Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for a specific deity yoga practice centered on the recitation of the names of Mañjuśrī. The work guides the practitioner through a structured visualization process, beginning with the mental construction of the deity's four-armed form—characterized by the sword of insight, the Prajñāpāramitā sutra, and a bow and arrow—and the generation of divine pride through the phrase ātmako ’ham. The practice involves complex mandala visualization, including the arrangement of vowels and a six-spoked wheel containing specific mantras. The ritual culminates in a light-based meditation where the practitioner pervades all world systems and merges the gathered tathāgatas into the heart center. By committing to this sequence of discipline and visualization, the practitioner is promised a direct vision of the deity in space. The text attributes its lineage to the oral instructions of Līlavajra and Mañjuśrīkīrti, positioning the practice within a specific tantric transmission.
Provenance
About this text
A sādhana for the practice of the Noble Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti, the Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṃgītisādhanopāyikā belongs to the Yoga Tantra Treatises. This classical Tibetan work is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཅུ, where it extends over four pages. The text enacts a detailed liturgical process of deity yoga, guiding the practitioner through the visualization of a four-armed deity who wields the sword and bow of insight and holds a volume of the Prajñāpāramitā. Through the generation of divine pride and the invitation of the wisdom-being, the practitioner constructs a complex mandala featuring a six-spoked wheel and specific mantras. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the precise ritual mechanics of the Mañjuśrī tradition, specifically the integration of mantra recitation with the mental architecture of the mandala and the visualization of the deity's attributes.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Sādhana of “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”” (Toh 2600), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2600
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as it illustrates the intersection of mantra recitation and complex visualization in Indo-Tibetan tantric practice. It demonstrates how the pursuit of wisdom is ritualized through the embodiment of Mañjuśrī. The mention of Līlavajra and Mañjuśrīkīrti suggests the text belongs to a specific lineage of transmission intended to preserve the efficacy of the nirmāṇakāya Jñānasattva.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Introduction and Visualization
Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, homage, and the detailed physical description of Mañjuśrī for visualization.
3
Mandala and Mantra Construction
Details the arrangement of the root mantra, the twelve vowels, and the six-spoked wheel.
4
Light Meditation and Integration
Describes the process of illuminating all realms and merging the tathāgatas into the heart center.
5
Conclusion and Lineage
States the expected result of the practice and identifies the sources of the oral instructions.
Themes
Deity Yoga and Divine Pride (2)
Tantric Visualization and Geometry (3)
Universal Illumination (4)
Lineage and Oral Transmission (5)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Sādhana of “The Recitation of the Names of Mañjuśrī”·
In the language of India: Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṃgītinopika. In the language of Tibet: ’Phags pa ’jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa’i sgrub thabs (The Sādhana of the Noble Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti). Homage to Lokeśvara!
I bow to the King of Secret Mantra, who wields the sword and bow of insight, the Uncaused Primordial Buddha, possessing five faces and five topknots.
First, the practitioner, having received empowerment and being endowed with the samaya, should sit in a pleasing location. At dawn, having purified the mouth and the doorways, one should visualize the syllable Mūṃ upon a moon disc at the heart. With light rays, one invites the Guru and the perfectly enlightened Buddhas, performs prostrations, makes offerings, rejoices, requests the turning of the wheel of Dharma, and supplicates them not to pass into parinirvāṇa, and then dedicates the roots of virtue.
Thereafter, one should meditate on love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Following that, one meditates on emptiness, focusing on the meaning of this mantra: Oṃ śūnyatā-jñāna-vajra-svabhāvātmako ’haṃ. Through this focus, one meditates on all phenomena as being like an illusion.
Then, from the syllable Hrīḥ, one visualizes a red lotus seat, and upon that, from the syllable A, a moon seat. In the center, one should visualize a pale red syllable Mūṃ emitting and absorbing a mass of light rays. From that becoming a bindu, the Jñānasattva appears, white in color like a pure white cloud, seated in the vajra posture.
He has four arms; the two at the right and left strike with beautiful swords and hold a volume of the Prajñāpāramitā. The two below hold a bow and arrow. He is adorned with the ornaments of a youth. Having visualized him in that way, one should recite ātmako ’ham and generate the divine pride. Following that, the wisdom-being (jñānasattva) is invited by light rays from the heart, seated upon a lotus and moon arising from the syllables, and thoroughly worshipped with a multitude of offerings; then, one should merge him inseparably with oneself. At the heart, throat, forehead, and crown, one seals [the deity] with a vajra, lotus, jewel, and crossed vajra. Light rays from the heart pervade space, invoking the Tathāgatas, who then bestow empowerment through a stream of nectar via a host of goddesses, and grant the empowerment of the five Buddha crowns together with silk streamers. In the heart of that [deity], upon a moon maṇḍala, the syllable hrīḥ completely transforms into the Primordial Buddha (Ādibuddha), white in color, with five faces and eight arms, seated in the vajra posture with two legs, adorned with all the ornaments of a child, and wearing garments of various jewels. In his four right hands are beautiful swords, and in his four left hands are volumes of the Prajñāpāramitā. In his heart, he holds the Wheel of Wisdom (prajñācakra), which has six tongues and six colors, surrounded by four rims. One should visualize a white syllable a at its hub; light radiates from it, pervading the entire realm of sentient beings in the ten directions.
Reassembling, they dissolve into that very [maṇḍala], and the root mantra should be arranged: OṂ SARVA DHARMĀ ABHĀVA SVABHĀVA VIŚUDDHA VAJRA A Ā AṂ AḤ. On the outer rim, the twelve vowels should be arranged. Outside of that is a six-spoked wheel: on the first spoke, OṂ VAJRA TĪKṢṆĀYA TE NĀMA; on the second, OṂ DUḤKHA CCHEDĀYA TE NĀMA; on the third, OṂ PRAJÑĀ JÑĀNAMŪRTAYE TE NĀMA; on the fourth, OṂ JÑĀNA KĀYĀYA TE NĀMA; on the fifth, OṂ VĀGĪŚVARĀYA TE NĀMA; and on the sixth, OṂ ARA PACANĀYA TE NĀMA. On the first outer rim, the garland mantra of the wisdom being (jñānasattva) should be arranged, from "SARVA TATHĀGATA HṚDAYA" up to "JÑĀNAGARBHA ĀḤ." On the final outer rim, the consonants from the letter KA to the end of HA should be arranged.
Visualizing it thus at the heart, from the center of that wheel, generated from the letter A, one should visualize the Blessed One Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva with six faces, white like the autumn moon, with a crown of sapphire, surrounded by a light like the rising sun, possessing a peaceful disposition. With his two hands, he holds a red and a blue utpala flower, beautified by the volumes of the Prajñāpāramitā, held respectively in the right and left hands. Adorned with all ornaments, he sits in the vajra posture. At his heart is a moon maṇḍala, in the center of which the letter A is placed. From that, light rays radiate, and light rays radiate according to the colors of the mantra of the wheel.
Having pervaded oneself and all world systems, all buddhafields become clear and all realms of sentient beings are illuminated. The light then gathers all the tathāgatas back, circles oneself three times, and merges into one with the mantra and the moon at the heart. In the manner of the blazing fire of insight and wisdom, one should meditate firmly on selflessness. In this way, the mantra recitation will be completed. Furthermore, the mantra recitation and the reading of the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṃgīti should also be performed repeatedly according to that sequence. During the intervals between sessions, the wisdom being (jñānasattva) should be requested to depart, and the generation stage should be dissolved into oneself. Then, arising in the deity yoga of non-referentiality, all activities—such as the maṇḍala, torma offerings, fire rituals, offerings, and the recitation of sūtras, as well as stūpa activities, the six perfections such as generosity, and all conduct of body and speech—should be applied in the manner of an illusion, endowed with deity yoga. Food and so forth should be consecrated with mantra as the great nectar, naturally pure, and then consumed to satisfy. When seeking an external bath, one should wash with the naturally pure empowerment ritual. When sleeping, one should sleep having entered into meditative equipoise in the expanse of phenomena (dharmadhātu). When rising, one should do so through the stages of the form body (rūpakāya).
Whoever meditates in this manner will, through the power of discipline, see that very [deity] dwelling in the center of space before long. This sādhana of the nirmāṇakāya Jñānasattva, this sequence of the guru’s oral instructions from the tantras, from Līlavajra, and from Mañjuśrīkīrti, was written by me out of devotion to this [teaching] after I obtained these oral instructions on the yoga of the māyājāla of awakening from the holy Danasrīvajra, who was established by the secret-named Vajra. Through this, may all beings become Jñānasattvas. The sādhana of the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti is complete.
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.