Toh 2357 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition
Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft
This brief text, presented as a song attributed to Kānhapā, delivers a sharp critique of ritualism within the Buddhist tradition. The author argues against the conceptualization of ritual implements—specifically colored powder maṇḍalas, vases, and vajras—as the actual mechanisms of liberation. By characterizing the reliance on these external objects as a commitment to deceptive lies, the text rejects the efficacy of formal liturgy and material symbolism in favor of a more direct or non-ritualistic approach to enlightenment. The work is structured as a concise polemic, beginning with a traditional homage to the Buddha and concluding with a formal closing statement. It commits the reader to a skeptical evaluation of ritual practice, suggesting that the path to liberation cannot be found in the manipulation of physical objects or the adherence to prescribed ceremonial forms.
Provenance
A critique of ritual implements presented as a song, the ka na pa'i glu is a treatise belonging to the classical Tibetan period. The work is attributed to Kaṇapa. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where it comprises two pages and is situated within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works collection. The text argues against the view that material objects—specifically the vase, the vajra, and colored powder maṇḍalas—serve as the means for liberation, dismissing such reliance as a commitment to deceptive lies. By rejecting the efficacy of these external tools, the work enacts a polemic against the ritualism of the tradition. A scholar or serious reader consults this brief text today to examine a specific internal Buddhist critique of formal liturgy and material symbolism, observing how the author advocates for a path to enlightenment that bypasses the manipulation of physical objects in favor of a more direct approach.
Read further
https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2357The work is significant as an example of the anti-ritualist or iconoclastic current found within certain Mahasiddha traditions. It highlights a tension between formal monastic or tantric liturgy and the pursuit of direct realization. For the modern reader, it illustrates the internal critiques of materialism and formalism within Indo-Tibetan Buddhist thought.
| Passages | Section | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Song of Kānhapā | A short polemic rejecting ritual implements as means for liberation. |
༄༅། ། སངས་རྒྱས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། རྡུལ་ཚོན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བུམ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སོགས། ། གྲོལ་བར་མི་ལྟ་ཕུང་པོ་འགྲངས་པའི་ཐབས། ། ཀ་ན་པས་བརྗོད་དེ་འདྲ་སུ་ཞིག་བྱེད། ། ཐམས་ཅད་རྫུན་པས་སླུ་བ་ཡིན་པར་འདོད། ། ཀ་ན་པའི་གླུ་རྫོགས་སོ། །
Homage to the Buddha! One should not view the colored powder maṇḍala, the vase, the vajra, and so forth, as the means for liberation. Who would act according to what Kaṇapa has described? I maintain that all such things are deceptive lies. The song of Kaṇapa is complete.
| Term | Rendering | × | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| སངས་རྒྱས | buddha | 1 | The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr |
| ཕྱག་འཚལ | homage | 1 | |
| དཀྱིལ་འཁོར | maṇḍala | 1 | |
| ཕུང་པོ | aggregate | 1 |
Source: tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).
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.
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