Toh 2412 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Practice Instructions on the View of Self-cognizing Gnosis

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2412
Genre: Instruction
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.txt
Extent: 1 passages · 1,039 Tibetan characters · 281 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

This fragmentary text, titled Practice Instructions on the View of Self-cognizing Gnosis, presents a philosophical framework centered on the nature of self-aware wisdom. The author posits that the realization of this specific gnosis necessitates the negation of duality, specifically the distinction between an agent and an action. By asserting that these two elements do not exist within the state of self-aware wisdom, the text commits the reader to a non-dualistic view of consciousness where the process of knowing is not attributed to a separate entity. The work is structured as a set of practice instructions, beginning with a formal homage to the Mother Nairātmyā, suggesting a grounding in the emptiness of the self. The argument moves from the identification of the state of gnosis to the immediate logical consequence of the absence of agency, aiming to dismantle the practitioner's conceptual reliance on a subject-object dichotomy.

Provenance

About this text

An instruction on the view of self-aware wisdom, the Ātmaparijñānadṛṣṭyupadeśa belongs to the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The work is attributed to the Indian author Campaka. It is preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition under the title rang rig ye shes kyi lta ba'i nyams len, appearing across two pages in volume ཟི of the Tengyur. The text opens with an homage to the Mother Nairātmyā and proceeds to argue that within the state of self-aware wisdom, the distinctions between agent and action are negated. By asserting that these elements do not exist, the work seeks to establish a non-dualistic framework where activity is not predicated on a separate entity. A scholar or serious reader consults this brief work to examine the logical dismantling of agency in the pursuit of gnosis and to understand the specific philosophical requirements for realizing a state of consciousness where the external is not viewed as true.

Sanskrit title: Ātmaparijñānadṛṣṭyupadeśa
Indian author: Campaka
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works
Genre: Instruction
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཟི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Practice Instructions on the View of Self-cognizing Gnosis” (Toh 2412), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2412

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its focus on self-cognizing gnosis, a central theme in various Indo-Tibetan traditions that explore the reflexive nature of awareness. It provides a concise example of how non-duality is applied to the mechanics of cognition to eliminate the notion of a permanent agent.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Initial Thesis	Contains the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, an homage to Nairātmyā, and the opening proposition regarding the absence of agent and action in self-aware wisdom.

Themes

Non-duality of agent and action (1)
Self-cognizing gnosis (1)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaPractice Instructions on the View of Self-cognizing Gnosis·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱཏྨ་པ་རི་ཛྙཱ་ན་དྲྀཥྚི་ཨུ་པ་དེ་ཤ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ། རང་རིག་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བའི་ཉམས་ལེན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། ཡུམ་བདག་མེད་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། རང་རིག་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལས་ཡིན་ན། ། བྱེད་པ་པོ་མེད་ལས་མེད་དོ། ། དེ་དག་མེད་ན་བྱ་བ་མེད། ། གསུམ་ནི་ཇི་ལྟར་གཉིས་མེད་དོ། ། གལ་ཏེ་ཕྱི་ནི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན། ། ཐ་སྙད་འབྲེལ་ཕྱིར་ནང་དུ་བརྗོད། ། གལ་ཏེ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་རང་རིག་ཡིན། ། རིག་པས་རིག་པ་རིག་པ་མེད། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་བདག་ཉིད་རིག་ན་ནི། ། འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འཇོམས་པར་བྱེད། ། ཐ་སྙད་འདི་ཡིས་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས། ། རང་བཞིན་མ་གྲུབ་དྲི་མ་མེད། ། དངོས་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་མ་གྲུབ་པས། ། གཞན་དག་བདག་ལ་གྲུབ་རྒྱུ་མེད། ། དེ་ཕྱིར་བདག་ནི་རྟེན་མེད་པ། ། གལ་ཏེ་སྒྲ་དོན་རྟོགས་བྱ་ཡིན། ། རང་བཞིན་དོན་ལ་སྒྲ་དོན་མེད། ། དངོས་པོ་མ་གྲུབ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ། ། ང་བདག་འདི་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་བྲལ། ། གཉིས་བྲལ་མ་རིག་མུན་པ་མེད། ། དེ་མེད་དྲི་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་མེད། ། འདི་ལྟར་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རིག་པ་ཡིས། ། འཁོར་བའི་འཆིང་བ་གྲོལ་བར་བྱེད། ། གན་རྐྱལ་ཉལ་བ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྐྱེ། ། ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གཞག་དྲན་པར་གྱིས། ། མིག་བགྲད་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་འབུལ། ། ནམ་མཁའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བལྟས་བྱས་པས། ། མཐོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིད་ལ་འཛིན་རྒྱུ་མེད། ། ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་རྟོག་པ་བྲལ་བ་ཡིན། ། དབང་པོ་ནུབ་འགྱུར་གཉིས་མེད་འགྲུབ། ། རང་རིག་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཙམ་པ་ཀས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

In the language of India: Ātmaparijñānadṛṣṭyupadeśa-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Rang rig ye shes kyi lta ba’i nyams len zhes bya ba (The Practice of the View of Self-Aware Wisdom). Homage to the Mother Nairātmyā. If it is self-aware wisdom, there is no agent and no action. If those do not exist, there is no activity; how then could the three be non-dual? If the external were true, it would be described as internal because of its conventional connection. If the conventional were self-awareness, then awareness would not be aware of awareness. If the yogi knows his own nature, he destroys the suffering of saṃsāra. By this convention, things are without inherent existence and are stainless. Since things are not established, there is no other cause for their establishment in the self. Therefore, the self is without a basis. If the meaning of words were to be realized, there would be no meaning of words in the nature of reality. Since things are not established, the yogi is free from all "I" and "self." Free from duality, there is no darkness of ignorance. Without that, there is no stainless wisdom. In this way, through the yogi’s awareness, the bonds of saṃsāra are liberated. The yogi is born lying on his back; be mindful of the arrangement of the body. With eyes wide open, the consciousness is offered; by looking toward the direction of space, there is nothing to be seen and nothing to be grasped by the mind. Free from conceptualization of directions, the senses subside and non-duality is accomplished. The Rang rig ye shes kyi nyams len (The Practice of Self-Aware Wisdom), composed by the master Campaka, is complete.

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

homonymཀུན་རྫོབ is rendered “conventional” here; the glossary also records conventional reality, relative for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཀུན་རྫོབ “conventional” — Conveys the relative or conventional view of the world according to the understanding of ordinary unawakened beings. This is distinguished from the ultimate truth, which conveys the understanding of phenomena as they rea

periodརིག་པ → “knowledge”. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

homonymརིག་པ is rendered “knowledge” here; the glossary also records awareness, spell, incantation for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionརིག་པ “knowledge” — This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In ta

definitionསྡུག་བསྔལ “suffering” — The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffer

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཀུན་རྫོབ → conventional

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termསྡུག་བསྔལ → suffering

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

Terminology used in this text (5)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཀུན་རྫོབ	conventional	1
རིག་པ	knowledge	1	'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge'
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o

Colophon

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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