पपञ्च
Papañca
Conceptual proliferation / Mental elaboration
戲論
Grammar 語法
masculine noun (a-stem): from pa + pañcati (to spread out/expand)
Definition 釋義
Conceptual proliferation — the mind's tendency to take a bare sense impression and spin it into narratives, comparisons, identities, hopes, and fears. The Madhupiṇḍika Sutta (MN 18) gives the famous formula: 'Dependent on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises; the meeting of the three is contact; with contact as condition, feeling; what one feels, one perceives; what one perceives, one thinks about; what one thinks about, one proliferates (papañceti). With what one has proliferated as the source, papañca-saññā-saṅkhā (proliferation-driven perceptions-and-thoughts) beset a person.' Papañca includes the three roots of proliferation: craving (taṇhā), conceit (māna), and views (diṭṭhi).
Canonical Example 典籍例句
Yaṃ vitakkarāti, taṃ papañceti. Yaṃ papañceti, tato nidānaṃ papañcasaññāsaṅkhā samudācaranti.
What one thinks about, one proliferates. From what one has proliferated, proliferation-driven perceptions-and-thoughts assail one.
Source: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, MN 18
At a Glance
- Pali
- Papañca
- IAST
- Prapañca
- Devanagari
- पपञ्च
- Chinese
- 戲論
- Difficulty
- advanced
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