瑜伽師地論略纂 13.72

13.72

Where the treatise discusses the collection of names (nāmakāya) and states "designation of intrinsic nature (svabhāva-prajñapti), designation of individual characteristics (svalakṣaṇa-prajñapti)," and so forth: this means that although the substance is a single thing, depending on cognitive conditions, there are two distinct aspects: intrinsic nature and characteristics. "Intrinsic nature" is the substance; "characteristic" is the aspect; this refers to the substance and aspect of dharmas. A sentence expresses distinct attributes. Now, names express common characteristics (sāmānyalakṣaṇa); here, in speaking of "intrinsic nature" and so forth, it is because speech is superimposed upon intrinsic nature and the like, not that the name is identical to the individual characteristic. The meaning is: it is not identical to intrinsic nature, etc., but merely designated upon them, as in the designations of phenomena such as devas, humans, eyes, ears, etc. Later text also calls them names and calls them marks. The mark of self is precisely the name, because names and marks issue from marks. The fruit is named after the cause; names also exist upon differentiated dharmas, but when differentiated meanings are fully completed in a sentence, it is called a sentence (pada), not a name. A single name is called a name; two or three names are called a collection of names (nāmakāya). Does a single name also have bodily karma, etc.? A collection of sentences also includes sentences that express intrinsic nature, but it generally receives that designation; when that name fulfills a meaning within a sentence, it is called a sentence. Why? Letters have no expressive function; if they are intended to block or express meaning, they are also expressive. Now the explanation: matter is not understood through the name in the mind by examining those letters. This is an issue debated between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna; compare it with the Abhidharma[-samuccaya]. The twelfth fascicle of the Prakaraṇāryavācā is very precise. There are letters that are not names, namely the forty-nine letters, the two pathways, etc., ai, u, etc.; there are single letters that are names, such as saying "eye," etc.; there are names that are not sentences, namely single-character names; there are names that are also sentences, such as names of nouns. Accordingly, a two-character name is also called a sentence; but if it is a sentence-name, it must be a letter-name, because the latter contains the former. For instance, saying "all evils" is incomplete in phrasing to form a sentence; if one says "those who commit all evils," the meaning is incomplete for a sentence. Even though a single word contained in a sentence is not yet complete, multiple names are also called a sentence. There is no single-character sentence; both phrasing and meaning are incomplete, so it is not a sentence, whereas a two-character name can be so.