2017 年 65 巻 2 号 p. 920-913
So far much scholarly attention has been paid to Dharmakīrti’s contention, expressed in his Pramāṇavārttika, second chapter (PV 2), verses 31 to 33, that the cause for the Buddha’s becoming a pramāṇa is his knowledge of the four noble truths and not his knowledge of everything, i.e., his omniscience. However, in the Pramāṇaviniścaya, second chapter (PVin 2), there is a striking discourse in this regard, that is, the discourse about the final moment of an arhat’s mind. It is questioned there whether the final moment has causal efficacy. In the course of this discussion Dharmakīrti reveals that knowing each and every dharma is a prerequisite for the Buddha’s knowledge of what is to be done and what is not to be done, i.e., the four noble truths. This seems to contradict his previous position in PV 2. In this paper, I concentrate on examining this argument in PVin 2. I argue that it is possible to think Dharmakīrti’s real intention is here, not in PV 2. And, it appears that the origin of the notion of sarvasarvajña, i.e., the so-called “full-blown omniscience,” developed in the tradition following Dharmakīrti, is also here.