The Buddhist logicians hold that concepts do not refer to the real in a direct way. Jnānasrīmitra established the non-reference of the concepts to the real on the ground that the content of a concept is common to both the existence and non-existence (bhāvābhāvasādhāranya) of the real

The term "bhāvābhāvasādhāranya" which entails the possibility of the affirmative and negative usage of the word has two meanings: one is the unreality of the object in ontological contexts, and the other the non-reference to the real in epistemological contexts.