Perception

Perception (Skt. saṃjña; Tib. འདུ་ཤེས་, Wyl. ‘du shes) — one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the five ever-present mental states.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

Tib. འདུ་ཤེས་ནི་མཚན་མར་འཛིན་པ།
Perception is apprehending characteristics (Rigpa Translations)
Perceptions consist of the grasping of distinguishing features (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Alternative Translations

conception (David Karma Choepel^[1])
cognition (Tony Duff^[2])
discernment or recognition (Berzin)

Notes

↑ David Karma Choepel: 'du shes, samjna. This is commonly translated as perception, but that has several meanings in English and this aggregate refers to only one of them. The aggregate of feeling, part of the aggregate of formations, and the aggregate of consciousness are also perception, and so calling this aggregate perception is potentially confusing and misleading. What this aggregate refers to is the mental process of forming an idea about the object: it is like when one sees a vase and thinks “That is big” or “That is small.” Additionally, in other contexts the word ‘du shes matches the usage of the English words conception or idea.
↑ Tony Duff: There is no word in the English language which is specifically fits the meaning of samjña (though some disciplines of psychology, etc., claim that they do have specific words for it, e.g., perception). Because of this, a variety of words have been used to translate it e.g., "cognition", "conception", "recognition", "perception", "discrimination". All of these terms fit in one way or another, however none of them produce a clear understanding in an English speaking person of what is being referred to. This, therefore, remains one of the worst translated and understood words in general Buddhism. It has been translated with "ideas" but ideas are the blo sna stuff that comes up on the surface of the rational mind, they are the (rtog pa) or (rnam par rtog pa) thoughts of the dualistic mind, whereas 'du shes refers to the subtle conceptual structures which are used as the "currency" or "the building blocks" of all dualistic thinking.

[1] David Karma Choepel: 'du shes, samjna. This is commonly translated as perception, but that has several meanings in English and this aggregate refers to only one of them. The aggregate of feeling, part of the aggregate of formations, and the aggregate of consciousness are also perception, and so calling this aggregate perception is potentially confusing and misleading. What this aggregate refers to is the mental process of forming an idea about the object: it is like when one sees a vase and thinks “That is big” or “That is small.” Additionally, in other contexts the word ‘du shes matches the usage of the English words conception or idea.

[2] Tony Duff: There is no word in the English language which is specifically fits the meaning of samjña (though some disciplines of psychology, etc., claim that they do have specific words for it, e.g., perception). Because of this, a variety of words have been used to translate it e.g., "cognition", "conception", "recognition", "perception", "discrimination". All of these terms fit in one way or another, however none of them produce a clear understanding in an English speaking person of what is being referred to. This, therefore, remains one of the worst translated and understood words in general Buddhism. It has been translated with "ideas" but ideas are the blo sna stuff that comes up on the surface of the rational mind, they are the (rtog pa) or (rnam par rtog pa) thoughts of the dualistic mind, whereas 'du shes refers to the subtle conceptual structures which are used as the "currency" or "the building blocks" of all dualistic thinking.

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Perception

Definitions

Alternative Translations

Notes

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