Here they reply: ‘One may well explain the intent of this sutra in that particular way, but there are certainly other sutras where we also find that only mind exists. As stated:
‘Without external appearances
The mind appears in various ways,
Like bodies, possessions and abodes –
I teach that these are only mind.1
‘Here, bodies refer to the sense fields of the eye and so forth. Possessions refer to objects, such as forms and so forth. Abodes refer to the world of the vessel. Since nothing exists externally separate from mind, it is only consciousness that appears in the form of bodies, possessions and abodes, and these are taken to be external objectively existent things separate from consciousness. Hence, the three realms are mind only.’
The statements of this sutra are also given with intentional ambiguity. To explain:
The sutras where it states that what we see is not
External, but the mind perceived in various ways,
There was an intention behind this, in that
That was provisional, taught to invalidate
The physical for those who are attached to form. (6.94)
This provisional meaning teaching is aimed at those with great yearning for material things, who due to that lose their free will through being overcome by desire, anger, pride and so forth. Their obsession with these things leads to much negativity which in turn destroys the merit and wisdom they have developed. To overcome afflictions caused by material things, the Illustrious One would thus teach such ones that things are only mind, in the same way that he would teach about the skeletons that are not in fact there to desirous individuals in order to overcome desire for external objects.
Title
Chapter 1: Pramuditā
