Toh 2546 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Maṇḍala Ritual for “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2546
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 065_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ངུ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 2,041 Tibetan characters · 502 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)

This ritual text provides instructions for the construction and visualization of a maṇḍala associated with the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṅgīti (the recitation of the names of Mañjuśrī). The work functions as a liturgical guide, directing the practitioner to transition from the physical preparation of the sacred space to a mental state of compassion and wisdom. It commits the reader to a specific meditative process where material elements, such as colored powders, are conceptually transformed into the nature of wisdom. The text outlines the necessary spatial arrangement of deities, beginning with the central ground-Buddha Ratnasambhava, to establish a ritual environment free from obstacles. By linking the physical act of maṇḍala creation with the internal cultivation of bodhicitta and wisdom, the text aims to facilitate a structured environment for the recitation of the deity's names.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual guide for the construction and visualization of a maṇḍala, the Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṃgītimaṇḍalavidhi belongs to the tradition of the Yoga Tantra Treatises. The work is attributed to the Indian author Mañjuśrīmitra. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume ངུ, under the Tibetan title 'phags pa 'jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa'i dkyil 'khor gyi cho ga. Spanning two pages in this edition, the work enacts a liturgical process that transforms the physical preparation of a sacred space into a meditative exercise. It directs the practitioner to visualize colored powders as the nature of wisdom and to arrange deities around the central ground-Buddha Ratnasambhava, thereby establishing an environment free from obstacles. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to understand the specific spatial and conceptual requirements for the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṅgīti, observing how the physical act of maṇḍala creation is linked to the internal cultivation of compassion and wisdom.

Sanskrit title: Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṃgītimaṇḍalavidhi
Indian author: Mañjuśrīmitra
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Yoga Tantra Treatises
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ངུ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Maṇḍala Ritual for “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”” (Toh 2546), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2546

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it demonstrates the integration of Indian tantric maṇḍala traditions with Tibetan ritual practice. It illustrates the technical process of transforming material substances into spiritual symbols to support the cultivation of wisdom. For the modern reader, it provides insight into the precise intersection of visualization and physical ritual in the Mañjuśrī tradition.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Provides the title of the work in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers initial homages.
2	Ritual Instructions	Details the preparation of the maṇḍala, the visualization of powders as wisdom, and the arrangement of the deities.

Themes

Ritual Visualization (2)
Compassion and Wisdom (2)
Sacred Space Construction (2)

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

AnuvādaA Maṇḍala Ritual for “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྱ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་ནཱ་མ་སངྒཱི་ཏི་མཎྜ་ལ་བི་དྷི་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ཆོ་ག་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཉོན་མོངས་ནད་ཀྱིས་གཟིར་བའི་འགྲོ་བ་ལ། ། ཟུག་རྔུ་འབྱིན་མཛད་སྨན་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མཆོག། འཇམ་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་དཔའ་དེ་བཏུད་ནས། ། རིན་ཆེན་རིགས་ཀྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཆོ་ག་བཤད། དེ་ལ་འདིར་སེར་སྣའི་གཉེན་པོར་སངས་རྒྱས་རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་གྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བྱེད་པར་འདོད་པས། ཇི་ལྟར་སྨྲས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་བྱེད་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དབང་བསྐུར་བ་ཐོབ་པས་རི་བོའམ་ཆུ་ཀླུང་དུ་འབྱོར་པ་དང་ལྡན་པར་བྱས་ཏེ། དུས་ཚོད་བཟང་པོ་ལ་བསྙེན་པའི་ཁང་པར་ཞུགས་ལ་ཤེས་རབ་དང་སྙིང་རྗེ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བློ་བསྐྱེད་དེ། ། གདན་འབོལ་བ་ལ་འདུག་ཅིང་མདུན་གྱི་བྱ་བ་བྱས་ནས་དེ་ཐག་ཏུ་མ་རུངས་པ་འདུལ་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དྲན་པར་བྱས་ལ་བར་ཆོད་བསལ་ཏེ། ནམ་མཁའི་དབྱིངས་སུ་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལ་བལྟས་ལ། དེའི་མདུན་དུ་ལུས་ངག་གི་དྲི་མ་བསལ་ལ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅིང་སྡོམ་པ་བླངས་ནས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་དྲན་པའི་དབྱིངས་སུ་སྐར་མ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཡི་གེའི་ཕྲེང་བ་བལྟས་ཏེ། དེ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་ཁང་པ་དང་། གཞིའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་བསྐྱེད་པ་དང་། སྦྱོར་བ་དང་པོ་དང་། དེ་དང་ཆ་མཐུན་པའི་སེམས་དཔས་བསྐོར་བ་ནི་ཨ་ལས་ངེས་པར་བྱུང་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་རྒྱལ་མཆོག་དང་། དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མཚན་བརྗོད་པའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་སྤྲོ་བའི་ལས་རྒྱལ་མཆོག་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱའོ། །

In the language of India: Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṅgītimaṇḍalavidhināma. In the language of Tibet: ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa’i dkyil ’khor gyi cho ga zhes bya ba (The Ritual of the Maṇḍala of the Noble Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṅgīti). Homage to Mañjuśrī, the Youthful! To the supreme King of Physicians who extracts the thorns of pain for beings tormented by the diseases of the afflictions, I bow to that Mañjuśrī, the Wisdom Being, and shall explain the ritual of the maṇḍala of the Jewel Family. In this regard, one who wishes to perform the maṇḍala of the Buddha Ratnasambhava as an antidote to avarice should be a person who has received empowerment and acts exactly as instructed. Having prepared a suitable location, such as a mountain or a riverbank, and having entered a retreat house at an auspicious time, one should generate a mind endowed with insight and compassion. Sitting on a soft cushion and having performed the preliminary activities, one should immediately call to mind the King who subdues the malevolent and clear away obstacles. Looking toward the maṇḍala in the expanse of space, one should purify the stains of body and speech before it, generate the bodhicitta, and take the vows. Then, within the expanse of recollecting emptiness, one should visualize a garland of letters like stars. From these, one should meditate on the arising of the palace, the generation of the foundational Buddha Ratnasambhava, the first application, and the surrounding Bodhisattvas of a similar nature. This is the Supreme King of Maṇḍalas arising from the letter A. Then, one should meditate on the Supreme King of Activities, the emanation of the Buddha’s bodies arising from the blessings of reciting their names.

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.

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

homonymཉོན་མོངས is rendered “affliction” here; the glossary also records afflictions, defilement, afflictive emotion for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཉོན་མོངས “affliction” — The essentially pure nature of mind is obscured and afflicted by various psychological defilements, which destroy the mind’s peace and composure and lead to unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind, acting as causes f

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

periodདབྱིངས → “expanse”. In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.

definitionསྟོང་པ་ཉིད “emptiness” — Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intr

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཉོན་མོངས → affliction

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

དེ་ལྟར་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཉེ་བར་གྱུར་ནས་གཞན་གྱི་དོན་དུ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཤར་ཏེ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བར་ཆད་མེད་པའི་གནས་སུ་བྱས་ལ། རྡུལ་ཚོན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དུ་མོས་ལ། ལྷ་དགོད་པ་ནི་གཞིའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཙོ་བོ་རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་ལས། དེ་དང་ཆ་མཐུན་པའི་སེམས་དཔའ་བཞི་དང་། སྒེག་མོ་ལ་སོགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་བ་བཀོད་ལ། ཁྱམས་སུ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས་དགོད། སྒོ་མ་བཞི་སྒོ་བཞིར་བྲིས་ཏེ། ལེགས་པར་ཟིན་པ་དང་མཆོད་པ་ཡང་རྒྱས་པར་ཕུལ་ཏེ། བསྟོད་པས་བསྟོད་ནས་བུམ་པ་གཞུག་ཅིང་ལྷ་རྣམས་དབང་བསྐུར་བས་བདག་ཉིད་བསྒྲུབས་ལ། གཞན་གྱི་དོན་དུ་སློབ་མ་མེ་ཏོག་ཐོགས་པས་སྡོམ་པ་འཛིན་པར་ནུས་པ་ལ་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བསྟན་ཏེ། དེ་ནས་དབང་བསྐུར་ནས་སླར་ཡང་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལ་མཆོད་དེ། བཟོད་པར་གསོལ་ཞིང་བཤགས་པ་བྱ་བ་དང་། ལྷ་རྣམས་བསྡུ་ཞིང་སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཅི་བདེར་བྱའོ། ། སེར་སྣ་རྣམ་དག་རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་། ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཆོ་ག་བསྡུས་པ་ལས། ། དགེ་བ་བསགས་པར་གང་གྱུར་པ། ། རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་ཉིད་ཐོབ་ཤོག། ། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་འཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་གྱིས་མཛད་པ། རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་དབུགས་དབྱུང་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ཆོ་ག་རྫོགས་སོ། །

Thus, once the maṇḍala has been prepared, compassion arises for the sake of others. Having established the maṇḍala as a place free from obstacles, one should visualize the colored powders as being of the nature of wisdom. As for the arrangement of the deities: from the central ground-Buddha Ratnasambhava, one should arrange the four Bodhisattvas who correspond to him, surrounded by the eight goddesses such as Lāsyā and the rest. In the courtyard, one should arrange the Bodhisattvas of the Fortunate Aeon. The four female gatekeepers should be drawn at the four gates. Once this is well completed, extensive offerings should be presented. After praising them with hymns, the vases should be inserted, and having empowered the deities, one accomplishes oneself. Then, for the sake of others, the maṇḍala is shown to a disciple who is able to take the vows while holding a flower. After that, having conferred the empowerment, one again makes offerings to the maṇḍala, requests forbearance, and performs confession. The deities are then dissolved, and one may engage in whatever conduct is appropriate. From the Abridged Ritual of the Maṇḍala of the Purification of Avarice, Ratnasambhava, whatever merit has been accumulated, may the state of Ratnasambhava himself be attained! This concludes the Ritual of the Ratnasambhava Empowerment Maṇḍala, composed by the great master Mañjuśrīmitra.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: praise

termདཀྱིལ་འཁོར → maṇḍala

termཐུགས་རྗེ → compassion

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termལྷ → god

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termམཆོད་པ → offering

Terminology used in this text (13)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར	maṇḍala	2
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	2	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཉོན་མོངས	affliction	1
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
དབྱིངས	expanse	1	In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	1
ཐུགས་རྗེ	compassion	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
མཆོད་པ	offering	1
བསྟོད་པ	praise	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 065_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ངུ.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.

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