How To Develop and Recognize Valid Cognition: Critical Thinking, and Yogic Direct Perception

Beginning Tuesday, 2/23/21 from 4-6pm PST / 7 - 9pm EST

12 Week Course

For those with a serious interest in Buddhist Studies, this is a twelve week advanced Dharma series on provisional reality and ultimate reality (commonly referred to as the Two Truths (Sanskrit: dvasatya; Tibetan: བདེན་པ་གཉིས་, denpa nyi) and what constitutes valid cognition and valid perception within these two scopes.

To take this course, preferably you have a serious background in Buddhist Studies and a meditation practice.

Foundational Buddhist debate structures will also be offered and the application of these critical thinking skills to modern ethical examples will keep the class lively and somewhat entertaining despite the sometimes dry scholastic nature of these ancient texts.

Background
Pramana (Skt. pramāṇa; Tibetan: ཚད་མ་, tsema) 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 epistemology (the science of cognition, i.e. how we know things) and ontology (which investigates the nature of existence), as these two are inextricably linked in Buddhism.

The pioneers of these teachings are the Indian masters Dignaga and Dharmakirti. Pramana is taught in all shedras (monastic colleges) since it is the basis for debate, an important learning tool in traditional monastic universities. In this context the term is sometimes translated as 'Buddhist logic'.

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
According to the Instruments of Knowledge In the Buddhist tradition, a valid cognition can either be:

* a valid direct perception (Skt. pratyakṣa ; Tib. མངོན་སུམ་, Wyl. mngon sum tshad ma) or
* a valid inference (Skt. anumāna; Tib. རྗེས་དཔག་, Wyl. rjes dpag)

This twofold division is said to correspond to the two types of object: particulars, which are known through direct perception and universals, 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)
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
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)
Valid cognition of the categorized absolute (rnam grangs pa'i don dam dpyod byed kyi tshad ma)
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)

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Materials for This Course

Texts for this course:

Mipham's Sword Of Wisdom, by Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche representing the Nyingma tradition

Secondary Text
HH Seventh Karmapa Chödrak Gyatso's Ocean of Literature on Logic

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