Notes

n.1A further hint that leaves room for such speculation is the traditional narrative according to which the Buddha was not invited to Śrāvastī either by King Prasenajit or by any other member of the ruling family, but instead by the wealthy merchant Anāthapiṇḍada, who then had to pay Prasenajit’s son Prince Jeta a huge sum of money for land on which to build a vihāra to accommodate the Buddha and his followers. This was in stark contrast to the insistent invitations, welcome, patronage, and provision of resources extended to the Buddha by Bimbisara, king of Magadha.

n.2Degé Kangyur vol. 4 (’dul ba, nga) F.89.b et seq. See Miller et al., The Chapter on Schisms in the Saṅgha , 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha (forthcoming).

n.3That is, virtuous deeds.

n.4“Friends” (grogs po dag) is clearly in the plural in the Tibetan, but it is unclear whom Surata is addressing.

n.5This translation follows the reading brtson par mi bya ba attested in the Yongle, Kangxi, Narthang, and Lhasa versions of the text. The Degé reads btson par mi bya ba.

n.6The Stok Palace version has sred pa here, which could be read as “attachment” or “craving.” The Degé reads srid pa.

n.7The ocean is said to be the source of precious jewels. So even though the nāgas who live there have extensive access to riches, they still are not satisfied.

n.8Though this is describing a quality of Surata, “gentleness” (des pa) here happens to be the same word for his name.

n.9The phrase here, lhag pa’i bsam pa yongs su dag pa, seems to suggest lhag bsam rnam dag, a technical term describing a stage preceding the development of full bodhicitta where one takes on the personal responsibility to eliminate the suffering of all sentient beings.

n.10Here we follow the Kangxi, Narthang, Lhasa, Stok Palace, and Yongle versions in reading mngon par byed pa med pa (Skt. anabhisaṃskāra), where the Degé reads mngon par byed pa (Skt. abhisaṃskāra).

n.11These are four of the “five eyes” (Tib. spyan lnga; Skt. pañcacakṣuḥ) or five types of extraordinary vision possessed by a buddha. The five are the flesh eye, divine eye, wisdom eye, dharma eye, and buddha eye. The flesh eye is omitted in this list.

n.12These are the “five uncontaminated components” (Tib. zag med phung po lnga, Skt. pañcānāsravaskandha): the component of ethics, the component of concentration, the component of wisdom, the component of liberation, and the component of gnosis seeing liberation.

n.13The dman ma in the phrase here, rkang pa’i dman mar gyur pa, can denote “old” or “left over.” In colloquial English, we might call the cloth “used clothing.”

n.14The Stok Palace, Lhasa, Kangxi, Narthang, and Yongle Kangyurs omit “gods” and instead have “children of the lineage” (rigs kyi bu gang bdag gis).

n.15“Imperturbable” (brtan po) here may be a play on the meaning of Akṣobhya’s name, which is “immovable.”

n.16This seems a paltry number of years for Surata’s future Dharma teachings to persist. However, this is the literal number suggested by the Tibetan, “lo ni brgyad cu dag las bzhi lhag.” It may be a shorthand of 84,000, which is a significant number in Buddhist texts.