The Basis of Debate, and Proving the Absence of a Self
The third part of the rules of debate: what a formal proof actually establishes, and the eight elements a complete proof is built from — thesis, reason, example, application, conclusion, and the three valid means of knowledge that ground the whole structure. The treatise then works the entire eight-part apparatus through a single sustained example: proving that no self can be found among the aggregates.
1. What Is to Be Established, and the Eight Elements of Proof
第三論依，謂依此立論略有二種：一所成立、二能成立。所成立有二種：一自性、二差別。能成立有八種：一立宗、二立因、三立喻、四合、五結、六現量、七比量、八聖教量。所成立自性者，謂我自性或法自性。差別者，謂我差別或法差別。立宗者，謂以所應成自所許義，宣示於他令彼解了。立因者，謂即於所成未顯了義，正說現量可得不可得等信解之相。立喻者，謂以所見邊與未所見邊和會正說。合者，為引所餘此種類義，令就此法正說理趣。結者，謂到究竟趣所有正說。現量者，謂自正明了無迷亂義。比量者，謂現餘信解。聖教量者，謂不違二量之教。
The third, the basis of debate, is this: formal proof rests on two things — what is to be established, and what does the establishing. What is to be established is, further, of two kinds: own-nature, and distinction. Own-nature to be established is either the own-nature of a self or the own-nature of a dharma. Distinction to be established is either a distinction of the self or a distinction of a dharma.
What does the establishing is of eight kinds: stating the thesis, stating the reason, stating the example, application, conclusion, direct perception, inference, and scriptural authority.
Stating the thesis is putting forward, to another, one's own accepted position on what is to be established, so that they may come to understand it. Stating the reason is correctly setting forth, with respect to that not-yet-clarified matter, the specific marks of what can and cannot actually be obtained through direct perception, so as to generate genuine conviction. Stating the example is correctly bringing together what has already been seen with what has not yet been seen, so that the two align. Application is drawing in some further matter of the very same kind, so that it, too, is correctly shown to fall under the principle already established. Conclusion is the correct statement that arrives at the final outcome. Direct perception is one's own clear and accurate grasp of a matter, free of confusion. Inference is present conviction generated on the basis of something else. And scriptural authority is teaching that contradicts neither of these first two valid means of knowledge.
2. The Structure Worked Through: Proving the Absence of a Self
T1606 makes this entire eight-part structure concrete by walking it through a complete example against a self-affirming opponent, addressing the classical question of whether a self can be found among the aggregates.
Thesis: "All dharmas are without self." Reason: because positing a real self within the aggregates leads to four distinct faults, however the self's relation to the aggregates is specified. If the self simply is the aggregates' own characteristic, then since the aggregates are not self-governing but arise from conditions, and are themselves subject to arising and ceasing, the self one wished to establish is never actually secured — the first fault. If the self resides within the aggregates, then since the aggregates it depends on are impermanent, the self depending on them should be impermanent too — the second fault. If the self is posited as separate from the aggregates entirely, then the self has no cause and no function — the third fault. And if the self is posited as belonging to no aggregates at all, then the self would already stand alone and inherently liberated, making any further pursuit of liberation entirely pointless — the fourth fault.
Example: just as the present is used to posit the reality of the past. If someone claims that the past genuinely exists on the model of the present, the same four faults recur: is the posited past identical with a present characteristic, within the present, apart from the present, or independent of the present altogether? Each option fails in the same fourfold way the self-argument already failed — and since the past, having already ceased, plainly has no continuing characteristic mark at all, the parallel to positing a self collapses in exactly the same manner.
Application: by this same reasoning, permanence and the other such mistaken attributes likewise do not apply to the aggregates. Conclusion: therefore the five aggregates are, in every respect, impermanent, and so on through being without self.
T1606 explains the three valid means of knowledge that underlie this entire structure with equal care. Direct perception is one's own clear, unconfused apprehension of an object — as the eye directly apprehends form — deliberately excluding both merely conventional objects agreed upon by common consent (like a pot, which is not truly perceived as a single real unity) and objects presently obstructed from view. Inference is the conviction generated about something not currently perceived, on the strength of something that is — as inferring, from smoke seen at a distance, that fire is present there as well, since the two reliably occur together. And scriptural authority is teaching that never contradicts either direct perception or inference, and can therefore be relied upon with settled confidence.
Part 127 Complete
The basis of debate, and its complete eight-part structure worked through a single sustained proof, are now examined. Part 128 turns to the adornment of debate — six qualities that make a debater's own presentation genuinely excellent — and defeat in debate, the three specific ways an argument can be lost, including nine distinct verbal faults to be avoided.
Continue to Part 128 — The Adornment of Debate, and Defeat in Debate →