Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The provided fragment of the Cittavajrastava (Praise to the Vajra of Mind) is a devotional address directed toward Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta. The text functions as a praise poem designed to acknowledge the capacity of the mind's inherent nature to purify the practitioner's cognitive state. Specifically, it posits that the nature of mind can dismantle the complex web of mental factors and eliminate delusion. By framing the mind as a vajra—an indestructible diamond or thunderbolt—the text commits the reader to a view of the mind as possessing an innate, immutable clarity that can be leveraged to overcome psychological and spiritual obscurations. The fragment establishes a relationship between the deity Mañjuśrī and the realization of this non-dual, clear nature of consciousness.
Provenance
About this text
A praise to the vajra of mind, the Cittavajrastava is a work of the Indo-Tibetan tradition attributed to the Indian author Nāgārjuna. The text entered the Tibetan language through the work of the translators Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita and lo tsa ba tshul khrims rgyal ba. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཀ, where it is situated within the Eulogy collection and spans two pages in the classical Tibetan period. The work functions as a devotional address to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta, enacting a process of homage to the nature of the mind. It argues that the inherent nature of the mind possesses the capacity to dispel delusion and clear away the complex web of mental factors that obscure sentient beings. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine its framing of the mind as a vajra—an indestructible element—and to understand how the realization of this immutable clarity is leveraged to overcome psychological and spiritual obscurations.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Praise of the Vajra Mind” (Toh 1121), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1121
Summary & commentary
Significance
This work is significant for its focus on the 'vajra mind,' a central concept in Indo-Tibetan traditions regarding the innate purity of consciousness. It illustrates the intersection of deity yoga and the philosophical pursuit of non-deluded awareness.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Opening Homage and Praise
An invocation to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and an initial description of the mind's power to clear delusion.
Themes
The nature of mind (1)
Elimination of delusion (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Cittavajrastava. In the language of Tibet: Sems kyi rdo rje’i bstod pa (Praise to the Vajra of Mind). Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta.
To him who, by means of the nature of mind itself, clears away the web of mental factors, and who dispels the delusion of the mind—to that very mind, I pay homage.
Sentient beings have diverse inclinations; though they focus on various distinct deities, there is no other deity to be accomplished than the precious mind of liberation. The attainment of the mind is awakening; the mind is the five classes of beings. Apart from the mind, there is not the slightest thing characterized as pleasure or suffering. All that is seen by all beings, and even the slightest aspect of meditation—all of that is taught by the Speaker of Reality to be the web of the mind itself.
The mind that has abandoned conceptualization is [liberated]; that which is bound by conceptualization is saṃsāra. Saṃsāra is merely conceptualization; the absence of conceptualization is liberation. Therefore, everyone should strive with diligence to pay homage to the bodhicitta. For the sake of meditating on the Vajra of Mind, that is called supreme awakening. The element that generates [the body] is bound by the body; without the mind, the element enters into bliss. Therefore, one should guard the mind at all times. From the mind, well-being and the Buddha arise.
The Praise to the Vajra of Mind, composed by the master Nāgārjuna, is complete.