0550 Verse 731

Original

अन्यत्र गतचित्तस्य वस्तुमात्रोपलम्भनम् ।
सर्वोपाधिविवेकेन तत एव प्रवर्त्तते ॥ ७३१ ॥

anyatra gatacittasya vastumātropalambhanam |
sarvopādhivivekena tata eva pravarttate || 731 ||

It is because the process is as described that when a man has his mind turned somewhere else, there appears only the vague apprehension of the mere thing apart from all specific peculiarities.—(731)

Kamalaśīla

It is because the notions of ‘Being’, etc. appear in the above-mentioned sequence, that when a man has his mind fixed elsewhere,—i.e. he is absent-minded,—if he sees a thing lying before himself,—until there come to his mind the conventions and conceptions bearing upon that thing, the first perception that appears is that of the mere thing, entirely devoid of all specific peculiarities. If it were not so,—if this first Cognition were in the full-fledged form equipped with the verbal expression and all the rest of it,—then, why should the absent-minded man apprehend the mereng devoid of all qualifications? It is not possible for two determinate Cognitions with verbal expressions to appear at the same time.

Thus it is proved that the assertion that “the notions of ‘Being’, etc. are positively and negatively concomitant with direct Sense-functioning” is not true.—(731)