Master catalogue of all wiki pages, organised by type.
Start here
- overview — what this knowledge base covers and how the three root texts relate
- glossary — technical terms in Tibetan, Sanskrit and English
Texts
- pramanasamuccaya — Dignāga’s foundational Compendium of Valid Cognition
- pramanavartika — Dharmakīrti’s Commentary on Valid Cognition, the primary text in Tibet
- pramanayuktanidhi — Sakya Paṇḍita’s Treasury of Reasoning on Valid Cognition
Commentaries
Chapter-by-chapter summaries of two Chinese commentaries, rendered into English.
Fazun’s Abridged Exposition of the Pramāṇasamuccaya — 6 chapters
- chapter-1-perception — Ch.1: two pramāṇas, the four genuine and seven pseudo-perceptions, the result of valid cognition
- chapter-2-inference-for-oneself — Ch.2: the three-moded reason; five refutations
- chapter-3-inference-for-others — Ch.3: the probandum and the means of proof
- chapter-4-examples — Ch.4: similar and dissimilar examples; the pseudo-examples
- chapter-5-apoha — Ch.5: against verbal cognition as a third pramāṇa
- chapter-6-defeat-conditions — Ch.6: jāti, the parity-objection that only appears to find a fault
Khenpo Sodargye’s Lectures on the Pramāṇayuktanidhi — 11 chapters
- chapter-1-objects — Ch.1: the object as whatever cognition knows; against Chapa Chökyi Sengé
- chapter-2-cognition — Ch.2: cognition as clear awareness; valid and non-valid kinds
- chapter-3-universals-and-particulars — Ch.3: against a real universal-phenomenon
- chapter-4-proof-and-exclusion — Ch.4: appearance and exclusion as modes of apprehension
- chapter-5-expressed-and-expresser — Ch.5: whether language picks out the particular or the universal
- chapter-6-logical-connection — Ch.6: identity and causal connection, posited by conception alone
- chapter-7-contradiction — Ch.7: non-coexistence and mutual exclusion
- chapter-8-definitions — Ch.8: definition, definiendum, illustration; the definition of valid cognition
- chapter-9-perception — Ch.9: perception in four kinds; pseudo-perception; the result
- chapter-10-inference-for-oneself — Ch.10: the three kinds of reason
- chapter-11-inference-for-others — Ch.11: debate, victory and defeat; the colophon
Scholars
- dignaga — founder of the Buddhist logico-epistemological tradition (c. 480–540 CE)
- dharmakirti — central figure; elaborated Dignāga’s system (c. 600–660 CE)
- dharmottara — Indian commentator; philosophical school (c. 750–810 CE)
- cha-ba — established Tibetan “new epistemology” and debate format (1109–1169)
- sakya-pandita — most important Tibetan pramāṇa scholar; author of the Treasure (1182–1251)
- gorampa — definitive Sakya commentator on the Treasure (1429–1489)
- sakya-chok-den — brilliant, controversial Sakya thinker (1428–1507)
- ngok-lotsawa — translator; first native Tibetan to write on Indian logic; shifted Tibetan study from Dignāga to Dharmakīrti (1059–1109)
- shantarakshita — architect of the Yogācāra-Svātantrika-Madhyamaka synthesis (c. 725–783)
- gyel-tsap — most authoritative Gelug epistemologist (1364–1432)
- kay-drup — clearest Gelug philosophical writer on epistemology (1385–1438)
- berzin — contemporary scholar-practitioner; Gelug epistemology systematised in English (1944–)
Concepts
- valid-cognition — pramāṇa (ཚད་མ་); the central epistemological concept
- perception — pratyakṣa (མངོན་སུམ་); direct nonconceptual cognition
- inference — anumāna (རྗེས་དཔག་); conceptual cognition through reasoning
- specifically-characterised — svalakṣaṇa (རང་མཚན་); the real individual
- generally-characterised — sāmānyalakṣaṇa (སྤྱི་མཚན་); the conceptual construct
- apoha — exclusion/elimination (སེལ་བ་); Buddhist philosophy of language
- momentariness — kṣaṇika (སྐད་ཅིག་མ་); the doctrine of impermanence
- problem-of-universals — sāmānya (སྤྱི་); realism vs. antirealism about general properties
- scriptural-authority — āgama (ལུང་); the status of scripture as a source of knowledge
- self-awareness — svasaṃvedana (རང་རིག་); one of the four perceptions, and also a character of all cognition whatever; whether it has an object is disputed
- mental-activity — sems/citta (སེམས་); “mere clarity and awareness”; the definition of mind
- mental-hologram — rnam-pa (རྣམ་པ་); cognitive appearance; transparent (Gelug) vs. opaque (non-Gelug)
- conceptual-cognition — rtog-bcas (རྟོག་བཅས་); cognition through the medium of a conceptual category
- non-valid-cognition — tshad-min (ཚད་མིན་); the Sakya threefold system (non-realising, wrong conceptuality, doubt) and the refutation of the early-Tibetan five-type list
- subsequent-cognition — bcad-shes (བཅད་ཤེས་); re-cognition of an already-realised object; non-valid because it lacks novelty
Arguments
- realism-vs-antirealism — the central Sakya/Gelug debate on universals and ontology
- can-inference-be-valid — the problem of grounding inference in an antirealist ontology
- buddha-as-pramana — the positive establishment of the Buddha as a valid person via the forward and reverse sequences of PV Ch. 2
- proof-of-rebirth — Dharmakīrti’s refutation of Cārvāka materialism (PV 2.34d–119); mind cannot be produced from body
- refutation-of-vedic-authority — Dharmakīrti’s demolition of the Mīmāṃsā claim of Vedic authorlessness (PV 1.224–end)
- buddha-as-pramana — establishing the Buddha as valid cognition via compassion, training, and the four truths (PV Ch. 2)
- proof-of-rebirth — Dharmakīrti’s extended refutation of Cārvāka materialism (PV 2.34d–119)
Schools
- samkhya — Sāṃkhya (གྲངས་ཅན་པ་): prakṛti/puruṣa dualism and the one-substance universal; refuted across PS I & III, PV I & II, and PYN Chs. 3, 6–7
- nyaya — Nyāya (རིགས་པ་ཅན་པ་): perception as faculty–object contact, four means of valid cognition, the five-membered proof and the twenty-two points of defeat; refuted across PS I–V, PV I, III & IV, and PYN Chs. 9 & 11
- vaisesika — Vaiśeṣika (བྱེ་བྲག་པ་): the six categories, permanent atoms, the whole over its parts and the distinct-substance universal; refuted across PS I–V, PV I, II & IV, and PYN Chs. 3–7 & 9
- mimamsa — Mīmāṃsā (རྒྱལ་དཔྱོད་): the authorless Veda, the natural word–meaning relation, permanent sound and the denial of exceptional persons; refuted across PS I–II, PV I.224–339 & II, and PYN Chs. 4, 6, 9 & 11
Sources
- dreyfus-recognizing-reality — Dreyfus 1997, Recognizing Reality: Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations; the most comprehensive English study of the Tibetan reception of Dharmakīrti, organised around the Sakya/Gelug dispute on universals
- westerhoff-dignaga-dharmakirti — Westerhoff 2018, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, Ch.4: The School of Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti
- shantarakshita-madhyamakalankara-intro — Padmakara 2005, Translators’ Introduction to The Adornment of the Middle Way
- katsura-dignaga-lectures — Katsura 2007, Three Lectures on Dignāga (Lecture 1: Dignāga on What Exists and How to Know It)
- sonam-introduction-treasury — Pettican 2026, Introduction to Sakya Pandita’s Treasury of Valid Cognition
- berzin-science-of-mind — Berzin n.d., Science of Mind (9 chapters, studybuddhism.com); Gelug epistemology from Akya Yongdzin, with a non-Gelug column drawn from Dreyfus on Gorampa
- gorampa-pramanavartika — Gorampa 1474 / Kilty trans. 2022, Light of Samantabhadra: running Sakya commentary on PV Chs. 1–2 (Inference for Oneself; Pramāṇasiddhi, Establishment of Valid Cognition)
- dzongsar-class-cognition — Dzongsar Institute class slides: Investigation of Cognition (non-valid cognition, subsequent cognition); Universals and Particulars (Sde-bdun rab-gsal material)
- perdue-buddhist-reasoning-debate — Perdue 2014, The Course in Buddhist Reasoning and Debate (Snow Lion); pedagogical introduction to the Gelug Collected Topics (བསྡུས་གྲྭ་) debate tradition; the position the Treasury Ch. 2 refutes, presented in modern English
- sodargye-pramanayuktanidhi — Khenpo Sodargye 2006, 量理宝藏论讲解: an 84-lesson oral commentary on the whole of the Treasury, read through Rongtön and Gorampa with Mipham as the standing cross-reference
Translations
Working documents under translations/, one file per chapter. They are not part of the published wiki, so the entries below are a status listing rather than links.
Pramāṇasamuccaya (Dignāga) — 6 chapters
- Ch.1: མངོན་སུམ་གྱི་ལེའུ། (in review)
- Ch.2: རང་དོན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པའི་ལེའུ། (in review)
- Ch.3: གཞན་གྱི་དོན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པའི་ལེའུ། (in review)
- Ch.4: དཔེ་དང་དཔེ་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་བརྟག་པའི་ལེའུ། (in review)
- Ch.5: གཞན་སེལ་བརྟག་པའི་ལེའུ། (in review)
- Ch.6: ལྟག་ཆོད་བརྟག་པའི་ལེའུ། (in review)
Pramāṇavārttika (Dharmakīrti) — 4 chapters
- Ch.1: རང་དོན་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པ། (in review — curated; verses 1.1–1.340)
- Ch.2: ཚད་མ་གྲུབ་པ། (in review — full draft, verses 2.1–2.285)
- Ch.3: མངོན་སུམ། (not started)
- Ch.4: གཞན་གྱི་དོན་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པ། (not started)
Pramāṇayuktanidhi (Sakya Paṇḍita) — 11 chapters
- Ch.1: ཡུལ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.2: བློ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.3: སྤྱི་དང་བྱེ་བྲག་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.4: སྒྲུབ་པ་དང་གཞན་སེལ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.5: བརྗོད་བྱ་དང་རྗོད་བྱེད་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.6: འབྲེལ་པ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.7: འགལ་བ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.8: མཚན་ཉིད་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.9: མངོན་སུམ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.10: རང་དོན་རྗེས་དཔག་བརྟག་པ། (in review)
- Ch.11: གཞན་དོན་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པ་བརྟག་པ། (in review)