Notes

n.1See The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal (Tathāgata­jñāna­mudrā­samādhi, Toh 131).

n.2See Malalasekera 1937 and Khemātherī Apadāna (Thi Ap 18).

n.3For a brief summary of these stages in a bodhisattva’s career as set out in the Mahā­vastu, see the introduction to Dharmachakra Translation Committee (tr.), The Good Eon (Bhadra­kalpika, Toh 94), 2022, i.11 and n.6.

n.4See for example Roberts (tr.) The King of Samādhis Sūtra (Toh 127), introduction i.24. In her book Women in Buddhism (p. 169) Diana Paul identifies three ways in which Mahāyāna sūtras deal with the question of female bodhisattvas and buddhas. While most deny the possibility of buddhahood in a female body, some implicitly deny that women can be bodhisattvas at all, some accept that women may be “lower-stage” bodhisattvas, and some accept that women may potentially be “advanced” bodhisattvas whose buddhahood is “imminent.”

n.5See UCSB Buddhist Studies Translation Group, trans., Aśokadattā’s Prophecy , Toh 76 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024).

n.6See Karma Gyaltsen Ling Translation Group, trans., The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā (Toh 84), 2021.

n.7See Dharmasāgara Translation Group, trans., The Inquiry of the Girl Sumati (Toh 74), 2023.

n.8See 84000 Translation Team, trans., The Questions of Gaṅgottarā (Toh 75), 2024.

n.9See Sakya Pandita Translation Group (International Buddhist Academy Division), trans., The Questions of an Old Lady (Toh 171), 2011.

n.10See Jens Erland Braarvig, trans., The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī (Toh 96), 2020.

n.11See Annie Bien, trans., The Prophecy of the Girl Candrottarā (Toh 191), 2025.

n.12See Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Prophecy Concerning Strīvivarta (Toh 190), 2021.

n.13A notable exception to the seeming constancy of such outcomes can be seen in the Gaṇḍavyūha (see Roberts, trans., The Stem Array , Toh 44, chapter 45, 2022) in which advanced female teachers appear with no mention of their eventual need to become male.

n.14See Denkarma, folio 299.b and Herrmann-Pfandt, p. 119.

n.15Reading ’dren pa from Y, J, K, C, H, S in place of ’dren pa’i.