The Buddha’s teachings regarding subjects such as wisdom, psychology, metaphysics, and cosmology.

A word for a high number (ten million). Also translated as “Blistering Hell” when it designates one of the eight cold hells. See also n.­119.

In Sanskrit, arhat is the masculine form, and arhantī is the feminine form of the word; the Tibetan translation of the Āyuḥparyanta­sūtra does not distinguish a masculine and a feminine form. It refers to one who has achieved the fourth and final level of attainment on the śrāvaka path, and who has attained liberation with the cessation of all mental afflictions. The Sanskrit literally means “worthy one.” The Tibetan interpretation explains the Middle Indic form arahat as ari-hata, “someone who has killed his foes (i.e., mental afflictions).”

One who has achieved the fourth and final level of attainment on the śrāvaka path, and who has attained liberation with the cessation of all mental afflictions. The Skt. means literally “worthy one.” The Tibetan interpretation explains the Middle Indic form arahat as ari-hata, “someone who has killed his foes (i.e., mental afflictions).”

An ordinary or worldly form of the fourth meditative absorption. It is variously interpreted as a positive attainment or a counterfeit state of liberation (see Buswell and Lopez 2014, 67).

The western continent according to Buddhist cosmology. See also n.­32.

Paltsek (eighth to early ninth century), from the village of Kawa north of Lhasa, was one of Tibet’s preeminent translators. He was one of the first seven Tibetans to be ordained by Śāntarakṣita and is counted as one of Guru Rinpoché’s twenty-five close disciples. In a famous verse by Ngok Lotsawa Loden Sherab, Kawa Paltsek is named along with Chokro Lui Gyaltsen and Zhang (or Nanam) Yeshé Dé as part of a group of translators whose skills were surpassed only by Vairotsana.He translated works from a wide variety of genres, including sūtra, śāstra, vinaya, and tantra, and was an author himself. Paltsek was also one of the most important editors of the early period, one of nine translators installed by Tri Songdetsen (r. 755–797/800) to supervise the translation of the Tripiṭaka and help catalog translated works for the first two of three imperial catalogs, the Denkarma (ldan kar ma) and the Samyé Chimpuma (bsam yas mchims phu ma). In the colophons of his works, he is often known as Paltsek Rakṣita (rak+Shi ta).

The Sanskrit word bhaga means, among other things, “good fortune,” “happiness,” “prosperity,” and “excellence.” The suffix -vat/vant indicates possession. Thus the term bhagavān (masculine singular nominative form) means “blessed one” or “one endowed with fortune.” The three syllables of the Tibetan translation mean that a buddha has overcome or conquered (bcom), is endowed [with qualities] (ldan), and has gone beyond [saṃsāra and nirvāṇa] (’das).

Name of one of the great hells; see also n.­75.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. Its inhabitants are tormented by a cold wind that causes their bodies to be covered in sores. The Skt. arbuda in other contexts may refer to a number; see n.­119.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. Its inhabitants are tormented by a cold wind that causes their bodies to be covered in sores that burst open. The Skt. nirarbuda in other contexts may refer to a number; see also n.­119.

The tenth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third or, according to the Mvy, fourth meditative absorption. See also n.­137.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. It is named for the sounds its inhabitants make while enduring unthinkable cold.

Name of one of the great hells; see also n.­82.

In Buddhist cosmology, our sphere of existence where beings are driven primarily by the urge for sense gratification and attachment to material substance. It is one of the three basic divisions of the realms of existence that constitute saṃsāra. The other two are the form realm and the formless realm. See Gethin 1998, 116–18.

The historical Buddha’s cousin, and brother of Ānanda. He became notorious through his schemes to become the Buddha’s successor‍—to the point of attempting to kill the Buddha‍—and through the splitting of the Saṅgha.

According to Buddhist cosmology it designates the timespan in which an entire universe evolves and dissolves again, thus completing a cosmic cycle. For the different kinds of kalpas according to Abhidharma teachings, see AKBh on AK III.89d–93 (for English tr., see Pruden 1988–90, vol. 2, 475–81).

A synonym of “unfortunate rebirth-destiny.”

Here, srid pa denotes the whole of existence, i.e., the five rebirth-destinies or the three worlds‍—all the possible kinds and places of karmic rebirth. It is also the tenth of the twelve links of dependent origination (often translated as “becoming”).

A shorter form of the six classes of beings, these are (1) hell beings, (2) pretas, (3) animals, (4) human beings, and (5) devas. The fifth category is divided into devas and demigods when six realms are enumerated.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence one level more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings, though subtly embodied, are not driven primarily by the urge for sense gratification. It is one of the three basic divisions of the realms of existence that constitute saṃsāra. The other two are the desire realm and the formless realm. See Gethin 1998, 116–18.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings. It is one of the three basic divisions of the realms of existence that constitute saṃsāra. The other two are the desire realm and the form realm. See Gethin 1998, 116–18.

A Tibetan translator.

The great hells are also often called hot hells in secondary literature because beings there suffer from heat and being burned. They are Wailing, Loud Wailing, Black Thread, Crushing, Revival, Heat , Intense Heat, and Incessant Torture. Within in the Kangyur, one elaborate description of the eight hells is found in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma (Toh 287), 2.294–2.1280.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. The extreme cold of this hell turns the skin of its denizens blue, red, and then extremely red until they crack apart into a hundred or more pieces like the petals of a great lotus.

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka). Inhabitants of this hell are boiled in cauldrons, roasted in pans, beaten with hammers, and skewered with spears as their bodies burst into flame. See Guenther 1986, 58; Konchog Gyaltsen 1998, 99, for descriptions of this hell.

The eleventh of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third or, according to the Mvy, fourth meditative absorption. See also n.­138.

The third of the six heavens of the desire realm. The Tibetan translation ’thab bral, “free from strife or combat,” derives from the idea that these devas, because they live in an aerial abode above Mount Meru, do not have to engage in combat with the asuras who dwell on the slopes of the mountain.

The fifth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the second meditative absorption.

The eighth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third meditative absorption. See also n.­135.

The second of the heavens of the form realm and of the three Brahmā heavens. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the first meditative absorption.

The lowest of the heavens of the form realm and of the first of the three Brahmā heavens. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the first meditative absorption. See also n.­130.

The fifth of the six heavens of the desire realm. Its inhabitants magically create the objects of their own enjoyment and dispose of them themselves.

The third of the heavens of the form realm and the third of the three Brahmā heavens. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the first meditative absorption.

The twelfth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing an ordinary form of the fourth meditative absorption. See also n.­139.

The third highest of the Pure Abodes in the form realm; non-returners and those who have mastered the fourth meditative absorption are reborn there. See also n.­144.

The fourth of the six heavens of the desire realm. The heaven from which Śākyamuni descended to be born into this world and where all future buddhas dwell prior to their awakening.

The fourth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the second meditative absorption.

The seventh of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third meditative absorption. See also n.­134.

The sixth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the second meditative absorption. See also n.­133.

The ninth of the heavens of the form realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the third meditative absorption. See also n.­136.

One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology belonging to the form realm. The fourth-highest heaven of the Pure Abodes. Non-returners and those who have mastered the fourth meditative absorption are reborn there. See also n.­143.

The sixth and highest of the heavens of the desire realm. The inhabitants enjoy objects created by others and dispose of them themselves. See also n.­98.

The second of the six heavens of the desire realm. It is traditionally located atop Mount Meru, just above the terrace of the abodes of the Four Great Kings. Its chief is Śakra/Indra.

One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, hell beings are engendered by anger and powerful negative actions. They are dominated by great suffering and said to dwell in eight different hells, each with specific characteristics.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. It is named for the sounds its inhabitants make while enduring unthinkable cold.

One of the eight cold hells. It is named for the sounds its inhabitants make while enduring unthinkable cold.

The highest of the seventeen heavens of the form realm and the fifth and highest of the five Pure Abodes. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the fourth meditative absorption. See also n.­145.

The lowest and worst of the major hot hells according to Buddhist cosmology; see also n.­122.

A class of beings in the form realm, and the thirteenth heaven of the form realm on a level just below the devas of the Pure Abodes. The Insentient Beings are characterized by having a body but no conscious experience at all; this state is the karmic result of an ordinary or worldly form of the fourth meditative absorption called the attainment of the meditative state without consciousness . See also n.­9.

One of the great hells; see also n.­121.

The southern continent where humans live according to ancient South Asian cosmology. For one explanation of the name, see Exposition of Karma, Toh 338, 1.­34. See also n.­57 in the present text.

A measure of capacity for commodities, especially barley, etc. (1 khal = 20 bre). See n.­108.

A Buddhist monk who sided with Devadatta and defended him when the latter’s schemes to usurp the Buddha were exposed.

Name of one of the great hells. See also Guenther 1986, 58; Konchog Gyaltsen 1998, 99.

One of the two chief disciples of the historical Buddha.

Designates mental states of deep concentration and the specific meditative practices leading to them. These states are characterized by a gradual withdrawal of one’s awareness from external sense data. There are four meditative absorptions associated with the form realm and four meditative absorption associated with the formless realm. In the course of the four meditative absorptions associated with the form realm, the meditator gradually eliminates the five hindrances (sensuous desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt) and cultivates the seven constituents of enlightenment (Skt. bodhyaṅga). In the four meditative absorptions associated with the formless realm, the meditator gradually refines the object of the fourth meditative absorption associated with the form realm to the point of the complete dissolution of subject-object differentiation.

A word for a high number (one hundred million). A variant of the Skt. nyarbuda. Also translated as “Bursting Blister Hell” when it designates one of the eight cold hells. See also n.­119.

Someone who has entered the “path of seeing,” i.e., who has a direct and stable realization of selflessness, ceases to be an “ordinary person,” and has entered the path that culminates in becoming an arhat.

The third of the four stages of the śrāvaka path that culminate in becoming an arhat. At this stage, a being will not be reborn in this world but will remain there until liberation.

The Sanskrit preta literally means “departed” and generally refers to the spirits of the dead. More specifically in Buddhism, it refers to a class of sentient beings who belong to the lower or unfortunate rebirth-destinies and who suffer from moderate to extreme dearth and want as a karmic result of negative actions based on craving, hatred, and attachment (see Exposition of Karma, Toh 338, 1.­37). The common English rendering “hungry ghost” is a literal translation of the Chinese translation of preta, 餓鬼 e gui.

One of the first Buddhist monasteries, located in a park outside Śrāvastī, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kośala in northern India. This park was originally owned by Prince Jeta, hence the name Jetavana, meaning Jeta’s grove. The wealthy merchant Anāthapiṇḍada, wishing to offer it to the Buddha, sought to buy it from him, but the prince, not wishing to sell, said he would only do so if Anāthapiṇḍada covered the entire property with gold coins. Anāthapiṇḍada agreed, and managed to cover all of the park except the entrance, hence the name Anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ, meaning Anāthapiṇḍada’s park. The place is usually referred to in the sūtras as “Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park,” and according to the Saṃghabhedavastu the Buddha used Prince Jeta’s name in first place because that was Prince Jeta’s own unspoken wish while Anāthapiṇḍada was offering the park. Inspired by the occasion and the Buddha’s use of his name, Prince Jeta then offered the rest of the property and had an entrance gate built. The Buddha specifically instructed those who recite the sūtras to use Prince Jeta’s name in first place to commemorate the mutual effort of both benefactors. Anāthapiṇḍada built residences for the monks, to house them during the monsoon season, thus creating the first Buddhist monastery. It was one of the Buddha’s main residences, where he spent around nineteen rainy season retreats, and it was therefore the setting for many of the Buddha’s discourses and events. According to the travel accounts of Chinese monks, it was still in use as a Buddhist monastery in the early fifth century ᴄᴇ, but by the sixth century it had been reduced to ruins.

The five Pure Abodes are the highest heavens of the form realm and result from mastery of the fourth meditative absorption. They comprise the heavens of the Insentient Beings, Unlofty Heaven, Sorrowless Heaven, Heaven of Sublime Vision, Heaven of Great Vision, and Highest Heaven . The Pure Abodes are never destroyed during the cycles of the destruction and creation of the universe. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing the fourth meditative absorption.

The eastern continent according to Buddhist cosmology. See also n.­31.

The realm of the dead or the ghosts, where Yama, the Lord of Death, is the ruler and judges the dead. Yama is also said to rule over the hells. This term is also the name of the Vedic afterlife inhabited by the ancestors (Skt. pitṛ). The Pāli commentarial tradition, and possibly other early Buddhist schools, identified Yama’s domain (Pāli yamavisaya) with the realm of the pretas (Pāli petaloka).

The realm of the Four Great Kings and their retinue constitutes the first and lowest heaven of the form realm on the slopes of Mount Meru. The Four Great Kings are Dhṛtarāṣṭra in the east, Virūḍhaka in the south, Virūpākṣa in the west, and Vaiśravaṇa in the north.

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka); see also n.­73.

One of the principal śrāvaka disciples of the Buddha, he was renowned for his discipline and for having been praised by the Buddha as foremost of the wise (often paired with Maudgalyā­yana, who was praised as foremost in the capacity for miraculous powers). His father, Tiṣya, to honor Śāriputra’s mother, Śārikā, named him Śāradvatīputra, or, in its contracted form, Śāriputra, meaning “Śārikā’s Son.”

One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, second of the five Pure Abodes. See also n.­142.

The highest of the four heavens of the formless realm, so termed because conceptions there are weak but not entirely absent. Also called “the peak of existence.”

Third of the four heavens of the formless realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing one of the formless meditative absorptions.

Second of the four heavens of the formless realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing one of the formless meditative absorptions.

First of the four heavens of the formless realm. Rebirth there is the karmic result of accomplishing one of the formless meditative absorptions.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. The extreme cold of this hell turns the skin of its inhabitants blue until they crack apart.

Name of one of the eight cold hells. The extreme cold of this hell turns the skin of its denizens blue and then red until they crack apart into ten or more pieces like lotus petals.

The capital town of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kośala. It has been identified with present-day Sāhet Māhet in Uttar Pradesh on the banks of the Rapti (cp. DPPN, s.v. Sāvatthi: the majority of the suttas in the Pāli canon mention Sāvatthi as the place where the Buddha gave sermons).

One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of “accomplishment of one’s own purpose” (svārthasampad) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); and he has gone “without any remainder” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). According to Buddhaghoṣa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).

The three unwholesome actions of the body (killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct), the four of speech (lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and senseless speech), and the three of the mind (covetousness, ill will, and wrong views).

Usually expressed as the opposites of the ten unwholesome courses of action, i.e., not killing living beings, etc.

The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha are three sources or objects of refuge for Buddhists. The Tibetan translators rendered the Sanskrit ratna (“jewel”) as “the [three] rare and superior ones” (dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo, 143).

A collective name for the realms of animals, pretas, and hell beings. The term is also referred to in this translation as “evil state.”

The lowest of the five classes of the devas that constitute the Pure Abodes. The literal meaning (“not great”) of Tib. mi che ba, Skt. avṛha, and Pāli aviha may be based on a folk-etymological explanation (i.e., Skt. a-bṛhat may be a faulty Sanskritization of Middle Indic aviha; see Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, vol. 2, s.v. avṛha).

The northern continent according to Buddhist cosmology. See also n.­33.

An Indian preceptor.

An Indian preceptor.

Name of one of the great hells; see also n.­88.

A mythical tree granting all desires. The Kalpavṛkṣa is usually depicted as being located in a heaven or Indra’s paradise, but the wish-fulfilling tree mentioned in The Limits of Life is said to be located in Uttarukuru.