 Sapaṇ draws upon the epistemology of Dharmakirti discussed above, and says that there is no essential relation between words and meanings. Rather, meaning in language depends upon nothing but the speaker’s intention, which is always context-dependent. In the case of the dharma, that means the teacher’s intention to move a particular set of beings forward on the path toward liberation. The key in transmitting the teachings from generation to generation is to preserve, as well as possible, the capacity of the teachings to have that effect. And the only way to do that is to preserve an understanding of the speaker’s specific intentions in using language as expressed in the particular texts we have. Teachers have to know just what the meaning was meant to be, when these words were uttered. So, a detailed understanding of the language of the dharma—the contexts of its origination in the forms that we have it—is inseparable from the larger project of the sangha, to communicate the teachings from generation to generation. The translations, because they are vulnerable to misinterpretation, require special handling and expertise. Sapaṇ says we need a community of experts to protect the teachings and preserve their proper interpretation. We need an interpretive community that can act as a bulwark against the decline of the dharma. Every aspect of the scholar’s toolbox—from elementary Sanskrit language study to literary theory to the regulation of debate methods—is provided with an explanation and justification of the norms of this idealized Buddhist guard.