Toh 1857 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of Glorious Heruka

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1857
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 042_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_དི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,822 Tibetan characters · 479 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 text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for deity yoga, centered on the figure of Glorious Heruka. The work functions as a guided meditative process designed to transform the practitioner's ordinary perception into a purified state to benefit sentient beings. The provided fragments indicate a structure that begins with traditional homage and moves into complex visualization techniques. Specifically, the text directs the practitioner to meditate on the six empowerments of the buddhas and the integration of the wisdom being (jñānasattva) within the body, speech, and mind. By visualizing the deity with Akṣobhya as a crown ornament, the practitioner is committed to a process of identification with the supreme fruit of enlightenment, aiming to experience a state of sublime joy and spiritual perfection through the synthesis of mantra syllables and divine presence.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana centered on the figure of Glorious Heruka, the Śrīherukasādhana is a liturgical manual for deity yoga. The work is attributed to the Indian author Buddhaśrījñānapāda. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume དི, where it spans two pages and is situated within the collection of the Guhyasamāja and Related Tantras. The work enacts a guided meditative process designed to transform the practitioner's ordinary perception into a purified state for the benefit of wandering beings. It directs the practitioner through a sequence beginning with homage and moving into complex visualizations within the triangular expanse of the Dharmadhātu. Specifically, it guides the yogin to meditate on the six empowerments of all buddhas and the integration of the wisdom being, or jñānasattva, within the body, speech, and mind. By visualizing Akṣobhya as a crown ornament and synthesizing mantra syllables with divine presence, the practitioner aims to attain the application of yoga and experience the bliss of sublime joy. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific technical requirements of Heruka practice and the synthesis of visualization and empowerment in the Indo-Tibetan tradition.

Sanskrit title: Śrīherukasādhana
Indian author: Buddhaśrījñānapāda
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Guhyasamāja and Related Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. དི
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 Sādhana of Glorious Heruka” (Toh 1857), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1857

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as a representative of Vajrayāna praxis, where the internalizing of a deity's qualities is used as a shortcut to enlightenment. For the modern reader, it illustrates the technical precision of Tibetan Buddhist visualization and the role of the jñānasattva in tantric ritual.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Homage	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers homage to Heruka, establishing the purpose of benefiting wandering beings.
2	Visualization Process	Details the meditative instructions regarding the six empowerments, the placement of the wisdom being at the heart, and the visualization of Akṣobhya.

Themes

Deity Yoga and Transformation (1-2)
The Wisdom Being (jñānasattva) (2)
Altruism and the Benefit of Beings (1)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of Glorious Heruka·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཤྲཱི་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཔལ་ཧེ་རུ་ཀའི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས། དཔལ་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། དཔལ་ལྡན་ཧེ་རུ་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན། ། བསྒྱུར་ནས་དོན་ཀུན་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས། ། འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར། ། དང་པོ་འདི་ལྟར་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། ། ཟུར་གསུམ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་གནས་པ། ། གཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལ། ། སྣ་ཚོགས་པདྨ་ཟླ་བ་ལ། ། རྡོ་རྗེའི་ལྟེ་བར་ཟླ་བའི་འོད། ། དབུས་ཞལ་སྐུ་ནི་ཤེལ་འདྲ་བ། ། གཡས་གཡོན་གནག་དང་དམར་བའོ། ། རང་འོད་ཤེས་རབ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཁྱུད། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་རལ་གྲི་རིན་ཆེན་པད། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་བསྒོམས་ནས་ཀྱང་། ། རང་སེམས་ཡི་གེ་གསུམ་དུ་བྱ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་དེ་ལས་པདྨར་བབས། ། འདོད་ཆགས་མེ་ཡིས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཞུ། ། སྤྱན་ལ་སོགས་པས་རང་དབྱངས་ཀྱིས། ། བཞེངས་པའི་དོན་དུ་བསྐུལ་བར་བྱ། ། འཇིག་པའི་མེ་དང་འབར་མཉམ་པ། ། ཧྲཱིཿལས་སྐྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེའོ། ། དེ་བསྐྱེད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་ཁྲོ་བོ་ནི། ། འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཆེན་པོ་ཐོད་ཕྲེང་ཐོགས། ། ཁྲོ་གཉེར་སྐྲ་སྨིན་གྱེན་དུའང་འབར། ། ནག་པོ་མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་པའི་ཞལ། ། གཡས་ནི་དཀར་པོ་གཡོན་དམར་ཏེ། ། དུར་ཁྲོད་ཐལ་བས་བསྐུས་པའི་སྐུ། ། དྲག་པོ་ལ་སོགས་དྲུག་དང་ལྡན། ། རང་གི་རིག་མ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཁྱུད། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ནག་པོ་རལ་གྲི་དང་། ། ཁ་ཊྭཱཾ་རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་འཛིན། ། ཀེང་རུས་གསུམ་ཕྲེང་དབུ་ལ་བཅིངས། ། ཡང་དག་རྒྱན་དང་ན་བཟར་ལྡན། ། གཡས་ཀྱི་འོག་ན་བཞིན་གནོན་པ། ། གཡོན་གྱི་བརླ་ཡིས་ནུ་མར་གཟིར། ། ཁྲོ་བོའི་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ལེགས་གནས་པ། ། བདག་ཉིད་ཧེ་རུ་ཀར་བསྒོམས་ཏེ།

In the language of India: Śrīherukasādhana. In the language of Tibet: dPal he ru ka’i sgrub pa’i thabs (The Sadhana of Glorious Heruka). Homage to the glorious Heruka! The glorious Heruka, protector of beings, Having transformed, all purposes are perfected. For the sake of benefiting wandering beings, First, one should meditate in this way: Within the triangular expanse of the Dharmadhātu, In the maṇḍala of the celestial palace, Upon a variegated lotus and moon, At the hub of a vajra is the light of the moon. The central face and body are like crystal, The right and left are black and red. Embraced by the insight of his own radiance, Holding a vajra, sword, jewel, and lotus— Having meditated on Vajrasattva, One should make one’s own mind the three syllables. From that vajra, it descends into a lotus; All is melted by the fire of passion. With Locanā and the others, in their own melodies, One should exhort him to arise. Equal to the fire of destruction and blazing, It is the vajra born from the syllable Hrīḥ. That generated wrathful one of compassion Is the Great Terrifier, holding a garland of skulls. With a frowning brow and hair blazing upward, His black face bares its fangs. The right is white, the left is red; His body is smeared with charnel ground ashes. He possesses the six [attributes] such as the fierce one. Embraced by his own consort, He holds a black vajra, a sword, A khaṭvāṅga, a jewel, and a victory banner. A garland of three skeletons is bound upon his head; He is endowed with perfect ornaments and raiment. With his right leg below, he tramples the face; With his left thigh, he presses upon the breast. Well-settled in the wrathful posture, One should meditate on oneself as Heruka.

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.

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

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

definitionརྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ “Vajrasattva” — Used as a proper name, Vajrasattva is one of the principle deities of the esoteric Buddhist pantheon, regarded as both a source of the Buddhist tantras and the exemplar of the awakened state. As an adjective, the term va

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 ).

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termརྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ → Vajrasattva

termམེ → fire

། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་གྱི་དབང་དྲུག་བསྒོམ། ། སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱང་ཡི་གེ་གསུམ། ། ཐུགས་ཀར་ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་དཔའ་དང་། ། མི་བསྐྱོད་དབུ་རྒྱན་འབྲས་བུ་མཆོག། དམ་པའི་དགའ་བ་བདེ་བ་མྱངས། ། འཕྲོ་དང་འདུ་བའི་གཟུགས་བྱད་ཅན། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་དཔའ་བསྒོམས་ནས་ནི། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྦྱོར་བ་ཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར། ། དཔའ་བོ་ལྔ་དང་བདུད་རྩི་ལྔ། ། པདྨ་བྷནྡྷ་ལ་བཞག་སྟེ། ། སྐྲ་བཤིག་ཐལ་བས་ལུས་བསྐུས་ནས། ། རྟག་ཏུ་བསྒོམས་ནས་བཟའ་བར་བྱ། ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་མཆོད་པ་དང་། ། འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་དོན་བྱེད་དང་། ། ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྒོམ་པ་དང་། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་དབྱངས་བླང་ཐོད་རྒྱན་དང་། ། ཅང་ཏེའུ་ཁ་ཊྭཱཾ་གཟུང་བ་དང་། ། བསྒོམས་ནས་སྙིང་པོ་བཟླས་པ་དང་། ། གསང་ནས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་དུས་རྟག་ཏུ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ། ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་ཡི་གནས་དགུ་ལ། ། མཚན་མོ་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བསྙེན་པར་བྱ། ། ཧེ་རུ་ཀའི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་སློབ་དཔོན་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Meditate on the six empowerments of all the buddhas. The body, speech, and mind are also the three syllables. At the heart is the wisdom being (jñānasattva), and Akṣobhya as the crown ornament is the supreme fruit. One experiences the bliss of sublime joy. Having meditated on the wisdom being, who possesses a form of radiating and absorbing light, the yogin will attain the application of yoga. The five heroes and the five nectars are placed in a lotus skull-cup. With hair loosened and the body smeared with ashes, one should always meditate and then consume them. Making offerings to the Tathāgatas, acting for the benefit of all wandering beings, meditating on insight and compassion, singing the vajra melodies, wearing the skull ornaments, and holding the hand-drum (ḍamaru) and khaṭvāṅga—having meditated thus, one should recite the essence mantra. In secret, at all times during the yoga, in this way, the Heruka of ascetic conduct should perform the approach practice at night in the nine abodes of Heruka. The Sādhana of Heruka composed by the master Buddhajñānapāda is complete.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

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.

definitionདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ “tathāgata” — A frequently used synonym for buddha . According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata , literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata , “one who has thus come.” Gata , though literally m

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ → tathāgata

termམཆོད་པ → offering

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

Terminology used in this text (10)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཤེས་རབ	insight	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ	Vajrasattva	1
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
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ	tathāgata	1	Kept as the Sanskrit loan in translation (84000 practice), not 'Thus-Gone One'.
མཆོད་པ	offering	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 042_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_དི.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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