Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for deity yoga, centered on the figure of Tārā and based on the Māyājāla Tantra. The work guides the practitioner through a structured sequence of meditative visualizations and ritual actions designed to transform the practitioner's perception and benefit sentient beings. It begins with the necessary preliminary commitments of taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, framing the practice within the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. The text then directs the practitioner to visualize the cosmos filled with the Tathāgata family and to perform a consecration involving the seed syllable OṂ. The process concludes with the presentation of ritual offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, accompanied by specific mantra recitations. By following this sequence, the reader commits to a disciplined mental training that blends compassion for all beings with the precise visualization of a sacred environment and the ritualized offering of substances to the enlightened.
Provenance
About this text
A sādhana centered on the figure of Tārā, the Āryamāyājālakrameṇa bhaṭṭārikātārāsādhana belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work was translated into Tibetan by Mahājana and lo tsA ba gzhon nu ’od. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it is situated within the Other Wisdom Tantras collection and extends over four pages. The practice enacts a structured sequence of deity yoga, beginning with the practitioner taking refuge in the Three Jewels and generating bodhicitta within the Mahāyāna framework. It directs the yogi to meditate on the nature of emptiness and visualize the expanse of space filled with the Tathāgata family, including Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the Bhagavatī who dispels the fears of wandering beings. Through the use of seed syllables such as OṂ, ĀḤ, and a black essence at the heart, the practitioner performs a consecration of the Vajra Body, Speech, and Mind. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific ritual instructions and meditative visualizations used to transform the practitioner's perception for the benefit of all sentient beings who have been bound by the web of various views since beginningless saṃsāra.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of the Venerable Tāra According to the Noble Māyajāla Tantra” (Toh 1704), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1704
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it provides a practical application of the Māyājāla Tantra, demonstrating how complex tantric theory is translated into a ritualized sequence. For the modern reader, it illustrates the intersection of visualization, mantra, and the altruistic motivation of bodhicitta in Indo-Tibetan ritual practice.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Preliminaries
Includes the title, homage, and the requirement to establish refuge and bodhicitta.
3
Visualization and Consecration
Instructions for visualizing the Tathāgata family and the white essence of OṂ at the crown of the head.
4
Offerings
The presentation of ritual offerings accompanied by specific mantras.
Themes
Bodhicitta and Compassion (2)
Deity Visualization (3)
Ritual Offerings and Mantras (4)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Venerable Tāra According to the Noble Māyajāla Tantra·
In the language of India: Ārya-māyājāla-krameṇa-bhaṭṭārikā-tārā-sādhana. In the language of Tibet: ’Phags pa sgyu ’phrul dra ba’i rim pas rje btsun sgrol ma’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Venerable Tārā According to the Sequence of the Noble Net of Illusion). Homage to the Venerable Tārā!
First, the yogi should sit on a comfortable seat in a place conducive to the mind. Focusing on all sentient beings, one should meditate on the four Brahma-abodes characterized by love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Following that, at one’s own heart, upon a multicolored lotus, is a moon maṇḍala. Upon this is the syllable Tāṃ, the color of a marakata gem, radiating five-colored light rays. One should meditate that from the tips of these light rays, Tathāgatas emerge, filling the expanse of space. Then, with the mantra JAḤ HŪṂ BAṂ HOḤ, one should respectively summon, cause to enter, bind, and cause to abide in the nature of those Tathāgatas.
After they have entered, one should meditate on a five-pronged vajra arising from the syllable Tāṃ and blessed by Tāṃ, with a luster like sapphire. From that vajra, one should meditate that Vairocana and the other Tathāgatas are emanated, pervading the entire realm of space without exception. To those Tathāgatas, one should present vast and infinite offerings of flowers, incense, lamps, perfumes, divine food, robes, ornaments, and so forth, all arising from that very vajra. Then, in their presence, one should confess misdeeds and rejoice in merit.
Having taken refuge in the Three Jewels, generated the bodhicitta, and correctly established oneself in the Mahāyāna, one should focus on the mental continuum of all sentient beings, which has been bound by the web of various views since beginningless saṃsāra. One should meditate on the bodhicitta whose nature is emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, and then recite this mantra: OṂ ŚŪNYATĀ-JÑĀNA-VAJRA-SVABHĀVA-ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ. Then, one should meditate on all this—the moving and the non-moving—along with one’s own body, as being of the nature of space. Then, by means of this mantra, one should assume the pride of the previously explained vajra: OṂ VAJRA-ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ. Then, from the syllable HŪṂ, one should meditate on a yellow ground whose essence is a vajra. Above that, upon a multicolored lotus, is a moon maṇḍala. Upon that is a vajra blessed by the syllable TĀ. From that, one should meditate on oneself in the essence of the Bhagavatī Tārā. She has three faces and six arms, and her color is like that of a marakata gem. She wears a crown of the five Tathāgatas, and her central face is adorned with the crown of Amoghasiddhi. She sits in the sattvaparyaṅka posture. Among them, the central face is the color of a marakata gem, the right is black, and the left is white. Her first right hand bestows fearlessness, the second holds a black vajra, and the third holds an arrow. Her first left hand makes the threatening gesture, the second holds a blue utpala, and the third holds a bow.
From each and every pore, visualize the Tathāgata family filling the expanse of space—Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the Bhagavatī who dispels all the fears of wandering beings—and then perform the consecration. In that regard, at the center of the crown of the head is the white essence of OṂ, the Vajra Body. At the throat is the red essence of ĀḤ, the Vajra Speech. At the heart is the black essence of HŪṂ, the Vajra Mind. On the chest, visualize the syllable TĀṂ, the color of a marakata gem, as the Wisdom Being (jñānasattva) from whom an immeasurable Tathāgata family radiates. Then, perform the recitation with this mantra: OṂ TĀRE TUTTĀRE TURE SVĀHĀ. Having performed the recitation, emanate the maṇḍala circle and make offerings to the best of one's ability. In the center of that maṇḍala is the Bhagavatī, the Venerable Tārā, according to the sequence previously explained. On the eastern petal: OṂ SATVA VAJRI HŪṂ. On the southern petal: OṂ RATNA VAJRI HŪṂ. On the western petal: OṂ DHARMĀ VAJRI HŪṂ. On the northern petal: OṂ KARMA VAJRI HŪṂ. In the southeast: OṂ MĀLE VAJRI HŪṂ. In the southwest: OṂ DHŪPA VAJRI HŪṂ. In the northwest: OṂ GANDHA VAJRI HŪṂ. In the northeast: OṂ RĀSA VAJRI HŪṂ. In the directions of the east and so forth: OṂ VAJRA AṄKUŚI HŪṂ, OṂ VAJRA PĀŚI HŪṂ, OṂ VAJRA SPHŌṬI HŪṂ, OṂ VAJRA ĀVEŚI HŪṂ. Having performed the meditation and recitation, then request the departure. Even after rising from meditative concentration, [continue the practice].
One should make offerings to the Tathāgatas, the reliquaries, and so forth, with whatever capacity one possesses. OṂ VAJRA ARGHAṂ HŪṂ. OṂ VAJRA PUṢPE HŪṂ. OṂ VAJRA DHŪPE HŪṂ. OṂ VAJRA ĀLOKE HŪṂ. OṂ VAJRA GANDHE HŪṂ. OṂ VAJRA NAIVIDYE HŪṂ. OṂ SARVA TATHĀGATĀNUTTARA PŪJA MEGHA PRASARA SAMUDRA HŪṂ. This concludes the Sādhana of the Venerable Tārā according to the sequence of the Noble Māyājāla. Translated by the Indian Abbot Mahājana and the translator Zhönnu Ö.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.