SESSION 4 - Difference and Nondifference (Verses 18- 25)

PART ONE: Review of Verses 1-17

V4. Whatever appears is ’unreal imagination’ in the form of duality (dvaya). The non-existence of whatever appears is advaya-dharmatā (’dharmic principle of non-duality’)

V5-9. ‘Unreal imagination’ is mind (citta), which is both cause (ālayā-vijñāna) and effect (’the seven active consciousnesses’), which ripens into the cognition of a perceiver and the perceived.

V10-13. The Three Natures are both existent and non-existent.

V14-16. The Three Natures are both dual and non-dual.

V17. The imagined nature and other-dependent nature are defiled, whereas the absolutely accomplished nature is pure.

PART TWO: The Non-Differentiation of the Three Natures

V18

asaddvayasvabhāvatvāt tadabhāvasvabhāvataḥ / svabhāvāt kalpitājjñeyo niṣpanno'bhinnalakṣaṇaḥ//

Since the imagined nature is by nature an unreal duality, and the absolutely accomplished nature is by nature the non-existence of that duality, The absolutely accomplished is to be understood as not different in characteristic (lakṣaṇa) from the imagined.

V19

advayatvasvabhāvatvād dvayābhāvasvabhāvataḥ / niṣpannāt kalpitaścaiva vijñeyo'bhinnalakṣaṇaḥ //

Since the absolutely accomplished nature is by nature non-dual, and the imagined nature is by nature the non-existence of duality The imagined, too, is to be understood as not different in characteristic from the absolutely accomplished nature.

V20

yathākhyanam asadbhāvāt tathāsattvasvabhāvataḥ / svabhāvāt paratantrākhyān niṣpanno'bhinnalakṣaṇaḥ //

Since the other-dependent nature exists differently from the way in which it appears, and because the absolutely accomplished nature is essentially the non-existence of that appearance, The absolutely accomplished is to be understood as not different in characteristic from the other-dependent.

V21

asaddvayasvabhāvatvād yathākhyānāsvabhāvataḥ / niṣpannāt paratantro'pi vijñeyo'bhinnalakṣaṇaḥ //

Since the absolutely accomplished is by nature the unreality of duality, and because the other-dependent nature lacks the nature of existing as it appears, The other-dependent nature, too, is to be understood as not different in characteristic from the absolutely accomplished.

PART THREE: The Sequence of the Three Natures

V22

kramabhedaḥ svabhāvānāṃ vyavahārādhikārataḥ / tatpraveśādhikārāc ca vyutpattyarthaṃ vidhīyate //

A particular order of the natures is set out according to the conventions about them And according to the order in which they are entered.

V23

kalpito vyavahārātmā vyavahartrātmako'paraḥ / vyavahārasamucchedahsvabhāvaś cānya iṣyate //

The imagined nature is that which exists only conventionally (vyavahāra); the dependent nature is the cause (vyavahartrātmaka) of that which exists only conventionally; The absolutely accomplished is that which destroys that which exists only conventionally.

V24

dvayābhāvātmakaḥ pūrvaṃ paratantraḥ praviśyate / tataḥ praviśyate tatra kalpamātram asaddvayam //

One enters first into the other dependent nature which is the non-existence of duality; Then one enters into the imagined nature, the unreal duality which exists in it.

V25

tato dvayābhāvabhāvo niṣpanno'tra praviśyate / tathā hy asāv eva tadā astināstīti cocyate //

Then one enters the absolutely accomplished nature which is in (atra) the dependent nature. The absolutely accomplished is the nature of the non-inherent nature of duality (dvayābhāva bhāva); consequently it, too, is said to exist and to not exist.

V26

trayo'pyete svabhāvā hi advayālabhyalakṣaṇāḥ / abhāvād atathābhāvāt tadabhāvasvabhāvataḥ //

These three self natures have the characteristic of being nondual and ungraspable, because the imagined nature does not exist, the other dependent nature does not exist as such (i.e. in the way that it appears), and the perfected nature is essentially the non-existence of this manner of appearance.