Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text provides technical instructions for the ritual practice of the Black Yamāri (Yamāntaka) maṇḍala, focusing on the intersection of meditative visualization and ritual action. The work outlines a systematic progression beginning with the approach practice (sevā), where the practitioner transforms their identity into the deity to establish auspicious signs. It then details the construction of a sixteen-square grid for ritual writing and the specific application of empowerments to achieve desired results. A significant portion of the text is dedicated to wrathful rites, including magnetizing and destructive practices. The reader is committed to a rigorous protocol involving precise timing (lunar phases), the use of specific materials like red sandalwood, and the visualization of violent acts—such as the consumption of a target's flesh and blood—to eliminate obstacles or enemies. The text concludes with specific mantras for the lower and upper wheels, linking the internal visualization to external phonetic formulas.
Provenance
About this text
A manual of instruction concerning the wheel of Black Yamāntaka, this work belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. It is attributed to the Indian author Nāgabodhi. The text was translated into Tibetan by lo tsa ba dge slong chos rab and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection. Spanning six pages in this edition, the work enacts a ritual protocol centered on the deity Yamāntaka. It directs the practitioner to begin with the approach practice, or sevā, involving a transformation into the three-faced, six-armed blue deity to secure auspicious signs. The instructions further detail the performance of pacifying rites through a shift to a white form and the cultivation of loving-kindness, alongside the technical construction of a sixteen-square grid. In this grid, the practitioner writes mantras, names, and seed syllables in a clockwise direction starting from the east. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise intersection of meditative visualization and the ritual application of the wheel, providing insight into the technical requirements of the deity's practice.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Personal Instructions on the Maṇḍala of Black Yamāri” (Toh 1964), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1964
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as a representative of the wrathful tradition within Indo-Tibetan ritualism, demonstrating the use of 'destructive' visualization to overcome spiritual or physical adversaries. For the modern reader, it illustrates the complex relationship between deity yoga and the application of ritual magic for specific worldly or spiritual outcomes.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Preliminary and Approach Practice
Instructions on the necessity of sevā and the process of transforming into the deity to obtain auspicious signs.
3-4
Ritual Construction and Empowerment
Guidelines for writing the sixteen-square grid and the administration of empowerments for specific results.
5-6
Wrathful Rites and Visualization
Detailed procedures for purgative rites and the visualization of wrathful deities destroying and consuming a target.
7
Mantras
Specific phonetic formulas for the lower and upper wheels.
Themes
Deity Yoga and Transformation (1-2)
Ritual Geometry and Writing (3)
Wrathful and Destructive Rituals (5-6)
Mantra and Phonetic Formulae (4, 7)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaPersonal Instructions on the Maṇḍala of Black Yamāri·
The Pith Instructions for the Wheel of Black Yamāntaka.
Homage to Mañjuśrī Yamāntaka!
Whatever activity one performs, one should first engage in the approach practice (sevā). For that, in a secluded place, one should gradually transform oneself into the King of the Lord of Death, the Great Terrifying Wrathful One, with three faces, six arms, and a blue body. The central face is the same color as the body; the right is white like the moon; and the left is red like a lotus. In the right hands, he holds a vajra, a sword, and a curved knife (kartṛkā). In the left hands, he holds a wheel, a lotus, and a skull-cup (kapāla). He is adorned with a necklace of fresh skulls, bracelets of skull-fragments, a crown, a neck-ornament, earrings, a belt, and anklets. He stands upon a buffalo on a sun-disc seat with his right leg bent and his left extended. His belly hangs down, his mouth is wide open, and his tongue is curled. He strikes terror into all who are fearful. His tawny-brown hair swirls upward like a blazing mass of fire, and he has yellowish-brown beard and eyebrows. His fangs are bared, and his red eyes are turned back in a most terrifying manner. From every pore of his skin, immeasurable forms of Akṣobhya continuously emanate. One should meditate on him as possessing light and radiance blazing like the fire at the end of an eon.
Then, one should recite: Oṃ hrīḥ ṣṭrīḥ vikṛtānana hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā. This may be done with the visualization of the radiation and reabsorption of light, or it is also sufficient to recite while simply remaining undistracted from the deity. The number of recitations should be one hundred thousand.
Recite until you repeatedly see auspicious signs. That is the approach phase (sevā); for all activities, one should first perform it in this way without distinction. When performing the specific activities, one should act as follows: if performing a pacifying rite, transform yourself into the form of the deity, change your color to white, and maintain a mind of loving-kindness. At the time of dawn, as it appears in the Amṛta-tantra, write on a tree leaf or birch bark. To pacify a man, write with saffron; to pacify a woman, write with bezoar. Draw a four-layered wheel, making nine squares in the center, twelve squares in the next layer, and sixteen squares in the outer layer, surrounded finally by a skull.
Regarding the arrangement in the nine central squares: place "Ya" in the center, "Kye" in the eastern square, and "Ma" in the southern square. Do not place "Mi" in the western square, but place it in the east. These are intended to be arranged clockwise. In the four intermediate squares, insert the second seed syllable into each square and write them counter-clockwise. The seed syllables for the activities are: "Oṃ Svāhā" for pacifying, "Vauṣaṭ" for enriching, "Laṃ" for stupefying, "Ho" for magnetizing, and "Hūṃ" for wrathful activities. "Jaḥ" is for summoning men, and "Hrīḥ" is for summoning women. Having understood these distinctions, write them correctly and without error.
In the outer layer, on the twelve squares of the wheel, arrange the syllables counter-clockwise, starting from the eastern square: Ya, Ca, Na, Ri, Dza, Sa, Do, Ru, Ṇa, Yo, Ni, and Ra. The outermost wheel is as follows: ... [text continues] ...
Regarding that sixteen-square grid: starting from the eastern square, one should write in a clockwise direction. The eastern square should be endowed with the mantra, the name, and the words of exhortation. In the square below that, one should write the two seed syllables and the name. In this manner, one should alternate and write [the elements] across the sixteen squares. The wheel thus written should be made in two ways: clockwise and counter-clockwise. It should be made in two equal-sized squares. Specifically, at the end of the mantra in the lower [square], one should place phaṭ. As for the method of joining them face-to-face: the mantras of the upper and lower [squares] should be joined by aligning their respective heads. Then, it should be rolled into a circle. For those that are not wrathful, it should be thoroughly wrapped on the outside with beeswax. Then, using two equal earthenware bowls, fill one with a mixture of clarified butter and honey, and place the joined wheel inside. Then, the other earthenware bowl should be used to cover the top. Around it, wrap a cord of a color corresponding to the ritual activity. Then, having transformed oneself into the form of one's own deity corresponding to the activity, visualize a similar Yamāntaka upon the joined wheel. Having made offerings of flowers, scented water, incense, and so forth, in colors corresponding to the activity, place the object of accomplishment upon the moon. Then, from the hūṃ at the hub, by means of one's own moon-vajra, emanate numerous wrathful deities similar to oneself, holding vases of wisdom-water of a color corresponding to the activity; these are then reabsorbed.
By conferring empowerment upon the crown of the one to be accomplished, imagine that whatever desired result is attained. During the four sessions, recite the secret mantra together with the name and the words of exhortation. Regarding the specific procedures for magnetizing: use red sandalwood, blood from the ring finger, lac juice, or even vermilion; draw the design with these red substances. For the specific summoning of women, draw on a cloth from a charnel ground using the blood of a lotus; place it inside a woman’s skull-cup joined together. For the specific deluding, draw on a charnel ground cloth with realgar and place it inside a clay bowl. Above that, generate the deity upon Mount Meru arising from suṃ and the yellow laṃ of the crossed vajra; apply this to all cases. For deluding and increasing, use yellow; for magnetizing and summoning, red; for wrathful and subjugating, black; and for pacifying, white. Thus, apply the specific colors accordingly. Regarding the specific distinctions for the wrathful: draw the wheel on a charnel ground cloth in accordance with the previous [instructions]. For the ink, use mustard seeds, salt, poison, neem, ginger, long pepper, black pepper, white and black mustard, seeds of the great black tree, the juice of citarka, blood from the ring finger, and charcoal from a charnel ground. Mix these as much as can be found. Use a pen made from the tip of a crow’s feather to draw the wheel well. Roll it into a cylinder and insert it into the heart of an effigy made from the aforementioned materials. Furthermore, take very dry earth from a mountain peak, knead it with water from the mouth of an outcaste, and from that kneaded clay, fashion an image of the King of the Dead (Yama). He stands with the right leg tucked and the left extended, striding forward, holding a hammer in the right hand and a noose in the left.
One should perform a purgative enema for a person with a large belly and then place them in front. On the eighth or fourteenth day of the waning moon, the rite should be performed at midday or midnight. Visualizing oneself in the form of a wrathful deity with a wrathful mind, one should sit comfortably facing south. Then, from the syllable HŪṂ at one’s own heart, emanate a black-colored wrathful king with one face and two hands holding a wheel and an iron hook, brandishing various weapons. Imagine that these emanations strip away all the armor and weapons of the target, draw them in, and dissolve them into the seed-syllable HŪṂ at one’s own heart. By that method, imagine their house becoming empty. Then, again from one’s own heart, emanate wrathful deities as before; having drawn the target in, the practitioner should clearly dissolve them into a black-colored effigy placed in front. Imagine that the target is tormented by various diseases, left naked, trembling violently, and with a distressed mind. Their body is in extreme suffering, and imagine that their body is severely pierced by weapons such as sores, swords, arrows, and axes. Furthermore, imagine that they are blown about by a great black wind and frozen by extreme cold. Imagine that they are surrounded by a great blazing fire and tormented by intense heat. In that regard, visualize dogs, lions, foxes, tigers, crows, vultures, and long-beaked, gaping-mouthed beasts in a fierce manner devouring the body of the target. Then, taking sharp thorns, pierce that effigy without any gaps, smear it with a hot ointment, and place it within the belly of Yama. Visualize the target inside that belly.
From one’s own heart, emanate wrathful deities bearing weapons. Imagine that they kill the target who resides in the form of Yama, and then devour and drink their flesh and blood, crunching their bones and sucking their marrow. Imagine that emanations in the form of vultures pull out the internal organs and carry them away. That evildoer then goes to hell. To prevent them from suffering, imagine that their mind is gathered by light from one’s own heart into the form of a Victorious One, and then carried to and established in the buddha-field of the Victorious Ones. This very method of activity was taught with the intention of those who possess negative karma.
Alternatively, there is another way of meditating on Yama: with one face and two hands, the right holds a noose and the left has the threatening gesture. The crown ornament is the lord of the respective family. The distinctions of the individual mantras are clearly written here:
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. [Name] ŚĀNTIṂ KURU SVĀHĀ. This is the mantra for the activity of pacifying, to be combined with and placed upon a sixteen-spoked wheel.
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ VAUṢAṬ. [Name] PUṢṬIṂ KURU VAUṢAṬ.
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ. HOḤ. [Name] JAḤ JAḤ HRĪḤ VAŚAṂ KURU HOḤ.
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ. VAUṢAṬ. [Name] VAŚĀNAYA VAŚĀNAYA.
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ. HRĪḤ. [Name] woman ĀKARṢAYA HRĪḤ.
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ JAḤ. [Name] man ĀKARṢAYA JAḤ.
OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ | LAṂ [Name] together with his own abode, STAMBHAYA LAṂ. This is for the lower fierce wheel. OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ HŪṂ [Name] MĀRAYA PHAṬ. This is for the upper wheel. OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ HŪṂ [Name] MĀRAYA HŪṂ. OṂ [Name] SVĀHĀ. VAUṢAṬ [Name] VAUṢAṬ. LAṂ [Name] LAṂ. HO [Name] HO. JAḤ [Name] JAḤ. HRĪḤ [Name] HRĪḤ. These are to be known as the interlaced mantras for the four corners of the central grid and the sixteen [squares] of the third [layer]. The long vowels are the interlacing; the recitation at the time of the ritual is thus. The four corners and the sixteen directions of the third [layer] are interlaced. This concludes the Instruction on the Wheel of Black Yamāntaka, composed by the great master Nāgabodhi. Translated by the translator-monk Chos rab.
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.