Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text, titled Personal Instructions on Suchness called A Treasure of Dohās, presents a pith instruction on the nature of reality and the pitfalls of meditative practice. The author argues that a view of permanence constitutes a stain on meditation, identifying it as a manifestation of desire for habitual existence and a source of discordance. By contrasting these errors with the actual nature of enlightenment, the text commits the reader to a realization of the non-dual, equal, and inconceivable nature of compassion. The work positions the nature of compassion as the formless, perfect Buddha, suggesting that the path to suchness requires the abandonment of conceptual permanence in favor of a pure, non-dual awareness. The fragment begins by referencing the three vehicles and the Vaibhāṣika school, framing the subsequent instructions within a broader Buddhist philosophical context.
Provenance
About this text
An instruction on the nature of reality, the Dohānidhināmatattvopadeśa belongs to the tradition of the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The work is attributed to the Indian author Avadhūtipa Advayavajra. It was translated into the Tibetan language by Dhiriśrījñānapāda and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཝི, where it extends over two pages. The text provides pith instructions on suchness, beginning with a reference to the three vehicles and the Vaibhāṣikas. It argues that the view of permanence is a stain of meditation and a manifestation of desire for the habitual tendencies of existence, characterizing such a view as discordant. In contrast, it presents the nature of compassion as non-dual, equal, inconceivable, and utterly pure, identifying this state as the formless, perfect Buddha. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine how the abandonment of conceptual permanence is framed as a prerequisite for realizing a pure, non-dual awareness, and to see how these instructions are positioned within the broader philosophical context of the three vehicles.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Personal Instructions on Suchness called “A Treasure of Dohās”” (Toh 2247), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2247
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant for its critique of the view of permanence, a common obstacle in various meditative traditions. It highlights the intersection of compassion and emptiness, characterizing the Buddha not as a person but as a formless state of purity.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Philosophical Framing
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and references the three vehicles and the Vaibhāṣika school.
2
Instructions on Suchness
Discusses the errors of viewing reality as permanent and defines the nature of the formless Buddha as non-dual compassion.
Themes
The Error of Permanence (2)
Non-duality and Compassion (2)
Nature of the Buddha (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaPersonal Instructions on Suchness called “A Treasure of Dohās”·
In the language of India: Dohati-nāma-tattvopadeśa. In the language of Tibet: Dohati zhes bya ba de kho na nyid kyi man ngag (The Pith Instructions on Suchness, Known as Dohati). Homage to the glorious Heruka!
The three vehicles are explained as the abiding [states]; the Vaibhāṣikas should be known as twofold. The Śrāvakas are the inferior and the middling, the Westerners; the supreme and the Pratyekabuddhas are the Kashmiris. The five aggregates are the tenet of all. The Westerners of both [schools] assert an inexpressible person. As long as one lives, all take refuge in the three. Through self-discipline, compassion arises preeminently. The inferior vehicle is the impure corpse; one should know that the body is pure and the mind is the stain. The middling meditation is the arising and entering [of breath]; its stain is the union in the vase. The meditation of the superior is the four truths: the expanded path of the branches is the emptiness of the person. Suffering is saṃsāra, and the origin is attachment; cessation is nirvāṇa, the untainted path. Focusing on the fourth, the permanent, is stainless. The Pratyekabuddha meditates on the inconceivable of oneself. In this meditative equipoise, one should know the two stains: intoxication and the absence of mind. The subtle collection is the system of the Sautrāntikas. The meditation on the inconceivable has stains similar to the former. The view of this is the six perfections themselves; it is the complete dedication through the power of compassion. Beings are mind-only, and there are no atoms. The Yogācāra is like a dream; blue, yellow, and so forth appear in various ways. Whatever is desired is the nature; all is the meditative concentration of self-knowing awareness.
Know that the view of permanence is the stain of meditation; furthermore, it is the desire for the habitual tendencies of existence. In every respect, it abides as the discordant side. Non-dual, equal, inconceivable, and utterly pure, the nature of compassion is the formless, perfect Buddha. Emanating from the root of the two levels of form, the stains of the view of meditative concentration are the former nature. Having abandoned the four extremes, it is mere self-awareness, just like the moon in water, an illusion, or a dream. This is what is taught as the meditative concentration of this view. The stain of nihilism is the abandonment of self-awareness; one would then attain another state from one existence to another. In every respect, the nature is pure; this is the peerless, non-abiding. Know all the stains of the view of meditative concentration; for that reason, this is the Vehicle of the Perfections. The nature of bliss is the experience of the Great Secret Mantra; the mind of the union of the Vajra and the Lake-Born (Padma). The sun and moon of supreme passion are perfectly joined. Through the power of the method of compassion, all beings are, in that very suchness, primordial bliss. Where the nature of bodhicitta is of one taste, that is coemergent bliss. At that time, the two previously fallen into that; furthermore, emptiness and compassion become equal therein. All beings, in the aspect of the coemergent—how is this realized according to the instructions of the supreme guru? The Dohā-kośa-nāma-tattvopadeśa is complete. Composed by Avadhūtipa and translated by the venerable Dhirishrījñāna.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.