サーンキヤ哲學における認識について

Abstract

The philosophy of classical Sāmkhya assumes the two ultimate principles of Nature (prakriti) and Spirit (ātman), to account for all experience. The prakriti as the unmanifested primary cause transforms into its effect or the manifested prakriti, through the contemplation or seeing (darcana) by the ātman of the prakriti. In the Sāmkhya philosophy, the act of knowing is regarded as the action of the Intellect (buddhi) working together with the sense-organs, the Mind (manas), and the Ego (ahamkāra). Since the action of the Intellect, etc. belongs to the manifested prakriti, "to know or cognize" is nothing but the manifestation of the unmanifested prakriti. And the "thing to be known" or the known object (visaya), according to Sāmkya, does not exist as a finished product independently of the knowing or cognizing action of the buddhi, etc. Rather, it means the very sphere in which the said action actually operates and receives its form. Without providing such a sphere, the formless knowing action cannot manifest or form itself. Thus the Sphere (visaya) in which the self-formation of the formless knowing action takes place, is the object or scope of action of the sense-organs, as well as the field in which the Mind, the Ego and the Intellect operate. In accordance with this meaning of the Sphere, the manifested prakriti like buddhi, etc. is called the object or sphere (visaya) which is the ātman's medium for realizing itself. The knowing or contemplation on the part of the ātman, which is the knower of the prakriti but is in itself inactive, cannot be realized without the mediation of the Sphere, that is, the manifested prakriti. The Sphere is, however, by itself ignorant of the distinction between itself and the ātman. Accordingly it cannot by itself bring into completion the action-less ātman's true knowledge. All that it can do is to give a form to the ignorant knowing action of the acting Ego (ahamkāra). In order to realize the true knowledge of the ātman, the manifested prakriti itself has to attain the same true knowledge (ābhyantara-jnāna or internal knowledge). Only when the ignorant manifested prakriti comprehends its own true nature as the evolution (parināma) of the unmanifested prakriti, which is also the self-realization of the ātman's inactive contemplation, can the prakriti reach the true knowledge of the ātman. For the realization of this true knowledge, according to Sāmkhya, the manifested prakriti, the sphere of buddhi, etc., must be in the state of cessation (nivritti) from the ignorant knowing action. In the Sāmkhya philosophy, therefore, to know or cognize is no more than the self-realization of the true knowledge of the ātman, which is the knowing subject but inactive, through the cessation of the state in which an object is known, namely, by putting an end to the sphere in which the Intellect, the Ego, the Mind and the sense-organs operate.