Toh 1962 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of Black Yamāri with Three Faces and Six Arms

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1962
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 3 passages · 2,280 Tibetan characters · 566 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 concise sādhana, attributed to the master Līlavajra, provides a ritual procedure for the practice of the three-faced, six-armed Black Yamāntaka. The text functions as a guided meditation and liturgical manual, beginning with an act of devotion to the guru as the necessary prerequisite for the practice. It then directs the practitioner to engage in a specific visualization process: the transformation of the six sense faculties into six buddhas and the emission of light from the heart center to invite wisdom ḍākinīs. By integrating these visualizations with the reception of a word empowerment, the text commits the reader to a process of somatic and cognitive reconfiguration, aiming to align the practitioner's perception with the enlightened nature of the deity. The work is structured as a brief instructional sequence, moving from external homage to internal visualization and the invocation of spiritual allies.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana detailing the ritual practice of the Black Three-Faced, Six-Armed Yamāntaka, this work belongs to the Other Skillful Means Tantras. It is attributed to the Indian author Lalitavajra. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the text appears in volume མི of the Tengyur, where it extends over two pages. The work enacts a concise liturgical procedure that begins with devotion to the guru and proceeds through a specific meditative sequence. The practitioner is directed to visualize the six sense faculties as six buddhas and to emit light from the heart center to invite wisdom ḍākinīs, thereby receiving a word empowerment. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the somatic and cognitive reconfiguration required to align the practitioner's perception with the enlightened nature of the deity, moving from external homage to internal visualization and invocation.

Sanskrit title: not recorded
Indian author: Lalitavajra
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. མི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

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Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of Black Yamāri with Three Faces and Six Arms” (Toh 1962), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1962

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as a representative example of the deity yoga practices found in the Vajrayāna tradition, specifically those focusing on the Yamāntaka cycle. It illustrates the technical application of sense-faculty transformation and the role of the guru in transmitting ritual efficacy.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Homage to the deity and the guru, and a statement of the text's purpose.
2	Ritual Procedure	Instructions for visualizing the sense faculties as buddhas and inviting wisdom ḍākinīs via light emission from the heart.
3	Colophon	Attribution of the work to the master Līlavajra.

Themes

Guru Devotion (1)
Deity Yoga and Visualization (2)
Sense Faculty Transformation (2)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of Black Yamāri with Three Faces and Six Arms·

༄། ། ནག་པོ་ཞལ་གསུམ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་པའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བཞུགས། ༄། ། དཔལ་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་ནག་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། གུས་པ་ཡིས་ནི་བླ་མ་ཡི། ། ཞབས་ཀྱི་པདྨར་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏེ། ། བླ་མའི་ཞལ་སྔའི་བཀའ་དྲིན་གྱིས། ། ནག་པོ་ཞལ་གསུམ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་པའི། ། མདོར་བསྡུས་པ་ཡི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བཤད། ། དང་པོར་རྣལ་འབྱོར་དབང་ཕྱུག་གིས། ། དབེན་པའི་གནས་སུ་འདུག་ནས་ནི། ། སྟོང་པའི་སེམས་ལ་མཉམ་གཞག་སྟེ། ། སྙིང་གར་པདྨ་འདབ་བརྒྱད་པ། ། དེའི་སྟེང་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་རོ། ། དེ་ཡི་སྟེང་དུ་ཧཱུཾ་བསམས་ཏེ། ། ཧཱུཾ་ལས་འོད་བྱུང་མདུན་དུ་ནི། ། བླ་མ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་བཞུགས་པར་བསམ། ། ཕྱག་འཚལ་བ་དང་མཆོད་བྱས་ལ། ། སྡིག་བཤགས་ལ་སོགས་ཚོགས་སུ་འགྱུར། ། དེ་ནས་སྙིང་གར་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་ནི། ། འོད་བྱུང་ལུས་ངག་བག་ཆགས་རྣམས། ། བསྲེགས་ནས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་དུ་བསྒོམ། ། དེ་ནི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་ཡིན་ནོ། ། སེམས་ནི་ཧཱུཾ་གི་རྣམ་པར་བསམ། ། ཧཱུཾ་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་ལྔར་གྱུར། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ལས་ནི་སྐུ་བསྐྱེད་དོ། ། ཞལ་གསུམ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་སྐུ་མདོག་གནག། གཡས་དཀར་གཡོན་དམར་དབུས་མཐིང་ཞལ། ། སྤྱན་གསུམ་མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་པའི་ཞལ། ། དབུ་སྐྲ་ཁམ་ནག་གྱེན་དུ་བརྫེས། ། གྲི་གུག་རྡོ་རྗེ་རལ་གྲི་གསུམ། ། གཡས་པའི་ཕྱག་ན་བསྣམས་པ་ཡིན། ། བྷནྡྷ་པདྨ་འཁོར་ལོ་གསུམ། ། གཡོན་པའི་ཕྱག་ན་བསྣམས་པ་ཡིན། ། གཡས་བསྐུམ་གཡོན་བརྐྱང་གསུས་པོ་ཆེ། ། ལྷ་མོ་ཕག་མོའི་མགུལ་ནས་འཁྱུད། ། ཕག་མོ་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་མ། ། གྲི་གུག་དང་ནི་བྷནྡྷ་གཡོན། ། གཙོ་བོའི་མགུལ་ནས་འཁྱུད་པའི་ཚུལ། ། གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་གནས་ན་བཞུགས། །

The Sādhana of the Black Three-Faced, Six-Armed [Yamāntaka] Homage to the glorious Black Yamāntaka! Having prostrated with devotion at the lotus feet of the guru, And through the kindness of the guru’s presence, I shall explain the concise sādhana of the Black Three-Faced, Six-Armed [Yamāntaka]. First, the lord of yogis, Having settled in a secluded place, Should rest in meditative equipoise upon the mind of emptiness. At the heart is an eight-petaled lotus, Upon which is a sun maṇḍala. Visualizing a HŪṂ above that, Light radiates from the HŪṂ, and in front, One should visualize the guru and ḍākinīs residing there. Having prostrated and made offerings, The confession of misdeeds and so forth become the accumulation of merit. Then, from the HŪṂ at the heart, Light radiates and burns away the habitual tendencies of body and speech; Meditate on emptiness—this is the accumulation of wisdom. Visualize the mind in the form of a HŪṂ. From the HŪṂ, it becomes a five-pronged vajra. From the vajra, the body is generated: Three faces, six arms, and a black body. The right face is white, the left red, and the central face dark blue. With three eyes and bared fangs, His dark brown hair is bristling upward. In his right hands, he holds a curved knife, a vajra, and a sword. In his left hands, he holds a skull-cup, a lotus, and a wheel. With the right leg bent and the left extended, his belly is large. He embraces the goddess Vārāhī by the neck. Vārāhī has one face and two arms; In her left hand she holds a curved knife and a skull-cup. In the manner of embracing the neck of the principal deity, They dwell in the state of non-duality.

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

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

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

definitionསྟོང་པ་ཉིད “emptiness” — Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intr

homonymལྷ་མོ is rendered “goddess” here; the glossary also records devī, Devī for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ་མོ “goddess” — The “ apsarases ” are popular figures in Indian culture, they are said to be goddesses of the clouds and water and to be wives of the gandharvas . However, in the Kāraṇḍavyūha , they are presented as the female equivalen

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབླ་མ → guru

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termསྟོང་པ་ཉིད → emptiness

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

མིག་དང་ལུས་སོགས་དབང་པོ་དྲུག། སངས་རྒྱས་དྲུག་ཀྱང་ཡོད་པར་བསམ། ། སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱིས་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས། ། སྙིང་གའི་ཧཱུཾ་ལས་འོད་བྱུང་བསམ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་སྤྱན་དྲངས་ཏེ། ། ཚིག་གི་དབང་ཡང་བླང་བར་བྱ། ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཀུན། ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་མངའ་བདག་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམས། ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བདག་ལ་དབང་བསྐུར་གསོལ། ། དེ་སྐད་བདག་གིས་དབང་བླངས་པས། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཆུ་རྒྱུན་གྱིས། ། བདག་གི་སྤྱི་བོར་དབང་བསྐུར་བས། ། རིགས་ལྔའི་ཅོད་པན་གྱུར་པར་བསམ། ། མཆོད་དང་བསྟོད་དང་བདུད་རྩི་བཟའ། ། དེ་ནས་བཟླས་པ་བྱ་བ་ནི། ། བཟླས་པའི་སྔགས་ནི་འདི་ཡིན་ནོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཧྲཱིཿཥྚྲྀཿཝི་ཀྲྀ་ཏཱ་ན་ན་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། ཐམས་ཅད་གྲུབ་པའི་དོན་དུ་བཟླས། ། གཏོར་མའི་སྔགས་ནི་འདི་ཡིན་ཏེ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨ་ཀཱ་རོ་མུ་ཁཾ་སརྦ་དྷརྨཱ་ཎཱཾ། ཨཱདྱ་ནུཏྤནྣ་ཏྭཱཏ་ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། བར་ཆད་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྲུང་བའི་ཕྱིར། ། དེས་ནི་གཏོར་མ་སྦྱིན་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་ནི་བསྐྱེད་པའི་རིམ་པའོ། ། དེ་ནས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ངལ་བསོ་བྱ། ། སྙིང་གའི་ཧཱུཾ་གི་འོད་ཟེར་གྱིས། ། ཁམས་གསུམ་མ་ལུས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ། ། ཀུན་ཀྱང་སངས་རྒྱས་སྐུ་རུ་འགྱུར། ། གྱུར་པ་ཀུན་ཀྱང་བདག་ལ་བསྡུ། ། བདག་ཀྱང་ཧཱུཾ་ལ་བསྡུས་བྱས་ལ། ། ཧཱུཾ་ཡང་ཐིག་ལེར་འགྲོ་བར་བསྒོམ། ། རྟོག་པ་ཡང་དག་སྤངས་པ་སྟེ། ། ཡང་དག་བདེ་བའི་རྣམ་པའོ། ། ཕྱག་མེད་ཞལ་མེད་ཁ་དོག་མེད། ། མཆོག་ཏུ་དགའ་བའི་མཚན་ཉིད་དོ། ། འདི་བྱས་བསོད་ནམས་གང་ཐོབ་པས། ། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤོག། ནག་པོ་ཞལ་གསུམ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་པའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།

Visualize that the six sense faculties, such as the eyes and body, are also the six buddhas. They are blessed by the body, speech, and mind. Imagine light radiating from the hūṃ at the heart, inviting the wisdom ḍākinīs, and receive the word empowerment. "O Bhagavān, all Tathāgatas, O Bhagavān, great lords, please confer empowerment upon me." By receiving the empowerment in this way, the stream of wisdom vajra water confers empowerment upon the crown of my head; imagine that I become adorned with the diadem of the five families. Perform the offerings, praises, and partake of the nectar. Then, for the recitation, this is the mantra: oṃ hrīḥ ṣṭrīḥ vikṛtānana hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā. Recite for the sake of accomplishing all things. This is the mantra for the torma: oṃ akāro mukhaṃ sarvadharmāṇām ādyanutpannatvāt oṃ āḥ hūṃ phaṭ svāhā. To protect against all obstacles, one should offer the torma. This is the generation stage. Then, the yogi should rest. With light rays from the hūṃ at the heart, the three realms without exception are pervaded; all become the bodies of the buddhas. All who have become so are absorbed into oneself. Oneself is also absorbed into the hūṃ, and the hūṃ is meditated upon as dissolving into a drop. This is the complete abandonment of conceptual thought, the aspect of perfect bliss. It is without hands, without faces, and without color; it is the characteristic of supreme joy. By whatever merit is gained from doing this, may all sentient beings become buddhas. This is the sādhana of the Black One with three faces and six arms.

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

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

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

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 )

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

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ → tathāgata

termསྔགས → mantra

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

སློབ་དཔོན་ལ་ལི་ཏ་བཛྲས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

This concludes the work composed by the master Līlavajra.

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
བླ་མ	guru	1
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	1
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	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
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ	tathāgata	1	Kept as the Sanskrit loan in translation (84000 practice), not 'Thus-Gone One'.
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

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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