Yogipratyakṣa

yogi pratyakṣa (T. rnal 'byor mngon sum རྣལ་འབྱོར་མངོན་སུམ་; ding guan zhi 定觀知) is translated as "yogic direct perception," "yogic bare perception," "yogic direct cognition," etc.

It is the non-mistaken, non-conceptual mind of an arya which arises in dependence upon its exclusive condition; the union of calm (shamatha) and insight (vipassana).

Yogic direct perception (yogi pratyakṣa) is one of four types of direct perception (pratyakṣa), according to the pramana tradition.

According to Dharmakīrti

John Dunne presents Dharmakīrti's theory of yogic direct perception as follows:

Dharmakīrti first presents his theory of yogic perception in the third chapter of the Pramāṇavārttika (PV), the chapter on perception (PV3). In a later text, the Pramāṇaviniścaya (PVin), Dharmakīrti gives largely the same account of yogic perception, although he makes some important clarifications. Finally, in the Nyāyabindu, he gives a short definition of yogic perception that does not add significantly to the accounts in either PV or PVin...

Dharmakīrti's theory of yogic perception as articulated in PV3 (w.281-286) and PVin (1.28-32) presents the following salient features:

1. A yogic perception is a cognition induced by a meditative practice (bhāvanā) (PV3.281; PVin1.28). The types of practice in question are ones that build to a "culmination" (pariniṣpatti) (PV3.285 ≈ PVin1.31). Specifically, these practices begin with learning about some object or idea, then contemplating it in a manner that involves reasoning; finally, one engages in the meditative practice itself, and when that practice reaches its culmination, a yogic perception will result (PVin ad 1.28).

2. The cognition that results from this type of process is vivid or clear (PV3.281 and 285; PVin1.28 and 31); that is, the object appears with the same degree of vividness that accompanies cognitions involving sensory contact, as when an object is directly in front of one (PV3.282 = PVin1.29). This is indicated by the fact that, when persons have this type of cognition, they react in an alert or excited manner that is absent when they believe themselves to be simply inferring or thinking of something that they do not take to be directly present (PVin1.30).

3. A yogic perception is similar to cognitions that occur when, for example, person overtaken by grief repeatedly thinks of the departed person and eventually hallucinates that person's presence, or when an adept visualizes a colored disc and eventually sees it with complete vividness (PV3.282 = PVin1.29).

4. All cognitions of this kind — whether induced by meditation or by states such as grief — appear vividly; therefore, they are not conceptual, since a conceptual cognition cannot present its content vividly (PV3.283ab = PVin1.32ab).

5. Although a yogic perception is induced by a process similar to hallucination, it is distinct from hallucinatory cognitions because the object of yogic perception is "true" or "real" (bhūta/sadbhüta), whereas hallucinations have "false" or "unreal" objects (abhūta/asadbhüta). The only specific yogic objects mentioned are the Noble Truths (as is strongly implied by PV3.281 and 285, and as is explicitly stated in PVin ad 1.28).

6. A yogic perception is trustworthy (saṃvādi), and it is a reliable cognition (prāmaṇa) (PV3.286).