Svasaṃvedana

Lore & Background

The theory of svasaṃvedana was first presented by the Mahāsāṃghika school, whose view was preserved in the Sarvāstivāda compendium Mahāvibhāṣa. They held that awareness can apprehend itself as well as others, like a lamp illuminating itself and others. The Sarvāstivāda-Vaibhāṣika school argued against this, developing their own theory that mind moments know themselves only reflexively through past mind moments. The Sautrāntika school, particularly Harivarman, argued that self-cognition occurs in successive moments of cognition, involving the mind grasping an image of itself as it fades.

Reader's Guide

Dignāga defended svasaṃvedana as a kind of perception (pratyakṣa) and a valid means to knowledge, giving three reasons: without self-reflexive nature there would be no difference between cognition of an object and awareness of that cognition; if cognition only grasped itself, earlier content would be lost; memory proves self-reflexive nature because one remembers both object and former cognition. Dharmakīrti argued that cognition and its object are perceived together, and that cognition cannot be cognized by another cognition without infinite regress. The Yogācāra-Madhyamaka school, through Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, returned to a more soteriological understanding, seeing self-cognition as the very nature of consciousness. In Tibetan Buddhism, svasaṃvedana is a major doctrinal disagreement: the Gelug school, following Tsongkhapa, denies its conventional and ultimate existence, while the Nyingma school, through Mipham, defends its conventional existence. In Dzogchen, it is seen as the primordial ground of mind, often metaphorically referred to as luminosity.

Did You Know?

• The Mahāsāṃghika school compared svasaṃvedana to a lamp that illuminates itself and others.
• Dignāga argued that memory proves self-reflexive nature because one remembers both the object and one's former cognition of it.
• The Gelug school, following Tsongkhapa, completely denies both the conventional and ultimate existence of reflexive awareness.
• In Dzogchen, svasaṃvedana is metaphorically referred to as 'luminosity' or 'clear light'.