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. mixed perception experienced by yogis through practice (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་)

Explanation

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.

In the Sakya tradition

Within the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, the preliminary practices of the Lamdre system are taught under the rubric of the three types of vision (nangwa sum) that systematize the topics found in the fundamental Sakya teaching called “parting from the four attachments."

In this tradition, the three types of vision are called: ལུས་སྣང་བ་འདོད་ཁམས་, ངག་ཕྱེད་སྣང་གཟུགས་ཁམས་, སེམས་ནི་སྣང་བ་གཟུགས་མེད་ཁམས་.

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 
• snang ba gsum, Christian-Steinert Dictionary