Prajñākaragupta On What Exists

We will discuss Prajñākaragupta’s commentary Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra (PVA) on two verses in Dharmakīrti’s influential Pramāṇavārttika (PV): vv. 3-4 in the chapter on perception. In those two verses, Dharmakīrti initially endorses the standard Sautrāntika and Yogācāra view that causal efficacy is the mark of ultimate existence, but then he responds ambivalently to a Mādhyamika opponent who rejects the ultimate reality of causal relations. But, unlike Dharmakīrti and his earlier commentators like Devendrabuddhi, Prajñākara accepts the Mādhyamika view that causal efficacy cannot be a mark of ultimate existence. However, he also shows that this Mādhyamika view does not conclusively undermine the core of the Yogācāra view: the thesis that consciousness--or conscious mental occurrences--are ultimately existent. In doing so, Prajñākara paves the way for a new form of Yogācāra that is later defended by Jñānaśrīmitra and Ratnakīrti. On this view, ultimate existence is just a matter of directly appearing through non-conceptual awareness.