by Nāgārjuna
The Cittavajrastava is a short hymn of seven verses attributed to Nāgārjuna, the great Madhyamaka philosopher, praising mind (citta) as the vajra — the indestructible diamond-thunderbolt that is both the ground of awakening and the source of all bondage. Every verse turns on the same pivot: mind is the net, and mind is the freedom from the net. The philosopher who spent his career arguing for the emptiness of all things here writes of mind as the one thing that matters — not because it is independently real, but because it is the fulcrum on which liberation and saṃsāra turn.
The text survives in the Tibetan Buddhist canon as Tohoku 1121 in the Degé Tengyur, Volume 1 (Collected Praises). No translator colophon survives; the original Sanskrit is lost. No previous English translation is known to exist. This is the first.
Homage to Mañjuśrī, the Youthful One.
I
That which clears the net of mental events
Through the very mind itself,
Dispelling the confusion of mind —
To that own-mind, I bow.
II
Though sentient beings with varied devotions
Focus upon different gods,
Apart from the precious mind's liberation,
No other god can be accomplished.
III
To attain mind is awakening;
Mind is the five realms of being.
The marks of happiness and suffering —
Apart from mind, not the slightest exists.
IV
The views of all beings
And all their forms of meditation —
All of these are the web of mind:
So He has taught who speaks the truth.
V
Mind freed from conceptual thought,
Mind bound by conceptual thought —
Saṃsāra is mere conceptual elaboration;
Without elaboration is liberation.
VI
Therefore let all, with diligence,
Pay homage to the awakening mind.
Because one cultivates the vajra of mind,
This is called supreme awakening.
VII
The mind that generates elements is bound by the body;
The element free of mind enters bliss.
Therefore, guard the mind in every way:
From the blessed mind, Buddhahood arises.
The Praise of the Vajra of Mind, composed by Ācārya Nāgārjuna, is complete.
Colophon
Nāgārjuna (Tib. ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ, Klu sgrub) is the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy and one of the most important thinkers in Mahāyāna Buddhism. He is traditionally placed in the 2nd century CE, though the attribution of texts to him spans a wide range. The Cittavajrastava is notable for its emphasis on mind (citta/sems) as the central reality — a register more commonly associated with the Yogācāra school. That a Madhyamaka philosopher wrote a hymn in which "mind" appears in nearly every line suggests that the doctrinal boundaries between schools are less rigid in devotional practice than in philosophical treatise. The title vajra (Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ, rdo rje, "diamond-thunderbolt") signals both the indestructibility and the luminous power of mind.
Originally composed in Sanskrit (Cittavajrastava), the Sanskrit original is lost. The Tibetan translation survives in the Degé Tengyur, Volume 1 (bsTod tshogs, ka), Tohoku 1121, folios 69b.5–70a.2. No translator colophon is preserved.
Good Works Translation from Tibetan. Translated by Lotsawa (Tibetan Translator tulku), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). MITRA (dharmamitra.org) was not consulted for this translation — the text was translated directly from the Tibetan by the tulku.
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Source Text: སེམས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བསྟོད་པ
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (Esukhia/derge-tengyur, GitHub, CC0). Volume 001 (བསྟོད་ཚོགས ཀ), folios 69b.5–70a.2. Editorial markers removed; variant readings normalized to the first reading.
༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཙིཏྟ་བཛྲ་སྟ་བཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། སེམས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བསྟོད་པ།
འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
གང་གིས་སེམས་བྱུང་དྲ་བ་ནི། །སེམས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ནི་བསལ་མཛད་དེ། །སེམས་ཀྱི་རྨོངས་པ་སེལ་བ་ཡི། །རང་སེམས་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
སེམས་ཅན་མོས་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྣམས། །ཐ་དད་ལྷ་ཡི་དམིགས་པ་ལ། །རིན་ཆེན་སེམས་ནི་རྣམ་གྲོལ་ལས། །ལྷ་གཞན་བསྒྲུབ་ཏུ་ཡོད་མ་ཡིན།
སེམས་ཐོབ་པ་ནི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྟེ། །སེམས་ནི་འགྲོ་བ་ལྔ་པོ་ཡིན། །བདེ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མཚན་ཉིད་དག །སེམས་ལས་མ་གཏོགས་ཅུང་ཟད་མེད།
འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་མཐོང་བ་རྣམས། །ཅུང་ཟད་བསྒོམ་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ཡང་། །དེ་ཀུན་སེམས་ཀྱི་དྲ་བ་རུ། །དེ་ཉིད་གསུང་བས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན།
རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་སྤངས་པའི་སེམས། །རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པས་བསྡོས་བྱས་པའི། །འཁོར་བ་རྣམ་རྟོག་ཙམ་ཉིད་དེ། །རྣམ་རྟོག་མེད་པ་ཐར་པ་ཡིན།
དེ་བས་ཀུན་གྱིས་འབད་པ་ཡིས། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ལ་ཕྱག་བྱའོ། །སེམས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྒོམ་པའི་ཕྱིར། །དེ་ནི་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཅེས་བྱ།
ཁམས་བསྐྱེད་སེམས་ནི་ལུས་ཀྱིས་བཅིངས། །སེམས་མེད་ཁམས་ནི་བདེ་བར་འཇུག །དེ་ཕྱིར་སེམས་ནི་ཀུན་དུ་བསྲུང་། །བདེ་ལེགས་སེམས་ལས་སངས་རྒྱས་འབྱུང་།
སེམས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བསྟོད་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition, maintained by Esukhia (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur). Licensed CC0 (public domain). The Degé Tengyur is the standard critical edition of the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur, originally printed from woodblocks at Degé Parkhang, Kham, Tibet. The digital text was transcribed and proofread by Esukhia under the direction of Émilie Arrago-Boruah.
No translator colophon survives for this text in the Degé edition.
This is believed to be the first English translation of this text.
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