Toh 1436 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Spontaneously Arisen Saṃvara

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1436
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 021_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཝ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,751 Tibetan characters · 422 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 is a sādhana, a ritual manual for the deity Cakrasaṃvara, specifically focusing on the 'spontaneously arisen' or 'coemergent' (sahaja) aspect of the practice. The text initiates the practitioner into a process of mental engagement designed to transform conditioned elaborations into the experience of clear light. It commits the reader to a rigorous meditative discipline involving the 'three rituals of the knowable' and the cultivation of self-awareness. The fragments indicate a transition from preliminary conceptualization and blessing to the actualization of a visionary state, where the meditator is instructed to maintain a constant recollection of the clear light while visualizing a complex mandala featuring a variegated lotus, a sun, and the deity Bhairava. The work functions as a technical guide for achieving a non-dual state of awareness through the synthesis of visualization and internal energetic processing.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the deity Cakrasaṃvara focusing on the coemergent aspect of the practice, the Sahajasaṃvarasādhana originates from the Indian tradition and is attributed to the author Vajraghaṇṭa. It entered the Tibetan corpus through the work of the translators Niṣkalaṅkapāda and dpyal lo tsa ba dpal chos kyi bzang po. This classical Tibetan translation is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཝ, where it is situated within the collection of the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras. Across its two pages, the work enacts a process of mental engagement intended to transform conditioned elaborations into the experience of clear light. It guides the practitioner through the three rituals of the knowable—blessing, thorough conceptualization, and the perfection of the form beyond thought—while directing the meditator toward a visionary state. In this state, the practitioner is instructed to visualize a complex mandala featuring a variegated lotus, a sun, and the deity Bhairava. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the technical synthesis of self-awareness and meditative discipline required to achieve a non-dual state of awareness.

Sanskrit title: Sahajasaṃvarasādhana
Indian author: Vajraghaṇṭa
Tibetan translators: Niṣkalaṅkapāda, dpyal lo tsa ba dpal chos kyi bzang po
Canonical collection: Śaṃvara and Related Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཝ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of the Spontaneously Arisen Saṃvara” (Toh 1436), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1436

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it represents the Anuttarayoga Tantra tradition's emphasis on the coemergent nature of enlightenment. For the modern reader, it illustrates the precise intersection of deity yoga and the internal alchemy of clear light meditation within the Indo-Tibetan framework.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Preliminaries	Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an homage to Cakrasaṃvara, and the beginning of the ritual requirements.
2	Meditative Instruction and Visualization	Describes the mental engagement with conditioned elaborations, the recollection of clear light, and the start of the visual construction of the mandala.

Themes

Coemergence (Sahaja) (1-2)
Clear Light (Prabhāsvara) (2)
Deity Visualization (2)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Spontaneously Arisen Saṃvara·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ས་ཧ་ཛ་སཾ་བ་ར་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། བདེ་མཆོག་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། ། འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཤེས་བྱ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆོ་ག་གསུམ། ། བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབ་དང་རབ་ཏུ་རྟོག། བསམ་བྲལ་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས། ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་གསུངས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ དུ། ། སེམས་ཅན་རྫུས་ཏེ་སྐྱེས་པ་བཞིན། ། གང་ཞིག་སྐད་ཅིག་སྦྱོར་བ་ཡིས། ། ས་བོན་མེད་པར་རྣམ་པར་བསྒོམ། ། རང་ཉིད་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁའ་འགྲོར་གྱུར། ། ཟླ་བ་ཕྱེད་པ་སྤྱི་བོར་འཛིན། ། དཔྲལ་བར་ཐོད་པའི་ཕྲེང་བ་བསྣམས། ། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་དྲུག་ལྡན་མགོ་བོའི་ཕྲེང་། ། སྤྱན་གསུམ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ རྡོ་རྗེ་ཅན། ། སྣ་ཚོགས་པདྨ་ཉི་མར་གནས། ། འཇིགས་བྱེད་དུས་མཚན་བཅས་པར་དགོད། ། གཡས་བརྐྱང་བ་ཡི་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བཅིབས། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་དྲིལ་བུ་རལ་པར་ལྡན། ། གནག་ཅིང་མི་བསྐྱོད་སྤྱི་བོའི་གཙུག། སྟག་གི་པགས་པས་ཡང་དག་བཅིངས། ། དཔའ་བོའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་ནི། ། སྤྱན་གསུམ་དམར་ཞིང་མགོ་ཕྲེང་ལྡན། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐོད་པ་ཁྲག་གིས་བཀང་། ། རྐེད་རྒྱན་དུམ་བུས་མཚན་པ་འཛིན། ། ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གོས་ལ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ལྔ། ། དབུ་སྐྲ་གྲོལ་ཞིང་སངས་རྒྱས་གཙུག། འདི་ལྟར་སྐད་ཅིག་གིས་རྫོགས་པའི། ། བདག་ཉིད་ལུས་ནི་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་ཡི་རང་ བཞིན་གཟུགས། ། སངས་རྒྱས་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་སྤྲོ། ། སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་གཅིག་གི་སེམས་ཀྱིས་སུ། ། འདི་ཉིད་ཁོ་ན་ཡུན་རིང་བསམ། ། གོ་འཕང་འདི་ལ་སེམས་ཅན་དགོད། ། ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཡང་དག་སྦྱོར། ། གཉིས་གཉིས་སྦྱོར་བ་བདེ་ལས་བྱུང་། ། དགའ་བ་ཟག་པའི་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས།

In the language of India: Sahajasambhara-sādhana. In the language of Tibet: bDe mchog lhan cig skyes pa’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Coemergent Cakrasaṃvara). Homage to Cakrasaṃvara! The yoga of the three rituals of the knowable, The blessing and the thorough conceptualization, The complete perfection of the form beyond thought— This is the yoga taught by the Buddha. Just as a sentient being is born miraculously, Whoever, through the yoga of a single instant, Meditates without seed-syllables, One becomes oneself Vajraḍāka, Holding a crescent moon upon the crown of the head, Wearing a garland of skulls upon the forehead, Possessing the six mudrās and a garland of heads, With three eyes and the variegated vajra, Abiding upon a variegated lotus and sun disk, One should place Bhairava and Kālarātri beneath. Trampling with the right leg extended, Holding a vajra and bell, with matted locks, Black in color, with Akṣobhya at the crown of the head, Perfectly bound in a tiger skin. The Heroine Vajravārāhī has Three red eyes and a garland of heads, Holding a vajra and a skull-cup filled with blood, Wearing a girdle marked with bone fragments, Clad in the directions as her garment, with the five mudrās, Her hair loose, with the Buddhas at her crown. In this way, one should meditate on one’s own body As being complete in a single instant. The form whose nature is the five wisdoms Radiates the light rays of the Buddhas. With a mind focused on a single sphere of activity, Contemplate this very state for a long time. Establish sentient beings in this state; Perfectly unite with the victory banner of the expanse of reality. Arisen from the bliss of the union of the two, Through the excellence of the outflow of joy.

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

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

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.

definitionགཟུགས “form” — The first of the five aggregates ; but also, in this sūtra, “inner form ” within consciousness (see 1.38 ).

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

terminologyབོན → “Bon”. Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.

definitionབོན “Bon” — The word bon , while often understood as referring to the indigenous religion of Tibet, is here used to refer to local ritual practices in China that may have had some resemblance to those in Tibet. For more on this term

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

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termའཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ → Cakrasaṃvara

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termགཟུགས → form

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termབོན → Bon

། རང་རིག་དགའ་བས་ཡོངས་སུ་ཁེངས། ། ཟག་པས་སྐྱེད་པར་བྱེད་པ་གང་། ། དེས་ནི་རྒྱ་ཆེན་ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད། ། འདུས་བྱས་སྤྲོས་པའི་རྒྱུན་འདི་ནི། ། འདི་ལྟར་རྟག་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ་པོས། ། འོད་གསལ་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པར་བྱ། ། སྣ་ཚོགས་པདྨ་ཉི་མ་དང་། ། འཇིགས་བྱེད་དང་ནི་དུས་མཚན་ནོ། ། སྡུག་མ་ བདག་མོ་མཁའ་ནོར་བུ། ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ལྔ་ཡི་འོག། སྐུ་དང་ཡན་ལག་མཆོག་དང་ནི། ། ཟླ་བ་ཐིག་ལེ་ནཱ་ད་རྣམས། ། འདི་རྣམས་རིམ་གྱིས་མི་སྣང་གཞུག། ཇི་ལྟར་མེ་ལོང་དབུས་ཀྱི་རླུང་། ། ཐམས་ཅད་ཐིམ་པར་གྱུར་པ་ལྟར། ། ཡང་དག་མཐའ་རུ་ཡང་ནས་ཡང་། ། དེ་བཞིན་རྣལ་ འབྱོར་རབ་ཏུ་གཞུག། གྲུབ་ཐོབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དྲིལ་བུ་པས་མཛད་པའི། བདེ་མཆོག་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། པཎྜིཏ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་པ་ནི་སྐ་ལཾ་ཀའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས། དཔྱལ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དཔལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

Completely filled with the joy of self-awareness, whatever produces [the state] through the outflows, by that one performs the vast mental engagement. This stream of conditioned elaborations—thus the meditator should constantly recollect the clear light. Upon a variegated lotus, a sun, Bhairava, and Kālarātri, [is] the mistress, the jewel of space, beneath the five Tathāgatas. The body, the limbs, the supreme, the moon, the drop, and the nāda—these should be gradually dissolved into invisibility. Just as the wind in the center of a mirror dissolves into all [surroundings], so too should the yogi repeatedly enter the ultimate reality. This concludes the Sādhana of Sahaja Cakrasaṃvara composed by the mahāsiddha Vajraghaṇṭāpāda. Translated by the translator Pyal Pal Chökyi Zangpo from the presence of the Paṇḍita Vajrāsana Śrī Kālaṅka.

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

definitionའོད་གསལ “Ābhāsvara” — Lit. “ Clear Light .” The sixth of the seventeen heavens of the form realm ; also the name of the gods living there. In the form realm , which is structured according to the four concentrations and pure abodes‍, or Śuddh

definitionཉི་མ “Āditya” — The sun; the god of the sun; the king identified as Ādityavardhana of the Śrīkaṇṭha - Sthāṇvīśvara dynasty who ruled in Madhyadeśa in the sixth century ᴄᴇ .

terminologyདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ → “tathāgata”. Kept as the Sanskrit loan in translation (84000 practice), not 'Thus-Gone One'.

homonymདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ is rendered “tathāgata” here; the glossary also records thus-gone, Thus-Gone One, thus-gone one for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ “tathāgata” — A frequently used synonym for buddha . According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata , literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata , “one who has thus come.” Gata , though literally m

definitionཐིག་ལེ “drop” — A drop (as of liquids); a “drop” of concentrated energy in the channels of the subtle body; the shape of a drop with a small protuberance above visualized above mantric syllables as part of the anunāsika (the nasal mark)

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

definitionརླུང་ “wind” — A subtle form of energy that travels through the body’s channels (Skt. nāḍī , Tib. rtsa ). It is manipulated in tantric practices to achieve high levels of realization.

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: name; fire; dharma

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termའོད་གསལ → Ābhāsvara

termཉི་མ → Āditya

termམཚན → name

termབདག → self

termདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ → tathāgata

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

Terminology used in this text (22)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	2
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	2	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
མཚན	name	2	མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.
བདག	self	2
ཆོས	dharma	2	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
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
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
གཟུགས	form	1
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
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
ཕྱག་རྒྱ	mudrā	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
དབྱིངས	expanse	1	In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
དགའ་བ	joy	1
འོད་གསལ	Ābhāsvara	1
ཉི་མ	Āditya	1
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ	tathāgata	1	Kept as the Sanskrit loan in translation (84000 practice), not 'Thus-Gone One'.
ཐིག་ལེ	drop	1
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
རླུང་	wind	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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