Toh 1943 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of Vajra Sarasvatī called “Expanding Bliss”

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1943
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 2,048 Tibetan characters · 502 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 ritual manual for the meditative realization of the deity Vajra Sarasvatī, specifically titled Expanding Bliss. The fragment begins with a formal homage to Vajrasattva and a description of the deity's iconography, depicting a figure standing in a mass of fire with a tiger skin and a specific posture. The text then transitions into the generative phase of the practice, employing seed syllables to facilitate the practitioner's transformation. It utilizes a series of mantras to evoke the Vajra Mind, Speech, and Body from the syllables HŪṂ, ĀḤ, and OṂ, respectively. Furthermore, it directs the practitioner to visualize the manifestation of Kṣitigarbha and Vajrapāṇi from the syllables KṢIṂ and JIṂ. By following these instructions, the reader commits to a process of deity yoga, shifting their identity from an ordinary self to a divine manifestation through the precise application of sound and visualization.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana for the meditative realization of the deity Vajrasarasvatī, the Vajragītisukharddhāsādhananāma belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. It was translated into Tibetan by Prajñājñānakīrti and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection. Spanning three pages in this edition, the work is titled in Tibetan as the rdo rje bde rgyas dbyangs can ma'i sgrub thabs zhes bya ba. The text enacts a process of deity yoga, beginning with an homage to Vajrasattva and a detailed iconographic description of the deity standing in fire upon a tiger skin. It guides the practitioner through a generative phase using seed syllables—such as HŪṂ, ĀḤ, and OṂ—to evoke the Vajra Mind, Speech, and Body, while further visualizing the manifestation of figures like Kṣitigarbha and Vajrapāṇi. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise ritual instructions and mantra-based visualizations used to shift the practitioner's identity from an ordinary self to a divine manifestation.

Sanskrit title: Vajragītisukharddhāsādhananāma
Indian author: Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
Tibetan translators: Prajñājñānakīrti
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. མི
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 Vajra Sarasvatī called “Expanding Bliss”” (Toh 1943), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1943

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as an example of the synthesis between the wisdom goddess Sarasvatī and the Vajrayāna tradition. It illustrates the technical application of seed syllables to construct a complex mandala of body, speech, and mind, reflecting the broader Tantric goal of transforming ordinary perception into a purified, divine state.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1-2	Introduction and Iconography	Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an homage to Vajrasattva, and the physical description of the deity's posture and environment.
2	Visualization and Seed Syllables	Details the mantra-based generation of the Vajra Mind, Speech, and Body, as well as the manifestation of Kṣitigarbha and Vajrapāṇi.

Themes

Deity Yoga (1-2)
Seed Syllables (Bīja) (2)
Iconography (2)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of Vajra Sarasvatī called “Expanding Bliss”·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་གཱི་ཏི་སུ་ཁ་ར་ད་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་བདེ་རྒྱས་དབྱངས་ཅན་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་#ཡུམ། ། དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་གསུང་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབྱངས་ཅན་མ། ། བཏུད་དེ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདེ་ཆེན་རབ་ཏུ་འཕེལ་བྱའི་ཕྱིར། ། གསུང་གི་པདྨ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བཤད། ། ནགས་ཚལ་མི་མེད་#དབེན་པའི་གནས། ། ཉམས་དགའ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དང་བ་རུ། ། འཇམ་པའི་སྟན་ལ་འདུག་ནས་ནི། ། ཆུ་བུར་ལྟ་བུའི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བསྒོམས#། ། སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་དོན་ལེགས་བྱས་ནས། ། དམ་པའི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། ། ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད་དང་བཤགས་པ་དང་། ། རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རང་བསྐུལ་གསོལ་གདབ། ། བསྔོ་དང་སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ་བྱས་ནས། ། ཡིད་ཀྱིས་གཤེགས་གསོལ་ཚད་མེད་བཞི། ། སྔོན་འགྲོ་སྟོང་པ་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། ། སྲུང་#བའི་འཁོར་ལོ་འཇིགས་ཆེན་པོ། ། མཚོན་ཆ་འཁྲུག་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྒོམ། ། པདྨ་ཟླ་བའི་སྟེང་ཉིད་དུ། ། བྱུ་རུ་བཅག་འདྲའི་ངོ་#དག་ལས། ། ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འདབ་བརྒྱད་མཚན་མར་ལྡན། ། འཕྲོས་ནས་བསྡུ་བ་བྱ་བ་ནི། ། རིགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་མ་ལུས་པའོ། ། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་རཱ་ག་ར་ཏི་ཨཱཏྨ་ཀོ྅#ཧཾ། གྱུར་པས་པདྨ་རཱ་གའི་མདོག། ཞལ་གསུམ་གཡས་གཡོན་སྔོ་དང་དཀར། ། ཕྱག་དྲུག་གྲི་གུག་པདྨ་དང་། ། རལ་གྲི་ཐོད་པ་འཁོར་ལོ་དང་། ། ནོར་བུ་ཡིས་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་མཛེས། ། དབུ་ལ་ཐོད་པ་ལྔས་བསྐོར་ཞིང་། ། རློན་པ་བརྒྱ་ཕྱེད་ཕྲེང་བར་ལྡན། ། རིན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དང་རུས་པས་སྤྲས། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་ཞི་ཞིང་སྒེག་པ་སྟེ། །

In the language of India: Vajragītisukharadasādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje bde rgyas dbyangs can ma’i sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of Vajrasarasvatī, the Expansion of Bliss). Homage to the glorious Vajrasattva! The Mother of all Victors, the Perfection of Wisdom, The great, stainless speech, Vajrasarasvatī— Bowing to her, in order to greatly increase the great bliss of the Buddhas, I shall explain the sādhana of the stainless lotus of speech. In a forest, a secluded place, Delightful, auspicious, and serene, Sitting upon a soft cushion, Meditate in the manner of a water bubble. Having performed the welfare of all sentient beings, One should meditate on the sublime wheel. Homage, praise, confession, Rejoicing, requesting [the Buddhas to turn the wheel], and beseeching [them to remain], Having made the dedication and aspiration prayers, Requesting the [deities] to depart in the mind, and the four immeasurables— These are the preliminaries; then meditate on emptiness. Meditate intensely on the terrifying protection wheel, With a tumultuous array of weapons. Upon a lotus and moon, From a face like a broken coral, Possessing the mark of an eight-petaled water-born lotus, The emanation and reabsorption Is the wheel of the families without exception. Oṃ vajrarāgarati ātmako ’haṃ. Through this transformation, [she is] the color of ruby, With three faces: the right blue and the left white. With six arms, she is exquisitely beautiful With a curved knife, a lotus, a sword, A skull-cup, a wheel, and a jewel. Her head is encircled by five skulls, And she wears a garland of fifty fresh [heads]. Adorned with jewels, nāgas, and bone ornaments, She is exceedingly peaceful and graceful.

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.

definitionསྒྲུབ་ཐབས “sādhana” — Derived from the Sanskrit verb √sādh , “to accomplish,” the term sādhana most generically refers to any method that brings about the accomplishment of a desired goal. In Buddhist literature, the term is often specificall

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

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

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.

terminologyཀླུ → “nāga”. Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

definitionཀླུ “nāga” — A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be ass

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termརྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ → Vajrasattva

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

termཀླུ → nāga

སྟག་ལྤགས་བསྣམས་ནས་མེ་དཔུང་དཀྱིལ། ། #གཡོན་བསྐུམ་གཡས་པ་བརྐྱང་བས་གནས། ། ཨོཾ་དྷརྨ་དྷཱ་ཏུ་སྭ་བྷཱ་ཝ་ཨཱཏྨ་ཀོ྅#ཧཾ། ཧཱུྃ་ལས་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྟེ། ། ཨཱཿལས་གསུང་དང་ཨོཾ་ལས་སྐུ། ། ཀྵིཾ་ལས་ས་སྙིང་རྡོ་རྗེ་མིག། ཛིཾ་#ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཅན་རྣ་བར། ། ཁཾ་ལས་ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་སྣར། ། གཾ་ལས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་ལྕེར། ། ཀཾ་ལས་སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་སེལ་ལུས། ། སཾ་ལས་ཀུན་དུ་བཟང་པོ་ཡིད། ། རིག་པའི་དབང་བསྐུར་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད། ། དགུག་གཞུག་བཅིང་དང་དབང་དུ་བྱ། ། མཆོད་པ་བྷ་གའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་གསུང་གི་#ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆེ། ། པདྨ་ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན། ། འདོད་ཆགས་ཆེན་པོ་ཉིད་སྦྱོར་བ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་མཐར་མཛད་ཁྱོད་#ལ་བསྟོད། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་སྦུ་གུས་བདུད་རྩི་མྱང་། ། ས་བོན་འཕྲོས་པས་འགྲོ་བ་སྦྱང་། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་བཟླས་པ་བརྩམ་པར་བྱ། ། ཡིད་གསལ་བ་ནི་མཆོག་ཏུ་གཅེས། ། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་རཱ་#ག་ར་ཏི་ཧཱུྃ་ཧཱུྃ་ཧཱུྃ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། མ་ནིང་རྡོ་རྗེ་བཟླས་ནས་ཀྱང་། ། སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་དངོས་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། ། འདོད་ཆགས་ཆེན་པོ་སྦྱོར་བ་བཟློག་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། བདེ་བ་སེམས་དྲན་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་འདི་བརྩམས་པས། ། གཟུང་དང་འཛིན་པའི་དྲི་མ་དག་ནས་ཀྱང་། ། དགའ་བ་རྣམ་དག་སྨོན་ལམ་སྟོབས་འགྱུར་#ཤོག། རྡོ་རྗེ་བདེ་རྒྱས་དབྱངས་ཅན་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Holding a tiger skin, in the midst of a mass of fire, he stands with the left leg bent and the right extended. OṂ DHARMADHĀTU SVABHĀVA ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ. From HŪṂ arises the Vajra Mind; from ĀḤ, the Speech; and from OṂ, the Body. From KṢIṂ arises Kṣitigarbha, the Vajra Eye; from JIṂ, Vajrapāṇi, in the ear; from KHAṂ, Ākāśagarbha, in the nose; from GAṂ, Lokeśvara, in the tongue; from KAṂ, Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, in the body; and from SAṂ, Samantabhadra, in the mind. Through the empowerment of awareness, Yamāntaka is summoned, entered, bound, and brought under control. The offering is the bodhicitta of the bhaga, the great wisdom of the Vajra Speech. The lotus is the Perfection of Wisdom; through the union of great passion, I praise you, Vajrāntaka. With the vajra tube, one tastes the nectar; by the radiation of the seed-syllable, sentient beings are purified. One should then begin the vajra recitation; clarity of mind is of the utmost importance. OṂ VAJRARĀGARAṬI HŪṂ HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. Having performed the neuter vajra recitation, one should meditate on the actual essence. In order to reverse the union of great passion, this sādhana for the recollection of blissful mind was composed. May the stains of subject and object be purified, and through the power of pure joy, may the aspiration be fulfilled. This concludes the Sādhana of Vajrasukhavāgīśvarī.

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

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 ).

periodརིག་པ → “knowledge”. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

homonymརིག་པ is rendered “knowledge” here; the glossary also records awareness, spell, incantation for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionརིག་པ “knowledge” — This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In ta

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

termམེ → fire

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termམཆོད་པ → offering

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

Terminology used in this text (10)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ	Vajrasattva	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
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
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
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.
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
རིག་པ	knowledge	1	'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge'
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. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.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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