Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This sādhana, titled "Abandoning Errors" (Bhramahārasādhana), provides a ritualized framework for the purification of misdeeds and the realization of non-dual awareness through the Hevajra tantra tradition. The text guides the practitioner through a sequence of meditative visualizations, beginning with a philosophical grounding in the emptiness of subject and object, where external perceptions are identified as manifestations of the mind. The ritual architecture involves the construction of a complex mandala, the visualization of the deity Hevajra and his consort Caṇḍālī, and the activation of internal energetic channels and cakras. By integrating mantra recitation, mudrā, and the transformation of elements into the radiance of primordial wisdom, the text commits the reader to a process of somatic and cognitive restructuring. The ultimate goal is the dissolution of conceptual elaboration and the attainment of the state of the Great Vajra Holder, moving from the confession of errors to the embodiment of the wisdom maṇḍala.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual practice for dispelling delusion, the Bhramahāranāmasādhana belongs to the Non-dual Tantra collection. The work is attributed to the Indian author Ratnākaraśānti. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in volume ཉ of the Tengyur under the Tibetan title 'khrul pa spong ba zhes bya ba'i sgrub pa'i thabs/, spanning twelve pages. The work enacts a process of spiritual purification and philosophical realization, beginning with an invocation of Hevajra and the confession of misdeeds. It argues that external objects of perception are not distinct from the mind, asserting that because the perceived object lacks real entity, the perceiver is similarly devoid of entity. By establishing that all phenomena are the body of the mind, the text directs the practitioner toward the ultimate nature of emptiness regarding subject and object. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the intersection of ritualized confession and the non-dual philosophical framework that identifies the nature of all phenomena as a manifestation of the mind.
The work is significant as a representative example of Anuttarayoga Tantra practice, demonstrating the integration of voidness philosophy with complex deity yoga. For the modern reader, it illustrates the technical precision required in Tibetan ritual technology to bridge the gap between theoretical emptiness and embodied experience.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-3
Preliminary Purification and Philosophy
Homage to Hevajra, confession of misdeeds, and a philosophical discourse on the non-duality of mind and object.
4-6
Mandala Construction
Visualization of the vajra nature, the palace of great liberation, and the sun maṇḍala of consonants.
7-9
Deity Visualization and Invocation
The invocation of Hevajra by Caṇḍālī and the detailed physical description of the deity and associated goddesses.
10-11
Internal Energetics and Mantra
Mapping of the four cakras and the application of the vajra blessing mantra.
12-16
Ritual Integration and Dissolution
Invitation of the wisdom maṇḍala, the transformation of substances into primordial wisdom, and final meditation on equanimity.
Themes
Non-duality and Emptiness (3, 13)
Deity Yoga and Visualization (5, 8, 9)
Somatic Transformation (10, 11, 14)
Ritual Purification (2, 12)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Bhramahārasādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: ’Khrul pa spong ba zhes bya ba’i sgrub pa’i thabs (The Sādhana Called Dispelling Delusion). Homage to the glorious Hevajra!
With feet treading the earth, the ocean is stirred by the force of your calves; with faces like the clouds of the terrifying age, you let out a roar; with the forest of your arms, the wind shakes and hurls the mountain peaks. Through the dance of Heruka, you dispel the fears of all.
With three eyes in each face, four feet that strike terror, and sixteen arms and eight faces—I shall explain the sādhana of Hevajra.
Here, a practitioner who has attained mastery in meditation and recitation should rise early in the morning. Visualizing the seed-syllable upon a sun disk at the heart, and having performed the washing of the face and other preliminaries, one should protect the place, oneself, and the yoga by reciting: Oṃ rakṣa rakṣa hūṃ hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ svāhā. Then, entering a meditative retreat site endowed with fragrant scents, flowers, and so forth, one should sit cross-legged on a comfortable seat. Having consecrated the offering water with the mantra, one should invite the Blessed One together with his retinue into the space before one through the light rays of the mantra at the heart. Having visualized them, one should present offerings with the eight goddesses, Gaurī and the rest, who emerge from the seed-syllable at the heart.
Among them, Gaurī holds the moon; Caurī holds the sun; Vetālī holds water; Ghasmarī holds strength; Pukkasī holds sandalwood; Śavarī holds honey.
Caṇḍālī is the beating of the hand-drum. Ḍombī is embracing the man around the neck. Then, in the presence of the Blessed One, one should perform the confession of misdeeds and so forth in this way: "I individually confess all my misdeeds to the Blessed One. I rejoice in all the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, noble ones, and ordinary beings. I dedicate all my virtue toward unsurpassed, perfectly complete awakening. Until I myself attain awakening, I go for refuge to the Buddha, the supreme among two-legged beings. I go for refuge to the Dharma, the supreme of the Mahāyāna teachings. I go for refuge to the Saṅgha, the supreme assembly of irreversible bodhisattvas. Ema! For the sake of the benefit and happiness of all sentient beings, having attained manifest, perfectly complete awakening, I shall establish them in the awakening of a Buddha, up until the ultimate, final nirvāṇa. In this way, I shall rely upon the Vajrayāna, the path to unsurpassed, perfectly complete awakening. Then, one should meditate on joy in the form of never being separated from the sublime divine bliss of all sentient beings, and on equanimity in the form of engaging in the path that is the antidote to the afflictions. Then, having focused the mind upon all phenomena, one should analyze them: these appear as the various magical manifestations of the nature of mind itself."
For example, just like a dream, there is no external object of perception apart from the mind. Because the perceived object does not exist as a real entity, the mind also lacks the entity of a perceiver. Therefore, all phenomena are the body of the mind; their emptiness of subject and object is called the ultimate. Having ascertained this definitively, one should view the nature of all phenomena—which are free from the aspects of the signs of delusion through the superimposition of error—as solely the characteristic of non-dual cognition. This is taught as the sublime, supramundane bodhicitta, the wisdom of emptiness free from conceptual elaborations and free from discursive thought.
Then, one should consecrate with its mantra: Oṃ śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako ‘haṃ. This is the Blessed Lady, the Perfection of Insight; she is the supreme protection. Then, one should meditate on the protection that is the nature of pure mundane wisdom, which is the concordant result of that [ultimate wisdom] and possesses aspects. In front, one should visualize a sun arising from raṃ; from that sun, a hūṃ emerges and becomes a crossed vajra. One should also visualize that very vajra as a fence and a canopy, firmly binding [the space]. The crossed vajra radiates light rays like terrifying fires, difficult to endure, which spread everywhere and fill the space, forming a blazing square vajra-fence on the sides and a vajra-canopy above.
Below, one should visualize the foundation of the vajra nature reaching down to the ground beneath. Then, the sun and the crossed vajra (viśvavajra) transform into rays of light; having radiated and filled every direction, one should establish the boundary at a great distance outside. This is the meaning of the verse. Then, as a concordant cause for that, one should contemplate the purification of the five great elements themselves. Among them, the great element of space is called the source of phenomena (dharmodaya); it is the nature of the Great Vajra Holder, white like the autumn moon, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, triangular in shape, and with the nature of space within, inside of which a multicolored lotus has arisen, at the heart of which a vast crossed vajra resides. In its center, one should visualize the four maṇḍalas of the four great elements in the nature of the four goddesses, one above the other. First, from the syllable laṃ, there is the great maṇḍala of the powerful earth, square and yellow, marked at the corners with three-pointed vajras. Then, from vaṃ, the circular white maṇḍala of water, marked with a vase. Then, from raṃ, the triangular red maṇḍala of fire, marked at the corners with raṃ syllables. Then, from yaṃ, the bow-shaped black maṇḍala of wind, marked at both ends with fluttering silk streamers. At that time, the meditator abides in that very state which pervades supramundane wisdom.
Then, in the center of the hub of the crossed vajra, one should meditate on the palace of great liberation, which is the essence of the condensed buddha-field arising from the complete transformation of the four great elements. It is of the nature of Vairocana, a multi-storied mansion formed from various precious gems, surrounded by the eight charnel grounds that demonstrate the selflessness of all world systems. It is square with four doors, beautifully adorned with eight pillars, and completely encircled by four pedestals. It is decorated with four tōraṇa arches, and is beautified by necklaces, half-necklaces, silks, flower garlands, canopies, mirrors, fly-whisks, and vajra cords. From its light, hosts of buddhas radiate forth, and it is adorned with supreme, swaying, and variegated banners. At the doors in the cardinal directions, bells ring out. It is embellished with the five supreme sensory qualities and the five sublime offerings. Within its inner tier is an eight-petaled lotus with a filigree center. At the four doors and the four corners, and in the center, are the seats: Brahmā, Indra, Upendra, and Rudra; likewise Yama, the Yakṣa, Nairṛti, and Vemacitrin. In the center is the fourth, the Amṛta, stacked higher and higher. The hearts of these four terrifying Māras are pressed down by sun disks, and the others by moon disks. Upon the central seat in the middle of that, the fifteen vowels form a moon mandala, the nature of the mirror-like wisdom.
Above that, one should visualize the thirty-four consonants as a sun maṇḍala, the nature of the wisdom of equality (samatājñāna). In its center, from the complete transformation of the syllables Aṃ and Hūṃ, there is a curved knife and a skull-cup, marked in their center by one’s own seed-syllable, the essence of the wisdom of individual discernment (pratyavekṣaṇājñāna). Then, from the two seed-syllables, the forms of the wheel of yoginīs and all the tathāgatas are emanated; they reabsorb and merge with the seed-syllables, which is the wisdom of all-accomplishing action (kṛtyānuṣṭhānajñāna). Then, from the complete transformation of the moon, sun, symbols, and seed-syllables, the Blessed One Vajrasattva is generated in the form of Śrī Heruka, with the colors, aspects, symbols, and so forth that will be explained. Likewise, he is embraced around the neck by Nairātmyā; this should be viewed as the essence of the utterly pure wisdom of the dharmadhātu. These are the five aspects of manifest complete awakening.
The two blazing seed-syllables situated between the two Hoḥ syllables enter through the mouth of that [deity] in Tuṣita. Through passion, they melt at the edge of the lotus. Then, by the great passion of the Vajra, they melt together with the consort and remain in a circular form, like the autumn moon, situated upon the moon seat. Then, the four goddesses exhort him to arise with four vajra songs: "Venerable One, arise with a compassionate mind! Protect me, the one called Dombī! Abandon the absorption of emptiness!"
"Unite with me, who desires great bliss! If you are not here, I shall die. O Hevajra, please arise! Abandon this absorption in emptiness and fulfill the needs of the mountain retreats. O Lord, having invited the guests of the world, why do you remain in emptiness? If you do not remain, I, Caṇḍālī, am bewildered; I pray to you. Arise like a magical illusion! I understand your heart; consider me, your lowly servant, to be wise. Do not let the stream of your compassion be severed!"
Then, following the melody of the song, from the condensed petition, there arise the two syllables AṂ and HŪṂ situated upon a sun maṇḍala in the center. Having ascertained the divine signs and the body and so forth to be like space and like an illusion, one should visualize the two seed syllables of the deity, whose nature is the perfect knowledge of reality, joined with the curved knife and skull cup that are the essence of the absorption arising from the total transformation of those [syllables].
Then, from that very state, the yogi emanates the form of the wheel of yoginīs, whose nature is that of infinite Tathāgatas. Having ascertained that all are the nature of mind, they are again withdrawn by the yogi. Having thoroughly understood them all to be like an illusion and like space, one should visualize oneself as Heruka, born from the total transformation of the two suns, the signs, and the seed syllables. With feet in a dancing posture, he makes the threatening gesture toward the gods and asuras.
His eyes are fierce, round, and red; he is youthful and possesses a majestic bearing. He has four legs and eight faces, adorned with sixteen arms. He completely tramples the four Māras and performs the dance in the half-lotus posture. He wears a great necklace of severed heads and, seated upon the sun, is terrifying even to the terrifying. He holds a crossed vajra upon his crown, is dark in color, and possesses the radiance of a blazing sun. From his mouths, he emanates the syllable HŪṂ. His body is smeared with ashes. His central face is intensely black, the right is like a kunda flower, and the left is a great, fierce red. The face on the crown is baring its fangs, and the remaining faces are like bees. Each face has three eyes. He is charming, heroic, and terrifying; fierce, laughing, and causing fear; compassionate, marvelous, and peaceful—endowed with the flavors of the nine dramatic sentiments. His orange-brown hair on the crown points upward. He is fully adorned with the five mudrās: the wheel, earrings, necklace, bracelets, and belt. In the skull-cups of his right hands, in successive order, are an elephant, a horse, a donkey, an ox, a camel, a human, a śarabha, and a cat. In the eight skull-cups of his left hands are earth, water, wind, fire, the moon, the sun, a yakṣa, and a Vasu. He is embraced by Nairātmyā, who is like himself and adorned with the five mudrās. She has two arms, one face, and two legs, and she holds a curved knife and a skull-cup. Then, in the heart of the Blessed One, upon a sun disk and a skull-cup, is a sun disk with the syllable HŪṂ.
At the heart of the Bhagavatī, there is also a curved knife resting upon a moon; at its handle, one should visualize the syllable Aṃ upon a moon. Then, one should visualize Nairātmyā at her ears, Vajrī at her eyes, Guhyakālī at her nose, Vārīyoginī at her tongue, Vajraḍākinī at her body faculty, and Nairātmyā at her mind.
Those same five, beginning with Vajrī, correspond respectively to the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Likewise, they correspond to delusion, avarice, desire, envy, and hatred.
Regarding the sense bases of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and phenomena, there are the outer Kālī, Caurī, Vetālī, Ghasmarī, Pukkasī, and Khagā. Regarding the elements of earth, water, fire, and air, there are Pukkasī, Śavarī, Caṇḍālī, and Ḍombī. Regarding body, speech, and mind, there are Pukkasī and Nairātmyā. Regarding flesh, there is Pukkasī; regarding blood, Śavarī; regarding semen, Caṇḍālī; regarding marrow and fat, Ḍombī; regarding the skin, the seven branches of awakening; and regarding the bones, the four truths. In this way, everything is transformed into the deity.
Furthermore, her other purifications shall be explained: her red eyes are compassion; her black limbs are a mind of loving-kindness; her feet are the means of attraction; her sixteen hands are the sixteen emptinesses; her eight faces are the eight liberations; and her three eyes are the three suchnesses.
The five mudrās are the five Victorious Ones; through the wrathful ones, the malevolent are subdued. At the throat, heart, bhaga, and crown, the four cakras are in their respective order. They are described as the Sambhogakāya, Dharmakāya, Nirmāṇakāya, and Mahāsukhakāya. The lotus petals are sixteen, eight, sixty-four, and thirty-two. They are adorned in the center by Oṃ, Hūṃ, Āḥ, and Haṃ.
Following that, light rays in the form of hooks emanate from the seed syllable at one’s own heart, inviting the Tathāgatas residing in the ten directions and requesting them to remain in the sky. After making perfect offerings to them with the eight goddesses, one should supplicate: "May all the Tathāgatas please confer empowerment upon me." Then, those [Tathāgatas], having transformed into the form of Śrī Heruka, confer empowerment with vases filled with the five nectars (amṛta) and embodying the nature of the five Tathāgatas. Upon the crown of the one endowed with empowerment, the Blessed One Akṣobhya is generated. In front of him, a rain of flowers and saffron falls, and the sound of drums resounds. Rūpavajrā and the others also make perfect offerings, and Locanā and the others praise him with vajra songs. This is the first absorption called "Initial Yoga," which demonstrates the Svabhāvakāya.
Then, the consecration of the lotus is as follows: Oṃ padma sukha dhara mahārāga sukhaṃ datta caturānanda bhaga viśva hūṃ hūṃ kuryaṃ kuruṣva me.
Then, the blessing of the vajra is as follows: Oṃ vajra mahā dveṣa caturānanda dāyaka khagamukha ekarasonātha hūṃ hūṃ kuryaṃ kuruṣva me. Then, oṃ śī śī ha svāhā. Thus one should begin the application.
Then, from the complete transformation of the droplets of the melted moon that has fallen into the lotus, one should visualize Gāṃ, from which Gaurī is formed—black in color, holding a curved knife and a rohita fish—at the eastern gate upon a moon seat.
Likewise, from Caṃ, Caurī is formed—madder-colored, holding a hand-drum and a pig—at the southern gate upon a moon seat.
Likewise, from Vaṃ, Vetālī is formed—golden in color, holding a tortoise and a skull-cup—at the western gate upon a moon seat.
Likewise, from Ghaṃ, Ghasmarī is formed—emerald-colored, holding a snake and a yogic vessel—at the northern gate upon a moon seat.
Likewise, from Paṃ, Pukkasī is formed—sapphire-colored, holding a lion and a battle-axe—at the seat in the northeast corner.
Likewise, from Saṃ, Śavarī is formed—like the color of crystal, holding a monk and a mendicant’s staff—at the seat in the southeast corner.
Likewise, from Laṃ, Caṇḍālī is formed—dark blue like the sky, holding a wheel and a plow—at the seat in the southwest corner.
Likewise, from Ḍaṃ, Ḍombī is formed—multicolored, holding a vajra and making the threatening gesture—at the seat in the northwest corner upon a moon seat.
They abide in the dance posture of the half-lotus. They have three round, red eyes, two hands, and tawny hair standing erect. They also wear the five mudrās.
Then, having gazed upon the complete maṇḍala, one should invite the wisdom maṇḍala with the iron hooks of light rays from the seed syllable at the heart. As it faces the eastern gate and remains in the space before one, one should expel obstructing spirits (vighna) with the syllable HŪṂ from the eight faces. Having offered the water for the face and the water for the feet, one should summon, cause to enter, bind, and subjugate [the wisdom beings] in sequence with the syllables JAḤ HŪṂ BAṂ HOḤ. One should meditate and visualize the samaya maṇḍala and the wisdom maṇḍala as merging into one. Then, with light rays from the mantra at the heart, one should invite all the Tathāgatas, make perfect offerings, and supplicate them, imagining that the empowerment is bestowed. Upon those who possess the empowerment, the Victorious Ones who confer the empowerment place [their hands] upon the crown of the head. Regarding this, there is a verse:
"The four, such as Pukkasī and the rest, and the four, such as Gaurī and the rest, are to be marked with the seals (mudrā) of Akṣobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi at the heart, respectively. In this context, the lords of the families of body, speech, and mind are for the Herukas of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. For Vajrā and the others, the lords of the five families are Akṣobhya and the rest."
Then, one should bring to mind the suchness (tathatā) of the deities. Here, all phenomena of body, speech, mind, and wisdom are subsumed. To discern individually that the nature of those bodies and so forth is emptiness, which is the mere cognition of the dharmatā, is [the practice].
The suchness of the gatekeepers is, as appropriate, that very emptiness. The unsurpassed vajra vehicle of undefiled insight, which is the authentic wisdom of that very emptiness and is free from conceptual elaboration, is the suchness of the four goddesses, Pukkasi and the others, as appropriate. The awakening that is the unsurpassed state of the Great Vajra Holder, the fruit of that very vajra vehicle, is the suchness of the Lord of the Maṇḍala. Then, from the seed syllable at one’s own heart, the eight offering goddesses are perfectly emanated; as the clouds of these perfectly emanated goddesses fill the sky, one should make offerings to the maṇḍala together with its central deity. Then, having cultivated the conviction that all phenomena are like an illusion, one should praise the Blessed One with two songs:
"Exceedingly joyful through various and manifold graceful gestures and gazes,
Exceedingly joyful through various and manifold lights and flashes,
Also partaking in various and manifold feasts of bliss,
Thoroughly demonstrating various and manifold great vows.
Through the yoga of the entire sky,
Having entered the samaya of space,
All worlds without exception
Are offered by the entirety of space."
Then, one should visualize a vajra arising from the syllable HŪṂ in the space before one, and below that, a lotus arising from the syllable A. In the center of that, the substances are marked with the syllable OṂ. From the union of the vajra and the lotus, the fire of great passion blazes forth.
Having boiled, ripened, and dissolved those [substances], they become the radiance of the sun of primordial wisdom (jñāna). Through their rays of light, the forms of all the tathāgatas of the ten directions are made to appear. By those very rays of light, the nectar of primordial wisdom is drawn from the seeds of primordial wisdom of those [deities], and it falls and merges therein. In that same way, they become nectar and are blessed by the three syllables. Having visualized the maṇḍala upon the sun at the heart and the HŪṂ and the supreme vajra upon the tongue, one should perfectly worship their own self and the maṇḍala.
"In the delightful wheel of the mātṛs, one attains bliss free from waves. One should meditate on such a pervasive lord, whose nature is waveless." This is the saṃbhogakāya from the second absorption called the "Supreme King of the Maṇḍala."
Then, from Gaurī and Caurī up to the lord of the maṇḍala, each is sequentially emanated without interruption into the ten directions. Having performed the welfare of sentient beings, their reabsorption into that very [source] is the maṇḍala of "Accomplished Activity." One should also view the lord of the maṇḍala as bestowing the bliss free from emanation. In that regard, Gaurī causes sentient beings to abide in the discernment of the suchness (tathatā) of the body; Caurī [does so] for the mind; Vetālī for speech; Ghasmarī for primordial wisdom; Pukkasī for the perfect primordial wisdom of the body; Śavarī for the mind; and Caṇḍālī for the speech.
Caṇḍālī is that of speech; the outcaste woman is that of wisdom. The lord of the maṇḍala also establishes sentient beings in the state of the Great Vajra Holder. Then, one should meditate on equanimity through the yoga of the six limbs: black, red, then yellow, green, blue, and white in sequence. One should contemplate the principal deity of the wheel as being merely coemergent joy. This is the third absorption, called the "Supreme King of Actions," which is the nirmāṇakāya. If one becomes weary of meditation, one should recite the mantra. Having firmly visualized oneself together with the maṇḍala in the form of the deity, one should mentally inscribe the thirteen syllables of the mantra at the heart, standing upright and blazing like a lamp in a circle, and then recite: OṂ DEVA PI CU VAJRA HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. By reciting with vajra words and wrathful words, one should recite those. One should imagine all the faces and all the faces of the goddesses reciting the mantra. This itself becomes a hundredfold the recitation of the deity itself compared to the recitation of all the goddesses. Then, one should make an aspiration: "By whatever virtue has been obtained, may the five classes of beings attain the state of the Great Vajra Holder, the wealth of all the Buddhas. May I practice both the conduct of the Bodhisattva Vajra-mantrin for the sake of perfect awakening and the conduct of the Perfect Buddha."
Then, having perfectly worshipped the maṇḍala together with the principal deity as before, one should meditate on the goddess within the mantra at one’s own heart. Having visualized the supporting maṇḍala as being extremely vast, and having ascertained that the four great elements are the nature of Pukkasī and the others, one should arise with the divine pride of Hevajra. Then, one should perform the recitation and so forth. At the time of sleep, one should fall asleep having actualized either the yoga of the six limbs or the yoga of innate joy. One should arise from sleep after being exhorted by the authentic songs of the four goddesses. Having arisen, one should perform everything as before. In this way, one should observe daily until the signs of accomplishment appear. Having seen them, one should abide in the essence of the accomplishment desired according to the sequence.
By clearly expressing this Sādhana of the eight-faced Heruka, the source of heavy qualities, titled Dispelling Errors, whatever virtue has been obtained, may I, who rely on birth, become a Vajra Victor through that cause which is beneficial at all times. This work composed by the master Ratnākaraśānti is complete.