svasaṃvedana

Sanskrit Noun

svasaṃvedana

self-awareness

स्वसंवेदन

རང་རིག་

自證分

Basic Meaning

An important term for the Yogācāra that refers to a consciousness of consciousness itself, or how one knows that they know something. It was a hotly debated topic that was disputed by followers of the Madhyamaka. In Tibet it would later become a common Dzogchen term, though with the entirely different meaning of one's own innate awareness (rig pa), a crucial concept in the Dzogchen teachings.

On this topic

Video

Anne Burchardi: Why the Buddha-Nature Teachings were Taught according to the Uttaratantrashastra

Burchardi, Anne. "Why the Buddha-Nature Teachings were Taught according to the Uttaratantrashastra." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, December 18, 2021. Video, 24:22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGOlGy59bMU.

Burchardi, Anne. "Why the Buddha-Nature Teachings were Taught according to the Uttaratantrashastra." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, December 18, 2021. Video, 24:22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGOlGy59bMU.;Anne Burchardi: Why the Buddha-Nature Teachings were Taught according to the Uttaratantrashastra;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;svasaṃvedana;Anne Burchardi: Why the Buddha-Nature Teachings were Taught according to the Uttaratantrashastra

Video

Hong Luo at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

Hong Luo discusses Ratnākaraśānti’s understanding of self-awareness (svasaṃvedana/svasaṃvitti) and its relationship to buddha-nature in his Prajñāpāramitopadeśa.

Luo, Hong. "Observing the Link between Self-awareness and Buddha Nature in Ratnākaraśānti’s Prajñāpāramitopadeśa." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 39:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5iFwWLJUAc.

Luo, Hong. "Observing the Link between Self-awareness and Buddha Nature in Ratnākaraśānti’s Prajñāpāramitopadeśa." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 39:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5iFwWLJUAc.;Hong Luo at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Ratnākaraśānti;History of buddha-nature in India;Paramārtha;Sthiramati;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Yogācāra;trisvabhāva;ālayavijñāna;svasaṃvedana;prabhāsvara;prabhāsvaracitta;Hong Luo;Observing the Link between Self-awareness and Buddha Nature in Ratnākaraśānti’s Prajñāpāramitopadeśa

Article

Is Yogācāra Phenomenology? Some Evidence from the Cheng weishi lun

There have been several attempts of late to read Yogācāra through the lens of Western phenomenology. I approach the issue through a reading of the Cheng weishi lun (Treatise on the Perfection of Consciousness Only), a seventh-century Chinese compilation that preserves the voices of multiple Indian commentators on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikāvijñaptikārikā (Thirty Verses on Consciousness). Specifically, I focus on the "five omnipresent mental factors" (pañcasarvatraga, Chin. wu bianxing xinsuo) and the “four aspects” (Chin. sifen) of cognition. These two topics seem ripe, at least on the surface, for phenomenological analysis, particularly as the latter topic includes a discussion of “self-awareness” (svasaṃvedana, svasaṃvitti, Chin. zizheng). Yet we find that the Cheng weishi lun account has little in common with the tradition associated with Husserl and his heirs. The categories and modes of analysis in the Cheng weishi lun do not emerge from or aver to a systematic reflection on the nature of “lived experience” so much as they are focused on subliminal processes and metaphysical entities that belong to the domain of the noumenal. In my conclusion I suggest that the later pramāṇa tradition associated with Dignāga and Dharmakīrti—a tradition that profoundly influenced later Yogācāra exegesis in Tibet—did indeed take a “phenomenological turn.” But my comparison shows that both traditions falter when it comes to relating conceptual content to non-conceptual experience, and thus there is reason to be skeptical about claims that phenomenology is epistemologically grounded in how the world presents itself first-personally.

Sharf, Robert H. "Is Yogācāra Phenomenology? Some Evidence from the Cheng weishi lun." Journal of Indian Philosophy 44, no. 4 (2016): 777–807. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8tt564hz

Sharf, Robert H. "Is Yogācāra Phenomenology? Some Evidence from the Cheng weishi lun." Journal of Indian Philosophy 44, no. 4 (2016): 777–807. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8tt564hz;Is Yogācāra Phenomenology? Some Evidence from the Cheng weishi lun;Yogācāra;svasaṃvedana;Robert Sharf;&nbsp

Article

Self-Awareness (Svasaṃvitti) and Related Doctrines of Buddhists Following Dignāga

Framed as a consideration of the other contributions to the present volume of the Journal of Indian Philosophy, this essay attempts to scout and characterize several of the interrelated doctrines and issues that come into play in thinking philosophically about the doctrine of svasaṃvitti, particularly as that was elaborated by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. Among the issues thus considered are the question of how mānasapratyakṣa (which is akin to manovijñāna) might relate to svasaṃvitti; how those related doctrines might be brought to bear with respect to some problems addressed with reference to the further doctrine (also closely related to svasaṃvitti) concerning pramāṇaphala; and the distinctiveness of Dharmakīrti’s sahopalambhaniyama argument for svasaṃvitti. A question recurrently considered throughout the essay has to do with whether (following Akeel Bilgrami) svasaṃvitti reflects a perceptual or a constitutive understanding of self-awareness.

Arnold, Dan. "Self-Awareness (Svasaṃvitti) and Related Doctrines of Buddhists Following Dignāga." Journal of Indian Philosophy 38 (2010): 323–78.

Arnold, Dan. "Self-Awareness (Svasaṃvitti) and Related Doctrines of Buddhists Following Dignāga." Journal of Indian Philosophy 38 (2010): 323–78.;Self-Awareness (Svasaṃvitti) and Related Doctrines of Buddhists Following Dignāga;svasaṃvedana;Daniel A. Arnold;&nbsp

Article

Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedana) in Dignāga's Pramāṇasamuccaya and -vṛtti: A Close Reading

The concept of "self-awareness" (svasaṃvedana) enters Buddhist epistemological discourse in the Pramāṇasamuccaya and -vṛtti by Dignāga (ca. 480–540), the founder of the Buddhist logico-epistemological tradition. Though some of the key passages have already been dealt with in various publications, no attempt has been made to comprehensively examine all of them as a whole. A close reading is here proposed to make up for this deficit. In connection with a particularly difficult passage (PS(V) 1.8cd-10) that presents the means of valid cognition and its result (pramāṇa/pramāṇaphala), a new interpretation is suggested, inspired by the commentary of Jinendrabuddhi. This interpretation highlights an aspect of self-awareness that has hitherto not been claimed for Dignāga: self-awareness offers essentially subjective access to one’s own mental states and factors.

Kellner, Birgit. "Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedana) in Dignāga's Pramāṇasamuccaya and -vṛtti: A Close Reading." In "Buddhist Theories of Self-awareness (svasamvedana): Reception and Critique." Special issue, Journal of Indian Philosophy 38, no. 3 (2010): 203–31.

Kellner, Birgit. "Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedana) in Dignāga's Pramāṇasamuccaya and -vṛtti: A Close Reading." In "Buddhist Theories of Self-awareness (svasamvedana): Reception and Critique." Special issue, Journal of Indian Philosophy 38, no. 3 (2010): 203–31.;Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedana) in Dignāga's Pramāṇasamuccaya and -vṛtti: A Close Reading;svasaṃvedana;Birgit Kellner;&nbsp

Book

The Reflexive Nature of Awareness (2000)

According to the Tibetan Tsong Kha pa one of the eight difficult points in understanding Madhyamaka philosophy is the way in which Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka does not accept even conventionally that reflexivity is an essential part of awareness — that in being aware there is also an awareness of being aware (rang rig). One of the most sysyematic and detailed refutations of Tsong kha pa's approach to this issue can be found in the commentary to the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryaāvatāra by the rNyingma lama Mi pham (1846–1912), together with Mi pham's own replies to his subsequent critics. In the course of this Mi pham reveals a vision of what is going on in the Madhyamaka which is rather different from the more familiar Tibetan approach of Tsong kha pa.
Paul Williams places this controversy in its Indian and Tibetan context. He traces in detail Mi pham's position in his commentary on the Bodhicaryaāvatāra, the attack of one of his opponents, and his response, as well as indicating ways in which this controversy over the nature of awareness may be important within the context of Mi pham's rNyingma heritage of rDzogs chen thought and practice.
This book is the first book length study of its subject, and also includes a reprint of a previous paper by Williams on the reflexive nature of awareness, as well as the relevant Tibetan texts from Mi pham. The book will be of interest to all students of Indian and Tibetan Madhyamaka, as well as associated areas of Buddhist thought such as Yogācāra and the philosophy of Dharmakīrti. It will also be of value to those concerned with the intelectual foundations of rDzogs chen. (Source: Back cover of Routledge 2013 edition)

Williams, Paul. The Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000. First published 1998 by Curzon Press (Richmond, UK).

Williams, Paul. The Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000. First published 1998 by Curzon Press (Richmond, UK).;The Reflexive Nature of Awareness (2000);Tsong kha pa;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Madhyamaka;svasaṃvedana;Śāntarakṣita;Prajñākaramati;Paul Williams;The Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence

Article

The Role of Rang Rig in the Pramāṇa-Based Gzhan Stong of the Seventh Karma pa

In the present chapter I will discuss how the seventh Karma pa, Chos grags rgya mtsho (1454-1506), connects rang rig,'"`UNIQ--ref-0000140F-QINU`"' in the sense of tshad ma'i 'bras bu (San: pramāṇaphala),'"`UNIQ--ref-00001410-QINU`"' with tathāgatagarbha in his major work, the Rig gzhung rgya mtsho.'"`UNIQ--ref-00001411-QINU`"' Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi 'byung gnas (1699-1776) has pointed out that "there were several different brands of gzhan stong, among which he adhered most closely to that of the Seventh Lord and Zi lung pa, which was somewhat different than that of Dol po pa."'"`UNIQ--ref-00001412-QINU`"' This statement points to the fact that the kind of gzhan stong ("empty-of-other" doctrine) that Si tu Paṇ chen blended with mahāmudrā and spread throughout the Karma Bka' brgyud pa traditions of Khams was derived from the seventh Karma pa.'"`UNIQ--ref-00001413-QINU`"'
The seventh Karma pa also influenced the great Sa skya scholar Shākya mchog Idan's later writings. While the seventh Karma pa is remembered as one of the most outstanding masters of the lineage and the founder of the Karma bka' brgyud bshad grwa at Mtshur phu, Shākya mchog Idan is described as "the most influential advocate of the gzhan stong in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries."'"`UNIQ--ref-00001414-QINU`"' Both masters are, in their own ways, still sources of the continued presence of an influential type of modified gzhan stong in the Bka' brgyud tradition,'"`UNIQ--ref-00001415-QINU`"' distinct from Dol po pa's position.'"`UNIQ--ref-00001416-QINU`"' The seventh Karma pa's Rigs gzhung rgya mtsho was studied at all the bshad grwas of the Karma Bka' brgyud tradition, with special emphasis on the first and the third part of the text,'"`UNIQ--ref-00001417-QINU`"' while Shākya mchog ldan's writings have played an important role in the 'Brug pa Bka' rgyud bshad grwa tradition of Bhutan.'"`UNIQ--ref-00001418-QINU`"'

Burchardi, Anne. "The Role of Rang Rig in the Pramāṇa-Based Gzhan Stong of the Seventh Karma pa." In Mahāmudrā and the Bka'-brgyud Tradition: PIATS 2006: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Eleventh Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Konigswinter 2006, edited by Roger R. Jackson and Matthew T. Kapstein, 317-44. Andiast, Switzerland: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, 2011.

Burchardi, Anne. "The Role of Rang Rig in the Pramāṇa-Based Gzhan Stong of the Seventh Karma pa." In Mahāmudrā and the Bka'-brgyud Tradition: PIATS 2006: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Eleventh Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Konigswinter 2006, edited by Roger R. Jackson and Matthew T. Kapstein, 317-44. Andiast, Switzerland: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, 2011.;The Role of Rang Rig in the Pramāṇa-Based Gzhan Stong of the Seventh Karma pa;Karmapa, 7th;gzhan stong;svasaṃvedana;tathāgatagarbha;Anne Burchardi; &nbsp

Article

We Are All Gzhan stong pas: Reflections on the Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence by Paul Williams

The present review article discusses aspects of Paul Williams' excellent and highly recommended book, which focuses on the question of "reflexive awareness" (Tib. reng rig), Skt. svasaṃvittiḥ, svasaṃvedana) in Tibetan Mādhyamika thought. In particular, I am concerned with his characterization of so so rang rig ye shes and its relation to Rdzogs-chen teaching, and his notions of the gzhan stong doctrine and its place in the intellectual life of Far-eastern Tibet. My critical remarks on these topics are in many respects tentative, and I would welcome correspondence about them.

Kapstein, Matthew. "We Are All Gzhan stong pas: Reflections on The Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence by Paul Williams." Journal of Buddhist Ethics 7 (2000): 105–25.

Kapstein, Matthew. "We Are All Gzhan stong pas: Reflections on The Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence by Paul Williams." Journal of Buddhist Ethics 7 (2000): 105–25.;We Are All Gzhan stong pas: Reflections on the Reflexive Nature of Awareness-Review by Kapstein;Madhyamaka;svasaṃvedana;gzhan stong;Matthew Kapstein;&nbsp

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Term Variations
Key Term	svasaṃvedana
Topic Variation	svasaṃvedana
Tibetan	རང་རིག་ ( rangrik)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	rang rig ( rangrik)
Devanagari Sanskrit	स्वसंवेदन
Chinese	自證分
Chinese Pinyin	zìzhèngfēn
Japanese Transliteration	jishō
Korean Transliteration	chajŭng
Buddha-nature Site Standard English	self-awareness
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	self-aware(ness)
Richard Barron's English Term	self-knowing awareness [Dzogchen], self-aware(ness) [Yogachara], reflexive consciousness
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	self-cognizing consciousness, self-knowing
Sarah Harding's English Term	reflexive awareness
Dan Martin's English Term	reflexive awareness
Gyurme Dorje's English Term	intrinsic awareness, reflexive awareness
Term Information
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	An important term for the Yogācāra that refers to a consciousness of consciousness itself, or how one knows that they know something. It was a hotly debated topic that was disputed by followers of the Madhyamaka. In Tibet it would later become a common Dzogchen term, though with the entirely different meaning of one's own innate awareness (rig pa), a crucial concept in the Dzogchen teachings.
Term Type	Noun
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 882: In Sanskrit, lit.“self-knowledge” or “self-awareness,” also seen written as svasaṃveda, svasaṃvit, svasaṃvitti. In Buddhist epistemology, svasaṃvedana is that part of consciousness which, during a conscious act of seeing, hearing, thinking, and so on, apprehends not the external sensory object but the knowing consciousness itself.