Appendix G

THE THREE NATURES EXPOSITION

TSN

1    Fabricated, dependent, and perfected:

So the wise understand the three natures as profound.

2    What appears [khyāti] is the dependent, because of being dependent on conditions.

How it appears is the fabricated, because of being only fabrication.¹

3    The eternal nonexistence of the appearance as it appears:

That is known to be the perfected nature, because of being always the same.

4    What appears there? The unreal fabrication. How does it appear? As dual.

What, accordingly, is its nonexistence? There being no duality there.²

5    What is this unreal fabrication? Mind. For it does not exist at all in the way it is fabricated or in the way it fabricates a thing.

6    Mind is regarded as twofold, being cause and result:

The consciousness called “storehouse,” and the seven called “activity.”

7    It is called “mind” [citta] because of being “full of” [citatvāt] the seeds of defiled tendencies.

So for the first. But the second because of acting as “various” [citra] appearances.

8    In short, the fabrication of the nonexistent and the thought of three kinds:

Matured, thus being caused, or else appearing.

9    The first is the root-consciousness, for having the nature of maturation,

The other the activity consciousness, from the activity of the seeing intellect and what is seen.3

10  By virtue of reality and unreality, of duality and unity, of affliction and purity

And of nondifference in character, it is accepted that the natures are profound.⁴

11  Since it is grasped as existent while never existent as such,

The fabricated nature is considered to have the character of reality and unreality.⁵

12  Since it is known through the existence of an error, and not known as it appears,

The dependent nature is considered to have the character of reality and unreality.⁶

13  Since it exists as nonduality and is the very nonexistence of duality,

The perfected nature is considered to have the character of reality and unreality.⁷

14  By force of the fact that the thing is fabricated in a twofold manner [dvaividhyāt] and its unreality is a singular existent,

The fabricated nature is considered to have the nature of duality and unity.⁸

15  Because while it is perceived as a dual existent, its being a mere error is a singular existent,

The dependent nature is considered to have the nature of duality and unity.⁹

16  Since its singular nature as nondual is the nature of the existence of duality,

The perfected nature is considered to have the nature of duality and unity.¹⁰

17  The fabricated and dependent are known as afflicted natures.

Whereas the perfected is regarded as the nature of purity.

18  Because of [one] having the nature of an unreal duality and [the other] having the nature of its nonexistence,

the perfected is known to be nondifferent in character from the fabricated nature.

19  Because of [one] having the nature of a nonduality itself and [the other] having the nature of the nonexistence of duality,

The fabricated is also understood to be nondifferent in character from the perfected nature.

20  Because of [one] being an unreal existence how it appears, and [the other] having the nature of just that reality,

The perfected is declared to be nondifferent in character from the dependent nature.

21  Because of [one] having the nature of an unreal duality, and [the other] being the lack of the nature as it appears,

The dependent nature is also understood to be nondifferent in character from the perfected.

22  In accordance with different stages, the conventional properties of the natures

and their practical properties are explained for the sake of growth [in understanding].11

23  The fabricated is the conventional nature, later having the nature of conventions,

and then again is accepted as the nature of the destruction of conventions.

24  The dependent is undertaken initially having the nature of nonexistent duality,

Then it is undertaken as the nonexistent duality, the mere appearance there.

25  Then the existence of the nonexistence of duality, the perfected, is undertaken there,

For then it is just as it is, and it is said, “It is, it is not.”

26  For these very three natures have the character of the unattainable nonduality,

Due to nonexistence, existence not in that way, and the nature of that nonexistence.

27  It is just as [something] made into a magical illusion with the power of an incantation [mantra] appears consisting of an elephant.

A mere appearance [ākāramātra] is there, but the elephant does not exist at all.

28  The fabricated nature is the elephant; the dependent is its appearance [ākṛti];

and the nonexistence of an elephant there is said to be the perfected.

29  In the same way, the construction of what does not exist appears consisting of duality from the root-mind.

The duality is utterly nonexistent. A mere appearance [ākṛtimātraka] is there.

30  The root-consciousness is like the incantation. Suchness [tathatā] is understood to be like the piece of wood.

Discriminative construction [vikalpa] should be accepted to be like the appearance of the elephant. The duality is like the elephant.

31  When there is understanding of how things really are [arthatattva], then at the same time there is knowledge, abandonment, and obtaining, [which relate] in proper order to the three characteristics.

32  It is acknowledged that here knowledge is nonperception; abandonment is nonappearance; and obtaining is direct and full awareness, apprehension without cause.

33  With the nonperception of duality, the dual appearance goes away; as a result of its removal one arrives at the perfected, which is the absence of duality.

34  So also in the case of the magical illusion: simultaneously there is the nonperception of the elephant, the removal of its [the elephant’s] appearance, and the apprehension of the piece of wood.

35  As a result of the intellect being the cause of adverse thoughts, by seeing [its] objectlessness,

And thus by following the threefold knowledge, effortlessly entering into liberation,

36  As a result of perception of only mind, there is no perception of knowable things.

As a result of no perception of knowable things, there can be no perception of mind.

37  As a result of no perception of either [dvayor], there is perception of the dharma realm.

As a result of perception of the dharma realm, there can be the perception of sovereignty [vibhutva].

38  And having attained sovereignty, the goals of oneself and others accomplished,

The wise one obtains unexcelled enlightenment, with the nature of the three bodies.