Saññā is a critical concept in Buddha’s teachings. Most of our feelings (vedanā) are due to saññā. In many cases, it is hard to distinguish between saññā and vedanā.
December 31, 2017; revised August 22, 2019; November 1, 2021
Saññā – Basic Idea
1. Saññā is usually translated to English as “perception” and sometimes as “recognition”; it is both and more! Saññā has a much deeper meaning and a more straightforward definition.
- A better translation is “incorrect or distorted perception.” It does not represent the true reality of anything in this world. Based on that “distorted perception,” average humans (puthujjana) make wrong decisions. We will start with some basic ideas in this post.
- Saññā is pronounced “sangnā” and gives an encoded meaning in Pāli and Sinhala with that pronunciation:
- It means “sign” or, even closer, “the embedded message.” That latter expresses it well since it is how one “instantaneously gets the idea of what is meant by an external signal.”
2. When we understand what is meant by saññā, we can clarify many things, including how humans can communicate with beings in other realms via saññā.
- Saññā is the “universal language.” To give an analogy: if a sign reads, “winding road ahead,” only those who know English can understand what that sign says.
- But those universal signs—showing a picture of a winding road—provide the “saññā” that the road ahead will be curvy.
- A second example (on the right above) shows a sign with a hand. That conveys the “saññā” to stop.
3. At the fundamental level, saññā means “recognition” of an object, person, or concept, i.e., getting “full comprehension” of what it is AND what it means.
- Whether one says “fire” in English, “ginna” in Sinhala, or “feu” in French, that will convey the “saññā of a fire.” Of course, a person MUST know to associate any of those words with “fire.” That is the saññā that comes to one’s mind when one hears either the word “fire,” “ginna,” or “feu.”
- Those words do not mean anything if a person does not speak those three languages. However, with the following picture, anyone will have the idea that it is about a fire or a flame:
- As a child raised in an English-speaking household, one is taught that the word “fire” represents it. After that training, one will immediately get the “saññā or a mental image resembling the above picture” upon hearing the word “fire.”
- Thus, associating a specific perception with a word requires preconditioning.
Saññā Is More Than Recognition
4. Therefore, Saññā is the “full picture/clarification that comes to mind instantaneously.”
- In a more complex example, parents can teach a child (Y) that a particular person (X) is bad and not to talk to him (that is preconditioning). Whenever the child Y sees X, it instantly perceives him as a “bad person” and will try to avoid him.
- However, X’s child (Z) most likely perceives X as a “loving father.”
- Therefore, two people will have very different perceptions (saññā) of person X. Recognition/perception is relative!
5. Our mental body (gandhabba) can register only pure saññā. When two gandhabbā are communicating, they cannot use words OR pictures. So, the process is much simpler. What one gandhabba X thinks about what to say to gandhabba Y, that message or saññā is automatically transmitted to Y if Y points attention to X.
- When gandhabba X wants to see what is happening at a given location, it just needs to aim in that direction and see that location. We will not discuss the details here, but the essential point is that a gandhabba does not “see” things using light as we do.
- In the same way, a gandhabba does not hear using an ear. Sound waves propagating through the air are not needed.
- As I emphasized briefly in the previous post, “Our Mental Body – Gandhabba,” that is how most beings—who don’t have physical bodies like us—communicate and interact with the external world.
- When someone gets to the fourth jhāna and attains abhiññā powers, they will be able to see and hear without eyes and ears. These capabilities are dibba cakkhu (“divine eye”) and dibba sota (“divine ear.”) One will be using one’s own mental body (gandhabba). Then, seeing and hearing are not limited to short distances.
6. However, when trapped inside a physical body, a gandhabba does not have those capabilities. Then, one needs to rely on the sensory faculties in the physical body (physical eyes, ears, etc.) to capture that information. The brain converts those signals to “saññā” and transmits them to the gandhabba.
- If you are unclear on this point, please reread the previous post, “Our Mental Body – Gandhabba.”
- In that post, we compared a gandhabba trapped in a physical body to a human operator enclosed in a military tank. That is a good analogy.
7. At conception, the gandhabba takes hold of a single cell called a zygote formed by the union of a mother and a father. That single cell grows into a baby inside the womb and a grown adult after birth. See “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception.”
- The physical body shields the gandhabba in humans. Thus, it cannot receive direct saññā. Pictures and sounds come through the eyes and ears not as saññā but as video and audio signals. Those signals need to be converted to saññā that the gandhabba can grasp.
- When a baby grows, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body must develop to capture those sensory inputs. The brain must also build the circuitry for converting that information to a “saññā” that can be transferred to the gandhabba to grasp what object, person, or concept it is.
- Once those capabilities develop, signal transmission is from the brain to the hadaya vatthu (located close to the heart) via “kirana,” or electromagnetic waves in the language of modern science. That was discussed briefly in the post, “Gandhabba (Manomaya Kaya)- Introduction.”
8. As a baby grows up, it learns to associate words and pictures with each object, person, and concept that it experiences. This requires many parts of the brain to develop, which is why it takes a newborn several years to become fully functional in the world.
- So, when a person hears someone yelling “fire,” the brain matches that with a visual of fire, converts it to the correct “saññā” of a fire, and transmits that signal to the gandhabba.
- The association of a word with its meaning happens in the brain (which acts like a computer). Only then is the meaning conveyed to the gandhabba, where thoughts arise.
- As I have discussed in the posts on the gandhabba, a human gandhabba is born at a cuti-paṭisandhi moment. It could have a lifetime of thousands of years. It could be born many times with a physical human body. See “Bhava and Jāti – States of Existence and Births Therein.”
9. If the relevant parts of the brain are damaged later in one’s life, one may not be able to recognize one’s surroundings. That is what happens to people with Alzheimer’s disease.
- When a person gets old, the brain starts degrading, and then again, one’s ability to interact with the external world could become limited.
- When that person dies, the gandhabba emerges from the dead body if there is leftover kammic energy for the human bhava. When a suitable womb becomes available, it can start another human body. That is how there can be several births during a given human bhava.
10. Now, we move to the next level of saññā, which is more than just recognition. For example, when two people hear the name of a person X, they will have the picture of that person (or “saññā“) coming to their mind automatically. They would also recall specific qualities they had attached to that person through interactions with X. One may say. “It is my Dad. I love him so much”. Another would say, “Oh, he is a crook.”
- Then, based on that saññā, each will generate different feelings (vedanā) about X. That automatically creates good or bad thoughts (mano saṅkhāra). If one keeps thinking about X, one will consciously generate more thoughts about X and may even speak out (vaci saṅkhāra). If the feelings get strong, kāya saṅkhāra may arise ( leading to bodily actions).
- Therefore, based on the same thought object, different people can get different saññā and thus can respond differently.
11. Generally, how we make decisions about interacting with others or responding to external stimuli depends on our “world views.” That is what is called “diṭṭhi” in Buddha Dhamma.
- When one has wrong world views or diṭṭhis, one could make bad decisions based on “distorted saññā.”
- When one’s mind is free of greed, hate, and ignorance, it is easier to sort out wrong diṭṭhis. The meanings of greed and hatred are apparent. Ignorance here is ignorance about the message of the Buddha. That message, of course, can be grasped only in stages.
- First, realizing that one MUST live a moral life and follow that mundane Eightfold Path by abstaining from dasa akusala as much as possible is crucial.
- Then it will become easier to cultivate the “anicca saññā,” start grasping the Tilakkhana, and become a Sōtapanna. We will discuss the anicca saññā in upcoming posts.
12. Understanding the concept of saññā is necessary to get onto AND progress on the Noble Path. I recommend reading the following posts, which discuss various aspects of saññā. Please feel free to ask questions in the forum by referring to the specific post and bullet numbers. They are roughly in increasing difficulty. Try to capture the basic concept by focusing on posts that seem easier at first.
Cognition Modes – Sañjānāti, Vijānāti, Pajānāti, Abhijānāti, Saññā Vipallāsa – Distorted Perception, Saññā – All Our Thoughts Arise With “Distorted Saññā,” Fooled by Distorted Saññā (Sañjānāti) – Origin of Attachment (Taṇhā), Distorted Saññā Arises in Every Adult but Not in a Newborn, Saññā Nidānā hi Papañca Saṅkhā – Immoral Thoughts Based on “Distorted Saññā,” Ārammaṇa (Sensory Input) Initiates Critical Processes, Saññā Gives Rise to Most of the Vedanā We Experience, A Sensory Input Triggers (Distorted) Saññā and Pañcupādānakkhandha, Kāma Saññā – How to Bypass to Cultivate Satipaṭṭhāna.
