Jñanasrimitra

[3][4] Jñanasrimitra's philosophical work focused on Buddhist logic and epistemology (pramāṇa), especially the theory of "exclusion" (apoha) outlined by Dignaga (c. 480 – c. 540 CE) and how it relates to the philosophy of language, meaning and the nature of conceptual thoughts and awareness.

"[6] Jñanasrimitra was a defender of Yogācāra idealism, affirming that "this entire triple-world is established to be nothing but consciousness (vijñaptimātra).

[2] Nirakaravadins like Ratnākaraśānti say that false imagination (vikalpa) can make an unreal object manifest to awareness.

[2] Jñānaśrīmitra's main problem with this view is that if reality is not determined by what manifests to consciousness, how can you have any confidence in any subsequent defeater cognition?

[2] One critique of Jñānaśrīmitra's Sākāravada view is that if our conventional appearances are true and not in error, we would always already know the ultimate truth and there would be no need for a spiritual path or epistemology.

According to Davey K. Tomlinson, Jñānaśrīmitra's response is to propose "a complex system that sharply divides what is manifest from what is constructed through determination (adhyavasāya) by processes of exclusion (apoha).

Jñānaśrīmitra's Sākārasiddhi says:This is how it really works: Right as it is arising with some appearance (ākāra), conceptual construction (vikalpa)—propelled by diverse, beginningless habituations and relying upon a particular causal condition that awakens it—lays down the continuity of a recollection of the accomplishment of an aim (arthakriyā) (a desire and so on), which is conducive to externally directed activity (bahirmukhapravṛttyanukūla).

Conceptual awareness events also contain attachment and desire, which propels an activity which is directed away from the experience of the image itself.

This appearance is such that it can support the conceptual construction of a "cake" (through attachment to pleasure, memory, and karmic habits) in our minds.

This also means all reasoning and epistemology are also conventional, and they cannot disprove the sheer manifestation of awareness itself, which is clearly present, and phenomenally obvious.

[2] In his Sākārasiddhiśāstra, Jñānaśrīmitra seeks to explain a difficult issue, mainly how a variegated mental image (citravijñāne), like a multi-coloured butterfly wing, can possibly be experienced.

The problem here is that this variegated experience does not seem unitary, but if it is manifold, this seems to refute the idea that an awareness ent is an undifferentiated non-dual consciousness.

[2] Jñānaśrīmitra argues that this binary opposition (unity and manifoldness) is a type of determination, a conceptual distinction which does not manifest to non-dual awareness.

The key point for Jñānaśrīmitra is that what makes something metaphysically real is that it manifests to awareness, not whether it can be understood as one thing or as manifold.

The Vṛttamālāstuti was composed by Jñānaśrīmitra as a devotional poem to the bodhisattva Manjushri and follows the standard Sanskrit poetic metre.