བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གོས་སྔོན་པོ་ཅན་གྱི་རྒྱུད།
The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi
Bhagavannīlāmbaradharavajrapāṇitantra
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གོས་སྔོན་པོ་ཅན་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ།
bcom ldan ’das phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi rgyud ces bya ba
The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi
Bhagavannīlāmbaradharavajrapāṇitantranāma
Toh 498
Degé Kangyur, vol. 87 (rgyud ’bum, da), folios 158.a–167.a.
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Group
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
First published 2013
Current version v 3.29.4 (2019)
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Summary
In the Kangyur and Tengyur collections there are more than forty titles centered on the form of Vajrapāṇi known as the “Blue-Clad One,” a measure of this figure’s great popularity in both India and Tibet. This text, The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi, is a scripture that belongs to the Conduct tantra (Caryātantra) class, the third of the four categories used by the Tibetans to organize their tantric canon. It introduces the practice of Blue-Clad Vajrapāṇi, while also providing the practitioner with a number of rituals directed at suppressing, subduing, or eliminating ritual targets.
Acknowledgments
This translation was produced by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Catherine Dalton and Andreas Doctor translated the text, with assistance from Ryan Damron and Wiesiek Mical.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Colophon
The translation was completed by the Kashmiri scholar Celu and the Tibetan translator Phakpa Sherab.
Notes
Bibliography
Tibetan Texts
bcom ldan ’das phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi rgyud ces bya ba (Bhagavannīlāmbaradharavajrapāṇitantranāma). Toh 498, Degé Kangyur vol. 87 (rgyud ’bum, da), folios 158a.6–167a.3.
bcom ldan ’das phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi rgyud ces bya ba. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 87, 469–90.
Secondary Sources
Dalton, Jacob. “How Dhāraṇis were Proto-Tantric: Liturgies, Ritual Manuals, and the Origins of the Tantras.” In Gray, David B. and Overbey, Ryan R., eds., Tantric Traditions on the Move. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Isaacson, Harunaga. “Observations on the Development of the Ritual of Initiation (abhiṣeka) in the Higher Buddhist Tantric Systems.” In Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in India and Nepal, edited by Astrid Zotter and Christof Zotter, 261–80. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010.
Mayer, Robert. “The Importance of the Underworlds: Asuras’ Caves in Buddhism, and Some Other Themes in Early Buddhist Tantras Reminiscent of the Later Padmasambhava Legends.” In Journal of the International Association for Tibetan Studies 3 (December 2007): 1–31.
Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. London: Routledge, 2000.
Glossary
Absorption
- ting nge ’dzin
- ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
- samādhi
A state of meditative concentration or absorption.
Alakāvatī
- lcang lo can
- ལྕང་ལོ་ཅན།
- Alakāvatī
Anantaka
- mtha’ yas
- མཐའ་ཡས།
- Anantaka
- Ananta
Another name of Śesa, the serpent upon whom Viṣṇu rests during the interlude between the destruction and recreation of the world.
Bhūta
- ’byung po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- bhūta
A generic term for spirits or ghosts.
Burnt offering
- sbyin sreg
- སྦྱིན་སྲེག
- homa
Fire ritual.
Caryātantra
- spyod pa’i rgyud
- སྤྱོད་པའི་རྒྱུད།
- caryātantra
“Conduct tantras,” the second, middle category of the three outer tantras according to the new translation (gsar ma) traditions; in old translation (rnying ma) classifications the term Upa- or Ubhaya-tantra is more often used.
Celestial chariot
- khang brtsegs
- ཁང་བརྩེགས།
- vimāna
The Sanskrit term vimāna can refer to a multi-storied mansion or palace, or even an estate, but is more often used in the sense of a celestial chariot of the gods, sometimes taking the form of a multi-storied palace; hence the Tibetan translation, khang brtsegs, literally “storied house.”
Celu
- tse lu
- ཙེ་ལུ།
- Celu
Commitment
- dam tshig
- དམ་ཚིག
- samaya
A tantric vow or commitment.
Constant Vajra Holder
- rdo rje kun tu ’dzin pa
- རྡོ་རྗེ་ཀུན་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
Used in several senses, elsewhere in this text translated as “incantation mantra,” but here referring to entire canonical texts used mainly for ritual purposes, structured around an incantation mantra in Sanskrit but also detailing its uses and the story of its origin.
Diagram
- ’khrul ’khor
- འཁྲུལ་འཁོར།
- yantra
A diagram drawn in tantric rituals.
Disciplined conduct
- bstul zhugs
- བསྟུལ་ཞུགས།
- vrata
- saṃvara
Five substances of a cow
- ba yi rnam lnga
- བ་ཡི་རྣམ་ལྔ།
- pañcagavya
Milk, yogurt, clarified butter, cow urine, and cow dung.
Graha
- gdon
- གདོན།
- graha
A type of evil spirit known to exert a harmful influence on the human body and mind. Grahas are closely associated with the planets and other astronomical bodies.
Holder of the hare
- ri bong ’dzin pa
- རི་བོང་འཛིན་པ།
- śaśadhara
An epithet of the moon.
Incantation
- rig pa
- རིག་པ།
- vidyā
A type of incantation or spell used to accomplish a ritual goal. This can be associated with either ordinary attainments or those whose goal is awakening.
Incantation mantra
- gzungs sngags
- གཟུངས་སྔགས།
- dhāraṇī
Nāga tree
- klu shing
- ཀླུ་ཤིང་།
- nāgakesara
A species of euphorbia used in burnt offerings to get rid of nāga influences.
Oblation
- gtor ma
- གཏོར་མ།
- bali
A ritual offering of food and drink.
Obstructors
- bgegs
- བགེགས།
- vighna
One to be accomplished
- bsgrub bya
- བསྒྲུབ་བྱ།
- sādhya
This is the object of ritual accomplishment, whatever is the focus and/or the goal of ritual activity. Also translated “target.”
Phakpa Sherab
- ’phags pa shes rab
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ།
Practice manual
- sgrub thabs
- སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།
- sādhana
Samprajñāna
- yang dag
- ཡང་དག
- Samprajñāna
A yakṣa in this tantra. Although yang dag is normally translated as “Viśuddha,” we have rendered it here as “Samprajñāna” since this is the Sanskrit rendering of this particular yakṣa’s name in the list of name mantras at 2.14.
Spiritual accomplishment
- dngos grub
- དངོས་གྲུབ།
- siddhi
Target
- bsgrub bya
- བསྒྲུབ་བྱ།
- sādhya
This is the object of ritual accomplishment, whatever is the focus and/or the goal of ritual activity. Also translated “one to be accomplished.”
Terrible Vajra Conqueror
- rdo rje mi bzad ’joms
- རྡོ་རྗེ་མི་བཟད་འཇོམས།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Vajra Joyfully Abiding Protector
- rdo rje dgyes gnas skyob
- རྡོ་རྗེ་དགྱེས་གནས་སྐྱོབ།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Vajra Regiment
- rdor rje sde
- རྡོར་རྗེ་སྡེ།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Vajra Tamer
- rdo rje rab tu ’dul byed
- རྡོ་རྗེ་རབ་ཏུ་འདུལ་བྱེད།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Vajra Tamer of All Evil
- rdo rje gdug pa kun ’dul
- རྡོ་རྗེ་གདུག་པ་ཀུན་འདུལ།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Vajra Victor of Basic Space
- rdo rje dbyings las rgyal ba
- རྡོ་རྗེ་དབྱིངས་ལས་རྒྱལ་བ།
A bodhisattva in the Buddha Akṣobhya’s retinue in this tantra.
Vajracaṇḍa
- rdo rje gtum po
- རྡོ་རྗེ་གཏུམ་པོ།
- Vajracaṇḍa
Lit. “Fierce Vajra.”
Yakṣa
- gnod sbyin
- གནོད་སྦྱིན།
- yakṣa