Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for a specific deity yoga practice centered on the Solitary Hero (Ekavīra). The work guides the practitioner through a structured progression of meditative stages designed to transform ordinary perception into a divine state. It begins with preliminary physical and mental purification, followed by the visualization of the deity in union with a consort, characterized by specific iconographic markers such as dark blue coloration and the trampling of figures like Bhairava. The practice culminates in a dissolution phase, where the practitioner transforms the phenomenal world into light and collapses the visualized forms back into a central seed syllable (HŪṂ) and eventually into the state of emptiness. By following these instructions, the reader commits to a process of deity identification and the subsequent realization of the non-dual nature of reality through the systematic dismantling of the visualized form.
Provenance
About this text
A meditative guide for the practice of the Solitary Hero, the Ekavīrasādhana is attributed to the Indian author Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. The work was translated into the classical Tibetan language by bod kyi lo tsa ba nag tsho tshul khrims rgyal ba. It is preserved in the Tengyur, specifically in volume ཞ, where it comprises three pages and is situated within the collection of the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras. The text enacts a ritual process of deity yoga, beginning with the purification of outer and inner defilements and the visualization of the practitioner as Heruka. It directs the practitioner to meditate on the Solitary Hero as a dark blue figure with one face and two hands, holding a vajra and bell while embracing a consort and treading upon Bhairava and Kālarātri. The process concludes with the dissolution of the threefold world into light and the collapse of visualized forms into the HŪṂ syllable and the state of inconceivable clear light. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the specific iconographic markers and the structured progression of meditative stages used to achieve a state of non-dual realization.
The work is significant as a representative example of Vajrayāna tantric praxis, specifically the use of deity yoga and the dissolution process to achieve non-dual awareness. For the modern reader, it illustrates the technical precision of Tibetan Buddhist visualization techniques and the conceptual movement from form to emptiness.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Preliminaries
Instructions on purification and physical posture.
2
Visualization
Detailed iconographic description of the Solitary Hero and his consort.
3
Dissolution
The process of dissolving the visualized environment and deity into light and the seed syllable.
Themes
Deity Yoga (2)
Transformation of Perception (2-3)
Emptiness and Dissolution (3)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Ekavīrasādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: dPa’ bo gcig pa’i sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of the Solitary Hero). Homage to the glorious Sahaja, one’s own deity.
First, the practitioner should purify outer and inner defilements and sit upon a comfortable seat. Instantly visualizing oneself as Heruka, one should pacify all malevolent beings with the light from the syllable HŪṂ at the heart. As the light gathers back, one should meditate on the protection wheel.
Then, one should meditate on the four immeasurable abodes of Brahmā: loving-kindness, the thought that all sentient beings may possess happiness; compassion, the thought that they may be free from suffering; joy, the desire to establish them in the state of Heruka; and equanimity, the desire to establish them in all mundane and supramundane roots of virtue without exception.
Then, with faith and devotion, one should visualize in the space before one the lineage gurus, along with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. From these, all appearing as a mass of light, they transform into the glorious Heruka. One should then perform offerings, praises, the confession of misdeeds, the taking of vows, the offering of supplications, and so forth.
Then, by reciting: OṂ ŚŪNYATĀ-JÑĀNA-VAJRA-SVABHĀVA-ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ, one should contemplate emptiness. Upon the summit of Mount Meru, formed by the successive layers of the elements, is a lotus, sun, and moon. Upon this is the syllable HŪṂ, radiating and absorbing five-colored light rays, having the nature of Vajrasattva.
From the complete transformation of that, one should meditate on the Blessed One, the Solitary Hero, dark blue in color, with one face and two hands. Holding a vajra and bell, he embraces the consort. With his right leg extended, he treads upon Bhairava; with his left leg drawn in, he treads upon Kālarātri. He wears a crown of black hair tossed upward, adorned with a crest jewel at the crown of his head, a crossed-vajra, and a crescent moon. He is crowned by Akṣobhya and wears a silk pendant. Possessing the expressions of charm and so forth, he is in a state of great majesty. His lower body is wrapped in a tiger skin, and he wears a necklace of fifty human heads. He is endowed with the six mudrās.
In front of him is the consort, the Blessed Lady Vajravārāhī, red in color, with one face, two hands, and three eyes. With her left hand she holds a skull-cup while embracing the Father; with her right, she holds a vajra and makes the threatening gesture to terrify the malevolent. Her hair is loose, she is naked, and she wears a girdle of bone fragments. A garland of dry human heads hangs from her neck. Her right leg is wrapped around the Father’s thigh and her left is extended. She is endowed with the five mudrās and is the nature of great bliss. One should meditate on the Father and Mother as the union of appearance and emptiness.
When the body becomes weary and the mind exhausted, one should perform the recitation from within the state of the generation stage according to the Guru’s oral instructions. Furthermore, from the heart of Heruka is the wisdom-being (jñānasattva), and from his heart is the absorption-being (samādhisattva), a blue syllable HŪṂ surrounded by the essence mantra. Focusing the mind upon this, one should recite: OṂ HRĪḤ HA HA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ.
If weariness arises from that, transform the entire threefold world into the nature of light. Then, gradually withdrawing the light rays, dissolve them into the Heruka father and mother, those into the HŪṂ at the heart, and the HŪṂ from the vowel-sign (u) up to the nāda. Meditate in the state of the inconceivable clear light for as long as one remains. Furthermore, if the body becomes weary or the mind exhausted, arise from the clear light in the body of union. Arise as something appearing yet lacking inherent existence, like a reflection in a mirror, possessing color like a rainbow, and free from superimposition and denial like the moon in water. One should then meditate in union. Possessing the yoga of daily activities and the intervals between sessions, practice in four sessions. This concludes the Sādhana of the Glorious Cakrasaṃvara as a Solitary Hero, composed by the master from the land of Bhaṅgala, the mendicant Śrī Dīpaṃkara Jñāna. It was translated by the Tibetan translator Nagtsho Tsultrim Gyalwa.