Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a ritual manual, or sādhana, for the practice of Red Yamāntaka. It provides a technical sequence for the practitioner to achieve a specific meditative state through the visualization of seed-syllables and the transformation of consciousness. The work guides the user through the generation stage, where syllables such as paṃ and hūṃ are visualized as a lotus and a white staff, respectively, to establish the ritual environment. It further details the union of the Blessed One and Blessed Lady, utilizing specific Sanskrit mantras to realize the nature of coemergent joy. By committing to these precise visualizations and the integration of the wisdom-being, the practitioner is led toward a non-dual realization. The text concludes by prescribing the integration of these practices into daily life, including the application of emptiness yoga during sleep, thereby framing the ritual not as a discrete event but as a continuous meditative discipline.
Provenance
About this text
A ritual manual for the practice of Red Yamāntaka, the Raktayamāntakasādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana and is attributed to the Indian author Virūpa. The work was translated into the Tibetan language by Ravīndraruci and chag lo tsa ba dge slong chos rje dpal. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཙི, where it is situated within the Other Skillful Means Tantras collection and spans three pages. The text enacts a technical sequence of visualization and meditation designed to deliver sentient beings. It guides the practitioner through the generation stage, utilizing seed-syllables such as paṃ and hūṃ—visualized as a lotus and a white staff—to establish the ritual environment. Through the union of the Blessed One and Blessed Lady and the recitation of specific Sanskrit mantras, the practitioner seeks to realize the nature of coemergent joy. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan work today to examine the precise meditative instructions and the integration of emptiness yoga, which frames the ritual process as a means of achieving a non-dual realization.
Sanskrit title
Raktayamāntakasādhana
Indian author
Virūpa
Tibetan translators
Ravīndraruci, chag lo tsa ba dge slong chos rje dpal
The work is significant as a representative example of the complex visualization and deity yoga practices central to Vajrayāna Buddhism. It demonstrates the use of seed-syllables and mantra to transform ordinary perception into a purified, divine identity. For the modern reader, it illustrates the intersection of linguistic symbolism and somatic meditation in Indo-Tibetan ritual technology.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Provides the Indian and Tibetan titles and an opening homage to the deity and the Guru.
2
Visualization of the Mandala
Describes the transformation of seed-syllables into a lotus and a white staff to establish the ritual space.
3
Union and Mantra
Details the emergence of syllables from the ritual implements and the use of a mantra to meditate on coemergent joy.
4
Daily Practice and Integration
Outlines the repetition of the generation sequence and the application of emptiness yoga during sleep.
Themes
Seed-syllable transformation (2-4)
Non-dual union (3)
Integration of ritual and sleep (4)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Rakta Yamāntaka Sādhana. In the language of Tibet: Gshin rje mthar byed dmar po’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of Red Yamāntaka). Homage to the glorious Yamāntaka!
Bowing down to the Guru in every way, I shall clearly write the sādhana of the red body of Yamāntaka, whose very nature is innate joy.
First, a mantrin who intends to deliver sentient beings should rise in the morning, perform the cleansing of the mouth and so forth, and sit upon a comfortable seat. In the center of one’s own heart, one should meditate on a red syllable AṂ, which completely transforms into a sun maṇḍala. Upon that, one should meditate on a red syllable HŪṂ, which completely transforms into a white staff with a vajra tip and marked by a human head. In the center of that, upon a red sun maṇḍala, one should visualize the red Yamāntaka, the Guru, the Buddhas, and the Bodhisattvas, invited by the light rays of the red-colored syllable HŪṂ.
Then, having made perfect offerings of flowers, incense, and so forth, which emerge from the syllable HŪṂ, and having performed the confession of misdeeds and so forth, one should meditate on the four immeasurables—loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—and then meditate on emptiness. One should mentally recite: OṂ ŚŪNYATĀ-JÑĀNA-VAJRA-SVABHĀVA-ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ.
Through the power of former aspirations, the syllable paṃ completely transforms into a lotus. In its center, upon a sun maṇḍala, the syllable hūṃ completely transforms into a white staff, which is itself marked by a sun maṇḍala and the syllable hūṃ. From that, light rays from the syllable hūṃ fill the three worlds; having transformed all sentient beings into the form of Yamāntaka, they are absorbed back into that syllable hūṃ. From the complete transformation of all that, one should meditate on oneself as Yamāntaka, red in color, with one face and two arms, with a protruding belly, standing in the posture with the left leg extended, and seated upon a buffalo. In his right hand he holds a white staff, and in his left a skull-cup completely filled with blood. His orange hair stands upright, and he is adorned with a garland of five human heads and ornaments such as nāgas. He wears a lower garment of tiger skin, and a garland of dripping human heads hangs from his neck. He is pervaded on all sides by a mass of red, blazing light, terrifying even Yama, with bared fangs, three red, round eyes, a flickering tongue, and a face dripping with blood. One should meditate on oneself being embraced around the neck by the insight (prajñā) who is the natural manifestation of oneself. The Blessed One is just as described, but the specific difference is that the insight is adorned with a garland of dry skulls. Subsequently, in one’s own heart, upon a multicolored lotus, in the center of a sun maṇḍala, one should meditate on the syllable hūṃ completely transforming into a white staff, in the center of which is a red sun adorned with the syllable hūṃ.
Then, from the Blessed One’s vajra, the syllable HŪṂ arises, and from the Blessed Lady’s lotus, the syllable A arises. Reciting OṂ SARVA-TATHĀGATA-ANURĀGAṆA-VAJRA-SVABHĀVA-ĀTMAKO ’HAṂ, one should meditate on the Blessed One as the nature of coemergent joy through the union of the two organs. Following that, one should meditate on a red eight-petaled lotus below the navel of the Blessed Lady, upon which is a red syllable HRĪḤ with a white line at its tip. With the seed syllable at the heart, one should invite the Tathāgatas from the direction of space and, as before, make offerings and supplicate them for the purpose of conferring empowerment. Recite: OṂ ABHIṢIÑCATU MĀṂ SARVA-TATHĀGATA. One should also meditate on them conferring empowerment with golden vases adorned with earth, jewels, and so forth, completely filled with the nectar of wisdom, raining down saffron, flowers, and the like, and the sound of great drums. Again, with light rays from the seed syllable at one’s own heart, one should invite red Yamāntaka from the direction of space. Having made perfect offerings as before, one should summon, enter, bind, and subjugate him with JAḤ HŪṂ BAṂ HOḤ. Then, one should visualize the blazing mantra garland of HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ and so forth, residing upon the syllable HŪṂ which rests on a sun disk at the heart of the wisdom being (jñānasattva) who dwells within the commitment being (samayasattva). Reciting the wrathful words as if with the mind, one recites: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ.
In other sessions, one should generate oneself through the sequence of the seed-syllable and hand-symbol as before, and then, preceded by the conferral of empowerment, the wisdom-being should be absorbed. At the time of sleep, one should meditate on the yoga of emptiness and then sleep. If one meditates and recites according to this sequence preceded by the samaya, this red Yamāntaka will certainly be accomplished; this is the word of the Blessed One. This sequence accomplishes the applications of the red Yamāntaka, such as the yantras and the infinite activities. However, here, specifically, one should meditate on the forms of white, yellow, red, and black, according to the divisions of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and wrathful activities. The sādhana of the red Yamāntaka composed by the lord of yogins, Virūpa, is complete. It was translated, edited, and finalized by the translator Chag Lotsāwa, the monk Chöjé Pal, from the presence of the Indian abbot and great venerable guru, Sūryasimhaprabha.
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.