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Vajragoni, as one of the leading contributors to Yogacara thought and indeed, one who, after suffering a near-fatal attack by a jealous Brahman, met face to face and was protected by Manjushri himself as a kalyana-mitta, I think Dignaga deserves far more exposition here than is contained in this short blog.
Dignaga, who by all accounts was a refreshingly troublesome fellow* for his teachers, developed an epistemology that could engage the contemporary philosophers of his day who held (among other things) that the weight of tradition or words alone constituted a valid category of knowledge, a position which could be demolished only through logically consistent arguments and critical debate skillfully applied to the challenges they offered. I believe it was through this context that he argued pratyakṣa (perception) and anumāna (inference) are the only valid criteria, and that all other means of establishing knowledge were reducible to these. It should also be mentioned that through such debates and refinements, he arrived at the doctrine of exclusion (apoha) for linguistic theory which is, in my opinion, a masterful expression of non-duality and is by many considered his magnum opus.
Suffice to say I think there are some missing pieces to fully appreciate his contributions to the dharma treasury. In fact I think it would be possible to elaborate Dignaga’s many virtues for kalpas before coming to an end in describing them all. Dignaga’s philosophy is difficult, nuanced and extremely profound, and not given to quick interpretations. In short I think he deserves an entire series and I hope one day you might approach it.
* He was, in an amusing anecdote, supposedly kicked out by his preceptor Nagadatta of the Vatsiputriya school for stripping naked and examining his body in minute detail when he was asked to search for his “indescribable self”.
n.yeti, thank-you for further expounding about Dignaga–truly edifying. For the purpose of this blog let us consider the following:
“I believe it was through this context that he argued pratyakṣa (perception) and anumāna (inference) are the only valid criteria, and that all other means of establishing knowledge were reducible to these.”
In response, consider the following letter by Dionysius the Areopagite to his disciple, Timothy, that will be included in our subsequent blog:
And thou, dear Timothy, in thy intent and practice of the mystical contemplation, leave behind both thy senses and intellectual operations, and all things known by sense and intellect, and set thyself, as far as may be, to unite thyself in unknowing with Him who is above being and knowledge; for by being purely free and absolute, out of self and all things, thou shalt be led up to the Ray of the Divine Darkness, stripped and loosed of all.”
Understood, though I think it would be a drastic misreading of Dignaga’s philosophy to presume he stopped at the mere fermentations of the sixth consciousness. He meditated quite deeply on the limits of knowledge and logic. As pointed out by R.P Hayes in his celebrated book _Dignaga on the Interpretation of Signs_, “for [Dignaga] the central task was not to construct and defend a rationalized system of thought, but to examine the fundamental assumptions on which all our claims to understanding rest.”