Darśana

darśana (P. dassana; T. mthong ba མཐོང་བ་; C. jian 見) is translated as "seeing," "insight," "vision," "view," etc. This term can have the following meanings:

1. visual perception that occurs through the eye sense organ
2. extrasensory perception, such as those gained through meditative practices
3. insight; e.g. direct insight that accords with reality
4. philosophical school or tradition

Physical and extrasensory perception: the five types of "eye"

Darśana is said to refer to the seeing that occurs through any of the "five types of eyes" (pañcacakṣus):

• the physical eye (māmsacaksus)
• the divine eye (divyacakṣus)
• the wisdom eye (prajñācaksus)
• the dharma eye (dharmacakṣus)
• the Buddha eye (buddhacaksus)

Insight

Darśana can also mean "insight", typically referring to direct insight that accords with reality.

For example, in the following compound words:

• jñāna-darśana - knowledge and vision
• darśana-mārga - path of seeing
• yathābhūta-darśana - seeing things as they truly are (yathābhūta)

Philosophical schools

Darśana can also refer to a philosophical school or tradition.

John Dunne states:

... in a fundamental way Buddhist thinkers link their arguments to specific contemplative practices, such as meditations that analyze personal identity. This linkage reflects the avowed soteriological context of all Buddhist thought, namely, the cultivation of meditative experiences that allegedly eliminate suffering and lead to nirvāṇa. Indeed, from the traditional view, the Buddhist thinker’s philosophical work was itself a kind of spiritual practice that moved the thinker closer to these final goals.

Philosophy is therefore called “seeing” (darśana), a metaphor that evokes a central goal of Buddhist contemplative practice: an experience (anubhava) in which one sees things as they truly are (yathābhūtadarśana). Thus, in speaking of Mahāyāna “philosophy,” one must recall that it is implicated deeply in this type of contemplative goal.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Dunne, John (2005), "Mahayana Philosophical Schools of Buddhism", Encyclopedia of Religion, encyclopedia.com 

External links

• མཐོང་བ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary