Notes

n.1Skilling 2021, pp. 297–313.

n.2The Chapter on Medicines, 2021: 9.­127–9.­136.

n.3A history of the The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish is included in the sixth-century Chinese work by Sengyu (445–518 ᴄᴇ) known as The Collected Records on the Making of the Tripiṭaka (Chu san zang ji ji). This collection of stories was translated from Chinese into Tibetan during the height of the Tibetan imperial patronage of Buddhism (Tib. snga dar), and, much later, into Mongolian. See Skilling 2021, p. 301.

n.4For a translation of this Sanskrit version, see Rotman 2008, pp. 282–305.

n.5Skilling 2021, p. 301.

n.6See “city beggar woman.”

n.7In The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish it is appended with a tale of the past in which the Buddha explains that, in a former birth, he was a princess who made lamp offerings to a monk who later became the Buddha Dīpaṃkara.

n.8For example, in this sūtra the Buddha predicts that the pauper woman will become a buddha named All-Illuminating in the future, and in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish the future buddha’s name is somewhat similar. However, in the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions, the Buddha says that the beggar woman will become a buddha named Śākyamuni in the future, possessing many of the same traits as the Buddha himself.

n.9Phangthangma, p. 16; Denkarma, F.299.b; Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p.109.

n.10On the question of whether the translator Jñānagarbha can be equated with the Madhyamaka philosopher of the same name, see Skilling 2021, pp. 298–99.

n.11Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself (Toh 545/892), 2023; Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath (Toh 546/893), 2023; and The Dhāraṇī for Developing Insight (Toh 718/1037), forthcoming.

n.12Tib. pad ma chus ma gos pa bzhin du bzhugs so. That is to say, he remained unaffected by being served and venerated by his many devotees, like a lotus flower remains unblemished by the muddy water in which it grows.

n.13Tib. dga’ byed ma zhes bya ba. Skilling suggests Nandikā as a possible equivalent for the name. The name dga’ byed ma is also attested as a translation of Nandinī in The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī and The Tantra of Siddhaikavīra . In the Tibetan translation of The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, her name is given as bsnyen dga’ mo, a feminine form of a name for which the masculine is attested as “Upananda,” and in the Chinese version of that sūtra it is nantuo 难陀, which likewise suggests either “Nandinī” or “Nandikā.” In the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions of the story her name is not given.

n.14Tib. des ’bru mar sran gre’u dang sbyar ba nyos nas zhag bzhi kha ’tshos te nyam chung bar gyur to. Skilling notes that sran gre’u is similar to sran khre’u, which is attested in Negi’s dictionary as a translation of māṣaka and can mean “a bean,” or “a very small amount.” Skilling also notes that kha ’tshos is attested as a translation of anāhāratāṃ pratipannaḥ, “she went without food.” This has been preferred over a possible reading of the Tibetan that she bought some “oil mixed with beans” (’bru mar sran gre’u dang sbyar ba nyos nas) and subsisting on that for four days became weak. In the Vinaya and the Divyāvadāna, she begs for a little oil. In The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish the narrative is a little more elaborate: she finds a coin and goes to an oil merchant who tells her that such a coin would only buy a useless amount of oil. However, when she tells him she plans to use the oil to make an offering to the Buddha, he is moved by pity and he gives her some more. She then goes directly to the monastery to light the lamp.

n.15Tib. shing rta’i srog shing tsam gyi char Lit. “rain the size of chariot axles,” is an expression found elsewhere in the Kangyur, for example in The Questions of Sāgaramati (Toh 152, 12.­28) and The Questions of Ratnajālin (Toh 163, 1.­35). Skilling translates it as “torrents of water as wide as chariot axles.”

n.16The description of many-colored lights emitting from buddhas’ mouths when they smile and streaming upward (to the heavens) and downward (to the hells) before returning and being reabsorbed into various parts of the body (relating to what kind of prophecy is being made) is found with various degrees of elaboration in many Kangyur texts. For one such elaborate expression see The Hundred Deeds (Karmaśataka, Toh 340), 2.­58–2.­66. For a shorter expression of this theme, similar to that found here, see The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance (Acintya­prabhāsa­nirdeśa, Toh 103), 1.­131.

n.17sangs rgyas rtogs pa brjod pa yi ni dad rnams rab dga’ byed. In light of the Stok Palace version, which reads sangs rgyas rtogs pa brjod pa’i ming ni dad rnams rab dga’ byed, “the name of [this] exemplary tale about a future buddha will delight the faithful,” we have opted to read yi as yis, as Skilling does. Otherwise, an alternative translation could be “She will delight those who have faith in exemplary tales about future buddhas.” This would preserve the subject of byed repeated from previous lines.