What is Perception?

Among the five universal mental factors (caittas) of the eight consciousnesses, perception (saṃjñā) is present in all of them. This perception refers to the discerning function, the thinking function, and the grasping function of the conscious mind; it also represents desire and aspiration, and represents hope. It occupies almost half of sentient beings' mental activities, and serves as the basis and driving force for the conscious mind's choices and decisions.

Among these, the perception of the five sense consciousnesses is relatively simple and direct: it simply performs the function of discerning and distinguishing the five sense objects. Its grasping nature is not strong, nor is it obvious, and it all takes place under the impetus and regulation of the manas. Without the impetus of the manas, there would be no perception in the five sense consciousnesses. The perception of the mind consciousness is rich in content and relatively obvious; its thinking is rather complex, having a certain degree of autonomy as well as a large degree of passivity. The autonomous portion cannot deviate too much from the thoughts, will, and views of the manas; otherwise, the manas will stop it and not allow the thinking to continue, and it can also easily cause the manas's emotions to become unstable, giving rise to psychological problems. The perception of the six consciousnesses is classified as the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā-skandha) among the five aggregates; it has the function of accumulating the seeds of all dharmas, is subject to arising, ceasing, and change, and has no autonomy.

The perception of the manas not only has the nature of discernment and distinction, but its main function is grasping. It is because of the manas's grasping of all dharmas that all dharmas continuously arise and cease, with unending arising, ceasing, and change. The grasping nature of the manas is classified as grasping (upādāna) among the twelve links of dependent origination. Because of the manas's grasping, there is the becoming (bhava) of future lives and birth-and-death. Therefore, the perception of the manas plays a crucial role in both the arising and the cessation of all dharmas. Broadly speaking, the manas also has the function of accumulating all dharmas, and moreover plays the primary role, so it should also be classified within the aggregate of perception among the five aggregates.

The perception of the eighth consciousness is relatively simple; it only performs the function of discernment and distinction, and does so extremely quickly. It never broods or deliberates painstakingly; whatever dharma it encounters, it knows that dharma, without any mental activities such as thinking, deliberation (manasikāra), pondering, or inference. It is vastly different from the seventh and sixth consciousnesses, because the eighth consciousness has no ignorance, and its wisdom is especially powerful—its discernment is almost like an automated program, with no stagnation or pause in between, and it takes none of the dharmas to heart. Because of the perception of the eighth consciousness, there is the eighth consciousness's selection regarding all dharmas and seeds, and thus all dharmas continue to operate without interruption—this arising as that ceases, that arising as this ceases—operating in an orderly manner without the slightest confusion. Sentient beings always feel that the world is very chaotic, but that is because karma determines that it must be so. However chaotic the world of the seven consciousnesses and the five aggregates may be, the operation of the eighth consciousness is never chaotic. Therefore, the perception of the eighth consciousness has a decisive accumulating function for the world of the five aggregates, and broadly speaking it also belongs to the category of the aggregate of perception.