Notes

n.1See Subhashita Translation Group, trans., The Chapter on The Scale of Life , Toh 44-37 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).

n.2See Subhashita Translation Group, trans., The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable , Toh 268 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).

n.3Though the manuscript itself is not presently accessible, a critical edition of the complete collection was edited and translated by Bhikṣuṇī Vinītā Tseng (2010).

n.4For the complexities regarding the origin, content, and structure of the A Multitude of Buddhas, see 84000’s Knowledge Base article on the subject; an accessible and informative discussion is also to be found in Hamar 2015.

n.5Tib. byang chub kyi snying po na; Skt. bodhimaṇḍale. The Tibetan term is typically a translation of bodhimaṇḍa, referring to the “seat of awakening.” The Skt. bodhimaṇḍala can be taken as either a variant or scribal corruption that conveys the same meaning.

n.6Tib. mnyam dga’. On the use of the Tib. term mnyam dga’/mnyam dka’ as a translation of the Skt. term magadha , see Hahn 2012, an article dedicated to precisely this equivalence. The Skt. text confirms magadheṣu, “in Magadha.”

n.7This line is not found in the Skt. witness.

n.8Because the previous line was not included in the Skt. text, the Skt. sūtra proceeds from Sukhāvatī here instead of Abhirati. The Skt. reads, “an eon in the realm of Sukhāvatī is but a single day in the realm of Kaṣāyadhvajā…” (sukhāvatyāṃ lokadhātau kalpaṃ tat kaṣāyadhvajāyāṃ lokadhātau … ekaṃ rātridivasam).

n.9Skt. yatra samantabhadracaritrāṇām bodhisattvānām mahāsattvānām bhumīparikarmaviśeṣaḥ.

n.10Here the Skt. text includes “promotes it” (bhāvayiṣyati), which is not found in the Tib. translation.

n.11In this line the Skt. text attests to a near-identical rendering of the title of the sūtra as provided in the Tib. translation: Tathāgatānām buddha­kṣetraguṇodbhāvana­dharma­paryāyam.

n.12The colophon of the Skt. sūtra reads, “This completes the seventeenth sūtra, the Mahāyāna sūtra titled Proclaiming the Qualities of the Infinite Buddhafields, which belongs to the extensive collection, A Multitude of Buddhas (buddhāvataṃsakād vaipulyapiṭakād anantabuddhakṣetraguṇodbhāvanaṃ nāma mahāyānasūtram saptadaśaṃ samāptam).