0104 Verse 118

Original

तत्स्वाभाविकवादोऽयं प्रत्यक्षेण प्रबाध्यते ।
प्रत्यक्षानुपलम्भाभ्यां हेतुरूपस्य निश्चयात् ॥ ११८ ॥

tatsvābhāvikavādo’yaṃ pratyakṣeṇa prabādhyate |
pratyakṣānupalambhābhyāṃ heturūpasya niścayāt || 118 ||

Thus the doctrine of the ‘thing by itself’ is discarded by perception; specially as the exact nature of the ‘cause5 of things is duly ascertained through perception and non-apprehension.—(118)

Kamalaśīla

‘Tat’—Therefore, thus;—or the whole expression ‘Tatsvābhāvikavādaḥ’ may be taken as a compound, meaning ‘The doctrine of the Thing by Itself in regard to the Lotus and other things’;—is discarded by Perception; Perception alone is mentioned here, as the ‘non-apprehension’ also of a certain thing consists only in the ‘apprehension’ of something else, and as such, is of the nature of ‘Perception’.

It has been sought (under Text 112, above) to prove that “Pleasure and such internal things can have no Cause because they appear only occasionally—This reasoning however is ‘contradictory’, inasmuch as it proves only the contrary of what is desired to prove; because what has no cause and what is not dependent upon anything else cannot be ‘occasional’, appearing only at certain times and places. What is meant is that the Corroborative Instance cited is devoid of the character desired to be proved.—(118)