And both religions were thoroughly intertwined in another grand monastic festival known as the Tsam.
Sems tsam la na brten nas su/ phyi rol dngos med shes par bya/ tshul 'dir brten nas de la yang/ shin tu bdag med shes par bya// 13.
(Gorampa 1969a: 374ab) Since it emphasizes the subjective nature of the distinction between the two truths, it proposes "mere mind" (blo tsam) to be the basis of the division.
(TSN 3, Sems tsam chi 10a) "What appears" is the dependent nature a series of cognitive events, the representations.
In order to illustrate this distinction, in his commentary MBh 6.28 Candrakīrti introduces the concept: mere convention (kun rdzob tsam) of the noble beings to contrast with conventionally real or conventional truth (kun rdzob bden pa) of the ordinary beings.
All are, equally, simply labeled by thought construction (Tib. rtog pas btags tsam).
(Mikyö Dorje 2006: 273) Therefore conventional truth is "one that is devoid of an intrinsic reality, rather it is mere name (ming tsam), mere sign (rda tsam), mere linguistic convention (tha snyad tsam), mere conception (rnam par rtog pa tsam) and mere fabrication (sgro btags pa tsam)—one that merely arises or ceases due to the force of the expressions or the conceptual linguistic convention".
Therefore Śāntarakṣita concludes: "By relying on the Mind Only (cittamatra / sems tsam) one understands that external phenomena do not exist.
As Maitreyanātha states, ultimate truth takes three primary forms as emptiness it is the ultimate object, as nirvāṇa it is the ultimate attainment, and as nonconceptual knowledge it is the ultimate realization (MadhVK, Sems tsam phi 42B).
Significantly, the denial of self, too, does not mean the denial of the "mere self" (bdag tsam), or the conventionally existent self (Jinpa 2002, 71).
