Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This sādhana provides a technical manual for the meditative practice of Ekajaṭī, a supreme form of Tārā. The text guides the practitioner through a complex visualization process that begins with internal energetic manipulations at the navel and the junction of the channels, utilizing seed syllables like yaṃ and raṃ to generate ritual fire. The practitioner is instructed to visualize a deity standing upon a corpse within a mountain of fire, incorporating a detailed mandala of seed syllables (HŪṂ, HRĪḤ, TRIṂ, HŪṂ, PHAṬ) centered in the heart to eliminate ignorance and habitual tendencies. The practice commits the reader to a process of identity transformation, where they assume the role of an omniscient guide capable of accessing the five wisdoms and the treasury of Īśvara. The text concludes by establishing its legitimacy through a lineage tracing back to Mañjuśrī and Nāgārjuna, emphasizing the transmission of longevity and specialized knowledge.
Provenance
About this text
A sādhana focused on the meditative practice of the supreme Tārā Ekajaṭī, the Agratāraikajaṭyupadeśasādhana originates from the Indian tradition. The work is attributed to the author Bhagu Paṇḍita. It entered the Tibetan corpus through the efforts of the translators Dānaśīla (III) and shakya’i dge slong rig pa ’dzin pa khu rnal ’byor pa, appearing in the classical Tibetan period. The text is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it spans five pages and is categorized within the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work enacts a detailed visualization process designed to liberate the practitioner from fears arising from a mind blinded by delusion and from a short life. This process involves internal energetic manipulations at the navel and the junction of the channels, utilizing seed syllables such as yaṃ and raṃ to generate ritual fire. The practitioner is guided to visualize a fierce, youthful deity standing upon a corpse amidst a mountain of fire. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the technical specifications of this specific meditative practice and the precise instructions for the visualization of the deity and the associated energetic movements.
Sanskrit title
Agratāraikajaṭyupadeśasādhana
Indian author
Bhagu Paṇḍita
Tibetan translators
Dānaśīla (III), shakya’i dge slong rig pa ’dzin pa khu rnal ’byor pa
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of Personal Instructions on Ekajaṭī, the Supreme Form of Tārā” (Toh 1735), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1735
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it represents the intersection of deity yoga and internal energy work (prāṇa) within the Indo-Tibetan tradition. Its emphasis on the 'five sciences' and the lineage of Nāgārjuna suggests it belongs to a tradition prioritizing both intellectual mastery and longevity accomplishments.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Introduction and Energetic Preparation
Titles the work and describes the initial visualization of seed syllables and fire at the navel and channel junctions.
3-4
Deity Visualization
Details the appearance of the deity atop a corpse and the specific arrangement of seed syllables in the heart to purify sentient beings.
5
Attainment and Identification
Describes the gathering of five wisdoms and the practitioner's identification as an omniscient guide.
6
Lineage
Traces the transmission of the practice from Mañjuśrī and Nāgārjuna through Amṛtavarman, Nityavajra, and Bhagu Paṇḍita.
Themes
Internal Energetics (2)
Deity Yoga and Visualization (3-4)
Omniscience and Wisdom (5)
Lineage and Transmission (6)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Sādhana of Personal Instructions on Ekajaṭī, the Supreme Form of Tārā·
In the language of India: Agratāraikajaṭī-upadeśa-sādhana. In the language of Tibet: mChog gi sGrol ma ral pa gcig pa’i man ngag gi sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Pith Instructions of the Supreme Tārā Ekajaṭī). Homage with devotion to the sublime gurus.
I shall clarify here the stages of meditation for that Supreme Tārā who liberates from all fears—those of a mind blinded by delusion, short lifespans, illness, poverty, enemies, obstructors, and the like.
First, a yogi who has completed the required retreat and is well-versed in the sādhana should go to a pleasant and auspicious place, such as a charnel ground or a location endowed with the power of external and internal supports. Having cleaned the dwelling, one should arrange the three representations and the five offerings, either physically or mentally. Upon a soft cloth for sleeping, smeared with fragrant scents, or upon another seat suitable for meditation, one should sit in the cross-legged posture as a limb for settling the mind.
Beginning from the foundation of the excellent path and preceded by the supreme resolve for all phenomena, while one’s own body remains in its ordinary state, a laṃ in the sky before one transforms into an earth maṇḍala. By inhaling through the right nostril, all underlying diseases such as wind, bile, and phlegm, as well as all internal organs and impure substances, are driven out through the anus and expelled into the immeasurable realms below, as far as the mind can encompass.
Then, a baṃ in front transforms into a water maṇḍala. By inhaling through the left nostril, all impurities within the body are washed clean and expelled through the urinary tract, just as before.
Then, at the navel where the winds of the union (kha-sbyor) have gathered within, there is a yaṃ, and at the junction of the knots of the three channels, a raṃ appears. From these, one should meditate on a flame of fire the size of a pea. From the yaṃ at the lower gate, the wind is stirred, causing a tongue of fire the size of a silk thread to blaze up in a straight red line. From that, many light rays as hot as the sun at the end of an eon radiate forth, instantly incinerating all the misdeeds and obscurations of the body from beginningless time, like fire catching on a bird's feather.
When the flame reaches the heart, the hūṃ in the center of the heart-lotus is projected. From it, light rays radiate like the rising sun, pervading the entire interior of the body. All the negative tendencies of the three obscurations, along with their habitual patterns, exit through the mouth, nose, and all the pores of the skin in the form of wind. Contemplate that the body is purified like a crystal celestial mansion.
Then, as the flame reaches the throat, light radiates from the āḥ. The essence-drops from the melting of the oṃ at the crown descend and blaze at the heart. Meditate firmly on the absorption of blazing and dripping. Then, light radiates from the hūṃ at the heart, accomplishing the two benefits. As it gathers back, the gurus of the lineage of heroes are invited and enter sequentially from above the crown of one's head. Preceded by the sevenfold purification, make fervent supplications.
Upon that four-petaled lotus is a skull-cup of blood. Above that, from a raṃ, is a sun disk. Above that, from a hūṃ, is a curved knife with a vajra handle marked by a hūṃ. Light radiates from it, accomplishing the two benefits. As it gathers back, one transforms into the Blessed Lady, her body dark blue, as clear as lapis lazuli.
In the midst of a blazing mountain of fire, upon a corpse that is the essence of the sun and the mother, he stands with his right leg drawn in, pressing down on the ankle of the supple corpse, and his left leg slightly extended, treading upon the heart. He is sixteen years of age, beautiful with the vigor and majesty of youth. He has the physical form of a very fierce dwarf, with a thick, coarse body and a large protruding belly. He wears a lower garment of fresh tiger skin and a necklace of fifty fresh heads from which brain and blood are dripping.
He has one face and four arms; the first two hold a curved knife and a skull-cup filled with blood at his heart. The lower two hold a sword and an utpala flower adorned with a scripture. His four fangs are bared, and his tongue flickers like lightning in the sky. By letting out great roars of "Ha Ha" and "Hi Hi," he terrifies and scatters all outer and inner Māras. His orange-red beard swirls upward, and his brow and forehead are furrowed with wrathful wrinkles. His three eyes are wide and blazing red like a mass of fire, gazing slightly to the left. His single lock of hair is tawny and bristling upward, and the hairline is adorned with five dry skulls. He is beautified by various flowers and arrayed in the heroic ornaments of the five families: a crown, earrings, armlets, bracelets, anklets, and a long necklace, all formed from the eight great nāgas.
Visualize these six ornaments as being adorned with great bones, jewels, and various precious gems. Meditate upon him simultaneously, like the reflection of the moon in water, until weariness arises. When weariness from meditation occurs, one should engage in the recitation.
At the center of his own heart, upon a lotus and sun disk, is a blue HŪṂ. On the four petals, arranged clockwise from the front, are HRĪḤ, TRIṂ, HŪṂ, and PHAṬ. From these, light rays radiate, destroying the darkness of ignorance and its habitual tendencies in all sentient beings. Having purified the entire mass of misdeeds from the very beginning, that light invokes the lineage gurus, the five families of male and female deities, and all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions without exception. Imagine that Akṣobhya crowns the head of the deity from the remaining nectar of wisdom empowerment. Again, light radiates from that, accomplishing the two benefits. As it gathers back, all mundane and supramundane qualities without exception dissolve into my heart. One should also cultivate the thought, "I am the Buddha of the three times throughout the ten directions." Furthermore, since these are uncommon essential points—such as the wheel of immeasurable enlightened activity, the transference of the light-body of Tārā, the pith instructions on the sun-path of the bardo, and the vast conduct of awakening for the benefit of others—they should be understood in other contexts.
Thus, when the meditation method of the preliminaries is complete, hold a curved conch rosary in the manner of confession behind the right hand’s sword and the left hand’s utpala flower and book. At the heart, which is like a lotus petal or a bandhūka flower, are the four syllables the color of refined gold, arranged clockwise from the front. Without wavering from the generation stage, recite while in the state of the yoga of enlightened activity. At the conclusion, from the syllables, five-colored light rays—white, blue, red, yellow, and black—emanate.
One should gather the five wisdoms of longevity, wealth, retinue, renown, and primordial wisdom. The inexhaustible treasury of the immortal Īśvara is opened; pervading all three realms, I am the supreme guide for all beings. Thinking, "I am the omniscient knower of the five sciences," one should maintain the pride. If one makes offerings to the mind-essence, the wish-fulfilling jewel, all desires are accomplished. Thus it is said.
Then, if the mind becomes weary, the syllable HŪṂ on the lotus petals is dissolved into the drop (bindu). "The drop is emptiness, without syllables," it is said. Being liberated from all extremes of conceptual elaboration, one should contemplate that all the collections of inferior intellects of oneself and others are purified. Having fervently supplicated for other desired aims, one seals the practice with a dedication from within the state of lack of inherent existence. Even during the state of post-meditation, all activities should not be separated from the yoga of enlightened activity.
When one becomes familiar with the yoga of meditation and recitation in this way, signs will arise, either in reality or in dreams: a sharp mind, excellent memory, eloquence, and skill in poetry; being loved by others, the pacification of illness, and the increase of strength and wealth; seeing sacred lands, objects of prostration, precious mountains, and thrones; drinking water from two streams; and the eight signs of impermanence. If such signs do not arise, one should perform a homa fire offering and exert oneself in the mantra practice.
"Because all phenomena are primordially empty,
In this reality beyond thought and expression,
Abandon all various views
And hold the supreme yoga in mind."
This is the sādhana of the pith instructions for Ekajaṭī, the Supreme Tārā.
This is the lineage from the Amṛtātmaka-āryamañjuśrī, the supreme stage of the great being Nāgārjuna who attained the accomplishment of longevity, transmitted through Amṛtavarman. It is the pith instruction of the poet Nityavajra, the special teaching of Bhagu Paṇḍita, who became a master of the five sciences. From the great scholar Dānaśīla of Eastern India, it was spoken as a self-translation from the Sanskrit language by the Śākya monk and vidyādhara Khu, the yogin.