Conceptuality in question: Teaching and pure cognition in Yogacara-Madhyamaka (Exploring Buddhist sacred authority through transconceptual states andlinguistic expression)

For Yogacara-Madhyamka, enlightenment is free of the mistaken conceptual co nstruction of subject and objects of desire. The Buddha's awakening was a s tate purified of concepts, without desire and suffering. But, subsequently, he compassionately taught of awakening, and teaching is conceptual. Can en lightenment be both cognitively pure and concept-utilizing? To secure cogni tive "purity" while teaching, the philosophers argue that the enlightened p erson is "cleansed" of desire for subject and objects, rather than strictly free of concepts of subject and objects. To secure "teaching" after the at tainment of pure cognition, they allow conceptuality, so long as it is free of desire.