Also rendered in this sūtra as “action.”

The psycho-physical components of personal experience. The five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, formative predispositions, and consciousness.

The five skandhas seen as both caused by karma, and themselves the cause, through karma, of future existences.

Highest heaven of the form realm (rūpadhātu).

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.

Also means “grasping” or “clinging;” but has a particular meaning as the ninth of the twelve links of dependent arising, between craving (tṛṣṇā, sred pa) and becoming or existence (bhava, srid pa). In some texts, four types of appropriation are listed: of desire (rāga), of view (dṛṣṭi), of rules and observances as paramount (śīla­vrata­parāmarśa), and of belief in a self (ātmavāda). Only the first three are mentioned in this sūtra.

Also translated in this sūtra as “attention.”

A park or garden near Rājagṛha, donated to the Buddha by King Bimbisāra, and the setting for a number of sūtras.

The principal interlocutor in this text.

The fifth of the five aggregates; also counted as the sixth of the six elements. In most Abhidharma accounts it comprises the six sensory consciousnesses, but in Yogācāra theory two more kinds of consciousness, afflicted (kliṣṭamanas) and storehouse (ālayavijñāna), are added. The term “consciousness” in this sūtra should not be assumed to conform fully to these classic categorizations.

In different contexts four, five, or six elements may be enumerated. The four elements are earth, water, fire, and air. A fifth, space, is often added. The six elements are: earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness.

The consciousness as an element or constituent of a sentient being.

The domain of mental objects.

Cognitive faculties; the five senses plus mental faculty.

The second of the five aggregates.

The first of the five aggregates; but also, in this sūtra, “inner form” within consciousness (see 1.38).

The fourth of the five aggregates.

Usually, a particular category of semi-divine celestial being, one of the four kinds on the four sides of Mount Meru; but in the context of the process of rebirth (e.g. in 1.86 in this sūtra), gandharva refers to the consciousness of the being between death and the next rebirth.

Indian plant; a deadly poison.

Jinamitra was invited to Tibet during the reign of King Tri Songdetsen (khri srong lde btsan, r. 742–98 ᴄᴇ) and was involved with the translation of nearly two hundred texts, continuing into the reign of King Ralpachen (ral pa can, r. 815–38 ᴄᴇ). He was one of the small group of paṇḍitas responsible for the Mahāvyutpatti Sanskrit–Tibetan dictionary.

A place or vihāra within the Veṇuvana (Bamboo Grove) near Rājagṛha, named because it was where birds or animals called kalandaka lived or were fed. These kalandaka had once saved King Bimbisāra from a venomous snake, and it was on his orders that they were maintained and fed at the site to express his gratitude. The Tibetan rendering bya ka lan da ka makes it clear that the Tibetans considered the kalandaka to be a kind of bird (bya), perhaps a kind of crow, while from Sanskrit and Pali sources it seems more likely to mean a squirrel. It is therefore possible that this word refers to the Indian flying squirrel, Petaurista philippensis.

In Mahāyāna, a buddha who preceded the Buddha Śākyamuni.

An ancient kingdom in Northern India.

According to ancient Buddhist cosmology, this is the great mountain forming the axis of the universe. At its summit is Sudarśana, home of Śakra and his thirty-two gods, and on its flanks live the asuras. The mount has four sides facing the cardinal directions, each of which is made of a different precious stone. Surrounding it are several mountain ranges and the great ocean where the four principal island continents lie: in the south, Jambudvīpa (our world); in the west, Godānīya; in the north, Uttarakuru; and in the east, Pūrvavideha. Above it are the abodes of the desire realm gods. It is variously referred to as Meru, Mount Meru, Sumeru, and Mount Sumeru.

One of eight mythological nāga kings.

The story of the two nāga kings Nanda
 and Upananda and their taming by the Buddha and Maudgalyāyana is told in the Vinayavibhaṅga (Toh 3, D vol. 6, ’dul ba, ja, F.221a–224a).

The second level of the four kinds of noble person (āryapudgala, ’phags pa’i gang zag), who will only be reborn once more before attaining the state of arhat.

The third of the five aggregates.

A king of Kosala.

The capital city of the ancient Indian kingdom Magadha where the Buddha taught.

Of the three realms of existence, the realm whose beings are tormented by desire and attachment to material substance.

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.

An epithet for the historical Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama: he was a muni (“sage”) from the Śākya clan. He is counted as the fourth of the first four buddhas of the present Good Eon, the other three being Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa. He will be followed by Maitreya, the next buddha in this eon.

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.”

These can be listed as twelve or as six sense sources (sometimes also called sense fields, bases of cognition, or simply āyatanas).

In the context of epistemology, it is one way of describing experience and the world in terms of twelve sense sources, which can be divided into inner and outer sense sources, namely: (1–2) eye and form, (3–4) ear and sound, (5–6) nose and odor, (7–8) tongue and taste, (9–10) body and touch, (11–12) mind and mental phenomena.

In the context of the twelve links of dependent origination, only six sense sources are mentioned, and they are the inner sense sources (identical to the six faculties) of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

The first level of the four kinds of noble person (āryapudgala, ’phags pa’i gang zag).

An Indian paṇḍiṭa resident in Tibet during the late eighth and early ninth centuries.

One of eight mythological nāga kings.

Desire, anger, and delusion: as a collective term for this common set of the three basic kleśas, this appears to be unique to this sūtra.

One of eight mythological nāga kings.

The story of the two nāga kings Upananda and Nanda and their taming by the Buddha and Maudgalyāyana is told in the Vinayavibhaṅga (Toh 3, D vol. 6, ’dul ba, ja, F.221a–224a).

One of eight mythological nāga kings.

The first of six buddhas who preceded Śākyamuni.

In later texts, among the ever-present mental factors that underlie and constitute all conscious states; the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma lists ten such factors (mahābhūmika, sa chen po pa), while Yogācāra theory identifies five (sarvatraga, kun ’gro). In that context, volition orients the mind towards objects in ways that may be virtuous, non-virtuous or neutral. In this sūtra, however, the term seems to denote a less specific, manifest aspect of consciousness.

Lord of the dead in Indian mythology.

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.