Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Practice of the Sixteen Drops is a concise instructional manual focused on a specific meditative visualization technique. The text directs the practitioner to conceptualize the physical body as a hollow vessel, within which they must contemplate four internal wheels. This process is situated within the context of the signless avadhūtī, suggesting a framework of non-dual or void-centric practice. By framing the work as the oral instructions of the master Kaṅkālipa, the text commits the reader to a disciplined adherence to a specific lineage-based methodology of internal energy or consciousness manipulation. The brevity of the provided passages indicates that the work serves as a technical guide or a ritual primer rather than a theoretical treatise, prioritizing the precise execution of visualization over philosophical justification.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise on the practice of the sixteen drops, the Ṣoḍaśabindubhāvanānāma belongs to the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The work is attributed to the Indian author Kaṅkali, referred to in the closing as the master Kaṅkālipa. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the text appears in volume ཟི of the Tengyur under the Tibetan title thig le bcu drug gi nyams len. The work enacts a specific meditative visualization in which the practitioner conceptualizes the body as hollow to contemplate four internal wheels within the signless avadhūtī, incorporating the sixty-four syllables in the emanation wheel and an invocation to the Mother Nairātmyā. Spanning a single page in its source edition, the work serves as a concise set of oral instructions. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today as a technical guide to internal energy or consciousness manipulation, prioritizing the precise execution of visualization over theoretical or philosophical justification.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Practice of the Sixteen Drops” (Toh 2375), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2375
Summary & commentary
Significance
This work is significant as it represents the transmission of specific tantric visualization techniques attributed to the master Kaṅkālipa. It provides insight into the use of the avadhūtī and the conceptualization of internal wheels, which are central to various Indo-Tibetan somatic practices.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction and Instruction
Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an invocation to the Mother Nairātmyā, and the primary visualization instruction regarding the hollow body and the four wheels.
2
Colophon
Attributes the oral instructions to the master Kaṅkālipa.
Themes
Somatic Visualization (1)
Lineage Transmission (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Ṣoḍaśabindubhāvanā-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Thig le bcu drug gi nyams len zhes bya ba (The Practice of the Sixteen Drops). Homage to the Mother Nairātmyā.
Having visualized one’s own body as hollow, one should contemplate the four wheels within the signless avadhūtī. The sixty-four syllables are blessed in the emanation wheel (nirmāṇacakra). The five Sugatas and the goddesses are to be arranged upon the eight-petaled lotus. For the sake of purifying the elements and aggregates, one meditates on the sixteen Sarasvatīs as the enjoyment (saṃbhogacakra). These are doubled at the crown; this is the pith instruction for self-protection.
The sixteen drops blaze intensely; the eight channels are the flow of the drops. Four of them melt into two displays; half of those two is Nairātmyā. This is the count of the half-halves of the sixteen. From ka to ma, there are twenty-five tangible letters. From ya to ha, there are eight untouchable names. The condensed form is the two garlands: the ā-garland and the ka-garland, which should be visualized in the emanation wheel. When warmed by the light of the sun, one should contemplate the three realms being incinerated and melted. Following the sequence of the lunar days, they are expanded by the moon. Once the ḍākinīs and the enjoyments have dissolved into oneself, in an instant, the nature of joy arises. The heroic king, Great Compassion, is born. Through the accomplishment of the perfect union, all obscurations are purified. The yoga of no arising or ceasing is the attainment of the accomplishment of the kaṃkālī (skeleton) self.
Kye ho! O undistracted yogi, practice within your own mind.
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.