ABSTRACT
When Yogäcärins deny 'external objects,' what are they rejecting and what, if anything, are they affinning? Yogäcära employs many words to designate types of cognitive objects-vi$aya, artha, älambana, vastu, äkära, prameya, jiieya, vi$aya-gocara, rupa-pratibhäsa, grähya, nimitta, etc. We lose access to the nuances of their phenomenology when we homogenize their discourse by using the single English tenn 'object' for all these (and more). Many of these tenns are never rejected at all by Yogäcärins. As we have seen repeatedly Yogäcärins do not reject the category of rupa (matter); eleven of the one hundred dhannas in Yogäcära abhidharma are rüpa-dharmas. They also employ a technical, phenomenological vocabulary for the sorts of cognitive activities in which cognitive objects appear-pratyak$a, upalabdhi, gräha, khyäti, pratibhäsa, pratibimba, vijiiapti, parinärpa, vise$a-präpti, pravrtti, abhiita-parikalpa, etc. Without some understanding of what these cognitive activities entail, it would be difficult to decide what they include or exclude and why.
