Conception

Conception (Skt. vitarka; Tib. རྟོག་པ་, Wyl. rtog pa) — one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the four variables.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

• Tib. རྟོག་པ་ནི་སེམས་པ་དང་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་དམིགས་པའི་དངོས་པོ་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཚོལ་བའི་ཡིད་ཀྱིས་བརྗོད་པ་སྟེ། དོན་འོལ་སྤྱི་ཙམ་འཛིན་པ་རྩིང་བའི་རྣམ་པ་ཅན། རྒྱང་རིང་པོའི་གཟུགས་ལ་ཁམ་ཕོར་དང་བུམ་པའི་ཁྱད་མ་ཕྱེ་བར་དེ་ཙམ་འཛིན་པ་ལྟ་བུའོ།
• Conception is a mental expression created by the mind's investigation of an observed entity by means of intention and wisdom. It apprehends an object coarsely and produces a rough understanding, just like perceiving a distant form without distinguishing whether it is a clay bowl or a vase. (Rigpa Translations)
• Conception is a mental expression created by the mind's investigation of an observed object by means of apprehension and discrimination. It is merely grasping a rough meaning and it has a coarse form, just like perceiving a distant form without distinguishing whether it is a clay bowl or a vase. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Alternative Translations

• Coarse conceptual understanding (Tony Duff)
• Considering (David Karma Choepel)
• Gross discursiveness (Padmakara)
• Ideation (Gyurme Dorje)
• Initial consideration (Dr. Lozang Jamspal)
• Reasoning, investigation, examination (Berzin)
• Thought construction (Dr. Lozang Jamspal)