Korean Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

The result of cognition (pramāṇaphala) is not different from the real thing (vastu), which contains the essence of the means of cognition (pramāṇa) in Buddhist epistemology･logic. Nyāyabindu- ṭīkā also concurs with this position.But there are no phrases to refer directly to how the means of cognition and the result of cognition are established at the same time.Existing research on this issue is also divided into two camps. Helmut Krasser thinks that pramāṇa is prior to pramāṇaphala in time. However, Tosaki Hiromasa (戶崎宏正) and Prabal Kumar Sen are of the opinion that pramāṇa and pramāṇaphala are established at the same time. This interpretation is more logical than the former one. But Sen does not offer concrete textual basis to support his view. Tosaki, on the other hand, is a little ambiguous on some points. This paper aims to offer textual basis to support this view, thereby clarifying the ambiguity in their research.The result of this study is as follows. Firstly, since the relation of the generator and the generated (janaka‐janyabhāva) does not apply to pramāṇa and pramāṇaphala, they are not terminologies to refer to real things (vastu). Therefore, they are not related to cause and effect as a continuum (ekasaṃtāna). Secondly, as ‘the image of the object’ (=pramāṇa) occurs in ‘an ascertained knowledge of the object’ (=pramāṇaphala), pramāṇa and pramāṇaphala could not be established in different times. Thirdly, in NBṬ 16.06‐11 there is the saying that knowledge can be established as pramāṇa only if pramāṇaphala is established by ascertainment (adhyavasāya). Therefore, pramāṇaphala and pramāṇa are established at the same time. Fourthly, as the function (vyāpāra) of pramāṇa is not real but is rather an expression referring to the occurrence of consciousness with the objective modal (ākāra), the function (vyāpāra) cannot be regulated after consciousness occurs with the modal (ākāra) of the object. Therefore, pramāṇa can also be interpreted as upacāra in this context.