Omniscience and Mental Construction in *Śāntarakṣita’s Tattvasiddhi

In classical Buddhist philosophy and contemporary scholarship alike, it’s said that a buddha’s awakening is a “non-conceptual gnosis” (nirvikalpakajñāna). In this paper, I’ll offer a challenge to this assumption based on *Śāntarakṣita’s Tattvasiddhi. *Śāntarakṣita claims here that a buddha’s omniscience (sarvajña) must involve mental constructions; that is, it must be savikalpakajñāna. Against Dharmakīrtian orthodoxy, he argues that any cultivation that involves mental constructions will per force result in an awareness-event that involves mental constructions. I’ll explicate *Śāntarakṣita’s defense of this, showing that it crucially depends on our interpretation of the “vividness” (spaṣṭatā) of awareness-events that result from long-practiced cultivation. Vivid awareness-events, he argues, are devoid of conceptual content, but nevertheless involve distinctions and mental constructions that make the skillful immersion in practical undertakings possible. Finally, despite the heterodox nature of the claim, I’ll suggest ways it might help us understand the relation between habituation and buddhahood more generally.