PART ONE: Review of Verses 1-34
V1-3. Wisdom is knowing the Three Natures: 1. parikalpita - ‘imagined’ 2. paratantra - ‘other-dependent’ 3. pariniṣpanna - ‘totally perfect’, ‘completely realized’, or ‘absolutely accomplished’
V4-9. Unreal imagination’ is mind (citta), which is both cause (ālayā-vijñāna) and effect (’the seven active consciousnesses’), which ripen into the cognition of a perceiver and the perceived.
V10-17. The Three Natures are both existent and non-existent, both dual and non-dual. The imagined and other-dependent nature are defiled. The absolutely accomplished nature is pure.
V18 - V26. The Three Natures are not different in characteristic due to the unreality of duality, yet there is a conventional sequence to their order and entry.
V27-30. Like an illusory elephant, which is mere appearance (ākāra-mātra), The imagined nature is the elephant; the other-dependent nature is the apparitional form (ākṛti), and the perfected nature is the non-existent nature of the elephant in the other-dependent. Duality is entirely unreal. All that exists is a mere apparitional form (ākṛtimātra).
V31-34 Understanding the three characteristics as artha-tattva (the ‘true nature of things’), there occurs - simultaneously* - knowledge (parijñā), abandonment (prahāṇa) and attainment (prāpti):
1. ‘knowledge’ is anupalambha = without there being a ‘base’ or ‘ground’ 2. ‘abandonment’ is akhyāna = non-appearance 3. ‘attainment’ is upalambhanimittā = the base of no characteristic (direct realization, sākṣāt-kriyā)
These seem to correspond to the ‘fruits’ of the traditional threefold Buddhist training: 1. prajñā - wisdom 2. śīla - moral discipline 3. samādhi - meditation
PART TWO: The Dharmadhātu / The Ground of Being
V35 - The Threefold Knowledge
viruddhadhī-kāraṇatvād buddher vaiyarthyadarśanāt / jñānatrayānuvṛtteśca mokṣāpatter ayatnataḥ //
Misunderstanding (viruddha-dhī, ’counter-standing’) is abandoned, and intellect (buddhi) is seen to be useless, Following the three-fold knowledge, liberation becomes effortless (ayatnataḥ).
V36 - ‘Mind Only’
cittamātropalambhena jñeyārthānupalambhatā / jñeyārthānupalambhena syāccittānupalambhatā //
Through the perception (upalambha) of ‘mind-only’ (citta-mātra), there arises the non-perception of knowable things (jñeyārthānupalambhatā); Through the non-perception of knowable things, there arises the non-perception of mind (citta).
V37 - THE GROUND OF BEING
dvayor anupalambhena dharmadhātūpalambhatā / dharmadhātūpalambhena syād vibhutvopalambhatā //
From the non-perception of duality there arises the perception of the dharmadhātu From the perception of the dharmadhātu there arises the perception of infinitude (vibhutva).
V38 - The Threefold Body
upalabdhivibhutvaś ca svaparārtha prasiddhitaḥ / prāpnoty anuttarāṃ bodhiṃ dhimān kāyatrayātmikām //
Having perceived infinitude and achieving what is beneficial to what self and other mean, The sage attains the unsurpassed enlightenment (anuttarā-bodhi), which is the three-fold body.