Notes

n.1On the necessity of employing the plural “Kangyurs” as opposed to “the Kangyur,” see the work of Peter Skilling (1997, 2009, 2013).

n.2Vinītā (2010), Vol I,1, pp 305-316.

n.3§236; see Herrmann-Pfandt (2008), p 124. The Lhenkarma is also sometimes called the Denkarma (ldan kar ma).

n.4Rdo (2003), p 18.

n.5Schaeffer and van der Kuijp (2009), p 133.

n.6Nishioka (1980), p 74, §277. See Van der Kuijp (2013) for an analysis of this work’s textual formation and transmission.

n.7Vinītā (2010), p 314, note α.

n.8We follow the Buddhist Sanskrit spelling of ‘bodhisatva’ with a single rather than a double ‘t’ as found in manuscripts and inscriptions as the latter is a convention of modern editors. See Bhattacharya (2010).

n.9Vinītā (2010), vol. I,1, p 315, note α.

n.10Schopen (2004).

n.11As detailed by Schopen (2004, p 397), narrative elements appear to carry great weight for some scholars but “we know next to nothing for certain about how early texts were redacted and transmitted” (ibid, p 399). The rules for redaction in the Mūla­sarvāstivāda Vinaya “clearly favor Śrāvastī” as the setting. Both Rājagṛha and Śrāvastī are among the six great cities recommended as a location if the setting is forgotten. Schopen provides analysis of occurrences noting that Gokhale records a 75% occurrence of Sāvatthi in Pāli texts, Minh Chang records a 45% occurrence in the Chinese Madhyama-āgama, and Schopen himself estimates an 80% occurrence rate for Śrāvastī in the Mūla­sarvāstivāda Vinaya. Currently known redaction rules applied to sūtras, therefore, place the location in Śrāvastī more frequently than would otherwise be expected.

n.12Since the publication of the present sūtra, there has been a recent English translation from the Tibetan by Peter Skilling, who is aware of this correlation and provides some helpful notes along with the translation found in his anthology Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras; see Skilling (2021), pp. 213–20.

n.13Lamotte, French (1965), pp 255-6; English (1998), pp 225-6.

n.14Lamotte (1998), pp 226-7.

n.15Lamotte (1998), p 41.

n.16See Hureau (2010), p 1224, and Nattier (2008), p 75.

n.17On the notion of early Mahāyāna formations as an optional and legitimate vocation, or particular lifestyle, within Buddhist communities see Nattier (2003), pp 84-86, and Skilton (2002), p 134.

n.18The translation follows Vinītā’s (2010, pp 57 and 459) observation for kula­putra (as well as kula­duhitā) that –putra in the latter part of a compound does not mean ‘son’ but indicates a ‘member’ of a class or group.

n.19Refers to “all qualities.”