The Beginning Reasoning Methods - White and Red Colors

Starting with the basics.

Starting from this post, we will systematically delve into a structured explanation of the textbook Pramana-samuccaya. By studying diligently without missing a single installment, upon completing this series, you will be able to explore the profound depths of Buddhist epistemology (Hetuvidya) and obtain the key to deeply investigating the Dharma.

white and red buddhist monastery

ཞེས་འདིར་ལས་དང་པོ་བ་ལ་ཕན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རིགས་ལམ་ཆུང་ངུའི་རྣམ་གཞག

དབང་པོ་འབྲིང་ལ་རིགས་ལམ་འབྲིང་གི་རྣམ་གཞག

དབང་པོ་རབ་ལ་རིགས་ལམ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྣམ་གཞག་བཤད་པོ།།

Here, for benefiting the beginners, simple reasoning methods are presented; for the mid-levelers, intermediate reasoning methods are presented; and for the experts, advanced reasoning methods are presented.

དང་པོ་རིགས་ལམ་ཆུང་ངུའི་རྣམ་གཞག

First, the presentation of beginning reasoning methods.

དེ་ལ་དབྱེ་ན། ཁ་དོག གཞི་གྲུབ། ལྡོག་པ་ངོས་འཛིན། ཡིན་ལོག་མིན་ལོག ཡིན་གྱུར་མིན་གྱུར། སྤྱི་བྱེ་བྲག རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ཆུང་བ། རྫས་ལྡོག་བཤད་པ་དང་བརྒྱད་ལས།

Divided as: color, established base, exclusion, opposite from being/not being, what something is/is not, generality and particularity, narrow cause and effect, substance and negation; altogether eight to be explained.

The main content of this treatise has three parts: simple reasoning methods, intermediate reasoning methods, advanced reasoning methods. The simple reasoning methods are taught to those with beginner capacity, the intermediate reasoning methods to those with medium capacity, and the advanced reasoning methods to those with sharp faculties. The first of these is the establishment of the simple reasoning methods. The simple reasoning methods have 8 subject divisions; the intermediate reasoning methods have 7; the advanced reasoning methods have 9.

དང་པོ་ཁ་དོག་དཀར་དམར་ནི།

First, white and red colors.

The first subject division of the simple reasoning methods is color. The reason it is placed as the first subject division: color is the object most directly apprehended by the eyes; it is extremely coarse and evident, and easiest to understand; therefore it is placed at the beginning of the simple reasoning methods. That this subject division is named “white and red colors” and not other colors also has profound meaning: white and red are the very first colors received by womb-born sentient beings at the moment of taking rebirth, and they are also what the opening of the Pramāṇavārttika relies upon; therefore they are taken here as the auspicious coincidence.

རྣམ་འགྲེལ་རང་དོན་ལེའུ་ལས། སྔོ་སོགས་མིག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་ལ།། ནུས་པ་སོ་སོར་མཐོང་བའི་ཕྱིར།།ཞེས་པའི་གཞུང་སོགས་ལས་འཕྲོས།

Derived from the text of Pramāṇavārttika, Chapter on Self-Interest: “Blue and others are perceived by visual consciousness due to their respective functions.”

“Blue etc. are seen by eye consciousness because of performing their respective functions…” This is a quotation from the source treatise for the present subject division—the Pramāṇavārttika, that is, the authoritative scripture relied upon. The Buddhist teachings include both scriptures and treatises: scriptures are what the Buddha taught, treatises are authoritative works by the great masters and lineage holders that explain the Buddha’s scriptures without error. After having theBuddhist teachings, we establish it through reasoning—this is called relying on reason. Studying Dharma requires relying on both the teachings and reasoning.

དེ་ཡང་མདོག་ཏུ་རུང་བ། ཁ་དོག་གི་མཚན་ཉིད།

དབྱེ་ན་གཉིས། རྩ་བའི་ཁ་དོག་དང་། ཡན་ལག་གི་ཁ་དོག་གོ །

རྩ་བའི་མདོག་ཏུ་རུང་བ། རྩ་བའི་ཁ་དོག་གི་མཚན་ཉིད།

དབྱེ་ན། སྔོ་སེར་དཀར་དམར་བཞི།

Furthermore, being suitable to be hue, is the definition of color.

Classification: source color and branch color.

Being suitable to be source hue, is the definition of source color.

Classified as four: blue, yellow, white, red.

The meaning of “suitable to be” in “suitable to be hue” is “can become.” It can become so because the eyes can directly see color, and it appears directly as color in the object of cognition.

The source colors are divided into blue, yellow, white, and red. These four source colors are established in dependence on the natural color of the five primary winds within the body of sentient beings; they possess profound dependent arising, therefore they are called “source.” (Note: green can be produced by mixing yellow and blue source colors, therefore it is not established as a fifth source color; black is also produced by mixing many colors, therefore it too belongs to the branch.)

ཡན་ལག་གི་མདོག་ཏུ་རུང་བ། ཡན་ལག་གི་ཁ་དོག་གི་མཚན་ཉིད།

དབྱེ་ན་བརྒྱད། སྣང་མུན་སྤྲིན་དང་དུ་བ་དང་། རྡུལ་གྲིབ་ཁུག་རྣ་ཉི་མའོ།།

དེ་དག་རེ་རེའི་མདོག་ཏུ་རུང་བ་ཞེས་དེ་དག་གི་མཚན་ཉིད་དུ་སྦྱར་དགོས་སོ།།

རྩ་བའི་ཁ་དོག་དེ་དག་གཉིས་གསུམ་འདྲེས་པ་ལས་འབྱུང་བ་རྣམས་ཡན་ལག་གི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན་ནོ།།

Being suitable to be branch hue, is the definition of branch color.

Classified as eight: brightness, darkness, cloud, smoke, dust, shade, haze, sun.

There must be “suitable to be hue” in each of those composed in their definitions.

Coming into being from the blending of two, three, or more source colors, is branch color.

At the same time, these eight also correspond to the appearances that arise when the four elements are sequentially reabsorbed at the time of the intermediate state and death; therefore they are also established here, so that students may know their connection to practice.

A common doubt: A white cloud is clearly white—isn’t white a source color? How can “cloud” be established as a branch color?

Answer: One must strictly distinguish between two questions:

If one asks, “What color appears on a white cloud?”—of course it is white; this white belongs to the source color.

If one asks, “What color is ‘cloud’ itself as a branch color?”—it is definitely not a pure white, but an indeterminate color produced by mixing brightness and darkness, density and dilution, cold and warm tones, etc.

Reason: The clouds we see with our naked eyes are bright close up and dark farther away; they are illuminated from above by the blue sky and reflect light from the earth below; everywhere there are changes of light and shade—there is never a “pure, uniform white cloud.” If one enlarges a photograph of a white cloud and increases the contrast, one immediately sees gray, blue-green, pale yellow, and other colors mixed within it. Therefore, the self-nature of “cloud” is definitively a branch color, not a source color. Thus cloud and source color are contradictory.

དབྱིབས་སུ་རུང་བ། དབྱིབས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།

དབྱེ་ན་བརྒྱད། རིང་ཐུང་མཐོ་དམའ་གྲུ་བཞི་ཟླུམ།། ཕྱ་ལེ་ཕྱ་ལེ་མིན་པའོ།།

དེ་དག་རེ་རེའི་དབྱིབས་སུ་རུང་བ་ཞེས་སོགས་སྦྱར་དགོས་དོ།།

Being suitable to be shape, is the definition of shape.

Classified as eight: being long, short, high, low, square, round, flat, non-flat.

There must be “suitable to be shape” in each of those composed.

Among them, “flat” and “non-flat” can be distinguished according to whether the sides are equal or whether there is axial symmetry. Square and round are mutually contradictory, yet each is not necessarily contradictory with long/short, high/low, etc.

Color and shape are contradictory; therefore the same phenomenon cannot be both color and shape. Nevertheless, on the same basis both color and shape—two types of form—can exist simultaneously. For example: a red round vase—red is color, round is shape; the two coexist without contradiction.

Question: Is a vase ultimately color or shape?

Answer: The vase itself belongs to shape, not color.

Reason: Even if a vase displays a thousand different colors such as yellow, red, or blue, as long as it has the shape of a bulging belly and narrow base and can hold water, it can still be established as a vase. But if there is merely a patch of red without the shape of a bulging belly and narrow base, it absolutely cannot be established as a vase.

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