Toh 1310 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Sādhana of the Solitary Form [of Nairātmā]

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1310
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 010_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཏ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,552 Tibetan characters · 389 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

This fragmentary text provides a ritual procedure for the visualization and realization of a specific deity form associated with Nairātmā. The work begins with a formal homage to Vajrasattva and a detailed iconographic description of a blue, single-faced deity characterized by specific attributes, such as a curved knife and a skull-cup, who embodies the wisdom of the expanse of phenomena. The text then transitions from ritual visualization to a philosophical assertion regarding the non-duality of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. It argues that the distinction between these two states is not ontological but epistemological; once saṃsāra is thoroughly understood, it is designated as nirvāṇa. By employing the analogy of a perforated gem being joined to its setting, the text commits the practitioner to a view of reality where liberation is found through the correct perception of the cyclic world rather than through escape from it.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual procedure for the visualization and realization of a deity form associated with Nairātmā, the Utpādanasamāptināmanairātmaikavīrāsādhana belongs to the Non-dual Tantra collection. The work is attributed to the Indian author Ācārya Rāhula. It was translated into classical Tibetan by Prajñendraruci and dge slong shakya ye shes, and is preserved in volume ཏ of the Tengyur, where it extends over two pages. Under the Tibetan title dpa' gcig ma'i sgrub thabs, the work enacts a Sādhana of the Solitary Heroine, beginning with homage to Vajrasattva and a detailed iconographic description of a blue, single-faced deity holding a curved knife and skull-cup. Beyond ritual visualization, the work argues for the non-duality of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, asserting that the distinction between the two is epistemological rather than ontological. By employing the analogy of a perforated gem, it suggests that once saṃsāra is thoroughly understood, it is designated as nirvāṇa. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the intersection of ritual practice and the philosophical view that liberation is found through the correct perception of the cyclic world.

Sanskrit title: Utpādanasamāptināmanairātmaikavīrāsādhana
Indian author: Ācārya Rāhula
Tibetan translators: Prajñendraruci, dge slong shakya ye shes
Canonical collection: Non-dual Tantra
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཏ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Sādhana of the Solitary Form [of Nairātmā]” (Toh 1310), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1310

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its explicit articulation of the non-duality of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, a central tenet of the Vajrayāna and Mahāyāna traditions. For the modern reader, it illustrates the integration of complex deity yoga with high-level philosophical views on the nature of existence.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Iconographic Description	A detailed description of the deity's physical form, color, ornaments, and implements.
2	Philosophical Instruction	A discourse on the identity of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa using a gem analogy.

Themes

Deity Yoga and Visualization (1)
Non-duality of Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa (2)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaSādhana of the Solitary Form [of Nairātmā]·

༄། ། དཔའ་གཅིག་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བཞུགས། ། ༄༅༅། ། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་གཡོན་བརྐྱང་སྔོ། ། རྒྱན་ ལྔ་ཐོད་ཕྲེང་མགོ་སྐྱེས་སེར། ། གྲི་གུག་ཐོད་ཕྱག་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། ། བློ་དམན་བུད་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར། ། མདོར་བསྡུས་རྒྱས་པ་མ་ཡིན་པ། ། བསྐྱེད་པ་དང་ནི་རྫོགས་པ་ཡིས། ། དཔའ་མོ་གཅིག་པ་བྲི་བར་བྱ། ། དང་པོ་རེ་ཞིག་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས། དབེན་པའི་གནས་སུ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྐྱིལ་མོ་ཀྲུང་གིས་ གནས་ལ། ཇི་སྐད་གསུངས་པའི་རིམ་པས་བླ་མ་མཆོད་ནས་ཚངས་པའི་སྒོམ་པ་བྱས་ལ། དེ་ནས་ཨོཾ་ཤཱུ་ནྱ་ཏཱ་ཛྙཱ་ན་བཛྲ་སྭ་བྷཱ་ཝ་ཨཱཏྨ་ཀོ྅ཧཾ། དེ་རྗེས་སྨོན་ལམ་སྟོབས་ལས་ནི། ། ཆུ་སྐྱེས་དམར་པོ་ཉི་དབུས་སུ། ། མ་སྐྱེས་མཆོག་གི་ས་བོན་ལས། ། ནག་པོ་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་ མ། ། གཡས་པར་གྲི་གུག་འཇིགས་ཆེན་མ། ། གཡོན་པ་ན་ནི་པདྨའི་སྣོད། ། གཡས་པ་མིན་པར་ཁ་ཊྭཱཾ་ག། སྟག་གི་པགས་པས་སྨད་དཀྲིས་པ། ། སྲོག་སོང་སྟེང་ན་གཡོན་བརྐྱང་གནས། ། སྐྲ་སེར་གྱེན་འགྲེང་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ལྔ། ། ཐོད་ཕྲེང་ཐལ་བས་རྣམ་བརྒྱན་ལ། ། དེ་རྗེས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ སེམས་དཔའ་གཞག། སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུག་དང་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས། ། དབང་བསྐུར་བདུད་རྩི་མཆོད་པར་བྱ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཨཾ་ཧཱུཾ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། བཟླས་པའི་སྔགས་སོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨ་ཀཱ་རོ་མུ་ཁཾ་སརྦ་དྷརྨཱ་ཎཱཾ། ཨཱདྱ་ནུཏྤནྣ་ཏྭཱཏ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། གཏོར་མའི་སྔགས་སོ། ། ལྷ་མོའི་ལྟེ་བར་ཟླ་རྒྱས་འབར། ། ཨོཾ་ཡིག་ཡེ་ ཤེས་ལྔ་ཡི་དངོས། ། སྲིད་དང་མྱ་ངན་འདས་པའི་རྒྱུ། །

The Sādhana of the Solitary Heroine Homage to the glorious Vajrasattva! Coemergent with the wisdom of the expanse of phenomena, With one face, two hands, and left leg extended, blue in color, Adorned with the five ornaments, a garland of skulls, and yellow hair, Holding a curved knife and a skull-cup in your hands—to you I bow. For the sake of women of lesser intellect, I shall write of the solitary heroine In a concise manner, not in great detail, Through the stages of generation and completion. First, the yogi should remain in a secluded place in the sattva posture. Having made offerings to the guru according to the prescribed sequence and performed the meditation on Brahmā, one then recites: Oṃ śūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāva-ātmako ’haṃ. Following that, through the power of aspiration: Upon a red lotus in the center of a sun disk, From the supreme seed-syllable of the unborn, She is black, with one face and two hands. In her right hand is a terrifying curved knife; In her left is a lotus vessel. In her non-right hand is a khaṭvāṅga. Her lower body is wrapped in a tiger skin. She stands with her left leg extended upon a lifeless corpse. Her yellow hair stands upright, and she bears the five mudrās. Adorned with a garland of skulls and ashes, Then, one should place the wisdom-being. One should perform the empowerment of the six sense bases and the body, speech, and mind, and offer the nectar. Oṃ āḥ aṃ hūṃ svāhā—this is the mantra for recitation. Oṃ akāro mukhaṃ sarva-dharmāṇām ādyanutpannatvāt oṃ āḥ hūṃ phaṭ svāhā—this is the mantra for the torma. At the navel of the goddess is a blazing full moon, The syllable Oṃ, the embodiment of the five wisdoms, The cause of both cyclic existence and nirvāṇa.

definitionསྒྲུབ་ཐབས “sādhana” — Derived from the Sanskrit verb √sādh , “to accomplish,” the term sādhana most generically refers to any method that brings about the accomplishment of a desired goal. In Buddhist literature, the term is often specificall

definitionརྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ “Vajrasattva” — Used as a proper name, Vajrasattva is one of the principle deities of the esoteric Buddhist pantheon, regarded as both a source of the Buddhist tantras and the exemplar of the awakened state. As an adjective, the term va

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

periodདབྱིངས → “expanse”. In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

definitionསྨོན་ལམ “aspiration” — Usually appears in the idiomatic expression smon lam ’debs “express / utter an aspiration / wish” and instantiated in a verbal formula (a variety of formulas is found throughout Mahāyāna literature) which is uttered in t

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

homonymལས is rendered “action” here; the glossary also records act, Action, activity for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལས “action” — Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the restoration ) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one h

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termརྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ → Vajrasattva

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཆོས → dharma

termདབྱིངས → expanse

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

དེ་ཉིད་འཁོར་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་སྟེ། ། དེ་ཉིད་མྱ་ངན་འདས་པ་ཡིན། ། འཁོར་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་ཤེས་གྱུར་ན། ། མྱ་ངན་འདས་ཞེས་དེ་ལ་བརྗོད། ། ཇི་ལྟར་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། ། མ་ཕུག་པས་ནི་སྦྱོར་བྲལ་འགྱུར། ། རྣམ་པར་ ཕུག་པས་སྦྱོར་ལྡན་པ། ། འཁོར་བའི་རྣམ་པ་དེ་ལྟ་བུ། ། བླ་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གསུངས་པར་འགྱུར། ། དཔའ་གཅིག་མའི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་བསྐྱེད་པ་དང་རྫོགས་པར་ལྡན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་བསོད་སྙོམས་པ་སྒྲ་གཅན་འཛིན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་པྲཛྙཱ་ ཨིནྡྲ་རུ་ཙི་དང་། དགེ་སློང་ཤཱཀྱ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པའོ། །

That very thing is called saṃsāra; That very thing is nirvāṇa. When saṃsāra is thoroughly understood, It is designated as "nirvāṇa." Just as a precious gem, If unperforated, is separated from its setting, But once perforated, is joined to its setting— Such is the nature of saṃsāra, As taught by the gurus. The Sādhana of the Sole Heroine, titled "Possessing the Generation and Completion Stages," composed by the master, the mendicant Rāhulabhadra, is hereby complete. It was translated and finalized by the Indian abbot Prajñendraruci and the monk Śākya Yeśes.

structureMantra left in Sanskrit (as transmitted in Tibetan script); only the surrounding frame is translated.

definitionའཁོར་བ “saṃsāra” — A state of involuntary existence conditioned by afflicted mental states and the imprint of past actions, characterized by suffering in a cycle of life, death, and rebirth. On its reversal, the contrasting state of nirvāṇ

definitionསློབ་དཔོན “ācārya” — A spiritual teacher, meaning one who knows the conduct or practice ( ācāra ) to be performed. It can also be a title for a scholar, though that is not the context in this sūtra .

terminologyམཁན་པོ → “abbot”. In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colophons.

definitionམཁན་པོ “abbot” — A person’s particular preceptor within the monastic tradition. They must have at least ten years of standing in the saṅgha, and their role is to confer ordination, to tend to the student, and to provide all the necessary

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: wisdom

termའཁོར་བ → saṃsāra

termབླ་མ → guru

termསློབ་དཔོན → ācārya

termམཁན་པོ → abbot

termདགེ་སློང → monk

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

Terminology used in this text (20)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	2	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
བླ་མ	guru	2
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	1
རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ	Vajrasattva	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
དབྱིངས	expanse	1	In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.
སྨོན་ལམ	aspiration	1
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
ཕྱག་རྒྱ	mudrā	1
སྐྱེ་མཆེད	sense base	1
དབང	empowerment	1	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
བདུད་རྩི	amṛta	1
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
འཁོར་བ	saṃsāra	1
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1
མཁན་པོ	abbot	1	In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colop
དགེ་སློང	monk	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 010_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཏ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

Translation status: 84000 catalogue + registry; grade no-translation-known; checked 2026-11-10.

Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.

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