Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text provides a meditative instruction on cultivating renunciation by contemplating the impurity of existence. It argues that the path to becoming weary of saṃsāra begins with a systematic analytical examination of both other sentient beings and one's own physical body. By directing attention from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, the practitioner is led to recognize the inherently impure nature of the material form. The work commits the reader to a practice of visceral observation, shifting the perspective from an idealized view of the body to one that emphasizes its corruption. This process is intended to trigger a psychological recoiling from cyclic existence, establishing the necessary motivational foundation for further spiritual practice through the realization of the inherent unsatisfactoriness of the physical world.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise on cultivating weariness toward saṃsāra, the mtshan yang dag par brjod pa'i mi rtag pa 'khor ba las yid byung ba/ belongs to the Yoga Tantra Treatises. The work is attributed to the Indian author Mañjuśrīmitra. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in volume ངུ of the Tengyur. It enacts a meditative practice of renunciation by directing the practitioner to examine the inner contents of the world and the physical body from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. By contemplating the impure nature of the material form—specifically the presence of lymph, phlegm, brain matter, excrement, urine, pus, blood, mucus, snot, and bones—the work seeks to trigger a psychological recoiling from cyclic existence. A scholar or serious reader consults this two-page text today to understand the visceral methods used to establish the motivational foundation for spiritual practice through the realization of the inherent unsatisfactoriness of the physical world.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Recoiling from Impermanent Samsāra according to “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”” (Toh 2558), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2558
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it exemplifies the traditional Buddhist pedagogical method of using impurity contemplation to generate renunciation. For the modern reader, it illustrates the intersection between somatic observation and the psychological drive to transcend suffering within the Indo-Tibetan framework.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Contemplation of Impurity
An instruction to examine the impurity of other beings and one's own body to cultivate weariness of saṃsāra.
Themes
Impermanence and Samsāra (1)
Impurity of the Body (1)
Renunciation (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaRecoiling from Impermanent Samsāra according to “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”·
Homage to the noble Mañjuśrī.
To become weary of saṃsāra, one should examine the sentient beings who are the inner contents of the world, as well as one’s own aggregate of form, from the crown of the head down to the soles of the feet. One finds that it is of an impure nature, completely filled with lymph, phlegm, brain matter, excrement, urine, pus, blood, mucus, snot, bones, and so forth. Furthermore, it is subject to change, unreliable, suffering, impermanent, selfless, and empty.
Having understood it in this way, one turns away from the duality of subject and object. The characteristic of the mind is also formless, colorless, essence-less, aspectless, invisible, ungraspable, non-conceptual, and free from proliferation. It is established as being merely self-knowing and self-luminous. Thus, attachment to the five sensory qualities within saṃsāra is of a deceptive nature.
This weariness with saṃsāra is not a mere fabrication. It is based on the following scriptural traditions: "The bodiless one is the body, the supreme body; he is the one who realizes the limit of the body." And: "Having reached the far shore of saṃsāra, he has done what was to be done and stands on dry land."
This "Weariness with Saṃsāra," an impermanent [treatise] from the Chanting of the Names (Nāmasaṃgīti), composed by the master Mañjuśrīmitra, is hereby complete.
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.