One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

The process of karma and affliction leading to suffering.

A goddess residing at Gayāśirṣā.

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 king of the nāgas.

A king of the nāgas.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

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.

A ruler of the demigods.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

In Buddhist usage, a general term for non-Buddhist religious mendicants, often occurring together with parivrājakas and nirgranthas in stock lists of followers of non-Buddhist movements.

A translator and editor active in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, he translated a dozen important sūtras in the Kangyur including this text and was a contributor to the Drajor Bampo Nyipa, an early ninth century edict and manual defining translation methodology.

The tenth ground of the bodhisattvas.

A demonic being opposed to the spread of the Dharma and the happiness of beings.

A ruler of the demigods.

A great bodhisattva.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

The quality of intelligence, inspiration, and confident knowledge that allows one to teach and talk in the most appropriate way, even for very long stretches of time.

The name for our world system, the universe of a thousand million worlds, or trichiliocosm, in which the four-continent world is located. Each trichiliocosm is ruled by a god Brahmā; thus, in this context, he bears the title of Sahāṃpati, Lord of Sahā. The world system of Sahā, or Sahālokadhātu, is also described as the buddhafield of the Buddha Śākyamuni where he teaches the Dharma to beings. The name Sahā possibly derives from the Sanskrit √sah, “to bear, endure, or withstand.” It is often interpreted as alluding to the inhabitants of this world being able to endure the suffering they encounter. The Tibetan translation, mi mjed, follows along the same lines. It literally means “not painful,” in the sense that beings here are able to bear the suffering they experience.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

The ninth ground of the bodhisattvas.

The seventh ground of the bodhisattvas.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

The fourth ground of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

One of ten “kings of mountains” according to Abhidharma cosomology.

City in Magadha, now in the Indian state of Bihar, on the left bank of the River Nairañjanā (parts of which are now called the Lilaja and Phalgu), a tributary of the Ganges.

A sacred hill immediately to the south of the city of Gayā. Its name means “Gayā head,” and may derive from pre-Buddhist legends of a buried, reclining giant‍—in one version, a demon king called Gayāsura who was immoblised by Viṣṇu, and in another a saintly prince called Gaya; this hill marks the position of his head, with other features of the landscape in the region associated with other parts of his body.

The fifth ground of the bodhisattvas.

Someone who practices the teachings of the Hearers’ Vehicle to achieve liberation from saṃsāra through direct perception of the absence of a personal self.

The third of the six heavens of the desire realm.

The fifth of the six heavens of the desire realm.

The fourth of the six heavens of the desire realm. In Buddhist thought it is where all future buddhas dwell prior to their awakening.

The sixth and highest of the six heavens of the desire realm.

The first of the six heavens of the desire realm.

The second heaven of the desire realm located above Mount Meru and reigned over by Indra and thirty-two other gods.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

The mental factor or power that discerns phenomena.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

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 great bodhisattva.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

The first ground of the bodhisattvas.

Another name for Vārāṇasī.

“One who belongs to the Kuśika lineage.” An epithet of the god Śakra, also known as Indra, the king of the gods in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. In the Ṛgveda, Indra is addressed by the epithet Kauśika, with the implication that he is associated with the descendants of the Kuśika lineage (gotra) as their aiding deity. In later epic and Purāṇic texts, we find the story that Indra took birth as Gādhi Kauśika, the son of Kuśika and one of the Vedic poet-seers, after the Puru king Kuśika had performed austerities for one thousand years to obtain a son equal to Indra who could not be killed by others. In the Pāli Kusajātaka (Jāt V 141–45), the Buddha, in one of his former bodhisattva lives as a Trāyastriṃśa god, takes birth as the future king Kusa upon the request of Indra, who wishes to help the childless king of the Mallas, Okkaka, and his chief queen Sīlavatī. This story is also referred to by Nāgasena in the Milindapañha.

A famous Tibetan scholar practitioner of the nineteenth century.

An ancient unit of measuring distance. Approximately 2.25 English miles, although it is calculated differently in various systems.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

An ancient unit of measuring distance. Approximately nine miles, although it is calculated differently in various systems.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

While this term is used as a name for the ancient materialists, it can also refer to non-Buddhist extremists in general.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

The place where the Buddha was born, located in what is now Southern Nepal.

A deity who rules the Brahmā realms.

A great bodhisattva.

A close hearer disciple of the Buddha, reknowned for his miraculous powers. Also rendered here just as “Maud­galyā­yana.”

One of ten “kings of mountains” according to Abhidharma cosmology.

A great bodhisattva.

A god who rules over the heavenly pure abodes.

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 king of the nāgas.

The sixth ground of the bodhisattvas.

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.

An ordained Buddhist practitioner. Pairs often with “priest” (brāhmaṇa).

One of ten “kings of mountains” according to Abhidharma cosmology.

In Buddhist usage, a non-Buddhist religious mendicant, usually referring to Jains, who eschews clothing and possessions.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

The buddha of the distant world Realm of Lotuses; also, the name of a great bodhisattva in the audience of this sūtra.

A great bodhisattva.

A demonic being who resides in the Heaven of Making Use of Others’ Emanations. An epithet of Māra.

A non-Buddhist religious practitioner who has no fixed residence.

“Prātimokṣa” is the name given to the code of conduct binding on monks and nuns. The term can be used to refer both to the disciplinary rules themselves and to the texts from the Vinaya that contain them. There are multiple recensions of the Prātimokṣa , each transmitted by a different monastic fraternity in ancient and medieval India. Three remain living traditions, one of them the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya of Tibetan Buddhism. Though the numbers of rules vary across the different recensions, they are all organized according to the same principles and with the same disciplinary categories. It is customary for monastics to recite the Prātimokṣa Sūtra fortnightly.

One of the twelve retentions of the bodhisattvas.

The process of liberation from saṃsāra through the application of the path.

The third ground of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A buddhafield in the east.

The field or nature of ultimate reality.

In this text, another name for the hungry ghost realm; Yama is also sometimes said to preside over the hell realms.

One of the translators of this text.

A king of the nāgas.

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.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A god.

A māraputra, member of the māra type of nonhuman being often rendered as “demon” but in this case without a negative or harmful character.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva, visitor from the distant buddhafield of Padmanetra, and the Buddha Śākyamuni’s main interlocutor in this text.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A person who in his final life achieves realization through contemplating the twelve links of dependent origination without following an external teacher.

A famous Tibetan king of the seventh century.

An important form of Buddhist meditation focusing on developing insight into the nature of phenomena. Often presented as part of a pair of meditation techniques, the other being “tranquility.”

The ancient specialists in what later evolved to be the ābhidharmikas.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

A nāga prince.

The second ground of the bodhisattvas.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

The chief god of the Heaven of Delighting in Emanations.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

The chief god of the Heaven Free from Strife.

A great bodhisattva.

The three levels of awakening that are respectively achieved by hearers, solitary buddhas, and perfect buddhas.

Object, agent, and action.

The seventh century scholar and minister credited with developing the Tibetan alphabet.

One of the basic forms of Buddhist meditation, centering on a peaceful focus. Often presented as part of a pair of meditation techniques, with the other technique being “special insight.”

The founder of the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.

The ground of buddhahood.

One of the ten absorptions of the bodhisattvas.

The eighth ground of the bodhisattvas.

The raised extension on the crown of a tathāgata’s head, usually listed among the thirty-two signs of a great being.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

The chief god of the Heaven of Making Use of Others’ Emanations.

A king of the nāgas.

A ruler of the demigods.

The construction of personal identity in relation to the five aggregates.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.

A great bodhisattva.