Perception

Saññā, which can be translated as perception, recognition or remembrance, is another cetasika among the seven ’universals’ which accompany every citta. Saññā accompanies every citta, there is no moment without saññā. Saññā experiences the same object as the citta it accompanies but it performs its own task: it ’perceives’ or ’recognizes’ the object and it ’marks’ it so that it can be recognized again.

The Atthasālinī (I, Part IV, Chapter 1, 110) states about saññā:

…It has the characteristic of noting(24) and the function of recognizing what has been previously noted. There is no such thing as perception in the four planes of existence without the characteristic of noting. All perceptions have the characteristic of noting. Of them, that perceiving which knows by specialized knowledge has the function of recognizing what has been noted previously. We may see this procedure when the carpenter recognizes a piece of wood which he has marked by specialized knowledge…

The Atthasālinī then gives a second definition:

Perception has the characteristic of perceiving by an act of general inclusion, and the function of making marks as a condition for repeated perception (for recognizing or remembering)(25), as when woodcutters ’perceive’ logs and so forth. Its manifestation is the action of interpreting by means of the sign as apprehended, as in the case of blind persons who ’see’ an elephant(26). Or, it has briefness as manifestation, like lightning, owing to its inability to penetrate the object. Its proximate cause is whatever object has appeared, like the perception which arises in young deer mistaking scarecrows for men.

The Visuddhimagga (XIV, 130) gives a similar definition. We can use the words perceiving, noting, recognizing and ’marking’ in order to designate the reality which is saññā, but words are inadequate to describe realities. We should study the characteristic and function of saññā.

Saññā is not the same as citta which is the ’leader’ in cognizing an object. As we have seen, saññā recognizes the object and it ’marks’ it so that it can be recognized again. This is explained by way of a simile: carpenters put tags or signs on logs so that they can recognize them at once by means of these marks. This simile can help us to understand the complex process of recognizing or remembering. What we in conventional language call “remembering” consists of many different moments of citta and each of these moments of citta is accompanied by saññā which connects past experiences with the present one and conditions again recognition in the future. This connecting function is represented by the words ’recognition’ and ’marking’(27). When the present experience has fallen away it has become past and what was future becomes the present, and all the time there is saññā which performs its function so that an object can be recognized. If we remember that saññā accompanies every citta, we will better understand that the characteristic of saññā is not exactly the same as what we mean by the conventional terms of ’recognition’, ’perception’ or ’marking’. Each citta which arises falls away immediately and is succeeded by the next citta, and since each citta is accompanied by saññā which recognizes and ’marks’ the object, one can recognize or remember what was perceived or learnt before.

The Atthasālinī mentions as a manifestation of saññā:

’briefness, like lightning, owing to its inability to penetrate the object’.

Saññā merely recognizes and ’marks’ the object. Saññā is different from citta which is the ’chief’ in knowing an object and different from paññā which can know the true nature of realities(28) .

The proximate cause of saññā is an object, in whatever way that appears. The object can be a paramattha dhamma, i.e. nāma or rūpa, or a concept (paññatti). Whatever object citta cognizes, saññā recognizes and marks it.

Saññā performs its function through each of the six doors. There is saññā at this moment. When there is seeing there is saññā and it recognizes and marks visible object. When there is hearing there is saññā which recognizes and marks sound. There is saññā when there is smelling, tasting, touching or when there is the experience of objects through the mind-door. Cittas experience objects through the six doors and the saññā which accompanies citta experiences the object through the same doorway and performs its function accordingly. When we recognize someone’s voice, this is actually the result of different processes of cittas which experience objects through the sense-door and through the mind-door. At each moment there is saññā which performs its function. There are moments of hearing of what appears through the ears, of sound, and when we think of someone’s voice there are cittas which experience concepts. The hearing conditions the thinking, we could not think of a voice if there were not hearing. It is the same when we think we ’see’ a person. There is thinking of a concept, but this thinking is conditioned by the seeing of visible object. The recognition of a person is the result of many different processes of citta and each moment of citta is accompanied by saññā. There is seeing which experiences visible object and after the eye-door process has been completed visible object is experienced through the mind-door. There are other mind-door processes of cittas which experience concepts.

Saññā accompanies every citta and also when citta experiences a concept saññā marks and remembers that object. When we are engaged in the activities of our daily life, do we notice that there is recognition or remembrance? We remember how to use different objects, how to eat with fork, knife and spoon, how to turn on the water tap, how to write or how to find our way when we walk in our house or on the street. We take it for granted that we remember all these things. We should know that it is saññā which remembers. When we are reading it is due to saññā that we recognize the letters and know their meaning. However, we should not forget that when we are reading there are also moments of seeing and at such moments saññā performs its function as well. It seems that we see and recognize what we see all at the same time, but this is not so. When we recognize letters and words and remember their meaning, this is not due to one moment of saññā but to many moments of saññā accompanying the cittas which succeed one another in the different processes. The study of saññā can remind us that cittas arise and fall away extremely rapidly.

Countless moments of saññā succeed one another and perform their function so that we can remember successive events such as sentences we hear when someone is speaking. There are moments of hearing and the saññā which accompanies hearing-consciousness merely perceives the sound, it does not know the meaning of what is said. When we understand the meaning of what has been said there are cittas which experience concepts and the saññā which accompanies those cittas remembers and ’marks’ a concept. Because of many moments of saññā we can follow the trend of thought of a speaker or we ourselves can reason about something, connect parts of an argument and draw conclusions. All this is not due to ’our memory’ but to saññā which is not self but only a kind of nāma. What we take for ’our memory’ or ’our recognition’ is not one moment which stays, but many different moments of saññā which arise and fall away. Because of saññā past experiences and also concepts and names are remembered, people and things are recognized.

Also when we do not remember something or we mistake something for something else, there is saññā which accompanies the cittas at such moments. If we have forgotten something, we did not think of the object we wanted to think of but at that moment we were thinking of another object and this was remembered and marked by saññā. For example, if we go to the market and forget to buy lettuce because we suddenly notice tomatoes and our attention turns to the tomatoes, we say that we have forgotten to buy lettuce. In reality there are moments of saññā all the time since it accompanies each citta, and saññā performs its function all the time. It depends on conditions what object is remembered at a particular moment, it does not always turn out the way ’we’ want it. Also when we in vain try to remember a name, there is still saññā, but it remembers and ’marks’ an object which is different from the concept we think we should remember. We may have aversion because of our forgetfulness and also then there is citta accompanied by saññā which performs its function.

Saññā accompanies cittas which arise in a process and it also accompanies cittas which do not arise in a process, namely the paṭisandhi-citta (rebirth-consciousness), the bhavanga-citta (life-continuum) and the cuti-citta (dying-consciousness). When we are sound asleep and not dreaming there are bhavanga-cittas and also in between the different processes of cittas there are bhavanga-cittas. The object of the paṭisandhi-citta, the bhavanga-citta and the cuti-citta is the same as the object experienced by the javana-cittas which arose shortly before the cuti-citta of the previous life(29). ’We’, or rather the cittas which are thinking at this moment, do not know what that object is. However every time the bhavanga-citta arises in between the processes of cittas it experiences that object and the saññā which accompanies the bhavanga-citta remembers that object.

Saññā never arises alone, it has to accompany citta and other cetasikas and it is conditioned by them. Saññā is saṅkhāra dhamma, conditioned dhamma. Saññā arises with the citta and then falls away with the citta. Saññā is a khandha, it is one among the five khandhas. We cling to saññā, we take it for self.

Saññā arises with all cittas of the four jātis. Saññā is of the same jāti as the citta it accompanies and thus saññā can be akusala, kusala, vipāka or kiriya.

Saññā can be classified according to the six kinds of objects which are experienced through the six doors and this reminds us that saññā is different all the time. We read in the Gradual Sayings (Book of the Sixes, Chapter VI, par9, A Penetrative Discourse):

“Monks, perceptions are six: perceptions of visible objects, sounds, smells, tastes, touches and ideas.”

The perception of visible object is not the perception of sound and it is not the perception of a concept. When we for example talk to someone else there is saññā which perceives sound, there is saññā which perceives visible object, there is saññā which perceives tangible object, there is saññā which perceives a concept. All these saññās are completely different from one another and they arise at different moments. Objects appear one at a time through the different doorways and different saññās mark and remember these objects. When we understand this it will help us to see that our life actually is one moment of citta which experiences one object through one of the six doors. The ultimate truth is different from conventional truth, namely, the world of people and things which seem to last.

Saññā which arises with akusala citta is also akusala. Saññā may arise together with wrong view. When one takes for permanent what is impermanent the citta with wrong view is also accompanied by saññā which remembers the object in a distorted way. It is the same when one takes for self what is not self. We read in the Gradual Sayings, Book of the Fours, Chapter V, par9, Perversions) about four perversions (vipallāsas) of saññā, citta and diṭṭhi:

Monks, there are these four perversions of perception (saññā), four perversions of thought (citta), four perversions of view (diṭṭhi). What four?

To hold that in the impermanent there is permanence, is a perversion of perception, thought and view. To hold that in dukkha there is not-dukkha, is a perversion of perception, thought and view. To hold that in the not-self there is self, is a perversion of perception, thought and view. To hold that in the foul there is the fair, is a perversion of perception, thought and view. These are the four perversions of perception, thought and view…

So long as we have not attained to the stage of paññā which knows the impermanence of nāma and rūpa, we may still think that people and things can stay, be it for a long or a short time. Nāma and rūpa are impermanent and thus they are dukkha, they cannot be true happiness. We still take what is dukkha for happiness and we still cling to the concept of self. We also take the foul for the fair. The body is foul, it is not beautiful. However, we cling to our body and take it for something beautiful. So long as one has not attained the first stage of enlightenment, there are still the perversions of saññā, citta and diṭṭhi. The sotāpanna, who has attained the first stage of enlightenment, has eradicated diṭṭhi, wrong view, and thus he has no more perversions which are connected with diṭṭhi. But he has not eradicated all perversions since they are eradicated in different stages. The sotāpanna still clings to objects and therefore he can still have the perversions of citta and saññā while he takes for happiness what is not happiness and takes for beautiful what is foul.

When we think of a concept such as a flower, we may take the flower for something which lasts. The ariyans, those who have attained enlightenment, also think of concepts but they do so without wrong view. When they recognize a flower, they do not take that moment of recognizing for self. Neither do they take the flower for something which lasts.

So long as defilements have not been eradicated we are subject to rebirth, we have to experience objects through the senses and on account of these objects clinging arises. We tend to become obsessed by the objects we experience. We read in the Middle Length Sayings (I, no. l8, Discourse of the Honey Ball) about the origin of perceptions and obsessions and their ending. Mahā-Kaccana gave to the monks an explanation about what the Buddha had said in brief:

…Visual consciousness, your reverences, arises because of eye and visual object; the meeting of the three is sensory impingement (phassa); feelings are because of sensory impingement; what one feels one perceives; what one perceives one reasons about; what one reasons about obsesses one; what obsesses one is the origin of the number of perceptions and obsessions which assail a man in regard to visual object cognisable by the eye, past, future, present...

The same is said with regard to the other doorways. Is this not daily life? We are obsessed by all the objects which are experienced through the six doors, objects of the past, the present and the future. It is due to saññā that we remember what we saw, heard, smelled, tasted, touched and experienced through the mind-door. We attach so much importance to our recollections, we often are dreaming about them. However, also such moments can be object of awareness and thus the thinking can be known as only a kind of nāma which arises because of conditions, not self. When realities are known as they appear one at a time through the six doorways, one is on the way leading to the end of obsessions. When all defilements have been eradicated there will be no more conditions for rebirth, no more conditions for being obsessed by objects.

Saññā is conditioned by the citta and the other cetasikas it accompanies and thus saññā is different as it accompanies different types of citta. When we listen to the Dhamma and we remember the Dhamma we have heard there is kusala saññā with the kusala citta. Remembering what one has heard and reflecting about it again and again are important conditions for the arising of sati which is mindful of what appears now. The saññā which accompanies mindfulness of the present moment is different from the saññā accompanying the citta which thinks of realities. Saññā does not only arise with kāmāvacara cittas ( cittas of the sense-sphere), it arises also with cittas of other planes of consciousness. When one develops samatha saññā recognizes and ’marks’ the meditation subject of samatha. When calm is more developed, one may acquire a ’mental image’ (nimitta(30)) of the meditation subject. The saññā which remembers a ’mental image’ of a meditation subject is different from the saññā which arises all the time in daily life and perceives sense-objects. When one attains jhāna, saññā accompanies the jhānacitta and then saññā is not of the sensuous plane of consciousness. When saññā accompanies rūpāvacara citta (rūpa-jhānacitta) saññā is also rūpāvacara and when saññā accompanies arūpāvacara citta (arūpa-jhānacitta) saññā is also arūpāvacara. The saññā which is arūpāvacara is more refined than the saññā which is rūpāvacara.

The fourth stage of arūpa-jhāna is the ’Sphere of neither perception nor non-perception’ (n’eva-saññā-n’āsaññāyatana)(31). The saññā which accompanies the arūpāvacara citta of the fourth stage of jhāna is extremely subtle. We read in the Visuddhimagga (X, 50):

…the perception here is neither perception, since it is incapable of performing the decisive function of perception, nor yet non-perception, since it is present in a subtle state as a residual formation, thus it is ’neither perception nor non-perception… ’(32)

Saññā accompanies lokuttara citta which experiences nibbāna and then saññā is also lokuttara. Nibbāna cannot be attained unless conditioned realities are known as they are: as impermanent, dukkha and anattā. We read in the Gradual Sayings (Book of the Tens, Chapter VI, par6, Ideas) about ten kinds of saññā which are of great fruit and are leading to the ’deathless’ , which is nibbāna. The Pāli term saññā is here translated as ’idea’. We read about the ten ’ideas’ which should be developed:

Monks, these ten ideas, if made to grow and made much of, are of great fruit, of great profit for plunging into the deathless, for ending up in the deathless. What ten ideas?

The idea of the foul, of death, of repulsiveness in food, of distaste for all the world, the idea of impermanence, of dukkha in impermanence, of not-self in dukkha, the idea of abandoning, of fading, of ending.

These ten ideas, monks, if made to grow…are of great profit for plunging into the deathless, for ending up in the deathless.

Questions

1. Saññā accompanies each citta, but it falls away completely with the

   citta. How can we still remember things which happened in the past?

2. When we see a house, through which doorway does saññā perform its

   function?

3. When we mistake something for something else, how can there still be

   saññā at such a moment?

4. When we recognize a house, can there be perversion of saññā?

5. Can the sotāpanna think of concepts and recognize people and things?

6. Give examples of akusala saññā.

7. How can one develop ’perception of impermanence’ (anicca saññā)?