Treasury of Valid Reasoning

Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen

Treasury of Valid Reasoning (Tib. ཚད་མ་རིགས་གཏེར་, Wyl. tshad ma rigs gter) is a classic work on logic and epistemology (Skt. pramana) by the great Sakya Pandita. It was held to be of such importance that it was translated into Sanskrit and used by contemporary Indian logicians. The work was intended to refute the assertions of earlier Tibetan masters, especially Chapa Chökyi Sengé.

Outline

The text consists of the following eleven chapters:

1. Investigation of the object (yul brtag pa)
2. Investigation of the mind (blo brtag pa)
3. Investigation of the universal and particular (spyi dang bye brag brtag pa)
4. Investigation of existence and 'other-exclusion' (sgrub pa dang gzhan sel brtag pa)
5. Investigation of the object of an expression and the expressor (brjod bya dang brjod byed brtag pa)
6. Investigation of relation ('brel ba brtag pa)
7. Investigation of opposition ('gal ba brtag pa)
8. Investigation of the definition (mtshan nyid brtag pa)
9. Investigation of direct perception (mngon sum brtag pa)
10. Investigation of inference for oneself (rang don rjes su dpag pa brtag pa)
11. Investigation of inference for others (gzhan don rjes su dpag pa brtag pa)

Commentaries

• Khenpo Drayab Lodrö (no longer extant)
• Khenpo Lodrö Zangpo, ཚད་མ་རིགས་པའི་གཏེར་གྱི་ལེགས་བཤད་བཟང་པོ་གསུམ་ལྡན་, tshad ma rigs pa'i gter gyi legs bshad bzang po gsum ldan

Further Reading

English

• Zoltán Horváth, 'Structure and Content of the Chad-ma rigs-pa'i gter, An Epistemological Treatise of Saskya Pandita' in Louis Ligeti (ed.), Tibetan and Buddhist Studies Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander Csoma de Korös'. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984
• David P. Jackson, 'Commentaries on the Writings of Sa skya Pandita: A Bibliographical Sketch' in The Tibet Journal, Vol.VIII, No.3, Autumn 1983
• Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp, 'Tibetan Contributions to the 'Apoha' Theory: The Fourth Chapter of the Tshad-ma Rigs-pa'i gter' in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1979, pp. 408-422
• Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp. Contributions to the Development of Tibetan Buddhist Epistemology from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century. Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1983.

French

• Pascale Hugon, Trésors du raisonnement. Sa skya Pan dita et ses prédécesseurs tibétains sur les modes de fonctionnement de la pensée et le fondement de l'inférence Édition et traduction annotée du quatrième chapitre et d'une section du dixième chapitre du Tshad ma rigs pa'i gter (2008) 2 vols; 854p. ISBN:978-3-902501-08-0