Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Sādhana of the Buffalo-Faced One is a ritual manual for the generation-stage practice of the deity Yamāntaka, specifically in the form of the nine-faced Great Vajrabhairava. The text guides the practitioner through a sequence of meditative visualizations, beginning with the generation of Mañjuśrī from the seed syllable dhīḥ, who then invokes the terrifying buffalo-faced form. This deity is described through detailed iconography, including a radiance like the fire at the end of an eon and a variety of implements held in multiple hands, such as a skull-cup, noose, and bell. The text commits the reader to a state of meditative equipoise and the identification of the self with the nature of Mahābhairava. Furthermore, it imposes strict requirements of secrecy regarding the practice and the deity's image, warning that disclosure may result in spiritual peril. The work concludes by attributing the composition to the master Śrīdhara and the translation to Vairocanarakṣita and Bari Dharmakīrti.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the generation-stage practice of the deity Yamāntaka, the Mahiṣānanasya sādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana and is situated within the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Śrīdhara. It was translated into Tibetan by Vairocanarakṣita and the lo tsa ba khams pa dge slong ba ri d+harma kirti. This translation is preserved in the Tengyur, specifically in volume མི, where it comprises six pages and is categorized within the Other Skillful Means Tantras. The text enacts a meditative process beginning with the generation of Mañjuśrī from the seed syllable dhīḥ, who then invokes the buffalo-faced form. It guides the practitioner through detailed visualizations, including the creation of moon and sun maṇḍalas and the summoning of Tathāgatas from the ten directions, ultimately aiming for the identification of the self with the nature of Mahābhairava. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the specific iconographic requirements and the sequence of meditative visualizations required to achieve a state of meditative equipoise, as well as the strict requirements of secrecy imposed upon the practice and the deity's image.
Sanskrit title
Mahiṣānanasya sādhana
Indian author
Śrīdhara
Tibetan translators
Vairocanarakṣita, lo tsa ba khams pa dge slong ba ri d+harma kirti
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Sādhana of the Buffalo-Faced One” (Toh 1975), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1975
Summary & commentary
Significance
This text is significant as a representative of the Vajrayāna tradition's use of wrathful deities to transform consciousness. Its emphasis on secrecy and the specific lineage of translation highlights the transmission protocols essential to Tibetan Buddhist tantric practice.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-3
Preliminary and Generation
Homages, requirements for the practitioner, and the initial visualization of Mañjuśrī.
4-5
Deity Description
Detailed iconographic description of the nine-faced Great Vajrabhairava and his implements.
6-7
Meditation and Secrecy
Instructions on meditative union with the deity and warnings against disclosing the practice.
8
Colophon
Attribution of the author and the translators.
Themes
Deity Yoga and Visualization (2-6)
Wrathful Iconography (4-5)
Tantric Secrecy (7)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Mahiṣānanasādhana. In the language of Tibet: Ma he’i zhal gyi sgrub pa’i thabs (The Sādhana of the Buffalo-Faced One). Homage to the Bhagavatī Mahiṣānanā.
With devotion, I prostrate with my crown to the Guru, and then to Yamāntaka, the supreme Mañjuśrī, the illusory nature whose limbs are expanded with bliss, who engages in the welfare of others, who wields the curved knife and other symbols, and who is peerless in his wrath. To him who dispels fear with his nine faces, I bow down.
For the sake of those intelligent ones who desire the reality of the Yamāri-sādhana, and for those who have obtained the empowerments and so forth, I shall write this sequence of its sādhana so that children may understand it, so that it may be remembered with equanimity, and so as to generate joy in the minds of the supreme ones even through the words of a child.
Now, I shall correctly explain the sādhana of Vajrabhairava, the deity who causes all others to be utterly terrified. Having stayed in a place agreeable to the mind, such as a charnel ground and so forth, one should begin the sādhana.
Next, the location shall be described: a charnel ground, a riverbank, a solitary tree, a solitary signpost, a crossroads, a mountain peak, an empty dwelling, a temple of the Mātṛs, a temple of the gods, a battlefield, a city, a forest, or a village. Here, the yogi who has received the empowerment of the great Vajrabhairava and is endowed with generosity, ethical discipline, and so forth, [should proceed].
One who is diligent in the welfare of sentient beings, endowed with love and the like, adorned with faith and learning, and possessing compassion that purifies the mouth and so forth, should sit comfortably upon a soft seat and the like. At one’s own heart, from the complete transformation of the first vowel upon a lotus, one should visualize a moon maṇḍala. Upon that, one should behold the form of the syllable Dhīḥ. Then, by its rays of light, one summons the tathāgatas, bodhisattvas, vidyā goddesses, wrathful deities, and so forth, who reside throughout the infinite and boundless world systems of the ten directions, and causes them to be perfectly seated in the space before one. In order to increase the accumulation of merit, one should perform the offerings, the confession of misdeeds, the rejoicing in merit, the dedication of merit, the taking of refuge in the Three Jewels, the generation of the mind of awakening, the reliance upon the path, and the meditation on love and the like. Then, one should view all phenomena as emptiness.
Oṃ śūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāvātmako ’haṃ. Then, one recites: Svabhāva-śuddhāḥ sarva-dharmāḥ svabhāva-śuddho ’haṃ. Having thus established all phenomena as being of the nature of selflessness, in the center, one should visualize a wind maṇḍala in the form of smoke, perfected from the syllable Yaṃ. Upon that, one should visualize a moon maṇḍala, perfected from the first vowel.
Upon that, from the syllable dhīḥ, one should instantaneously generate Mañjuśrī in the youthful form described below. At his heart, one should visualize a sun maṇḍala perfected from the syllable a. Then, light rays emanate from the sun maṇḍala, and one should imagine that they invoke and summon the Tathāgatas and others residing in the world systems of the ten directions to their furthest limits, causing them to enter that very sun maṇḍala. One should visualize Mañjuśrī and those Tathāgatas and others as becoming of one taste within the sun maṇḍala, meditating on them in the form of a blazing light pervading hundreds of thousands of yojanas. Above that, one should look upon a black hūṃ endowed with light rays of five colors; then, having clarified the realms with its light rays, one should again focus on that very hūṃ. From its transformation, one should visualize a great black vajra, facing upward and radiating light rays. Then, one should visualize the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, wrathful deities, and knowledge goddesses in the form of subtle vajras, residing upon the sun like a sesame pod in the expanse of space. One should imagine that the Buddhas and others residing there bring sentient beings to full maturity and establish those to be trained in their respective states of enlightenment; then, returning together with them, they enter the form of the vajra. One should visualize this process.
That very vajra-form is the nine-faced Great Vajrabhairava in the form of a buffalo, possessing a radiance like the fire at the end of an eon. He is capable of devouring the three realms, with a gaping mouth, laughing "ha ha," and rolling and distorting his tongue. He finally displays a terrifying frown, with fearsome eyebrows and eyes, and roars like thunder. He consumes human blood, fat, flesh, marrow, and bone. He makes the threatening gesture toward the worldly and transcendent deities, and tramples under his feet Śakra, Brahmā, the Moon, the Sun, Kṛṣṇakumāra, and others, who are all facing downward. He wears a crown made of skulls, has a snake as a sacred thread, and is adorned with a garland of skulls. He has sixteen legs, a naked body, and an erect phallus. With his left leg extended, his belly hanging down, and his hair bristling upward, he is a great terrifier who utters the sound "pheṃ kara." He has thirty-four arms and carries a fresh elephant hide. This is the glorious Great Vajrabhairava with the face of a buffalo. In his right hands: the first holds a curved knife (kartṛka); the second, a single-pointed weapon; the third, a pestle; the fourth, a dagger; the fifth, a short spear; the sixth, a battle-axe; the seventh, a lance; the eighth, an arrow; the ninth, a hook; the tenth, a staff; the eleventh, a khaṭvāṅga; the twelfth, a wheel; the thirteenth, a vajra; the fourteenth, a vajra-hammer; the fifteenth, a sword; and the sixteenth, a ḍamaru drum.
Likewise, in the first left hand is a skull-cup; in the second, a head; in the third, a shield; in the fourth, a leg; in the fifth, a noose; in the sixth, a bow; in the seventh, intestines; in the eighth, a bell; in the ninth, a hand; in the tenth, a cemetery cloth; in the eleventh, a man pierced by a spear; in the twelfth, a fire-pit; in the thirteenth, a vessel for a corpse; in the fourteenth, a threatening gesture; in the fifteenth, a three-pointed banner; and in the sixteenth, a wind-cloth. With two hands, he holds an elephant hide.
Likewise, under the first right foot is a human; in the second, a buffalo; in the third, an ox; in the fourth, a donkey; in the fifth, a camel; in the sixth, a dog; in the seventh, a sheep; and in the eighth, a jackal. Under the first left foot is a vulture; in the second, an owl; in the third, a crow; in the fourth, a parrot; in the fifth, a hawk; in the sixth, a great vulture; in the seventh, a domestic fowl; and in the eighth, a swan.
In that regard, the Great Vajrabhairava has a first face with a buffalo head that is extremely black and intensely wrathful. The three faces on the right horn are black, red, and yellow, and are extremely wrathful. The three faces on the left horn are white, smoke-colored, and black; one should visualize these faces as being intensely wrathful and baring their fangs. One should meditate on the central face between the horns as red, extremely wrathful, and dripping with blood. Above that, the face is slightly yellow and slightly wrathful, adorned with the ornaments of a youth and a crown of five locks of hair. One should visualize all the faces as having three eyes and stabilize the visualization.
A mantrin who is perfectly composed in meditative equipoise should always meditate, through union with that very reality, that he himself is the nature of the face of the Great Glorious One, Mahābhairava. At the time of recitation, one should visualize sun maṇḍalas in one’s own heart and arrange the blazing syllables of one’s own mantra. Following that, one should recite with the mind withdrawn within. In this regard, the mantra for recitation is as follows: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ PHAṬ. This is the heart mantra. OṂ YAMĀNTAKA HŪṂ PHAṬ. This is the near-heart mantra. OṂ YAMARĀJA SADO MEYA YAME DORU ṆAYODA YA YADAYONI RAYAKṢEYA YAKṢEYACCHA NIRĀMAYA PHAṬ. This is the garland mantra. By this mantra, all the activities of the yogin are performed without obstruction. One should always meditate while dwelling in charnel grounds and similar places. One should consume the five kinds of nectar; if one practices in this way, success will be achieved, but not otherwise. Furthermore, the yogin who wanders and travels at night, consuming the great lamps and so forth, should perform one hundred thousand recitations of the root mantra. The mantrin who has performed the recitation will accomplish and perform all activities. The mantrin who is firm in meditative concentration should remain perfectly composed. One should not entrust this to those who lack faith, lack devotion, or have not entered the maṇḍala, nor should one ever give them the tantra. One should not give the mantra either. The yoga and meditative concentration of the glorious Great Vajrabhairava should not be spoken of in the presence of a mantra’s wife or servants. It should be kept secret from them.
This must not be disclosed. One should not display the painted image even in front of others; the painted image should be kept secret. The application of this tantra must not be spoken of in the presence of anyone. If it is spoken, the glorious Great Vajrabhairava and the yoginīs will devour [the speaker] because their samaya has been violated. Therefore, the mantrin should not give it to anyone at all.
Alternatively, it may be shown to one who is of unbreakable samaya, free from conceptualization, a hero in the ascetic discipline of teaching, respectful and disciplined toward the guru, abiding single-mindedly in the teaching of the Tathāgata, concealing the mantra, free from anger, brave in giving, delighting in recitation and meditation, having seen the maṇḍala, devoted to the glorious Great Vajrabhairava, whose mind is free from conceptualization through great compassion and so forth, and who is well-examined and well-considered. To such a disciple, the sādhana of the glorious Great Vajrabhairava should be given. Otherwise, if the mantrin gives it [to an unworthy person], there is no doubt that he, along with the disciple, will go to hell. In this world, he will experience great terror, and in the next world, he will go to hell because his samaya has been violated.
By composing this sādhana of the glorious Yamāntaka, whose nature is bliss, which delivers all beings from the terrifying, deep, and surging waves of birth and death in the ocean of saṃsāra—where the crocodiles are passion, hatred, and so forth, and the foam is torpor and sleep—may the merit I have gained through this effort cause all beings to attain that very state in this world.
The Sādhana of the Glorious Great Vajrabhairava Tantra, composed by the master Śrīdhara, is complete. It was translated by the Indian abbot Vairocanarakṣita and the Khampa monk-translator Bari Dharmakīrti.
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.