The direct object (dngos-yul) that arises in a cognition, as if it were directly in front of the consciousness (blo-ngor). It is a mental derivative (gzugs-brnyan, mental reflection) of a cognitive object. (1) In sensory non-conceptual cognition, (a) in the Gelug presentation of the Sautrantika, Sautrantika-Svatantrika Madhyamaka and Prasangika Madhyamaka systems, the appearing object is a fully transparent mental hologram (rnam-pa, mental aspect) that appears and through which an external commonsense object appears; (b) in the non-Gelug systems and the Gelug Chittamatra and Yogachara-Svatantrika Madhyamaka systems, it is an opaque mental hologram of the cognitively taken object. (2) In conceptual cognition, (a) in the Gelug system, the appearing object is a conceptual category, a static mental derivative of all individual items that fit in that category; (b) in the non-Gelug systems, it is a static, conceptually isolated item that stands for the mentally synthesized commonsense object and category in the conceptual cognition.
Tibetan: སྣང་ཡུལ། snang-yul
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