Toh 1434 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Clear Realization of the Body Maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1434
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 021_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཝ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,931 Tibetan characters · 504 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 text provides a technical manual for the yoga of the body maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara, specifically designed for practitioners who possess an understanding of the nature of sentient beings and are engaged in the activities of perfection. The work outlines a precise sequence of ritual and meditative requirements necessary for the realization of the deity's body maṇḍala. It commits the reader to a rigorous preparatory phase involving the accumulation of merit and wisdom, followed by the visualization of the pure deity and the correct application of mudrās and mantras. The process involves the invitation of wisdom beings, the presentation of offerings, and the use of four specific syllables to position these beings within the maṇḍala. The text concludes its described sequence with the blessing of the three places and the binding of ritual armor, establishing a structured framework for transforming the practitioner's physical presence into a sacred geometric space.

Provenance

About this text

A guide to the yoga of the body maṇḍala of glorious Cakrasaṃvara, the 'khor lo sdom pa'i lus dkyil gyi mngon rtogs/ is a work of classical Tibetan Buddhism attributed to the Indian author Vajraghaṇṭa. The text was translated into Tibetan by Sumatikīrti and the lo tsa ba Mar pa Ban+de Chos kyi dbang phyug. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཝ, where it is situated within the collection of the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras and spans two pages. The work enacts a ritual sequence for practitioners who understand the nature of sentient beings and engage in the activities of perfection. It details a process beginning with necessary accumulations and the joy of the unsurpassed goal, moving through the visualization of the pure deity and the application of mudrās and mantras. The practitioner is instructed to invite wisdom beings, make offerings, and use four syllables to place these beings in their respective positions, followed by the blessing of the three places and the binding of armor. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific meditative and ritual requirements for the realization of the body maṇḍala and the mental request for empowerment from the buddhas, heroes, and yoginīs.

Sanskrit title: not recorded
Indian author: Vajraghaṇṭa
Tibetan translators: Sumatikīrti, lo tsa ba mar pa ban+de chos kyi dbang phyug
Canonical collection: Śaṃvara and Related Tantras
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཝ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Clear Realization of the Body Maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara” (Toh 1434), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1434

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it illustrates the intersection of somatic visualization and ritual technology within the Cakrasaṃvara tantra tradition. For the modern reader, it demonstrates the high level of precision required in Indo-Tibetan deity yoga, where physical gestures and phonetic syllables are treated as essential tools for spiritual transformation.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Prerequisites	Identifies the yoga and the target audience, emphasizing the need for necessary accumulations.
2	Ritual Procedure	Details the sequence of visualization, invitation of wisdom beings, offerings, and the binding of armor.

Themes

Body Maṇḍala Visualization (1-2)
Ritual Technology (Mudrās and Mantras) (2)
Wisdom Beings and Offerings (2)

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

AnuvādaClear Realization of the Body Maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara·

༄༅། ། འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པའི་ལུས་དཀྱིལ་གྱི་མངོན་རྟོགས་བཞུགས། ༄༅༅། ། བླ་མ་དམ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་ འཚལ་ལོ། ། དཔལ་ལྡན་འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ་ཡི། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་ལུས་ཀྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ནི། ། སེམས་ཅན་རང་བཞིན་ཡོངས་ཤེས་ཤིང་། ། རྫོགས་པའི་ལས་ལས་འཇུག་རྣམས་ལའོ། ། དང་པོ་ཚོགས་པ་ཀུན་ལྡན་པས། ། བླ་མེད་དོན་འབྱུང་དགའ་བས་ཉལ། ། བཞི་ཡིས་ཉེར་བསྐུལ་ཞལ་བཞི་པ། ། བདུད་འདུལ་དཔའ་བོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞེངས། ། ཁྲུས་བྱས་བདེ་བའི་སྟན་ལ་གནས། ། རི་ལུ་ཁར་བཅུག་སྙིང་གར་ཧཱུཾ། ། སྔོན་པོའི་འོད་ཀྱིས་རང་ལུས་སྦྱང་། ། བ་སྤུ་ལ་སྤྲོས་ཁ་དོག་ལྔས། ། འགྲོ་ཀུན་ལུས་སྦྱངས་སྒོ་གསུམ་དག། སྤྲིན་འདྲའི་འོད་ཀྱིས་རང་མདུན་དུ། ། མཁའ་ལ་བླ་མའི་འཁོར་ལོ་དང་། ། ཕྱོགས་དབང་མིག་གི་ལྷ་རྣམས་ནི། ། གསལ་གདབ་རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པར་བྱས། ། ཕྱག་དང་མཆོད་སོགས་བྱས་ནས་ནི། ། མཛོད་སྤུའི་གནས་ནས་རང་ལུས་གཞུག། ལུས་ལ་རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པ་ཡི། ། འཁོར་ལོ་གསལ་གདབ་ཉེ་བར་དམིགས། ། རྟོག་དང་སྤྲོས་པ་དགའ་འགྱུར་ན། ། ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ ལོར་འདབ་མ་བཞི། ། མདོག་གསལ་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་ལྟེ་བ་རུ། ། ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་བདག་ཉིད་བསམ། ། ཕྱོགས་འདབ་རིགས་ཀྱི་ས་བོན་ལས། ། སྙིང་པོའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་བཞི་བསྐྱེད། ། སྟེང་འོག་ལུས་ཀྱི་ཆ་ཤས་ལ། ། པུ་ཛཱ་ལ་སོགས་ཉི་ཤུ་བཞིས། ། འཁོར་ལོ་གསུམ་གྱི་བདག་ཉིད་དྲན། ། ཆོས་འཁོར་ཕྱི་ཡི་འདབ་བརྒྱད་ལ། ། རིང་པོའི་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་ཁྲོ་མོ་བརྒྱད། ། དེ་ལྟར་ལྷ་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི། ། མེ་ལོང་ནང་གི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་བཞིན། ། ཕྱི་ཡི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལྟ་བུར་དམིགས། ། མི་གསལ་རྩ་ཡིག་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ།

The Visualization of the Body Maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara Homage to the sublime gurus! This is the yoga of the body maṇḍala of glorious Cakrasaṃvara, for those who fully understand the nature of sentient beings and engage in the activities of perfection. First, possessing all the necessary accumulations, one sleeps with the joy that arises from the unsurpassed goal. Stirred by the four [mudrās], the four-faced one, the great hero who subdues Māra, arises. Having bathed, one sits upon a comfortable seat. Placing the pill in the mouth, a blue HŪṂ at the heart purifies one’s own body with its light. Emanating from the pores of the skin, the five colors purify the bodies of all beings and cleanse the three doors. With cloud-like light, one clearly visualizes in the space before oneself the maṇḍala of the gurus and the deities of the directions and faculties as the support and the supported. Having performed prostrations, offerings, and so forth, one enters one’s own body from the ūrṇā-kośa. One clearly visualizes and closely observes the maṇḍala of the support and the supported within the body. If conceptualization and elaboration arise, then at the dharma-cakra, on the four petals, one meditates on the essence of method and insight at the center from a clear HŪṂ. From the seed syllables of the families on the directional petals, the four essence yoginīs are generated. On the upper and lower parts of the body, one recollects the nature of the three maṇḍalas through the twenty-four [sites] such as PU and JĀ. On the eight outer petals of the dharma-cakra, from the long HŪṂ, the eight wrathful goddesses arise. In this way, all the deities are visualized like reflections in a mirror, similar to an external maṇḍala. For all the channels and syllables that are not clear...

definitionའཁོར་ལོ “cakra” — Literally “wheel,” cakra is an energy center in the subtle body where subtle channels converge. In tantric Buddhism there are either four or five main cakras. The Hevajra Tantra teaches four cakras, namely the cakras of

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

terminologyའཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ → “Cakrasaṃvara”. Tantric deity; the name is a title ('wheel of the vow'), so keep the Sanskrit in translation. Old Tibetan འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ, occasionally འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ.

definitionའཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ “Cakrasaṃvara” — Cakrasaṃvara is a deity of the highest yoga tantras, especially popular among the new schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

homonymདཀྱིལ་འཁོར is rendered “maṇḍala” here; the glossary also records inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pant

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

definitionབདུད “Māra” — Māra , literally “death” or “maker of death,” is the name of the deva who tried to prevent the Buddha from achieving awakening, the name given to the class of beings he leads, and also an impersonal term for the destruct

terminologyདབང → “empowerment”. In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

termའཁོར་ལོ → cakra

termབླ་མ → guru

termའཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ → Cakrasaṃvara

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termལས → action

termབདུད → Māra

། དག་པའི་ལྷ་ཉིད་མོས་ཤིང་དྲན། ། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ དོན་ལྡན་པས། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་སྤྱན་དྲངས་ལེགས་མཆོད་ནས། ། ཡི་གེ་བཞི་ཡིས་རང་གནས་འཇུག། གནས་གསུམ་བྱིན་བརླབས་གོ་ཆ་བཅིངས། ། སངས་རྒྱས་དཔའ་བོ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ། ། ཐམས་ཅད་ནམ་མཁར་ཉེར་དམིགས་ཏེ། ། དབང་བསྐུར་ཡིད་ཀྱིས་གསོལ་བ་གདབ། ། བདུད་ རྩིས་དབང་བསྐུར་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་མཚན་མ་འཛིན་པའོ། ། གཙོ་བོ་མ་བཞི་ཁྲོ་མོ་དང་། ། སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ལ། ། མི་བསྐྱོད་རིན་ཆེན་དོན་ཡོད་དང་། ། རྟག་པ་གར་དབང་ཐུགས་རྡོ་རྗེས། ། རིམ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་སྤྱི་བོར་མཚན། ། བསྡུས་ལམ་བསྡུས་པའི་དབུ་རྒྱན་ཉིད། ། དེ་ནས་ སྔགས་རྣམས་རིམ་གྱིས་མཆོད། ། བདུད་རྩིས་ཉེ་བར་ཚིམ་བྱས་ནས། ། དགྱེས་པ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་བྱུང་བསམ། ། བདུད་རྩི་མྱངས་ལ་བསྟོད་ཆེན་བྱ། ། ལྷ་རྣམས་རང་གནས་ཐིམ་བྱས་ཏེ། ། བསམ་གཏན་ཆེན་པོ་ལས་ཀྱི་ལམ། ། རྫོགས་པའི་རིམ་པ་ལེགས་གནས་བྱ། ། དེ་ནས་གཏོར་མའི་ ལས་རིམ་དང་། ། སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ་སྟེ་ལྡང་བར་བྱ། ། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དྲིལ་བུ་པའི་མན་ངག་ལུས་ཀྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Visualizing and recollecting the pure deity, and possessing the meaning of the mudrās and mantras, one invites the wisdom beings and makes excellent offerings. Then, with the four syllables, they are made to enter their own places. The three places are blessed and the armor is bound. Visualizing all the buddhas, heroes, and yoginīs in the sky, one mentally requests the empowerment. For all those empowered with nectar, they hold the vajra insignia. Upon the principal deity, the four mothers, and the wrathful goddesses, and upon the wheels of body, speech, and mind, Akṣobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi, Vairocana, and Lokeśvaranātha—these are the Vajra Mind deities—mark the crown in successive order. This is the crown of the condensed path. Then, the mantras are offered in sequence. Having been thoroughly satiated with nectar, one imagines the sound of the joyful mantras arising. Having tasted the nectar, one should offer great praise. The deities dissolve into their own places, and one should abide well in the completion stage, the path of action of great concentration. Then, the sequence of the torma rite and the making of aspiration prayers, one should arise. This concludes the clear realization of the body maṇḍala, the pith instruction of the great master Vajraghaṇṭāpāda.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

definitionཕྱག་རྒྱ “mudrā” — A seal, in both the literal and metaphoric sense. Mudrā is also the name given to an array of symbolic hand gestures, which range from the gesture of touching the earth displayed by the Buddha upon attaining awakening to

terminologyསྔགས → “mantra”. སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

definitionསྔགས “mantra” — A formula of words or syllables that are recited aloud or mentally in order to bring about a magical or soteriological effect or result. The term has been interpretively etymologized to mean “that which protects ( trā )

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

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

definitionརྡོ་རྗེ “vajra” — This term generally indicates indestructibility and stability. In the sūtras, vajra most often refers to the hardest possible physical substance, said to have divine origins. In some scriptures, it is also the name of th

terminologyམཚན → “name”. མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.

homonymམཚན is rendered “name” here; the glossary also records major signs, buddha marks, auspicious marks for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཚན “name” — The thirty-two primary physical characteristics of a “great being,” mahāpuruṣa , which every buddha and cakravartin possesses. They are considered “major” in terms of being primary to the eighty minor marks or signs of a

termལྷ → god

termཕྱག་རྒྱ → mudrā

termསྔགས → mantra

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termདབང → empowerment

Terminology used in this text (26)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
འཁོར་ལོ	cakra	2
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	2
ལས	action	2	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
བདུད	Māra	2
དབང	empowerment	2	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
བླ་མ	guru	1
འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ	Cakrasaṃvara	1	Tantric deity; the name is a title ('wheel of the vow'), so keep the Sanskrit in translation. Old Tibetan འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
བདག	self	1
རིགས	family	1	The tantric 'family' (buddha-family); not 'lineage' (which is རྒྱུད་པ or བརྒྱུད་པ).
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
གཟུགས	form	1
རྩ	channel	1
ཕྱག་རྒྱ	mudrā	1
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	1
མཚན	name	1	མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.
བདུད་རྩི	amṛta	1
བསམ་གཏན	concentration	1
སྨོན་ལམ	aspiration	1
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 021_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཝ.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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