A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

The site in Vaiśālī where the Buddha Śākyamuni taught and performed miracles.

A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu, he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son of Amṛtodana, another brother of King Śuddhodana, which means he would have been a brother of Aniruddha).Ānanda, having always been in the Buddha’s presence, is said to have memorized all the teachings he heard and is celebrated for having recited all the Buddha’s teachings by memory at the first council of the Buddhist saṅgha, thus preserving the teachings after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The phrase “Thus did I hear at one time,” found at the beginning of the sūtras, usually stands for his recitation of the teachings. He became a patriarch after the passing of Mahākāśyapa.

A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

A world system.

A world system.

One of the five aggregates; formative forces concomitant with the production of karmic seeds causing future samsaric existence.

The opposite of “totally afflicted.”

A bodhisattva.

A buddha.

A bodhisattva.

The name of the southern continent in Buddhist cosmology, which can signify either the known human world, or more specifically the Indian subcontinent, literally “the jambu island/continent.” Jambu is the name used for a range of plum-like fruits from trees belonging to the genus Szygium, particularly Szygium jambos and Szygium cumini, and it has commonly been rendered “rose apple,” although “black plum” may be a less misleading term. Among various explanations given for the continent being so named, one (in the Abhidharmakośa) is that a jambu tree grows in its northern mountains beside Lake Anavatapta, mythically considered the source of the four great rivers of India, and that the continent is therefore named from the tree or the fruit. Jambudvīpa has the Vajrāsana at its center and is the only continent upon which buddhas attain awakening.

A buddha.

Indian paṇḍit who translated and edited (among many others) the sūtra Purification of Karmic Obscurations.

A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

A xylograph Kangyur printed in 1934. Based mainly on the Narthang (snar thang) Kangyur but with some texts following the Degé Kangyur, it is among several Kangyurs of “mixed” lineage, including elements from the Thempangma (them spangs ma) in addition to the predominating Tshalpa (tshal pa) traditions.

Name of Maitreya in a previous lifetime as a bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

The bodhisattva Maitreya is an important figure in many Buddhist traditions, where he is unanimously regarded as the buddha of the future era. He is said to currently reside in the heaven of Tuṣita, as Śākyamuni’s regent, where he awaits the proper time to take his final rebirth and become the fifth buddha in the Fortunate Eon, reestablishing the Dharma in this world after the teachings of the current buddha have disappeared. Within the Mahāyāna sūtras, Maitreya is elevated to the same status as other central bodhisattvas such as Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara, and his name appears frequently in sūtras, either as the Buddha’s interlocutor or as a teacher of the Dharma. Maitreya literally means “Loving One.” He is also known as Ajita, meaning “Invincible.”For more information on Maitreya, see, for example, the introduction to Maitreya’s Setting Out (Toh 198).

A bodhisattva.

A world system.

The forbearance to accept and understand the nonarising of phenomena, attained by a bodhisattva on the eighth level (see n.­3).

dmigs (pa) translates a number of Sanskrit terms, including ālambana, upalabdhi, and ālambate. These terms commonly refer to the apprehending of a subject, an object, and the relationships that exist between them. The term may also be translated as “referentiality,” meaning a system based on the existence of referent objects, referent subjects, and the referential relationships that exist between them. As part of their doctrine of “threefold nonapprehending/nonreferentiality” (’khor gsum mi dmigs pa), Mahāyāna Buddhists famously assert that all three categories of apprehending lack substantiality.

Indian paṇḍit who translated and edited (among others) the sūtra Purification of Karmic Obscurations.

To superimpose existence upon something that does not exist; adherents of eternalist views superimpose existence upon something that does not exist. They grasp at a concrete reality. The opposite is the view of nihilists, which denies the existence of phenomena.

A monk, main character of the sūtra Purification of Karmic Obscurations.

A buddha.

A manuscript Kangyur copied from a Bhutanese original in 1729 and kept at the Stok Palace near Leh, Ladakh. It is among the Kangyurs derived mostly from the Thempangma (them spangs ma) tradition.

A bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva.

Saṃsāra, in being nothing but afflicted; its opposite is “fully cleansed,” “complete purification.”

The site where the Buddha Śākyamuni laid down various rules of the Vinaya, gave other teachings, and, on his last visit, announced his approaching parinirvāṇa.

A great city in the world system Most Fragant.

The name, in his previous lifetime as a monk, of the buddha named Jewel Moon Performing Enlightened Actions.

Equivalent to med pa (“nonexistent”) or stong pa (“empty”), with a sense of “being devoid of.”

Prolific translator and editor of a large number of sūtras, including Purification of Karmic Obscurations.

Bodhisattva of wisdom and one of the Buddha’s principal interlocutors in many sūtras.