Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Nairātmā Sādhana is a ritual manual designed to lead the practitioner toward the realization of selflessness (nairātmya). The text outlines a comprehensive system of meditative visualization and ritual praxis, integrating the arrangement of specific deities or entities at cardinal directions with internal yogic visualizations. It commits the reader to a rigorous daily discipline that includes the visualization of seed-syllables at the navel and heart, the invocation of tathāgatas for empowerment, and the maintenance of a deity-form during waking and sleeping states. The central objective is the abandonment of delusional superimpositions on phenomena to directly realize a clear light nature, likened to a cloudless autumn sky. By combining mantra recitation with the cultivation of innate joy (sahajānanda), the practitioner aims to achieve specific signs of accomplishment, transitioning from conceptual ritual to a direct, non-dual experience of reality that transcends the dichotomy of cyclic existence and nirvāṇa.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the realization of selflessness, the Nairātmāsādhana originates from the Indian tradition and is attributed to Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the work is found in the Tengyur, volume ཏ, where it comprises four pages and is situated within the collection of Non-dual Tantra. The Tibetan title is rendered as bdag med ma'i sgrub pa'i thabs. The work enacts a meditative process designed to lead the practitioner beyond the duality of cyclic existence and nirvāṇa. It prescribes the arrangement of specific entities—such as Lṛ Ḍombinī and Lṝ Gaurī—at the cardinal directions and the use of mantras to abandon delusional superimpositions on phenomena. By directly realizing a clear light nature likened to a stainless autumn sky and resting in the wisdom of emptiness, the practitioner engages in a system of visualization involving a moon maṇḍala. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific ritual praxis and yogic visualizations used to achieve the direct realization of nairātmya through the integration of mantra, offering, and meditative absorption.
This work is significant as it demonstrates the synthesis of mantra, mandala visualization, and the philosophical pursuit of emptiness within a tantric framework. For the modern reader, it illustrates how abstract concepts of selflessness are operationalized through somatic and visual techniques in Indo-Tibetan praxis.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Opening homage and a definition of the nature of reality as transcending form and nirvāṇa.
2
Ritual Arrangement
Instructions for placing specific figures at the cardinal directions, above, and below.
3
Meditative Realization
Guidance on abandoning delusions to realize the clear light and the use of a specific mantra.
4
Visualization and Empowerment
Instructions for meditating on seed-syllables and requesting empowerment from the tathāgatas.
5
Daily Practice
Requirements for maintaining the deity form and realizing innate joy during sleep and daily life.
Themes
Non-duality and Emptiness (1, 3)
Ritual Space and Mandala (2)
Tantric Visualization (4, 5)
Direct Realization (Sahaja) (3, 5)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Nairātmyasādhanam. In the language of Tibet: Bdag med ma'i sgrub pa'i thabs (The Sadhana of Nairātmyā). Homage to Vajrasattva!
That which is neither cyclic existence nor nirvāṇa, neither possessing form nor formless—its own nature, for the sake of the childish, is now written in the conventional sense.
A yogi who has attained mastery in this meditation should rise from bed during the early morning hours and visualize the seed syllable of Nairātmyā upon a moon disk at the heart. Reciting "Oṃ rakṣa rakṣa hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ svāhā" three times, one should protect the place, oneself, and the yoga.
Having consecrated cow dung with "Hūṃ," and consecrated water with "Oṃ āḥ hūṃ sarvatathāgataviśodhana vajre svāhā," one should create a maṇḍala for the recitation. Then, with "Oṃ medinī vajrabandha hūṃ," one should visualize the ground as being of the nature of vajra and scatter flowers.
Mentally visualizing the maṇḍala as a celestial palace, one consecrates the flowers with "Oṃ vajrapuṣpe āḥ hūṃ." In the center of the four-petaled lotus situated in the middle, one offers with "Oṃ nairātmyai vajrapuṣpe āḥ hūṃ svāhā." On the eastern petal, with "A vajrī..."; on the southern petal, with "I gaurī..."; on the western petal, with "Ī vāriyoginī..."; on the northern petal, with "U vajraḍāki..."; in the northeast, with "Ū pukkasī..."; and in the southeast, with "Ṛ śavarī..."
In the southwest, with "Ṝ caṇḍālī..." [one offers].
In the intermediate direction of the wind, one should place the one called Lṛ Ḍombinī. At the eastern gate, Lṝ Gaurī; at the southern gate, E Caurī; at the western gate, Ai Vetālī; at the northern gate, O Ghasmarī; below, Au Bhūcarī; and above, Ā Khacarī. Having thus arranged them, one should make offerings. Having presented the offerings with the mantra "Oṃ Vajra Dhūpe Āḥ Hūṃ," one should prostrate by reciting three times: "I take refuge in the Three Jewels; I confess all my misdeeds; I rejoice in the virtue of all beings; I mentally embrace the awakening of the Buddhas." Then, placing the hands upon the maṇḍala, one should praise with: "Seeing beings oppressed by hatred, in order to pacify the hatred of beings, I prostrate to the Protector Nairātmyā, who possesses form." Then, one should request the deities to depart with "Oṃ Vajra Muḥ." Following that, one should meditate on love, which desires to bestow divine bliss upon all sentient beings; compassion, which desires to eliminate all suffering; joy, which desires the continuity of divine bliss; and equanimity, which desires to gather [beings] into the unsurpassed path. After that, one should mentally focus on all phenomena and reflect: "Although these are the nature of mind and not external realities, they are not delusions in the sense of appearing as external objects."
"Like a dream," having thus ascertained, one should abandon the aspects of all phenomena superimposed by delusion. Having directly realized the clear light, which is like the stainless center of the sky at midday in autumn, one should consecrate it with this mantra: Oṃ śūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāva-ātmako ’haṃ.
Rest for a moment in the wisdom of emptiness. Meditate clearly on a moon maṇḍala arising from the complete transformation of the garland of the fifteen vowels. The light of the seed-syllable A illuminates the immeasurable and infinite world-realms, and all beings are transformed into the nature of the Buddha and summoned. Visualizing them entering the seed-syllable, one should meditate for a moment on the completion of Nairātmyā:
"Abiding upon the flavor of the expanse of reality (dharmadhātu), her yellow hair is tied upward. The goddess holds the five mudrās and is adorned with a garland of heads. She stands in the dance posture of the half-lotus, wearing a tiger-skin garment. Her face has bared fangs; she has a fierce form and three eyes. In her left hand is a skull-cup and a khaṭvāṅga; in her right is a curved knife (kartṛ). She is adorned with ornaments of human bone, and her moon seat has the light of the hare-marked one."
Following that, on the moon at the heart of the Blessed Lady is the curved knife, and upon that is the syllable A. On the head is a thirty-two-petaled lotus, its center marked with Haṃ. At the throat is a sixteen-petaled lotus with Oṃ. At the heart is an eight-petaled lotus with Hūṃ.
At the navel, one should meditate on the syllable EṂ on the sixty-four petals. Following that, one should visualize all the buddhas summoned by the light of the seed-syllable at the heart and supplicate all the tathāgatas, saying, "Please bestow empowerment upon me." Then, they should bestow empowerment with vases whose nature is the five tathāgatas. A rain of flowers, the sound of drums, and a rain of saffron will also fall. Akṣobhya will appear at the crown of the head. Following that, Vajrī is at the eyes, Nairātmyā at the ears, Guhyagaurī at the nose, Vāriyoginī at the tongue, Vajraḍākinī at the body, and Nairātmyā at the mind—one should contemplate them as being of that very nature. Furthermore, one should visualize OṂ at the head, ĀḤ at the throat, and HŪṂ at the heart. If one becomes weary from meditation, one should recite the mantra. The sequence for this is as follows: having mentally inscribed the fifteen seed-syllables upon the moon at the heart, blazing like a garland of lamps, one should recite them while counting as if reading them in succession. When wishing to arise, one should make an aspiration:
"By this virtue, may I attain the state of the great Vajradhara, which is the state of all the buddhas. May all wandering beings also attain it. May I accomplish that non-dual conduct which is the conduct of awakening, the conduct of perfect awakening, and that which is praised by Vajrabodhi." Thus it is said.
Likewise, during other sessions, one should also abide in the form of the deity. At the time of sleep, one should also go to sleep having directly realized the innate joy (sahajānanda). In this manner, one should practice every day until the signs of accomplishment are seen. Thereafter, one should practice exactly as taught in the tantras.
Considering that the extensive [versions] for women and so forth are for the most part difficult to grasp, I have composed this concise yoga as taught by Śāntipa and others. This concludes the Nairātmyāsādhana-saṃkṣipta (Concise Sadhana of Nairātmyā) composed by the master Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita.