Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Dohākoṣa is a collection of instructional verses focused on the realization of the coemergent nature of mind. The text argues that liberation is achieved not through external rituals, deity worship, or the pursuit of merit, but through the direct recognition of the innate nature of consciousness. It posits that all phenomenal constituents—aggregates, elements, and sense bases—originate from and return to this coemergent state. The work commits the reader to a path of non-conceptual awareness, urging the abandonment of conceptual elaborations and the severance of the web of ignorance. By rejecting the veneration of worldly deities and the duality of virtue and fault, the practitioner is directed toward a state of self-awareness characterized by the absence of birth, death, and ontological extremes. The text emphasizes that the dissolution of mind and wind into equality is the prerequisite for cutting through the pride of the mind and attaining liberation in a single lifetime.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise focused on the realization of the coemergent nature of mind, the Dohakoṣa originates from the Indian tradition. It is attributed to the author Tilopa. The work passed into the Tibetan language through the translator Vairocanavajra and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཞི, where it comprises four pages. Within the Tibetan canon, it is situated among the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The text argues that liberation and siddhi are attained in this body by recognizing that the aggregates, elements, sense bases, and faculties arise from and dissolve back into the coemergent. It enacts a path of non-conceptual awareness, urging the practitioner to abandon conceptual elaborations and the veneration of deities such as Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Īśvara, as well as ritual bathing sites. Instead, it directs the reader toward the meditative absorption of insight and method, where emptiness and compassion are held to be of one taste. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the instructions for severing the web of ignorance and the dissolution of mind and wind into equality, bypassing the dualities of cyclic existence and nirvāṇa.
This work is significant for its representation of the dohā tradition, which prioritizes direct experiential realization over scholastic or ritualistic frameworks. Its critique of Vedic deities and ritual bathing suggests a polemic against externalist religious practices in favor of an internal, non-dualist approach to enlightenment.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-4
Instructional Verses
A series of concise teachings on the nature of the coemergent mind, the rejection of external rituals, and the necessity of non-conceptual awareness.
Themes
The Coemergent Nature (1-2, 4)
Rejection of External Ritualism (3)
Non-conceptuality and Non-duality (2-4)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Dohākoṣa. In the language of Tibet: Dohā mdzod. Homage to the glorious Vajraḍākinī.
The aggregates, elements, sense bases, and faculties—
All arise from the nature of the coemergent and dissolve back into it.
Do not inquire into the coemergent as being either an entity or a non-entity.
Emptiness and compassion are held to be of one taste therein.
Do not disparage the innate nature through mental fabrications.
Since you possess freedom, do not bind yourself.
Strike the mind with nirvāṇa and slay it.
Enter the unstained emptiness of the three realms.
The mind, like space, enters into the bliss of equality.
The faculties and their objects are not seen there for even a moment.
The beginning is abandoned, and here the end is abandoned.
The feet of the supreme guru have shown non-duality.
Wherever the mind becomes pacified,
There the winds also dissolve.
To whom, by whom, and how can the fruit of self-knowing reality be shown?
It is not the domain of the deluded beings of the world.
It is not something to be traversed by the learned.
O, it is the domain of that person
Who has pleased the feet of the guru.
The fruit of self-knowing reality—
Thus it was taught by Tilopa.
Whatever becomes an object of the mind
Is not the ultimate itself.
That reality cannot be shown by the words of the guru,
And therefore it is not understood by the disciple.
The nectar-like taste of the coemergent fruit—
To whom and what can that reality be shown?
Where the mind is pacified...
The mind and wind dissolve into equality; therein, all conceptual elaborations are abandoned. The three realms abide within that; know the nature of the innate, the delusion. At that time, the entire web of ignorance will be severed. Thoroughly train the coemergent mind; in this very life, liberation and siddhi will be attained with this body. Wherever the mind goes, look there for the absence of mind. Abide in the equality of non-differentiation; thoroughly seek that which is both mind and non-mind. In this very life, siddhi will be clearly attained. Where the mind becomes pacified, the three realms dissolve therein. Through the equality of self and other, one becomes the venerable Buddha. The mind enters and dissolves into the state of space. At that time, the five senses, their objects, and the aggregates and elements enter within and depart. All forms of the stable and the moving are empty and unstained; do not analyze this. "This is the self," "This is the world"—one who fully understands these distinctions, within the stainless nature of the mind, should know that which is self-aware. The self is the world, the self is the Buddha; the self is stainless and the self is non-mental engagement. In that, there is no world and no stain. The mind is the venerable Lord, the venerable Lady is space; day and night, dance and enjoy the coemergent. One will be liberated from birth and death; abide continuously in the innate mind. Do not rely on riverbanks, asceticism, or forests; happiness is not found through ritual bathing and purification.
Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and the god Īśvara—
While enlightenment exists within yourself, do not venerate these three.
Do not offer to the gods, and do not go to ritual bathing sites.
Even if you offer to the gods, liberation will not be attained.
With a non-conceptual mind, make offerings to the Buddha.
Do not dwell in either cyclic existence or nirvāṇa.
Enter the meditative absorption of insight and method.
When you are able to make the wavering mind stable,
At that time, the experience will be accomplished.
Just as when poison has been consumed,
One does not die from the poison itself,
So too, though the yogi consumes cyclic existence,
He will not be bound by the objects of desire.
O yogi, do not disparage karma!
There, the four moments and the four joys are found.
Understand the distinctions of those moments and joys.
Understand them as being free from both the basis of characteristics and the characteristics themselves.
O, this supreme joy and the joy of separation should be analyzed.
Reverently take the feet of the supreme guru and receive them well.
In that very moment between supreme joy and the joy of separation,
O, the coemergent should be realized.
The jewel of qualities should be placed upon the crown of the forehead;
This very thing is known from the anthers of the desire-maiden.
Whoever understands the coemergent in that distinction of moments
Is called a yogi in this very life.
Free from beginning, end, subject, and object,
The supreme guru’s feet have shown non-duality.
Unwavering, stainless, and without conceptualization,
This essence, free from arising and ceasing,
Is thoroughly described as nirvāṇa.
Wherever the pride of the mind is severed,
This abandonment of faults and virtues is the ultimate.
In self-awareness, nothing whatsoever exists;
Always abandon both mind and non-mind.
Kye ho! Abide in the nature of the coemergent.
Without birth and without death,
Without root and without peak,
Without coming and without going,
It does not abide anywhere at all.
Through the guru’s pith instructions, it is realized in the heart.
Free from color and without cognition,
All appearances are perfected within it.
Kill the mind and make the intellect rootless;
Cast away the thorn of the mind’s remainder.
Herein, the four bodies and four seals—
At that time, the three realms without exception are pure.
Self and the beings of the three realms are empty;
In the stainless coemergent,
There is neither virtue nor non-virtue.
Wherever the mind desires to go,
Do not be deluded by it.
With eyes unblinking,
Abide in meditative concentration.
This concludes the Dohākośa composed by the great master Tilopa.
It was spoken as a self-translation by the learned and great yogi Śrī Vairocanavajra, born in Kosala in South India.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations. A bibliography of the canon lists 1 English-language publication(s) on this text, e.g. Bagchi, Prabodh Chandra, ″Tillopādasya dohākosah″ (1935). in ″Dohākoça″ JDL (UnivCalcutta) 28[2]: 1-180, at p. 1-4, 41-51,139-175; rev. in P. C. Bagchi, Donākosa; Apabhramsa Texts of the Sahajayana School. Calcutta: Metropolitan, 1938 (CSS 25c) — these may include a full or partial translation. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.