Notes

n.1Padmakara Translation Group, trans., The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines (Daśa­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā, Toh 11), 2018. Hereafter, referred to as khri pa.

n.2Zacchetti 2005: 17, 23 n. 76.

n.3Gareth Sparham, trans., The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Śata­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā, Toh 8), 2024. Hereafter, referred to as ’bum.

n.4Padmakara Translation Group, trans., The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines (Pañca­viṃśati­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā, Toh 9), 2023. Hereafter, referred to as nyi khri.

n.5Zacchetti 2005: 40, n. 167; Lee undated: 1.

n.6Nañjio 1883: 2–3.

n.7Nañjio 1883: 3, (c).

n.8Gareth Sparham, trans., The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines (Toh 3808), 2022. Hereafter, referred to as Bṭ3.

n.9Conze 1962: 1978.

n.10Conze 1962: xv.

n.11Zacchetti 2005: 19–22.

n.12Zacchetti 2015: bibliography.

n.13Bṭ3 i.­46.

n.14nyi khri Chapter 72: The Divisions of a Bodhisattva’s Training.

n.15In other contexts, “attribute” translates rnam pa.

n.16See Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother (Toh 21), 2022.

n.17Here and below “numbering” renders mātra (from the root mā, “to measure”). D tsam means “just” (in a limiting sense).

n.18“Perfect” is the MDPL rendering of paramapārami (dam pa’i pha rol tu son pa). Seton (Appendix I, 36) says Ratnākaraśānti dissolves the compound more fully to mean “because they have gone and are in a state that has gone to the limit of mental mastery.”

n.19H: rin chen snying po.

n.20“Asuras”: lha ma yin renders dānava.

n.21Nakamura (2014: 516) renders this as “strewing [flowers] near [to Buddha], strewing [flowers] in front [of Buddha] and strewing [flowers] all around [Buddha].” The Tib says, literally, “strew down on, strew over, and strew right over.”

n.22We have based this translation in part on Z 272 n. 253 and have rendered shes bzhin du spyod cig (samprajāna­carī bhāveḥ) “be on your best behavior” instead of “be careful” (Z) or “act with full self-possession” (LSPW) because in this Tib version the bodhisattva is very polite without having first been instructed by his buddha. Z has a good summary of the possible meanings.

n.23“Stand” consistently renders the verb sthā because it is etymologically similar, even if it pushes the boundaries of ordinary English usage. Here it obviously does not mean to stand as the opposite of to sit; it does not mean stand like a clock stands on a mantelpiece. Rather, it means to stay in a particular condition, to be.

n.24Bṭ3 4.­20 glosses “compounded downfall”: “Even if they do incur a downfall, they do not compound it by letting time pass.”

n.25Tib consistently renders upādāya with phyir (“because”).

n.26Cf. Ghoṣa 1258 vyāghatika (emend to vyāghātaka?), the first in the list. “Cut into pieces” would fit the context better. Below (11.­36) rnam par rnags pa (vyādhmātaka), “cleaned out [by worms],” fits better with the stages of a decaying body. The stages are described in detail below (16.­10–16.­18).

n.27Mppś English vol. 3, p. 1205, says this is knowledge that what has been extinguished will not arise again and is absent from a buddha.

n.28This is a literal rendering of sgra ji bzhin pa. LSPW, following Lamotte’s (Mppś English, 1204) reading yathābhūta, in place of yathāruta based on Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation, renders this “cognition of what is just so,” “cognition of what really is.”

n.29Tib shes pa, ye shes, and mkhyen pa, when rendering Skt jñāna, are all rendered into English with the same word: “knowledge.” “Transcendental knowledge” is used to signal ye shes at 43.­14. The complexities involved in interpreting the Skt ending -tā (rendered consistently by Tib nyid in mkhyen pa nyid and so on) have been skipped over by rendering it “knower” when it is used in a longer construction like “knowledge of a knower of all” and as simply “knowledge” in briefer constructions. “All-knowledge” is the “knowledge of a knower of all.” In the longer versions of the Perfection of Wisdom, this “all-knowledge” (sarvajña(tā), thams cad mkhyen pa [nyid]) is specifically the knowledge that a śrāvaka does not transcend. That is why it is not simply rendered “omniscience.” Sometimes, however, “all-knowledge” is a term for all three knowledges: the knowledge of all aspects (of a buddha), the knowledge of paths (of a bodhisattva), and the all-knowledge (of a śrāvaka specifically as it is known to a bodhisattva or buddha). In such cases it is true omniscience, as in the Eight Thousand Line version.

n.30Thempangma sdug pa.

n.31See n.­29.

n.32Tib renders vāsanānusaṃdhi­kleśa here as a dvandva; elsewhere Tib sometimes renders vāsanānusaṃdhi as a tatpuruṣa “residual impression connections” in the sense of “connections that are residual impressions” or “connections because of residual impressions.”

n.33skyon med pa nyid (niyāmatā/nyāmatā) by itself is rendered “flawlessness,” following the etymology given in this scripture; when together with byang chub sems dpa’ (bodhisattva­nyāma), skyon med pa (niyāma/nyāma) is “the secure state (of bodhisattvas)”; when together with “dharmas” (dharmaniyāmatā/nyāmatā), skyon med pa nyid is “certification (of dharmas).”

n.34This is made clearer in chapter 33.

n.35Edg 522 suggests that śaṅkhaśilā (PSP 1-1:32) is the name of a single precious stone and that śilā is “camphor,” that is, a fragrant dried clear resin.

n.36Alternatively, the Dharmachakra Translation Committee (The Play in Full, Toh 95, 20.1) renders this “the realms that filled the entire field of phenomena.”

n.37“Production of the thought” (go bar byed par ’dod pa) is a technical term that conveys the same meaning as the verb “want” in the earlier paragraphs.

n.38This is Conze’s translation of anavakāra (Tib dor ba med pa). It means the “absence of the repudiated.”

n.39Alternatively, mi dmigs pa’i stong pa nyid, anupalambha­śūnyatā (“emptiness of what cannot be apprehended”).

n.40Jäschke relates khyed pa (’khyed) to ’gye (as in sku ’gye); Z and LSPW render pratipādaya “to present to.”

n.41K, N byin pa de ltar byin na; PSP 1-1:35 evaṃ bodhisattvena mahā­sattvena dānaṃ dadatā ṣañ pāramitāḥ paripūritā bhavanti.

n.42Z 308 n. 497 renders anutpādakotim anuprāptukāma “who wishes to reach their point of non-origination.”

n.43The following five are the Śuddhāvāsa (“pure abode”) heavens, but the Śuddhāvāsa is listed separately here.

n.44Alternatively, “with one sitting [left before awakening].”

n.45btshun mo’i ’khor (literally, “a retinue of queens”); Ghoṣa 117 puramadhyāt. Missing from Z.

n.46nye bar ’dzin. Dutt 37.13 upādadāti, LSPW “lay hold of”; Z 323 n. 38.

n.47All the Tib versions of the sūtra have all four possibilities, and none of the Skt versions do.

n.48This is a truncation of the longer list, taking out “is empty of the intrinsic nature of form , but is not empty because of emptiness” for each of the intervening aggregates.

n.49Ghoṣa 119 asthānam (“not standing”), which is better, as below.

n.50Q brtags pa; D gdags pa (“labels”).

n.51This translation follows D ming gis. If one reads ming gi tha snyad the translation would be “to the extent they work conventionally as name designations.” Z 388, 329 n. 15 yāvad eva nāma­saṃketena vyavahriyante (“they are merely named with a conventional designation”).

n.52“Number” and so on render specific Sanskrit names for high numbers. Below (33.­50) they follow the series “thousandth part, nor by a hundred thousandth part, nor by a hundred millionth part, nor by a thousandth one hundred millionth part, nor by a hundred thousandth one hundred millionth part.” The increase in the value of the earlier numbers in the series is probably followed to arrive at a value for each later one, which is so astronomical they are given separate names. Gyurme (khri pa) renders a similar passage at 33.17: “cannot be expressed as even a thousandth part…, or indeed as any other number, fraction, quantity, or material part.” Cf. Edg, s.v. upaṇiśā.

n.53Z 330 n. 28 eka­divasa­paribhāvitā (“contained in just one day”).

n.54Z “wisdom concerned with the task”; LSPW “the task for which it has been set up.”

n.55Ghoṣa 126, Z 390 “knowledge of path aspects”; Dutt 40 “all-knowledge.”

n.56Tib zlo bzlas bzla is causal to ’da’ (“to be beyond”); ’da’ bar byed pa (“to cause to be beyond”).

n.57spyod pa (a carver’s misreading of sbyong?); Z 391, Ghoṣa 132, Dutt pariśodhayati. On the meaning of “purifying” in the Pāli Canon see Z’s summary (338 n. 72) of Vetter’s (1993) explanation. In essence, the donor and the donation are “purified” when both the donor (a bodhisattva) and donation (all dharmas) cannot get any better than they are.

n.58Z, Dutt, and Ghoṣa all have prajñāyante.

n.59’du shes med pa’i sems can; Mvy, Edg, asaṃjñisattva (Pāli asaññasatta): “Beings in the nonperception absorption.” Edg, s.v. sattvāvāsa, places the asaññasatta in a fifth sattvāvāsa (the ārūpyāvacāra gods in the sixth to ninth). He says the Mvy is wrong to put this category above the ārūpyāvacāra gods. Earlier (2.­27), “the nonperception absorption” is listed immediately after the fourth concentration. Nevertheless, it is a custom when discussing nirodha­samāpatti in the Tibetan debate courtyard to place the ’du shes med pa’i snyoms ’jug and the tshor ba med pa’i snyoms ’jug above the four ārūpyadhātu states.

n.60Emend spyod to sbyong. Z suggests “metaphorically” as a translation for paryāyeṇa (rnam grangs kyis). We understand this in the sense: he models purification to show others who do not understand how to purify, within understanding that no purification is necessary.

n.61LSPW uses “endeavor” and “join” for yuj and its derivatives; brtson does mean “to endeavor, make an effort,” but as Z notes, Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation of this includes the meaning “compliant with,” that is, fitting, or logically established.

n.62gzugs su yod pa; 15.­25 gzugs su rung ba, the definition of gzugs.

n.63This based on Bṭ3 4.­293 “they do not connect the yogic practice of emptiness with another inherently existing yogic practice of emptiness.” ’bum 2.­256 (ka 91b2), nyi khri 2.­128 (ka 52b1–2) stong pa nyid dang stong pa nyid du myi sdud myi ’byed (“does not incorporate emptiness into emptiness and does separate it [from emptiness]”); LSPW 47–50 “nor is emptiness a matter for joining” interprets yoga in the sense of yogya (“fitness”).

n.64Z follows Edg in rendering avatṝ (’jug) “comprehend,” based on the contextually appropriate meaning.

n.65“Join” and the earlier “cause to engage” render the same word yojayati (sbyor bar byed).

n.66Z 397; Ghoṣa 250, anupalambha (“of not apprehending”).

n.67Z 232 n. 142 gives the different readings here.

n.68Dutt 55, Ghoṣa 256 doṣa; Z 398 roga (“sickness”).

n.69Bṭ3 1.­43, 4.­1035 says there are four dhāraṇīs (“mnemonic devices”): forbearance, doctrine, meaning, and mantra dhāraṇī. The idea of a gateway is conveyed by the use of the first letter of a word standing for the whole word, the word’s meaning, and the understanding of its meaning. To come “face to face” with a dhāraṇī in its simplest sense means to learn alphabets and through that learn to read and understand meanings. A “meditative stabilization doorway” is the concentrated state of understanding that comes from a dhāraṇī like the letter “A” for example, as a letter conveying a negation (as in apolitical). The concentration of the meaning of many letters in an abbreviation is paralleled by the mental concentration in a meditative stabilization. To come “face to face” means to have a direct, unmediated perception, in a completely clear state of mind.

n.70This borrows from Z’s translation 359 n. 178.

n.71The construction zhes bya bar sbyor (“cause X to join with/to”) renders yojaya (Ghoṣa 262, Dutt 57, and Z 398 all have yojaya) even though up to this point in the Tib yojaya has been consistently rendered sbyor bar byed, not just sbyor. So I do not use the “while practicing … form joins to emptiness” construction, and I do not use the “they cause X to join to Y” construction, but a third synonymous construction: “they join X to Y,” following LSPW and Z, who take the ’di (sa) here with the bodhisattva.

n.72One of the markers of progress on the bodhisattvas’ path is receiving a prophecy from a buddha that they will become such and such a buddha at such and such a time in such and such a place. It is a variable of the strength of the bodhisattvas’ thought of awakening, unbroken realization of emptiness, habituation to the illusory nature of phenomena, and collection of merits.

n.73Dutt 59, Ghoṣa 264, Z 399 omit.

n.74It is not clear whether the emphasis is on the fact that beings, as the object of empathy, are unproduced, or that bodhisattvas as practitioners of the perfection of wisdom are unproduced, an ambiguity retained in LSPW and Z’s translation “through the fact of the nonproduction of a being.”

n.75Ghoṣa 267 manuṣyebhyo vā; ’bum 2.­478, nyi khri 2.­162, le’u brgyad ma ga 68a6–7.

n.76Dutt 61 avipramuṣita; LSPW “of which he never loses sight”; Ghoṣa 267 avipranaṣṭa; ’bum 2.­480 (ka 160b1), nyi khri 2.­163 (ka 61b5) nyams pa med pa.

n.77Ghoṣa 270, Dutt 63.7, and LSPW 62–63 add another group here.

n.78Bṭ3 4.­88 and LSPW gloss this “flawlessness=secure/fixed state” with “of a bodhisattva.”

n.79Cf. 62.­54–62.­56. There are two meditative stabilizations, the siṃha­vijṛmbhita (lion’s yawn or stretch) meditative stabilization, and the viṣkandaka (leaping above) meditative stabilization. Conze renders the latter meditative stabilization the “Crowning Assault.” The idea behind the siṃha­vijṛmbhita is that the meditator extends his or her meditative reach first up through each of the meditative stabilizations and then retracts it, as it were, by coming back down through them, in a big mental stretch. The meditator descends through each of the meditative states, one by one, until he or she comes to the first concentration, not that one leaps down to it. In the viṣkandaka the meditator leaps over different states that are gone through in sequential order in the siṃha­vijṛmbhita . The intention, in contrast to the earlier siṃha­vijṛmbhita meditative stabilization, is that in this viṣkandaka the meditator begins to leave out some of the intervening meditative stabilizations, leaping across the gaps, as it were, leaving bigger and bigger gaps.

n.80LSPW “having taken for their guide.”

n.81Emend de ’dra ba nyid kyi lus to de ’dra ba bdag nyid kyi lus. Dutt 68 ātmabhāva, le’u brgyad ma ; ga 72a7 bdag nyid kyi lus; Ghoṣa vigraha.

n.82LSPW 68–69, n. 24 gives the different versions.

n.83Alternatively, “Śāriputra, there are bodhisattva great beings standing in the six perfections who lighten the darkness of beings standing in wrong views with the light of the Teaching of the Buddha, and they never separate themselves from the light of the Teaching of the Buddha up until they fully awaken to the unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. This, Śāriputra, is the origination of the bodhisattva great beings in the Teaching of the Buddha.”

n.84’bum 2.­539 (ka 179b1) yang dag par ’byung ba.

n.85“Basic” means an immorality not contingent on a prior commitment to a code of conduct.

n.86Dutt, Ghoṣa ātmabhāva; alternatively, “become possessed of the sort of personality.”

n.87The word samanudṛś is used in a negative sense here. Ghoṣa 290; Dutt 76 paripūrayati na … manyante.

n.88The following five are the Śuddhāvāsa (“pure abode”) heavens, but the Śuddhāvāsa is listed separately here.

n.89The following explanation is not satisfactory. As it stands it says a bodhisattva with the dharma eye knows a person to be a faith follower or a Dharma follower, and it then says it knows each, through all three gateways to liberation, on all the stages from producing the faculties up to reaching the state of a worthy one. It then says of either a faith follower or a Dharma follower that they could be at any of those stages through each of the gateways, taken separately. The longer versions are better. The Śatasāhasrikā (Ghoṣa, ’bum 2.­574) goes through each of the stages starting with producing the faculties first based on the emptiness gateway to liberation, spelling them out one by one. It then does the same based on the other two. The Pañca­viṃśati­sāhasrikā (Dutt, nyi khri 2.­224) references all three gateways to liberation, then takes the first of them, the person based on the emptiness gateway explicitly, going through the stages starting from producing the faculties. It then goes on to the next gateway, and then the next, abbreviating the stages.

n.90Cf. 21.­26–21.­28.

n.91This passage is identical to Ghoṣa 297, except that it lacks Ghoṣa’s necessary jānāti (“they know”) and requires a ’di ltar (Dutt 80.1 evam jānāti, “they know thus:”). If emended in the light of Ghoṣa this would read, “Furthermore, Śāriputra, a bodhisattva great being knows: ‘One, having thus realized that everything qualified by origination is qualified by cessation, will gain the five faculties (faith and so on).’ That too, Śāriputra, is a bodhisattva great being’s perfectly pure dharma eye.”

n.92This is the forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas, the realization that whatever the attainment, it has no intrinsic nature.

n.93This is the vow, while sitting under the Bodhi tree at the site of awakening, not to arise from meditation until perfectly and completely awakened.

n.94Dutt āsannasthāyin; Ghoṣa 300 āsattvasthāyin; ’bum 2.­594 (ka 182b7), nyi khri 2.­230 (ka 75a3), le’u brgyad ma ga 81a7 nye bar gnas, in all cases with dang. Edg, s.v. āsattvasthāyin, “abiding until the coming into existence” of the buddhas.

n.95Ghoṣa 300 omits.

n.96Edg, s.v. pratyanubhavati (2) says “uncertain whether mg. is experiences, enjoys … or gets”; cf. Daśa­bhūmika­sūtra (Peter Alan Roberts, trans. The Ten Bhūmis (Toh 44-31), 2021; Rahder, 34–36).

n.9786.­19 provides a full explanation of the six ways of the earth shaking and so on.

n.98This means it is isolated from any obscured state of mind.

n.99Emend des to de as at 3.­131.

n.100This renders chung ngur gyur pa and chen por gyur pa; alternatively, taking the -gata (gyur pa) literally: “that have and have not moved a lot.”

n.101Gyurme (khri pa) 10.45 rnam pa and yul phyogs (“circumstances and locations”).

n.102Emend ’gro to nye bar ’gro (-upaga).

n.103Ghoṣa “They do not reach the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha level, and they do not see any dharma that fully awakens to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.”

n.104Ghoṣa 307 dauḥprajña­citta­parivarjana­tā (“getting rid of intellectually confused thoughts”).

n.105gdags (prajñapyate, “the labeling of X is done”).

n.106LSPW “learns to establish all beings in this insight.”

n.107PSP 1-1 bhikṣuṇī.

n.108This is in the sense of “covered him with gifts.”

n.109gos ci gyon pa rnams; ’bum 2.­623 (ka 188b5), nyi khri 2.­246 (ka 81a1), le’u brgyad ma ga 86b5 gos gyon gyon pa; LSPW 89–91, n. 47 says the translation “wearing their religious garments in a proper and correct manner” is based on Snellgrove’s Tib informants’ explanation.

n.110PSP 1-1 parṣanmaṇḍala; LSPW 91–92 “from the circle of the assembly.”

n.111This is a paraphrase of the clearer longer versions. It expects the reader to know that the verb “developed” goes with the last in the list, “wisdom,” intending that the reader supplies “guarded morality, developed patience, exerted perseverance, and become absorbed in concentration.” Similarly, “acquire the body” and so on go with each of the perfections in turn, on the model of the perfection of giving.

n.112Ghoṣa yathā-tathā yathā vadatha; Gilgit, PSP 1-1 omit.

n.113PSP 1-1:108, Ghoṣa 321 mahātyā tūryatāḍāvacarasaṃgītyā; ’bum 2.­668 (ka 197b1), nyi khri 2.­272 (ka 85b5–6), le’u brgyad ma ga 90b4 glu dang / rol mo brdung ba dang dkrol ba mang pos (“with much singing and music, beating and playing”). We understand pheg rdob to render tūrya, sil snyan to render tāḍa, and the mahāti avacara­saṃgīti to be an orchestra (rol mo sgra), that is, a great sound coming up together from a marching band made up of drummers and cymbal players. Alternatively, “together with an orchestra of cymbals and drums.”

n.114lung ’bogs may just mean “teach scripture.”

n.115Gilgit 39v11 evam eva śrāvaka­saṅghaḥ parihāremaḥ evam eva parṣadi dharmam deśayemaḥ (“May we bring together just such a śrāvaka saṅgha, and may we teach the Dharma to just such a retinue”).

n.116The omission of dgag pa med pa (anirodhāya), “do not stop,” here is likely a scribal error.

n.117Kimura, Ghoṣa, ’bum, nyi khri, and le’u brgyad ma have sixty-eight.

n.118’bum 2.­674 (ka 198b1), nyi khri 2.­275 (ka 86b6) shā ri’i bu’i le’u ste gnyis pa’o (“Second Śāriputra Chapter”); Ghoṣa 322, Gilgit 40a2 prathamaḥ parivartta (“First Chapter”).

n.119Ghoṣa 324 sarva­śrāvaka­pratyeka-buddhānāṃ bodhisattvebhyo mahā­sattvebhyaḥ; ’bum 3.­3 (ka 199a1–2), nyi khri 3.­3 (ka 87a6), le’u brgyad ma ga 92a3 sems dpa’ la … nyan thos dang rang sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yul ma yin no (“teaching the perfection of wisdom to the bodhisattva great beings here is not within the scope of any of the śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas”).

n.120Gilgit 40r11–12 tac ca nāma nādhyātmaṃ na bahirdhā nobhayam antareṇopalabhyate (“That name cannot be apprehended inside, nor outside, nor as other than the two”).

n.121In this section we have employed the following conventions for compounds with the word prajñapti (rendered into Tib by forms of ’dogs): btags pa (prajñapti in its basic meaning), “designation” (i.e., “something that makes something else known”); ming du btags pa (nāmaprajñapti), “name designation”; chos su btags pa (dharma­prajñapti), “dharma designation”; btags pa’i chos (prajñapti­dharma), “phenomenon that is a designation”; tha snyad du gdags pa (vyavahṛ passive), “being used conventionally”; and ming gi brda’ (ming dang brda) (nāma/saṃjñā­saṃketa), “name and conventional term.” Zacchetti (2014) explains the way terms like these that straddle the thought/mental-object divide have been dealt with in Chinese translations of the Perfection of Wisdom.

n.122“Inner” here means from the perspective of the perceiving subject. Thus “outer” below is an epithet of the environment in which a perceiving subject finds themselves.

n.123Ghoṣa 330, Kimura 1-1:112; Gilgit 40v11.

n.124Here “inner body” renders nang gi lus zhes bya ba (adhyātmika, “on the subject side”).

n.125It is “outer” in the sense of the environment seen from the perspective of a perceiving subject.

n.126’bum 3.­66, nyi khri 3.­25: “Even the past lord buddhas are just names, and those names are not inner.”

n.127Gilgit 41v7, Kimura 1-1:114. prajñapti (“designation”) is rendered “making things known” here in line with its basic meaning as a causal from the root jñā. There is a sense of altruism in prajñapti, where all dharmas are what they are to make known to others their lack of an intrinsic nature in order to liberate them.

n.128The application of mindfulness in the fundamental Buddhist scriptures is to the dharmas, which is to say, to the aggregates, sense fields, and constituents listed in the previous paragraphs. “Standing without mentally constructing any dharmas” means without “settling down,” without projecting onto any of them an intrinsic nature or absolute truth. The earlier list of dharmas is then expanded on to include all the dharmas, including those associated with bodhisattvas and buddhas.

n.129The reading here is problematic. We have translated it as it stands guided by Gilgit 45r11–12: tāṃś ca buddhā[n] bhagavataḥ satkṛtya gurukṛtya mānayitvā pūjayitvā yair kuśala­mūlair ākāṃkṣisyati tān buddhān bhagavataḥ satkartum gurukartum mānayitum pūjayitum tāni cāsya [Ghoṣa vāsya] kuśala­mūlāni prādurbhaviṣyanti tair eva ca kuśala­mūlena(!) [kuśalamūlai Ghoṣa] teṣāṃś ca buddhānāṃ bhagavatām antike prādurbhaviṣyati. LSPW “and by means of that wholesome root he is reborn near those Buddhas and Lords” renders PSP 1-1:131 tenaiva kuśala­mūlena teṣāṃ buddhānāṃ bhagavatāṃ cāntika upapadyate.

n.130This is either referencing the earlier statement (6.­4), “Then venerable Subhūti said to the Lord, ‘Lord, you say this‍—namely, “bodhisattva”‍—again and again. What is this word “bodhisattva” for? Lord, I do not see that‍—namely, the phenomenon with the name “bodhisattva” ’ ”), or else is corrupt, or is an abrupt abridgment of the longer version (Ghoṣa 382; ’bum 3.­125, nyi khri 3.­76) “You have said, Subhūti, ‘The Lord says “bodhisattva” again and again.’ What do you think, is form the ‘bodhisattva’?” The scribe at Gilgit 45v1 writes cakṣur in place of rūpam and then mixes up the order.

n.131We have not emended sems can (sattva) to byang chub sems dpa’ ( bodhisattva ), the reading at Ghoṣa 432, Gilgit 48r10, PSP 1-1:139, ’bum 3.­656, nyi khri 3.­142, and le’u brgyad ma ga 115b5.

n.132Earlier it said, “You say bodhisattva again and again” (bodhisattvo bodhisattva iti).

n.133The dropping of the quotation mark (zhes bya ba) around bodhisattva may be just a scribal error.

n.134“Comprehend” (khong du chud, parijñā) is knowledge paired with “elimination” (spang ba, prahā) that follows just below.

n.135Ghoṣa also has “the four foods” (āhāra) here; ’bum 4.­8 (ka 314a7), nyi khri 4.­4 (ka 118a1) zas.

n.136Gyurme (khri pa), 12.12, translates the names of a hundred and eleven meditative stabilizations (not the same list) into English. The list in Ghoṣa has the sequence of jumping meditative stabilizations that explains the siṃhavikrīḍita and siṃha­vijṛmbhita meditative stabilizations at this point (explained below, 62.­54–62.­56). It makes good sense.

n.137kun tu lta ba’i phyag rgya ting nge ’dzin. Ghoṣa and Kimura avalokita ; ’bum 4.­17 (ka 318a4), nyi khri 4.­6 (ka 119b6), and le’u brgyad ma ga 124a1 phyan re gzigs.

n.138chos thams cad shes par bzod pa la ’jug pa. Ghoṣa 484 sarva­dharma­jñānādhivāsana; ’bum 4.­17 (ka 318b4), nyi khri 4.­6 (ka 120a1) chos thams cad shes par gnas pa la ’jug pa. One of the meanings of adhivāsana (“to live above something”) is “forbearance.”

n.139Both ’bum and nyi khri render ākāra by rang bzhin.

n.140The Skt name is from Ghoṣa; PSP caturmāra­bala­vikāraṇa; ’bum, nyi khri, le’u brgyad ma ga 124a5 bdud bzhi’i dpung sel ba.

n.141skyon gyi spyi gtsug; ’bum 4.­19 (ka 319b5), nyi khri 4.­7 (ka 120a7) skyon chen po; le’u brgyad ma has rtse mo’i skyon; Edg, s.v. mūdhāma, comments on Ghoṣa’s reading.

n.142byang chub sems dpa’i skyon med pa, bodhisattva­nyāma (“the absence of hardheadedness”).

n.143PSP 1-1:150 bodhisattva­mūrdhāmaḥ; Ghoṣa 486 bodhisattva­syāmaḥ.

n.144LSPW 119 renders abhiniviś, adhisthā, and saṃjñā (“settle down on,” “insist on,” and “hold to be true”).

n.145This list is probably the result of a block cutter’s mistake. The correct list is nyi khri 4.­11 (ka 121a1–4) gzugs stong, then mi rtag, sdug bsngal, bdag med, zhi, stong, mtshan med, smon med; Ghoṣa 486–88 śūnya, anitya, duḥkha, anātman, animitta, apraṇihita; Gilgit 51v12–13 has śānta after anātman.

n.146skyon med pa, nyāma (“absence of hardheadedness”). When nyāma is understood as niyāma it means “secure,” “fixed,” “definite.”

n.147One expects the emptiness of not apprehending at this point in the list, as at Ghoṣa 490, PSP 1-1:152–53; ’bum 4.­32 (ka 323a4), nyi khri 4.­13 (ka 122b2–3), and le’u brgyad ma ga 126b1–2 mi dmigs pa stong pa nyid.

n.148This is very elliptical. Cf. PSP 1-1:153, Ghoṣa 490, ’bum 4.­34, nyi khri 4.­14.

n.149Ghoṣa 495.

n.150Here Ghoṣa acittam avikāram avikalpam suggests not “no thought,” but “without thought,” corroborated below by acintya, “not something accessible to thought.”

n.151Cf. Aṣṭa 38 prakṛtiś cittaṃ svabhāvaṃ; Eight Thousand, 84 “since in its essential original nature thought is transparently luminous.”

n.152PSP 1-1:154, Ghoṣa 495 kiṃ punar āyuṣman subhūte asti tac cittaṃ yac cittam acittam (“The thought that is no thought, does that thought exist?”).

n.153As it stands, this reads, “Because, in this perfection of wisdom is detailed instruction for the three vehicles‍—the level of bodhisattva great beings, the level of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas and buddhas in which they should train.” However, we have emended kyi sa to kyis based on Bṭ3 7.­30 (91b); also PSP 1-1:155 tathā hy atra prajñā­pāramitāyāṃ trīṇi yānāni vistareṇopadiṣṭāni yatra bodhisattvair mahā­sattvaiḥ śrāvaka­bhūmau vā pratyekabuddha­bhūmau vā bodhisattva­bhūmau vā śikṣitavyam: “Because, in this perfection of wisdom is given in detail instruction for the three vehicles in which bodhisattva great beings should always train on the level of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas and on the level of bodhisattvas”; Ghoṣa 503 atra hi prajñā­pāramitāyāṃ vistareṇa trīṇi yānāny upadiśyānte yatra bodhisattvair śrāvakaiḥ pratyeka­buddhaiś ca satatasamitam (’bum 4.­54 (ka 332b6), nyi khri 4.­24 (ka 125b7) rtag tu) śikṣitavyam: “In this perfection of wisdom is detailed instruction for the three vehicles in which bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas should always train.”

n.154gnas pa (sthita) and thug pa (viṣṭhita); le’u brgyad ma ga 129a6–7 gnas pa and gnas pa dang bral ba.

n.155PSP 1-1:156, Ghoṣa 505, Gilgit 280.5 kasya nāmadheyaṃ kariṣyāmi bodhisattva iti.

n.156There is a change here from gang la to ji ltar.

n.157We have adapted LSPW’s translations of these terms: tathatā, avitathatā, ananyatathatā, dharmatā, dharma­dhātu, dharma­sthititā, dharma­niyāmatā, bhūtakoṭi, acintya­dhātu; PSP 1-2:56 gives them in this order.

n.158Ghoṣa 553, Kimura 1-1:161, ’bum 5.­189 (ka 366a5), and nyi khri 5.­16 have the last words later.

n.159Bṭ3 4.­554 understands “a syllable” to be a letter standing as an acronym.

n.160Ghoṣa 568, PSP 1-11:168 rūpānityatā; ’bum 5.­230 (ka 378a3), nyi khri 5.­26 (ka 136a4) gzugs mi rtag pa nyid (“the impermanence of form ”).

n.161PSP 1-1:170 patita; Ghoṣa 582 gata.

n.162“Enactment” renders abhisaṃskāra; Conze 1973a, s.v. anabhisaṃskāra, “put together, brought together.” The idea is that when they are meditating on the dharmas from the perspective of the fundamental scriptures and understand “I” does not exist as they have taken it to be, and when they meditate on the dharmas from the perspective of the Great Vehicle scriptures and contemplate their lack of an intrinsic nature, they get tied up in it and settle down on what is not ultimately real as real.

n.163Alternatively, “does not assist” it. There are two meanings of parigrah (yongs su ’dzin): one (“fully grasp”) may be positive or negative, and one (“assist” = compassion, a compassionate teacher) is positive. The upāyakauśalya in the sentence suggests the latter meaning is primarily intended.

n.164Read nges pa (niyata) not des pa.

n.165bzo sbyangs (“Artisan Trainer”); ’bum 5.­423 (kha 20a7) ’phreng ba can (“One in a Line [of Artisans]”). Lamotte (Chodron 2001, 1759 n. 554) says “the wandering mendicant Śreṇika appears as the prototype of the Mahāyānist saint.” He does not at first understand that the dharmas taught in the fundamental Buddhist scriptures have no intrinsic nature, but he has faith in the Buddha teaching that doctrine. “The king Seniya (Śreṇya, Śreṇika) Bimbisāra” (Kern 1896, 18) is a different person.

n.166LSPW 135 “gone to a beyond which is no beyond,” supported by ’bum 5.­442 (kha 34a6), nyi khri 5.­56 (ka 143b5), le’u brgyad ma ga 145b1, and PSP 1-1:173, Ghoṣa 633 apārapāragatām; Gilgit 284.10–11 atārapāragamanatām upādāya (“a going to a beyond that does not cause freedom”).

n.167’bum 5.­504 (kha 61b7), nyi khri 5.­79 (ka 147b7), le’u brgyad ma ga 148b2 nye; PSP 1-1:177 asannī­bhavati; Ghoṣa 681 sarvākāra­jñatāyā ābhyāśī­bhavati, Gilgit 287.7 sarva­jñatāyā ābhyāśī­bhavati: “has become habituated to.”

n.168This chapter and khri pa chapter 12 are very similar.

n.169To “practice form ” means to engage in the practice set forth in the fundamental Buddhist scriptures wherein the practitioner, keeping him- or herself in mind as the objective support, goes through each of the dharmas, starting with the form aggregate comprised of a form , eyes, and eye consciousness and so on.

n.170Ghoṣa 683–753; LSPW 139 renders upalambha “basis” but in a note gives the excellent “what is falsely considered as an ascertained fact.”

n.171PSP 1-1:182 upaiti nopaiti ca; LSPW “both approaches and does not approach.”

n.172Here “so” renders de ltar. Ghoṣa 825, PSP 1-1:182, and le’u brgyad ma ga 151b6 preface the statement āsannībhavaty ayaṃ bodhisattvo mahā­sattvaḥ sarvākāra­jñatāyāḥ with “if bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom like that do not tremble, feel frightened, or become terrified, if their minds are not cowed by any dharma, do not tense up, and do not experience regret.”

n.173mnyam pa nyid is not found elsewhere and is not glossed at Bṭ3 4.­620.

n.174The rin po che (ratna) may be simply an honorific. Ghoṣa vajraḥ; nyi khri 6.­20 (ka 152b4) has just rdo rje.

n.175Edg says this is a different form of the word vyāskandhaka.

n.176Mvy śuddhasāra ; Ghoṣa 828 śuddhābhāsa; PSP 1-1:183, Gilgit 292.9 śuddhāvāsa ; below, 15.­35, ’bum 6.­162 (kha 178b4), nyi khri 6.­20 (ka 153a3), le’u brgyad ma ga 153b6 dag pa dam pa. dam pa perhaps originally translated āvāra understood as related to vara = dam pa.

n.177This is Edgerton’s name for the meditative stabilization.

n.178PSP anantaprabha , but le’u brgyad ma ga 154b1 spobs pa mtha’ yas pa.

n.179There are many different versions of the name of this meditative stabilization. We have based the reconstruction of the reading here (and below, 15.­118), rtogs pas srid pa’i mun pa thams cad dang bral ba, as reading (with Mironov, see Edg, s.v. nairvedhika-sarva-bhava-talopagata) tamas (mun pa) in place of tala (gzhi), and apagata (bral ba) in place of avagata (khong du chud); Ghoṣa 833, Gilgit 293.4 nairvedhika­sarva­bhava-talāpagata, Ghoṣa 1423, Gilgit 341.10 -vigata (Edg opines this is definitely wrong); PSP 1-1:183 niratiśaya­sarva­bhava­tala­vikiraṇa, 1-2:73 nirvedhika­sarva­bhāva­talādhikāra; le’u brgyad ma ga 154b3, nyi khri ka 153b7 srid pa’i gzhi thams cad rtogs par khong du chud pa; ’bum kha 182b6–7 rtogs pas srid pa’i gzhi thams cad khong du chud pa; again found later nyi khri ka 231a3, le’u brgyad ma ga 224a2.

n.180le’u brgyad ma ga 154b4, nyi khri ka 154a1, ’bum kha 183b3–4 mngon par dmigs pa med pa renders Mvy anabhilakṣita , LSPW 202 “Undistinguished.”

n.181Ghoṣa 834 samyaktva­mithyātva­sarva­saṃgrahaṇa, PSP 1-1:184 samyaktva­mithyātva­saṃgraha, Gilgit 293.6 samyaktva­mithyātva­saṃgrana. I have followed LC who gives samyaktva-mithyātva-sarva-grasana as the correct form, though it seems likely grahaṇa may itself have the meaning sel ba in certain contexts.

n.182The translation of araṇa as sgra med here for Ghoṣa 835 araṇa­saraṇa­sarva­samavasaraṇa is noteworthy. Mvy has nyon mongs pa med pa dang nyon mongs pa dang bcas pa thams cad yang dag par ’du ba; ’bum kha 185a2–3, and nyi khri ka 154a6 render the compound nyon mongs pa dang bcas pa thams cad nyon mongs pa med par yang dag par gzhol ba (“In which All Conflict Has Found Its Way to a Natural Resting Place in Non-conflict”).

n.183LSPW 203 renders this “Stability of Nonthought in Suchness.”

n.184PSP and le’u brgyad ma take vākkalividhvaṃsana and gaganakalpa to be separate.

n.185Gilgit 294.6 avidya­mānatvena, alternatively, “are not known.”

n.186Ghoṣa 837 avidyamānatvāt.

n.187We have rendered ji ltar here “as is to be expected.” Alternatively, reading yathāpi nāma for ji ltar, this might be translated, “You have demonstrated what I have said, namely, that you are the foremost of śrāvakas at the conflict-free stage.”

n.188LSPW “How then do they not exist?” is not supported by the reading in PSP 1-1:188, Ghoṣa 842 kathaṃ bhagavann ete dharmāḥ saṃvidyante or Gilgit kathaṃ punar bhagavann ete dharmā vidyante. The m(a) on the mchis pa at le’u brgyad ma ga 157a7, ’bum kha 191a7, and nyi khri ka 156b5 chos ’di dag rnam pa gang gis mchis pa lags is a sngon ’jug, not a negation.

n.189The word vid means both “exist” and “know.” The word saṃvid has the same two meanings, perhaps intensified, “completely exist” or “completely know.” In Skt, therefore, the sentence means, at one and the same time, “As they are not known, so are they known. Thus, not being known, they say ‘ignorance,’ ” and “As they do not exist, so do they exist. Thus, not existing, they say ‘not existing.’ ”

n.190’bum 6.­188 (kha 191a7–b1) ji ltar med pa de ltar yod de / de ltar yod pa ma yin pas de’i phyir med ces bya’o / gsol ba / bcom ldan ’das de ci’i slad du/ mchis pa ma lags pa la ma mchis pa zhes bgyi / gzugs, etc. “ ‘As they do not exist so do they exist. Because they thus do not exist they are therefore said to be “nonexistent.” ’ [Śāriputra] asked, ‘Lord, why is it said of the nonexistent that they are “nonexistent”?’ The Lord said, ‘ Form does not exist’ ”; nyi khri 6.­37 (ka 156b5) mchis pa ma lags pa de la mchis pa zhes bgyi “Lord, why is it said of the nonexistent that they ‘exist’?” The translators read vidyā, or more likely the ma has been accidentally left out by the carver.

n.191Ghoṣa 872 pratiṣṭhā.

n.192Ghoṣa 885 “by way of not apprehending inner emptiness” and the rest of the list of emptinesses down to abhāva­svabhāva­śūnyatā; Gilgit 297.2 adhyātma­śūnyatāyā yāvad sarva­dharma­śūnyatāyā anupalambha­yogena; PSP 1-1:191 differs.

n.193Ghoṣa 898–904; Gilgit 297.12; PSP 1-2:3–4.

n.194Cp. samjñāsamajñā (Ghoṣa 905 atraiṣāṃ saṃjñā­samajñā­prajñapti­vyavahāraḥ / pañca­sūpādāna­skandheṣu yad uta bodhisattva iti), rendered at ’bum 7.­122 (kha 237b4) nye bar len pa’i phung po lnga po ’di dag la ’di lta ste / byang chub sems dpa’ zhes bya ba ming dang brda dang gdags pa dang tha snyad du bya ba yin nam.

n.195Ghoṣa 905 is clearer, prefacing the statement with “The way I understand what you, Lord, have said is that there is a training that should be done (śikṣitavyaṃ bhavati) for unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening by bodhisattva great beings training in the perfection of wisdom as an illusory person. And why? Because, Lord, all these‍—that is, the five appropriating aggregates‍—should be known as illusory persons.” LSPW 152–53.

n.196Bṭ3 4.­665 says this means they are illusory and nonexistent things like the five aggregates.

n.197grang renders mā; Ghoṣa 910, Gilgit 299.9 mā haiva; PSP 1-2:6 mā khalu.

n.198Ghoṣa 937.

n.199dge ba’i bshes gnyen gyis yongs su spangs (also in ’bum and nyi khri) kalyāṇa­mitra­parivarjita. In regard to spangs, there is a cause and result form: spong, spangs, spang, spongs (“to reject, forsake”) and phong, phongs (Jäschke gives only the forms ’phongs and phongs) (“to be destitute of”). It does not seem possible the Tib means “destitute of spiritual friends,” even though the Skt is capable of that meaning.

n.200Gilgit 304.4, Ghoṣa 1042, PSP 1-2:12 tayā ca prajñā­pāramitayā manyate; LSPW 157 “fancies himself for it.”

n.201This marks the end of the most detailed list so far in the Śatasāhasrikā (Ghoṣa 1042–1185).

n.202PSP 1-2:14, Ghoṣa 1186, Gilgit 305.9 upadiś, ācakṣ.

n.203This work of Māra is totally missing from Gilgit. Missing from the list here are gāthā, udāna, vaipulya, adbhūtadharma, and upadeśa. Ghoṣa, PSP, ’bum, nyi khri, and le’u brgyad ma all say the bad friend is one who does not identify as Māra’s work all twelve branches connected with śrāvakas taught by Māra disguised as the buddha to a bodhisattva.

n.204This renders K. D and Thempangma 147b3 have byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ “you say ‘bodhisattva, sattva.’ ” We have rendered padārtha, gzhi’i don “basis in reality”; ’bum 8.­1 (ga 28a4), nyi khri 8.­2 (ka 178b7) tshig ’di’i don (“meaning of this word”); le’u brgyad ma ga 176a1 tshig gi don (“meaning of the term”). Earlier (6.­4) has byang chub sems dpa’ zhes bgyi ba de chos gang gi tshig bla dags = dharmasya adhivacanam (“the name of the dharma”); here PSP 1-2:17 has kaḥ padārthaḥ; Ghoṣa 1192, Gilgit 307.6 ko ’sya padārthaḥ; LSPW renders padārtha by “meaning of the word,” “real,” and “track.” Wogihara 75 kaḥ padārtha; brgyad stong pa 10b3 gzhi’i don gang.

n.205All versions render pada by rjes (“track”‍—literally “afterward, what is left”).

n.206Gilgit 310.10 asattāyām; Ghoṣa 1257 asaṅgatatāyām; PSP 1-2:24 asaktatāyām asadbhūtatāyāṃ; le’u brgyad ma ga 181a5 chags pa med pa nyid dang / yod par gyur pa ma yin pa nyid; ’bum ga 60a7 med pa yang dag pa nyid la; nyi khri ka 185a4 has ma chags pa dang / med pa yang dag pa nyid la.

n.207Although the reading thabs la mkhas pa is supported by PSP 1-2:24 upāyakauśalaṃ and le’u brgyad ma ga 181b5 thabs mkhas pa dang, the correct reading is likely Ghoṣa 1258 aupadikaṃ. ’bum 8.­77 (ga 60b7) and nyi khri 8.­32 (ka 185b3) have nyams su blang ba dang ldan pa’i dngos po “the place of the basis of merit that is together with taking up practice.” This is perhaps Kumārajīva’s reading recorded by Mppś 2246 (English version V 1856) “K’iuan-tao perhaps is the original Indian samādāpana … an incentive (in Tib, bskul ba) to do something.” The exhaustive explanation in Mppś does not mention the reading thabs la mkhas pa. Mvy gives rdzas las byung ba’i (“arisen from material things”) bsod nams bya ba’i dngos po as rendering aupadhikaṃ puṇya­kriyā­vastu.

n.208“Backbiting” means intentionally separating friends by speaking behind their back.

n.209Here las (karman) probably means the latency left by an action, or else the bare action understood as separate from the motivating force.

n.210Pema Karpo, 130a2–5, explains: “The third [deliverance is as follows]. Again, having resorted to a mind of the fourth concentration, they open up to the belief that all forms are of one taste‍—beautiful‍—based on these three perceptions: that pleasant [and unpleasant forms] are contingent on each other (a silver pot, for example, contingent on the copper one, is pleasant, and contingent on the gold one is unpleasant), the perception free from both a silver pot being pleasant and unpleasant, and the perception that the basic nature of a single silver pot that is pleasant and unpleasant has the same nature. This meditation counteracts liking, that is, counteracts the conceptualization that a mentally created pleasant form is desirable, and a mentally created unpleasant form is undesirable, respectively.”

n.211PSP 1-2:27, Gilgit 313.3, Ghoṣa 1262 na anyathātvaṃ; le’u brgyad ma ga 184a3, ’bum 8.­88 (ga 64a4), nyi khri 8.­42 (ka 188a4) gnas pa las gzhan du ’gyur pa mi mngon pa/myed/med pa “remains without change,” “does not become something else.”

n.212LSPW 169 renders this “on account of their nondiscrimination and their nonconstruction.”

n.213Mppś (English version, 254) says, “Moreover he is called mahāsattva because he is the chief of many beings.”

n.214Mvy 5075 gives phal po che as a translation of nicaya, “heaping up, collection, assembly.”

n.215PSP 1-2:28, Ghoṣa 1264 have causal nirvāpita, but it is not explicitly here in the Tib translation.

n.216Unmixed (ma ’dres pa, avyavakīrṇa) thought is not influenced by śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha hankerings.

n.217PSP 1-2:29 ekaikasyāpy ahaṃ sattvasya; Ghoṣa 1264, Gilgit 314.3 ekaikasyāhaṃ sattvasya; ’bum 8.­97 (ga 65b3), nyi khri 8.­50 (ka 189b2) sems can re re’i don du yang (“for the sake of each being, individually”).

n.218“Be preoccupied with” renders kun tu dga’ ba’i rnal ’byor la brtson pa, ārāmatāyogānuyukta. Āryavimuktisena (AAV, Sparham 2006–11 vol. 3, 69) says, “It uses both the word yoga and anuyoga (“yoga that follows”) to indicate [those who] apply themselves (yoga), and then again apply themselves (anuyoga) to the truth of suffering and origin, and the truth of cessation and path, respectively, in a temporal sequence.”

n.219See 9.­24.

n.220On the name of this chapter (khrel yod, apatrāpya), see LSPW 160, n. 1. Conze opines it is an early corruption from aupamya in an early manuscript and calls the chapter “Similes.” There is no chapter ending at ’bum 8.­110, nyi khri 8.­58, or le’u brgyad ma ga 187a5.

n.221We have supplied “in the three realms” from Ghoṣa 1278–79, PSP 1-2: 31, aparyāpannaṃ traidhātuke.

n.222A sentence has dropped out here similar to nyi khri 8.­64 (ka 192a6) de ci’i phyir zhe na / ’di ltar sems ni sems ma mchis pa ste/ sems ma mchis pa de la yangs chags pa med do. “And why? Because thought is no thought and because it is no thought it is unattached even to that thought.” Below (12.­16) Śāriputra says Subhūti has said this earlier.

n.223Ghoṣa 1292 acittatvāt tatrāpi citte ’sakta iti. See n.­222. This is either a cross-reference to Subhūti’s statement in the Eight Thousand , or a reference to a line missing from this version. The statement is also found at khri pa 7.45, and, perhaps in an editorial decision of Haribhadra, in le’u brgyad ma ga 188a3.

n.224The reading here and at Ghoṣa 1292, PSP 1-2:33, and Gilgit 317.3 is uncertain, in some part because the absence or presence of a virāma sign is optional. ’bum ga 85b1, nyi khri ka 193b4 rab ’byor gzugs med pa yang gzugs la chags pa med do; le’u brgyad ma ga 189a5 rab ’byor gzugs kyang gzugs med pa la chags pa med do. LSPW 174 has, “Is not also form unattached to no- form ?”

n.225Here kiyatā (rendered “to what extent” rather than “with how many”) modifies the “strands” (of either the perfections or beings) that are closely interwoven as the armor and strapped around the body for protection.

n.226Ghoṣa 1302, Bṭ3 4.­744 have the refrain “one is therefore said to be ‘armed with great armor.’ ”

n.227Pariṇāmaya (“to transform”). Jäschke, s.v. sngo ba, notes sngo ba, the Tib rendering of pariṇāmaya (“turn over, dedicate, transform”), is rooted in the same meaning as sngo (“blue green”). MW, s.v. pariṇāma, gives as one of its meanings “mature, ripen.” The metaphor means the root grows into (“greens out into”) the branches and the leaves and the fruit of bodhi .

n.228Here and with the following perfections Ghoṣa 1303 has “practicing the perfection of wisdom”; ’bum 8.­174 (ga 93a3) shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa la spyod cing / sbyin pa yong su gtong ba’i sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa’i go cha’o.

n.229Ghoṣa 1304, PSP 1-2:35, Gilgit 319.1 nimittīkṛ; ’bum 8.­180 (ga 93b6) mtshan mar mi byed (“does not make those perfections into a causal sign”).

n.230PSP 1-2:35 kuśalamūlam, “the wholesome root,” is better.

n.231Earlier (2.­30) it says, “the perfection of giving is completed by way of the purity of the three spheres, not apprehending a gift, giver, or recipient.”

n.232So also Ghoṣa 1313, ’bum 8.­219, and nyi khri 8.­121. The two questions are different at PSP 1-2:39 mahāyāna­saṃprasthito mahāyāna­samārūḍho and le’u brgyad ma ga 196b1 theg pa chen po la yang dag par ’jug pa / theg pa chen po la ’dzeg par ’gyur pa, supported by Abhisamayālaṃkāra 1.45 prasthāna­pratipad mahāyānādhirohiṇī.

n.233Bṭ3 4.­1300 says, “Names, designations, conventional terms and so on are ‘tokens’; defining marks and behaviors are ‘signs.’ ” Both of these explain “attributes” (ākāra, rnam pa), the aspects of a particular thing that make up its identity. They pay attention to the attributes and so on of space because, like space, all the different meditative states are ultimately the same, without any intrinsic nature.

n.234In the scheme of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra this ends the ṣaṭ­pāramitāprasthāna. It is marked as such in Haribhadra’s revised version (PSP 1-2:41), and this may be an accidental incorporation of that gloss into this text.

n.235“Practicing the immeasurables” (PSP 1-2:42 apramāṇeṣu carataḥ prajñā­pāramitā) is expected, as with all the earlier five perfections, but Ghoṣa 1327 does not have it.

n.236LSPW 183 “his cognition does not proceed in the three periods.”

n.237So too ’bum ga 112b3, nyi khri ka 205a5 yang dag par gnas; PSP 1-2:44, Ghoṣa 1329 samārūḍha; le’u brgyad ma ga 200a1 zhugs, and ga 200a2 ’dzeg pa; ’bum ga 112b1, nyi khri ka 205a3 gnas; Abhisamayālaṃkāra 1.45d adhirohinī; mngon rtogs rgyan ka 4a6 ’dzegs.

n.238PSP ārohati; Ghoṣa, Gilgit 321.1 samārohati.

n.239Here the translators render bhāvanāvibhāvanā by bsgom par rnam par gzhig pa. Later they render it consistently bsgom par rnam par ’jig pa, “a disintegration of meditation” (at 51.­78 bshig pa, the past tense of ’jig pa). Alternatively, “in order (phyir) to cause an investigation/disintegration.” Ghoṣa 1331, PSP 1-2:44 bhāvanāvibhāvanārthena; le’u brgyad ma ga 200b1 bsgom pa rnam par gzhig pa’i don du; ’bum 8.­253 (ga 113b1), nyi khri 8.­147 (ka 205b1) bsgom pa rnam par bsgom pa’i don du, “in order to develop a meditation”; LSPW 184 “a development in the sense of annihilation.”

n.240Contextually byang chub sems dpa’ is expected. Ghoṣa 1334 bodhisattvānupalabdhitām upādāya; PSP 1-2:45 sattvānupalabdhitām upādāya but le’u brgyad ma ga 200b3 byang chub sems dpa’ dmigs su med pa’i phyir.

n.241PSP 1-2:46 ghoṣam udīrayanti yaśaḥ prakāśayanti; Ghoṣa 1340 yaśas udīrayanti ghoṣam praśrāvayanti; Gilgit 322.14 varṇaṃ bhāṣante śabdam udīrayanti ghoṣam anuśrāvayanti.

n.242PSP 1-2:48 dharmataiṣā subhūte dharmāṇāṃ māyādharmatām upādāya; literally, “Having taken the true nature of dharmas as conjured up, this is the true nature of dharmas.”

n.243“Knife, or a sword” renders lag cha dang / mtshon. Mvy only the generic āyudha for lag cha; PSP 1-2: 39 only daṇḍa­loṣṭa­muṣṭi­śastra­prahāran.

n.244Ghoṣa 1358, Gilgit 326.1, PSP 1-2:50 kāyika­caita­sika­vīrya.

n.245Ghoṣa 1361, Gilgit 327.1 gatvā.

n.246Ghoṣa 1369, PSP 1-2:52 sarvvākāra­jñatāpratisaṃyuktena cittena viharan nānyeṣāṃ cittotpādānām avakāśam dadati; Gilgit 328.1 sarvākāra­jñatāpratisaṃyuktena cittena nānyeṣāṃ cittotpādānām akāśaṃ dadāti.

n.247LSPW 191 “not armed with an armor.”

n.248Gilgit 329.5–6 akṛtā subhūte sarva­jñatā anabhisaṃskṛtā; Ghoṣa 1380 akṛtāhi subhūte sarvvākārajñatā / avikṛtā anabhisaṃskṛtā; PSP 1-2:54 sarvākāra­jñatā akṛtā avikṛtā anabhisaṃskṛtā. AAV (Pensa, 93) explains kṛta as a basic construction (common to all things), vikṛta a further process of particularization (the nyi khri’s rnam par byas) and for abhisaṃskṛta (“making manifest the attainment of a result”), that is, the final stage in a process of constructed existence.

n.249In the expanded version of the list (6.­5) are self, a living being, a creature, one who lives, an individual, a person, one born of Manu, a child of Manu, one who does, one who makes someone else do, a motivator, one who motivates, one who feels, one who makes someone else feel, one who knows, and one who sees.

n.250gzugs nyid med pa’i phyir. It is odd to write gzugs med nyid kyi phyir in Tib. nyi khri ka 217b1 and le’u brgyad ma ga 214a2 both have gzugs med pa’i phyir. LSPW “nonbeingness” conveys that asattva here (as in sarve sattvāḥ and bodhisattva ) means more than just a state of nonexistence.

n.251Below (17.­1) the question is repeated with ji ltar, in place of ji tsam na: “How have bodhisattva great beings come to set out in the Great Vehicle?” Gilgit 332.13–14 kiyatā bhagavan bodhisattvo mahā­sattvo mahāyāne prasthito veditavāḥ; Ghoṣa 1405 kiyanto bhagavan bodhisattvo mahā­sattvo mahāyāna­saṃprasthitā veditavāḥ; nyi khri ka 220a4 and le’u brgyad ma ga 213b4 ji tsam gyis na; PSP 1-2:58 and below 1-2:87–88 kathaṃ bhagavan bodhisattvo mahāsattvo mahāyana­saṃprasthito veditavyaḥ. Jäschke records but questions ji tsam=ji snyad from J. Schmidt’s Tibetish-Deutsches Wörterbuch.

n.252Here “where” renders gang la; below, when the question is repeated (18.­1), gang nas “from where” (kutaḥ) (the response is, “from the three realms”). Again, the yang dag par zhugs here is nges par ’byung bar ’gyur below.

n.253A bodhisattva is a Great Vehicle that carries many people, in the sense that a bodhisattva supports or is responsible for their welfare, as in the colloquial “she has been carrying them all since they became unemployed.”

n.254Alternatively, sbyin par byed may simply render dadāti (“he gives”).

n.255“Not unmoved” renders ther zug du gnas pa med pa, akūṭastha.

n.256gzugs su rung ba; elsewhere (3.­23) gzugs su yod pa.

n.257“Existent thing” (being) renders bhāva, “nonexistent thing” (not being) abhāva, “intrinsic nature” (own-being) svabhāva, and “a nature from something else” (other-being) parabhāva.

n.258This is the samādhirāja in the earlier list.

n.259The earlier list also has samāhitāvasthā­pratiṣṭhāna , rājamudra , and balavīrya before samudgata .

n.260This is sarva­dharma­samavasaraṇa­samudra in the earlier list.

n.261Only D includes this meditative stabilization in this list. It is in this place in the earlier list. Only PSP 1-2:71 gives an explanation of a nāmanimittapraveśa meditative stabilization later.

n.262This is rendered me sgron (jvalanolka) in the earlier list.

n.263In the earlier list the translators read anāvilakṣānti and rendered it bzod pa rnyog pa med pa.

n.264PSP 1-2:65 anusārapratisāra.

n.265We have rendered the meditative stabilization as vimalaprabha in place of vimalapratibhāsa following Gilgit 337.1 and PSP 1-2:65.

n.266Here D has gdung ba med pa’i glog gi ’od; all the other editions of khri brgyad stong pa do not have this meditative stabilization at this point in the list. We speculate that somebody opined vidyutprabha could be dangerous and added gdung ba med pa. This then led others to drop the meditative stabilization altogether. Ghoṣa, Gilgit, and PSP have vidyutprabha .

n.267This is in PSP; Gilgit, Ghoṣa both have sarva­loka­prabhākara as in the earlier list.

n.268The earlier list goes arajovirajonaya­yukta , araṇa­saraṇa­sarva­samavasaraṇa (this is clearly the reading at Gilgit 337.3 and Ghoṣa 1414), and araṇa­samavasaraṇa . Here araṇa is rendered nyon mongs pa med pa.

n.269Again, as in the earlier list, araṇa is rendered sgra med here. (See n.­182.)

n.270Again, as in the earlier list (9.­24), the translator reads niścitta .

n.271A subject, not explicitly spelled out in the scripture, has been supplied.

n.272Cf. Edg, s.v. atyudgama (shin tu ’phags par ’gro ba); LSPW “One is elevated above all concentrations”; Gilgit 337.8 has only udgama.

n.273Ghoṣa 1416, Gilgit 337.10 vajra is better; PSP 1-2:66 vajropama .

n.274LSPW says it means “One establishes oneself in all concentrations with the definiteness of a king.”

n.275Mistakenly reading ratna for raṇa. PSP 1-2:68, later in the list, has tatra katamo raṇajaho nāma samādhiḥ? yatra samādhau sthitvā sarva­samādhīnāṃ nimittāny api jahāti prāg evānyāni nimittāni kleśānāṃ, tenocyate raṇajaho nāma samādhiḥ, exactly what is translated here. Ghoṣa 1417 has the name preraṇajaha? and then raṇajaha with the explanation sarva­kleśa­malān śoṣayati “cause the stains of all the afflictions to dry out”; Gilgit 338.7 has raṇajaha with the explanation sarva­kleśam alam / sarva­kleśa­malam śuṣayati (“enough that it dries out all the afflictions, it dries out all the stains of afflictions”); nyi khri ka 226a4 translates dhvajāgra­keyūra ; PSP 1-2:67 tejovatin , translated at le’u brgyad ma ga 220b2. It is noteworthy that from this point the translation into Tib no longer mirrors the structure of the sentence in Gilgit and Ghoṣa but changes to that found in PSP (tenocyate is de’i phyir).

n.276Jāschke, s.v. lham me (snang), lhan ne (snang), and lhang nge (snang), all as different forms of the same word meaning “clear and distinct.”

n.277This renders exactly Ghoṣa 1418 sarva­samādhīnāṃ malam apakarṣati sarva­samādhīn pratibhāsayati; PSP balam ākarṣayati sarva­samādhīn prabhāvayati!; nyi khri ka 228a2, le’u brgyad ma ga 221a5 have only dri ma sel ba.

n.278LSPW “cannot be overturned.”

n.279The translation’s sentence structure here reverts to the Gilgit and Ghoṣa form.

n.280LSPW suggests “Jewel Cusp.”

n.281Ghoṣa 1420, Gilgit 339.14 amudrā­koṭi­mudritatām upādāya; PSP 1-2:70 ādimudrā­mudritām upādāya is LSPW “with a seal from the very beginning.”

n.282Emend dpyod pa to spyod pa.

n.283Ghoṣa, Kimura, Gilgit 341.8 all read cākārābhinirhāraṃ samanupaśyati; we think it makes more sense saying “he sees the consummation,” but also nyi khri ka 230b7 and le’u brgyad ma ga 223b7 mi mthong.

n.284There is no explanation here for the vidyutprabho nāma samādhiḥ.

n.285This renders gnyid kyis non pa gsal ba, nidrāklama­prativinodana. LSPW “dispelling exhaustion by sleep.”

n.286So Kimura 1-2:76 kumbhakāraḥ kumbhakārāntevāsī vā. Ghoṣa 1429, Gilgit 344.2 bhrama­cakravarttī bhrama­cakravarttevāsī vā, “spinner of the humming wheel,” allows for other, perhaps more appropriate analogies to do with directing water to fields or grinding grain.

n.287mon sran de’u, literally “Indian shot bean,” a nice description.

n.288Kimura 1-2:78, Ghoṣa 1432 bahirdhākāye (“outer body”).

n.289skyugs za/skyugs pa: “vomit-eater” (also a word for a dog and type of demon) probably renders vāntāda (Ghoṣa 1432 vāstāsa?).

n.290Ghoṣa 1436 cittaṃ pragṛhṇāti samyak pradadhāti; alternatively, Kimura 1-2: 80 “exerting themselves mentally, and setting it out as a perfect goal.”

n.291The four are desire-to-do = yearning (chanda), perseverance (vīrya), concentrated mind (citta), and examination (mīmāṃsā). The meditative stabilization is a mental force that functions to make each of the four stable, causing the stabilization of the desire (the yearning) to be mindful and make an effort and so on. Alternatively, all four factor into a perfect meditative stabilization. Meditative stabilization is being highlighted, as were mindfulness and effort (or abandonment) in the earlier two sets of four applications of mindfulness and four right efforts. Each of the four limbs are necessary. The “concentrated mind” limb is then the latency from earlier habituation rather than the stabilized or concentrated mind itself.

n.292Alternatively, “knowledge that cuts off the artificial aggregates”; cf. LSPW 156, n. 3.

n.293This is a repetition of 13.­38; cf. PSP 1-2:41 and Ghoṣa 1444 that have the four meditative stabilizations before the four immeasurables.

n.294This is a repetition of 16.­72–16.­80.

n.295A better reading is below (73.­67): rnam par smin pa gnas kyi rnam pa dang / rgyu’i rnam par (khri pa has gnas kyi sgo nas dang / rgyu’i sgo nas; Ghoṣa 1446, PSP 1-2:83 sthānaśo hetuśaḥ; ŚsPN4/2 0083r2 sthānaso hetuso vipākaṃ; Gilgit 621.6 sthānaśo hetuto vipākaṃ) “They accurately know from the perspective of place and from the perspective of cause the results of past, present, and future actions and the undertaking of actions.”

n.296This may simply mean “the world with its various places and multiplicity of regions.”

n.297Elsewhere the compound vimukti­jñāna­darśana is rendered “knowledge and seeing of liberation.”

n.298Saloman (1990) derives the 42 letters (“the arapacana syllabary”) from the Karoṣṭhī alphabet; Brough (1977) examines them in the light of the Laṅkāvatāra­sūtra in Chinese translation; also LSPW 211–13 and notes. We have not followed the correct extended Wylie transliteration.

n.299khyad par med pa = nirviśeṣāt; Ghoṣa 1450, PSP 1-2:85 paramārtha­nirdeśāt (“because it teaches the ultimate”).

n.300To avoid a repetition with sa below, this should be either ṣ (as in ṣaḍāyatana) or śr (as in ṣaddha, Skt śraddha, according to Brough 1977).

n.301Here stambha is rendered khengs (“conceited”). Again Brough, based on Chinese translations and transliterations, suggests ṣṭha to avoid repetition with stha below.

n.302sdig pa, heṭ(h)a; better Ghoṣa ṭakāra rendering Mvy bsdigs pa, the spelling in Bṭ3; LSPW suggests ṭalo (sthala) “the other shore,” based on a reading of Kumārajīva’s translation.

n.303’bum ga 195b2, nyi khri ka 246b1 chags; LSPW “tied down.”

n.304This is a conjectural rendering of a zhes bya ba la sogs pa’i yi ge la ’jug pa’i phyag rgya a zhes bya ba la sogs pa yi ge’i phyag rgya’i tshig ’di dag. The letter a is a mudrā (“seal”) in the sense of a mark left to show authenticity because as a negation it shows all words and their means are empty of an intrinsic nature. The letter a is an “entrance” because it is the first letter of the alphabet. Through it you get to all the other letters, and by extension, through it you get to all the words and sentences built up out of letters and to the meanings they convey. Bṭ3 1.­50 cites a passage similar to Gilgit 351.1–2: tatra katamāni dhāraṇī­mukhāni yad utākṣara­samatā bhāṣyasamat akṣara­mukham akṣara­praveśaḥ. “What are the dhāraṇī gateways, which is to say, the sameness of letters, the sameness of spoken words, a syllable door, and a syllable entrance?” akṣara means not only “letter, syllable” but also “nonperishing.”

n.305Emend kyis to kyi sa (yā dharmāṇāṃ bhūmis).

n.306“Purification” (yongs su sbyong ba, parikarma); alternatively, “groundwork”; LSPW “preparation.” In the Tib translation of the Daśabhūmikā (sa bcu pa) pariśodhana is rendered systematically as yongs su sbyong ba.

n.307This is not glossed later (17.­13) and perhaps explains why there are eleven, not ten parikarmas here. It is in the first list (Ghoṣa 1454, Gilgit 352.12) but not glossed later (Ghoṣa 1459, Gilgit 355.2). It is in the list at Abhisamayālaṃkāra 1.48 (Wogihara 99).

n.308“Auspicious” renders bzang po (also ’bum ga 196b5, nyi khri ka 247b2, and le’u brgyad ma ga 237a4), a word added in Tibetan (like the ye in ye shes, jñāna) to distinguish a special status. Ghoṣa 1454, Gilgit 352.14–353.1, PSP 1-2:88 lakṣaṇānuvyajana.

n.309PSP, le’u brgyad ma , and LSPW 214 omit this purification. It is glossed below (17.­22), but together with the second, it makes for a total of eleven parikarmas, whereas above it says there are ten.

n.310The translators read nirvṛt in place of nirvid; PSP 1-2 95 nirvitsahagataś cittotpādaḥ.

n.311The translators incorrectly read anavakīrṇa in place of anavalīṇa.

n.312PSP 1-2:89 daśa dharmāḥ; Abhisamayālaṃkāra daśaitān; le’u brgyad ma ga 227b7 chos bcu; Ghoṣa 1456 ṣaḍ dharmāḥ; ’bum ga 197b2, nyi khri ka 248a7 chos drug; Gilgit 353.10 aṣṭau dharmāḥ.

n.313Ghoṣa 1456, Gilgit 353.12 vicikitsā. This is not glossed below (17.­59) or at Ghoṣa 1465 and Gilgit 358.9.

n.314D yongs su yi ’chad pa; Edg, s.v. paritasyati and aparitarṣaṇā “the not being wearied,” but he notes “there is no doubt that BHS paritarṣaṇā means desire”; ’bum ga 197b7, nyi khri ka 248b4 sred pa’i sems.

n.315’bum ga 198b2, nyi khri ka 249a6 byams pa’i skabs shes pa; Gilgit 354.7 anunayāvasarajñatā (“knowledge of opportunities for loving-kindness”). Mvy gives skabs for avasara; Abhisamayālaṃkāra 1.65a sakti is likely a gloss of anunaya.

n.316The translators read pariniṣpanna for pariṇāmanā.

n.317The desire realm (kāmadhātu) is where sense objects (kāmaguṇa) predominate.

n.318This explanation only makes sense when reading avalīna (PSP 1-2:95 anavalīna­cittatā), sems zhum pa, “not feeling mentally cowed” (lī means to “lie down on” or to “adhere to”), in place of avakīrṇa, ’dre ba (“mixed”).

n.319nyi khri 10.­18 (ka 253b1), le’u brgyad ma ga 242b5 yongs su skom (bskam) pa’i sems mi skyed de (“does not have thoughts that thirst for,” that is, “does not miss” them).

n.320There is a gloss for vicikitsā (“doubt”) rather than “greed, hatred, and confusion” at ’bum 10.­61 (ga 203b7) and le’u brgyad ma ga 243b3; PSP 1-2:96 “It is because of seeing all dharmas because all doubt has been dispelled.”

n.321This is usually the meditative stabilization that arises at the time of birth (from the maturation of the karma that gave rise to the life) and lasts as long as the bodhisattva lives.

n.322Ghoṣa 1473, Gilgit 362.1 śuklavipaśyanā ; Mppś 2444 śuṣkavidarśana (“ground of the dry view”).

n.323Ghoṣa 1473, Gilgit 362.3, ’bum 10.­132, and nyi khri 10.­28 have no chapter break here; PSP 1-2:103 iti bhūmi­saṃbhāraḥ; le’u brgyad ma ga 249b1 sa’i tshogs so.

n.324This renders gang nas; earlier (15.­1) gang la (“where”).

n.325Ghoṣa 1474, Gilgit 362.5. PSP 1-2:103 adds dharmadhātoḥ (“from the dharma-constituent”).

n.326At 15.­1.

n.327At 15.­1.

n.328“Extremely” renders atyanta (shin tu); le’u brgyad ma renders the word literally mtha’ las ’das pa (“that is beyond limits”).

n.329PSP 1-2:112 and le’u brgyad ma ga 256a7–b2 add the names of the ten bodhisattva levels at this point.

n.330Bṭ3 4.­1164 says this is asking why self and so on cannot be apprehended, and says first it is because the ultimate cannot be apprehended; then it says the ultimate cannot be apprehended because it has no defining mark; and lastly it says therefore all the bases of the ultimate (the levels and so on) and the ultimate itself (emptiness and so on) cannot be apprehended.

n.331Ghoṣa 1529 sthāsyati, ’bum 10.­286 (ga 249b1) gnas par ’gyur ro (“will stand”).

n.332The idea in this section of the sūtra, as we understand it, derives from i/yā as “going,” in the sense of a dynamic state of being, like persons who find themselves going through time. The emptiness of that is a niryāna, “no going,” and that is the Mahāyāna “great going.” We have retained the basic English translations of niryāṇa as “going forth” and mahāyāna as “Great Vehicle.” They are not intended to convey all the aspects of the Skt words, but, as with the Tib translations, are lexical markers for them.

n.333“Space” (ākāśa) “has room” (avakāśa).

n.334At 19.­1.

n.335PSP 1-2:125 ākāśaṃ na labhyate nopalabhyate; Bṭ3 4.­1191 (158b) ’thob pa ma yin dmigs su yod pa ma yin (perhaps “is not obtained and is not held on to” is the meaning). Gilgit 378.2 ākāśaṃ nopalabhyate na nopalabhyate, “not apprehended and not not apprehended,” is a good reading.

n.336Cf. 19.­1.

n.337This is a play on the words sattva a state of being, in the sense of a living being, and sattā a state of being in the sense of a state of existence. At Gilgit 378.6 all are plural. The literal meaning then is “it is because the states of beings are the states of not existing (sattvāsattā) that spaces are states of not existing.” LSPW “it is because of the nonbeingness of beings.” The Tib translates sattva with the standard lexical marker sems can “sentient being.”

n.338Again, this is playing on the words sattva and asattā. See n.­337.

n.339The list (Ghoṣa 1570ff.) includes outer sense fields, consciousnesses, contacts, feelings, elements, and links of dependent origination.

n.340The absence of “pratyekabuddha” is probably an error.

n.341At 19.­2; Ghoṣa 1588, Gilgit 381.3, PSP 1-2:129.

n.342At 19.­4.

n.343Emend dbus rnams ni to dbus rnams su ni; PSP 1-2:134 pūrvāntāparānta­madhyeṣu; Ghoṣa 1628, Gilgit 383.14 pratyutpannataḥ.

n.344Cf. 19.­4.

n.345Ghoṣa 1635 ekādaśa­parivarttaḥ; Gilgit 384.12; ’bum ga 331a3, nyi khri ka 309a3 le’u bcu gcig pa’o.

n.346Ghoṣa, Gilgit adhyeṣita; PSP adhīṣṭa.

n.347Other versions have, more simply, “What are the wholesome dharmas (the dharmas on the side of awakening), and what are the śrāvaka dharmas, pratyekabuddha dharmas, bodhisattva dharmas, and buddha dharmas that come together and stream into the perfection of wisdom?”

n.348Here the second meaning of na saṃvidyate‍—“They do not know and do not apprehend that ‘a bodhisattva is form ’ ”‍—is probably more appropriate.

n.349bar du, yāvac ca.

n.350K, N, D: “form that has not come into being.”

n.351Sattva.

n.352LSPW takes it as a dvandva, “endlessness and boundlessness.”

n.353The entire sentence reads, “Given that all dharmas thus have no intrinsic nature, what is that form that has come into being?”

n.354Gilgit 398.8, PSP 1-2:149 sāṃyogikaḥ svabhāvaḥ.

n.355This renders PSP 1-2: 150 na kasyacid vigamena. D gang dang yang bral bas ma yin no is literally “but not because it has separated from anything.”

n.356This renders zad pa’i dngos po med pa’o. Gilgit 398.13 yad anityaṃ so [’]bhāva­kṣayasya (“because an impermanence is of the coming to an end of a nonexistent thing”); PSP yad anityaṃ so ’bhāvaḥ kṣayaś ca; ’bum nga 84b4, nyi khri ka 336a5 dngos po med pa dang zad pa; LSPW 252–54 “nonexistence and extinction.”

n.357le’u brgyad ma ga 298b1 also has ther zug for akūṭastha; ’bum nga 118b1, nyi khri ka 336b3 rtag pa.

n.358This (=PSP 1-2:151 anabhinivṛttāni) appears to be a direct citation from the earlier passage (20.­11), but this exact wording is not found there.

n.359’bum, nyi khri, and le’u brgyad ma have ma gtogs pa in place of las gud na.

n.360“Awakening” renders bodhi ; “state of being” renders sattva.

n.361“Attribute” renders rnam pa (ākāra) and “formulated” renders ’dzin pa (ākārayante); nyi khri ka 355a6 renders this rnam pa yod par bya ba.

n.362“Perfection” renders pāramitā; “gone far off” āram itā; “gone to the other side” pāram itā. Based on the glosses in the AAV (Pensa 123, Sparham 2006–11 vol. 1, 144) there are two constructive etymologies at work here, one from ram (“to enjoy”) where the prefix ā is equal to vi, hence to “abstain from” (Conze); the other from āra, a theoretical root for deriving the word ārāt (“at a distance”). Gilgit 403.8 āram itaiṣāyuṣman śāri­putra yad ucyate prajñā­pāramiteti; PSP 1-2:157 āratā āramitaiṣā āyuṣman śāri­putra tenocyate prajñā­pāramiteti.

n.363nyi khri 13.­46 (ka 366a4) “Would not those in the śrāvaka vehicle have already gained the result of stream enterer, the result of once-returner, the result of non-returner, and the state of a worthy one, and those in the pratyekabuddha vehicle not have already gained a pratyekabuddha’s awakening?” nyan thos kyi theg pa ba rnams kyis kyang / rgyun du zhugs pa’i ’bras bu dang / lan cig phyir ’ong ba’i ’bras bu dang / phyir mi ’long [’ong] ba’i ’bras bu dang / dgra bcom pa nyid thob zin par ’byur ro// rang sangs rgyas kyi theg pa ba rnams kyis kyang / rang sangs rgyas kyi byang chub thob zin par ’gyur ro. Gilgit 407.9; PSP 1-2:163 translated LSPW 259.

n.364An ordinary person, a śrāvaka, then a bodhisattva would have each gained each of the four results plus the result of pratyekabuddha.

n.365“Accept” (“I would have it be the case”) renders ’dod (iṣ); LSPW “wish or look for”; Edg, s.v. iṣ, does not record “accept” as a meaning, but it is extremely common in scholastic Tib as a meaning of ’dod.

n.366Here len pa suggests the translators read anupādā; Gilgit 408.2 anupalaṃbha (“does not apprehend”); PSP 1-2:164 anutpādaya (“does not produce”).

n.367PSP 1-2:166 śāriputra āha: kiṃ punar āyuṣman subhūte utpāda utpadyate athānutpāda utpadyate. (“Is production being produced or is nonproduction being produced?”)

n.368AAV (Pensa 125) aniścitatā.

n.369“Without” renders med par. It may be that antareṇa cannot, in such contexts, be rendered by the Tib bar la, and med par actually means “in between.”

n.370bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, s.v. phung po gsum pa, says it is (merit made from) confession, rejoicing, and dedication, or confession, rejoicing, and requesting the turning of the wheel of Dharma.

n.371bsngo ba dug med pa, nirviṣa­pariṇāma; LSPW 266 “undifferentiated” renders PSP 1-2:170 nirviśeṣa­pariṇāma.

n.372“Ordinary, worldly” renders laukikī.

n.373This section is explaining the usage of laukikī, a secondary derivative meaning “worldly, to do with the world,” from loka, or “world,” itself perhaps from a root like ruc, “to shine.” The explanation relates laukikī to loka by putting loka in each of the seven cases: nominative and so on. Each explanation should be understood as, for instance in the first of the seven, “[the aggregates are laukikī because it is] on account of them the loka is here.” PSP 1-2:171 kena kāraṇena laukikī? loko yābhir bhavati, lokaṃ vā yābhir nivartayati(!), lokena vā yāḥ samāḥ, lokāya vā yābhir dīyate, lokād vā yābhir [na] niḥsarati, lokasya vā yā bhavāya, loke vā bhavā yās tā laukikasyaḥ. “Why are they laukikī? They are called laukikī because they are those on account of which the world (nominative) exists; or on account of which it eliminates (!) the world (accusative); or which are the same as the world (instrumental); or on account of which [five sense objects] something is given to the world [of the six senses]; or on account of which [links of dependent origination and so on] they do not escape from the world (ablative); or [ordinary beings] who are for the coming into existence of the world (genitive); and [beings] who come into being in the world (locative).” LSPW, Gilgit, nyi khri omit. Bṭ3 4.­1346–4.­1360 glosses each statement.

n.374This section again puts loka in each of the seven cases, nominative and so on, and explains the usage of lokottara (“extraordinary, transcendental, supramundane”), a compound word composed of loka and uttara (“higher”). In most of the following explanations, however, the word uttara is derived not from uttara, but from uttṝ (“to escape”), for instance, the first of the seven, “[the parts of the eightfold noble path are lokottara because] on account of them the loka [=a person] (nominative) escapes.” PSP 1-2:171 tatra katamā lokottarā? loko yābhir uttarati, lokaṃ vā yābhir uttārayati, lokena vā yābhir uttāryate, ālokāya vā yā bhavati, lokād vā yābhir niḥsarati, lokasya vā yā uttaraṇāya, loke vā yā uttarās tā lokottarā iti: “There what are the lokottaras? They are called lokottaras [because they are those] on account of which the world (nominative) escapes; or on account of which [compassion and wisdom] they cause the world to escape (accusative); or on account of which [compassion and wisdom] a world [=a person] (instrumental) causes an escape; or which are there for illumination (dative); or on account of which they escape the world (ablative); or who are for the emancipation of the world (genitive); or who are the emancipators in the world (locative).” LSPW, Gilgit, nyi khri omit. Bṭ3 4.­1346–4.­1360 glosses each statement.

n.375Haribhadra (Wogihara 127) glosses bhūta­padābhidhānena (yang dag pa’i tshig brjod pas; brgyad stong pa 28b5 yang dag pa’i tshig tu brjod par), “expressing the statement as an absolute,” with yathārutārthābhidhānena, “when you take the meaning of the words literally.”

n.376The plural of the heads of each of the orders of gods is intended.

n.377LSPW renders purataḥ (“in comparison to”).

n.378The name Kauśika means “of the Kuśika gotra,” perhaps in reference to an earlier ascetic (Viśvāmitra) of that lineagewho, through his practice of the hundred aśvamedha sacrifices (hence śatakratu ), became the head god, or, as MW speculates, because Indra is originally favorable to that clan, or somehow associated with it.

n.379Emend byas to bya ste.

n.380The translators render samyaktvaniyāma (“the flawlessness that is a perfect state”), that is, an ordinary śrāvaka’s nirvāṇa, variously by yang dag pa’i skyon med pa, yang dag pa nyid skyon med pa, and yang dag pa nyid kyi skyon med pa. Cf. the similar term yang dag pa nyid du nges pa (samyaktva­niyata) (“destined for the perfect state”). The reformulation of older terminology with a meaning specific to the agenda of the perfection of wisdom suggests avakram (“enters into”) may have the meaning “have stepped down from [a bodhisattva’s] perfect flawlessness” to a peaceful state of an unskillful bodhisattva without active bodhicitta. “Those who have already arrived at the maturity of the finality of existence.”

n.381Thempangma, ka 346b7. D et al have incorrectly repeated mi rtag pa dang / sdug bsngal ba (“impermanent, suffering”) here.

n.382Literally, “causing dharmas to join together with a dharma.” The three parts (dharmas) of the picture are (1) the state of mind committed to becoming fully awakened (“the thought of awakening”), (2) the state of mind closer to the goal because of the good that has been done motivated by the commitment (“the thought of the wholesome roots”), and (3) the state of mind when rededicating to the original commitment, turning over all the good that brings the goal of full awakening closer to full awakening (“the thought of dedication”).

n.383D rtog sbyor; K, N rtog spyod.

n.384“All these parts together” renders chos thams cad.

n.385“Not dwell on physical forms” is Gyurme Dorje’s translation of rūpam iti na sthātavyam.

n.386Probably “powders” (cūrṇa) has dropped out of the list here.

n.387ŚsPK II-2:179 utpādaya (“develop”) in place of pariniṣpādaya. The causal perhaps means that the bodhisattva is causing all these qualities to happen in others.

n.388Each level from stream enterer to worthy one has a candidate (pratipannaka) and a result-recipient (phalastha). Of these eight, the lowest, the srotāpanna­pratipannaka, is called aṣṭamaka , “the eighth.”

n.389Emend de ltar to H re ltar, a translation of paramaḥ (“at most”); ’bum nga 350a2, nyi khri kha 13b2, le’u brgyad ma nga 16a1 po zos na. bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, 1256, s.v. po zos pa, an archaic term meaning ji tsam ’gor ba (“as long as it lasts”).

n.390This is a conjecture for mgo mnyam pa, samaśīrṣa (“equal in stature”), not a well known name for a member of the saṅgha.

n.391The “knowledge of a knower of path aspects,” also referred to as “knowledge of paths,” is the knowledge of a bodhisattva.

n.392ci ltar (kva) “however could” or “could ever,” in a rhetorical sense meaning you will never find it.

n.393gzhan ma yin pa (alternative translation “unique”?) is not in other versions.

n.394khri pa chos kyi gting rtogs pa (reading pātāla for pudgala?); Gyurme (khri pa) 16.9: “who have realized the depths of the sacred doctrine.”

n.395This entire passage is an unwieldy single sentence with a single rhetorical “is it not the case that … is taught” (ma bstan tam) at the end. The translation utilizes parts of the construction at ’bum 15.­121–15.­122, nyi khri 15.­27, Gilgit 428.12, and ŚsPK II-3:36.

n.396The abbreviation is too abrupt. PSP 2-3: 24 and ŚsPK II-3:83 sa sarvākāra­jñatā­śūnyatāyāṃ śikṣate ’dvaidhīkāreṇa have added “the emptiness of.” The idea is that training in the emptiness of any one dharma is training in the emptiness of any other, therefore training in any one dharma is training in any other dharma.

n.397Gilgit 434.2 has adhyātma­śūnyatām upādāya (“based on inner emptiness”) at the end of the entire abbreviated list. ŚsPK II-3:104 (also ’bum 16.­74, nyi khri 16.­33 (kha 44b1) has adhyātma­bahirdhā­śūnyatām upādāya (“based on inner and outer emptiness”) right from the start. There is no obvious reason why there would only be adhyātma­śūnyatām for the aggregates here, and adhyātma­bahirdhā­śūnyatā for some others in the list. On the other hand, PSP 2-3:26 has adhyātma­śūnyatāṃ yāvad abhāva­svabhāva­śūnyatām upādāya (“based on inner emptiness, up to the emptiness that is the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature”), probably Haribhadra’s later clarification.

n.398This has the sense, “A realizer cannot be apprehended apart from reality, and reality apart from the realizer of it.”

n.399We have taken this as a less elegant translation of PSP 2-3:28 and ŚsPK II-3:146. It is rendered at le’u brgyad ma nga 33a4, ’bum 16.­133 (ca 129a1), and nyi khri 16.­48 (kha 47a2) as “its might is that which is not conjoined with or disjoined from all dharmas.”

n.400The sense is “gods with Indra as their leader,” but we have retained the plural because the multiplication of worlds is a recurring motif. LSPW 431 “the gods around Indra” and so on.

n.401LSPW: “will be well sustained by just the emptiness of form ”; Gyurme (khri pa) 16.19: “will have been totally consecrated in [the understanding] that physical forms are emptiness.”

n.402D ming; N, H rus; Gilgit janetri [=janayitrī]; PSP jananī; le’u brgyad ma nga 43b7 ma ma; ’bum ca 239a3 skye ba; nyi khri, kha 58a4 skyid pa. Probably the sense intended in this list of ten benefits is that the bodhisattva is born of the solar race (kula) into the famous Śākya clan, and born in the royal family there (janman). However, ma ma (janayitrī) brings to mind a good patrilineage (N and H have cho rigs), matrilineage, and a special aunt as wet nurse.

n.403’bum 17.­15, nyi khri 17.­13 omit. PSP 2-3:45 mahā­rājāno loka­pālāḥ; le’u brgyad ma nga 47a7 ’jig rten skyong pa’i rgyal po chen po: “Mahārājas who are the protectors of the world.”

n.404’bum 17.­20 (ca 250a1) ser sna can du myi ’gyur (“not become envious”).

n.405H mgron po (“a guest”); D ’dron po?

n.406Thempangma, kha 31b3 brgya byin gyi le’u gsum pa, “third Śatakratu chapter.”

n.407We have rendered sman ma yin pa literally because we are not sure what it means; alternatively, perhaps, “even if struck with an incurable disease” or “even if the victim of a quack.”

n.408Edg (citing Burrow BSOS 7.781) says kākhorda is an Iranian loan word for a malicious spirit. Jäschke, s.v. byad (the Tib rendering of kākhorda), says a harmful spell is written on a piece of paper and hidden. LSPW “devil-lore.”

n.409Edg, s.v. upanāmaya (nye bar bsgrubs), does not give an example of a negative meaning associated with this verb as found here.

n.410blud is the past tense of ldud.

n.411This renders chus gtor; PSP 2-3:54, Gilgit 450.8 [uc?]choraya (gtor).

n.412PSP 2-3:56 śarīrāṇi; Gilgit 452.4 śarīram.

n.413Emend ma to mi.

n.414The order in Aṣṭa 216 (Sparham 2006–11 vol. 2, 160–62) is excellent. The order is hard to make sense of in all the longer versions, including this one. ’bum 18.­28, nyi khri 18.­23 has the pratyekabuddha, then those who have set out (yang dag par zhugs pa) for unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, then those who practice (spyod pa) unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and then it ends with those wanting to be an unsurpassed, perfect, complete buddha (’tshang rgya bar ’dod). Whether the order in the Aṣṭa is systematizing earlier unsystematic lists is yet to be ascertained. LSPW 234–35 abbreviates its way past the problem.

n.415This version is not clear, but we have rendered it without emendation. Gilgit 455.10, PSP 2-3:62, Aṣṭa 216 pūrvaṃ bodhisattva­cārikāṃ caran śikṣito (“a tathāgata, earlier when practicing the bodhisattva’s way of life”); rendered LSPW 233 “[Because they] will cognize that therein the Tathāgata has trained in the past.”

n.416Haribhadra lists the seven precious stones as coral, turquoise, silver, crystal, gold, ruby, and emerald. Other versions of the sūtra give the measurements or numbers of stūpas here.

n.417PSP 2-3:64, Gilgit 457.3 antaśaḥ pustaka­gatām api kṛtvā; Gilgit 457.3 also has just likhitvā ca, as the first in the list. Here, and in the repetitions below, by tha na (antaśaḥ) the translators seem to want to convey the sense of “in an extreme case, even were they to do no more than just write it out and make a book of it.”

n.418Gilgit 458.12; Thempangma, kha 45a2 brgya byin gyi le’u bzhi pa “Fourth Śatakratu chapter.”

n.419Earlier rgyu (upaṇiśā) came later in the list of numbers, after dpe (upamā).

n.420These words are explained by Haribhadra (Wogihara 237, Sparham 2006–11 vol. 2, 173).

n.421The twelve deeds of a tenth-level bodhisattva mirroring the twelve deeds of a buddha.

n.422dkar po’i cha. Gilgit 462.15 śuklāṃśa; PSP 2-3:74 śuklaṃ dharmaṃ.

n.423This is Edg’s rendering of vicakṣukaraṇa; LSPW 241 “to blind.”

n.424Insert rigs kyi bu mo (kuladuhitā); probably omitted by scribal error.

n.425bsngags pa yongs su brjod par mdzad (nāmadheyaṃ parikīrtaya), rendered ming yongs su brjod par mdzad below. We have translated them differently because the Tib here renders them separately.

n.426The passage is easier to understand if pariṇāmita is taken to mean yongs su gyur pa (“transformed into”).

n.427This order is unusual.

n.428’bum 21.­59, nyi khri 21.­39 (kha 99a1), le’u brgyad ma nga 80b6, Aṣṭa 261, and PSP 2-3:86 have “They see the turning of the wheel of the Dharma,” omitted from all the editions of khri brgyad stong pa. It has probably dropped out by accident, but it is possible that just the chanting of the bodhisattvas points to the origin of the sūtra.

n.429Thempangma, kha 64b2 mchod rten la bsti stand bya ba’i le’u zhes bya ste sum bcu pa’o: “Honoring Reliquaries chapter”; the same as Aṣṭa 267, chapter 3 stūpa­satkāra­parivarta.

n.430LSPW 243–44 “so that beings in it might do the work of a Buddha.”

n.431MW, s.v. saṃnipāta: “complicated derangement of the three humors.”

n.432Cf. 3.­5.

n.433It is noteworthy that only ’bum 22.­52 (ca 360b3) and nyi khri 22.­39 (kha 110a3), not PSP 2-3:96 or le’u brgyad ma nga 89b1, add “knowledge body” (ye shes kyi sku, jñānakāya) here.

n.434On the meaning of chos nyid du here see Aṣṭa 276 ye … buddhā … tān dharmatayā draṣṭukāmena … prajñā­pāramitā … bhāvayitavyā; Eight Thousand, 118 “in accordance with dharma.” The meaning “true dharmic nature, true reality, the way things are” does not fit the context.

n.435PSP 2-3: 102 dharmābhisaṃbuddhas; LSPW “though which.”

n.436If mchod (pūjaya) is emended to ’chad (sūcaya) the passage reads, “A son of a good family or daughter of a good family who teaches and explains the perfection of wisdom in detail, up to points it out to others by way of not apprehending anything creates a lot more merit than a son of a good family or daughter of a good family who practices the perfection of giving for infinite, incalculable eons by way of apprehending something.” PSP 2-3:109 kathayed yāvat sūcayet.

n.437’bum 23.­148, nyi khri 23.­42 say, to paraphrase, that because they retain an idea (zhes bya bar rtog) of form as being impermanent and so on they do not practice the perfection of wisdom. Aṣṭa 298–99 says it is a semblance of the perfection of wisdom to say that form is impermanent, to say that you should investigate that, and to say that doing so is to practice the perfection of wisdom.

n.438The absence of the “four continents” here is perhaps a block cutter’s error missed by an editor.

n.439Bṭ3 5.­204 says the comparison is between someone who has established just that many beings in awakening and someone who keeps on causing beings to learn and practice the perfection of wisdom in its completeness.

n.440Aṣṭa 327–29, Eight Thousand 125–26 convey the intended meaning of this section very clearly.

n.441The word “dedicate” renders the Tib bsngo (“to turn something green,” “to cause it to grow”) that in turn renders the Skt pariṇāma (“dedicate,” “transform,” “turn over”).

n.442PSP 2-3:127 bodhisattva­kulam grahīṣyati. ’bum 24.­19, nyi khri 24.­21, le’u brgyad ma nga 115b7. The meaning is that the bodhisattva discovers his or her true identity as one destined for awakening and never wavers. It is unlikely it means to be born in or to marry into a bodhisattva family, or that bodhisattvas become his or her family and as such give assistance.

n.443’bum 24.­20 (cha 131b1–2), nyi khri 24.­22 (kha 145b2) tshig gi lam nyams pa myi mnga’ ba = (a)paryātta­vāk­patha (“for whom the path of speech does not end”); PSP 2-3:127 paryāttapāspa, le’u brgyad ma nga 116a3 mchi ma zad pa (“for whom tears have ended”).

n.444“Conforming” renders ’thun, that is, the same as the way it is done when it is done properly. Alternatively, it may mean where all the parts of the dedication are understood as being essentially the same. PSP 2-3:129 samena pariṇāmayati; LSPW 261 “turns over evenly.”

n.445This translation, reading bar (either accidentally left out or understood from the context) with las, is based on the gloss at Bṭ3 5.­226 (191a).

n.446’bum 24.­28, nyi khri 24.­30 spell this out more clearly. When the buddhas and their śrāvaka saṅghas have entered into nirvāṇa, they are extinct; there is no conventional reality left to them. When bodhisattvas bring to mind the wholesome roots that led to the attainment of nirvāṇa by those buddhas with their śrāvaka saṅghas and dedicate their own wholesome roots planted on account of rejoicing in the wholesome roots those buddhas and their śrāvaka saṅghas planted to be able to reach that nirvāṇa, in order for the dedication to be perfect the state in which the bodhisattvas make the dedication‍—“the thought with which the dedication is made”‍—should be exactly the same as the dedication (PSP 1-2: 130 parināmayitavya, “that which has to be dedicated”), which is to say, both should be nirvāṇa, the intrinsic nature, true reality.

n.447PSP 2-3: 131 says subhūtir āha (“Subhūti says”), and the Lord praises Subhūti, not Maitreya below (33.­40). The reading here has not been emended, because it is supported by ’bum 24.­33, nyi khri 24.­34, and Bṭ3 5.­231.

n.448They have ceased because the buddhas have entered into complete nirvāṇa.

n.449Haribhadra (Wogihara 359) glosses this as “dedication could not be in the three periods of time or in the triple world because in true reality they do not produce it there.”

n.450This is a literal translation of an overly abbreviated passage. If somebody supported them in their endeavor and dedicated with a “tainted” dedication or a dedication “with attachment” is the intended meaning.

n.451Aṣṭa 371 yathāvimukti; PSP 2-3:141 yathādhimukti; LSPW 268–69 “the resolve.”

n.452’bum 25.­1 (cha 178a5), nyi khri 25.­1 (kha 161b6) shul gol ba (“wrong road”); so too le’u brgyad ma nga 127a6 lam log pa. Alternatively, the metaphor may be of a track through the forest that is not clearly marked.

n.453PSP 2-3:143 tri­parivarta­dvā­daśākāra­dharma­cakra­pravartayitrī; ’bum 25.­1 (cha 178b2) and nyi khri 25.­1 (kha 162a3): rnam pa bcu gnyis rgyud gsum du ’khor ba’i chos kyi ’khor lo (“that turns three times and has twelve aspects”) is a better translation.

n.454nyi khri 25.­6 has this same problematic reading that turns Śāriputra’s “It is not so” into a non sequitur. ’bum cha 179b7–180a4 is the correct translation. We have provided a translation that has tried to keep the original Tib but still makes sense.

n.455We have supplied the subject that is missing from the passive construction in the Skt and Tib.

n.456glo ba ches is a variant of blo khog che; ’bum 25.­142 (cha 204a5), nyi khri 25.­20 (kha 165b5) shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa la yid ches pas chos gang la yid ches (“in what dharma do you have confidence when you have confidence in the perfection of wisdom”); Aṣṭa 387 paridīpita (Eight Thousand, 137 “lit up”) differs.

n.457The “wisdom” here is a bit odd.

n.458Haribhadra (Wogihara 391, Sparham 2006–11 vol. 2, 272) glosses the clearer version of this in the Aṣṭa: “They follow doctrine, understand meaning, and instruct others by means of both of those methods.”

n.459bems po nyid, PSP 2-3:149 dharma­jaḍatām upādāya; LSPW 273 “real field?”

n.460Edg, s.v. vibhajya-vyākaraṇa, an explanation “distinguishing aspects beyond what the question itself immediately raised.”

n.461PSP 2-3:150 yathā nopacayaṃ paśyati nāpacayaṃ (“seeing how it does not increase and decrease”).

n.462This is a conjectural translation of lus dang sems kyi tshogs par mi byed pa. PSP 2-3:150 na kāyena na cittena samagrīn dāsyanti (“They will not give everything physically and mentally”). LSPW 275 “There is no concord either in their bodies or their thoughts.”

n.463Haribhadra (Wogihara 397, Sparham 2006–11 vol. 2, 276) “The eight great hells are the great Avīci hell at a distance of twenty thousand yojanas beneath Jambudvīpa, and stationed above that [hell] the Pratāpana, Tapana, Mahāraurava, Raurava, Saṃghāta, Kālasūtra, and Saṃjīva hells.”

n.464This refers to the end of an eon when all the realms in that particular world system are destroyed.

n.465A literal rendering of lus kyi tshad, PSP 2-3:152 ātma­bhāvasya pramāṇam, is “measure of the body”; LSPW 276 “length of time a person will be reborn under the influence of the deed.”

n.466PSP 2-3:153 agrāhya­vacanā vā. ’bum 26.­24 (cha 322b4), nyi khri 26.­20 (kha 174a6) shin tu ’jungs pa’i sems dang ldan par ’gyur du’ong ngo (“become extremely stingy”) differ.

n.467gzugs dngos po med pa’i rang bzhin ni gzugs yin pa’i phyir ro: literally, “the intrinsic nature of nonexistent form is form .” A superior translation of rūpābhāvasva­bhāvo hi rūpam is at ’bum cha 324b4, nyi khri kha 175b4 gzugs la rang bzhin med pa ni gzugs yin no.

n.468Alternatively, “transform it into.”

n.469“Appear” renders ’tshal. ’bum nya 240a7, nyi khri kha 200a1, khri pa nga 202b1 mchis; PSP 2-3:173–74 na prajñāyate; le’u brgyad ma nga 158a1 btags pa ma mchis so.

n.470“Want” renders ’tshal (-kāma).

n.471rnam pa. The translators read evākāraiḥ in place of PSP 2-3:177, Aṣṭa 432 evākṣarair; le’u brgyad ma nga 161b2, ’bum 28.­277 (nya 292a4), nyi khri 28.­40 (kha 207b4) yi ge (“letters, syllables”).

n.472These are the auspicious days of the lunar cycle.

n.473Abhisamayālaṃkāra 3.16 and the AAV (Sparham 2006–11 vol. 2, 63) say that from here to the end of the chapter is a summary of the first three of the eight abhisamayas.

n.474gang gi tshe, yadā? yasmāt (gang gi phyir); “on account of which” would be better.

n.475gnas med pa’i le’u; LSPW chapter 37 “Unsupported Anywhere.” The chapter titles are often simply taken from the last sentences of the chapter. We take the Tib gnas simply to be part of the word sbyin gnas that is equivalent to sus kyang.

n.476This is referencing nāmarūpa (“name and form”), the fourth of the twelve links of dependent origination.

n.477PSP 4:1 akṣaya ; ’bum nya 342a5, nyi khri kha 217b3 skad cig pa ma mchis pa renders akṣaṇa (“is not momentary”).

n.478chu ’bab pa, udakasyanda?; PSP 4:2 udakaskandhā, LSPW 297 “mass of water.”

n.479The ultimate practice, beyond ordinary convention or thought construction; alternatively, “practice so it is exactly as” a bodhisattva has heard, without any distortion.

n.480LSPW “is brought about as something that has come forth.”

n.481Here “stand in X” means, from a negative perspective, to keep on entertaining the idea of X as real, and from a positive perspective to have their feet solidly on the ground of reality. Even the second is ultimately negated.

n.482So too ’bum nya 353a5–6, nyi khri kha 225a4 gzugs la m(y)i gnas te / gang gi tshe gzugs la mi gnas pa de’i tshe / gzugs la brtson par byed pa yin no; le’u brgyad ma nga 177b4 gzugs la mi gnas te / gang gi tshe gzugs la mi gnas pa de’i tshe gzugs la rnal ’byor du byed pa yin no; but PSP 4:11 yadā rūpe na tiṣṭhati tadā rūpe na yogam āpadyate (“does not practice the yoga of form ”); LSPW 301–2, “does not stand in form , etc. and in consequence makes no endeavour about form .”

n.483’bum nya 361a5 myi sbyor myi ’byed, “If they do not ‘apply themselves, detach themselves’ ”; alternatively, “If they do not ‘conjoin and disjoin’ (yuj, viyuj) they practice the yoga (yogam āpad).”

n.484This reading zhes bya ba de ltar yang mi spyod na, “If they also do not practice with such an idea,” is not found in other versions. It is repeated below (39.­19): “if they do not practice with the idea ‘that state of being hard to fathom of form …’ ” (without de ltar), but is absent from “immeasurability” (39.­20). It is likely a corruption in the text, but we have translated the text as it has been received. Here nyi khri 30.­14 says simply, and more coherently, “It is because the depth of form is not form ” and so on, up to “the depth of the knowledge of all aspects is not the knowledge of all aspects.” It does the same with “hard to fathom” (nyi khri 30.­15) and “immeasurable” (nyi khri 30.­17); ’bum nya 386a7 to ta 4b1 is the same as nyi khri, but longer.

n.485This renders de tsam du literally; tanmātram (“in that measure”), LSPW 302–3 “so.”

n.486N log par ltung bar ’gro ba’i las gsogs pa in place of D log par ltung bar ’gro ba lags par ’gyur te; PSP 4:15 vinipāta­gāmikarmopacinuyāt.

n.487Bodhisattvas travel from buddhafield to buddhafield to worship the buddhas and listen to their teaching.

n.488This agrees with LSPW 303–4, which takes the yāvad (PSP 4:16) as the list of dharmas up to going into the site of awakening. Alternative yāvad could mean they keep on cultivating the six perfections right up until they go into the site of awakening.

n.489The translation of PSP 4:16 prativibuddhaḥ (Edg “reawaken”) at ’bum ta 5b5, nyi khri 30.­26 (kha 232a7), and le’u brgyad nga 182a6 by gnyid kyis ma log pa zhig (“who have not fallen asleep”) is better. ’bum, nyi khri, PSP 4:16, LSPW 303–4, and le’u brgyad ma nga 182b1 do not have sems pa (“intend”). They simply contrast the sets of perfections done while asleep and awake and say it goes without saying that those doing the latter are approaching awakening if the former seem to be.

n.490Alternatively, de bzhin nyid du, tathatvāya as earlier (39.­1): “practice it for suchness.”

n.491There is a change from singular to plural here in the Skt and Tib (not in this English translation) that is abrupt and not found at PSP 4:19, le’u brgyad ma nga 184a4, ’bum ta 7b7–8a1, or nyi khri 30.­30.

n.492Read las (as in the earlier similar statement at 39.­1 and in Subhūti’s statement that follows) in place of la.

n.493The inconsistency here is perhaps the mistake of a copyist or block cutter.

n.494One meaning of vartani (bar ta ni) is “east.” The translators transliterate the Skt, unlike south (lho) and north (byang) that are translated into Tib.

n.495Alternatively, nges par ’byung (niryā) may mean “escape.”

n.496Emend de dag ni to de dag na? PSP 4:29 tatra śāri­putra iyaṃ gambhīrā prajñā­pāramitā buddha­kṛtyaṃ kariṣyati: “This deep perfection of wisdom does the work of the buddha.”

n.497There are a number of ways to explain “last of the five hundreds,” one of which is that the Dharma lasts five thousand years, divided into ten periods of five hundred (Nattier 1999).

n.498The “site” is the site of awakening.

n.499LSPW renders yad uta … ārabhya “that is, with reference to”; Edg, s.v. ārabhya, “have to do with.” It is saying that bodhisattvas, through establishing beings firmly on wholesome roots, advance their own progress toward awakening, or else it is saying that bodhisattvas establish beings firmly on wholesome roots that will grow into the future awakening of those beings.

n.500A “maturation” means an entire life from the viewpoint of its main defining features.

n.501PSP 4:34 udyogam āpannāḥ (“have striven at”) is better.

n.502The lacuna in the Gilgit manuscript ends here.

n.503An editor has perhaps included this (absent from the K, N, and H versions) and the following fault as two different translations of paras­param uccagghayamānā.

n.504This, following Edg and LSPW 315, renders co ’dri (uccagha). However, ’bum ta 64a4, nyi khri 31.­6 (kha 250a7), and Bṭ3 5.­443 (208b) all have steg (“tickle?”) an old word for sgeg and rol, and Bṭ1 pa 86b5–87a2 says “fooling with each other (phan tsun steg) is shouting out to each other, or playing, or cracking jokes” (khas brgya pa’am, rtze ba’am steg sngags zer zhing).

n.505From here to the end of the chapter the perfection of wisdom is primarily a book that has been, or is being, written out by hand. It is not restricted only to that meaning, however, so it is not capitalized as a title.

n.506“Just from headings” means, for instance, saying just “ form and so on” is empty of an inherent nature, in place of spelling out the entire list of dharmas, up to the knowledge of all aspects, and saying of each that they are empty of an inherent nature.

n.507In the Vinaya scriptures, for instance, after the introduction there might be a story of the Buddha encountering a particular suffering person, a story of an earlier life in which the action leading to the result was done, a pithy presentation of proper conduct, and a final summary. The summary might be extracted and put together with other summaries, or the stories extracted and put together with other stories. Each part fits together as one of the divisions of the twelve division of the teaching. The division is not necessarily into twelve separate types of book.

n.508PSP 4:54 buddha­pramukhaṃ bhikṣu­saṃgham.

n.509The name of the title here, tshogs pa dang mi ldan pa, is rendering the visāmagrī/visāmagryā used as a refrain in the earlier sections of this chapter where it means “everything is not complete.” Aṣṭa 527 ends the māra­karma­parivarta chapter here; Gilgit 501.11, ŚsPN3 4533r10, PSP 4:56–57, ’bum ta 101a6, nyi khri 32.­62 omit; LSPW 326–28 ends the chapter titled “Chapter 41: The Absence of Māra’s Hosts,” not here, but later at the point at which the Abhisamayālaṃkāra begins the discussion of lakṣaṇa and PSP 4:58 ends the discussion of doṣa (skyon).

n.510N, K.

n.511Bṭ3 5.­465 says, “Take ‘destroyed’ and ‘really destroyed’ as getting used up, and becoming ruined.”

n.512The translators read Gilgit 506.9 anāsrava in place of the better reading at ŚsPN3 4538r10, PSP 4:62 anāsraya (“without a foundation”).

n.513we have rendered Tib lhag par g.yo ba, bral bar g.yo ba, bsdus par g.yo ba, rgyas pa (cp. ’bum ta 116b1, nyi khri kha 275b2, le’u brgyad ma nga, 219b3 that have ’phro ba, ’du pa, bkram pa, bcum pa) without emendation, even though it is difficult to understand what the Tib words might mean in context. This is because the translators have derived the words from a root iñj (Edg, s.v. iñjate, references Pali iñjati), meaning “to move.” It is much easier to understand the four terms as at Bṭ3 5.­489: “thoughts that are clear, dull, abridged, and expanded,” rendering unmiñjita, nimiñjita, saṃmiñjita, and prasārita, derived from miñj (“to say, to shine”). In any case, the reference is to four categories under which wrong views are explained, wrong views such as sixty-two wrong views set forth in detail in the Brahma­jāla­sūtra (tshangs pa’i dra ba’i mdo).

n.514“Mark” (mtshan nyid, lakṣaṇa) is used here in the sense of something’s definition or defining characteristic.

n.515K ngo bo med pa (“absence of an intrinsic nature”); PSP 4:67–68, ŚsPN3 4540r10–v4, Gilgit 510.2–5 asvabhāva.

n.516These are the definitions of form and so on.

n.517Deriving the Skt word for morality (śīla) from śyai (“to cool”).

n.518This renders spong ba. All other editions have asaṅga (chags pa med pa), “nonattachment.”

n.519The reference here is to the so-called eight “worldly dharmas” (laukikadharma), where attachment and aversion, respectively, to each of the four opposites (pleasure and pain, and so on) are the laws ( dharma ) governing an ordinary person’s life (laukika).

n.520Alternative translation of this paragraph: “Subhūti, the tathāgatas have appreciation (kṛtajñatā) and a feeling of gratitude (kṛtaveditā). Subhūti, those who say the tathāgatas have appreciation and a feeling of gratitude’ make a correct statement. And how do the tathāgatas show appreciation and a feeling of gratitude? Subhūti, since the tathāgatas, having traveled in that vehicle and on that path, fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, therefore the tathāgatas respect, revere, honor, worship, protect, and treasure just that vehicle and just that path. You should view that as the tathāgatas’ appreciation and feeling of gratitude.”

n.521Bṭ3 5.­516 says without a body means “without an interior” (khog pa med pa).

n.522Alternative translation of this paragraph: “Furthermore, Subhūti, the tathāgatas fully awaken to all dharmas as unmade (akṛta) and unchanging (avikṛta) because there is no agent. Because there is no body, they fully awaken to them as unmade. Subhūti, the full awakening by the tathāgatas to all dharmas as without activity, thanks to the perfection of wisdom, that is the tathāgatas’ knowledge of the unmade and awareness of the unmade. Furthermore, Subhūti, thanks to the perfection of wisdom, on account of being ultimately unoriginated, the tathagata have engaged with all the dharmas of the unmade transcendental knowledge.”

n.523Even though it is likely the following sentence gives the reason for this, it is not clearly spelled out as such here.

n.524Alternatively, D mnyam pa med pa dang mi mnyam pa, PSP 4:76 asama­samā iti subhūte asama­viṣamādhivacanam etat (“unequal to the unequaled”). K has “equal to the unequaled.”

n.525Earlier (22.­47) it said “a faith follower and Dharma follower are the eighth.”

n.526This is the K and N reading, supported by Gilgit 519.9, ŚsPN3 4578v1 eka­devasikā kṣāntiḥ. D de nyid is supported by PSP 4:80 iyam eva.

n.527It means such knowledge and effort is part of what makes up the forbearance (kṣānti) in the sense that the bodhisattva practices it fully (though without passing into a nirvāṇa that blocks working for others). The bodhisattva’s practice is informed by forbearance for, or an understanding of, the practice itself lacking any intrinsic value beyond the value it may have for others.

n.528PSP 4:86 yaiḥ prajñā­pāramitā parigṛhītā; nyi khri 35.­7 (kha 298a5) and below 35.­8 (299b4) has yongs su bzung (“assisted by” the perfection of wisdom) throughout, which is better.

n.529One krośa is said to be a bit more than a mile, but it is surely less than that here.

n.530Here the dark side is when there is false projection and the bodhisattva has therefore not been assisted by the perfection of giving up to the knowledge of all aspects and skillful means, and the bright side is when that false projection is absent and they have been assisted. ŚsPN3 4592v5–4593r1 goes through the list of dark and bright side dharmas in detail. Both sides are equally to be rejected as having any intrinsic nature.

n.531D brten (“rely on”).

n.532PSP 4:94, ŚsPN3 4593v5 bhaktavya. Another meaning of bsnyen is “stay close to.”

n.533mā samyak­saṃbodhiṃ rūpataḥ parāmrākṣīḥ / parāmṛkṣaḥ; Edg, s.v. parāmṛśati, “do not attach yourself (cleave) to awakening as form.” Bṭ3 5.­541 (215b) mchog tu ’dzin pa ma byed cig (“do not hold it as an absolute”) is excellent; Abhisamayālaṃkāra 4.26a (Amano 65) glosses this with anāsvāda (“nonrelishing”).

n.534’bum ta 267a6, nyi khri 36.­3 (kha 305b2) yongs su ma brtags pa’i gzugs ni; LSPW 348 “For the aggregates, when not misconstrued, reach an all-knowledge which is also not misconstrued.”

n.535layana (gnas), “resting place,” also means “adhere to, cling to.”

n.536Emend ’dre ba to ’brel pa, Bṭ3 216a.

n.537lhag ma rendering śeṣa in the sense of what remains when what is bad is gone, hence liberation; khri pa lhag ma ma lus; Gyurme (khri pa) 22.20 “the non-residual [state]”; ŚsPN3 4605v10 aśleṣa; nyi khri kha 312a6 correctly ’dre ba med pa; ’bum ta 304b4 incorrectly ’dra ba myed pa.

n.538D shows this triad in an irregular order here: rtags rnams dang / rnam pa dang / mthan ma rnams. This and any other incidental instances of the triad have been emended in the English to reflect the regular order: attributes (rnam pa), tokens (rtags), and signs (mtshan ma).

n.539This is a literal rendering of sīmābaddhaḥ, the word used for setting the boundaries for a retreat. Here it means having restricted the number of beings for whom the bodhisattva is practicing.

n.540ma mchis pa; alternatively, “nonexistent thing.”

n.541Earlier (43.­45) the laity achieve this status.

n.542D bar snang de nas (“from in the sky”).

n.543Alternatively, sngo bar byed means “dedicate it to.” The mistaken bodhisattvas take unsurpassed awakening as a real attainment with an intrinsic nature, rather than something that exists only conventionally, something that can be utilized, not unlike a story, for the benefit of others.

n.544This renders N, H, etc., supported by ’bum tha 72a1, nyi khri kha 344b2 byang chub las phyir ldog par yang myi ’gyur ro.

n.545LSPW spells it out well: “When one adopts the method of considering dharmas in their ultimate reality, which Subhuti the Elder uses in his exposition.”

n.546Aṣṭa 659–60 bodhisattvānāṃ tathāyāṃ pravibhāvyamānānām aviśeṣatāṃ nirviśeṣatāṃ nirnānākaraṇatāṃ śrutvā yasya is much more detailed and clear. The translation here of chos thams cad kyi de bzhin nyid kyis bye brag med par rab tu phye ba la is in light of the reading in the Aṣṭa. Alternatively, based on the long versions, “Thus the bodhisattva great beings whose minds are not cowed, do not tense up, and do not experience regret when categories are made in terms of the suchness of all dharmas without distinction will go forth to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.” In passing, it is hard to see how the Aṣṭa can be a basic early version of the scripture when there are such contrasting passages as these.

n.547“One should think all beings are the same” either in ultimate reality, or insofar as they want happiness.

n.548Other versions throughout the above list have anupalambha­yogena, “by way of not apprehending anything,” which helps make better sense of this final capping section of the chapter.

n.549khri pa nga 352a3 adds legs par gsungs pa’i chos ’dul ba la the tshom bskyed par mi byed de.

n.550This follows K, N dag par, supported by khri pa 31.5; ’bum tha 115a7, nyi khri kha 354a6 bkra shis dang ltas kyis gtsang mar myi ’dogs.

n.551The types and functions of the “maggot families” (krimikula) are explained at length in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma (Saddharma­smṛtyupasthāna, Toh 287) [see Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., 2020a], where they are called “worms.” It is a striking use of language intended to foster meditative detachment from one’s own body and the bodies of others.

n.552The twelve are listed earlier (41.­6).

n.553Gilgit 560.4 na kṣubhaṇa­citta; earlier (2.­40) “who want to prevent malicious thoughts from arising.”

n.554Aṣṭa 674 makes it clear that the thought (citta) is bodhicitta , the thought of awakening.

n.555MW, s.v. śraddhā, says śraddhayā plus gam and the genitive means “believe in.” We have rendered parasya “another” instead of “somebody else” in light of the reason given below, that “one does not see any dharma at all.”

n.556“Focus” (guruko bhavati), literally “become something heavy”; Tib lhur len pa, literally, perhaps, “to take as one’s part”; Jäschke: “to apply oneself to.”

n.557This summarizes the full list given earlier (21.­63).

n.558This is a conjecture for rigs ’phan par ’gyur ro. Alternatively, “your family will be benefitted” (taking ’phan as a form of phan, “to be useful”); Gyurme (khri pa) 31.49 “Your family line will be broken”; PSP 4:157 kulodgata; ŚsPN4 9793v5 kula­devatā vā bhaviṣyati deveṣu.

n.559Here prakṛti (“basic nature”) also means, according to MW, “the constituent elements or powers of the state (king, minister, allies, treasure, army, territory, fortresses)” in the different countries (hostile, neutral, enemy of an enemy, and so on) surrounding a country going to war.

n.560Emend sbyor (even though supported by ’bum tha 141b1, nyi khri kha 369b2, le’u brgyad ma nga 301b2, and khri pa nga 364b3) to sbyong, supported by ŚsPN4 9795r8 bhūta­koṭyāṃ śodhayati, PSP 4:160 bhūta­koṭīḥ śodhayati, Gilgit 569.3 bhūta­koṭy[āṃ] śodhayati, and AAVN 79b5 bhūta­koṭyāṃ śodanāt.

n.561gdon mi za ba is not found here in other versions, and besides, this rendering is surely not what is finally intended, given what follows. What was intended is that they do not think they will or will not fully awaken.

n.562D gang dag (“whosoever”).

n.563Thempangma, kha 325a3. D et al “inseparable.”

n.564Emend the misprint phyir mi ldog pa to phyir ldog pa.

n.565’bum tha 169b1–2, nyi khri 41.­38 (kha 379b6) bstan pa mngon par bsgrub par bshad pa (“explanation that is the consummation of a tathāgata’s teaching”).

n.566sems (citta) is rendered “mind” here and not “thought” because “mind and mental factors” is a commonly used terminology.

n.567rgyu ba means yongs su rgyu ba (samudācāra).

n.568K, N des. PSP 4:177, ŚsPN4 9810r9 api nu tena nimittasaṃjñā vibhāvitā bhavati. D de (“has the perception of it as a causal sign disintegrated”) is syntactically correct; bshig pa is the past tense of ’jig pa.

n.569Here the Tib renders vibhāvanā as rnam par gzhig pa (“investigate”), not rnam par bshig pa (“disintegrated”). LSPW 398 “I will annihilate the signless” does not make sense to me. Alternatively, vibhāvanā might mean “do the opposite of meditate.”

n.570’bri ba renders apacaya; Aṣṭa 730 upacaya (“collection”).

n.571Haribhadra (Wogihara 733) glosses “isolated” as devoid of any real thing that is an objective support and therefore empty.

n.572so so rnams, “each separate one.” Each mental event that creates karma occurs without any contact with a real object. Still, it occurs because a “causal sign” functions as an objective support because it invites a misplaced belief in its reality. The reading so so rnams is not supported by PSP 4: 179 or Eight Thousand, 216, “one treats an actually nonexistent objective support as a sign,” and may be an accidental reduplication of the pṛthak (so so) in pṛthagjana (“ordinary being”).

n.573This interpolation is odd. The part left out in the immediately following section is “Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings practicing like that complete the six perfections and get close to the knowledge of all aspects.” But it is put back in again in the section after that.

n.574ras bcos bu renders Mvy dūṣyayugam; gser gyi kha dog lta bu zung cig, PSP 4:190 suvarṇa­varṇa­pīta­varṇaṃ ca puṣpa­yugaṃ.

n.575Cf. 5.­9.

n.576A tathāgata­saṃnipāta is equated (Aṣṭa 746) with uttīrṇapaṅka ([a lotus] “emerged from the mud”). Haribhadra (Wogihara 746) glosses this “without kleśa” (kleśā­varaṇa­prhāṇād). It means a bodhisattva in the assembly of a tathagata.

n.577Better is ŚsPN4 9817v8 that has evaṃ, “thus,” in place of eva (nyid du), “actual.”

n.578Emend dus ma yin pa to dus yin pa: “it is the time to acquire and master”?

n.579Take thogs as ’thogs (gṛhīta, “to seize” or “hold up”).

n.580This is rendered literally. The Tib translators have taken vyavahṛ (PSP 4: 195 na cānimittena vyāhriyate) with its usual, though contextually inappropriate, meaning. Had they understood it simply as a form of vihṛ, “to rest in, dwell in,” it would mean “they do not rest through signlessness,” which is to say, they do not make nirvāṇa into an absolute. bum tha 201b4–5, nyi khri 44.­9: “They stand in the four immeasurables and complete the six perfections. Having completed them, without attaining the extinction of outflows they master (ŚsPN4 9818v7 karoti, “work at”) the knowledge of all aspects.”

n.581Cf. 3.­43: “the emptiness of what transcends limits, the emptiness of no beginning and no end, the emptiness of nonrepudiation, the emptiness of a basic nature, the emptiness of its own mark.”

n.582sems mngon par sgrub par byed renders cittam abhinirharati. It is noteworthy that Edg, s.v. abhinirhāra, says the Pāli meaning “earnest wish” is not attested in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.

n.583Alternatively, “perceive doctrines that are not good as good” (yod pa = sat as at nyi khri 44.­13 (a 10a6) dam pa ma yin).

n.584Here anabhisaṃskāra (rendered in other contexts “not occasioning anything” or “nonenactment”) is clearly equivalent to a śrāvaka’s nirvāṇa. Edg says anabhisaṃskāra is usually a bahuvrihi.

n.585Better is ’ bum tha 212a2, nyi khri 44.­28: “those who give an answer like bodhisattva great beings standing on levels that have been cleansed or levels that have not been cleansed are few.”

n.586From here (parivarta 55) Gilgit is available in the Conze (1962) edition, cited hereafter as GilgitC.

n.587This is contextually the most likely meaning, however sākṣātkṛ might mean to treat something as being as real as when it is right before one’s eyes, hence to over-reify.

n.588GilgitC 4 omits.

n.589PSP 5:3 satyādhiṣṭhānaṃ karoti. Sánchez (2011, 18, n. 9) renders satyādhiṣṭhāna “truth-command” and says it is a synonym of satyakriyā and satyavāc. He says (18) in its earliest Vedic usage it “extracts its effectiveness from the complete tuning of the proclaimer with the same reality/truth (satya) that constitutes the cosmic order.” He says (22) “While the Vedic satyakriyā is based on the perfect harmony between oneself and her/his own duty within the cosmos (ṛta), the Buddhist saccakiriyā instead extracts its power from the speakers’ ethical perfection,” and Sánchez cites Harvey (1993, 67–68, 70–71, 74) to the effect that “ ‘(moral) truth is a natural force with irresistible power.’ ”

n.590The nāmādhiṣṭhāna is the detailed declaration of the irreversible bodhisattva’s name and so on as given below. D, K slightly differ, suggesting those editors too were not quite sure of how to render the term. Haribhadra (Wogihara 774) glosses the two words nāmāpadeśa and nāmādhiṣṭhāna with “declaring the name” and “detailing the mother’s name and so on.”

n.591Haribhadra (Wogihara 774) glosses this with “not having broken a rule” (āpattirahitatvena).

n.592Haribhadra (Wogihara 775) glosses this with “because one is not needy” (alpecchatvād).

n.593The translators read pratyakṣa with Aṣṭa 781 yakṣa .

n.594The translators read peyāla in place of peśala. GilgitC 14 yāvat peśalān kalyāṇa­dharmān; PSP 5:9, Nepal 9826r10 peśalān kalyāṇa­dharmān (“well behaved and lovely in character”).

n.595That is to say, those bodhisattvas who are living in the authentic isolation. Cf. Aṣṭa 783, brgyad stong pa 219a2: “They should make an effort for their own sake. By always feeling disgust for and fearing saṃsāra they should apply themselves to not being adulterated by the three realms.” LSPW pp. 416–17, “He should devote himself to his own welfare, always alarmed at Samsara and afraid of it, unsubmerged by the triple world,” renders a version like PSP 5: 10 or ŚsPN4 9826v4.

n.596Emend zhes to zhe sa; PSP, Gilgit, Nepal gaurava.

n.597PSP 5:10 “The applications of mindfulness” and so on “are for the elimination of all residual impressions” and so on (sarva­vāsanānusaṃdhi­kleśa­prahāṇāya).

n.598K pas; PSP 5:12 ahaṃkāra­mama­kāreṇa.

n.599Probably “and daughters of a good family” has dropped out.

n.600“Those requirements of theirs come to have a great result, a great benefit” may be a gloss accidentally incorporated into the text.

n.601Cf. 45.­6: “he falls sick in his body with a wind , or bile, or phlegm disorder, or a disorder from them in combination.”

n.602This is the translation at LSPW 423–24.

n.603The addition of bar du here is likely a block cutter’s mistake.

n.604Insert bar du.

n.605Alternatively, zhar ba (kāṇa?), “missing an eye.”

n.606GilgitC, Aṣṭa kubja (“humpbacked”).

n.607Other versions add “without hesitation.”

n.608yul du phyin pa; GilgitC 46 buddha­viṣayam anugantukāmena; a better translation is ’bum tha 307b4, nyi khri 47.­25 (a 43b5) yul khong du chud par ’dod pa (“wants to comprehend the objects”); khri pa 25.47 (nga 286a7) rnam pa thams cad mkhyen pa’i yul rjes su ’gro ba (“wants to have comprehended the object known by the knowledge of all aspects”).

n.609Literally “want to play the game” (vikrīditaṃ vikrīditukāma).

n.610LSPW 427–28 “never again lose interest in” is an excellent, if free translation.

n.611bcu is the past tense of ’chu (utkṣip), “to take out water.”

n.612skra’i rtse mo renders vālāgra, MW “the point of hair as a measure,” equaling 64 atoms.

n.613’bum tha 311b4, nyi khri 48.­8 (a 47a3) ci nas kyang sems med pa dang / sems ma yin pa gzhan yang med par (“in the absence of thought and in the absence of anything else other than thought”); le’u brgyad ma ca 63a5 ji ltar sems gzhan la mi rgyu ba de ltar (“in the way it is done when thought does not wander to something else”); Gyurme (khri pa) 26.9, ci nas sems su mi ’gyur zhing sems las gzhan du spyod par mi ’gyur ba de ltar (“they should make this dedication in such a way that they do not engage with mind and do not engage with anything other than mind”). We have added the word “awakening” based on our interpretation of the gloss at Bṭ3 5.­1046.

n.614“Extremely isolated” means totally isolated from the aspirations of śrāvakas or from its own hypothetical intrinsic nature.

n.615khri pa 26.14–26.16 is a less ambiguous Tib translation of this section, saying, to paraphrase, there would be no awakening if the perfection of wisdom and the result of practicing it were not to be extremely isolated, (which is to say were each not free of śrāvaka aspirations or empty of its own hypothetical intrinsic nature), but in fact they both are extremely isolated and therefore there is awakening, even though there is (ultimately) no attainment of an isolated awakening through an isolated perfection of wisdom.

n.616Here dag renders a neuter accusative dual (PSP 5: 48 gambhīre ’rthe) not a locative singular.

n.617Alternatively, “is not broken (abheda), is not differentiated (avikalpa)” or “nonconceptualization (avikalpa).”

n.618GiglitC translation, 265 n. 10, suggests this reading is a corruption of Aṣṭa 858–59 (Mitra 453), Eight Thousand, 262.

n.619PSP 5:70 vinayataś; GilgitC 74 arthataś ca dharmataś ca vyañjanataś (nyi khri a 63a3 yi ge) cānugamiṣyati; LSPW 447 “according to its meaning, contents, and method” (n. 9 “This is a tentative and inadequate rendering”).

n.620Cf. ’bum tha 343a5, nyi khri 50.­15 (a 63a5) . . . sangs rgyas rnams la dge ba’i rtsa ba lta yang mi slu ste / snyan thos sam / rang sangs rgyas sam / sang rgyas su ’gyur mod kyi / ’on kyang (“still does not falsify the wholesome roots sprung from the buddhas and become a śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha or buddha”).

n.621The meaning of anusamparigrah here is to look after awakening by furthering the practice of the perfection of wisdom that is in total harmony with it.

n.622The movement is the movement of thought, a movement absent from space, from an imaginary person, and from dharmas isolated from a person.

n.623The twelve links of dependent origination (dva­daśāṅga­pratītya­samutpāda) are exhausted, which is to say, come to an end in a sequence, and with that end comes nirvāṇa (and the akṣayajñāna, the knowledge of it). The same word akṣaya is being used here to describe the emptiness of all dharmas (the dharma­nairātmya) and the bodhisattva’s knowledge of it.

n.624“Space (ākāśa) is inexhaustible (akṣayatva).”

n.625We have supplied the subject that is missing from the passive construction in the Skt and Tib. Haribhadra (Wogihara 883) relates this to the beginner and says Subhūti is asking how anyone who settles down on an objective support as real can find it.

n.626He means, “How while making a practice of does one’s practice become at one and the same time a practice of morality?”

n.627sdom pa, PSP 5:83 saṃvara (“restraint”), and hence a rule in a code restraining monks and so on from unwholesome behavior; Gilgit 93 saṃcara, LSPW 455 “engagement.”

n.628The order has been jumbled. This should be later in the list.

n.629The prerequisite three robes and a begging bowl of a monk or nun is probably the meaning.

n.630The full list is given earlier (21.­64).

n.631These are the four concentrations spelled out in full earlier (16.­54).

n.632These ten wholesome actions are spelled out in full earlier (26.­14–26.­18).

n.633There is no obvious list here. The “up to” is a mistaken transposition of the yāvat from earlier in the sentence; cf. GilgitC 99, PSP 5:91 prathama­cittotpādam upādāya yāvad bodhi­maṇḍa­niṣaṇṇasya manuṣyabhūto vāmanuṣyabhūto vā.

n.634D adds “that has applied thought and has sustained thought and joy and happiness born of detachment.”

n.635K bdag in place of D de dag.

n.636These and the following are spelled out in full earlier (3.­112–3.­133).

n.637Bṭ3 4.­945 says the experience of pleasure is cultivated to overcome the effects from meditations in the lower concentrations, to check on the response of one’s own mind to see if any attachment is present when viewing something beautiful, or to check if a change occurs when viewing the attractive parts of one’s own physical being as a source of pleasure. Pema Karpo, cited earlier in n.­210, says this deliverance is based on a mind of the fourth concentration and “counteracts liking, that is, counteracts the conceptualization that a mentally created pleasant form is desirable, and a mentally created unpleasant form is undesirable, respectively.” The locution “directly experiences with the body” is because the pleasure is experienced as a physical feeling because mental feelings of pleasure and joy have been meditated on as suffering in the lower concentrations.

n.638This is a summary of the presentation of the nine given earlier (11.­42).

n.639Cf. 3.­75. The idea is that the meditator extends his or her meditative reach first up through each of the meditative stabilizations and then retracts it, as it were, by coming back down through them, in a big mental stretch.

n.640The intention here is that one descends through each of the meditative states, one by one, until one comes to the first concentration, not that one leaps down to it.

n.641In the viṣkandaka meditative stabilization the meditator leaps over different states. Conze renders the meditative stabilization the “Crowning Assault.” The intention, in contrast to the earlier siṃha­vijṛmbhita meditative stabilization, is that in this viṣkandaka meditative stabilization the meditator begins to leave out some of the intervening meditative stabilizations, leaping across the gaps, as it were, leaving bigger and bigger gaps.

n.642The rest in the list is probably those given earlier (55.­26), including “Subhūti, you should know that they are vulgar bodhisattvas. You should know that they are polluted bodhisattvas. You should know that they are fake bodhisattvas. You should know they are the robbers of the world with its gods, humans, and asuras. You should know that they are robbers masquerading as monks in the world with its gods, humans, and asuras. You should know that they are robbers of the sons of a good family in the Bodhisattva Vehicle.”

n.643nyi khri 53.­15 (a 97a1) bdag gis gang yang yongs su ma btang ba med do (“There is nothing I have not given away.”)

n.644Alternatively, “It is because anything that might have the intrinsic nature of ‘settling down’ does not exist.” The correct reading is hard to determine.

n.645“This very life” renders mthong ba’i chos (PSP 5:59 dṛṣṭaṃ dharmaṃ), probably Haribhadra’s clarification of “any dharma” (GilgitC 120, ŚsPN4 9911v8 kaṃcid dharmaṃ; ’bum da 47b2, nyi khri 53.­40 (a 104b3), le’u brgyad ma ca 83b6–7 chos gang yang).

n.646nyi khri 53.­41 (a 104b5) med pa (asattāḥ in place of GilgitC 120, note c asaktāḥ) (“do not exist”).

n.647nyi khri 53.­55, “For reaching the knowledge of all aspects the śrāvaka path is not the path of bodhisattva great beings… . For reaching the knowledge of all aspects the six perfections with the perfection of wisdom going in front is the path of bodhisattva great beings. This is the path and not the path of bodhisattva great beings.”

n.648Alternatively, “in particular for the sake of”; LSPW 442 “For a great performance.”

n.649pa na sa’i ’bras bu, panasaphala. It is noteworthy that the word is from the Andhra region.

n.650D “have you said?”

n.651This means all rivers tip into the ocean; all dharmas end up inside the perfection of wisdom.

n.652They “become” (bhavanti) of one taste; when they “have been categorized” (bhāvitā) they turn into the perfection of wisdom.

n.653“That which has no intrinsic nature (asvabhāva) is a nonexistent thing (abhāva).”

n.654dgongs pa.

n.655The reading here rnam pa la ’jug [pa] (ākārapraveśa) is supported by PSP 5:108 ākāra­praveśa­kuśalo but nyi khri 53.­87 (a 116b4), for example, has rnam par rtogs par bya ba la mkhas pa (“skilled in particular realizations”). As for the translation of the other terms below, some are conjectural.

n.656Emend rjod pa la ’jug to rjod pa med pa la ’jug (avyavahāra­praveśa).

n.657These four are variations of the same word bhāva (cognate with “being”) in Skt. Literally, “being,” “not being” (abhāva), “self-being” (svabhāva), and “other-being” (parabhāva).

n.658This basic statement of the Buddhist doctrine acts like a mantra. It means: “The Tathāgata, the great follower of a secluded religious life, spoke about the dharmas that arise from causes and their cause, and similarly spoke about their cessation as well.” It may be here only because in Tibetan translation this marks the end of the second long volume, but it is noteworthy that the last part of the summary of khri bryad stong pa, chapter 84 (84.­245–84.­301), is possibly summarizing a version that originally ended here.

n.659de ltar. The translators evidently read evam. A better reading is GilgitC 138, ŚsPN4 9954v4 eva “right from the first.”

n.660K, N, etc. (GilgitC 138 anupalambheṣu sarva­dharmeṣu). In this section upalambha and anupalambha are rendered in two ways, coming at the meaning from the side of the subject and from the side of the object. In the former case they are rendered “(not) apprehending” or “(absence of) apprehending,” and in the latter case as “providing (no) basis for apprehension.” Both intend the same meaning.

n.661This is based on K dmigs su mchis pa supported by ’bum da 152a7 and nyi khri 53.­128 (a 123a3). D: “Is it the Lord’s not apprehending that does not apprehend or is it duality that does not apprehend?” ŚsPN4 9956r8 and PSP 5:116 kiṃ punar bhagavann upalambho ’nupalambhaḥ, athānupalambha upalambhaḥ: “Lord, does apprehending not apprehend or does the absence of apprehending not apprehend?”

n.662Alternatively, “Apprehending does not apprehend and the absence of apprehending does not apprehend, but still, Subhūti, the state in which apprehending and the absence of apprehending are the same is not apprehending.”

n.663Emend lags to la gnas; PSP 5:123, GilgitC 146, ŚsPN4 9965r1 sthitvā.

n.664Alternatively, “in brief.” le’u brgyad ma ca 144b1 also has mdor.

n.665“Three types of omniscience” renders thams cad mkhyen pa nyid gsum po (trisarvajñatva/trisarvajñatā), literally, “three all-knowledges.”

n.666Reading D kyi as kyis. ’bum da 176a3, nyi khri a 132a7, le’u brgyad ma ca 146b6 chos thams cad rang gi mtshan nyid kyis stong pas.

n.667“Why” renders ci’i slad du (kenārthena). It means “To what does perfection of wisdom refer?”

n.668“Perfection” renders pāramitā; “perfect” renders paramapārami. GilgitC 151 parama­pārami­prāptaiṣā subhūte prajñā­pāramitā sarva­dharmāṇām. Cf. n.­18.

n.669Here “reality” and “good” both render the same word don (artha).

n.670The “knowledge of dharma” (chos shes pa, dharmajñāna) is the knowledge of the qualification ( dharma ) emptiness that qualifies all subjects (chos can, dharmin).

n.671“Bad” renders don ma yin pa (anartha), possibly a misreading of naya (tshul) “method” (PSP 2-3:149 arthataś ca nayataś).

n.672K, N.

n.673The “knowledge from prayer that is a vow” unique to a buddha is explained by Haribhadra (Amano) glossing Abhisamayālaṃkāra 8.8 (the single quotation marks identify words from the Abhisamayālaṃkāra): “The ‘knowledge from prayer that is a vow’ of a tathāgata is accepted to run under its own power without causal signs; to be separated from ‘attachment’ to form and so on because it does not settle down on anything; to be ‘without obstruction’ when it comes to all objects of knowledge because of the elimination of afflictive and object of knowledge obscurations along with the residual impressions; to ‘remain forever’ because of staying until the end of saṃsāra; and provide a response ‘to all questions’ because of finding perfect detailed and thorough knowledge. The knowledge of śrāvakas and so on is the opposite and not like that.” Cf. Mahāyāna­saṃgraha (Lamotte [1938] translated by Chodron [no date, pp. 394–95]), Mahāyāna­sūtrālaṃkāra­kārikā 21.4 (Thurman et al, pp. 336–37).

n.674byang chub la zhugs pa (“candidate for awakening”) is a locution for a bodhisattva in a last birth before perfect awakening.

n.675Thempangma, ga, 79b8 yongs su ’dris par byed; GilgitC 164, ŚsPN4 9975v6 bodhimārge paricayaṃ kurvan. The translators of D read bodhimarge ’paricayaṃ (“not mastering”).

n.676The eka­kṣaṇābhisaṃbodhi, the single, unique instant of the path just prior to complete awakening.

n.677Perhaps the Tibetan here should be emended to “do not make it into a causal sign”?

n.678nyi khri 54.­34–54.­35 spells this out fully: “They do not make those beings for the sake of whom they cultivate wisdom into a causal sign and do not pay attention to them as an existent thing or as a nonexistent thing. They do not think about inner emptiness, up to the emptiness that is the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature […] or unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening in a certain way, do not make it into a causal sign, and do not pay attention to it as an existent thing and as a nonexistent thing.”

n.679Cf. 23.­22: “An unimpeded confident readiness, an unbroken confident readiness, a meditatively absorbed confident readiness, an appropriate confident readiness, a connected confident readiness, a meaningful confident readiness, and a superior confident readiness that rises above all the world.”

n.680The word bhūtārtha (“ true reality ”) sounds like buddha, as does the next, bhūta dharma (“true Dharma”); abhisaṃbuddha is rendered “fully awakened.” The root budh means “to awaken or expand.”

n.681This again seems to be based on the similar sound of the compounds bodhyartha and bhūtārtha. PSP 5:140, GilgitC 169 have abheda in place of bhūta; ’bum da 213b5, nyi khri a 145b4 dbyer med pa.

n.682gzhar yang means nam yang.

n.683PSP 5:149 svabhāvato na calanti. Alternatively, “from the perspective of their own intrinsic nature they do not move.”

n.684Here svabhāva (literally, “own-being”) is rendered “intrinsic nature” and abhāva (literally, “no-being”) “nonexistent thing.” It means bodhisattvas do not move from what they intrinsically are, and intrinsically they are not anything at all.

n.685H dngos pos.

n.686This reading is supported by AAVN 98b4.

n.687Emend dngos po to dngos po med pa based on AAVN 99a1 na hi svabhāvaḥ svabhāvam abhāvo vā abhāvaṃ prapañcayatīty and ŚsPN4 9999r4 nābhāvo bhāvaṃ prapañcayati, where an avagraha sign is understood; PSP 5:152 abhāvo vābhāvaṃ prapañcayati, GilgitC 181 nābhāva abhāvaṃ prapañcayati; nyi khri 58.­24 (a 156a6), le’u brgyad ma ca 171a5 dngos po med pa yang dngos po med pa ’phro par mi byed. In this sentence spros (“construct in thought”) is rendered “concoct” and dngos po (“intrinsic nature”) and dngos po med pa (“nonexistent thing”) are rendered “real” and “unreal.”

n.688Again, this reading not found elsewhere is supported by AAVN 99a1 sarva-dharmmaniḥ­prapañca­vyavalokana­praśnena / nāsti subhūte rūpasya svabhāva ity ārabhyā­svabhāvatvena, but it is not in the list of questions at Bṭ3 5.­808.

n.689These are the four paths of stream enterer and so on.

n.690The knowledge that a person is impermanent, for instance, is preceded by an instant of similar knowledge (called the kṣānti, “forbearance”) that functions as the antidote removing a mistaken belief that the person is permanent. Here, the bodhisattva’s knowledge is called “forbearance” because it is the instant that serves as the antidote to the belief that the knowledge of impermanence has an intrinsic nature.

n.691Emend gang gis to gang gi. PSP 5:159, GilgitC 189 kasya dharmasya.

n.692Better is ’bum da 266a3, nyi khri 58.­46 (a 163b7), le’u brgyad ma ca 179a3 mtshan nyid m(y)ed pa’i dbyings (“the element of no marks”).

n.693This is not just the patience normally expected in a decent person, nor a śrāvaka’s comprehension of the four noble truths, but is a patience specific to bodhisattvas.

n.694We have added “that correctly knows” based on GilgitC 199 iti yathābhūtam ājñātavān.

n.695The three masses given earlier (52.­28) are beings “destined for the perfect state, destined to be wrong, and not necessarily destined.”

n.696This question, marking the beginning of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra’s sixth (anupūrvābhisamaya) chapter, contextualizes its interpretation very well: if there is a homogeneity of all things in their ultimate nature, how will practice gradually lead to awakening?

n.697Emend rgya brten to rgyab brten; PSP 6-8:2, ŚsPN4/2 0020v6 upāśrayam upāśrayārthikānāṃ/-sya.

n.698Other versions have dharmānusmṛtyāṃ in place of dharmadhātum.

n.699D ya means the first of a pair; K, N omit.

n.700This summary is too brief. le’u brgyad ma ca 195b3–5: “They pay attention to those four pairs of persons and eight individual persons as the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature. And why? Because they have no intrinsic nature and anything without an intrinsic nature is a nonexistent thing. A nonexistent thing cannot be mindful of a nonexistent thing. And why? Because not being mindful and not paying attention is mindfulness of the Saṅgha. Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings training in this mindfulness of the Saṅgha by way of the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature gain up to the knowledge of all aspects. They fully awaken to all dharmas as just the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature. They have no perception of an existing thing or perception of a nonexistent thing, so what further need is there to say that they have no perception of even an atom of the action of mindfulness, or of an absence of mindfulness?”

n.701Bṭ3 5.­830, 5.­1242 omits “Lord, if in the absence of an apprehended object there is no attainment, there is no clear realization, and there is no unsurpassed, perfect complete awakening.” When it is omitted this passage makes sense. Conze (LSPW 508, n. 3) says he cannot fully understand this long passage as it is found.

n.702A vipāka (rnam smin) result in the Abhidharma means those attributes that come along at birth and last until death, but in this context (see Bṭ3 5.­1243 “from the eighth level on up afflictions do not arise and it is a maturation”) the meaning of the word is being modified in a Mahāyāna way and it refers to the attributes of a bodhisattva on and above the eighth bodhisattva level. LSPW 508–9 renders vipākaja “karma-resultant.”

n.703This is summarizing 70.­17.

n.704brgyan cing (ālaṃkṛtya); literally, “having ornamented it.”

n.705lam dang lam gyi yan lag tu gtogs pa; PSP 6-8:23 mārgāṅgena mārga­paryāpannena (“incorporated into the path as a branch of the path?”). Below (72.­20) lam du rtogs pas is a mistaken reading.

n.706Emend lus kyi to sems kyi; PSP 6-8:23 caitasikena vīryeṇa samanvāgato; ’bum da 361b3 sems kyi brtson ’grus dang ldan pas.

n.707Add chos.

n.708The sense of a “maturation dharma” here is the eighth bodhisattva level and above. The shared sense of the word vipāka(phala) as a part of a person’s makeup that comes along with the person’s birth and lasts until death is modified to mean the “karma” of practice that results in a basis-like result from the eighth level on up.

n.709This section has a parallel in khri pa 28.1ff.

n.710This is framed in terms of all six perfections, but a reader should know that the topic here is primarily the first perfection, the perfection of giving, indivisible from the other perfections.

n.711LSPW 518–19 notes 2–8 suggest parallels and give brief speculative explanations of this otherwise unknown set of moralities. This terminology is not in the Bodhisattva­bhūmi’s “Śīla” chapter.

n.712This reads pramāṇa; other editions prahāṇa (spang ba).

n.713Conze suggests there is a play on the word aṇu (“tiniest one, atom”) and the anu prefix in anutpattika.

n.714Emend rtogs to gtogs (paryāpanna) as above at 71.­32.

n.715Gyurme (khri pa) 28.19, “Having abandoned that, they will achieve the power of absorption in consummate perfection, without defining characteristics.”

n.716“Having pervaded them with their bodies” is a conjectural rendering of lus kyis khyab par byas nas (kāyena sphāritvā). Conze suggests “diffused” and “irradiated” for sphāritvā.

n.717This derives nyāma (PSP niyāma) (“secure state”) from āma that Conze renders “rawness,” and Gyurme (khri pa) “immaturity”; Tib renders āma with skyon (“flaw”) and nyāma with skyon med (“flawless”). I have usually rendered byang chub sems dpa’i skyon med pa (bodhisattva­nyāma) “secure state of a bodhisattva.”

n.718Delete de bzhin du sbyar te (“similarly, connect this with”) as a mistake in the text?

n.719Karma that is “immovable” ( āniñjya , mi g.yo ba) comes into being on account of meditation. It does not move from its place at the head of the line, as it were, ensuring certain birth in the corresponding form or formless realm state.

n.720K, N bskyod; Gilgit 614.6 praccālya.

n.721Here svarga (mtho ris) is the desire realm (kāmadhātu) heavens up to but not including the Brahmaloka.

n.722This is a speculative rendering of D khyod … sus ma longs zhes. K, N, etc. are equally difficult to construe.

n.723bud med dam means skyes pa’am bud med dam, or else is a printing error.

n.724These are listed at length at 16.­9.

n.725Gilgit 619.4, PSP 6-8:54 āśubha­parivartakasya, ŚsPN4/2 0080r10 āśubha­parivarttakasya. Cf. The Noble Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma (Saddharma­smṛtyupasthāna) that teaches the contemplation of the parts of the gross body to counteract ordinary lust.

n.726Gilgit 619.5-6, ŚsPN4/2 0080v1, PSP 6-8: 54 tataḥ samādānād vivecayati. The translation is guided by ’bum a 40a7, nyi khri 62.­37 (a 225b6), and le’u brygad ma ca 234b4 rnam grangs du mas ’jig rten gyi chos (le’u brygad ma has rnams) ma nor bar blangs ba de las bskyod de de las bskyod nas, rendering the sam in samādāna as samyak (ma nor ba, “unmistaken”) and vivic as skyod (“move”) to make clear that the ordinary dharmas are not to be fully rejected. Here the paryāya (“ways”) could also mean one of a number of parts of an explanation, in juxtaposition with the above aśubha­parivarta and so on.

n.727Probably the “knowledge of a knower of all aspects.”

n.728Gilgit 619.12–13 has the superior reading anandhakāratām (mun pa med pa, “absence of darkness”) in place of anānākāratāṃ; LSPW 528–29.

n.729Emend bzhi to gsum.

n.730See 16.­1–16.­19.

n.731The earlier explanation of these three meditative stabilizations (16.­26ff.) differs.

n.732This is explained more fully in n.­637.

n.733AAV (Sparham 2006–11, vol. 4, 76) says, “Thus ‘blue’ is a shared epithet of flowers and clothes, but relative to flowers ‘the color blue’ is an innate color, and based on clothes an added color; both flowers and clothes ‘appear blue’ because both appear in that way.” Nakamura 2017, 611–12.

n.734The reading here, rdzi ba’i me tog (“flowers that are pressed down”) is perhaps an editor’s guess (suggesting a flower that is quickly crushed). MW, s.v. bandhujīvaka, says “a plant with a red flower that opens at midday and withers away the next morning.” PSP 6-8:59 bandhūka.

n.735“White” renders avadāta (dkar po). The example suggests a dazzling, shining color.

n.736Cf. the list given earlier (16.­81–16.­89).

n.737Emend lus to las (3.­131).

n.738Cf. 16.­95.

n.739Emend kyi bar du / bar der to pa nas las bar du bar / bar der. The part of the passage referenced here (16.­97) reads, “Between the night when tathāgatas awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening and the night when they pass into complete nirvāṇa in the element of nirvāṇa without any aggregates left behind, while tathāgatas teach the path that puts an end to suffering in the world of beings together with the gods, Māra, Brahmā, those leading a secluded religious life, and brahmins, and together with gods, humans, and asuras, one does not trip up, does not shout out” and so on.

n.740Cf. 64.­23.

n.741The numbers have been added for the convenience of the modern reader.

n.742The Tib translators simply use the same word “long” (ring ba) for both āyata and dīrgha in describing the toes and fingers, and gloss āyata with che ba, “big” or “larger,” in describing the heels.

n.743This is repetitious but we have translated it literally.

n.744“Thick” in the sense of not scrawny; “set attractively” renders phya ler ’dug pa; Mvy phya le ba renders śāta. Cf. ’bum a 50b1–2, le’u brgyad ma ca 242b3, nyi khri 62.­77 (a 235a7) mgur dang rgyud legs par ’brel zhing lhun zlum pa, “shoulders are round and well connected with the throat and muscles and tendons in the neck, so … .” The idea seems to be that the indentation between the shoulders at the back is filled in, and the indentations on the right and left in the front where the shoulders meet the chest are filled in, so that the shoulders and the neck go together, seamlessly rounded. The explanation of this below suggests a connection with “muscular.”

n.745The meaning “heap” or “piled up” for lham is corroborated by Mvy pūla, ŚsPN4/2 0084v8 upacita.

n.746Emend mkhrang pa to Bṭ3 269a mkhregs pa?

n.747Emend bskyal to bskyel.

n.748The idea is nobody falls through the safety net.

n.749Literally “what has been eaten, drunk, licked, and chewed” (bza’ ba dang / btung ba dang / bldag pa dang / bca’ ba, PSP 6-8: 63 aśita­pīta­līḍha­khādita).

n.750Āryavimuktisena (Sparham 2006–11, vol. 4, 88) says, “There the straightness is because he did not deceitfully hide the wealth he had from those who asked for it, and the length because he did not reject supplicants, but took them as an opportunity [for giving]. It is a sign that he will have control over them and discipline them, because he has control over his mind, so miserliness does not control him.”

n.751Āryavimuktisena (Sparham 2006–11, vol. 4, 88) adds “based on the idea that the line of a buddha is unbroken until the end of saṃsāra.”

n.752The contrast is between the twittering of lesser creatures and the occasional, meaningful roar of a lion.

n.753The passage found here begins a longer passage in Gilgit 623.12–636.4 found in khri pa 29.37 with slight differences, but omitted from PSP, ŚsPN4/2, ’bum, nyi khri, and le’u brgyad ma.

n.754“Makes it appear” (byin gyis slob, adhitiṣṭhati); Gyurme (khri pa) 29.37, “consecrate.”

n.755This explanation connects conduct (vṛttataḥ) with rounded (vṛtta).

n.756This explanation connects accumulated (cita) with increased, large (upacita).

n.757This explanation connects gradually (anupūrva) with tapering (anupūrva).

n.758This explanation connects not showing (gūḍha) with hidden (sugūḍha).

n.759This explanation connects difficulty (viṣama) with different (viṣama).

n.760This explanation connects advantageous (pradakṣiṇa) with to the right (pradakṣiṇa).

n.761This explanation connects beautiful (cāru) with handsome (cāru).

n.762Emend khri la to ’khril. This explanation connects attractive (vṭta) with behavior (vṛtta); tshul (vṛtta), “behavior,” is corroborated by ŚsPN4/2 0085v7; PSP 6-8:65 omits.

n.763This explanation connects polished (mṛṣṭa) with cleansed away (pramṛṣṭa).

n.764LSPW 535 “Their limbs are slender.”

n.765This explanation connects even (sama) with same (sama).

n.766This explanation, connecting soft (kumāra) with youthful (kumāra), is corroborated by PSP 6-8:65 sukumāra­gātrāś ca buddhā bhagavanto bhavanti sukumāra­dharma­deśikāḥ (ŚsPON4/2 0085v9 parama­sukumāra­dharma­deśakāra).

n.767This explanation connects dejected (ādīna) with slouching (ādīna).

n.768“Spread out” renders rgyas pa. Alternatively, PSP 6-8:65 (utsada­gātrāś ca buddhā bhagavanto bhavanty utsannākuśala­mūlāḥ) connects pulled up (utsanna) with erect (utsada), “Lord buddhas have pulled up unwholesome roots so they carry themselves with their bodies erect.” Edg, s.v. utsada, in a long entry has “prominent.”

n.769This explanation connects a body compacted together (saṃhatagātra) with linked up with (sahagata).

n.770Again, this explanation connects behaved (vṛtta) with round (vṛtta). “Fully rounded” renders vṛttasaṃpanna. LC has vṛtta for tshul and saṃpanna for ldan.

n.771Again, this explanation connects cleaned (mṛṣṭa) with cleaned away (pramṛṣṭa). bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, s.v. skabs phyin pa and skabs phyed pa, references dku skabs phyin pa (Mvy mṛṣṭakukṣi) and says it means rked pa phra ba (“narrow waist”).

n.772This explanation connects running out (kṣaya) with emaciated (kṣāma).

n.773Again, this explanation connects advantageous (pradakṣiṇa) with to the right (pradakṣiṇa).

n.774nag po, kāla (“black”); Haribhadra (Wogihara 921) akāla; rgyan snang cha 321a7 dus ma yin pa (“untimely”).

n.775Again, this explanation connects light (yang ba, sukumāra) with very soft (shin tu ’jam pa, sukumāra).

n.776Mahāśramaṇa means “great follower of the secluded religious life.” This explanation connects love (byams, snigdha) with vivid (mdangs yod pa, snigdha). The sense of snigdha is “moist,” as in “melted my heart.”

n.777This explanation connects wide-ranging (rgya chen po, āyati) with long (ring ba, āyata).

n.778This explanation connects not too long (ha cang phal che ba ma yin pa, nātyāyata) with not too wide (ha cang mi ring ba, nātyāyata).

n.779“Shapes” renders gzugs (bimba).

n.780This explanation connects easy on (’jam pa, mṛdu) with pliable (mnyen po, mṛdu).

n.781This explanation connects subtle (phra ba, tanu) with thin (srab pa, tanu).

n.782This explanation connects attachment (chags pa, rakta) with red (dmar po, rakta).

n.783This explanation again connects turned back (log pa, vṛtta) with tubular (zlum pa, vṛtta).

n.784This explanation connects keen (rnon po, tīkṣṇa) with sharp (rno ba, tīkṣṇa).

n.785This explanation connects pure (dkar po, śukla) with white (dkar po, śukla).

n.786This explanation connects equal ([cha] mnyam, sama[bhāga]) with even (mnyam pa, sama).

n.787This explanation connects in a series (rim gyis, anupūrva) with tapering (byin gyis phra ba, anupūrva).

n.788This explanation connects unsullied (gtsang ba, śuci) with clean (gtsang ma, śuci). We have translated it literally, but “have people who have progressed perfectly in the pure Vinaya” (PSP 6-8:66 śuci­vinaya­jana-saṃpratipannāḥ) or “have people with a belief in the pure Vinaya” (nyi snang ka 204b2–3 yid ches pa = *saṃpratītayāḥ) is better.

n.789This is not found in this part of the list in other versions.

n.790This explanation connects wide (yangs ba, viśāla) with wide range (shin tu yangs ba, paraviśāla).

n.791This explanation connects packed around them (shin tu bsags pa, cita) with thick (stug pa, cita).

n.792This explanation connects vast (yangs ba, āyati) with a long way (ring ba, āyata).

n.793This explanation connects equal length (mnyam pa, sama) with all sides (kun nas, samanta).

n.794Again, this explanation connects moisture and moistened (snum gyis … snum, ślakṣṇa) with glossy (snum, ślakṣṇa).

n.795This explanation connects supremely extensive (mchod tu yangs ba, pīnāyata) with full and long (stug cing ring ba, pīnāyata).

n.796This explanation connects won the battles (g.yul las rgyal ba, jita-samarāḥ) with equal in size (mnyam pa, sama).

n.797K, N ma nyams.

n.798This explanation connects perfectly developed/unwrinkled (legs par ’byes pa, supariṇāmita) with eliminated (rnam par spangs pa, vipariṇata?).

n.799This connects heads are very large (dbu shin tu rgyas pa, su­paripūrṇottamāṅgāḥ) with have fully carried out their highest vow (smon lam dam pa shin tu yongs su rdzogs pa, su­paripūrṇottama­praṇidhānāḥ).

n.800This connects thick (stug pa, cita) with cause to diminish (spangs pa, apacita).

n.801This connects gentle (’jam pa, ślakṣṇa) with soft (’jam pa, ślakṣṇa).

n.802This connects undisturbed (ma ’khrugs pa, asaṃluḍita) with not tousled (mi ’dzing ba, asaṃluḍita).

n.803This connects not bristly (ma gshor, a-paruṣa) with never harshly (mi brlang ba, apa-rūṣa).

n.804Earlier (8.­22) it says “bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should not stand in syllables, in syllable accomplishment, in a single explanation, in two explanations, or in a number of different explanations.” Bṭ3 4.­554 glosses mngon par sgrub pa (akṣarābhinirhāra): “The term syllable accomplishment is used for the production of the knowledge of nonproduction after resorting to the seed syllable a and so on used as a dhāraṇī.”

n.805This probably should be emended to “forty-two,” the number of letters in the arapacana alphabet. We have translated it without the emendation because it is possibly the number of letters in an unknown alphabet (the devanāgari alphabet, for example, has almost the same number of letters).

n.806ŚsPN4/2 87r2 ekākṣareṇa sarvaṃ vyayagatam anugacchata. We have translated this literally because we are unsure whether this means that if you take one away from a total the total has changed, or, alternatively, if it means that when you know one syllable is ultimately unfindable you know all syllables are.

n.807LSPW 536–37 highlights a juxtaposition of bodhisattvam eva and bodhi­pakṣikān dharmān here and renders this “does not even, to begin with, apprehend an awakening-being, how much less the dharmas which act as wings to awakening!”

n.808LSPW 537–38: “Because one cannot apprehend of them an own-being in which they could be established. For the nonexistent does not stand in the nonexistent, own-being does not stand in own-being, other-being does not stand in other-being.”

n.809Mvy gives nirbhārtsitaḥ for tshar gcad pa; Edg, s.v. nirbhaccita, nirbatsanā, nirbhatsayati, says “doubtless an imperfect Sktization of MIndic nibbaccheti, as in Pāli”; MW, bharts (“to revile”).

n.8103.­117, 21.­26–21.­28, and 27.­16.

n.811This relates nāman (“name”) with the root nam (“to bow”) and the derivative nimna (“downwards, incline to”). “Point somewhere” renders gzhol ba (Mvy under gzhol ba gives, besides nimna and nimnatā, also upacāra “metaphor” and parāyaṇa “final goal”). The idea is one gets to the roof of the ultimate on the ladder of the conventional.

n.812bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo (Zhang 2000), s.v. gsong ldong, gives the definition btsog chu ’gro ba’i wa kha, “eave/trough through which dirty water goes.”

n.813smig rgyu’i tshogs! The translators appear to have taken the locative maricikāyām (ŚsPN4/2 0102r7) as a compound marīcikāya.

n.814Gilgit 632.11–12, ŚsPN4/2 0102v10 tathaiva duḥkhasya tathatety prajānāti. This means the reality of one thing is the same as the reality of all things. LSPW 544–45: “He wisely knows the Suchness of ill as just Suchness.”

n.815Insert lha (“gods”) PSP 6-8: 84.

n.816rol dbyam “side spreads?” cf. rab ’byams “widespread”; alternatively, rol means “to play.” We have translated this based on ’bum a 116a1, nyi khri a 258a5, le’u brgyad ma ca 261a4 stan dang ’khor gyi stan dang gzhi; ŚsPN4/2 0108v9, Gilgit 634.4–5 āstaraṇopāstaraṇa­pratyāstaraṇāni; PSP 6-8:85 āstaraṇa­pratyāstaraṇāni.

n.817Here guṇa (“strand”) in mālāguṇa is rendered yon tan (“good quality”).

n.818Emend gzugs to gzugs med (“formless”); nyi khri a 258b3 gzugs med pa, Gilgit 634.7 yāvan naiva­saṃjñā-nāsaṃjñāyatanopagatān devān vā darśayed arūpiṇaḥ.

n.819LSPW pp. 547–48: “[The] well informed … think to themselves: ‘This is a wonderful and astonishing Dharma! And yet no dharma can therein be apprehended. For this man delights this crowd of people with nonexistent dharmas.’ And they do not apprehend those perceptions of beings, on the grounds that those beings do indeed perceive what is actually real in what is not actually real.”

n.820The meaning of these opening paragraphs in plain English is: If the ultimate nature (which is pure from the beginning, and nirvāṇa) and the ultimate nature of beings (caught in saṃsāra based on imaginary things conjured out of thin air) is the same ultimate nature, how can you talk about beings in saṃsāra getting to nirvāṇa?

n.821aṃṛta means both “immortal” and “ambrosia, divine nectar.” The place beyond death and rebirth is reached when the understanding that a self has no intrinsic nature eliminates afflictive obscurations and nirvāṇa is gained. “Both” are the giver and the recipient.

n.822PSP 6-8: 92 sattva­vivikta­tā hi sarva­dharmāḥ. A person has no intrinsic nature so the physical and mental attributes (dharma) defining it have no relation with it.

n.823PSP 6-8: 94: yad yad evaṃ karma karoṣi kāyena vā vācā vā manasā vā tat sarvam amṛtādhigamāya pariṇāmaya tathā te ete dharmāḥ sarva amṛtāvigamāya bhaviṣyanty amṛta­paryavasānāya ca, “dedicate them all for the realization of the elixir of immortality such that all these dharmas of yours will be the elixir of immortality and will end up as the elixir of immortality.”

n.824In place of D ’jig (“destroyed”), K, etc. read ’jug: “But does not see any dharma at all as being there after having set out. In regard to all dharmas, there is no establishment and there is no being there after having set out.”

n.825In place of D ma yin pa (“not having”) this reads yin pa (“having”), corroborated by Bṭ3 5.­1410 (275b). Gyurme (khri pa) 30.38: rnam par rtog pa med pa’i phyir phyin ci log ma yin no (“Since they are without false imaginations, they are without erroneous views”); PSP 6-8:98 kalpanābhiṣyandam upādāya.

n.826K, N. D accidentally adds in here, “Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of giving bring beings to maturity.”

n.827gzhan yang, Mvy bhuyo ’pi? Better is nam yang (“never”) at ’bum a 232a4, nyi khri 65.­39 (a 288b4), and le’u brgyad ma ca 287b6.

n.828This line is not found in other versions.

n.829It means bodhisattvas would not have to do so, because even though the knowledge of all aspects conventionally occurs as a personal attainment it has no meaning except as a vehicle to benefit others.

n.830This is out of place here and is not supported by PSP 6-8:129, Gilgit 656.14, or ŚsPN4/2 0184v3. The two gifts are material gifts and the gift of Dharma; or else they are the gifts, and the absence of attachment to, or hope for, any results from the giving.

n.831The results are eight attainments, stream enterer and so on. The presentation of each result is in terms of the elimination of different levels of attachment and so on.

n.832LSPW 570 “seized by a wrong conception.”

n.833Better is Gilgit 660.6 bhagavān āha / na punaḥ subhūte sarva­dharmāḥ sarva­dharmaiḥ śūnyāḥ (“And all dharmas are not empty of all dharmas”).

n.834’bum a 348a7, nyi khri 68.­17 (a 319a4–5), le’u brgyad ma ca 313b2 bden pa khong du chud pa ji ltar bya ba bzhin du bden pa khong du chud par bya ba’i don du spyod do (“In order to awaken to the truths exactly as the truths should be awakened to”). LSPW 577 (reading na in place of anu?): “courses toward an understanding of the truths. And yet the truths are not something that should be understood.”

n.835PSP 6-8:144 na so dharmo yasyāntaṃ paśyati, tathā ca paśyati yathā na kañcid dharmam upalabhate: “They do not see that dharma of which there is an end. They see in a way that they do not apprehend any dharma at all.” le’u brgyad ma ca 313b4–5: chos de dag ci nas kyang chos gang yang dmigs su med pa de ltar mthong ste.

n.836K, N gtogs, supported by ’bum a 349b3. D rtogs; nyi khri 68.­19 (a 319b1) rtogs (“dharmas that they might awaken to as truths, or that they might not awaken to as truths”).

n.837This is a literal translation. LSPW “he cannot fall from the summits” is not supported by Tib, nor by Bṭ3 5.­1455 (278b), which glosses spyi bor ltung bar mi ’gyur te with de la chos la ’dun pa’i sred pa mi byed do “does not yearn for, crave for a dharma.” A śrāvaka nirvāṇa is a nirvāṇa conventionally, but for the bodhisattva in a secure state it is only something without any intrinsic nature for the benefit of beings.

n.838Gilgit 666.1, PSP 6-8:145 śamathabhūmau; ’bum a 348b6, nyi khri 68.­19 (a 319b3), le’u brgyad ma ca 313b6 lhag mthong gi sa (“ special insight level”); earlier (17.­9), Gilgit 354.6 śamatha­vipaśyanā­bhūmi (“calm abiding and special insight level”).

n.839This section is found from PSP 6-8: 158 and le’u brgyad ma ca 323a2. The Maitreya Chapter (below called “The eighty-third … chapter”) comes here (PSP 6-8: 145 and le’u brgyad ma ca 314a5) in Haribhadra’s edition.

n.840Here “karma” (las, karman) is the actual action as it is being done, and “action” (bya ba, kriyā) the object of that action, in the sense of what is deposited in history, as it were, by the action.

n.841“Thought that has arisen on account of error” means a conscious state built into which is an acceptance of its own true existence that it does not, in reality, have.

n.842“The outcome of intentions” renders bsams pa (=abhisaṃcetayitā). Bṭ3 5.­1464 says “they are the outcome of intentions because they are preceded by an intention, so they are falsely imagined phenomena.” MDPL, s.v. abhisaṃcetayitā, “arranged (into concrete things and events),” with mngon par bsags pa (not bsams pa) as its Tib equivalent, apparently deriving it from ci, “to gather, accumulate.” LSPW pp. 586–87 “contrived activities, planned and willed” similar to ’bum a 367b2-3, nyi khri a 330a2, le’u brgyad ma ca 330b7-331a1: chos de dag thams cad kyang ’dus byas pa/ mngon par ’dus byas pa ste.

n.843This is translated literally. It means the only ones who take them as graspable and existent are beings who do not know and do not see that they cannot be grasped and do not exist. PSP 6-8: 167 suggests the meaning: except that such dharmas need to be talked about to those who do not understand (na … agrāhyatā śaktābhilapitum, “you cannot talk about something that cannot be grasped”) but it is not supported by Tib versions’ thob (“cannot reach or attain”).

n.844nābhāva (“no nonexistent thing”) has probably dropped out. ’bum a 375b4, nyi khri a 333b2 gang dngos po med pa dang / dngos po med pa yang ma yin pa dang.

n.845A tathāgata is “in control” in the sense that there is nothing that is beyond the complete understanding of a tathāgata. In particular, there is no use of language and so on that might be of use to beings that is not fully mastered by a tathāgata. Ultimately, however, there is no control.

n.846Insert dang.

n.847Better is nyi khri 71.­2 (a 341a1–2) stong pa nyid gang yin pa de ni gang la yang ci yang byed pa med ci yang mi byed pa yang med de (“That which is emptiness does not do and does not not do anything at all to anything.”)

n.848We have supplied the referent “emptiness.”

n.849LSPW 593 “empty through emptiness.”

n.850Emend chos to las; ’bum (Lhasa Kangyur [shes phyin, bum, na]), 471a3, Bṭ3 281a las.

n.851The edition of this chapter in Conze and Iida 1968, 229–42 (MQ) is the same as PSP 6-8:145ff. and le’u brgyad ma ca 314a5ff. Conze and Iida (MQ 230) say, “Both the Tibetan versions in 18.000 and 25.000 ślokas have at the end a miscellaneous collection of items missing in the version in 100.000 Lines, and in both cases the Maitreya-chapter is the first of these additions… . Chapter 83 of the version in 18.000 ślokas is fairly close to the Tan-jur text… . On the other hand, chapter 72 of the version in 25.000 ślokas … differs a great deal.”

n.852’du byed kyi mtshan ma’i dngos po ( saṃskāra­nimittam vastu); LSPW 578–79 “entity which is the sign of something conditioned”; Brunnhölzl 2011 “an entity that has the characteristic of being conditioned.”

n.853Construe “feeling” and so on as “this is feeling.”

n.854The idea is that since the name given is utterly arbitrary then the only thing known when the name is given is the thing it is given to.

n.855An actual thing “out there” or just a thing that is designated.

n.856dbyings (dhātu) is not the specific dhātu (“constituent”) form and so on as a basis, but the nature (or absence of a nature) that qualifies, in the sense of underpins (dhātu) all qualifiers ( dharma ).

n.857LSPW 579 differs. MQ 236, nyi khri 72.­27: “How is this basis that is a causal sign of a compounded phenomenon going to be inexpressible?”

n.858This reading, rang dbang nyid dam yod pa nyid, is corroborated by Bṭ3 285b. However, nyi khri 72.­31 (a 347b5) rang dbang du yod pa nyid dam / med pa nyid du ’gyur pa (“has no independent existence or nonexistence”).

n.859Brunnhölz 2011, 21: “Conceived form is to be grounded in [the fact that] the true nature of this entity that has the characteristic of being conditioned is mere conception (an expression conditioned by conception) to which this name … refers.” LSPW 580–81: “Discerned form, etc. is the definition of that entity which is the sign of something conditioned as in its dharmic nature mere discernment, as a verbal expression which is conditioned by discernment and to which refers this name.”

n.860Alternatively, “this eternally eternal, constantly constant nonexistence of imaginary form as the intrinsic nature of that conceptualized form.”

n.861We have translated this based on nyi khri 72.­41 (a 350a1) gzugs rab tu dbye ba mdzad, understanding ma mchis (“given there is no such designation”) here to reflect not an alternative reading, but rather an attempt on the part of the translators to render contrasting parts of a long sentence.

n.862Maitreya is saying it is form.

n.863nyi khri 72.­52 (a 350b7) gnyis su med pa’i mtshan nyid (“mark of nonduality”); MQ 239.

n.864Better is nyi khri 72.­59 (a 352a2) mya ngan las ’das pa bzhin du ’khor bar mi skyo’o…’khor ba bzhin du myan ngan las ’das pa la zhen par mi ’gyur ro (“just like nirvāṇa one is not depressed by saṃsāra … just like saṃsāra one does not settle down on nirvāṇa”; that is, you do not dislike saṃsāra in the same way you do not dislike nirvāṇa; and you do not settle down on nirvāṇa in the same way as you do not settle down on saṃsāra.)

n.865Delete la (nyi khri a 352a6).

n.866Better is PSP 6-8:157 upapattiś cāsya bhagavatā pratipattau ca na vyākṛtā; Conze and Iida 241 upapattiś cāsya bhagavatā pratipattyaiva na vyākṛtā; LSPW 583, “The Lord has not said anything about his rebirth which would (be necessary to) enable him to make further progress.” Cf. nyi khri 72.­64 (a 353a1) de’i skye ba yang ma mchis par lung bstan te / skye ba ma mchis na ji ltar ’thob par ’gyur “He has said that their rebirth does not exist, but if their rebirth does not exist how will they gain [awakening]?”

n.867Cf. nyi khri 72.­64 ; PSP 6-8:157; LSPW “an unthinkable rebirth which allows him to advance to the beyond of Nirvana.”

n.868’du byed. nyi khri 72.­66 (a 353a5), le’u brgyad ma ca 322b7 ’khor ba (“life in cyclic existence”).

n.869The verses in this chapter are distinguished in the original by what has been characterized as a “hybrid” language incorporating apparently vernacular features into Sanskrit. Necessarily, this distinguishing feature is largely lost in both the Tib and English translations. It is noteworthy that the Eighteen Thousand version of the perfection of wisdom scripture incorporates this eighty-fourth chapter, which circulates as a separate work called The Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities, right into the body of the text. It functions as a summary of what has gone earlier. Here at the outset the verses are put into the mouth of “the Lord,” but many of the verses are in fact spoken by the other interlocutors met with earlier in the course of the scripture, so they have not been punctuated as quoted speech.

n.870Buddhaśrī 118b7 says the stains are the obscuring afflictions (der ni dri ma zhes bya ba’i sgra tshig snga ma dang sbyar ro).

n.871See 2.­3ff.

n.872About Lake Anavatapa (ma dros pa), Malalasekera, s.v. anotatta, says it is “the last one to dry up at the end of the world”; Buddhaśrī 120a6 has ma dros pa las ’byung ba; Subodhinī 8b1 bdag nyid kyi khyim suggests the name of the lake is the name of the nāga who dwells in and rules it. On nāgendra (“most powerful serpent”) and nāgapati (“serpent ruler”), see Vogel 1926 Chapter V, “Principal Nāga-rājas”; also McKay 2015, Chapter Five. “Anavatapta Nāgendra Nāgapati” means the powerful nāga who rules the lake at the center of the world.

n.873See 6.­3, Aṣṭa (Mitra 3–4, Wogihara 22).

n.874Buddhaśrī 124a6–7 glosses this with skye ba dang ’gag pa la mngon par zhen pa sel ba’i sgo nas yul du byed pa’o (“takes it as an object from the vantage point of having eliminated settling down on production and cessation”).

n.875See 8.­36ff.

n.876In place of gzugs su ’du shes shing, reading RecAt gzugs dang ’du shes dang (“ form and perception”).

n.877RecA 1.9 anupādapade asakto, skye med gnas la reg ma yin (“does not touch the stage of nonproduction”); alternatively, “does not tread the untrod ground.”

n.878Alternatively, anupādadhī, skye med blo yis (“in an intellectually active state of mind that has not been produced”).

n.879See 9.­19ff.

n.880byang chub sems gang; RecAt byang chub sems dpa’.

n.881See 9.­25.

n.882RecA caraṇaṃ ca so acaraṇaṃ prajñayitvā, des ni spyod dang mi spyod rab tu shes pas na (“comprehends what is conduct and what is not [right] conduct”).

n.8839.­42; Gilgit 295.10; Ghoṣa 842; PSP 1-1:188. The word vid means both “exist” and “know.” The word saṃvid has the same two meanings, intensified: “completely exist” or “completely know.” In Skt, therefore, the sentence means, at one and the same time, “As they are not known, so are they known. Thus, not being known, one says ‘ignorance,’ ” and, “As they do not exist, so do they exist. Thus, not existing, one says ‘not existing.’ ”

n.884Buddhaśrī “from the three realms.”

n.885The example is at 45.­2.

n.886Buddhaśrī 131b3–7 says that during the preparation period (nirvedha­bhāgīya) a bodhisattva cuts off belief in a basis for a self, first as an object (physical or mental) and then as a subject (as a materially existing being, or even just as a name). In the awakening that is arrived at one finds the bodhisattva. He glosses bodhim asaṅga­bhūtām with mtshan ma thams cad dang bral ba’i byang chub (“an awakening separated from all causal signs”).

n.887The segue is: “If all people are as if conjured up by a magician, how can you talk of freeing them?”

n.888This derives nirvāṇa from nirvā, “to blow out” or “be blown out.”

n.889Buddhaśrī 135a4 says self and others are the same as objects of compassion; all dharmas are the same insofar as they are empty of an intrinsic nature.

n.890This ends RecA chapter 1; Buddhaśrī 135b5 omits the chapter break but says this is the end of the first of the eight chapters of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra.

n.891RecAs 2.6, has vidhūta­mala­kleśa (“cleared away the dirt of afflictions”) and paripācita (“the one who has been brought to maturity”). Buddhaśrī says the third bodhisattva (“who has cleared away the dirt and afflictions”) has eliminated obscurations to omniscience; and he takes “the fourth” in the last line not as one of the four, but as the worthy one “who has eliminated doubt” and says they are bodhisattvas who have not fallen into a śrāvaka-type nirvāṇa.

n.892The translators read na ya. RecA naya (tshul), “the one training by way of not training in training is training.”

n.893RecAs2.8d guṇo. This is the first reference to the “qualities” in the title given below in the final verse (84.­301). The “qualities” are the attributes of a bodhisattva who has completely awakened, which is to say, all the good qualities included within the perfection of wisdom that is defined in terms of all that is of benefit to all beings, in particular, the qualities of the śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas.

n.894See 24.­71–24.­89.

n.895This ends RecA chapter 2. Cf. 25.­5–28.­2.

n.896gus byas, sa[t]kṛtya; RecA rtag, nitya (“constantly”).

n.897These verses summarize the path of meditation called smos pa’i sgom lam (25.­6–27.­21.) and its benefits (anuśaṃsā).

n.898See 28.­7–28.­9.

n.899See 30.­10.

n.900This ends RecA chapter 3. This illustration is not in the khri brgyad stong pa at this point; at 63.­17 it is the wheel of the emperor.

n.901See 31.­2.

n.902See 31.­34.

n.903This translation takes the verse as summarizing 31.­19: “To illustrate, Lord, a person fearful of rich creditors seeks safety with the ruler, and in the retinue of the ruler is actually lobbied by those whom one fears … Similarly, Lord, the physical remains of the tathāgatas get to be worshiped because they are suffused with the perfection of wisdom. Lord, there the perfection of wisdom should be viewed as being like a ruler; the physical relics of the tathāgatas that get to be worshiped because they are suffused by the perfection of wisdom should be viewed as being like the person who has sought safety with the ruler.” Alternatively, if summarizing 31.­7: “Lord, at the times when I am present on the throne of the head of the gods in the Sudharmā assembly of gods, the gods come to attend on me there in my place. When I am not present on my lion throne they think, ‘Seated on this Dharma throne Śatakratu, head of the gods, teaches Dharma to the Trāyastriṃśa gods,’ and they bow down to that throne of mine and go back.” The line “Just as a man with the king as support receives human worship…” would then be rendered “Just as [a throne] that is a king’s support receives human worship…”

n.904Summarizing 31.­22ff., especially 31.­27.

n.905See 31.­50.

n.906Buddhaśrī 140a6 “to miserliness and so on.”

n.907See 31.­51.

n.908This ends RecA chapter 4.

n.909Summarizing 32.­28–32.­29.

n.910Summarizing 32.­45–32.­50.

n.911parasattva; RecAt gzhan; Eight Thousand, 19 (5.3) “another being,” but Buddhaśrī 41a1 sems can mchog la zhes bya ba ni byang chub sems dpa’ la’o / mchog zhes bya ba’i sgra ni dam par rjod par byed pa yin pai phyir te / byang chub sems dpa’ gzhan gyis byang chub tu sems bskyed pa la zhes bya ba rgyas par gang bsungs pa yin no.

n.912Summarizing 32.­51–32.­59.

n.913Summarizing 32.­60–32.­73.

n.914Buddhaśrī 141a7 says that in possession of the light-like four detailed and thorough knowledges they teach others to practice the ten wholesome actions and so on. The form sada appears to be rendered into Tib by byung.

n.915This ends RecA chapter 5.

n.916This and the following stanzas summarize Chapter 33.

n.917Buddhaśrī 142b3 “to awakening.”

n.918Subodhinī 32a2 des gnang ba’i yongs su bsngo ba dang ldan pa’i phyir ro snyam du dgongs pa yin no (“It intends: because they are in possession of the dedication approved by him.”)

n.919This ends RecA chapter 6. Eight Thousand, 22 (6.9) is based on the reading abhibhonti.

n.920See 34.­6.

n.921This ends RecA chapter 7.

n.922Buddhaśrī 144b2 ming ni tshor ba la sogs pa’i phung po’o (“name is the feeling aggregate and so on”).

n.923This ends RecA chapter 8.

n.924This ends RecA chapter 9. 37.­1: “Then venerable Subhūti said to the Lord, ‘Lord, the perfection of wisdom is not an agent.’ The Lord responded, ‘Subhūti, the perfection of wisdom is the nonapprehender of all dharmas.’ ”

n.925See 37.­25.

n.926See 39.­30

n.927See 39.­33–39.­35.

n.928See 39.­38–39.­39.

n.929See 39.­44–39.­47.

n.930This ends RecA chapter 10, summarizing 39.­51–39.­52.

n.931See 39.­57. Buddhaśrī 147a6 smra ba’i zla ba zhes bya ba ni dngos po thams cad gsal ba byed pa yin pa’i phyir ro “(A speaker-moon because of clarifying everything”).

n.932See 40.­2–40.­7.

n.933See 40.­24–40.­28.

n.934See 40.­31.

n.935See 41.­4–41.­5.

n.936RecA na-kārya-yuktaṃ, bya ba min dang ldan; Eight Thousand, 30 (10.7), “is disinclined to do his work.” This summarizes the long sequence of “faults” (41.­1–41.­38).

n.937See 41.­49.

n.938This ends RecA chapter 11, summarizing up to 41.­52.

n.939See 42.­1.

n.940Eight Thousand, 31 (12.3c): “unaltering.”

n.941See 42.­2–42.­30.

n.942See 43.­7.

n.943Here ’jig rten (“world”) must have crept in as a mistake for ’jigs med; Eight Thousand, 31 (12.6), “roars fearlessly.”

n.944See 43.­19–43.­21.

n.945This ends RecA chapter 12, summarizing 43.­44.

n.946See 44.­3.

n.947This ends RecA chapter 13.

n.948Summarizing from 44.­15 up to 44.­23.

n.949These examples are summarizing 45.­1–45.­9.

n.950For the differences between the editions at this point, see Yuyama, 172 (with notes inserted into RecAt).

n.951This ends RecA chapter 14.

n.952The segue here is given at 45.­10: “How is it, Lord, that those sons of a good family or daughters of a good family who have set out in the Bodhisattva Vehicle have not been assisted by the perfection of wisdom and have not been assisted by skillful means and even fall to the śrāvaka level and the pratyekabuddha level?” This is, however, explicitly summarizing the beginning of chapter 46: “The Lord having said that, venerable Subhūti inquired of him, ‘Lord, how should bodhisattva great beings beginning the work train in the perfection of wisdom? How should they train in the perfection of concentration, perfection of perseverance, perfection of patience, perfection of morality, and perfection of giving?’ ‘Subhūti,’ replied the Lord, ‘bodhisattva great beings beginning the work who want to train in the perfection of wisdom, and who want to train in the perfection of concentration, perfection of perseverance, perfection of patience, perfection of morality, and perfection of giving, should attend on spiritual friends who teach the perfection of wisdom.’ ”

n.953This translation follows Buddhaśrī 151a2: byang chub ni rnam par byang ba’i bdag nyid rnams so// phung po ni kun nas nyon mongs pa’i mtshan nyid rnams so.

n.954Emend legs ’tsho to legs mtsho, guṇasāgara.

n.955blo, buddhi.

n.956See 47.­8–47.­10.

n.95748.­3 (kha.167.b1), ’bum tha 8a7, nyi khri kha 330a3 thugs gzhol.

n.958RecA vigraha, rtsod pa; 48.­1 mi ’thun pa (“counterpoint”); Gilgit 543.2 vipratyayanīya; Gyurme (khri pa) “incompatible with”; Eight Thousand “antagonistic to”; ’bum tha 8b1, nyi khri 38.­7 (kha 330a5) ’jig rten thams cad kyis yid chas par dka’ ba (“hard for the entire world to believe in”).

n.959This ends RecA chapter 15.

n.960Summarizing 48.­15–48.­27.

n.961Neither Buddhśrī nor Subodhinī gloss the word ’jig rten (loke) explicitly, but the idea seems to be that the five perfections are perfections in an ordinary (loka) sense, but not ultimately. For that the perfection of wisdom is necessary.

n.962Summarizing 48.­34–48.­43.

n.963RecAt, 174 supports the reading theg pa here, but RecAs, 62 (16.6a) jñāna (ye shes) is glossed as such by Buddhaśrī 153a2, Subodhinī 46a3. In the Abhisamayālaṃkāra this marks the beginning of explanation of the prayoga, sbyor ba (practice) proper.

n.964Jäschke says tha ba means thu ba; Buddhaśrī 153a5 glosses with gnod sems med pa.

n.965This ends RecA chapter 16, summarizing up to 48.­101, the end of the forty-eighth chapter.

n.96649.­1: “The Lord having said this, venerable Subhūti asked him, ‘Lord, what is the attribute, what is the token, and what is the sign of bodhisattva great beings? How do I know, “These bodhisattva great beings are irreversible?” ’ ”

n.967Summarizing 49.­1–49.­10.

n.968Buddhaśrī 153b5 lus kyi las la sogs pa kha na ma tho ba med pa’i phyir sgo gsum dben zhing dag pa (“pure because of being isolated from basic physical, verbal, and mental immoralities”).

n.969Summarizing 49.­30–50.­9.

n.970Buddhaśrī 154a1 ro byang ba med pa (“does not relish”).

n.971Summarizing 50.­17. “Black magic” (abhicāra, drag shul) incorporates violent and antinomian behavior.

n.972Alternatively, ’dod pa’i las can (icchakarmam) may mean “those who want to make it happen.” Buddhaśrī 154a3 khye’ur ’gyur ro zhe’am bu mor ’gyur ro zhes bya ba ston.

n.973Emend brtan/brten to RecA śāsanī, bstan.

n.974The idea is they have avoided a purposeless birth where what they have to teach in life is unwelcome to the listeners; cf. 49.­8.

n.975See 50.­31: “They are not uncertain and harbor no doubt about their own level. And why? Because they have no uncertainty about the very limit of reality, and they do not conceive of the very limit of reality as one or two. Because of such an understanding, they do not produce a thought at the śrāvaka level or the pratyekabuddha level even after returning back to a life.”

n.976Cf. 50.­38.

n.977This ends RecA chapter 17.

n.97851.­7. Buddhaśrī 154a7 (explaining the Abhisamayālaṃkāra ) says these begin the signs of irreversible bodhisattvas on the path of meditation.

n.979See 51.­11.

n.980Summarizing 51.­12–51.­16. To paraphrase Subodhinī 48b5–49a1, the lustful man is dying for her to come. Like that, “through the force of the path of meditation bodhisattvas obtain a collection of as much wisdom and merit as the collection of wisdom and merit through which, over unbroken eons, beings, having rejected saṃsāra, will gain awakening, [such is one’s desire for it to happen].” Buddhaśrī 154b5–6: “just a tiny moment of paying attention to wisdom brings about as much merit as it takes an eon to accomplish.”

n.981ldan. RecAs abhiyukta (“makes an effort at”).

n.982See 51.­17–51.­21.

n.983shes; RecA 18.6 khyāyati, snang (“appears to be”); Eight Thousand , “declared to be.”

n.984See 51.­32–51.­33.

n.985This ends RecA chapter 18, summarizing 51.­34–51.­53.

n.986See 51.­53–51.­72.

n.987ngung ngu ngyung ngus; RecAs, 71 stokastokaṃ also means “drop by drop.”

n.988Note the excursus on karma and the appeal to Maitreya (52.­3–52.­17) is not referenced here. It is in the Abhisamayālaṃkāra . This summarizes 52.­18–52.­20.

n.989This ends RecA chapter 19, summarizing up to 52.­53.

n.990Leaving out the Gaṅgādevī chapter, this summarizes 54.­1–54.­6, beginning the upāyakauśalya section that ends Abhisamayālaṃkāra chapter 4.

n.991RecAs, 75 (20.2) kṛtayogya; LC ’os su gyur; Eight Thousand, 45 “well-qualified.” Buddhaśrī 151b5 goms par byas pa (“very experienced”).

n.992The illustration is at 54.­7. They do not touch awakening because they have not yet accumulated all the necessary equipment for that state, or because they do not settle down on the reality even of that state.

n.993“Supported” renders gnas (adhiṣṭhāna); Buddhaśrī 157a2 says “the work (bya ba) is the four ways of gathering a retinue.”

n.994The reading here and at RecAt, 177 (20.7d) is mtshan ma med par gnas shing; but RecAs, 76 and Obermiller 1960, 75 have na ca ānimittu-sthitu; Eight Thousand , “Nor should one stand in the signless,” supported by Buddhaśrī 157a3 stong pa nyid la gnas pa mtshan ma dang mtshan ma med pa dag tu mi ’dzin pa’i phyir.

n.995See 54.­8.

n.996See 54.­9.

n.997See 54.­10.

n.998These illustrations are not in any of the extant versions of the sūtra and not in the Abhisamayālaṃkāra. Bṭ3 5.­1014 in this context says, “Here there are a further seven subsections to the passage.”

n.999Here “dharmas” means one keeps on meditating on the three gateways to liberation without entering nirvāṇa (Buddhaśrī 158a1).

n.1000This translation, “have a proper understanding of paths,” is supported by Subodhinī 55a2–3 “have a proper understanding” because they are skilled in the comprehension of the good qualities and faults, respectively.

n.1001RecAs, 81 (20.19cd): “It is simply impossible to be able to give an exposition, be it of one who has reached nirvāṇa or even of one being something compounded.” RecAt, 178 (20.19cd): “If they were to experience nirvāṇa they would not be there, but even were that the case, they would still be able to reach it.”

n.1002K, N pa; RecAs, 81 (20.20d) prajña­panāya śakyaḥ.

n.1003Summarizing 54.­22.

n.1004Summarizing 55.­1–55.­3.

n.1005Summarizing 55.­5–55.­6.

n.1006This ends RecA chapter 20. Summarizing 55.­9.

n.1007Summarizing 55.­10. Buddhaśrī 159b2 gzhan gyis lung bstan zhes ba ba ni bdud kyis sangs rgyas su ’gyur ro.

n.1008Māra is disguised as a buddha, or (55.­13) “disguised as a monk; or else he approaches disguised as a nun; or else he approaches disguised as a landlord; or else he approaches disguised as their mother; or else he approaches disguised as their father.”

n.1009ming gi gzhi las renders nāmādhiṣṭhāna (cf. 55.­12) governed by the exigencies of meter. It means the detailed declaration of the irreversible bodhisattva’s name and so on.

n.1010See 55.­12.

n.1011See 55.­12–55.­15.

n.1012See 55.­18–55.­25.

n.1013See 55.­21–55.­22.

n.1014“Think that they are greater than” renders drod snyam, literally “think they outweigh.” RecAs, 86 (21.8d) tulayeya; bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo, s.v. drod, gives as a second meaning tshod “measure”; Jäschke, s.v. drod, “one Lex. has drod rig pa = mātrajña experienced or well-versed in measure.” Eight Thousand, 50 “should … be considered.” Buddhaśrī 170a5 says it means to disparage (drod snyom zhing brnyas par byed pa de ni).

n.1015This ends RecA chapter 21.

n.1016drag ldan. Emend or read RecAs, 88 (22.1b) guru , Eight Thousand, 51 “weighty” as ugra.

n.1017See 55.­28.

n.1018See 55.­30.

n.1019Subodhinī 57b6 de dag kun te sangs rgyas ji snyed pa’i lam.

n.1020See 55.­31.

n.1021See 55.­33–55.­36.

n.1022Emend mi to min; RecAs, 90 (22.6d) sadā a-bhūto.

n.1023See 55.­37–55.­43.

n.1024Buddhaśrī 163b3 glosses rjes su mthun byed zhes bya ba ni rab tu ston par byed pa’o (“to teach it”).

n.1025See 55.­45–55.­46.

n.1026See 55.­49–55.­50.

n.1027Explaining 55.­50–55.­51.

n.1028See 55.­52. The perfection of wisdom is best taken as both a book and a practice here as in Haribhadra’s gloss of the Aṣṭa (Wogihara 796; Sparham 2006–11, vol. 4, 153). Buddhśrī 164a7 “ ‘Going quickly.’ Worried an enemy might come one goes quickly and calms down. It intends: so one will not lose the precious jewel.” This ends RecA chapter 22.

n.1029This example is not explicitly taught but conveys the meaning of 56.­5, “The bodhisattva great beings will not simply surpass the stream enterers, up to pratyekabuddhas in one respect but not another; they will surpass all those bodhisattva great beings without skillful means and separated from the perfection of wisdom practicing the perfection of giving” and so on.

n.1030Buddhaśrī says they teach their own knowledge to others.

n.1031This ends RecA chapter 23. Again, this example is not explicitly taught but conveys the meaning at 56.­6: “The Four Mahārājas will think about approaching bodhisattva great beings who train like that, and having come into their presence, they will say, ‘Make haste at training! Train quickly! The tathāgatas, worthy ones, perfectly complete buddhas of yore took possession of these four begging bowls, so you too, seated at the site of awakening, having fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect complete awakening, should take possession of them as well.’ ”

n.1032See 56.­11.

n.1033Emend dag to ngag RecAs, 96 (24.2c) kāya­citta­vacanam.

n.1034This and the following verses are summarizing 56.­12–56.­30.

n.1035Buddhaśrī 166a1 says one puts oneself down, thinking someone who has to help and benefit all should not get upset like this.

n.1036This ends RecA chapter 24, summarizing 56.­26–56.­30.

n.1037Buddhaśrī 166a5.

n.1038Subodhinī 61b1–2, Buddhaśrī 166b1.

n.103957.­14 gives both examples.

n.1040This ends RecA chapter 25.

n.1041See 58.­3–58.­7.

n.1042Buddhaśrī 167b7: “with wisdom that settles down on a duality.”

n.1043The context for this is 58.­18–58.­19: “Lord, it does not occur to those bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom to think, ‘I am distant from the śrāvaka level or pratyekabuddha level, but I am close to the knowledge of all aspects.’ To illustrate, Lord, it does not occur to a space to think, ‘I am near one thing and distant from another.’ And why? Lord, it is because a space does not have specific features, because a space is without thought construction.”

n.1044These illustrations are 58.­20–58.­25.

n.1045This ends RecA chapter 26, summarizing 59.­3–59.­9.

n.1046See 59.­10.

n.1047See 59.­10–59.­11; also Aṣṭa (Wogihara 852), brgyad stong pa , 242b5, ŚsPN3 9868r10, PSP 5:42, and nyi khri 49.­15.

n.1048As in the Eight Thousand Line version, “knower of all” or “all-knowledge” is not reserved for the limited knowledge of a worthy one.

n.1049Summarizing 59.­17–59.­23.

n.1050See 60.­4. The reading dharmakāmam is supported by Buddhaśrī 170b1.

n.1051The context (60.­5–60.­7) is the Lord’s statement to Śatakratu that Subhūti’s dwelling, that is to say, the result of a śrāvaka’s practice, “does not approach the bodhisattva great being’s dwelling in the perfection of wisdom even by … a hundred thousand one hundred millionth part … because … bodhisattva great beings practicing this perfection of wisdom pass beyond the śrāvaka level and the pratyekabuddha level, enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva, and, having completed all the buddhadharmas, reach the knowledge of all aspects. Having reached the knowledge of all aspects, they obtain the elimination of all residual impressions, connections, and afflictions.”

n.1052Buddhaśrī 170b7 says one can read arhan not as dgra bcom pa (“destroyer of the enemy [afflictions]”) but as “become worthy (arhan) of all good qualities.”

n.1053This example comes earlier (54.­9).

n.1054This ends RecA chapter 27.

n.1055Buddhaśrī 172b1 connects this with when the Lord delivers the perfection of wisdom over to Ānanda for safekeeping (going up to 60.­38). The remainder of the verses (84.­245–84.­301) explain each of the six perfections, starting with wisdom and ending with giving, and then provide a short summary of the six in the customary order. The Subodhinī connects it with the Sadāprarudita story and so on, but since that is itself a summary (not in the form of an udāna but an avadāna), it does not make sense that an udāna (this collection of verses in chapter 84) would include the avadāna (the Sadāprarudita story) within the purview of what needs to be summarized. This marks the end of the second of the three Kangyur volumes of khri brgyad stong pa.

n.1056This begins the explanation of the perfection of wisdom.

n.1057This is Buddhaśrī’s (173a3) explanation, relating these with the paths of meditation down to accumulation, respectively.

n.1058RecAs, 110 (28.6c) has jñānayantra; Eight Thousand, 61 “the machinery of cognition” in place of karmayantra.

n.1059This ends RecA chapter 28.

n.1060This begins the perfection of concentration. Buddhaśrī 175a2; Subodhinī 67a7. The context is the explanation of how each of the perfections is included in the other‍—the explanation is of the state at the end of meditation that includes all the practices undivided.

n.1061Subodhinī 67b4 says there is no causal sign that makes one settle down on them.

n.1062The idea is that all the places in Jambudvīpa are inferior relative to the perfect places of the gods and the humans in Kuru.

n.1063The idea is that there is no sound in the formless realm, so it is not possible to talk with the beings there and be of any use to them.

n.1064The idea is that one uses the wealth for the good of one’s family.

n.1065One does not react to meditative attainment incorrectly by dwelling on the experience.

n.1066RecAs sattvāḥ; Buddhaśrī 177b1 sems dpa’ ste sems go cha’i brtson ’grus kyis rnam par dag pa yod pa’i byang chub sems dpa’. He goes on to say there are six impediments to perseverance. The first, laziness, is being referenced in the first two lines, and the second, pride (mānagrāhin), in the last two lines.

n.1067Buddhaśrī 178a2–3: “the emergence of awakening in a mindstream destroys the pride and so on that were in the mindstream before.” The pride (a block to perseverance) is overcome by cultivating the insight that one is a slave to all beings. The absence of the pride even to such a degree (awakening) requires the pride to be in a mindstream in the first place. A similar example is in the Laṅkāvatāra­sūtra.

n.1068Buddhaśrī glosses RecAs, 116 (29.14c) paricaryamānā with ’tsho bar byed (“look after”).

n.1069This ends RecA chapter 29.

n.1070This is the stanza as it is explained by Buddhaśrī 178b4–5. Different, but very possible, is RecAs, 119 (30.3c), RecAt, 187. “If, thinking ‘I have to reach the unsurpassed calm,’ they have produced their first production of the thought of supreme awakening and make their thinking mind stay with that day and night, they should be known as those with clear intelligence making a vigorous attempt.”

n.1071Not twisted by malice and so on.

n.1072This ends RecA chapter 30.

n.1073In this verse “law” renders chos ( dharma ). Emend nges pa (a printing error) to des pa. MW, s.v. guṇadharma (yon tan chos), “the virtue or duty incident to the possession of certain qualities (as clemency is the virtue and duty of royalty).” Buddhaśrī 182a4 byang chub yon tan ’byung ’gyur la// gang las byang chub kyi yon tan stobs la sogs pa yang dag par ’grub par ’gyur pa’i chos de.

n.1074Alternatively, sdom min (RecAs, 125 asaṃvaro), “not following the code.”

n.1075The reference here is to the eight “worldly dharmas” (laukikadharma), where attachment and aversion, respectively, to each of the four opposites (pleasure and pain and so on) rule an ordinary person’s life, as above (43.­11) “great equanimity with the mark of remaining indifferent toward pleasure and pain, gaining and not gaining, fame and infamy, praise and blame that cause faults in beings.”

n.1076Buddhaśrī 184b5 says “many” are the enjoyments of decent people and “immeasurable” the final nirvāṇa.

n.1077This ends RecA chapter 31.

n.1078Buddhaśrī 186a6 takes the line, as do the Tib translators, first explaining the negative a in akṣaṇa as mi khom pa (“places that preclude a perfect human birth”) and then the kṣaṇa as dal ba (“perfect human birth”).

n.1079Aṣṭa (Wogihara 927) mā dakṣiṇena mā purvveṇa mā paścimena mottareṇa mordhvaṃ mā’dho; brgyad stong pa 261b2 shar du ma yin slor ma yin nub tu ma yin. The correct reading is likely “without looking to the right or left, without looking to the south, west, north” and so on.

n.1080The translators here and at brgyad stong pa 262b2 read āvaraṇam (sgrib pa) in place of ārambanam; Eight Thousand, 278 “no attachment to objective supports.”

n.1081Below, the translators use a plural for grong khyer, and the size of the “city” (nagarī) shows it is a metropolis, like a modern Indian city made up of many relatively autonomous villages.

n.1082las/ karma is missing here in the Tibetan but has been added based on the parallel passage in Aṣṭa (Wogihara, 939.18).

n.1083Cf. 73.­55. Āryavimuktisena (Sparham 2006–11, vol. 4, 76) explains: “ ‘Blue’ is the general rubric (uddeśapada); ‘the color blue’ (nīlavarṇa) is based on innate blueness; ‘look blue’ (nīladarśana) is based on added blueness; ‘shine out blue’ [“appear blue”] (nīlabhāsvara) is based on the fact that both release light and shine out. Nakamura (2014, 611–612) renders the last of these ‘ “whose shining is blue” is because of the brightness [caused] by the release of light (prabhā­nirmokṣa­bhāsvaratā) of these two.’

n.1084A line has (accidentally?) been omitted here. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 934, Mitra 487) buddha­netrī­citrī­karānugata sugata śruta­cittānāṃ sattvānām; brgyad stong pa 264a6 sangs rgyas kyi tshul la gus par byed pa rjes su ’gro ba’i thos pa dang sems pa legs par rtogs pa. Its inclusion is supported by Haribhadra’s commentary (Wogihara 939, Sparham 2006–11, vol. 4, 275) on a similar line: “ ‘With minds faithfully devoted to’ with serene faith in her ‘the Guide of the Buddhas’ the Perfection of Wisdom ‘and bent on listening to’ with the aforementioned knowledge arisen from listening to ‘the Sugata’ well (suṣṭhu) gone (gata), ‘and for a long time they had been intent on deep dharmas.’ The anugata is because [the faithful devotion] is connected with that [mind bent on listening].”

n.1085Aṣṭa (Wogihara) just has suvarṇapādaka.

n.1086Perhaps the translators read abhīkṣṇa for Aṣṭa (Wogihara 936) adhiṣṭhita.

n.1087This is a conjecture.

n.1088This is a conjecture. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) prakṛtya­vyavahāra; brgyad stong pa 236a6 rang bzhin gyis tha snyad med pa (“in its basic nature inexpressible”).

n.1089Omitted here is Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) sarva­dharma­viṣayāpagata; brgyad stong pa 236a7 chos thams cad yul dang bral ba; Eight Thousand, 282 “it has left the sphere of dharmas behind.”

n.1090This is a conjecture. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) āsannarūparāja; Eight Thousand, 282 “The king is near.” We have emended rāja to rajas based on the reading here and brgyad stong pa 236b1 gzugs kyi rdul sel (“eliminating material dirt”).

n.1091Omitted here is Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) asapatnarāja; Eight Thousand, 282 “the unrivaled king.” brgyad stong pa 236a7 has phun sum tshogs pa (“perfect”).

n.1092Omitted here is Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) dharma­dhātu­niyata ; brgyad stong pa , 236a7 chos kyi dbyings su nges pa; Eight Thousand, 282 “fixed on the element of dharma.”

n.1093This is a conjecture. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) sarva­sattvābhavana; Eight Thousand, 282 “no world for beings to be reborn in.”

n.1094Emend las to la; brgyad stong pa 236b5 chos thams cad la nges par ’bigs pa; Eight Thousand, 282 “piercer of all dharmas.”

n.1095Omitted here is Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) sarva­dharma­vibhava­mudrā; Eight Thousand, 282 “seal of the desisting from becoming on the part of all dharmas”; brgyad stong pa 236b5 chos thams cad kyi ’byor ba phyag rgya, “seal of the wealth of all dharmas.”

n.1096Omitted here is Aṣṭa (Wogihara 941) sarva­tathāgata­darśin; brgyad stong pa 237a1 de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad mthong ba, “with sight of all tathāgatas.”

n.1097ri mo, citrīkāra; Edg, “pay reverence, respect.”

n.1098Probably an editor’s error.

n.1099The language used to tell the story is somewhat slimmed down here in comparison with the version in the Aṣṭa and brgyad stong pa .

n.1100brgyad stong pa 271b3 adds sgo drung du bsdad do (“he waited at the gateway”).

n.1101rol mo’i cha byad is either a mistake, or an alternative for rol mo’i yo byad (brgyad stong pa 271b4), Aṣṭa (Wogihara 950.21) vādyaprakṛti.

n.1102dgyer? Perhaps, on the model ’byed, phye, dbye, this is from ’gyed, past tense bgyes (“to disperse, dismiss”); cf. kun ’gyed “donation to each in the entire community.” Aṣṭa (Wogihara 950) utsṛjyata (“release”).

n.1103Aṣṭa (Wogihara 952.21) pīḍāsthānam (“oppressive state”).

n.1104chas (prasthita) is probably a perfect form of cha (“to go”‍—with a secondary meaning of to be on the point of doing something); alternatively, it may be an incorrect form of ’cha’, Jäschke “to make, prepare, construct.”

n.1105Aṣṭa (Wogihara 954) aparimāṇa­pūjāvyūhena, they proceeded “as an infinite immeasurable array of worship.” The translators apparently understood vyūha to be in reference to the immense layout of the city; brgyad stong pa 274a1 mchod pa’i bkod pa tshad med pa dang (“a layout inviting infinite worship”); Eight Thousand, 288 “magnificent display of religious aspirations.”

n.1106There is a helpful Wikipedia article on araru (MW agallochum) under “agarwood.” Accessed May 9, 2022.

n.1107Aṣṭa (Wogihara 955) sapta­ratna­mayaḥ paryaṅkaḥ prajñapto ’bhut; Eight Thousand, 288 “a couch made of the seven precious stones was put up.” But brgyad stong pa 274a4 supports the reading here, the four perhaps reflecting the four Vedas or four baskets (piṭaka; cf. Wogihara 955.10 peḍā, MW peṭaka) of sūtra , vinaya, abhidharma, and bodhisattva teachings.

n.1108Probably in error this version omits “with the merchant’s daughter and the five hundred girls.”

n.1109Reading, with brgyad stong pa 275a5, gzhal med khang (vimāna) in place of Aṣṭa (Wogihara 957.4) vitāna; Eight Thousand, 289 “like a canopy.”

n.1110khyod las; brgyad stong pa 276a5 khyod kyis; Aṣṭa (Wogihara 958.27) tava (“your perfection of wisdom”) fits a bit better with the earlier story.

n.1111Aṣṭa (Wogihara 966.9) has omitted yang dag pa ma lags so (“it is not real”).

n.1112ming mtshan gyi sku is an odd honorific for Aṣṭa (Wogihara 966.13) nāmakāyena; brgyad stong pa 277b7–278a1 ming gyi sku. In the nāmarūpa (“name and form”) of the twelve-branch pratītya­samutpāda, nāman is the mental part of a being’s makeup.

n.1113Emend dong ba ’dod pa ’dod par ’gyur to dong ba ’dong pa ’dong par ’gyur.

n.1114rab tu ’byed. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 967) prabhāvyante; Eight Thousand, 292 “augmented.”

n.1115phyugs pa, Aṣṭa (Wogihara 981.16) sumṛṣṭa literally means “smeared,” like smearing the walls with mud and cow dung to make a good surface.

n.1116byung perhaps renders prādurbhūta; cf. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 982) bhūpradeśād (“from this spot of earth”).

n.1117In each case the Tib translators render the Skt abstract nouns literally. In English this would be: “the state of all dharmas is the same, so the state of the perfection of wisdom is the same; all dharmas are in an isolated state so the perfection of wisdom is in an isolated state; all dharmas are in a state that does not move so the perfection of wisdom is in a state that does not move,” and so on.

n.1118sna tshogs pa nyid, Aṣṭa (Wogihara 986.7) vicitratā. Each side of the axial mountain is said to be a different color.

n.1119Aṣṭa (Wogihara 986) vijñāna­dhātvaparyantatayā; brgyad stong pa 283b6 rnam par shes pa’i khams mu med pa nyid pas (“the consciousness element is limitless so the perfection of wisdom is limitless”). This is also absent from the list of meditative stabilizations below.

n.1120This vajropama­dharma is likely the last meditative stabilization before awakening.

n.1121rnam par ’jigs pa mnyam pa nyid, so too brgyad stong pa 284a1 *vibhāvanāsama­tā; Aṣṭa (Wogihara 986.16) abhibhāvanāsama­tā; Eight Thousand, 297 “remains the same whatever it may surpass.”

n.1122Each of these meditative stabilizations matches Dharmodgata’s explanations of the perfection of wisdom.

n.1123As above (see n.­1119), vijñāna­dhātva­paryantaś ca nāma samādhiḥ is left out.

n.1124This is a conjecture. Aṣṭa (Wogihara 987) sarva­dharmānupalabdhi , brgyad stong pa 284a7 chos thams cad dmigs su med pa; Eight Thousand, 298 “non-apprehension of all dharmas.”

n.1125Aṣṭa (Wogihara 987) sarva­dharma­vibhāvanāsama­tā; Eight Thousand, 298 (perhaps for the sake of consistency) “remains the same whatever it may surpass.”

n.1126“Avoided the places that preclude a perfect human birth” renders akṣaṇā (literally “those on account of which the moment is not there”; Tib mi khom pa, “absences of leisure or capacity”) vivarjitāḥ. “Accomplished a perfect human birth ” renders kṣaṇasampac- (literally “ perfect moment ”; Tib (dal ba/khom pa) phun tshogs, “fullnesses of leisure or capacity̛”) cārāvagatāḥ (Wogihara 989). The implied metaphor is a flash of lightning that stands for the perfection of wisdom, understood as a brilliant and powerful state of mind, in essence “the thought of awakening” that makes clear, in a billion lifetimes of darkness, a meaningful life. It does not mean an instant, in the usual sense of the word, but a lifetime that, when compared with the billions of other lifetimes a practitioner has spent in darkness without understanding the perfection of wisdom, is an instant.

n.1127At Aṣṭa (Wogihara 989.21) and brgyad stong pa 285a1–2 these last two sentences are said not to Subhūti, but to Ānanda.

n.1128yang dag par yongs su gzung ba’i phyir is omitted from Aṣṭa (Wogihara 989) and brgyad stong pa 285a3.

n.1129skyes bu tha mar mi ’gyur pa, reading anta (tha ma), so too brgyad stong pa 285b2, in place of Aṣṭa (Wogihara 990) anya; Eight Thousand, 300 “No other man would be as suitable as you are.”

n.1130spyod; brgyad stong pa 285b3 rab tu spyod; Aṣṭa (Wogihara 990.22) paricariṣyati; Eight Thousand, 300 “shall be observed.”

n.1131S ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa rdzogs so// rgya gar gyi mkhan po dzi na mi tra dang / su ren+d+ra bo d+hi dang / zhu chen gyi lo tsa ba ban de ye shes sde la sogs pas bsgyur cig zhus te gtan la bab pa’o. D omits. The Hemis Kangyur (from the Ladahki/Mustang group) and the Gangteng Kanygur (Thempangma) list the Indian preceptor Prajñāvarman (pradz+nya barma) instead of Surendrabodhi.