Commentary on Valid Cognition
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Commentary on Valid Cognition (Skt. Pramāṇavārttika; Tib. ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་, Wyl. tshad ma rnam 'grel) — Dharmakirti's main treatise on pramana, the most important of his Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition.
Outline
It has four chapters:
- Inference (Tib. རང་དོན་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པ་, rang don rjes su dpag pa)
- Valid cognition (Tib. ཚད་མ་གྲུབ་པ་, tshad ma grub pa)
- Direct perception (Tib. མངོན་སུམ་, mngon sum)
- Logic (Tib. གཞན་གྱི་དོན་, gzhan gyi don)
Tibetan Text
Commentaries
Indian
- Dharmakirti himself wrote a long commentary on the first chapter. It is known as the Svopajñaṛtti, or Svavṛtti (Wyl. rang 'grel)
- Devendrabuddhi, Pramāṇavārttikapañjikā'
Tibetan
ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་གྱི་ཏཱིཀ་ཆེན་རིགས་པའི་རྒྱ་མཚོ, tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi tIk chen rigs pa'i rgya mtsho (no scan)- ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་གྱི་ཏཱིཀ་ཆུང་རིགས་པའི་སྙེ་མ་, tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi tIk chung rigs pa'i snye ma (no scan)
- ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་གྱི་གཞུང་གསལ་བོར་བཤད་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་སྣང་བའི་གཏེར་, tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi gzhung gsal bor bshad pa legs bshad snang ba'i gter
Translations
- The controversial scholar Gendün Chöpel apparently translated the text into English, but sadly this work has been lost.
- Nagatomi, Masatoshi. A Study of Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika: An English Translation and Annotation of the Pramāṇavārttika Book I, PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 1957.
Quotations
{{:Quotations: Dharmakirti, Commentary on Valid Cognition, The nature of the mind is clear light}} {{:Quotations: Dharmakirti, Commentary on Valid Cognition, All faults come from the idea of "I"}} {{:Quotations: Dharmakirti, Commentary on Valid Cognition, That which performs a function is ultimately existent}}
Further Reading
- John D. Dunne, Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy, Wisdom Publications, 2004
- Tillemans, Tom J.F.: "Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika. An annotated translation of the fourth chapter (parārthānumāna). Volume 1 (k. 1-148)". Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 675. Band. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna) 2000