Notes

n.1Most Kangyurs include one or more sections of dedication and aspiration texts, designated as such in the catalogs, and containing both extracts from longer texts and standalone works, all of them being canonical texts translated into Tibetan. In the Degé Kangyur, two such sections are found, one (Toh 809–27) at the end of the main Tantra collection (rgyud ’bum), and the other (Toh 1094–1108) at the end of the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus). It is in these sections that we would perhaps most expect to find these texts placed; instead, however, they are treated in just the same way as the other texts in the General Sūtra section.

n.2Pekar Sangpo (2006), pp. 383–90. In this regard, it is worth noting that Pekar Sangpo gives both texts titles that include the word “sūtra.”

n.3Pekar Sangpo (2006), p. 383.

n.4The present text is found in the Denkarma catalog in the “Various Prayers” (smon lam sna tshogs) section under the title bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs par byed pa’i bsngo ba. The Phangthangma catalog has it in the “One Hundred and Eight Names, Praises, Blessings, and Various Prayers” (mtshan brgya rtsa brgyad dang stod ra dang bkra shis dang smon lam sna tshogs) section under the title bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs par byed pa zhes bya ba’i bsngo ba; its length is said to be fifty ślokas. See Denkarma, folio 304.a; Herrmann-Pfandt (2008), p. 268, no. 466; and Phangthangma, p. 33.

n.5It is located in the “Various Sūtras” (Mongolian eldeb, Tib. mdo sna tshogs) section. Mongolian Kangyur vol. 84, folios 89.b–92.b; cf. Ligeti (1942), p. 279.

n.6“Violations of ethical rules” (sbyor bas tshul khrims ’chal pa) and “violations of natural ethics” (dngos pos tshul khrims ’chal pa) refer to two types of unwholesome actions or “faults” (kha na ma tho ba; literally, “unmentionable”). The former are actions that are unwholesome because they violate a precept established by the Buddha to which one is committed, called “faults related to rules” (bcas pa’i kha na ma tho ba), which include actions forbidden for monks and nuns by rule but allowed for laypeople (such as, for example, eating after noon). These actions are not in themselves considered sins. The latter are actions that are “inherently unwholesome faults” (rang bzhin gyi kha na ma tho ba), such as killing, that relate also to laypeople.

n.7Degé and other Kangyurs read: snyoms par ’jug pa thams cad dam bcas pa dang /, which is difficult to interpret. Here we have followed instead the reading in Yongle, Kangxi, Stok Palace, and Shey Kangyurs: snyoms par ’jug pa thams cad dang / dam bcas pa dang /.

n.8A very similar set of four terms (bsam pa, bag la nyal, khams, rang bzhin) is common in the Vinaya literature and related texts such as The Hundred Deeds to describe the knowledge used by an arhat to assess the best approach in teaching an individual; indeed, that same set of four appears in the following text with which this one seems to form a pair (see The Dedication “Protecting All Beings”, Toh 286, 1.5). Here, however, in the place of the first of the four terms, bsam pa, different Kangyurs instead have three variants: snon pa, “addition, increase” (Degé); ston pa, “teach, show, demonstrate,” or possibly “teacher” (Narthang, Lhasa, Stok Palace, Shey, Gangteng); and smon pa, “aspiration, intention, wish” (Choné). The latter, though a minority variant, seems to correspond best to the other instances of this set of terms.

n.9Tib. ’jig rten dang / ’jig rten las ’das pa’i dge ba’i rtsa ba (“mundane and transcendent roots of virtue”). This division relates to the roots of virtue that are gathered on the paths of ordinary beings and the paths of noble ones (so so skye bo’i lam and ’phags [pa’i] lam); that is, paths that are not world transcending and paths that are (’jig rten gyi lam and ’jig rten las ’das pa’i lam).