Glossary
[not] taken hold of
ma zin pa
མ་ཟིན་པ།
anupātta
Ābhāsvara
’od gsal
འོད་གསལ།
ābhāsvara
Seventh of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Inner Radiance.”
Abhirati
mngon par dga’ ba
མངོན་པར་དགའ་བ།
abhirati
The eastern buddhafield of the Buddha Akṣobhya.
abide free of conflict
nyon mongs pa med pa la gnas pa
ཉོན་མོངས་པ་མེད་པ་ལ་གནས་པ།
araṇāvihārin
See n.100.
acceptance
bzod pa
བཟོད་པ།
kṣānti
The third of four stages or experiences of breaking through on the path of preliminary practice.
actual nature
de bzhin nyid
དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད།
tathatā
adhimokṣa
adhimokṣa
aggression
zhe sdang
ཞེ་སྡང་།
doṣa
Akaniṣṭha
’og min
འོག་མིན།
akaniṣṭha
Fifth and highest of the five pure abodes, meaning “Highest.”
Akṣobhya
mi bskyod pa
མི་བསྐྱོད་པ།
akṣobhya
The buddha who presides over the buddhafield of Abhirati.
Always Delighted
rtag tu dga’ ba
རྟག་ཏུ་དགའ་བ།
nityapramudita
The name of one of the four gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
Anabhraka
sprin med
སྤྲིན་མེད།
anabhraka
Eleventh of the thirteen levels of the god realm of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Cloudless.” In some versions of the longer Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, which list sixteen realms instead of thirteen, this god realm has the name Parīttabṛhat (Tib. chung che).
Ānanda
kun dga’ bo
ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།
ānanda
The Buddha’s cousin, attendant, and disciple to whom the task of memorizing and upholding his discourses was given. He is often mentioned as not having attained the level of arhat at the time teachings were given since he did so only after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa on the eve of the first council.
applications of mindfulness
dran pa nye bar gzhag pa
དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།
smṛtyupasthāna
The placing of attention, especially on four particular objects: body, feelings, mind, and phenomena. Classified among the dharmas of the path, and figuring among the thirty-seven factors in awakening. See n.218.
Apramāṇābha
tshad med ’od
ཚད་མེད་འོད།
apramāṇābha
Sixth of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Immeasurable Radiance.”
Apramāṇaśubha
tshad med dge
ཚད་མེད་དགེ།
apramāṇaśubha
Ninth of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Immeasurable Virtue.”
Asaṃjñisattva
’du shes med pa’i sems can
འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་པའི་སེམས་ཅན།
asaṃjñisattva
A god realm of form listed in this and other texts between the thirteenth heaven of the form realm, Bṛhatphala, and the five pure abodes of the form realm, known collectively as Śuddhāvāsa. Its name means “Being Without Conception.”
ascetic who accepts whatever is offered
gzhi ji bzhin pa
གཞི་ཇི་བཞིན་པ།
yāthāsaṃstarika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who dwells in the forest
dgon pa, dgon pa pa
དགོན་པ།, དགོན་པ་པ།
kāntāram, kāntārāṇi, āraṇyaka
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who has three robes
chos gos gsum pa
ཆོས་གོས་གསུམ་པ།
traicīvarika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who lives at the foot of a tree
shing drung pa
ཤིང་དྲུང་པ།
vṛkṣamūlika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who lives in charnel grounds
dur khrod pa
དུར་ཁྲོད་པ།
śmaśānika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who lives in seclusion, contented with few desires
’dod pa nyung zhing chog shes pa rab tu dben pa
འདོད་པ་ཉུང་ཞིང་ཆོག་ཤེས་པ་རབ་ཏུ་དབེན་པ།
alpecchaḥ saṃtuṣṭaḥ praviviktaḥ
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who lives in the open air
bla gab med pa
བླ་གབ་མེད་པ།
abhyavakāśika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who never eats later
zas phyis mi len pa
ཟས་ཕྱིས་མི་ལེན་པ།
khalupaścādbhaktika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who seeks alms
bsod snyoms pa
བསོད་སྙོམས་པ།
piṇḍapātika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who stays upright
cog pu ba
ཅོག་པུ་བ།
naiṣadyika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who uses a single seat
stan gcig pa
སྟན་གཅིག་པ།
ekāsanika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who wears felt garments
phying pa ba
ཕྱིང་པ་བ།
nāmantika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
ascetic who wears rags
phyag dar khrod pa
ཕྱག་དར་ཁྲོད་པ།
pāṃsukūlika
One of the kinds of ascetic practice, usually numbered as thirteen altogether, that were optionally followed by certain renunciant monks. See n.1076 and following notes.
aspects of awakening
byang chub kyi yan lag
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག
bodhyaṅga
See n.219.
Atapa
mi gdung ba
མི་གདུང་བ།
atapa
Second of the five pure abodes, meaning “Painless.”
Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
atiśa dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
The great Bengali master (982–1054) and Vikramaśīla teacher who spent the last twelve years of his life teaching in Tibet and overseeing the translation of many important texts, including his own works, near the beginning of the later translation period. Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna was his ordination name, but in Tibet he was often known by the soubriquet Atiśa, or simply as Jowo Jé (jo bo rje, “the great lord”).
atom
rdul phra mo
རྡུལ་ཕྲ་མོ།
aṇu
attached to worldly enjoyments
’jig rten gyi zang zing dang ldan pa
འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཟང་ཟིང་དང་ལྡན་པ།
lokāmiṣapratisaṃyukta
attachment
’dod chags
འདོད་ཆགས།
rāga
attack by someone else
pha rol gyi gnod pa byed
ཕ་རོལ་གྱི་གནོད་པ་བྱེད།
paropakrama
attentiveness
yid la byed pa
ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ།
manasīkāra
attribute
rnam pa
རྣམ་པ།
ākāra
A defining characteristic, like, for instance, the dewlap of a cow. See n.881.
Avakīrṇakusuma
me tog bkram pa
མེ་ཏོག་བཀྲམ་པ།
avakīrṇakusuma
The name that six hundred future buddhas will all take after attaining awakening, as foreordained by the Buddha in chapter 21.
Avṛha
mi che ba
མི་ཆེ་བ།
avṛha
Second lowest of the five pure abodes, meaning “Slightest.”
become disenchanted
skyo bar byed par ’gyur
སྐྱོ་བར་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར།
saṃvegam āpatsyate
benefits
yon tan
ཡོན་ཏན།
guṇa
See n.337 and n.257.
benevolence
byams pa
བྱམས་པ།
maitrī
Best
bzang mchog
བཟང་མཆོག
bhadrottamā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
beyond regressing
phyir mi ldog pa
ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ།
avinivartanīya
Describes a stage on the path of bodhisattvas (or bodhisattvas who have reached that stage) at which their realization is such that henceforth nothing can ever make them turn back from progressing toward the full awakening of a buddha.
beyond regressing from unsurpassed, perfect awakening
bla na med pa yang dag par rdzogs pa’i byang chub las phyir mi ldog pa
བླ་ན་མེད་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལས་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ།
avinivartanīyo ’nuttarāyāḥ samyaksambodheḥ
Describes a stage on the path of bodhisattvas (or bodhisattvas who have reached that stage) at which their realization is such that henceforth nothing can ever make them turn back from continuing to make progress toward the full awakening of a buddha. For the sake of brevity our English rendering follows the Sanskrit and Tibetan, but it should not be understood as implying that such bodhisattvas have already attained the full awakening of a buddha.
Bhīṣmagarjitanirghoṣasvara
sgra dbyangs mi zad par sgrogs pa
སྒྲ་དབྱངས་མི་ཟད་པར་སྒྲོགས་པ།
bhīṣmagarjitanirghoṣasvara
“Irresistible Thundering Melodious Voice,” the name of the tathāgata in whose buddhafield the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita is said by the Buddha Śākyamuni to be presently residing after attaining his quest for the teachings, as described in the exemplary narrative of the final chapters of this sūtra, found also in the Twenty-Five Thousand but not in the other long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras.
Bimbisāra
gzugs can snying po
གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོ།
bimbisāra
The king of Magadha, centered on the city of Rājgṛha, and an early royal patron and disciple of the Buddha.
blessed one
bcom ldan ’das
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
bhagavan
The honorific term applied to the Buddha Śākyamuni and other buddhas in numerous Buddhist texts. See n.67note 65 for Ratnākaraśānti’s explanation of its meanings.
blessed with the power
stobs byin gyis brlabs pa
སྟོབས་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས་པ།
balādhiṣṭhāna
blessing
byin gyis brlabs, mthus
བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས།, མཐུས།
adhiṣṭhita, adhiṣṭhāna
bodhisattva level
byang chub sems dpa’i sa
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།
bodhisattvabhūmi
Most specifically in this text, the term refers to the ten or eleven serial levels or bhūmis of which the progression of bodhisattvas toward awakening is comprised from the path of seeing onward, each defined in terms of qualities possessed and obscurations eliminated (see n.104,n.109, and n.379). Often also used in this text to refer to the level of bodhisattvas in general, or to more generic stages in the sequence of levels, such as the “level of nonregressing” or the “impure levels.”
bodhisattva’s irreversible fault-free state
byang chub sems dpa’i skyon med pa
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྐྱོན་མེད་པ།
bodhisattvanyāma
For the play on the two meanings of the Sanskrit term, see n.879note 872.
body
sku
སྐུ།
śarīra
See n.279.
Brahmā
tshangs pa
ཚངས་པ།
brahmā
The principal god of the realm of form.
Brahmakāyika
tshangs ris
ཚངས་རིས།
brahmakāyika
First and lowest of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Stratum of Brahmā.”
Brahmapārṣadya
tshangs ’khor
ཚངས་འཁོར།
brahmapārṣadya
Third of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Retinue of Brahmā.” In some texts it is a synonym of Mahābrahma.
Brahmapurohita
tshangs pa’i mdun na ’don
ཚངས་པའི་མདུན་ན་འདོན།
brahmapurohita
Second of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Brahmā Priest.”
break through to understanding
rtogs par khong du chud par gyur
རྟོགས་པར་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པར་གྱུར།
gatiṃgatāḥ saṃvṛttāḥ
Bṛhatphala
’bras bu che
འབྲས་བུ་ཆེ།
bṛhatphala
Thirteenth and highest of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Great Fruition.”
Brightly Colored Blossoms
me tog sna tshogs pa
མེ་ཏོག་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ།
puṣpacitra
The name of one of the four gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
buddhahood
sangs rgyas nyid
སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད།
buddhatva
can be relied upon
brten par bgyid pa
བརྟེན་པར་བགྱིད་པ།
āśrayaṇīyā
cannot be led astray
mi ’phrogs pa
མི་འཕྲོགས་པ།
asaṃhārya
carpenter
shing mkhan
ཤིང་མཁན།
palagaṇḍa
caulked
mig tshags bya
མིག་ཚགས་བྱ།
ākoṭitā
challenging questions
brgal ba
བརྒལ་བ།
pratyanuyoga
clear mindset that trusts
sems dang ba
སེམས་དང་བ།
prasannacitta
complete nirvāṇa
yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa
ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།
parinirvāṇa
The final passing of a buddha into nirvāṇa, often left untranslated as parinirvāṇa. See n.230.
components of mindsets
sems las byung ba
སེམས་ལས་བྱུང་བ།
caitasika, cittacaitasikā
concentrated
mnyam par bzhag pa
མཉམ་པར་བཞག་པ།
samāhita
conqueror
rgyal ba
རྒྱལ་བ།
jina
An epithet used to refer to a buddha.
constituents underlying the clinging to existence
nye bar len pa’i phung po
ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པའི་ཕུང་པོ།
ūpādānaskandha
conventional expression
tha snyad
ཐ་སྙད།
vyavahāra
correct viewpoint
lta ba
ལྟ་བ།
dṛṣṭi
corrupter of bodhisattvas
byang chub sems dpa’ sun ’byin pa
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སུན་འབྱིན་པ།
bodhisattvadūṣin
counterfeit
gzugs brnyan
གཟུགས་བརྙན།
prativarṇikā
cultivate
bsgom pa
བསྒོམ་པ།
bhāvanā, bhāvayatā
cut the ties to worldly existence
srid par kun tu sbyor ba yongs su zad pa
སྲིད་པར་ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་ཟད་པ།
parikṣīṇabhavasaṃyojana
cyclic existence
’khor ba
འཁོར་བ།
saṃsāra
deathless dimension
bdud rtsi’i dbyings
བདུད་རྩིའི་དབྱིངས།
amṛtadhātudvāra
decoy
bcos bur
བཅོས་བུར།
kāraṇḍavaka
dedication of rejoicing
rjes su yi rang ba yongs su bsngo ba
རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རང་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
anumodanāpariṇāmana
defend
bskyab pa
བསྐྱབ་པ།
āvaraṇa
deformed
rdum po
རྡུམ་པོ།
kuṇṭha
deluded sense of grandeur
log pa’i nga rgyal
ལོག་པའི་ང་རྒྱལ།
mithyāmāna
demon cohort
bdud kyi ris kyi lha dag
བདུད་ཀྱི་རིས་ཀྱི་ལྷ་དག
mārakāyika
depart for the ascetic life
mngon par byung nas
མངོན་པར་བྱུང་ནས།
abhiniṣkramya
develop conceits
rlom sems su bgyid
རློམ་སེམས་སུ་བགྱིད།
manyeta
develop the proper mindset
sems bskyed
སེམས་བསྐྱེད།
cittotpāda, cittotpādam utpādayati
developed reserve of strength
stobs bskyed pa
སྟོབས་བསྐྱེད་པ།
balādhāna
Dharma guide
chos kyi tshul
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ།
dharmanetrī
Dharma teacher
chos smra ba
ཆོས་སྨྲ་བ།
dharmabhāṇaka
Dharma teachings
chos ston pa
ཆོས་སྟོན་པ།
dharmadeśanā
Dharma treasury
chos kyi mdzod
ཆོས་ཀྱི་མཛོད།
dharmakośa
Dharmataśīla
chos nyid tshul khrims
ཆོས་ཉིད་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
dharmataśīla
An eighth- to ninth-century Tibetan translator, reviser, and editor.
Dharmodgata
chos ’phags
ཆོས་འཕགས།
dharmodgata
The bodhisattva from whom Sadāparudita seeks the teaching on the perfection of wisdom in the exemplary narrative of the final chapters of this sūtra, found also in the Twenty-Five Thousand but not in the other long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras.
difficult to fathom
blta dka’ ba
བལྟ་དཀའ་བ།
duravagāha
Dīpaṃkara
mar me mdzad
མར་མེ་མཛད།
dīpaṃkara
Dīpaṃkara was the buddha in the past under whose guidance the Buddha Śākyamuni, in a distant previous life, first made the vow to attain buddhahood and from whom he received the foreordaining of his future attainment (vyākaraṇa). In many texts he is counted as the fourth in a lineage of twenty-seven buddhas who preceded Śākyamuni.
Dīpavati
mar me can
མར་མེ་ཅན།
dīpavati
The capital city in the royal palace of which the Buddha Śākyamuni, in a distant previous life as a bodhisattva, studied under the Buddha Dīpaṃkara.
disciple
nyan thos
ཉན་ཐོས།
śrāvaka
A “disciple” refers to someone who “listens” to the teachings of the Buddha and “causes others to listen” to those teachings, i.e., by repeating them. The word śrāvaka is taken as a causative construction in the second case.
dishonesty
g.yo
གཡོ།
śāṭhya
display of a buddha
sangs rgyas kyi rnam par rol ba
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་བ།
buddhavikrīḍita
dissipated
zad pa
ཟད་པ།
kṣīṇa
dissipation
zad pa
ཟད་པ།
kṣaya
dissuade
’dun pa zlog par byed
འདུན་པ་ཟློག་པར་བྱེད།
vicchandayiṣyati
does not uphold
rjes su ’dzin par mi ’gyur
རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན་པར་མི་འགྱུར།
anugrahīṣyati
drinkable water
chu’i dgon pa
ཆུའི་དགོན་པ།
pānīya
Dromtön Gyalwai Jungné
’brom ston rgyal ba’i ’byung gnas
འབྲོམ་སྟོན་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས།
An important scholar-teacher (1003–1064) and disciple of Atiśa.
dwell with ease
legs par gnas pa
ལེགས་པར་གནས་པ།
susthita
eagerness
’dun pa
འདུན་པ།
chanda
eighteen distinctive qualities of a buddha
sangs rgyas kyi chos ma ’dres pa bco brgyad
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་མ་འདྲེས་པ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད།
aṣṭādaśāveṇikabuddhadharma
See n.634 and n.634627.
eighteen great signs
ltas chen po bcwa brgyad
ལྟས་ཆེན་པོ་བཅྭ་བརྒྱད།
aṣṭādaśamahānimittam
Eighteen aspects of the earthquake that accompany a tathāgata’s realization of perfect awakening. Note that the Tibetan term is “eight great signs.” See also n.870note 863.
element
khams
ཁམས།
dhātu
emanation body
sprul pa’i sku
སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ།
nairmāṇikakāya
emotional defilements
nyon mongs pa
ཉོན་མོངས་པ།
kleśa
See n.70.
enclose
yongs su ’dzin
ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན།
parigṛhṇīyād
Used specifically in the context of “enclosing” relics in a stūpa
engage in meditation
rnal ’byor du byed
རྣལ་འབྱོར་དུ་བྱེད།
yogam āpadyate
Meditation (yoga) here is glossed as “meditative concentration” (samādhi).
enjoyment body
longs spyod rdzogs pa’i sku
ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ།
saṃbhogikakāya
enlightening
gsal bar bgyid pa
གསལ་བར་བགྱིད་པ།
avabhāsakarin
equal to the unequaled
mi mnyam pa dang mnyam pa
མི་མཉམ་པ་དང་མཉམ་པ།
asamasama
essential nature
rang bzhin
རང་བཞིན།
prakṛtiḥ
essential nature of a mindset
sems kyi rang bzhin
སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན།
cittaprakṛti
eternalism
rtag pa
རྟག་པ།
śāśvata
ethical discipline
tshul khrims
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
śīla
exaltedness
dbang che bar grags pa
དབང་ཆེ་བར་གྲགས་པ།
maheśākhya
excellent ability
dbang phyug
དབང་ཕྱུག
aiśvarya
excellent qualities of a buddha
sangs rgyas kyi yon tan phun sum tshogs pa
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ།
buddhaguṇasaṃpad
exemplary
glang po chen po
གླང་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
mahānāga
See n.74.
exhaust
zad pa
ཟད་པ།
kṣīna, paryātta
expansive
chen por gyur pa
ཆེན་པོར་གྱུར་པ།
mahadgata
eye of a buddha
sangs rgyas kyi spyan
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྤྱན།
buddhacakṣus
See n.483.
factors in awakening
byang chub kyi phyogs kyi chos
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས།
bodhipakṣadharmāḥ
See n.219.
familial lineage
rus
རུས།
gotra
fettered
bcings ba
བཅིངས་བ།
baddha
field
spyod yul
སྤྱོད་ཡུལ།
gocara
firm conviction
mos, mos pa
མོས།, མོས་པ།
adhimucyate, adhimukta, adhimukti
firm grounding
gting
གཏིང་།
gādha
five eyes
mig lnga, spyan lnga
མིག་ལྔ།, སྤྱན་ལྔ།
pañcacakṣuḥ
See n.483.
five karmic deeds that ripen immediately
mtshams ma mchis pa lnga’i las
མཚམས་མ་མཆིས་པ་ལྔའི་ལས།
pañcakarmānantarya
See n.516.
focused on what is beyond measure
tshad med par nges ba
ཚད་མེད་པར་ངེས་བ།
apramāṇaniyato
foothold
gting
གཏིང་།
gādha
formless attainments
gzugs med pa’i snyoms par ’jug pa
གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ།
ārūpyasamāpatti
foundation
gzhi
གཞི།
nidāna
Four Great Kings
rgyal po chen po bzhi
རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི།
catvāro mahārāja
Also called the “Four Guardians of the World,” the four kings who represent the lowest level of gods of the desire realm, located on the four facets of Mount Meru, each ruling over a different category of nonhuman beings. They are Vaiśravaṇa (also called Kubera), Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Virūḍhaka, and Virūpākṣa.
four grounds for self-confidence
mi ’jigs pa bzhi
མི་འཇིགས་པ་བཞི།
caturvaiśāradya
See notes n.489, n.490, and n.632.
four sublime states
tshad med pa bzhi
ཚད་མེད་པ་བཞི།
caturbrahmavihārāḥ
four truths
bden pa bzhi
བདེན་པ་བཞི།
catuḥsatya
four types of experiential knowledge
so so yang dag par rig pa bzhi
སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པར་རིག་པ་བཞི།
catuḥpratisaṃvid
See n.557.
four ways of attracting disciples
bsdu ba’i dngos po bzhi
བསྡུ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་བཞི།
catuḥsaṃgrahavastu
Generosity, kind words, meaningful actions, and practicing what one preaches.
fragrant oil
byug pa
བྱུག་པ།
vilepana
free from creating duality
gnyis su bgyir ma mchis, gnyis su byar med
གཉིས་སུ་བགྱིར་མ་མཆིས།, གཉིས་སུ་བྱར་མེད།
advaidhīkāra
See n.187 and n.188.
free from dwelling
mi gnas pa
མི་གནས་པ།
aniśrita, asthita, asthāna
free from inclinations
smon pa med pa
སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ།
apraṇihita
free from signs
mtshan ma med pa
མཚན་མ་མེད་པ།
ānimitta
free of a mindset
sems ma mchis pa, sems med pa
སེམས་མ་མཆིས་པ།, སེམས་མེད་པ།
acitta
free of any state of being
dngos po med pa
དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ།
abhāva
free of blameshifting
g.yo med pa
གཡོ་མེད་པ།
aśāṭhyatā
free of ceasing
’gag pa med pa
འགག་པ་མེད་པ།
anirodha
free of changing
’gyur ba med pa
འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ།
avikāra
free of conceptualization
rnam par mi rtog, rnam par rtog pa med pa
རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག, རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པ།
avikalpa
free of dwelling
gnas pa dang bral ba
གནས་པ་དང་བྲལ་བ།
viṣṭhitaṃ
free of emotional defilement
kun nas nyon mongs pa ma mchis pa
ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
asaṃkleśa
free of enmeshment
yongs su ma zin pa
ཡོངས་སུ་མ་ཟིན་པ།
aparyāpannaṃ
free of inherent nature
ngo bo nyid ma mchis pa
ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མ་མཆིས་པ།
asvabhāvatā
free of mental perception
dmigs su ma mchis pa, dmigs su med pa
དམིགས་སུ་མ་མཆིས་པ།, དམིགས་སུ་མེད་པ།
anupalabdhi
free of perishing
mi zad pa’i phyir
མི་ཟད་པའི་ཕྱིར།
akṣayatva
free of transmigrating
mtshams sbyor ba ma mchis pa
མཚམས་སྦྱོར་བ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
apratisaṃdhir
free of worldly influences
zag pa ma mchis pa
ཟག་པ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
anāsrava
freedom from any false nature
phyin ci ma log pa de bzhin nyid
ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པ་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད།
avitathatā
freedom from birth
ma skyes pa
མ་སྐྱེས་པ།
ajāti
freedom from clarification
rnam par ’jig pa
རྣམ་པར་འཇིག་པ།
avibhāvanā
The Sanskrit vibhāvanā has a range of meanings; cf. Monier-Williams: “vi-°bhāvanā f. (in rhet.) description of effects the causes of which are left to be conjectured (or accord. to some, ‘description by negatives, bringing out the qualities of any object more clearly than by positive description’),” as does its negative form avibhāvanā, cf. Monier-Williams: “a-vibhāvanā, f. or a-vibhāvana, am, n. (rt. bhū), non-perception, non-discrimination, imperceptibility, disappearance.” In this text it has been translated following Ratnākaraśānti’s commentary (see n.267), but an additional complication comes from the difference between the Sanskrit and the different renderings in Tibetan found in this and other texts. The Tibetan renderings follow other shades of meaning of vibhāvanā, “dissolution,” “reduction,” “[analysis by] breaking down.” See also n.1432 in the Twenty-Five Thousand, where in this context of the Sadāprarudita-Dharmodgata narrative it is translated as “irreducibility.”
freedom from conceptualizing
rtog pa ma mchis pa
རྟོག་པ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
avikalpatā
freedom from conditioning
mngon par ’du mi byed pa
མངོན་པར་འདུ་མི་བྱེད་པ།
anabhisaṃskāra
fruitional state of a worthy one
dgra bcom pa nyid kyi ’bras bu
དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་འབྲས་བུ།
arhattvaphala
full of people
’dres pa
འདྲེས་པ།
ākīrṇa
See notes n.1094and n.1100.
Gandhahastin
spos kyi glang po
སྤོས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ།
gandhahastin
The name (meaning “Musth Elephant”) of a bodhisattva in the buddhafield of Abhirati.
Gandhavatī
spos dang ldan pa
སྤོས་དང་ལྡན་པ།
gandhavatī
The city in which the estate of the bodhisattva Dharmodgata is located, as described in the exemplary narrative recounting Sadāprarudita’s quest for the perfection of wisdom that forms the final chapters of this sūtra, found also in the Twenty-Five Thousand but not in the other long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras.
Gaṅgadevī
gang gA’i lha mo
གང་གཱའི་ལྷ་མོ།
gaṅgadevī
A woman whose name, meaning “goddess of the Ganges,” appears as the title of chapter 19, towards the end of which she makes a powerful statement and some offerings of flowers. Her future awakening is foreordained by the Buddha, who states that she first gave rise to the mindset of awakening, like him, in the presence of the Buddha Dīpaṃkara.
gaping
glal ba
གླལ་བ།
vijṛmbhamāṇa
garlands of light
mar me’i phreng ba
མར་མེའི་ཕྲེང་བ།
dīpamālā
genuine teachings
dam pa’i chos
དམ་པའི་ཆོས།
saddharma
getting familiar with
yongs su sbyong bar byed pa
ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱོང་བར་བྱེད་པ།
parijayaṃ karoti
getting very close
bsnyen pa
བསྙེན་པ།
abhyāsanna
go beyond cyclic existence
nges par ’byung bar ’gyur
ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར།
niryāsyati
going about life
spyod pa
སྤྱོད་པ།
carana, caryā
Translations of the Sanskrit verb √car sometimes suggest that bodhisattvas should “practice” the perfection of wisdom, but the English verb “to practice” wrongly implies that some mental effort, special focus, or activity is always required to exercise the perfection of wisdom. That bodhisattvas should “go about life” means that they should do whatever they do in life (i.e., sit, walk, eat, sleep, and so on) in the perfection of wisdom. See also notes n.52 and n.1217.
gone beyond
nges par ’byung ba
ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བ།
niryāta
Good
bzang po
བཟང་པོ།
bhadra
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
good fortune of auspicious rebirth
dal ba phun sum tshogs pa
དལ་བ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ།
kṣaṇasaṃpada
good qualities
kha dog
ཁ་དོག
varṇa
great being
sems dpa’ chen po
སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ།
mahāsattva
An epithet very frequently appended to “bodhisattva” to signify that he or she has a magnanimous (mahat) attitude with strong (mahat) renunciation and great (mahat) realization. Other glosses (see n.390note 383) explain that a “great being” is a bodhisattva replete with means, or one with a particular resolve.
great journey
theg pa chen po
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།
mahāyāna
great mass of demerit
bsod nams ma lags pa’i phung po chen po
བསོད་ནམས་མ་ལགས་པའི་ཕུང་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
mahāpuṇyaskandha
great multitude
skye bo mang po
སྐྱེ་བོ་མང་པོ།
mahājana
great task
bgyi ba chen po
བགྱི་བ་ཆེན་པོ།
mahākṛtya
greatest goal
mchog nyid
མཆོག་ཉིད།
agratā
gross mindset
sems rgya chen po
སེམས་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།
vipulāni cittāni
habitual tendencies
bag chags
བག་ཆགས།
vāsana
had become self-controlled
dbang du gyur pa
དབང་དུ་གྱུར་པ།
vaśībhūta
See n.71.
had eliminated the worldly influences
zag pa zad pa
ཟག་པ་ཟད་པ།
kṣīṇāsrava
had laid down their burdens
khur bor ba
ཁུར་བོར་བ།
apahṛtabhāra
See n.76.
had no emotional defilements
nyon mongs pa med pa
ཉོན་མོངས་པ་མེད་པ།
niḥkleśa
half mile
grags
གྲགས།
krośa
Heaven of the Thirty-Three
sum cu rtsa gsum gyi ris
སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་གྱི་རིས།
trāyastriṃśa
The second from lowest god realm of desire, presided over by the thirty-three gods of whom Śakra is the chief.
heroic perseverance
brtson ’grus
བརྩོན་འགྲུས།
vīrya
identity
bdag
བདག
ātman
ignorance
ma rig pa
མ་རིག་པ།
avidyā
illuminate
gsal ba
གསལ་བ།
prakāśa
To make visible, in this text usually in the sense of how mind or awareness functions, but also in the sense of physical light.
illuminate
spobs pa
སྤོབས་པ།
pratibhāna, pratibhāti
This term (in its verbal and noun forms) is used in this translation in the sense of illuminating or elucidating by speaking, i.e., by expressing something in speech with all the eloquence of a confident knowledge of what is being illuminated, hence the Tibetan rendering spobs pa (“courage,” “audacity”). The Sanskrit term has connotations of brilliance, clarity, and intelligence as well as audacity. See n.84< and n.326.
illusory nature of things
sgyu ma’i chos nyid
སྒྱུ་མའི་ཆོས་ཉིད།
māyādharmatā
illusory person
sgyu ma’i skyes bu
སྒྱུ་མའི་སྐྱེས་བུ།
māyāpuruṣa
imitation of bodhisattvas
byang chub sems dpa’ bcos bu
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་བཅོས་བུ།
bodhisattvaprativarṇika
immature
byis pa
བྱིས་པ།
bāla
immature roots of virtue
dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ma smin pa
དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་མ་སྨིན་པ།
aparipakvakuśalamūlāḥ
impediments to survival
srog gi bar chad du ’gyur ba
སྲོག་གི་བར་ཆད་དུ་འགྱུར་བ།
jīvitāntarāya
imperishability of the imperishable
mi zad pa la mi zad pa nyid
མི་ཟད་པ་ལ་མི་ཟད་པ་ཉིད།
akṣayākṣaya
improper means of livelihood
log pas ’tsho ba
ལོག་པས་འཚོ་བ།
mithyājīva
improper sexual conduct
’dod pas log par spyod pa
འདོད་པས་ལོག་པར་སྤྱོད་པ།
kāmamithyācāra
in accordance with reality
ji lta ba bzhin du
ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ།
yathābhūtam
in any manner
thams cad nas thams cad
ཐམས་ཅད་ནས་ཐམས་ཅད།
sarvathā sarvaṃ
in conformity with the truth
yang dag pa nyid rjes su rtogs pas
ཡང་དག་པ་ཉིད་རྗེས་སུ་རྟོགས་པས།
bhūtānugamena
in effect
du gyur pa
དུ་གྱུར་པ།
bhūta
This translation is applied when -bhūta is used at end of a compound.
in the form of a book
glegs bam du chud par
གླེགས་བམ་དུ་ཆུད་པར།
pustakagatā
incense
bdug pa
བདུག་པ།
dhūpa
inclined to attack
rtsod par ’dod pa
རྩོད་པར་འདོད་པ།
vigrahītukāma
inclined to deny
rgol bar ’dod pa
རྒོལ་བར་འདོད་པ།
vivaditukāma
inclined to dispute
’gal bar byed ’dod pa
འགལ་བར་བྱེད་འདོད་པ།
virodhayitukāma
incongruous
phan tshun tshogs pa dang mi mthun par
ཕན་ཚུན་ཚོགས་པ་དང་མི་མཐུན་པར།
anyonyam visāmagrī
indication
rtags
རྟགས།
liṅga
An artificial mark, like, for instance, the bell on a cow. See n.881note 874.
Indra
dbang po
དབང་པོ།
indra
The god who presides over the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and appears in many Buddhist texts, frequently referred to using the epithet Śakra and addressed by his personal name Kauśika, as both protector and disciple of the Buddha. In the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras he is an important interlocutor.
inexhaustible
mi zad pa, zad par mi ’gyur ba
མི་ཟད་པ།, ཟད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་བ།
akṣaya
inexpressible
brjod du ma mchis pa
བརྗོད་དུ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
anabhilāpya
inferior wisdom
shes rab dman pa
ཤེས་རབ་དམན་པ།
hīnaprajñā
inherent nature
ngo bo nyid
ངོ་བོ་ཉིད།
svabhāva
innumerable
grangs med pa
གྲངས་མེད་པ།
asaṃkhyeya
insufficient conviction
mos pa dman pa
མོས་པ་དམན་པ།
hīnādhimuktika
intense faith
mngon par dad
མངོན་པར་དད།
abhśraddhā
inviolable
’khrug pa med pa
འཁྲུག་པ་མེད་པ།
akopya
Īśāna
dbang ldan
དབང་ལྡན།
īśāna
“Powerful One,” an epithet that may refer to Śiva, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara, or other gods.
Jambu continent
’dzam bu’i gling
འཛམ་བུའི་གླིང་།
Jāmbūdvīpa
The southern continent of the four continents that, arranged around the central Mount Meru, are said to comprise our world that is one of the innumerable first order worlds in the thousandfold (second order) and billionfold (third order) universe.
Jñānasiddhi
jñānasiddhi
An eighth-century Indian paṇḍita who participated in translation from Sanskrit into Tibetan.
Joyful
dga’ ba
དགའ་བ།
nandā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
Kamalaśīla
pad+ma’i ngang tshul
པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ།
kamalaśīla
Indian Buddhist scholar (ca. 740–795) who taught at Nālandā and accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at the request of Tri Songdetsen.
Kauśika
kau shi ka
ཀཽ་ཤི་ཀ
kauśika
The personal name of Śakra, the god who presides over the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and appears in many Buddhist texts, sometimes referred to using the epithet Indra, as both protector and disciple of the Buddha. In the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras he is an important interlocutor.
knowing of a self-existent one
rang byung gi ye shes
རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས།
svayaṃbhūjñāna
knowing of all aspects
rnam pa thams cad mkhyen pa nyid, thams cad mkhyen pa nyid
རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཉིད།, ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཉིད།
sarvajñatā, sarvākārajñatā
The term used in the long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras to denote the knowing of a buddha. It includes the thirty-nine aspects of dwelling as a buddha together with thirty-seven aspects of the fruition of a disciple and thirty-four of the fruition of a bodhisattva to make one hundred and ten aspects in all. See notes n.626, n.631, and n.637; also Brunnhölzl 2011, vol. 2, pp. 296–97.
knowing of all the paths
lam gyi rnam pa shes pa, lam gyi rnam pa shes pa nyid
ལམ་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་ཤེས་པ།, ལམ་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་ཤེས་པ་ཉིད།
margākārajñatā
The “complete knowing” characteristic of bodhisattvas, who must know all the paths to awakening as well as their own. It is the second of the eight topics of the Ornament, and a key term in the long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras. While it is not found as such in this sūtra, according to the commentaries it is to be understood in certain specific instances of the term “the state of complete knowing” (q.v.). See n.65, and also n.637 which mentions thirty-four aspects.
knowing of someone who has complete knowing
thams cad mkhyen pa’i ye shes
ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས།
sarvajñajñāna
kṣatriya
rgyal rigs
རྒྱལ་རིགས།
kṣatriya
One of the four main castes in the Indian social order, the one to which kings, rulers, and warriors belong.
lack a self
bdag ma mchis pa, bdag med
བདག་མ་མཆིས་པ།, བདག་མེད།
anātman
lack of provisions and security
grub pa dang bde ba med
གྲུབ་པ་དང་བདེ་བ་མེད།
ayogakṣema
lackluster
gzi brjid chung ba
གཟི་བརྗིད་ཆུང་བ།
alpaujaska
lackluster perseverance
brtson ’grus zhan pa
བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཞན་པ།
hīnavīrya
Licchavi
li ts+tsha bI
ལི་ཙྪ་བཱི།
licchavi
One of the ruling clans of the Vṛji Republic, centered on the important city of Vaiśālī.
life’s necessities
’tsho ba’i yo byad
འཚོ་བའི་ཡོ་བྱད།
jīvitapariṣkāra
likeness of bodhisattvas
byang chub sems dpa’i gzugs brnyan
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན།
bodhisattvapratirūpaka
limitless
mu ma mchis pa, mu med
མུ་མ་མཆིས་པ།, མུ་མེད།
aparyanta
livelihood
’tsho ba’i yo byad
འཚོ་བའི་ཡོ་བྱད།
jīvitapariṣkāra
lovingly appreciated
yid du ’ong ba
ཡིད་དུ་འོང་བ།
priya
luminously clear
’od gsal ba
འོད་གསལ་བ།
prabhāsvarā
lustful thought
’dod pa’i rtog pa
འདོད་པའི་རྟོག་པ།
kāmavitarka
lustrous
gzi brjid chen po
གཟི་བརྗིད་ཆེན་པོ།
mahaujaska
made into a book
bris te glegs bam du chud par byas
བྲིས་ཏེ་གླེགས་བམ་དུ་ཆུད་པར་བྱས།
pustakagatāṃ kṛtvā
Note that the Tibetan would be rendered “write it and put it into book form.”
made prominent
rab tu phye ba
རབ་ཏུ་ཕྱེ་བ།
prabhāvita
magical display
rdzu ’phrul
རྫུ་འཕྲུལ།
ṛddhi
magical illusion
sgyu ma
སྒྱུ་མ།
māyā
magical illusionist
sgyu ma byed pa
སྒྱུ་མ་བྱེད་པ།
māyākāra
magical incantation
rig sngags
རིག་སྔགས།
vidyā
magically created
sprul pa
སྤྲུལ་པ།
abhinirmita
magically overpower
dbang du bya ba
དབང་དུ་བྱ་བ།
vaśīkaraṇa
Mahābrahma
tshangs pa chen po
ཚངས་པ་ཆེན་པོ།
mahābrahma
Fourth of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Great Brahmā.”
Mahākāśyapa
’od srung chen po
འོད་སྲུང་ཆེན་པོ།
mahākāśyapa
An arhat disciple of the Buddha Śākyamuni, from Magadha. He had the moniker “foremost in the practice of ascetic qualities.”
Mahākātyāyana
kA t+yA ya na chen po
ཀཱ་ཏྱཱ་ཡ་ན་ཆེན་པོ།
mahākātyāyana
An arhat disciple of the Buddha Śākyamuni, from Avanti. He had the moniker “foremost in exegesis.”
Mahākoṣṭhila
lto rings chen po
ལྟོ་རིངས་ཆེན་པོ།
mahākoṣṭhila
An arhat disciple of the Buddha Śākyamuni, from Śrāvastī. He had the moniker “foremost in experiential knowledge.” Also spelled (Mahā-) Kauṣṭhila.
Maitreya
byams ma’i bu
བྱམས་མའི་བུ།
maitreya
A bodhisattva disciple of the Buddha Śākyamuni, destined to become the next buddha, and an interlocutor in the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras.
majesty
gzi brjid
གཟི་བརྗིད།
tejas
malevolence
gnod sems
གནོད་སེམས།
vyāpāda
malevolent spirit
mi ma yin pa
མི་མ་ཡིན་པ།
amanuṣya
Māra
bdud
བདུད།
māra
A god of the desire realm who, in Buddhist scriptures, attempts to prevent the Buddha and others from attaining awakening, often by creating discord and arousing various gross or subtle afflictions. His name means “death.” He and his attendants (māras) personify the external and internal obstacles to awakening. See notes n.153and n.261.
Māra’s activity
bdud kyi las
བདུད་ཀྱི་ལས།
mārakarma
Māra’s realms
bdud kyi gnas
བདུད་ཀྱི་གནས།
mārabhavana
The god realms presided over by Māra.
medicinal herb
rtsi, sman
རྩི།, སྨན།
oṣadhi
meditative concentration
ting nge ’dzin
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
samādhi
Essentially a deeply focused mindset whose meditative object is framed by a particular, profound conception. On the individual meditative concentrations in this scripture, see notes n.1377 and n.1379
meditative state
bsam gtan
བསམ་གཏན།
dhyāna
meet with a downfall
rnam par ’jig par ’gyur
རྣམ་པར་འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར།
vyavasādam āpatsyate
mendicant
dge sbyong
དགེ་སྦྱོང་།
śramaṇa
mental attitude
yid
ཡིད།
manas
mental factor
sems las byung ba’i chos
སེམས་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་ཆོས།
caitasika dharma
mindfulness
dran pa
དྲན་པ།
smṛti
mindset
sems
སེམས།
citta
In this scripture wherever the term “mindset” (citta) appears alone (i.e., not in a compound like bodhicitta), it may refer to the mindset of awakening, or to a proper mindset directly related to it, or to an improper mindset antithetical to it, or to the immediate content of any of these three senses of the word mindset. See the introduction, i.92.
mindset free from worldly influences
zag pa med pa’i sems
ཟག་པ་མེད་པའི་སེམས།
anāsravacitta
mindset of awakening
byang chub kyi sems
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས།
bodhicitta
Although the Sanskrit word citta (in the compound bodhicitta) has both cognitive and affective aspects difficult to render accurately in a single English word, the term mindset has been adopted in the sense of a complex mental state constantly arising in each moment, shaped by particular past actions that affect the way one sees, thinks, feels, interprets, and acts moment to moment. See the introduction, i.92.
mindset that lacks trust
sems ma dad pa
སེམས་མ་དད་པ།
aprasannacitta
miraculous power
mthus
མཐུས།
anubhāva
miraculously created
mngon par sprul pa
མངོན་པར་སྤྲུལ་པ།
abhinirmita
mixed-up
kun tu ’dres pa
ཀུན་ཏུ་འདྲེས་པ།
saṃkīrṇa
The term is used in two senses, “mixed up with” (confused or polluted by) and “mixed together with others.” See notes n.1094 and n.1100.
monk
dge slong
དགེ་སློང་།
bhikṣu
Most Joyful
dga’ mchog
དགའ་མཆོག
nandottamā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
Most Patient
bde mchog
བདེ་མཆོག
kṣamottamā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
mother who nurses
ma ma
མ་མ།
dhatrī
motivated by sense pleasures
’dod pa’i gzhis
འདོད་པའི་གཞིས།
kāmanidāna
muslin fabric from Kāśi
ka shi ka’i gos
ཀ་ཤི་ཀའི་གོས།
kāśikavastra
Kāśi is usually understood as the city of the Kāśi people, Vārāṇasī, known for its fine textiles.
natural body
ngo bo nyid sku
ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་སྐུ།
svābhāvikakāya
natural outcome
rgyu mthun pa, rgyu ’thun pa
རྒྱུ་མཐུན་པ།, རྒྱུ་འཐུན་པ།
niṣyanda
naturally effortless
lhun gyis grub pa
ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ།
anābhoga
nature of not existing
ngo bo nyid med pa’i rang bzhin
ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པའི་རང་བཞིན།
abhāvasvabhāva
negative consequence
nyes pa
ཉེས་པ།
doṣa
negative propensity
bag la nyal ba
བག་ལ་ཉལ་བ།
anuśaya
Never Flowing Away
mi ’bab pa
མི་འབབ་པ།
avivāhā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
never goes close
nye bar mi rtogs
ཉེ་བར་མི་རྟོགས།
nopaiti
never lacking
ma bral ba
མ་བྲལ་བ།
avirahita
Ngok Loden Sherab
rngog blo ldan shes rab
རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ།
(1059–1109)
nihilism
chad pa
ཆད་པ།
uccheda
nine incremental states of abiding
mthar gyis gnas pa’i snyoms par ’jug pa dgu
མཐར་གྱིས་གནས་པའི་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ་དགུ
navānupūrvavihāra
See n.628.
Nirmāṇarati
’phrul dga
འཕྲུལ་དག
nirmāṇarati
Fifth god realm of desire, meaning “Delighting in Emanation.”
nirvāṇa
mya ngan las ’das pa
མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།
nirvāṇa
See n.229.
nirvāṇa dimension
mya ngan las ’das pa’i dbyings
མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་དབྱིངས།
nirvāṇadhātu
An unconditioned space beyond the three conditioned realms of existence in which worthy ones are said to abide. See n.229.
no possibility
gnas med
གནས་མེད།
asthāna
noble
cang shes pa
ཅང་ཤེས་པ།
ājāneya
See n.73.
non-Buddhist wandering ascetic
mu stegs can gzhan kun tu rgyu
མུ་སྟེགས་ཅན་གཞན་ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱུ།
anyatīrthyaparivrājaka
nonattachment
chags pa med pa, ma chags pa
ཆགས་པ་མེད་པ།, མ་ཆགས་པ།
asaṅga
See also “free of attachment” and “unattached.”
nonexistence
med pa
མེད་པ།
nāstitā
nonoccurence
’byung ba med pa
འབྱུང་བ་མེད་པ།
asaṃbhava
not arisen
ma skyes pa
མ་སྐྱེས་པ།
anutpānna
not assured
nges pa ma yin
ངེས་པ་མ་ཡིན།
aniyata
not be left to go astray
chud zos par gyur
ཆུད་ཟོས་པར་གྱུར།
mā praṇaṃkṣīt
not being found to exist
ma mchis pa
མ་མཆིས་པ།
avidyamāna
not being something permanent
ther zug tu gnas pa ma mchis pa
ཐེར་ཟུག་ཏུ་གནས་པ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
akūṭasthatā
not deflated
mi ’gong
མི་འགོང་།
nāvalīyate
not depressed
kun tu mi zhum
ཀུན་ཏུ་མི་ཞུམ།
na saṃlīyate
not differentiating
dbyer mi phyed pa
དབྱེར་མི་ཕྱེད་པ།
asaṃbhedana
not experienced as existing
med pa
མེད་པ།
na saṃvidyate
not finding
ma ’tshal
མ་འཚལ།
avindan
not free of dwelling
gnas pa dang bral ba ma lags pa
གནས་པ་དང་བྲལ་བ་མ་ལགས་པ།
aviṣṭhitaṃ
not frightened
mi dngang
མི་དངང་།
notrasyati
not identifying
yang dag par rjes su ma mthong na
ཡང་དག་པར་རྗེས་སུ་མ་མཐོང་ན།
asamanupaśyan
not mentally perceiving
ma dmigs
མ་དམིགས།
anupalabhamāna
not really existent
yang dag pa ma yin pa
ཡང་དག་པ་མ་ཡིན་པ།
asadbhūtatva
not stricken with terror
kun tu skrag pa dang ldan par mi ’gyur
ཀུན་ཏུ་སྐྲག་པ་དང་ལྡན་པར་མི་འགྱུར།
na saṃtrāsam āpadyate
not sunk in despondency
bag ’khums par mi ’gyur
བག་འཁུམས་པར་མི་འགྱུར།
na viṣādaṃ saṃpadyate
not terrified
kun tu mi skrag
ཀུན་ཏུ་མི་སྐྲག
na saṃtrasyati
not truly coming into being
mngon par ma grub pa
མངོན་པར་མ་གྲུབ་པ།
anabhinirvṛtti
null
zhi ba
ཞི་བ།
śānta
Usually translated as “at peace” or “quelled,” but here most often referring to the cessation or absence of something. See n.433 and n.609.
nun
dge slong ma
དགེ་སློང་མ།
bhikṣuṇī
objects of sensual desire
’dod pa’i yon tan
འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན།
kāmaguṇa
occupation
rjes su sbyor ba
རྗེས་སུ་སྦྱོར་བ།
anuyoga
occupied with
brtson par byed
བརྩོན་པར་བྱེད།
anuyuktaḥ
on the bodhisattva path
byang chub sems dpa’i theg pa can
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཐེག་པ་ཅན།
bodhisattvayānika
one billion
bye ba brgya
བྱེ་བ་བརྒྱ།
koṭīśata
one quintillion
bye ba khrag khrig brgya stong
བྱེ་བ་ཁྲག་ཁྲིག་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་།
koṭīniyutaśatasahasra
one second
thang gcig
ཐང་གཅིག
lava
one trillion
bye ba brgya stong
བྱེ་བ་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་།
koṭīśatasahasra
one who gives birth
skyed par byed pa
སྐྱེད་པར་བྱེད་པ།
janayitrī
oriented toward
mngon du byed
མངོན་དུ་བྱེད།
abhimukha
outcaste among bodhisattvas
byang chub sems dpa’ gdol pa
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་གདོལ་པ།
bodhisattvacaṇḍāla
outshone
zil gyis mnan
ཟིལ་གྱིས་མནན།
abhibhūta
overexcited
ya ya por mi ’gyur
ཡ་ཡ་པོར་མི་འགྱུར།
notplavate
own unique human body
bdag gi dngos po
བདག་གི་དངོས་པོ།
ātmabhāva
See n.279.
own unique physical body
bdag gi dngos po’i sku
བདག་གི་དངོས་པོའི་སྐུ།
ātmabhāvaśarīra
See n.279.
pain
sdug bsngal ba
སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ།
duḥkha
Paranirmitavaśavartin
gzhan ’phrul dbang byed
གཞན་འཕྲུལ་དབང་བྱེད།
paranirmitavaśavartin
Sixth god realm of desire, meaning “Mastery over Transformations.”
parapet
mda’ yab
མདའ་ཡབ།
khoḍakaśīrṣa
parasite
srin bu
སྲིན་བུ།
kṛmi
Parīttābha
’od chung
འོད་ཆུང་།
Parīttābha
Fifth of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Little Radiance.”
Parīttaśubha
dge chung
དགེ་ཆུང་།
parīttaśubha
Eighth of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Little Virtue.”
passing it by
g.yul las ’das
གཡུལ་ལས་འདས།
atikrāma
path of cultivation
bsgom pa’i lam
བསྒོམ་པའི་ལམ།
bhāvanāmārga
Fourth of the five paths.
path of no more training
mi slob pa’i lam
མི་སློབ་པའི་ལམ།
aśaikṣamārga
Fifth of the five paths.
path of preliminary practice
sbyor ba’i lam
སྦྱོར་བའི་ལམ།
prayogyamārga
Second of the five paths.
path of seeing
mthong ba’i lam
མཐོང་བའི་ལམ།
darśanamārga
Third of the five paths.
path of training
slob pa’i lam
སློབ་པའི་ལམ།
śaikṣamārga
The term may encompass the first four of the five paths, as well as the first seven of the eight stages that culminate in the state of a worthy one.
Patient
bde ba
བདེ་བ།
kṣamā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
pavilion
dkyil ’khor gyi khyams
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ཁྱམས།
maṇḍalamāle
peaceful ways of life
zhi bar spyod pa
ཞི་བར་སྤྱོད་པ།
śamacaryā
peak
rtse mo
རྩེ་མོ།
mūrdhan
The second of four stages or experiences of breaking through on the path of preliminary practice.
peaked temple
khang pa brtsegs pa
ཁང་པ་བརྩེགས་པ།
kūṭāgāra
perform an act of truth
bden pa’i byin gyi rlabs bya
བདེན་པའི་བྱིན་གྱི་རླབས་བྱ།
satyādhiṣṭhānaṃ kariṣyāmi
performing the practices
spyad pa spyod
སྤྱད་པ་སྤྱོད།
cārikāṃ caranti
physical actualization
sku yongs su grub pa
སྐུ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲུབ་པ།
kāyapariniṣpatti
physical body
bdag gi dngos po
བདག་གི་དངོས་པོ།
ātmabhāva
See n.279.
physical relic
sku
སྐུ།
śarīra
See n.279.
physically deformed
dbyibs mi sdug pa
དབྱིབས་མི་སྡུག་པ།
duḥsaṃsthāna
pinnacle of reality
yang dag pa’i mtha’
ཡང་དག་པའི་མཐའ།
bhūtakoṭi
pinnacle of worldly things
’jig rten pa’i chos kyi mchog
འཇིག་རྟེན་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་མཆོག
laukikāgradharma
The fourth of four stages or experiences of breaking through on the path of preliminary practice.
power of memory
gzungs
གཟུངས།
dhāraṇī
powerful energy
gzi brjid chen po
གཟི་བརྗིད་ཆེན་པོ།
mahaujaska
practice generosity
sbyin pa byin
སྦྱིན་པ་བྱིན།
dānaṃ dattaṃ
practice of ascetic qualities
sbyangs pa’i yon tan
སྦྱངས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན།
dhutaguṇa
See also n.1076.
Prajāpati
skye dgu’i bdag po
སྐྱེ་དགུའི་བདག་པོ།
prajāpati
Literally “Lord of Beings,” an epithet designating a god of the Brahmā realm but also referring to Śiva, Viṣṇu, and others.
Prasenajit
gsal rgyal
གསལ་རྒྱལ།
prasenajit
King of the powerful kingdom of Kośala, centered on the city of Śrāvasti. He was a contemporary of the Buddha Śākyamuni, becoming his disciple and patron.
pregnant
sbrum ma
སྦྲུམ་མ།
gurviṇī
preliminary practice
yongs su sbyang ba
ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱང་བ།
kṛtaparikarma
See n.1024.
prey on weakness
glags lta ba
གླགས་ལྟ་བ།
avatāragaveṣin
principal characteristics of a great person
skyes bu chen po’i mtshan
སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན།
mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇāni
proceeded based on faith
dad pas rjes su ’brang
དད་པས་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་།
śraddhānusāri
profit greatly
rnyed pa legs par rnyed pa
རྙེད་པ་ལེགས་པར་རྙེད་པ།
lābhāḥ sulabdhā
Puṇyaprasava
bsod nams ’phel
བསོད་ནམས་འཕེལ།
puṇyaprasava
The twelfth of the thirteen levels of the god realm of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Increasing Merit.” In some versions of the longer Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, which list sixteen realms instead of thirteen, this god realm has the name Apramāṇabṛhat (Tib. tshad med che ba).
Pūrṇa
gang po
གང་པོ།
pūrṇa
Of the several arhat disciples of the Buddha with the name Pūrṇa, this is Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, Pūrṇa the son of Maitrāyaṇī. He is a Śākyan who became an arhat under the guidance of his uncle Ājñātakauṇḍinya before meeting the Buddha (his mother Maitrāyaṇī was Ājñātakauṇḍinya’s sister). He was considered “foremost in teaching.” See the 84000 Knowledge Base article “Disciples Named Pūrṇa.”
quality of the buddha
sangs rgyas kyi chos
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས།
buddhadharma
quantify
grangs su gtogs
གྲངས་སུ་གཏོགས།
gaṇanā kṛtā
Rājagṛha
rgyal po’i khab
རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ།
rājagṛha
Capital of the kingdom of Magadha, near which is situated Vulture Peak, the setting for the Perfection of Wisdom teachings.
Ratnaketu
rin po che’i tog
རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཏོག
ratnaketu
A bodhisattva named in this scripture as presently living in the buddhafield of the Buddha Akṣobhya.
ready mind
sems bde ba
སེམས་བདེ་བ།
kalyacitta
real body
sku dam pa
སྐུ་དམ་པ།
satkāya
For an explanation of the term satkāya in this sense, used in such contexts as that of the Buddha’s body, as at 4.2, compared to the more usual “transitory collection,” see n.341.
realizing the inexhaustible
mi zad pa mngon par bsgrub pa
མི་ཟད་པ་མངོན་པར་བསྒྲུབ་པ།
akṣayābhinirhāra
rebuff
mi mthun par rjod par
མི་མཐུན་པར་རྗོད་པར།
prativāṇī
referent of the word
gzhi’i don
གཞིའི་དོན།
padārtha
refine
yongs su dag pa
ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པ།
pariśuddhi
Sanskrit syntax uses the noun “refinement,” often translated as “purification.”
regional king
mkhar gyi rgyal po
མཁར་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
koṭṭarāja
reliant
nye bar brtan pa
ཉེ་བར་བརྟན་པ།
upastabdha
relinquish
spong ba
སྤོང་བ།
prahīna
repeatedly practicing
goms pa
གོམས་པ།
ābhyāsata
replete with all excellent qualities
rnam pa thams cad kyi mchog dang ldan pa
རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་མཆོག་དང་ལྡན་པ།
sarvākāravaropeta
Rinchen Chökyong Zangpo
zha lu lo tsA ba rin chen chos skyong bzang po
ཞ་ལུ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་བཟང་པོ།
Scholar and translator also known as Zhalu Lotsawa (1441–1527). Renowned particularly for his expertise in Sanskrit. See bio at Treasury of Lives.
Rinchen Zangpo
rin chen bzang po
རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ།
(958–1055)
rising above
mngon par ’phags pa
མངོན་པར་འཕགས་པ།
abhyudgata
root of virtue
dge ba’i rtsa ba
དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ།
kuśalamūla
Sadāprarudita
rtag tu ngu
རྟག་ཏུ་ངུ།
sadāprarudita
The bodhisttava protagonist of the final chapters of this scripture, whose indefatigable quest for the perfection of wisdom forms an exemplary narrative found also in the Twenty-Five Thousand but not in the other long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras.
Śakra
brgya byin
བརྒྱ་བྱིན།
śakra
An epithet of Indra, the god who presides over the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and appears in many Buddhist texts, usually referred to using this name and addressed by his personal name Kauśika, as both protector and disciple of the Buddha. In the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras he is an important interlocutor.
Śākya
shAkya
ཤཱཀྱ།
śākya
The Buddha’s own clan.
Śākyasena
śākyasena
An eighth-century Indian paṇḍita who participated in translation from Sanskrit into Tibetan.
Śāriputra
shA ri’i bu
ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ།
śāriputra
One of the Buddha’s closest and most able śrāvaka disciples, who had the moniker “foremost in learning”; also known as Śāradvatīputra. While in some Mahāyāna sūtras he is almost ridiculed in his role as an interlocutor representing the limited view of the disciples’ awakening, in the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras he is treated with respect but nevertheless expresses an understanding less vast than that of Subhūti, also a disciple.
secluded
dben pa
དབེན་པ།
viveka, vivikta
Often also translated in this text as “devoid.” See also “voidness,” “void,” “seclusion,” and n.1094.
seeing the knowing of liberation
grol ba’i ye shes mthong ba, rnam par grol ba’i ye shes gzigs pa
གྲོལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཐོང་བ།, རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་གཟིགས་པ།
vimuktijñānadarśana
The direct witnessing of the distinctive knowing of liberation. One of the five “masses” (skandha) particular to bodhisattvas. See notes n.69 and n.399.
sign
mtshan ma
མཚན་མ།
nimitta
An inherent quality, like, for instance, the whiteness of a (white) cow. See n.881note 874.
six changes
rnam par ’gyur ba drug
རྣམ་པར་འགྱུར་བ་དྲུག
ṣaḍvikāraḥ
The movements and sounds of the earthquakes that accompany a tathāgata’s realization of perfect awakening. See n.870.
small-minded
blo chung ba
བློ་ཆུང་བ།
alpabuddhi
solitary realizer
rang sangs rgyas
རང་སངས་རྒྱས།
pratyekabuddha
Someone who has realized an awakening comparable to that of an arhat but without hearing the teachings of a buddha, on his or her own in isolation, and does not teach a path to others.
Sorrow Free
mya ngan bral
མྱ་ངན་བྲལ།
śokavigataṃ
The name of one of the four gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
Sorrowless
mya ngan med
མྱ་ངན་མེད།
aśoka
The name of one of the four gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
source of qualities
chos kyi dbyings
ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
dharmadhātu
Also translated according to context as “ultimate realm of things.” See introduction, “Dharma.”
spiritual qualities
dge ba’i chos
དགེ་བའི་ཆོས།
kalyāṇadharma
Śreṇika
phreng ba can
ཕྲེང་བ་ཅན།
śreṇika
A non-Buddhist wandering ascetic who converts to Buddhism and in the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras exemplifies one who attains understanding through faith.
state of a worthy one
dgra bcom pa nyid
དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད།
arhattva
Śubhakṛtsna
dge rgyas
དགེ་རྒྱས།
śubhakṛtsna
Tenth of the thirteen god realms of form that correspond to the four meditative concentrations, meaning “Most Extensive Virtue.”
Subhāṣita
subhāṣita
A tenth-century Indian paṇḍita who participated in translation from Sanskrit into Tibetan.
Subhūti
rab ’byor
རབ་འབྱོར།
subhūti
A disciple of the Buddha whose uniquely important role in the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras is to express and draw out the Buddha’s teaching on the perfection of wisdom, at the Buddha’s instigation, for the benefit of the audience of bodhisattvas although he himself is not among their number. Hari’s gloss: “He whose mental gift (bhūtiḥ<sampatti) is brilliance is (su<śobhanā) foremost among those dwelling without conflict.” See also n.100, and for more on Subhūti see the introduction to the Twenty-Five Thousand, i.78–90.
subsidiary characteristics
dpe byad
དཔེ་བྱད།
anuvyañjanāni
subtle hints
thabs phra mo
ཐབས་ཕྲ་མོ།
sūkṣmeṇopāya
subtle mindset
sems rgya chen po ma yin pa
སེམས་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་མ་ཡིན་པ།
avipulāni cittāni
Sudarśana
shin tu mthong
ཤིན་ཏུ་མཐོང་།
sudarśana
Fourth of the five pure abodes, meaning “Extreme Insight.” Also the name of the principal city of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Śuddhāvāsa
gnas gtsang ma
གནས་གཙང་མ།
śuddhāvāsa
The five pure abodes. See n.206.
Sudharma
chos bzang
ཆོས་བཟང་།
sudharma
The name of the assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Sudṛśa
gya nom snang
གྱ་ནོམ་སྣང་།
sudṛśa
Third of the five pure abodes, meaning “Attractive.”
supernormal supports
rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa
རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།
ṛddhipādaḥ
supported
yongs su bzung ba, yongs su gzung ba
ཡོངས་སུ་བཟུང་བ།, ཡོངས་སུ་གཟུང་བ།
parigṛhīta, parigṛhītā
See n.307.
supreme perfection
pha rol tu son pa
ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་སོན་པ།
paramapārami
taking what is not given
ma byin par len pa
མ་བྱིན་པར་ལེན་པ།
adattādāna
tathāgata
de bzhin gshegs pa
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
tathāgata
A tathāgata is a buddha, one who has come from or gone to (āgata or gata) the actual nature (tathā), often etymologized as one who has “come to the way things are.” Ratnākaraśānti also glosses a tathāgata as one who has clarified the actual way things are (see n.255).
Temperate
nges pa
ངེས་པ།
niyatā
The name of one of eight lotus pools in each of the gardens of Dharmodgata’s estate in Gandhavatī.
temple hall
dkyil ’khor
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།
abhramaṇḍapa
ten powers
stobs bcu
སྟོབས་བཅུ།
daśabala
See n.124note 122.
ten virtuous ways of acting
dge ba bcu’i las kyi lam
དགེ་བ་བཅུའི་ལས་ཀྱི་ལམ།
daśakuśalakarmapatha
thing that produces merit
bsod nams bya ba’i dngos po
བསོད་ནམས་བྱ་བའི་དངོས་པོ།
puṇyakriyāvastu
things and nonthings
dngos po dang dngos po med pa
དངོས་པོ་དང་དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ།
bhāvābhāva
thirty-seven factors in awakening
byang chub kyi phyogs kyi chos sum cu rtsa bdun
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་བདུན།
saptatriṃśad bodhipakṣā dharmā
See n.219.
totality of causes and conditions
rgyu dang rkyen tshogs pa
རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ཚོགས་པ།
hetupratyayasāmagrī
transgression
ltung ba
ལྟུང་བ།
āpatti
transitory collection
’jig tshogs
འཇིག་ཚོགས།
satkāya
The mistaken focus of an important category of false views regarding there being a “self” that is related in various ways to the “collection” that is made up of the “transitory” constituents of experience or “constituents underlying the clinging to existence” (skandhas). See also n.1343.
trivial
ngan ngon
ངན་ངོན།
avaraka
true nature
chos nyid
ཆོས་ཉིད།
dharmatā
true nature of things
chos rnams kyi chos nyid
ཆོས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཉིད།
dharmāṇāṃ dharmatā
truth body
chos kyi sku
ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ།
dharmakāya
Tuṣita
dga’ ldan
དགའ་ལྡན།
tuṣita
Tuṣita, literally “Joyous” or “Contented,” is the fourth of the six heavens of the desire realm (kāmadhātu). 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.
two extremes
mtha’ gnyis
མཐའ་གཉིས།
antadvaya
types of extrasensory knowledge
mngon par shes pa
མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།
abhijñā
As in other texts, mentions are made of five or six types. The five are (1) the knowledge of various types of magical powers, (2) the divine ear faculty, (3) the knowledge of others’ mindsets, (4) the knowledge that remembers occurrences in previous lives, (5) the divine eye faculty, all these first five being considered “mundane” (laukika) achievements resulting from the fourth dhyāna; they are therefore common to non-Buddhist practitioners. The sixth is (6) knowledge of the exhaustion of worldly influences (āsravakṣaya), which is a supramundane (lokottara) achievement resulting from vipaśyana. For explanations of the first five, see n.382note 375.
ultimate resort
dpung gnyen
དཔུང་གཉེན།
parāyaṇaṃ
unattached
ma chags pa
མ་ཆགས་པ།
asaṅga
See also “free of attachment” and “nonattachment.”
unchanged
rnam par ma bsgyur ba, ’gyur ba med pa’o
རྣམ་པར་མ་བསྒྱུར་བ།, འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པའོ།
avikṛtā
unconditioned
mngon par ’dus ma byas pa
མངོན་པར་འདུས་མ་བྱས་པ།
anabhisaṃskṛta
unconscionable
glo ba la gcags
གློ་བ་ལ་གཅགས།
kaukṛtyaṃ
uncreated
ma bgyis pa, ma byas pa
མ་བགྱིས་པ།, མ་བྱས་པ།
akṛtā
under the influence of Māra’s magical power
bdud kyi byin gyis brlabs pa
བདུད་ཀྱི་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས་པ།
mārādhiṣṭhita
undifferentiable actual nature
gzhan ma yin pa’i de bzhin nyid
གཞན་མ་ཡིན་པའི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད།
ananyatathatā
unenmeshed
ma gtogs pa
མ་གཏོགས་པ།
aparyāpanna
unentangled
ma chags pa
མ་ཆགས་པ།
asakta
unequaled
mnyam pa med pa
མཉམ་པ་མེད་པ།
atulya
unfalsifiable actual nature
ma log pa’i de bzhin nyid
མ་ལོག་པའི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད།
avitathatā
unfrightened mindset
yid mi skrag pa
ཡིད་མི་སྐྲག་པ།
anuttrastamānasa
unharmed
ma snad
མ་སྣད།
anupahata
uninjured
ma smas
མ་སྨས།
akṛta
unlimited
tshad med pa
ཚད་མེད་པ།
aparimāṇa
The Tibetan translates both apramāṇa and aparimāṇa as tshad med pa.
unproliferating
spros pa ma mchis pa
སྤྲོས་པ་མ་མཆིས་པ།
aprapañca
unshared
thun mong ma lags pa
ཐུན་མོང་མ་ལགས་པ།
asādhāraṇa
unsurpassable
zil gyis mi non pa
ཟིལ་གྱིས་མི་ནོན་པ།
anabhibhūta
unsurpassed
bla na med pa
བླ་ན་མེད་པ།
anuttara
unvirtuous friend
sdig pa’i grogs po
སྡིག་པའི་གྲོགས་པོ།
pāpamitra
unwavering
brtan
བརྟན།
dṛḍha
uphold
srung ba
སྲུང་བ།
rakṣati
uplifted mindset
sems rab tu bzung ba
སེམས་རབ་ཏུ་བཟུང་བ།
pragṛhītāni cittāni
Vaijayanta Palace
rnam par rgyal ba’i khang pa
རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཁང་པ།
vaijayantaprāsāda
The palace of Śakra (Indra) in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Vajrapāṇi
lag na rdo rje
ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།
vajrapāṇi
An important bodhisattva, originally a fierce yakṣa, responsible for the protection of the Buddha’s person, and of the Dharma teachings in general.
venerable
tshe dang ldan pa
ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ།
ayuṣmān
A term of address for monks, meaning “blessed in life.” “fortunate,” “possessed of life’s (joy).” See n.81.
virtuous
dge ba
དགེ་བ།
kalyāṇa
virtuous and unvirtuous qualities
dge ba dang mi dge ba’i chos
དགེ་བ་དང་མི་དགེ་བའི་ཆོས།
kuśalākuśaladharma
virtuous friend
dge ba’i bshes gnyen
དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན།
kalyāṇamitra
vital faculty
srog gi dbang po
སྲོག་གི་དབང་པོ།
jīvitendriya
voidness
dben pa nyid
དབེན་པ་ཉིད།
viviktatva
Often meaning the state of being isolated, solitary, or secluded, but also “lacking (something),” and almost synonymous with “emptiness.” See also “void” and “secluded,” translations of the related term viveka (dben pa) and n.1094.
vulnerability
glags
གླགས།
avatāra
Vulture Peak
bya rgod kyi phung po’i ri
བྱ་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོའི་རི།
gṛdhrakūṭa-parvata
The craggy hilltop outside Rajgṛha where the Buddha gave many teachings including the Perfection of Wisdom.
warmth
drod
དྲོད།
ūṣman
The first of four stages or experiences of breaking through on the path of preliminary practice.
way of proceeding
tshig gi rnam grangs
ཚིག་གི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
padaparyāya
Ratnākara’s gloss suggests that pada here means a “step” along the path rather than the Tibetan translation as “word” (tshig).
weak mindset
sems dman pa
སེམས་དམན་པ།
hīnacitta
weak-minded
blo dman pa
བློ་དམན་པ།
mandabuddhi
weak-willed
sems pa dman pa
སེམས་པ་དམན་པ།
hīnasattva
wheel of Dharma
chos kyi ’khor lo
ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།
dharmacakra
white water lilies
ku mu da
ཀུ་མུ་ད།
kumuda
wisdom truth body
ye shes chos kyi sku
ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ།
jñānadharma–kāya
wish to come near
’ong ’dod par ’gyur
འོང་འདོད་པར་འགྱུར།
upasaṃkramitavyaṃ maṃsyante
without any constituents remaining
phung po lhag ma med pa
ཕུང་པོ་ལྷག་མ་མེད་པ།
anupadhiśeṣa
without equal
mnyam pa med pa
མཉམ་པ་མེད་པ།
asama
without forsaking
brtson pa ma bor bar
བརྩོན་པ་མ་བོར་བར།
anikṣiptadhura
world system
’jig rten gyi khams
འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།
lokadhātu
worldly influences
zag pa
ཟག་པ།
āsrava
See n.69.
worthy one
dgra bcom pa
དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།
arhat
A “worthy one” (arhat) refers to a disciple who has reached the final stage of a disciple’s realization. Indian scholars gave six or more etymologies for arhat. This translation follows the etymology “someone who is worthy,” i.e., worthy of the generosity (niṇḍārha) of others and worthy of the veneration (pūjārha) of others. Note that Tibetan translators follow a different one: “someone who has eliminated the enemies” (ari+hatavān), i.e., the emotional defilements. See n.68.
Yāma
’thab bral
འཐབ་བྲལ།
yāma
Third god realm of desire, meaning “strifeless.”
Yellow-Flowered
gser gyi me tog
གསེར་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག
suvarṇapuṣpa
The name of the future tathāgata that the woman Gaṅgadevī is foreordained to become by the Buddha, in the narrative found in all the long Perfection of Wisdom scriptures.