Distinguishing the Middle From the Extremes, Karmê Chöling and Kagyu Thubten Choling 1990 དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།

2)  Their Process of Appearance/How Things Appear

The consciousness appears as referents, / Sentient beings, a self, and image-awareness; / These occur in an ordered manner, and yet / The referents do not, in fact, exist. / Since the one does not exist nor does the other, / These are naught but the flawed conceptual process. / The reasons for this are it and its existence; / Thus, it is not as it seems to be, and yet / It is not that it has never been from the start. / To clear this up is what is called liberation.

There is said to be an imaginary aspect, / But also a dependent and perfectly present; / Described like this because of referents, / Because of the mistaken conceptual process, / And because the duality does not exist.

On the basis of having something to focus on, / Nothing on which to focus naturally follows; / On the basis of having nothing to focus on, / Nothing focusing naturally follows as well; / And, due to that, a form of focusing follows / Where what is essentially present is non-referential. / And thus it is that focusing or not / Are equal, and that is the point to be understood.

The flawed conceptual process is comprised / Of the three spheres’ minds and their secondary states; / The consciousness which sees a referent / And the states in which its properties are seen. / There is one, the consciousness which provides the condition, / And a second which specifically encounters; / Secondary states are comprised of experience, / Identification as well as interpreting.

Because of what obscures and what is sown, / Because of being forced and persistent clinging, / Due to completing and three which identify, / Because of experiencing and being provoked, / Because of what connects and actualizes, / And due to suffering, beings are afflicted. / Affliction takes two forms and three and seven, / Due to the mistaken conceptual process.