Nangwa sum

nangwa sum (T. snang ba gsum སྣང་བ་གསུམ) is translated as "three types of perception", "three types of vision", "triple vision", "three appearances", etc. It refers to three types of perceptions of beings according to Buddhist tantra.

The three types of perception are:

1. impure perception (T. ma dag pa'i snang ba མ་དག་པའི་སྣང་བ་)
2. perception experienced by yogis (T. rnal 'byor nyams kyi snang ba རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཉམས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་)
3. pure perception (T. dag pa'i snang ba དག་པའི་སྣང་བ་)

The three types of percetion (nangwa sum) are central to the teachings of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, where they are emphasized within the preliminary practices of the Lamdre system that encapsulates core Sakya philosophy and practice. These three perceptions are also referenced by teachers of other schools.

Explanations

Traditional Sakya explanation

The first lines of Virupa's Vajra Verses state:

Impure appearances are for a sentient being in affliction.

Experiential appearances are for a practitioner in samādhi.

Pure appearances are for a sugata in the ornamental wheel of the inexhaustible body, speech, and mind.

Lobsang Dagpa and Jay Goldberg (2002) translate the above verses as follows:

For sentient beings with the afflictions is the impure vision.

For the meditator with transic absorption is the vision of experience.

For the ornamental wheel of the Sugata's inexhaustible enlightened body, voice and mind is the pure vision.

Lobsang Dagpa and Goldberg (2002) provide the following explanation of these verses:

The first three words of the first line of the verse, For sentient beings, serves to demonstrate the various types of sufferings that sentient beings must endure within the six realms of worldly existence, from those of the hells up to the sufferings of the celestial states. The next three words of the first line, with the afflictions, is taken as a starting point for explaining the great opportunity a person has obtained in gaining this precious human body and the need to practice the holy Dharma in order to make this life fruitful. As a complement to this, the teaching of death and impermanence is given to show the need to practice Dharma quickly and diligently. The final four words of the first line, is the impure vision, illustrates that sentient beings under the influence of the afflictions of desire, hatred and ignorance continue to perform deeds (karma) that bind them within this world of existence. The teachings found within this section are commonly shared by both the Hinayana and the Mahayana paths.

The second line of the verse, For the meditator with transic absorption is the vision of experience, is categorized in two ways. The first is described as the common path, which includes the practices of loving kindness, compassion, and the enlightenment thought, which in turn includes the meditations on calm abiding and insight wisdom. This section of the teaching shares the methods found within the various traditions of the Mahayana's Bodhisattva's path. The second refers to the extraordinary path of the Vajrayana teaching; here the practitioner is urged to seek out, study, and engage in its methods of practice. The purpose of this vision of experience is to bring the practitioner's mind to maturity withing the spiritual path, so as to become qualified and prepared to enter the profound teachings of the Vajrayana. Vajrayana commences with the ripening experience of receiving the tantric empowerment and is accomplished through receiving and employing the methodical training, as found in teachings such as the "three tantras"'

The final line of the verse, For the ornamental wheel of the Sugata's inexhaustible enlightened body, voice and mind is the pure vision, describes the result of full and perfect Buddhahood for the sake of ultimate happiness for the benefit of both the practitioner and others.

Explanation by Namkhai Norbu

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu states:

All beings live within the various karmic visions that arise for them as a result of the passions they have accumulated. In the Sutras, 84,000 types of passion are described, which can cause the arising of an equal number of forms of existence. If we don't allow ourselves to get caught up in taking these numbers literally, we can nevertheless see that what is meant is that, just as there are infinite types of passions, so too there can be an equal number of karmic effects resulting from them.

The teachings explain that there exist three types of vision: the karmic or impure vision of ordinary beings; the vision of the "experiences" that arise to practitioners; and the pure vision of realized beings. Karmic vision is the illusory vision of beings in transmigration. It is called "illusory" because, depending on one's karma, it arises from a precise cause. The six principal passions are considered to be the fundamental causes of the six dimensions of existence. Pride, jealousy, attachment, mental obscuration, avarice, and anger, give rise, respectively, to the karmic visions of the gods, the semi-gods, human beings, animals, hungry ghosts (preta), and hell beings. These dimensions are not worlds that can be found to be located in some area of the universe, but are karmic visions, which manifest according to the prevalence of one or other of the passions.

For we human beings, for example, the hell realm does not exist; but if we accumulate during this lifetime sufficient karma of the passion of anger, we can very easily be born in our next life in the karmic vision of hell. And the same is true if we accumulate the passions which cause births as other types of beings. Each one of them has a characteristic karmic vision, which lasts until the karma that produced it has been used up. A story used to give an example of this tells that there once came together, near a river, six different types of beings who each saw the river in a different way. The god among the six saw the river as nectar, the hungry ghost saw it as flaming lava, the human being as clear water, and so on. This example is used to make one understand that there does not exist one vision that is objectively real and concrete in the same way for all beings. If we were to offer a glass of water to drink to a hungry ghost, it would probably burn his throat.

By the term "vision of experience" what is meant is the manifestation of the results of practice. Through the practice of meditation, for example, there can arise the signs of the internal relaxation of the individual's five elements. Or, if one is practicing the methods of visualization found in tantrism, one can have experience of visions of such things as mandala or divinities. Since the individual has an infinite number of passions and functions of energy, these can, on the path, give rise to an infinite number of experiences.

When, on the other hand, the causes of karmic vision have been totally purified, one's vision does not disappear altogether, but rather manifests in its pure form, as the dimension of realized beings. In tantrism, for example, the final result of the practice is the transformation of the five passions into the five wisdoms. Thus the passions are not eliminated or annihilated, but are transformed in such a way that they can manifest in their purified, or essential, aspect. This pure vision of realized beings is not subject to the limits of space or time.

The three types of vision we have just discussed include all the infinite possibilities of forms of manifestation, but their inherent nature is not dual. This nature is the base, our fundamental condition, which is as clear, pure, and limpid as the capacity that enables a mirror to reflect. And just as different reflections appear in a mirror according to the secondary causes, so too the real condition of existence appears in different forms, either pure or impure, but its real nature does not change. That is why it is said that it is nondual.

Alternate names

The three types of vision are also called (provisional translations):

• ལུས་སྣང་བ་འདོད་ཁམས་, appearance of the [ordinary] body in the desire realm
• ངག་ཕྱེད་སྣང་གཟུགས་ཁམས་, partially perceivable appearance of speech in the form realm
• སེམས་ནི་སྣང་བ་གཟུགས་མེད་ཁམས་, mind appearing in the formless realm

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Chogyal Namkhai Norbu (1996), Clemente, Adriano, ed., Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State, Snow Lion Publications 
• Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (2022), Sakya: The Path with Its Result, Part One, Treasury of Precious Instructions, Volume 5, translated by Malcolm Smith, Snow Lion 
• Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrup (2002), Three Visions: Fundamental Teachings of the Sakya Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, translated by Lobsang Dagpa; Jay Goldberg, Snow Lion 
• Stearns, Cyrus (2006), Taking the Result as the Path: Core Teachings of the Sakya Lamdre Tradition, Wisdom 

Further Reading

• Cyrus Stearns, Luminous Lives: The Story of the Early Masters of the Lam 'bras Tradition in Tibet, Wisdom Publications, 2001, ISBN 978-0861713073
• Kunga Tenpay Nyima, The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception: An Oral Commentary on the Three Visions Snang, Gsum of Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub, Wisdom Publications, 2003, ISBN 978-0861713684
• snang ba gsum, Christian-Steinert Dictionary