It is said that in ancient India, under royal patronage, there were debates between people about the theory of different creeds. The debates were held at such high stakes that you would not want to be the loser. Those debates were more than just intellectual entertainment for the public; they were critical moments to convince others that one’s own religion held the truth. The debates often included subjects that are not perceptible to the human senses, such as the existence of God or the soul. As time went by, Buddhist and Hindu schools of thought developed an entire epistemology that demonstrated reasons why their doctrine was valid, or, in simple terms, how they know what they know. In Sanskrit, this is called pramana—a popular subject for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

Ancient Buddhist scholars had quite a tough job. They were not just bathing in the admiration of their devotees but often had to defend their doctrine from an onslaught launched by other schools of thought. Their scholarly work was not only valuable to Buddhists but became intellectual treasures for all of humanity and a spiritual heritage for the world. Some of these brilliant thinkers, regarded as supreme proponents of Buddhist epistemology, are Nagarjuna, Dignaga, and Dharmakirti. Their works are still available today because they were translated into the Tibetan language. And even today, Tibetan monasteries study their works as the main treatises for academic training. In order to achieve a khenpo or geshe degree, which is equivalent to a PhD in Buddhist doctrine, one must throughly study pramana as one of the five main disciplines, along with the Prajnaparamita sutras, Madhyamaka philosophy and practice, the Abhidharma texts, and the Vinaya texts.

Buddhist epistemology categorizes all phenomena into three categories based on their relationship to the human mind’s cognizant capacity, which are called “three types of comprehensible phenomena.” These are evident phenomena, hidden phenomenon, and very hidden phenomena. The first refers to everything that is perceptible to our ordinary senses. The second encompasses everything that can be comprehended through inference supported by valid reasoning. The last covers religious and transcendent matters that can be understood by reliance on the wisdom of authoritative scriptures.

In general, epistemology is tied up with the notions of wisdom, insight, and knowledge. In the old days, these were regarded not only as valuable but sublime, because they are often related to religious and metaphysical matters, which are far more important than our worldly matters. For example, knowledge is not only regarded as precious but is the key that opens the door to the realm of the highest inner liberation.

This is especially true for Buddhism. As Shantideva stated in the Bodhicharyavatara: “Liberation comes into being through seeing the truth.” This line pretty much captures the heart of Buddhist thought. Let’s take a moment to reflect on his statement. The truth here refers to ultimate truth, such as no-self or emptiness. The mind that sees it directly is prajna or wisdom. Such wisdom is so revered that Buddhists symbolized it in sacred forms that we can visualize, such as Manjushri and Yumchenmo, in order to cultivate devotional love toward it. They are regarded as expressions of this sublime wisdom, the seeing into the true nature of reality.

In ancient India, many religious adherents held the founding father of their tradition in highest regard—as omniscient, one who knows everything. They took this quite literally rather than as a poetic way to address their master or prophet. In their minds, their sage knew not only spiritual subjects but also ordinary subjects, such as art and astrology, and they knew about everything that exists, including the numbers of stars in the sky, or the number of hairs on the head of every human being on the Earth. They argued that their doctrine was true because its source lies in the teaching of their sage, who is infallible, because she or he is omniscient. Some of them refuted certain other religious traditions as not being a true path by this same powerful logic, asserting that the founding fathers of those traditions were not infallible or omniscient.

Perhaps one of most evocative intellectuals of Tibetan Buddhism in the 20th century, Gendun Choepel, said that postulating the Buddha as a true master by using the validity of his teaching as the main reason is a method unique to Buddhist logic. He pointed out that many religions declared their credibility by a singular reason—their sage is infallible because he is son of god, or he is chosen by heaven as medium between God and human beings. Therefore, questioning the credibility of their religion is out of question. This reminds me of a famous story of St. Augustine, who was asked: “What was God doing before he created the world?” He replied, “He was preparing hell for those who ask such questions.” We might not know for certain whether this theologian was serious or just joking, but either way, many theistic religions do expect everyone to believe in their doctrine because it all comes from an omniscient being who cannot possibly be wrong.

Buddhism stands unique among all the other world religions. It is a rational religion that invites us to question even the most sacred words before we totally accept them. The Buddha himself famously told his followers that they should not accept his words out of regard for him, but accept them through thorough investigation, just like gold can be accepted after a lengthy process of heating, cutting, and rubbing. As Gendun Choepel stated, many Buddhist logicians postulated that the Buddha is a master because his teachings are valid and sublime. It’s almost like saying that Einstein is a great physicist because of his discoveries, instead of saying that theory of relativity must be true because Einstein came up with it.

The question is, how do we know that the Buddha’s teachings are correct and trustworthy? This is where Buddhist epistemology comes in. Buddhist pramana argues that the Buddha’s teachings are correct because they can be proved to be true by our rational thinking and intelligent observation, and we won’t find any concrete logical evidences that can falsify his doctrine. Buddhism is a religion that can go hand in hand with even modern science without need of seeing rationality as an existential threat. 

Our future world is going to be more and more secular and scientific. There is no going back. Yet Buddhism can be the religion of the future.

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