[Buddha-l] As Swami goes, so goes the nation? (Dan Lusthaus and Richard P. Hayes)

[Dan Lusthaus]

Mitchell,

A serious question deserves a serious answer.

Parikalpita / parikalpa is one of several important words derived from the 
root kḷp (k.lp) -- kalpanā, kalpita, kalpana, vikalpa, etc.

Generally in Buddhism the klp words denote some mental or conceptual 
activity over and above the reality it is cogitating on, and thus adding its 
own fabrications, inventions, imaginings to the mix. Sometimes the terms can 
be relatively neutral on one level -- e.g., kalpanā as conceptualization is 
in itself neither good nor bad (depends on the quality of the 
conceptualizing), but Dignaga (following cues from Asanga and others) drew a 
sharp distinction between what is actually the case as disclosed in 
perception and how we conceptualize it, even when we conceptualize it well 
and accurately. Perception -- again following Asanga -- is to be understood 
as devoid of kalpanā according to Dignaga, that being a key part of the 
definition of perception for Dignaga.

kalpaka (as defined by Monier-Williams) means "conforming to a settled rule 
or standard." Kalpana (with short-a at the end) means "forming, fashioning, 
making, performing; 'forming in the imagination, invention,' composition of 
a poem; cutting, clipping, working with edge-tools; a religious ceremony; 
anything put on for ornament; making, manufacturing, preparing; practice; 
fixing, settling arranging; creating in the mind, feigning, assuming 
anything to be real, fiction..." (MW p.263a)

Paramārtha the translator tended to use 分別性 fenbie xing for 
parikapita-svabhāva; fenbie is a standard Chinese equivalent for vikalpa 
(imagining, discriminating, conceptualizing), and he apparently wanted to 
highlight the root klp the two terms had in common (and thereby conflating 
them). Early on in his own translations Xuanzang also used fenbie xing, but 
then devised a neologistic equivalent 遍計 自性 bianji zixing. Bian means 
"everywhere" "to pervade everywhere" (e.g. it is also used for vyāpti. 
'pervasion'). Ji means to calculate, to schematize, etc. (zixing literally 
means 'own nature'). He derived that, I believe, from a passage included in 
the Buddhabhumyupadesa which offers a nirukta (etymology) for parikalpita 
using Sanskrit terms that Xuanzang renders, respectively, bian and ji. 
Henceforth he combined them for his own translation of 
parikalpa/parikalpita. That connotes more than simply fenbie (= vikalpa), 
emphasizing that parikalpa (pari = round, to encompass) permeates how one 
sees everything, it blankets one's conceptual/perceptual field, and it does 
so by schematizing, creating a structure and order that it imposes. Xuanzang 
also adds (based on the same Buddhabhumyupadesa passage) an extra idea to 
his equivalent that has no overt Sanskrit parallel but is justified by the 
nirukta: suozhi 所執 which would literally mean "what one is attached to, 
what is held". So the full Chinese equivalent Xuanzang offers for 
parikalpita-svabhava is 遍計所執自性 bianji suozhi zixing, The self-nature 
by which one is attached to what is ubiquitously schematized. On its own 
suozhi tends to mean "acquired, gained, obtained," and is attested as an 
equivalent for abhiniviṣṭa, abhinigṛhīta, upātta.

If one might summarize the Yogacara position as "mistaking our 
interpretation of the world for the world itself", then that *mistaking* is 
parikalpita.

pariniṣpanna has a more complex and obscure origin. It has the same prefix: 
pari- round, enveloping. "Round" in Chinese 圓 yuan, implies perfect, whole, 
all-encompassing, going back to early Chinese traditions that contrasted 
Heaven and Earth by characterizing earth as square and heaven as round. From 
niṣ-pad > niṣ-patti > niṣ-panna, it means something completed, 
accompllished, consummately finished, and hence tends to be translated 
"perfected." Xuanzang's Chinese equivalent combines yuan (round) with cheng 
成, which means "completed, accomplished," and is used as an equivalent for 
siddhi (accomplished). So yuancheng 圓成 would imply perfectly and 
completely (consummately) accomplished.

The grounding svabhava of the three, however, is paratantra 
(other-dependent), which in Yogacara is a synonym for pratītya-samutpāda 
(conditioned co-arising). Paratantra means the actual processes of causes 
and conditions. When polluted by parikalpita, then "defiled paratantra" is 
an unenlightened condition. Vasubandhu defines pariniṣpanna as "the absence 
of parikalpita in paratantra." In other words, flushing out parikalpita so 
that only "purified paratantra" remains is the Yogacara project. In terms of 
the rope-snake analogy, the "snake" -- which is a mistaken superimposition 
projected onto the rope, causing distress, palpitations, fear, etc., a full 
palette of emotional responses and actions -- is parikalpita. Parinispanna 
is removing the illusion, and paratantra is the rope as it is, devoid of the 
snake projection.

The idea that what one thinks is the case makes it so (as Erik presumed) 
would be parikalpita. Thinking the rope is a snake may make one shiver all 
night up a tree afraid to step on the path, but it doesn't make the rope an 
actual snake. The snake is vijñapti-mātra or, as the Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa 
puts it kalpanā-mātra.

Dan