The lore of valid cognition which also includes the spirit of religious practice，is a special Buddhist form of epistemology. The Sanskrit word pramana (valid cognition) means originally "measurement" or "standard," and derived therefrom "faultless knowledge" and the means to acquire it. There are two meanings to this. In a narrow sense, pramana indicates the standard or basis of knowing objects, while in a broad sense it points to the source, form, process, and result of the function of knowing, as well as the standard to judge whether a knowledge is correct or not. It comprises the basic meaning of what is generally referred to as "epistemology". Buddhist epistemology deals primarily with two types of valid cognition, pratyak a-pramana or perception and anumana-pramana or inference. All Buddhist scholars agree on this. According to Dign ga's logic, their difference in terms of method of cognition consists in perception being defined as direct recognition "free from discrimination" (i.e. without reference to ideas and language) while inference is said to be knowing through comparison and deduction based on a complete syllogism. Moreover, in terms of the object of cognition, when the particular is the object directly perceived, we are dealing with perception; when the general serves as the object of comparison and deduction, it is inference. In other words, perception is the valid cognition which manifests directly without availing itself of any concept belonging to language, while inference is the valid cognition which deduces indirectly by means of a syllogism. Both are mutually related. Perception is, however, strictly speaking a special or incomplete form of inference. Thus it could be rightly said that the lore of valid cognition as a whole is a study of the deduction of pramana. This subject of the establishment of knowledge, deduction, and proof is the "applied logic" of religious practice (though the term "logic" is not necessarily very fitting here). Consequently, as far as the sources of valid cognition are concerned, perception occupies the prominent position. However, when pramana is taken as the aim of the establishing subject, inference becomes the basic form. Since the description of perception always depends on the form through which inference is expressed, the term pramana, when used in the present paper, generally refers to inference unless otherwise specified. The present paper thus discusses 1) the stipulation that perception has to be free from discrimination as well as the criteria for differentiating between perception and inference. It is also checked whether "discrimination" equals "critical appraisal". 2) There are three types of inference to be found in terms of awakening others, to wit t'a pi-liang, tzu pi-liang, and kung pi-liang. What does fzu pi-liang mean and how does it differ from wei tzu pi-liang which belongs to the inference in terms of awakening oneself? And What is the relationship between inference and the establishing subject? 3) Th
