Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a ritual manual, or sādhana, designed to guide the practitioner through the meditative visualization of the deity Ārya Tārā. The work functions as a technical guide for spiritual realization, beginning with formal homages and a statement of intent to benefit students. The provided fragments illustrate a transition from the preparatory phase to the core meditative process. Specifically, the text directs the practitioner to visualize the seed syllable Tāṃ as the essence of the self, followed by a process of dissolution where the external environment and its inhabitants melt into light and merge into the syllable. This sequence commits the reader to a systematic deconstruction of ordinary perception, culminating in the meditation on emptiness (śūnyatā). By moving from a specific focal point to a state of non-duality, the text aims to shift the practitioner's consciousness from a mundane orientation to a transcendental one.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the meditative visualization of the deity Ārya Tārā, the Āryatārāsādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana. The work is attributed to the Indian author Sarvajñāmitra. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the work of the translators Śākyaśrībhadra and lo tsa ba byams pa’i dpal, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it comprises three pages. Within the Tibetan canon, it is situated among the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work enacts a systematic process of spiritual realization, beginning with homages and a stated intent to benefit students. It guides the practitioner through a technical sequence of visualization, starting with the seed syllable Tāṃ as the essence of the self. This is followed by a process of dissolution in which the environment and its inhabitants melt into light and merge into the syllable, leading the practitioner to meditate on emptiness, or śūnyatā. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan text today to examine the specific meditative instructions and the transition from preparatory visualization to the deconstruction of ordinary perception.
The work is significant as it represents the standard Indo-Tibetan methodology of deity yoga, where visualization is used as a tool to realize emptiness. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of how Tibetan Buddhist ritual texts integrate linguistic markers from both Sanskrit and Tibetan to establish authority and lineage.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, formal homages to Tārā, and the author's stated purpose.
2
Visualization Practice
Describes the meditative process of visualizing the seed syllable Tāṃ and the subsequent dissolution of the environment into emptiness.
Themes
Deity Yoga (1-2)
Emptiness (śūnyatā) (2)
Dissolution (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Āryatārāsādhananāma. In the language of Tibet: ’Phags ma sgrol ma’i sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of the Noble Tārā). Homage to the Venerable Tārā!
Homage to the Great Tārā, who delivers the world. For the benefit of students, I shall here write a brief sādhana of her; may the practitioner achieve accomplishment.
First, one should visualize a green syllable TĀṂ upon a moon maṇḍala at the heart. With its light rays, one invites the guru, the buddhas, and so forth. Visualizing the guru in the form of Vajrasattva, one makes offerings arising from the mind. Preceded by offerings of flowers and so forth, one should perform the seven branches of offering in detail:
I take refuge in the Three Jewels.
I confess each and every sin without exception.
I rejoice in the virtue of all beings.
I mentally embrace the awakening of the buddhas.
In the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha,
I take refuge until I am enlightened.
To accomplish the welfare of myself and others,
I shall hold the mind of awakening.
I shall generate the supreme mind of awakening,
And invite all sentient beings as my guests.
I shall practice the delightful conduct of awakening;
May I achieve buddhahood for the benefit of the world.
Reciting these words, one should keep their meaning in mind. Then, one should meditate on the four immeasurables: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Following that, one should meditate on the emptiness of all phenomena, reciting: OṂ SVABHĀVA ŚUDDHĀḤ SARVA DHARMĀḤ SVABHĀVA ŚUDDHO ’HAṂ.
Then, from the syllable Tāṃ, which is visualized as the essence of oneself upon a lotus and moon, light rays radiate, causing the environment and its inhabitants to melt into light and dissolve into the Tāṃ. That too gradually melts and dissolves, and one meditates on everything as emptiness (śūnyatā).
Then, by recollecting former aspirations, the blue Tāṃ arises upon the lotus and moon seat. Visualize that it completely transforms into a green utpala flower. From it, light rays radiate to the ten directions and are reabsorbed; through this complete transformation, one visualizes the body of the Bhagavatī. She is seated in the cross-legged posture upon a multicolored lotus and moon seat. Her right hand performs the gesture of supreme generosity (varada-mudrā), and her left holds the stem of an utpala. Adorned with all ornaments and possessing perfect attire, she should be visualized like a reflection in a mirror.
Then, the wisdom beings (jñānasattva) identical to oneself are absorbed. Joining the two palms, the two middle fingers are placed back-to-back at the tips of the index fingers. Mentally, at the lotus in the heart, a green Tāṃ blazes with light rays, accomplishing all aims. One should then recite the mantra: Oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. The approach (sevā) is accomplished by one million recitations. It gathers all collections of reasoning and qualities. Meditating on the illusion-like mind as being like space is the gradual stage. Having fully dedicated the virtue arising from that, one should abide in virtuous conduct.
This concludes the Sādhana of the Venerable Noble Tārā, composed by the great master, the omniscient Kamalaśīla.
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.