Conceptual proliferation
In Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, conceptual proliferation (Pāli: papañca; Sanskrit: prapañca) or, alternatively, mental proliferation or conceptual elaboration, refers to unbounded conceptualization, "tend[ing] to obscure the true state of affairs." == Etymology == According to the Sanskri Dictionary, prapanca (Sanskrit; प्रपञ्च) means "visible world," "manifoldness of form," "expansion of the universe." According to Mayrhofer, prapanca originally meant an 'endless exposition' ("weitlaufige 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: P[r]apanca is "the tendency of the mind to 1) spread out from and elaborate upon any sense object that arises in experience, smothering it with wave after wave of mental elaboration, 2) most of which is illusory, repetitive, and even obsessive, 3) which effectively blocks any sort of mental calm or clarity of mind." === Aprapanca/nisprapanca === Aprapanca is "(that which is) beyond discursive thinking," as stated in the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā, the eighth chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra.