Samkhya

(Konchog Jigme Wangpo:) Sāṃkhyas follow the Sage Kapila.

They assert that objects of knowledge are definite in number as twenty-five; the twenty-five are:

Self [Puruṣa]
Principal-Generality [Prakṛti]
The Great [Mahat / Intellect, buddhi]
Ego [Ahaṁkāra]
The Five Sense Objects [Tanmātra]
- The Five Sense Objects are form, sound, smell, taste, and tactile.
The Eleven Faculties [Indriya]
- The Five Faculties of Awareness [Buddhīndriya]
  - The faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.
- The Five Faculties of the Body [Karmendriya]
  - Speech, arms, legs, anus, and genitalia.
- The Mental Faculty [Manas]
The Five Elements [Bhūta]
- Earth, water, fire, air, and space.

Among these, the Being [Puruṣa] is consciousness and the remaining twenty-four are asserted as matter due to being collections and aggregations.

The Principal-Generality and Being are asserted as ultimate truths; whereas the others are conventional truths.

Moreover, there are four possibilities:

Those that are causes but not effects;
Those that are both causes and effects;
Those that are effects but not causes;
Those that are neither causes nor effects.

The first is the Principal-Generality. The second are the seven: Intellect, Ego, and the Five Sense Objects. The third are the remaining sixteen. The fourth is the Being.

Moreover, the Tantra of Black Īśvara says:
The Fundamental Nature is non-manifest; The seven, the Great and so forth, are manifestations of the Nature;
The sixteen are manifestations; The Being is not a nature and non-manifest.

Moreover, Fundamental Nature, Generality, and Principal are mutually inclusive and are objects of knowledge possessing six distinguishing features.

(Jangkya Tenets:) The Fundamental Nature or Principal-Generality possesses six distinguishing features:

The creator/doer of actions and so forth ལས་སོགས་བྱེད་པ་པོ།
Due to being unproduced, it is permanent མ་སྐྱེས་པས་རྟག་པ།
Due to being partless, it is unitary ཆ་མེད་པས་གཅིག་པུ།
Due to lacking mind, it is only an object སེམས་མེད་པས་ཡུལ་ཁོ་ན།
It pervades all containers and contained སྣོད་བཅུད་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཁྱབ་པ།
It is the three qualities [i.e. rajas, sattva, tamas] in equilibrium ཡོན་ཏན་གསུམ་ཆ་མཉམ་པ།

The Being, Self, Consciousness, and Knower are mutually inclusive and synonymous.

(Jangkya Tenets:) The Being or Self possesses the characteristics of:

Being the nature of consciousness ཤེས་པའི་ངོ་བོ་ཡིན་པ།
Not being the creator of the transformations རྣམ་འགྱུར་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་པ་པོ་མིན་པ།
Due to being unproduced, it is permanent མ་སྐྱེས་པས་རྟག་པ།
Due to utilising happiness and suffering, it is the experiencer བདེ་སྡུག་ལ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་པས་ཟ་པོ།
Without the three qualities ཡོན་ཏན་གསུམ་མེད་པ།
Pervading all migrators འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཁྱབ་པ།
Due to being devoid of parts, unitary ཆ་ཤས་དང་བྲལ་བས་གཅིག་པུ།
Due to being without beginning and end, it is limitless ཐོག་མ་དང་ཐ་མ་མེད་པས་མཐའ་མེད་པ།

The mode of arising of the remaining twenty-three is that when the Being generates a desire to utilise objects, the Fundamental Nature emanates manifestations such as sounds and so forth.

Moreover, the Great arises from the Principal; Intellect and the Great are synonyms and are asserted to be like a two-sided mirror in which the reflections of objects dawn from outside and the Being dawns from inside.

From that arises Ego; when Ego is divided there are three:

Activity [Rajas] dominated Ego
Lightness [Sattva] dominated Ego
Darkness [Tamas] dominated Ego

From the first arise the Five Sense Objects and from those the Five Elements.
From the second arise the Eleven Faculties.
The third is said to engage the other two Egos.

Moreover, the two – the Nature that is like an abled blind person and the Being that is like a disabled sighted person – are mistaken for being one; it is asserted that we cycle through the force of not knowing the way in which the manifestations are emanated by the Fundamental Nature.

When, in dependence upon listening to instructions taught by a guru, one has produced a superior consciousness ascertaining that these manifestations are nothing more than the emanations of the Nature, one gradually separates from attachment to objects.

At that time, one generates the clairvoyance of the Divine Eye in dependence upon concentration and when that clairvoyance observes the Principal, the Principal is filled with embarrassment, like another’s wife; the manifestations gather and the Nature abides alone. At that time, all conventional appearances have been eliminated from the perspective of the yogi’s awareness; there is no utilisation of objects by the Being and it abides without activity. At the time, liberation has been attained.

Up a level: Tenets / Refuting a self that is a different entity from the aggregates imputed by Non-Buddhists