Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c36.28

v2.c36.28

The question next raised is, can the pudgala of the Vā. be cognized by any sense-organ (indriya), if so, by which? The Vā. reply that it is perceived by all the six sense-organs. They contend that eyes do not care to see rūpa (object) or recognise it unless mind (mana indriya) is there. Eyes act as the dominating factor when the visual action takes place, hence it is not correct to say that eyes alone see rūpa, or for the matter of that, each of the five sense-organs cannot function in their respective spheres independent of the mind.¹ For cognition of pudgala, the Vā. state that all the sense-organs point out to the mind indirectly that there is a pudgala; eyes, e.g., discern the rūpa (colour-figure) of a body and thereby induces the mind to cognize the presence of an individual (pudgala), but that pudgala is neither identical with, nor different from, rūpa.² V. argues that if rūpa be the cause of cognition of pudgala (रूपाणां कारणत्वमधिक्रियते) one should not say that rūpa and pudgala are different (anyam),³ again, if cognition of rūpa leads at once to the cognition of pudgala (रूपायुपादाय पुद्लोपलब्धिरिति) one should also say that rūpa and pudgala are identical (ananyas)⁴ in other words, one is only a modification of the other ( रूपान्तरवत ). The Vā., however, would neither identify rūpa (colour-figure) with pudgala nor treat them as different; in the same way they would neither regard the perception of *rūpa* (colour-figure) as identical with the perception of *pudgala* nor look upon them as different.