Notes

n.1Interestingly, Yeshé Nyingpo is a Tibetan translation of Jñānagarbha, and they could perhaps be coreferential terms. As far as we are aware, this was the only sūtra translated jointly by these two figures.

n.2The Denkarma catalogue is dated to c. 812 ᴄᴇ. In this catalogue, The Questions of Ratnajālin is included among the Miscellaneous Sūtras (mdo sde sna tshogs) less than ten sections (bam po) long. See Denkarma, 298.b.4. See also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 86, no. 159.

n.3Additionally, the sūtra was also translated into Mongolian from Tibetan, seemingly around the fourteenth century, although the colophon dates the translation to the seventeenth century (Higuchi 2015). The other mentions of the sūtra that we have come across are two brief references to it in Schopen 1983, pp. 121, 127.

n.4In the Degé Kangyur we find these sūtras placed from Toh 148–174.

n.5Here “heavenly ornaments” translates the Tibetan mkha’ rten. The Sanskrit listed in the Negi dictionary for this term is vyomaka, which Monier-Williams defines as “a kind of ornament.”

n.6Translated based on Stok: khri rnams dang ni khri la chu lta bu’i/ /mkha’ rten dag kyang byas nas de la ni. Degé: khri rnams dang ni khril tshul lta bu yi / mkha’ rten dag kyang byas nas de la ni. Yongle, Peking Kangxi, and Narthang: khri rnams dang ni khril chu lta ba’i / mkha’ rten dag kyang byas nas de la ni. Lhasa Zhol: khri rnams dang ni khri tshul lta bu yi / mkha’ rten dag kyang byas nas de la ni.

n.7Translation tentative. Degé: lus dbyibs gcig la spi dza bzhi par ’gyur. The Pedurma edition records no variants. Stok: rus dbyibs gcig la spi dza bzhi bar ’gyur. Here we have translated this line based on the corresponding passage in the Chinese version, which reads 住在一處具足四事: “Residing in a single place, they will possess the four necessities” (i.e., shelter, clothing, food, and medicine).

n.8Translation tentative. Degé: lus dbyibs gcig la spi dza bzhi. The Pedurma edition records no variants. Stok: rus dbyibs gcig la spi dza bzhi. Although the Chinese translation does not include this line, we have adopted the meaning from the seemingly identical line that occurred above (see n.­7).

n.9In the Tibetan text, this verse has only two lines.

n.10Translated based on Yongle, Peking Kangxi, and Stok: chod. Degé: mchod.

n.11Translated based on Yongle and Peking Kangxi: shin tu bzang ba. Degé and Stok: shin tu bzung ba.

n.12Translated based on Yongle, Peking Kangxi, and Stok: nga yis. Degé: nga yi.

n.13Translated based on Yongle, Peking Kangxi, and Stok: bstan. Degé: bsten.

n.14The translation “engaging with the world” is tentative. All Tibetan versions consulted read: ’jig rten spyod pa.

n.15Translated based on Yongle, Peking Kangxi, Narthang, Lhasa Zhol, and Stok: thos. Degé: thob.

n.16This and the following verse only have three lines in the Tibetan.

n.17In the Tibetan this verse only has three lines.

n.18In the Tibetan this verse only has three lines.