C. What is to be abandoned

Thus, of these dharmas appearing while they do not exist, which are natureless from the beginning:

And in particular, those which are the appearances
Of the impure beings abiding in the six realms
Are appearance of things that are not really there.
These are forms of confusion, that come from habitual patterns.
As those whose eyes are filmed see hairs before the eyes,
And, if they want to be cured, must treat the imbalanced phlegm,
Those who want to purify confused appearance
Have to take the cure for the film of ignorance.

Those whose sight is obscured by a disorder of the phlegm treat the phlegm, when it appears that hairs are drifting before their eyes and so forth. Similarly sentient beings are obscured by habitual patterns of grasping “me” and “mine” from beginningless time, and by the film of ignorance. Though these beings really exist as mind itself, the luminous nature of buddhahood, not only do they not see that, but they experience external stones, rocks, and mountains, and internal attachments and thoughts of the kleshas and suchlike, which are like hairs in the eyes. From the time these appear they do not exist at all. They are merely seductions for fools. The Prasannapada says:

Because we follow the errors of ignorance, worldly people think complete absence of nature has a nature. Those who have filmed eyes are attached to the nature of natureless hairs in the eyes and so forth, by the condition of having filmed eyes; similarly fools whose eyes of intellect are corrupted by the film of ignorance become attached to the natureless phenomena of things as having a nature.

The Lankavatara Sutra says:

Just as those with filmed eyes
Wrongly grasp hairs in the eyes,
So these conceptual things
Are the false constructions of fools.

The noble ones who actually see naturelessness realize only the purity and essencelessness that accord with the essential nature. The Prasannapada says:

When, those with the eye of undefiled prajña, free from the film of ignorance, use that vision; then, just as those who are free from filmed eyes do not see the hairs before the eyes perceived by those who have filmed eyes, noble ones, who do not see according to the constructions of foolish people’s minds, do not see these natures of things.

Also:

Because the deceptive dharmin beguiles fools, appearance is erroneous, like the seeming circle made by a whirling torch. On the level of no nature, all conditioned things are false, because they are the deceptive dharmin, like the water in a mirage. Whatever is true, like nirvana, is not the deceptive dharmin. Therefore, by the reasoning of the teachings and these scriptures, things are established as natureless.