Notes

n.1See Bodhinidhi Translation Group, trans., The Exemplary Tale About a Sow , Toh 345 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).

n.2Herrmann-Pfandt (2008), p. 165.

n.3The text here descriptively uses the child’s name, jñānaka (Tib. shes dang lda pa), which means “he who possesses knowledge.”

n.4This refers to a stock description of the Buddha's appearance that normally reads in full (with some variations across texts): “He was handsome and inspiring, and his senses were stilled. His mind was serene, his sense faculties were restrained, his mind was temperate, and he had attained the perfection of sublime tranquility. His sense faculties were isolated and withdrawn. He was as well trained as an elephant, and as lucid, limpid, and clear as a lake. His body was adorned with the thirty-two characteristics of a great being, and he was ornamented with the eighty fine marks. He had the body of a thus-gone one, bedecked like the king of sal trees. Like the sun, he emitted a profusion of light rays everywhere. He was like a conflagration raging atop a mountain peak in the middle of a dark night, and brilliant and shining like a golden mountain.” (See Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm, Toh 558, 1.240.)

n.5This refers to a stock phrase that normally reads in full (with some minor variations across texts): “The Blessed One then smiled, and as happens whenever the blessed ones smile, at that moment light of myriad colors‍—blue, yellow, red, white, crimson, crystalline, and silver‍—emerged from his mouth. The light illuminated boundless, limitless realms and reached all the way up to the world of Brahmā. It even eclipsed the magnificence of the sun and moon. Then the light rays returned, circled around the Blessed One three times, and dissolved into the crown of his head.” (See The Questions of Brahmadatta, Toh 159, 1.145.)

n.6Again, this refers to a stock phrase in which the venerable Ānanda (or others in the Buddha’s retinue) inquire as to the reason why the Buddha smiles. Usually the question is articulated to the Buddha, rather than here where Ānanda merely wonders in his thoughts. Although there are all sorts of variant versions that differ in length and content, the following example is typical of shorter versions: “At this point, Venerable Ānanda arose from his seat and, placing his robe over one shoulder, knelt on his right knee. With palms pressed together in the direction of the Blessed One, he spoke the following words to the Blessed One: ‘Blessed One, since the thus-gone, worthy, completely awakened buddhas do not smile without a cause, without a reason, what is the cause for your smile? What is the reason?’.” (See The Questions of the Householder Vīradatta, Toh 72, 1.94.)