The Second Treatise on the Perfections – 2792 

 

investigates whether a knowing principle exists or not and decides that it does. If 
there were no such thing as knowing, there would never be beings; all would 
have been sheer matter, such as stones, rocks and the like. Material things are 
far from knowing. But all beings do cognize various sense objects. When 
wisdom thus ponders, there manifests itself the principle (

citta

) which knows 

sense objects. 

Therefore, that mind exists, in an ultimate sense, is clear to those who think 
through wisdom; the more they think, the clearer they comprehend. But to those 
who see things through perception, it will not be clear; it will remain 
indiscernible, because, as has been said before, perception is an identification of 
shapes. When you say there is mind, the perceptionist may ask, “Is the mind 
round, flat or square? Is it a powder, a liquid, or a gas?” But you cannot answer 
that it is round, flat, or square, nor can you say that it is a powder, a liquid or a 
gas. If you cannot say anything, he may argue that there is no such thing as mind; 
because if there were such a thing, it must be round, flat or square; it must be a 
powder, a liquid or a gas. To the perceptionist, who is preoccupied with the idea 
of concrete forms, mind does not exist simply because it does not assume any 
concrete form. 

Just as the perceptionist cannot see the ultimate truth, so the intellectual cannot 
see 

[1626]

 conventional truth. When the intellectual takes a look at what has 

been named “man” by the perceptionist, he does so with an analytical mind and 
makes 32 portions of this person, such as hair on the head, hair on the body, 
fingernails, toenails, etc. “Is the hair on the head called man?” “Is hair on the 
body called man?” The answers to these questions cannot be in the affirmative. 
In the same way, when a similar question on each of the remaining portions of 
the human body is asked, the answer will be no every time. If none of these 
portions can be called “man,” the intellectual will say: “Well, there really does 
not exist such a thing called man.” 

Conventional truth appears only when it is seen through perception, but when 
seen through wisdom, it disappears, so also the ultimate truth, which appears 
when it is seen through wisdom; when seen through perception, it disappears. 

In this connection, what is particularly noteworthy is the fact that Nibbāna is an 
ultimate truth. This ultimate truth is peace through cessation of all kinds of 
sorrow and suffering. This peace can be discerned only when it is examined by 
means of sharp insight but not by means of perception.