Toh 2432 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The View of the Eight Suchnesses

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2432
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.txt
Extent: 1 passages · 1,119 Tibetan characters · 258 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)

The View of the Eight Suchnesses (Tattvāṣṭakadṛṣṭi-nāma) is a philosophical treatise that addresses the ontological status of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. Based on the provided fragment, the text employs a negative dialectic to argue that conceptualizations of these two states are not inherently established. By utilizing the simile of the moon reflected in water, the author asserts that the perceived entities of cyclic existence and liberation are illusory or lacking in intrinsic nature. The work commits the reader to a view of emptiness, suggesting that the conceptual frameworks used to describe the path and its goal are themselves devoid of substantiality. The text begins with a traditional invocation to Mañjuśrī, signaling its alignment with the Prajñāpāramitā tradition and the pursuit of transcendental wisdom.

Provenance

About this text

A treatise explaining the view of the eight realities, the Tattvāṣṭakadṛṣṭi is attributed to the Indian author Indrabhūti. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition under the title de nyid brgyad kyi lta ba, the work is found within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works collection. The source edition is the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where the text extends over two pages. The work opens with an invocation to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and proceeds to address the conceptualizations of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. By employing the simile of the moon in water, the author argues that these entities are not established, utilizing conventional designations to explain the nature of the eight realities and the mind with stains. A scholar or serious reader consults this text to examine its negative dialectic regarding the ontological status of cyclic existence and liberation, as it asserts that such conceptual frameworks are devoid of intrinsic nature.

Sanskrit title: Tattvāṣṭakadṛṣṭi
Indian author: Indrabhūti
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works
Genre: Treatise
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, “The View of the Eight Suchnesses” (Toh 2432), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2432

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its application of the 'moon in water' metaphor to dismantle the reification of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. This approach is characteristic of the Madhyamaka school's effort to prevent the practitioner from treating liberation as a tangible object of attainment.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Contains the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, an invocation to Mañjuśrī, and the opening thesis regarding the non-establishment of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

Themes

Non-substantiality of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa (1)
Illusory nature of conceptualization (1)

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

AnuvādaThe View of the Eight Suchnesses·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཏཏྟྭཱ་ཨཥྚ་ཀ་དྲྀཥྚི་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དེ་ཉིད་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། འཁོར་འདས་དངོས་པོའི་རྟོག་པ་འདི། ། གྲུབ་པ་མེད་དེ་ཆུ་ཟླ་བཞིན། ། ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཐ་སྙད་རྟེན་བྱས་ནས། ། དེ་ཉིད་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་འཆད། ། དྲི་བཅས་སེམས་ནི་འཁོར་བ་སྟེ། ། ཐ་སྙད་དང་བྲལ་མྱ་ངན་འདས། ། དཔེར་ན་སྤྲིན་མེད་ནམ་མཁའ་ནི། ། གང་ལ་མི་གནས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེ། ། ཨིནྡྲ་བྷཱུ་ཏི་སྨྲ་བར་བྱེད། ། འཁོར་བ་མྱ་ངན་འདས་པ་དང་། ། བདེ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གང་ཞིག་ཀྱང་། ། སེམས་ཀྱི་རྟོག་པས་སྲེག་པར་བྱེད། ། དཔེར་ན་ག་པུར་མེ་བཞིན་ནོ། ། དེ་ཕྱིར་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྟོག་པ་ནི། ། ཆུང་ཡང་ཀུན་དུ་སྦ་བར་བྱ། ། སེམས་དང་སེམས་ཉིད་དངོས་པོའོ། ། དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་གནས་པ། ། དཔེར་ན་དྲི་ཟའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་བཞིན། ། མི་གནས་མི་འདས་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་ཡིན། ། ཨིནྡྲ་བྷཱུ་ཏིས་གཉིས་མེད་སྨྲས། ། དེ་ནི་དབུས་མའི་དེ་ཉིད་དེ། ། བདག་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱང་རང་བཞིན་ལ། ། ཐོག་མཐའི་རང་བཞིན་དེ་ཉིད་དོ། ། བདེ་གཤེགས་ལྟ་བ་དེ་ཉིད་དེ། ། སྟོང་ཉིད་དོན་ཡང་ཤེས་པར་བྱ། ། དངོས་མེད་དྲན་མེད་བློ་འདས་སྨྲ། ། དཔེར་ན་ཉི་མ་ཟླ་བ་དང་། ། ནམ་མཁའ་སྐར་མའི་འཁོར་ལོ་དང་། ། ས་དང་ཆུ་དང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་། ། ཕྱོགས་དང་མཚམས་དང་དེ་ཡིན་ལ། ། རི་རབ་ལ་སོགས་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་ཡིན། ། ཨིནྡྲ་བྷཱུ་ཏི་སྨྲ་བར་བྱེད། ། དེ་རྣམས་གང་ཡང་གྲུབ་པ་མེད། ། གཉིས་མེད་དོན་ལ་ཉམས་ལེན་གྱིས། ། དེ་ཉིད་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཨིནྡྲ་བྷཱུ་ཏིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

In the language of India: Tattvāṣṭakadṛṣṭi-nāma. In the language of Tibet: De nyid brgyad kyi lta ba zhes bya ba (The View of the Eight Realities). Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta! These conceptualizations of the entities of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not established, like the moon in water. Relying upon conventional designations, I shall explain the view of the eight realities. The mind with stains is saṃsāra; free from designations, it is nirvāṇa. For example, the cloudless sky is the Great Seal (Mahāmudrā) that abides in nothing; thus speaks Indrabhūti. Whatever is saṃsāra, nirvāṇa, pleasure, or suffering, it is consumed by the conceptualizations of the mind, just as camphor is consumed by fire. Therefore, a yogi should conceal even the slightest conceptualization. Mind and the nature of mind are entities; all entities are non-abiding, like a city of gandharvas. Non-abiding and non-transcending, they are delusive appearances; thus the non-dual Indrabhūti spoke. That is the reality of the middle; the nature of selflessness and phenomena is the reality of the beginning and the end. That is the view of the Sugatas; one should also understand the meaning of emptiness. It is described as non-entity, non-recollection, and beyond the intellect. For example, the sun and moon, the sky and the circle of stars, the earth, water, and the ocean, the cardinal and intermediate directions, and Mount Meru and so forth—these are delusive appearances. Thus speaks Indrabhūti. None of these are established at all. Practice the meaning of non-duality. The View of the Eight Realities, composed by the master Indrabhūti, 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

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

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཀུན་རྫོབ → conventional

termསྡུག་བསྔལ → suffering

termམེ → fire

termཆོས → dharma

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

Terminology used in this text (6)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཀུན་རྫོབ	conventional	1
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra

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.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI