『解深密経』の言語哲学 : 言葉が動き始める時

The Paramārthasamudgata chapter of the Saṁdhinirmocanasūtra explores the philosophy of language from the perspective of the early Yogācāra school, predating the establishment of the Mind-only theory, within the framework of three characters or *trilakṣaṇa (later commonly known as three natures or trisvabhāva): the imagined, the dependent, and the perfected. Tsong kha pa, the founder of the Dge lugs pa in Tibet, and his successors meticulously analyze the sūtra along with Woncheuk’s commentary, elucidating the fundamental tenets of its philosophy of language. The present paper reexamines the early Yogācāra’s philosophy of language, which has already been extensively studied, with a new perspective based on the discussion of the three characters in the opening section of Tsong kha pa’s Legs bshad snying po and commentaries on it. The main points can be summarized as follows.
The phenomenal world, existing prior to linguistic conceptualization, i.e., the dependent, exists as the domain of conceptual cognition (vikalpagocara) or as the sign of concept formation (saṁskāranimitta). It serves as the foundation for conceptuality, providing the material for linguistic expression. The imagined, formulated through concept formation, not only depends on conceptual cognition but also exists from its own side (rang ngos nas grub pa). The imagined manifests its existence towards cognition, and conceptual cognition initiates the process of concept formation towards the imagined object. Conceptuality is achieved through this process of interaction.
However, there persists a common misconception among ordinary beings that the imagined character exists entirely independently of language and cognition, as if it were established solely based on its specific character (svalakṣaṇa) serving as the foundation for determination. Consequently, they find themselves entrapped in a stagnant conceptuality, losing sight of the vibrant phenomenal world. The Āryas, through their consciousness during meditative equipoise, recognize the unreality of the imagined character within the dependent. In that moment, they perceive the absence of the imagined, which is ascertained as the perfected character. Furthermore, upon emerging from meditation, they perceive the bare phenomenal world, i.e., the dependent, which is entirely free from the imagined character.
According to the Dge lugs pa’s analysis, the Yogācāra’s philosophy of language reveals the interplay between cognition and conceptualized objects. The conceptuality is achieved through movement from the side of cognition toward the other side (phar) and from the side of concepts toward this side (tshur). Drawing inspiration from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, this interaction can be termed a chiasme or intertwining. The chiasme, emerging when language is set in motion, forms the basis of the philosophy of language expounded in the Saṁdhinirmocanasūtra, as discovered by the Dge lugs pa scholars.