Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
Attributed to the mahasiddha Tilopa, this text provides a concise instructional framework for the elimination of internal and external poisons or diseases. The work frames the process of purification through a transition from the physical or systemic to the metaphysical. It commits the practitioner to a specific meditative methodology: the cultivation of a non-conceptual mind focused upon an unsupported emptiness. By identifying the fundamental nature of reality as space, the text argues that the resolution of affliction is achieved not through external remedies alone, but through the realization of the void nature of the mind. The brevity of the provided fragments suggests a manual designed for direct application in a pleasing practice environment, moving rapidly from the invocation of the deity Heruka to the final instruction on the nature of emptiness.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise detailing the method for accomplishing secret yoga to eliminate outer and inner poison, the Viṣāntarabāhyanivṛttibhāvanākrama is attributed to the Indian master Tilopa. This work is preserved within the classical Tibetan tradition, appearing in the Tengyur (vol. ཟི) as part of the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The Tibetan title, phyi nang gi dug sel gyi rim pa, translates as The Stages of Eliminating Outer and Inner Poison. The text enacts a process of purification by directing the practitioner to a pleasing practice place to focus the non-conceptual mind upon an unsupported emptiness, asserting that the fundamental nature of reality is space. By moving from an invocation of the deity Heruka to the realization of the void nature of the mind, the work argues that the resolution of affliction is achieved through this specific meditative methodology. A scholar or serious reader consults this single-page manual today for its concise instructional framework on the transition from systemic disease to metaphysical emptiness, providing a direct application of yoga tantra for the clearing away of internal and external poisons.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Stages of Clearing Away Internal and External Poisons” (Toh 2414), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2414
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it represents the intersection of medicinal purification and meditative praxis within the Indo-Tibetan tradition. Its attribution to Tilopa links it to the foundational lineage of the Mahamudra and Kagyu traditions, suggesting that the 'clearing of poisons' is a metaphor for the removal of cognitive obscurations.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, an invocation to Heruka, and the author's intent to explain the method.
2
Conclusion
Instructs the practitioner to focus the non-conceptual mind on unsupported emptiness, identifying the nature of reality as space.
Themes
Purification of poisons/diseases (1-2)
Non-conceptual meditation (2)
Emptiness and space (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaThe Stages of Clearing Away Internal and External Poisons·
In the language of India: Viṣāntaravāhyaniṣprītivabhanakramaṃ. In the language of Tibet: Phyi nang gi dug sel gyi rim pa zhes bya ba (The Stages of Eliminating Outer and Inner Poison). Homage to the glorious Heruka!
In a practice place that is pleasing to the mind, I, Tilopa, shall explain the method for accomplishing the secret yoga that eliminates outer and inner poison.
Possessing the stages of the generation of yoga, one should recite the Oṃ Āḥ Hūṃ that subdues great poisons such as scorpions and snakes three times, and contemplate as follows:
At the Brahma-aperture of the crown of the head, twelve finger-widths in measure, one should visualize an Oṃ in the center from which nectar flows. Through this yoga of application, one becomes radiant in a single instant. This is the elimination of outer poison.
For the inner, one should meditate in this way: In the center of the heart of the Great Vajra, visualize a white-colored, cooling light, like a great cloud upon the second-day moon. Meditate on its radiation and its complete reabsorption. By contemplating this again and again, one becomes Samantabhadra, free from all inner disease. Even if one possesses poison equal to the King of Mountains, it is eliminated and drawn away in a single instant.
As for the elimination of poison arising from circumstances: Upon an eight-petaled lotus, visualize a white, clear, and stainless moon. In its center, visualize the syllable A, the nectar endowed with the five wisdoms. The five poisons, throat-diseases, carbuncles, and diseases caused by external conditions—those having the forms of monkeys and domestic fowl—are expelled and dissolve into space. My body, speech, and mind are the Vajras; because the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm are without substantiality, [the poison is purified].
Therefore, the nature is space; by means of that, one should focus the non-conceptual mind upon the emptiness that is without support. This concludes the instructions for clearing away outer and inner diseases, composed by the master Tilopa.
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.