Notes

n.1Toh 49 (’od dpag med kyi bkod pa’i mdo, Amitābha­vyūha­sūtra), also known in Tibetan as bde ba can gyi zhing bkod pa’i bstan pa (The Teaching on the Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī) or, informally, the “longer” Sukhāvatī .

n.2The latter sūtra’s Sanskrit title, Amitāyur­dhyāna­sūtra, is now believed to have been fabricated at a later date. Most academic scholars believe that the extant text of the Guan wu liang shou jing was compiled either in Central Asia or China. See Fujita (1990), especially p. 155 and n. 48, on the question of its title. On p. 155 Fujita says, “It cannot be determined categorically what the Sanskrit title of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching might have been.”

n.3Gomez (1996), p. xii.

n.4Nakamura (1987), p. 204.

n.5Nakamura (1987), p. 206.

n.6But see also Roberts and Bower (2016), Introduction, on the conflation of these two buddhas.

n.7The Sanskrit has “abhijñānābhijñātaiḥ”, i.e., “bhikṣus, all of them proficient in the [five kinds of] superknowledge.” This is omitted in the Tibetan.

n.8In the Sanskrit version the order is Mahā­maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Mahākapphiṇa, Mahā­kātyāyana.

n.9Literally, the text has “10 million (bye ba) x 10 billion (khrag khrig) x 100 thousand (’bum phrag).” In the Sanskrit it says, according to Max Müller, “a hundred thousand nayutas.”

n.10These are bodhisattvas removed from enlightenment by only one more birth.

n.11The Skt. has tāṃ pari­kīrtayāmi, “I praise this”; the feminine tāṃ (missing, of course, in the Tibetan) shows that what is being praised is indeed Sukhāvatī.

n.12This name is not mentioned in the Sanskrit text.

n.13In the Sanskrit version this name is rendered as simply Meruprabhāsa.

n.14The Tibetan version includes these last two names, ’jam sgra (*mañjuvacana) and ’jam dbyangs (*mañjughoṣa). There is no equivalent in the Sanskrit text, which instead has Mañjudhvaja (Beautiful Victory Banner).

n.15Literally, the text says: “The buddhas cover their land with the power of their tongue faculty.”

n.16The Sanskrit text has sarva­buddha­pari­grahaṃ nāma dharma­paryāyam. This translates as, “You should place your trust in this Dharma discourse called ‘The Grace [lit. the complete embrace] of All Buddhas.’ ” The word nāma (“called”) is missing in the Tibetan version, but has been added to clarify the meaning of this passage.

n.17There is no equivalent in the Sanskrit version.

n.18’od zer snang ba. There is no equivalent in the Sanskrit version.

n.19The Sanskrit version reads Mahāratnaketu.

n.20The Sanskrit mentions another tathāgata who does not figure in the Tibetan, Tathāgata Duṃdubhisvara­nirghoṣa (=Dundubhisvara­nirghoṣa).

n.21spos kyi phung po. The Sanskrit here reads Mahārciskandha (Great Mass of Light).

n.22The Sanskrit also mentions the Tathāgata Indra­ketu­dhvaja­rāja, who is absent in the Tibetan text.

n.23The Sanskrit and Tibetan differ significantly here and in what immediately follows. We have translated on the basis of the Tibetan.

n.24Here the Tibetan departs significantly from the Sanskrit, which has the other buddhas say these words.

n.25The five degenerations. See glossary.