Pramana

Dharmakirti

Pramana (Skt. pramāṇa; T. tshad ma, ཚད་མ་) is a Sanskrit term, the primary meaning and most common translation of which is 'valid cognition', meaning the correct knowledge of a particular object. The term is also used to refer to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on ontology and epistemology, where:

• ontology is the study of the nature of existence, and
• epistemology is the science of cognition, i.e. how we know things.

These fields of study are inextricably linked in Buddhism. The pioneers of these fields of study within the Sanskrit tradition are the Indian masters Dignaga and Dharmakirti.

Within Tibetan Buddhism, pramana (in the sense of ontology and epistemology) is taught in all traditional monastic universities (shedras), where it is the basis for scholastic debate. In this context the term is sometimes translated as 'Buddhist logic'.

Definition

The standard definition of pramana is "a non-deceptive cognition" (Skt. avisaṃvādi-jñāna; Tib. མི་བསླུ་བའི་ཤེས་པ་, Wyl. mi bslu ba'i shes pa). There is some debate, particularly amongst Tibetan commentators, as to whether the definition should also specify that a valid cognition realizes something anew (Tib. གསར་དུ་རྟོགས་པ་, Wyl. gsar du rtogs pa).

Subdivisions of 'valid cognition'

According to the Instruments of Knowledge

In the Buddhist tradition, a valid cognition can either be:

• a valid direct perception (pratyakṣa) or
• a valid inference (anumāna)

This twofold division is said to correspond to the two types of object: particulars (svalakṣaṇa), which are known through direct perception and universals (sāmānyalakṣaṇa), which are understood through inference.

Conventional and Absolute

In Mipham Rinpoche's tradition, valid cognition is often divided into conventional valid cognition and absolute valid cognition and these categories are then further subdivided into two:

1. Conventional valid cognition (tha snyad tshad ma)
   1. conventional valid cognition of ordinary limited vision, or valid cognition of ordinary limited vision investigating the conventional level of reality (ma dag tshur mthong tha synad dpyod pa'i tshad ma), and
   2. conventional valid cognition of pure vision, or valid cognition of pure vision investigating the conventional level of reality (dag pa'i gzigs snang tha snyad dpyod pa'i tshad ma)
2. Valid cognition of the absolute (don dam dpyod byed kyi tshad ma)
   1. Valid cognition of the categorized absolute (rnam grangs pa'i don dam dpyod byed kyi tshad ma)
   2. Valid cognition of the uncategorized absolute (rnam grangs ma yin pa'i don dam dpyod byed kyi tshad ma)

Major Texts

Indian

• Dignaga,

• Examining What is Observed (Skt. Ālambana-parīkṣā; Tib. དམིགས་པ་བརྟག་པ་, Wyl. dmigs pa brtag pa),

དམིགས་པ་བརྟག་པ་, dmigs pa brtag pa

• Compendium of Valid Cognition (Skt. Pramāṇa-samuccaya; Tib. ཚད་མ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ་, Wyl. tshad ma kun las btus pa)

ཚད་མ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ་, tshad ma kun las btus pa

• Dharmakirti,

• Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition (Skt. Pramanavartikadisapta-grantha-samgraha; Tib. ཚད་མ་སྡེ་བདུན་, Wyl. tshad ma sde bdun)

Tibetan

• Sakya Pandita, Treasury of Valid Reasoning

Alternative Translations

• Logic & epistemology
• Prime cognition
• Verifying cognition

Further Reading

• Georges B. J. Dreyfus, Recognizing Reality: Dharmakīrti's Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations, SUNY, 1997
• John D. Dunne, Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy, Wisdom Publications, 2004
• Marcus Perman, Tshad Ma Literature: Towards a History of Tibetan Buddhist Epistemology, unpublished M.A. thesis, 2006.
• Tom J. F. Tillemans, Scripture, logic, language: essays on Dharmakīrti and his Tibetan successors, Wisdom Publications, 1999
• Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2006), pages 60-64.