Notes

n.1Mie shi fang ming ching, 滅十方冥經 Taishō 435, translated by Dharmarakṣa in 306 ᴄᴇ. Lancaster, Lewis R., “K 464,” The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue, accessed December 20, 2022.

n.2Lancaster, Lewis R., “K 464,” The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue, accessed December 20, 2022.

n.3Several versions of this sūtra in the Mongolian Kangyur are listed at the University of Vienna’s Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies (accessed December 21, 2022).

n.4Mangthö Ludrup Gyatso’s (mang thos klu sgrub rgya mtsho) Chronology (bstan rtsis gsal ba’i nyid byed lhag bsam rab dkar), p. 216, lists Tsang Devendra (gtsang d+he wen+dra) among the seven.

n.5van Schaik, “Dungkar’s Great Encyclopedia: The Tibetan Script.”

n.6Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 103 (no. 193); Denkarma folio 299.b.

n.7Reading Yongle, Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, Choné, and Lhasa ’jigs pa. Degé reads ’jigs par, which breaks from the pattern of similar passages here.

n.8A prostration with five limbs is performed by putting the two hands, two feet, and the head upon the ground.

n.9While the introduction and identification of the thousand beings present with the Buddha Śākyamuni is not set out in a clear and logical way this text, we have chosen to translate the passages just as they appear in the Tibetan. It becomes evident by the end of the sūtra that that is a group of thousand beings, each of whom is to receive a prophecy of buddhahood, that is separate from the other assemblies of monks and bodhisattvas and the thousand gods accompanying Śakra.