Toh 2608 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Kālayamāri Sādhana

2 passages · 1,396 Tibetan characters · 344 English words · 2026 machine draft Read ↓

This fragmentary text is a ritual manual, or sādhana, dedicated to the deity Kālayamāri (the Black Enemy of Yama), a form of Yamāntaka. The work functions as a liturgical guide designed to facilitate a specific meditative and ritual process aimed at overcoming wrong views through the invocation of an intensely wrathful manifestation of wisdom. The provided passages encompass the ritual's framing: it begins with a formal title in Sanskrit and Tibetan, followed by an opening prostration to the deity. The text then leaps to the concluding phase of the ceremony, which involves the recitation of names, the offering of torma, and the formal request for the deities to depart. By engaging with this text, the practitioner commits to a structured sequence of praise and offering intended to generate merit for the benefit of all sentient beings, ultimately framing the ritual act as a means of spiritual liberation.

About this text · details, context, rights
Genre
Sādhana
Period
classical Tibetan
Edition
Tengyur vol. 066
Extent
2 passages · 1,396 Tibetan characters · 344 English words
Rights
Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

Provenance

About this text

A ritual manual for the practice of the Black Enemy of Yama, the Kālayamārisādhana belongs to the genre of sādhana and is situated within the Yoga Tantra Treatises. The work is attributed to the Indian author Aśokaśrī. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the efforts of the translators Dharmaśrīmitra and lo tsa ba chos kyi bzang po, and is preserved in the classical Tibetan period within volume ཅུ of the Tengyur, where it extends over two pages. The text enacts a liturgical process centered on the deity Kālayamāri, a wrathful manifestation of wisdom and compassion. Through prostrations, the recitation of names, and the offering of torma, the practitioner seeks to cut through wrong views and generate immeasurable merit for the benefit of wandering beings. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine the structured sequence of praise and offering that characterizes this specific ritual tradition, as well as the formal framing of the ceremony from its opening invocation to the final request for the deities to depart.

Sanskrit title
Kālayamārisādhana
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
Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as it illustrates the integration of Sanskrit terminology with Tibetan ritual practice in the Yamāntaka tradition. It highlights the role of wrathful deities in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism as instruments for cutting through cognitive obscurations. The emphasis on the merit of the composition suggests the text was intended to function as a tool for collective spiritual benefit.

Structure

PassagesSectionDescription
1OpeningContains the titles in Sanskrit and Tibetan and the initial prostration to the deity.
2ConclusionDetails the final ritual offerings, the dismissal of the deities, and the dedicatory merit statement.

Themes

  • Wrathful Wisdom (1)
  • Ritual Offering (2)
  • Altruistic Merit (2)

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

AnuvādaA Kālayamāri Sādhana·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཡ་མཱ་རི་ཀཱ་ལ་སཱ་དྷ་ན་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གཤིན་རྗེ་དགྲ་ནག་པོའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཤེས་རབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ལོག་པའི་ལྟ་བ་གཅོད་མཛད་ཅིང་། ། ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་རྗེས་རབ་ཏུ་ཁྲོས། ། མཆེ་བ་གཙིགས་ཤིང་བཞད་མཛད་པ། ། གཤིན་རྗེའི་དགྲ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས། ། རྒྱུད་ཆེན་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲ་བ་ལས། ། བླ་མའི་མན་ངག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས། ། བདག་གིས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་རིམ་པ་བཞིན། ། སྒྲུབ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བརྩམ་པར་བྱ། ། དབེན་ཞིང་མེ་ཏོག་གཅལ་བཀྲམ་པའི། ། བདེ་བའི་སྟན་ལ་ཉེར་འདུག་སྟེ། ། ལྷ་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་སྤྱན་དྲངས་ནས། ། མཆོད་དང་སྡིག་བཤགས་ལ་སོགས་བྱ། ། ཨ་བྷཱ་བ་སྭ་བྷཱ་བ་བི་ཤུདྡྷ་བཛྲ་ཙཀྵུ་ཨ་ཨཱ་ཨཾ་ཨཿ། དེ་ནས་སྟོང་པའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་ལས། ། ནམ་མཁར་ཨ་ནི་བསམ་པར་བྱ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་མེ་དཔུང་རབ་ཏུ་འཕྲོས། ། རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཨ་བསམས་ཏེ། ། གྱུར་པས་ཤེས་རབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ནི། ། མདོག་དཀར་འཁོར་ལོ་རལ་གྲི་འཛིན། ། ཉི་སྟེང་ཧཱུཾ་གི་འཕྲོ་འདུ་ལས། ། གྱུར་པས་གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་པོ་ནི། ། བགེགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་སྟེ། ། ལུས་ནི་རྡོ་རྗེས་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན། ། ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་བེ་ཅོན་དང་། ། ཤུགས་དང་བཅས་པའི་སྦྲུལ་ཞགས་བསྣམས། ། ཚད་མེད་བཞི་ལྡན་ཁྲོ་བོ་ནི། ། ཤིན་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་པ་རྣམ་པར་བསྒོམ། ། ཛཿཧཱུཾ་བཾ་ཧོཿཞེས་བྱ་བས་དགུག་པ་དང་གཞུག་པ་དང་། བཅིང་བ་དང་། དགྱེས་པ་བསྐྱེད་ནས། ཨོཾ་སྭ་ཧཱུཾ། གསུམ་གྱིས་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས་ནས་དབང་བསྐུར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ནས་བསྒོམས་པས་སྐྱོ་ན་བཟླས་པ་བྱ་སྟེ། ཨོཾ་པྲཛྙཱ་ཛྙཱ་ན་མཱུརྟ་ཡེ་ཡ་མཱནྟ་ཀ་ཧཱུཾ།

In the language of India: Yamārikālasādhana-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Gshin rje dgra nag po’i sgrub thabs (The Sadhana of the Black Enemy of Yama). Homage to the Blessed One, the Wisdom of Insight! Having prostrated to the Enemy of Yama, who cuts through wrong views and is intensely wrathful through insight and compassion, with bared fangs and a laughing countenance, I shall compose this for the benefit of practitioners, following the stages of accomplishment based on the oral instructions of the guru and the great tantra, the Māyājāla. Seated upon a comfortable cushion in a secluded place strewn with flowers, one should invite the deities and the Triple Gem, and perform the offerings, the confession of misdeeds, and so forth. Abhāva svabhāva viśuddha vajra cakṣu a ā aṃ aḥ. Then, from the meditative absorption of emptiness, one should visualize the syllable A in the sky. From it, vajra masses of fire radiate forth. Visualizing an A upon a vajra, it transforms into the Wisdom of Insight, white in color and holding a wheel and a sword. From the radiation and reabsorption of the Hūṃ upon a sun disk, the Slayer of Yama (Yamāntaka) arises—the great king of obstructors—his body adorned with vajras. He holds a vajra and a club in his hands, and carries a snake-noose with great force. One should meditate on this wrathful deity, who possesses the four immeasurables and is utterly fierce. Having summoned, entered, bound, and pleased him with Jaḥ hūṃ baṃ hoḥ, one should bless and confer empowerment with the three syllables Oṃ svā hūṃ. Then, if one becomes weary from meditation, one should perform the recitation: Oṃ prajñājñānamūrtaye yamāntaka hūṃ.

ཞེས་བརྗོད་ནས། མཚན་བརྗོད་དེ་གཏོར་མ་གཏང་བར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བསྟོད་ནས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ་ལོ། ། བདག་གིས་འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བརྩམས། ། དགེ་བས་འབྲས་བུ་ཚད་མེད་ཤོག། གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་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། །

Having spoken thus, one should recite the Names and offer the torma. Having offered praise in that manner, one should request the deities to depart. "I have composed this for the benefit of wandering beings; by this merit, may the fruit be immeasurable." This concludes the Sādhana of Yamāntaka composed by the master Aśvakaśrī. It was translated by the paṇḍita Dharmashrīmitra and the translator Chökyi Zangpo.

Terminology used in this text (11)
TermRendering×Note
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདསthe Blessed One184000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
ཤེས་རབinsight1
ཡེ་ཤེསwisdom1Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
ཕྱག་འཚལhomage1
བླ་མguru1
ལྷgod1Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
མེfire1In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེVajrapāṇi1
གཏོར་མoffering cake1'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.
སྒྲུབ་ཐབསsādhana1
ཆོསdharma1In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Kālayamāri Sādhana” (Toh 2608), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2608

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.

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