One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

“Worthy.” A being who has eliminated afflictive emotions and hence is liberated from suffering. The Tibetan, following the traditional Sanskrit semantic gloss of ari han, understands the term as “foe destroyer.”

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A type of nonhuman being whose precise status is subject to different views, but is included as one of the six classes of beings in the sixfold classification of realms of rebirth. In the Buddhist context, asuras are powerful beings said to be dominated by envy, ambition, and hostility. They are also known in the pre-Buddhist and pre-Vedic mythologies of India and Iran, and feature prominently in Vedic and post-Vedic Brahmanical mythology, as well as in the Buddhist tradition. In these traditions, asuras are often described as being engaged in interminable conflict with the devas (gods).Demi-gods, titans.

One of the “eight close sons of the Buddha,” he is also known as the bodhisattva who embodies compassion. In certain tantras, he is also the lord of the three families, where he embodies the compassion of the buddhas. In Tibet, he attained great significance as a special protector of Tibet, and in China, in female form, as Guanyin, the most important bodhisattva in all of East Asia.One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching and main interlocutor.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A general term of respect given to persons of spiritual attainment. Translations into English have been “Holy One,” “Blessed One,” and “World-Honored One.” It is here given in the Sanskrit nominative case, bhagavān.

The term bhikṣu, often translated as “monk,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist monks and nuns‍—like other ascetics of the time‍—subsisted on alms (bhikṣā) begged from the laity. In the Tibetan tradition, which follows the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, a monk follows 253 rules as part of his moral discipline. A nun (bhikṣuṇī; dge slong ma) follows 364 rules. A novice monk (śrāmaṇera; dge tshul) or nun (śrāmaṇerikā; dge tshul ma) follows thirty-six rules of moral discipline (although in other vinaya traditions novices typically follow only ten).

The term bhikṣuṇī, often translated as “nun,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term bhikṣu (to which the female grammatical ending ṇī is added) literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist nuns and monks‍—like other ascetics of the time‍—subsisted on alms (bhikṣā) begged from the laity. In the Tibetan tradition, which follows the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, a bhikṣuṇī follows 364 rules and a bhikṣu follows 253 rules as part of their moral discipline.For the first few years of the Buddha’s teachings in India, there was no ordination for women. It started at the persistent request and display of determination of Mahāprajāpatī, the Buddha’s stepmother and aunt, together with five hundred former wives of men of Kapilavastu, who had themselves become monks. Mahāprajāpatī is thus considered to be the founder of the nun’s order.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human, animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted with unattractive and misshapen bodies. Like several other classes of nonhuman beings, bhūtas take spontaneous birth. As their leader is traditionally regarded to be Rudra-Śiva (also known by the name Bhūta), with whom they haunt dangerous and wild places, bhūtas are especially prominent in Śaivism, where large sections of certain tantras concentrate on them.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

Vedic creator god. In Buddhist texts Brahmā refers to various gods in high situations of cyclic existence.

A member of priestly caste.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

Dhāraṇīs are long strings of syllables which sum up some meaning of Dharma. Their use allows the meaning to be retained in memory. Hence the name, which means “that which holds / retains.”

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A cosmological era that has buddhas appear in it.

The textual base for Brahmanism in India is the Vedas: 1) Ṛgveda, 2) Yajurveda, 3) Sāmaveda, and 4) Atharvaveda.

A tathāgata.

A tathāgata.

A tathāgata.

The name of a kind of preta (ghost). These spirits are said to live on odours, hence their name “smell-eater.” Known for their music.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

In Indian mythology, the garuḍa is an eagle-like bird that is regarded as the king of all birds, normally depicted with a sharp, owl-like beak, often holding a snake, and with large and powerful wings. They are traditionally enemies of the nāgas. In the Vedas, they are said to have brought nectar from the heavens to earth. Garuḍa can also be used as a proper name for a king of such creatures.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

A tathāgata.

Meaning “Is it a man?” These are a class of beings included in the god realms. They are half-bird/half-human in appearance; hence their name.

The ruling caste in the traditional four-caste hierarchy of India, associated with warriors, the aristocracy, and kings.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the four great kings, also known as Vaiśravaṇa.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A class of yakṣa that lives in water but have the heads of various types of insects or animals.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

A tathāgata.

The term can be understood to mean “great courageous one” or "great hero,” or (from the Sanskrit) simply “great being,” and is almost always found as an epithet of “bodhisattva.” The qualification “great” in this term, according to the majority of canonical definitions, focuses on the generic greatness common to all bodhisattvas, i.e., the greatness implicit in the bodhisattva vow itself in terms of outlook, aspiration, number of beings to be benefited, potential or eventual accomplishments, and so forth. In this sense the mahā- (“great”) is close in its connotations to the mahā- in “Mahāyāna.” While individual bodhisattvas described as mahāsattva may in many cases also be “great” in terms of their level of realization, this is largely coincidental, and in the canonical texts the epithet is not restricted to bodhisattvas at any particular point in their career. Indeed, in a few cases even bodhisattvas whose path has taken a wrong direction are still described as bodhisattva mahāsattva.Later commentarial writings do nevertheless define the term‍—variably‍—in terms of bodhisattvas having attained a particular level (bhūmi) or realization. The most common qualifying criteria mentioned are attaining the path of seeing, attaining irreversibility (according to its various definitions), or attaining the seventh bhūmi.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A common way of referring to Śiva, the great and omnipotent god of mainstream Hindu religion.

A tathāgata.

Literally “great serpents,” mahoragas are supernatural beings depicted as large, subterranean beings with human torsos and heads and the lower bodies of serpents. Their movements are said to cause earthquakes, and they make up a class of subterranean geomantic spirits whose movement through the seasons and months of the year is deemed significant for construction projects.

Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconographic form, he is portrayed bearing the sword of wisdom in his right hand and a volume of the Prajñā­pāramitā­sūtra in his left. To his name, Mañjuśrī, meaning “Gentle and Glorious One,” is often added the epithet Kumārabhūta, “having a youthful form.” He is also called Mañjughoṣa, Mañjusvara, and Pañcaśikha.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

Nāgas are serpent-like animals who live (invisibly) in the human realm and have an ambivalent status, on occasion positive but also frequently harmful.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

Also translated as “transcendences.” The term is used to define the actions of a bodhisattva. The six perfections are: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, concentration and wisdom.

A type of malevolent ghost, considered to belong to the preta realm. Tibetan translates the term as “flesh-eaters.”

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

Literally, “buddha for oneself” or “solitary realizer.” Someone who, in his or her last life, attains awakening entirely through their own contemplation, without relying on a teacher. Unlike the awakening of a fully realized buddha (samyaksambuddha), the accomplishment of a pratyeka­buddha is not regarded as final or ultimate. They attain realization of the nature of dependent origination, the selflessness of the person, and a partial realization of the selflessness of phenomena, by observing the suchness of all that arises through interdependence. This is the result of progress in previous lives but, unlike a buddha, they do not have the necessary merit, compassion or motivation to teach others. They are named as “rhinoceros-like” (khaḍgaviṣāṇakalpa) for their preference for staying in solitude or as “congregators” (vargacārin) when their preference is to stay among peers.

One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓鬼 e gui.They are sometimes said to reside in the realm of Yama, but are also frequently described as roaming charnel grounds and other inhospitable or frightening places along with piśācas and other such beings. They are particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to acquire sustenance.

A prophecy usually made by the Buddha or another tathāgata concerning the perfect awakening of one of their followers; a literary genre or category of works that contain such prophecies.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A general term in Indian culture for a type of spirit that (inter alia) haunts cemeteries and eats human flesh.

A tathāgata in the past, in a world system called Ratna­saṃbhavā.

A tathāgata.

The world system of the tathāgata Ratna­kusuma­guṇa­sāgara­vaiḍūrya­kanaka­giri­suvarṇa­kāṃcana­prabhāsa­śrī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

The lord of the gods in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (trāyastriṃśa). Alternatively known as Indra, the deity that is called “lord of the gods” dwells on the summit of Mount Sumeru and wields the thunderbolt. The Tibetan translation brgya byin (meaning “one hundred sacrifices”) is based on an etymology that śakra is an abbreviation of śata-kratu, one who has performed a hundred sacrifices. Each world with a central Sumeru has a Śakra. Also known by other names such as Kauśika, Devendra, and Śacipati.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

The disciples of the Buddha who followed the Lesser Vehicle (Hīnayāna). A śrāvaka is explained as someone who hears the teachings and then proclaims them to others.

“Glorious Great Goddess.” This is also a widespread name in Hindu contexts; it is, for example, an epithet of Śiva’s consort.

A tathāgata.

The world system of the buddha Śrī­maṇi­ratna­sambhava.

A buddha in the world system called Śrī­mahā­ratna­pratimaṇḍitā.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

The name of the lowest of the four castes. “Untouchables.”

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

The buddha realm where the narrative of this teaching takes place.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A tathāgata.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

A frequently used synonym for buddha. According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata, literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata, “one who has thus come.” Gata, though literally meaning “gone,” is a past passive participle used to describe a state or condition of existence. Tatha­(tā), often rendered as “suchness” or “thusness,” is the quality or condition of things as they really are, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms. Therefore, this epithet is interpreted in different ways, but in general it implies one who has departed in the wake of the buddhas of the past, or one who has manifested the supreme awakening dependent on the reality that does not abide in the two extremes of existence and quiescence. It is also often used as a specific epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

Skt. “Advancement,” Tib. “She who has Vision.” One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

Layman.

Laywoman.

The merchant caste.

Vajrapāṇi means “Wielder of the Vajra.” In the Pali canon, he appears as a yakṣa guardian in the retinue of the Buddha. In the Mahāyāna scriptures he is a bodhisattva and one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha.” In the tantras, he is also regarded as an important Buddhist deity and instrumental in the transmission of tantric scriptures. One of the bodhisattvas attending the delivery of this teaching.

Vedic deity of the sky, water, and ocean.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the eight great gods in the Indian pantheon.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī. (The stog pho brang Kangyur has rnam par ’phel ma.)

A class of nonhuman beings who inhabit forests, mountainous areas, and other natural spaces, or serve as guardians of villages and towns, and may be propitiated for health, wealth, protection, and other boons, or controlled through magic. According to tradition, their homeland is in the north, where they live under the rule of the Great King Vaiśravaṇa. Several members of this class have been deified as gods of wealth (these include the just-mentioned Vaiśravaṇa) or as bodhisattva generals of yakṣa armies, and have entered the Buddhist pantheon in a variety of forms, including, in tantric Buddhism, those of wrathful deities.

Lord of the dead.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.

One of the names of Śrī Mahādevī.