Notes

n.1For an account of Rāhu’s reasons for seizing the sun and the moon according to Hindu texts, see Feer 1865, pp. 5–12. For alternative Buddhist theories of lunar and solar eclipses, see The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma 3.69–74, 3.77–78 and 3.254–3.256.

n.2For a general introduction to all thirteen late-translated sūtras, see the 84000 Knowledge Base article on the thirteen late-translated sūtras.

n.3bu ston rin chen grub.

n.4Skilling 1993, p. 73.

n.5Pema Yeshe De (2023), trans., The Sūtra of the Moon (1) , Toh 42 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha).

n.6Pema Yeshe De (2023), trans., The Sūtra of the Moon (2) , Toh 331 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha).

n.7See the introduction to the Sūtra of the Moon (2).

n.8Skilling 1993, p. 133.

n.9Skilling 1993, p. 97.

n.10These include the Egoo, Stagrimo, Stongde, and Bardan collections. For information on differences in its location in the various Kangyur collections, see the Knowledge Base article on the thirteen late-translated sūtras; see also Skilling 1993, pp. 73–78.

n.11thar pa lo tsA ba nyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po.

n.12thar pa gling.

n.13Skilling 1993, pp. 86–94.

n.14Narthang Kangyur (N 328). This is missing in the Degé, but closely related to Toh 35.

n.15kun dga’ rgyal mtshan thub bstan dpal bzang po.

n.16This is one of the editions we used for the Pali text, the other being the Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500 available at SuttaCentral.

n.17Wilhelm Geiger’s German translation is available on SuttaCentral: https://legacy.suttacentral.net/de/sn2.10.

n.18This translation is available on SuttaCentral: https://suttacentral.net/sn2.10/en/sujato.

n.19The Paritta collection gives the setting in full, as does the Tibetan, but it is abbreviated as sāvatthinidānaṃ in the SN.

n.20“Taking to heart” is missing in the Pali. Alternatively, it is possible that the Tibetan phrase bcom ldan ’das rjes su dran pa yid la byas is an attempt to translate the Pali bhagavantam anussaramāno and might be rendered “bringing to mind the remembrance of the Blessed One.”

n.21The Pali reads namo te buddha vīratthu (“Homage to you, Buddha, heroic one!”).

n.22Here the Pali reads vippamuttosi sabbadhi (“You are completely liberated!”).

n.23The Pali reads sambādhapaṭipannosmi, tassa me saraṇaṃ bhavā”ti (“I have entered confinement, be my refuge!”). Though the Tibetan translation bdag ’di’i kha ru bcug pas na/ /bdag ni khyed la skyabs su mchi, the first part of which seems to say, “As I have entered into the mouth of it,” seems distant at first, upon reflection it conveys the meaning of the Pali well.

n.24The causal connections in this verse are not explicit in the Pali.

n.25The Pali reads yo andhakāre tamasi pabhaṅkaro, verocano maṇḍalī uggatejo, mā rāhu gilī caramantalikkhe, pajaṃ mamaṃ rāhu pamuñca sūriyan”ti (“He lights up darkness and gloom, / The sun, circle of mighty splendour. / Rāhu, do not swallow the sun as he traverses the sky! / Rāhu, set my offspring, the sun, free!”). This verse is missing in Toh 42 and in its Pali source, but it has a parallel in Toh 331 and in its Sanskrit and Chinese counterparts.

n.26Here translated with reference to the Pali taramānarūpo yena vepacitti asurindo tenupasaṅkami. The Tibetan phrase sngar gyi gzugs bzhin du corresponds to the Pali taramānarūpo, which means “hurriedly.”

n.27In Toh 331 Rāhu’s interlocutor is Bali. These asuras are often associated, and are accredited with the role of leaders. See The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, Toh 113 (1.8) and The Play in Full, Toh 95 (16.15).

n.28Missing in the Pali.

n.29The Pali has kiṃ nu santaramānova, rāhu sūriyaṃ pamuñcasi; saṃviggarūpo āgamma, kiṃ nu bhītova tiṭṭhasī”ti (“Why did you, Rāhu, in a hurry, release the sun? After having approached, moved by fear, why are you standing here so scared?”).

n.30Missing in the Pali.

n.31This theme is found in parallel sūtras and elsewhere in the Kangyur. See The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, Toh 113 (21.20), The Hundred Deeds, Toh 340 (6.196), The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī, Toh 543 (15.107) and Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm, Toh 558 (1.286)

n.32Narthang, Stok Palace, Lhasa, and Bardan here add: paNDi ta chen po A nanda shrI’i zhal snga nas/ mang du thos pa’i lo tsA ba shAkya’i dge slong nyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang pos skad gnyis smra ba rnams kyi gdan sa/ gtsug lag khang chen po dpal thar pa gling du bsgyur cing zhus te gtan la phab pa’o/ sa’i steng du nyi ma dang / zla ba ltar gyur cig (“Translated, edited, and finalized by the great paṇḍita Ānandaśrī and the learned translator the Śākya monk Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangpo at the seat of translators, the great monastery glorious Tharpa Ling. May the sun and moon transform above the earth in the same way”).