Subscribe to PostsSingh, The Heart of Buddhist Philosophy-Dinnaga and Dharmakirti, Munshiram, 1984.
p. 63: ‘Another major ground on which Dharmakirti is ranked as an Idealist is the theory of self-consciousness (svasamvedanavada). It is a fact that Dinnaga and Dharmakirti have expounded the view that every cognition of an object is always self-conscious, or that knowledge has a double aspect, cognition and cognition of cognition, and does not need any other agent (such as a soul) to make its cognition. It is like a light which reveals other objects and at the same time reveals its own existence and so does not require any other light to reveal it. The knowledge of blue and the knowledge that it is blue are not two different things, but two aspects of one process. Dharmakirti elaborates on this in two contexts:
a. while dealing with the four-fold nature of sensation (pratyaksa) and
b. while refuting the Nyaya-Mimamsa theory of a difference betwen a source of valid cognition (pramana) and a result of cognition (pramana-phala).
OBSERVATION: In reading Thomas Aquinas, the reader will encounter the word (aevum), meaning the concept of a soul which has a beginning but no end. Dinnaga and Dharmakirti demonstrate in their argument that the moment of cognition and cognition of cognition are independent of any need to defer to an aspect referenced by Thomas Aquinas, such as a soul. Recent inquiries into quantum physics describe the ability of contemporary mechanics to control single photons. These single photon mechanical systems are utilized in encryption and firewall protection for computer systems. Physicists have recognized that a single photon changes when being observed, demonstrating subtle phenomena, and the elusive nature of any definition of reality in a conventional sense.
