Notes

n.1For an account on 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 Sun , Toh 41 (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) (Toh 331). The colophon of the Sūtra of the Moon (1) (Toh 42) in the Narthang, Stok Palace, Ulaanbaatar, and Shey versions acknowledge the existence of The Sūtra of the Moon (2): “There is also an early translation.”

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.13Narthang Kangyur (N 328). This is missing in the Degé, but closely related to Toh 35.

n.14kun dga’ rgyal mtshan thub bstan dpal bzang po.

n.15Skilling 1993, pp. 86–94.

n.16Wille 2008, p. 339, n. 4.

n.17This is one of the editions we used for the Pali text, the other being the Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500 available at SuttaCentral.

n.18Wilhelm Geiger’s German translation is available on SuttaCentral: https://legacy.suttacentral.net/de/sn2.9.

n.19This translation is also available on SuttaCentral: https://suttacentral.net/sn2.9/en/sujato.

n.20The Paritta collection gives the setting in full, as does the Tibetan, but it is abbreviated as sāvatthinidānaṃ in the SN. The setting of Toh 331 is on the bank of the Traveler Pond in the country of Campā.

n.21The Pali omits “taking to heart.” 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.22The Pali reads namo te buddha vīratthu (“Homage to you, Buddha, heroic one!”).

n.23Here the Pali reads vippamuttosi sabbadhi (“You are completely liberated!”).

n.24The 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 the mouth of it,” seems distant at first, upon reflection it conveys the meaning of the Pali well.

n.25The causal connections in this verse are not explicit in Pali.

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 “hurriedly.”

n.27In Toh 331 Rāhu’s interlocutor is Bali. These asuras are often associated and 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 candaṃ pamuñcasi, saṃviggarūpo āgamma, kiṃ nu bhītova tiṭṭhasī”ti (“Why did you, Rāhu, in a hurry, release the moon? After having approached, moved by fear, why are you standing here so scared?”).

n.30Missing in the Pali.

n.31This theme is found in the parallels of this sūtra 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 (“Translated, edited, and finalized by the great paṇḍita Ānandaśrī and the learned translator, Śākya monk, Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangpo at the seat of translators, the great monastery, the glorious Tharpa Ling”). Narthang, Stok Palace, and Lhasa proceed with the aspiration: sa’i steng du nyi ma dang / zla ba ltar gyur cig (“May the sun and moon transform above the earth in the same way”). Narthang and Stok Palace add: sngar ’gyur yang yod (“There is also an early translation”).