The aspect of a limited being's mental activity that gives rise to (makes) a mental hologram (rnam-pa, mental aspect) of seemingly true existence. It makes the mental holograms of objects of cognition appear to be truly existent, in the sense in which the Madhyamaka schools define truly established existence. (1) In the Gelug system, it occurs not only with conceptual cognition, but also with all non-conceptual cognition other than non-conceptual cognition of voidness (emptiness). (2) In the non-Gelug systems, it occurs only with conceptual cognition and it makes appearances of objects of cognition to be truly "this"s and "that"s.
Tibetan: བདེན་སྣང་། bden-snang
J. Hopkins: Appearance of true existence
Synonyms: Appearance-making of truly established existence; Appearance of true existence; Appearance of truly established existence
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