[FN#362] Avidya, or ignorance, which mistakes the illusory phenomena for realities.

[FN#363] A.  ’A person with a serious disease sees the vision of strange colours, men, and things in his trance.’

[FN#364] A.  ’That a dreamer fancies he sees things is well known to everybody.’

So are our lives.  They are no other than the transformation of the Vijnyanas; but in consequence of illusion, we take them for the Atman and external objects existing in reality.  From these erroneous ideas arise delusive thoughts that lead to the production of Karma; hence the round-of rebirth to time without end.[FN#365] When we understand these reasons, we can realize the fact that our lives are nothing but transformations of the Vijnyanas, and that the (eighth) Vijnyana is the origin.[FN#366]

[FN#365] A.  ‘As it was detailed above.’

[FN#366] A.  ‘An imperfect doctrine, which is refuted later.’

4.  Mahayana Doctrine of the Nihilists.

This doctrine disproves (both) the Mahayana and the Hinayana doctrines above mentioned that adhere to Dharma-laksana, and suggestively discloses the truth of Transcendental Reality which is to be treated later.[FN#367] Let me state, first of all, what it would say in the refutation of Dharma-laksana.

[FN#367] A.  “The nihilistic doctrine is stated not only in the various Prajnya-sutras (the books having Prajnya-paramita in their titles), but also in almost all Mahayana sutras.  The above-mentioned three doctrines were preached (by the Buddha) in the three successive periods.  But this doctrine was not preached at any particular period; it was intended to destroy at any time the attachment to the phenomenal objects.  Therefore Nagarjuna tells us that there are two sorts of Prajnyas, the Common and the Special.  The Çravakas (lit., hearers) and the Pratyekabuddhas (lit., singly enlightened ones), or the Hinayanists, could hear and believe in, with the Bodhisattvas or the Mahayanists, the Common Prajnya, as it was intended to destroy their attachment to the external objects.  Bodhisattvas alone could understand the Special Prajnya, as it secretly revealed the Buddha nature, or the Absolute.  Each of the two great Indian teachers, Çilabhadra and Jnyanaprabha, divided the whole teachings of the Buddha into three periods. (According to Çilabhadra, A.D. 625, teacher of Hiuen Tsang, the Buddha first preached the doctrine of ‘existence’ to the effect that every living being is unreal, but things are real.  All the Hinayana sutras belong to this period.  Next the Buddha preached the doctrine of the middle path, in Samdhi-nirmocana-sutra and others, to the effect that all the phenomenal universe is unreal, but that the mental substance is real.  According to Jnyanaprabha, the Buddha first preached the doctrine of existence, next that of the existence of mental substance, and lastly that of unreality.) One says the doctrine of unreality was preached before that of Dharma-laksana, while the others say it was preached after.  Here I adopt the latters’ opinion.”