Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a ritual manual, or sādhana, designed to guide the practitioner through a purification process centered on the deity Vajrasattva. The work functions as a prescriptive guide, initiating the practitioner with the necessary physical posture and the generation of bodhicitta before moving into a specific visualization sequence. The text commits the reader to a mental discipline of purification, requiring them to visualize the externalization of accumulated negative karma—specifically the five crimes of immediate retribution—as soot exiting the body through the soles of the feet. By transforming the physical body into a transparent, crystal-like state, the practitioner aims to achieve a state of purity. The structure follows a standard liturgical progression from preparatory vows to the active visualization of cleansing, establishing a psychological and spiritual framework for the removal of karmic obstructions.
Provenance
About this text
A sādhana centered on the deity Vajrasattva, the Vajrasattvasādhananāmā belongs to the tradition of the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The work is attributed to the Indian author Vajrāsanaguru. It was translated into the Tibetan language by lo tsa ba shakya’i dge slong nyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where it extends over two pages. As a ritual manual, the work enacts a prescriptive process of purification. It guides the practitioner from the initial physical posture and the generation of bodhicitta through a specific visualization sequence in which accumulated misdeeds, including the five crimes of immediate retribution, are imagined as soot exiting the soles of the feet. This process transforms the body into a transparent, crystal-like state, followed by the presentation of offerings and the recitation of the hundred-syllable mantra. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan text today to examine the liturgical progression of purification and the mental disciplines required to achieve a state of purity through the externalization of negative karma.
Sanskrit title
Vajrasattvasādhananāmā
Indian author
Vajrāsanaguru
Tibetan translators
lo tsa ba shakya’i dge slong nyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po
This work is representative of the purification rituals central to Vajrayana Buddhism, where the visualization of Vajrasattva is used to cleanse the practitioner's stream of consciousness. For a modern reader, it illustrates the intersection of somatic posture, ethical intent, and imaginative visualization in Tibetan ritual technology.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Preparations
Instructions on physical posture and the generation of bodhicitta.
2
Purification Visualization
Guidance on visualizing the removal of negative karma and the transformation of the body into a transparent state.
Themes
Purification of negative karma (2)
Bodhicitta (1)
Visualization (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Vajrasattvasādhananāma. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje sems dpa’i sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of Vajrasattva). Homage to the glorious Vajrasattva!
First, having sat upon a comfortable seat in the cross-legged posture, one should first generate the bodhicitta, thinking: "I shall liberate all sentient beings from the suffering of saṃsāra and establish them on the levels of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas." Following that, while remaining in one's ordinary state, one visualizes above the crown of one's head a white lotus arising from the syllable paṃ. Above that is a full moon maṇḍala arising from the syllable aṃ. Above that, from the complete transformation of a white hūṃ, appears the glorious Vajrasattva, white in color and radiating five-colored light rays. He is adorned with various precious ornaments and beautified by the thirty-two major marks and eighty minor signs. His right hand holds a vajra at his heart, and his left holds a bell at his waist. He sits in a graceful posture, with his right leg slightly extended, the big toe touching the aperture of Brahma (brahmarandhra) of the practitioner.
One should visualize that at his heart, upon a moon disc, is the syllable hūṃ surrounded by the hundred-syllable mantra. From that, light radiates out, drawing a stream of nectar like milk from the hearts of the Tathāgatas residing in Akaniṣṭha. This nectar enters the heart of Vajrasattva, passes through the opening of his big toe, and enters the practitioner's own aperture of Brahma. One should then imagine that the entire body is filled with this deathless nectar.
One should imagine that all the misdeeds accumulated since beginningless lifetimes, such as the five crimes of immediate retribution, emerge from the soles of the feet like soot, and visualize the body as being as transparent as pure crystal, clearly visible both inside and out. Then, one should present offerings, either in actuality or mentally. Next, one should recite the hundred-syllable mantra exactly and purely. Then, one should imagine that from the mouth of the glorious Vajrasattva, he says, "O son of noble family, all your misdeeds are purified," and that he dissolves into oneself. One should understand that one has become the supreme among all those possessing power. This concludes the Sādhana of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra of the Glorious Vajrasattva, the method for purifying all paths, composed by the clairvoyant Guru Vajrāsana. It was translated with devotion by the Central Tibetan translator, the Śākya monk Nyima Gyaltsen Palzangpo, at the great temple of glorious Tharpa Ling, exactly according to the manuscript from the Middle Country.
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.