Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The fragment of Essential Vajra Words (Hṛdayavajrapada-nāma) serves as an instructional guide for the practitioner of yoga. The text begins by establishing its bilingual identity in Sanskrit and Tibetan, signaling its position within the translation tradition of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. It focuses on the physical and mental prerequisites for practice, specifically directing the yogi toward a precise somatic posture—joining the tip of the tongue to the palate—and a state of single-minded exertion. By linking physical alignment with mental concentration, the text commits the reader to a disciplined, embodied approach to meditation. The fragment suggests a pedagogical structure where specific physiological instructions are intended to facilitate a deeper spiritual or energetic realization, though the complete trajectory of the argument remains truncated in this passage.
Provenance
About this text
Addressing the yogi who joins the tip of the tongue to the palate and exerts himself single-mindedly, the snying po rdo rje'i tshig is a work of the classical Tibetan period. It is attributed to the Indian author Śābaripāda. The text entered the Tibetan tradition through the work of the translators Vanaratnapāda and lo chen bsod nams rgya mtsho’i sde, and it is preserved in the Tengyur, volume པ, where it is situated within the Non-dual Tantra collection. Spanning a single page in this edition, the work enacts a disciplined, embodied approach to meditation by linking precise somatic posture with mental concentration. It directs the practitioner toward the aspect of the indivisible maṇḍala to pervade all that is stable and moving, framing these physiological instructions as a means to facilitate spiritual realization. A scholar or serious reader consults this fragment today to examine the specific pedagogical requirements of yoga and the intersection of physical alignment and mental exertion as presented in the Indo-Tibetan translation tradition.
This text is significant for its illustration of the intersection between somatic discipline and mental focus in Vajrayana practice. It demonstrates the importance of precise physical postures in achieving specific meditative states. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of how technical instructions were transmitted across linguistic boundaries from India to Tibet.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Preliminary Instructions
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and outlines the initial physical and mental requirements for the yogi.
Themes
Somatic Discipline (1)
Single-minded Concentration (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Hṛdayavajrapada-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Snying po rdo rje’i tshig ces bya ba (The Heart Mantra of the Vajra Words).
To the yogi who joins the tip of the tongue to the palate,
To the yogi who exerts himself single-mindedly,
To the one who, through the aspect of the indivisible maṇḍala,
Pervades all that is stable and moving—
To that glorious guru who reveals that state, I bow.
One should view the vajra sun
As having entered within the jewel of the mind.
Through the aspect of the wisdom maṇḍala,
The three realms are made to appear.
Whether in union with a single mudrā
Or in union with the four mudrās,
Even if one enters the city of queens,
One should maintain the recollection of the illusory body.
The Heart Mantra of the Vajra Words, bestowed by the venerable Śavaripa upon the paṇḍita Vanaratna, was translated by the same [Vanaratna] and the great translator Sönam Gyatso De.