Toh 1561 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of Vajrayoginī in the Form of Red Khecari

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1561
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 023_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,660 Tibetan characters · 379 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 is a ritual manual (sādhana) for the practice of Vajrayoginī in the specific form of Red Khecarī. The work provides a prescriptive sequence of meditative and liturgical actions designed to evoke the deity. It begins with the establishment of a sacred space, requiring the practitioner to be in a charnel ground or a similar environment, followed by the performance of a protection ritual using a four-faced mantra and the visualization of a lotus and moon. The text then transitions to the offering phase, distinguishing between vajra (mental) and verbal recitations. It commits the practitioner to a specific mantra and the presentation of a torma offering to the ḍākinī. The intended outcome of these actions is the manifestation of auspicious signs and the granting of empowerment or realization by the deity, positioning the text as a technical guide for achieving a direct connection with the feminine principle of enlightenment.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the practice of the Red Vajrayoginī Khecarī, the Khecararaktavajrayoginīsādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana and is situated within the collection of the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Vāguri. It was translated into the Tibetan language by Niṣkalaṅkapāda and dpyal lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཟ, where it extends over two pages. Written in classical Tibetan, the text enacts a prescriptive sequence of meditative and liturgical actions. It directs the practitioner to a charnel ground or similar location to perform protection via a four-faced mantra and to visualize a lotus and moon within an e-shaped source of phenomena. The practice further involves a distinction between vajra and verbal recitations, specifically the offering of a torma to the ḍākinī to elicit auspicious signs and encouragement, as well as the donning of the armor of the mantras of the six yoginīs. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today as a technical guide for the ritual evocations and visualizations necessary to achieve a direct connection with the deity.

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

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

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Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of Vajrayoginī in the Form of Red Khecari” (Toh 1561), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1561

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it represents the intersection of visualization and mantra in the Anuttarayoga Tantra tradition. For the modern reader, it illustrates the specific ritual requirements—such as the use of charnel grounds and torma offerings—that characterize the esoteric approach to deity yoga.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Preliminary Rituals	Instructions on location, protection mantras, and initial visualizations.
2	Offerings and Invocation	Guidance on the recitation of mantras and the presentation of torma offerings to the ḍākinī.

Themes

Ritual Space and Protection (1)
Deity Yoga and Visualization (1)
Mantra and Offering (2)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of Vajrayoginī in the Form of Red Khecari·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཁེ་ཙ་ར་རཀྟ་བཛྲ་ཡོ་གི་ནཱི་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་མ་དམར་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། རེ་ཞིག་དུར་ཁྲོད་ལ་སོགས་པར་ཞལ་བཞི་པའི་ སྔགས་ཀྱིས་བསྲུང་བ་བྱས་ནས། ཨེའི་ཆོས་འབྱུང་དབུས་སུ་པདྨ་དང་ཟླ་བ་ལ། མ་ནིང་གི་ས་བོན་སྤུན་པ་མེད་པ་བལྟས་ཏེ། ས་བོན་དེ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ལས། ཞབས་སྟེང་དུ་བསྐྱོད་ཅིང་གྱེན་དུ་གཟིགས་པ། གཡས་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཁ་ཅུང་ཟད་གྱེས་པ། གཡོན་པའི་ཕྱག་གིས་བརླ་ལ་འཁྱུད་ཅིང་ ཐོད་པ་མེ་ཏོག་ཕྲེང་བ་དང་བཅས་པ་བསྐལ་པའི་མེ་ལྟར་དམར་བ། གཅེར་བུ་རྒྱན་མེད་པ། སྐྲ་གྲོལ་བ། རིག་མ་འཛིན་མ། སེང་གེའི་སྟང་སྟབས་ཀྱིས་བཞུད་ཅིང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་མཉེས་བྱེད་མ་ནི་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། མནྡཱ་ར་བ་དང་། མྱ་ངན་མེད་པ་དང་། པ་རི་ཛ་ཏ་ག་ཡིས་ཡོངས་སུ་ འཕགས་པ། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཁང་པ་བརྩེགས་པར་བཞུད་ཅིང་རབ་ཏུ་འཇུག་པ་ལྟ་བུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་དམར་མོ་ཞབས་གཡོན་པ་སྟེང་དུ་བསྐྱོད་པ། རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་དཔའི་བདག་ཉིད་བསམ་པར་བྱ། སིནྡྷུ་ར་དམར་པོའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཅན་སླར་ཡང་སྤྲོས་ཞིང་བསྡུ་བ་སྔོན་དུ་སོང་བས། དེ་ ནས་ལྟེ་བར་ཆོས་འབྱུང་ནང་དུ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ནཱ་ད་དང་། རིམ་གྱིས་སྐྲ་རྩེ་བརྒྱ་དང་། སྟོང་གི་ཆ་རུ་མ་དམིགས་ཏེ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་རླུང་ནི་བཅུ་གཉིས་འགག། དོན་ཆེན་འགྲུབ་པར་ཐེ་ཚོམ་མེད། ། ཨོཾ་ཤྲཱི་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་མ་ཧཱ་བཛྲ་ཨཱ་ཀཪྵ་ཡ། པྲ་བེེ་ཤ་ཡ་པྲ་བེེ་ཤ་ཡ། བནྡྷ་ཡ་བནྡྷ་ཡ། སརྦ་བུདྡྷ་ཌཱ་ཀི་ནཱི་ནཾ་ཧྲྀར་ཡཾ་ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ།

In the language of India: Khecarī-rakta-vajrayoginī-sādhana. In the language of Tibet: The Sādhana of the Red Vajrayoginī Khecarī. Homage to Vajrayoginī! First, in a charnel ground or similar location, having performed the protection with the four-faced mantra, one should visualize a lotus and moon in the center of an e-shaped source of phenomena (dharmodaya). Upon this, one should visualize the seed-syllable of the neuter [nature], free of husks. From the complete transformation of that seed-syllable, one should meditate on Vajrayoginī, who is red like the fire at the end of an eon, naked and without ornaments, with hair loose, holding a consort, and moving with the stride of a lion. Her right leg is raised and she gazes upward; her right hand holds a slightly opened vajra, and her left hand embraces her thigh. She is adorned with a garland of flowers and a skull-cup, and she enters and dwells within a tiered palace of jewels, as if surrounded by mandārava, aśoka, and pārijāta trees. The red Vajrayoginī, with her left leg raised, should be contemplated as the very nature of the wisdom-being (jñānasattva). Having preceded this with the radiation and reabsorption of rays of red sindūra light, then, within the source of phenomena at the navel, the nāda which is the nature of wisdom should be visualized. Gradually, it becomes as subtle as a hundredth or a thousandth part of the tip of a hair. The twelve winds of yoga are then blocked; there is no doubt that the great purpose will be accomplished. OṂ ŚRĪ HERUKA MAHĀVAJRA ĀKARṢAYA PRAVEŚAYA PRAVEŚAYA BANDHAYA BANDHAYA SARVA BUDDHA ḌĀKINĪNĀṂ HṚDAYAṂ OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ PHAṬ.

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.

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

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

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 )

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

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.

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

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

termརྡོ་རྗེ → vajra

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསྔགས → mantra

termཆོས → dharma

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

རྡོ་རྗེའི་བཟླས་པ་དང་ངག་གི་བཟླས་པའོ། ། ཨོཾ་སརྦ་བུདྡྷ་ཌཱ་ཀི་ནཱི་ཡེ་པྲ་ཏཱི་ཙྪེ་མཾ་བ་ལིཾ་ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཧ་ཧ་ཧིཿབཛྲ་ཌཱ་ཀི་ནཱི་ས་མ་ཡ་སྟྭཾ་དྲྀ་ཤྱ་ཧོ། ལན་གསུམ་བརྗོད་པས་གཏོར་མ་སྦྱིན་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ལ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མས་དགེ་བའི་མཚན་མ་སྟོན་ཅིང་དབུགས་ འབྱིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་དྲུག་གི་སྔགས་ཀྱི་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱང་གོ་ཆ་བགོ་ཞིང་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མའི་ང་རྒྱལ་གྱིས་གནས་པར་བྱའོ། ། གྲུབ་ཐོབ་རྔོན་པའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་ཀྱི་རིམ་པ་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་མ་དམར་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། བླ་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་པ་ནིཥྐ་ ལིངྐའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས། དཔྱལ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

There is the vajra recitation and the verbal recitation. Recite three times: OṂ SARVA-BUDDHA-ḌĀKINĪYE PRATĪCCHA MAṂ BALIṂ OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ HŪṂ HA HA HIḤ VAJRA-ḌĀKINĪ SAMAYA STVAṂ DṚŚYA HO. By reciting this, the torma offering should be given. Thereupon, the ḍākinī will display auspicious signs and grant encouragement. The yogin should also don the armor of the mantras of the six yoginīs and abide in the divine pride of the Blessed Lady. This concludes the sādhana of the Red Khecarī according to the stages from the presence of the mahāsiddha Vyādha. Translated from the presence of the guru Niṣkaliṅka of Vajrāsana by the translator Pyal Chökyi Zangpo.

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

terminologyགཏོར་མ → “offering cake”. 'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

homonymགཏོར་མ is rendered “offering cake” here; the glossary also records Bali, oblation, bali offering for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionགཏོར་མ “offering cake” — Bali wrested control of the world from the devas , establishing a period of peace and prosperity with no caste distinction. Indra requested Viṣṇu to use his wiles so that the devas could gain the world back from him. He

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

terminologyབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → “the Blessed One”. 84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

homonymབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས is rendered “the Blessed One” here; the glossary also records blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས “the Blessed One” — In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possess

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: name; self; dharma

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termམཚན → name

termསྔགས → mantra

termབདག → self

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

Terminology used in this text (16)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	2
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
སྔགས	mantra	2	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཆོས	dharma	2	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
བདག	self	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
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
འཕགས་པ	ārya	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
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
མཚན	name	1	མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
བླ་མ	guru	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 023_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟ.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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