taking inferential valid cognition as the path

today i found an interesting and short commentary - if you’re a geek about meditation like i am - about why tibetan vajrayana buddhism uses logical analysis (e.g. madhyamaka) to realize the nature of reality, but also why it is not used as the primary path. this commentary was from venerable khenchen thrangu rinpoche, one of the leading current teachers in the kagyu (black hat) lineage of tibet.

my favorite quotes:

The reason that you cannot find anything when you look for your mind is that the mind is not a self. The mind has no true or inherent existence, which is what the Buddha meant when he talked about selflessness and when he talked about emptiness; this is it, exactly.

and then

And the first thing you need to understand about this is that this is not some kind of doctrine or belief; it is not something you should take on faith or on authority… This has nothing whatsoever to do with what you have been told about the mind, because this is something that you can see as an individual for yourself… So please look at your mind.

glossary of some terms used:

• dharma - can be ‘truth’, ‘teachings’, but used once in the commentary to mean ‘a moment of experience’
• dharmata - phenomenon
• lama - a teacher, more generally anyone who has completed a three year solitary retreat in the kagyu lineage
• mahasiddha - greatest realized masters. often 84 of these masters are mentioned in indian history

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