Matharavritti 8
English (machine translation) 8
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8.1
An objection: Is it not the accepted view that whatever object is not apprehended by perception does not exist in any way, like a second head on someone other than Īśvara, a third arm, or the horn of a hare? Likewise, primordial matter and spirit are not apprehended, therefore they too do not exist. To dispel this doubt, he says:
8.2
From excessive distance, from extreme proximity, from injury to a sense faculty, from instability of the mind, / from subtlety, from an obstruction, from being overpowered, and from intermixture with similar things. //
8.3
In this world, non-perception occurs in eight ways even of existent things. For it is shown: Just as Devadatta, Viṣṇumitra, and Yajñadatta, though existent, are not perceived from excessive distance when they have gone to another region—does that mean they do not exist? Or just as the eye does not perceive collyrium due to excessive proximity—does that mean it does not exist? Just as a deaf person and a blind person do not perceive sound and form—does that mean the two do not exist? One whose mind is unsteady does not see even a passing king—does that mean he did not pass? Smoke, heat, water-droplets, mist, and atoms are not perceived—does that mean they are nonexistent? What is obstructed by a wall is not perceived—does that mean it does not exist? Because planets, asterisms, stars, and the like are overwhelmed by the radiance of the sun and so forth, is it possible to imagine their nonexistence? If [an object] is not perceived when cast into a pile of similar things—into a heap of mung beans, water lilies, myrobalans, pearls, pigeons, and so on—as 'this is it'—does that mean it does not exist? Thus non-perception has been declared to be eightfold even of existent things. Now, of nonexistent things, it is fourfold. On that, it is said: by the division into prior nonexistence, destructional nonexistence, mutual nonexistence, and absolute nonexistence. Among these, prior nonexistence is: in a lump of clay, a pot is not perceived prior to origination. Destructional nonexistence is: just as a pot, destroyed by the blow of a mallet, is not perceived. Mutual nonexistence is: just as horseness [is not perceived] in a cow, or cowness in a horse. Absolute nonexistence is: just as a second head of a mortal, a third arm, or hare's horns and the like. Thus this non-perception is twelvefold: eightfold of the existent and fourfold of the nonexistent. In this way, primordial matter and spirit are also not perceived although they are existent.