Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The text, titled Bandhavimuktopadeśa-nāma in Sanskrit and ’Ching ba rnam grol gyi man ngag in Tibetan, presents a concise pith instruction focused on the nature of liberation. The author posits a paradoxical relationship between the cause of bondage and the mechanism of freedom, arguing that the very elements that bind the practitioner serve as the path to liberation. By asserting that bondage is ultimately non-existent or void, the text commits the reader to a shift in perception where the obstacles to enlightenment are recontextualized as the means of attainment. The work is structured as a direct instruction, beginning with a traditional homage to Avalokiteśvara and proceeding immediately to a core ontological claim regarding the illusory nature of bondage.
Provenance
About this text
A work of instruction concerning the nature of liberation, the Bandhavimuktopadeśa belongs to the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. It is attributed to the Indian author Mitrayogin. The text was translated into the Tibetan language by Mitrayogin and the lo tsa ba byams pa’i dpal, and it is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where it extends to a single page. In the classical Tibetan tradition, it is known as the 'ching ba rnam grol gyi man ngag. Opening with an homage to the Noble Avalokiteśvara, the work argues that the very cause which binds the practitioner is simultaneously the path that liberates. It posits a paradoxical ontological framework in which bondage is viewed as non-existent, suggesting instead that attachment is purified as great bliss and that the obstacles to freedom are themselves the means of attainment. A scholar or serious reader consults this pith instruction today to examine these specific claims regarding the illusory nature of bondage and the transformative process of liberation.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Personal Instructions on Liberation from Bondage” (Toh 2466), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2466
Summary & commentary
Significance
This work is significant for its representation of the non-dual approach to liberation common in later Indo-Tibetan traditions, where the problem and the solution are identified as one. For the modern reader, it illustrates the use of paradox as a pedagogical tool to dismantle conceptual attachments to suffering and liberation.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Core Thesis
Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an invocation to Avalokiteśvara, and the primary assertion that the cause of bondage is the path to liberation.
Themes
The non-duality of bondage and liberation (1)
The illusory nature of bondage (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaPersonal Instructions on Liberation from Bondage·
In the language of India: Bandhavimuktopadeśa-nāma. In the language of Tibet: ’Ching ba rnam grol gyi man ngag ces bya ba (The Pith Instruction on Liberation from Bondage). Homage to the Noble Avalokiteśvara.
Kye ho! That very cause which binds is the path that liberates. Here, there is no bondage whatsoever; that which is bondage is itself liberation. Attachment is purified as great bliss; hatred blazes as the flame of clear light; ignorance is non-conceptuality itself. The three poisons are spontaneously present as the three kāyas.
This concludes "The Pith Instruction on Liberation from Bondage," spoken from the presence of the Lord of Yogins, Śrī Jagatmitrānanda. It was translated into Tibetan by the translator Jampai Pal in the Golden Temple of Gulang, Nepal, in the presence of that very Lord of Yogins.
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.