Three kinds of perception

The three kinds of perception (Tib. སྣང་བ་གསུམ, nangwa sum་, Wyl. snang ba gsum) appear in the preliminaries for the Lamdré practice of the Sakya tradition:

1. impure perception (Tib. མ་དག་པའི་སྣང་བ་, madakpé nangwa, Wyl. ma dag pa'i snang ba)
2. mixed perception experienced by yogis through practice (Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཉམས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་, naljor nyam kyi nangwa, Wyl. rnal 'byor nyams kyi snang ba)
3. pure perception (Tib. དག་པའི་སྣང་བ་, dakpé nangwa, Wyl. dag pa'i snang ba)

The source is Virupa's Vajra Verses.

Further Reading

• Deshung Rinpoche, The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception (Boston: Wisdom, 1995, 2003)