Toh 1989 · 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 1989
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,780 Tibetan characters · 451 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 liturgical manual for the ritual practice of the deity Vajrabhairava. It begins with a formal title in both Sanskrit and Tibetan and an invocation to Mañjuvajra, establishing the deity's role as a wrathful force capable of subduing malevolent influences and deceptive māras. The text then transitions into a detailed iconographic description, specifying the implements held in the deity's six pairs of hands, including a skull-topped staff, vajra, bow, arrow, sword, crossed vajra, and spear. By detailing the radiation of wrathful deities associated with the four immeasurables, the text commits the practitioner to a precise visualization process. The work functions as a guide for the practitioner to mentally construct the deity's form and attributes as a means of spiritual transformation and the overcoming of obstacles.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana detailing the ritual practice of the deity Vajrabhairava, this work belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. It is attributed to the Indian author Aśokaśrī. The text was translated into Tibetan by Dharmaśrīmitra and the lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po, and it 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 precise visualization process centered on the buffalo-faced deity. It begins with an invocation to Mañjuvajra and provides a rigorous iconographic description of the deity's six faces and six pairs of arms, which wield implements such as a skull-topped staff, vajra, bow, arrow, sword, crossed vajra, and spear. The practitioner is guided to visualize the deity in a specific posture, radiating wrathful deities of the four immeasurables from his form and focusing on the syllable HŪṂ at the heart. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific liturgical requirements and the mental construction of the deity's attributes used to subdue malevolent influences and deceptive māras.

Sanskrit title: not recorded
Indian author: Aśokaśrī
Tibetan translators: Dharmaśrīmitra, lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po
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

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WorldCat

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Vajrabhairava Sādhana” (Toh 1989), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1989

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as it represents the Anuttarayoga Tantra tradition's use of wrathful iconography to transmute negative mental states. For the modern reader, it provides primary evidence of the precise correlation between deity attributes and ritual function in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Invocation	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers homage to Mañjuvajra.
2	Iconographic Description	Details the implements held in the deity's twelve hands and the radiation of associated deities.

Themes

Wrathful Subjugation (1)
Ritual Iconography (2)
Visualization (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་སཱདྷ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཇམ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། རབ་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་ཤིང་གདུག་པ་འདུལ། ། མ་ལུས་ལོག་པའི་བདུད་འདུལ་བ། ། ཞལ་དང་ཕྱག་དྲུག་མཚོན་ཆ་འཛིན། ། མ་ཧེ་ཞལ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏེ། ། དེ་ཡི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་རིམ་པ་ཞིག། བདག་གིས་དྲན་ནས་བརྩམ་པར་བྱ། ། དང་པོར་ཡིད་དང་མཐུན་པའི་གནས་སུ་བདག་ཉིད་ཁྲུས་བྱས་ཏེ་སྟན་བདེ་བ་ལ་འདུག་ནས། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་བྷཱཻ་ར་བ་ཛྭ་ལ་ཛྭ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པས་ལུས་བསྲུངས་ནས། བླ་མ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མཆོད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡང་དག་པར་མཆོད་ནས་སྡིག་པ་བཤགས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་བྱའོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨ་བྷ་བཱ་སྭ་བྷ་ཝ་བི་ཤུདྡྷ་བཛྲ་ཙཀྲ་ཨ་ཨ་ཨཾ་ཨ། ཞེས་བྱ་བས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བསྒོམ་མོ། ། དེ་ནས་བདག་ཉིད་ཡི་གེ་ཨར་གནས་པ་ལས་དེའི་འོད་ཟེར་གྱིས་ཚངས་པ་དང་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་གྱི་སྟེང་དུ་ཨ་ཞུ་བ་ལས་ཨུཏྤལ་འཁོར་ལོས་མཚན་པ་དེ་ཞུ་བ་ལས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་འཇམ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སྐུ་མདོག་མཐིང་ནག་གཡས་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཡོན་ན་ཨུཏྤལ་འཛིན་པ། གཞོན་ནུའི་ཆ་ལུགས་ལ་རྒྱན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ་བསམ་མོ། ། དེའི་ཐུགས་ཀ་ནས་ཉི་མ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ་གནས་པ་ཅན་དུ་བསམས་ཏེ། ཧཱུཾ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པར་བྱུང་བས་ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཆོད། ། ཚུར་ཧཱུཾ་ལ་ཐིམ་པས། ཞེ་སྡང་གི་སྐུར་གྱུར་པ་ནི། ཞལ་དྲུག་ཕྱག་རྣམ་པ་དྲུག་དང་ལྡན་པ། སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ། མ་ཧེའི་ཞལ་ཅན། སྐུ་མདོག་མཐིང་ནག། མི་མགོ་བརྒྱའི་དོ་ཤལ་ཅན། ཞབས་བརྐྱང་བསྐུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པ།

In the language of India: Vajrabhairava-sādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje ’jigs byed kyi sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of Vajrabhairava). Homage to Mañjuvajra! To the one who is utterly wrathful and subdues the malevolent, who subdues all the deceptive māras without exception, who possesses six faces and six arms and wields weapons—to the buffalo-faced one, I prostrate. I shall compose a sequence for his sādhana, having recalled it from memory. First, in a place agreeable to the mind, having bathed oneself and sat upon a comfortable seat, one should protect the body with the mantra: Oṃ vajrabhairava jvala jvala hūṃ. Then, having made perfect offerings to the Guru and the Three Jewels, one should perform the confession of misdeeds and so forth. With the mantra: Oṃ abhāva svabhāva viśuddha vajracakra a a aṃ a, one should meditate on emptiness. Then, from oneself abiding as the syllable A, light rays emanate; above Brahmā and Śakra, the A melts, becoming an utpala flower marked with a wheel. That melts, and one should visualize the Blessed One known as Mañjuvajra, dark blue in color, holding a vajra in his right hand and an utpala in his left, in the form of a youth adorned with ornaments. Visualize that from his heart, a Hūṃ resides upon a sun disk. From the continuous sound of "Hūṃ," offerings are made to all the Buddhas of the ten directions. As they dissolve back into the Hūṃ, one transforms into the body of wrath: possessing six faces and six arms, of great strength, with the face of a buffalo, dark blue in color, wearing a necklace of a hundred human heads, and standing with legs in the extended and contracted posture.

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

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

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

terminologyཚངས་པ → “Brahmā”. The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do not carry the deity capital into the vow.

homonymཚངས་པ is rendered “Brahmā” here; the glossary also records brahman, brahmās, Brahma for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཚངས་པ “Brahmā” — One of the primary deities of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra / Śakra ) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The pa

homonymབརྒྱ་བྱིན is rendered “Śakra” here; the glossary also records Śatakratu, Indra for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབརྒྱ་བྱིན “Śakra” — A common epithet of Indra, the lord of the gods , who dwells on the summit of Mount Sumeru and wields the thunderbolt. The Tibetan translation is based on an etymology that śakra is an abbreviation of śata-kratu : one wh

terminologyབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → “the Blessed One”. 84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

homonymབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས is rendered “the Blessed One” here; the glossary also records blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས “the Blessed One” — In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possess

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.

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབླ་མ → guru

termམཆོད་པ → offering

termསྟོང་པ་ཉིད → emptiness

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

ཕྱག་དྲུག་གཡས་གཡོན་གྱི་དང་པོ་ཀེང་རུས་ཀྱི་དབྱུག་པ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྣམས་པ། གཡས་གཡོན་གྱི་བར་པ་ན་མདའ་གཞུ་དང་རལ་གྲི། ཐ་མ་ན་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང་མདུང་བསྣམས་པའོ། ། དེ་ལས་ཚད་མེད་པ་བཞིའི་ཁྲོ་བོ་འཕྲོ་བ་ཅན་ནོ། ། ཞབས་བཞི་བརྐྱང་བསྐུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པ་བསྒོམ། དེའི་ཐུགས་ཀར་ཉི་མའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཧཱུཾ་བསམས་ལ། སྤྱན་དྲང་བ་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྫོགས་པ་དང་གསང་སྔགས་བཟླས་པ་ནི། ཨོཾ་ཧྲཱིཿཥྚྲྀཿཝི་ཀྲྀ་ཏཱ་ན་ན་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པའམ། ཨོཾ་དུཿཁ་ཚེ་ད་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པ་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ནས་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྟོད་དོ། ། གཏོར་མ་བཏང་ནས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ་ཏེ་ལྡང་བར་བྱའོ། ། བདག་གིས་དགེ་བ་འདི་བྱས་པས། ། བླ་མེད་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་སློབ་དཔོན་ཨ་ཤོ་ཀ་ཤྲཱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། པཎྜི་ཏ་དྷརྨཱ་ཤྲཱི་མི་ཏྲ་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

The first of the six right and left hands hold a skull-topped staff and a vajra; the middle right and left hands hold a bow and arrow and a sword; and the final right and left hands hold a crossed vajra and a spear. From him, wrathful deities of the four immeasurables radiate. Meditate on him standing with four legs in the posture of one leg extended and one drawn in. At his heart, visualize a HŪṂ upon a sun disk. Once the invitation and so forth are complete, recite the mantra: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ, or OṂ DUḤKHA CHE DA HŪṂ HŪṂ. Then, offer praise by way of his names. After presenting the torma, request the deities to depart and arise from the meditation. "By this virtue I have performed, may I attain unsurpassed enlightenment." This concludes the Sādhana of Vajrabhairava composed by the master Aśokaśrī. It was translated by the Paṇḍita Dharmāśrīmitra and the translator Chos kyi bzang po.

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

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

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering cake

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཆོས → dharma

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
བླ་མ	guru	1
མཆོད་པ	offering	1
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	1
ཚངས་པ	Brahmā	1	The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do n
བརྒྱ་བྱིན	Śakra	1
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
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
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two

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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