[Buddha-l] Sabba Sutta

Dan Lusthaus vasubandhu at earthlink.net
Mon Dec 1 13:23:41 MST 2008


Jayarava,

Sorry for overwhelming/overloading you. When you kept asking for specifics,
I thought that was what you were requesting.

The simple version is: Dignaga talks about the same thing other Yogacaras
talk about, in the same or similar terms; but while for Asanga and
Vasubandhu hetuvidya (logic, pramana theory) is one facet of their concern,
one arena in which to operate, for Dignaga it is almost his exclusive
concern. By devoting his attention almost exclusively to that -- combined
with his desire to create a level debate playing field -- he forged
important new developments in it by instituting and clarifying what were
only indications (or, in Asanga's case, as apparently in my recent emails),
insights drowned is surrounding material. When, for instance, Asanga gives
the trairupya conditions (the relation between the three parts of a
syllogism that have to obtain for it to be valid) he surrounds it with
additional details so that one might overlook the point. Dignaga didn't, and
honed it to precision.

Simpler?

Dan



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