When we are attentive to a bird singing, that sound is the object of our mind. When our eyes see the blue sky, this is the object of our mind. When we look at a candle, an idea or image of the candle arises in our mind. That object of perception is a sign (lakshana). In Chinese, the character for perception is composed of the ideograms for sign and mind. A perception is a sign, an image in our mind.
