Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text provides a technical manual for the completion stage yoga of the Red Yamāntaka deity system. It functions as a guided visualization practice, directing the practitioner to construct a complex mental mandala. The text begins by establishing the central figure of Red Yamāntaka—a wrathful deity riding a dark red buffalo—and proceeds to populate the cardinal directions with specific consort pairings: Yellow Piśuna Yamāntaka with Yellow Vajravārāhī in the south, Red Rāga Yamāntaka with White Vajrasarasvatī in the west, and Green Īrṣyā Yamāntaka with a green goddess in the north. The practice culminates in a refined internal focus, where the practitioner visualizes a wisdom being identical to themselves within the heart of the deity, further centering on a white staff and the red syllable HŪṂ. By following these precise spatial and symbolic instructions, the reader is committed to a process of deity yoga intended to transform ordinary perception into the purified experience of the wisdom being.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise on the completion yoga of Red Yamāntaka, the Raktayamāntakaniṣpannayoga is a work of the Indian author Abhayākaragupta. Preserved within the classical Tibetan tradition, the text is found in the Tengyur, volume ཙི, where it comprises three pages and is categorized among the Other Skillful Means Tantras. Under its Tibetan title, gshin rje gshed dmar po'i rdzogs pa'i rnal 'byor, the work enacts a detailed visualization practice intended to establish all sentient beings in the state of the deity. It directs the practitioner to envision a celestial palace upon Mount Meru, centering on the wrathful Red Yamāntaka riding a dark red buffalo. This central figure is surrounded by a mandala of consort pairings in the cardinal directions: Yellow Piśuna Yamāntaka with Yellow Vajravārāhī to the south, Red Rāga Yamāntaka with White Vajrasarasvatī to the west, and Green Īrṣyā Yamāntaka with the green goddess Gaurī to the north. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the precise spatial and symbolic instructions used to construct this complex mental mandala and the specific iconographic attributes, such as the white staff, associated with the Red Yamāntaka system.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Completion Stage Yoga of Red Yamāntaka” (Toh 2036), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2036
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it illustrates the precise iconographic and mandalic requirements of the Yamāntaka cycle within the Indo-Tibetan tantric tradition. For the modern reader, it demonstrates the use of complex visualization as a cognitive tool for achieving non-dual identification with a deity.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Introduction and Central Deity
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and describes the central visualization of Red Yamāntaka on Mount Meru.
3
Cardinal Deities
Details the placement of the southern, western, and northern deities and their respective consorts.
4
Internal Visualization
Describes the visualization of the wisdom being and the seed syllable HŪṂ within the heart of the deity.
Themes
Mandala Construction (2-3)
Deity Yoga and Identification (4)
Wrathful Iconography (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaThe Completion Stage Yoga of Red Yamāntaka·
In the language of India: Rakta-yamāntaka-niṣpanna-yoga-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Gshin-rje-gshed-dmar-po’i rdzogs-pa’i rnal-’byor zhes-bya-ba (The Completion Yoga of Red Yamāntaka). Homage to the Blessed One, Red Yamāntaka.
In this regard, first of all, one should think: "In order to establish all sentient beings in the state of Red Yamāntaka, I shall meditate upon the Blessed One, Red Yamāntaka." Then, viewing all phenomena comprised of the aggregates, elements, and sense bases as being like an illusion, of a single taste in emptiness, one should meditate on emptiness—free from all aspects of the signs of truth or falsity and established as nothing whatsoever—by way of total absorption into emptiness.
From within that state, instantaneously, one should visualize a blazing vajra ground, vast and without interval, formed into a single essence as directed by the mind. Above that is a firm, blazing vajra fence, solid and of a single piece. Above that is a vajra net of arrows, without gaps and unified. Below that is a vajra canopy, and below that a blazing vajra tent. Inside that, is a yellow ten-spoked wheel, rotating extremely violently to the right, with ten most terrifying wrathful goddesses stationed at the tips of the spokes. In its hub are the maṇḍalas of wind, fire, water, and earth.
Upon Mount Meru, in the center of a celestial palace, upon a multicolored lotus and a sun disk, is a dark red buffalo, extremely wrathful and adorned with bone ornaments. Seated upon its back, the Blessed One, Red Yamāntaka, possesses the radiance of ten million suns. He has one face and two arms. In his right hand, he holds a white staff that utterly destroys the three realms; in his left, he holds a skull cup filled with the blood of all māras at his heart. He has the appearance of a sixteen-year-old, his forehead adorned with a garland of five human heads. He is further adorned with the five mudrās and the eight nāgas, and a garland of fifty dripping human heads hangs from his neck. He wears a lower garment of tiger skin. His pale red beard and orange hair are bristling upward. He is short and stout, with a large belly. His three sun-like eyes are red and round; his face is furrowed with a frown and his fangs are bared. His mouth is slightly open in a wrathful laugh, and his tongue is curled. He is embraced by the consort Vajravettālī, who has one face and two arms, three eyes, and loose hair. In her left hand, she holds a skull cup filled with the blood of the wicked māras, and in her right, she holds a vajra-knife. A garland of fifty dry heads hangs from her neck. One should meditate on her as being otherwise identical to the Father. Then, on the eastern petal of an eight-petaled multicolored lotus, upon a sun disk, is Mohayamāntaka, white in color, embracing the black Vajracarcikā.
On the southern lotus petal, upon a sun disk, is Yellow Piśuna Yamāntaka, embracing Yellow Vajravārāhī. On the western lotus petal, upon a sun disk, is Red Rāga Yamāntaka, embracing White Vajrasarasvatī. On the northern lotus petal, upon a sun disk, is Green Īrṣyā Yamāntaka, embracing Green goddess Gaurī. These four heroes, beginning with Moha Yamāntaka, each have one face and two arms. Their right hands hold, respectively, a wheel, a jewel, a lotus, and a sword; all their left hands hold a skull-cup filled with blood at their hearts. All others are identical to the principal deity. The four heroines, beginning with Vajracarcikā, each have one face and two arms. Their right hands hold a vajra-handled curved knife, and their left hands hold a skull-cup filled with blood. They are adorned with the five mudrās, have three eyes, bared fangs, and loose hair; thus they should be meditated upon. On the lotus petal in the southeast is a lapis lazuli vase filled with gold-leafed catuḥsamaya. On the lotus petal in the southwest is a golden vase filled with kaṭorī. On the lotus petal in the northwest is a coral vase filled with sihlaka. On the lotus petal in the northeast is a silver vase filled with camphor. One should meditate that all four vases are topped with skull-cup lids.
At the heart of the Blessed One, upon a multicolored lotus and sun disk, is the wisdom being (jñānasattva) identical to oneself. At the heart of that wisdom being, upon a multicolored lotus and sun disk, one should meditate on a white staff, in the center of which is a red syllable HŪṂ marked upon a sun maṇḍala. Regarding that, the Blessed One himself is sealed by Akṣobhya. The four [deities] beginning with Mohayamāntaka are sealed respectively by Vairocana, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi. The essence mantra (hṛdaya) of the Blessed One is: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ. Although it has been explained in that way: "The perfect bodies are immeasurable; just as a cloud draws water from the ocean without it being exhausted." This concludes "The Completion Yoga of Red Yamāri," composed by the great scholar Abhayākaragupta.
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.