Skip to content
Wellsprings
hindu-cosmosfeatured in 2 works

Tattva 14 — Intellect (Buddhi)

The intellect: the deciding, discerning faculty — the first and subtlest evolute of nature.

Buddhi is the intellect — the faculty that decides, judges, and discerns, giving experience its definite shape ('this is that'). As the first thing to evolve out of primal nature, it is the subtlest and highest part of the mental apparatus, the clear mirror in which the world is determined and known. It is one of the three components of the 'inner instrument' of the mind.

How it traveled

  1. Upadeśasāhasrī
    Kālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710
    explains
  2. Tantrasāra
    Śrīnagara (Srinagar), Kashmir · 1000
    explains

Key passages(11)

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

Very high

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

Very high

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

High

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Kaṭha Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

High

Tarka-saṃgraha · Annaṃbhaṭṭa

High

Praśna Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate