serves to explain how the Alambanapratyaya, while being a
"causal condition", can nevertheless be given simultaneously with its
effect, and need not be temporally prior: The internal image in a
perceptual cognition arises simultaneously with the cognition but
still serves as its support, just like a walking-stick.

If you want to know more about Buddhist abhidharmic discussions about
the role and character of an "Alambana", I would suggest reading Collet Cox' "On the Possibility of a
Nonexistent Object of Consciousness: SarvAstivAdin and DArSTAntika
Theories.", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies 11/1 (1988), 31-87.

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Best regards,

Birgit Kellner
Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies
Vienna University