[Buddha-l] Pramana terms

[Richard Hayes]

On Sun, 2008-11-16 at 10:36 +0800, Piya Tan wrote:

> I notice two of the 6 chapters of Dignaga's Pramaa.na Samuccaya are
> (with translations from Keown's Dictionary of Buddhism) as follows:
> 
> Svaartha anumaa.na (Inference for one's own benefit)
> Paraartha anumaa.na (Inference for another's benefit)
> 
> Is it possible to render svaartha here as "self-meaning," that is, inherent
> sense, ie without reference to other things; and
> paraartha as "other-meaning," ie, a contextual sense.

I have never seen those words with those meanings. Usually svaartha is
glossed as svahita, beneficial to oneself. The terms are used in
discussion of karma. The best karma is that action which benefits both
oneself and others. Dignaaga uses the terms in those senses also. He
says the Buddha's teaching was good both for the Buddha and for this
disciples. And the Buddha was a pramaa.na. So a pramaa.na is ideally
good both for the one who has the knowledge and those to whom knowledge
is communicated. An inference that yields knowledge useful to oneself is
svaarthaanumaana. When one articulates the knowledge to someone else
with convincing argumentation, then it becomes beneficial to another.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico