Illuminating the Intent

What are these ten?

(2) the perfect equanimity of all phenomena in their absence of defining characteristics, likewise (3) in their absence of birth, (4) in being unborn, (5) in being void, (6) in their primordial purity, and (7) in their freedom from elaborations;

(8) the perfect equanimity in their absence of affirmation and rejection;

(9) the perfect equanimity of all phenomena in their resemblance to illusions, to dreams, to mirages, to echoes, to reflections of the moon in water, to mirror images, and to conjurations;

and (10) the perfect equanimity of all phenomena in their absence of the duality of real and unreal.

These two [the absence of affirmation and rejection] are a single perfect equanimity.

The equanimities in terms of phenomena’s resemblance to the seven similes such as illusions should be taken as one perfect equanimity.

And the last two [of real and unreal] should also be considered as a single perfect equanimity.

There seems to be some variance in the identity of the ten perfect equanimities even between the Commentary on the Ten Grounds Sutra and the Bodhisattva Grounds.

Since those two texts differ in their interpretation of emptiness from this tradition, the ten perfect equanimities are here explained in a manner distinct from them.

The second is the equanimity of all phenomena insofar as they are all devoid of existence by virtue of their intrinsic characteristics.

These two represent a general presentation.

For instance, the “absence of birth” is from the perspective of the future, and “unborn” is from that of another temporal standpoint.

That all phenomena are equanimous or equal must be understood in the context of other [remaining statements] as well.

“Being void” refers to being devoid of “what is to be born” and “what is already born.”

These, in turn, must be understood in the sense of being “absent” of existence qualified by intrinsic characteristics, as stated in context of the second perfect equanimity.

This fact too [of being devoid of existence through intrinsic characteristics] is not something constructed by scripture or reason;

rather, they remain so as primordially pure.

This is the sixth.