Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The View of Conquering the Conceptions of the Mind is a short instructional text that aims to dismantle the conceptual frameworks used to grasp the nature of the mind. The author employs paradoxical imagery and aphoristic warnings to argue that the mind's actual experience is inexpressible and beyond the reach of intellectual analysis. By utilizing metaphors—such as a monkey attempting to eat a stone or an axe shattering against butter—the text illustrates the futility of applying conceptual tools to a non-conceptual reality. The work commits the reader to a state of direct realization, urging the practitioner, specifically addressed as Avadhūtipa, to abandon doubt and amazement in favor of a non-dual recognition of the mind's nature. The text functions as a pointer toward the limits of language, asserting that the nature of mind cannot be captured by description but must be experienced directly.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise designed to dismantle the conceptual frameworks used to grasp the nature of the mind, the Cittakalpaparihāradṛṣṭi is a work of the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra tradition. The text is attributed to the Indian author Lakṣmī and is noted as being transmitted from Kaṅkāla and Mekhala. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the work appears in the Tengyur (vol. ཟི) under the Tibetan title sems nyid kyi rtogs pa 'joms pa'i lta ba, where it extends over two pages. Through the use of paradoxical imagery and aphoristic warnings—such as a monkey attempting to eat a stone or an axe shattering against butter—the author argues that the mind's actual experience is inexpressible and beyond the reach of intellectual analysis. By addressing the practitioner as Avadhūtipa, the text enacts a pointer toward the limits of language, urging the abandonment of doubt in favor of a non-dual recognition of the mind's nature. A scholar or serious reader consults this short instructional text today to examine how the author employs metaphors to illustrate the futility of applying conceptual tools to a non-conceptual reality, ultimately committing the reader to a state of direct realization.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The View of Conquering the Conceptions of the Mind” (Toh 2433), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2433
Summary & commentary
Significance
This work is significant for its representation of the non-conceptual approach to mind characteristic of certain Indo-Tibetan meditative traditions. It highlights the tension between linguistic expression and experiential realization, serving as a pedagogical tool to exhaust the conceptual mind.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Homage
Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and an opening homage to Yamāntaka.
2
Instruction on the Nature of Mind
Uses metaphors of futility and direct address to argue against the conceptualization of the mind.
Themes
The inexpressibility of the mind (2)
The futility of conceptualization (1-2)
Overcoming doubt (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaThe View of Conquering the Conceptions of the Mind·
In the language of India: Cittakalpaparihara-dṛṣṭi-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Sems nyid kyi rtog pa ’joms pa’i lta ba zhes bya ba (The View that Destroys Conceptualization of the Nature of Mind). Homage to Yamāntaka!
By cutting off the head of fresh butter, the edge of the axe is shattered. A frog swallows an elephant. Alas! The wood-gatherer laughs. Alas! How wondrous, O Fire! Do not harbor doubt regarding the mind. If you are amazed, O Avadhūtipa, do not conceptualize the mind. He did not say it, yet this is not understood. Flowers bloom from the sky. Alas! How wondrous, O Fire! Do not harbor doubt regarding the mind. If you are amazed, O Avadhūtipa, what is the use of doubting the mind?
Alas! If a barren woman gives birth, even a throne will dance. Cotton will become a rare commodity, and those clothed in space will weep. Alas! How wondrous, O Fire! What is the use of doubting the mind? If you are amazed, O Avadhūtipa, do not harbor doubt regarding the mind.
Alas! An elephant sits upon a throne, lifted up by two flies. A blind man shows the way—how wondrous! A mute speaks words. Alas! How wondrous, O Fire! Do not harbor doubt regarding the mind. If you are amazed, O Avadhūtipa, what is the use of doubting the mind?
A mouse chases a cat—how wondrous! Seeing this, wonder arises. Seeing a donkey intoxicated, even elephants flee. Alas! How wondrous, O Fire! Do not harbor doubt regarding the mind. If you are amazed, O Avadhūtipa, what is the use of doubting the mind?
Alas! A hungry monkey
Eats a stone as if it were a morsel of food.
Alas! The experience of the mind
Cannot be expressed by anyone.
Alas! O wondrous fire!
Do not harbor doubts about the mind.
If you are amazed, O Avadhūtipa,
What need is there to doubt the mind?
This concludes "The Subduer of the Conceptualizations of Mind-itself," spoken by the master Lakṣmī, transmitted from Kaṅkāla and Mekhala.
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.