Richard H. Robinson, The Buddhist Religion (Belmont,
Calif.: Wadsworth, 1986).
buddhi
Buddhi is a technical term in the SAMKHYA YOGA
system that refers to discriminative intellect. Ulti-
mately, one seeks to calm the mind so that the
discriminative intellect or buddhi will be able to
discern the clear division between the self or soul
and the whirling world of phenomena. This dis-
cernment is a crucial step in the liberation of the
self from the cycle of birth and rebirth. The buddhi
is considered to have the greatest predominance
of sattva (purity) of anything in existence. Ulti-
mately, however, liberation can occur only when
buddhi, too, is transcended (in consciousness), as
it too is part of the world of phenomena and, in
its own way, a hindrance to the highest spiritual
realization.Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Phi-
losophy. Vol. 1 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975); Gerald
Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, Sankhya: A Dual-
ist Tradition in Indian Philosophy, Encyclopedia of Indian
Philosophies. Vol. 4 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1987); ———, Classical Sankhya: An Interpretation
of Its History and Meaning (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Ross/
Erikson, 1979); S. K. Saksena, Essays on Indian Philoso-
phy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970).buddhi 97 J