[KCI-Indexed] The Epistemological Transition of saññā in Early Buddhist Texts

Abstract

This study philologically examines how the epistemological transition from sañjānāti (categorical re-cognition) to pajānāti (direct knowing) is embedded in early Buddhist texts. Through a verb-distribution analysis of the Mūlapariyāya Sutta (MN 1), the study demonstrates that the ordinary person's (puthujjana) sañjānāti → maññati sequence constitutes the epistemological mechanism of conceptual proliferation (papañca), while the good person's (sappurisa) abhijānāti structure represents direct knowing that bypasses this proliferative sequence.

The analysis employs a triangulation of three independent textual indicators: (1) types of cognitive verbs, (2) degree of explicit object specification, and (3) distribution of conceptual proliferation (papañca) verbs. Building on a preceding study that analyzed the gradient structure of cetanā (volition), this study applies the same triangulation framework to saññā.

The analysis identifies three descriptive modes of saññā: distorted perception (vipallāsa), cultivated perception (bhāvitā bahulīkatā), and transcendence (amanasikāra). The findings reveal an epistemological transition structure in which the weakening of sañjānāti-based categorical re-cognition corresponds to diminishing conceptual proliferation and the foregrounding of direct knowing (pajānāti). This transition structure converges in the Cūḷasuññata Sutta (MN 121), where the gradual backgrounding of saññā and the elimination of papañca verbs occur simultaneously.

By conducting a textual-structural analysis that existing studies — focused primarily on the conceptual definition and psychological role of saññā — had not addressed, this study demonstrates that the verb distribution of MN 1 structurally encodes the epistemological transition within the text itself, and proposes the methodological contribution of introducing the distribution of papañca verbs as an independent triangulation indicator. This approach offers a broader understanding of essential vocabulary in early Buddhist texts.

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