Toh 2612 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Ritual of Mañjuśrī’s Vajra Vase

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2612
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 066_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཅུ.txt
Extent: 3 passages · 2,252 Tibetan characters · 598 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, titled Vajramañjuśrīghaṭavidhiḥ in Sanskrit and ’Jam dpal rdo rje’i bum pa’i cho ga in Tibetan, outlines a meditative and ritual procedure centered on the Vajra Vase of Mañjuśrī. The work aims to purify the practitioner of afflictions and provide spiritual benefit through a structured visualization process. The ritual commits the reader to a complex mental architecture, requiring the visualization of a celestial mansion associated with the seed syllable BHRŪṂ and the distinct arrangement of five moon seats. Furthermore, the practitioner is directed to engage in the three yogas starting from the syllable A, involving the generation of the body from the samaya wheel and the subsequent summoning and dissolution of the wisdom wheel. The process concludes with the blessing of the three bodies, integrating somatic and symbolic elements to achieve a state of purification.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual procedure designed to benefit the practitioner and purify the stains of afflictions, the Mañjuśrīvajraghaṭavidhi belongs to 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 the Tibetan Śākya monk Palgyi Zangpo, who is also credited with editing and finalizing the translation. This classical Tibetan version is preserved in volume ཅུ of the Tengyur, where it extends over three pages under the title 'jam dpal rdo rje'i bum pa'i cho ga. The ritual enacts a complex meditative process centered on the Vajra Mañjuśrī Vase, requiring the practitioner to visualize a celestial mansion arising from the syllable BHRŪṂ and five distinct moon seats. It further directs the practitioner to engage with the three yogas via the syllable A, involving the generation of the body from the samaya wheel and the summoning and dissolution of the wisdom wheel to bless the three bodies. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific integration of method and insight as applied to the vase ritual and the somatic-symbolic architecture of the Yoga Tantra tradition.

Sanskrit title: Mañjuśrīvajraghaṭavidhi
Indian author: Aśokaśrī
Tibetan translators: Dharmaśrīmitra, zhu chen gyi lo tsa ba bod kyi shakya’i dge slong dpal gyi bzang po
Canonical collection: Yoga Tantra Treatises
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཅུ
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 Ritual of Mañjuśrī’s Vajra Vase” (Toh 2612), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2612

Summary & commentary

Significance

The text is significant as a representative of the Indo-Tibetan tradition of vase rituals, which synthesize mantra, visualization, and symbolic architecture. Its attribution to the translator Palgyi Zangpo highlights the role of the editor-translator in preserving and finalizing specific ritual lineages within the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Provides the bilingual title, an homage to Mañjuśrī, and the stated purpose of the ritual.
2	Ritual Procedure	Details the visualization of the celestial mansion, the moon seats, and the meditative process involving the syllables BHRŪṂ and A.
3	Colophon	Identifies the translator and editor, Palgyi Zangpo.

Themes

Purification of afflictions (1)
Seed syllable visualization (2)
The Three Bodies (Trikāya) (2)

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

AnuvādaA Ritual of Mañjuśrī’s Vajra Vase·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་གྷ་ཏྲ་བི་དྷིཿ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཇམ་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བུམ་པའི་ཆོ་ག། འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སེམས་དཔའ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ལ་ཕན་གདགས་ཞིང་། ། ཉོན་མོངས་དྲི་མ་ཀུན་དག་ཕྱིར། ། མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡན་པའི་གང་ཟག་ལ། ། བུམ་པའི་ཆོ་ག་བཤད་པར་བྱ། ། དང་པོར་མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡན་གནས་སུ། ། ས་སློང་སྦྱོང་ཞིང་མཎྜལ་བྱ། ། ཐིག་གདབ་ཚོན་ནི་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ། ། ཚོམ་བུ་ལྔ་ལྡན་འཁོར་ལོ་བཅུ་དྲུག་ལྡན། ། གྲུ་ཆད་བཞི་ལྡན་སྒོ་བཞི་རྟ་བབས་ལྡན། ། འཁོར་ལོ་བཅུ་དྲུག་གྲུ་ཆད་བཞི་དང་ལྡན། ། པཉྩ་རཏྣ་འདོད་ཡོན་སྣམ་བུ་དང་། ། རིན་ཆེན་ཕ་གུ་སྒོ་བཞི་རྟ་བབས་བྲི། ། རིན་ཆེན་བདུན་ལས་བྱས་པའི་མཆོད་པའི་རྟེན། ། གདུགས་དང་བ་དན་ཅོད་པན་དྲིལ་བུས་བརྒྱན། ། གསེར་དང་དངུལ་དང་ཟངས་དང་ལྕགས་ལས་བྱས། ། བུམ་པ་ཁ་དོག་ལྔ་དང་ལྡན་པའོ། ། རིན་ཆེན་སྣ་ལྔ་འབྲུ་སྣ་ལྔ་དང་ནི། ། སྨན་ལྔ་དྲི་ལྔ་དཀར་ལ་སོགས་པའི་རྫས། ། བདུད་རྩིའི་ཆུས་བཀང་ཁ་རྒྱན་འབྲས་བུ་ཅན། ། མགུལ་ཆིངས་གཟུངས་ཐག་བུམ་པའི་རིགས་དང་སྦྱར། ། སོ་སོའི་ལྷ་ཡི་གདན་དུ་གཉིས་པོ་དགོད། ། དང་པོར་བླ་མ་དཀོན་མཆོག་སྤྱན་དྲང་སྟེ། ། ཕྱག་མཆོད་སྡིག་བཤགས་ཡི་རང་བསྐོར་བར་བསྐུལ། ། མྱ་ངན་མི་འདའ་ལུས་དབུལ་དགེ་རྩ་བསྔོ། ། ཚད་མེད་བཞི་ལྡན་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཏུ་བསྔོ། ། སྟོང་པའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་སྔགས་ཀྱིས་ཀུན་ནས་བསྐུལ། ། དེ་ནས་གུར་དང་དྲ་བའི་སྟེང་དུ་ནི། ། ཧཱུཾ་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲུཾ་ལས་མཆོད་རྟེན་ནི། ། ཧྲཱི་ལས་ཆོས་འབྱུང་ཨ་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེའོ། །

In the language of India: Vajramañjuśrīghaṭavidhiḥ. In the language of Tibet: ’Jam dpal rdo rje’i bum pa’i cho ga (The Ritual of the Vajra Mañjuśrī Vase). Homage to the noble Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva. To benefit the practitioner and to purify all the stains of the afflictions, I shall explain the ritual of the vase for a person who possesses the proper characteristics. First, in a location possessing the proper characteristics, one should request the earth, purify it, and prepare a maṇḍala. One should strike the lines and consecrate the colors. It should have five heaps, sixteen wheels, four recessed corners, four gates, and archways. It should have sixteen wheels and four recessed corners. One should draw the fivefold jewels, the ledge of sensory qualities, the jeweled frieze, the four gates, and the archways. The supports for offerings made of the seven precious substances are adorned with parasols, banners, crowns, and bells. They are made of gold, silver, copper, and iron. The vases possess five colors. With the five kinds of jewels, the five kinds of grains, the five medicines, the five scents, and substances such as white [sugar], they are filled with nectar-water. They have fruit-topped ornaments, neck-cloths, and dhāraṇī-ropes, corresponding to the types of vases. The two [vases] are placed as the seats for their respective deities. First, invite the Guru and the Three Jewels. Perform prostrations, offerings, confession of misdeeds, rejoicing, and request them to turn the wheel of Dharma. Request them not to pass into nirvāṇa, offer your body, and dedicate the roots of virtue. Possessing the four immeasurables, dedicate [the merit] to supreme enlightenment. Stir everything with the mantra of the samādhi of emptiness. Then, above the tent and the lattice, from HŪṂ comes a vajra, from BHRŪṂ a stūpa, from HRĪḤ the source of phenomena (dharmodaya), and from A a vajra.

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.

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

terminologyགཟུངས → “dhāraṇī”. A dhāraṇī is a spell-text: keep the loan for the genre, and translate གཟུངས་སྔགས as 'dhāraṇī mantra' rather than 'retention spell'.

homonymགཟུངས is rendered “dhāraṇī” here; the glossary also records retention, incantation, spell for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionགཟུངས “dhāraṇī” — The term dhāraṇī ‍ is in some sūtras both a mnemonic formula and the ability of realized beings to retain ( √dhṛ ) any teachings in their transmundane memory. In its most general use it is as understood in the context of

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

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

terminologyསྔགས → “mantra”. སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

definitionསྔགས “mantra” — A formula of words or syllables that are recited aloud or mentally in order to bring about a magical or soteriological effect or result. The term has been interpretively etymologized to mean “that which protects ( trā )

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: god

checkAutomatic check: bracketed gloss waived.

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཉོན་མོངས → affliction

termམཆོད་པ → offering

termགཟུངས → dhāraṇī

termལྷ → god

termབླ་མ → guru

དེ་སྟེང་བྷྲཱུཾ་ལས་གཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་པའོ། ། གདན་ལྔ་ཟླ་བའི་གདན་ནི་སོ་སོར་གསལ། ། ཡི་གེ་ཨ་ལས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྣམ་གསུམ་བསྒོམ། ། དམ་ཚིག་འཁོར་ལོ་ཨ་ལས་སྐུ་བསྐྱེད་དོ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་འཁོར་ལོ་དགུག་ཅིང་བསྟིམ་པར་བྱ། ། སྐུ་གསུམ་བྱིན་བརླབས་དབང་བསྐུར་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་མཚན། ། ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་བུམ་པ་རབ་ཏུ་དོན། ། ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་འོད་ཟེར་བདུད་རྩི་དབབ། ། མཆོད་རྟེན་རྣམས་ནི་ལྷ་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་གསལ། ། སོ་སོའི་ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་མ་ལུས་ལྡན། ། ཐུགས་ཀའི་ཨ་ལས་རྒྱུད་ནི་གདོན་པར་བྱ། ། དེ་ལས་དད་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་འདུད་བསྟོད་བྱ། ། དེ་ཡི་ཐུགས་འོད་མཆོད་པ་རྣམ་ལྔས་མཆོད། ། བུམ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཆེ་བའི་མཆོག། རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་བདག་མེད་ཆོས། ། ཡང་དག་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཟླ་འོད་བཟང་། ། བརྩོན་ཆེན་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲ་བ་ལས། ། རྡོ་རྗེའི་གདན་ནི་མ་ལུས་ལྡན། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་སྐུ་རྣམས་མ་ལུས་འཆང་། ། ཉོན་མོངས་ཁམས་རྣམས་དག་པའི་བདག། ལས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་རྣམས་ཟད་བྱེད་ཅིང་། ། ཆུ་བོ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཀུན་ལས་བརྒལ། ། ཉོན་མོངས་ཉེ་བ་ཀུན་ཉོན་མོངས། ། བག་ཆགས་བཅས་པ་གཏན་ཏུ་སྤངས། ། ཞེས་སོ། ། ལུང་དང་མན་ངག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས། ། བདག་གིས་འདི་འདྲའི་ཕན་གདགས་ཆོ་ག་བརྩམས། ། དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་དྲི་མེད་གང་ཐོབ་པ། ། དེས་ནི་འཇམ་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག། དཔལ་འཇམ་དཔལ་མགོན་པོའི་བུམ་པའི་ཆོ་ག། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་མྱ་ངན་མེད་པའི་དཔལ་གྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། དཔལ་ཨུ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་མི་ཏྲའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་དང་།

Above that, from BHRŪṂ, is the celestial mansion. The five seats, including the moon seats, are clearly distinct. From the syllable A, one meditates on the three yogas. From the A of the samaya wheel, the body is generated. The wisdom wheel is summoned and dissolved. The three bodies are blessed and marked by the empowerment itself. Method and insight are perfectly applied to the vase. Method and insight cause the nectar of light rays to descend. The stupas are clear as the nature of the deities. Each is endowed with method and insight without exception. From the A at the heart, the tantra is to be recited. From that, one should prostrate and praise the Buddhas of faith. With the light of their hearts, one offers the five types of offerings. The excellent, great, and supreme vase is the pure dharma of selflessness. It is the excellent moonlight of authentic wisdom. From the Great Diligence, the Net of Magical Illusion, it possesses the vajra seat in its entirety. It holds all the wisdom bodies without exception. It is the master who purifies the realms of the afflictions. It exhausts the realms of karma and crosses over all rivers and oceans. The afflictions, the secondary afflictions, and the habitual tendencies are forever abandoned. Thus it is said. Relying upon the scriptures and the pith instructions, I have composed this beneficial ritual. By whatever stainless root of virtue is obtained, may it lead to the attainment of Mañjuśrīvajra. The Ritual of the Vase of the Glorious Protector Mañjuśrī, composed by the great master Aśokaśrī, is complete. From the presence of the great abbot of glorious Oḍḍiyāna, Dharmashrimitra, and...

periodཟླ་བ → “moon; month”. In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra is the rendering only where the text addresses or names the deity — a sūtra listing the moon as a time unit is not naming a god.

homonymཟླ་བ is rendered “moon; month” here; the glossary also records Candrā, Candramas, Moon for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཟླ་བ “moon; month” — The deity of the moon, as well as the moon itself. In the Kāraṇḍavyūha , when Avalokiteśvara emanates Candra , it is the deity that is meant.

homonymདམ་ཚིག is rendered “samaya” here; the glossary also records sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདམ་ཚིག “samaya” — Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the

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

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

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

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.

termཟླ་བ → moon; month

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termལྷ → god

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

ཞུ་ཆེན་གྱི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་བོད་ཀྱི་ཤཱཀྱའི་དགེ་སློང་དཔལ་གྱི་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པའོ། །

It was translated, edited, and finalized by the great editor-translator, the Tibetan Śākya monk Palgyi Zangpo.

Terminology used in this text (15)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཉོན་མོངས	affliction	2
མཆོད་པ	offering	2
ལྷ	god	2	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
གཟུངས	dhāraṇī	1	A dhāraṇī is a spell-text: keep the loan for the genre, and translate གཟུངས་སྔགས as 'dhāraṇī mantra' rather than 'retent
བླ་མ	guru	1
སྔགས	mantra	1	སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཟླ་བ	moon; month	1	In calendrical and cosmological passages ཟླ་བ is 'month' (twelve months to a year) or 'moon', not the god Candra. Candra
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	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
ཤེས་རབ	insight	1
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
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
མཁན་པོ	abbot	1	In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colop
དགེ་སློང	monk	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 066_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཅུ.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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