Substantial and imputed existents

རང་ཉིད་ངོས་གཟུང་བ་ལ་ཆོས་གཞན་ངོས་གཟུང་བ་ལ་ལྟོས་མི་དགོས་པ། རྫས་ཡོད་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།
Definition of substantial existent: That which does not necessarily depends upon an apprehension of another phenomenon in order to apprehend it.

Four interpretations:

1. Substantial existence in the sense of being stable and unchanging བརྟན་པ་མི་འགྱུར་བའི་རྫས་ཡོད།
   i.e. all permanent phenomena
2. Substantial existence in the sense of being able to perform a function དོན་བྱེད་ནུས་པའི་རྫས་ཡོད།
   i.e. all impermanent phenomena
3. Substantial existence in the sense of being proven through reasoning རིགས་པས་གྲུབ་པའི་རྫས་ཡོད།
   Also: Substantial existence in the sense of being observed by valid cognition ཚད་མས་དམིགས་པའི་རྫས་ཡོད།
   i.e. all phenomena
4. Self-sufficient substantial existence རང་རྐྱ་ཐུབ་པའི་རྫས་ཡོད།

Only the fourth is fully qualified (མཚན་ཉིད་ཚང་བ།).

Sautrantika-Svatantrika further posit:

1. Composite forms (བསགས་པའི་གཟུགས།) as being composite substantial existents (བསགས་པའི་རྫས་ཡོད།)
   e.g. atoms or parts making up a pot
   i.e. self-sufficient wholes (do not require prior apprehension of parts)
2. Grouped forms (བསྡུ་བའི་གཟུགས།) as being grouped substantial existents (བསྡུ་བའི་རྫས་ཡོད།)
   e.g. trees that make up a forest
   i.e. imputed wholes (require prior apprehension of parts)

རང་ཉིད་ངོས་གཟུང་བ་ལ་ཆོས་གཞན་ངོས་གཟུང་བ་ལ་ལྟོས་དགོས་པ། བཏགས་ཡོད་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།
Definition of imputed existent: That which necessarily depends upon an apprehension of another phenomenon in order to apprehend it.

Prasangika posit this as a coarse imputed existence; subtle imputed existents are divided into:

1. Imputed existence in the sense of being imputed in dependence upon a different basis of designation
   གདགས་གཞི་གཞན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་བཏགས་པའི་བཏགས་ཡོད།
   i.e. all phenomena are phenomena imputed upon bases of imputation (བརྟགས་ཆོས། བརྟགས་གཞི།)
2. Imputed existence in the sense of being posited by names and terms མིང་དང་བརྡའི་བཞག་པའི་བརྟགས་ཡོད།
   i.e. referents of names and terms are not findable
3. Imputed existence in the sense of being merely imputed by conceptuality རྟོག་པས་བཏགས་ཙམ་གྱིས་བཏགས་ཡོད།
   i.e. all phenomena exist only because of being imputed (/imputable) by valid conceptuality

Difference in Tenets:

• Vaibhashika:
  • Substantial existents are mutually inclusive with ultimate truths
  • Imputed existents are mutually inclusive with conventional truths
• Sautantrika / Cittamatra / Svatantrika:
  • Substantial existents: Impermanent included within forms and consciousnesses
  • Imputed existents:
    • Impermanent included within non-concomitant compositional factors
    • Permanent phenomena
• Prasangika: All phenomena are imputed existents
  • Coarse: e.g. the person being designated in dependence upon its aggregates
  • Subtle: e.g. the person (designated-phenomenon) not being findable upon seeking it within its basis of designation, but still existing through being merely designated by conceptuality

Up a level: Madhyamaka

See also: https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/lam-rim/emptiness-advanced/self-sufficiently-knowable-and-imputedly-knowable-objects