Compassion, the Meditation on Selflessness, and Omniscience

Abstract

The meditation of long duration on selflessness is mentioned in the final chapter of the Tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā (TSP). Eliminating jñeyāvaraṇa and becoming omniscient depends on whether this meditation is performed. This meditation is carried out not by śrāvakas and pratyekebuddhas but by compassionate ones (kāruṇika).

In Pramāṇavārttika (PV) 2.136, when explaining śāstṛ, the meditation of long duration on means is mentioned. Considering the context, it appears that this meditation is performed by someone who aims to preach based on compassion. As the Pramāṇavārttikapañjikā (PVP) and Pramāṇasamuccyaṭīkā (PSṬ) express, this meditation on means is meditation on selflessness.

PVP and PSṬ hold that this meditation is performed not by śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas but by a bodhisattva who aims to preach. In the proof statement on selflessness meditation in PVP and PSṬ, the word kāruṇika is not mentioned. But it appears that TSP uses the word kāruṇika in the proof of omniscience based on PVP’s idea that this meditation is performed by a bodhisattva who aims to preach.

In light of TSP’s introduction, it is difficult to think that TSP is uninterested in compassion in its final chapter. Of course, TSP does not mention this idea directly. However, we can say that TSP, based on PV2 and PVP, holds that the meditation of duration on selflessness is motivated by compassion and done in order to preach.