trimsatika (thirty verses) of vasubandhu.doc

7/27/2019 Trimsatika (Thirty Verses) ofVasubandhu.doc

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Trimsatika (Thirty Verses) of Vasubandhu

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Everything that is taken as a self;Everything that is taken as other:These are simply changing forms of consciousness.

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Pure consciousness transforms itselfInto three modes: Store consciousness,Thought consciousness, and active consciousness.

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The store consciousness holds the seeds of all past experience.Within it are the forms of graspingAnd the dwelling places of the unknown.It always arises with touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.

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The store consciousness is clear and undefinable.Like a great river, it is always changing.Neither pleasant nor unpleasant, when one becomes fully realized, it ceases toexist.

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The second transformation of consciousness is called thinking consciousness.It evolves by taking the store consciousness as object and support.Its essential nature is to generate thoughts.

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The thinking consciousnessIs always obscured by four defilements:Self-regard, self-delusion, self-pride, and self-love.

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The thinking consciousness also arises with the mental factorsOf touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.This consciousness ceases when one becomes realized.It also falls away when consciousness is impaired,

And when one is fully present.8

The third transformation of consciousnessIs the active perception of sense objects.These can be good, bad, or indifferent in character.

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This active consciousness arises with three kinds of mental functions: Those thatare universal, those that are specific, and those that are beneficial.


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It is also associated with primary and secondary defilementsAnd the three kinds of feeling.

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The universal factors are touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.The specific factors are intention, resolve, memory, concentration, andknowledge.The beneficial factors are faith, modesty, respect, distance, courage, composure,equanimity, alertness, and compassion.11

The primary defilements are:Passion, aggression, ignorance,Pride, intolerance, and doubt.

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The secondary defilements are:Anger, hatred, jealousy,

Envy, spite, hypocrisy, deceit13

Dishonesty, arrogance, harmfulness,Immodesty, lack of integrity, sluggishness,Restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, idleness,Forgetfulness, carelessness, and distraction.

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Remorse, sleepiness, reasoning, and analysisAre factors which can be either defiled or undefiled.

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The five sense consciousnesses arise in the store consciousnessTogether or separately, depending on causes and conditions,Just like waves arise in water.

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Thought consciousness manifests at all times,Except for those born in the realms of beings without thought,Those in the formless trances, and those who are unconscious.

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These three transformations of consciousnessAre just the distinction of subject and object, self and otherThey do not really exist.All things are nothing but forms of consciousness.

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Since the storehouse consciousness contains all seeds,These transformations of consciousness arise


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And proceed based upon mutual influence.On account of this, discrimination of self and other arises,

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All actions leave traces,And because of grasping at self and other,Once one seed has been exhausted, another arises.

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That which is differentiatedIn terms of self and other,Or by whatever sort of discrimination,That is just mental projection:It does not exist at all

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Appearances themselvesWhich arise dependently through causes and conditions

Exist, but only in a partial and dependent way.

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Ultimately, perfect nature, the fully real, arisesWhen there is an absence of mental projection onto appearances.For that reason, the fully real is neither the same nor different from appearances.If the perfected nature is not seen, the dependent nature is not seen either.

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Corresponding to the threefold nature,There is a threefold absence of self-nature.

This absence of self-nature of all dharmasIs the secret essence of the Buddhas teachings.

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Projections are without self-nature by definition.Appearances too are without self-nature because they are notself-existent.Perfect nature is without any differentiation whatsoever.

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The true nature of consciousness only

Is the true nature of all dharmas.Remaining as it is at all times, it is Suchness.

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As long as consciousness does not seeThat subject-object distinctions are simply forms of consciousnessAttachment to twofold grasping will never cease

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By merely thinkingThe objects one perceives are forms of consciousnessOne does not realize consciousness only

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One realizes consciousness onlyWhen the mind no longer seizes on any objectWhen there is nothing to be grasped, there is no graspingThen one knows everything is consciousness only.

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That is the supreme, world-transcending knowledgeWhere one has no mind that knowsAnd no object that is knownAbandoning twofold graspingThe storehouse consciousness is emptied

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That alone is the pure, primordial realityBeyond thought, auspicious, unchangingIt is the blissful body of liberationThe dharmakaya nature of the enlightened ones

Adapted from English translations of the Sanskrit original

trimsatika (thirty verses) of vasubandhu.doc

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