Shared glossary of religious terms

686 terms · 17 with period notes · 2 Old Tibetan variant forms. Harmonised against 84000's glossary, with a curated layer recording where a term shifts meaning by period or register.

Every translation in the workbench pins its terminology from this list; the pinned set is shown under each passage.

ལྷ་མ་ཡིནbeing

lha ma yin · asura

asura

Literally 'not-god'; 84000 harmonises on 'asura'. Do not render 'anti-god'.

also recorded: demigod, Asura, dānava

One of the six classes of sentient beings, sometimes included among the gods and sometimes among the animals, they are engendered and dominated by envy, ambition, and hostility and are described as being incessantly embroiled in disputes with the gods ( devas ). They are frequently portrayed in Brahmanical mythology an

དྲི་ཟbeing

dri za · gandharva

gandharva

A class of generally benevolent nonhuman beings who inhabit the skies, sometimes said to inhabit fantastic cities in the clouds, and more specifically to dwell on the eastern slopes of Mount Meru, where they are ruled by the Great King Dhṛtarāṣṭra. They are most renowned as celestial musicians who serve the gods. In th

ལྷbeing

lha · deva

god

old tibetan — god; deity; divine. In the Dunhuang texts ལྷ covers gods and also the general sense 'divine', and ལྷ་ཆོས is the Buddhist doctrine as opposed to བོན. Do not render every ལྷ as 'god' — ལྷ་ཆོས is 'the dharma of the gods', i.e. Buddhism.

classical — god; deity. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

Capitalisation is a decision, not a default: keep 'god' lowercase unless the text addresses a named deity.

also recorded: deva, divine being, God, gods

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 attend and celebrate the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni and other buddhas and bodhisattvas. In Buddhis

ཀླུbeing

klu · nāga

nāga

Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be associated with deities, snakes (more specifically cobras), elephants, subterranean spirits, water spir

གནོད་སྦྱིནbeing

gnod sbyin · yakṣa

yakṣa

also recorded: yakṣa

A class of nonhuman beings who inhabit forests, mountainous areas, and other natural spaces, or serve as guardians of villages and towns, and may be propitiated for health, wealth, protection, and other boons, or controlled through magic. According to tradition, their homeland is in the north, where they live under the

ལྷ་མོbeing

lha mo · devī

goddess

also recorded: devī, goddess, Devī

The “ apsarases ” are popular figures in Indian culture, they are said to be goddesses of the clouds and water and to be wives of the gandharvas . However, in the Kāraṇḍavyūha , they are presented as the female equivalent of the devas . Therefore the Tibetan has translated them as if the word were devī (“goddess’’).

སྲིནbeing

srin · rākṣasa

rākṣasa

Often paired with འདྲེ; 'rākṣasa' in learned texts, 'demon' in narrative.

A class of nonhuman beings that are often, but certainly not always, considered demonic in the Buddhist tradition. They are often depicted as flesh-eating monsters who haunt frightening places and are ugly and evil-natured with a yearning for human flesh, and who additionally have miraculous powers, such as being able

འདྲེbeing

'dre

spirit

old tibetan — spirit; demon. In the Dunhuang funeral texts འདྲེ is a class of spirits propitiated in ritual, alongside སྲིན. 'Demon' over-translates; 'spirit' is safer where the rite is conciliatory.

No single Sanskrit equivalent; do not invent one.

དམྱལ་བcosmology

dmyal ba · naraka

hell

A rebirth realm, not a place of eternal punishment; keep 'hell' (84000 practice) but do not add 'eternal'.

also recorded: hell being

One of the five or six realms of sentient beings. Birth in hell is considered to be the karmic fruition of past anger and harmful actions. According to Buddhist tradition there are eighteen different hells, namely eight hot hells and eight cold hells, as well as neighboring and ephemeral hells, all of them tormented by

ཡང་སོསcosmology

yang sos · saṃjīva

Saṃjīva

The first hot hell. 'Reviving Hell' is the literal gloss; keep the Sanskrit name in a list of hells so the set stays identifiable.

First of the eight hot hells .

ཚངས་པdeity

tshangs pa · brahmā

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.

also recorded: brahman, brahmās, Brahma, Brahmā Heavens

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. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought a

བརྒྱ་བྱིནdeity

brgya byin · śakra

Śakra

also recorded: Śatakratu, Indra

A common epithet of Indra, the lord of the gods , who dwells on the summit of Mount Sumeru and wields the thunderbolt. The Tibetan translation is based on an etymology that śakra is an abbreviation of śata-kratu : one who has performed a hundred sacrifices (Tib. brgya byin ). The highest Vedic sacrifice was the horse s

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུགdeity

spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug · avalokiteśvara

Avalokiteśvara

Short form སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས is the same figure; 'Avalokiteśvara' in learned registers, 'Avalokita' never.

also recorded: Avalokiteśvara, Avalokiteśvara

First appeared as a bodhisattva beside Amitābha in the Sukhāvati Sūtra . The name has been variously interpreted. In “The lord of Avalokita,” Avalokita has been interpreted as “seeing,” although, as a past passive participle, it is literally “lord of what has been seen.” One of the principal sūtras in the Mahāsāṃghika

འོད་དཔག་མེདdeity

'od dpag med · amitābha

Amitābha

འོད་དཔག་མེད is Amitābha (boundless light); ཚེ་དཔག་མེད is Amitāyus (boundless life). They are distinct figures and must not be merged.

also recorded: Amitavajra, Amitāyus

One of the five buddhas . The buddha of the western buddhafield of Sukhāvatī, where fortunate beings are reborn to make further progress toward spiritual maturity. Amitābha made his great vows to create such a realm when he was a bodhisattva called Dharmākara. In the Pure Land Buddhist tradition, popular in East Asia,

སངས་རྒྱསdeity

sangs rgyas · buddha

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.

also recorded: Awakened, awakened, Buddha, awakened one

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 participle of the Sanskrit root budh , meaning “to awaken,” “to understand,” or “to become aware.”

ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པdeity

shākya thub pa · śākyamuni

Śākyamuni

also recorded: Buddha Śākyamuni

An epithet for the historical Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama : he was a muni (“ sage ”) from the Śākya clan. Usually counted as the fourth of the first four buddhas of the present Good Eon, the other three being Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa . He will be followed by Maitreya, the next buddha in this eon.

མི་བསྐྱོད་པdeity

mi bskyod pa · akṣobhya

Akṣobhya

Literally 'the immovable one'; the deity name stays Akṣobhya in tantric texts, 'Immovable' in some sūtra registers — pick one per text and record it.

Literally “Not Disturbed” or “Immovable One.” The buddha in the eastern realm of Abhirati. A well-known buddha in early Mahāyāna, regarded in the higher tantras as the head of one of the five buddha families, the adamantine family in the east.

ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེdeity

phyag na rdo rje · vajrapāṇi

Vajrapāṇi

Vajrapāṇi means “Wielder of the Vajra.” In the Pali canon, he appears as a yakṣa guardian in the retinue of the Buddha. In the Mahāyāna scriptures he is a bodhisattva and one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha.” In the tantras, he is also regarded as an important Buddhist deity and instrumental in the transmission

སྒྲོལ་མdeity

sgrol ma · tārā

Tārā

Female bodhisattva of compassion; the chief goddess of the activity family, personifying the true nature of the element wind; one of the five goddesses personifying the five “hooks of gnosis.”

རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛདdeity

rnam par snang mdzad · vairocana

Vairocana

The name Vairocana, literally, “solar,” is used in some important Mahāyāna sūtras such as The Stem Array ( g.1377 ) and The Ten Bhūmis ( g.209 ) as an epithet for the Buddha Śākyamuni. As a distinct tathāgata, Vairocana presides over the tathāgata family among the five buddha families.

རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའdeity

rdo rje sems dpa' · vajrasattva

Vajrasattva

Used as a proper name, Vajrasattva is one of the principle deities of the esoteric Buddhist pantheon, regarded as both a source of the Buddhist tantras and the exemplar of the awakened state. As an adjective, the term vajrasattva , literally “vajra being,” can also be applied to other esoteric Buddhist deities, particu

འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངསdeity

'jam dpal dbyangs · mañjuśrī

Mañjuśrī

God of wisdom. Old Tibetan also འཇམ་དཔལ་ without དབྱངས.

Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconographic form, he is portrayed bearing the sword of wisdom in his right hand and a volume of the Prajñā

འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པdeity

'khor lo sdom pa · cakrasaṃvara

Cakrasaṃvara

Tantric deity; the name is a title ('wheel of the vow'), so keep the Sanskrit in translation. Old Tibetan འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ, occasionally འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ.

Cakrasaṃvara is a deity of the highest yoga tantras, especially popular among the new schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

ཀྱེའི་རྡོ་རྗེdeity

kye'i rdo rje · hevajra

Hevajra

The Tibetan is an exclamation plus vajra, not a translation of the Sanskrit; keep 'Hevajra'.

ཕུང་པོdoctrine

phung po · skandha

aggregate

also recorded: aggregates, Aggregates

This translation of skandha is fairly well established, although some prefer the monosyllabic “group.” It is important to bear in mind that the original skandha has the sense of “pile,” or “heap,” which has the connotation of utter lack of internal structure, of a randomly collocated pile of things; thus “group” may co

ཉོན་མོངསdoctrine

nyon mongs · kleśa

affliction

also recorded: afflictions, defilement, afflictive emotion, 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 for continued existence in saṃsāra. Included among them are the primary afflictions of desire ( rāga

ཁམསdoctrine

khams · dhātu

element

In ཁམས་གསུམ it is the three realms, not 'three elements'.

also recorded: constituent, domain, elements, constituents

In the context of epistemology, it is one way of describing experience and the world in terms of eighteen elements (eye, form , and eye consciousness ; ear, sound, and ear consciousness ; nose, odor, and nose consciousness ; tongue, taste, and tongue consciousness ; body, touch, and body consciousness ; mind, mental ph

དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམdoctrine

dkon mchog gsum · triratna

the Three Jewels

old tibetan — the Three Jewels; the three precious ones. The Dunhuang texts use དཀོན་མཆོག without གསུམ in oaths; 'the Jewel' there means the Buddha as refuge, and expanding it to 'Three Jewels' adds something the text did not say.

also recorded: three jewels

The Tibetan literally means “the three rare and precious ones,” the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha‍—the three objects of Buddhist refuge.

ཤེས་རབdoctrine

shes rab · prajñā

insight

also recorded: discernment, wisdom, knowledge, discriminating wisdom

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 karmic cause and effect in particular (Cf. Edgerton, BHSD, s.v. prajñā : “(Skt., and Pāli paññā ), knowl

སྟོང་པ་ཉིདdoctrine

stong pa nyid · śūnyatā

emptiness

Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intrinsic reality that constitutes their essence. Nothing can be said to exist independent of the comple

ཆོསdoctrine

chos · dharma

dharma

old tibetan — dharma; doctrine; custom. Old Tibetan uses ཆོས for Buddhist doctrine and for 'custom/law' (as in ལྷ་ཆོས versus བོན). Where the text contrasts the two religions, 'doctrine' reads better than 'dharma'.

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

84000 keeps 'dharma' lowercase. 'Dharma' capitalised only where it means the teaching as a whole and the sentence is already religious.

also recorded: special qualities, dharma, phenomena, qualities

The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or things in general, etc. In the context of this work, it was rendered as “ Dharma ” when it refers to the

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམསdoctrine

byang chub kyi sems · bodhicitta

bodhicitta

Keep the Sanskrit loan; 'mind of awakening' is a gloss, and mixing the two inside one text reads as inconsistency.

also recorded: bodhicitta, mind set on awakening, resolve of awakening, aspiration to enlightenment

In the general Mahāyāna teachings, the “mind of awakening” ( bodhicitta ) is the intention to attain the complete awakening of a perfect buddha for the sake of all beings. On the level of absolute truth, the mind of awakening is the realization of the awakened state itself. As a general term, this is the wish or aspira

སྐྱེ་མཆེདdoctrine

skye mched · āyatana

sense base

also recorded: sense field, bases of cognition, sense base, sense fields

These can be listed as twelve or as six entrances (sometimes also called sense sources, sense fields, bases of cognition, or simply āyatanas): In context of epistemology, it is one way of describing experience and the world in terms of twelve sense sources, which can be divided into inner and outer sense sources, namel

ཆོས་ཉིདdoctrine

chos nyid · dharmatā

the nature of phenomena

Not 'dharma-nature' in running prose; 84000 harmonises on 'the nature of phenomena'.

also recorded: true nature of things, suchness, basic nature, true nature

The real nature, true quality, or condition of things. Throughout Buddhist discourse this term is used in two distinct ways. In one, it designates the relative nature that is either the essential characteristic of a specific phenomenon, such as the heat of fire and the moisture of water, or the defining feature of a sp

ཟླ་བdoctrine

zla ba · candra

moon; month

classical — 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.

The default is the ordinary noun. Capitalised 'Candra' is a decision that needs a named deity in the sentence.

also recorded: Candrā, Candramas, Moon

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.

ཡེ་ཤེསdoctrine

ye shes · jñāna

wisdom

Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

also recorded: wisdom, awareness, Wisdom, knowledge

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 of awareness, its agent, or the action of awareness). We have chosen “awareness” as it was the only

ལསdoctrine

las · karma

action

old tibetan — action; deed. 'karma' is a later learned loan; the Dunhuang texts say ལས and mean the deed and its fruit, so 'action' keeps the argument visible.

84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

also recorded: act, action, Action, activity

Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the restoration ) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one hundred and one such types of formal acts , all of which fall into one of three categories depending

མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པdoctrine

mya ngan las 'das pa · nirvāṇa

nirvāṇa

Old Tibetan spells it མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ; the literal 'gone beyond sorrow' is an etymology, not a translation to use in running text.

also recorded: parinirvāṇa

In Sanskrit, the term nirvāṇa literally means “extinguishment” and the Tibetan mya ngan las ’das pa literally means “gone beyond sorrow.” As a general term, it refers to the cessation of all suffering, afflicted mental states ( kleśa ), and causal processes ( karman ) that lead to rebirth and suffering in cyclic existe

རིག་པdoctrine

rig pa · vidyā

knowledge

classical — knowledge; awareness. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

Never render as 'rigpa' in a text that also uses it for ordinary knowledge.

also recorded: awareness, knowledge, spell, incantation

This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In tantric literature these two terms are frequently used interchangeably.

ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུdoctrine

chos kyi sku · dharmakāya

dharmakāya

also recorded: body of reality, Dharma body, dharma body, body of Dharma

Sometimes translated “truth body,” “reality body,” or “body of qualities,” the term dharmakāya stands in distinction to the rūpakāya , or “ form body” of a buddha. In its earliest uses the term refers to the Buddha’s qualities as a collective whole, or to his teachings as the embodiment of him. It now primarily indicat

མེdoctrine

me · agni

fire

classical — fire; Agni. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

Default to 'fire'. 'Agni' needs a named or addressed deity in the sentence.

also recorded: Āgneya, Analā, Acalā

Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

ས་བཅུdoctrine

sa bcu · daśabhūmi

the ten grounds

The bodhisattva levels. The single syllable ས is also the word for 'earth' and must not be pinned as 'ground' on its own.

also recorded: ten levels, ten grounds, ten stages

The ten levels or stages traversed by a bodhisattva that culminate in buddhahood: (1) Joyful ( pramuditā ; rab tu dga’ ba ), (2) Stainless ( vimalā ; dri ma med pa ), (3) Luminous ( prabhākarī ; ’od byed pa ), (4) Radiant ( arciṣmatī ; ’od ’phro can ), (5) Invincible ( sudurjayā ; s hin tu sbyang dka’ ba ), (6) Facing

བདགdoctrine

bdag · ātman

self

old tibetan — self; I. In the Dunhuang narratives བདག is simply the first person ('I'), not the philosophical Self. Do not capitalise it there.

also recorded: self, “I”

A substantial, self-subsistent entity within beings or things, or the intrinsic reality of things, or the intrinsic identity of things, that is permanent and nonrelative. The Buddha’s teaching, in contrast to that of other spiritual traditions, holds as a key tenet that the presumed existence of such a ‘self’ (in Mahāy

བདེན་པ་བཞིdoctrine

bden pa bzhi · catvāri āryasatyāni

the four truths

Do not expand to 'four noble truths' unless the source has འཕགས་པ.

The four truths of nobles ones are the truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Another classification of the truths referred to in the sūtra is that of the two truths, conventional and ultimate .

དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིདdoctrine

de kho na nyid · tathatā

suchness

also recorded: essential nature

The ultimate nature of things, the way things are in reality as opposed to the way they appear to beings who have not awakened.

ཀུན་རྫོབdoctrine

kun rdzob · saṃvṛti

conventional

also recorded: conventional reality, relative

Conveys the relative or conventional view of the world according to the understanding of ordinary unawakened beings. This is distinguished from the ultimate truth, which conveys the understanding of phenomena as they really are. Saṃvṛti literally means “covered” or “concealed,” implying that the relative reality seen b

སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུdoctrine

sprul pa'i sku · nirmāṇakāya

nirmāṇakāya

also recorded: nirmāṇakāya, emanated body

The body of a buddha visible to ordinary sentient beings.

སྡུག་བསྔལdoctrine

sdug bsngal · duḥkha

suffering

The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffering, i.e., the physical sensations and mental experiences that are self-evident as suffering and tow

ཐུགས་རྗེdoctrine

thugs rje · karuṇā

compassion

ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུdoctrine

longs spyod rdzogs pa'i sku · saṃbhogakāya

saṃbhogakāya

also recorded: saṃbhogakāya

“Body of enjoyment.” Aspect of buddhahood perceptible to bodhisattvas .

ལྟུང་བdoctrine

ltung ba · āpatti

downfall

classical — downfall; transgression. In Vinaya material ལྟུང་བ is a monastic offence (āpatti); 'fall' is the literal sense but reads as a physical fall in English. Use 'downfall' or 'transgression'.

See “ transgression .”

དོན་དམdoctrine

don dam · paramārtha

ultimate

དབྱིངསdoctrine

dbyings · dhātu

expanse

classical — expanse; space. In Dzogchen ཆོས་དབྱིངས is 'the expanse of reality'; earlier texts use it more plainly as 'realm/space'.

སྡེdoctrine

sde · nikāya

class

A division or group (སྡེ་ལྔ 'five classes'); in titles of canonical collections it is often left untranslated as part of a name.

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདསepithet

bcom ldan 'das · bhagavat

the Blessed One

old tibetan — the Blessed One; the Lord. Old Tibetan scribes write བཅོམ་ལྡན་དས or བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས; both are the same epithet. 'the Lord' is acceptable where the sentence already carries a personal name.

84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

also recorded: blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān, Bhagavān

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 possession of six auspicious qualities ( bhaga ) associated with complete awakening. The Tibetan term‍—wher

དགྲ་བཅོམ་པepithet

dgra bcom pa · arhat

arhat

also recorded: worthy, worthy one, arhantī, Arhat

In Sanskrit, arhat is the masculine form, and arhantī is the feminine form of the word; the Tibetan translation of the Āyuḥparyantasūtra does not distinguish a masculine and a feminine form. It refers to one who has achieved the fourth and final level of attainment on the śrāvaka path, and who has attained liberation

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པepithet

de bzhin gshegs pa · tathāgata

tathāgata

Kept as the Sanskrit loan in translation (84000 practice), not 'Thus-Gone One'.

also recorded: thus-gone, Thus-Gone One, thus-gone one

A frequently used synonym for buddha . According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata , literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata , “one who has thus come.” Gata , though literally meaning “gone,” is a past passive participle used to describe a state or condition of existence. Tath

ཀུན་དགའ་བོgeneral

kun dga’ bo · ānanda

Ānanda

also recorded: Ānanda

A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu , he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའgeneral

byang chub sems dpa’ · bodhisattva

bodhisattva

also recorded: bodhisatva

A being who is dedicated to the cultivation and fulfilment of the altruistic intention to attain manifestly perfect buddhahood, traversing the five bodhisattva paths and ten bodhisattva levels. Bodhisattvas purposely opt to remain within saṃsāra to liberate all sentient beings, instead of simply seeking personal freedo

ནམ་མཁའ་ལྡིང་general

nam mkha’ lding · garuḍa

garuḍa

also recorded: Garuḍa, kinnara

In Indian mythology, the garuḍa is an eagle-like bird that is regarded as the king of all birds, normally depicted with a sharp, owl-like beak, often holding a snake, and with large and powerful wings. They are traditionally enemies of the nāgas. In the Vedas, they are said to have brought nectar from the heavens to ea

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིནgeneral

ting nge ’dzin · samādhi

absorption

also recorded: samādhi, meditative concentration, meditative absorption, contemplation

In general, the second of the three trainings ( triśikṣā ), and in this text and others the second of five qualities of the Saṅgha that are also described in other texts as the five undefiled (or beyond-worldly) aggregates ( skandha ) characteristic of noble ones. In a general sense, samādhi can describe a number of di

བདུདgeneral

Bdud · māra

Māra

also recorded: demon, māra, Antaka

Māra , literally “death” or “maker of death,” is the name of the deva who tried to prevent the Buddha from achieving awakening, the name given to the class of beings he leads, and also an impersonal term for the destructive forces that keep beings imprisoned in saṃsāra: (1) As a deva, Māra is said to be the principal d

ཉན་ཐོསgeneral

nyan thos · śrāvaka

hearer

also recorded: śrāvaka, disciple, Hearer, listener

The Sanskrit term śrāvaka , and the Tibetan nyan thos , both derived from the verb “to hear,” are usually defined as “those who hear the teaching from the Buddha and make it heard to others.” Primarily this refers to those disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain the state of an arhat seeking their own liberation a

བྱམས་པgeneral

byams pa · maitreya

Maitreya

also recorded: loving kindness, love, friendly kindness, benevolence

The bodhisattva Maitreya is an important figure in many Buddhist traditions, where he is unanimously regarded as the buddha of the future era. He is said to currently reside in the heaven of Tuṣita, as Śākyamuni’s regent, where he awaits the proper time to take his final rebirth and become the fifth buddha in the Fortu

འབྱུང་པོgeneral

’byung po · bhūta

bhūta

also recorded: spirit

This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human, animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted w

དགེ་སློང་general

dge slong · bhikṣu

monk

also recorded: bhikṣu, fully ordained monk, mendicant

The term bhikṣu , often translated as “monk,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist monks and nuns‍—like other ascetics of the time‍—subsisted on alms ( bh

འཇམ་དཔལgeneral

’jam dpal · mañjuśrī

Mañjuśrī

ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲgeneral

dzi na mi tra

Jinamitra

Jinamitra was invited to Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Detsen ( khri srong lde btsan , r. 742–98 ᴄᴇ ) and was involved with the translation of nearly two hundred texts, continuing into the reign of King Ralpachen ( ral pa can , r. 815–38 ᴄᴇ ). He was one of the small group of paṇḍitas responsible for the Mahāv

རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བgeneral

rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba · jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ

Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park

also recorded: Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park

One of the first Buddhist monasteries, located in a park outside Śrāvastī, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kośala in northern India. This park was originally owned by Prince Jeta, hence the name Jetavana, meaning Jeta’s grove. The wealthy merchant Anāthapiṇḍada, wishing to offer it to the Buddha, sought to buy it

རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབgeneral

rgyal po’i khab · rājagṛha

Rājagṛha

also recorded: Rājgṛha

The ancient capital of Magadha prior to its relocation to Pāṭaliputra during the Mauryan dynasty, Rājagṛha is one of the most important locations in Buddhist history. The literature tells us that the Buddha and his saṅgha spent a considerable amount of time in residence in and around Rājagṛha‍—in nearby places, such as

བསམ་གཏནgeneral

bsam gtan · dhyāna

concentration

also recorded: dhyāna, meditation, meditative absorption, meditative concentration

Designates both the mental state of deep concentration and the meditative practices leading to it. These states are characterized by a gradual withdrawal of consciousness from external sense data. Two broad distinctions are made: rūpāvacaradhyāna , or the meditative concentration associated with the form realm, and ār

མིའམ་ཅིgeneral

mi’am ci · kinnara

kinnara

also recorded: Kinnara

A class of nonhuman beings that resemble humans to the degree that their very name‍—which means “is that human?”‍—suggests some confusion as to their divine status. Kinnaras are mythological beings found in both Buddhist and Brahmanical literature, where they are portrayed as creatures half human, half animal. They are

ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

lto ’phye chen po · mahoraga

mahoraga

Literally “great serpents,” mahoragas are supernatural beings depicted as large, subterranean beings with human torsos and heads and the lower bodies of serpents. Their movements are said to cause earthquakes, and they make up a class of subterranean geomantic spirits whose movement through the seasons and months of th

མཆོད་རྟེནgeneral

mchod rten · caitya

caitya

also recorded: stūpa, Stūpa

The Tibetan translates both stūpa and caitya with the same word, mchod rten , meaning “basis” or “recipient” of “offerings” or “veneration.” Pali: cetiya . A caitya, although often synonymous with stūpa , can also refer to any site, sanctuary or shrine that is made for veneration, and may or may not contain relics. A s

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམསgeneral

tshul khrims · śīla

discipline

also recorded: ethical discipline, moral discipline, good conduct, ethics

In general, the first of the three trainings ( triśikṣā ), and in this text and others the first of five qualities of the Saṅgha that are also described in other texts as the five undefiled (or beyond-worldly) aggregates ( skandha ) characteristic of noble ones. Morally virtuous or disciplined conduct and the abandonme

མཉན་ཡོདgeneral

mnyan yod · śrāvastī

Śrāvastī

also recorded: city of Śrāvastī

During the life of the Buddha, Śrāvastī was the capital city of the powerful kingdom of Kośala, ruled by King Prasenajit, who became a follower and patron of the Buddha. It was also the hometown of Anāthapiṇḍada, the wealthy patron who first invited the Buddha there, and then offered him a park known as Jetavana, Princ

འོག་མིནgeneral

’og min · akaniṣṭha

Akaniṣṭha

also recorded: Akaniṣṭha Heaven, Highest Heaven, Akaniṣṭhā, those who are highest

The eighth and highest level of the realm of form ( rūpadhātu , gzugs khams ), and thus part of the world of the Brahmā gods ( brahmaloka , gtsang ris ); it is only accessible as the result of specific states of dhyāna . According to some texts this is where non-returners ( anāgāmin ) dwell in their last lives. In othe

རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞིgeneral

rgyal po chen po bzhi · caturmahārāja

Four Great Kings

also recorded: Four Mahārājas, Four Guardian Kings, four mahārājas, four great kings

Four gods who live on the lower slopes (fourth level) of Mount Meru in the eponymous Heaven of the Four Great Kings ( Cāturmahārājika , rgyal chen bzhi’i ris ) and guard the four cardinal directions. Each is the leader of a nonhuman class of beings living in his realm. They are Dhṛtarāṣṭra, ruling the gandharvas in th

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངསgeneral

chos kyi dbyings · dharmadhātu

dharmadhātu

also recorded: expanse of phenomena, realm of phenomena, sphere of reality, realm of reality

Interpreted variously‍—given the many connotations of both dharma and dhātu‍ ‍—as the realm, element, or nature of phenomena, reality, or truth. Generally taken to denote the entirety of phenomena and particularly their nature as a synonym of other terms designating the ultimate. In Tibetan, instances of the Sanskrit d

དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལgeneral

dA na shI la

Dānaśīla

also recorded: Danaśila

A Kashmiri khenpo active in Tibet, who helped compile the Mahāvyutpatti and was one of the about fifteen Indian scholars, who assisted Bandé Yeshé Dé. (ninth century).

སྲིན་པོgeneral

srin po · rākṣasa

rākṣasa

also recorded: piśāca

A class of nonhuman beings that, like several other classes of nonhuman beings, take spontaneous birth. Ranking below rākṣasas, they are less powerful and more akin to pretas. They are said to dwell in impure and perilous places, where they feed on impure things, including flesh. This could account for the name piśāca

མི་འཁྲུགས་པgeneral

mi ’khrugs pa · akṣobhya

Akṣobhya

also recorded: Akṣobhya

The buddha whom the bodhisattva Akṣobhya, the ninth son of King Araṇemin , is prophesied to become in the realm Abhirati . His name as a bodhisattva and buddha is the same. At the time when this sūtra appeared, he was already a well-known buddha and later become important as the head of one of the five buddha families

བྲམ་ཟེgeneral

bram ze · brāhmaṇa

brahmin

also recorded: brāhmaṇa

In The Exposition of Karma , when not part of a name (e.g., bram ze to’u de ya ; bram ze char ’bebs ), this term may designate a Buddhist practitioner (especially when mentioned together with śramaṇas ) and/or a person worthy of respect and a high social status (i.e., belonging to the brahmin class) independent of thei

འཛམ་བུའི་གླིང་general

’dzam bu’i gling · jambudvīpa

Jambudvīpa

also recorded: Jambu continent, Jambūdvīpa

The name of the southern continent in Buddhist cosmology, which can signify either the known human world, or more specifically the Indian subcontinent, literally “the jambu island/continent.” Jambu is the name used for a range of plum-like fruits from trees belonging to the genus Szygium , particularly Szygium jambos a

མི་སྐྱེ་བའི་ཆོས་ལ་བཟོད་པgeneral

mi skye ba’i chos la bzod pa · anutpattikadharmakṣāntilābha

acceptance that phenomena are unborn

also recorded: acceptance of the unborn nature of phenomena, acceptance that phenomena are unproduced, acceptance that phenomena are nonarising, patient forbearance in seeing all phenomena as nonarising

The third and final stage of the three levels of intellectual receptivity or acceptance ( kṣānti ) of the Dharma. Tantamount to an acceptance of the emptiness of all things, the fact that they do not arise or cease as substantial or essentially real phenomena. It follows from the second level of acceptance , which brin

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་general

sangs rgyas kyi zhing · buddhakṣetra

buddhafield

also recorded: buddha land, buddha field, buddha realm, buddha lands

This term denotes the operational field of a specific buddha, spontaneously arising as a result of his altruistic aspirations. This sūtra mentions “empty buddha realms,” seemingly referring to world systems that do not have a buddha, as well as buddha realms that are inundated with the five impurities , which seems to

ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེgeneral

ye shes sde

Yeshé Dé

also recorded: Bandé Yeshé Dé

Yeshé Dé (late eighth to early ninth century) was the most prolific translator of sūtras into Tibetan. Altogether he is credited with the translation of more than one hundred sixty sūtra translations and more than one hundred additional translations, mostly on tantric topics. In spite of Yeshé Dé’s great importance for

བཟོད་པgeneral

bzod pa · kṣānti

acceptance

also recorded: forbearance, tolerance, patience, Patience

The sūtra tradition speaks of three levels of intellectual receptivity or acceptance of the Dharma. At the highest level is “the acceptance of the fact that things do not arise” ( anutpattikadharmakṣānti ), which is tantamount to an acceptance of the emptiness of all things, the fact that they do not arise or cease as

གང་གཱgeneral

gang gA · gaṅgā

Ganges

also recorded: Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā River, Gaṅga, Ganges River

The Gaṅgā, or Ganges in English, is considered to be the most sacred river of India, particularly within the Hindu tradition. It starts in the Himalayas, flows through the northern plains of India, bathing the holy city of Vārāṇasī, and meets the sea at the Bay of Bengal, in Bangladesh. In the sūtras, however, this riv

དགའ་ལྡནgeneral

dga’ ldan · tuṣita

Heaven of Joy

also recorded: Joyous Heaven, Tuṣita, Tuṣita heaven, Tuṣita Heaven

Tuṣita (or sometimes Saṃtuṣita), literally “Joyous” or “Contented,” is one of the six heavens of the desire realm ( kāmadhātu ). In standard classifications, such as the one in the Abhidharmakośa , it is ranked as the fourth of the six counting from below. This god realm is where all future buddhas are said to dwell be

སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམgeneral

sum cu rtsa gsum · trayastriṃśa

Heaven of the Thirty-Three

also recorded: Thirty-Three, Thirty-Three Gods

In Buddhist cosmology, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three is the second lowest of the six heavens in the desire realm ( kāmadhātu ). Situated on the flat summit of Mount Sumeru, it lies above the Heaven of the Four Great Kings ( Caturmahārājakāyika ) and below the Yāma Heaven. It consists of thirty-three regions, each pre

རང་སངས་རྒྱསgeneral

rang sangs rgyas · pratyekabuddha

pratyekabuddha

also recorded: solitary realizer, solitary buddha, solitary awakener, pratyekabuddha

Literally, “buddha for oneself” or “solitary realizer.” Someone who, in his or her last life, attains awakening entirely through their own contemplation, without relying on a teacher. Unlike the awakening of a fully realized buddha ( samyaksambuddha ), the accomplishment of a pratyekabuddha is not regarded as final or

བརྩོན་འགྲུསgeneral

brtson ’grus · vīrya

diligence

also recorded: perseverance, effort, joyous effort, determination

The Sanskrit term vīrya may be understood as “energy” or “vigor.” In Buddhist contexts the term implies having enthusiasm toward a virtuous endeavor, which includes taking joy in such virtuous endeavor, and it is considered an antidote to laziness. It is included in many different lists of positive attributes, and late

བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པgeneral

bde bar gshegs pa · sugata

sugata

also recorded: well-gone ones, well-gone one, Well-Gone One, well gone

Here it is the fifth epithet through which the Buddha Śākyamuni is to be recollected. One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of “accomplishment of one’s own purpose” ( svārthasampad ) for a complete buddha

མ་དྲོས་པgeneral

ma dros pa · anavatapta

Anavatapta

also recorded: Anavatapta, Anavapta, Absence of Heat

A buddha realm located in the eastern direction during the time of the Buddha Śākyamuni . Also called Absence of Torment .

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལགgeneral

byang chub kyi yan lag · bodhyaṅga

branches of awakening

also recorded: branches of enlightenment, Branches of awakening, factors of enlightenment, aspects of awakening

In this text, this set of factors is said to include discipline, insight , absorption, liberation, the vision of liberated wisdom, the perfection of generosity, the perfection of discipline, the perfection of patience, the perfection of diligence, the perfection of concentration, and the perfection of insight . However

མཚམས་མེད་པ་ལྔgeneral

mtshams med pa lnga · pañcānantarya

five acts with immediate retribution

also recorded: five acts of immediate retribution, five misdeeds with immediate retribution, five acts with immediate consequence, five karmas that have immediate result at death

Describing the result of committing one of five particularly heinous crimes: (1) killing one’s father, (2) killing one’s mother, (3) killing an arhat, (4) maliciously drawing blood from a buddha, and (5) causing a schism in the sangha. In this sūtra, Mañjuśrī describes a corresponding set of five acts with immediate co

ཚེ་དཔག་མེདgeneral

tshe dpag med · amitāyus

Amitāyus

also recorded: Aparimitāyus

The Buddha in the western realm of Sukhāvatī . Later and presently better known by his alternative name Amitābha . Not to be confused with the buddha of long life, Aparimitāyus, whose name has been incorrectly back-translated into Sanskrit as Amitāyus also.

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགསgeneral

spyan ras gzigs · avalokiteśvara

Avalokiteśvara

also recorded: Avalokita

First appeared as a bodhisattva beside Amitābha in the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra ( The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī , Toh 115). The name has been variously interpreted. In its meaning as “the lord of avalokita,” avalokita has been interpreted as “seeing,” although, as a past passive participle, it is literally “lor

འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པgeneral

’jam dpal gzhon nur gyur pa · mañjuśrīkumārabhūta

Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta

also recorded: Youthful Mañjuśrī, Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta, Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta, Mañjuśrī, the youthful

Evolved from the gandharva Pañcaśikha in early Buddhism, which remains one of Mañjuśrī ’s alternate names. Pañcaśikha was a gandharva who lived on a five-peaked mountain, and who brought the Buddha information on what was occuring in the paradises. Mañjuśrī is the first prominent bodhisattva after Maitreya in the early

བདེ་བ་ཅནgeneral

bde ba can · sukhāvatī

Sukhāvatī

also recorded: Blissful, Realm of Bliss

Sukhāvatī (Blissful) is the buddhafield to the west inhabited by the Buddha Amitāyus , who is also known as Amitābha. It is classically described in The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī ( Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra ).

ཉོན་མོངས་པgeneral

nyon mongs pa · kleśa

affliction

also recorded: defilement, primary affliction, afflictive emotion, afflicted

དབང་པོgeneral

dbang po · indra

Indra

also recorded: faculty, faculties, Mighty One

“Faculties” is a translation meant to represent the preferred etymologization of indriya in Buddhist texts as indanti , meaning “they have power,” which is also reflected in the Tibetan translation as dbang po . Different lists of indriyas exist within the Buddhist texts, their common trait being that they have “power”

གདོནgeneral

gdon · graha

graha

also recorded: evil spirit, seizer, grahī, harmful spirit

The term graha refers to a class of nonhuman beings who “seize,” possess, or otherwise adversely influence other beings by causing a range of physical and mental afflictions, as well as various kinds of misfortune. The term can also be applied generically to other classes of supernatural beings who have the capacity to

ཡི་དགསgeneral

yi dags · preta

preta

also recorded: hungry spirit, hungry ghost, ghost

One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛ s, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly transla

བན་དེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེgeneral

ban de ye shes sde

Bandé Yeshé Dé

also recorded: Bhante Yeshé Dé

མ་སྐྱེས་དགྲgeneral

ma skyes dgra · ajātaśatru

Ajātaśatru

The king of Magadha and son of King Bimbisāra and his queen Vaidehī , he reigned during the last ten years of the Buddha ’s life and for about twenty years after. While he was a prince, he became friends with Devadatta , who convinced him to usurp his father’s throne. After he had his father imprisoned and killed, he w

མར་མེ་མཛདgeneral

mar me mdzad · dīpaṅkara

Dīpaṃkara

also recorded: Dīpaṅkara, Dīpaṁkara

The buddha of the past who prophesied the future awakening of the Buddha Śākyamuni . The first of eight named buddhas of the past (with the addition of Śākyamuni making nine) in The Four Boys’Absorption .

བསྐལ་པgeneral

bskal pa · kalpa

eon

also recorded: kalpa, cosmic age, age

The Indian concept of a period of millions of years, sometimes equivalent to the time when a world appears, exists, and disappears. There are also the intermediate kalpas during the existence of a world, the longest of which is called asaṃkhyeya , (literally “incalculable,” even though the number of its years is calcul

དགེ་སྦྱོང་general

dge sbyong · śramaṇa

ascetic

also recorded: mendicant, śramaṇa, spiritual practitioner, renunciant

A general term applied to spiritual practitioners who live as ascetic mendicants. In Buddhist texts, the term usually refers to Buddhist monastics, but it can also designate a practitioner from other ascetic/monastic spiritual traditions. In this context śramaṇa is often contrasted with the term brāhmaṇa ( bram ze ), w

རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པgeneral

rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa · ṛddhipāda

bases of miraculous power

also recorded: foundations of miraculous power, bases for supernatural powers, bases of magic powers, bases of miraculous absorption

The four bases of supernatural powers ( ṛddhipāda , rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa bzhi ) are: (1) concentration through will ( chanda , ’dun pa ), (2) concentration through vigor ( vīrya , brtson ’grus ), (3) concentration through the mind ( citta , bsam pa ), and (4) concentration through investigation ( mīmāṃsā , dpyod pa

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po · bodhisattva mahāsattva

bodhisattva mahāsattva

also recorded: bodhisattva great being, bodhisattva-mahāsattva

The term can be understood to mean “great courageous one” or "great hero,” or (from the Sanskrit) simply “great being,” and is almost always found as an epithet of “bodhisattva.” The qualification “great” in this term, according to the majority of canonical definitions, focuses on the generic greatness common to all bo

མནར་མེདgeneral

mnar med · avīci

Avīci

also recorded: Hell of Endless Torment, Ceaseless Torment, Hell of Uninterrupted Torment, Hell of Ceaseless Torment

The lowest and most severe among the eight hot hell realms. It is characterized as endless not only in terms of the torment undergone there, but also because of the ceaseless chain of actions and effects experienced, the long lifespan of its denizens, and their being so intensely crowded together that there is no physi

སgeneral

sa · bhūmi

bhūmi

also recorded: bodhisattva level, level, ground, bodhisattva levels

དགེ་སློང་མgeneral

dge slong ma · bhikṣuṇī

nun

also recorded: bhikṣuṇī, fully ordained nun

The term bhikṣuṇī , often translated as “nun,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term bhikṣu (to which the female grammatical ending ṇī is added) literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist nuns and m

དགེ་འདུནgeneral

dge ’dun · saṅgha

saṅgha

also recorded: community, Saṅgha, congregation

Though often specifically reserved for the monastic community, this term can be applied to any of the four Buddhist communities‍—monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen‍—as well as to identify the different groups of practitioners, like the community of bodhisattvas or the community of śrāvakas. It is also the third of the T

མངོན་པར་དགའ་བgeneral

mngon par dga’ ba · abhirati

Abhirati

also recorded: Delightful, Manifest Joy, Joyful, Abhiratī

The eastern realm where the ninth son of King Araṇemin has become the Buddha Akṣobhya , and after Akṣobhya ’s nirvāṇa , where the tenth son will become the Buddha Suvarṇapuṣpa . It will be renamed Jayasoma when the eleventh son, Siṃha , becomes the Buddha Nāgavinarditeśvaraghoṣa there.

བཟང་སྐྱོང་general

bzang skyong · bhadrapāla

Bhadrapāla

also recorded: Bhadrapāla, Zangkyong

Head of the “sixteen excellent men” ( ṣoḍaśasatpuruṣa ), a group of householder bodhisattvas present in the audience of many sūtras. He appears prominently in certain sūtras, such as The Samādhi of the Presence of the Buddhas ( Pratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhisūtra , Toh 133) and is perhaps also the merchant

སྦྱིན་པgeneral

sbyin pa · dāna

generosity

also recorded: giving

The act of giving motivated by the wish to attain awakening for all sentient beings. It is the first of the six or ten perfections, often explained as the essential starting point and training for the practice of the others perfections. Also translated here as “ giving .”

རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལgeneral

rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal · jetavana

Prince Jeta’s Grove

also recorded: Jetavana, Jeta’s Grove, forest of Jeta, Jeta Grove

A park in Śrāvastī, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kośala in northern India. It was owned by Prince Jeta, and the wealthy merchant Anāthapiṇḍada, wishing to offer it to the Buddha, bought it from him by covering the entire property with gold coins. It was to become the place where the monks could be housed durin

འདུ་བྱེདgeneral

’du byed · saṁskāra

formations

also recorded: assembled factor, formation, karmic predispositions, karmic dispositions

In its most general usage this term refers to any phenomenon has been formed, conditioned, or dependently brought into being. It is this broad use of the term that is used in the Bhavasaṅkrāntisūtra when King Bimbisāra asserts that “formations are empty” ( 1.4 ). The same term is also used to describe the second of t

ཚངས་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེནgeneral

tshangs pa’i ’jig rten · brahmaloka

Brahmā world

also recorded: Brahmā’s world, abode of Brahmā, Brahmā realms, Brahmaloka

A collective name for the first three heavens of the form realm , which correspond to the first concentration ( dhyāna ): Brahmakāyika, Brahmapurohita, and Mahābrahmā (also called Brahmapārṣadya). These are ruled over by the god Brahmā , who believes himself to be the creator of the universe. According to some sources,

འོད་སྲུང་general

’od srung · kāśyapa

Kāśyapa

also recorded: Mahākāśyapa, Kaśyapa

A śrāvaka monk among the foremost disciples of the Buddha. His principal quality, according to The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya , is his devotion to ascetic practices .

ཡང་དག་པའི་མཐའgeneral

yang dag pa’i mtha’ · bhūtakoṭi

limit of reality

also recorded: Limit of reality, very limit of reality, ultimate endpoint, final reality

This term has several meanings, depending on the context: (1) the dividing line between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, (2) the inferior realization of the hearers and solitary buddhas , (3) the nature of phenomena ( emptiness ), and (4) full realization of the ultimate truth. In this text it is the second meaning that should be

རི་རབgeneral

ri rab · meru

Mount Meru

also recorded: Mount Sumeru, Meru

According to ancient Buddhist cosmology, this is the great mountain forming the axis of the universe. At its summit is Sudarśana, home of Śakra and his thirty-two gods, and on its flanks live the asuras. The mount has four sides facing the cardinal directions, each of which is made of a different precious stone. Surrou

ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱསgeneral

yang dag par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas · samyaksaṃbuddha

perfectly awakened buddha

also recorded: perfect buddha, perfectly complete buddha, perfect and complete buddha, fully awakened perfect buddha

The attainment of a buddha, who has gained total freedom from conditioned existence, overcome all tendencies imprinted on the mind as a result of a long association with afflicted mental states, and fully manifested all aspects of buddha body, speech, and mind. Also used to emphasize the superiority of buddhahood when

སྦྱངས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏནgeneral

sbyangs pa’i yon tan · dhūtaguṇa

ascetic practices

also recorded: austere practices, ascetic practice, ascetic virtue, ascetic precepts

An optional set of practices that monastics can adopt in order to cultivate greater detachment. The list of practices varies in different sources. When twelve practices are listed, they consist of (1) wearing rags ( pāṃśukūlika , phyag dar khrod pa ), (2) (in the form of only) three religious robes ( traicīvarika , cho

དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པgeneral

dran pa nye bar gzhag pa · smṛtyupasthāna

applications of mindfulness

also recorded: application of mindfulness, foundations of mindfulness

In many formulations, there are four modes of mindfulness : mindfulness of the body, sensations, mind, and phenomena. In this text there are six additional modes of the application of mindfulness : the mindfulness of recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, discipline , giving, and divinties.

མ་འགགས་པgeneral

ma ’gags pa · aniruddha

Aniruddha

Lit. “Unobstructed.” One of the ten great śrāvaka disciples, famed for his meditative prowess and superknowledges. He was the Buddha's cousin‍—a son of Amṛtodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana‍—and is often mentioned along with his two brothers Bhadrika and Mahānāma. Some sources also include Ānanda among his

བརྗེད་བྱེདgeneral

brjed byed · apasmāra

apasmāra

also recorded: Apasmāra, apasmāraka

A class of nonhuman beings believed to cause epilepsy, fits, and loss of memory. As their name suggests‍—the Skt. apasmāra literally means “without memory” and the Tib. brjed byed means “causing forgetfulness”‍—they are defined by the condition they cause in affected humans, and the term can refer to any nonhuman being

མི་འཇིགས་པgeneral

mi ’jigs pa · vaiśāradya

fearlessnesses

also recorded: confidence, fearlessness, assurance, faultlessly

The four kinds of assurance of a tathāgata ( caturvaiśāraya , mi ’jigs pa bzhi ) are: 1) assurance concerning complete awakening ( abhisambodhivaiśāradya , thams cad mkhyen pa la mi ’jigs pa ); 2) assurance concerning the destruction of the impurities ( āsravakṣayavaiśāradya , zag pa zad pa mkhyen pa la mi ’jigs pa

ཤཱ་རིའི་བུgeneral

shA ri’i bu · śāriputra

Śāriputra

One of the principal śrāvaka disciples of the Buddha, he was renowned for his discipline and for having been praised by the Buddha as foremost of the wise (often paired with Maudgalyāyana, who was praised as foremost in the capacity for miraculous powers). His father, Tiṣya, to honor Śāriputra’s mother, Śārikā, named

འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བgeneral

’khor los sgyur ba · cakravartin

cakravartin

also recorded: universal emperor, universal monarch, Cakravartin

An ideal monarch or emperor who, as the result of the merit accumulated in previous lifetimes, rules over a vast realm in accordance with the Dharma. Such a monarch is called a cakravartin because he bears a wheel ( cakra ) that rolls ( vartate ) across the earth, bringing all lands and kingdoms under his power. The ca

ཤ་ཟgeneral

sha za · piśāca

piśāca

also recorded: demon

སྤོབས་པgeneral

spobs pa · pratibhāna

eloquence

also recorded: confidence, eloquence and confidence, brilliancy, confident eloquence

The translation is meant to somehow echo the etymology of prati + bhāna (“forth” + “shine”), and the term does mean something like “intelligence,” “inspiration,” or “eloquence,” often referring to the intelligent presence of mind that allows one to speak in the most appropriate way, even for very long stretches of time

འོད་གསལgeneral

’od gsal

Ābhāsvara

also recorded: Clear Light, Heaven of Luminous Radiance, Luminous Heaven, luminous

Lit. “ Clear Light .” The sixth of the seventeen heavens of the form realm ; also the name of the gods living there. In the form realm , which is structured according to the four concentrations and pure abodes‍, or Śuddhāvāsa ‍, it is listed as the third of the three heavens that correspond to the second of the four co

འཕྲུལ་དགའgeneral

’phrul dga’ · nirmāṇarati

Heaven of Delighting in Emanations

also recorded: Nirmāṇarati, Delighting in Emanations, Nirmāṇarati Heaven, Joyful Emanation

The fifth of the six heavens of the desire realm . Its inhabitants magically create the objects of their own enjoyment and dispose of them themselves.

དགེ་བསྙེནgeneral

dge bsnyen · upāsaka

layman

also recorded: male lay disciple, upāsaka, male lay vow holder, upāsaka (precepts)

The upāsaka precepts for lay practitioners include the five fundamental vows ( pañcaśīla ) not to (1) kill, (2) steal, (3) commit sexual misconduct, (4) lie, or (5) use intoxicants. Additionally, three other precepts are taken on full-moon and new-moon days for a total of eight ( aṣṭāṅgaśīla ): not to (6) eat after the

ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོgeneral

nam mkha’i snying po · ākāśagarbha

Ākāśagarbha

also recorded: Ākāśagarbha

An important bodhisattva whose name means “essence of space.” He is one of the “eight great close sons” ( aṣṭamahopaputra , nye ba’i sras chen brgyad ).

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ཆོསgeneral

byang chub kyi phyogs kyi chos · bodhipakṣadharma

factors of awakening

also recorded: factors that are in harmony with awakening, qualities that are conducive to awakening, branches of awakening, aids to enlightenment

The qualities necessary as a method to attain the awakening of a hearer , solitary buddha , or buddha. There are thirty-seven of these: (1–4) the four applications of mindfulness : mindfulness of body, sensations, mind, and phenomena; (5–8) the four right abandonments : the intention to not do bad actions that are not

ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་general

yul ’khor srung · dhṛtarāṣṭra

Dhṛtarāṣṭra

One of the Four Great Kings , or guardians of the world , he presides over the eastern quarter and rules over the gandharvas that live there.

དགེ་བསྙེན་མgeneral

dge bsnyen ma · upāsikā

laywoman

also recorded: female lay disciple, female lay practitioner, upāsikā, female lay vow holder

An unordained female practitioner who observes the five vows not to kill, lie, steal, be intoxicated, or commit sexual misconduct.

སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་སྟོང་ཆེན་པོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམསgeneral

stong gsum gyi stong chen po’i ’jig rten gyi khams · trisāhasra-mahāsāhasra-lokadhātu

trichiliocosm

also recorded: great trichiliocosm, three-thousandfold universe, billion-world galaxy

The largest universe described in Buddhist cosmology. This term, in Abhidharma cosmology, refers to 1,000³ world systems , i.e., 1,000 “dichiliocosms” or “two thousand great thousand world realms” ( dvisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu ), which are in turn made up of 1,000 first-order world systems , each with its own M

མཐའ་ཡསgeneral

mtha’ yas · ananta

Ananta

also recorded: Ananta, ananta, Anantaka

One of the principal nāga kings. Also known as Śeṣa or Anataśeṣa. Considered the source of Patañjali grammar in Buddhism. In Vaiśnavism he is the serpent that Viṣṇu rests upon in between the creations of worlds.

ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པgeneral

yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa · parinirvāṇa

parinirvāṇa

also recorded: complete nirvāṇa, final nirvāṇa, have completely transcended suffering

This refers to what occurs at the end of an arhat’s or a buddha’s life. When nirvāṇa is attained at awakening, whether as an arhat or buddha, all suffering, afflicted mental states ( kleśa ), and causal processes ( karman ) that lead to rebirth and suffering in cyclic existence have ceased, but due to previously accumu

དཔག་ཚདgeneral

dpag tshad · yojana

league

also recorded: yojana, furlong, yojanas

A measure of distance sometimes translated as “league,” but with varying definitions. The Sanskrit term denotes the distance yoked oxen can travel in a day or before needing to be unyoked. From different canonical sources the distance represented varies between four and ten miles.

འོད་མའི་ཚལgeneral

’od ma’i tshal · veṇuvana

Bamboo Grove

also recorded: Bamboo Park, Veṇuvana

The bamboo grove near Rājagṛha where the Buddha regularly stayed and gave teachings. It was situated on land donated by King Bimbisāra of Magadha . It was the first of several landholdings donated to the Buddhist community during the time of the Buddha .

འོད་སྲུང་ཆེན་པོgeneral

’od srung chen po · mahākāśyapa

Mahākāśyapa

also recorded: Mahākāśyapa

One of the principal disciples of the Buddha, known for his ascetic practice. He is the main interlocutor in The Great Lion’s Roar of Maitreya . Also known as Kāśyapa .

རྒྱལ་བgeneral

rgyal ba · jina

Victorious One

also recorded: Conqueror, Ajita, victor, victorious one

A particularly auspicious time that is marked by the moon passing through the constellation puṣya .

མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིནgeneral

mgon med zas sbyin · anāthapiṇḍada

Anāthapiṇḍada

also recorded: Anāthapiṇḍada

A wealthy merchant in the town of Śrāvastī, famous for his generosity to the poor, who became a patron of the Buddha Śākyamuni. He bought Prince Jeta’s Grove (Skt. Jetavana ), to be the Buddha’s first monastery, a place where the monks could stay during the monsoon. See also “ Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park

སློབ་དཔོནgeneral

slob dpon · ācārya

ācārya

also recorded: teacher, instructor

A spiritual teacher, meaning one who knows the conduct or practice ( ācāra ) to be performed. It can also be a title for a scholar, though that is not the context in this sūtra .

མི་འམ་ཅིgeneral

mi ’am ci · kinnara

kinnara

also recorded: Kinnara

གྲུལ་བུམgeneral

grul bum · kumbhāṇḍa

kumbhāṇḍa

A class of dwarf beings subordinate to Virūḍhaka, one of the Four Great Kings, associated with the southern direction. The name uses a play on the word aṇḍa , which means “egg” but is also a euphemism for a testicle. Thus, they are often depicted as having testicles as big as pots (from kumbha , or “pot”). ‍—

ངན་སོང་general

ngan song · apāya, durgati

lower realms

also recorded: bad rebirth, Lower realms, unfavorable rebirth, evil state

A synonym for “ unfortunate rebirth-destiny .” A name for any of the three lower realms of existence, i.e., the realms of animals, ghosts , and hell beings . Occurs often in a formula together with its synonym and its near synonyms “the lower worlds” and “hell” (Pali niraya / naraka ; Tib. sems can dmyal ba ).

འཁོར་བgeneral

’khor ba · saṃsāra

saṃsāra

also recorded: Saṃsāra, cyclic existence

A state of involuntary existence conditioned by afflicted mental states and the imprint of past actions, characterized by suffering in a cycle of life, death, and rebirth. On its reversal, the contrasting state of nirvāṇa is attained, free from suffering and the processes of rebirth.

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

theg pa chen po · mahāyāna

Great Vehicle

also recorded: Mahāyāna, great vehicle

When the Buddhist teachings are classified according to their power to lead beings to an awakened state, a distinction is made between the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle , which emphasizes the individual’s own freedom from cyclic existence as the primary motivation and goal, and those of the Great Vehicle , which emph

ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པgeneral

tshangs par spyod pa · brahmacarya

holy life

also recorded: celibacy, Brahman conduct, brahmacārin, brahmacārya vow

Lit. “brahma conduct.” A term that in some contexts refers specifically to chastity or complete celibacy. It can also be used to refer in general to a spiritual life as a devout person or a renunciant. Brahman is a Sanskrit term referring to what is highest ( parama ) and most important ( pradhāna ); the Nibandhana com

སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

sems dpa’ chen po · mahāsattva

mahāsattva

also recorded: great being

ལྕང་ལོ་ཅནgeneral

lcang lo can · aḍakavatī

Aḍakavatī

also recorded: Alakāvatī, Aḍakāvatī, Alakavatī, Aḍagavatī

The name of the capital city in the abode of Vajrapāṇi , as attested in the Sanskrit manuscript of this sūtra. The manuscript of the sūtra contains the variant spelling Abhagavatī, which could be a spelling error, though it occurs multiple times in the manuscript. The spelling of the name can vary in other texts, too,

མཚན་མ་མེད་པgeneral

mtshan ma med pa · animitta

absence of marks

also recorded: absence of characteristics, absence of distinguishing marks, absence of phenomenal marks, signlessness

The absence of dualistic perception that assigns marks or signs to perceived phenomena. Signlessness is one of the three gateways to liberation, along with emptiness and wishlessness .

འདོད་ཆགསgeneral

’dod chags · rāga

desire

also recorded: attraction, attachment, craving

One of the three basic mental afflictions (together with aversion and confusion) within which all other mental afflictions can be subsumed. The term rāga comes from the root rañj , which can also have the sense of “to color,” thus making it possible to create significant double-meanings in Sanskrit ( rakta can thus mea

གང་གཱའི་ཀླུང་general

gang gA’i klung

Ganges River

also recorded: Ganges river, river Gaṅgā, Ganges, river Ganges

ཟག་པgeneral

zag pa · āsrava

defilement

also recorded: contaminant, defilements, contaminants, contamination

Literally, “to flow” or “to ooze.” Mental defilements or contaminations that “flow out” toward the objects of cyclic existence, binding us to them. Vasubandhu offers two alternative explanations of this term: “They cause beings to remain ( āsayanti ) within saṃsāra” and “They flow from the Summit of Existence down to t

རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པgeneral

rnam par shes pa · vijñāna

consciousness

The term vijñāna is formed by the prefix vi plus a formation from the root jñā , which means “to know,” “to understand,” “to know of,” “to be aware of.” (This is reproduced in the Tibetan as rnam par + shes pa .) “Consciousness” has a specific meaning in Buddhist texts and refers to awareness of an object, point of ref

རིག་སྔགསgeneral

rig sngags · vidyāmantra

vidyāmantra

also recorded: vidyā mantra, vidyā, vidyā-spell, incantation

A sacred utterance or spell made for the purpose of attaining either worldly or transcendent benefits. Although a technical term in its own right, vidyāmantra is often used interchangeably with terms such as dhāraṇī , dhāraṇīmantra , and guhyamantra .

དགའ་བོgeneral

dga’ bo · ānanda

Nanda

also recorded: Ānanda

འཕགས་པgeneral

’phags pa · ārya

ārya

also recorded: noble one, Aryaman, noble (one), noble being

The Sanskrit ārya has the general meaning of a noble person, one of a higher class or caste. In Buddhist literature, depending on the context, it often means specifically one who has gained the realization of the path and is superior for that reason. In particular, it applies to stream enterers, once-returners, non-ret

བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེgeneral

ban+de ye shes sde

Bandé Yeshé Dé

also recorded: Bande Yeshé Dé

སྨོན་ལམgeneral

smon lam · praṇidhāna

aspiration

also recorded: prayer, aspirational prayer

Usually appears in the idiomatic expression smon lam ’debs “express / utter an aspiration / wish” and instantiated in a verbal formula (a variety of formulas is found throughout Mahāyāna literature) which is uttered in the presence of a buddha, who then expresses his prophecy ( vyākaraṇa ) of the bodhisattva’s future a

ཁྲོ་གཉེར་ཅནgeneral

khro gnyer can · bhṛkuṭī

Bhṛkuṭī

also recorded: Bhṛkutī

According to Tibetan historical sources, the Nepalese princess who married the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo . She is believed to have arrived in Tibet in either 632 or 634.

གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོgeneral

gzugs can snying po · bimbisāra

Bimbisāra

The king of Magadha and a great patron of the Buddha. His birth coincided with the Buddha’s, and his father, King Mahāpadma, named him “Essence of Gold” after mistakenly attributing the brilliant light that marked the Buddha’s birth to the birth of his son by Queen Bimbī (“Goldie”). Accounts of Bimbisāra’s youth and li

གཤིན་རྗེgeneral

gshin rje · yama

Yama

also recorded: Lord of Death

The lord of death who, in Indian mythology, judges the dead and rules over the hell and preta realms.

ཞི་གནསgeneral

zhi gnas · śamatha

calm abiding

also recorded: meditative calm, calm abiding meditation, tranquility, quiescence

A term for a general style and state of Buddhist meditation in which one focuses the mind and abides in a state of calm, as implied by the Tibetan translation of the term. Associated with the states of meditation, concentration, and absorption, and the achievement of supernormal faculties, as well as awakening itself.

རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྣ་བདུནgeneral

rin po che sna bdun · saptaratna

seven precious substances

also recorded: seven royal treasures, seven precious jewels, seven jewels, seven kinds of precious jewels

The seven possessions of a cakravartin including the precious wheel, the precious elephant, the precious horse, the precious jewel, the precious woman, the precious steward, and the precious minister. In some forms of the list the steward or minister is variably replaced by the precious general ( senāpatiratna ; dmag d

བསོད་ནམསgeneral

bsod nams · puṇya

merit

also recorded: meritorious deeds

In this text, merit is established as the most prized possession of human beings, more than good looks, diligence , artistry , and insight . In Buddhism more generally, merit refers to the wholesome tendencies imprinted in the mind as a result of positive and skillful thoughts, words, and actions that ripen in the expe

མེ་ལྷgeneral

me lha · agni

Agni

This refers to Agni, the Vedic deity of fire, who is also invoked in Buddhist burnt offering rituals.

བདུད་རྩིgeneral

bdud rtsi · amṛta

amṛta

also recorded: Amṛtabindu, amrita, ambrosia, nectar

The ambrosia (also translated here as “ immortality ”) that prevents death or spiritual death (hence the Tibetan term means “crushes spiritual death”). The Sanskrit term literally means immortality . It is often used metaphorically to mean the Dharma.

ཉི་མgeneral

nyi ma · āditya

Āditya

also recorded: Arka, Sūrya, Ārka, Abhāskara

The sun; the god of the sun; the king identified as Ādityavardhana of the Śrīkaṇṭha - Sthāṇvīśvara dynasty who ruled in Madhyadeśa in the sixth century ᴄᴇ .

བློ་གྲོས་མི་ཟད་པgeneral

blo gros mi zad pa · akṣayamati

Akṣayamati

also recorded: Akṣayamati

A bodhisattva in the assembly at Vimalakīrti ’s house, often figuring in other Mahāyāna sūtras , especially Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra .

དབང་ཕྱུགgeneral

dbang phyug · aiśvarya

Īśvara

also recorded: mastery, Śiva, God, almighty

The Sanskrit īśvara literally means “powerful one.” In both Indian and Tibetan literature it is often an epithet applied to Śiva. However, here where the title is given to a “supremely great almighty brahmā , sovereign of a trichiliocosm ” ( tshangs pa stong gsum gyi stong chen po’i ’jig rten gyi bdag po dbang phyug ch

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངསgeneral

chos kyi rnam grangs · dharmaparyāya

Dharma discourse

also recorded: doctrinal synopsis, account of Dharma

The Sanskrit word paryāya regularly has the sense of “method,” “procedure,” and “approach,” but here it means simply “Dharma teaching,” “Dharma discourse,” or, more literally, “approach to the Dharma.” The Chinese 法門 fa men (lit. “door to the Dharma”) conveys the sense of “access/approach” and, by extension, “teaching.

སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པgeneral

so so yang dag par rig pa · pratisaṃvid

discernment

also recorded: correct knowledge, genuine discriminations, analytical ability, correct discernments

Correct and unhindered discernment that is traditionally of four types: (1) discernment of phenomena ( dharma ); (2) discernment of meaning ( artha ); (3) discernment of linguistic analysis ( nirukti ); and (4) discernment in confident eloquence ( pratibhāna ).

འཐབ་བྲལgeneral

’thab bral · yāma

Heaven Free from Strife

also recorded: Heaven Free of Strife, Heaven Free from Conflict, Heaven Without Strife

The third of the six heavens of the desire realm . The Tibetan translation ’thab bral , “free from strife or combat,” derives from the idea that these devas, because they live in an aerial abode above Mount Meru, do not have to engage in combat with the asuras who dwell on the slopes of the mountain.

གཞན་འཕྲུལ་དབང་བྱེདgeneral

gzhan ’phrul dbang byed · paranirmitavaśavartin

Heaven of Making Use of Others’ Emanations

also recorded: Control of Others’ Emanations, Mastery Over Others’ Emanations, Heaven of Controlling the Emanations of Others, Heaven of Making Use of Others' Emanations

The sixth and highest of the heavens of the desire realm . The inhabitants enjoy objects created by others and dispose of them themselves. See also n.98 .

སྲིད་པgeneral

srid pa · bhava

becoming

also recorded: existence, cyclic existence

Here, srid pa denotes the whole of existence, i.e., the five rebirth-destinies or the three worlds‍—all the possible kinds and places of karmic rebirth. It is also the tenth of the twelve links of dependent origination (often translated as “becoming”).

ས་འཛིནgeneral

sa ’dzin

Dharaṇīdhara

also recorded: Earth Supporter, Bhūbhṛt, Gandhara, Dharaṇīṃdhara

The present-day Gandhara region was located in northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. This region was historically important for the development of Buddhism. In this chapter, Gandhara is identified as the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Cave of Provisions is located.

མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ་ལྔgeneral

mngon par shes pa lnga · pañcābhijñā

five superknowledges

also recorded: five extraordinary abilities, five forms of superknowledge, higher perceptions, five supernatural abilities

Divine sight, divine hearing, knowledge of the minds of others, remembrance of past lives, and ability to perform miracles. See “ six higher perceptions ,” the same list with the addition of “ability to destroy mental defilements,” which can only be attained by Buddhist practitioners.

སུ་རེན་དྲ་བོ་དྷིgeneral

su ren dra bo dhi · surendrabodhi

Surendrabodhi

Surendrabodhi came to Tibet during reign of King Ralpachen (r. 815–38 ᴄᴇ ). He is listed as the translator of forty-three texts and was one of the small group of paṇḍitas responsible for the Mahāvyutpatti Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary.

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པgeneral

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa · prajñāpāramitā

perfection of wisdom

also recorded: Perfection of Wisdom, Perfection of Insight, prajñāpāramitā

The sixth of the six perfections, it refers to the profound understanding of the emptiness of all phenomena, the realization of ultimate reality. It is often personified as a female deity, worshiped as the “Mother of All Buddhas” ( sarvajinamātā ).

རྡོ་རྗེgeneral

rdo rje · vajra

vajra

also recorded: diamond, adamantine

This term generally indicates indestructibility and stability. In the sūtras, vajra most often refers to the hardest possible physical substance, said to have divine origins. In some scriptures, it is also the name of the all-powerful weapon of Indra, which in turn is crafted from vajra material. In the tantras, the va

རྒྱལ་ཆེན་བཞིའི་རིསgeneral

rgyal chen bzhi’i ris · caturmahārājakāyika

Heaven of the Four Great Kings

also recorded: Cāturmahā-rāja-kāyika, (gods) attendant on the Four Great Kings, Abodes of the Four Great Kings, Cāturmahārājika

One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, lowest among the six heavens of the desire realm ( kāmadhātu , ’dod khams ). Dwelling place of the Four Great Kings ( caturmahārāja , rgyal chen bzhi ), traditionally located on a terrace of Sumeru, just below the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. Each cardinal direction is ruled by

མཽད་གལ་གྱི་བུgeneral

maud gal gyi bu · maudgalyāyana

Maudgalyāyana

also recorded: Maudgalyāyana, Maudgalyāyana, Mahāmaudgalyāyana

One of the principal śrāvaka disciples of the Buddha, paired with Śāriputra. He was renowned for his miraculous powers. His family clan was descended from Mudgala, hence his name Maudgalyāyana, “the son of Mudgala’s descendants.” Respectfully referred to as Mahāmaudgalyāyana, “Great Maudgalyāyana.”

མི་འཇིགས་པ་བཞིgeneral

mi ’jigs pa bzhi · caturvaiśāradya

four fearlessnesses

also recorded: four confidences, four types of fearlessness, fourfold fearlessness, four states of fearlessness

The four fearlessnesses ( abhaya ) or confidences ( vaiśāradya ) are assertions that a tathāgata makes with irrefutable certainty: that of being (1) awakened and knowing all phenomena, (2) knowing the exhaustion of all defilements, (3) correctly identifying all obstacles to liberation, and (4) revealing/actualizing the

མཐོང་བ་དོན་ཡོདgeneral

mthong ba don yod · amoghadarśin

Amoghadarśin

also recorded: Amoghadarśin

Name of the buddha that Glorious Splendor will become in the world Totally Pure and Stable .

སྦྱིན་སྲེགgeneral

sbyin sreg · homa

homa

also recorded: burnt offering, fire-offering, fire offering, oblation

The casting of a prescribed offering into a ritual fire. The practice of homa is first attested in pre-Buddhist Vedic literature, and serves as a core, pervasive ritual paradigm in exoteric and esoteric rites in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions into modern times. In Buddhist esoteric rites, the ritual offering

རྟ་ཐུལgeneral

rta thul · aśvajit

Aśvajit

The son of one of the seven brahmins who predicted that Śākyamuni would become a great king. He was one of the five companions with Śākyamuni in the beginning of his spiritual path, abandoning him when he gave up asceticism, but then becoming one of his first five pupils after his buddhahood. He was the last of the fiv

མི་མཇེདgeneral

mi mjed · sahā

Sahā world

also recorded: Enduring, Sahā, Endurance

The name for our world system, the universe of a thousand million worlds, or trichiliocosm, in which the four-continent world is located. Each trichiliocosm is ruled by a god Brahmā; thus, in this context, he bears the title of Sahāṃpati, Lord of Sahā. The world system of Sahā, or Sahālokadhātu, is also described as th

རྒྱུན་དུ་ཞུགས་པgeneral

rgyun du zhugs pa · srotaāpanna

stream enterer

also recorded: stream-entry, entering the stream, stream-enterer, attaining the stream

The first level of realization that transforms an ordinary person into a “ noble one,” someone who has directly seen the nature of reality and has a sufficiently stable level of realization to be already bound toward liberation from saṃsāra.

སྨོན་པ་མེད་པgeneral

smon pa med pa · apraṇihita

absence of wishes

also recorded: wishlessness, absence of aspiration, beyond wishes

The ultimate absence of any wish, desire, or aspiration, even those directed towards buddhahood. One of the three gateways to liberation; the other two are emptiness and signlessness .

ཨ་ག་རུgeneral

a ga ru · agaru

aloeswood

also recorded: agarwood

A resinous wood recovered from trees of the genus Aquilaria which is native to South and Southeast Asia. Widely used for making incense. The tree produces the resin as a defense mechanism against infections with mold. Has become a rare commodity due to overharvesting and habitat destruction. Also called agarwood. Tib.

ཚངས་རིསgeneral

tshangs ris · Brahmakāyika

Brahmakāyika

also recorded: Brahmā Heaven, (gods) attendant on Brahmā, Heaven of Brahmā’s Retinue, Brahmā Realm

The lowest of the heavens of the form realm and of the first of the three Brahmā heavens. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the first meditative absorption . See also n.130 .

སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པgeneral

snyoms par ’jug pa · samāpatti

attainment

also recorded: meditative attainment, absorption, absorptions, equipoise

A technical term referring to a meditative state attained through the practice of concentration. Usually a reference to the nine gradual attainments ( navānupūrvavihārasamāpatti , mthar gyis gnas pa’i snyoms par ’jug pa dgu ) that include the four attainments of the form realm, the four formless attainments , and the a

འདོད་པའི་ཁམསgeneral

’dod pa’i khams · kāmadhātu

desire realm

also recorded: realm of desire

In Buddhist cosmology, this is our own realm, the lowest and most coarse of the three realms of saṃsāra. It is called this because beings here are characterized by their strong longing for and attachment to the pleasures of the senses. The desire realm includes hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras, and t

འཛམ་བུ་གླིང་general

’dzam bu gling · jambudvīpa

Jambudvīpa

also recorded: Jambudvīpa, Jambūdvīpa

ཚད་མེད་འོདgeneral

tshad med ’od · apramāṇābha

Apramāṇābha

also recorded: Boundless Radiance, Heaven of Boundless Radiance, Limitless Light Heaven, those of immeasurable radiance

“Immeasurable Light.” The second highest of the three paradises that correspond to the second dhyāna in the form realm. Translated in other texts as tshad med snang ba .

མཁའ་འགྲོ་མgeneral

mkha’ ’gro ma · ḍākinī

ḍākinī

A class of powerful nonhuman female beings who play a variety of roles in Indic literature in general and Buddhist literature specifically. Essentially synonymous with yoginīs, ḍākinīs are liminal and often dangerous beings who can be propitiated to acquire both mundane and transcendent spiritual accomplishments. In th

གཏི་མུགgeneral

gti mug · moha

delusion

also recorded: ignorance, confusion

One of the three poisons ( dug gsum ) along with aversion, or hatred, and attachment, or desire, which perpetuate the sufferings of cyclic existence. It is the obfuscating mental state which obstructs an individual from generating knowledge or insight, and it is said to be the dominant characteristic of the animal worl

མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བgeneral

mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba · anāthapiṇḍadārāma

Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park

also recorded: Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, grove of Anāthapiṇḍada

ལྷ་མིནgeneral

lha min · asura

asura

also recorded: demigods

A type of nonhuman being whose precise status is subject to different views, but is included as one of the six classes of beings in the sixfold classification of realms of rebirth. In the Buddhist context, asuras are powerful beings said to be dominated by envy, ambition, and hostility. They are also known in the pre-B

ཕུང་པོ་ལྔgeneral

phung po lnga · pañcaskandha

five aggregates

Form, feeling, perception , formation , and consciousness. On the individual level, the five aggregates refer to the basis upon which the mistaken idea of a self is projected. They are referred to as the “bases for appropriation” (Skt. upādāna ) insofar as all conceptual grasping arises based on these aggregates .

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམསgeneral

byang chub sems · bodhicitta

bodhicitta

also recorded: thought of awakening, awakening mind, mind of awakening, aspiration to enlightenment

In the general Mahāyāna teachings the mind of awakening (bodhicitta) is the intention to attain the complete awakening of a perfect buddha for the sake of all beings. On the level of absolute truth, the mind of awakening is the realization of the awakened state itself.

ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེgeneral

lag na rdo rje · vajrapāṇi

Vajrapāṇi

ཆོས་ཀྱི་མིགgeneral

chos kyi mig · dharmacakṣus

Dharma eye

also recorded: eye of Dharma, eye of the doctrine, dharma eye

One of the “five eyes,” representing superior insights of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. The five eyes consist of five different faculties of vision: the physical eye ( māṃsacakṣus ), the divine eye ( divyacakṣus ), the wisdom eye ( prajñācakṣus ), the dharma eye ( dharmacakṣus ), and the buddha eye ( buddhacakṣus ).

གཏུམ་མོgeneral

gtum mo · caṇḍālikā

inner heat

also recorded: Caṇḍālikā, Caṇḍikā, Fierce Lady, caṇḍālī

One of the fifteen yoginīs that inhabit the thirty-two subtle channels. She is roused as a mystic heat or fire during a yoga practice of the same name. She is also one of the five mudrās, representing the tathāgata family in the Hevajra system. Also, the name of a yoginī in the maṇḍala of Nairātmyā.

རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་པར་འབྱུང་བgeneral

rten cing ’brel par ’byung ba · pratītyasamutpāda

dependent origination

also recorded: dependent arising

A key term for Buddhist philosophy that represents the basic Buddhist understanding of causal processes. In pratītya-samutpāda , a compound of two terms, samutpāda means “arisin” or “coming into existence ” and poses little interpretive difficulty. The preverb sam - is sometimes understood as meaning “together” ( samav

དཔེ་བྱད་བཟང་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཅུgeneral

dpe byad bzang po brgyad cu · aśītyanuvyañjana

eighty minor marks

also recorded: eighty excellent signs, Eighty excellent signs, eighty sublime characteristics, eighty excellent marks

Eighty of the hundred and twelve identifying physical characteristics of both buddhas and cakravartin kings, in addition to the so-called “thirty-two signs of a great being.” They are considered secondary to the thirty-two signs. They can be found listed in The Play in Full ( Lalitavistara , Toh 95), 7.100 .

དབང་པོ་ལྔgeneral

dbang po lnga · pañcendriya

five faculties

also recorded: five powers, five abilities, five sense faculties

The five faculties are (1) faith (Skt. śraddhā , Tib. dad pa ), (2) diligence ( vīrya , brtson ’grus ), (3) mindfulness ( smṛti , dran pa ), (4) meditative stability ( samādhi , ting nge ’dzin ), and (5) wisdom ( prajñā , shes rab ). They are the same as the five powers but at a prior stage of development. The five fac

ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོgeneral

kun tu bzang po · samantabhadra

Samantabhadra

also recorded: Samantabhadra

Presently classed as one of the eight principal bodhisattvas, he is distinct from the primordial buddha with the same name in the Tibetan Nyingma tradition. He is prominent in the Gaṇḍavyūha , and also in The White Lotus of the Good Dharma (Toh 113, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka ) and The White Lotus of Compassion Sūtra (Toh 11

མཽད་གལ་གྱི་བུ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

maud gal gyi bu chen po · mahāmaudgalyāyana

Mahāmaudgalyāyana

also recorded: Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Maudgalyāyana

ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པgeneral

pha rol tu phyin pa · pāramitā

perfections

also recorded: perfection

The six perfections of generosity , conduct, patience , diligence , meditation , and wisdom .

ཆོས་སྨྲ་བgeneral

chos smra ba · dharmabhāṇaka

dharmabhāṇaka

also recorded: dharma reciters, Dharma Teacher, dharma teacher

A teacher or reciter of scriptures. In early Buddhism a section of the saṅgha would consist of bhāṇakas , who, particularly before the teachings were written down and were only transmitted orally, were a key factor in their preservation. Various groups of dharmabhāṇakas specialized in memorizing and reciting certain se

འཁོར་ལོgeneral

’khor lo · cakra

cakra

also recorded: chakra, mantra wheel

Literally “wheel,” cakra is an energy center in the subtle body where subtle channels converge. In tantric Buddhism there are either four or five main cakras. The Hevajra Tantra teaches four cakras, namely the cakras of qualities ( dharmacakra ), enjoyment ( sambhogacakra ), creation ( nirmāṇacakra ), and great bliss (

མ་ག་དྷཱgeneral

ma ga dhA · magadha

Magadha

An ancient Indian kingdom that lay to the south of the Ganges River in what today is the state of Bihar. Magadha was the largest of the sixteen “great states” ( mahājanapada ) that flourished between the sixth and third centuries ʙᴄᴇ in northern India. During the life of the Buddha Śākyamuni, it was ruled by King Bimbi

རིགས་ཀྱི་བུgeneral

rigs kyi bu · kulaputra

son of good family

also recorded: Son of good family, son of noble family, noble son, faithful man of a good family

Indian term of address used toward a male student of the bodhisattva path. While this is usually a characteristic pertaining to brahmins (i.e., born in the brahmin caste to seven-generation brahmin parents), the Buddha redefined noble birth as determined by an individual’s ethical conduct and integrity. Thus, someone w

ཚངས་པའི་གནསgeneral

tshangs pa’i gnas · brahmavihāra

brahmā abodes

also recorded: abode of Brahmā, divine states of mind, abodes of Brahmā, brahmā states

Here refers to the brahmā heavens of the form realm, in which brahmā deities and the supreme deity, Brahmā, lord of the Sahā world , abide. Elsewhere the four brahmā abodes , or the “four immeasurables,” refer to the practices of limitless love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, which lead to rebirth in the brahmā realm

ཕྱིར་མི་འོང་བgeneral

phyir mi ’ong ba · anāgamin

non-returner

The third of the four attainments of śrāvakas , this term refers to a person who will no longer take rebirth in the Desire Realm ( kāmadhātu ), but either be reborn in the Pure Abodes ( śuddhāvāsa ) or reach the state of an arhat in their current lifetime.

ལྷག་མཐོང་general

lhag mthong · vipaśyanā

insight

also recorded: special insight, transcendent insight, deep insight, discernment

Refers to liberating insight into the nature of reality and the meditative practice leading to such insight . One of the two basic forms of Buddhist meditation, the other being calm abiding (Skt. śamatha ).

འབྲོག་གནསgeneral

’brog gnas · āḍavaka

Āṭavaka

also recorded: Āḍavaka, Aṭavika, Aṭāvika, Guhyasthāna

The name of one of the ten vajra-wielding great yakṣa generals. The name in Sanskrit indicates “woodsman” or “forester,” while in Tibetan it means “one who lives in the high pastures.”

ལྷའི་བུ་མོgeneral

lha’i bu mo · apsaras

apsaras

also recorded: Apsarases, celestial nymph, goddess, divine maiden

A class of celestial singers and dancers in Indian mythology who inhabit the heaven of the god Śakra , lord of the heavens.

དངོས་གྲུབgeneral

dngos grub · siddhi

accomplishment

also recorded: attainment, spiritual accomplishment, spiritual attainment

Accomplishment or success in general, as well as any particular magical power or ability. In the latter sense, eight are traditionally enumerated, namely the siddhi of the magical sword, of an eye ointment that renders invisible, etc. The content of the list may vary from source to source.

བཏང་སྙོམསgeneral

btang snyoms · upekṣā

equanimity

also recorded: impartiality

One of the four “immeasurables” of the Mahāyāna, known in early Buddhism as “pure abodes” (Skt. brahmavihāra ), which comprise (1) friendly kindness, (2) compassion, (3) joy, and (4) equanimity. Immeasurable equanimity arises from having an unbiased attitude toward all beings without exception.

ཀ་ལ་པིང་ཀgeneral

ka la ping ka · kalaviṅka

kalaviṅka

also recorded: kalaviṅka bird, cuckoo, avadavat

In Buddhist literature refers to a mythical bird whose call is said to be far more beautiful than that of all other birds, and so compelling that it can be heard even before the bird has hatched. The call of the kalaviṅka is thus used as an analogy to describe the sound of the discourse of bodhisattvas as being far sup

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོgeneral

byang chub kyi snying po · bodhimaṇḍa

seat of awakening

also recorded: Bodhimaṇḍa

The name for the platform under the Bodhi tree that marks the location where the Buddha Śākyamuni attained awakening. The same term is used to signify the platform under the Bodhi trees on which all tathāgatas, both in this realm and in others, attain awakening.

ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པgeneral

phyir mi ldog pa · avaivartika

irreversible

also recorded: nonregression, state of irreversibility in spiritual progress, Anivartin, beyond regressing

Describes a stage on the path of bodhisattvas (or bodhisattvas who have reached that stage) at which their realization is such that henceforth nothing can ever make them turn back from progressing toward the full awakening of a buddha.

ལུས་སྲུལ་པོgeneral

lus srul po · kaṭapūtana

kaṭapūtana

A subgroup of pūtanas, a class of disease-causing spirits associated with cemeteries and dead bodies. The name probably derives from the Skt. pūta , “foul-smelling,” as reflected also in the Tib. srul po . The smell of a pūtana is variously described in the texts as resembling that of a billy goat or a crow, and the sm

ལྷས་བྱིནgeneral

lhas byin · devadatta

Devadatta

A cousin of the Buddha Śākyamuni who broke with him and established his own community. His tradition continued into the first millennium ᴄᴇ . He is portrayed as plotting against the Buddha and even succeeding in wounding him. He is usually identified with wicked beings in accounts of previous lifetimes.

རྫུ་འཕྲུལgeneral

rdzu ’phrul · ṛddhi

miraculous power

also recorded: miraculous powers, magical power, extraordinary power

The supernatural powers of a śrāvaka correspond to the first abhijñā : “Being one he becomes many, being many he becomes one; he becomes visible, invisible; goes through walls, ramparts and mountains without being impeded, just as through air; he immerses himself in the earth and emerges from it as if in water; he goes

དམིགས་པgeneral

dmigs pa · ālambana

apprehension

also recorded: purpose, perception, apprehending, focus

dmigs (pa) translates a number of Sanskrit terms, including ālambana , upalabdhi , and ālambate . These terms commonly refer to the apprehending of a subject, an object, and the relationships that exist between them. The term may also be translated as “referentiality,” meaning a system based on the existence of referen

ངན་འགྲོgeneral

ngan ’gro · durgati

lower realms

also recorded: states of misery, unfortunate state, bad rebirth, lower realm

Rebirth in one of the three lower states of existence, namely, the hell realm, the realm of hungry ghosts, or the animal realm.

ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པgeneral

kun nas nyon mongs pa · saṃkleśa

defilement

also recorded: totally afflicted, affliction itself, afflicted, affliction

སྤྲིན་མེདgeneral

sprin med · anabhraka

Anabhraka

also recorded: Cloudless Heaven, those who are unclouded

The tenth of the heavens of the form realm . Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third or, according to the Mvy, fourth meditative absorption . See also n.137 .

སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ་བཞིgeneral

so so yang dag par rig pa bzhi · catuḥpratisaṃvid

four correct discernments

also recorded: four discernments, four genuine discriminations, four types of correct understanding, four correct discriminations

Four aspects by which a bodhisattva or tathāgata makes correct discernment without making a mistake or confusing one phenomenon with another. The four are listed as (1) the correct discernment of meaning, (2) the correct discernment of Dharma, (3) the correct discernment of etymology or language ( nirukti ), and (4) th

གཟུགསgeneral

gzugs · rūpa

form

also recorded: Material form, matter, drama, effigy

The first of the five aggregates ; but also, in this sūtra, “inner form ” within consciousness (see 1.38 ).

འདུ་ཤེསgeneral

’du shes · saṃjñā

perception

also recorded: conceptual notions, conception, notions, clear understanding

Often this term is translated as “perception” or “discrimination” when it is included as the third of the five aggregates , in which case it refers to the mental function of differentiating and identifying objects according to their qualities. Thus it does not refer to the perceptions of the senses but to the conceptua

སྙིང་པོgeneral

snying po · hṛdaya

heart mantra

also recorded: essence-mantra, essence, essence mantra, Hṛdaya

A term for the most important and often (but not always) the most simplified spell associated with a particular buddha, bodhisattva, or other being.

མནར་མེད་པgeneral

mnar med pa · avīci

Avīci Hell

also recorded: Avīci hell, Hell of Ceaseless Torment, Endless Torment, Avīci

The eighth and lowest of the eight hot hells.

ཐིག་ལེgeneral

thig le · bindi

drop

also recorded: bindi, anunāsika, bindu, Drop

A drop (as of liquids); a “drop” of concentrated energy in the channels of the subtle body; the shape of a drop with a small protuberance above visualized above mantric syllables as part of the anunāsika (the nasal mark).

རླུང་general

rlung · śvāsa

wind

also recorded: breath, Vāyu, Anila, winds

A subtle form of energy that travels through the body’s channels (Skt. nāḍī , Tib. rtsa ). It is manipulated in tantric practices to achieve high levels of realization.

ཞེ་སྡང་general

zhe sdang · dveṣa

anger

also recorded: hatred, aversion, aggression

One of the six root afflictions (Skt. mūlakleśa ), often listed as one of the three poisons (Skt. triviṣa ) along with attachment (Skt. rāga ) and delusion (Skt. moha ).

གཽ་ཏ་མgeneral

gau ta ma · gautama

Gautama

The family name of Siddhārtha, who became known as the Buddha Śākyamuni. There was believed to be a patrilineal descent from the ancient Indian sage Gautama, to whom is attributed the Gautama Sūtra that prescribes entry into the homeless life as a bhikṣu with orange robes and a shaved head and alms bowl.

ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུགgeneral

pha rol tu phyin pa drug · ṣaṭ pāramitāḥ

six perfections

also recorded: six transcendent perfections

The six practices or qualities that a follower of the Great Vehicle perfects in order to transcend cyclic existence. They are generosity ( dāna , byin pa ), discipline ( śīla , tshul khrims ), patience or acceptance ( kṣānti , bzod pa ), diligence ( vīrya , brtson ’grus ), meditative concentration ( dhyāna , bsam gtan

རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་མོgeneral

rigs kyi bu mo · kuladuhitṛ

daughter of good family

also recorded: Daughter of good family, daughter of noble family, faithful woman of a good family

While this is usually a characteristic pertaining to brahmins (i.e., born in the brahmin caste to seven-generation brahmin parents), the Buddha redefined noble birth as determined by an individual’s ethical conduct and integrity. Thus, someone who enters the Buddha’s saṅgha is called a “son or daughter of noble family”

མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱདgeneral

mi khom pa brgyad · aṣṭākṣaṇa

eight unfree states

also recorded: eight unfavorable states, eight inopportune situations

A set of circumstances that do not provide the freedom to practice the Buddhist path: being born in the realms of (1) the hells, (2) hungry ghosts ( pretas ), (3) animals, or (4) long-lived gods, or in the human realm among (5) barbarians or (6) extremists, (7) in places where the Buddhist teachings do not exist, or (8

ལན་ཅིག་ཕྱིར་འོང་བgeneral

lan cig phyir ’ong ba · sakṛdāgāmin

once-returner

also recorded: once-returning

The second level of the four kinds of noble person ( āryapudgala , ’phags pa’i gang zag ), who will only be reborn once more before attaining the state of arhat.

སྙིགས་མ་ལྔgeneral

snyigs ma lnga · pañcakaṣāya

five degenerations

also recorded: five types of degeneration, five impurities

Five particular aspects of life that indicate the degenerate nature of a given age. They are the degenerations of views ( dṛṣṭikaṣāya ), afflictions ( kleśakaṣāya ), sentient beings ( sattvakaṣāya ), lifespan ( āyuḥkaṣāya ), and time ( kalpakaṣāya ).

ཚོར་བgeneral

tshor ba · vedanā

feeling

also recorded: sensation

The second of the five aggregates that constitute a living being ( form , feeling, perception , formation , and consciousness ).

ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་བཞིgeneral

phyin ci log bzhi · caturo viparyāsā

four errors

also recorded: four misapprehensions, four wrong views, four distorted views, four misconceptions

These are mistaking impermanence for permanence, mistaking suffering for happiness, mistaking impurity for purity, and mistaking the absence of a self for a self.

སྨན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོgeneral

sman gyi rgyal po · bhaiṣajyarāja

Bhaiṣajyarāja

also recorded: Bhaiṣajyarāja

Lit. “King of Healers.” In the story of Śākyamuni ’s former life in this sūtra , he is the tathāgata of the universe Mahāvyūha , during the eon called Vicaraṇa , who taught Prince Candracchattra about Dharma -worship. In later Buddhism, this buddha is believed to be the supernatural patron of healing and medicine.

པྲཛྙཱ་བརྨgeneral

pradz+nyA barma · prajñāvarma

Prajñāvarman

also recorded: Prajñāvarma, Prajñāvarman

An Indian Bengali paṇḍita resident in Tibet during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Arriving in Tibet on an invitation from the Tibetan king, he assisted in the translation of numerous canonical scriptures. He is also the author of a few philosophical commentaries contained in the Tibetan Tengyur ( bstan ’gyu

བྱ་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོའི་རིgeneral

bya rgod kyi phung po’i ri · gṛdhrakūṭaparvata

Vulture Peak

also recorded: Vulture Peak Mountain, Gṛdhrakūṭa

The Gṛdhrakūṭa, literally Vulture Peak, was a hill located in the kingdom of Magadha, in the vicinity of the ancient city of Rājagṛha (modern-day Rajgir, in the state of Bihar, India), where the Buddha bestowed many sūtras, especially the Great Vehicle teachings, such as the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. It continues to be a

ཁོར་ཡུགgeneral

khor yug · cakravāḍa

Cakravāḍa

also recorded: Cakravāla, Cakravāḍa Mountains

“Circular mass”; there are at least three interpretations of what this name refers to. In the Kṣitigarbha Sutra it is a mountain that contains the hells. In that case, it is equivalent to the Vaḍaba submarine mountain of fire, which is also said to be the entrance to the hells. More commonly, it is the name of the oute

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཤིང་general

byang chub kyi shing · bodhivṛkṣa

Bodhi tree

also recorded: bodhi tree

Lit. “tree of awakening.” Name of the tree under which the Buddha Śākyamuni attained awakening in Bodhgayā. It is a kind of fig tree , the Ficus religiosa , known in Sanskrit as aśvattha or pippala . It is also mentioned as the tree beneath which every buddha will manifest the attainment of buddhahood.

མི་གཡོ་བgeneral

mi g.yo ba · acalā

Acalā

also recorded: Immovable, not move away, Akṣobhya, Aniñjya

Lit. “Immovable.” The eighth level of accomplishment pertaining to bodhisattvas . See “ ten bodhisattva levels .”

རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བgeneral

rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba · pratītyasamutpāda

dependent origination

also recorded: dependent arising, interdependence

The twelve links of dependent origination describe the process of being bound in cyclic existence, and, when reversed, the process of liberation. The twelve links are ignorance , formation, consciousness , name and form , the six sense bases , contact , feeling , craving , appropriation , becoming , birth , and old age

དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བgeneral

dge ba’i rtsa ba · kuśalamūla

root of virtue

also recorded: roots of virtue, roots of goodness, root of merit

According to most lists (specifically those of the Pāli and some Abhidharma traditions), the (three) roots of virtue or the roots of the good or wholesome states (of mind) are what makes a mental state good or bad; they are identified as the opposites of the three mental “poisons” of greed, hatred, and delusion. Action

ཚད་མེད་དགེgeneral

tshad med dge · apramāṇaśubha

Apramāṇaśubha

also recorded: Limitless Virtue Heaven, those of immeasurable splendor, Apramāṇaśubha

The second of the three classes of gods of the form realm in the third dhyāna . The name is the same for both the location and the inhabitant deities.

མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པgeneral

mngon par shes pa · abhijñā

clairvoyance

also recorded: higher cognitions, superknowledges, higher perceptions, extraordinary knowledge

The clairvoyances are listed as either five or six. The first five are the divine eye, divine ear, performance of miraculous power , recollection of past lives, and knowing others’ thoughts. A sixth, knowing that all outflows have been eliminated, is often added. The first five are attained through concentration ( dhyā

རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ་བཞིgeneral

rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa bzhi · catvāraṛddhipādā

four bases of supernatural power

also recorded: four bases of miraculous power, four foundations of miraculous power, four bases of miraculous powers, four foundations of miracles

The four bases (lit. “legs”) of magical transformation achieved through samādhi , are intention (Skt. chandas , Tib. ’dun pa ), diligence ( vīrya , brtson ’grus ), attention ( citta , sems ), and discernment ( mīmāṃsā , dpyad pa ). They are included among the thirty-seven factors for awakening .

མ་ནིང་general

ma ning · paṇḍaka

person labeled a paṇḍaka

also recorded: Person labeled a paṇḍaka, paṇḍaka, neuter, androgyne

In the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the term paṇḍaka (Tib. ma ning ) encompasses diverse physiological and behavioral conditions, such as intersexuality, erectile dysfunction, and fetishes that imply an inability to engage in normative sexual behavior. Five different types of person labeled a paṇḍaka are identified in the

དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོgeneral

dbang phyug chen po · maheśvara

Maheśvara

One of the gods of the pure realms. This is a frequently used name for Śiva and often synonymous with Īśvara, though sometimes they are presented as separate deities.

རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པgeneral

rtogs pa brjod pa · avadāna

avadāna

also recorded: exemplary tale, Exemplary Tale

One of the twelve genres or types of teaching ( dvādaśāṅga ) given by the Buddha. The Sanskrit avadāna means “exceptional feat” or “illustrious deed.” However, in the context of the twelve types of teachings, it came to refer to the narrative accounts of such deeds. In the Yogācārabhūmi (Śbh I 230; Toh 4036, F.56.a), A

བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབgeneral

bu ston rin chen grub

Butön Rinchen Drup

also recorded: Butön

1290–1364. An influential scholar, historian, compiler, and cataloger of the canon. His compilation of lists of translated works contributed to the emergence of the Kangyur and Tengyur collections. He wrote several works on the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Tantra .

རྟོག་པgeneral

rtog pa · kalpa

kalpa

also recorded: deliberation, applied thought, practice manual, mentally construct

A mental factor understood either as “the coarseness of the mind” or as the cause for such coarseness. More elaborate definitions explain it as a type of “mental murmur” ( manojalpa ) that is searching ( paryeṣaka ) and can be either based on intention ( cetanā ) or on wisdom ( prajñā ). See also “ analysis ” ( vicāra

གཙུག་ཏོརgeneral

gtsug tor · uṣṇīṣa

uṣṇīṣa

also recorded: crown of the head, crown protrusion

One of the thirty-two signs, or major marks, of a great being. In its simplest form it is a pointed shape of the head like a turban (the Sanskrit term, uṣṇīṣa , in fact means “turban”), or more elaborately a dome-shaped extension. The extension is described as having various extraordinary attributes such as emitting an

ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།, ལྷ་མིནgeneral

lha ma yin, lha min · asura

asura

བྷ་གgeneral

bha ga · bhaga

bhaga

A polyvalent term that refers in tantric scriptures to the dharmodaya , which is iconographically represented as a red triangle. It is identical in essence with the buddha’s body, speech, and mind, symbolized by its three corners. The bhaga , when interpreted as the dharmodaya, is associated with the triangular space t

ཐིག་ནགgeneral

thig nag · kālasūtra

Black Line Hell

also recorded: Black Thread Hell, Black Line, Black Thread, Black Lines

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka ). Elsewhere translated as “Black Line Hell.” It is so named because the beings reborn there have lines drawn on their bodies with a black thread and are then dismembered along these lines.

རྩgeneral

rtsa · nāḍī

channel

also recorded: channels

The channels are subtle psycho-physical routes which run vertically in the body. There are typically 72,000 channels said to reside in the body. Of these, however, the most important are the three main channels: the central channel (Skt. avadhūtī , Tib, dbu ma ), the right channel (Skt. rasanā , Tib. ro ma ), and the l

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་མ་འདྲེས་པ་བཅོ་བརྒྱདgeneral

sangs rgyas kyi chos ma ’dres pa bco brgyad · aṣṭādaśāveṇikābuddhadharmāḥ

eighteen unique qualities of a buddha

also recorded: eighteen unique attributes of a buddha, eighteen distinctive qualities of a buddha, eighteen unique qualities of the buddhas, eighteen unique qualities

Eighteen special features of a buddha’s behavior, realization, activity, and wisdom that are not shared by other beings. They are generally listed as: (1) he never makes a mistake, (2) he is never boisterous, (3) he never forgets, (4) his concentration never falters, (5) he has no notion of distinctness, (6) his equani

སྲེད་པgeneral

sred pa · tṛṣṇā

craving

The eighth of the twelve links of dependent origination . See “ dependent origination .”

སྟོབས་ལྔgeneral

stobs lnga · pañcabala

five powers

also recorded: five strengths, Five strengths

The five powers are (1) faith (Skt. śraddhā , Tib. dad pa ), (2) diligence ( vīrya , brtson ’grus ), (3) mindfulness ( smṛti , dran pa ), (4) meditative absorption ( samādhi , ting nge ’dzin ), and (5) wisdom ( prajñā , shes rab ). They are same as the five faculties but stronger and more developed. They are included a

བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོgeneral

bskal pa bzang po · bhadrakalpa

Fortunate Eon

also recorded: Excellent Eon, fortunate eon, Good Eon

The name of our current eon, so-called because one thousand buddhas are prophesied to appear in succession during this time, Śākyamuni being the fourth and Maitreya the fifth.

མཐུ་ཆེན་ཐོབgeneral

mthu chen thob · mahāsthāmaprāpta

Mahāsthāmaprāpta

also recorded: Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Mahāsthāmprāpta, Mahāsthāmaprāpta

One of the eight great bodhisattvas who serves alongside Avalokiteśvara as Amitābha ’s attendant in the buddhafield of Sukhāvatī. As his name suggests, he is renowned for possessing (Skt. prāpta ; Tib. thob pa ) great strength and power (Skt. mahāsthāma ; Tib. mthu chen ). In Tibetan Buddhism, he is identified with Vaj

དགའ་བgeneral

dga’ ba · muditā

joy

also recorded: sympathetic joy, affinity, Joy

One of the four “immeasurables” of the Mahāyāna, known in early Buddhism as “pure abodes” (Skt. brahmavihāra ), which comprise (1) friendly kindness, (2) compassion, (3) joy, and (4) equanimity. Immeasurable joy arises from rejoicing in the happiness of others.

མཐོ་རིསgeneral

mtho ris · sugati

higher realms

also recorded: heavens, heaven, higher rebirths, higher states of existence

Although mtho ris can refer to all three of the higher realms (those of humans, asuras, and devas), in The Sūtra on Offering Lamps it is described specifically as the abode of the devas, distinct from a human existence.

ཚེ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པgeneral

tshe dpag tu med pa · amitāyus

Amitāyus

also recorded: Aparimitāyus

“The One Who Has Immeasurable Longevity.” For more details on this buddha, see Peter Alan Roberts and Emily Bower, trans. The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1) , Toh 674, Introduction at i.9 .

ཕྱག་རྒྱgeneral

phyag rgya

mudrā

also recorded: hand mudrā, hand gesture

A seal, in both the literal and metaphoric sense. Mudrā is also the name given to an array of symbolic hand gestures, which range from the gesture of touching the earth displayed by the Buddha upon attaining awakening to the numerous gestures used in tantric rituals to symbolize offerings, consecrations, etc. Iconograp

མ་མོgeneral

ma mo · mātṛkā

mātṛ

also recorded: mātṛkā, Mother

“Mothers”; a class of female spirits common to both the Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. Typically these spirits are associated with creating obstacles and illness during pregnancy and early childhood. However, when supplicated they can also protect against these very same obstacles.

ཚོགས་ཀྱི་བདག་པོgeneral

tshogs kyi bdag po · gaṇapati

Gaṇapati

The name of the elephant-headed deity also commonly known as Ganeśa. Gaṇapati is as much a part of the Buddhist pantheon as the Hindu pantheon with which the deity is more commonly associated.

བྱདgeneral

byad · kākhorda

kākhorda

also recorded: Kākhorda

A term used in hostile magical rites that can alternatively refer a class of nonhuman being or type of magical device employed against the target of the rite. They are often mentioned together with kṛtyās , who serve a similar function.

ཡང་དག་པར་སྤོང་བgeneral

yang dag par spong ba · samyakprahāṇa

correct abandonments

also recorded: thorough relinquishments, correct exertions, authentic exertions, correct relinquishments

This refers to the four correct exertions, which are (1) preventing negative states of mind from arising, (2) removing those that have already arisen, (3) giving rise to positive states that have not yet arisen, and (4) maintaining those that have already arisen. While the translation of this term here follows the Sans

སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་པgeneral

sum cu rtsa gsum pa · trayatriṃśa

Heaven of the Thirty-Three

also recorded: Heaven of the Thirty-three, Trāyastriṃśa, Heaven of Thirty-Three

According to Buddhist cosmology, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three is the second lowest of the six heavens of the desire realm ( kāmadhātu ), just above the Heaven of the Four Great Kings ( Caturmahārājakāyika ) and below the Yāma Heaven. It is situated on the flat summit of Mount Sumeru and has thirty-three regions each

བྱ་རྒོད་ཕུང་པོའི་རིgeneral

bya rgod phung po’i ri · gṛdhrakūṭaparvata

Vulture Peak Mountain

also recorded: Vulture Peak

ལྷའི་བུgeneral

lha’i bu · devaputra

god

also recorded: devaputra

དྲང་སྲོང་general

drang srong · ṛṣi

sage

also recorded: ṛṣi, seer

An ancient Indian spiritual title, often translated as “sage” or “seer.” The title is particularly used for divinely inspired individuals credited with creating the foundations of Indian culture. The term is also applied to Śākyamuni and other realized Buddhist figures.

བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་ཚོགསgeneral

bsod nams kyi tshogs · puṇyasaṃbhāra

equipment of merit

also recorded: accumulation of merit

The progressive increase of virtuous karma . One of the two factors that come together in creating momentum toward a practitioner’s spiritual awakening, the other being the accumulation of wisdom .

བྱང་ཆུབgeneral

byang chub · bodhi

awakening

also recorded: Bodhi

I.e., awakening to the reality of phenomena (inner and outer) as they actually are.

ལྷའི་མིགgeneral

lha’i mig · divyacakṣus

divine eye

also recorded: divine sight

One of the six superknowledges and the second of the five eyes. This is the supernormal ability to see to an unlimited distance, observe events on other worlds, see through mountains, and so forth. The five eyes are five superior levels of vision experienced by realized beings, the other four being the physical eye ( m

དེ་བཞིན་ཉིདgeneral

de bzhin nyid · tathatā

suchness

also recorded: essential nature, true nature, actual nature, real nature

The ultimate nature of things, or the way things are in reality, as opposed to the way they appear to unawakened beings.

རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བgeneral

rab tu ’byung ba · pravrajita

go forth

also recorded: going forth, to go forth

The Sanskrit pravrajyā literally means “going forth,” with the sense of leaving the life of a householder and embracing the life of a renunciant. When the term is applied more technically, it refers to the act of becoming a male novice ( śrāmaṇera ; dge tshul ) or female novice ( śrāmaṇerikā ; dge tshul ma ), this bein

མ་ཕམ་པgeneral

ma pham pa · ajita

Ajita

The other name of Maitreya , the bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni ’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha , the fifth buddha in the fortunate eon . In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple Maitreya Tiṣya , sent to pay his respects by his teacher. The Buddha gives him the gift of a robe and prophesie

བསམ་གཏན་བཞིgeneral

bsam gtan bzhi · caturdhyāna

four concentrations

also recorded: four states of concentration

Four progressive levels of concentration that culminate in pure meditative absorption. The Sanskrit and Tibetan terms used for the four concentrations are included in the Mahāvyutpatti . They are also enumerated in the Perfection of Wisdom literature. They are sometimes framed as part of the nine serial absorptions.

གསེར་ཐུབgeneral

gser thub · kanakamuni

Kanakamuni

The fifth of the seven buddhas, with Śākyamuni as the seventh. The second buddha in this Bhadraka eon that we are in. In the White Lotus of Compassion Sūtra , Buddha Ratnagarbha specifically prophesies that the third of Ratnagarbha’s thousand vedapāṭhaka pupils will be this buddha. He also earlier prophesies that his f

བཙུན་པgeneral

btsun pa · bhadanta

Honorable One

also recorded: respected one, honorable one

One of the standard epithets of the Buddha Śākyamuni, and also a term of respect used for Buddhist monks, akin to the modern address, bhante .

འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོgeneral

’khor los sgyur ba’i rgyal po · cakravartin

universal monarch

also recorded: universal emperor, universal ruler, cakravartin king, wheel-turning king

རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་བརྒྱདgeneral

rnam par thar pa brgyad · aṣṭavimokṣa

eight liberations

also recorded: eight emancipations, Eight liberations

A series of progressively more subtle states of meditative realization or attainment. There are several presentations of these found in the canonical literature. One of the most common is as follows: (1) One observes form while the mind dwells at the level of the form realm. (2) One observes forms externally while disc

དད་པgeneral

dad pa · śraddhā

faith

also recorded: faithful, confidence

Here “faith” is not used so much in the sense of “religious faith,” but rather as when one says, “I have faith in you” or “I have faith in your good qualities.” It is often explained as “a good disposition of the mind” ( cetasaḥ prasādaḥ ) toward something and is occasionally divided into three types: faith as the conv

འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞིgeneral

’phags pa’i bden pa bzhi · caturāryasatya

four truths of the noble ones

also recorded: four truths of noble beings, four noble truths

The first teaching of the Buddha, covering suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path to the cessation of suffering. They are named “truths of the noble ones” since the “noble ones” ( ārya ) are the ones who have perceived them perfectly and without error. Also rendered here simply as

སེམས་ཅན་དམྱལ་བgeneral

sems can dmyal ba · naraka

hell being

also recorded: hell beings, hell realm, beings in hell

One of the five or six classes of sentient beings. Birth in hell is considered to be the karmic fruition of past anger and harmful actions. According to Buddhist tradition there are eighteen different hells, namely eight hot hells and eight cold hells, as well as neighboring and ephemeral hells, all of them tormented b

གསང་བ་པgeneral

gsang ba pa · guhyaka

guhyaka

A class of nonhuman beings, similar to yakṣas and perhaps synonymous with them in some contexts. They are closely associated with Kubera or Vaiśravaṇa, the lokapāla and god of wealth who is one of the Four Great Kings, but they also have a strong association with Vajrapāṇi.

སྤྱོད་པ་པgeneral

spyod pa pa · caraka

caraka

also recorded: Mīmāṃsaka, carakas

The follower of the Mīmāṃsā non-Buddhist philosophical school in ancient India. The term mīmāṃsā means “thoroughgoing analysis or investigation.” The school is commonly divided into two groups, the first of which ( pūrvamīmāṃsā , karmamīmāṃsa ) focuses on the correct interpretation of the Vedic hymns and rituals, and t

གནས་བརྟནgeneral

gnas brtan · sthavira

elder

The term is used to designate a senior monk. The sixteen great arhats , or sixteen noble elders ( āryasthavira ), were the successors of the Buddha’s teaching after he passed. They promised to preserve the teaching until the coming of the future Buddha Maitreya. They are on the path of seeing of the arhat path. Each ar

རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བgeneral

rab tu byung ba · pravrajyā

going forth

also recorded: going forth as renunciants, renunciant, adopt the life of a mendicant, renunciate

The Sanskrit pravrajyā literally means “to go forth,” with the sense of leaving the life of a householder and embracing the life of a renunciant. When the term is applied more technically, it refers to the act of becoming novice monk ( śrāmaṇera ; dge tshul ) or nun ( śrāmaṇerikā ; dge tshul ma ), this being a first st

སྟོབས་བཅུgeneral

stobs bcu · daśabala

ten powers

also recorded: ten strengths

The classical list of the Buddha’s ten powers, which appears frequently throughout both Pāli and Sanskrit sources, refers to the following powers of knowing (Skt. jñānabala ): (1) Knowing what is possible and what is impossible (Skt. sthānāsthāna ). (2) Knowing the ripening of karma (Skt. karmavipāka ). (3) Knowing the

བགེགསgeneral

bgegs · vighna

vighna

also recorded: obstructing being, obstructors, obstructor

A term for obstacles to well-being and spiritual advancement in general, and specifically to a class of beings that personify obstructive forces.

ལོག་འདྲེནgeneral

log ’dren · vināyaka

vināyaka

also recorded: corrupting being

Here, a class of demons who create obstacles, “those who lead astray” or “mis-leaders.” In other contexts the name can be interpreted as “remover [of obstacles],” referring to a class of semidivine beings, or as an epithet meaning “leader” or “guide.”

མི་ཆེ་བgeneral

mi che ba · avṛha

Avṛha

also recorded: Abṛha, Unlofty Heaven, those who are relatively not great

In the Sarvāstivāda tradition, this is the lowest of the five Śuddhāvāsa paradises, the highest paradises in the form realm, and is said to be the most common rebirth for the “ non-returners ” of the Śrāvakayāna . In this sūtra it is the third highest.

རྒྱལ་རིགསgeneral

rgyal rigs · kṣatriya

kṣatriya

also recorded: Kṣatriya

The ruling caste in the traditional four-caste hierarchy of India, associated with warriors, the aristocracy, and kings.

ཀོ་ས་ལgeneral

ko sa la · kośala

Kośala

also recorded: Kosala

An ancient kingdom, northwest of Magadha, abutting Kāśi, whose capital was Śrāvastī . During the Buddha’s time it was ruled by Prasenajit . It presently corresponds to an area within Uttar Pradesh.

གཤིན་རྗེའི་འཇིག་རྟེནgeneral

gshin rje’i ’jig rten · yamaloka

Realm of the Lord of Death

also recorded: realm of the Lord of Death, world of the Lord of Death, realm of the Lord of the Dead, world of Yama

The land of the dead ruled over by the Lord of Death. In Buddhism it refers to the preta realm, where beings generally suffer from hunger and thirst, which in traditional Brahmanism is the fate of those departed without descendants to make ancestral offerings.

སྐྱེ་བgeneral

skye ba · jāti

birth

also recorded: actual birth, rebirth

The eleventh of the twelve links of dependent origination . See “ dependent origination .”

གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཁམསgeneral

gzugs kyi khams · rūpadhātu

form realm

One of the three realms of saṃsāra in Buddhist cosmology, it is characterized by subtle materiality. Here beings, though subtly embodied, are not driven primarily by the urge for sense gratification. It consists of seventeen heavens structured according to the four concentrations of the form realm ( rūpāvacaradhyāna ),

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

tshul khrims kyi phung po · śīlaskandha

aggregate of discipline

also recorded: aggregate of correct conduct, aggregate of morality, aggregate of ethical discipline

One of the five undefiled aggregates ( pañca anāsravaskandha , zag med kyi phung po lnga ), also known as the five aggregates beyond the world ( lokottaraskandha , ’jig rten las ’das pa’i phung po lnga ), the others being the aggregates of absorption ( samādhi ), insight ( prajñā ), liberation ( vimukti ), and liberate

སྟོབས་ཅནgeneral

stobs can · balin

Bali

also recorded: Balin

An asura king. Indian literary sources describe how 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 to gain back the world from him for the devas . Viṣṇu appeared as a dwarf asking for two steps of ground,

སྒྲིབ་པgeneral

sgrib pa · nivaraṇa, āvaraṇa

obscuration

also recorded: obscurations, hindrances, hindrance

In this text, a different list of eight obscurations is presented: contempt toward the Buddha, contempt toward the Dharma , laziness, contentment with little (virtue), behaving according to desire, behaving according to pride, regret, and parting from what is uncertain. The obscurations to liberation and omniscience. T

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མgeneral

bcom ldan ’das ma · bhagavatī

Blessed Lady

also recorded: Bhagavatī, blessed lady, bhagavatī

The female form of the epithet commonly applied to buddhas and other awakened beings. The Sanskrit word bhaga means, among other factors, “good fortune,” “happiness,” “prosperity,” and “excellence.” The suffix -vat indicates possession. A common English translation is thus “ blessed one ” or “fortunate one.” The three

མན་དཱ་ར་བgeneral

man dA ra ba · mandārava

mandārava

also recorded: māndārava, Coral tree

One of the five trees of Indra’s paradise, its heavenly flowers often rain down in salutation of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and are said to be very bright and aromatic, gladdening the hearts of those who see them. In our world, it is a tree native to India, Erythrina indica or Erythrina variegata , commonly known as

དབང་general

dbang · abhiṣeka

initiation

also recorded: enthralling, empowerment, Indra

The ritual process of being introduced to and authorized in the practice of specific deities, maṇḍalas, and yogas. The term literally means “sprinkling” or “anointing” and is modeled on rites of royal investiture. In the Yoginītantras and systems derived from them, there are typically four main initiations: the vase in

ཆོས་མངོན་པgeneral

chos mngon pa · abhidharmakośa

Abhidharma

also recorded: Abhidharmakośa, abhidharma

Conventionally, the general name for the Buddhist teachings presented in a scientific manner, as a fully elaborated transcendental psychology. As one of the branches of the Canon, it corresponds to the discipline of wisdom (the Sūtras corresponding to meditation , and the Vinaya to morality ). Ultimately the Abhidharma

སྣང་བ་མཐའ་ཡསgeneral

snang ba mtha’ yas · amitaprabha

Amitābha

also recorded: Amitaprabha

The buddha of the western buddhafield of Sukhāvatī, where fortunate beings are reborn to make further progress toward spiritual maturity. Amitābha made his great vows to create such a realm when he was a bodhisattva called Dharmākara. In the Pure Land Buddhist tradition, popular in East Asia, aspiring to be reborn in h

མཚན་མgeneral

mtshan ma · nimitta

dualistic image

also recorded: feature, attribute, mark, sign

A polyvalent term, it generally refers to the characteristic features of an object or image. Nimitta can refer to features of an object that attract the mind’s attention, engage with it more deeply, and develop emotional responses to it. Such marks or features are often considered to be ultimately false and deceptive.

དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེནgeneral

dge ba’i bshes gnyen · kalyāṇamitra

spiritual friend

also recorded: virtuous friend, virtuous spiritual friend

A spiritual teacher who can contribute to an individual’s progress on the spiritual path to awakening and act wholeheartedly for the welfare of students.

ཁམས་གསུམgeneral

khams gsum · tridhātu

three realms

also recorded: three constituents, three worlds

The three realms are the desire realm ( kāmadhātu , ’dod khams ), form realm ( rūpadhātu , gzugs khams ), and the formless realm ( ārūpyadhātu , gzugs med khams ), i.e., the three worlds that make up saṃsāra. The first is composed of the six sorts of beings (gods, demigods , humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell bei

ལྷ།, ལྷའི་བུgeneral

lha, lha’i bu · deva, devaputra

god

also recorded: deity, deva

ཐུབ་པgeneral

thub pa · muni

sage

also recorded: Able One, capable one, Sage

An ancient title given to ascetics, monks , hermits, and saints, namely, those who have attained the realization of truth through their own contemplation and not by divine revelation. It is also used as an epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni , and has also been rendered here as “ Sage .”

མྱ་ངན་མེད་པgeneral

mya ngan med pa · aśoka

Aśoka

also recorded: Devoid of Sorrow, Aśokaśrī, aśoka

(1) Name of the thus-gone one of the world system Created with Joy . (2) Name of the world system of the thus-gone one Leader of Heroes .

བཻ་དཱུརྱgeneral

bai dUr+ya · vaiḍūrya

beryl

also recorded: beryl gem

Although it has often been translated as “lapis lazuli,” the descriptions and references in the literature, both Sanskrit and Tibetan, match the characteristics of beryl. The Pali form is veḷuriya . The Prākrit form verulia is the source for the English “beryl.” This normally refers to the blue or aquamarine beryl, but

དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ་བཞིgeneral

dran pa nye bar gzhag pa bzhi · catuḥsmṛtyupasthāna

four applications of mindfulness

also recorded: four close applications of mindfulness

The four applications of mindfulness are (1) the application of mindfulness that observes the physical body; (2) the application of mindfulness that observes feelings; (3) the application of mindfulness that observes the mind; and (4) the application of mindfulness that observes phenomena. They are included among the t

ཟླ་འོདgeneral

zla ’od · candraprabha

Candraprabha

also recorded: Candraprabha

One of the bodhisattva great beings. He is also the principal interlocutor of The King of Samādhis Sūtra .

ཐོགས་མེདgeneral

thogs med · asaṅga

Asaṅga

also recorded: Asaṅga

Indian commentator from the late fourth– early fifth centuries; closely associated with the works of Maitreya and the Yogācāra philosophical school.

སྐྱུ་རུ་རgeneral

skyu ru ra · āmalakī

gooseberry

also recorded: āmalakī, amalaki

The Indian gooseberry , or emblic myrobalan. The simile of an āmalakī in the palm of one’s hand is used to illustrate yogic perception ( yogipratyakṣa ) where the clarity aspect (compared to a crystal) is emphasized. See, e.g., Dharmottara’s Nyāyabindhuṭīkā 1.11. It is also used to illustrate omniscience, or seeing all

ཚངས་པའི་མདུན་ན་འདོནgeneral

tshangs pa’i mdun na ’don · brahmapurohita

Brahmapurohita

also recorded: Heaven of the High Priests of Brahmā, Brahmā’s Ministers, Heaven of Brahmā’s Ministers, Brahmapurohita

Second god realm of form, meaning “high priests of Brahmā ,” it is the second of the three heavens that make up the first dhyāna heaven in the form realm . Also called Brahmapariṣadya .

སེར་སྐྱའི་གནསgeneral

ser skya’i gnas · kapilavastu

Kapilavastu

An ancient city, capital of the Śākya state, where Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha Śākyamuni ) lived until the age of twenty-nine when he renounced worldly life. Later, some years after his awakening, the Buddha returned to Kapilavastu, where his cousins Ānanda and Devadatta, his half-brother Nanda , his barber Upāli, a

འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན་སྐྱེ་མཆེདgeneral

’du shes med ’du shes med min skye mched · naivasaṁjñānāsaṁjñāyatana

abode of neither perception nor no perception

also recorded: field of neither perception nor non-perception, sense source of neither perception nor nonperception, abode of neither perception nor nonperception, basis of perception that neither exists nor does not exist

A formless state, either a meditative state or its resultant realm of existence, i.e., a class of deities of the formless realm. (No equivalent of upaga in Tib.)

རིག་པ་དང་ཞབས་སུ་ལྡན་པgeneral

rig pa dang zhabs su ldan pa · vidyācaraṇasampanna

learned and virtuous one

also recorded: endowed with knowledge and feet, endowed with perfect wisdom and conduct, endowed with perfect knowledge and conduct, accomplished in knowledge and conduct

The Nibandhana explains this as a metaphor of the eye and the feet, which, operating together, allow one to move; knowledge, interpreted as either “right view” or as “the training in wisdom ,” is like the eye, while the other seven parts of the noble eightfold path, or the two other trainings in discipline and samādhi

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚནgeneral

chos kyi rgyal mtshan · dharmadhvaja

Dharmadhvaja

also recorded: Dharmaketu

Dharmadhvaja (Dharma Banner) is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield . This buddhafield is specifically said to be Virajā (Dustless) in Toh 44-37 and Toh 104.

འཁོར་བཞིgeneral

’khor bzhi

fourfold community

also recorded: four communities, fourfold assembly, fourfold assemblies, fourfold retinue

The assemblies of monks (Skt. bhikṣu ) and nuns (Skt. bhikṣuṇī ), along with laymen (Skt. upāsaka ) and laywomen (Skt. upāsikā ).

འཕྲོག་མgeneral

’phrog ma · hārītī

Hārītī

A yakṣiṇī with hundreds of children that the Buddha converted into a protector of children. In other texts she is considered a rākṣasī .

བྱད་སྟེམསgeneral

byad stems · kākhorda

kākhorda

also recorded: black magic, hostile magic

Harmful sorcery, or a class of beings prone to perpetrating it. See also n.40 .

ཚངས་པའི་དབྱངསgeneral

tshangs pa’i dbyangs · brahmaghoṣa

Brahmaghoṣa

also recorded: voice of Brahmā, Brahmā’s melodious voice, Brahmā Voice

A voice that has the qualities of the voice of the god Brahmā. This is one of the thirty-two marks of a buddha.

ཀླུ་མོgeneral

klu mo · nāginī

nāginī

also recorded: nāgī, female nāga

A female of the class of serpentine spirit beings (Tib. klu Skt. nāga ), who are often the target of rituals for bringing (or stopping) rain.

མཉན་དུ་ཡོད་པgeneral

mnyan du yod pa · śrāvastī

Śrāvastī

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡན་ལགgeneral

byang chub yan lag · bodhyaṅga

factors of awakening

also recorded: branches of awakening, aspects of enlightenment

A list of factors conducive to and forming the components of awakening, including the following: mindfulness ( smṛti ), analytic observation of things ( dharmapravicaya ), heroic effort ( vīrya ), joy ( prīti ), tranquility ( praśrabdhi ), concentration ( samādhi ), and equanimity ( upekṣā ).

ཡངས་པ་ཅནgeneral

yangs pa can · vaiśālī

Vaiśālī

The ancient capital of the Licchavi republic. The Buddha visited this city several times during his lifetime. It is perhaps most famous as the location where, on different occasions, the Buddha put an end to an epidemic, admitted the first nuns into the Buddhist order, was offered a bowl of honey by monkeys, and announ

ཀཽ་ཤི་ཀgeneral

kau shi ka · kauśika

Kauśika

“One who belongs to the Kuśika lineage.” An epithet of the god Śakra, also known as Indra, the king of the gods in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. In the Ṛgveda, Indra is addressed by the epithet Kauśika, with the implication that he is associated with the descendants of the Kuśika lineage ( gotra ) as their aiding deity. In

གསལ་རྒྱལgeneral

gsal rgyal · prasenajit

Prasenajit

King of the country of Kośala , he reigned in the city of Śrāvastī . In this sūtra, Surata humbles him and then becomes one of his teachers. See also i.7 .

ལེན་པgeneral

len pa · upādāna

appropriation

also recorded: grasping, confessor

This term, although commonly translated as “appropriation,” also means “grasping” or “clinging,” but it has a particular meaning as the ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination, situated between craving ( tṛṣṇā , sred pa ) and becoming or existence ( bhava , srid pa ). In some texts, four types of appropriati

འཕགས་པའི་ལམ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པgeneral

’phags pa’i lam yan lag brgyad pa · āryāṣṭāṅgamārga

eightfold path of the noble ones

also recorded: eight branches of the path of the noble ones, eight limbs of the noble path, eight-fold path of the noble ones

Correct view, thought, speech, actions, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and absorption . These eight are part of the thirty-seven factors of awakening .

འཇིག་ཚོགས་ལ་ལྟ་བgeneral

’jig tshogs la lta ba · satkāyadṛṣṭi

belief in the transitory collection

also recorded: belief in the transient aggregates, belief in a true self, belief in a truly existing self, belief in a perduring self

The belief in a permanent, substantial, essentially real individuality or personhood. It is a difficult expression to translate literally, because the term kāya is a common word for the body. The Sanskrit word kāya apparently derives from the verb root ci (“to accumulate”), and this meaning is captured in the Tibetan t

འཇིག་རྟེན་སྐྱོང་བgeneral

’jig rten skyong ba · lokapāla

world protector

also recorded: Guardian of the world, protector of the world, lokapālas, Guardians of the World

Also known as the four great kings ( mahārāja ), Vaiśravaṇa, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Virūḍhaka, and Virūpākṣa are pledged to protect practitioners of the Dharma.

སྲོག་ཤིང་general

srog shing · iṣikā

central pillar

also recorded: central pole, life pillar

The Sanskrit yaṣṭi may refer to a flagpole, especially one said to have adorned the capital cities of five former buddha, but more specifically, it refers to the “life pillar” in the center of a statue or stūpa

བིདྱཱ་ཀ་ར་སིང་ཧgeneral

bid+yA ka ra sing ha · vidyākarasiṃha

Vidyākarasiṃha

Active in the early ninth century, he was a co-translator of the Tibetan text of The Dhāraṇī of Māṇibhadra . His name means “the lion ( siṃha ) who is a mine ( ākara ) of knowledge ( vidyā ).”

མྱ་ངན་མེདgeneral

mya ngan med · aśoka

Aśoka

also recorded: Aśoka (future buddha), Aśoka (the brahmin), aśoka, Aśoka

Young brahmin who was Buddha Kāśyapa ’s best friend prior to his enlightenment. The Hundred Deeds is not clear on this point, but Edgerton notes that Aśoka is understood as the nephew and disciple of Buddha Kāśyapa (Edgerton 80.2). Not to be confused with the future buddha Aśoka , nor with the historical King Aśoka who

ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པgeneral

las kyi sgrib pa · karmāvaraṇa

karmic obscuration

also recorded: karmic obscurations

Obscurations or obstructions caused by past deeds.

གསོ་སྦྱོང་general

gso sbyong · poṣada, upoṣada

temporary vow

also recorded: temporary vows, restoration of vows ceremony, restoration and purification rites, poṣadha

The ceremony performed every new and full moon day by monastics, in which they confess any faults or transgressions and recite the prātimokṣa. It also refers to the one-day practice adopted by lay people in which they practice restraint according to the eight poṣadha vows and which may also include fasting. See introdu

མངོན་པའི་ང་རྒྱལgeneral

mngon pa’i nga rgyal · abhimāna

excessive pride

also recorded: arrogance, blatant pride, unfounded pride

The pride of showing off. It is one of seven types of pride, which include (1) pride (Tib. nga rgyal; Skt. māna ), (2) excessive pride (Tib. lhag pa’i nga rgyal; Skt. adhimāna ), (3) outrageous pride (Tib. nga rgyal las kyang nga rgyal; Skt. mānātimāna ), (4) egoistic pride (Tib. nga’o snyam pa’i nga rgyal ; Skt. asmim

འདུས་བྱསgeneral

’dus byas · saṃskṛta

conditioned

also recorded: conditioned things, conditioned phenomena

When referring to phenomena or the constituents of experience, saṃskṛta usually means “conditioned.” But it can also mean “refined,” “adorned,” “ornamented,” “polished.” It seems that the text is here playing on the multivalence of the term in combination with the multivalence of the term “ dharma .”

དཀའ་ཐུབgeneral

dka’ thub · tapas

austerities

Harsh, often extreme practices that can include deprivation and physical mortification. Such practices are typically rejected in the Buddhist “middle way.” The term can be used in a more positive sense to refer to the hardships of practice one must endure to reach liberation.

ཆོས་སྐུgeneral

chos sku · dharmakāya

dharmakāya

also recorded: dharma body, Dharma body

Sometimes translated as “truth body,” “reality body,” or “body of qualities,” the term dharmakāya stands in distinction to the rūpakāya, or “form body” of a buddha. In its earliest uses the term refers to the Buddha’s qualities as a collective whole, or to his teachings as the embodiment of him. In later usage it prima

གསང་སྔགསgeneral

gsang sngags · mantra

mantra

also recorded: secret mantra

A spell. Although a technical term in its own right, it is also at times used interchangeably with the terms dhāraṇī and dhāraṇīmantra , vidyāmantra , etc.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་མ་འདྲེས་པ་བཅྭ་བརྒྱདgeneral

sangs rgyas kyi chos ma ’dres pa bca+wa brgyad · aṣṭādaśāveṇikābuddhadharma

Eighteen distinct qualities of a buddha

also recorded: eighteen dharmas exclusive to a buddha, eighteen unique features of a buddha, eighteen unique qualities of a buddha, eighteen unique qualities of the buddhas

These are eighteen unique qualities possessed by a buddha. They are “unique” in the sense that they are only possessed by buddhas and not by any other type of being. There are slight variations in the wording and order of the eighteen items found among various sources. For three canonical works that list the eighteen,

ཆོས་འདུལ་བgeneral

chos ’dul ba · dharmavinaya

Dharma and Vinaya

also recorded: Dharma-Vinaya

The name for the canon of monastic discipline recorded in the Tripiṭaka, of the vows and commitments enshrined therein, and of the practice of that discipline.

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡེ་སྣོདgeneral

byang chub sems dpa'i sde snod · bodhisattvapiṭaka

bodhisattva collection

also recorded: Bodhisattva Basket, Bodhisattva Collection, canon of the bodhisattvas

The collection of the Vast ( vaipulya ) Sūtras of the Mahāyāna , supposed to have been collected supernaturally by a great assembly of bodhisattvas led by Maitreya , Mañjuśrī , and Vajrapāṇi . There is a Mahāyāna sūtra called Bodhisattvapiṭaka, but the word more usually refers to the whole collection ( piṭaka ) of Mahā

ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པgeneral

thams cad mkhyen pa · sarvajña

omniscient one

also recorded: Omniscient One, All-Knowing One

An epithet of the buddhas. Salutation to the All-Knowing One at the beginning of a Buddhist text typically indicates its designation in the Vinaya Piṭaka.

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཐེག་པgeneral

byang chub sems dpa’i theg pa · bodhisattvayāna

Bodhisattvayāna

also recorded: bodhisattva vehicle, Bodhisattva Vehicle, Bodhisattvayāna

This is the way ( yāna ) of the bodhisattva , the teachings of the Mahāyāna sūtras .

བསྡུ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་བཞིgeneral

bsdu ba’i dngos po bzhi · catuḥsaṃgrahavastu

four means of attracting disciples

also recorded: four means of gathering disciples, four means of enticement, four ways of magnetizing

The four means of enticement are (1) generosity , (2) kind words, (3) consistency between words and deeds, and (4) helpful actions.

འཛམ་བུgeneral

’dzam bu · jambū

Jambu

also recorded: black plum, Jambū River, Jāmbū

Legendary river carrying the golden fruit fallen from the legendary jambu (“rose apple”) tree. This term is used as an adjective for the gold found in rivers.

མཁའ་འགྲོgeneral

mkha’ ’gro · ḍākinī

ḍāka

also recorded: ḍākinī

A class of powerful non-human female beings who play a variety of roles in Indic literature in general and Buddhist literature specifically. Essentially synonymous with yoginīs, ḍākinīs are liminal and often dangerous beings who can be propitiated to acquire both mundane and transcendent spiritual accomplishments. In t

སྙིང་རྗེgeneral

snying rje · karuṇā

compassion

One of the four immeasurables of the Mahāyāna, known in early Buddhism as “pure abodes” (Skt. brahmavihāra ), which comprise (1) loving kindness , (2) compassion, (3) sympathetic joy , and (4) equanimity . Immeasurable compassion arises from the wish for all living beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suf

འཛམ་བུ་ཆུ་བོgeneral

’dzam bu chu bo · jambunadī

Jambu River

also recorded: Jambu river, Jambū river

Legendary river carrying the remains of the golden fruit of a legendary jambu (rose apple) tree.

རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པgeneral

rnam par thar pa · vimokṣa

liberation

also recorded: liberations, emancipations

The eight kinds of liberation refer to eight meditative states: (1) the perception of material form by one who has form; (2) the perception of material form by one without form; (3) the beautiful; (4) infinite space; (5) infinite consciousness; (6) nothingness; (7) neither perception nor absence of perception; and (8)

བསྡུ་བའི་དངོས་པོgeneral

bsdu ba’i dngos po · saṅgrahavastu

means for gathering disciples

also recorded: method of attraction, means of attraction, acts of attracting beings, four means of attracting students

The four methods of attracting disciples are generosity (Tib. sbyin pa , Skt. dāna ), pleasant speech (Tib. snyan par smra ba , Skt. priyavādita ), helpfulness (Tib. don spyod pa , Skt. arthacaryā ), and acting in a way that accords with the teachings (Tib. don ’thun pa , Skt. samānārthatā ).

ཐབསgeneral

thabs · upāya

method

also recorded: means, expedient means

The concept of skillful or expedient means is central to the understanding of the Buddha’s enlightened deeds and the many scriptures that are revealed contingent on the needs, interests, and mental dispositions of specific types of individuals. It is, therefore, equated with compassion and the form body of the buddhas,

སེར་སྣgeneral

ser sna

miserliness

also recorded: stinginess, avarice

The mental state of stinginess, matsara is sometimes translated as “miserliness” or “avarice.” It is classified as one of the twenty subsidiary afflictions ( upakleśa ).

སྟོང་གི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམསgeneral

stong gi ’jig rten gyi khams · sāhasralokadhātu

chiliocosm

A “thousandfold universe,” also called a “small chiliocosm” ( sāhasracūḍiko lokadhātu ), consisting of a thousand worlds each made up of their own Mount Meru, four continents, sun, moon, and god realms.

སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་སྟོང་ཆེན་པོgeneral

stong gsum gyi stong chen po · trisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu

great trichiliocosm

also recorded: trichiliocosm

The largest universe described in Buddhist cosmology. This term, in Abhidharma cosmology, refers to 1,000 ³ world systems, i.e., 1,000 “dichiliocosms” or “two thousand great thousand world realms” ( dvisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu ), which are in turn made up of 1,000 first-order world systems, each with its own Mou

མཚམས་མེད་པgeneral

mtshams med pa · ānantarya

acts of immediate retribution

also recorded: act of immediate retribution, deeds with immediate result, crime of immediate retribution, Acts with immediate retribution

The five crimes of immediate retribution, acts for which one will be reborn in hell immediately after death, without any intervening stages: killing an arhat, killing one’s mother, killing one’s father, creating schism in the saṅgha , and maliciously drawing blood from a tathāgata’s body.

རི་དགས་ཀྱི་ནགསgeneral

ri dags kyi nags · mṛgadāva

Deer Park

The forest located on the outskirts of Vārāṇasī where the Buddha first taught the Dharma.

ཤ་ཟ་མོgeneral

sha za mo · piśācī

piśācī

also recorded: Female piśāca, Piśācī

A female member of a class of semidivine beings traditionally associated with the wild, remote places of the earth. They are considered particularly violent and known to devour flesh.

ངུ་འབོད་ཆེན་པོgeneral

ngu ’bod chen po · mahāraurava

Great Howling Hell

also recorded: Loud Wailing Hell, Great Wailing Hell, Loud Howling

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka ). Elsewhere translated as “Great Howling Hell.”

མཆོད་སྡོང་general

mchod sdong · yūpa

sacrificial post

also recorded: pillar, offering post

A post set up as a marker to which offerings may be presented. Described in the Maitreyāvadāna (“The Story of Maitreya”), which in the Kangyur is found within the Bhaiṣajyavastu (in Vinayavastu , Toh 1, Degé Kangyur, vol. kha, folios 29.a–32.b); a matching passage from the Divyāvadāna is translated in Rotman (2008), p

ཤ་ར་དྭ་ཏིའི་བུgeneral

sha ra dwa ti’i bu · śāradvatīputra

Śāradvatīputra

སུ་རེནྡྲ་བོ་དྷིgeneral

su ren+d+ra bo d+hi · surendrabodhi

Surendrabodhi

also recorded: Surendrabodhi

Surendrabodhi came to Tibet during reign of King Ralpachen ( ral pa can , r. 815–38 ᴄᴇ ). He is listed as the translator of forty-three texts and was one of the small group of paṇḍitas responsible for the Mahāvyutpatti Sanskrit–Tibetan dictionary.

པྲཛྙཱ་ཝརྨgeneral

pradz+nyA warma · prajñāvarman

Prajñāvarman

An Indian Bengali paṇḍita resident in Tibet during the late eighth/early ninth centuries. Arriving in Tibet on an invitation from the Tibetan king, he assisted in the translation of numerous canonical scriptures. He is also the author of a few philosophical commentaries contained in the Tibetan Tengyur ( bstan ’gyur )

སྒྲིབ་པ་ལྔgeneral

sgrib pa lnga · pañcanivaraṇa

five obscurations

also recorded: five mental obscurations, five hindrances

Five impediments to meditation ( bsam gtan , dhyāna ): sensory desire ( ’dod pa la ’dun pa , kāmacchanda ), ill will ( gnod sems , vyāpāda ), drowsiness and torpor ( rmugs pa dang gnyid , styānamiddha ), agitation and regret ( rgod pa dang ’gyod pa , auddhatyakaukṛtya ), and doubt ( the tshom , vicikitsā ).

ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྲིནgeneral

chos kyi sprin · dharmameghā

Cloud of Dharma

The tenth of the bodhisattva grounds , here understood as ten in number.

ཚངས་ཆེནgeneral

tshangs chen · mahābrahmā

great brahmā

also recorded: Mahābrahmā, Heaven of Great Brahmā, great brahmas, Mahābrahmā Heaven

The gods in the abode of Mahābrahmā, the fourth of the four classes of gods of the form realm in the first dhyāna . The name is the same for both the location and the inhabitant deities.

ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བgeneral

nges par ’byung ba · niryāṇa

definite release

also recorded: Escape, renunciation, emancipation, renounce the world

An alternate name for the monk Apprehending Origination who was in the lineage of Buddha Mahāvyūha and the name of the order founded by that monk after Mahāvyūha entered parinirvāṇa.

མི་གདུང་བgeneral

mi gdung ba · atapa

Atapa

also recorded: No Hardship Heaven

This is the fourth highest of the five Śuddhāvāsa paradises, the highest paradises in the form realm. In this sūtra it is the second highest. Here translated as meaning “Not Pained.” In other texts translated as ma dros pa (“Not Warm”).

མུ་སྟེགས་པgeneral

mu stegs pa · tīrthika

non-Buddhist

also recorded: tīrthika

Those of religious or philosophical orders that were contemporary with the early Buddhist order, including Jains, Jaṭilas, Ājīvikas, and Cārvākas. Initially, the term tīrthika or tīrthya may have referred to non-brahmanic ascetic orders. Tīrthika (“forder”) literally translates as “one belonging to or associated with (

གྲིབ་གནོནgeneral

grib gnon · chāyā

chāyā

“Shadow,” a class of malevolent supernatural beings considered a source of disease and misfortune.

སྲིང་མོ་བཞིgeneral

sring mo bzhi · caturbhaginī

Four Bhaginīs

also recorded: four sisters

Jayā, Vijayā, Ajitā/Jayantī, and Aparājitā . Along with their brother Tumburu (a form of Śiva), they comprise an important cult in the Vidyāpiṭha tradition of tantric Śaivism. This set of deities appears frequently in Buddhist literature, especially in Dhāraṇīs and Kriyātantras.

ཛྙཱ་ན་གརྦྷgeneral

dz+nyA na gar+b+ha · jñānagarbha

Jñānagarbha

Name of an Indian preceptor ( mkhan po ) who lived in the mid-eighth century (ca. 700-770) and worked as a translator in Tibet. According to Hodge (2003, p. 24), he was the teacher of Śāntarakṣita (710–779). He is a different person from the Jñānagarbha who lived in the tenth century and was the teacher of Smṛtijñānakī

བསླབ་པའི་གཞིgeneral

bslab pa’i gzhi · śikṣāpada

basic precepts

also recorded: foundations for training, foundational training, fundamental precept

These basic precepts are five in number for the laity: (1) not killing, (2) not stealing, (3) chastity, (4) not lying, and (5) avoiding intoxicants. For monks, there are three or five more; avoidance of such things as perfumes, makeup, ointments, garlands, high beds, and afternoon meals. ( Provisional 84000 definition.

རྒ་ཤིgeneral

rga shi · jarāmaraṇa

aging and death

also recorded: old age and death

Twelfth of the twelve links or phases of dependent origination .

གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་ཁམསgeneral

gzugs med pa’i khams · ārūpyadhātu

formless realm

The highest and subtlest of the three realms of saṃsāra in Buddhist cosmology. Here beings are no longer bound by materiality and enjoy a purely mental state of absorption. It is divided in four levels according to each of the four formless concentrations ( ārūpyāvacaradhyāna ), namely, the Sphere of Infinite Space ( ā

མ་རིག་པgeneral

ma rig pa · avidyā

ignorance

The first of the twelve links of dependent origination . See “ dependent origination .”

ངན་སོང་སྤོང་general

ngan song spong · apāyajaha

Apāyajaha

also recorded: Avoiding Evil Destinies, Abandoner of Unfavorable Rebirths

Negi gives the Skt. apāyajaha for ngan song spong ’joms pa , where it refers to the name of a bodhisattva.

དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་བཞག་པgeneral

dran pa nye bar bzhag pa · smṛtyupasthāna

applications of mindfulness

also recorded: application of mindfulness

The four applications of mindfulness are mindfulness (1) of the body, (2) of feelings, (3) of the mind, and (4) of phenomena. These four are part of the thirty-seven factors of awakening .

མི་དགེ་བ་བཅུgeneral

mi dge ba bcu · daśākuśala

ten nonvirtuous actions

also recorded: ten nonvirtues, ten unwholesome deeds

The ten nonvirtues are as follows. The three nonvirtuous actions of the body are killing , taking what is not given , and sexual misconduct ; the four nonvirtuous actions of speech are telling lies , slander , harsh words , and idle talk ; and the three nonvirtuous actions of the mind are covetousness, ill will , and w

སྲེད་མེད་ཀྱི་བུgeneral

sred med kyi bu · nārāyaṇa

Nārāyaṇa

In the ancient Indian tradition, the son of the first man; later seen as a powerful avatar of Viṣṇu, but also as the progenitor of Brahmā . In Buddhist texts, he figures in various ways including (as he does in most of this text) as a bodhisattva, while still one of the most powerful gods of the Realm of Form (as in 1.

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

ting nge ’dzin gyi phung po · samādhiskandha

aggregate of absorption

also recorded: aggregate of meditative stabilization, aggregate of meditative stability, aggregate of samādhi

One of the five undefiled aggregates (Skt. pañcānāsravaskandha , Tib. zag med kyi phung po lnga ), also known as the five aggregates beyond the world (Skt. lokottaraskandha, Tib. ’jig rten las ’das pa’i phung po lnga ). Mvy. 104–8.

རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བའི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

rnam par grol ba’i phung po · vimuktiskandha

aggregate of liberation

འོད་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པgeneral

’od dpag tu med pa · amitābha

Amitābha

ས་སྲུང་གི་བུgeneral

sa srung gi bu · airāvaṇa

Airāvaṇa

The king of elephants and Śakra ’s mount, who makes offerings to Prince Siddhārtha upon learning of his intent to leave home.

ཨང་གgeneral

ang ga · aṅga

Aṅga

A kingdom on the southern bank of the Ganges (in modern day Bihar and Bengal) whose influence waned during the life of Śākyamūni Buddha at the hands of the kings of Magadha . Its capital was at Campā .

གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཐུབ་པgeneral

gzhan gyis mi thub pa · aparājita

Aparājita

The name that the Buddha Ratnagarbha prophesies will be that of one of his eighty brothers (the twenty-first) when he becomes a buddha.

གླིང་བཞིgeneral

gling bzhi · caturdvīpa

four continents

According to traditional Buddhist cosmology, our universe consists of a central mountain, known as Mount Meru or Sumeru, surrounded by four island continents ( dvīpa ), one in each of the four cardinal directions. The Abhidharmakośa explains that each of these island continents has a specific shape and is flanked by tw

ནྱ་གྲོ་དྷgeneral

n+ya gro d+ha · nyagrodha

banyan tree

also recorded: nyagrodha tree, nyagrodha, banyan

The nyagrodha tree is commonly identified either as the Indian fig tree ( Ficus Indica ) or the Banyan tree ( Ficus benghalensis ). Regarding it, see Pandanus Database of Plants .

ཀུན་དགའgeneral

kun dga’ · ānanda

Ānanda

བ་ལང་སྤྱོདgeneral

ba lang spyod · godānīya

Godānīya

also recorded: Aparagodānīya

One of the four main continents that surround Sumeru, the central mountain in classical Buddhist cosmology. It is the western continent, characterized as “rich in the resources of cattle,” thus its Tibetan name “using cattle.” It is circular in shape, measuring about 7,500 yojanas in circumference, and is flanked by tw

ཧེ་རུ་ཀgeneral

he ru ka · heruka

Heruka

The wrathful form of Akṣobhya, buddha of the vajra family, who appears in the center of many tantric maṇḍalas. He is typicaly depicted wearing mortuary implements and wreathed in flame.

རང་བཞིནgeneral

rang bzhin · svabhāva

intrinsic nature

also recorded: fundamental, basic nature, prakṛti, inherent existence

This term denotes the ontological status of phenomena, according to which they are attributed with existence in their own right, inherently, in and of themselves, objectively, and independent of any other phenomena such as our conception and labeling. The absence of such an ontological reality is defined as the true na

སྲུལ་པོgeneral

srul po · pūtana

pūtana

A class of disease-causing spirits associated with cemeteries and dead bodies. The name probably derives from the Skt. pūta , “foul-smelling,” as reflected also in the Tib. srul po . The smell is variously described in the texts as resembling that of a billy goat or a crow. The morbid condition caused by the spirit sha

ཡན་ལག་ལྔgeneral

yan lag lnga · pañcāṅga

five points of the body

also recorded: five limbs, five points (of the body), five attributes

The five aspects of the clarity of melodious speech are as follows: it is intelligible and brings full comprehension, is worthy to listen to and without unpleasant intonations, has depth and resonance, is generous and pleasant to hear, and is unruffled.

དཔའ་བོgeneral

dpa’ bo

Hero

also recorded: ḍāka, hero, Virile One

Closely associated with notions of virility, this term can denote the male deity of the maṇḍala (whose consort is the vidyā ) or the yogī who practices this mode of tantra.

གཟུངས་སྔགསgeneral

gzungs sngags

dhāraṇī mantra

also recorded: mantra dhāraṇī, dhāraṇī-mantra, incantation mantra

The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings‍—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula‍—that distills and “holds” essential points

གནས་གཙང་མgeneral

gnas gtsang ma · śuddhāvāsa

Śuddhāvāsa

also recorded: Pure Abodes, Pure Abode, pure abodes

The five Pure Abodes are the highest heavens of the Form Realm ( rūpadhātu ). They are called “pure abodes” because ordinary beings ( pṛthagjana ; so so’i skye bo ) cannot be born there; only those who have achieved the fruit of a non-returner ( anāgāmin ; phyir mi ’ong ) can be born there. A summary presentation of th

ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པའི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

nye bar len pa’i phung po · upādānaskandha

aggregates as the bases for clinging

also recorded: aggregate for appropriation, aggregates subject to clinging, acquisitive aggregates, aggregates of appropriation

The five aggregates ( skandha ) of matter ( rūpa ), sensation ( vedanā ), perception ( saṃjñā ), karmic dispositions ( saṃskāra ), and consciousness ( vijñāna ). They are referred to as the “bases for clinging” ( upādāna ) insofar as all conceptual grasping arises on the basis of these aggregates.

པདྨའི་སྤྱནgeneral

pad+ma’i spyan

Kamalākṣī

also recorded: Lotus Eyes, Lotus-Eyed One

One of the twelve names or epithets of Mahāśrī in The Sūtra of Mahāśrī and The Twelve Names of the Goddess Śrī ( Toh 741/1006 ). The Twelve Names gives the Tibetan variant padma spyan mnga’ ma .

དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིདgeneral

dgra bcom pa nyid · arhattva, arhatva

arhathood

also recorded: arhatship

“The state of liberation [from saṃsāra via destruction of the afflictive emotions ] or the fifth path of no more to learn , attained by arhats after perfecting training in the fourth path…” (Rigzin 60). In this text being “established … in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa”; also appears as a synonym for the

བྱ་ཀ་ལན་ད་ཀ་གནས་པgeneral

bya ka lan da ka gnas pa · kalandakanivāpa

Kalandakanivāpa

also recorded: Kalandakanivāpa, Kalandakanivāsa, Kalandakanivāsa

A place where the Buddha often resided, within the Bamboo Park (Veṇuvana) outside Rajagṛha that had been donated to him. The name is said to have arisen when, one day, King Bimbisāra fell asleep after a romantic liaison in the Bamboo Park. While the king rested, his consort wandered off. A snake (the reincarnation of t

དུར་ཁྲོདgeneral

dur khrod · śmaśāna

charnel ground

A cremation ground, or place for discarded corpses, which is frequently described as a type of power place where yogins and yoginīs congregate.

ཨ་ཏི་ཤgeneral

a ti sha · atiśa

Atiśa

also recorded: Atīśa

Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (982–1054 ᴄᴇ ), often referred to in Tibetan as jo bo , “(The) Lord,” was a renowned figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism famous for coming to Tibet and revitalizing Buddhism there during the early eleventh century.

མིག་དམརgeneral

mig dmar · aṅgāra

Aṅgāraka

also recorded: Aṅgāra

The god of Mars; the planet Mars personified.

འཇིགས་བྱེད་མgeneral

’jigs byed ma · bhairavī

Bhairavī

also recorded: Bhairavī, bhairavī

A female among a class of beings known to be “fearsome,” and perhaps associated with Bhairava, the wrathful form of Śiva.

ཕུར་བུgeneral

phur bu · bṛhaspati

Bṛhaspati

also recorded: small stake

The planet Jupiter.

ལེགས་པའི་བློ་གྲོསgeneral

legs pa’i blo gros · sādhumatī

Auspicious Intelligence

also recorded: Eminence, Excellent Intelligence

The ninth of the bodhisattva grounds , here understood as ten in number.

ཀུན་འདར་མgeneral

kun ’dar ma · avadhūtī

avadhūtī

The prāṇa channel in the centre of the body.

བདག་མེད་པgeneral

bdag med pa · anātman

absence of self

also recorded: nonself, lacking a self, without self

This describes actual reality, as finally there is no enduring person himself or thing itself, since persons and things exist only in the relative, conventional, or superficial sense, and not in any ultimate or absolute sense. To understand Buddhist teaching correctly, we must be clear about the two senses (conventiona

བཱ་རཱ་ཎ་སཱིgeneral

bA rA Na sI · vārāṇasī

Vārāṇasī

Also known as Benares, one of the oldest cities of northeast India on the banks of the Ganges, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh. It was once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kāśi, and in the Buddha’s time it had been absorbed into the kingdom of Kośala. It was an important religious center, as well as a major city, eve

འོད་ཟེར་ཅནgeneral

’od zer can

Mārīcī

also recorded: Brilliant, Radiant

A goddess; a rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī ( Toh 559 ).

གདོལ་པgeneral

gdol pa · caṇḍāla

caṇḍāla

also recorded: outcaste, cāṇḍāla, caṇḍala

The lowest and most disparaged class of people within the caste system of ancient India, they fall outside of the caste system altogether due to their low rank in society.

སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིསgeneral

skyes bu chen po’i mtshan sum cu rtsa gnyis · dvātriṃśanmahāpuruṣalakṣaṇāni

thirty-two marks of a great being

also recorded: thirty-two major marks of a great being, thirty-two signs of a great being

Thirty-two of the 112 identifying physical characteristics of both buddhas and cakravartins, in addition to the “eighty excellent signs.” There are significant variations found in this list depending on the source.

ལོག་པར་དད་སེལgeneral

log par dad sel · krakucchanda

Krakucchanda

The fourth of the seven tathāgatas/buddhas. Identified in other texts as the first buddha to appear in the present eon.

གཞན་འཕྲུལ་དབང་བྱེད་པgeneral

gzhan ’phrul dbang byed pa · paranirmitavaśavartin

Heaven of Making Use of Others’ Emanations

One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, highest of the six heavens of the desire realm. The inhabitants enjoy objects created by others, then dispose of them themselves.

བན་དེ་དཔལ་བརྩེགསgeneral

ban de dpal brtsegs

Bandé Paltsek

Paltsek (eighth to early ninth century), from the village of Kawa north of Lhasa, was one of Tibet’s preeminent translators. He was one of the first seven Tibetans to be ordained by Śāntarakṣita and is counted as one of Guru Rinpoché’s twenty-five close disciples. In a famous verse by Ngok Lotsawa Loden Sherab, Kawa Pa

ཚངས་པས་བྱིནgeneral

tshangs pas byin · brahmadatta

Brahmadatta

also recorded: Brahmadatta

A king of Vārāṇasī during the Buddha's lifetime. One of multiple kings of Vārāṇasī who bear this name in Buddhist literature.

རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པའི་སྒོgeneral

rnam par thar pa’i sgo · vimokṣamukha

gateways to liberation

also recorded: doors of liberation, gates of liberation, door to liberation

There are three, namely emptiness as a gateway to liberation, signlessness as a gateway to liberation, and aspirationlessness as a gateway to liberation. Among them, emptiness is characterized as the absence of inherent existence, signlessness as the absence of mental images, and aspirationlessness as the absence of ho

དྲན་པgeneral

dran pa · smṛti

mindfulness

also recorded: attention, recollection

This is the faculty that enables the mind to maintain its attention on a referent object, counteracting the arising of forgetfulness, which is a great obstacle to meditative stability. The root smṛ may mean “to recollect” but also simply “to think of.” Broadly speaking, smṛti , commonly translated as “mindfulness,” mea

ཤཱཀྱgeneral

shAkya · śākya

Śākya

Name of the ancient tribe in which the Buddha was born as a prince; their kingdom was based to the east of Kośala, in the foothills near the present-day border of India and Nepal, with Kapilavastu as its capital.

ནམ་མཁའ་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེདgeneral

nam mkha’ mtha’ yas skye mched · ākāśānantyāyatana

abode of the infinity of space

also recorded: field of limitless space, abode of limitless space, Sphere of Infinite Space, those gods belonging to the sphere of the infinity of space

A formless state, either a meditative state or its resultant realm of existence, i.e., a class of deities of the formless realm. (No equivalent of upaga in Tib.)

ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པgeneral

nye bar len pa · upādāna

appropriation

also recorded: clinging, grasping, appropriate

The term upādāna figures in at least two prominent contexts within basic Buddhist classifications. Firstly, the five aggregates are also called “aggregates of clinging” when they refer to a nonliberated person. According to the Nibandhana commentary on Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings , they are called “aggregates

རེག་པgeneral

reg pa · sparśa

contact

This can mean either, more literally, “touch,” or coming into contact; in the context of the twelve parts of dependent arising , “contact” refers more specifically to the coming together of the object, faculty , and consciousness . According to some abhidharma masters, this coming together gives rise to a specific enti

དྲི་ཟ་མོgeneral

dri za mo

gandharvī

also recorded: Gandharva Lady

One of the eight nāga ladies .

ག་ཡ་དྷ་རgeneral

ga ya dha ra · gayādhara

Gayādhara

Gayādhara, c. 994–1043; Indian (possibly Bengali) paṇḍita who visited Tibet three times; teacher of Drokmi Śākya Yeshé ; a complex personality and a key figure in the transmission to Tibet of the Hevajra materials later incorporated in the Lamdré ( lam ’bras ) tradition.

བསླབ་པའི་གཞི་ལྔgeneral

bslab pa’i gzhi lnga · pañcaśikṣāpada

five fundamental precepts

also recorded: five moral precepts, five basic precepts, five precepts

The five fundamental precepts are to abstain from killing, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from lying, and from intoxication.

ཡང་དག་པར་སྤོང་བ་བཞིgeneral

yang dag par spong ba bzhi · catuḥsamyakprahāṇa

four perfect endeavors

also recorded: four correct exertions, four relinquishments, four correct abandonments, four kinds of effort

That the translation of this term should not follow the Tibetan literally (which would yield “four kinds of abandoning”) is widely agreed. It is possible that the Tibetan translators may originally have confused the meaning in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) of the term prahāṇa (“priority”) with its meaning in classical

ནག་མོgeneral

nag mo

Kālī

also recorded: Black Lady

A goddess; a rākṣasī in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī ( Toh 559 ); one of Durgā ’s attendants.

འདུན་པgeneral

’dun pa

consent

also recorded: covetous one, ambition, eagerness

Monastics absent from any official act of the saṅgha (except the demarcating of a boundary , which is done to establish a monastic site ) must first send word that they consent to any formal actions taken in their absence. Such consent is sent by proxy. If monastics cannot attend the restoration rite or the rite of lif

གཤེད་བྱེདgeneral

gshed byed · kṛtya

kṛtya

also recorded: Kṛtya, kṛtyā

A class of nonhuman being, often female, who are ritually summoned to perform injurious acts against the target of the rite.

འཁོར་བཞི་པོgeneral

’khor bzhi po

four retinues

also recorded: four assemblies, fourfold saṅgha

The assemblies of monks (Skt. bhikṣu ) and nuns (Skt. bhikṣuṇī ), along with laymen (Skt. upāsaka ) and laywomen (Skt. upāsikā ).

བག་ཆགསgeneral

bag chags · vāsanā

habitual tendencies

also recorded: latent tendencies, predispositions

Karmic traces or residues imprinted by past actions and constituting tendencies that predispose one to particular patterns of behavior.

མཐའ་ཡས་བློ་གྲོསgeneral

mtha’ yas blo gros · anantamati

Anantamati

also recorded: Anantamati

A bodhisattva in the audience of this sūtra, whose name is attested in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka .

ཚ་བgeneral

tsha ba · tāpana

Hot Hell

also recorded: Burning Hell, Heat

Name of one of the great (hot) hells (Skt. mahānaraka ). Inhabitants of this hell are boiled in cauldrons, roasted in pans, beaten with hammers, and skewered with spears as their bodies burst into flames. The Sanskrit word for this hell, tapana or tāpana , can mean both burning and, by semantic extension, tormenting or

སྲིན་མོgeneral

srin mo · rākṣasī

rākṣasī

also recorded: piśācī

A female rākṣasa, a class of Indic spirit deities generally considered malevolent and demonic.

ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱདgeneral

yan lag brgyad

eight precepts

also recorded: eight qualities (of water), eight branches

This can refer either to what is also known as the eightfold path ( ’phags lam yan lag brgyad ): (1) right view, (2) right intention, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) effort, (7) mindfulness, and (8) meditative concentration. Or to what is also known as the eight precepts ( bsnyen gnas yan

སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུགgeneral

skye mched drug · ṣaḍāyatana

six sense sources

also recorded: six sense fields

Fifth of the twelve links of dependent origination . The senses as sources of perception and their respective objects. They are sometimes known collectively as “the six sense sources,” meaning six pairs, but are also sometimes taken as two separate groups, making twelve. See also the twelve sense fields .

ཞི་བgeneral

zhi ba · śiva

peaceful

also recorded: Śiva, pacifying rite, pacifying

A common class of ritual activity (Skt. karman ; Tib. las ).

ཆུ་ལྷgeneral

chu lha · varuṇa

Varuṇa

The name of one of the oldest of the Vedic gods , associated with the waters.

རོ་ལངསgeneral

ro langs · vetāla

vetāla

A class of beings that typically haunt charnel grounds and are most often depicted entering into and animating corpses. Hence, the Tibetan translation means “risen corpse.”

སྟོང་པgeneral

stong pa · śūnya

empty

also recorded: emptiness

གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཐུབgeneral

gzhan gyis mi thub · aparājitā

Aparājitā

also recorded: Aparājita

The name of a female Buddhist deity, meaning “Invincible,” here used as an epithet of Sitātapatrā .

སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌཱུརྱའི་འོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོgeneral

sman gyi bla bai DUr+ya’i ’od kyi rgyal po · bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabharāja

Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabharāja

One of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones , often referred to as the Medicine Buddha. Also called Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha .

ཆོས་བཟང་general

chos bzang · sudharmā

Excellent Dharma

also recorded: Sudharmā

The assembly hall in the center of Sudarśana, the city in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three ( Trāyastriṃśa ). It has a central throne for Indra (Śakra) and thirty-two thrones arranged to its right and left for the other thirty-two devas that make up the eponymous thirty-three devas of Indra’s paradise. Indra’s own palace

སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་ལྷའི་གནསgeneral

sum cu rtsa gsum lha’i gnas · trāyastriṃśa

Heaven of the Thirty-Three

The second heaven of the desire realm located above Mount Meru and reigned over by Indra and thirty-two other gods.

ལྷའི་རྣ་བgeneral

lha’i rna ba · divyaśrotra

divine hearing

also recorded: divine ear

Clairaudience, i.e., the sublime ability to understand all languages and listen to them whether they are nearby or far away. This is the second of the six (or sometimes five) superknowledges ( ṣaḍabhijñā ).

བདེ་བgeneral

bde ba · sukha

happiness

also recorded: bliss, Bliss

The name of the past world system and buddhafield of the tathāgata Sumerukalpa.

རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པgeneral

rnam par smin pa · vipāka

ripening

also recorded: karmic fruition, karmic result, Ripening

The complex process of the ripening or maturation of karma, i.e., the development of the karmic result (Tib. las kyi ’bras bu ) of karmically relevant actions committed with body, speech, and mind, by virtue of the power of the action as cause and supporting conditions.

མཁའ་ལྡིང་general

mkha’ lding · garuḍa

garuḍa

མིང་དང་གཟུགསgeneral

ming dang gzugs · nāmarūpa

name and form

also recorded: name-and-form

The fourth of the twelve links of dependent origination . See “ dependent origination .”

ཁང་པ་བརྩེགས་པgeneral

khang pa brtsegs pa · kūṭāgāraśālā

Kūṭāgāraśālā

also recorded: multistoried palace, pavilion, pinnacled temple, hall with an upper chamber

A distinctive Indian assembly hall or temple with one ground-floor room and a high ornamental roof, sometimes a barrel shape with apses but more usually a tapering roof, tower, or spire; it contains at least one additional upper room within the structure. Kūṭāgāra literally means “upper chamber” and is short for kūṭāgā

བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡསgeneral

blo gros mtha’ yas · anantamati

Anantamati

also recorded: Anantabuddhi

A bodhisattva whose name is attested in the Sanskrit manuscript of this sūtra, which says he will become the last of the one thousand buddhas in this fortunate eon.

ས་འཚོ་མgeneral

sa ’tsho ma · gopā

Gopā

One of the wives of Prince Siddhārtha, prior to his leaving his kingdom and attaining awakening as the Buddha.

དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོgeneral

drang srong chen po

great sage

also recorded: great seer, Great Sage

Indian sage, often a wandering ascetic or hermit. This term is sometimes used as an epithet of the Buddha.

གསུས་པོ་ཆེgeneral

gsus po che · kauṣṭhila

Mahākauṣṭhila

also recorded: Kauṣṭhila

A senior student of Buddha Śākyamuni , famous for his analytical knowledge.

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

shes rab kyi phung po · prajñāskanda

aggregate of insight

also recorded: aggregate of wisdom

ལྷག་པའི་ང་རྒྱལgeneral

lhag pa’i nga rgyal · adhimāna

excessive pride

The pride of overestimating one’s accomplishments. It is one of seven types of pride, which include (1) pride (Tib. nga rgyal; Skt. māna ), (2) excessive pride (Tib. lhag pa’i nga rgyal; Skt. adhimāna ), (3) outrageous pride (Tib. nga rgyal las kyang nga rgyal; Skt. mānātimāna ), (4) egoistic pride (Tib. nga’o snyam pa

བདེ་གཤེགསgeneral

bde gshegs · sugata

Sugata

also recorded: well-gone one, sugata

One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of “accomplishment of one’s own purpose” ( svārthasampad ) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”)

བྱེ་བ་ཁྲག་ཁྲིག་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་general

bye ba khrag khrig brgya stong · koṭiniyutaśatasahasra

one hundred sextillion

also recorded: hundred sextillion, hundred-sextillion, trillion

A number calculated by multiplying a koṭi ( bye ba ), or ten million, by a niyuta ( khrag khrig ), or a hundred billion according to the Abhidharma system (although it is only one million in Classical Sanskrit), and by a śatasahasra ( brgya stong ), or one hundred thousand, all of which together equals ten to the twent

ཁྱིམ་བདགgeneral

khyim bdag · gṛhapati

householder

An epithet often used for wealthy lay patrons and merchants. “Householder” is a literal translation of both the Sanskrit and the Tibetan. The term can also be used as an indicator of the third (merchant) caste, as distinct from brāhmaṇa (priestly) and kṣatriya (royal) castes. For the distinction between “householder,”

འབྱུང་མོgeneral

’byung mo · bhūtinī

bhūtinī

also recorded: Bhūtinī, bhūtī, bhūtā

A female bhūta or any nonhuman female being; in some mantras it seems to be used as a proper name.

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོgeneral

chos kyi rgyal po · dharmarāja

dharmarāja

also recorded: Yama Dharmarāja, Dharma king, Chökyi Gyalpo, Dharmarāja

Literally “Dharma-king.” An epithet of Yama , the Lord of Death, who judges the dead and rules over the hells. He was converted and bound by oath to Vajrabhairava as the special protector of the Vajrabhairavatantras.

འདོད་ཁམསgeneral

’dod khams · kāmadhātu

desire realm

One of the three realms of saṃsāra, it is comprised of the traditional six realms of saṃsāra, from the hell realm to the realm of the gods , including the human realm. Rebirth in this realm is characterized by intense cravings via the five senses and their objects.

གཟུངས་ཀྱི་སྒོgeneral

gzungs kyi sgo · dhāraṇīmukha

dhāraṇī gateway

also recorded: dhāraṇī gate

As a magical formula, a dhāraṇī constitutes a gateway to the infinite qualities of awakening, the awakened state itself, and the various forms of buddha activity. See also i.2 .

གནས་པgeneral

gnas pa · āvāsiko bhikṣuḥ

boarding monk

also recorded: dwelling place, Abiding, abiding

A boarding (or visiting) monk is a short-term occupant who is not familiar with the inner or outer workings of the community. See also “ resident monk .”

རབ་འབྱོརgeneral

rab ’byor · subhūti

Subhūti

A śrāvaka monk among the foremost disciples of the Buddha. His principal quality, according to The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya , is abiding without afflictions .

ཟླ་བའི་འོདgeneral

zla ba’i ’od · candraprabha

Candraprabha

also recorded: Moonlight, Candraprabha

One of the four retinue deities of Arapacana .

འཇིགས་མེདgeneral

’jigs med

Abhaya

also recorded: Fearless

The fifth of the thousand sons of King Araṇemin , who becomes the bodhisattva Gaganamudra and is prophesied to become the Buddha Padmottara .

ཤིང་སཱ་ལ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

shing sA la chen po · mahāśāla

great sāl tree

also recorded: great household, great śāla tree

This can refer either to the sal (or sala) tree ( Shorea robusta ) or to a great ( mahā ) household ( śāla ). The Buddha was said to have been born and died beneath a sāla tree.

རྣམ་ཐོས་ཀྱི་བུgeneral

rnam thos kyi bu · vaiśravaṇa

Vaiśravaṇa

The “Son of Viśrava (Completely Renowned),” guardian of the northern direction. He and his father are both also referred to as Kubera, and he is also known as Jambhala. He rules over spirits called guhyakas (literally “secret/hidden ones”), described in various capacities, giving rise to his epithet Guhyakādhipati, “ L

མ་ག་དྷgeneral

ma ga d+ha · magadha

Magadha

ལྷའི་དབང་པོgeneral

lha’i dbang po · devendra

Lord of the Gods

also recorded: Lord of the gods, lord of the gods, Devendra

The lord of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven on the summit of Mount Sumeru. As one of the eight guardians of the directions, Indra guards the eastern quarter. In Buddhist sūtras, he is a disciple of the Buddha and protector of the Dharma and its practitioners. He is often referred to by the epithets Śatakratu, Śakra, and Kauśik

བླ་ན་མེད་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབgeneral

bla na med pa yang dag par rdzogs pa’i byang chub · anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi

unsurpassed and perfect awakening

also recorded: unsurpassable, perfect, and complete awakening, complete, unsurpassable awakening, unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening

The awakening of the buddhas, so-named to distinguish it from the limited realizations of lesser beings such as arhats, solitary buddhas, and the like.

བ་ཀུ་ལgeneral

ba ku la · bakula

Bakula

also recorded: Bakkula, bakula tree, bakula

From a wealthy brahmin family, Bakula is said to have become a monk at the age of eighty and lived to be one hundred and sixty. He is also said to have had two families because as a baby he was swallowed by a large fish, and the family who discovered him alive in the fish’s stomach also claimed him as their child. He i

ཡི་དྭགསgeneral

yi dwags · preta

preta

also recorded: anguished spirit, hungry spirit

གུ་གུལgeneral

gu gul · guggula

bdellium

also recorded: myrrh

Commiphora wightii or Commiphora mukul . The resin, also known as guggul gum, is obtained from the bark of the tree. When burned, the smoke is said to drive away evil spirits.

བདུད་བཞིgeneral

bdud bzhi · caturmāra

four māras

The four māras are symbolic personifications of the defects that prevent awakening. The four are the māra of the gods (Skt. devaputramāra , Tib. lha’i bu’i bdud ), representing the distraction of pleasures; the māra of the afflictions ( kleśamāra , nyon mongs pa’i bdud ), representing being controlled by afflictions; t

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགསgeneral

byang chub kyi phyogs · bodhipakṣa, bodhipakṣadharma

aspects of enlightenment

also recorded: aids to awakening, factors of awakening, aid to enlightenment

The qualities necessary as a method to attain the enlightenment of a śrāvaka , pratyekabuddha , or buddha. There are thirty-seven of these: (1–4) the four kinds of mindfulness : mindfulness of body, sensations , mind, and phenomena; (5–8) the four correct exertions : the intention to not do bad actions that are not don

འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་པའི་སེམས་ཅནgeneral

’du shes med pa’i sems can · asaṃjñāsatva

Asaṃjñisattva

also recorded: Insentient Beings, Concept-Free Beings Heaven, those who have a nature that is free from perception

A class of beings in the form realm , and the thirteenth heaven of the form realm on a level just below the devas of the Pure Abodes . The Insentient Beings are characterized by having a body but no conscious experience at all; this state is the karmic result of an ordinary or worldly form of the fourth meditative abso

ཆོས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡུད་པgeneral

chos yang dag par sdud pa · dharmasaṃgīti

Dharma Proclamation

A secret palace in Sukhāvatī .

མི་ཕྱེད་མgeneral

mi phyed ma · abhedyā

abhedyā

also recorded: Abhedyā

“Indestructible,” one of the subtle channels in the body. According to Ratnākaraśānti, this channel is associated with the yoginī Vajrā.

འོག་ཞལ་མgeneral

’og zhal ma · ahomukhā

Ahomukhā

This seems to be a Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit version of the name Adhomukhā, one of the Buddhist goddesses.

ཀུན་ཏུ་འོདgeneral

kun tu ’od · samantaprabhāsā

All-Illuminating

also recorded: Universal Light, All Luminous

The eleventh bodhisattva level .

མཐར་བྱེདgeneral

mthar byed · antaka

Antaka

also recorded: Bringer of Death

Another name of Yama.

མཆོད་ཡོནgeneral

mchod yon · argha

argha offering

also recorded: offering water

An offering that consists primarily of water, which is made ritually to the deity as an act of welcome and to bid farewell. The ritual act is based on the similar practice of receiving a guest in the home.

ས་སྤྱོད་མgeneral

sa spyod ma · bhūcarī

Bhūcarī

also recorded: earth-dwelling ḍākinī

The ḍākinī associated with the channels of the subtle body.

འཆི་བདགgeneral

’chi bdag · yamarāja

Lord of Death

“Lord of Death” is typically another name for King Yama (Skt. yamarāja ; Tib. gshin rje rgyal po ), the deity who judges the dead and rules over the hell realms of the underworld. Here the lord of death is identified as Māra (Tib. bdud ).

མདོ་སྡེgeneral

mdo sde · sūtra, sūtrānta

discourse

also recorded: teaching, collection of sūtras

The term "teaching" renders here mdo sde , which usually refers to one of the collections of sūtras in the Kangyur. However, it can also mean the text of a particular sūtra or the teachings or doctrine contained in it‍—which is the case in this text.

མེ་ཏོག་མན་དཱ་ར་བgeneral

me tog man dA ra ba · mandārapuṣpa

mandārava flowers

also recorded: coral tree flower

ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྡེgeneral

shin tu rgyas pa’i sde · vaipulya

extensive scriptures

also recorded: extensive sayings, Extensive teachings, extensive teachings

One of the twelve branches of scripture or aspects of the Dharma. Literally meaning “vast” or “extensive,” it refers to a particular set of lengthy sūtras or collections of sūtras that provides a comprehensive overview of Buddhist thought and practice . This category includes individual works such as the Lalitavistara

སྤྱོད་པའི་བློ་གྲོསgeneral

spyod pa’i blo gros

Cāritramati

also recorded: Intelligence in Conduct, Caryamati

A bodhisattva and monastic teacher of a past eon; the Buddha Śākyamuni in a former life.

སའི་སྙིང་པོgeneral

sa’i snying po · kṣitigarbha

Kṣitigarbha

An important bodhisattva disciple of the Buddha.

མཚམས་མེདgeneral

mtshams med

immediate retribution

also recorded: acts of immediate retribution, Hell of Endless Torment

Refers to the five acts of immediate retribution ( pañcānantarya ), for which one will be reborn in hell immediately after death, without any intervening stages: killing an arhat, killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, causing a schism in the monastic community, and maliciously drawing blood from a tathāgata.

དོན་གྲུབgeneral

don grub · amoghasiddhi

Amoghasiddhi

also recorded: Arthasiddhi

Amoghasiddhi is the tathāgata at the head of the karma family among the five families.

ཨརྫ་ཀgeneral

ardza ka · arjaka

basil

also recorded: clove basil

Ocimum basilicum . Commonly known in India as tulsi , this is a sacred plant in the Hindu tradition.

བཟང་པོgeneral

bzang po · bhadra

Bhadra

also recorded: Excellence, Bhallika

Known as “Bhadra the illusionist ,” he was a powerful magician of Rājagṛha whose attempts to fool the Buddha go awry in The Prophecy for Bhadra the Illusionist .

མྱ་ངན་མེད་པའི་དཔལgeneral

mya ngan med pa’i dpal · aśokaśrī

Aśokaśrī

A buddha who lives in a southeastern buddha realm called Moonlight .

དཔལ་བཟང་པོgeneral

dpal bzang po · bhadraśrī

Bhadraśrī

Bhadraśrī (Excellent Glory) is a buddha who inhabits the buddhafield Padmaśrī .

དོན་ཡོད་རྒྱལ་པོgeneral

don yod rgyal po · amogharāja

Amogharāja

One of the monks attending this teaching in Śrāvastī , at Jeta’s Grove .

ཤེད་ལས་སྐྱེསgeneral

shed las skyes · manuja

descendant of Manu

also recorded: born of Manu

Manu being the archetypal human, the progenitor of humankind, in the Mahābhārata , the Purāṇas , and other Indian texts, “child of Manu” ( mānava ) or “born of Manu” ( manuja ) is a synonym of “human being” or humanity in general.

ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པའི་ཕུང་པོ་ལྔgeneral

nye bar len pa’i phung po lnga · pañcopādānaskandha

five aggregates of clinging

also recorded: five aggregates for appropriation, five appropriating aggregates, five appropriated aggregates

The five aggregates ( skandha ) of form , feeling , perception , formation , and consciousness . On the individual level the five aggregates refer to the basis upon which the mistaken idea of a self is projected. They are referred to as the “bases for appropriation ” ( upādāna ) insofar as all conceptual grasping arise

རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནསgeneral

rin chen ’byung gnas · ratnākara

Ratnākara

The son of King Attainment of Victory , who will become the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara .

མཛོད་སྤུgeneral

mdzod spu · ūrṇā, ūrṇākośa

circle of hair between the eyebrows

also recorded: curled hair, ūrṇā hair, hair coil

One of the physical marks of a buddha that takes the form of a hair that is coiled up between the eyebrows.

སྟོབསgeneral

stobs · bālā

powers

also recorded: Bālā

Refers to five or ten powers. As five they are faith, diligence, mindfulness, absorption , and insight . The ten powers are the ten knowledges of a buddha: (1) the knowledge of what is possible and not possible, (2) the knowledge of the ripening of karma, (3) the knowledge of the variety of aspirations, (4) the knowled

འཇིག་རྟེན་སྐྱོང་བ་བཞིgeneral

’jig rten skyong ba bzhi · caturlokapāla

Four World-Protectors

also recorded: Four Guardians of the World, four guardians of the world

Four deities at the base of Mount Meru, each one the guardian of his direction: Vaiśravaṇa in the north, Dhṛtarāṣṭra in the East, Virūpākṣa in the west, and Virūḍhaka in the south.

ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པgeneral

lhag pa’i bsam pa · adhyāśaya

altruism

also recorded: noblest intention, sincere attitude, ambition

As defined in the Bodhisattvabhūmi , this is a bodhisattva’s determined, deeply informed enthusiasm for the Buddhist teachings that is grounded in faith and careful study of the Dharma.

སེང་གེgeneral

seng ge · siṃha

Siṃha

Siṃha (Lion) is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield . This buddhafield is specifically said to be Excellent Lamp (Tib. sgron ma bzang po ) in Toh 44-37 and Pradīpā in Toh 104.

རྒྱང་གྲགསgeneral

rgyang grags · krośa

earshot

also recorded: league, krośa

An ancient unit of measuring distance. Approximately two and a quarter English miles (if taken as a quarter of a yojana ), but calculated differently in various systems. The Tibetan literally means “earshot.”

ལྷ་དབང་general

lha dbang · devendra

Devendra

also recorded: lord of the gods

Usually an epithet for Indra or Śakra, the chief of the gods who dwells in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.

ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངསgeneral

kun nas nyon mongs · saṃkleśa

pollution

also recorded: defilements, affliction, defilement

A term meaning defilement, impurity, and pollution, broadly referring to cognitive and emotional factors that disturb and obscure the mind. As the self-perpetuating process of affliction in the minds of beings, it is a synonym for saṃsāra . It is often paired with its opposite, vyavadāna , meaning “purification.”

ནང་དུ་ཡང་དག་འཇོག་པgeneral

nang du yang dag ’jog pa · pratisaṃlayana

inner absorption

This term can mean both physical seclusion and a meditative state of withdrawal.

བསོད་ནམས་སྐྱེསgeneral

bsod nams skyes · puṇyaprasava

Born from Merit

also recorded: Abundance of Merit, Heaven Born from Merit, Increased Merit Heaven

The eleventh of the heavens of the form realm . Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third or, according to the Mvy, fourth meditative absorption . See also n.138 .

ཚངས་འཁོརgeneral

tshangs ’khor · brahmapariṣadya

Brahmā’s Entourage

also recorded: Brahmapariṣadya, Brahmapārṣadya, Brahmapariṣadya

The name of an abode and class of gods inhabiting the first concentration level in the realm of forms ( rūpadhātu ). It is also called the abode of Brahmā’s High Priests ( Brahmapurohita ), although the two are listed distinctly in this text.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེgeneral

sangs rgyas phal po che · buddhāvataṃsaka

Buddhāvataṃsaka

also recorded: A Multitude of Buddhas, garlands of the buddhas

Here, the name of a particular state of concentration (but also the title of a composite Mahāyāna sūtra or “family” of sūtras, Toh 44).

ནག་པོgeneral

nag po · citra

Citra

also recorded: Kāla, Asita, Black One

The famous great sage who went to visit Prince Siddhārtha when he was a newborn baby. He made predictions of his awakening as the Buddha and then cried when he realized he would not be alive to witness it.

འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམསgeneral

’jig rten gyi khams · lokadhātu

world system

also recorded: world realm

The term lokadhātu refers to a single four continent world-system illumined by a sun and moon, with a Mount Meru at its center and an encircling ring of mountains at its periphery, and with the various god realms above, thus including the desire, form, and formless realms. The term can also refer to groups of such worl

སྤོབས་པ་བརྩེགས་པgeneral

spobs pa brtsegs pa · pratibhānakūṭa

Pratibhānakūṭa

The name of a bodhisattva .

ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པgeneral

tshe dang ldan pa · āyuṣmat, āyuṣmān

Venerable

also recorded: Venerable ones, Venerable one

A respectful form of address between monks, and also between lay companions of equal standing. It literally means “one who has a [long] life.”

བྱ་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

bya rgod kyi phung po · gṛdhrakūṭa

Vulture Peak

also recorded: Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain

སྲེད་མེད་བུgeneral

sred med bu · nārāyaṇa

Nārāyaṇa

A name commonly associated with the Hindu god Viṣṇu and often used in Buddhist texts as an example of someone with superhuman strength.

རིག་སྔགས་འཆང་general

rig sngags ’chang · vidyādhara

vidyādhara

also recorded: wielder of vidyāmantra

A class of semidivine being that is famous for wielding ( dhara ) spells ( vidyā ). Loosely understood as “sorcerers,” these magical beings are frequently petitioned through dhāraṇī and Kriyātantra ritual to grant magical powers to the supplicant. The later Buddhist tradition, playing on the dual valences of vidyā as “

ལྷུན་པོgeneral

lhun po · meru

Meru

also recorded: Mount Meru

འབྲས་བུ་ཆེgeneral

’bras bu che · bṛhatphala

Bṛhatphala

also recorded: Great Fruition Heaven

In the Sarvāstivāda tradition, the highest of the three paradises that correspond to the fourth dhyāna in the form realm.

གཉེན་གནསgeneral

gnyen gnas · upavāsa

abstinence

As expressed in the Sanskrit and translated literally into Tibetan, the term means “to dwell near.” The term comes from the older Vedic traditions in which during full moon and new moon sacrifices, householders would practice abstinence in various forms such as fasting and refraining from sexual activity. These holy da

བདུད་རྩི་འབྱུང་གནས་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་general

bdud rtsi ’byung gnas kyi gtsug lag khang

Amṛtabhavana Monastery

A Buddhist monastery in Kashmir that is reported in Chinese sources to have existed as early as ca. 750 ᴄᴇ .

བྷྲིང་གི་རི་ཏིgeneral

b+h+ring gi ri ti · bhṛṅgiriṭi

Bhṛṅgiriṭi

A deity from the Śaiva pantheon who appears in a grotesquely emaciated form.

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།, ལེགས་ལྡནgeneral

bcom ldan ’das, legs ldan · bhagavat

blessed one

དཔའ་བརྟན་པའི་སྡེ་མཚོན་ཆའི་རྒྱལ་པོgeneral

dpa’ brtan pa’i sde mtshon cha’i rgyal po · dṛḍhaśūraraṇasenapraharaṇarāja

Dṛḍhaśūraraṇasenapraharaṇarāja

The name of a buddha.

ཕོ་ཉ་མོgeneral

pho nya mo · dūtī

dūtī

A class of nonhuman female beings (masc. dūta ); the name literally means “messenger,” which implies that these beings can be employed as messengers through magical rites.

རྒྱལ་བར་བྱེད་པgeneral

rgyal bar byed pa · jayakara

Jayakara

An unknown figure who is said to be one of three brothers, along with Madhukara and Siddhikarasarvārthasādhana

མོས་པgeneral

mos pa · adhimokṣa

firm resolution

also recorded: admiration, resolute, aspiration

In a general sense, the mental inclination or focus toward a virtuous object. The term is also classified as a mental factor ( caitta ), being categorized variably according to different Buddhist schools but generally indicating the mental ability to focus on one object without straying to another. The term is also com

མི་ཁོམ་པgeneral

mi khom pa · akṣaṇa

inopportune states

also recorded: unfree states

Literally, “without leisure.” This refers to being born in a state in which one will not have the opportunity to meet with a buddha or their teachings. Eight situations are typically listed: (1) being born in a hell realm, (2) as an animal, (3) as a hungry ghost , (4) as a long-life god, (5) in a borderland or non-Budd

ཀླུའི་དབང་པོgeneral

klu’i dbang po

Lui Wangpo

The Tibetan translator of this text, active during the late eight and early ninth centuries. Lui Wangpo was one of the first seven Tibetans to take monastic ordination at the founding of Samyé monastery. He was a member of the Khön family that would later achieve preeminence in Tibet as the leading family of the Sakya

ལས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱgeneral

las kyi phyag rgya · karmamudrā

activity seal

also recorded: action mudrā, action seal

The first of the four seals associated with the four bodies of a buddha, this term is typically used to refer to the physical sexual consort. It represents the first level of practice on the stage of the arisen, where the four joys are merely recognized during the four moments . The remaining three seals—dharma seal, g

དབེན་པgeneral

dben pa · viveka

detachment

also recorded: isolated, singled out, disengagement

This term usually has to do with a subjective state of ‘isolation,’ ‘separation,’ or ‘withdrawal,’ rather than a metaphysical idea. The Akṣayamatinirdeśa-sūtra contains a more or less parallel discussion of dben pa nyid in connection with diligence: “ de la ’jug pa gang zhe na gang dge ba’i rtsa ba thams cad rtsom pa’o

འཕགས་པའི་ལམ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱདgeneral

’phags pa’i lam yan lag brgyad · āryāṣṭāṅgamārga

eightfold path of the noble ones

also recorded: eightfold path of noble beings, eightfold noble path

Path leading to the attainment of an arhat , consisting of right (1) view, (2) intention, (3) speech, (4) action, (5) livelihood, (6) effort , (7) mindfulness , and (8) meditative concentration .

བརྒྱད་པgeneral

brgyad pa · aṣṭamaka

eighth-lowest stage

also recorded: eighth-lowest level

A person who is eight steps away in the arc of their development from becoming an worthy one (Skt. arhat ; Tib. dgra bcom pa ). Specifically, this term refers to one who is on the cusp of becoming a stream-enterer (Skt. srotaāpanna ; Tib. rgyun du zhugs pa ), and is the first and lowest stage in a list of eight stages

རྣམ་ཤེས་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེདgeneral

rnam shes mtha’ yas skye mched · vijñānānantyāyatana

field of limitless consciousness

also recorded: abode of limitless consciousness, Sphere of Infinite Consciousness, those belonging to the sphere of the infinity of consciousness

A formless state, either a meditative state or its resultant realm of existence, i.e., a class of deities of the formless realm. (No equivalent of upaga in Tib.)

ཅི་ཡང་མེད་པའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེདgeneral

ci yang med pa’i skye mched · akiñcanyāyatana

field of nothing whatsoever

also recorded: abode of nothing whatsoever, Sphere of Absolute Nothingness, those belonging to the sphere of nothingness

A formless state, either a meditative state or its resultant realm of existence, i.e., a class of deities of the formless realm. (No equivalent of upaga in Tib.)

འབྱུང་བ་ཆེན་པོgeneral

’byung ba chen po · mahābhūta

great element

also recorded: major elements

The four major elements here are air, fire, water, and earth. The fifth element of space is often added to this list.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོསgeneral

sangs rgyas kyi chos · buddhadharma

buddhadharma

also recorded: buddha-qualities, dharmas of a buddha, buddha qualities

This term can refer to the general qualities of a buddha or to specific sets such as the ten strengths , the four fearlessnesses , the four discernments, and the eighteen unique buddha qualities ; or even more specifically to another set of eighteen: the ten strengths ; the four fearlessnesses ; mindfulness of body, sp

བཻ་དཱུ་རྱgeneral

bai dU rya · vaiḍūrya

beryl

Precious/semiprecious stone; sometimes translated as lapis lazuli.

ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོསgeneral

chos kyi blo gros · dharmamati

Dharmamati

also recorded: Dharmamati

“Intelligence of Dharma,” the bodhisattva who resides at a place called Heap of Glory .

གཅེར་བུ་པgeneral

gcer bu pa · nirgrantha

nirgrantha

also recorded: naked ascetics, Jain

In Buddhist texts, a term often used to refer to the community around the Jain teacher Jñātiputra , but can refer to the Jain tradition generally. Their practices, as presented in Buddhist literature, focused on intense asceticism as a means to mitigate the consequences of past actions and on nonaction as a means to pr

དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར་ཤྲཱི་ཛྙཱ་ནgeneral

dI paM ka ra shrI dz+nyA na · dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna

Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna

also recorded: Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna

982–1055 ce . Also known as Atiśa. A famed Bengali scholar (Skt. paṇḍita ) who spent twelve years in Tibet from 1042–1054. His disciples established the Kadampa ( bka’ gdams pa ) tradition.

དགེ་བའི་བློ་གྲོསgeneral

dge ba’i blo gros

Gewai Lodrö

also recorded: Gewé Lodrö, Géwai Lodrö

Ma Gewai Lodrö ( ma dge ba’i blo gros ), a Tibetan lotsāwa, was an important disciple of Rinchen Zangpo ( rin chen bzang po , 958–1055) who translated several texts with Atiśa and worked with the Kaśmīri master Subhūtiśribhadra to translate a number of pramāṇa texts.

ཀཱར་ཥཱ་པ་ཎgeneral

kAr ShA pa Na · kārṣāpaṇa

kārṣāpaṇa

also recorded: karṣāpaṇa, coin

A coin that varied in value according as to whether it was made of gold, silver, or copper. It is presumably the latter, lower-value one that is being referred to here.

ཚངས་པའི་གནས་པgeneral

tshangs pa’i gnas pa · brahmavihāra

abodes of Brahmā

also recorded: brahmā states

The attitudes, usually listed as four (sometimes also referred to as the “four immeasurable states”) in which brahmā deities dwell. Namely immeasurable goodwill or loving kindness (Pali: metta , Skt. maitrī , Tib. byams pa ), immeasurable compassion (Pali/Skt. karuna Tib. snying rje ), immeasurable empathetic joy (Pali

ཡོན་ཏནgeneral

yon tan · guṇa

qualities

also recorded: quality, benefits, virtue

See n.337 and n.257 .

འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུགgeneral

’jig rten dbang phyug · lokeśvara

Lokeśvara

Often an alternate name for the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Lokeśvara, literally meaning “lord of the world,” can also be a general epithet for a number of bodhisattvas and is also commonly used as a name for more localized protector deities.

ཆོས་གོསgeneral

chos gos · cīvara

outer robe

also recorded: Dharma robe, upper robe, robe

One of the three robes of a monk or one the five robes of a nun. In Tibetan the term chos gos (“dharma robe”) can also be used for all the robes.

གིའུ་ཝང་general

gi’u wang · gorocana, gorocanā

bezoar

also recorded: bovine bezoar

A yellowish, fragrant substance obtained from the solidified bile of elephants and cattle.

རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཉིདgeneral

rnam pa thams cad mkhyen pa nyid · sarvākārajñāna

all-aspect omniscience

also recorded: omniscience, knowledge of all aspects

This key term in the Prajñāpāramitā literature refers to the omniscience of a buddha, and is not to be confused with the “ knowledge of the aspects of the path ” of bodhisattvas , or with the knowledge of all the dharmas ( thams cad shes pa , lit. “ omniscience ”) of śrāvakas . The “all-aspect” ( sarvākāra ) part of t

ལྷའི་བུའི་བདུདgeneral

lha’i bu’i bdud · devaputramāra

demon of the divine son

also recorded: māra of the gods, deity Māra, divine māra

The aspect of Māra as a deity who assaulted the Buddha prior to his awakening. One of the four aspects of Māra.

གཟུགས་ཁམསgeneral

gzugs khams · rūpadhātu

form realm

One of the three realms of saṃsāra, this is a realm of subtle materiality presided over by Brahmā . Beings reborn in this realm are free from the coarse attachments of the desire realm but retain a subtle level of materiality.

གཟུགས་མེད་ཁམསgeneral

gzugs med khams · ārūpyadhātu

formless realm

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm ), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings.

ཨུད་པ་ལgeneral

ud pa la · utpala

blue lotus

Nymphaea nouchali . A water lily of blue color commonly known as blue lotus.

ཕྱིར་མི་འོང་བའི་འབྲས་བུgeneral

phyir mi ’ong ba’i ’bras bu · anāgāmiphala

fruit of non-returning

also recorded: result of non-returners, result of the non-returner, level of a non-returner

The third of the four levels of attainment of the vehicle of the śrāvakas , it is when one will no longer be reborn in the desire realm.

རྒྱུན་དུ་ཞུགས་པའི་འབྲས་བུgeneral

rgyun du zhugs pa’i ’bras bu · srota-āpattiphala

fruit of stream entry

also recorded: result of stream entry, result of stream-entry, level of a stream enterer

The first of the four levels of attainment of the vehicle of the śrāvakas , it is considered to be when one enters “the stream” of the noble ones that flows inexorably toward awakening.

གཎྜཱིgeneral

gaN+DI · gaṇḍī

gaṇḍī beam

also recorded: gaṇḍī

In The Chapter on the Restoration Rite , 1.86 , the Buddha states that the gaṇḍī beam may be used in five ways: to summon the saṅgha, for formal acts, for the dead, for meditation, and for danger. See also The Gaṇḍī Sūtra (Toh 298), where the Buddha describes the gaṇḍī beam’s use and characteristics.

སོག་མ་མེདgeneral

sog ma med · apalāla

Apalāla

Lit. “Without a Straw.” A nāga king, who was the brahmin Agnidatta in a former life.

དེ་བ་ཙན་དྲgeneral

de ba tsan dra · devacandra

Devacandra

A Tibetan translator and senior editor who was active in the early ninth century. Apart from the Nandikasūtra , he edited at least six other works in the Kangyur, such as the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāyānasūtra (Toh 120) and the Avadānaśataka (Toh 343).

དགའ་བ་བཞིgeneral

dga’ ba bzhi · caturānandā

four joys

The four joys are joy ( ānanda , dga’ ba ), supreme joy ( paramānanda , mchog dga’ ), transcendent joy ( viramānanda , dga’ bral ), and coemergent joy ( sahajānanda , lhan cig skyes dga’ ).

ཉེ་བའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པgeneral

nye ba’i nyon mongs pa · upakleśa

secondary afflictions

also recorded: derivative afflictions, subsidiary afflictions

The subsidiary afflictive emotions that arise in dependence upon the six root afflictive emotions (attachment, hatred, pride, ignorance, doubt, and wrong view); they are (1) anger ( krodha , khro ba ), (2) enmity/malice ( upanāha , ’khon ’dzin ), (3) concealment ( mrakśa , ’chab pa ), (4) outrage ( pradāsa , ’tshig pa

མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ་དྲུགgeneral

mngon par shes pa drug · ṣaḍabhijñā

six superknowledges

also recorded: six super-knowledges

The six modes of supernormal cognition or ability, namely, clairvoyance, clairaudience, knowledge of the minds of others, remembrance of past lives, the ability to perform miracles, and the knowledge of the destruction of all mental defilements. The first five are considered mundane or worldly and can be attained to so

བློ་གྲོས་བརྟན་པgeneral

blo gros brtan pa · dṛḍhamati

Dṛḍhamati

also recorded: Sthiramati

A bodhisattva and interlocuter in The Dharma Council .

མིག་མི་བཟང་general

mig mi bzang · virūpākṣa

Virūpākṣa

also recorded: Virūpakṣa

“Deformed Eyes,” nāga king and guardian of the western direction. Also common epithet of Śiva, where it indicates his odd number of eyes.

དབང་པོའི་བྲག་ཕུགgeneral

dbang po’i brag phug · indraśailaguha

Indra’s Rock Cave

also recorded: Indra’s Cave

A cave on Vaidehika Mountain in Magadha where the Buddha is said to have resided.

གནོན་པོgeneral

gnon po · ostāraka

ostāraka

An obscure Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit term. Sanskrit equivalent: avastāraka . Translated into Tibetan as “suppressor, one who presses down on someone.” Presumably from avastṛ (“to cover over, as with a blanket”).

སྨྱོ་བྱེདgeneral

smyo byed · unmāda

unmāda

A class of nonhuman beings associated with intoxication and madness.

ལུས་འཕགས་རིgeneral

lus ’phags ri · vaidehakaparvata

Vaidehaka Mountain

The name of a mountain in Videha.

ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔgeneral

ye shes lnga · pañcajñāna

five wisdoms

The five wisdoms each express a distinct quality of awakened cognition associated with one of the buddhas of the five families . The five are (1) the wisdom of the dharmadhātu ( dharmadhātujñāna ; chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes ), (2) mirror-like wisdom ( ādarśajñāna ; me long lta bu’i ye shes ), (3) the wisdom of equal

ལྗོན་པgeneral

ljon pa · druma

Druma

The kinnara king Druma is a well-known figure in canonical Buddhist literature, where he frequently appears, mostly in minor roles. For example, King Druma appears in The White Lotus of the Good Dharma (Toh 113), where he is one of the four kinnara kings attending the Buddha’s teaching. He is also included in The King

འཇམ་དབྱངས་བློ་གཏེར་དབང་པོgeneral

’jam dbyangs blo gter dbang po

Jamyang Loter Wangpo

1847-1914. A master of the Sakya tradition.

ཕྲ་མེན་མgeneral

phra men ma · ḍākinī

ḍākinī

also recorded: malevolent female spirits, malevolent female spirit

The term phra men ma (also spelled phra man ma in some texts) is one of the two translations of the word ḍākinī found in canonical works. In this case‍—as in many of the cases where phra men ma rather than the other Tibetan translation of ḍākinī , mkha’ ’gro ma is employed‍—it refers to a class of malevolent female spi

ཤཱི་ལེནྡྲ་བོ་དྷིgeneral

shI len+dra bo d+hi · śīlendrabodhi

Śīlendrabodhi

An Indian paṇḍita resident in Tibet during the late eighth and early ninth centuries who is credited with assisting in the translation of many canonical Buddhist texts.

རྡོའི་སྙིང་པོgeneral

rdo’i snying po · aśmagarbha

aśmagarbha emerald

also recorded: emerald

སྒྲིབ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་པར་སེལ་བgeneral

sgrib pa thams cad rnam par sel ba · sarvanivaraṇaviṣkambhin

Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin

also recorded: Sarvanivaraṇaviṣkambhin

An important bodhisattva, included among the “eight close sons of the Buddha.” His name means “One Who Completely Dispels All Obscurations” and, accordingly, he is said to have the power to exhaust all the obscurations of anyone who merely hears his name. According to The Jewel Cloud (1.10, Toh 231) , Sarvanīvaraṇa

རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བgeneral

rnam par grol ba · vimukti

liberation

In its most general sense, this term refers to the state of freedom from suffering and cyclic existence, or saṃsāra, that is the goal of the Buddhist path. More specifically, the term may refer to a category of advanced meditative attainment such as those of the “eight liberations.” The fourth of the five uncontaminate

གཟའgeneral

gza’ · graha

celestial graha

also recorded: celestial body, graha

Astronomical bodies that are believed to exert influence on individuals and the world according to Indic astrological lore. There are traditionally nine: the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the eclipse ( Rāhu ), and comets/meteors ( Ketu ).

རྒྱུ་སྐརgeneral

rgyu skar · nakṣatra

nakṣatra

also recorded: lunar mansion

The term for the lunar asterisms through which the moon passes as it moves across the sky and the celestial beings associated with them. The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Grahas” notes that there are twenty-eight.

ག་པུརgeneral

ga pur · karpūra

camphor

Camphora officiniarum Nees.

ཁྲུ་གང་general

khru gang · hasta

cubit

A measure of length. One unit is the distance from the elbow to the tips of the fingers, about eighteen inches.

བློ་གྲོས་ཆེན་པོgeneral

blo gros chen po · mahāmati

Mahāmati

A bodhisattva, the protagonist of The Descent into Laṅkā .

བ་ལང་བདགgeneral

ba lang bdag · gavāṃpati

Gavāṃpati

Śrāvaka arhat ; one of the Buddha’s five close arhat disciples. He took ordination from the Buddha and then became a disciple of Śāriputra .

རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲསgeneral

rgyal ba’i sras · jinaputra

children of the Victorious One

also recorded: heir of the victorious ones, children of the jinas, child of the jinas

An epithet of bodhisattvas. See g.47 for the definition of Victorious One .

གསང་བའི་བདག་པོgeneral

gsang ba’i bdag po · guhyādhipati

Lord of Secrets

also recorded: Lord of Guhyakas

An epithet for Vajrapāṇi.

སྒྲ་གཅན་ཟིནgeneral

sgra gcan zin · rāhula

Rāhula

Rāhula is the name of Śākyamuni Buddha’s physical son. Edgerton reports from different sources that he miraculously descended from Tuṣita heaven into his mother’s womb, and insisted on becoming a monk when he found out that the Buddha was his father. He was ordained by Śāriputra .

དགེ་སྦྱོང་ཆེན་པོgeneral

dge sbyong chen po · mahāśramaṇa

Great Śramaṇa

also recorded: Great Ascetic, great ascetic, Great Renunciant

An epithet of the Buddha. See also definition for “ śramaṇa .”

ལགgeneral

lag · ārdrā

Ārdrā

also recorded: Ardra

The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Alpha Orionis in the occidental tradition.

སྲིད་སྒྲུབgeneral

srid sgrub · arjuna

Arjuna

The third and most prominent of the five Pāṇḍavas brothers whose long war with the Kauravas, their enemy relatives, is described in the epic narrative of the Mahābhārata . Renowned for his skill in arms, Arjuna is especially known from the episode of the Bhagavad Gītā , in which he is the main interlocutor of Kṛṣṇa, hi

སྐགgeneral

skag · aśleṣā

Āśleṣā

also recorded: Aśleṣā, Āśleṣa

The name of a lunar mansion and a lunar month.

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།, ཏིང་འཛིནgeneral

ting nge ’dzin, ting ’dzin · samādhi

absorption

also recorded: samādhi

In a general sense, samādhi can describe a number of different meditative states. In the Mahāyāna literature, in particular in the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, we find extensive lists of different samādhis, numbering over one hundred. In a more restricted sense, and when understood as a mental state, samādhi is defined as th

མེས་སྦྱིནgeneral

mes sbyin · agnidatta

Agnidatta

also recorded: Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka), Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī)

One of King Brahmadatta ’s magistrates, from Vārāṇasī . Father of Son of Fire and Tongue of Fire . Not to be confused with Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka ) prophesied to appear in the future, nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī .

ཆོས་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པgeneral

chos rnam par ’byed pa · dharmapravicaya

analysis of phenomena

also recorded: discerning phenomena, discernment of phenomena

Second of the seven branches of enlightenment .

ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ།, ལེན་པgeneral

len pa, nye bar len pa · upādāna

appropriation

ངེས་པའི་དོནgeneral

nges pa’i don · nītārtha

definitive meaning

A statement of clear and explicit meaning that has no ulterior motive and thus does not require further explanation.

གསེར་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་ཅནgeneral

gser gyi phreng ba can · kāñcanamālikā

Kāñcanamālikā

also recorded: Golden Garland

The name of a female Buddhist deity, meaning “Garlanded with Gold,” here used as an epithet of Sitātapatrā .

མི་ཕམ་པgeneral

mi pham pa · ajita

Ajita

The other name of Maitreya (or Maitraka ), the bodhisattva who will be the fifth buddha of the Good Eon .

དགེ་ཆུང་general

dge chung · aparimitaśubha, apramāṇaśubha

Apramāṇaśubha

also recorded: Heaven of Limited Virtue, Limited Virtue Heaven, those of limited splendor

The seventh of the heavens of the form realm . Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third meditative absorption . See also n.134 .

གྲངས་མེད་པgeneral

grangs med pa · asaṃkhyeya

asaṃkhyeya

The designation of a measure of time on the scale of eons , literally meaning “incalculable.” The number of years in such an eon differs in various sūtras that give a number. Also, twenty intermediate eons are said to be one incalculable eon , and four incalculable eons are one great eon . In that case those four incal

ལྷུང་བཟེདgeneral

lhung bzed · pātra

alms bowl

also recorded: begging bowl

The bowls used by monastics to collect alms.

སྟོབས་པོ་ཆེgeneral

stobs po che · mahābala

Mahābala

also recorded: Great Powerful One

Listed as the great yakṣa general of Rājagṛha in the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī ( Toh 559 ).

འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོgeneral

’jig rten mgon po · lokanātha

Lokanātha

also recorded: Lord of the World, World Protector, Protector of the World

An alternate name for the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara .

ལོག་པ་ཉིད་བརྒྱདgeneral

log pa nyid brgyad · aṣṭamithyātvāni

eight wrong modes

also recorded: eight errors, eight flaws

The eight wrong modes are wrong view, wrong thought, wrong speech, wrong actions, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong recollection, and wrong samādhi .

ལུས་ངན་པོgeneral

lus ngan po · kubera

Kubera

One of the great kings of the four directions, Kubera guards the northern quarter of the heavens. Also known as Vaiśravaṇa .

རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཐོང་བའི་ཕུང་པོgeneral

rnam par grol ba’i ye shes mthong ba’i phung po · vimuktijñānadarśanaskandha

aggregate of liberated wisdom vision

also recorded: aggregate of knowledge and seeing of liberation, aggregate of seeing the wisdom of liberation

སྤྱན་ལྔgeneral

spyan lnga · pañcacakṣu

five eyes

also recorded: five pure eyes, fivefold vision

The five eyes consist of five faculties of pure vision acquired by buddhas and bodhisattvas: the physical eye , the divine eye, the wisdom eye, the Dharma eye , and the Buddha eye.

ཚོགསgeneral

tshogs

accumulation

also recorded: collection

In the context of the psychophysical constituents, refers to the combination of individual sense- consciousnesses related to the five senses, and that of the mind, making five or six constituents depending on the context (and in some texts more) that collectively constitute “ consciousness .”

གཞལ་མེད་ཁང་general

gzhal med khang · vimāna

aerial palace

also recorded: airborne palace

Vimāna , translated here as “airborne palace,” can mean a divine chariot or palace, or a combination of the two, as in this translation. These flying palaces of the deities are well known in Indian mythology. Burnouf translates as “chariots”; Kern has “aerial cars.”

བདུད་རྩི་འཁྱིལ་པgeneral

bdud rtsi ’khyil pa · amṛtakuṇḍalin

Amṛtakuṇḍalin

also recorded: Amṛtakuṇḍali

In the current text, said to be the lord of the guhyakas. Elsewhere, he is identified as a vidyā king ( vidyārāja ) of the vajra family.

བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་པgeneral

blo gros mtha’ yas pa · anantamati

Anantamati

One of the bodhisattvas attending this teaching.

ལྕགས་ཀྱུgeneral

lcags kyu · aṅkuśa

Aṅkuśa

also recorded: Aṅkuśī

One of the four gate guardians, also called Vajrāṅkuśa.

བོ་དོང་པཎ་ཆེན་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལgeneral

bo dong paN chen phyogs las rnam rgyal

Bodong Paṇchen Choklé Namgyal

1375/6–1451. A prolific scholar who founded the Bodong tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Bodong Paṇchen wrote extensively on the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Tantra and was intensely critical of Jetsün Drakpa Gyaltsen’s interpretations of its funerary rites.

དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ།, དོན་དམgeneral

don dam, don dam pa’i bden pa · paramārthasatya

absolute truth

Literally the “truth of the highest meaning,” this is the knowledge that can only be directly realized, but not grasped conceptually.

དོན་ཡོད་གྲུབ་པ།, དོན་ཡོདgeneral

don yod, don yod grub pa · amogha, amoghasiddhi

Amoghasiddhi

One of the five tathāgatas, he is located in the southern quarter of tantric maṇḍalas and presides over the karma family.

ཨ་རྦུདgeneral

a rbud · arbuda

Arbuda

One of the secondary kṣetras.

དཔག་མེདgeneral

dpag med · ārolik

Ārolik

also recorded: Amitaprabha

Another name for Amitābha.

བོ་ལgeneral

bo la · bola, bolaka

bola

A code word for male genitalia.

བྲམ་ཟེ་མོgeneral

bram ze mo · brāhmaṇī

Brāhmaṇī

“Brahmin woman,” one of the five mudrās, representing the activity family in the Hevajra system.

སྐྱོ་བgeneral

skyo ba · udvega

dissatisfaction

also recorded: sorrowful

Likely a translation of udvega or a related word, skyo ba here refers to a kind of valorized world-weariness that stands somewhere between fear and disgust. For a study of this, though without reference to Tibetan, see Andrea Acri’s (2015) “Between Impetus, Fear and Disgust.”

ངན་སོང་གསུམgeneral

ngan song gsum · tridurgati, tryapāya

three lower realms

A collective name for the three lower realms in which migratory beings can be reborn: the hell, preta , and animal realms.

དེས་པgeneral

des pa · sauratya

lenience

also recorded: Surata

Gentleness, especially in one’s thoughts and behavior toward others; the absence of any desire for retaliation. This is often paired with tolerance .

སྤྱོད་ཡུལgeneral

spyod yul · gocara

experiential domain

also recorded: domain, experiential scope

Literally, “where cattle (Skt. go ) range (Skt. cara ),” it refers to any given being’s experiential range or cognitive domain.

དགྲ་བཅོམgeneral

dgra bcom · arhat

arhat

also recorded: Arhat

There are four kinds of “noble persons” ( āryapudgala ) according to the Śrāvakayāna , characterized by the level of abandonment of ten kinds of fetters ( saṃyojana ) that bind one to saṃsāra. This is the fourth and final of the four stages of the realization of the supramundane path (and fruit), equivalent with awaken

ཙན་དནgeneral

tsan dan · candana

Candana

In the sūtra Auspicious Night , Candana is identified as an army general from among the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three . According to the Pali suttas, Candana is one of the yakṣa generals and a vassal of the gods of the four directions, also known as the Four Great Kings ( Cāturmahārājika ). In the Lomasakaṅgiy

བོནold tibetan form

bon

Bon

old tibetan — Bon; the Bon rite. In the Dunhuang texts བོན is a ritual and its specialists, not yet the organised religion of later centuries. The capital belongs only to the later sense.

Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.

The word bon , while often understood as referring to the indigenous religion of Tibet, is here used to refer to local ritual practices in China that may have had some resemblance to those in Tibet. For more on this term, see Stein 2010, pp. 248–50.

མྱིold tibetan form

myi

person

Old Tibetan orthography of མི ('person, man'). The my- spelling is the period marker; it is not a different word.

འྀold tibetan form

Old Tibetan genitive particle written as a subjoined vowel; render as 'of' or with the English possessive, never transliterate.

ལྷ་ཆོསold tibetan form

lha chos

the divine dharma

In Old Tibetan this is Buddhism as a religion, contrasted with བོན. 'Dharma of the gods' is literal but misleading; 'the Buddhist teaching' is what the phrase denotes in context.

གཟུངསritual

gzungs · dhāraṇī

dhāraṇī

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

also recorded: retention, incantation, spell, memory

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 the Dhāraṇī genre and Mahāyāna Buddhism, where it refers to divinely revealed prayer formulas dedic

གཏོར་མritual

gtor ma · bali

offering cake

'Torma' is defensible for specialists; in a general text 'offering cake' says what it is.

also recorded: Bali, oblation, bali offering, cast offering

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. He appeared as a dwarf asking for two steps of ground, was offered three, and then traversed the world

དཀྱིལ་འཁོརritual

dkyil 'khor · maṇḍala

maṇḍala

also recorded: inner circle, maṇḍalaka, disk

A small ritual space, usually on the ground which is smeared with cow-dung and other substances, where offerings are made. Although the term sometimes lacks the - ka ( kan ) suffix, it is not to be confused with the pantheon of deities in a tantric text (always spelled maṇḍala ).

སྔགསritual

sngags · mantra

mantra

old tibetan — mantra; spell. In the Dunhuang ritual texts སྔགས is a working spell; 'mantra' with its later liturgical calm overstates the register.

སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.

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 ) the mind ( man )”.

དམ་ཚིགritual

dam tshig · samaya

samaya

also recorded: sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows, vow

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 deity or a spirit. It can also mean a special juncture or circumstance, or an ordinary time or seas

མཚནritual

mtshan · nāman

name

མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.

also recorded: major signs, buddha marks, auspicious marks

The thirty-two primary physical characteristics of a “great being,” mahāpuruṣa , which every buddha and cakravartin possesses. They are considered “major” in terms of being primary to the eighty minor marks or signs of a great being.

སྒྲུབ་ཐབསritual

sgrub thabs · sādhana

sādhana

also recorded: 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. In Buddhist literature, the term is often specifically applied to tantric practices that involve ritual engagement with deities, mantra recitation, the v

མཆོད་པritual

mchod pa · pūjā

offering

བསྔོ་བritual

bsngo ba · pariṇāmanā

dedication

old tibetan — dedication; transfer (of merit). The Dunhuang བསྔོ་བ texts transfer merit to the dead; 'substitution' in the OTDO description is the editors' interpretation, not the word.

Mentally or ritually directing the merit produced from virtuous activity toward a specific goal.

རིགསritual

rigs · kula

family

The tantric 'family' (buddha-family); not 'lineage' (which is རྒྱུད་པ or བརྒྱུད་པ).

Generally a reference to a person’s spiritual disposition.

དབངritual

dbang · abhiṣeka

empowerment

In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.

ཕྱག་འཚལritual

phyag 'tshal · namaskāra

homage

ཡི་དམritual

yi dam · iṣṭadevatā

yidam

བསྟོད་པtext

bstod pa · stotra

praise

also recorded: praise text

An encomium or hymn of praise.

མདོtext

mdo · sūtra

sūtra

རྒྱུདtext

rgyud · tantra

tantra

གཞུངtext

gzhung

source text

old tibetan — authoritative text; tradition. In ITJ 504 ལྷ་ཆོས་དཀར་པོའི་གཞུང is 'the white (pure) tradition of the divine dharma' — 'gzhung' there is a body of authoritative teaching, not a physical book.

མཁན་པོtitle

mkhan po · upādhyāya

abbot

In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colophons.

also recorded: abbot, upādhyāya, Preceptor

A person’s particular preceptor within the monastic tradition. They must have at least ten years of standing in the saṅgha, and their role is to confer ordination, to tend to the student, and to provide all the necessary requisites, therefore guiding that person for the taking of full vows and the maintenance of conduc

བླ་མtitle

bla ma · guru

guru

also recorded: guru

One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

ལོ་ཙྪ་བtitle

lo tsā ba

translator

Colophon title for the Tibetan translator; keep as 'translator', never 'Lotsawa'.

དགེ་སློངtitle

dge slong · bhikṣu

monk

དགེ་སྙེནtitle

dge bsnyen · upāsaka

lay follower

རྒྱལ་པོtitle

rgyal po · rāja

king

ལྷ་བུtitle

lha bu · devaputra

prince

old tibetan — prince; son of the gods. In the Dunhuang narratives ལྷ་བུ་རིན་ཆེན་ལག is a personal name ('Jewel-Hand'); it is not 'son of the gods' plus a separate word. Treat the string as a name.

རྒྱལ་བུtitle

rgyal bu · rājakumāra

prince

In place names རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད is Jetavana (the grove), not 'prince'. Match the whole compound before the bare noun.