Toh 1597 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Ritual of Secret Fire Offerings, the Intention of Glorious Vajrayoginī

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1597
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 024_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_འ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,829 Tibetan characters · 428 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 ritual text outlines the procedural requirements for performing a secret homa (fire offering) associated with the deity Vajrayoginī. The work serves as a technical manual for the mantra practitioner, aiming to facilitate the accumulation of both mundane and supramundane activities. The text establishes a specific correspondence between the practitioner's intent and the visual components of the ritual; it mandates the visualization of specific colors for the ritual form to align with the four general activities of the Buddhist tantric system. Specifically, white is assigned to pacifying, yellow to enriching, red to magnetizing and the attainment of siddhis, and black to wrathful activities. By committing the reader to these precise visualizations, the text asserts that the efficacy of the fire offering is dependent upon the correct mental alignment of the practitioner with the intended outcome of the rite.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the secret homa of the intention of Vajrayoginī, this work belongs to the collection of the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras. It is attributed to the Indian author Abhiyukta. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the text appears in volume འ of the Tengyur, where it extends over two pages. The work enacts the procedural requirements for a mantra practitioner seeking to accomplish mundane and supramundane activities through the fire offering. It provides technical instructions for the construction of a triangular hearth and mandates a precise system of visualization: white for pacifying, yellow for enriching, red for magnetizing and the attainment of siddhis, and black for wrathful activities. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to understand the specific correspondences between mental visualization and ritual efficacy within the tantric system, as the work asserts that the success of the homa depends upon the practitioner's correct mental alignment with the intended activity.

Sanskrit title: not recorded
Indian author: Abhiyukta
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Śaṃvara and Related Tantras
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. འ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

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Libraries

WorldCat

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Ritual of Secret Fire Offerings, the Intention of Glorious Vajrayoginī” (Toh 1597), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1597

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it demonstrates the application of the four-activity framework within the specific context of Vajrayoginī rituals. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of how color symbolism and visualization are systematized in Indo-Tibetan ritual technology to achieve specific spiritual or worldly goals.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Preliminary Intent	An opening homage to Mañjuvajra and the statement of the ritual's purpose regarding the accumulation of activities.
2	Visualization Guidelines	Instructions on the specific colors to be visualized based on the desired ritual outcome (pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, or wrathful).

Themes

Homa (Fire Offering) (1-2)
Color Symbolism and Visualization (2)
The Four Activities (2)

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

AnuvādaA Ritual of Secret Fire Offerings, the Intention of Glorious Vajrayoginī·

༄༅༅། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མའི་དགོངས་པ་གསང་བའི་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་གི་ཆོ་ག་བཞུགས། ། ༄༅༅། ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་དཔལ་འཇམ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། དང་པོ་རེ་ཞིག་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མའི་དགོངས་པས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དང་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པའི་ལས་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ དངོས་གྲུབ་བསྒྲུབ་པའི་ཕྱིར། སྦྱིན་སྲེག་གི་བྱ་བ་བྱེད་པར་འདོད་པའི་སྔགས་པས་གྲུ་གསུམ་གྱི་རྣམ་པའི་ཐབ་ཁུང་བྱས་ཏེ་རྒྱའི་ཕྱེད་དཔངས་སུ་ཁ་ཁྱེར་དང་བཅས་པའོ། ། ཁ་དོག་དམར་པོ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ལེགས་པར་བྱུགས་ལ་ནུབ་ཏུ་མངོན་པར་ཕྱོགས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་རིམ་པས་ཉེ་བར་ གནས་ལ། ། མཆོད་པ་ལྔས་ཡང་དག་པར་མཆོད་དེ། ཐབ་ཁུང་དུ་བུད་ཤིང་བརྩིགས་པ་དང་། རཾ་གྱི་ས་བོན་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་མེ་ལྷ་ཁ་དོག་དམར་པོ་རྣམ་པར་བསྒོམ་སྟེ། སྤྱི་བླུགས་དང་མི་འཇིགས་པ་དང་དབྱིག་པ་དང་ཕྲེང་བ་རྣམས་ཕྱག་ན་འཛིན་པའོ། ། དེ་ནས་ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་ དཔའ་དགུག་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་བྱས་ནས། ཡང་དག་པར་མཆོད་པ་ནི། དེའི་ལྕེ་ལ་རཾ་བཀོད་ལ། བདུད་རྩི་ལྔ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་རྫས་དང་། འཇིག་རྟེན་པའི་རྫས་ལ། ཨོཾ་ཨགྣ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཞེས་པའི་སྔགས་འདིས་བསྲེག་སྟེ། སྔགས་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་དགང་བླུགས་ཀྱང་དབུལ་ལོ། ། དེ་ནས་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བདག་ཉིད་མེའི་དབུས་སུ་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལྷག་པར་མོས་པར་བྱས་ཏེ། མཆོད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་བྱས་ནས། བདུད་རྩི་ལྔ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་རྫས་ལ། ལྷ་མོ་དང་ལྷ་མོའི་སྔགས་ཀྱིས་བསྲེག་པར་བྱའོ། ། ཞི་ལ་སྲེག་རྫས་མངར་སོགས་ཏེ། ། རྒྱས་པ་ལ་ཡང་མངར་བ་ཉིད། ། དབང་ལ་མངར་དང་ལན་ཚྭ་ཡིན། ། དྲག་ལ་ཚྭ་དང་ཁ་སོགས་ཀྱིས། །

The Secret Homa Ritual of the Intention of Vajrayoginī Homage to the Blessed One, glorious Mañjuvajra. First, in order to accomplish the mundane and supramundane collections of activities through the intention of glorious Vajrayoginī, a mantra practitioner who wishes to perform the rite of homa should construct a triangular hearth. Its height should be half its width, and it should be provided with a rim. It should be well-smeared with red and other colors. Facing west and so forth, according to the sequence, one should take one's place. Having made perfect offerings with the five offerings, one should stack firewood in the hearth and meditate on the Fire God (Agni) arising from the seed syllable RAṂ, red in color, holding a water-pot, a gesture of fearlessness, a staff, and a rosary in his hands. Then, having performed the summoning of the wisdom being (jñānasattva) and so forth, the perfect offerings are as follows: having placed the syllable RAṂ upon his tongue, one should burn the substances such as the five nectars (amṛta) and the worldly substances with this mantra: OṂ AGNAYE SVĀHĀ. With that same mantra, one should also offer the ladle and spoon. Then, having visualized the maṇḍala within the midst of the fire as the nature of the wisdom of suchness (tathatā), and having performed the offerings and so forth, one should burn the substances such as the five nectars with the mantras of the goddesses and the deities. For pacifying, the burnt substances are sweet and so forth; for enriching, they are also sweet; for magnetizing, they are sweet and salty; for the wrathful, they are salty, bitter, and so forth.

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

definitionསྦྱིན་སྲེག “homa” — The casting of a prescribed offering into a ritual fire. The practice of homa is first attested in pre-Buddhist Vedic literature, and serves as a core, pervasive ritual paradigm in exoteric and esoteric rites in both Bud

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

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

definitionདངོས་གྲུབ “accomplishment” — Accomplishment or success in general, as well as any particular magical power or ability. In the latter sense, eight are traditionally enumerated, namely the siddhi of the magical sword, of an eye ointment that renders i

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 )

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

definitionམེ་ལྷ “Agni” — This refers to Agni, the Vedic deity of fire, who is also invoked in Buddhist burnt offering rituals.

termརྡོ་རྗེ → vajra

termསྦྱིན་སྲེག → homa

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལས → action

termདངོས་གྲུབ → accomplishment

ཞི་ལ་དཀར་པོའི་གཟུགས་ཀྱིས་ཏེ། ། རྒྱས་ལ་སེར་པོ་རྣམ་བསྒོམ་བྱ། ། དབང་ལ་དམར་པོ་ཞེས་སུ་བརྗོད། ། དྲག་ལ་ནག་པོར་རབ་ཏུ་གྲགས། ། དངོས་གྲུབ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་དུས་སུ་ ནི། ། དམར་པོ་ཡང་ནི་རྣམ་བསྒོམ་བྱ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་ནས་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ལུས་ལ་བཅུག་སྟེ། གཏོར་མ་བྱིན་ནས་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་རིམ་པས། འཇིག་རྟེན་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པའི་མཆོད་པ་བྱས་ནས། བདག་ཉིད་གང་འདོད་པའི་དངོས་ གྲུབ་བླང་བར་བྱའོ། ། གསལ་པོར་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་འདི་མི་བྱ། ། འབད་པས་གསང་བར་བྱ་བ་སྟེ། ། དེ་ལས་དངོས་གྲུབ་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར། ། གཞན་དུ་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྐལ་བ་མེད། ། ཡང་དག་དད་པས་རྗེས་འབྲངས་ནས། ། སྔགས་རྣམས་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་མཚུངས། ། དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེ་ སོགས་ནི། ། འདོད་པས་དད་པ་བརྟན་པོར་བྱ། ། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མའི་དགོངས་པ་གསང་བའི་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་གི་ཆོ་ག། སློབ་དཔོན་ཨ་བྷི་ཛུ་ཀ་ཏས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

For pacifying, one should visualize a white form; for enriching, one should visualize yellow; for magnetizing, it is said to be red; and for wrathful activities, it is renowned as black. At the time of accomplishing the siddhis, one should also visualize red. Having done so, one should naturally dissolve the maṇḍala-cakra into one’s own body, offer the torma, and through the sequence of the gaṇacakra, perform the mundane and supramundane offerings. Then, one should take whatever siddhi one desires. One should not perform this homa openly; it must be kept secret with diligence, for from that, the siddhis will arise. Otherwise, there is no fortune for siddhis. Following with authentic faith, mantras are like wish-fulfilling jewels. In that regard, one should make one’s faith firm through the desire for the Mahāmudrā and so forth. This concludes the Secret Homa Ritual according to the intention of the glorious Vajrayoginī, composed by the master Abhijukta.

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

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

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

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

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

definitionདད་པ “faith” — Here “faith” is not used so much in the sense of “religious faith,” but rather as when one says, “I have faith in you” or “I have faith in your good qualities.” It is often explained as “a good disposition of the mind” (

definitionསློབ་དཔོན “ācārya” — A spiritual teacher, meaning one who knows the conduct or practice ( ācāra ) to be performed. It can also be a title for a scholar, though that is not the context in this sūtra .

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: empowerment; offering cake; self

termགཟུགས → form

termདབང → empowerment

termདངོས་གྲུབ → accomplishment

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termའཁོར་ལོ → cakra

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

Terminology used in this text (26)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	2
སྦྱིན་སྲེག	homa	2
ལས	action	2	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
དངོས་གྲུབ	accomplishment	2
སྔགས	mantra	2	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
མཆོད་པ	offering	2
བདག	self	2
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	2
དབང	empowerment	2	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
མེ་ལྷ	Agni	1
མི་འཇིགས་པ	fearlessnesses	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
བདུད་རྩི	amṛta	1
དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད	suchness	1
བདུད	Māra	1
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
གཟུགས	form	1
འཁོར་ལོ	cakra	1
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ཕྱག་རྒྱ	mudrā	1
དད་པ	faith	1
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 024_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_འ.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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