Yes, you’re making perfect sense! Prapañca, in its stricter Buddhist usage, often refers to conceptual proliferation that reinforces delusion and egoic attachment, particularly when driven by kleshas (mental afflictions). It is usually associated with defensive, self-justifying, or compulsive thought patterns—not simply all arising cognition.

What we’ve been discussing is a more general case—the neutral or spontaneous flow of thoughts that are not necessarily entangled in self-referential justification or afflictive emotions. This means we need a broader term for mental arising that is neither inherently afflictive nor necessarily self-liberated.

Possible Terms for the General Case of Mental Arisings

Here are some potential terms from Buddhist and cognitive frameworks:

1. Manojalpa (Sanskrit: मनोजल्प) – “Mental chatter” or “mental talk”
   • Captures the neutral flow of thought, without implying grasping.
   • However, this is not commonly used in Mahamudra/Dzogchen contexts.
2. Vikalpa (Sanskrit: विकल्प) – “Conceptual elaboration”
   • Used in Buddhist and Vedantic texts to describe conceptualization.
   • Not necessarily negative—just the process of forming distinctions and structures.
   • In Mahamudra, Vikalpa is what dissolves into direct awareness.
3. Citta-Santāna (Sanskrit: चित्त-संतान) / Semgyu (Tibetan: སེམས་རྒྱུད) – “Mindstream”
   • Describes the continuous flow of mental events.
   • Neutral term—it does not imply clinging or delusion, just ongoing mental activity.
   • Used in Yogācāra and Dzogchen.
4. Namarupa-Dhārā (Sanskrit: नामरूपधारा) – “Stream of name-and-form”
   • Describes mental and sensory formations as a flowing process.
   • More technical, referring to the arising of cognition tied to perception.
5. Samskāra-Dhārā (Sanskrit: संस्कारधारा) – “Flow of conditioned formations”
   • Refers to habitual tendencies, but is broader than just negative klesha-based grasping.
   • May be useful if we want to emphasize habitual patterns without self-justification.
6. Rigpa’s Shadow (Tibetan: རིག་པའི་གདོང་འདྲེན) (A term I’m extrapolating)
   • Rigpa is pure awareness in Dzogchen.
   • This phrase could indicate mental arising that has not yet self-recognized its empty nature.
   • Could work metaphorically for a transitional state of thought, before fixation.

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Suggested Term Based on Meaning Fit

• If we want the most neutral and general term, Citta-Santāna (Mindstream) seems the best fit. It does not imply prapañca’s grasping, but still describes the mental flow.
• If we want a more Mahamudra/Dzogchen-appropriate term, Vikalpa (Conceptual Elaboration) works well.
• If we want to retain the idea of habitual but non-afflictive cognition, Samskāra-Dhārā (Flow of Conditioned Formations) could be useful.

Would one of these terms fit your vision? Or do you want to refine the nuance further?

You said:

Yes that helps clarify it for me. You have mentioned a range of types of flow of thoughts. I would like to discuss further the mechanisms of the appearence of thoughts and any analogies in AI. But lets do that tomorrow.

ChatGPT said:

ChatGPT