r0b’s Reviews > The Central Philosophy of Tibet: A Study and Translation of Jey Tsong Khapa's Essence of True Eloquence > Status Update

...as for the Ten Stages refutation of any other creator (than the mind), this is stated as evidence for the fact that the “only” in the expression “mind-only” does not exclude external things, and not as evidence showing that the negation of external things is interpretable in meaning.

“Just as a doctor prescribes medicines for the sickness of invalids, so the Buddha teaches even ‘mind-only’ to some living beings.”

...the statements of “mind-only” are not in terms of the Teacher’s own system but in terms of the inclination of the disciples, just as the doctor does not give medicine to particular patients out of his own whim, but in accord with the particular pattern of the patient’s sickness.

...Among types la and 2a, there are four subtypes: i) cause-non-perception, ii) concomitance-non-perception, iii) identity-non-per-ception, and iv) effect-non-perception. For further exemplification he refers us to Drop of “Logic (NB); see Stcherbatski, Buddhist Logic IL

P. 439

Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls!!

...some clarifying comments: (in paraphrase) “non-perception” negative reasons are twofold—1) those arising from non-perception of an imperceptible, and 2) those arising from non-perception of a perceptible. Each of these is again twofold: 1a, 2a) non-perception of related fact reasons, and lb, 2b) non-perception through perception of contradictory fact reasons. Among types la and 2a, there are four subtypes: i)...

REASONING NEGATING THE NEGATEE

What is the chief reasoning used to negate the above negatee?
With some exceptions, the reason used to negate the negatee of this system is the reason (called) “non-perception of the related fact.” 64

Note 64:

Tib. ’brel zla ma dmigs pa. In regard to a “non-perception of related fact” (negative) reason, dPal-’byor Lhun-grub has some clarifying comments: (in paraphrase)...

...the profound, terrifying practice of enlightenment, whose essence is emptiness and compassion.

Finally, the Jewel Garland declares:

Just as the grammarians make one read the grammar, the Buddha teaches the Dharma according to the tolerance of the disciple. To some he teaches the Dharma to refrain from sins, to some to accomplish virtue, to some as dependence on dualism, and to some as freedom from dualism; (finally) to some he teaches...

...the “real” relative, the inexpressible processes that we are.

[I have the impression that Thurman unfortunately makes this text, through his translation and his presentation, more difficult than is necessary. It is a bit of a slog at times and I don't think it should be.]

...“The form-aggregate is produced,” “it is ceased,” “it is abandoned,” “it is fully understood,” and so on. Thus, as long as our perceptions are habitually entangled in our conventional, verbalized descriptions of the world, that is, as long as we have not seen the unreality of the “structured, verbally, conceptually, and imaginatively constructed world,” we do not perceive...

“The imagined reality” designates the world of conditional processes, which are its ground as object of conceptual constructions, when this world is verbally and conventionally structured into a world of natural entities, as [evinced in perceptions accompanying such] expressions as “This is the form-aggregate,” and of natural qualities, as [evinced in perceptions accompanying such] expressions as...