Appearance, Increase and Attainment
Three experiences of appearance, increase and attainment. (snang mched thob pa'i snang ba gsum) [RY]
Appearance (snang ba). 1) A sense impression or mental occurrence; anything that is experienced by a conscious mind. A normal person always feels that appearances are 'out there' and separate from the perceiver, while in the Buddhist philosophy of Mahayana appearances are understood first to be only mental events, then empty of inherent existence, and finally beyond constructs such as arising, dwelling and ceasing. In Vajrayana, i.e. from the viewpoint of self-existing wakefulness, appearance(s) is/are primordially indivisible from emptiness and therefore a pure expression of the male buddhas and the female buddhas and bodhisattvas; this is called 'all-encompassing purity of appearance and existence.' 2) The first of the three subtle dissolution stages. 3) Luminosity of appearance. The first of the three stages of appearance, increase and attainment. (snang ba'i 'od gsal) [RY]
Increase (mched pa) - 1) The second of the three experience of appearance, increase and attainment. 2) Experience of increase (mched pa'i nyams) - The second of the stages of appearance, increase and attainment {snang mched thob gsum}. 3) Redness. The second stage of the subtle dissolution stages of appearance, increase and attainment. (dmar lam) [RY]
Attainment (thob pa) - The third of the three experiences of appearance, increase and attainment. Experience of attainment (thob pa'i nyams) - The third of the three stages of appearance, increase and attainment. Blackness (nag lam) - An experience of utter blackness which is the third stage of appearance, increase and attainment [RY]
(snang mched thob gsum) - The three stages in the process of dissolution either at the moment of dying or when falling asleep. [RY]
(snang mched thob gsum) - appearance, increase and attainment, dawning, widening and achieving, the three subtle cognitions [RY]
(snang mched thob gsum) - soft light, intense spread of light, inner glow, appearance, increase and attainment (whiteness, redness, blackness when dying) [JV]