Toh 1981 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Vajrabhairava Sādhana

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1981
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,833 Tibetan characters · 487 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 ritual manual, or sādhana, for the deity Vajrabhairava. It functions as a prescriptive guide for a practitioner to achieve a specific spiritual realization through a combination of visualization and mantra recitation. The text begins with formal homages to the buffalo-faced deity, establishing the ritual's devotional framework. It then instructs the practitioner to visualize a blazing sun and the seed syllable HŪṂ at the heart center, serving as the locus for the summoning, entering, and empowerment of wisdom. The practitioner is further directed to visualize a surrounding host of deities and to maintain an undistracted recitation of a specific mantra. By following these steps, the reader commits to a disciplined meditative process intended to transform their internal state through the identification with the fierce aspects of the deity.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the deity Vajrabhairava, the Vajrabhairavasādhana belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Mañjuśrījñāna. It was translated into Tibetan by zhang ’or ston pa shes rab bsod nams and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume མི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection. Spanning two pages in this edition, the work enacts a prescriptive spiritual process centered on the buffalo-faced deity. It guides the practitioner through a sequence of visualizations—beginning with a blazing sun and the syllable HŪṂ at the heart—to facilitate the summoning, entering, and empowerment of wisdom. This process is coupled with the constant, undistracted recitation of a specific mantra, which the text identifies as a unique and peerless king of mantras. A scholar or serious reader consults this sādhana today to examine the precise meditative and ritual instructions intended to transform the practitioner's internal state through identification with the fierce aspects of the deity.

Sanskrit title: Vajrabhairavasādhana
Indian author: Mañjuśrījñāna
Tibetan translators: zhang ’or ston pa shes rab bsod nams
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 Vajrabhairava Sādhana” (Toh 1981), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1981

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it represents the Anuttarayoga Tantra tradition's use of deity yoga and seed syllables to accelerate spiritual progress. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of the technical precision required in Tibetan ritual visualization and the role of the mantra in meditative absorption.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Homage	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers formal salutations to Vajrabhairava.
2	Ritual Instructions	Details the visualization of the heart center, the process of empowerment, and the specific mantra to be recited.

Themes

Deity Yoga (1-2)
Visualization and Seed Syllables (2)
Mantra Recitation (2)

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

AnuvādaA Vajrabhairava Sādhana·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་བྷཻ་ར་ཝ་སཱ་དྷ་ན། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་པ་ཅན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འཇིག་པའི་དུས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལྟར་འབར། ། དྲག་པོའི་དྲག་པོ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས། ། ལས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རབ་སྒྲུབ་ཕྱིར། ། མ་ཧེ་གདོང་ཅན་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཅུང་ཞིག་བྲི། ། ཡིད་དང་མཐུན་ཞིང་དབེན་པའི་གནས་དག་ཏུ། ། ངང་གིས་བདེ་བའི་སྟན་ལ་འདུག་ནས་ནི། ། མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་ཅན་སྐད་ཅིག་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས། ། ལྷ་དང་བླ་མ་མཉེས་བྱས་དེ་འོག་ཏུ། ། སྟོང་པ་མ་ཡིན་མི་སྟོང་པ་ཡང་མིན། ། སེམས་ཉིད་སྤྲོས་དང་བྲལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་བསྒོམ། ། ཡཾ་ལས་རླུང་དཀྱིལ་རཾ་ལས་བསྐལ་མེ་འབར། ། དེ་ལས་ཧཱུཾ་འཕྲོས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རང་བཞིན་ནོ། ། ཨ་ལས་ཟླ་བ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྟེང་ཉིད་དུ། ། དྷཱིཿལས་འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུ་བསྐྱེད་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་ཡི་ཐུགས་ཀར་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བསམ། ། དེ་སྟེང་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་ནག་པོ་འབར་བ་བལྟ། ། དེ་ནས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་གྱུར་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྟེ། ། དེ་ཡོངས་གྱུར་ལས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་མ་ཧེའི་ཞལ། ། དབྱར་གྱི་ཆར་སྤྲིན་ནག་པོ་ལྟ་བུའི་མདོག། སྐུ་ལས་མེ་འབར་ཁམས་གསུམ་སྐྲག་པར་བྱེད། ། ཁྲོས་པས་དུར་ཁྲོད་ཐོད་པའི་དོ་ཤལ་བྱས། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་མ་ཧེ་ནག་པོ་རྒོད་པའི་ཞལ། ། རྭ་བྲག་གཞོན་ནུའི་ཞལ་གྱིས་རྣམ་པར་མཛེས། ། ཕྱག་གཡས་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདེངས་སམ་གྲི་གུག་འཛིན། ། ཕྱག་གཡོན་ཐོད་པ་ཁྲག་གིས་བཀང་བའོ། ། ཞབས་གཉིས་གྱད་ཀྱི་དོར་སྟབས་རོ་ཡི་སྟེང་། ། མ་ཧེ་ནག་པོའི་སྟེང་དུ་རྣམ་པར་བསམ། ། མངོན་སུམ་འདྲ་བར་རྣམ་པར་གསལ་བ་དང་། །

In the language of India: Vajrabhairavasādhana. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje ’jigs byed kyi sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of Vajrabhairava). Homage to the glorious Vajrabhairava, the buffalo-faced one. Homage to the Bhagavān, who blazes like the fire at the end of an aeon, the fierce one among the fierce. In order to thoroughly accomplish all activities, I shall write a brief sādhana of the buffalo-faced one. In a secluded place that is agreeable to the mind, sitting naturally upon a comfortable seat, the yogin should, in an instant, [visualize] the buffalo-faced one. Having pleased the deities and the guru, thereafter, one should meditate on the nature of the mind itself, free from conceptual elaborations, which is neither empty nor non-empty. From YAṂ comes the wind maṇḍala; from RAṂ, the fire of the aeon blazes. From that, a HŪṂ radiates, the nature of which is vajra. Upon a full moon arising from A, one should generate Mañjuśrī Kumāra from DHĪḤ. At his heart, one should contemplate a sun maṇḍala, and upon that, visualize a blazing black syllable HŪṂ. Then, everything completely transforms into a vajra, and from the total transformation of that, the Bhagavān with the face of a buffalo appears. His color is like a black summer rain cloud; fire blazes from his body, terrifying the three realms. In his wrath, he wears a necklace of skulls from the charnel grounds. He has one face, the black, laughing face of a buffalo, beautified by the youthful face with rocky horns. His right hand brandishes a vajra or holds a curved knife (kartṛkā); his left hand holds a skull cup filled with blood. His two legs are in the heroic striding posture upon a corpse, and he is visualized standing atop a black buffalo. [He should be visualized] with extreme clarity, as if actually present.

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

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

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

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 ).

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.

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

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལྷ → god

termབླ་མ → guru

termམེ → fire

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

སྙིང་གར་ཉི་མ་འབར་ཏེ་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་གོ། ། དེ་ལས་ཡེ་ཤེས་དགུག་གཞུག་དབང་བསྐུར་བྱ། ། དེ་ནས་དེ་ཉིད་སྐར་མའི་ཚོགས་འདྲས་བསྐོར། ། ཡེངས་པ་མེད་པར་རྟག་ཏུ་བཟླས་པ་བྱ། ། ཨོཾ་ཧྲཱིཿཥྚྲྀཿཝི་ཀྲྀ་ཏཱ་ན་ན་ཧཱུཾ་ཕཊ། འདི་ནི་སྔགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྟེ། ། མ་བྱུང་འབྱུང་བར་མི་འགྱུར་རོ། ། འབུམ་ཕྲག་གསུམ་དུ་བཟླས་པ་བྱ། ། དེ་ཡིས་ལས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་འགྲུབ། ། གལ་ཏེ་ལྡང་བར་འདོད་པ་ན། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་མ་ཧེའི་ཞལ་ལ་ནི། ། མཆོད་ཅིང་བསྟོད་ལ་ལྡང་བར་བྱ། ། མ་ཧེའི་སྦྱོར་བས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱུ། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་རྟོགས་དཀའི་རྒྱུད་ལས་ནི། ། ལས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྦྱོར་བའི་ལྷ། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་བདག་གིས་བྲིས། ། བློ་དམན་རྣམས་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་རོ། ། དགེ་བ་ཅུང་ཟད་ཐོབ་པ་དེས། ། བདག་དང་འདི་ལ་མོས་པ་རྣམས། ། ནད་དང་འཇིགས་སོགས་རབ་བཅོམ་ནས། ། མྱུར་དུ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཆེན་པོར་ཤོག། སློབ་དཔོན་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་ཛྙཱ་ནས་མཛད་པ། ཞང་འོར་སྟོན་པ་ཤེས་རབ་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

At the heart, a blazing sun and the syllable HŪṂ. From that, perform the summoning, entering, and empowerment of wisdom. Then, surround that very [syllable] with a host like a cluster of stars. Recite the mantra constantly without distraction: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ PHAṬ. This is the king of mantras; it has not arisen before, nor will it arise again. Recite it three hundred thousand times, and by that, all activities will be accomplished. If you wish to arise, offer worship and praise to the wisdom buffalo-faced [deity] and then arise. Wander through the application of the buffalo. From the Tantra that is extremely difficult to realize, I have written of the deity of the application of all activities, with one face and two arms, for the benefit of those of inferior intellect. By whatever slight virtue is obtained, may I and those who have devotion to this quickly become the Great Bhairava, having utterly conquered disease, fear, and the like. Composed by the master Mañjuśrījñāna and translated by Zhang ’Or ston pa Shes rab bsod nams. It is complete.

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

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

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 )

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: god

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termསྔགས → mantra

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termལྷ → god

termཤེས་རབ → insight

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
བླ་མ	guru	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
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
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	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
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1

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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