  Buddhist authors are divided on the issue of the possibility of  reflexive awareness (svasaṃvedana). In general,  philosophers of the Dignāga-Dharmakīrti school accept the  reality of reflexive awareness in the classical Yogācāra  sense of self-luminosity (svaprakāśa) and support  their arguments with the example of a lamp that illuminates itself  while at the same time revealing other objects. However, this notion  that consciousness or cognitive awareness is inherently reflexive is  rejected by Mādhyamika authors such as Candrakīrti (ca.  600–650) and Śāntideva (fl. 8th century), who contend  that consciousness cannot be thought of as being inherently reflexive, even on a conventional level, since that would imply that consciousness is  self-validating (see e.g., Madhyamākavatāra VI,  74–75). Candrakīrti takes issue in particular with the  characteristically Yogācāra view that the object of  cognition is not extrinsic to cognition, but is an aspect of that  cognition itself.