Dignāga's ālambana-parīkṣā establishes that the causal and representational roles of a perceptual object can be filled by internal mental factors alone, making the dream analogy self-undermining as an argument for idealism.

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Dignāga(as the main philosopher being discussed): A Buddhist philosopher from around 480-540 CE who made major contributions to how we know things are true, particularly focusing on perception and reasoning.
Dream analogy(as the argument for idealism being discussed): A comparison philosophers use where dreams (which feel real but aren't caused by external objects) are used to argue we can't trust our perceptions of the physical world.
Internal mental factors(as what Dignāga argues can do the work of a physical object): Things happening only in your mind, like thoughts, memories, and mental images, without requiring anything external to exist.
Representational role(as a function of abstract tools in science): The function something serves in standing for or describing something else—for instance, a map's representational role is to show where places are located.

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