Sources:
अथ ज्ञेयवशाज्ज्ञानं ज्ञेयास्तित्वे तु का गतिः। अथान्योन्यवशात्सत्त्वमभावः स्याद्द्वयोरपि॥
If, on the[p.437]How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)
Gómez, Luis O., trans. "How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)." In Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 395–441. New York: Norton, 2017. contrary, knowledge depends on the known object for its reliability, how does one establish the reality of the object to begin with? Finally, if they mutually establish each other’s reality, then both would be equally unreal.
འོན་ཏེ་ཤེས་བྱ་ལས་ཤེས་གྲུབ། །
ཤེས་བྱ་ཡོད་ལའང་རྟེན་ཅི་ཡོད། ། དེ་སྟེ་ཕན་ཚུན་དབང་གིས་ཡོད། །
གཉིས་ཀ་ཡང་ནི་མེད་པར་འགྱུར། །If knowledge objects show that consciousness exists,
What is it that shows that they exist? If both subsist through mutual dependence,
Both will thereby lose their true existence.
“Well, consciousness is established by virtue of knowable objects.”
So what support is there for the existence of knowable objects? “They exist by virtue of each other.”
Then neither of these two exists. [112]
Si, au contraire, c’est l’objet qui prouve la conscience,
Quel est le point d’appui de cet objet ? S’ils dépendent l’un de l’autre pour exister,
Aucun des deux n’existe réellement.
Pero, si los objetos que conoce demuestran la existencia de la consciencia,
¿en base a qué se demuestra que éstos existen? Si ambos subsisten dependiendo mutuamente,
ambos por lo tanto carecen de existencia verdadera.
Then, ‘consciousness is established from that known’.
What basis is there for the existence of the object of knowledge? Both exist through their mutual power,
Both again are non-existent.
However, if the knower is ascertained by the known,
What is the base of the existence of the known? Thus, if they exist dependently,
Neither could exist.
འོན་ཏེ་ཤེས་བྱ་ལས་ཤེས་གྲུབ། །
ཤེས་བྱ་ཡོད་ལ་རྟེན་ཅི་ཡོད། ། དེ་སྟེ་ཕན་ཚུན་དབང་གིས་ཡོད། །
གཉི་ག་ཡང་ནི་མེད་པར་འགྱུར། །
