Notes

n.1Advice to a King (2) (Rājadeśa, Toh 215).

n.2Although a title Mahāyāna Sūtra “Advice to a King” is found in the Denkarma, this refers to the advice to King Prasenajit (Toh 221). This can be ascertained because it is listed there as having 160 ślokas. Denkarma, fol. 229.a; Hermann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 102–3.

n.3As Peter Skilling notes, both texts appear seemingly “out of nowhere” in the Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line. Skilling 2021, pp. 410 and 430.

n.4Skilling 2021, pp. 412–13.

n.5The Play in Full (Lalita­vistara, Toh 95).

n.6blon po zla ba bzang po. According to Negi’s Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, zla ba bzang po is elsewhere attested as a translation for Sucandra as the name of a king and a householder. Skilling also uses Sucandra, but makes note of the fact that a minister under Bimbisāra’s son Ajātaśatru may have been called Candraprabha, so the name could also be a rendering of that. For further discussion, see Skilling 2021, p. 571, n. 920.

n.7gyad chen po’i ’degs pa zhes bya ba rbad de rdo shin tu che ba bcom ldan ’das la ’phangs so. This might also be rendered “the Malla known as Heavy Lifter…” The Malla were a prominent clan or people during the time of the Buddha, whose name, malla (Tib. gyad), literally means “athlete,” “wrestler,” or “strongman.” The term rbad, which is attested elsewhere as a translation of prerita (“to dispatch,” “urge,” or “impel”), indicates that the king dispatched this strongman to throw the rock. Skilling translated the passage differently: “the king picked up a huge rock dubbed ‘rock that no one but a muscleman can lift,’ and hurled it at the Fortunate One.”

n.8In Tibetan, the following verse is in seven-syllable meter.

n.9These first five lines reprise a common theme on impermanence found across many texts. For a similar set of oppositions, see, for example, The Exemplary Tales of Śrīsena (Toh 349), 1.­107. Similar verses are also found in the Vinayavastu (The Chapter on Going Forth, Toh 1-1, 1.­264, 4.­361, 4.­401) and Udānavarga, and in the Pali Dīgha Nikāya. For references see Skilling 2021, p. 571, n. 922.

n.10snod kyi ’jig rten ’di yang mi rtag la/ bcud ki sems can yang mi rtag go. These lines play on the Tibetan expression for the world, snod bcud, lit. “vessel and contents,” which is a condensation of the Buddhist pairing of bhājanaloka, the “container-world” of inanimate things, and sattvaloka the “world of animate beings.”

n.11In Tibetan, the Buddha’s replies are henceforth in nine-syllable meter with a light caesura or hiatus usually after the fourth syllable of each line, and no obvious parsing into verses.

n.12As alluded to in many canonical works, the end of an eon is said to be marked by a threefold destruction of the world by fire, wind, and water.

n.13so bya nya sdod ’dra. In Tibetan, so bya, or “watchman-bird,” is listed in dictionaries as a “large black bird which eats fish.” Skilling translates it as “heron,” which fits well with the image of a bird standing still waiting for its prey. Although black herons are not native to India or Tibet, the black color has some relevance for the simile here, so it has been included in the translation.

n.14sems can ’di kun. While sems can refers to all “sentient beings,” the intended referents here, with life spans of up to a hundred years, are clearly humans.

n.15tshod ’dzin pa yang mi ’jigs sbyin med pas. Skilling translates: “Even if someone can predict our death, he cannot grant us any immunity.”

n.16Translation tentative. Tib. skad cig tshe las ’thun pa nye gzhi rnams// ’gron po gnas ’thun tsam ste so sor ’gro. Skilling has: “After a brief life shared with one’s relatives in one’s home town, one goes one’s separate way, like a traveler who leaves behind a pleasant stopping place.”

n.17yul dang mkhar, lit. “land and fortress.” According the Mahāvyutpatti, the Tibetan mkhar was used to translate the Sanskrit koṭṭa, also meaning “fortress,” “stronghold,” or “castle.”

n.18bu tsha, lit. “sons and nephews.”

n.19Translation tentative. Tib. kha cig lcags mkhar khang pa sbrum mar rdung. Here we follow Skilling’s translation, which apparently reads sbrum as an orthographic error for ’bru. Normally sbrum ma means “a pregnant woman.” At a later point, the text speaks more directly of enduring the sensation of being crushed while “in the womb” (mngal na), so this could also be an allusion to that.

n.20bdag nyid gar ’gro gtol med bar do ’byung. Skilling translates: “You have no idea where to go, and you’re at your tether’s end.” We suggest that the term bar do here refers here to the liminal or intermediate state (antarābhava) between births.

n.21bde legs phun sum tshogs pa. Both Thubten Kalzang and Peter Skilling give “the perfection of well-being.”

n.22mya ngan ’das pa zhi ba bde ba’i mchog. For this line, we have adopted the words of Peter Skilling’s elegant translation.

n.23las su gzhan don ’ba’ zhig spyod byed cing. Here, the Yongle and Peking editions of the Kangyur have the alternate reading lus su, which Skilling favors in his translation: “still in a body, one acts solely for others’ benefit” (Skilling 2021, p. 426).