Toh 1739 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Protection Wheel

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1739
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 1 passages · 1,061 Tibetan characters · 276 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)

The text, titled Tālisacakra in Sanskrit and Phyr zlog pa’i ’khor lo in Tibetan, provides a ritual procedure for averting obstacles. It is framed as a practice for a yogi who has already completed a specific approach retreat, indicating that the ritual is intended as a secondary or complementary phase of a larger spiritual curriculum. The text commits the practitioner to a disciplined environment, requiring a secluded location and the formal arrangement of a maṇḍala and offerings. By beginning with an homage to Tārā, the work establishes the deity as the central source of the protective power being invoked. The fragment suggests a structured transition from preparatory meditative retreat to the active application of ritual technology to clear external or internal impediments.

Provenance

About this text

A treatise for the averting of obstacles, the Taliṣṭicakra belongs to the tradition of the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Śāśvatavajra. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the translation efforts of mkhas pa chen po rma ban chos ’bar and is preserved in the Tengyur, specifically within volume ཤ. The text enacts a ritual procedure intended for the yogi who has already completed an approach retreat. Following an homage to the Venerable Tārā, the practitioner is instructed to seek a secluded location to arrange a maṇḍala, offerings, and a torma, while meditating on the completion of the generation stage. A scholar or serious reader consults this one-page work to examine the specific ritual technology used to clear impediments and to understand the structured transition from preparatory meditative retreat to active ritual application within the classical Tibetan corpus.

Sanskrit title: Taliṣṭicakra
Indian author: Śāśvatavajra
Tibetan translators: mkhas pa chen po rma ban chos ’bar
Canonical collection: Other Wisdom Tantras
Genre: Treatise
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, “The Protection Wheel” (Toh 1739), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1739

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as an example of the 'averting' (zlog pa) genre of Tibetan ritual, which blends meditative achievement with formal liturgy. It illustrates the traditional requirement that ritual efficacy depends upon the practitioner's prior completion of specific preliminary retreats.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Preparations	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an homage to Tārā, and the prerequisites for the practitioner, including the necessity of a prior retreat and the setup of a ritual space.

Themes

Ritual Averting (1)
Tārā Practice (1)
Ritual Prerequisites (1)

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

AnuvādaThe Protection Wheel·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཏ་ལིས་ཏི་ཙཀྲ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཕྱིར་ཟློག་པའི་འཁོར་ལོ། ། རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བསྙེན་པ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས། ། བར་ཆོད་བཟློག་པའི་ཆོ་ག་བརྩམས། ། དབེན་པའི་གནས་སུ་མཎྜལ་དང་། ། མཆོད་པ་གཏོར་མ་བཤམས་ལ་ནི། ། བསྐྱེད་པའི་རིམ་པ་རྫོགས་བསྒོམས་ལ། ། མཆོད་པ་བསྟོད་པ་དུས་གསུམ་དབུལ། ། དེ་ནས་སྙིང་གར་རྩ་བསམས་ལ། ། ཞུ་བས་འཁོར་ལོ་རྩིབས་བཞིར་གྱུར། ། ལྟེ་བ་སྟོང་པའི་ནང་ཉིད་དུ། ། བདག་ཉིད་ལྷ་ཡི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གནས། ། རྩིབས་གཉིས་རྩེ་ལ་གྲི་གུག་བསམ། ། གཉིས་པ་རལ་གྲི་མེ་འབར་བསམ། ། འབར་བ་མེ་དང་འོད་འཁྲུགས་ནས། ། འཁོར་ལོ་དེ་ལ་མཚོན་ཆ་ནི། ། ཆར་པ་བབ་པས་གསོད་པར་བསམ། ། དེ་ནས་སྔགས་འདིས་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྐོར། ། ཨོཾ་ཧྲཱིཾ་ཏྲིཾ་དྷ་ར་དྷ་ར། ཙ་ཀྲ་ལོ་ཀ་མཱ་ར་ཡ་མཱ་ར་ཡ། བྷྲུཾ་བྷྲུཾ། ཙི་རི་ཙི་རི། ཏ་ར་ཏ་ར། ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། དེ་ལྟར་དྲག་པོའི་སྔགས་བཟླས་པས། ། འཁོར་ལོ་སྐད་ཅིག་མི་སྡོད་འཁོར། ། མཚོན་ཆའི་ཆར་དང་འོད་འཁྲུགས་པས། ། གཞན་གྱི་རིག་སྔགས་སྨོད་པ་དང་། ། གདོན་དང་བར་ཆོད་གང་ཡིན་པ། ། བཀུག་ལ་འཁོར་ལོ་མཚོན་ཆས་གཏུབ། ། ཏིང་འཛིན་གསལ་དང་བཟླས་པ་ནི། ། བརྩོན་པས་རབ་ཏུ་འབད་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་ལྟར་ཞག་ནི་ལྔའམ་བདུན། ། གསུམ་གསུམ་བར་དུ་བྱས་གྱུར་ན། ། ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྟོབས་ཀྱང་རྡུགས། ། ཕྱིར་བཟློག་འཁོར་ལོ་སློབ་དཔོན་རྟག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། མཁས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྨ་བན་ཆོས་འབར་གྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

In the language of India: Tālisacakra. In the language of Tibet: Phyr zlog pa’i ’khor lo (The Wheel of Averting). Homage to the Venerable Tārā. The yogi who has completed the approach retreat should undertake the ritual for averting obstacles. In a secluded place, having arranged a maṇḍala, offerings, and a torma, one should meditate on the completion of the generation stage and present offerings and praises three times a day. Then, visualizing the channels at the heart, they melt and become a four-spoked wheel. In the center of the hub, which is empty, one abides in the yoga of the deity. On the tips of two spokes, one visualizes curved knives; on the second, one visualizes flaming swords. As the blazing fire and turbulent light swirl, one should imagine that weapons fall like rain upon that wheel, destroying [the obstacles]. Then, one turns the wheel with this mantra: OṂ HRĪṂ TRIṂ DHARA DHARA | CAKRA LOKA MĀRAYA MĀRAYA | BHRŪṂ BHRŪṂ | CIRI CIRI | TARA TARA | PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. By reciting this fierce mantra in that manner, the wheel spins without pausing for even a moment. Through the rain of weapons and the turbulent light, whatever curses of others' vidyā-mantras, demons, or obstacles there may be, are summoned and hacked to pieces by the weapons of the wheel. One should exert oneself with diligence in clear meditative absorption and recitation. If one practices in this way for five or seven days, or for three sessions each day, even the power of Vajrapāṇi will be exhausted. The Wheel of Averting, composed by the master Nityavajra, is complete. Translated by the great scholar Ma-ban Chos-’bar.

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.

definitionསྒྲོལ་མ “Tārā” — Female bodhisattva of compassion; the chief goddess of the activity family, personifying the true nature of the element wind; one of the five goddesses personifying the five “hooks of gnosis.”

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

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

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 ).

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 )

termསྒྲོལ་མ → Tārā

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termམཆོད་པ → offering

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termལྷ → god

Terminology used in this text (10)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲོལ་མ	Tārā	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
མཆོད་པ	offering	1
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
བསྟོད་པ	praise	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
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ	Vajrapāṇi	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two

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.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI