Cognition

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.

Distorted cognition is a way of knowing that takes its own object in an inverted manner.

Indecisive wavering is a mental factor in conceptual cognition that vacillates between two conclusions concerning its object.

A true stopping of impure appearance-making occurs only with enlightenment.

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.

The Indian Buddhist tenet systems present graded levels of understanding of how things exist like an illusion, which we can use in our daily lives.

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.

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.

To understand the Gelug Prasangika presentation of dependent arising and the voidness of self-established existence, we need to understand the distinctions between imputation, mental labeling and designation.