Notes

n.1Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1098 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1098 note 1 for details.

n.2See Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2016).

n.3For the Sanskrit, from several Nepalese manuscripts, see bibliography. The Chinese is 佛說守護大千國土經 (Fo shuo shouhu da qian guotu jing, Taishō 999), translated by Dānapāla in the late tenth or early eleventh century.

n.4See Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2016): the epidemic is introduced at 1.4, the Buddha quells it at 1.243, and the verses in question are introduced at 1.249.

n.5Especially chapters 25 and 29. See bibliography for Sanskrit text. For translation see Jones (1949), vol. 1, p. 208 et seq. and p. 242 et seq.

n.6The Ratana-sutta is found in the Pali Canon as Khuddakapāṭha 6 and Suttanipāta 2.1. It is also found in a large number of liturgical collections of paritta texts, such as the Catubhāṇavārapāli (“Text of the Four Recitals”), along with some of the Pali counterparts of other mahāsūtras. See Pemaloka (2018), pp. xv and 54–63.

n.7Especially the Khuddakapāṭha-aṭṭhakathā; see Skilling (1994–97), vol. 2, p. 605, n. 83.

n.8The text exists in Chinese (Taishō 1448), but not (for this episode) in Sanskrit. For full details and English translation, see Bhaiṣajyavastu Translation Team (2021), 3.272–324.

n.9Toh 312, 628, and 1093 in the Degé Kangyur. For translation and details, see Bhaiṣajyavastu Translation Team (2020); see also Skilling (1994–97).

n.10An edition based on eight manuscripts is included in Skilling (1994–97), vol. 1, pp. 608–22. As noted above, there are five Pañcarakṣā texts in the Kangyur representing the five protector goddesses, but this particular text was not translated into Tibetan. The Pañcarakṣā texts as a group are not themselves closely related to any one Vinaya tradition but draw on multiple sources for their composite content. This Mahā­mantrānusāriṇī seems to be the only one with such a direct relationship to the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, while Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm seems to have included the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravādin Vinaya among its several sources.

n.11The Verses for Well-Being Extracted from the Noble Sūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī” (’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo las ’byung pa’i bde legs kyi tshigs su bcad pa), Toh 816 in the Degé Kangyur among the prayers of dedication at the end of the Tantra Collection, and Toh 4406 toward the end of the Degé Tengyur.

n.12Butön, folio 153.a.

n.13The colophon in the Degé version of Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm mentions that the translation was re-edited several centuries later by Gö Lotsāwa Zhönnu Pal (’gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal, 1392–1481), based on a Sanskrit edition that had been in the possession of Chöjé Chaklo (chag lo tsA ba chos rje dpal, 1197–1263/64).

n.14rdo rje lta bu (Skt. vajropama), usually referring (in Sarvāstivādin and Mahāyāna systems) to the crucial samādhi that is the moment of transition to the fifth of the five paths, the “path of no more learning.” In the matching line in the Mahāvastu version the term is ānantariya (“immediate” or “uninterrupted”) and in the Ratana-sutta its Pali equivalent ānantarika; these terms are applied to a samādhi that marks the beginning of the “path of seeing,” but are also applied to a path (ānantaryamārga) that is the first of two repeated successive processes leading to the “path of no more learning.”

n.15As in the longer text (Toh 558) that is the source of this extract, the Narthang and Lhasa Kangyurs read mi gnyis (“nondual”); Degé reads mig gnyis (“two eyes”). The former reading is supported by the Sanskrit edition, which reads advaya­mārga­darśinā.

n.16In the Mahāvastu , the stanza equivalent to this one comes later, between 1.­10 and 1.­11 here, and is followed by another stanza on the jewel of the Saṅgha that has no equivalent in this work.

n.17In the Pali Ratana-sutta, the stanza equivalent to this one comes later, between 1.­10 and 1.­11 here, and the remaining equivalent stanzas come in a different order.

n.18This stanza is also found in the Mahā­samāja-mahā­sūtra (Toh 653) and, in the Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya, in the Vinaya­kṣudraka­vastu (Toh 6), The Chapter on Going Forth (Pravrajyāvastu, Toh 1-1, at 4.258), The Chapter on Medicines (Bhaiṣajyavastu, Toh 1-6, at 3.297), and The Mahāsūtra On Entering the City of Vaiśālī (Toh 312).

n.19This first verse passage from Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm ends here, and after further dialog with the gods, during which the Buddha pronounces three more of the many dhāraṇī in the text, the epidemic of Vaiśālī comes to an end and the harmful spirits surrender to the Buddha’s compassion.

n.20The verses that follow are taken from a passage that follows shortly after the preceding verses. The Four Great Kings recommend the reciting of these verses, which they describe as part of a procedure as follows: “One who endeavors to be free of goiters, herpes, insanity, boils, blisters, rashes, and the drinking of poison should be ritually cleansed and well adorned, and say the following incantation while sitting on a fine seat.”