Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
Clarifying the Essence of the Three Yogas is a technical manual focused on the intersection of meditative absorption, somatic visualization, and the attainment of enlightened states. The text outlines a path toward luminous clarity, specifically linking the visual perception of a black line within the bindu to the realization of this state. It posits a methodology of reversing the sequence of ignorance through a correlation between the zodiacal houses and the twelve bhūmis, suggesting a cosmological mapping of spiritual progress. By integrating the yoga of great bliss with the cultivation of the five eyes and six superknowledges, the work commits the reader to a rigorous system of internal alchemy and conceptual non-duality. The text functions as a guide for the yogi to transcend conceptualization and achieve a state of supreme mantra and majesty through precise meditative interventions.
Provenance
About this text
Clarifying the Essence of the Three Yogas, known in Sanskrit as the Triyogahṛidayavyākaraṇa, is a work belonging to the Non-dual Tantra collection. Attributed to the Indian author Mañjuśrīrājakīrti, the text was translated into classical Tibetan by Somanātha and lo tsa ba ’bro shes rab grags. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume པ, where it extends over three pages. The work enacts a path toward luminous clarity and perfected purification, specifically detailing the meditation on Mahāmudrā. It argues that the yogi attains a state of luminous clarity by perceiving a black line the size of a hair within the bindu and suggests that the twelve bhūmis are attained by reversing the sequence of ignorance within the zodiacal houses. By integrating the yoga of great bliss with the arising of the five eyes and six superknowledges, the work describes a process where one whose nature is free from conceptualization achieves perfect awakening in a single instant. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine its technical intersection of somatic visualization, meditative absorption, and the cosmological mapping of spiritual progress through internal alchemy and conceptual non-duality.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Clarifying the Essence of the Three Yogas” (Toh 1371), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1371
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant for its integration of astrological frameworks with the internal yoga of the Three Yogas system. It provides insight into how Tibetan Buddhist practitioners utilized somatic markers and cosmological correspondences to map the process of liberation.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Provides the Indian and Tibetan titles and includes traditional opening homages to Mañjughoṣa and Vajrasattva.
2
The State of Luminous Clarity
Describes the attributes of the supreme mantra and the specific visual marker within the bindu that signals the attainment of luminous clarity.
3
The Yoga of Great Bliss
Discusses the arising of superknowledges and the reversal of ignorance via the zodiacal houses to attain the twelve bhūmis.
Themes
Luminous Clarity (2)
Somatic Visualization (Bindu) (2)
Cosmological Mapping (Zodiac and Bhūmis) (3)
Supernormal Knowledge (3)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Trijogihṛdayavyākhyāna-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Rnal ’byor gsum gyi snying po gsal ba zhes bya ba (The Clarification of the Essence of the Three Yogas). Homage to Mañjughoṣa!
Through Oṃ, appearances are ascertained as the path. Having prostrated to Vajrasattva, I shall explain the meditation on Mahāmudrā, the path of perfected purification.
Having been ripened by initiation and possessing the samaya, the three yogas are taught to them, and never to others. Blessing, meditation on conceptualization, and the yoga of nature are ascertained as the three yogas. Having recognized the signs of death, one must certainly enter the bindu of the life-force.
Withdrawal, meditative concentration, breath-control, retention, recollection, and absorption are called the six branches of yoga. In a house without openings at night, the practitioner, in deep meditative equipoise, should learn from the mouth of the Guru the binding of the five functions and the two [channels].
Transcending existence and non-existence, smoke, mirages, fireflies, lamps, and the sky are seen by the mind. Just as a young girl sees a thief hidden in secret, the practitioner sees [the signs] with the eyes of limited vision. When the sky has become clear and free of clouds, in the morning with the sun behind one, or likewise in the afternoon—one should avoid midday because it harms the eyes.
Arising from space, self-arisen, the great fire of the wisdom of insight, the great light that illuminates, the vivid appearance of wisdom, the lamp of beings, the torch of wisdom.
Great majesty, the luminous clarity, the supreme mantra, the lord of mantras, the king of vidyā-mantras, the king of secret mantras who accomplishes the great purpose. As long as within the bindu there is a black line the size of a hair, by seeing that, the yogi attains the state of luminous clarity. Through the meditative absorption of individual withdrawal, all mantras are blessed. With insight, discernment, and analysis, joy, bliss, and immovability—the five branches of concentration being stable—the lord of men attains the five superknowledges. The intermediate breath is supreme; it is perfectly endowed with the four channels of feces, urine, moon, and sun. The breath is the nature of the five wisdoms and the essence of the five elements, blessed by the five Buddhas; it is explained as prāṇāyāma. By the power of constant retention, Vajrasattva truly enters. By igniting the inner heat (caṇḍālī) at the navel, the five Tathāgatas are burned, and after Locanā and the others are also burned, the lunar stream flows from the burning of the syllable Haṃ. The object of the samayasattva, having seen the body, at the time of each day, the yogi who desires liberation should fill [the body] with the vase application of the vital winds. As long as it revolves, circling one's own body, the wheel of light rays will be seen; it is one's own body as previously described. By that, for six months, one experiences the bliss of abandoning contact, appearing like water and the sun, stainless and of various colors. In every way, one's own mind is the very bliss of one's own mind.
In the yoga of the great bliss of meditative absorption, the five eyes and six superknowledges arise. By reversing the sequence of ignorance and so forth within the zodiacal houses of Capricorn and the rest, the twelve stages (bhūmi) are attained. For one whose nature is free from conceptualization, perfect awakening is achieved in a single instant. The great radiance of the Vajra Sun and the stainless light of the Vajra Moon are taught as the two aspects of the fully perfected stages. Because that wisdom exists, the Protector is described as the "Possessor of Wisdom." Through non-referential compassion and awakening via the Net of Magical Illusion, like a wish-fulfilling jewel, one fulfills the hopes of infinite sentient beings. This great bliss that liberates sentient beings dispels the desire of emission. May one meet with the supreme path that dispels the suffering of the six classes of beings.
The Clarification of the Essence of the Three Yogas is hereby completed, composed by the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, King Yaśas, having taken birth for the sake of those to be trained. Translated by the Paṇḍita Somanaṭha and the translator Dro Sherab Drak.