Cognition

With non-determining cognition, the involved object of the cognition appears clearly and accurately, but without a decisive determination of it.

Subsequent cognition is an invalid awareness that apprehends what has already been apprehended.

Bare cognition is a fresh, nonfraudulent awareness that is non-deceptive and parted from concepts.

A semblance of a bare cognition is an awareness that is deceptive with respect to its appearing object.

Conceptual cognition is a deceptive cognition, because it confuses a category and generic representation of a member of a category with a specific item. Western languages call such conceptual labeling “projection.”

We need a detailed map of all possible ways of knowing and states of mind so that we can always identify what is occurring on our mental continuum, so that we can guide ourselves toward any constructive goal.

According to the Sautrantika tenet system, there are seven ways of knowing an object. To understand the seven in more detail, we first need to know what a way of knowing (“lorig” in Tibetan) is.

The various Tibetan Buddhist traditions differ as to the voidness non-conceptually cognized by each of the three types of practitioners – shravaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattva – when becoming an arya.

All apprehensions explicitly apprehend one or more involved objects. Not all, however, implicitly apprehend anything.

The Gelug explanation of how all our problems come about because of confusion about appearances, how the mind makes appearances and what is arising and engaged with when we talk about mental activity.