Ways of Knowing

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.

An explanation of the main features of the Bon tradition by the 34th Menri Trizin, the current spiritual leader of Bon.

An overview of the ways of knowing within the context and point of view of the different Indian Buddhist philosophical tenet systems.

An introduction to the system of ways of knowing (lorig), a major component of the Buddhist map of the mind. The text covers the various ways in which we cognize objects – valid, non-valid, conceptual, non-conceptual and so on.

All Indian Buddhist tenet systems, except Vaibhashika, agree that the validly knowable “me” is not a self-sufficiently knowable phenomenon, it is imputedly knowable.

The Tibetan debate process is a learning and clarifying process for ways of knowing, which is then intended for application in meditation and in practice.

The superficial and deepest truths of anything are those phenomena that the valid conceptual and non-conceptual cognitions, scrutinizing superficial truth on the one hand or deepest truth on the other, take as their involved objects and explicitly apprehend.

Understanding the difference between affirmation phenomena, which are known simply by affirming the presence or existence of something, and negation phenomena, known by negating the presence or existence of something, enables us to understand nonstaticness and voidness.

Presumptive cognition is an invalid cognition that conceptually takes its object correctly and freshly but presumes it to be true either for no reason, a wrong one, or even a right one but without understanding why it is correct.