Toh 1994 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Sādhana of the Glorious Vajrabhairava

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1994
Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,999 Tibetan characters · 525 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 accomplishment of the deity Vajrabhairava. The work functions as a prescriptive guide for the practitioner, initiating with formal homages to the buffalo-faced deity and proceeding into specific meditative instructions. The text directs the practitioner to engage in a complex visualization process, beginning with the manifestation of the deity atop a black buffalo and the placement of the seed syllable HŪṂ upon a sun disk at the heart. By prescribing the performance of summoning and binding rituals followed by the visualization of a stellar retinue and the continuous recitation of a mantra, the text commits the reader to a disciplined synthesis of mental imagery and vocalization. The objective is to collapse the distance between the practitioner and the deity, transforming the practitioner's internal state through a structured sequence of ritualized concentration and devotion.

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana for the ritual accomplishment of the deity Vajrabhairava, the Śrīvajrabhairavasādhana belongs to the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Mañjuvajra. It was translated into Tibetan by Vārahakuṇṭha and bod kyi lo tsa ba rdo rje grags, 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 text enacts a prescriptive meditative process. It begins with homages to the buffalo-faced Bhairava and directs the practitioner to visualize the deity atop a black buffalo with the syllable HŪṂ upon a sun disk at the heart. The work further prescribes the performance of summoning and binding rituals, the visualization of a stellar retinue, and the constant recitation of a specific mantra. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the disciplined synthesis of mental imagery and vocalization required to transform the practitioner's internal state through a structured sequence of liturgical instructions.

Sanskrit title: Śrīvajrabhairavasādhana
Indian author: Mañjuvajra
Tibetan translators: Vārahakuṇṭha, bod kyi lo tsa ba rdo rje grags
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 Sādhana of the Glorious Vajrabhairava” (Toh 1994), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1994

Summary & commentary

Significance

This work is significant as it represents the technical application of Anuttarayoga Tantra, specifically the Vajrabhairava cycle, which is central to the Gelug and Sakya traditions. For the modern reader, it illustrates the precise intersection of iconography, seed-syllable meditation, and mantra recitation used to achieve deity yoga.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introductory Homages	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers formal salutations to the deity.
2	Ritual Instructions	Details the visualization of the deity, the heart-center seed syllable, ritual actions, and mantra recitation.

Themes

Deity Yoga and Visualization (2)
Ritualized Sound and Mantra (2)
Veneration (1)

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

AnuvādaA Sādhana of the Glorious Vajrabhairava·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཤྲཱི་བཛྲ་བྷཻ་ར་བ་སཱ་དྷ་ནཾ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་དཔལ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་པ་ཅན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་སྐུ་མཆོག་འཇིག་དུས་མེ་ལྟར་འབར། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་པར་བྱེད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏེ། ། དེ་ཡིས་ལས་རྣམས་རབ་ཏུ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་གི་སྙིང་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བྲི། ། ཡིད་དང་མཐུན་ཞིང་དབེན་པའི་གནས་དག་ཏུ། ། དང་པོར་བདེ་བའི་སྟན་ལ་འདུག་ནས་ནི། ། མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་ཅན་སྐད་ཅིག་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པས། ། ལྷ་དང་བླ་མ་མཉེས་བྱས་དེ་རྗེས་ལ། ། སྟོང་པ་མ་ཡིན་མི་སྟོང་མ་ཡིན་པ། ། སེམས་ཉིད་སྤྲོས་དང་བྲལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་བསྒོམ། ། ཡཾ་ལས་རླུང་སྟེ་རཾ་ལས་བསྐལ་མེ་འབར། ། དེ་ནས་ཧཱུཾ་སྤྲོས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རང་བཞིན་ནམ། ། ཨ་ལས་ཟླ་བ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྟེང་ཉིད་དུ། ། དྷཱིཿལས་འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུ་བསྐྱེད་པར་བྱ། ། ཐུགས་ཀར་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་རྣམས་བསམས་ལ། ། དེ་སྟེངས་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་ནག་པོ་འབར་བ་བལྟ། ། དེ་ཉིད་ཡོངས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདེངས། ། ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་གྱུར་བཅོམ་ལྡན་མ་ཧེའི་ཞལ། ། སྐུ་མདོག་སྔོ་ནག་ཆར་སྤྲིན་ལྟ་བུར་འཇིགས། ། སྐུ་ལས་མེ་འབར་ཁམས་གསུམ་སྲེག་པར་བྱེད། ། ཁྲོ་བོ་དུར་ཁྲོད་ཐོད་པའི་དོ་ཤལ་བྱས། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་མ་ཧེ་ནག་པོ་རྒོད་པའི་ཞལ། ། རྭ་གཉིས་བར་དུ་གཞོན་ནུའི་ཞལ་གྱིས་བརྒྱན། ། ཕྱག་གཡས་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདེངས་པའི་གྲི་གུག་འཛིན། ། གཡོན་པ་ཐོད་པ་ཁྲག་གིས་བཀང་བ་བསྣམས། ། ཞབས་གཉིས་གྱད་ཀྱི་དོར་སྟབས་རོ་ཡི་གདན། །

In the language of India: Śrīvajrabhairavasādhananāma. In the language of Tibet: dPal rdo rje ’jigs byed kyi sgrub pa’i thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of the Glorious Vajrabhairava). Homage to the Blessed One, the Glorious Bhairava with the face of a buffalo. Homage to the supreme body of the Blessed One, blazing like the fire at the end of an eon, the Vajrabhairava. In order to thoroughly accomplish his activities, I shall write the sādhana of the essence of the buffalo-faced one. In a secluded place that is agreeable to the mind, first sit upon a comfortable cushion. The yogin, in an instant, [becomes] the buffalo-faced one. Having pleased the deities and the guru, thereafter, one should meditate on the nature of the mind itself, which is free from conceptual elaborations, being neither empty nor non-empty. From YAṂ comes wind, and from RAṂ the fire of the kalpa blazes. Then, from HŪṂ, emanate the nature of a vajra, or from A, upon a full moon, one should generate Mañjuśrī Kumāra from DHĪḤ. Visualize a sun maṇḍala in his heart, and upon that, look at a blazing black syllable HŪṂ. That itself completely transforms into a raised vajra. Everything completely transforms into the Blessed One with the face of a buffalo. His body color is dark blue-black, terrifying like a rain cloud. Fire blazes from his body, incinerating the three realms. The wrathful one wears a necklace of skulls from the charnel grounds. He has one face, the laughing face of a black buffalo. Between the two horns, he is adorned with the face of a youth. His right hand holds a raised vajra and a curved knife (kartṛkā); his left hand carries a skull-cup filled with blood. His two legs are in the athletic stance (pratyālīḍha) upon a corpse seat.

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.

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

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 ).

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 .

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.

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termམེ → fire

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termལྷ → god

termབླ་མ → guru

མ་ཧེའི་ནག་པོའི་སྟེང་དུ་རྣམ་པར་བསམ། ། མངོན་སུམ་བཞིན་དུ་གསལ་བར་གྱུར་པ་དང་། ། སྙིང་གར་ཉི་ལ་ཧཱུཾ་ཡིག་འབར་བར་བསམ། ། དེ་ལ་དགུག་དང་བཅིང་བ་ལ་སོགས་བྱ། ། དེ་ནས་དེ་ཉིད་སྐར་མའི་ཚོགས་འདྲས་བསྐོར། ། གཡེང་བ་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་བ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱུ། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་རྟོགས་དཀའི་རྒྱུད་ལས་ནི། ། ལས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྦྱོར་བའི་ལྷ། ། ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་གདམས་པ་འདི། ། བློ་དམན་རྣམས་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བཀོད། ། 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། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་ཅན་དཔའ་བོ་གཅིག་པའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། སློབ་དཔོན་མཉྫུ་བཛྲས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། བལ་པོའི་པཎྜི་ཏ་བྷ་རོ་ཕྱག་རྡུམ་དང་། བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པའོ། །

Visualize [the deity] atop a black buffalo, appearing clearly as if directly present. Visualize a blazing syllable HŪṂ upon a sun disk at the heart; perform the summoning, binding, and so forth upon it. Then, surround that very [deity] with a host 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, make offerings and offer praise to the wisdom buffalo face, then arise. This instruction on the single-faced, two-armed deity who applies all activities from the Tantra of the Extremely Difficult to Realize, the practice of the glorious buffalo-faced Vajrabhairava, the solitary hero, composed by the master Mañjuvajra, is complete. It was translated, edited, and finalized by the Nepalese paṇḍita Bharo Phyag-rdum and the Tibetan translator Dorje Drak. By whatever slight virtue has been gained, may I and those who have devotion to this [practice] completely overcome illness, fear, and the like, and swiftly become the Great Terrifier. The Sādhana of the Glorious Vajrabhairava, the Single Hero with the Buffalo Face, composed by the master Mañjuvajra, is finished. Translated, edited, and finalized by the Nepalese paṇḍita Bharo Phyag-rdum and the Tibetan translator Dorje Drak.

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

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 )

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: god

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termསྔགས → mantra

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termལྷ → god

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	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
བླ་མ	guru	1
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
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	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

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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