This book is a translation of the second section of Jam-yang-zhay-pa’s Illuminating a Little the Presentation of Signs and Reasonings: Beautiful Golden Garland of Eloquence, a textbook studied by beginners at the Gomang College of Drepung Monastery and at La-brang Tra-shi-khyil and their affiliated institutions throughout Inner Asia.

In their system, the student needs to develop a strong “path of reasoning”—a mind trained in valid knowledge—in order to pursue not only the academic path but also the path of meditation and self-transformation. The study of Signs and Reasonings plays an important role in the development of this path of reasoning, being an introduction to the fundamentals of logic, including syllogisms and their components, correct reasons (or “signs”) and how they come to be correct—able to induce in the debater and meditator new knowledge about something not formerly understood.

In this section of his work, Jam-yang-zhay-pa introduces the student to definitions for the basic concepts of correct reasoning, with a focus on laying the foundation for understanding the necessary relationship between the subject, predicate, and sign in the context of the generation of valid inferential knowledge, leading to direct perception of reality.