Toh 1712 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Short Torma Cake Ritual

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1712
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,322 Tibetan characters · 337 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 brief ritual text outlines a condensed procedure for making torma offerings within a tantric framework. The text instructs the practitioner to adopt the yoga of self-deification before arranging available material substances and robes as offerings. The ritual process concludes with a request for siddhi (spiritual attainment) and a visualization of the deity's dissolution, specifically the deity's return into the practitioner's own heart. By condensing the offering process, the text commits the reader to a streamlined practice that integrates material offering with internal meditative visualization, moving from the external arrangement of substances to the internal absorption of the divine presence.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual procedure for the torma offering, the Balyalpavidhi belongs to the tradition of the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work is attributed to the translators Kaśmīri Parahita and lo tsA ba nag tso shes rab rgyal m+tsana. Preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, the text appears in the classical Tibetan period under the title gtor ma'i cho ga nyung ngu. It enacts a condensed ritual process wherein the practitioner adopts the yoga of oneself as the deity, arranges available substances and robes as offerings, and recites a mantra regarding the purity of all phenomena. The procedure concludes with a prayer for desired siddhi and the visualization of the deity returning into the practitioner's own heart. A scholar or serious reader consults this single-page text to examine a streamlined integration of material offering and internal meditative visualization, observing how the ritual moves from the external arrangement of substances to the internal absorption of the divine presence.

Sanskrit title: Balyalpavidhi
Indian author: not recorded
Tibetan translators: Kaśmīri Parahita, lo tsA ba nag tso shes rab rgyal m+tsana?
Canonical collection: Other Wisdom Tantras
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཤ
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 Short Torma Cake Ritual” (Toh 1712), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1712

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as an example of the 'brief' (nyung ngu) ritual genre in Tibetan Buddhism, designed for efficiency or daily practice. It illustrates the essential tantric synthesis of material ritualism and the internal yoga of self-generation.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1-2	Ritual Procedure	Instructions for the preparation of offerings, the request for siddhi, and the final visualization of the deity's absorption.

Themes

Self-deification (1)
Material offerings (1)
Siddhi (2)
Visualization of dissolution (2)

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

AnuvādaA Short Torma Cake Ritual·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བ་ལིཾ་ཨལྤ་བི་དྷིཿ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གཏོར་མའི་ཆོ་ག་ཉུང་ངུ་། གནས་ཆེན་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བདག་ཉིད་ལྷ་ཡི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་དང་ལྡན་པས། ཅི་འབྱོར་པའི་རྫས་སྔོན་དུ་བཤམས་ལ། ཨོཾ་སྭ་བྷཱ་ཝ་ཤུདྡྷཿསརྦ་དྷརྨཱཿསྭ་བྷཱ་བ་ཤུདྡྷོ྅ཧཾ། ཞེས་བརྗོད་པས་སྟོང་པའི་ངང་ལས་ཡཾ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ལས་རླུང་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར། དེར་གནས་པའི་རཾ་ལས་མེའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར། དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཨ་ལས་ཐོད་པ་ཆེ་བ་ཅིག་བསམ་མོ། ། དེའི་ནང་དུ་མ་ར་བི་ཤུ་མུ་ལས། དབུས་སུ་མ་ལས་ཤ་ཆེན། ཤར་དུ་ར་ལས་ཁྲག། བི་ལས་ལྷོ་རུ་དྲི་ཆེན། ནུབ་ཏུ་ཤུ་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས། བྱང་དུ་མུ་ལས་དྲི་ཆུ། དེ་དག་ཞུ་བ་ལས་ཧཱུཾ་ཨོཾ་ཏྲཱཾ་ཨཱཿཁཾ་ལྔར་གྱུར་པར་བསམ་མོ། ། དེ་དག་ཞུ་བ་ལས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ལྔའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་གཟུགས་སུ་དམིགས་ལ། དེ་རྣམས་ཞུ་བས་བདུད་རྩི་དཀར་པོའི་རྣམ་པར་བསམས་ཏེ། སྟེང་དུ་རིམ་པར་ཧཱུཾ་ཨཱཿ ཨོཾ་རྣམ་པར་བསམས་ཏེ་སྦྱར་བ་དང་སྦར་བ་དང་རྟོགས་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ནས་སྙིང་གའི་ས་བོན་ལས་འོད་ཟེར་འཕྲོས་པས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མེའི་འཁོར་ལོ་བལྟས་ཏེ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་རལླི་ཧོཿཛཿཧཱུཾ་བཾ་ཧོཿསརྦ་ཙཀྵ་ཡོ་གི་ནཱི་ཡེ། བཛྲ་བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ནཱཾ་ཡེ་ཨི་མཾ་བ་ལིཾ་པྲ་ཏིཙྪ་ས་མ་ཡ་མ་ནུ་སྨ་ར་མ་མ་སརྦ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཱ་ནཉྩ་ཤཱནྟིཾ་པུཥྚིཾ་སརྦ་ཏྲ་རཀྵཱ་བཱ་ར་ན་གུཔྟིཾ་ཀུ་རུ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པ་ལན་གསུམ་བརྗོད་ལ་དབུལ་ལོ། ། དེ་ནས་སྙིང་གའི་ཏཱཾ་གི་འོད་ཟེར་ལས། མཆོད་ཡོན། མེ་ཏོག། བདུག་སྤོས། སྣང་གསལ། དྲི་ཆབ། ཙནྡན། གུར་གུམ་ལ་སོགས་པ་དང་། ཞལ་ཟས། བླ་རེ། གདུགས། རྒྱལ་མཚན། བ་དན།

In the language of India: Baliṃ-alpa-vidhiḥ. In the language of Tibet: Gtor ma’i cho ga nyung ngu (The Brief Ritual of the Torma Offering). Homage to the Sovereign of the Great Sacred Places. Possessing the yoga of oneself as the deity, one should first arrange whatever substances are available. Reciting: oṃ svabhāva-śuddhāḥ sarva-dharmāḥ svabhāva-śuddho ’haṃ, from the state of emptiness, the syllable yaṃ completely transforms into a wind maṇḍala. Upon that, from the syllable raṃ, a fire maṇḍala arises. Above that, one should visualize a large skull cup arising from the syllable aṃ. Inside that, from the syllables ma ra bi śu mu, in the center from ma comes "great flesh" (mahāmāṃsa); in the east from ra comes blood; in the south from bi comes feces; in the west from śu comes bodhicitta; and in the north from mu comes urine. One should visualize these melting and transforming into the five syllables hūṃ oṃ trāṃ āḥ khaṃ. Visualize these melting and appearing in the form of the nature of the five Tathāgatas. As they melt, visualize them in the form of white nectar. Above them, visualize the syllables hūṃ āḥ oṃ in sequence, and thus perform the mixing, the kindling, and the realization. Then, light rays radiate from the seed syllable at the heart, and one visualizes the wheel of yoginīs of fire. Recite three times: oṃ āralli hoḥ jaḥ hūṃ baṃ hoḥ sarva-ḍākinīye vajra-vairocanāyai imaṃ baliṃ pratīccha samaya-manusmara mama sarva-sādhānānāñca śāntiṃ puṣṭiṃ sarvatra rakṣā-vāraṇa-guptiṃ kuru hūṃ, and offer it. Then, from the light rays of the tāṃ at the heart, there arise the water for the mouth, flowers, incense, lamps, scented water, sandalwood, saffron, and so forth, as well as food offerings, canopies, parasols, victory banners, and flags.

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.

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

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 ).

homonymདཀྱིལ་འཁོར is rendered “maṇḍala” here; the glossary also records inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pant

terminologyབྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས → “bodhicitta”. Keep the Sanskrit loan; 'mind of awakening' is a gloss, and mixing the two inside one text reads as inconsistency.

homonymབྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས is rendered “bodhicitta” here; the glossary also records mind set on awakening, resolve of awakening, aspiration to enlightenment for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས “bodhicitta” — In the general Mahāyāna teachings, the “mind of awakening” ( bodhicitta ) is the intention to attain the complete awakening of a perfect buddha for the sake of all beings. On the level of absolute truth, the mind of awak

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.

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལྷ → god

termམེ → fire

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termབྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས → bodhicitta

termདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ → tathāgata

ན་བཟའ་ལ་སོགས་པས་མཆོད་དོ། ། དེ་ནས་དེ་མ་ཐག་ཏུ་དངོས་གྲུབ་གང་འདོད་པ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་ལ་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ་ལོ། ། རང་གི་སྙིང་ལ་རྗེས་སུ་ཞུགས་པར་བསམ་མོ། ། གཏོར་མའི་ཆོ་ག་ཉུང་ངུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། །

One should make offerings with robes and so forth. Then, immediately thereafter, one should pray for whatever siddhi is desired and request the deity to depart. One should then contemplate that [the deity] has entered back into one's own heart. This concludes the "Brief Ritual of the Torma."

Terminology used in this text (6)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
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
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས	bodhicitta	1	Keep the Sanskrit loan; 'mind of awakening' is a gloss, and mixing the two inside one text reads as inconsistency.
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ	tathāgata	1	Kept as the Sanskrit loan in translation (84000 practice), not 'Thus-Gone One'.

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

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.

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