Trisvabhava
trisvabhava;, ( Sanskrit: “three forms of existence”) in Buddhism, the states of the real existence that appear to a person according to his stage of understanding. Together with the doctrine of storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijnana), it constitutes the basic theory of the Vijnanavada (“Consciousness-affirming”) school of Buddhist thought. The trisvabhava theory was first taught in the Prajnaparamita (“Perfection of Wisdom”) sutras, a group of Mahayana texts composed between the 1st century bce and the 3rd century ce, and was elaborated upon by the Vijnanavada school.
The three forms of existence are:
1. Parikalpita-svabhava (“the form produced from conceptual construction”), generally accepted as true by common understanding or by convention of the unenlightened.
2. Paratantra-svabhava (“the form arising under certain conditions”), the real form of phenomenal existence free from verbal expression; the world of dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada).
3. Parinishpanna-svabhava (“the form perfectly attained”), the ultimate truth of transcendental emptiness (shunyata).
