Notes

n.1The Sanskrit title of this text varies between two alternatives across the Tibetan versions. Most attest to Mañjuśrī­vikurvāṇa­parivarta while some give Mañjuśrī­vikurvita­parivarta. The latter title appears in the Stok, Ulaanbaatar, Shey, Hemis, Phukdrak, Namgyal, Chizhi, Dongkarla, Gangteng, and Neyphug Kangyurs and the Basgo fragments, while the former title appears in the rest.

n.2The order of the sūtras varies across the different Kangyurs. The Magical Display of Mañjuśrī is placed among the first texts of the General Sūtra section in Kangyurs related to the Degé, while it appears later in some other Kangyurs.

n.3blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa rgya cher ’grel pa .

n.4The sūtra is quoted in the text bstan bcos lung gi nyi ’od (Sönam Rinchen 1998, folio 30.a).

n.5The sūtra is quoted in the text yid bzhin rin po che’i mdzod kyi dka’ gnad. (Drimé Özer 1999, folio 16.a).

n.6For an English translation of Toh 96, see Braarvig, Jens (tr.) The Play of Mañjuśrī (2020). For one example of the confusion of the two texts, see Jñānavajra’s commentary on the Laṅkāvatāra­sūtra in the Tengyur (Toh 4019), folio 121.a, where a passage cited as being from this text, The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display, is in fact from The Play of Mañjuśrī (1.195).

n.7佛說魔逆經 (Foshuo moni jing).

n.8For more on Dharmarakṣa, see Boucher 2006.

n.9佛說四天王經 (Foshuo si tianwang jing).

n.10Denkarma, folio 298.b.2. See also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, 84, no. 154.

n.11Reading bsten pa here from K and N in place of brtan pa.

n.12This is a standard set of three terms characterizing actions and their karmic consequences: virtuous, nonvirtuous, and unmoving. This third term refers to acts that lead to rebirth in the formless realm and are so called because their result is unchangeable. See Edgerton’s entry on aniñjya (p. 24) for further information.

n.13These are typically organized into two general groups: 18 views that are based on the assertion of the past and 44 views based on the assertion of the future. The first group includes assertions such as the permanence of the self and the world, impermanence, nihilism, or eternalism, and the second group includes assertions of perception, nonperception, both, or neither, as well as assertions of nihilism or that this is nirvāṇa. See also Nordrang Orgyen 2008, 3578.

n.14Reading dag pa from Y, K, S.

n.15Reading tshong from Y, L, K, N, C, H.

n.16The text reads cho ga shes pa, “know the procedure/behavior.” Since this makes little sense in the given context, and because of the easily confused orthography, we are emending it to chog shes pa, “content.”