The Concepts of Direct Perception and Non-Valid Cognition

Direct perception (pratyakṣa): "Direct" means present, current, before one's eyes, actual, real, and in accord with principle and Dharma regarding matters and principles; "perception" means estimation, measurement, and gauging. Direct perception is the estimation, measurement, and gauging of the object-condition dharma that accords with facts and accords with truth. When one sees a dharma, one sees and knows it at that very moment and can make the judgment, without the mind consciousness imagining, fantasizing, or comparing, and without deliberate processing.

Erroneous cognition (non-valid cognition) is the opposite of direct perception; it is not one's own realm of wisdom, unable to correctly cognize in accord with principle and Dharma, with errors arising in discrimination, and one can only know through the mind consciousness's deliberation, analysis, imagination, fantasy, recollection, and so on. Erroneous cognition has another meaning: an erroneous estimation, consideration, weighing, or measurement, from which the conclusion drawn is wrong and does not accord with facts.

In reality, the only cognition that fully accords with facts is that of the eighth consciousness (ālayavijñāna), as well as that of the seven consciousnesses after buddhahood. Before attaining buddhahood, because there is still ignorance (avidyā), the seven consciousnesses have erroneous cognition to varying degrees. The closer one approaches the Buddha's wisdom, the less erroneous cognition there is and the more the realm of direct perception increases; the more of an ordinary being one is, the more erroneous cognition one has, with no direct perception or very little. Even when one sees the mountains and rivers before one's eyes as mountains and rivers, it is still not direct perception but erroneous cognition, because one sees only the false appearance and not the substance of the appearance.