Trisvabhāva

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Key Term	trisvabhāva
In Tibetan Script	རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	rang bzhin gsum
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	त्रिस्वभाव
Romanized Sanskrit	trisvabhāva
English Standard	three natures
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary, dependent, and perfect.
Related Terms	parikalpitasvabhāva;paratantrasvabhāva;pariniṣpannasvabhāva
Definitions
Tshig mdzod Chen mo	shes bya sems tsam pa'i lugs la thams cad mtshan nyid gsum du bsdus pa ste/ kun tu brtags pa'i mtshan nyid dang/ gzhan gyi dbang gi mtshan nyid/ yongs su grub pa'i mtshan nyid bcas so/
Synonyms	trilakṣana

According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva).

According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva).

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.