In Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, conceptual proliferation (Pāli: ; Sanskrit: ) or, alternatively, mental proliferation or conceptual elaboration, refers to unbounded conceptualization, "tend[ing] to obscure the true state of affairs."
Etymology The word prapanca (Sanskrit: प्रपञ्च) means "visible world," "manifoldness of form," "expansion of the universe."Sanskrit Dictionary, prapanca According to Mayrhofer, prapanca originally meant an 'endless exposition' ("weitläufige Auseinandersetzung"), as well as "counting on five fingers."
The translation of papañca as conceptual proliferation was first made by Katukurunde Nyanananda Thera in his research monograph Concept and Reality (1971).
Buddhism
Prapanca Andrew Olendzki explains that:
Aprapanca/nisprapanca Aprapanca is "(that which is) beyond discursive thinking," as stated in the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā, the eighth chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra.Wisdom Library, Aprapanca
Nisprapapanca/'nippapañca is the stopping of discursive thought or conceptualisation. Buswell and Lopez explain nisprapanca as follows:
Advaita Fabian Völker explains that prapanca is central to the notion of advaita. "Advaita" (अद्वैत) is from Sanskrit roots a, not; dvaita, "customarily translated as dual." As Advaita, it is usually translated as "not-two" or "one without a second", and most commonly as "nondualism", "nonduality" or "nondual," invoking the notion of a dichotomy. Fabian Völker, following Paul Hacker explains that dvaita does not mean "duality," but "the state in which a second is present," the second here being synonymous with prapanca, "conceptual proliferation," and with jagat, "the world." Advaita thus means that only Brahman, 'the one', is ultimately real, while the phenomenal world, or the conceptual multiplicity, 'the second', is not fully real. The term thus does not emphasize two instances, but the notion that the second instance is not fully real, and advaita is better translated as "that which has no second beside it" instead of "nonduality," denying multiplicity and the proliferation of concepts "that tend to obscure the true state of affairs."
Nonduality According to Völker, in both Advaita and Mahayana nonduality is the realization of nisprapanca/aprapanca ('nonceptualization', "(that which is) beyond discursive thinking") the annihilation of prapanca (conceptualisation, creating multiplicity by multiplying concepts and subsequent creation of attachment) through insight or meditation:
Textual usage The term is mentioned in a variety of suttas in the Pali canon, such as the Madhupindika Sutta (MN 18), and is mentioned in Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta as well.
Anguttara Nikaya IV.173 states:
See also Make a mountain out of a molehill Monkey mind Nibbāna: The Mind Stilled Reification (fallacy)
References
Sources
External links
Exploring the Honeyball Sutta, An Alternative Nidana Chain Getting Away From Prapanca, The Practical Applications of the Honeyball Sutta Dharma talk on papañca by Christina Feldman Andrew Olendzki, What is Papañca?, Lion's Roar