Gelug

Conceptual Cognition Conceptual cognition mentally labels (‘dogs-pa) a metaphysical entity, such as a conceptual category or concept, onto a generic conceptual representation of a member of the category – either a nonstatic objective entity or another static metaphysical...

Mental Holograms in Non-conceptual Cognition In sensory non-conceptual cognition, an external object (phyi-don) casts (gtod) a mental aspect (rnam-pa) – or mental impression, mental image – of itself on the sensory consciousness that cognizes it. Mental aspects or images are...

Historical Introduction The Buddhist teachings on cognition theory and logic derive from the works of the late 5th-century Indian master Dignaga and of Dharmakirti, the late-6th century disciple of his disciple. Dignaga wrote A Compendium of Validly Cognizing Minds (Tshad-ma...

Decisive Determination and Apprehension A decisive determination (nges-shes, determining cognition) is a cognition that ascertains (nges-pa) its own object (rang-yul) correctly by decisively cutting it off from incorrect interpolations (sgro-’dogs bcad-pa) that it is something...

The Meaning of “Mind” in Buddhism I’ve been asked to come here this weekend to teach about appearances (snang-ba), how the mind makes appearances and the various problems that are associated with that. This is not a very simple topic, because in fact all our problems come...

Introduction The Tibetan word ngondro (sngon-’gro) is usually translated as “preliminary practices,” but Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, one of my main teachers, always emphasized that that’s not really the flavor of the word. Although literally it means “to go before,” so...

The varying traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, and different scholars within each tradition, present a wide array of explanations of affirmation phenomena (sgrub-pa, affirmingly known phenomena, affirmations) and negation phenomena (dgag-pa, negatingly known phenomena,...

Further Background Material Range of the Analysis Since the issue of free will versus determinism hinges on the understanding of “ not-yet-happenings,” let us focus our analysis, for the moment, primarily on them. Moreover, let us limit our discussion to the Gelug Prasangika...