Toh 2607 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Vajrabhairava Sādhana

Machine translation from the Tibetan by MITRA-QWEN · no human review

2 passages · 1,797 Tibetan characters · 455 English words · 2026 machine draft Read ↓

This text is a sādhana, a liturgical manual for the ritual practice of the deity Vajrabhairava. It begins with a formal invocation and homage to Mañjuvajra, establishing the deity's role as a wrathful force capable of subduing malevolent influences and deceptive māras. The text then transitions into a detailed iconographic description, specifying the implements held in the deity's six pairs of hands, including the skull-topped staff, vajra, bow, arrow, sword, crossed vajra, and spear. By detailing the radiation of wrathful deities associated with the four immeasurables, the text commits the practitioner to a precise visualization process. The work functions as a guide for the practitioner to mentally construct the deity's form and attributes, shifting from devotional praise to the technical requirements of meditative visualization.

About this text · details, context, rights

Genre: Sādhana
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 066
Extent: 2 passages · 1,797 Tibetan characters · 455 English words
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

Provenance

About this text

A sādhana for the ritual practice of Vajrabhairava, the Vajrabhairavasādhana belongs to the Yoga Tantra Treatises. The work is attributed to the Indian author Aśokaśrī. It was translated into the Tibetan language by Dharmaśrīmitra and the lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཅུ, where it extends over two pages. As a classical Tibetan text, it enacts a precise meditative process, beginning with homage to Mañjuvajra and moving into the visualization of a wrathful, buffalo-faced deity. The practitioner is guided to envision a figure with six faces and six arms wielding specific implements—including a skull-topped staff, vajra, bow, arrow, sword, crossed vajra, and spear—while visualizing the radiation of wrathful deities of the four immeasurables. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the technical requirements of deity yoga, specifically the transition from devotional praise to the detailed iconographic construction of the deity's form and attributes.

Sanskrit title: Vajrabhairavasādhana
Indian author: Aśokaśrī
Tibetan translators: Dharmaśrīmitra, lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po
Canonical collection: Yoga Tantra Treatises
Genre: Sādhana
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཅུ
Period: classical Tibetan

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84000 catalogue entry

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Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as it illustrates the complex iconographic requirements of Anuttarayoga Tantra practices. It demonstrates how wrathful deities are utilized in the Indo-Tibetan tradition to transform obstructive mental states. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of the intersection between ritual art and meditative discipline.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation	Provides the title in Sanskrit and Tibetan and offers homage to Mañjuvajra.
2	Iconography	Describes the physical attributes, implements, and emanations of Vajrabhairava for the purpose of meditation.

Themes

Wrathful Subjugation (1)
Ritual Visualization (2)
Deity Iconography (2)

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

AnuvādaA Vajrabhairava Sādhana·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་བྷཻ་ར་བ་སཱ་དྷ་ན་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཇམ་དཔའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། རབ་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་ཤིང་གདུག་པ་འདུལ། ། མ་ལུས་ལོག་པའི་བདུད་འདུལ་བ། ། ཞལ་དང་ཕྱག་དྲུག་མཚོན་ཆ་འཛིན། ། མ་ཧེའི་ཞལ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏེ། ། དེ་ཡི་སྒྲུབ་པའི་རིམ་པ་ཞིག། བདག་གིས་དྲན་ནས་བརྩམ་པར་བྱ། ། དང་པོར་ཡིད་དང་མཐུན་པའི་གནས་སུ་བདག་ཉིད་ཁྲུས་བྱས་ཏེ་སྟན་བདེ་བ་ལ་འདུག་ནས། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་བྷཻ་ར་ཝ་ཛྭ་ལ་ཛྭ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པས་ལུས་བསྲུངས་ནས། བླ་མ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མཆོད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡང་དག་པར་མཆོད་ནས་སྡིག་པ་བཤགས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་བྱའོ། ། ཨོཾ་ཨ་བྷཱ་བ་སྭ་བྷཱ་བ་བི་ཤུདྡྷ་བཛྲ་ཙཀྵུ་ཨ་ཨཱ་ཨཾ་ཨཿ། ཞེས་བྱ་བས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བསྒོམ་མོ། ། དེ་ནས་བདག་ཉིད་ཡི་གེ་ཨར་གནས་པ་ལས་དེའི་འོད་ཟེར་གྱིས་ཚངས་པ་དང་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་དང་། ཉི་ཟླའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཨ་ཞུ་བ་ཨུཏྤལ་འཁོར་ལོས་མཚན་པ་དེ་ཞུ་བ་ལས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་འཇམ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སྐུ་མདོག་མཐིང་ནག་གཡས་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཡོན་ན་ཨུཏྤལ་འཛིན་པ། གཞོན་ནུའི་ཆ་ལུགས་ལ་རྒྱན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པར་བསམ་མོ། ། དེའི་ཐུགས་ཀ་ན་ཉི་མ་ལ་ཧཱུཾ་གནས་པ་ཅན་དུ་བསམས་ཏེ། ཧཱུཾ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པར་བྱུང་བས་ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཆོད། ། ཚུར་ཧཱུཾ་ལ་ཐིམ་པས། ཞེ་སྡང་གི་སྐུར་གྱུར་པ་ནི། ། ཞལ་དྲུག་ཕྱག་རྣམ་པ་དྲུག་དང་ལྡན་པ། སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ། མ་ཧེའི་ཞལ་ཅན། སྐུ་མདོག་མཐིང་ནག། མི་མགོ་བརྒྱའི་དོ་ཤལ་ཅན། ཞབས་བརྐྱང་བསྐུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པ།

In the language of India: Vajrabhairava-sādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje ’jigs byed kyi sgrub thabs zhes bya ba (The Sādhana of Vajrabhairava). Homage to Mañjuvajra! To the one who is utterly wrathful and subdues the malevolent, who subdues all the deceptive māras without exception, who possesses six faces and six arms and wields weapons—to the buffalo-faced one, I prostrate. I shall compose a sequence for his sādhana, having recalled it from memory. First, in a place that is agreeable to the mind, one should bathe and sit upon a comfortable seat. Having protected the body with the mantra: oṃ vajrabhairava jvala jvala hūṃ, and having made perfect offerings to the Guru and the Three Jewels, one should perform the confession of misdeeds and so forth. With the mantra: oṃ abhāva svabhāva viśuddha vajracakṣu a ā aṃ aḥ, one meditates on emptiness (śūnyatā). Then, from oneself abiding as the syllable a, its light rays [emanate]. Upon Brahmā and Śakra, and upon the sun and moon, the a melts into an utpala flower marked by a wheel. From the melting of that, one visualizes the Blessed One known as Mañjuvajra, with a dark blue body, holding a vajra in the right hand and an utpala in the left, in the form of a youth adorned with ornaments. Visualize that at his heart, upon a sun disk, the syllable hūṃ abides. From the continuous sound of hūṃ, all the Buddhas of the ten directions are honored. As they dissolve back into the hūṃ, one transforms into the form of Wrath, possessing six faces and six arms, of great power, with the face of a buffalo, a dark blue body, a necklace of a hundred human heads, and standing with legs in the extended and contracted posture.

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.

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.

homonymབརྒྱ་བྱིན is rendered “Śakra” here; the glossary also records Śatakratu, Indra for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

homonymབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས is rendered “the Blessed One” here; the glossary also records blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

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.

Terms and glossary notes (15)

definitionསྒྲུབ་ཐབས “sādhana” — Derived from the Sanskrit verb √sādh , “to accomplish,” the term sādhana most generically refers to any method that brings about the accomplishment of a desired goal.

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

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.

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.

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.

definitionབརྒྱ་བྱིན “Śakra” — A common epithet of Indra, the lord of the gods , who dwells on the summit of Mount Sumeru and wields the thunderbolt.

terminologyབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → “the Blessed One”. 84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

definitionབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས “the Blessed One” — In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in…

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.

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབླ་མ → guru

termམཆོད་པ → offering

termསྟོང་པ་ཉིད → emptiness

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

ཕྱག་དྲུག་གཡས་གཡོན་གྱི་དང་པོ་ཀེང་རུས་ཀྱི་དབྱུག་པ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྣམས་པ། གཡས་གཡོན་གྱི་བར་པ་ན་མདའ་གཞུ་དང་རལ་གྲི། ཐ་མ་ན་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང་མདུང་བསྣམས་པའོ། ། དེ་ལས་ཚད་མེད་པ་བཞིའི་ཁྲོ་བོ་འཕྲོ་བ་ཅན་ནོ། ། ཞབས་བཞི་བརྐྱང་བསྐུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པ་བསྒོམ། དེའི་ཐུགས་ཀར་ཉི་མའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཧཱུཾ་བསམས་ལ། སྤྱན་དྲངས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྫོགས་པ་དང་གསང་སྔགས་བཟླས་པ་ནི། ཨོཾ་ཧྲཱིཿཥྚྲཱྀཿཝི་ཀྲི་ཏཱ་ན་ན་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པའམ། ཨོཾ་དུཿཁ་ཙྪེ་ད་ཧཱུཾ་ཧཱུཾ། ཞེས་པ་བཟླས་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ནས་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྟོད་དོ། ། གཏོར་མ་བཏང་ནས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ་ཏེ་ལྡང་བར་བྱའོ། ། བདག་གིས་དགེ་བ་འདི་བྱས་པས། ། བླ་མེད་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག། རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་སློབ་དཔོན་ཨ་ཤྭ་ཀ་ཤྲཱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། པཎྜི་ཏ་དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་མི་ཏྲ་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

The first of the six right and left hands hold a skull-topped staff and a vajra; the middle right and left hands hold a bow and arrow and a sword; and the final right and left hands hold a crossed vajra and a spear. From him, wrathful deities of the four immeasurables radiate. Meditate on him standing with four legs in the posture of one leg extended and one tucked. At his heart, visualize a HŪṂ upon a sun disk. Once the invitation and so forth are complete, recite the secret mantra: OṂ HRĪḤ ṢṬRĪḤ VIKṚTĀNANA HŪṂ HŪṂ, or OṂ DUḤKHA-CCHEDA HŪṂ HŪṂ. Then, offer praise by way of his names. After presenting the torma, request the deities to depart and arise from the meditation. "By this virtue I have performed, may I attain unsurpassed enlightenment." This concludes the Sādhana of Vajrabhairava composed by the master Aśvakaśrī. It was translated by the Paṇḍita Dharmashrimitra and the translator Chökyi Zangpo.

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

homonymགཏོར་མ is rendered “offering cake” here; the glossary also records Bali, oblation, bali offering for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

Terms and glossary notes (8)

terminologyགཏོར་མ → “offering cake”. 'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

definitionགཏོར་མ “offering cake” — Bali wrested control of the world from the devas , establishing a period of peace and prosperity with no caste distinction. Indra requested Viṣṇu to use his wiles so that the devas could gain the world back from him.

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti .

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: offering…

termགཏོར་མ → offering cake

termསྒྲུབ་ཐབས → sādhana

termཆོས → dharma

Terminology used in this text (11)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
སྒྲུབ་ཐབས	sādhana	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
བླ་མ	guru	1
མཆོད་པ	offering	1
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད	emptiness	1
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
བརྒྱ་བྱིན	Śakra	1
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
གཏོར་མ	offering cake	1	'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Vajrabhairava Sādhana” (Toh 2607), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2607

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 066. 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