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ཤེས་ཕྱིན་ཁྲི་པ།

The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines
Rejoicing

Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā

འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཁྲི་པ་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines”

Āryadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra

Toh 11

Degé Kangyur, vol. 31 (shes phyin, khri pa, ga), folios 1.b–91.a, and vol. 32 (shes phyin, khri pa, nga), folios 92.b–397.a

ᴛʀᴀɴsʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛɪʙᴇᴛᴀɴ ʙʏ

Jinamitra
Prajñāvarman
Yeshé Dé

Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

First published 2018

Current version v 1.40.27 (2024)

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84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.

co.

Summary

s.1

While dwelling at Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha, the Buddha sets in motion the sūtras that are the most extensive of all‍—the sūtras on the Prajñāpāramitā, or “Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.” Committed to writing around the start of the first millennium, these sūtras were expanded and contracted in the centuries that followed, eventually amounting to twenty-three volumes in the Tibetan Kangyur. Among them, The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines is a compact and coherent restatement of the longer versions, uniquely extant in Tibetan translation, without specific commentaries, and rarely studied. While the structure generally follows that of the longer versions, chapters 1–2 conveniently summarize all three hundred and sixty-seven categories of phenomena, causal and fruitional attributes which the sūtra examines in the light of wisdom or discriminative awareness. Chapter 31 and the final chapter 33 conclude with an appraisal of irreversible bodhisattvas, the pitfalls of rejecting this teaching, and the blessings that accrue from committing it to writing.

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Acknowledgements

ac.1

Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group under the direction of Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche and Pema Wangyal Rinpoche. The text was translated, introduced, and annotated by Dr. Gyurme Dorje, and edited by Charles Hastings and John Canti with contributions from Greg Seton.

This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

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Work on this text was made possible thanks to generous donations made by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche; respectfully and humbly offered by Judy Cole, William Tai, Jie Chi Tai and families; by Shi Jing and family; by Wang Kang Wei and Zhao Yun Qi and family; and by Matthew, Vivian, Ye Kong and family. They are all most gratefully acknowledged.

Introduction

i.1

The Tibetan Buddhist tradition classifies the discourses delivered by Buddha Śākyamuni in terms of the three turnings of the doctrinal wheel, promulgated at different places and times in the course of his life. Among them, the sūtras of the first turning expound the four noble truths, those of the second turning explain emptiness and the essenceless nature of all phenomena, while those of the third turning elaborate further distinctions between the three essenceless natures.1 The sūtras of the transcendent perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā),2 to which the text translated here belongs, are firmly placed by their own assertion3 within the second turning, promulgated at Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha.

The Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā

Structure of the Text

Summary of the Text

Notes on this publication

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines

Chapter 1

The Context

[V31] [F.1.b] [B1]

1.1

Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas!

1.2

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One 19 was residing at Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha with a large monastic gathering comprising many thousands of fully ordained monks. All of them were arhats who had attained the cessation of contaminants and were without afflicted mental states, fully controlled, their minds thoroughly liberated, their wisdom well liberated, thoroughbreds, mighty nāgas, their tasks accomplished, their work completed, their burdens relinquished, their own objectives already fulfilled, the fetters binding them to the rebirth process completely severed, their minds thoroughly liberated through their genuine understanding, having perfected the highest of all mental faculties, with the exception of one person‍—the venerable Ānanda, a disciple who had merely entered the stream. Also present were some five hundred fully ordained nuns, laymen, and laywomen, all of whom had seen the truth. 20

Chapter 3

Non-fixation

3.1

Then, the venerable Śāradvatīputra asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord, what is the fixation of a bodhisattva?”

The Blessed One replied, “Śāradvatīputra, [F.19.b] fixation denotes the views that bodhisattvas might adopt with regard to all things, and the deluded mindsets which they might have.”

3.2

Then he asked, “Lord, what views might great bodhisattva beings adopt with respect to all things?”

Chapter 5

Designation of a Bodhisattva

5.1

Then, the venerable Śāradvatīputra asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! When you say that great bodhisattva beings who continue to engage in union with the transcendent perfection of wisdom deserve respect, then, Reverend Lord, what constitutes that phenomenon designated by the term ‘bodhisattva,’ that is to say, the one who at all times continues to engage inseparably in union with the transcendent perfection of wisdom? If one were to ask why, it is because I do not consider any phenomenon that may be designated by the term ‘bodhisattva.’”151

Chapter 8

Maturity

8.1

Then, the venerable Śāradvatīputra asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! How do unskilled great bodhisattva beings descend to the level of the śrāvakas and the level of the pratyekabuddhas, and how do they not enter into the maturity of a bodhisattva? What is the immaturity of a bodhisattva? What is the maturity of a bodhisattva?”172

The Blessed One then addressed the venerable Śāradvatīputra as follows: “Śāradvatīputra, the immaturity of a bodhisattva manifests when great bodhisattva beings who have previously regressed descend to the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas, and fail to enter into the maturity of the bodhisattvas.” [F.76.a]

10.

Chapter 10

Extrasensory Powers

10.1

Then, the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! When it is said that they should don the great armor, what is the extent of the great armor that they should don?”

The Blessed One then addressed the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, great bodhisattva beings should don the armor of the transcendent perfection of generosity, and similarly, they should don the armor of the other transcendent perfections, up to and including the transcendent perfection of wisdom. They should don the armor of the applications of mindfulness, and don the armor of [the other causal attributes], up to and including the noble eightfold path. They should don the armor of the emptiness of internal phenomena, and don the armor of the other aspects of emptiness, up to and including the emptiness of the essential nature of non-entities. Similarly, they should don the armor of the ten powers of the tathāgatas, [F.98.a] and they should don the armor of the [other fruitional attributes], up to and including the eighteen distinct qualities of the buddhas. They should don the armor of [the attainments], up to and including omniscience. They should don the armor of the buddha body. Then they will illuminate the world system of the great trichiliocosm.

11.

Chapter 11

Non-abiding

11.1

“Moreover, Subhūti, the great armor of great bodhisattva beings consists of the five refined eyes. What are these five, you may ask? They comprise (1) the eye of flesh, (2) the eye of divine clairvoyance, (3) the eye of wisdom, (4) the eye of the sacred doctrine, and (5) the eye of the buddhas. These are called the five eyes.”

11.2

The venerable Subhūti then asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! What is the refined eye of flesh, possessed by great bodhisattva beings?”

12.

Chapter 12

Meditative Stability

12.1

[F.121.a] The venerable Subhūti then said to the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! If, when great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, they engage unskillfully with physical forms, then they are merely engaging with mental images, and if they engage in the same manner with feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness, then they are merely engaging with mental images. Also, if they engage with the notion that physical forms are permanent, or the notion that these are impermanent, then they are merely engaging with mental images. Similarly, if they engage with the notion that feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness are permanent, or that these are impermanent, then they are merely engaging with mental images. Similarly, if they engage with the notion that physical forms are imbued with happiness, or that these are imbued with suffering, then they are merely engaging with mental images. Similarly, if they engage with the notion that feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness are imbued with happiness, or that these are imbued with suffering, then they are merely engaging with mental images.

13.

Chapter 13

Like Space

13.1

The Blessed One addressed the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, you asked where this vehicle will come to rest. In this regard, Subhūti, [F.134.b] the vehicle will not come to rest anywhere. If you ask why, it is because resting is non-apprehensible, and so all things do not come to rest. On the other hand, the vehicle will come to rest by way of its non-resting. Subhūti, just as the expanse of reality neither comes to rest, nor does it not come to rest, similarly, Subhūti, the vehicle does not come to rest, nor does it not come to rest. The same refrain should be extensively applied here, just as has been indicated in the context of the previous chapter.

14.

Chapter 14

Neither Coming nor Going

14.1

The Blessed One then addressed the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, you have said that this Great Vehicle neither comes nor goes, and nor does it stay. Subhūti, that is so! You have spoken correctly. Subhūti, in this supreme vehicle, the Great Vehicle, no coming is indeed discernible, nor are going and abiding discernible. If you ask why, Subhūti, it is because all things are unmoving; for that reason, they do not come from anywhere, they do not go anywhere, and they do not even abide anywhere. If you ask why, Subhūti, it is because physical forms do not come from anywhere, they do not go anywhere, and they do not abide anywhere. Similarly, feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness also do not come from anywhere, they do not go anywhere, and they do not abide anywhere.

15.

Chapter 15

The Transcendent Perfection of Tolerance

15.1

Then Śakra, mighty lord of the gods [of Trayastriṃśa], and as many gods of the Caturmahārājakāyika realm as there are throughout the world systems of the great trichiliocosm, all congregated there, in that same assembly, along with their divine princes‍—ten million, one hundred billion, many hundred thousands in number. The divine princes of the Yāma realm, the divine princes of the Tuṣita realm, the divine princes of the Nirmāṇarata realm, and the divine princes of the Paranirmitavaśavartin realm throughout the world systems of the great trichiliocosm also congregated there, in that same assembly, as did all the gods presiding over the twelve Brahmā realms, as many as there are in the world systems of the great trichiliocosm, along with the [lesser gods of] the Brahmā realms‍—ten million, one hundred billion, many hundred thousands in number. All the gods presiding over the Pure Abodes, as many as there are throughout the world systems of the great trichiliocosm also congregated there, in that same assembly, along with the [lesser] gods of the Pure Abodes‍—ten million, one hundred billion, many hundred thousands in number.291 Yet the radiance of their bodies, originating through the ripening of the past actions of the gods of the Caturmahārājakāyika realm, and similarly, the radiance of their bodies originating through the ripening of the past actions of the gods of the Trayastriṃśa, Yāma, Tuṣita, Nirmāṇarata, and Paranirmitavaśavartin realms, and likewise that of the [other] gods, from those of the Brahmākāyika realm up to the Pure Abodes, did not approach even one hundredth part of the natural radiance of the Tathāgata. They did not approach even a thousandth part of it. They did not approach one hundred thousandth part, nor one thousand billionth part of it. Nor did they approach it in any number, fraction, synonym, comparison, or quality. [F.156.b] The effulgence of the Tathāgata’s body was manifestly supreme alongside those radiances. It was manifestly perfect, supreme, abundant, unsurpassed, and unexcelled. Just as a burning tree stump neither shines, nor gleams, nor sparkles alongside the gold of the Jambu River, so the radiance of all the gods, originating through the ripening of their past actions, neither shone, nor gleamed, nor sparkled alongside the natural effulgence of the Tathāgata’s body. Indeed, alongside those radiances, the natural effulgence of the Tathāgata’s body was best. It was perfect, supreme, abundant, unsurpassed, and unexcelled.

16.

Chapter 16

Conceptual Notions

16.1

Then the divine princes thought, “How should we uphold the doctrine revealed by the Elder Subhūti?”

The venerable Subhūti, knowing the thoughts of those divine princes in his own mind, then addressed those divine princes as follows: “Divine princes! You should uphold [the view] that those who teach my sacred doctrine resemble a magical display, and that those who listen to my sacred doctrine also resemble a magical display. They will neither hear the sacred doctrine which I have taught, nor will they actualize it.”

19.

Chapter 19

Agents and Non-agents

19.1

Then the venerable Subhūti said to the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! The transcendent perfection of wisdom is an agent that has no actions.”

The Blessed One replied, “This is because it is non-apprehensible as an agent, because it is non-apprehensible in terms of all phenomena, and so forth.”

19.2

“Reverend Lord! How then should great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom?”

21.

Chapter 21

Early Indications

21.1

Then the venerable Subhūti said to the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! This transcendent perfection of wisdom is profound. Reverend Lord! This transcendent perfection of wisdom is established by means of great deeds. Accordingly, Reverend Lord, this transcendent perfection of wisdom is established by means of unappraisable deeds, innumerable deeds, and deeds that are equal to the unequaled.”

23.

Chapter 23

Non-acceptance and Non-rejection

23.1

Then all the gods inhabiting the world system of desire and all the gods inhabiting the world system of form scattered divine sandalwood powders, incense, palm leaf powders, divine blue lotuses, night lotuses, and white lotuses toward the Lord Buddha. Coming into the presence of the Blessed One, they prostrated with their heads at his feet, and took their place to one side. Having taken their place to one side, those gods then said to the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! This profound transcendent perfection of wisdom is hard to realize, it cannot be scrutinized, it is not within the range of sophistry, and it may be known by the wise and by those who are skilled in investigating subtle quiescence. Reverend Lord, the enlightenment of the lord buddhas revealed in this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom is incompatible with all mundane [phenomena].

24.

Chapter 24

Initial Engagement

24.1

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! In what should great bodhisattva beings who seek emancipation in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment abide?”

The Blessed One replied to the venerable Subhūti, “Great bodhisattva beings who wish to attain emancipation in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment should abide in a state of equanimity with respect to all sentient beings. They should cultivate a state of equanimity with respect to all sentient beings, and having established this even-mindedness, they should offer benedictions and greetings to all sentient beings with a benevolent attitude. They should cultivate loving kindness with respect to all sentient beings. They should minimize pride with respect to all sentient beings. They should cultivate the notion that they are teaching all sentient beings. They should offer benedictions and greetings to all sentient beings with sweet and gentle words. They should cultivate an attitude that is free from enmity with respect to all sentient beings. They should cultivate an attitude that is free from harming with respect to all sentient beings. They should cultivate an attitude that regards all sentient beings as their parents, brothers, and sisters. They should cultivate an attitude that regards all sentient beings as their friends, peers, and kinsmen. They should offer benedictions and greetings with an attitude that regards all sentient beings as their parents, brothers, sisters, friends, peers, and kinsmen. They should also abstain from killing living creatures and they should encourage others to adhere to the genuine path by abstaining from killing living creatures. They should always praise abstention from the killing of living creatures. They should praise and rejoice in others who abstain from the killing of living creatures. [F.263.b] In the same vein as before, they themselves should abstain from wrong views, and so forth, and they should encourage others also to adhere to the genuine path by abstaining from wrong views. They should praise abstention from wrong views and they should praise and rejoice in others who abstain from wrong views. It is in this way, Subhūti, that great bodhisattva beings who seek to attain emancipation in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment should maintain these doctrines, and do so without apprehending anything.

26.

Chapter 26

Rejoicing

26.1

Then Śakra, mighty lord of the gods, thought, “If great bodhisattva beings surpass sentient beings while just practicing this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, [F.287.b] what need one say when they have attained manifestly perfect buddhahood, the genuinely perfect enlightenment! If even those sentient beings whose minds are just introduced to omniscience find wealth, and if even those sentient beings sustain themselves through noble livelihoods, what need one say about those who have set their minds on the aspiration toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment! Those sentient beings who have set their minds on the aspiration toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, and even those who have not yet done so, are to be envied when they always listen to this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom.”

26.2

Then Śakra, mighty lord of the gods, took coral tree flowers and scattered them, scattered them more vigorously, and scattered them with utmost vigour toward the Tathāgata, Arhat, Genuinely Perfect Buddha, saying, “By this merit may the sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage who follow the vehicle of the bodhisattvas, with their higher focus intent on unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, perfect the attributes of the buddhas! May they also perfect omniscience! May they also perfect the attributes that naturally arise, and may they also perfect the attributes that are free from contaminants!

26.3

“Reverend Lord! I do not in the slightest think that the sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage who follow the vehicle of the bodhisattvas will ever regress from unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment and become śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas. I do, however, think that they will long for unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, [F.288.a] and that they will aspire even more toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. Seeing the sufferings of those involved in cyclic existence, they will resolve to seek the benefit of the whole world, with its gods, humans, and antigods, and seek to alleviate [its sufferings]. Great bodhisattva beings who possess this mind will always think, ‘Once I have crossed beyond cyclic existence, should I save those sentient beings who have not yet crossed beyond it? Once I have been liberated from cyclic existence, should I liberate those sentient beings who have not yet been liberated? Once I have been inspired, should I inspire those sentient beings who have not yet been inspired? Once I have attained final nirvāṇa, should I bring to final nirvāṇa those sentient beings who have not attained final nirvāṇa?’

26.4

“Reverend Lord! How much merit will those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage accrue‍—those who rejoice in the minds of great bodhisattva beings who are beginners entering the vehicle, and similarly, who rejoice in the minds of great bodhisattva beings who have been practicing over a long period of time, and similarly, who rejoice in the minds of irreversible great bodhisattva beings, and similarly, who rejoice in the minds of those great bodhisattva beings who are tied to only one more rebirth?”

26.5

The Blessed One then replied to Śakra, mighty lord of the gods, [F.288.b] “Kauśika, you may be able to measure with weights this world system of the four continents, but you cannot measure the merits of those who have set their mind on enlightenment deriving from the rejoicing of those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage. Kauśika, you may be able to measure with a tip of a hair, split one hundredfold, all the drops of water in the oceans of this world system of the great trichiliocosm, but you cannot measure the merits of those who have set their mind on enlightenment deriving from the rejoicing of those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage.”

26.6

Then Śakra, mighty lord of the gods, said to the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! Those who would not rejoice in sentient beings who set their mind on enlightenment are inspired by demonic forces. Reverend Lord! Those who would not rejoice in sentient beings who set their mind on enlightenment are on the side of demonic forces. Reverend Lord! Those who would not rejoice in sentient beings who set their mind on enlightenment have been reborn here after dying in the domain of demonic forces. If one were to ask why, it is because those who have successfully set their mind on enlightenment and dedicated the merit toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment actually shatter the domain of demonic forces. One should rejoice in those who have set their mind on the aspiration toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. Those who do not forsake the Buddha, who do not forsake the Dharma, and who do not forsake the Saṅgha 392 should rejoice in those who have set their mind on enlightenment. Then, having rejoiced in them setting their mind on enlightenment, they should dedicate the merit to unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, without engaging in the notion that the setting of the mind on enlightenment is singular, or the notion that it is dual, or the notion that it is plural.”

26.7

The Blessed One [F.289.a] replied, “Kauśika, It is so! It is just as you have said. Those who rejoice in these [bodhisattvas] who set their mind on enlightenment will swiftly attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. Even those who engage in the conduct of a bodhisattva will swiftly please the tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas. They will never again perceive unpleasant sights. They will never hear unpleasant sounds. They will never smell unpleasant odors. They will never savor unpleasant tastes. They will never touch unpleasant tangible objects. They will never be conscious of unpleasant mental phenomena. They will never lack the sight of the buddhas. They will move from buddhafield to buddhafield, and they will venerate the lord buddhas. They will also develop the roots of virtuous actions because they are of benefit to all sentient beings. If you ask why, it is because those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage have rejoiced in the roots of virtuous action of beginners entering the vehicle, who are innumerable and immeasurable in number. Similarly, they have rejoiced in the roots of virtuous action of those bodhisattvas who abide on the first level, and similarly of those great bodhisattva beings who abide on [the other levels], up to and including the tenth level, and similarly of those great bodhisattva beings who are tied to only one more rebirth.

26.8

“Those who have actualized the roots of virtuous actions will approach unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment; after attaining manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment they will bring innumerable, countless, measureless sentient beings to final nirvāṇa in the expanse of nirvāṇa, where there is no residue of the psycho-physical aggregates. [F.289.b]

26.9

“For that reason, Kauśika, once the sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage have rejoiced in the roots of virtuous action, possessed by great bodhisattva beings who have first begun to set their mind on enlightenment, they should dedicate this merit toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, and they should make this dedication in such a way that they do not engage with mind and do not engage with anything other than mind.393 Similarly, once they have rejoiced in those roots of virtuous action possessed by great bodhisattva beings who already abide on [the levels], up to and including the tenth level, and similarly, in those roots of virtuous action possessed by great bodhisattva beings who are tied to only one more rebirth, they should dedicate this merit toward unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, and they should make this dedication in such a way that they do not engage with mind and do not engage with anything other than mind.”

26.10

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! How does the illusion-like mind attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment?”

The Blessed One replied to the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, do you think that you should consider this illusion-like mind?”

“Reverend Lord! I do not consider illusion or illusion-like mind.”

26.11

The Blessed One replied, “Subhūti, do you think that you should consider that mind which would attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, but in which there is no illusion, nor any illusion-like mind?”

“No, Reverend Lord!

26.12

The Blessed One [F.290.a] replied, “Subhūti, do you think that you should consider anything which would attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, but which is other than illusion, or other than illusion-like mind?”

“Reverend Lord! I do not consider anything which would attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, but which is other than illusion, or other than illusion-like mind. Reverend Lord! Since I do not consider anything extraneous, what thing, existent or non-existent, could arise? Nor could any phenomena, absolutely void, be attributed and sustained as existent or non-existent. Anything that could not be sustained as existent or non-existent, could not attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. Indeed, anything non-existent could not attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, it is because all things that are subject to affliction or purification are non-existent.

26.13

26.14

The Blessed One replied to the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, it is so! It is so! It is just as you have said. The transcendent perfection of wisdom, and similarly, the transcendent perfection of meditative concentration, the transcendent perfection of perseverance, the transcendent perfection of tolerance, the transcendent perfection of ethical discipline, and the transcendent perfection of generosity are all absolutely void. In the same vein, [all causal attributes], up to and including enlightenment, and all [fruitional attributes], up to and including omniscience, are absolutely void. Subhūti, it is because the transcendent perfection of wisdom is absolutely void that, Subhūti, great bodhisattva beings can attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, which is [also] absolutely void.

26.15

“Subhūti, if the transcendent perfection of wisdom were not absolutely void, and in the same vein, [if all attributes and attainments], up to and including omniscience, were not absolutely void, they would not resort to the transcendent perfection of wisdom, and [all attributes and attainments], up to and including omniscience, would not be existent.

26.16

Therefore, Subhūti, it is because the transcendent perfection of wisdom is void, and [all attributes and attainments], up to and including omniscience, are void, that great bodhisattva beings will attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, dependent on the transcendent perfection of wisdom.”

26.17

“Reverend Lord! Although something which is void cannot attain manifestly perfect buddhahood, which is [also] void, great bodhisattva beings who practice the sacred doctrine and its profundities do indeed attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment!”394 [F.291.a] [B26]

26.18

The Blessed One replied, “Subhūti, it is so! It is just as you have said. Great bodhisattva beings do indeed practice the sacred doctrine and its profundities. Subhūti, although great bodhisattva beings practice the sacred doctrine and its profundities, they achieve something difficult‍—that is to say, they do not at all actualize the goals either of the level of the śrāvakas or of the level of the pratyekabuddhas.”

26.19

“Reverend Lord! As I understand the meaning of the teachings spoken by the Lord, great bodhisattva beings do not at all achieve something difficult. If you ask why, it is because they do not apprehend any doctrine or goal that could be actualized. They do not apprehend even the transcendent perfection of wisdom, through which anything could be actualized, nor do they apprehend anything that could bring about actualization. So, when all things are non-apprehensible, what is the doctrine, what is the purpose, what is the intelligence that would bring about actualization? What is the doctrine which, having realized all these things, would attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment?

26.20

“Reverend Lord! This non-apprehending conduct is the conduct of the bodhisattvas. Great bodhisattva beings who practice accordingly will acquire a state that is without obscuration and without blindness with respect to all things. Reverend Lord! If, when such teachings are revealed, the minds of great bodhisattva beings are not afraid, not terrified, not fearful, and not frightened, and if they will not become frightened, then they are actually practicing the transcendent perfection of wisdom. [F.291.b] But they do not consider the fact that they are practicing it. They do not consider the fact that they are not practicing it. They do not consider the transcendent perfection of wisdom. Nor do they consider that they should attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment.

26.21

“Great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom accordingly do not think, ‘I should shun the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas!’ They do not think, ‘I should approach omniscience!’ If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, just as space, for example, does not think, ‘I am near or far from anything!’ owing, Reverend Lord, to the fact that space is not particularized, owing to its immobility, and because it has no concepts, in the same way, Reverend Lord, although great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, [F.292.a] they do not think, ‘I am near or far from the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas and I am approaching unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment!’ If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, it is because the transcendent perfection of wisdom is non-conceptual.

26.22

“Reverend Lord! Just as an illusory person does not think, ‘This illusion is far from or near to me!’ or ‘I am far from or near to this illusion!’ or ‘This assembled crowd of spectators is near or far from me!’ owing, Reverend Lord, to the fact that an illusory person has no concepts, in the same way, Reverend Lord, although great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, they do not think, ‘I am far from the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas and I am approaching unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment!’

26.23

“Reverend Lord! Just as an optical aberration does not think, ‘This object generated by reflection in a mirror or in water is far from or near to me!’ owing, Reverend Lord, to the fact that an optical aberration has no concepts, in the same way, Reverend Lord, although great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, they do not think, ‘I am far from the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas and I am approaching unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment!’ If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, it is because great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom have no concepts.

26.24

“Reverend Lord! To great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, nothing is pleasant or unpleasant. If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, it is because the essential nature of anything through which pleasant or unpleasant things could be cognized is non-apprehensible. Reverend Lord! Just as to the tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas there is nothing that is pleasant or unpleasant, in the same way, Reverend Lord, to great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, there is nothing that is pleasant or unpleasant.

26.25

“Reverend Lord! Just as the level of the tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas is one on which all thoughts, conceptions, and imaginations have invariably been abandoned owing to its non-conceptualization with respect to all things, [in the same way, Reverend Lord, great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom have abandoned all thoughts, concepts, and imaginations].395 [F.292.b]

26.26

“Reverend Lord! Just as the phantom emanations of the tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas do not think, ‘The level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas is far from me, and unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment is near!’ owing, Reverend Lord, to the fact that these phantom emanations of the tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas are without conceptualisation, in the same way, Reverend Lord, although great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, they do not think, ‘The level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas is far from me, and unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment is near!’

26.27

“Reverend Lord! Just as when the tathāgatas create a phantom to act on their behalf, although it does act according to its objective, it does not think, ‘I am acting according to that objective!’ owing, Reverend Lord, to the fact that the tathāgatas and their phantom emanations are without conceptual imagination, in the same way, Reverend Lord, the transcendent perfection of wisdom also acts according to the objective for which it is emanated, but does not think, ‘I am acting according to a certain objective!’

26.28

“Reverend Lord! Just as when a carpenter or the skilled apprentice of a carpenter makes a machine in the shape of a woman, or in the shape of a man, or in the shape of an elephant, or in the shape of a bull, although this machine may function according to its purpose, it does not think, ‘I am performing [such and such a task], according to that purpose!’ owing, Reverend Lord, to the fact that such machines are without conceptual imagination, in the same way, Reverend Lord, although the transcendent perfection of wisdom does act according to the objective for which it is explained, it does not think, ‘I am acting according to a certain purpose!’ [F.293.a] If one were to ask why, it is because the transcendent perfection of wisdom is non-conceptual.”

26.29

Then the venerable Śāradvatīputra addressed the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Venerable Subhūti, is it only the transcendent perfection of wisdom which is non-conceptual, or are the transcendent perfection of meditative concentration, and in the same vein, [all the other transcendent perfections], down to and including the transcendent perfection of generosity, non-conceptual?”

26.30

“Venerable Śāradvatīputra, the transcendent perfection of meditative concentration, and in the same vein, [all the other transcendent perfections], down to and including the transcendent perfection of generosity, are also non-conceptual.”

26.31

“Venerable Śāradvatīputra, to be brief, all things are non-conceptual!” [F.293.b]

“Venerable Subhūti, if all things are non-conceptual, how has this differentiation come about with regard to the cycle of existence with its five realms of living beings, namely, the denizens of the hells, the animal domain, the world of anguished spirits, the world of the gods, and the world of humankind? How has this distinction come about between those who have entered the stream, those who are tied to one more rebirth, those who are no longer subject to rebirth, those who are arhats, those who are pratyekabuddhas, and those who are tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas?”

26.32

Thereupon, the venerable Subhūti replied to the venerable Śāradvatīputra as follows: “Venerable Śāradvatīputra, those sentient beings who actualize the impact of past actions through body, speech, and mind, motivated by erroneous views, have experienced the ripening of past actions corresponding to the roots of their particular volitions. This causes the materializations of the sense field of sights which the denizens of the hells, the animal domain, the world of Yama, the gods, and humans possess.

26.33

“Venerable Śāradvatīputra, when you asked how these distinctions have come about between those who have entered the stream, and so on, up to and including those who are tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas, Venerable Śāradvatīputra, those who have entered the stream are non-conceptual, and the fruit of having entered the stream is also non-conceptual. Similarly, those who are tied to one more rebirth, the fruit of being tied to one more rebirth, those who are no longer subject to rebirth, the fruit of no longer being subject to rebirth, those who are arhats, arhatship, those who are pratyekabuddhas, individual enlightenment, and also the genuinely perfect buddhas are all non-conceptual. Venerable Śāradvatīputra, those tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas who appeared in the past were also non-conceptual, and they had abandoned all thoughts and concepts. [F.294.a] Those tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas who will appear in the future will also be non-conceptual, and they will have abandoned all thoughts and concepts. Those tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas who are alive and reside, teaching the sacred doctrine, at the present time, in the world systems of the ten directions, numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, are also non-conceptual, and they have abandoned all thoughts and concepts. For this reason, Venerable Śāradvatīputra, one should know that once the real nature without conceptual notions has been appraised, and similarly, once the finality of existence without concepts and the expanse of reality without concepts have been appraised, all things are without concepts. Venerable Śāradvatīputra, great bodhisattva beings should practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom in a non-conceptual manner. When they practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom without concepts, they will attain manifestly perfect buddhahood with respect to all things that are without concepts.”

26.34

Then the venerable Śāradvatīputra addressed the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Venerable Subhūti, do great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, practice the essential doctrine? Or else are they practicing the essenceless doctrine?”

26.35

26.36

Then the multitude of divine princes inhabiting the world system of desire thought, “Those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage who cultivate unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment; who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, just as it has been explained; and who, despite practicing with that goal, do not remain on the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas because they do not actualize the finality of existence [associated with those levels], are all worthy of homage. For this reason, too, great bodhisattva beings who do not realize the uniformity of all things are worthy of homage.”

26.37

Then, the venerable Subhūti replied to those divine princes as follows: “O divine princes, the astonishing singular difficulty for those bodhisattvas is not that they do not realize the uniformity of all virtuous attributes, by realizing which they would remain on the level of the śrāvakas or the level of the pratyekabuddhas, but, divine princes, their utmost difficulty is that they don the armor that resolves to establish innumerable, countless, and immeasurable hundreds of thousands of sentient beings in final nirvāṇa, while those sentient beings whom they would lead to final nirvāṇa are utterly non-apprehensible. [F.295.a]

26.38

“Those great bodhisattva beings who think they should seek to train all sentient beings and then, having really set out for unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, don their armor, resolving to train all sentient beings, might as well think they should seek to train space. If you ask why, sentient beings should be regarded as voidness because space itself is void. Similarly, sentient beings should be regarded as emptiness because space itself is emptiness, and sentient beings should be regarded as essencelessness because space itself is essenceless. For this reason, divine princes, it is difficult for great bodhisattva beings who don the armor of great compassion for the sake of sentient beings who do not exist. Those who, for the sake of sentient beings, think they should don the armor of great compassion might as well think they should seek to do battle with space.

26.39

“Furthermore, the armor which great bodhisattva beings don and the sentient beings for whose sake they actually don their armor are both non-apprehensible. If you ask why, the armor should be regarded as void because sentient beings are void. If, when this is explained, great bodhisattva beings are not discouraged and not utterly disheartened, they do practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom. If you ask why, it is because the physical forms that are void constitute the nature of sentient beings, who are also void. Similarly, the feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness that are void constitute the nature of sentient beings, who are also void. Similarly, the physical forms, feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness that are void constitute the nature of the six transcendent perfections that are also void, and so on, in the same vein as before, up to and including omniscience.

26.40

“If, when it is taught that all things are void, great bodhisattva beings are not discouraged, not terrified, not fearful, not afraid, and will not be afraid, they do practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom.” [F.295.b]

Then the Blessed One addressed the venerable Subhūti: “Why, Subhūti, do great bodhisattva beings not become discouraged with regard to this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom?”

26.41

“Reverend Lord! Great bodhisattva beings do not become discouraged with regard to this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom owing to the non-existence of all things. Similarly, great bodhisattva beings do not become discouraged with regard to this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom owing to the fact that all things are void and calm. For this reason, Reverend Lord, great bodhisattva beings do not become discouraged with regard to this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom. If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, it is because all things are non-apprehensible in terms of those who would be discouraged, the agent of their discouragement, or the object of their discouragement.

26.42

“Reverend Lord! If, when this is explained, great bodhisattva beings do not grow idle, and are not discouraged, not terrified, not fearful, not afraid, and will not be afraid, then they really do practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom. If one were to ask why, it is because all things are non-apprehensible in terms of those who would be discouraged, the agent of their discouragement, or the object of their discouragement. The gods headed by Indra, those headed by Brahmā, and the gods headed by Prajāpati always pay homage to great bodhisattva beings who practice accordingly.”

26.43

The Blessed One then replied to the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, it is not only the ephemeral gods headed by Indra, the gods headed by Brahmā, [F.296.a] and the gods headed by Prajāpati who always pay homage to those great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, but also the manifestly sublime gods, namely, the gods of the Śubhakṛtsna realms, those of the Bṛhatphala realms, and those of the Pure Abodes, will always pay homage to those great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom. Subhūti, the tathāgatas, arhats, genuinely perfect buddhas who reside and are present, teaching the sacred doctrine, in the innumerable, countless, immeasurable world systems of the ten directions will always turn their enlightened intention toward those great bodhisattva beings so that these great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom might completely perfect the transcendent perfection of meditative concentration, and similarly, so that they might completely perfect [the other transcendent perfections], down to and including the transcendent perfection of generosity, and then completely perfect [all attributes and attainments], up to and including omniscience!

26.44

“Subhūti, great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, and those great bodhisattva beings to whom the lord buddhas direct their enlightened intention, should be accepted so that they progress to buddhahood.

“Subhūti, if all the sentient beings, as many as there are, in world systems as numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, were to transform into malign demonic forces, and if each of these demonic forces were also to emanate again just as many malign and demonic forces, they would all be powerless to obstruct the unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment of great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom.

26.45

“Again, Subhūti, when great bodhisattva beings are endowed with two attributes, they will not be subdued by any of those demonic forces. If you ask what these two entail, they are [F.296.b] to regard all things as emptiness and not to abandon any sentient beings. Moreover, Subhūti, when great bodhisattva beings are endowed with two [other] attributes, they will not be subdued by all those demonic forces. If you ask what constitutes these two, it entails that they should do exactly what they say they will do, and that they should be kept in mind by the lord buddhas.

26.46

“Those gods will think to approach great bodhisattva beings who practice accordingly, and having approached, they will venerate them and ask questions and counter-questions, enthusiastically saying, ‘O child of enlightened heritage! You should dwell in accordance with the abiding state of emptiness, the abiding state of signlessness, and the abiding state of aspirationlessness. O child of enlightened heritage! You should swiftly attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. If you ask why, O child of enlightened heritage, it is because when you dwell in accordance with these abiding states, you will become a sanctuary for those without sanctuary, an island for those without an island, and a light for sentient beings who are shrouded in darkness. If you ask why, O child of enlightened heritage, it is because the lord buddhas who reside and are present, teaching the sacred doctrine in the innumerable, countless, and immeasurable world systems of the ten directions, surrounded by their monastic communities of fully ordained monks, will proclaim the names and clans of these great bodhisattva beings while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering their aphorisms.’

26.47

“For example, Subhūti, I right now proclaim the name and the clan of the great bodhisattva being Ratnaketu, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms! Similarly, I proclaim the name and the clan of the great bodhisattva being Śikhin, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms! [F.297.a] And, I proclaim the names and the clans of those great bodhisattva beings who practice chastity, dependent on this very transcendent perfection of wisdom, in the buddhafield of the tathāgata, arhat, genuinely perfect buddha Akṣobhya, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms!

26.48

“Subhūti, the lord buddhas who reside and are present, teaching the sacred doctrine in the world systems of the eastern direction, numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, will, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms, proclaim the names and clans of those great bodhisattva beings in this buddhafield, who practice chastity, commencing from this very transcendent perfection of wisdom.

26.49

“In the same vein, the lord buddhas who reside and are present, teaching the sacred doctrine in the world systems of the southern direction, the western direction, the northern direction, the intermediate directions, the nadir, and the zenith, numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, will, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms, proclaim the names and clans of those great bodhisattva beings in those [respective] buddhafields, who practice chastity, commencing from this very transcendent perfection of wisdom.

26.50

“The lord buddhas who reside in the world systems of the ten directions, numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, will, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms, proclaim the names and clans of those great bodhisattva beings who, taken into the fold after they have first begun to set their mind on enlightenment, will complete the path of perfect enlightenment, and then perfect the transcendent perfection of wisdom, and also attain omniscience. [F.297.b]

“If you ask why, Subhūti, it is because great bodhisattva beings for whom such actions are difficult will ensure that the lineage of the buddhas will not be interrupted.”

26.51

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! While teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms, do the lord buddhas proclaim the names and clans of those bodhisattvas who may provisionally regress, or those of great bodhisattva beings who will not regress?”

The Blessed One replied to the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti! Indeed there are irreversible great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom. They are indeed irreversible. Subhūti, there are also foreordained great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom. The lord buddhas will proclaim their names and clans, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms.”

26.52

“Reverend Lord! Who are they?”

The Blessed One replied, “Subhūti, there are great bodhisattva beings who reside in the buddhafield of the tathāgata Akṣobhya, and who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom in accordance with the training of that tathāgata. The lord buddhas will proclaim their names and clans, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms.396

26.53

“Moreover, Subhūti, there are great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, and who are absolutely intent on this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, [F.298.a] but who have not accepted that phenomena are non-arising; those who are intent on the emptiness of all things but have not accepted that phenomena are non-arising; and those who are intent on the voidness, hollowness, vacuity, and essencelessness of all things, but have not accepted that phenomena are non-arising. Subhūti, the lord buddhas will proclaim the names and clans of all those great bodhisattva beings while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms.

26.54

“Subhūti, there are also those great bodhisattva beings who, having transcended the levels of the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas, are certain to attain unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. Subhūti, the lord buddhas, while teaching the sacred doctrine and uttering aphorisms, will proclaim the names and clans of all those great bodhisattva beings, for they will abide on the irreversible levels, and abiding thereon, they will attain omniscience.

26.55

“Moreover, Subhūti, when this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom is explained, if those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage who follow the vehicle of the bodhisattvas, after studying its meanings, become free from doubt, free from hesitation, and free from delusion, and their minds accept that this exactly accords with the teachings given by the tathāgatas, they will have the confidence that comes from studying the sacred doctrine, and they will gradually study this transcendent perfection of wisdom more extensively in the presence of the tathāgata Akṣobhya and those great bodhisattva beings. Having studied it, they will indeed come to abide on the irreversible levels, and abiding thereon, they will also attain omniscience.

26.56

“Subhūti, since those sons of enlightened heritage or daughters of enlightened heritage who follow the vehicle of the bodhisattvas will be revered even upon hearing this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, how much more so will be those who recite it aloud, keep it, and attain the real nature? Those bodhisattvas [F.298.b] will swiftly abide on the irreversible levels. Swiftly and exclusively, they will then attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment.”397

26.57

“Reverend Lord! Since, when they abide in the real nature, they do not apprehend anything at all, and there is nothing that exists, how then will great bodhisattva beings abiding therein swiftly be established on the irreversible levels and swiftly attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment? Reverend Lord! When, apart from the real nature, they do not apprehend anything at all, who will abide in this real nature? Who will attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment? Who will abide in the real nature and then teach the sacred doctrine to sentient beings? Reverend Lord! When the real nature is itself non-apprehensible, who will abide in the real nature and then attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, let alone abide exclusively in the real nature and teach the sacred doctrine? That would be impossible!”

26.58

The Blessed One replied to the venerable Subhūti as follows: “Subhūti, you have said, ‘When, apart from the real nature, they do not apprehend anything at all, who will abide in the real nature? Who, abiding in the real nature, will attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment? Who will abide in the real nature and then teach the sacred doctrine to sentient beings? When the real nature is itself non-apprehensible, who will abide in the real nature and then attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, let alone abide exclusively in the real nature and teach the sacred doctrine? That would be impossible!” That is so, Subhūti! [F.299.a] It is as you have said. Subhūti, there is nothing at all that would, apart from the real nature, abide in the real nature; that would, abiding in the real nature, attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment; and that would, abiding in the real nature, teach the sacred doctrine to sentient beings. If you ask why, Subhūti, the real nature neither arises nor ceases, and its modifications are non-apprehensible. Subhūti, who would abide in that which neither arises nor ceases, and where modifications are non-apprehensible? Who, abiding therein, would attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment? Who, abiding therein, would teach the sacred doctrine to sentient beings? That would be impossible!”

26.59

Thereupon, Śakra, mighty lord of the gods, said to the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! This transcendent perfection of wisdom is profound. Great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom achieve that which is difficult. If one were to ask why, Reverend Lord, it is because there is nothing termed the real nature which they would apprehend. There is nothing that would abide in the real nature, nor is there anything that would attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment. Nor is there anything that would teach the sacred doctrine to sentient beings! Reverend Lord! When great bodhisattva beings practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom, even though they investigate and meditate accordingly, they will not be discouraged thereby. They will not succumb to doubt, and they will not be deluded.”

26.60

Then the venerable Subhūti addressed Śakra, mighty lord of the gods: “Kauśika! You have said that great bodhisattva beings who practice this profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, [F.299.b] and who do not succumb to doubt and are undeluded with regard to those things, even though they investigate these things, achieve that which is difficult. Kauśika! Since all things are empty, who is there who would succumb to doubt and be deluded?”

26.61

Śakra, mighty lord of the gods, replied to the venerable Subhūti, “Reverend Subhūti, whatever doctrines you are teaching, you teach all of them commencing exclusively from emptiness, and you are unimpeded in all respects. Just as an arrow shot into the air is not impeded anywhere, so is Reverend Subhūti unimpeded with respect to the sacred doctrine.”

26.62

This completes the twenty-sixth chapter from “The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines,” entitled “Rejoicing.”398

27.

Chapter 27

Full Attainment

27.1

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! How do great bodhisattva beings, after abiding in the transcendent perfection of generosity, acquire the transcendent perfection of ethical discipline?”399

The Blessed One replied, “Subhūti, when great bodhisattva beings dispense their gifts, acquisitiveness does not arise. When they dispense their gifts, miserliness does not arise. Indeed, they dedicate those gifts toward omniscience, and they serve all sentient beings with physical acts of loving kindness. Similarly, they serve them with verbal acts of loving kindness, and with mental acts of loving kindness. At that time, great bodhisattva beings acquire the transcendent perfection of ethical discipline.”

30.

Chapter 30

Inherent Existence

30.1

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! How do great bodhisattva beings who practice the transcendent perfection of wisdom observe and study production and disintegration with respect to the five psycho-physical aggregates, while training in these three gateways to liberation?”

30.2

The Blessed One replied, “Subhūti, great bodhisattva beings who train in the transcendent perfection of wisdom correctly perceive physical forms. They correctly perceive the real nature of physical forms‍—that physical forms neither arise from anywhere, nor do they cease anywhere. If you ask how they correctly perceive physical forms, they see that physical forms are utterly porous or utterly fallacious,423 just as a mass of foam is insubstantial. If you ask how they perceive the arising of physical forms, inasmuch as physical forms neither arise from anywhere, nor do they go anywhere, they correctly perceive the non-arising of physical forms from anywhere and their non-going to anywhere. So it is that they perceive the arising of physical forms.

31.

Chapter 31

Irreversibility

31.1

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! Are great bodhisattva beings, who properly realize the defining characteristics of phenomena in this way, irreversible?”428

“Yes, they are, Subhūti!”

31.2

“Reverend Lord! What are the attributes of the irreversible great bodhisattva beings? What are their indications? What are their signs? How should we properly understand the irreversible great bodhisattva beings?”

32.

Chapter 32

The Attainment of Manifest Enlightenment

32.1

Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! If irreversible great bodhisattva beings are endowed with such enlightened attributes, what are the aspects of the path on which they abide and through which they then swiftly attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment? What is the enlightenment of the lord buddhas?”436

33.

Chapter 33

The Conclusion

33.1

Then the venerable Ānanda asked the Blessed One, “Reverend Lord! Are there not some among the classes of sentient beings who do not develop faith in this exegesis of the profound transcendent perfection of wisdom, who are not motivated by joy, confidence, and higher aspiration, who do not make offerings to the assembly with body and mind, who even depart from this assembly, and, in addition, who have abandoned it and are abandoning it?”449

Colophon

c.1

This translation was edited and redacted by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Prajñāvarman, along with the editor-in-chief and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé.

ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetun teṣāṃ tathāgato bhavat āha teṣāṃ ca yo nirodho evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ [ye svāhā]

“Whatever events arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has told the cause thereof, and the great virtuous ascetic has also taught their cessation.”

ab.

Abbreviations

ARIRIAB	Annual Report of the International Research Institute of Advanced Buddhology. Tokyo: SOKA University.
ISMEO	Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Orient
KPD	bka’ ’gyur dpe bsdur ma [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–2009.
LTWA	Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, H.P., India
SOR	Serie Orientale Roma
TOK	’jam mgon kong sprul, The Treasury of Knowledge. English translations of shes bya kun khyab mdzod by the Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group in The Treasury of Knowledge series (TOK, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1995 to 2012); mentioned here are Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group 1995 (Book 1) and 1998 (Book 5); Ngawang Zangpo 2010 (Books 2, 3, and 4); Callahan 2007 (Book 6, Part 3); and Dorje 2012 (Book 6 Parts 1–2).
TPD	bstan ’gyur dpe bsdur ma [Comparative edition of the Tengyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 120 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 1994–2008.

Notes

n.1

On the distinctions between the three promulgations, see Jamgon Kongtrul’s concise explanation in TOK Book 5, pp. 145–156. The three essenceless natures, comprising the imaginary, dependent, and consummate natures, which are not discussed in the present sūtra, are analyzed in Asaṅga’s Yogacārabhūmi, F.162. See also Jamgon Kongtrul’s presentation from the Indo-Tibetan perspective in TOK, Book 6, Pt. 2, pp. 563–574.

n.2

See glossary entry “wisdom” regarding the translation of prajñā (shes rab) as “wisdom.”

n.3

See 32.59.

n.4

The setting of the mind on enlightenment (bodhicittotpāda, byang chub sems bskyed pa) for the sake of all sentient beings, which marks the onset of the bodhisattva path and culminates in the actual attainment of buddhahood, distinguishes the compassionate bodhisattva path from that of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas who are both preoccupied with their own emancipation from cyclic existence. See Dayal (1932): 50–79, Williams (1989): 197–204, and Padmakara Translation Group (1994): 218–234. The śrāvakas are pious attendants who listen to the teachings that the buddhas taught by word of mouth, and place great emphasis on destroying the mistaken belief in personal identity by overcoming all afflicted mental states. In the course of determining their own emancipation from cyclic existence, they may achieve in succession the fruit of entering the stream to nirvāṇa, the fruit of being tied to only one more rebirth, the fruit of being no longer subject to rebirth, and the fruit of arhatship. By contrast, the pratyekabuddhas are hermit buddhas who pursue their path to individual enlightenment in solitude or in small groups, without relying on a teacher and without communicating their understanding to others. Following a natural predisposition for meditation through which they comprehend the twelve links of dependent origination in forward and reverse order, they are said to surpass the śrāvakas in the sense that they realize the emptiness of external phenomena, composed of atomic particles, in addition to realising the emptiness of personal identity. However, unlike bodhisattvas, they fail to realize that the internal phenomena of consciousness are also without inherent existence. Only the bodhisattvas resolve to attain manifestly perfect buddhahood or omniscience, in order to benefit all sentient beings.

n.5

The sūtras themselves frequently allude to proponents of the Vinaya and to upholders of the lesser vehicles (śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas) who would have balked at their unrelenting deconstruction of phenomena and buddha attributes, and sought to oppose them. See, for example, 33.13.

n.6

References to the veneration and importance of the written word, embodied in these sūtras which are said to have primacy over all the twelve branches of scripture, may be found below. See 17.1, 21.2–21.3, and 33.69.

n.7

This evidence is presented in Falk (2011): 13–23, and in Falk and Karashima (2012): 19–61. Earlier significant contributions to research on birch-bark Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts include Saloman (2000), Nasim Khan, M. and M. Sohail Khan, 2004 (2006): 9–15, and Strauch (2007–08).

n.8

See glossary entry “Pāli Canon.”

n.19

In this text, we have opted to translate the epithet bhagavat (bcom ldan ’das) as “the Blessed One” when it stands alone in the narrative, and as “Lord” when found in the terms “Reverend Lord” (bhadantabhagavat, btsun pa bcom ldan ’das) and “Lord Buddha” (bhagavanbuddha, sangs rgyas bcom ldan ’das).

n.20

A clear interpretation of the corresponding introductory paragraph in The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) can be found in Haribhadra’s Mirror Commentary on the Ornament of Clear Realization (Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā). See Sparham (2006): I, 171–181.

n.54

For various interpretations of this term, see Dayal (1932): 324, note 64.

n.55

The listing of the ten powers of the tathāgatas is analyzed in Konow (1941), pp. 37–39, with reconstructed Sanskrit on pp. 105–106. The full explanation of these powers derives from the passage at 2.257–2.386 in The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa, Toh 147, also known as The Sūtra of Dhāraṇīśvararāja, Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra), in which the ten powers are described as the first ten of thirty-two actions of a tathāgata. Cf. also Dayal (1932): 20; and Sparham (2012 IV): 80.

n.151

This passage occurs in Dutt (1934): 99; also Conze (1975): 90, where the interlocutor is Subhūti rather than Śāradvatīputra.

n.172

Cf. Dutt (1934): 119, and also Conze (1975): 95 and Sparham (2006 I): 56, where the ensuing dialogue takes place between Subhūti and Śāradvatīputra.

n.177

Cf. Dutt (1934): 175: also Conze (1975): 128; where this comment is attributed to Pūrṇa.

n.291

See glossary entry “Pure Abodes.”

n.305

See Kimura II–III: 143.

n.306

The twelve aspects pertain to the four noble truths‍—suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path that lead to the cessation of suffering. The twelve aspects are specifically identified as follows: suffering is this, it can be diagnosed, it has been diagnosed; the origin of suffering is this, it can be abandoned, it has been abandoned; the cessation of suffering is this, it can be verified, it has been verified; the path leading to the cessation of suffering is this, it can be cultivated, and it has been cultivated. The three times at which the wheel of the sacred doctrine is turned denote the past, present, and future.

n.313

The phrase “genuinely and methodically” renders don dang tshul las or arthataś ca nayataś ca, as found in Kimura II–III: 149.

n.330

This marks the start of the fourth section of the sūtra, concerning the training in clear realization of all the aforementioned phenomena, meditative experiences, and attributes. While the Tibetan text reads mtha’ yas pa (“infinite”), Kimura IV: 1 reads asat (“non-existent”). Cf. Conze (1975): 312.

n.385

Kimura IV: 192 reads parijaya kartavyaḥ, which Conze (1975): 424, renders as “make a complete conquest of.”

n.392

Kimura V: 36–37 indicates that this is the subject of the sentence, despite the genitive particle in the Tibetan (de dag gi), placing them in apposition to those who develop enlightened mind.

n.393

Our Tibetan text reads ci nas sems su mi ’gyur zhing sems las gzhan du spyod par mi ’gyur ba (“they do not engage with mind and do not engage with anything other than mind”). The Tibetan spyod pa is implied in the first clause though not explicitly stated. The Sanskrit is clearer (Kimura V: 37: yathā tac cittam anyatra cittena caren nānyatra cittena) in that the verb caren covers both clauses. It has been alternatively suggested, based on a reading of the Sanskrit, that the dedication of merit should be made with “the mind (cittam) coursing from one mind to another mind.”

n.394

Kimura V: 47 suggests that this sentence is spoken by Lord Buddha, rather than by Subhūti.

n.395

These words are omitted in our text, and supplied from Kimura V: 49, lines 21–23.

n.396

This paragraph is not found in Kimura V: 43, but see Conze (1975): 465.

n.397

This and the following two paragraphs are not found in Kimura V: 44, but see Conze (1975): 466.

n.398

Ch. 26: anumodanaparivarta, rjes su yi rang ba’i le’u.

n.399

In the paragraphs that follow there are considerable discrepancies between our text and the readings in Kimura V: 83ff.

n.404

This chapter marks the start of the sixth section of the sūtra, concerning training in serial clear realization with respect to the six transcendent perfections and the six recollections.

n.423

See Kimura VI–VIII: 80, line 13. The Tibetan shin tu gsong ldong could also be interpreted to mean “utterly perforated.” Cf. Conze (1975): 594, “full of holes.”

n.428

At this point our text reverts to a passage, which the recast Sanskrit manuscript (edited in Kimura) would place in the fourth section of the sūtra, concerning the training in clear realization. The reason for its inclusion here is that it elaborates on the nature of irreversible bodhisattvas.

n.436

This chapter marks the final section of the sūtra, concerning the fruitional attributes of buddha body.

n.449

The conclusion to the sūtra highlights the admonishments concerning its future transmission and the respect it should be awarded. The corresponding text in the recast Sanskrit manuscript is found in Kimura II–III, but for this initial linking paragraph which is missing in Kimura II–III: 150 and in Conze (1975): 288.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo, Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra. Toh 11, Degé Kangyur, vols. 31–32 (shes phyin, ga), ff. 1b–91a; and nga, ff. 92b–397a.

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo, Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–2009, vol. 31, pp. 530–763 and vol. 32, pp. 3–763.

Dutt, Nalinaksha. Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, edition of the recast Sanskrit manuscript (Part One). Calcutta Oriental Series, No. 28. London: Luzac & Co., 1934.

Kimura, Takayasu. Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, edition of the recast Sanskrit manuscript (Parts One–Eight). Part One (2007), Parts Two–Three (1986), Part Four (1990), Part Five (1992), and Parts Six–Eight (2006). Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin Publishing Co. Ltd., 1986–2007.

Secondary References

Sūtras

klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa’i mdo (Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchāsūtra) [The Questions of Nāga King Sāgara (1)]. Toh 153. Degé Kangyur vol. 58 (mdo sde, pha, fol. 116a–198a); also KPD 58: 303–491. English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2021).

dkon mchog sprin gyi mdo (Ratnameghasūtra) [The Jewel Cloud]. Toh 231. Degé Kangyur vol. 64 (mdo sde, va, fol. 1b–112b); also KPD 64: 3–313. English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2019).

dkon brtsegs/ dkon mchog brtsegs pa’i mdo (Ratnakūṭa). The “Heap of Jewels” section of the Kangyur comprising Toh 45–93, Degé Kangyur vols. 39–44. Also KPD: 39–44.

rgya cher rol pa (Lalitavistarasūtra) [The Play in Full]. Toh 95, Degé Kangyur vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha, fol. 1b–216b); also KPD 46: 3–527. English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2013).

chos yang dag par sdud pa’i mdo (Dharmasaṃgītisūtra). Toh 238, Degé Kangyur vol. 65 (mdo sde, zha, fol. 1b–99b); also KPD 65: 3–250. English translation in Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York (2024).

de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa’i mdo (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra) [The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata]. Toh 147, Degé Kangyur, vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa, fol. 142a–242b); also KPD 57: 377–636. English translation in Burchardi (2020).

phal po che’i mdo (sangs rgyas phal po che shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i mdo) (Avataṃsakasūtra Buddhāvataṃsakamahāvaipulyasūtra) [The Ornaments of the Buddhas]. Toh 44, Degé Kangyur vols. 35–38 (phal chen, vols. ka– a); also KPD 35–38. Translated Cleary (1984).

tshangs pa’i dra ba’i mdo (Brahmajālasūtra) [Sūtra of the Net of Brahmā]. Toh 352, Degé Kangyur vol. 76 (mdo sde, aḥ), fol. 70b–86a; also KPD76: 205–249. Translated from the Pali version in Bodhi (1978).

gzungs kyi dbang phyug rgyal po’i mdo (Dhāraṇīśvararājesūtra) [Sūtra of Dhāraṇīśvararāja]. An alternative title for Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra. Toh 147, q.v. English translation in Burchardi (2020).

theg pa chen po’i man ngag gi mdo (Mahāyānopadeśa). Toh 169, Degé Kangyur vol. 59 (mdo sde, ba), fol. 259–307.

yul ’khor skyong gi zhus pa’i mdo (Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā) [The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla]. Toh 62, Degé Kangyur, vol. 42 (dkon brtsegs, nga), folios 227.a–257.a. English translation in Vienna Buddhist Translation Studies Group (2021).

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [Sūtra of the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines]. Toh 10, Degé Kangyur vols. 29–31 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ka), f. 1b–ga, f. 206a; also KPD 29: p. 3–31: 495. Translated and edited in Conze (1975) and in Sparham (2022).

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭasāhasarikāprajñāpāramitā) [Sūtra of the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines]. Toh 12, Degé Kangyur vol. 33 (shes phyin, brgyad stong, ka), fol. 1b–286a; also KPD 33. Translated in Conze (1973).

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [Sūtra of the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines]. Toh 8. Degé Kangyur vols. 14–25 (shes phyin, ’bum, ka), f. 1b–a, f. 395a; also KPD 14–25. English translation in Sparham 2024.

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [Sūtra of the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines]. Toh 9, Degé Kangyur vols. 26–28 (shes phyin, nyi khri, ka), f. 1b–ga, f. 381a; also KPD 26–28. Annotated Sanskrit edition of the recast manuscript in Dutt (1934) and Kimura (1971–2009). Partially translated in Conze (1975) and fully translated in Padmakara Translation Group (2023).

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa’i mdo (Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra) [Sūtra of the Adamantine Cutter [in Three Hundred Lines]. Toh 16, Degé Kangyur vol. 34 (shes phyin, ka), f. 121a–132b; also KPD 34: 327–357. Translated in Red Pine (2001).

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa (Prajñāpāramitāsañcayagāthā) [Verse Summation of the Transcendental Perfection of Wisdom]. Toh 13, Degé Kangyur vol. 34 (shes phyin, ka), f. 1b–19b; also KPD 34: 3–44. Translated in Conze (1973).

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i snying po (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra) [Heart Sūtra of the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom]. Toh 21, Degé Kangyur vol. 34 (shes phyin, ka), f. 144b–146a; also KPD 34, pp. 402–405. Translated in Red Pine (2004) and in Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2022).

Indic Commentaries

Asaṅga. chos mngon pa kun las btus pa (Abhidharmasamuccaya) [The Compendium of Abhidharma]. Toh 4049. Degé Tengyur vol. 236 (sems tsam, ri), fol. 44b–120a; also TPD 76: 116–313. Translated from French in Boin-Webb (2001).

rnal ’byor spyod pa’i sa’i dngos gzhi (Yogacaryābhūmivastu). Toh 4035–4037, Degé Tengyur vols. 229–231 (sems tsam, tshi–vi). This is the first of the five parts of the Yogacaryā Level, comprising three texts: Yogacaryābhūmi (Toh 4035) and its sub-sections: Śrāvakabhūmi (Toh 4036) and Bodhisattvabhūmi (Toh 4037).

Haribhadra. mngon rtogs rgyan gyi snang ba (Abhisamayalaṃkārāloka) [Light for the Ornament of Emergent Realization]. Toh 3791, Degé Tengyur vol. 85 (shes phyin, cha), f. 1b–341a; also TPD 51: 891–1728. Translated in Sparham (2006–2012).

Kalyāṇamitra. ’dul bag zhi rgya cher ’grel pa (Vinayavastuṭīkā) [Great Commentary on the Chapters on Monastic Discipline]. Toh 4113, Degé Tengyur vol. 258 (’dul ba, tsu), f. 177a–326a; also TPD 87: 481–883.

Maitreya. [shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos] mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan (Abhisamayālaṃkāra-[nāma-prajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstrakārikā]) [Ornament of Clear Realization]. Toh 3786, Degé Tengyur vol. 80 (shes phyin, ka), fol. 1b–13a; also TPD 49: 3–30. Translated in Conze (1954) and Thrangu (2004).

[theg pa chen po] mdo sde’i rgyan zhes bya ba’i tshig le’ur byas pa ([Mahāyāna]sūtrālaṃkārakārikā) [Ornament of the Sūtras of the Great Vehicle]. Toh 4020, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), f. 1b–39a; also TPD 70: 805–890 Translated in Jamspal et al. (2004).

theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra) [Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle]. Toh 4024, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), f. 54b–73a; also TPD 70: 935–979. Translated in Holmes, Kenneth and Katia Holmes. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir: Karma Drubgyud Drajay Ling, 1985. See also Takasaki, Jikido. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra). SOR XXXIII. Roma: ISMEO, 1966.

Ratnākāraśānti. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa’i dka’ ’grel snying po mchog (Aṣṭasāhasarikāprajñāpāramitāpañjikāsārottama). Toh 3803, Degé Tengyur, vol. 89 (shes phyin, tha), f. 1b–230a; also TPD 53: 711–1317.

Vasubandhu. chos mngon pa’i mdzod kyi bshad pa (Abhidharmakośabhāṣya). Toh 4090, Degé Tengyur vol. 242 (mngon pa, ku), fol. 26b–258a; also TPD 79: 65–630. Translated from the French in Pruden (1988–1990).

chos mngon pa’i mdzod kyi tshig le’ur byas pa (Abhidharmakośakārikā). Toh 4089, Degé Tengyur vol. 242 (mngon pa, ku), fol. 1b–25a; also TPD 79: 3–59. Translated from the French in Pruden (1988–1990).

Vasubandhu/Dāṃṣṭrasena. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa ’bum pa dang nyi khri lnga stong pa dang khri brgyad stong pa’i rgya cher bshad pa (Śatasahāsrikāpañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajnā-pāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā) [The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines]. Toh 3808, Degé Tengyur vol. 93 (shes phyin, pha), fol. 1b–292b; also TPD 55: 645–1376. English translation in Sparham (2022).

Vimuktisena. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi ’grel pa (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitopdeśaśāstrābhisamayālaṃkāravṛtti) [Commentary on the Ornament of Clear Realization: A Treatise of Instruction on the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines]. Toh 3787, Degé Tengyur, vol. 80 (shes phyin, ka), f. 14b–212a); also TPD 49: 33–530. Translated in Sparham (2006–2012).

Indigenous Tibetan Works

Jamgön Kongtrül (’jam mgon kong sprul). shes bya kun khyab mdzod [The Treasury of Knowledge]. Root verses contained in three-volume publication. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982; Boudhnath: Padma Karpo Translation Committee edition, 2000 (photographic reproduction of the original four-volume Palpung xylograph, 1844). Translated, along with the auto-commentary, by the Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group in The Treasury of Knowledge series (TOK). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1995 to 2012. Mentioned here are Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group 1995 (Book 1) and 1998 (Book 5); Ngawang Zangpo 2010 (Books 2, 3, and 4); Callahan 2007 (Book 6, Part 3); and Dorje 2012 (Book 6 Parts 1-2).

Kawa Paltsek (ka ba dpal brtsegs) and Namkhai Nyingpo (nam mkha’i snying po). ldan dkar ma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 308 (sna tshogs, jo), f. 294b–310a; also TPD 116: 786–827.

Nordrang Orgyan (nor brang o rgyan). chos rnam kun btus. 3 vols. Beijing: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2008.

Situ Paṇchen (si tu paṇ chen) or Situ Chökyi Jungné (si tu chos kyi ’byung gnas). sde dge’i bka’ ’gyur dkar chags. Degé Kangyur, vol. 103 (dkar chags, lak+S+mI and shrI), Toh 4568; also Chengdu: Sichuan Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1989.

Various, bye brag tu rtogs par byed pa (Mahāvyutpatti). Toh 4346, Degé Tengyur vol. 306 (sna tshogs, co), f. 1b–131a; also TPD 115: 3–254. Sakaki, Ryozaburo, ed. (1916–25); reprint, 1965.

Zhang Yisun et al. bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo. 3 vols. Subsequently reprinted in 2 vols. and 1 vol. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1985. Translated in Nyima and Dorje 2001 (vol. 1).

Secondary Literature

Apte, Vaman Shivram. The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary. 3rd edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

Bodhi, Bhikkhu, trans. The Sūtra on the All-Embracing Net of Views. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1978.

Boin-Webb, Sara, trans. Abhidharmasamuccaya: The Compendium of the Higher Teaching (Philosophy). By Asanga. From the French translation by Walpola Rahula. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 2001.

Brunnholzl, Karl. Gone Beyond (Volume One): The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, The Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2010.

Burchardi, Anne, trans. The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa, Toh 147). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.

Callahan, Elizabeth, trans. The Treasury of Knowledge (Book Six, Part Three): Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy. By Jamgön Kongtrul. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2007.

Cleary, Thomas, trans. The Flower Ornament Scripture. Boston and London: Shambhala, 1984.

Conze, Edward, trans. (1954). Abhisamayālaṅkāra. SOR 6. Rome: ISMEO.

‍—‍—‍—(1960) The Prajñāpāramitā Literature. New Delhi: Munishiram Manoharlal.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (1973). The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its Verse Summary. Bolinas, CA: Four Seasons Foundation.

‍—‍—‍—(1973) Materials for a Dictionary of The Prajñāpāramitā Literature. Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (1975). The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Davidson, Ronald. “Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature I: Revisiting the Meaning of the Term Dhāraṇī.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 37, no. 2 (April 2009): 97–147.

Dayal, Har. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1932. Reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970.

Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. (2013). The Play in Full (Lalitavistara). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (2019). The Jewel Cloud (Ratnamegha, Toh 231). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (2021). The Questions of Nāga King Sāgara (1) (Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā, Toh 153). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (2022). The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother (Bhagavatīprajñāpāramitāhṛdaya, Toh 21). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

Dorje, Gyurme, trans. (1987). “The Guhyagarbhatantra and its XIVth Century Tibetan Commentary Phyogs bcu mun sel.” 3 vols. PhD diss. University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (2012). Indo-Tibetan Classical Learning and Buddhist Phenomenology. By Jamgön Kongtrul. Boston: Snow Lion.

Dudjom Rinpoche. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. 2 vols. Translated by Gyurme Dorje with Matthew Kapstein. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991.

Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press,1953.

Falk, Harry (2011) “The ‘Split’ Collection of Kharoṣṭhī texts.” ARIRIAB 14 (2011): 13-23.

‍—‍—‍—(2012). In collaboration with Seishi Karashima, “A first‐century Prajñāpāramitā manuscript from Gandhāra- Parivarta 1 (Texts from the Split Collection 1),” ARIRIAB 15 (2012), 19–61.

Hikata, Ryfishé. “An Introductory Essay on Prajñāpāramitā Literature”, in Suvikrāntavikāamiparipṛcchā Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtra. Fufuoka: Kyūshū University, 1958, pp. ix–lxxxiii.

Jamspal, Lobzang et al., trans. The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, 2004.

Jamieson, R.Craig. The Perfection of Wisdom. New York: Penguin Viking, 2000.

Jones, J.J. trans. The Mahāvastu (3 vols.) in Sacred Books of the Buddhists. London: Luzac & Co., 1949–56.

Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group, trans. (1995). The Treasury of Knowledge (Book One): Myriad Worlds. By Jamgön Kongtrul. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (1998). The Treasury of Knowledge (Book Five): Buddhist Ethics. By Jamgön Kongtrul. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.

Karashima, Seishi, trans. A Critical Edition of Lokakṣema’s Translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prājñāpāramitā, Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica, XII. Tokyo, International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2011.

Kloetzli, Randy. Buddhist Cosmology. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983.

Konow, Sten. The First Two Chapters of the Daśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā: Restoration of the Sanskrit Text, Analysis and Index. Oslo: I Kommisjon Hos Jacob Dybwad, 1941.

Lamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism: from the Origins to the Śaka Era. Paris: Peeters Press, 1988.

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Law, Bimala Chum. A History of Pāli Literature. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1933.

McRae, John, trans. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liùzǔ Tánjīng). Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2000.

Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu, trans. The Path of Purification by Buddhaghosa. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1979.

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Ngawang Zangpo, trans. The Treasury of Knowledge (Books Two, Three, and Four): Buddhism’s Journey to Tibet. By Jamgön Kongtrul. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2010.

Nyima, Tudeng and Gyurme Dorje, trans. An Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary. Vol. 1. Beijing and London: Nationalities Publishing House and SOAS, 2001.

Padmakara Translation Group, trans. The Words of My Perfect Teacher. By Patrul Rinpoche. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994.

‍—‍—‍—trans. (2023). The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā, Toh 9). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

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Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism. London: Routledge, 1989.

Glossary

Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language

Attested in source text

This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.

Attested in other text

This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.

Attested in dictionary

This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.

Approximate attestation

The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.

Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.

Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.

Source unspecified

This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.

g.1

abdomen is not misshapen

sku ma rnyongs pa

སྐུ་མ་རྙོངས་པ།

abhugnakukṣitā

g.2

abdomen is slender

phyal phyang nge ba

ཕྱལ་ཕྱང་ངེ་བ།

kṣāmodaratā

g.3

abdomen that is unwrinkled

sku la gnyer ma med pa

སྐུ་ལ་གཉེར་མ་མེད་པ།

mṛṣṭakukṣitā

g.4

Ābhāsvara

’od gsal

འོད་གསལ།

ābhāsvara

g.5

abide

gnas

གནས།

adhitiṣṭhati

g.6

abides in the sense field of infinite consciousness

rnam shes mtha’ yas skye mched la gnas pa

རྣམ་ཤེས་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ལ་གནས་པ།

vijñānānantyāyatanaṃ viharati

g.7

abides in the sense field of infinite space

nam mkha’ mtha’ yas skye mched la gnas pa

ནམ་མཁའ་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ལ་གནས་པ།

ākāśānantyāyatanaṃ viharati

g.8

abiding

gnas pa

གནས་པ།

adhitiṣṭhan

g.14

abode

gnas

གནས།

layana

g.19

absolutely void

shin tu dben pa

ཤིན་ཏུ་དབེན་པ།

atyantavivikta

g.23

accept

khas len

ཁས་ལེན།

upaiti

g.24

acceptance

bzod pa

བཟོད་པ།

kṣānti

g.26

accepted

yongs su zin pa

ཡོངས་སུ་ཟིན་པ།

parigṛhīta

g.30

acquisitiveness

kun tu ’dzin pa’i sems
yongs su ’dzin pa

ཀུན་ཏུ་འཛིན་པའི་སེམས།
ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ།

āgrahacitta
udgrahacitta
parigraha

g.34

actualize

mngon sum du byed
mngon par grub

མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱེད།
མངོན་པར་གྲུབ།

sākṣātkaroti
abhinirvartate
abhinirharati

g.43

afflicted mental state

nyon mongs
kun nas nyong mongs pa
sems las byung ba’i nye ba’i nyon mongs pa

ཉོན་མོངས།
ཀུན་ནས་ཉོང་མོངས་པ།
སེམས་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་ཉེ་བའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ།

kleśa
saṃkleśa
caitasikopakleśa

g.45

afraid (be)

dngang

དངང་།

saṃtrāsam apadyate

g.47

agent

byed du ’jug pa po
byed pa po

བྱེད་དུ་འཇུག་པ་པོ།
བྱེད་པ་པོ།

kārāpaka
kartṛ

g.60

agitation and regret

rgod pa dang ’gyod pa

རྒོད་པ་དང་འགྱོད་པ།

auddhatyakaukṛtya

g.61

Akaniṣṭha

’og min

འོག་མིན།

akaniṣṭha

g.62

Akṣobhya

mi ’khrugs pa

མི་འཁྲུགས་པ།

akṣobhya

g.64

alertness

shes bzhin

ཤེས་བཞིན།

samprajanya

g.72

already

phyis

ཕྱིས།

g.76

Anabhraka

sprin med
mi che ba

སྤྲིན་མེད།
མི་ཆེ་བ།

anabhraka

g.77

Ānanda

kun dga’ bo

ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།

ānanda

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu, he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son of Amṛtodana, another brother of King Śuddhodana, which means he would have been a brother of Aniruddha).

Ānanda, having always been in the Buddha’s presence, is said to have memorized all the teachings he heard and is celebrated for having recited all the Buddha’s teachings by memory at the first council of the Buddhist saṅgha, thus preserving the teachings after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The phrase “Thus did I hear at one time,” found at the beginning of the sūtras, usually stands for his recitation of the teachings. He became a patriarch after the passing of Mahākāśyapa.

g.84

antigod

lha ma yin

ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།

asura

g.86

Aparagodānīya

ba glang spyod

བ་གླང་སྤྱོད།

aparagodānīya

g.88

aphorisms

ched du brjod pa’i sde

ཆེད་དུ་བརྗོད་པའི་སྡེ།

udāna

g.91

application of mindfulness which, with regard to feelings, observes feelings

tshor ba’i rjes su lta ba’i dran pa nye bar gzhag pa

ཚོར་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ལྟ་བའི་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།

vedanānupaśyīsmṛtyupasthāna

g.92

application of mindfulness which, with regard to phenomena, observes phenomena

chos kyi rjes su lta ba’i dran pa nye bar gzhag pa

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་ལྟ་བའི་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།

dharmānupaśyīsmṛtyupasthāna

g.93

application of mindfulness which, with regard to the mind, observes the mind

sems kyi rjes su lta ba’i dran pa nye bar gzhag pa

སེམས་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་ལྟ་བའི་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།

cittānupaśyīsmṛtyupasthāna

g.94

application of mindfulness which, with regard to the physical body, observes the physical body

lus kyi rjes su lta ba’i dran pa nye bar gzhag pa

ལུས་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་ལྟ་བའི་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།

kāyānupaśyīsmṛtyupasthāna

g.95

applications of mindfulness

dran pa nye bar gzhag pa

དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།

smṛtyupasthāna

g.96

apprehend

dmigs

དམིགས།

upalabhate

g.100

appropriate

yongs su ’dzin

ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན།

parigṛhṇāti

g.101

Apramāṇābha

tshad med ’od

ཚད་མེད་འོད།

apramāṇābha

g.102

Apramāṇaśubha

tshad med dge

ཚད་མེད་དགེ

apramāṇaśubha

g.104

arhat

dgra bcom pa

དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།

arhat

g.105

arising

skye ba

སྐྱེ་བ།

utpādita

g.112

Asaṅga

thogs med

ཐོགས་མེད།

asaṅga

g.114

ascetic supremacy

brtul zhugs mchog ’dzin

བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་མཆོག་འཛིན།

vrataparāmarśa

g.115

Aśoka

mya ngan med

མྱ་ངན་མེད།

aśoka

g.117

aspirationlessness

smon pa med pa

སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ།

apraṇihita

g.118

assembly

g.yog ’khor

གཡོག་འཁོར།

parivāra

g.122

Atapa

mi gdung ba

མི་གདུང་བ།

atapa

g.125

attachment to the world system of form

gzugs kyi ’dod chags

གཟུགས་ཀྱི་འདོད་ཆགས།

ruparāga

g.126

attachment to the world system of formlessness

gzugs med pa’i ’dod chags

གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་འདོད་ཆགས།

ārūpyarāga

g.127

attainment

thob pa

ཐོབ་པ།

prāpti

g.129

attention

yid la byed pa

ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ།

manaskāra

g.130

attentiveness

yid la byed pa

ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ།

manaskāra

g.132

attract

sdud par byed pa
yongs su sdud

སྡུད་པར་བྱེད་པ།
ཡོངས་སུ་སྡུད།

saṃgṛhnati
anughṛhṇāti

g.133

attractive

sdug pa

སྡུག་པ།

śubha

g.134

aureole

’od

འོད།

prabhā

g.139

Avṛha

mi che ba

མི་ཆེ་བ།

avṛha

g.140

awareness

rig pa

རིག་པ།

vidyā

g.152

beginner bodhisattva

byang chub sems dpa’ dang po ba

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་དང་པོ་བ།

prathamabodhisattva

g.154

benediction

gtam ’dre ba

གཏམ་འདྲེ་བ།

ālapana

g.155

bestow

sbyin par byed

སྦྱིན་པར་བྱེད།

dāyikā karoti

g.159

birth

skyes pa

སྐྱེས་པ།

jāti

g.163

blessed one

bcom ldan ’das

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།

bhagavat

While the Sanskrit term simply means “fortunate,” “illustrious,” or “revered,” Tibetan hermeneutics defines the term as denoting a teacher or buddha who primordially subdues (bcom) the four demonic forces, possesses (ldan) the six attributes of greatness (che ba’i yon tan drug, viz: lordship, noble form, glory, fame, gnosis, and perseverance), and transcends (’das) all sorrow, without abiding in the extremes of existence and quiescence. Used in this text to refer to the Buddha Śākyamuni.

Also translated here as “Lord” (See also n.19).

g.164

bliss

bde ba

བདེ་བ།

sukha

g.168

blue lotus

ut pa la

ཨུཏ་པ་ལ།

utpala

g.170

bodhisattva

byang chub sems dpa’

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།

bodhisattva

A being who is dedicated to the cultivation and fulfilment of the altruistic intention to attain manifestly perfect buddhahood, traversing the five bodhisattva paths and ten bodhisattva levels. Bodhisattvas purposely opt to remain within cyclic existence in order to liberate all sentient beings, instead of simply seeking personal freedom from suffering. Philosophically, they realize the two aspects of selflessness, with respect to afflicted mental states and the nature of all phenomena.

(See also n.27.)

g.185

Brahmā

tshangs pa

ཚངས་པ།

brahmā

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A high-ranking deity presiding over a divine world; he is also considered to be the lord of the Sahā world (our universe). Though not considered a creator god in Buddhism, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two gods (the other being Indra/Śakra) said to have first exhorted the Buddha Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought-after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Since there are many universes or world systems, there are also multiple Brahmās presiding over them. His most frequent epithets are “Lord of the Sahā World” (sahāṃpati) and Great Brahmā (mahābrahman).

g.186

Brahmakāyika

tshangs ris

ཚངས་རིས།

brahmakāyika

g.187

Brahmapariṣadya

tshangs ’khor

ཚངས་འཁོར།

brahmapariṣadya

g.188

Brahmapurohita

tshangs pa’i mdun na ’don

ཚངས་པའི་མདུན་ན་འདོན།

brahmapurohita

g.191

branches of enlightenment

byang chub kyi yan lag

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག

bodhyaṅga

g.192

Bṛhatphala

’bras bu che

འབྲས་བུ་ཆེ།

bṛhatphala

g.196

buddha

sangs rgyas

སངས་རྒྱས།

buddha

g.197

buddha body of emanation

sprul pa’i sku

སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ།

nirmāṇakaya

g.202

buddha body of reality

chos kyi sku

ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ།

dharmakāya

g.203

buddhafield

zhing khams

ཞིང་ཁམས།

kṣetra

g.205

burning tree stump

sdong dum tshig pa

སྡོང་དུམ་ཚིག་པ།

dagdhasthūṇākṛti

g.207

calm

zhi ba

ཞི་བ།

śānti

g.208

calmness

zhi ba

ཞི་བ།

śānti

g.216

Caturmahārājakāyika

rgyal chen bzhi’i ris

རྒྱལ་ཆེན་བཞིའི་རིས།

caturmahārājakāyika

g.221

cessation of contaminants

zag pa zad pa

ཟག་པ་ཟད་པ།

kṣīnāsrava
āsravakṣaya

g.225

chapter

le’u

ལེའུ།

parivarta

g.226

chiliocosm

stong chung ngu’i ’jig rten gyi khams

སྟོང་ཆུང་ངུའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།

sāhasralokadhātu

g.227

clear realization

mngon par rtogs pa

མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པ།

abhisamaya

g.231

cognition

shes pa

ཤེས་པ།

jñāna

g.240

compassion

snying rje

སྙིང་རྗེ།

karuṇā

g.242

completely perfect buddha

yang dag par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas

ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས།

samyaksaṃbuddha
samyaksambuddhatva

g.247

conceive of

rtog par byed

རྟོག་པར་བྱེད།

kalpayati

g.249

conceptual elaboration

spros pa

སྤྲོས་པ།

prapañca

g.256

conditioned

’dus byas

འདུས་བྱས།

saṃskṛta

g.259

conditioning

mngon par ’du byed pa

མངོན་པར་འདུ་བྱེད་པ།

abhisaṃskāra

g.261

conduct

spyod pa

སྤྱོད་པ།

caryā

g.263

confidence

mngon par yid ches pa

མངོན་པར་ཡིད་ཆེས་པ།

abhisaṃpratyaya

g.264

confidence

dang ba

དང་བ།

prasāda

g.267

consciousness

rnam par shes pa

རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ།

vijñāna

Third of the twelve links of dependent origination. Consciousness is defined as “an awareness which is knowing and luminous.” Not being physical, it lacks resistance to obstruction. It has neither shape nor color, and it can be experienced but not externally perceived as an object. A distinction is made between the mundane consciousness of sentient beings, and the gnosis of the buddhas. In the context‌ of the present discourse, the former includes six aspects of consciousness, namely, visual consciousness, auditory consciousness, olfactory consciousness, tactile consciousness, and mental consciousness, the last of which objectively refers to mental phenomena.

g.272

consider

yang dag par rjes su lta ba
yang dag par rjes su mthong ba

ཡང་དག་པར་རྗེས་སུ་ལྟ་བ།
ཡང་དག་པར་རྗེས་སུ་མཐོང་བ།

samanupaśyati

g.275

contemplation

nges par sems pa

ངེས་པར་སེམས་པ།

upanidhyāpana

g.285

context

gleng gzhi

གླེང་གཞི།

nidāna

g.295

coral tree flower

man dA ra ba

མན་དཱ་ར་བ།

mandārava

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

One of the five trees of Indra’s paradise, its heavenly flowers often rain down in salutation of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and are said to be very bright and aromatic, gladdening the hearts of those who see them. In our world, it is a tree native to India, Erythrina indica or Erythrina variegata, commonly known as the Indian coral tree, mandarava tree, flame tree, and tiger’s claw. In the early spring, before its leaves grow, the tree is fully covered in large flowers, which are rich in nectar and attract many birds. Although the most widespread coral tree has red crimson flowers, the color of the blossoms is not usually mentioned in the sūtras themselves, and it may refer to some other kinds, like the rarer Erythrina indica alba, which boasts white flowers.

g.296

correct

rigs

རིགས།

yukta

g.297

correct action

yang dag pa’i las kyi mtha’

ཡང་དག་པའི་ལས་ཀྱི་མཐའ།

samyakkarmānta

g.298

correct delight

dga’ ba yang dag
dga’ ba yang dag byang chub kyi yan lag

དགའ་བ་ཡང་དག
དགའ་བ་ཡང་དག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག

prīti
prītibodhyaṅga

g.299

correct doctrinal analysis

chos rab tu rnam par ’byed pa
chos rab tu rnam par ’byed pa yang dag byang chub kyi yan lag

ཆོས་རབ་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།
ཆོས་རབ་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་ཡང་དག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག

dharmapravicaya
dharmapravicayabodhyaṅga

g.300

correct effort

yang dag pa’i rtsol ba

ཡང་དག་པའི་རྩོལ་བ།

samyagvyāyāma

g.301

correct equanimity

btang snyoms yang dag
btang snyoms yang dag byang chub kyi yan lag

བཏང་སྙོམས་ཡང་དག
བཏང་སྙོམས་ཡང་དག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག

upekṣā
upekṣābodhyaṅga

g.302

correct exertion

yang dag par spong ba

ཡང་དག་པར་སྤོང་བ།

prahāṇa

g.303

correct ideation

yang dag pa’i rtog pa

ཡང་དག་པའི་རྟོག་པ།

samyaksaṃkalpa

g.304

correct livelihood

yang dag pa’i ’tsho ba

ཡང་དག་པའི་འཚོ་བ།

samyagājīva

g.305

correct meditative stability

ting nge ’dzin yang dag
ting nge ’dzin yang dag byang chub kyi yan lag

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཡང་དག
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཡང་དག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག

samādhi
samādhibodhyaṅga

g.306

correct meditative stability

yang dag pa’i ting nge ’dzin

ཡང་དག་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།

samyaksamādhi

g.307

Correct mental and physical refinement

shin tu sbyangs pa

ཤིན་ཏུ་སྦྱངས་པ།

praśrabdhi

g.308

correct perseverance

brtson ’grus yang dag byang chub kyi yan lag
brtson ’grus yang dag

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཡང་དག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག
བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཡང་དག

vīryabodhyaṅga
vīrya

g.309

correct recollection

dran pa yang dag
dran pa yang dag byang chub kyi yan lag

དྲན་པ་ཡང་དག
དྲན་པ་ཡང་དག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག

smṛti
smṛtibodhyaṅga

g.310

correct recollection

yang dag pa’i dran pa

ཡང་དག་པའི་དྲན་པ།

samyaksmṛti

g.311

correct speech

yang dag pa’i ngag

ཡང་དག་པའི་ངག

samyagvāg

g.312

correct view

yang dag pa’i lta ba

ཡང་དག་པའི་ལྟ་བ།

samyagdṛṣṭi

g.315

counter-question

yongs su zhu

ཡོངས་སུ་ཞུ།

paripraśnikaroti

g.318

courage

spobs pa

སྤོབས་པ།

pratibhāna

g.320

covetousness

brnab sems

བརྣབ་སེམས།

abhidhyā
abhidhyā granthā

g.321

craving

sred pa

སྲེད་པ།

tṛṣṇā

g.332

cultivate

sgom

སྒོམ།

bhāvayati

g.333

cultivation

bsgom pa

བསྒོམ་པ།

bhāvanā

g.334

cyclic existence

’khor ba

འཁོར་བ།

saṃsāra

g.336

daughter of enlightened heritage

rigs kyi bu mo

རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་མོ།

kuladuhitā
kulaputrī

g.342

dedication

bsngo ba
yongs su bsngo ba

བསྔོ་བ།
ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།

pariṇāma

g.344

defining characteristic

mtshan nyid

མཚན་ཉིད།

lakṣaṇa

g.347

definitive knowledge of all the afflicted and purified mental states and their emergence, with respect to the faculties, powers, branches of enlightenment, aspects of liberation, meditative concentrations, meditative stabilities, and formless absorption

dbang po dang stobs dang byang chub kyi yan lag dang rnam par thar pa dang bsam gtan dang ting nge ’dzin dang snyoms par ’jug pa’i kun nas nyon mongs pa dang rnam par byang ba dang ldang pa shes pa yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

དབང་པོ་དང་སྟོབས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་དང་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་དང་བསམ་གཏན་དང་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་དང་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པའི་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་དང་རྣམ་པར་བྱང་བ་དང་ལྡང་པ་ཤེས་པ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

sarvendriyabalabodhyaṅgavimokṣadhyānasamādhisamāpattisaṃkleśavyavadāna-vyuthānayathābhūtaprajñāna

g.348

definitive knowledge of multiple world systems and diverse dispositions

’jig rten kyi khams du ma pa khams sna tshogs pa yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

འཇིག་རྟེན་ཀྱི་ཁམས་དུ་མ་པ་ཁམས་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

nānalokadhātunānadhātuyathābhūtaprajñāna

g.349

definitive knowledge of the diversity of inclinations and the multiplicity of inclinations that other sentient beings and other individuals have

sems can gzhan dag dang gang zag gzhan rnams kyi mos pa sna tshogs nyid dang mos pa du ma nyid yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

སེམས་ཅན་གཞན་དག་དང་གང་ཟག་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མོས་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཉིད་དང་མོས་པ་དུ་མ་ཉིད་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

anyasattvapudgala-nānādhimuktyanekādhimuktiyathābhūtaprajñāna

g.350

definitive knowledge of the paths that lead anywhere

thams cad du ’gro ba’i lam yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་ལམ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

sarvatragāmanī-pratipadyathābhūtaprajñāna

g.351

definitive knowledge of the recollection of multiple past abodes, and of the transference of consciousness at the death and birth of all sentient beings

sngon gyi gnas rnam pa du ma rjes su dran pa dang sems can rnams kyi ’chi ’pho dang skye ba yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

སྔོན་གྱི་གནས་རྣམ་པ་དུ་མ་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ་དང་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འཆི་འཕོ་དང་སྐྱེ་བ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

anekapūrvanivāsānusmṛticyutyutpattiyathābhūtaprajñāna

g.352

definitive knowledge of whether the acumen of other sentient beings and other individuals is supreme or not

sems can gzhan dag dang gang zag gzhan rnams kyi dbang po mchog dang mchog ma yin pa nyid yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

སེམས་ཅན་གཞན་དག་དང་གང་ཟག་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་མཆོག་དང་མཆོག་མ་ཡིན་པ་ཉིད་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

anyasattvapudgalendriyavarāvara-yathābhūtaprajñāna

g.353

definitive knowledge that things which are impossible are indeed impossible

gnas ma yin pa la yang gnas ma yin par yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

གནས་མ་ཡིན་པ་ལ་ཡང་གནས་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

asthānāsthānayathābhūtaprajñāna

g.354

definitive knowledge that things which are possible are indeed possible

gnas la yang gnas su yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

གནས་ལ་ཡང་གནས་སུ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

sthānasthānayathābhūtaprajñāna

g.355

definitive knowledge that through one’s own extrasensory powers one has actualized, achieved, and maintained in this very lifetime the liberation of mind and the liberation of wisdom in the state that is free from contaminants because all contaminants have ceased

zag pa zad pa yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa
zag pa zad pa

ཟག་པ་ཟད་པ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།
ཟག་པ་ཟད་པ།

āsrava-kṣayayathābhūtaprajñāna
āsrava-kṣaya

g.356

definitive knowledge, through possibilities and causes, of the maturation of past, future, and present actions, and of those who undertake such actions

’das pa dang ma ’ongs pa dang da ltar byung ba’i las rnams dang las yang dag par len pa rnams kyi rnam par smin pa gnas kyi sgo dang rgyu’i sgo nas yang dag pa ji lta ba bzhin du rab tu shes pa

འདས་པ་དང་མ་འོངས་པ་དང་ད་ལྟར་བྱུང་བའི་ལས་རྣམས་དང་ལས་ཡང་དག་པར་ལེན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པ་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་དང་རྒྱུའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

atītānāgatapratyutpannasarvakarmasamādānahetuvipākayathābhūta-prajñāna

g.360

deluded

rnam par rmongs pa

རྣམ་པར་རྨོངས་པ།

vimūḍha

g.361

delusion

gti mug

གཏི་མུག

moha

g.362

demonic force

bdud

བདུད།

māra

g.365

designated

btags pa

བཏགས་པ།

prajñapta

g.367

desire

’dod chags

འདོད་ཆགས།

rāga

g.371

determine

so sor brtag

སོ་སོར་བརྟག

pratyavekṣate

g.377

Dharma

chos

ཆོས།

dharma

The term dharma (chos) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti. In the context‌ of the present work, it may mean “sacred doctrine” (also rendered “Dharma” in this translation), the “attributes” which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, “phenomena” or “things” in general, and, more specifically, “mental phenomena” which are the object of the mental faculty (manas, yid).

g.378

dichiliocosm

stong gnyis pa bar ma’i ’jig rten gyi khams

སྟོང་གཉིས་པ་བར་མའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།

dvisāharsamadhyamalokadhātu

g.387

direct their enlightened intention

dgongs par mdzad

དགོངས་པར་མཛད།

samanvāharati

g.389

discouraged

zhum

ཞུམ།

avalīyate

g.390

discriminative awareness

shes rab

ཤེས་རབ།

prajñā

g.391

disintegrate

’jig par ’gyur

འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར།

vinaśyati

g.405

do not consider

yang dag par rjes su mi mthong ba

ཡང་དག་པར་རྗེས་སུ་མི་མཐོང་བ།

na samanupaśyati

g.412

don the great armor

go cha chen po gyon par byed

གོ་ཆ་ཆེན་པོ་གྱོན་པར་བྱེད།

mahāsaṃnāhaḥ saṃnahyate

g.416

dullness and sleepiness

rmugs gnyid

རྨུགས་གཉིད།

styānaniddha

g.421

eight aspects of liberation

rnam par thar pa brgyad

རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་བརྒྱད།

aṣṭavimokṣa

g.424

eight sense fields of mastery

zil gyis gnon pa’i skye mched brgyad

ཟིལ་གྱིས་གནོན་པའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བརྒྱད།

aṣṭābhibhvāyatana

g.426

eighteen aspects of emptiness

stong pa nyid bco brgyad

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བཅོ་བརྒྱད།

aṣṭadaśaśūnyatā

g.427

eighteen distinct qualities of the buddhas

sangs rgyas kyi chos ma ’dres pa bco brgyad

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་མ་འདྲེས་པ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད།

aṣṭādaśāveṇikabuddhadharma

g.430

eighteen sensory elements

khams bco brgyad

ཁམས་བཅོ་བརྒྱད།

aṣṭadaśadhātu

g.432

eighty excellent minor marks

dpe byad bzang po brgyad cu

དཔེ་བྱད་བཟང་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཅུ།

asītyānuvyañjana

g.433

elder

gnas brtan

གནས་བརྟན།

sthavira

g.440

emancipation

rnam par grol ba

རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བ།

vimoca

g.441

emancipation from cyclic existence

nges par ’byung ba

ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བ།

niḥsaraṇa
niryāṇa

g.442

emerge

’byung bar ’gyur

འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར།

prādurbhāvo bhavati

g.444

empathetic joy

dga’ ba

དགའ་བ།

muditā

g.445

emptiness

stong pa nyid

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

śūnyatā

Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intrinsic reality that constitutes their essence. Nothing can be said to exist independently from the complex network of factors that gives rise to their origination, nor are phenomena independent of the cognitive processes and mental constructs that make up the conventional framework within which their identity and existence are posited. When all levels of conceptualization dissolve and when all forms of dichotomizing tendencies are quelled through deliberate meditative deconstruction of conceptual elaborations, the ultimate nature of reality will finally become manifest. It is the first of the three gateways to liberation.

g.447

emptiness of all things

chos thams cad stong pa nyid

ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

sarvadharmaśūnyatā

g.448

emptiness of both external and internal phenomena

phyi nang stong pa nyid

ཕྱི་ནང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

adhyātmabahirdhāśūnyatā

g.449

emptiness of conditioned phenomena

’dus byas stong pa nyid

འདུས་བྱས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

saṃskṛtaśūnyatā

g.450

emptiness of emptiness

stong pa nyid stong pa nyid

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

śūnyatāśūnyatā

g.451

emptiness of essential nature

ngo bo nyid stong pa nyid

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

svabhāvaśūnyatā

g.452

emptiness of external phenomena

phyi stong pa nyid

ཕྱི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

bahirdhāśūnyatā

g.453

emptiness of great extent

chen po stong pa nyid

ཆེན་པོ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

mahāśūnyatā

g.454

emptiness of inherent existence

rang bzhin stong pa nyid

རང་བཞིན་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

prakṛtiśūnyatā

g.455

emptiness of internal phenomena

nang stong pa nyid

ནང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

adhyātmaśūnyatā

g.456

emptiness of intrinsic defining characteristics

rang gi mtshan nyid stong pa

རང་གི་མཚན་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ།

nyid svalakṣaṇaśūnyatā

g.457

emptiness of non-apprehension

mi dmigs pa stong pa nyid

མི་དམིགས་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

anupalambhaśūnyatā

g.458

emptiness of non-dispersal

dor ba med pa stong pa nyid

དོར་བ་མེད་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

anavakāraśūnyatā

g.459

emptiness of non-entities

dngos po med pa stong pa nyid

དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

abhāvaśūnyatā

g.460

emptiness of that which has neither beginning nor end

thog ma dang tha ma med pa stong pa nyid

ཐོག་མ་དང་ཐ་མ་མེད་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

anavarāgraśūnyatā

g.461

emptiness of the essential nature of non-entities

dngos po med pa’i ngo bo nyid stong pa nyid

དངོས་པོ་མེད་པའི་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

abhāvasvabhāvaśūnyatā

g.462

emptiness of the unlimited

mtha’ las ’das pa stong pa nyid

མཐའ་ལས་འདས་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

atyantaśūnyatā

g.463

emptiness of ultimate reality

don dam pa stong pa nyid

དོན་དམ་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

paramārthaśūnyatā

g.464

emptiness of unconditioned phenomena

’dus ma byas stong pa nyid

འདུས་མ་བྱས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

asaṃskṛtaśūnyatā

g.465

empty

stong pa

སྟོང་པ།

śūnya
śūnyataḥ

g.467

empty of inherent existence

rang bzhin gyis stong pa

རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་སྟོང་པ།

prakṛtiśūnya

g.470

encourage

yang dag par gzengs stod par byed

ཡང་དག་པར་གཟེངས་སྟོད་པར་བྱེད།

samuttejayati

g.478

enduring state

ther zug tu gnas pa

ཐེར་ཟུག་ཏུ་གནས་པ།

kūṭastha

g.483

engage in union

rnal ’byor du byed

རྣལ་འབྱོར་དུ་བྱེད།

yogam āpadati

g.484

engage with mental images

mtshan ma la spyod

མཚན་མ་ལ་སྤྱོད།

nimittacarati

g.485

engage with signs

mtshan ma la spyod

མཚན་མ་ལ་སྤྱོད།

nimittacarati

g.492

enlightened attribute

yon tan

ཡོན་ཏན།

guṇa

g.493

enlightened heritage

rigs

རིགས།

kula

In the context‌ of the present text, this term denotes the heritage or family of bodhisattvas following the Great Vehicle.

When refering a son or daughter enlightened heritage, the expressions kulaputra (rigs kyi bu) and kuladuhitā (rigs kyi bu mo) are terms of endearment with which a teacher may address his or her own students. See the definition in Zhang Yisun et al (1975): 2686. In the context‌ of the present sūtra, these terms therefore denote a male or female follower of the Great Vehicle, distinct from the adherents of the lesser vehicles. This may be suggested in the translation “children of enlightened heritage,” which other interpretative renderings, such as “son of a noble family” or “son of a good family,” would lack.

g.494

enlightenment

byang chub

བྱང་ཆུབ།

bodhi

g.495

enmity

’khon du ’dzin pa

འཁོན་དུ་འཛིན་པ།

upanāha

g.497

entering the stream

rgyun du zhugs pa

རྒྱུན་དུ་ཞུགས་པ།

śrota’āpanna

g.502

envied

’dod par bya ba

འདོད་པར་བྱ་བ།

spṛhaṇīya

g.504

equal to the unequaled

mi mnyam pa dang mnyam pa

མི་མཉམ་པ་དང་མཉམ་པ།

asamasama

g.506

equanimity

btang snyoms

བཏང་སྙོམས།

upekṣā

g.507

eradication

tshar gcad pa

ཚར་གཅད་པ།

bhāgaccheda

g.509

essenceless doctrine

snying po med pa’i chos

སྙིང་པོ་མེད་པའི་ཆོས།

asāradharma

g.510

essenceless nature

ngo bo nyid med pa

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ།

niḥsvabhāvatā

g.511

essencelessness

snying po med pa

སྙིང་པོ་མེད་པ།

asāraka

g.512

essential doctrine

snying po’i chos

སྙིང་པོའི་ཆོས།

sāradharma

g.513

essential nature

ngo bo nyid

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད།

svabhāva

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

This term denotes the ontological status of phenomena, according to which they are said to possess existence in their own right‍—inherently, in and of themselves, objectively, and independent of any other phenomena such as our conception and labelling. The absence of such an ontological reality is defined as the true nature of reality, emptiness.

g.523

exact knowledge of dharmas

chos so so yang dag par rig pa

ཆོས་སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ།

dharmapratisaṃvid

g.524

exact knowledge of eloquent expression

spobs pa so so yang dag par rig pa

སྤོབས་པ་སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ།

pratibhānapratisaṃvid

g.525

exact knowledge of language and lexical explanations

nges pa’i tshig so so yang dag par rig pa

ངེས་པའི་ཚིག་སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ།

niruktapratisaṃvid

g.526

exact knowledge of meanings

don so so yang dag par rig pa

དོན་སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ།

arthapratisaṃvid

g.533

expanse of nirvāṇa

mya ngan las ’das pa’i dbyings

མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་དབྱིངས།

nirvāṇadhātu

g.534

expanse of reality

chos kyi dbyings

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།

dharmadhātu
dharmaniyāmatā

g.537

explanation

bsnyad pa

བསྙད་པ།

ākhyāta

g.541

extrasensory power

mngon par shes pa

མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

abhijñā

g.542

extrasensory power realizing knowledge of divine clairaudience

lha’i rna ba shes pa mngon sum du bya ba shes pa’i mngon par shes pa

ལྷའི་རྣ་བ་ཤེས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པའི་མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

divyaśrotrajñānasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā

g.543

extrasensory power realizing knowledge of divine clairvoyance

lha’i mig shes pa mngon sum du bya ba shes pa’i mngon par shes pa

ལྷའི་མིག་ཤེས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པའི་མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

divyacakṣurjñānasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā

g.544

extrasensory power realizing knowledge of [miraculous] activities

bya ba shes pa mngon sum du bya ba shes pa’i mngon par shes pa

བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པའི་མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

ṛddhividhijñasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā
vidhijñasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā

g.545

extrasensory power realizing knowledge of other minds

pha rol gyi sems shes pa mngon sum du bya ba shes pa’i mngon par shes pa

ཕ་རོལ་གྱི་སེམས་ཤེས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པའི་མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

paracittajñānasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā

g.546

extrasensory power realizing knowledge of the cessation of contaminants

zag pa zad pa shes pa mngon sum du bya ba shes pa’i mngon par shes pa

ཟག་པ་ཟད་པ་ཤེས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པའི་མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

āsravakṣayajñānasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā

g.547

extrasensory power realizing knowledge of the recollection of past lives

sngon gyi gnas rjes su dran pa shes pa mngon sum du bya ba shes pa’i mngon par shes pa

སྔོན་གྱི་གནས་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ་ཤེས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱ་བ་ཤེས་པའི་མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།

pūrvanivāsānusmṛtijñānasākṣātkriyājñānābhijñā

g.548

eye of divine clairvoyance

lha’i mig

ལྷའི་མིག

divyacakṣuḥ

g.549

eye of flesh

sha’i mig

ཤའི་མིག

māṃsacakṣuḥ

g.550

eye of the buddhas

sangs rgyas kyi mig

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མིག

buddhacakṣuḥ

g.551

eye of the sacred doctrine

chos kyi mig

ཆོས་ཀྱི་མིག

dharmacakṣuḥ

g.552

eye of wisdom

shes rab kyi mig

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་མིག

prajñācakṣuḥ

g.560

faculty of faith

dad pa’i dbang po

དད་པའི་དབང་པོ།

śraddhendriya

g.561

faculty of meditative stability

ting nge ’dzin gyi dbang po

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་དབང་པོ།

samādhyindriya

g.562

faculty of perseverance

brtson ’grus kyi dbang po

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ།

vīryendriya

g.563

faculty of recollection

dran pa’i dbang po

དྲན་པའི་དབང་པོ།

smṛtyindriya

g.564

faculty of wisdom

shes rab kyi dbang po

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ།

prajñendriya

g.566

false view

lta bar gyur pa

ལྟ་བར་གྱུར་པ།

dṛṣṭikṛta

g.567

false views about perishable composites

’jig tshogs la lta ba

འཇིག་ཚོགས་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

satkāyadṛṣṭi

g.572

fearful

skrag
’jigs pa

སྐྲག
འཇིགས་པ།

trasati
bhayataḥ

g.573

feelings

tshor ba

ཚོར་བ།

vedanā

g.578

fetter

kun tu sbyor ba

ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བ།

saṃyojana

g.581

final nirvāṇa

yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa

ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།

parinirvāṇa

Nirvāṇa, the state beyond sorrow, denotes the ultimate attainment of buddhahood, the permanent cessation of all suffering and the afflicted mental states which cause and perpetuate suffering, along with all misapprehension with regard to the nature of emptiness. As such, it is the antithesis of cyclic existence. Three types of nirvāṇa are identified: (1) the residual nirvāṇa where the person is still dependent on conditioned psycho-physical aggregates, (2) the non-residual nirvāṇa where the aggregates have also been consumed within emptiness, and (3) the non-abiding nirvāṇa transcending the extremes of phenomenal existence and quiescence. Final nirvāṇa implies the non-residual attainment.

g.582

finality of existence

yang dag pa’i mtha’

ཡང་དག་པའི་མཐའ།

bhūtakoṭi

g.589

five extrasensory powers

mngon shes lnga

མངོན་ཤེས་ལྔ།

pañcābhijñā

g.590

five eyes

mig lnga

མིག་ལྔ།

pañcacakṣuḥ

g.591

five faculties

dbang po lnga

དབང་པོ་ལྔ།

pañcendriya

g.593

five fetters associated with the higher realms

gong ma’i cha mthun gyi kun sbyor lnga

གོང་མའི་ཆ་མཐུན་གྱི་ཀུན་སྦྱོར་ལྔ།

urdhvabhāgiyapañcasaṃyojana

g.594

five fetters associated with the lower realms

’og ma’i cha dang ’thun pa’i kun tu sbyor ba lnga

འོག་མའི་ཆ་དང་འཐུན་པའི་ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བ་ལྔ།

pañcāvarabhāgīyasaṃjoyana

g.599

five obscurations

sgrib pa lnga

སྒྲིབ་པ་ལྔ།

pañcanivaraṇa

g.600

five powers

stobs lnga

སྟོབས་ལྔ།

pañcabala

g.601

five psycho-physical aggregates

phung po lnga

ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ།

pañcaskandha

g.604

fixation

mngon par zhen pa

མངོན་པར་ཞེན་པ།

abhiniveśa

g.607

focus on

dmigs

དམིགས།

upalabhate

g.611

formative predispositions

’du byed

འདུ་བྱེད།

saṃskāra

Second of the twelve links of dependent origination. This term denotes the deep-seated predispositions inherited from past actions and experiences, some of which function in association with mind, while others do not. Formative predispositions are critical to the Buddhist understanding of the causal dynamics of karma and conditioning. It is the collection of such countless predispositions by afflicted mental states that constitutes the obscuration of misconceptions concerning the known range of phenomena, the total eradication of which occurs only when full awakening or buddhahood is achieved.

g.612

formless meditative absorptions

gzugs med pa’i snyoms par ’jug pa

གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ།

ārūpyasamāpatti

g.615

four applications of mindfulness

dran pa nye bar gzhag pa bzhi

དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ་བཞི།

catuḥsmṛtyupasthāna

g.617

four assurances

mi ’jigs pa bzhi

མི་འཇིགས་པ་བཞི།

caturvaiśāradya

The four assurances are proclaimed by the tathāgatas, and can be found listed in 2.2 and 29.19 as: (1) “I claim to have attained genuinely perfect buddhahood;” (2) “I claim I am one whose contaminants have ceased;” (3) “I claim to have explained those things which cause obstacles;” (4) “I claim to have explained the path through which suffering will genuinely cease.” (See also n.56.)

These four are generally known by other names, i.e., the first is the “assurance in the knowledge of all things” (sarvadharmābhisambodhivaiśarādya, chos thams cad mkhyen pa la mi ’jigs pa), which the Buddha achieves for his own benefit; the second is the “assurance in the knowledge of the cessation of all contaminants” (sarvāśravakṣayajñānavaiśarādya, zag pa zad pa thams cad mkhyen pa la mi ’jigs pa), which the Buddha achieves for his own benefit; the third is the “assurance to declare that phenomena that obstruct the path will not engender any further negative outcomes” (anantarāyikadharmānanyathātvaviniścitavyākaraṇavaiśarādya, bar du gcod pa’i chos rnams gzhan du mi ’gyur bar nges pa’i lung bstan pa la mi ’jigs pa), which the Buddha achieves for others’ benefit; and the fourth is the “assurance that the path of renunciation through which all excellent attributes are to be obtained has been just so realized” (sarvasampadadhigamāya nairāṇikapratipattathātvavaiśarādya, bar du gcod pa’i chos rnams gzhan du mi ’gyur bar nges pa’i lung bstan pa la mi ’jigs pa), which the Buddha achieves for others’ benefit.

g.618

four attractive qualities of a bodhisattva

bsdu ba’i dngos po bzhi

བསྡུ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་བཞི།

catuḥsaṃgrahavastu

g.620

four continents

gling bzhi

གླིང་བཞི།

caturdvīpa

g.621

four correct exertions

yang dag par spong ba bzhi

ཡང་དག་པར་སྤོང་བ་བཞི།

catuḥprahāṇa

g.622

four formless meditative absorptions

gzugs med pa’i snyoms par ’jug pa bzhi

གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ་བཞི།

caturārūpyasamāpatti

g.623

four immeasurable aspirations

tshad med bzhi

ཚད་མེད་བཞི།

caturaprameya

g.625

four kinds of exact knowledge

so so yang dag par rig pa bzhi

སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ་བཞི།

catuḥpratisaṃvid

These four kinds of exact knowledge‍—the essentials through which the buddhas impart their teachings‍—comprise (1) exact knowledge of meanings, (2) exact knowledge of dharmas, (3) exact knowledge of their language and lexical explanations, and (4) exact knowledge of their eloquent expression. See 2.6.

On the philological origins of these four kinds of exact knowledge, see Konow (1941): 40, and the reconstructed Sanskrit on p. 107; also Dayal (1932): 259–267, and Sparham (2012 IV): 78–79.

g.626

four knots

mdud pa bzhi

མདུད་པ་བཞི།

caturgranthā

g.627

four meditative concentrations

bsam gtan bzhi

བསམ་གཏན་བཞི།

caturdhyāna

g.628

four misconceptions

phyin ci log pa bzhi

ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་པ་བཞི།

caturviparyāsā

The four misconceptions, as found in 6.52, comprise holding impurity to be purity, holding non-self to be self, holding suffering to be happiness, and holding impermanence to be permanence. See Negi (1993-2005): 3569 and Zhang Yisun et al (1985): 1748. At 25.16 they are expressed in slightly dissimilar language, namely: the notion that there is permanence, the notion that there is happiness, the notion that there is a self, and the notion that existence is pleasant.

g.630

four noble truths

’phags pa’i bden pa bzhi

འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞི།

caturāryasatya

g.632

four supports for miraculous ability

rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa bzhi

རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ་བཞི།

catvāra ṛddhipādāḥ

g.633

four torrents

chu bo bzhi

ཆུ་བོ་བཞི།

caturogha

g.634

fourteen aspects of emptiness

stong pa nyid bcu bzhi

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བཅུ་བཞི།

caturdaśaśūnyatā

g.639

free from harming

rnam par tho ’tsham pa med pa

རྣམ་པར་ཐོ་འཚམ་པ་མེད་པ།

aviheṭhanā

g.644

fruit of being tied to one more rebirth

lan cig phyir ’ong ba’i ’bras bu

ལན་ཅིག་ཕྱིར་འོང་བའི་འབྲས་བུ།

sakṛdāgāmīphala

g.645

fruit of entering the stream

rgyun du zhugs pa’i ’bras bu

རྒྱུན་དུ་ཞུགས་པའི་འབྲས་བུ།

śrota’āpannaphala

g.648

fully ordained monk

dge slong

དགེ་སློང་།

bhikṣu

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The term bhikṣu, often translated as “monk,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist monks and nuns‍—like other ascetics of the time‍—subsisted on alms (bhikṣā) begged from the laity.

In the Tibetan tradition, which follows the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, a monk follows 253 rules as part of his moral discipline. A nun (bhikṣuṇī; dge slong ma) follows 364 rules. A novice monk (śrāmaṇera; dge tshul) or nun (śrāmaṇerikā; dge tshul ma) follows thirty-six rules of moral discipline (although in other vinaya traditions novices typically follow only ten).

g.649

fully ordained nun

dge slong ma

དགེ་སློང་མ།

bhikṣuṇī

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The term bhikṣuṇī, often translated as “nun,” refers to the highest among the eight types of prātimokṣa vows that make one part of the Buddhist assembly. The Sanskrit term bhikṣu (to which the female grammatical ending ṇī is added) literally means “beggar” or “mendicant,” referring to the fact that Buddhist nuns and monks‍—like other ascetics of the time‍—subsisted on alms (bhikṣā) begged from the laity. In the Tibetan tradition, which follows the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, a bhikṣuṇī follows 364 rules and a bhikṣu follows 253 rules as part of their moral discipline.

For the first few years of the Buddha’s teachings in India, there was no ordination for women. It started at the persistent request and display of determination of Mahāprajāpatī, the Buddha’s stepmother and aunt, together with five hundred former wives of men of Kapilavastu, who had themselves become monks. Mahāprajāpatī is thus considered to be the founder of the nun’s order.

g.651

fundamental ignorance

ma rig pa

མ་རིག་པ།

avidyā

g.658

Ganges

gang gA’i klung

གང་གཱའི་ཀླུང་།

gaṅgā

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The Gaṅgā, or Ganges in English, is considered to be the most sacred river of India, particularly within the Hindu tradition. It starts in the Himalayas, flows through the northern plains of India, bathing the holy city of Vārāṇasī, and meets the sea at the Bay of Bengal, in Bangladesh. In the sūtras, however, this river is mostly mentioned not for its sacredness but for its abundant sands‍—noticeable still today on its many sandy banks and at its delta‍—which serve as a common metaphor for infinitely large numbers.

According to Buddhist cosmology, as explained in the Abhidharmakośa, it is one of the four rivers that flow from Lake Anavatapta and cross the southern continent of Jambudvīpa‍—the known human world or more specifically the Indian subcontinent.

g.663

gateway to liberation

rnam par thar pa’i sgo

རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པའི་སྒོ།

vimokṣamukha

g.667

generosity

sbyin pa

སྦྱིན་པ།

dāna

g.668

gentle

’jam pa

འཇམ་པ།

snigdha

g.669

genuinely

don las

དོན་ལས།

arthataḥ

g.670

genuinely perfect buddha

yang dag par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas

ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས།

samyaksaṃbuddha
samyaksambuddhatva

g.671

genuinely perfect enlightenment

yang dag par rdzogs pa’i byang chub

ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ།

samyaksaṃbodhi

g.672

gift of the sacred doctrine

chos kyi sbyin pa

ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྦྱིན་པ།

dharmadāna

g.675

gnosis

ye shes

ཡེ་ཤེས།

jñāna

g.677

god

ལྷ།

deva

g.690

great bodhisattva being

byang chub sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།

bodhisattvamahāsattva

g.691

great compassion

snying rje chen po

སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ།

mahākaruṇā

g.693

great loving kindness

byams pa chen po

བྱམས་པ་ཆེན་པོ།

mahāmaitrī

g.694

great trichiliocosm

stong gsum gyi stong chen po’i ’jig rten gyi khams

སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་སྟོང་ཆེན་པོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།

trisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu

g.695

Great Vehicle

theg pa chen po

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།

mahāyāna

When the Buddhist teachings are classified according to their power to lead beings to an enlightened state, a distinction is made between the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, which emphasizes the individual’s own freedom from cyclic existence as the primary motivation and goal, and those of the Great Vehicle, which emphasizes altruism and has the liberation of all sentient beings as the principal objective. As the term “Great Vehicle” implies, the path followed by bodhisattvas is analogous to a large carriage which can transport a vast number of people to liberation, as compared to a smaller vehicle for the individual practitioner.

g.696

greeting

phebs par smra ba

ཕེབས་པར་སྨྲ་བ།

sambhāṣa

g.711

happiness

bde ba

བདེ་བ།

sukha

g.712

Haribhadra

seng ge bzang po

སེང་གེ་བཟང་པོ།

haribhadra

g.713

harmful intention

gnod sems

གནོད་སེམས།

duṣṭacitta
vyāpāda

g.716

hatred

zhe sdang

ཞེ་སྡང་།

dveśa

g.727

heard

thos pa

ཐོས་པ།

śrūta

g.729

hells

dmyal ba

དམྱལ་བ།

naraka

g.733

hesitation

the tshom

ཐེ་ཚོམ།

vicikitsā

g.734

higher aspiration

lhag pa’i bsam pa

ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ།

adhyāśaya

g.735

higher focus

lhag par dmigs pa

ལྷག་པར་དམིགས་པ།

adhyālambana

g.736

higher realms

mtho ris

མཐོ་རིས།

svarga

g.737

holding impermanence to be permanence

mi rtag pa la rtag par ’dzin pa

མི་རྟག་པ་ལ་རྟག་པར་འཛིན་པ།

anitye nityaviparyāsā

g.738

holding impurity to be purity

mi gtsang pa la gtsang bar ’dzin pa

མི་གཙང་པ་ལ་གཙང་བར་འཛིན་པ།

aśucau śuci

g.739

holding non-self to be self

bdag med pa la bdag tu ’dzin pa

བདག་མེད་པ་ལ་བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ།

anātmanyātmāviparyāsā

g.740

holding suffering to be happiness

sdug bsngal la bde bar ’dzin pa

སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལ་བདེ་བར་འཛིན་པ།

duḥkhe sukhaviparyāsā

g.741

hollow

gsob

གསོབ།

riktaka

g.744

human being

shed bu

ཤེད་བུ།

mānava

g.745

humankind

shed las skyes pa

ཤེད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ།

manuja

g.749

“I”

bdag

བདག

ātman

g.751

I claim I am one whose contaminants have ceased

nga zag pa zad pa do

ང་ཟག་པ་ཟད་པ་དོ།

kṣīṇāsravasya me pratijānata

g.752

I claim to have attained genuinely perfect buddhahood

nga yang dag par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas so

ང་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་སོ།

samyaksaṃbuddhasya me pratijānata

g.753

I claim to have explained the path through which suffering will genuinely cease

ngas sdug bsngal yang dag par zad par ’gyur ba’i lam gang bshad pa

ངས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཡང་དག་པར་ཟད་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལམ་གང་བཤད་པ།

samyagduḥkhakṣayāyapratipadākhyātaḥ

g.754

I claim to have explained those things which cause obstacles

ngas bar du gcod pa’i chos gang dag bshad pa

ངས་བར་དུ་གཅོད་པའི་ཆོས་གང་དག་བཤད་པ།

mayāntarāyikādharmākhyātaḥ

g.761

illusion

sgyu ma

སྒྱུ་མ།

māyā

g.765

imbued with suffering

sdug bsngal ba

སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ།

duḥkhataḥ

g.769

immaturity

skyon

སྐྱོན།

āma

g.770

immeasurable aspiration

tshad med

ཚད་མེད།

aprameya

g.772

impermanent

mi rtag pa

མི་རྟག་པ།

anityataḥ
anitya

g.776

in addition

phyir zhing

ཕྱིར་ཞིང་།

bhūyaḥ

g.797

individual

gang zag

གང་ཟག

pudgala

g.798

individual enlightenment

rang byang chub

རང་བྱང་ཆུབ།

pratyekabodhi

g.800

indivisible

gnyis su dbyer ma mchis
gnyis su dbyer med pa

གཉིས་སུ་དབྱེར་མ་མཆིས།
གཉིས་སུ་དབྱེར་མེད་པ།

advaidhīkāra

g.802

Indra

dbang po

དབང་པོ།

indra

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The lord of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven on the summit of Mount Sumeru. As one of the eight guardians of the directions, Indra guards the eastern quarter. In Buddhist sūtras, he is a disciple of the Buddha and protector of the Dharma and its practitioners. He is often referred to by the epithets Śatakratu, Śakra, and Kauśika.

g.808

infinite

mtha’ yas pa
mthar thug pa med pa

མཐའ་ཡས་པ།
མཐར་ཐུག་པ་མེད་པ།

ananta
aparyanta

g.809

inherent existence

rang bzhin

རང་བཞིན།

svabhāva

g.812

inspired

dbugs ’phyin pa

དབུགས་འཕྱིན་པ།

āśvasta

g.813

inspired eloquence

spobs pa

སྤོབས་པ།

pratibhāna

g.827

intent

mos pa

མོས་པ།

adhimukti
adhimuñcyamāna

g.828

intent (be)

མོས།

adhimucyate

g.832

investigate

so sor brtag
yongs su ’dris par bgyi

སོ་སོར་བརྟག
ཡོངས་སུ་འདྲིས་པར་བགྱི།

pratyavekṣate
paricayakaroti

g.836

involuntary reincarnation through propensities

bag chags dang mtshams sbyor
bag chags kyi mtshams sbyor

བག་ཆགས་དང་མཚམས་སྦྱོར།
བག་ཆགས་ཀྱི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར།

vāsanānusaṃdhi

g.838

irreversible

phyir mi ldog pa

ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ།

avinivarta
avaivartika
avinivartanīya

g.839

irreversible bodhisattva

phyir mi ldog pa’i byang chub sems dpa’

ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།

avaivartikabodhisattva

g.841

irreversible level

phyir mi ldog pa’i sa

ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་ས།

avinivartabhūmi

g.843

island

gling

གླིང་།

dvīpa

g.845

Jambu River

’dzam bu chu bo

འཛམ་བུ་ཆུ་བོ།

jambunadī

g.846

Jambudvīpa

’dzam bu gling

འཛམ་བུ་གླིང་།

jambudvīpa

g.849

Jinamitra

rgyal ba bshes gnyen

རྒྱལ་བ་བཤེས་གཉེན།

jinamitra

g.853

joy

dga’ ba

དགའ་བ།

prīti

g.855

karma

ལས།

karman

g.856

Kauśika

kau shi ka

ཀཽ་ཤི་ཀ

kauśika

g.859

killing of living creatures

srog gcod pa

སྲོག་གཅོད་པ།

prāṇātighāta

g.864

knowledge

shes pa

ཤེས་པ།

jñāna

g.887

layman

dge bsnyen

དགེ་བསྙེན།

upāsaka

g.888

laywoman

dge bsnyen ma

དགེ་བསྙེན་མ།

upāsikā

g.895

level of the bodhisattvas

byang chub sems dpa’i sa

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།

bodhisattvabhūmi

g.897

level of the pratyekabuddhas

rang sangs rgyas kyi sa

རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ས།

pratyekabuddhabhūmi

g.898

lexical explanations

nges pa’i tshig

ངེས་པའི་ཚིག

nirukta

g.899

liberated

rnam par grol

རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ།

vimucyate

g.900

liberation

grol ba

གྲོལ་བ།

mokṣa

g.901

life

gso ba

གསོ་བ།

poṣa

g.903

light

’od

འོད།

prabhā

g.906

limited number of sentient beings

nyi tshe ba’i sems can

ཉི་ཚེ་བའི་སེམས་ཅན།

pradeśikasattva

g.907

limitless

mtha’ yas pa

མཐའ་ཡས་པ།

ananta

g.915

living being

’byung po

འབྱུང་པོ།

sattva

g.916

living creature

skye ba po
skyes bu

སྐྱེ་བ་པོ།
སྐྱེས་བུ།

jantu
prajā

g.923

longing for sensual pleasure

’dod pa la ’dun pa

འདོད་པ་ལ་འདུན་པ།

kāmacchanda

g.924

lord

bcom ldan ’das

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།

bhagavat

Epithet of Buddha Śākyamuni.

Also translated here as “Blessed One.” (See also n.19).

g.925

Lord Buddha

sangs rgyas bcom ldan ’das

སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།

bhagavānbuddha

g.927

loving kindness

byams pa

བྱམས་པ།

maitrī

g.929

luminosity

’od gsal ba

འོད་གསལ་བ།

prabhāsvara

Luminosity refers to the subtlest level of mind, i.e., the fundamental, essential nature of all cognitive events. Though ever present within all sentient beings, this luminosity becomes manifest only when the gross mind has ceased to function. It is said that such a dissolution is experienced by ordinary beings, naturally, at the time of death, but it can also be experientially cultivated through certain meditative practices.

g.933

magical display

sgyu ma

སྒྱུ་མ།

māyā

g.934

Mahābrahmā

tshangs pa chen po

ཚངས་པ་ཆེན་པོ།

mahābrahmā

g.944

major marks

mtshan

མཚན།

lakṣaṇa

g.946

malice

gnod sems

གནོད་སེམས།

duṣṭacitta
vyāpāda

g.950

manifestly perfect buddhahood

mngon par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas pa
mngon par rdzogs pa’i ’tshang rgya ba

མངོན་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་པ།
མངོན་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་འཚང་རྒྱ་བ།

abhisambodhi

g.952

Māra

bdud

བདུད།

māra

g.956

mass of foam

dbu ba rdos pa

དབུ་བ་རྡོས་པ།

phenapiṇḍa

g.959

maturity

skyon ma mchis pa
skyon med

སྐྱོན་མ་མཆིས་པ།
སྐྱོན་མེད།

niyāma

g.966

measure

tshad ma mchis par bgyid

ཚད་མ་མཆིས་པར་བགྱིད།

pramāṇīkaroti

g.967

measure with weights

srang la gzhal ba’i tshad

སྲང་ལ་གཞལ་བའི་ཚད།

palāgrapramāṇa

g.968

meditative absorption

snyoms par ’jug pa

སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ།

samāpatti

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The Sanskrit literally means “attainment,” and is used to refer specifically to meditative attainment and to particular meditative states. The Tibetan translators interpreted it as sama-āpatti, which suggests the idea of “equal” or “level”; however, they also parsed it as sam-āpatti, in which case it would have the sense of “concentration” or “absorption,” much like samādhi, but with the added sense of “attainment.”

g.969

meditative absorption of neither perception nor non-perception

’du shes med min gyi snyoms ’jug

འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན་གྱི་སྙོམས་འཇུག

naivasaṃjñāsaṃjñāyatana

g.970

meditative absorption of the sense field of infinite consciousness

rnam shes mtha’ yas skye mched kyi snyoms ’jug

རྣམ་ཤེས་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་སྙོམས་འཇུག

vijñānāntyāyatana

g.971

meditative absorption of the sense field of infinite space

nam mkha’ mtha’ yas skye mched kyi snyoms ’jug

ནམ་མཁའ་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་སྙོམས་འཇུག

ākāśānantyāyatana

g.972

meditative absorption of the sense field of nothing-at-all

ci yang med pa’i skye mched kyi snyoms ’jug

ཅི་ཡང་མེད་པའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་སྙོམས་འཇུག

akiṃcanyāyatana

g.973

meditative concentration

bsam gtan

བསམ་གཏན།

dhyāna

Meditative concentration is defined as the one-pointed abiding in an undistracted state of mind free from afflicted mental states. It is an advanced form of calm abiding, where often both calm abiding and penetrative insight may be present in perfect union. Four states of meditative concentration are identified as being conducive to birth within the world system of form, each of which has three phases of intensity. However, in the context‌ of the Great Vehicle, meditative concentration is the fifth of the six transcendent perfections. See also “four meditative concentrations” and 1.30.

g.974

meditative stability

ting nge ’dzin

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།

samādhi

A generic name for the one hundred and eleven meditative stabilities enumerated in the present text.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

In a general sense, samādhi can describe a number of different meditative states. In the Mahāyāna literature, in particular in the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, we find extensive lists of different samādhis, numbering over one hundred.

In a more restricted sense, and when understood as a mental state, samādhi is defined as the one-pointedness of the mind (cittaikāgratā), the ability to remain on the same object over long periods of time. The Drajor Bamponyipa (sgra sbyor bam po gnyis pa) commentary on the Mahāvyutpatti explains the term samādhi as referring to the instrument through which mind and mental states “get collected,” i.e., it is by the force of samādhi that the continuum of mind and mental states becomes collected on a single point of reference without getting distracted.

g.979

mental agitation

rgod pa

རྒོད་པ།

auddhatya

g.980

mental consciousness

yid kyi rnam par shes pa

ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ།

manovijñāna

g.981

mental faculty

ཡིད།

manas

g.982

mental image

mtshan ma

མཚན་མ།

nimitta

g.983

mental phenomena

chos

ཆོས།

dharma

g.990

merit

bsod nams

བསོད་ནམས།

puṇya

Merit refers to the wholesome tendencies imprinted in the mind as a result of positive and skillful thoughts, words, and actions that ripen in the experience of happiness and well-being. According to the Greater Vehicle, it is important to dedicate the merit of one’s wholesome actions to the benefit of all sentient beings, ensuring that others also experience the results of the positive actions generated.

(See also n.380).

g.991

methodically

tshul las

ཚུལ་ལས།

nayataḥ

g.992

mighty nāga

glang po chen po

གླང་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།

mahānāga

g.993

mind

sems

སེམས།

citta

g.997

mindfulness

dran pa

དྲན་པ།

smṛti

g.999

mindset

sems

སེམས།

citta

g.1002

minor marks

dpe byad bzang po

དཔེ་བྱད་བཟང་པོ།

anuvyañjana

g.1006

misconception

phyin ci log pa

ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་པ།

viparyāsa

g.1007

misconstrue

rtog

རྟོག

parāmṛśati

g.1008

miserliness

ser sna

སེར་སྣ།

mātsarya

g.1015

motion

’gro ba

འགྲོ་བ།

gamana

g.1021

mundane

’jig rten pa

འཇིག་རྟེན་པ།

laukika

g.1022

mundane gift of the sacred doctrine

’jig rten pa’i chos kyi sbyin pa

འཇིག་རྟེན་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྦྱིན་པ།

laukikadharmadāna

g.1023

mundane phenomena

’jig rten pa’i chos

འཇིག་རྟེན་པའི་ཆོས།

laukikadharma

g.1028

name

ming

མིང་།

nāma
varṇa

g.1034

narratives

rtogs par brjod pa’i sde

རྟོགས་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་སྡེ།

avadāna

g.1037

nature

rang bzhin

རང་བཞིན།

prakṛti

g.1039

nature of reality

chos kyi tshul gyi rang bzhin

ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་གྱི་རང་བཞིན།

dharmatāprakṛti

g.1054

night lotus

ku mu da

ཀུ་མུ་ད།

kumuda

g.1057

nine serial steps of meditative absorption

mthar gyis gnas pa’i snyoms par ’jug pa dgu

མཐར་གྱིས་གནས་པའི་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ་དགུ

navānupūrvavihārasamāpatti

g.1058

Nirmāṇarata

’phrul dga’

འཕྲུལ་དགའ།

nirmāṇarata

g.1062

no longer subject to rebirth

phyir mi ’ong ba

ཕྱིར་མི་འོང་བ།

āgāmī

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The third of the four attainments of śrāvakas, this term refers to a person who will no longer take rebirth in the desire realm (kāmadhātu), but either be reborn in the Pure Abodes (śuddhāvāsa) or reach the state of an arhat in their current lifetime. (Provisional 84000 definition. New definition forthcoming.)

g.1063

noble eightfold path

’phags pa’i lam yan lag brgyad

འཕགས་པའི་ལམ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད།

aṣṭaṅgāryamārga

g.1064

noble form

lus gzugs bzang ba

ལུས་གཟུགས་བཟང་བ།

abhirūpaprasādika

g.1065

noble truth of suffering

sdug bsngal ’phags pa’i bden pa

སྡུག་བསྔལ་འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ།

duḥkhāryasatya

g.1066

noble truth of the cessation of suffering

’gog pa ’phags pa’i bden pa

འགོག་པ་འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ།

nirodhāryasatya

g.1067

noble truth of the origin of suffering

kun ’byung ba ’phags pa’i bden pa

ཀུན་འབྱུང་བ་འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ།

samudayāryasatya

g.1068

noble truth of the path

lam ’phags pa’i bden pa

ལམ་འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ།

mārgāryasatya

g.1069

non-abiding

mi gnas pa
gnas pa med pa

མི་གནས་པ།
གནས་པ་མེད་པ།

asthiti
asthitā

g.1075

non-apprehensible

dmigs su ma mchi
dmigs su med
dmigs su med pa
mi dmigs su med
dmigs pa med

དམིགས་སུ་མ་མཆི།
དམིགས་སུ་མེད།
དམིགས་སུ་མེད་པ།
མི་དམིགས་སུ་མེད།
དམིགས་པ་མེད།

anupalabdhya
anupalabdha
nopalabhyate

g.1076

non-apprehension

dmigs su med pa nyid
dmigs su ma mchis pa
mi dmigs pa nyid

དམིགས་སུ་མེད་པ་ཉིད།
དམིགས་སུ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
མི་དམིགས་པ་ཉིད།

anupalabdhitā
anupalambha
anupalambhatā

g.1078

non-arising

mi skye ba
skye ba ma mchis pa
skye ba med pa

མི་སྐྱེ་བ།
སྐྱེ་བ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
སྐྱེ་བ་མེད་པ།

anutpādita
anutpāda
asamutthāna

g.1082

non-conceptual

rnam par mi rtog pa

རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པ།

nirvikalpa

g.1083

non-conceptualization

rnam par mi rtog pa nyid

རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པ་ཉིད།

nirvikalpatā

g.1090

non-duality

gnyis su med pa

གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པ།

advaya

g.1093

non-existent

bdag nyid med pa

བདག་ཉིད་མེད་པ།

nāstitā
nairātmya

g.1103

non-residual nirvāṇa

lhag ma med pa’i mya ngan las ’das pa

ལྷག་མ་མེད་པའི་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།

nirupadhiśeṣanirvāṇa

g.1104

non-self

bdag med pa

བདག་མེད་པ།

anātman

g.1119

notion of self

bdag tu ’du shes

བདག་ཏུ་འདུ་ཤེས།

ātmasaṃjñā

g.1120

notion that existence is pleasant

sdug par ’du shes

སྡུག་པར་འདུ་ཤེས།

śubhasaṃjñā

g.1121

notion that there is happiness

bde ba’i ’du shes

བདེ་བའི་འདུ་ཤེས།

sukhasaṃjñā

g.1122

notion that there is permanence

rtag pa’i ’du shes

རྟག་པའི་འདུ་ཤེས།

nityasaṃjñā

g.1134

objective

don gyi dbang

དོན་གྱི་དབང་།

arthavaśa

g.1137

obscuration

sgrib pa

སྒྲིབ་པ།

āvaraṇa

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The obscurations to liberation and omniscience. They are generally categorized as two types: affective obscurations (kleśāvaraṇa), the arising of afflictive emotions; and cognitive obscurations (jñeyāvaraṇa), those caused by misapprehension and incorrect understanding about the nature of reality.

The term is used also as a reference to a set five hindrances on the path: longing for sense pleasures (Skt. kāmacchanda), malice (Skt. vyāpāda), sloth and torpor (Skt. styānamiddha), excitement and remorse (Skt. auddhatyakaukṛtya), and doubt (Skt. vicikitsā).

g.1139

obstruct

bkag par ’gyur

བཀག་པར་འགྱུར།

pratyākhyātā bhavati

g.1141

occur

’byung bar ’gyur

འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར།

prādurbhāvo bhavati

g.1144

omniscience

rnam pa thams cad mkhyen pa nyid

རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཉིད།

sarvajñatā

g.1146

one achieves and abides in the cessation of all perceptions and feelings

’du shes dang tshor ba ’gog pa bsgrubs te gnas pa

འདུ་ཤེས་དང་ཚོར་བ་འགོག་པ་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་གནས་པ།

saṃjnāveditanirodhakayena sākṣātkrtvopasampadya viharati

g.1147

one achieves and abides in the sense field of infinite consciousness, thinking, ‘Consciousness is infinite’

rnam shes mtha’ yas skye mched bsgrubs te gnas pa

རྣམ་ཤེས་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་གནས་པ།

vijñānāntyāyatanamupasampadyaviharati

g.1148

one achieves and abides in the sense field of infinite space, thinking, ‘Space is infinite.’

nam mkha’ mtha’ yas skye mched bsgrubs te gnas pa

ནམ་མཁའ་མཐའ་ཡས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་གནས་པ།

ākāśānantyāyatanamupasampadya viharati

g.1149

one achieves and abides in the sense field of neither perception nor non-perception

’du shes med ’du shes med min skye mched bsgrubs te gnas pa

འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་གནས་པ།

naivasaṃjnāsaṃjnāyatanamupasampadya viharati

g.1150

one achieves and abides in the sense field of nothing-at-all, thinking, ‘There is nothing at all.’

ci yang med pa’i skye mched bsgrubs te gnas pa

ཅི་ཡང་མེད་པའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་གནས་པ།

akiṃcanyāyatanamupasampadya viharati

g.1155

opinion

lta bar gyur pa

ལྟ་བར་གྱུར་པ།

dṛṣṭikṛta

g.1156

optical aberration

mig yor

མིག་ཡོར།

pratibhāsa

g.1160

outcome

rgyu ’thun pa

རྒྱུ་འཐུན་པ།

niṣyanda

g.1169

Paranirmitavaśavartin

gzhan ’phrul dbang byed

གཞན་འཕྲུལ་དབང་བྱེད།

paranirmitavaśavartin

g.1171

Parīttābha

’od chung

འོད་ཆུང་།

parīttābha

g.1172

Parīttaśubha

dge chung

དགེ་ཆུང་།

parīttaśubha

g.1177

past action

ལས།

karman

g.1178

past actions corresponding to the roots of their particular volitions

’dun pa’i rtsa ba can gyi las

འདུན་པའི་རྩ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ལས།

chandamūlakarma

g.1182

path of preparation

sbyor lam

སྦྱོར་ལམ།

prayogamārga

g.1183

peace

zhi ba

ཞི་བ།

śānta

g.1186

perceive

kun tu shes

ཀུན་ཏུ་ཤེས།

saṃjānite

g.1187

perceiving

kun tu shes pa

ཀུན་ཏུ་ཤེས་པ།

saṃjanāna

g.1195

perceptions

’du shes

འདུ་ཤེས།

saṃjñā

g.1196

perfected

yongs su rdzogs pa

ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པ།

paripūrṇa

g.1198

perishable

’jig pa

འཇིག་པ།

vināśita

g.1199

permanent

rtag pa

རྟག་པ།

nitya

g.1202

person

gang zag

གང་ཟག

pudgala

g.1203

personal identity

gang zag

གང་ཟག

pudgala

g.1205

phantom

sprul pa

སྤྲུལ་པ།

nirmāṇa

g.1206

phenomena

chos

ཆོས།

dharma

g.1207

phenomenal existence

srid pa

སྲིད་པ།

bhava

g.1210

physical form

gzugs

གཟུགས།

rūpa

g.1223

powder

phye ma

ཕྱེ་མ།

cūrṇa

g.1224

power of faith

dad pa’i stobs

དད་པའི་སྟོབས།

śraddhābala

g.1225

power of meditative stability

ting nge ’dzin gyi stobs

ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་སྟོབས།

samādhibala

g.1226

Power of Perseverance

brtson ’grus kyi stobs

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས།

vīryabala

g.1227

power of recollection

dran pa’i stobs

དྲན་པའི་སྟོབས།

smṛtibala

g.1228

power of wisdom

shes rab kyi stobs

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་སྟོབས།

prajñābala

g.1232

Prajāpati

skye dgu’i bdag po

སྐྱེ་དགུའི་བདག་པོ།

prajāpati

g.1233

Prajñāpāramitā

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin ma

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་མ།

prajñāpāramitā

g.1234

Prajñāvarman

shes rab go cha

ཤེས་རབ་གོ་ཆ།

prajñāvarman

g.1236

prattle incoherently

byung rgyal du smra

བྱུང་རྒྱལ་དུ་སྨྲ།

sambhinnapralāpī bhavati

g.1237

pratyekabuddha

rang sangs rgyas
rang rgyal

རང་སངས་རྒྱས།
རང་རྒྱལ།

pratyekabuddha

g.1247

pride

nga rgyal

ང་རྒྱལ།

māna

g.1249

production

rab tu skye ba

རབ་ཏུ་སྐྱེ་བ།

prabhāvana

g.1263

psycho-physical aggregate

phung po

ཕུང་པོ།

skandha

g.1264

Puṇyaprasava

bsod nams ’phel
chung che

བསོད་ནམས་འཕེལ།
ཆུང་ཆེ།

puṇyaprasava

g.1265

Pure Abode

gnas gtsang ma’i ris

གནས་གཙང་མའི་རིས།

śuddhanivāsa

These realms and abodes denote the hierarchy of the gods who, in the manner of human beings and antigods, partake of the higher realms (svarga, mtho ris) of rebirth, but nonetheless remain trapped within cyclic existence. The gods altogether comprise (i) six god realms within the world system of desire, commencing with Caturmahārājakāyika and Trayastriṃśa, and concluding with Yāma, Tuṣita, Nirmāṇarata, and Paranirmitavaśavartin; (ii) the twelve Brahmā realms, extending from Brahmakāyika through Brahmapurohita, Mahābrahmā, Parīttābha, Apramāṇābha, Ābhāsvara, Parīttaśubha, Apramāṇaśubha, Śubhakṛtsna, Anabhraka, and Puṇyaprasava to Bṛhatphala, which are attained corresponding to lesser, middling, and higher degrees of the four meditative concentrations; and (iii) the five Pure Abodes at the pinnacle of the world system of form, extending from Avṛha, through Atapa, Sudṛśa, and Sudarśana to Akaniṣṭha. See also 15.1 and 17.51. This hierarchy is conveniently illustrated in the form of a chart. See, for example, Dudjom Rinpoche (1991): 14–15.

g.1271

purity

rnam par dag pa

རྣམ་པར་དག་པ།

viśuddhi

g.1272

Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra

byams ma’i bu gang po

བྱམས་མའི་བུ་གང་པོ།

pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra

g.1275

Pūrvavideha

lus ’phags

ལུས་འཕགས།

pūrvavideha

g.1278

Rājagṛha

rgyal po’i khab

རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ།

rājagṛha

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The ancient capital of Magadha prior to its relocation to Pāṭaliputra during the Mauryan dynasty, Rājagṛha is one of the most important locations in Buddhist history. The literature tells us that the Buddha and his saṅgha spent a considerable amount of time in residence in and around Rājagṛha‍—in nearby places, such as the Vulture Peak Mountain (Gṛdhrakūṭaparvata), a major site of the Mahāyāna sūtras, and the Bamboo Grove (Veṇuvana)‍—enjoying the patronage of King Bimbisāra and then of his son King Ajātaśatru. Rājagṛha is also remembered as the location where the first Buddhist monastic council was held after the Buddha Śākyamuni passed into parinirvāṇa. Now known as Rajgir and located in the modern Indian state of Bihar.

g.1280

Ratnaketu

rin po che tog

རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག

ratnaketu

g.1282

real nature

de bzhin nyid

དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད།

tathatā

g.1283

real nature of phenomena

chos kyi de bzhin nyid

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད།

dharmatathatā

g.1285

reality

chos nyid

ཆོས་ཉིད།

dharmatā

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The real nature, true quality, or condition of things. Throughout Buddhist discourse this term is used in two distinct ways. In one, it designates the relative nature that is either the essential characteristic of a specific phenomenon, such as the heat of fire and the moisture of water, or the defining feature of a specific term or category. The other very important and widespread way it is used is to designate the ultimate nature of all phenomena, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms and is often synonymous with emptiness or the absence of intrinsic existence.

g.1286

rebirth

skye

སྐྱེ།

upapadyate

g.1287

rebirth, rebirth process

srid pa

སྲིད་པ།

bhava

g.1300

reflection

gzugs brnyan

གཟུགས་བརྙན།

pratibimba

g.1303

regards blue external forms

phyi rol gyi gzugs sngon po la lta ba

ཕྱི་རོལ་གྱི་གཟུགས་སྔོན་པོ་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

bahīrdha rūpāṇi nīlāni paśyati

g.1304

regards greater external forms

gzugs chen por gyur pa la lta ba

གཟུགས་ཆེན་པོར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

mahadgatāni paśyati

g.1305

regards lesser external forms

gzugs chung ngu la lta ba

གཟུགས་ཆུང་ངུ་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

parīttāni paśyati

g.1306

regards red external forms

phyi rol gyi gzugs dmar po la lta ba

ཕྱི་རོལ་གྱི་གཟུགས་དམར་པོ་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

bahīrdha rūpāṇi lohitāni paśyati

g.1307

regards white external forms

phyi rol gyi gzugs dkar po la lta ba

ཕྱི་རོལ་གྱི་གཟུགས་དཀར་པོ་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

bahīrdha rūpāṇi avadātāni paśyati

g.1308

regards yellow external forms

phyi rol gyi gzugs ser po la lta ba

ཕྱི་རོལ་གྱི་གཟུགས་སེར་པོ་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

bahīrdha rūpāṇi pītāni paśyati

g.1309

rejoice

yang dag par rab tu dga’ bar byed

ཡང་དག་པར་རབ་ཏུ་དགའ་བར་བྱེད།

sampraharṣayati

g.1310

rejoicing

rjes su yi rang ba

རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རང་བ།

anumodana

g.1316

remembered

dran pa

དྲན་པ།

mata

g.1319

renunciation

gtong ba
yongs su gtong ba

གཏོང་བ།
ཡོངས་སུ་གཏོང་བ།

tyāga
parityāga

g.1323

repulsive phenomena

mi sdug pa

མི་སྡུག་པ།

aśubha

g.1324

resolve

’dun pa skyed pa

འདུན་པ་སྐྱེད་པ།

chandaṃ janayati

g.1326

resting place

gnas

གནས།

layana

g.1328

retinue

g.yog ’khor

གཡོག་འཁོར།

parivāra

g.1329

Reverend Lord

btsun pa bcom ldan ’das

བཙུན་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།

bhadantabhagavat

g.1333

roots of virtuous action

dge ba’i rtsa ba

དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ།

kuśalamūla

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

According to most lists (specifically those of the Pāli and some Abhidharma traditions), the (three) roots of virtue or the roots of the good or wholesome states (of mind) are what makes a mental state good or bad; they are identified as the opposites of the three mental “poisons” of greed, hatred, and delusion. Actions based on the roots of virtue will eventually lead to future happiness. The Dharmasaṃgraha, however, lists the three roots of virtue as (1) the mind of awakening, (2) purity of thought, and (3) freedom from egotism (Skt. trīṇi kuśalamūlāni | bodhicittotpādaḥ, āśayaviśuddhiḥ, ahaṃkāramamakāraparityāgaśceti|).

g.1335

round

zlum po

ཟླུམ་པོ།

vṛtta

g.1338

sacred doctrine

chos

ཆོས།

dharma

g.1342

Śakra

brgya byin

བརྒྱ་བྱིན།

śakra

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The lord of the gods in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (trāyastriṃśa). Alternatively known as Indra, the deity that is called “lord of the gods” dwells on the summit of Mount Sumeru and wields the thunderbolt. The Tibetan translation brgya byin (meaning “one hundred sacrifices”) is based on an etymology that śakra is an abbreviation of śata-kratu, one who has performed a hundred sacrifices. Each world with a central Sumeru has a Śakra. Also known by other names such as Kauśika, Devendra, and Śacipati.

g.1343

Śākyamuni

shAkya thub pa

ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ།

śākyamuni

g.1345

sameness

mnyam nyid

མཉམ་ཉིད།

samatā

g.1346

sameness of all things

chos thams cad mnyam pa nyid

ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད།

sarvadharmasamatā

g.1348

sanctuary

gnas

གནས།

layana

g.1349

saṅgha

dge ’dun

དགེ་འདུན།

saṅgha

g.1351

Śāradvatīputra

sha ra dwa ti’i bu

ཤ་ར་དྭ་ཏིའི་བུ།

śāradvatīputra

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

One of the principal śrāvaka disciples of the Buddha, he was renowned for his discipline and for having been praised by the Buddha as foremost of the wise (often paired with Maudgalyāyana, who was praised as foremost in the capacity for miraculous powers). His father, Tiṣya, to honor Śāriputra’s mother, Śārikā, named him Śāradvatīputra, or, in its contracted form, Śāriputra, meaning “Śārikā’s Son.”

g.1370

seen

mthong ba

མཐོང་བ།

dṛṣṭa

g.1371

self

bdag

བདག

ātman

g.1372

selflessness

bdag med

བདག་མེད།

ātmāsadbhūtatva
nairātmya

g.1373

sensation

tshor ba

ཚོར་བ།

vedanā

g.1375

sense field

skye mched

སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

āyatana

g.1376

sense field of mastery

zil gyis gnon pa’i skye mched

ཟིལ་གྱིས་གནོན་པའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

abhibhvāyatana

g.1377

sense field of mental phenomena

chos kyi skye mched

ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

dharmāyatana

g.1379

sense field of odors

dri’i skye mched

དྲིའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

gandhāyatana

g.1380

sense field of sights

gzugs kyi skye mched

གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

rūpāyatana

g.1381

sense field of sounds

sgra’i skye mched

སྒྲའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

śabdāyatana

g.1382

sense field of tangibles

reg bya’i skye mched

རེག་བྱའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

spraṣṭavyāyatana

g.1383

sense field of tastes

ro’i skye mched

རོའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

rasāyatana

g.1384

sense field of the body

lus kyi skye mched

ལུས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

kāyāyatana

g.1385

sense field of the ears

rna ba’i skye mched

རྣ་བའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

śrotrāyatana

g.1386

sense field of the eyes

mig gi skye mched

མིག་གི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

cakṣurāyatana

g.1387

sense field of the mental faculty

yid kyi skye mched

ཡིད་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

mana āyatana

g.1388

sense field of the nose

sna’i skye mched

སྣའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

ghrāṇāyatana

g.1389

sense field of the tongue

lce’i skye mched

ལྕེའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད།

jihvāyatana

g.1390

sense of moral and ascetic supremacy

tshul khrims dang brtul zhugs mchog tu ’dzin pa

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་དང་བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་མཆོག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ།

śīlavrataparāmarśa

g.1391

sense of moral supremacy

tshul khrims mchog ’dzin

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་མཆོག་འཛིན།

śīlaparāmarśagranthā

g.1393

sensory contact

reg pa

རེག་པ།

sparśa

g.1394

sensory element

khams

ཁམས།

dhātu

g.1395

sensory element of auditory consciousness

rna ba’i rnam par shes pa’i khams

རྣ་བའི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

śrotravijñānadhātu

g.1396

sensory element of consciousness

rnam par shes pa’i khams

རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

vijñānadhātu

g.1397

sensory element of gustatory consciousness

lce’i rnam par shes pa’i khams

ལྕེའི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

jihvavijñānadhātu

g.1398

sensory element of mental consciousness

yid kyi rnam par shes pa’i khams

ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

manovijñānadhātu

g.1399

sensory element of mental phenomena

chos kyi khams

ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཁམས།

dharmadhātu

g.1400

sensory element of odors

dri’i khams

དྲིའི་ཁམས།

gandhadhātu

g.1401

sensory element of olfactory consciousness

sna’i rnam par shes pa’i khams

སྣའི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

ghrāṇavijñānadhātu

g.1402

sensory element of sights

gzugs kyi khams

གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཁམས།

rūpadhātu

g.1403

sensory element of sounds

sgra’i khams

སྒྲའི་ཁམས།

śabdadhātu

g.1404

sensory element of tactile consciousness

lus kyi rnam par shes pa’i khams

ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

kāyavijñānadhātu

g.1405

sensory element of tangibles

reg bya’i khams

རེག་བྱའི་ཁམས།

spraṣṭavyadhātu

g.1406

sensory element of tastes

ro’i khams

རོའི་ཁམས།

rasadhātu

g.1407

sensory element of the body

lus kyi khams

ལུས་ཀྱི་ཁམས།

kāyadhātu

g.1408

sensory element of the ears

rna ba’i khams

རྣ་བའི་ཁམས།

śrotradhātu

g.1409

sensory element of the eyes

mig gi khams

མིག་གི་ཁམས།

cakṣurdhātu

g.1410

sensory element of the mental faculty

yid kyi khams

ཡིད་ཀྱི་ཁམས།

manodhātu

g.1411

sensory element of the nose

sna’i khams

སྣའི་ཁམས།

ghrāṇdhātu

g.1412

sensory element of the tongue

lce’i khams

ལྕེའི་ཁམས།

jihvdhātu

g.1413

sensory element of visual consciousness

mig gi rnam par shes pa’i khams

མིག་གི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་ཁམས།

cakṣurvijñānadhātu

g.1414

sentient being

sems can

སེམས་ཅན།

sattva

g.1417

serial clear realization

mthar gyis pa’i mngon rtogs

མཐར་གྱིས་པའི་མངོན་རྟོགས།

ānupūrvābhisamaya

g.1420

setting of the mind on enlightenment

byang chub sems bskyed pa
sems bskyed pa

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ།
སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ།

bodhicittotpāda
cittotpāda

The setting of the mind on enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, which marks the onset of the bodhisattva path and culminates in the actual attainment of buddhahood, distinguishes the compassionate bodhisattva path from that of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas who are both preoccupied with their own emancipation from cyclic existence. See Dayal (1932): 50–79, Williams (1989): 197–204, and Padmakara Translation Group (1994): 218–234.

(See also n.4).

g.1421

seven branches of enlightenment

byang chub kyi yan lag bdun

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་བདུན།

saptabodhyaṅga

g.1425

sexual misconduct

’dod pas log par g.yem pa

འདོད་པས་ལོག་པར་གཡེམ་པ།

kāmamithyācāra

g.1432

sights

gzugs rnams

གཟུགས་རྣམས།

rupāṇi

g.1433

sign

mtshan ma

མཚན་མ།

nimitta

g.1434

signless

mtshan ma med pa

མཚན་མ་མེད་པ།

nirnimitta

g.1435

signlessness

mtshan ma med pa

མཚན་མ་མེད་པ།

animitta

g.1436

Śikhin

gtsug tor can

གཙུག་ཏོར་ཅན།

śikhin

g.1442

six extrasensory powers

mngon shes drug

མངོན་ཤེས་དྲུག

ṣaḍabhijñā

g.1443

six inner sense fields

nang gi skye mched drug

ནང་གི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུག

ṣaḍādhyātmikāyatana

g.1444

six outer sense fields

phyi’i skye mched drug

ཕྱིའི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུག

ṣaḍbāhyāyatana

g.1445

six recollections

rjes su dran pa drug

རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ་དྲུག

ṣaḍanusmṛti

g.1447

six transcendent perfections

pha rol tu phyin pa drug

ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུག

ṣaṭpāramitā

The practice of the six transcendent perfections, comprising generosity, ethical discipline, tolerance, perseverance, meditative concentration, and wisdom or discriminative awareness, is the foundation of the entire bodhisattva’s way of life. These six are known as “transcendent perfections” when they are motivated by an altruistic intention to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all beings, when they are undertaken within a sixfold combination of all the perfections, and when they are performed with an awareness of the emptiness of the agent, the object, and their interaction. See 2.12.

(See also n.61).

g.1455

son of enlightened heritage

rigs kyi bu

རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ།

kulaputra

g.1456

sophistry

rtog ge

རྟོག་གེ

tarka

g.1457

sound

sgra

སྒྲ།

śabda
ghoṣa

g.1458

space

nam mkha’

ནམ་མཁའ།

gagana
ākāśa

g.1465

spiritual mentor

dge ba’i bshes gnyen

དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན།

kalyāṇamitra

g.1466

spiritual teacher

bla ma

བླ་མ།

guru

g.1469

śrāvaka

nyan thos

ཉན་ཐོས།

śrāvaka

g.1474

state of mind

sems gnas pa

སེམས་གནས་པ།

cittasthiti

g.1479

study

thos pa

ཐོས་པ།

śruti

g.1482

Subdued

rnam par ’joms pa

རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་པ།

vivṛta

g.1483

Śubhakṛtsna

dge rgyas

དགེ་རྒྱས།

śubhakṛtsna

g.1484

Subhūti

rab ’byor

རབ་འབྱོར།

subhūti

g.1487

sublime

’phags pa

འཕགས་པ།

ārya

g.1490

subtle quiescence

zhi ba zhib mo

ཞི་བ་ཞིབ་མོ།

sūkṣmaśānti

g.1491

Sudarśana

shin tu mthong

ཤིན་ཏུ་མཐོང་།

sudarśana

g.1492

Sudṛśa

gya nom snang ba

གྱ་ནོམ་སྣང་བ།

sudṛśa

g.1493

suffering

sdug bsngal

སྡུག་བསྔལ།

duḥkha

The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffering, i.e., the physical sensations and mental experiences which are self-evident as suffering and toward which spontaneous feelings of aversion arise; (2) the suffering of change, i.e., all experiences which are normally recognised as pleasant and desirable, but which are nonetheless suffering in that persistent indulgence in these always results in changing attitudes of dissatisfaction and boredom; and (3) the suffering of the pervasive conditioning underlying the round of birth, aging, and death.

g.1497

support for miraculous ability

rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa

རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།

ṛddhipādāḥ

g.1498

support for miraculous ability combining meditative stability of mind with the formative force of exertion

sems kyi ting nge ’dzin spang ba’i ’du byed dang ldan pa’i rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa

སེམས་ཀྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་སྤང་བའི་འདུ་བྱེད་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།

cittasamādhiprahāṇasaṃskārasamanvāgataṛddhipāda

g.1499

support for miraculous ability combining meditative stability of perseverance with the formative force of exertion

brtson ’grus kyi ting nge ’dzin spang ba’i ’du byed dang ldan pa’i rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་སྤང་བའི་འདུ་བྱེད་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།

vīryasamādhiprahāṇasaṃskārasamanvāgataṛddhipāda

g.1500

support for miraculous ability combining meditative stability of resolution with the formative force of exertion

’dun pa’i ting nge ’dzin spang ba’i ’du byed dang ldan pa’i rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa

འདུན་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་སྤང་བའི་འདུ་བྱེད་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།

chandasamādhiprahāṇasaṃskārasamanvāgataṛddhipāda

g.1501

support for miraculous ability combining meditative stability of scrutiny with the formative force of exertion

dpyod pa’i ting nge ’dzin spang ba’i ’du byed dang ldan pa’i rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa

དཔྱོད་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་སྤང་བའི་འདུ་བྱེད་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།

mīmāṃsāvīryasamādhiprahāṇasaṃskārasamanvāgataṛddhipāda

g.1502

supramundane

’jig rten las ’das pa

འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པ།

lokottara

g.1509

sūtra

མདོ།

sūtra

g.1522

tathāgata

de bzhin gshegs pa

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།

tathāgata

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A frequently used synonym for buddha. According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata, literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata, “one who has thus come.” Gata, though literally meaning “gone,” is a past passive participle used to describe a state or condition of existence. Tatha(tā), often rendered as “suchness” or “thusness,” is the quality or condition of things as they really are, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms. Therefore, this epithet is interpreted in different ways, but in general it implies one who has departed in the wake of the buddhas of the past, or one who has manifested the supreme awakening dependent on the reality that does not abide in the two extremes of existence and quiescence. It is also often used as a specific epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.

g.1523

Teacher

ston pa

སྟོན་པ།

śāstṛ

g.1524

teaching

bstan pa

བསྟན་པ།

nirdeśa

g.1526

ten directions

phyogs bcu

ཕྱོགས་བཅུ།

daśadik

g.1528

ten powers of the tathāgatas

de bzhin gshegs pa’i stobs bcu

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྟོབས་བཅུ།

daśatathāgatabala

g.1531

ten virtuous actions

dge ba bcu

དགེ་བ་བཅུ།

daśakusala

g.1534

terrified

’gong

འགོང་།

saṃkocayati

g.1539

thirty-seven aspects of enlightenment

byang chub kyi phyogs kyi chos sum cu rtsa bdun

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་བདུན།

saptatriṃśadbodhipakṣadharma

The thirty-seven aspects of enlightenment comprise the four applications of mindfulness, the four correct exertions, the four supports for miraculous ability, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven branches of enlightenment, and the noble eightfold path. See 1.20–1.26.

For a summary of the relevant Pāli and Sanskrit sources on all see the extensive discussion in Dayal (1932): 80–164.

g.1540

thirty-two major marks of a superior man that the tathāgatas possess

de bzhin gshegs pa’i skyes bu chen po’i mtshan sum cu rtsa gnyis

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས།

tathāgatadvātriṃśanmahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa

These are the major physical marks that identify the buddha body of emanation, and which, in some sources and traditions, portend the advent of a universal monarch.

As well as being listed in this and other Prajñāpāramitā sūtras (see n.64), they are to be found detailed in the Lalitavistara (7.98–103 and 26.145–173), Mahāyānopadeśa, Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā, Ratnagotravibhāgottaratantraśāstra (3.17–25), Mahāvastu, and in the Pali Lakkhaṇasutta.

See 2.15 and 29.24.

g.1541

thoroughbred

cang shes pa

ཅང་ཤེས་པ།

ājāneya

g.1544

thought

sems

སེམས།

citta

g.1546

three essenceless natures

ngo bo nyid med pa gsum

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་གསུམ།

trividhā niḥsvabhāvatā

g.1547

three fetters

kun tu sbyor gsum

ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་གསུམ།

trisaṃyojana

g.1551

three poisons

dug gsum

དུག་གསུམ།

triviṣa

g.1552

three precious jewels

dkon mchog gsum

དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།

triratna

g.1555

three times

dus gsum

དུས་གསུམ།

trikala

g.1557

tied to one more rebirth

lan gcig phyir ’ong ba

ལན་གཅིག་ཕྱིར་འོང་བ།

sakṛdāgāmī

g.1558

tolerance

bzod pa

བཟོད་པ།

kṣānti

g.1576

training

bslab pa

བསླབ་པ།

śikṣā

g.1579

transcendent perfection

pha rol tu phyin pa

ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

pāramitā

g.1580

transcendent perfection of ethical discipline

tshul khrims kyi pha rol tu phyin pa

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

śīlapāramitā

g.1581

transcendent perfection of generosity

sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa

སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

dānapāramitā

g.1582

transcendent perfection of meditative concentration

bsam gtan gyi pha rol tu phyin pa

བསམ་གཏན་གྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

dhyānapāramitā

g.1583

transcendent perfection of perseverance

brtson ’grus kyi pha rol tu phyin pa

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

vīryapāramitā

g.1584

transcendent perfection of tolerance

bzod pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa

བཟོད་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

kṣāntipāramitā

g.1585

transcendent perfection of wisdom

shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

prajñāpāramitā

g.1587

Trayastriṃśa

sum cu rtsa gsum pa

སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་པ།

trayastriṃśa

g.1592

turn their enlightened intention

dgongs par mdzad

དགོངས་པར་མཛད།

samanvāharati

g.1593

Tuṣita

dga’ ldan

དགའ་ལྡན།

tuṣita

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

Tuṣita (or sometimes Saṃtuṣita), literally “Joyous” or “Contented,” is one of the six heavens of the desire realm (kāmadhātu). In standard classifications, such as the one in the Abhidharmakośa, it is ranked as the fourth of the six counting from below. This god realm is where all future buddhas are said to dwell before taking on their final rebirth prior to awakening. There, the Buddha Śākyamuni lived his preceding life as the bodhisattva Śvetaketu. When departing to take birth in this world, he appointed the bodhisattva Maitreya, who will be the next buddha of this eon, as his Dharma regent in Tuṣita. For an account of the Buddha’s previous life in Tuṣita, see The Play in Full (Toh 95), 2.12, and for an account of Maitreya’s birth in Tuṣita and a description of this realm, see The Sūtra on Maitreya’s Birth in the Heaven of Joy, (Toh 199).

g.1595

twelve Brahmā realms

tshangs pa’i ’jig rten bcu gnyis

ཚངས་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་བཅུ་གཉིས།

dvādaśabrahmaloka

g.1596

twelve links of dependent origination

rten ’brel gyi yan lag bcu gnyis

རྟེན་འབྲེལ་གྱི་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས།

dvādaśāṅgapratītyasamutpāda

The principle of dependent origination asserts that nothing exists independently of other factors, the reason for this being that things and events come into existence only by dependence on the aggregation of multiple causes and conditions. In general, the processes of cyclic existence, through which the external world and the sentient beings within it revolve in a continuous cycle of suffering, propelled by the propensities of past actions and their interaction with afflicted mental states, originate dependent on the sequential unfolding of twelve links, commencing from fundamental ignorance and ending with birth, aging, and death (see 1.18–1.19). It is only through deliberate reversal of these twelve links that one can succeed in bringing the whole cycle to an end. See 24.10.

g.1597

twelve sense fields

skye mched bcu gnyis

སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བཅུ་གཉིས།

dvādaśāyatana

g.1608

unchanging

’gyur ba med pa

འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ།

avikāra

g.1610

unconditioned

mngon par ’dus ma byas pa

མངོན་པར་འདུས་མ་བྱས་པ།

abhyasaṃskṛta

g.1621

understanding of all phenomena

rnam mkhyen
rnam par mkhyen pa

རྣམ་མཁྱེན།
རྣམ་པར་མཁྱེན་པ།

sarvākārajñāna

g.1623

understanding of the aspects of the path

lam gyi rnam pa shes pa nyid
lam gyi rnam pa shes pa

ལམ་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་ཤེས་པ་ཉིད།
ལམ་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་ཤེས་པ།

mārgākārajñatā

g.1633

uniformity of all things

chos kyi mnyam pa nyid

ཆོས་ཀྱི་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད།

dharmasamatā

g.1635

union

rnal ’byor

རྣལ་འབྱོར།

yoga

g.1637

universal monarch

’khor los sgyur ba’i rgyal po

འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།

cakravartīrāja

g.1649

unskilled

thabs la mi mkhas pa

ཐབས་ལ་མི་མཁས་པ།

upāyākuśala

g.1651

unsullied

nag nog med pa

ནག་ནོག་མེད་པ།

akalmāṣa

g.1653

unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment

bla na med pa yang dag par rdzogs pa’i byang chub

བླ་ན་མེད་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ།

anuttarābhisambodhi

g.1659

Uttarakuru

sgra mi snyan

སྒྲ་མི་སྙན།

uttarakuru

g.1661

utter purity

shin tu rnam par dag pa

ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ།

atyantaviśuddhi

g.1664

utterly disheartened

kun tu zhum

ཀུན་ཏུ་ཞུམ།

saṃlīyate

g.1665

utterly fallacious

shin tu gsong ldong

ཤིན་ཏུ་གསོང་ལྡོང་།

atyantānṛtata

g.1667

utterly porous

shin tu gse tshags

ཤིན་ཏུ་གསེ་ཚགས།

atyantacchidrata

g.1669

vacuous

ya ma brla

ཡ་མ་བརླ།

vaśika

g.1673

vehicle of the bodhisattvas

byang chub sems dpa’i theg pa

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཐེག་པ།

bodhisattvayāna

g.1674

vehicle of the pratyekabuddhas

rang rgyal gyi theg pa

རང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཐེག་པ།

pratyekabuddhayāna

g.1675

vehicle of the śrāvakas

nyan thos kyi theg pa

ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ།

śrāvakayāna

g.1676

venerable

tshe dang ldan pa

ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ།

āyuṣmān

A monk or mendicant of seniority.

Āyuṣmān (tshe dang ldan pa) is a title of respect directed toward a monk or wandering mendicant who is venerable and in a position of seniority, but not a fully realized buddha. (In the Lalitavistara, ch. 26, Śākyamuni famously rejects this title as a suitable term of address for himself. See, e.g., Dudjom Rinpoche 1991: 423). Āyuṣmān may imply one who has held monastic ordination for a significant number of years, and who has some level of realization, but is still “mortal” and tied to cyclic existence, in contrast to the buddhas, who are “immortal.” Even today Thai monks colloquially address each other, using ayusma for someone senior and avuso (“friend”) for someone junior.

g.1677

venerate

bla mar byed pa

བླ་མར་བྱེད་པ།

gurukaroti

g.1689

Vinaya

’dul ba

འདུལ་བ།

vinaya

g.1691

virtuous ascetic

dge sbyong

དགེ་སྦྱོང་།

śramaṇa

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A general term applied to spiritual practitioners who live as ascetic mendicants. In Buddhist texts, the term usually refers to Buddhist monastics, but it can also designate a practitioner from other ascetic/monastic spiritual traditions. In this context śramaṇa is often contrasted with the term brāhmaṇa (bram ze), which refers broadly to followers of the Vedic tradition. Any renunciate, not just a Buddhist, could be referred to as a śramaṇa if they were not within the Vedic fold. The epithet Great Śramaṇa is often applied to the Buddha.

g.1692

virtuous attributes

dge ba’i chos

དགེ་བའི་ཆོས།

kuśaladharma

g.1693

virtuous phenomena

dge ba’i chos

དགེ་བའི་ཆོས།

kuśaladharma

g.1699

void

dben pa
gsog

དབེན་པ།
གསོག

vivakta
tucchaka

g.1700

voidness

dben pa
gsog

དབེན་པ།
གསོག

vivakta
tucchaka

g.1701

volition

mos pa

མོས་པ།

adhimukti
adhimuñcyamāna

g.1702

Vulture Peak

bya rgod kyi phung po’i ri

བྱ་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོའི་རི།

gṛdhrakūṭa

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The Gṛdhrakūṭa, literally Vulture Peak, was a hill located in the kingdom of Magadha, in the vicinity of the ancient city of Rājagṛha (modern-day Rajgir, in the state of Bihar, India), where the Buddha bestowed many sūtras, especially the Great Vehicle teachings, such as the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. It continues to be a sacred pilgrimage site for Buddhists to this day.

g.1704

wandering mendicant

kun tu rgyu

ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱུ།

parivrājika

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A non-Buddhist religious mendicant who literally “roams around.” Historically, they wandered in India from ancient times, including the time of the Buddha, and held a variety of beliefs, engaging with one another in debate on a range of topics. Some of their metaphysical views are presented in the early Buddhist discourses of the Pali Canon. They included women in their number.

g.1710

well-being

phan pa

ཕན་པ།

hita

g.1712

when beings are inclined toward pleasant states

sdug pa nyid du mos pa

སྡུག་པ་ཉིད་དུ་མོས་པ།

śubhādhimukti

g.1713

when corporeal beings observe physical forms

gzugs can gzugs rnams la lta ba

གཟུགས་ཅན་གཟུགས་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

rūpī rūpāṇi paśyati

g.1714

when formless beings endowed with internal perception observe external physical forms

nang gzugs med par ’du shes pas phyi rol gyi gzugs rnams la lta ba

ནང་གཟུགས་མེད་པར་འདུ་ཤེས་པས་ཕྱི་རོལ་གྱི་གཟུགས་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟ་བ།

adhyātmamarūpasaṃjñī bahirthā rūpāṇi paśyati

g.1715

white lotus

pad ma dkar po

པད་མ་དཀར་པོ།

puṇḍarika

g.1726

wisdom

shes rab

ཤེས་རབ།

prajñā

In the context‌ of the transcendent perfections, wisdom is the sixth of the six transcendent perfections.

The translation of prajñā (shes rab) by “wisdom” here defers to the precedent established by Edward Conze in his writings. It has a certain poetic resonance which more accurate renderings‍—“discernment,” “discriminative awareness,” or “intelligence”‍—unfortunately lack. It should be remembered that in Abhidharma, prajñā is classed as one of the five object-determining mental states (pañcaviṣayaniyata, yul nges lnga), alongside “will,” “resolve,” “mindfulness,” and “meditative stability.” Following Asaṅga’s Abhidharmasamuccaya, Jamgon Kongtrul (TOK, Book 6, Pt. 2, p. 498), defines prajñā as “the discriminative awareness that analyzes specific and general characteristics.” Therefore “wisdom” in this context is to be understood in the cognitive or analytical Germanic sense of witan or weis (Dayal 1932: 136) and not as an abstract “body of knowledge,” or in any aloof and mysterious theosophical sense. Nor indeed is there any association with the Greek sophia.

Also translated here as “discriminative awareness.”

g.1728

wish

bsam pa

བསམ་པ།

abhiprāya

g.1732

without apprehending anything

mi dmigs pa’i tshul du

མི་དམིགས་པའི་ཚུལ་དུ།

anupalambhayogena

g.1734

without blindness

mun pa ma mchis pa nyid

མུན་པ་མ་མཆིས་པ་ཉིད།

anandhakāratā

g.1736

without conceptual notions

rnam par rtog pa med pa

རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པ།

nirvikalpa

g.1752

world of “patient endurance”

mi mjed ’jig rten gyi khams

མི་མཇེད་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།

sahālokadhātu

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The name for our world system, the universe of a thousand million worlds, or trichiliocosm, in which the four-continent world is located. Each trichiliocosm is ruled by a god Brahmā; thus, in this context, he bears the title of Sahāṃpati, Lord of Sahā. The world system of Sahā, or Sahālokadhātu, is also described as the buddhafield of the Buddha Śākyamuni where he teaches the Dharma to beings.

The name Sahā possibly derives from the Sanskrit √sah, “to bear, endure, or withstand.” It is often interpreted as alluding to the inhabitants of this world being able to endure the suffering they encounter. The Tibetan translation, mi mjed, follows along the same lines. It literally means “not painful,” in the sense that beings here are able to bear the suffering they experience.

In this text:

world system

’jig rten gyi khams

འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།

lokadhātu

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The term lokadhātu refers to a single four continent world-system illumined by a sun and moon, with a Mount Meru at its center and an encircling ring of mountains at its periphery, and with the various god realms above, thus including the desire, form, and formless realms.

The term can also refer to groups of such world-systems in multiples of thousands. A universe of one thousand such world-systems is called a chiliocosm (sāhasralokadhātu, stong gi ’jig rten gyi khams); one thousand such chiliocosms is called a dichiliocosm (dvisāhasralokadhātu, stong gnyis kyi ’jig rten gyi khams); and one thousand such dichiliocosms is called a trichiliocosm (trisāhasralokadhātu, stong gsum gyi 'jig rten gyi khams). A trichiliocosm is the largest universe described in Buddhist cosmology.

g.1754

world system of desire

’dod pa’i khams

འདོད་པའི་ཁམས།

kāmadhātu

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

In Buddhist cosmology, this is our own realm, the lowest and most coarse of the three realms of saṃsāra. It is called this because beings here are characterized by their strong longing for and attachment to the pleasures of the senses. The desire realm includes hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras, and the lowest six heavens of the gods‍—from the Heaven of the Four Great Kings (cāturmahārājika) up to the Heaven of Making Use of Others’ Emanations (paranirmitavaśavartin). Located above the desire realm is the form realm (rūpadhātu) and the formless realm (ārūpyadhātu).

g.1755

world system of form

gzugs kyi khams

གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཁམས།

rūpadhātu

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

One of the three realms of saṃsāra in Buddhist cosmology, it is characterized by subtle materiality. Here beings, though subtly embodied, are not driven primarily by the urge for sense gratification. It consists of seventeen heavens structured according to the four concentrations of the form realm (rūpāvacaradhyāna), the highest five of which are collectively called “pure abodes” (śuddhāvāsa). The form realm is located above the desire realm (kāmadhātu) and below the formless realm (ārūpyadhātu).

g.1766

wrong view

lta ba

ལྟ་བ།

dṛṣṭi

g.1767

wrong views

log par lta ba

ལོག་པར་ལྟ་བ།

mithyādṛṣṭi

g.1769

Yama

gshin rje

གཤིན་རྗེ།

yama

g.1770

Yāma

’thab bral

འཐབ་བྲལ།

yāma

g.1772

Yeshé Dé

ye shes sde

ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

Yeshé Dé (late eighth to early ninth century) was the most prolific translator of sūtras into Tibetan. Altogether he is credited with the translation of more than one hundred sixty sūtra translations and more than one hundred additional translations, mostly on tantric topics. In spite of Yeshé Dé’s great importance for the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet during the imperial era, only a few biographical details about this figure are known. Later sources describe him as a student of the Indian teacher Padmasambhava, and he is also credited with teaching both sūtra and tantra widely to students of his own. He was also known as Nanam Yeshé Dé, from the Nanam (sna nam) clan.

g.1773

yojana

dpag tshad

དཔག་ཚད།

yojana

The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines Rejoicing

Toh 11

Imprint

Text Body

The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines
Rejoicing