Toh 2007 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Correct Meaning of the Hand Implements 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 2007
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 047_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_མི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 2,130 Tibetan characters · 534 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 provides a symbolic exegesis of the ritual implements held by the deity Vajrabhairava, mapping specific physical attributes of the deity's iconography onto fundamental Buddhist philosophical tenets. The author employs a method of direct correspondence, where each hand implement or ornament serves as a visual metaphor for a specific ontological or epistemological claim. For instance, the bell represents the Perfection of Wisdom, while the cemetery cloth symbolizes the selflessness of all phenomena. By decoding these symbols, the text transforms the deity's form into a pedagogical tool for understanding emptiness, clear light, and the nature of phenomena. The reader is committed to viewing the iconographic details of the Vajrabhairava mandala not as mere ornamentation, but as a condensed system of philosophical instructions intended to facilitate the realization of non-dual awareness.

Provenance

About this text

A treatise on the purification of the hand-symbols of Glorious Vajrabhairava, the Śrīvajrabhairavahastacihnaviśuddha belongs to the tradition of the Other Skillful Means Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Tathāgatarakṣita. It was translated into the classical Tibetan language by Utobopati and bod kyi lo tsa ba mal gyo blo gros, and is preserved in volume མི of the Tengyur. Spanning two pages in this edition, the work provides a symbolic exegesis of the ritual implements held by the deity Vajrabhairava, mapping specific iconographic attributes onto fundamental Buddhist philosophical tenets. The author employs a method of direct correspondence, where physical ornaments and implements serve as visual metaphors for ontological and epistemological claims; for example, the bell represents the Perfection of Wisdom, the cemetery cloth symbolizes the selflessness of all phenomena, and the fire hearth signifies clear light. A scholar or serious reader consults this text to understand how the deity's form is transformed into a pedagogical tool, decoding the iconographic details of the Vajrabhairava mandala as a condensed system of philosophical instructions intended to facilitate the realization of non-dual awareness.

Sanskrit title: Śrīvajrabhairavahastacihnaviśuddha
Indian author: Tathāgatarakṣita
Tibetan translators: Utobopati, bod kyi lo tsa ba mal gyo blo gros
Canonical collection: Other Skillful Means Tantras
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. མི
Period: classical Tibetan

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Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

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Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Correct Meaning of the Hand Implements of the Glorious Vajrabhairava” (Toh 2007), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2007

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its demonstration of how complex philosophical concepts in the Indo-Tibetan tradition are encoded into visual iconography. It illustrates the transition from ritual form to philosophical meaning, providing a key for practitioners to internalize doctrine through visualization.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles of the work and an opening homage.
2	Symbolic Correspondences	Lists specific hand implements and ornaments of Vajrabhairava and defines their corresponding philosophical meanings.

Themes

Iconographic Symbolism (2)
Emptiness and Selflessness (2)
Perfection of Wisdom (2)

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

AnuvādaThe Correct Meaning of the Hand Implements of the Glorious Vajrabhairava·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཤྲི་བཛྲ་བྷཻ་ར་བ་པཱ་ནི་ན་ཨ་པ་ན་ཤུདྡྷ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་མཚན་གྱི་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། མ་རིག་པ་གཅོད་པས་གྲི་གུག། གཟུང་འཛིན་གྱི་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་འཇོམ་པས་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་གཅིག་པ། དྲན་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་འཇོམས་པར་བྱེད་པས་གཏུན་ཤིང་། སྲེད་པ་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་པས་ཆུ་གྲིའོ། ། ལུས་ངག་གི་ཉེས་པ་འཇོམས་པས་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་གཅིག་པའོ། ། ཕྲག་དོག་འཇོམས་པས་སྟ་རེའོ། ། ལྟ་བ་ངན་པ་འཇོམས་པས་མདུང་ངོ་། ། དབང་གི་ལས་བྱེད་པས་མདའ་འོ། ། འགུགས་པས་ལྕགས་ཀྱུའོ། ། ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་འཇོམས་པར་བྱེད་པས་དབྱུག་ཏོའོ། ། ཁ་ཊྭཱཾ་ག་ནི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་དོ། ། ཤེས་བྱའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་གཅོད་པ་ནི་འཁོར་ལོའོ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་རོ་མ་ཉམས་པར་གྱུར་པས་བདག་ཉིད་རྡོ་རྗེའོ། ། མི་ཤེས་པའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་འཇོམས་པས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐོ་བའོ། ། རལ་གྲིའི་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྟེར་བས་ན་རལ་གྲིའོ། ། མཆོག་ཏུ་དགའ་བའི་སྒྲས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡང་དག་པར་བསྐུལ་བས་ཅང་ཏེའུའོ། ། བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོའི་རང་བཞིན་ནི་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་བཀང་བའི་ཐོད་པའོ། ། སྒྲིབ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་འཇོམས་པས་ཚངས་པའི་མགོ་བོའོ། ། བདུད་ལས་རྒྱལ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་ཕུབ་པོ། ། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་དང་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་རྟོགས་པའི་རང་བཞིན་མེད་པས་རྐང་པའོ། ། ཡང་དག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་འཆིང་བས་ཞགས་པའོ། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་ལས་རྒྱལ་བས་ན་གཞུའོ། ། སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ན་རྒྱུ་མའོ། །

In the language of India: Śrīvajrabhairavapāṇyabhiṣyandanaviśuddhināma. In the language of Tibet: Dpal rdo rje ’jigs byed kyi phyag mtshan gyi rnam par dag pa zhes bya ba (The Purification of the Hand-Symbols of Glorious Vajrabhairava). Homage to the Blessed One, the Lord of the World, Siṃhanāda (Lion’s Roar). Because it cuts through ignorance, there is the curved knife (kartṛkā). Because it destroys the conceptualizations of subject and object, there is the single-pointed vajra. Because it destroys the afflictions of mindfulness, there is the pestle. Because it cuts through craving, there is the dagger (churikā). Because it destroys the faults of body and speech, there is the single-pointed vajra. Because it destroys envy, there is the axe. Because it destroys wrong views, there is the spear. Because it performs the activity of magnetizing, there is the arrow. Because it summons, there is the hook. Because it destroys the obscurations of karma, there is the club. The khaṭvāṅga is the very essence of bodhicitta. Because it cuts through the obscurations of the knowable, there is the wheel. Because the five wisdoms have become undegenerated, one’s own self is the vajra. Because it destroys the obscurations of non-knowing, there is the vajra hammer. Because it bestows the siddhi of the sword, there is the sword. Because it perfectly exhorts all Buddhas with the sound of supreme joy, there is the hand-drum (ḍamaru). Because it is the nature of great bliss and great compassion, there is the skull-cup filled with various [substances]. Because it destroys all obscurations, there is the head of Brahmā. Because it is the nature of victory over the Māras, there is the shield. Because all sentient beings and all phenomena are realized as being without intrinsic nature, there are the feet. Because it binds with authentic wisdom, there is the lasso. Because it is victorious over the three worlds, there is the bow. Because it is emptiness, there are the intestines.

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

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.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

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

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

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.

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

termཆོས → dharma

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ནི་དྲིལ་བུའོ། ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་བྱེད་པ་པོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ལག་པའོ། ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་མེད་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ན་དུར་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་རས་སོ། ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཕུག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྐྱེས་བུ་གསལ་ཤིང་ལ་བཙུགས་པའོ། ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་འོད་གསལ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ན་མེ་ཐབ་བོ། ། དམ་ཚིག་དག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ན་ཐོད་པ་བཏུང་བས་བཀང་བའོ། ། བདུད་རྣམས་བསྡིགས་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྡིགས་མཛུབ་བོ། ། སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་རྣམས་རོ་གཅིག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཕན་རྩེ་གསུམ་པའོ། ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་འོད་གསལ་སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ན་རླུང་གིས་བསྐྱོད་པའི་བ་དན་ནོ། ། རྨོངས་པའི་གླང་པོ་དྲལ་བས་ན། གླང་པོའི་པགས་པའོ། ། ཞབས་གཡས་ཀྱི་གདན་བརྒྱད་ནི་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའོ། ། མིག་སྨན་རི་ལུ། རལ་གྲི་གསེར་འགྱུར། བཅུད་ལེན་རྐང་བྱུག། ས་འོག། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའོ། ། ཞབས་གཡོན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གདན་ནི་བྱ་རྒོད་ལ་སོགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ནི་དབང་ཕྱུག་བརྒྱད་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་སྟེ། འདོད་པ་རྨོངས་པ། ཁྲོ་བ་སེར་སྣ། འཇིགས་པ་གྲགས་གཙང་སྨྲེ། ངོ་ཚ་བ་ཕྲ་མ། ཁམས་གསུམ་གྱི་མངའ་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་མ་ཧེའི་གདོང་པ་ཅན་ནོ། ། རྭ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་བདེན་པ་གཉིས་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའོ། ། མཁས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་རཀྵི་ཏས་མཛད་པའོ། ། ཨུ་ཏོ་པོ་པ་ཏི་དང་། བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་མལ་གྱོ་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། །

The Perfection of Wisdom is the bell. Because all phenomena are the agent, the hands. Because all phenomena are selfless, the cemetery cloth. Because all phenomena are emptiness and because of being a pit, the man impaled on a stake. Because all phenomena are clear light, the fire hearth. Because of the purity of the samaya, the skull cup filled with drink. Because of the threatening of the Māras, the threatening gesture. Because of the single taste of body, speech, and mind, the three-pointed banner. Because all phenomena are clear light and like an illusion, the wind-blown banner. Because of tearing apart the elephant of delusion, the elephant hide. The eight seats of the right foot are the purification of the eight great siddhis: the eye-salve pill, the sword of alchemy, the elixir of longevity, the foot-ointment, the subterranean power, and Mahāmudrā. The seats of the left feet, the eight such as the vulture and so forth, are the purification of the eight masteries: desire, delusion, anger, avarice, fear, fame, purity, and shame. Because of being the sovereign of the three realms, the buffalo-faced one. The two horns are the purification of the two truths. Composed by the great scholar Tathāgatarakṣita. Translated by Utopapati and the Tibetan translator Malgyo Lodrö. It is complete.

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

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 ).

homonymདམ་ཚིག is rendered “samaya” here; the glossary also records sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདམ་ཚིག “samaya” — Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the

termཆོས → dharma

termམེ → fire

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

Terminology used in this text (9)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཆོས	dharma	2	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
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
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
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
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	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
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	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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