Toh 2417 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Method of Cultivating Supreme Yoga

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2417
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.txt
Extent: 1 passages · 1,005 Tibetan characters · 273 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)

The Method of Cultivating Supreme Yoga (Atiyoga-bhāvanā-nāma) is a technical manual focused on the meditative practices of Atiyoga. Based on the provided fragment, the text opens with a traditional invocation to Mañjuśrī and immediately establishes a ritual landscape centered on the eight charnel grounds and the eight Bhairavas. The text employs esotericism and apocalyptic imagery, specifically the fire of the end of time, to frame the practitioner's environment. By situating the meditation within these volatile and liminal spaces, the work commits the reader to a practice of transformation that utilizes the destructive forces of the charnel ground to incinerate conventional perceptions. The text is structured as a guided meditation or ritual instruction, moving from the identification of sacred geography to the activation of specific tantric deities.

Provenance

About this text

A treatise on the meditative practices of Atiyoga, the Atiyogabhāvanā is attributed to the Indian author Nāgabodhi. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the work is found in the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where it comprises two pages and is categorized within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. Under the Tibetan title a ti rnal 'byor gyi sgom pa'i thabs/, the text enacts a ritualized meditation that begins with an invocation to Mañjuśrī and establishes a landscape of eight charnel grounds inhabited by eight Bhairavas. It employs apocalyptic imagery, such as the fire of the end of time and the drying of the ocean, to frame a transformative practice that utilizes destructive forces to incinerate conventional perceptions. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine how the text moves from the identification of sacred geography to the activation of specific tantric deities, providing a technical manual for the practitioner to navigate volatile and liminal spaces.

Sanskrit title: Atiyogabhāvanā
Indian author: Nāgabodhi
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཟི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Method of Cultivating Supreme Yoga” (Toh 2417), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2417

Summary & commentary

Significance

This work is significant as it represents the intersection of Atiyoga philosophy and the ritualized environment of the charnel ground. It illustrates the use of Bhairava iconography and apocalyptic motifs to facilitate a rapid transition to a non-dual state of awareness.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Setting	Contains the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, an invocation to Mañjuśrī, and the establishment of the ritual setting involving the eight Bhairavas and the fire of the end of time.

Themes

Ritual Geography (1)
Apocalyptic Imagery (1)
Atiyoga Meditation (1)

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

AnuvādaThe Method of Cultivating Supreme Yoga·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་ག་བྷཱ་བ་ན་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཨ་ཏི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་སྒོམ་པའི་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། དུར་ཁྲོད་བརྒྱད་ལ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་བརྒྱད། ། དུས་མཐའི་མེ་འབར་ཁམས་གསུམ་བསྲེག། ཚངས་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་དུ་བ་འཐུལ། ། རྒྱ་མཚོ་བསྐམས་ཤིང་པདྨ་འབར། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཟེ་འབྲུའི་དབུས་སུ་ནི། ། ཉི་མའི་གདན་སྟེང་གནས་པ་དེ། ། ནམ་མཁའི་འོད་ཆེན་ཧཱུཾ་ཉིད་སྒྲོགས། ། མཛེས་པའི་སེམས་ཉིད་རྒྱུ་བ་ཡིན། ། རུས་སྦལ་འཐེན་ཅིང་སྒྲ་སྐད་འབྱུང་། ། རི་བོང་ཅན་གྱིས་མདུད་པ་བཀྲོལ། ། ཉམས་མྱོང་དཔའ་བོ་རང་རིག་རྒྱལ། ། ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་འཇིགས་པའི་བདག། མགོན་པོ་ཉིད་ནི་བསམ་པར་གྱིས། ། དེ་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་འཕྲོ། ། དེ་ཉིད་དུར་ཁྲོད་མེ་ཡིན་ཏེ། ། དེ་ཉིད་སྨྲ་དང་ཟླ་རྒྱུན་འཛག། སྐྱེ་རྒ་ཤི་དང་ཁམས་གསུམ་གནས། ། རང་ཉིད་དྲན་ཏེ་དེ་ཉིད་མཐོང་། ། འདི་ནི་གཉིས་མེད་དབྱིབས་དང་བྲལ། ། དངོས་པོའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྫུན་པ་སྟེ། ། སེམས་ཉིད་འཁྲུལ་པས་མ་རྟོགས་སོ། ། ཨ་ཏིའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རིག་པ་མེད། ། ཇི་ལྟར་བཞག་པ་དེ་ལྟར་ཡིན། ། གཉིས་མེད་སེམས་ལ་རྟག་ལྟ་དང་། ། ཆད་པར་འགྱུར་བ་འང་མ་ཡིན་ནོ། ། དེ་ཕྱིར་ཉི་ཟླའི་དབུས་སུ་ནི། ། ཕྲ་བའི་ཧཱུཾ་ཉིད་བསྒོམ་པར་གྱིས། ། ཨ་ཏི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་བསྒོམ་པའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཀླུའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

In the language of India: Atiyoga-bhāvanā-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Ati rnal ’byor gyi sgom pa’i thabs zhes bya ba (The Method of Meditation on Atiyoga). Homage to the noble Mañjuśrī! In the eight charnel grounds are the eight Bhairavas. The fire of the end of time blazes, incinerating the three realms. From the aperture of Brahmā, smoke billows forth. The ocean dries up and the lotus blazes. In the center of the vajra anthers, resting upon a sun-disc seat, is the great light of space, the resonance of the syllable Hūṃ itself. It is the movement of the beautiful nature of mind. The turtle is drawn in and the sound arises. The hare-marked moon unties the knot. The hero of experience, the king of self-awareness, is the coemergent lord of fear. One should contemplate the Protector himself. From that, the maṇḍala of compassion radiates. That itself is the fire of the charnel ground; that itself is the speech and the flowing stream of the moon. Birth, aging, death, and the three realms abide therein. By recollecting oneself, that very reality is seen. This is non-dual and devoid of shape. The magical displays of entities are false; they are not realized due to the delusion of the nature of mind. In the Atiyoga, there is no [ordinary] knowledge. However it is left, so it is. In the non-dual mind, there is neither the view of permanence nor the view of nihilism. Therefore, in the center of the sun and moon, one should meditate on the subtle Hūṃ itself. The Instruction on the Meditation of Atiyoga, composed by the master Nāgabodhi, is complete.

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.

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 ).

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

homonymདཀྱིལ་འཁོར is rendered “maṇḍala” here; the glossary also records inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདཀྱིལ་འཁོར “maṇḍala” — A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pant

periodརིག་པ → “knowledge”. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

homonymརིག་པ is rendered “knowledge” here; the glossary also records awareness, spell, incantation for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionརིག་པ “knowledge” — This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In ta

terminologyཀླུ → “nāga”. Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

definitionཀླུ “nāga” — A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be ass

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termམེ → fire

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termཀླུ → nāga

Terminology used in this text (6)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
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
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
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	1
རིག་པ	knowledge	1	'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge'
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.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.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI