The Hundred Deeds
Karmaśataka
A future solitary buddha.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, lowest among the six heavens of the desire realm. Dwelling place of the four great kings, traditionally located on a terrace of Sumeru, just below the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Fourth of the four types of formless meditative absorptions (caturārūpyasamāpatti, gzugs med snyoms ’jug bzhi) (Rigzin 369).
A formal act of the saṅgha that requires an initial motion followed by the statement of the proposed act, repeated three times. Such an act is required for several proceedings—among other occasions, to fully ordain someone, or to officially admonish an intransigent monk.
A formal act of the saṅgha that requires an initial motion followed by the statement of the proposed act. Such an act is needed to grant the vows of full ordination to a nun, among other occasions.
See “action.”
Any volitional act, whether of body, speech, or mind. Also rendered here as “act,” “karma,” and “deed.”
See “action.” Also used to translate other synonyms, like mdzad pa.
See “action.”
The name of the town where Kaineya lived; traditionally spelled Udumā, the rendering in The Hundred Deeds may be derived from the Pāli/Prakṛt form Ātumā.
An afflictive emotion.
Also called “delusions,” “afflictions,” or “addictive emotions,” these are mental states that produce turmoil and confusion and thus disturb mental peace and happiness (Rigzin 133).
See “afflictive emotions.”
In Buddhist philosophy, the five basic constituents upon which persons are conventionally designated. They are material forms, sensations, perceptions, formations, and consciousness.
A certain brahmin who in the future will be from the country of Pāṭaliputra, a master of the Vedas, and father of Śiṣyaka.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī), one of the magistrates of King Brahmadatta (past), nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī.
A certain brahmin of the royal palace Śobhāvatī during the time of Buddha Krakucchanda.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta of Vārāṇasī, nor with the Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka) prophesied to appear in the future, both of whose names are the slightly different Tib. mes sbyin.
One of King Brahmadatta’s magistrates, from Vārāṇasī. Father of Son of Fire and Tongue of Fire.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka) prophesied to appear in the future, nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī.
Possibly the oldest school of Sanskrit grammar, by traditional accounts traced to the god Indra himself.
The modern-day Rāptīnadī. L. Chandra gives Ajiravatī for the Tib. khyams ldan.
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Another name for Kauṇḍinya. One of the five monks present for the first teaching of the four noble truths; on account of his realization he became known as Venerable “All-Knowing Kauṇḍinya” or “Kauṇḍinya who understood” (Ājñātakauṇḍinya).
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, fifth and highest of the five so-called pure realms of the form realm. Also rendered here as Akaniṣṭha.
See “Supreme.”
An epithet of the buddhas. Salutation to the All-Knowing One at the beginning of a Buddhist text typically indicates its designation in the Vinaya Piṭaka.
One of eight children, a daughter, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
One of eight children, a son, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
A monk of the Buddha’s order, brother of Devadatta, who for twenty-five years served as the Buddha’s personal attendant. Second in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
A wealthy householder of Śrāvastī renowned for his generosity, he spent a small fortune to purchase the garden of Prince Jeta, built a monastery there, and offered both to the Buddha.
Disciple of Śiṣyaka, he was prophesied by the Buddha to slay the arhat Sūrata, hastening the Dharma’s disappearance from this world.
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓鬼 e gui.
They are sometimes said to reside in the realm of Yama, but are also frequently described as roaming charnel grounds and other inhospitable or frightening places along with piśācas and other such beings. They are particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to acquire sustenance. Detailed descriptions of their realm and experience, including a list of the thirty-six classes of pretas, can be found in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Toh 287, 2.1281– 2.1482.
The Buddha’s first cousin, born of the Śākya clan, who was among the most eminent of the Buddha’s monastic disciples.
A river in the province of Mallā in the vicinity of Kuśinagarī.
An afflictive emotion.
A future buddha.
Ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
“Forest Dweller,” the name of the son of householders in Śrāvastī, he preferred seclusion, eventually attaining arhatship.
Literally “foe-destroyer”—the foe in this case being the afflictive emotions—one who has attained arhatship.
“The state of liberation [from saṃsāra via destruction of the afflictive emotions] or the fifth path of no more to learn, attained by arhats after perfecting training in the fourth path…” (Rigzin 60). In this text being “established … in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa”; also appears as a synonym for the attainment of arhatship.
Name of a former buddha; also the name of a future buddha prophesied in The Hundred Deeds.
The name of a certain householder.
A mendicant; sometimes employed as a title of the Buddha.
An optional set of thirteen practices that monastics can adopt in order to cultivate greater detachment. They consist of (1) wearing patched robes made from discarded cloth rather than from cloth donated by laypeople; (2) wearing only three robes; (3) going for alms; (4) not omitting any house while on the alms round, rather than begging only at those houses known to provide good food; (5) eating only what can be eaten in one sitting; (6) eating only food received in the alms bowl, rather than more elaborate meals presented to the saṅgha; (7) refusing more food after indicating one has eaten enough; (8) dwelling in the forest; (9) dwelling at the root of a tree; (10) dwelling in the open air, using only a tent made from one’s robes as shelter; (11) dwelling in a charnel ground; (12) satisfaction with whatever dwelling one has; and (13) sleeping in a sitting position without ever lying down.
A future buddha.
Not to be confused with the young brahmin Aśoka who was Buddha Kāśyapa’s best friend prior to his enlightenment, nor with King Aśoka who does not appear in this text.
Young brahmin who was Buddha Kāśyapa’s best friend prior to his enlightenment. The Hundred Deeds is not clear on this point, but Edgerton notes that Aśoka is understood as the nephew and disciple of Buddha Kāśyapa (Edgerton 80.2).
Not to be confused with the future buddha Aśoka, nor with the historical King Aśoka who does not appear in this text.
A future buddha.
A species of tree; Vatica robusta.
“Breath.” The previous incarnation of the great king Dhṛtarāṣṭra as a nāga king who lived on Mount Meru, he eventually went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts.
A certain yakṣa lord tamed by the Buddha.
Along with the Ṛg Veda, Yajur Veda, and Sāma Veda, one of the four Vedas, the most ancient Sanskrit religious literature of India.
Entry point for the path of seeing, this is the direct perception of things as they are, ultimate reality, suchness.
An individual who is gifted in reading natural signs and omens.
A country visited by Venerable Upasena; home of Lotus Color.
An afflictive emotion.
A city ruled by King Mahāsena long before the time of the Buddha Śākyamuni. Also said to have been ruled by King Nāgadeva (rgyal po klu lha) before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Appears in The Hundred Deeds as the name of a king and a people dwelling in the “barbaric outlying region” west of Jambudvīpa.
A grove of bamboo trees in Rājagṛha, where Buddha Śākyamuni sometimes dwelt.
A certain band of monks of the Buddha’s order who appear throughout the vinaya literature as examples of those who break the monastic rules. In Pāli their names are given as Assaji, Punabbasu, Panduka, Lohitaka, Mettiya, and Bhummaja. The Hundred Deeds contains one story in which they trick the nun Sthūlanandā into thinking that they can help her attain magical powers.
A king during the time of the Tathāgata Vipaśyin.
A city of the (past) ninety-first eon and the birthplace of Buddha Vipaśyin. In The Hundred Deeds, two women offered Vipaśyin food there and made prayers, resulting in their rebirths as Buddha Śākyamuni’s mother Mahāmāyā and his aunt Māyā.
Sometimes called the “golden ground,” or “universal base,” “The mythological basis of our known world. It is made of gold and situated below Mount Sumeru” (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary).
Peacock who overheard the Buddha teaching on Vulture Peak Mountain.
Tenth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
The name of the charioteer Subhadra’s son who is ordained, attains arhatship, and leads his parents to attain stream entry and go forth.
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.
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.
Also rendered here simply as “nun.”
The name of a certain brahmin who lived in Rājagṛha.
Not to be confused with Bhūta, the name of a merchant and a dog, and a certain class of evil beings.
The name of a certain householder’s dog and the name given to the lost infant it carried home to its owner one night, which would one day be reunited with his birth mother.
Also the name of a certain brahmin who lived in Rājagṛha, and the name of a certain class of evil beings.
See “Bimbisāra.”
The king of Magadha and a great patron of the Buddha. His birth coincided with the Buddha’s, and his father, King Mahāpadma, named him “Essence of Gold” after mistakenly attributing the brilliant light that marked the Buddha’s birth to the birth of his son by Queen Bimbī (“Goldie”). Accounts of Bimbisāra’s youth and life can be found in The Chapter on Going Forth (Toh 1-1, Pravrajyāvastu).
King Śreṇya Bimbisāra first met with the Buddha early on, when the latter was the wandering mendicant known as Gautama. Impressed by his conduct, Bimbisāra offered to take Gautama into his court, but Gautama refused, and Bimbisāra wished him success in his quest for awakening and asked him to visit his palace after he had achieved his goal. One account of this episode can be found in the sixteenth chapter of The Play in Full (Toh 95, Lalitavistara). There are other accounts where the two meet earlier on in childhood; several episodes can be found, for example, in The Hundred Deeds (Toh 340, Karmaśataka). Later, after the Buddha’s awakening, Bimbisāra became one of his most famous patrons and donated to the saṅgha the Bamboo Grove, Veṇuvana, at the outskirts of the capital of Magadha, Rājagṛha, where he built residences for the monks. Bimbisāra was imprisoned and killed by his own son, the prince Ajātaśatru, who, influenced by Devadatta, sought to usurp his father’s throne.
Also rendered here as “Śreṇiya Bimbisāra.”
Eleventh of the twelve links of dependent origination.
Second of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. The guardians of the Black Thread Hell mark the bodies of its inhabitants with a black thread before cutting and slicing them apart along those lines.
A certain dark-complected brahmin youth who became a sage, then heard the Dharma from the Buddha, became ordained, and manifested arhatship.
Not to be confused with Black the yakṣa who also appears in his story, nor with Kāla the nāga king (whose name in Tib. is the same nag po).
A certain yakṣa tamed by the Buddha and subsequently sworn to protect the people of Rājagṛha.
Not to be confused with Black the brahmin who also appears in his story, nor with Kāla the nāga king.
An epithet of the buddhas.
In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possession of six auspicious qualities (bhaga) associated with complete awakening. The Tibetan term—where bcom is said to refer to “subduing” the four māras, ldan to “possessing” the great qualities of buddhahood, and ’das to “going beyond” saṃsāra and nirvāṇa—possibly reflects the commentarial tradition where the Sanskrit bhagavat is interpreted, in addition, as “one who destroys the four māras.” This is achieved either by reading bhagavat as bhagnavat (“one who broke”), or by tracing the word bhaga to the root √bhañj (“to break”).
First (and lightest) of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. Its inhabitants are wracked with a cold wind that causes their bodies to be covered in sores.
See “Splitting Open Like a Blue Lotus Hell.”
Sixth of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. The extreme cold of this hell turns the skin of its inhabitants blue until they crack apart in five or six pieces. Also rendered here as “Blue Lotus Hell.”
The place where the Buddha Śākyamuni achieved awakening and where every buddha will manifest the attainment of buddhahood. In our world this is understood to be located under the Bodhi tree, the Vajrāsana, in present-day Bodhgaya, India. It can also refer to the state of awakening itself.
A buddha in training. Also sometimes used as a title when referring to the Buddha in a previous incarnation, i.e., “the Bodhisattva.”
The first wife of a certain householder of great means who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
One of the primary deities of the purāṇic Hindu pantheon, and perhaps the first to take on the status formerly held by the cosmic being Prajāpati in the literature of the brāhmaṇas. As a creator god in the purāṇas, Brahmā is said to have pronounced the mantras of four vedas from each of his four faces and thus established the sonic foundation for the manifestation of the cosmos. Though not considered a creator god in Buddhist literature, in his form as Sahāṃpati Brahmā, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra/Śakra) that are said to have exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma in the hagiographic literature. The particular heavens over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Among his epithets is “Lord of Sahā World” (Sahāṃpati).
The general name for the class of gods that dwell in Brahmāloka.
While in its narrowest sense this term refers to celibacy, Sonam Angdu explains its broader meaning: tshangs pa ’am bsil bar gyur pa’i don du na mya ngan ’das pa la bya, “Those actions that lead beyond sorrow to the goal of purity or peace” (Angdu 62).
Also rendered here as “code of conduct,” “celibacy” and “brahmacarya.”
See “religious life.”
See “religious life.”
See “religious life.”
King of the city of Vārāṇasī and the country of Kāśi before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. Not to be confused with the king of the same name who ruled the same city of Vārāṇasī during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
King of the city of Vārāṇasī during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. Not to be confused with the king of the same name who ruled the city of Vārāṇasī and the country of Kāśi before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
The heaven of Brahmā, usually located just above the desire realm (kāmadhātu) as one of the first levels of the form realm (rūpadhātu) and equated with the state that one achieves in the first meditative absorption (dhyāna).
One of the most eminent monks of the Buddha’s order. Going out to teach by direct order of the Buddha, he became famous for leading one thousand disciples to attain arhatship. Also rendered here simply as “Brāhmaṇa Kapina.”
See “Brāhmaṇa Mahākapina.”
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology; its inhabitants are devotees of Great Brahmā.
Second of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. Its inhabitants are wracked with a cold wind that causes their bodies to be covered in sores that burst open.
Single-pointed meditative concentration developed through the techniques of settling the mind (Rigzin 352).
During the time of Buddha Greatest of All, a certain mountain where seventy-seven thousand on the path of learning and the path of no more to learn pledged to stay during the rains.
City ruled by King Glacier Lake Deity before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
King of Ujjayinī, in Śiṃśapā Forest, where Buddha Śākyamuni sometimes dwelt. Also called just “Pradyota.”
See “Caṇḍapradyota.”
Daughter of the high brahmin Candrasukha of Śrāvastī, her mother, during her pregnancy, wished to engage in philosophical debate. She herself grew up to be a great debater. Ordained a nun, she learned the Prātimokṣa Sūtra by heart after hearing the Buddha recite it just once.
A certain compassionate king of Vārāṇasī and a previous incarnation of the Buddha.
A certain high brahmin in Śrāvastī whose wife, upon conceiving, began wishing to engage in philosophical debate. She then gave birth to the great debater named Candrā, a nun who learned the Prātimokṣa Sūtra by heart after hearing the Buddha recite it just once.
Evidently a general term for homeless religious mendicants, occurring paired with parivrājaka in stock lists of followers of heretical movements.
The name of King Śibi’s palace.
Third of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. It is named for the sounds its inhabitants make while enduring unthinkable cold.
A future solitary buddha.
Citra Mounted on an Elephant’s name in a former life.
In Rājagṛha, the son of King Bimbisāra’s elephant trainer Elephant Heart. He is tricked into giving back his precepts, then becomes ordained once again.
An epithet of the Buddha’s tribe derived from a legend concerning his ancestry (Rigzin 128). See also “Śākya.”
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, first of three levels of the fourth dhyāna realm.
Fifth of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. It is named for the sounds its inhabitants make while enduring unthinkable cold.
Fourth of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. It is named for the sounds its inhabitants make while enduring unthinkable cold.
A future buddha.
One of the five aggregates, second of the twelve links of dependent origination, and in the context of the aggregates sometimes also called “volitions,” “volitional formations,” or “compositional factors,” these are complex propensities that bring about action. This term may also refer to composite objects or conditioned things in the generic sense.
This term refers to composite objects in the generic sense. In other contexts, it can also refer to “formations.”
One of the five aggregates, and third of the twelve links of dependent origination, this is sometimes also called “cognition,” and is the self-reflexive awareness of beings.
Also rendered here as “element” and “constituent element.”
Also rendered here as “temperament” and “constituent element.”
Also rendered here as “temperament” and “element.”
Sixth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
To direct one’s attention to an object for a period of time.
The person from whom one receives vows. Also the title of the head of a monastery. Also rendered here as “counselor.”
The person from whom one receives vows. It is also the title of the head of a monastery and used here to refer to a royal magistrate. Also rendered here as “preceptor.”
Second name given to Deluded.
Eighth of the twelve links of dependent origination. Also for the Tib. ’dun pa, in other contexts.
An afflictive emotion. In other contexts also for the Tib. sred pa.
Third of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. The guardians of the Crushing Hell repeatedly crush its inhabitants between mountains.
Ordained by the Buddha in Śrāvastī; possessed of miraculous powers, he cast away all afflictive emotions and manifested arhatship.
A certain yakṣa, who with a blazing scepter will club the head of the monk Aṅgada, who in turn had murdered the arhat Sūrata hastening the Dharma’s disappearance from this world.
An alternate form of the name Daṇḍapāṇi, a Śākya clan member and the father of Gopā and Yaśodharā. In The Hundred Deeds he is noted as the father of mda’ thogs, rendered here with the potential back-translation Iṣudhara.
A certain sage whom The Hundred Deeds appears to list as one of the attendants of the queen in Śrāvastī during the time of the Buddha. Elsewhere he and his associate Purāṇa are remembered as a ministers or attendants (sthapati) to King Prasenajit.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, counted among the six heavens of the desire realm. Its inhabitants magically create the objects of their own enjoyment, and also dispose of them themselves.
Son of householders in the country of Śūrpāraka. During the time of the Buddha, he was also known as Covered.
Also called “antigods” or “titans,” these are a lower type of celestial being who out of jealousy are forever in conflict with the gods. See also “five destinies.”
Also called “interdependent origination,” “dependent co-origination,” “interbeing,” the meeting or coincidence of causes and conditions for creating a thing or a situation; in general, the twelve links of dependent origination dealing with the cycle of rebirth, and in its highest sense providing proof of the selflessness of all phenomena (Rigzin 150).
In most cases used to refer to a class of long-lived celestial being, but occasionally appears as an honorific term of address for royalty, similar to “Your Majesty,” here rendered as “Deva.”
Lit. “god.” An honorific term of address for royalty, similar to “Your Majesty.”
Generic term for a class of long-lived celestial beings.
A Śākya village once ruled by Śākya Suprabuddha.
The Buddha’s cousin and fellow Śākya clan member as well as his brother-in-law; brother of Ānanda and Upadhāna. His hostility toward Buddha Śākyamuni is widely recorded in Buddhist literature, and as a result he often represents the paradigm of improper behavior and attitudes toward the Buddha and the Buddhist saṅgha.
A certain householder in Rājagṛha during the time of the Buddha, he was father of Sudarśana.
The term dharma conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti. The primary meanings are as follows: the doctrine taught by the Buddha (Dharma); the ultimate reality underlying and expressed through the Buddha’s teaching (Dharma); the trainings that the Buddha’s teaching stipulates (dharmas); the various awakened qualities or attainments acquired through practicing and realizing the Buddha’s teaching (dharmas); qualities or aspects more generally, i.e., phenomena or phenomenal attributes (dharmas); and mental objects (dharmas).
A term for those who teach the Buddhist Dharma.
Daughter of King Prasenajit’s minister Dinna, betrothed to Viśākha. She achieved the state of a non-returner and displayed miracles at her wedding, receiving permission from her betrothed and his family to forgo marriage and go forth. Quite beautiful, as a novice she was threatened by lustful would-be suitors. Her predicament led to the Buddha permitting full ordination of nuns by message.
Fifth in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
One of the four great kings, protector of the cardinal direction to the east of Mount Meru.
One of the seven limbs of enlightenment.
One of King Prasenajit’s two chief ministers in Śrāvastī.
King who reigned in the palace Dīpavatī, during the time of Buddha Dīpaṃkara, two incalculable eons before Buddha Śākyamuni’s day.
A buddha who appeared two incalculable eons before Buddha Śākyamuni’s time and is celebrated in Buddhist literature and artwork as the first Buddha to predict the bodhisattva Sumati’s future enlightenment as Buddha Śākyamuni.
The name of the capital city of Dīpaṃkara (Edgerton 265.1); the name of the royal palace of King Dīpa, who ruled the land of Dīpaṃkara during Buddha Dīpaṃkara’s time.
A certain king of the city of Pāṁśula who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. His son was Reṇu.
See “disciple.”
Also rendered here as “listener,” and sometimes also called “hearers,” the term originally referred to direct disciples of Buddha Śākyamuni who had actually heard the Buddha’s teachings; now commonly refers to those Buddhists who strive for their own nirvāṇa. Their primary fields of practice are the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent origination (Rigzin 126).
See “disciple.”
Four specific types of discernment. The four ways in which a bodhisattva knows distinct features, characteristics, and states of phenomena: (1) discrimination of dharma (dharmapratisaṃvid, chos so so yang dag rig pa); (2) discrimination of things (arthapratisaṃvid, so so yang dag rig pa); (3) discrimination of expression (niruktipratisaṃvid, nges tshig so so yang dag rig pa); (4) discrimination of eloquence (pratibhāna pratisaṃvid, spobs pa so so yang dag rig pa) (Rigzin 288, with slight adjustments to terminology in translation).
Also called “constructs,” “mental constructs,” “mental fabrication,” or “proliferations.”
Lit. “wind,” one of the four elements that constitute all matter, including the physical body, and one of the three primary humors (doṣas) in the Āyuvedic medical traditions.
Lit. “smell,” “scent,” “stain.”
Name of place in the Adumā region.
A monastery visited by the monk Lotus Color during his trip to Mathurā.
A religious sect of men distinguished by their long, clotted hair, to which the Buddha’s disciple Venerable Uruvilvā Kāśyapa had belonged. The Buddha ordained a thousand of them in Uruvilvā.
One of eight children, a daughter, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
One of eight children, a son, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
A future solitary buddha.
Foretold as the son of a future King Mahendrasena of Kauśāmbī.
Not to be confused with Mahendrasena of Videha in the Buddha’s time.
A certain king during the time of Buddha Prabhāvan who ordered the torture and slaughter of five hundred arhats, precipitating his rebirth in the Hell of Ceaseless Agony. Also his name in a previous birth as a certain king.
Included among the fifty-five types of virtuous phenomena, the first three occur within the form realm (gzugs kyi rnam par thar pa gsum): (1) the liberation of the embodied looking at a form (gzugs can gzugs la blta ba’i rnam thar), (2) liberation of the formless looking at a form (gzugs med gzugs la blta ba’i rnam thar), (3) liberation through beautiful form (sdug pa’i rnam par thar pa), and the latter five occur within the formless realm: (4) liberation of infinite space (nam mkha’ mtha’ yas kyi rnam thar), (5) liberation of infinite consciousness (rnam shes mtha’ yas kyi rnam thar), (6) liberation of nothingness (ci yang med pa’i rnam thar), (7) liberation of the peak of existence (srid rtsi’i rnam thar), and (8) liberation of cessation (’gog pa’i rnam thar) (Rigzin 236, 239).
The (1) examination of cloth, (2) examination of jewels, (3) examination of gems, (4) examination of incense, (5) examination of medicine, (6) examination of elephants, (7) examination of horses, and (8) examination of arms and armor.
(1) Music (gandharva, rol mo), (2) amorous skills (vāiśakam, ’khrig ’thab), (3) housekeeping (vārttā, ’tsho chos/so tshis), (4) mathematics (sāṃkhyā, grang can), (5) grammar (śabdha, sgra), (6) medicine (cikitsa, gso ba), (7) religious tradition (dharmanītī, chos lugs), (8) painting and handicrafts (śilpa, bzo ba), (9) archery (dhanurveda, ’phong spyod), (10) logic (hetu, gtan tshig), (11) pharmacology (cikitsayoga, sman spyor), (12) self-discipline (svaśīla, rang gi bcas pa), (13) reflection on study (śrutismṛiti, thos pa dran pa), (14) astronomy (jyotiṣa, skar ma’i dpyad), (15) astrology (gaṇita, rtsis), (16) magic (māyā, mig ’phrul), (17) history (purāṇam, sngon rabs), and (18) storytelling (itihāsakathā, sngon byung brjod pa) (Rigzin 395–6).
A set of eighty bodily characteristics and insignia borne by both buddhas and universal monarchs. For a comprehensive list of the eighty marks see Negi (3333). These are considered “minor” in terms of being secondary to the “thirty-two signs of great persons.” For a comprehensive list of the eighty and thirty-two marks see Berzin (2012).
In Rājagṛha, a certain elephant trainer for King Bimbisāra. His son was Citra Mounted on an Elephant.
An afflictive emotion.
An unbiased attitude of equal regard for all sentient beings without discriminating between enemies, friends, or neutral people (Rigzin 147).
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, third of three levels of the third dhyāna realm.
May refer to the sense faculties or one’s cognitive power, according to context.
Typically a reference to a priest in the Vedic tradition.
See “four meditative states.”
A shorter form of the six classes of beings, these are: (1) hell beings, (2) anguished spirits, (3) animals, (4) human beings, and (5) gods. The fifth category is divided into gods and demigods when six realms are enumerated.
These are (1) knowledge of miracles (riddividhijñānam, rdzu ’phrul gyi mngon par shes pa), (2) knowledge of the divine eye (divyaṃcakṣuḥ, lha’i mig gi mngon par shes pa), (3) knowledge of the minds of others (paracittābhijñānam, lha’i rna ba’i mngon par shes pa), (4) knowledge of the divine ear (divyamśrotam, lha’i rna ba’i mngon par shes pa), and (5) knowledge recollecting past lives (pūrvanirvāsānusmṛitijñānam, sngon gnas rjes dran gyi mngon par shes pa). These five can be attained by non-Buddhist and Buddhist practitioners alike. A sixth can be attained only by Buddhist practitioners: (6) knowledge of the extinction of the contaminations (āsravakṣayābhijñā, zag pa zad pa’i mngon par shes pa) (Rigzin 95–6, except #6, Skt. via Negi).
Child of householders in Śrāvasti, he was born “corpulent, full-fledged in skin, flesh, and blood.” He leapt from a boulder at the sight of the Buddha but was unharmed due to the Buddha’s blessing. Having then heard the Dharma from the Buddha, he went forth and manifested arhatship.
A city ruled by King Meru before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
A future solitary buddha.
A brahmin who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. In The Hundred Deeds he is said to have lived in the wilderness, gone forth in front of a certain sage, and manifested the four meditations and the five superknowledges.
A forest in the territory ruled by King Bimbisāra.
In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence one level more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings, though subtly embodied, are not driven primarily by the urge for sense gratification.
Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the purification) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one hundred and one such types of formal acts, all of which fall into one of three categories depending on the procedure needed for ratification. An act of motion alone requires only a petition; an act whose second member is a motion require a motion and the statement of the act; while an act whose fourth member is a motion require a motion and three statements of the act.
In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings.
The name of the current eon, so-called because one thousand buddhas are prophesied to appear during this time.
These are elephants, horse cavalry, chariots, and infantry (Tatelman 259).
Four gods who live on the lower slopes (fourth level) of Mount Meru in the eponymous Heaven of the Four Great Kings (Cāturmahārājika, rgyal chen bzhi’i ris) and guard the four cardinal directions. Each is the leader of a nonhuman class of beings living in his realm. They are Dhṛtarāṣṭra, ruling the gandharvas in the east; Virūḍhaka, ruling over the kumbhāṇḍas in the south; Virūpākṣa, ruling the nāgas in the west; and Vaiśravaṇa (also known as Kubera) ruling the yakṣas in the north. Also referred to as Guardians of the World or World Protectors (lokapāla, ’jig rten skyong ba).
Also called “four concentrations” or “meditations,” or “practices of concentration,” in the Sūtrayāna tradition this term refers to the four concentrations of the form realm (gzugs khams kyi bsam gtan bzhi) (Rigzin 455).
Probably a variant of the Buddha’s five observations (pañcadarśana), the five predeterminations of Buddha Śākyamuni before he came to this world: (1) dus la gzigs pa, observation of the time for his appearance; (2) rus la gzigs pa, observation of the family of his birth; (3) rigs la gzigs pa, observation of the caste of his lineage; (4) yum la gzigs pa, observation of the mother to whom he would be born; and (5) yul la gzigs pa, observation of the land in which to disseminate his doctrine (Rigzin 366).
“These are the four stages on the path of application (prayogamārga). They are heat (uṣmagata), tolerance (kṣānti), summit (mūrdha), and highest worldly dharma (laukikāgradharma).” Rotman (2005) p. 452.
Translated here as “heat,” “peak” (given as the second stage in this text), “patience in accord with the truths” (given as the third stage in this text), and “highest worldly dharma.”
Also called the four fearlessnesses or the four grounds of self-confidence of a buddha, these are fearlessness with respect to the assertion of (1) one’s complete and perfect extinguishment of all negativities for one’s own benefit (rang don du spang bya thams cad spangs ces dam bcas pa la ’jigs pa), (2) one’s complete and perfect accomplishment of knowledge for one’s own benefit (rang don du yon tan thams cad dang ldan zhes dam bcas pa la mi ’jigs pa), (3) revealing the paths of antidotes for the benefit of others (gzhan don du gnyen po’i lam ’di dag go zhes dam bcas pa la mi ’jigs pa), and (4) revealing the eliminations for the benefit of others (gzhan don du ’di rnams spang bya yin zhes dam bcas pa la mi ’jigs pa) (Rigzin 314).
See “four meditative states.”
The name of the room at the Jeta Grove monastery where the Buddha lived; the name of the innermost chamber in the original vihāra layout where the Buddha, and later his image, resided.
The formal term for granting orders and confirming a candidate as a bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī.
(1) Not killing (srog gcod spong ba), (2) not stealing (ma byin par len pa spong ba), (3) not indulging in sexual conduct (ma tshangs spyod spong ba), (4) not lying (brdzun du smra ba spong ba), (5) not taking intoxicants (myos ’gyur btung ba spong ba), (6) not using cosmetics, ornaments and garlands, etc. (spos dang kha dog byug pa spong ba), (7) not using high and luxurious seats or beds (khri stan che mtho spong ba), and (8) not taking untimely food/not eating after noon (dus min zas spong ba).
A mountain or mountain range closely associated with solitary buddhas.
A class of generally benevolent nonhuman beings who inhabit the skies, sometimes said to inhabit fantastic cities in the clouds, and more specifically to dwell on the eastern slopes of Mount Meru, where they are ruled by the Great King Dhṛtarāṣṭra. They are most renowned as celestial musicians who serve the gods. In the Abhidharma, the term is also used to refer to the mental body assumed by sentient beings during the intermediate state between death and rebirth. Gandharvas are said to live on fragrances (gandha) in the desire realm, hence the Tibetan translation dri za, meaning “scent eater.”
A park in Śrāvastī, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kośala in northern India. It was owned by Prince Jeta, and the wealthy merchant Anāthapiṇḍada, wishing to offer it to the Buddha, bought it from him by covering the entire property with gold coins. It was to become the place where the monks could be housed during the monsoon season, thus creating the first Buddhist monastery. It is therefore the setting for many of the Buddha's discourses.
A garden in Kauśāmbī that the householder Ghoṣila donated to the Buddhist saṅgha. This Tibetan rendering of Ghoṣilārāma only appears in The Hundred Deeds, and the precise correlation between the Tib. las rig and the standard Sanskrit for this location remains unclear.
An alternate spelling of Bharga, a country during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni that had its capital at Mount Śiśumāri.
Classified among the animals, they are a kind of fantastic bird akin to the eagle, and said to be enemies of nāgas and snakes.
Siddhārtha Gautama is the most common given name used for Buddha Śākyamuni prior to his enlightnement.
The name of the town that lies close to the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
A householder in Kauśāmbī who provided a garden for the Buddha and his monks to reside.
The son of King Glacier Lake Deity, a past monarch of the city of Campā.
Monarch of the city of Campā before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
To leave the life of a householder and embrace the life of a renunciant. In some passages in this text, especially when followed by the term bsnyen par rdzogs pa, this term has been amplified for clarity as “go forth as a novice,” this being a first stage leading to full ordination as a bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī.
In ancient Buddhist cosmology, the western of the four continents in the cardinal directions.
Lit. “weighing a karṣa,” a coin or weight of different values (Monier-Williams 276.3); a type of ancient Indian currency.
Golden-complexioned nun who achieved arhatship during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni, due to the intercession of a previous incarnation of Venerable Ānanda during the time of Buddha Kāśyapa.
“One gone to bliss.”An epithet of the buddhas. Also rendered here as “Gone to Bliss.”
One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of “accomplishment of one’s own purpose” (svārthasampad) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); and he has gone “without any remainder” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). According to Buddhaghoṣa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).
Son of the Vaiśālī army chief Siṃha at the time of the Buddha’s stay there, he was sentenced to death for the murder of a prostitute. The Buddha secured his release, ordained him, and he attained arhatship.
Along with Yaśodharā, a spouse of Gautama who, in this text, spurned the advances of Devadatta and subjected him to brutal humiliation.
A householder and magistrate of King Diśāṃpati of Pāṁśula. Father of Guardian of the Flame Govinda.
Short form of “Guardian of the Flame Govinda.”
Not to be confused with his father the householder Govinda.
See “Guardian of the Flame Govinda.”
A certain high brahmin of Rājagṛha, father of Son of Grasping.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology. The inhabitants of this heaven mistakenly think that they created everything.
A king ruling over a particularly large territory, often including the territories of other petty rulers; a class of divine beings assigned to the cardinal directions who guard the earth, Buddhist practitioners, and Buddhist institutions against demonic forces.
Eighth (and heaviest) of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. The extreme cold of this hell turns the skin of its denizens blue, red, and then extremely red until they crack apart in a hundred or more pieces. Also rendered here as “Great Lotus Hell.”
See “Splitting Open Like a Great Lotus Hell.”
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, third of three levels of the fourth dhyāna realm.
A garuḍa, king of birds, who lived on Mount Meru, and eventually went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts. He was the previous incarnation of the great king Vaiśravaṇa.
See “universal monarch.”
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, fourth of the five so-called pure realms of the form realm.
A past buddha.
See “Guardian of the Flame Govinda.”
A previous incarnation of Buddha Śākyamuni in The Hundred Deeds, he was the son of King Diśāṃpati of Pāṁśula’s magistrate, the householder Govinda. After his father’s death, he took over his work and became known as Guardian of the Flame, Guardian of the Flame Govinda, Govinda the Teacher, Mahāgovinda, or just Govinda.
The father of Upagupta noted as a perfume merchant in Mathurā.
A most highly revered personal spiritual teacher; not to be confused with the future buddha Guru.
Name of a future buddha.
A future solitary buddha.
A certain master archer in Vaiśālī.
The first of the four stages of penetrative insight.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, highest of the six heavens of the desire realm. The inhabitants enjoy objects created by others, then dispose of them themselves.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology. Counted among the six heavens of the desire realm, it is traditionally located atop Sumeru, just above the terrace of the Abodes of the Four Great Kings.
A denizen of the hells. See “five destinies.”
Eighth (and heaviest) of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. Only their miserable cries distinguish beings in this hell from the flames that engulf them.
Seventh of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. Inhabitants of this hell undergo all the sufferings of the Hot Hell, as well as being seared, beaten, and skewered.
The fourth of the four stages of penetrative insight.
The name of a river.
Sixth of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. Inhabitants of this hell are boiled in cauldrons, roasted in pans, beaten with hammers, and skewered with spears as their bodies burst into flame.
The term is usually used for wealthy lay patrons of the Buddhist community. It also refers to a subdivision of the vaiśya (mercantile) class of traditional Indian society, comprising businessmen, merchants, landowners, and so on.
A certain nāga king converted by Mādhyandina during his missionary work in Kashmir.
First of the twelve links of dependent origination, one of the root afflictive emotions (see also “subsidiary afflictive emotions”), it is the root of misapprehension of phenomena as truly existent (Rigzin 311).
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, second of three levels of the second dhyāna realm.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, second of three levels of the third dhyāna realm.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, second of three levels of the fourth dhyāna realm.
A Vedic god who eventually emerged as one of the most important in the Vedic pantheon; Indra retains his role as the “King of the Gods” in Buddhist literature, where he is often referred to by the name Śakra
The name of a cave on Mount Videha south of Rājagṛha.
Also translated here as “initial consideration.”
Also translated here as “thought construction.”
Wisdom, knowledge, cognition, quality of awareness (Rigzin 396).
An important form of Buddhist meditation focusing on developing insight into the nature of phenomena. Often presented as part of a pair of meditation techniques, the other being “calm abiding.”
The son of Daṇḍadhara (more commonly Daṇḍapāṇi) and brother of Yaśodharā and Venerable Aniruddha. His name in Tibetan, mda’ thogs, is rendered here with the potential back-translation Iṣudhara.
An epithed of the god Śiva.
Nickname of the child of wealthy householders in Śrāvasti, so called because of his penchant for eating excrement and drinking urine. After taking instruction from the philosophical extremist Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, who admired his ostenisible austerities, he heard the Dharma from the Buddha, went forth, and manifested arhatship.
A future buddha.
The name of the southern continent in Buddhist cosmology, which can signify either the known human world, or more specifically the Indian subcontinent, literally “the jambu island/continent.” Jambu is the name used for a range of plum-like fruits from trees belonging to the genus Szygium, particularly Szygium jambos and Szygium cumini, and it has commonly been rendered “rose apple,” although “black plum” may be a less misleading term. Among various explanations given for the continent being so named, one (in the Abhidharmakośa) is that a jambu tree grows in its northern mountains beside Lake Anavatapta, mythically considered the source of the four great rivers of India, and that the continent is therefore named from the tree or the fruit. Jambudvīpa has the Vajrāsana at its center and is the only continent upon which buddhas attain awakening.
Child of householders in Śrāvastī, eventually ordained. At the time of his entrance into the womb and again upon his birth a rain of jasmine flowers fell. He went on to attain arhatship and various spiritual qualities from the cause of having scattered loose jasmine petals over, and having made offerings and prayers to reliquary stūpas in a previous life.
Lit. “Victorious.” King of the city of Undefeated Victory before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
A highly skilled healer and personal physician of Buddha Śākyamuni, he figures into many stories of the Buddha, his disciples, and other associates.
A future solitary buddha.
A woman who, because she had previously been the Buddha’s mother for five hundred lifetimes, saw him as her son and ran to embrace him. Then, hearing the Dharma from him, she became ordained and manifested arhatship, and the Buddha declared her foremost among nuns who interpret the sūtras.
A clairvoyant sage who lived with five hundred devotees in the forests of the Adumā region and spent time on the banks of Lake Mandākinī. His nephew was the sage Śaila.
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
A certain nāga king who praised Gautama prior to his enlightenment.
Not to be confused with Black (nag po), the yakṣa; nor with Black (nag po), the brahmin.
A certain place in Bamboo Gove (Veṇuvana) in Rājagṛha, the Sanskrit name meaning “dwelling place of squirrels;” it was so named by King Bimbisāra after being saved from attack by a snake there thanks to the squawking of many kalandaka—flying squirrels, Sanskrit and Pali sources suggest, but crows or other birds according to the Tibetan rendering. It is also sometimes called Kalandakanivāpa, “place where squirrels are fed.”
Name of a buddha who preceded Śākyamuni, usually counted as the second buddha of the current fortunate eon, Śākyamuni being the fourth.
The name of an important ancient Indian city identified as modern Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, India.
The name of a sage.
Near the Himālayas, the city that was home to the Śākya clan into which Buddha Śākyamuni was born.
King of Kanyakubja before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Country whose capital was Vārāṇasī, in the Buddha’s time it had been absorbed into Kośala. Its monarch was Brahmadatta (past).
“Beauty of Kāśi.” Princess of Vārāṇasī, child of Brahmadatta (present), who was extraordinarily beautiful and desired by six royal suitors. When her father announced she would choose her own spouse, she “chose” the Buddha, went forth, and manifested arhatship.
A monk of Buddha Śākyamuni’s order who was first in the apostolic succession that carried on Lord Buddha’s teaching after his parinirvāṇa. Also rendered here simply as “Kāśyapa.”
Not to be confused with Buddha Kāśyapa, nor with Uruvilvā Kāśyapa, Nadī Kāśyapa, or Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, nor with Nirgrantha Kāśyapa, nor Foremost Kāśyapa.
See “Mahākāśyapa.”
Buddha of a previous age.
Not to be confused with the monk Kāśyapa of Buddha Śākyamuni’s order, nor with Uruvilvā Kāśyapa, Nadī Kāśyapa, or Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, nor with Nirgrantha Kāśyapa, nor Foremost Kāśyapa.
The son of a poor brahmin farmer who lived outside of Rājagṛha, he mistook Nirgrantha Jñātiputra for Buddha Śākyamuni and became Nirgrantha Jñātiputra’s student. He then took refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha shortly before his death. Also called “Nirgrantha Kāśyapa,” or simply “Kāśyapa,” his given name.
See “Nirgrantha Kinsman of the Kāśyapas.”
Given name of “Nirgrantha Kinsman of the Kāśyapas.”
Not to be confused with Kāśyapa, buddha of a previous age; the monk Kāśyapa of Buddha Śākyamuni’s order; nor with Uruvilvā Kāśyapa, Nadī Kāśyapa, or Pūraṇa Kāśyapa; nor Foremost Kāśyapa.
Ordained by the Buddha in Vārāṇasī shortly after the Buddha’s enlightenment; brother of Nadī Kāśyapa.
One of four cronies of Devadatta.
Son of She Who Gathers and grandson of Padmagarbha, he was a highly realized monk of Buddha Śākyamuni’s order. Also rendered here as “Kātyāyanaputra.”
See “Kātyāyana.”
See “Kātyāyana.”
See “Ājñātakauṇḍinya.”
An ancient city, capital of Vatsa, located down the Ganges River from Rājagṛha.
“One who belongs to the Kuśika lineage.” An epithet of the god Śakra, also known as Indra, the king of the gods in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. In the Ṛgveda, Indra is addressed by the epithet Kauśika, with the implication that he is associated with the descendants of the Kuśika lineage (gotra) as their aiding deity. In later epic and Purāṇic texts, we find the story that Indra took birth as Gādhi Kauśika, the son of Kuśika and one of the Vedic poet-seers, after the Puru king Kuśika had performed austerities for one thousand years to obtain a son equal to Indra who could not be killed by others. In the Pāli Kusajātaka (Jāt V 141–45), the Buddha, in one of his former bodhisattva lives as a Trāyastriṃśa god, takes birth as the future king Kusa upon the request of Indra, who wishes to help the childless king of the Mallas, Okkaka, and his chief queen Sīlavatī. This story is also referred to by Nāgasena in the Milindapañha.
Young woman appointed by King Śākya Suprabuddha to look after the hair of his daughters Mahāmāyā and Māyā (the Buddha’s mother and aunt, respectively).
One of four cronies of Devadatta.
A forest that is burned to the ground by Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna in the conclusion to the first book (ādiparvan) of the Mahābhārata.
An epithet of the Buddha.
Classified among the gods, these celestial beings are sometimes depicted as half-human, half-horse (similar to centaurs) or half-human, half-bird. Whatever the case, they are considered creatures of surpassing beauty. Also the name of a person, see “Kinnara.”
Child of wealthy householders in Śrāvastī, he was named for his resemblence to beautiful kinnara spirits. His arrogance about his good looks was dispelled upon meeting the Buddha, from whom he heard the Dharma before going forth and manifesting arhatship. See also the class of beings, “kinnara.”
One of four cronies of Devadatta.
An ancient kingdom, northwest of Magadha, abutting Kāśi, whose capital was Śrāvastī. During the Buddha’s time it was ruled by Prasenajit.
A previous buddha of this eon, often listed as the first of five buddhas of the present eon.
Monarch who covered Buddha Kāśyapa’s reliquary stūpa and the surrounding area with four kinds of jewels to the distance of one mile.
One of the four social castes of the braminical varṇāśramadharma system.
See “warrior class.”
Princess of Kośala, child of King Prasenajit.
The son of King Brahmadatta (present) of Vārāṇasī and the younger brother of Princess Kṣemaṅkarā.
Princess of Vārāṇasī, child of King Brahmadatta (present), elder sibling of Prince Kṣemaṅkara.
A Hindu god of wealth, appearing in the Buddhist pantheon as Vaiśravaṇa.
A class of evil being commonly mentioned alongside yakṣas, piśācas, bhūtas, etc.; Virūḍhaka is sometimes named as the lord of the kumbhāṇḍa, as is Rudra; also associated with the māras (Edgerton 187.2); a type of yakṣa having a human body but an animal head; a type of preta (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary).
A sea monster; a crocodile of the Ganges (Monier-Williams).
A certain bird that lived on Gandhamādana Mountain, who died with thoughts of joy toward the Buddha and therefore took rebirth as a god.
In ancient Buddhist cosmology, the northern of the four continents in the cardinal directions, that of “Unpleasant Sound.”
A garden frequented by Devadatta and his followers.
Village in the country of Mallā where the Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa.
A kind of sweetmeat made of coarsely ground gram or other pulse or of corn flour, mixed with sugar and spices, and fried in ghee or oil (Monier-Williams).
A certain lake on the banks of which the mendicant Subhadra often spent his days.
The Mandākinī river, which translates as “the slow-flowing” river, is the name of a specific tributary of the Ganges that flows through the Kedāranātha valley in the Himālayas, as well as a name that might be used for other rivers (Monier-Williams 788.2). The term is assumed to refer to a lake in this case (and not a river) because the Tibetan uses the term mtsho.
An arhat monk whose past virtuous deeds ripened into countless glories both human and divine.
Someone who is ordained late in their life.
A latent propensity, proclivity, or disposition.
An ordained layperson; a layperson who has taken any or all of the five precepts (see the first five of the “fundamental precepts”) (Rigzin 52).
The state of a person who has not yet attained arhatship.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, first of three levels of the third dhyāna realm.
One of the great Indian clans during the time of the Buddha, their home was Vaiśālī.
The animating life force present in all living beings and often equated with the “breath.”
The main pillar in the center of a stūpa.
Literally means “open an opportunity”; it refers to the pravāraṇa, or the “lifting of restrictions” ceremony held at the end of each summer rains retreat, in which monks are given an “opportunity,” otherwise prohibited, to oppose and debate what was heard, seen, or suspected while undertaking a rains retreat.
Apparently a reference to either the seven limbs of enlightenment or the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, first of three levels of the second dhyāna realm.
The son of wealthy householders in Śrāvastī, who in a former life had been their dog. He became an attendant of Venerable Śāriputra and manifested arhatship while still in his novitiate.
Honorific term for an ordained person.
Handsome monk who went forth under Venerable Upasena, he was named for his complexion, which was the color of a lotus-heart.
Seventh of the eight cold hells of Buddhist cosmology. The extreme cold of this hell turns the skin of its denizens blue and then red until they crack apart in ten or more pieces. Also rendered here as “Lotus Hell.”
See “Splitting Open Like a Lotus Hell.”
A certain sage who was third in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
An ancient Indian kingdom that lay to the south of the Ganges River in what today is the state of Bihar. Magadha was the largest of the sixteen “great states” (mahājanapada) that flourished between the sixth and third centuries ʙᴄᴇ in northern India. During the life of the Buddha Śākyamuni, it was ruled by King Bimbisāra and later by Bimbisāra's son, Ajātaśatru. Its capital was initially Rājagṛha (modern-day Rajgir) but was later moved to Pāṭaliputra (modern-day Patna). Over the centuries, with the expansion of the Magadha’s might, it became the capital of the vast Mauryan empire and seat of the great King Aśoka.
This region is home to many of the most important Buddhist sites, including Bodh Gayā, where the Buddha attained awakening; Vulture Peak (Gṛdhrakūṭa), where the Buddha bestowed many well-known Mahāyāna sūtras; and the Buddhist university of Nālandā that flourished between the fifth and twelfth centuries ᴄᴇ, among many others.
A certain mango grove in the country of Mithilā where the Buddha once stayed.
An epithet of the god Śiva. Though not in this text, in other texts this term may also appear as an epithet of the Buddha. Alternatively a certain king of Mithilā who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni, see “Mahādeva (the king).”
In former times, the king of the city of Mithilā. His two chief ministers were Nanda and Upananda.
In other contexts, sometimes an epithet of the god Śiva, see “Mahādeva.”
See “Guardian of the Flame Govinda.”
Along with Śāriputra, one of the Buddha’s two foremost disciples, known for his miraculous powers. Also rendered here simply as “Maudgalyāyana.”
See “Mahāmaudgalyāyana.”
Buddha Śākyamuni’s mother. She and her sister Māyā both married King Śuddhodana of Kapilavastu. Here she is said to be the daughter of Śākya Suprabuddha. In other stories, Mahāmāyā is alternatively said to be the daughter of King Āñjāna of Devaḍaha. Also called “Mahāmāyādevī” and “Māyādevī.”
See “Mahāmāyā.”
See “Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī.”
Siddhārtha Gautama’s aunt, who raised him following his mother’s death and who later became the first woman to go forth as a member of Buddha Śākyamuni’s monastic saṅgha. Also rendered here as “Mahāprajāpatī.”
King of the city of Ayodhyā before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Not to be confused with Mahendra or Mahendrasena.
“Great Breath.” The previous incarnation of the great king Virūdhaka as a nāga king who lived on Mount Meru, and who eventually went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts.
King of the city of Potalaka, father of Mahendrasena.
Queen and wife of King Mahendrasena of Videha
Foretold as the name of a future monarch of Kauśāmbī, during the time of the Dharma’s disappearance from our world.
In either case not to be confused with Mahendra or Mahāsena, neither Mahendrasena, the King of Videha; Mahendrasena, the prince of Potalaka; or Mahendrasena, the king of Vārāṇasī.
King of Vārāṇasī, a previous incarnation of the Buddha.
Typically given as the name of the King of Videha, son of King Mahendra, and a previous incarnation of the Buddha.
Not to be confused with Mahendra or Mahāsena; or with Mahendrasena, a future monarch of Kauśāmbī; Mahendrasena, the prince of Potalaka; or Mahendrasena, the king of Vārāṇasī.
A previous incarnation of the Buddha, who was son of King Mahendra, the ruler of the city of Potalaka.
Not to be confused with Mahendra or Mahāsena., or with Mahendrasena, a future monarch of Kauśāmbī; Mahendrasena, the king of Videha; or Mahendrasena, the king of Vārāṇasī.
A certain yakṣa, a friend of the Buddha.
A certain compassionate king of Vārāṇasī and a previous incarnation of the Buddha.
A certain brahmin of high caste, father of More Majestic. He heard the Dharma from the Buddha and attained stream entry.
A certain country during the time of the Buddha in which Kuśinagarī was located.
A certain brahmin village during the Buddha’s time.
“Jewel Light,” a certain young god who in the garden of Prince Jeta in Śrāvastī scattered flowers over the Buddha, sat before him to listen to the Dharma, and manifested stream entry.
Words of power; incantation; lit. “mind-protector”; single or combined Sanskrit syllables repeated as invocations, based on the power of sound (Rigzin 98).
A class of beings related to the demon Māra or a term for the demon Māra himself. Māra and the māras are portrayed as the primary adversaries and tempters of people who vow to take up the religious life, and can be understood as a class of demonic beings responsible for perpetuating the illusion that keeps beings bound to the world and worldly attachments and the mental states those beings elicit.
Literally “Monkey Pond,” the name of a pond and/or caitya at, or near, Vaiśālī (Edgerton 420.1).
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. Also rendered here as “Parivrājaka Gośālīputra.”
See “Maskarin Gośālīputra.”
One of the five aggregates, that which gives rise to physical qualities.
City located in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, India, historically renowned for its redstone Buddha images.
Friend of Buddha Śākyamuni’s previous incarnation Sumati. He became angry when he saw Buddha Dīpaṃkara step on Sumati’s hair, causing him to take rebirth as a hell being.
Buddhist lists or summaries akin to abhidharma.
Buddha Śākyamuni’s aunt, and the daughter of Śākya Suprabuddha. She and her sister Mahāmāyā (Buddha Śākyamuni’s mother) both married King Śuddhodana of Kapilavastu. Somewhat confusingly, in other stories she is identified as Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī, q.v., while Māyā is often used as a short form of the name of the Buddha’s mother Mahāmāyā.
See “Mahāmāyā.”
Also called “(meditative) concentration,” “meditative state,” and a state of mind in which one is able to focus one’s attention single-pointedly on any suitable virtuous object without wavering (Rigzin 455). Closely related to meditative stabilization (samādhi).
The term “meditation” has also been used in this translation to render sgom pa (meditation training) and ting nge ’dzin (meditative stabilization).
Acquainting the mind with a virtuous object or mentally contemplating the Buddha’s teachings (Rigzin 75). Also translated here as “meditation.”
Also called “(meditative) concentration,” the ability of the mind to concentrate on a specific object of cognition for a length of time (Rigzin 144). Closely related to dhyāna. Also rendered here as “meditation.”
One of the seven limbs of enlightenment.
King of the city Flourishing Rice who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Also called “method.”
Also called “skillful means.”
Not forgetting the Buddha’s teachings amid whatever activities one is currently undertaking. See also “three kinds of sterling equanimity.” Closely related to vigilant introspection.
A city ruled in former times by King Mahādeva.
A term denoting a permanent structure built to house members of the monastic saṅgha
See “Vinaya.”
The name for the canon of monastic discipline recorded in the Tripiṭaka, of the vows and commitments enshrined therein, and of the practice of that discipline. Also rendered here as “monastic discipline.”
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).
Child of the high brahmin Majestic Body, he visited Lord Buddha to inquire about the proper way to perform the sacrifice, and hearing the Dharma that the Buddha taught in reply he attained stream entry.
A mountain that is home to The Terrifying Forest (’jigs byed ma’i tshal) and a deer park where Devadatta’s disciple Kokālika is said to have lived.
The name of the capital city of Bharga (see “Garga”). (Edgerton 531.2).
A certain mountain south of Rājagṛha.
A future buddha.
One of King Prasenajit’s two chief ministers in Śrāvastī.
A group of ascetics who took vows to live as deer, draping themselves in deerskin, carrying about horns, and residing in close proximity to deer.
Went forth under the Buddha in Vārāṇasī shortly after the Buddha’s enlightenment; brother of Uruvilvā Kāśyapa.
A class of nonhuman beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments, where they guard wealth and sometimes also teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and have a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, they are regularly portrayed as half human and half snake, and they are also said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed. They may likewise fight one another, wage war, and destroy the lands of others by causing lightning, hail, and flooding.
The name of a king who reigned over the peaceful, flourishing city Ayodhyā before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
A certain class of Indian renunciants whose ascetic practice involves the eschewal of clothing.
A town near Rājagṛha, it is home to the brahmin Tiṣya, father of Śāriputra Upatiṣya.
Fourth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
Young woman of Serika village, who, along with Nandabalā, is credited in this text and in the Divyāvadāna with giving honeyed porridge prepared from milk to Gautama prior to his enlightenment.
Along with Upananda, one of King Mahādeva’s two chief ministers in the city of Mithilā.
Not to be confused with “Nanda,” a certain nāga.
The name of a certain nāga.
Not to be confused with “Nanda,” one of King Mahādeva’s ministers.
Young woman of Serika village, who, along with Nandā, is credited in this text and in the Divyāvadāna with giving honeyed porridge prepared from milk to Gautama prior to his enlightenment.
One of the Buddha’s great disciples.
In the Hindu tradition understood as the god Viṣṇu in the form of the “Supreme Lord.” He is associated with the peacock feather. Not to be confused with the householder Viṣṇu.
A certain nāga king and the hermitage that bears his name.
(1–4) the four meditative states, (5–8) the four absorptions within the formless realm (caturārūpyasamāpatti, gzugs med [snyoms ’jug] bzhi), and (9) the meditative absorption of cessation (nirodhasamāpatti, ’gog pa’i snyoms ’jug).
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
The stage of a person who has attained the highest level of realization on their respective path, whether that of the listeners, the solitary buddhas or the buddhas.
Also known as a “noble being,” “exalted being,” “a superior”; one who has attained the third path, i.e., the path of seeing upon which one becomes a real saṅgha refuge.
See “noble one.”
(1) Right view, (2) right understanding, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right meditation. See also thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.
A synonym for liberation from becoming or rebirth in the three realms (desire, form, and formless).
A practitioner whose level of realization is such that he or she need take no further saṃsāric rebirth to achieve enlightenment; they are in their final rebirth.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, first of the five so-called pure realms of the form realm.
Twelfth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
A practitioner whose level of realization is such that he or she need only take one further saṃsāric rebirth to achieve enlightenment.
A synonym for the path of the Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna) and the path of the Vehicle of the Bodhisattvas (Bodhisattvayāna).
A region of ancient India, not far from Mathurā.
Literally, “to flow” or “to ooze.” Mental defilements or contaminations that “flow out” toward the objects of cyclic existence, binding us to them. Vasubandhu offers two alternative explanations of this term: “They cause beings to remain (āsayanti) within saṃsāra” and “They flow from the Summit of Existence down to the Avīci hell, out of the six wounds that are the sense fields” (Abhidharmakośabhāṣya 5.40; Pradhan 1967, p. 308). The Summit of Existence (bhavāgra, srid pa’i rtse mo) is the highest point within saṃsāra, while the hell called Avīci (mnar med) is the lowest; the six sense fields (āyatana, skye mched) here refer to the five sense faculties plus the mind, i.e., the six internal sense fields.
King of Takṣaśīla during the time of the Buddha, he was father of She Who Gathers.
A future buddha.
The name of an ancient city ruled by King Diśāṃpati. Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana are said to have lived on the outskirts of this city during their former lifetimes as ascetics.
The name of a warrior tribe and their country in the north of India (Monier-Williams 578.3).
A certain young gandharva allied with the god Śakra.
Upon his birth his parents’ household and those of all who went to see him began to succeed in all their endeavors.
Not to be confused with the tailor Paṅgu.
A tailor whose name means “a person who crawls,” he was the child of wealthy householders in Śrāvastī, born with paralyzed legs.
Not to be confused with the Paṅgu who caused all those who went to see him to succeed in all their endeavors.
The nirvāṇa that enlightened beings attain upon corporeal death. Also rendered here as “to pass beyond all sorrow.”
See “parinirvāṇa.”
A specific order of mendicants, or a general term for homeless religious mendicants who, literally, “roam around”; in Buddhist usage the term can refer to non-Buddhist peripatetic ascetics including Jains and others.
A buddha of a previous eon.
See “parinirvāṇa.”
“Lord of All Animals,” an epithet of the god Śiva.
The name of an ancient city, the capital of Magadha was moved to Pāṭaliputra during the Mauryan expansion, and Pāṭaliputra would then serve as the capital of King Aśoka’s Maurya empire. Identified with the modern Indian city of Patna.
The third of the four stages of penetrative insight, typically rendered simply as kṣānti or “patience.”
The second of the four stages of penetrative insight.
One of the five aggregates, sometimes also called “recognition” or “discrimination,” this refers to the discriminative power of the mind in relation to objects.
One of the meanings of the Skt. term “dharma.”
Holders of philosophical views diverging from the Buddhist philosophy of the Middle Way into one of the two “extremes” of nihilism or eternalism. In the Buddha’s day they were typified by the non-Buddhist teachers Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, Parivrājaka Gośālīputra, Saṃjayin Vairaṭīputra, Ajita Keśakambala, Kakuda Kātyāyana, and Nirgrantha Jñātiputra.
May refer to a specific genre or style of scholastic Sanskritic literature, or simply to scholastic literature in general; in Buddhist traditions the term śāstra usually signifies a text that was composed by a human author, as opposed to texts first spoken, composed, or revealed by an enlightened being. Also translated here as “philosophical texts.”
See “treatise.”
A monk of the Buddha’s order, declared by the Buddha as supreme among “lion roarers,” i.e., teachers of the Dharma. Cf. “Kuṇālavadāna,” ch. 27, v. 84 in the Divyāvadana, which details the noble one’s encounter in his old age with King Aśoka.
A class of nonhuman beings that, like several other classes of nonhuman beings, take spontaneous birth. Ranking below rākṣasas, they are less powerful and more akin to pretas. They are said to dwell in impure and perilous places, where they feed on impure things, including flesh. This could account for the name piśāca, which possibly derives from √piś, to carve or chop meat, as reflected also in the Tibetan sha za, “meat eater.” They are often described as having an unpleasant appearance, and at times they appear with animal bodies. Some possess the ability to enter the dead bodies of humans, thereby becoming so-called vetāla, to touch whom is fatal.
The Tibetan is obscure. Lobsang Jamspal suggests the term means “to be nice to; to adulate; to flatter, before showing your real aim.”
The saṅgha’s confession ceremony; the bi-monthly monastic gathering for the restoration of virtues and purification of negativies as prescribed by the Buddha (Rigzin 454).
A future buddha.
The name of the mountain where the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara dwells (Edgerton 354.2). A city ruled by King Mahendra before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
King of the country of Kośala, he reigned in the city of Śrāvastī. Sometime enemy of King Brahmadatta (present), with whom he eventually reconciled.
The vows of moral discipline which are followed by monks and nuns. The term “prātimokṣa” can be used to refer both to the disciplinary rules themselves and to the texts from the Vinaya that contain them.
Prince who sold the so-called garden of Prince Jeta in Śrāvastī to the householder Anāthapiṇḍada, who built a monastery there and offered it to the Buddha.
The Hundred Deeds appears to list him as one of the attendants of the queen in Śrāvastī during the time of the Buddha. Elsewhere he and his associate Datta are remembered as a ministers or attendants (sthapati) to King Prasenajit.
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
A certain brahmin, child of wealthy householders in Śrāvastī, who became an attendant of Venerable Aniruddha before returning home at his parents’ request and manifesting arhatship. Appears in the Story of Pūraṇa.
A wealthy householder in Rājagṛha whom the Buddha prophesied would become the future Buddha Pūrṇa.
The name of a brahmin who appears in the āvadana literature as a ruler or chief of the town of Utkaṭa and alternately in the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya as a king of Taxila (Edgerton 349.1).
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, third of three levels of the second dhyāna realm.
Eminent among the long-life gods, he is said to have on different occasions seized the sun and moon, only releasing them on the Buddha’s order.
Son of Siddhartha Gautama, who, when the latter attained awakening as Buddha Śākyamuni, became a monk and eventually one of his foremost disciples.
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.
A class of terrestrial demons perhaps similar to ogres.
Literally “one in a hundred.” Also rendered here as “should it be the case that,” “rare,” and “rarely.”
brgya la las is literally “one in a hundred.” Also rendered here as “rarely,” “should it be the case that,” and “should it happen that.”
The name of a mythical island full of jewels and gemstones to which residents of Jambudvīpa occasionally attempted voyages to find their fortunes.
A future buddha.
A monument containing a relic of a buddha or other holy beings (Rigzin 112).
A son of King Diśāṃpati of Pāṁśula who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. He became king after the death of his father. In The Hundred Deeds, he is said to have been a previous incarnation of King Bimbisāra.
The state achieved by a non-returner.
The state achieved by a once-returner.
First (and lightest) of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. Born frightened of one another, the inhabitants of the Reviving Hell fight with each other using sharp weapons, die, and are instantly revived over and over to continue fighting.
Along with the Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda, and Atharva Veda, one of the four Vedas, the most ancient Sanskrit religious literature of India.
Also called “right conduct,” it is convincing others that your activities conform with the doctrine and are harmonious with pure ethics (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
Possibly a reference to yang dag par shes pa’i ye shes bzhi, the “four right cognitions [of the mode of being of phenomena]” (Rangjung Yeshe).
To meditate repeatedly on the meaning of reality that has already been seen or experienced; an antidote to the objects to be abandoned on the path of seeing (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
To convince others that your livelihood is free from wrong means, such as wheedling behavior, flattery, and so forth (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
Also called “right concentration,” it is to establish meditative concentration free from the faults of laxity and excitement; an antidote to hindrances (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.” Also rendered here as “right meditative concentration.”
See “right meditation.”
To retain the object of calm abiding and insight meditation without forgetting it; an antidote to forgetfulness (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
To show others—by means of teaching, debate, and writing—the nature of reality free from conceptual elaborations (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
Also called “right determination,” “right thought,” it is to examine how the profound meaning understood through the study of texts complies with the teachings of the Buddha (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
To discern through analytical means the reality of the four noble truths and other phenomena (Rigzin 377). See also “noble eightfold path,” “thirty-seven wings of enlightenment.”
Traditional ritual worship involving a sacrificial fire into which oblations are offered.
A vase commonly used in brahminical rituals; a vase used to store drinking water.
A scriptural exegete from the south during the Buddha’s time, who Princess She Who Gathers of Takṣaśīla let defeat her in debate, in order to marry him. Their child was Kātyāyana.
A virtuous action or state of mind that will “ripen” into happiness later in this life, the next, or at some point in the unknown future.
A variety of anguished spirit.
A certain nunnery, residence of Bhikṣuṇī Sthūlanandā.
“Speech of the Sages,” an alternate name for Ṛṣipatana (drang srong lhung ba), the location of the Deer Park outside of Vārāṇasī where the Buddha first turned the wheel of Dharma.
A goddess typically understood to be the wife of Indra/Śakra.
drang srong is literally “the righteous one”; ancient Vedic masters and practitioners (Rigzin 200).
A specific epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.
The world system in which Jambudvīpa is located. One of the epithets of Brahmā is Sahāṃpati Brahmā, “Brahmā, Lord of Sahā.”
Son of Siddhārtha Gautama’s maternal grandfather King Suprabuddha of Videha.
An epithet of Brahmā meaning “Lord of the Sahā World.”
Sage who lived with five hundred devotees in the forest and spent time on the banks of Lake Mandākinī, his maternal uncle was the sage Kaineya.
Appears in The Hundred Deeds as the name of a king and a people dwelling in the “barbaric outlying region” south of Jambudvīpa.
Common epithet of the god Indra, in Skt. meaning “Mighty One,” and in Tib., “Hundred Gifts” (because he is said to have attained his state by performing one hundred pūjās). This epithet often appears together with the title “King of Gods.” He is ruler of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Name of the ancient tribe in which the Buddha was born as a prince; their kingdom was based to the east of Kośala, in the foothills near the present-day border of India and Nepal, with Kapilavastu as its capital.
King of Vṛji, father of Buddha Śākyamuni’s mother Mahāmāyā. See “Suprabuddha.”
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.
Along with the Ṛg Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda, one of the four Vedas, the most ancient Sanskrit religious literature of India.
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
One of four cronies of Devadatta.
A certain householder who was fourth among those in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
Son of King Udayana of Vatsa, he went forth by Venerable Kātyāyanaputra.
Along with Maudgalyāyana, one of Buddha Śākyamuni’s two foremost disciples, known for his erudition. His full given name is Śāriputra Upatiṣya; also rendered here as Upatiṣya.
See “Śāriputra.”
Fifth of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. An even larger version of the Shrieking Hell, likewise named for the cries of its inhabitants.
An individual who is well versed in a particular textual lineage or lineages.
Appearing in the Mahāvyutpatti as a type of dhyāna, this term is used in The Hundred Deeds to signify a period of secluded meditation retreat.
See “four meditative states.”
An epithet for Buddha Śākyamuni, or for any fully awakened buddha.
One of the five aggregates, and seventh of the twelve links of dependent origination, comprising the gamut of mental and physical sensations.
See “six sense bases.”
A certain village during the Buddha’s time, home to Nandā and Nandabalā.
(1) Faith (sŕaddhā, dad pa), (2) moral discipline (śīla, tshul khrims), (3) hearing (śruta, thos pa), (4) generosity (tyāga, gtong ba), (5) a sense of shame (hrī, ngo tsha shes pa), (6) dread of blame (āpatrāpya, khrel yod pa), (7) wisdom (prajñā, shes rab) (Rigzin 271).
(1) Mindfulness (smṛiti, dran pa), (2) wisdom (dharmapravicaya, chos rab tu rnam ’byed/shes rab), (3) diligence (vīrya, brtson ’grus), (4) joy (prīti, dga’ ba), (5) mental and physical pliancy (praśrabdhi, shin sbyangs), (6) meditative stabilization (samādhi, ting nge ’dzin), and (7) equanimity (upekṣā, btang snyoms).
Princess of Takṣaśīla, child of Padmagarbha, mother of Kātyāyana, and spouse of Riu. During the Buddha’s time she defeated all the scriptural exegetes from neighboring lands in debate.
Fourth of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. Named for the cries of its inhabitants who are engulfed in a tremendous blaze.
A king who ruled in the palace of Catuṣka before the time of Śākyamuni Buddha. He was a previous incarnation of the Buddha who as a bodhisattva bargained his own flesh and blood away to Śakra (appearing in the guise of a cannibal demon) in return for hearing the verse that appears as the first in the Udānavarga collection.
See “Gautama.”
In The Hundred Deeds, a certain army chief in Vaiśālī by this name appears twice (in part 4: “The Story of Siṃha” and in part 5: “The Story of Good Compassion”). It is not clear whether this army chief refers the same person or not.
In the first story, he is the father of a ugly and stinking son who heard the Dharma from the Blessed One, went forth, and was healed of his afflictions. In the second story, he is the father of Good Compassion who was sentenced to death but was released and went forth under the Buddha.
King of Kapilavastu. His children were Amṛtā, Droṇā, Śuklā, Śuddhā, Amṛtodana, Droṇodana, Śuklodana, and Śuddhodana.
A forest located to the north of the city of Ujjayinī. The śiṃśapā is identified as the tree D albergia sissoo or Indian Rosewood in the Atharva Veda (Monier-Williams 1069.3).
A sea monster; lit. “the child-killer,” the Gangetic porpoise or dolphin (Monier-Williams).
Son of the brahmin Agnidatta in the country of Pāṭaliputra, a monk and Tripiṭaka master whose murder at the hands of Sūrata’s disciples hastens the Dharma’s disappearance from this world.
The five senses and their objects, plus the mind and phenomena known to the mind. Together they comprise the fifth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
Read as a variant of the Tib. bram ze’i las drug, they are (1) reading (klog pa), (2) encouraging others to read (klog tu ’jug pa), (3) making sacrificial offerings (mchod sbyin), (4) encouraging others to perform sacrificial offerings (mchod sbyin byed du ’jug pa), (5) practicing giving/giving alms (sbyin pa), and (6) accepting alms/offerings (len pa) (Rigzin 285).
A certain monk of the Buddha’s order whose vile deeds committed against his mother in a previous life ripened into a series of hell births. Finally attaining a human birth, he had a curved spine and went hungry, then drank ash-gruel and passed into parinirvāṇa.
The name of the king of Śobhāvatī during the time of Buddha Krakucchanda or, alternately in the Pāli tradition, Buddha Kanakamuni (Edgerton 533.1). The Hundred Deeds contains stories about King Śobha that reflect both of these traditions.
A royal palace ruled by King Śobha during the time of Buddha Kanakamuni or, alternately, during the time of Buddha Krakucchanda.
These are beings who in their final existence achieve a lower enlightenment than that of the complete and perfect buddhas, and do so without relying on a teacher.
Son of Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī), the magistrate of King Brahmadatta (past). He and his brother Tongue of Fire went forth and became sages, attaining the four meditations and the five superknowledges.
Son of the high brahmin Grasping of Rājagṛha. As he was lying ill, Venerable Śāriputra gave him a teaching on the four immeasurables. Admonishing Venerable Śāriputra for a lack of foresight, the Buddha then gave him an additional teaching on the four noble truths, leading him to manifest the resultant state of a non-returner and take rebirth as a god.
In Buddhist literature this term refers to a clairvoyant, typically a brahminical sage, who is versed in reading signs around the birth of a child.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, second of the five so-called pure realms of the form realm.
A garuḍa, king of birds, who lived on Mount Meru, and eventually went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts. He was the previous incarnation of the great king Virūpākṣa.
A term denoting the leader of a people and/or a religious sect.
Alt. “the activity field infinite as boundless space” (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary). Here the Blessed One begins an enumeration of the four formless realm states.
Short form of the Tib. bshes gnyen.
During the life of the Buddha, Śrāvastī was the capital city of the powerful kingdom of Kośala, ruled by King Prasenajit, who became a follower and patron of the Buddha. It was also the hometown of Anāthapiṇḍada, the wealthy patron who first invited the Buddha there, and then offered him a park known as Jetavana, Prince Jeta’s Grove, which became one of the first Buddhist monasteries. The Buddha is said to have spent about twenty-five rainy seasons with his disciples in Śrāvastī, thus it is named as the setting of numerous events and teachings. It is located in present-day Uttar Pradesh in northern India.
A certain nun who is tricked in The Hundred Deeds by the Band of Six. She resided at the nunnery Royal Garden.
The state of one who has attained the … path of seeing (Rigzin 74), and will be carried to enlightenment as surely as a leaf floats downstream.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, counted among the six heavens of the desire realm.
The study of seals and insignia.
A charioteer of King Śuddhodana.
Not to be confused with the mendicant Subhadra.
A certain mendicant.
Not to be confused with Subhadra the charioteer of King Śuddhodana. After his death, a series of miracles confirmed that he had been a practitioner of the Buddha’s monastic code.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, third of the five so-called pure realms of the form realm.
The secondary afflictive emotions that arise in dependence upon the six root afflictive emotions (attachment, hatred, pride, ignorance, doubt, and wrong view); they are (1) anger (krodha, khro ba), (2) enmity/malice (upanāha, ’khon ’dzin), (3) concealment (mrakśa, ’chab pa), (4) outrage (pradāsa, ’tshig pa), (5) jealousy (īrśya, phrag dog), (6) miserliness (matsarya, ser sna), (7) deceit (māyā, sgyu), (8) dishonesty (śāṭhya, g.yo), (9) haughtiness (mada, rgyags pa), (10) harmfulness (vihiṃsa, rnam par ’tshe ba), (11) shamelessness (āhrīkya, ngo tsha med pa), (12) non-consideration (anapatrāpya, khril med pa), (13) lack of faith (aśraddhya, ma dad pa), (14) laziness (kausīdya, le lo), (15) non-conscientiousness (pramāda, bag med pa), (16) forgetfulness (muśitasmṛtitā, brjed nges), (17) non-introspection (asaṃprajanya, shes bzhin ma yin pa), (18) dullness (nigmagṇa, bying ba), (19) agitation (auddhatya, rgod pa), and (20) distraction (vikṣepa, rnam g.yeng) (Rigzin 329, 129).
A future buddha. Also the name of the son of a householder, see “Sudarśana.”
Son of the householder Dhanika in Rājagṛha during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. After he and his parents heard the Dharma from the Buddha, he went forth and manifested arhatship. Also the name of a future buddha, see “Sudarśana.”
One of eight children, a daughter, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
One of eight children, a son, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu. He became king of the Śākya clan, father of Siddhārtha Gautama.
A certain trader from the country of Pāṭaliputra.
A certain lay vow holder in Śrāvastī. Though in the Lalitavistara Sūtra and elsewhere a young woman named Sujātā is among those said to have given food to Gautama prior to his enlightenment, in this text and in the Divyāvadāna that deed is credited to Nandā and Nandabalā.
One of eight children, a daughter, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
One of eight children, a son, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
A future buddha.
Not to be confused with the Buddha’s previous incarnation Sumati.
Previous incarnation of Buddha Śākyamuni, whose offering of five blue lotuses to Buddha Dīpaṃkara became a direct cause for his unexcelled, total, and complete enlightenment.
Not to be confused with the Buddha Sumati.
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.
See “five superknowledges.”
The name of a group of auxiliary works that supplement the Vedas, usually numerated as six different works on the six subjects of 1. śikṣa (pronunciation and phonetics); 2. chandas (meter); 3. vyākaraṇa (grammar and linguistic analysis); 4. nirukta (explanation of difficult terms); 5. jyotiṣa (astronomy); and 6. kalpa (ceremony) (Monier-Williams 1016.3).
A certain gandharva princess, daughter of the gandharva king Tumburu.
Monarch of Videha during Siṃhahanu’s reign in Kapilavastu, at the time of the Buddha’s birth as Siddhārtha Gautama. His daughters were Mahāmāyā (the Buddha’s mother) and Māyā. See “Śākya Suprabuddha.”
An epithet of the monks Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana.
A gandharva king.
Son of the trader Sudhana of Pāṭaliputra, he had gone forth as a monk.
A certain town (or sometimes two different towns) during the time of the Buddha.
Literally meaning “a thread,” this was an ancient term for teachings that were memorized and orally transmitted in an essential form. Therefore it can mean “pithy statements,” “rules,” and “aphorisms.” In Buddhism it refers to the Buddha’s teachings, whatever their length, and in terms of the three divisions of the Buddha’s teachings, it is the category of teachings other than those on the vinaya and abhidharma. It is also used as a category to contrast with the tantra teachings, though a number of important tantras have sūtra in their title. Another very specific meaning is when it is classed as one of the nine or twelve aspects of the Dharma. In that context sūtra means “a teaching given in prose,” and therefore is one aspect of what is generally called a sūtra.
A country ruled by King Udaya during the Buddha’s time.
Grass peddler who offered Gautama the grass that he would sit upon in meditation to attain enlightenment.
Identified with modern-day Taxila, an ancient city and capital of Gandhāra.
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.
May refer to either i.) the ten powers of a buddha (daśatathāgatabala, de bzhin gshegs pa’i stobs bcu): (1) the power of knowing right from wrong (gnas dang gnas min mkhyen pa’i stobs), (2) the power of knowing the fruition of actions (las kyi rnam par smin pa mkhyen pa’i stobs), (3) the power of knowing various mental inclinations (mos pa sna tshogs mkhyen pa’i stobs), (4) the power of knowing various mental faculties (khams sna tshogs mkhyen pa’i stobs), (5) the power of knowing various degrees of intelligence (dbang po sna tshogs mkhyen pa’i stobs), (6) the power of knowing the paths to all rebirths (sarvatragāminpratipādajñānabala, thams cad du ’gro ba’i lam mkhyen pa’i stobs), (7) the power of knowing the ever-afflicted and purified phenomena (kun nas nyon mongs pa dang rnam par byang ba mkhyen pa’i stobs), (8) the power of knowing past lives (sngon gyi gnas rjes su dran pa mkhyen pa’i stobs), (9) the power of knowing deaths and births (’chi ’pho ba dang skye va mkhyen pa’i stobs), and (10) the power of knowing the exhaustion of the contaminations (zag pa zad pa mkhyen pa’i stobs); or ii.) the ten powers of a bodhisattva (daśabodhisattvabala, byang chub sems pa’i stobs bcu): (1) the power of intention (āśayabala, bsam pa’i stobs), (2) the power of resolute intention (adhyāsabala, lhag pa’i bsa pa’i stobs), (3) the power of application (pratipattibala, sbyor ba’i stobs), (4) the power of wisdom (prajñābala, shes rab kyi stobs), (5) the power of prayers (praṇidhānabala, smon lam gyi stobs), (6) the power of vehicle (yānabala, thig pa’i stobs), (7) the power of conduct (cāryabala, spyod pa’i stobs), (8) the power of emancipation (vikurbānbala, sprul pa’i stobs), (9) the power of enlightenment (bodhisattvabala, byang chub kyi stobs), and (10) the power of turning the wheel of the doctrine (dharmacakrapravartanabala, chos kyi ’khor lo bskor ba’i stobs) (Rigzin 163, 194–5, 280).
(1) Not killing (prāṇātighātād virati, srog gcod spong ba), (2) not stealing (adattādānād virati, ma byin par len pa spong ba), (3) not indulging in sexual misconduct (kāmamithyācārād virati, log g.yem spong ba), (4) not lying (mṛṣāvādāt prativirati, brdzun spong ba), (5) not slandering (pāiśunyāt prativirati, khra ma spong ba), (6) not using harsh words (pāruṣyāt prativirati, tshig rtsub spong ba), (7) not indulging in idle gossip (sambhinna pralāpāt prativirati, ngag ’khyal spong ba), (8) not being covetous (abhidhyāyāḥ prativirati, brnab sems spong ba), (9) not wishing harm on others (vyāpādāt prativirati, gnod sems spong ba), (10) not holding wrong view (mithyādṛṣṭeḥ prativirati, log lta spong ba) (Rigzin 45).
The location of a deer park, alternately indentified in the Karmaśātaka as located on Mount Sabkang and on Mount Śiśumāri.
One of King Udayin of Vatsa’s royal ministers.
See “four meditative states.”
These are comprised, first of all, of the following: the four mindfulnesses, which are (1) mindfulness of the body, (2) mindfulness of sensations, (3) mindfulness of mind, and (4) mindfulness of phenomena; the four thorough efforts (also known as the four abandonments), which are (5) not undertaking new non-virtuous actions, (6) abandoning one’s old non-virtuous actions, (7) undertaking new virtuous actions, and (8) increasing the virtuous actions one has already undertaken; and the four miraculous legs, which are (9) the miraculous leg of interest, (10) the miraculous leg of effort, (11) the miraculous leg of mind, and (12) the miraculous leg of discernment (or “analysis”). These first twelve belong to the first path, the path of accumulation. Then come the five faculties (on the five paths, these correspond to heat and peak on the second path, the path of application/application), which are (13) the faculty of faith, (14) the faculty of effort, (15) the faculty of mindfulness, (16) the faculty of meditation, and (17) the faculty of wisdom, and then the five strengths (on the five paths, these correspond to patience in accord with the truth and highest worldly dharma on the second path, the path of application/application), which are (18) the strength of faith, (19) the strength of effort, (20) the strength of mindfulness, (21) the strength of meditation, and (22) the strength of wisdom. Upon completion of the five strengths, you enter the third path, the path of seeing. The seven limbs of enlightenment belonging to this path are (23) the limb of right mindfulness, (24) the limb of right analysis, (25) the limb of right effort, (26) the limb of right joy, (27) the limb of right purification, (28) the limb of right meditation, and (29) the limb of right equanimity. Here begins the fourth path, the path of meditation, consisting of the noble eightfold path: (30) right view, (31) right understanding, (32) right speech, (33) right action, (34) right livelihood, (35) right effort, (36) right mindfulness, and (37) right meditation. Upon mastery of these thirty-seven comes the fifth path, the path of no more learning (Gampopa 169, 260, 439; Jamspal 2012).
Thirty-two of the 112 identifying physical characteristics of both buddhas and universal monarchs, in addition to the so-called “eighty minor marks.” For a detailed list see Berzin (2012).
The Mahāvyupatti enumerates these as (1) equanimity toward those who listen respectfully (śuśrūṣamāṇeṣu samacittatā, gus par nyan pa rnams la sems snyoms pa); (2) equanimity toward those who do not listen respectfully (aśuśrūṣamāṇeṣu samacittatā, gus par mi nyan pa rnams la sems syoms pa); and (3) equanimity toward both those who listen respectfully and those who do not listen respectfully (śuśrūṣamāṇāśuśrūṣamāṇeṣu samacittatā, gus par nyan pa dang gus par mi nyan pa rnams la sems snyoms pa) (Mahāvyupatti 16).
(1) The desire realm (kāmadhātu, ’dod khams), (2) the form realm (rūpadhātu, gzugs khams), and (3) the formless realm (arūpyadhātu, gzugs med khams).
Lit. “fish.” Described as a sea creature measuring 700 yojanas in length in The Hundred Deeds.
Lit. “swallowing fish.” Described as a sea creature measuring 1400 yojanas in length in The Hundred Deeds.
Lit. “swallowing and swallowing fish.” Described as a sea creature measuing 2,100 yojanas in length in The Hundred Deeds.
A certain brahmin, father of Śāriputra Upatiṣya. Not to be confused with Devadatta’s crony Katamoraka Tiṣya.
A Buddhist idiom meaning “to overcome the afflictive emotions.”
Son of Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī), the magistrate of King Brahmadatta (past). He and his brother Son of Fire went forth and became sages, attaining the four meditations and the five superknowledges.
An epithet of the buddhas, used both as an honorific and to distinguish them from beings of lesser realization such as arhats, solitary buddhas, and the like.
Chief minister of King Brahmadatta (past).
Sometimes translated as a billionfold universe. A “great, third order thousandfold” universe (i.e. 1,000³ fold), consisting of a thousand “middle order thousandfold” (1,000² fold) universes, each of which consists of a thousand “first order thousandfold” (1,000 fold) universes, each containing a thousand world systems each with their own Mount Meru, sun and moon, four continents, eight subcontinents, peripheral ring of mountains, etc.
The “three (scriptural) baskets” of Dharma teachings: (1) the basket of teachings on moral discipline (Vinaya) (vinayapiṭaka, ’dul ba’i sde snod), (2) the basket of teachings in discourses (Sūtra) (sūtrapiṭaka, mdo sde’i sde snod), and (3) the basket of teachings on knowledge (Abhidharma) (abhidharmapiṭaka, mngon pa’i sde snod).
A scholar steeped in study of the Tripiṭaka.
A certain gandharva king, father of Princess Suprabhā.
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).
“The body is not the self nor does the self have a body; / The self is not based on the body [n]or body on self. / Know that these four relations apply to all skandhas; / So these are considered the twenty views of self.” (Goldfield 387).
King of the country of Suvīra during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
King of Vatsa during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni. Also rendered here as “Udayana.”
See “Udayin.”
The city of Ujjayinī, located in the province of the same name. The Sanskrit Ujjayinī is commonly translated into Tibetan as ’phags rgyal.
A city ruled by King Jaya before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
The enlightenment of the buddhas, so-named to distinguish it from the realizations of lesser beings such as arhats, solitary buddhas, and the like.
A ruler of one of the continents, possessing the mark of a wheel on the soles of his feet as a sign of his authority (Rigzin 38). Alternatively defined as someone who has the power to overcome, conquer, and rule all the inhabitants of one, two, three, or all four continents of a four-continent world system. In the Buddhist teachings this is considered an example of the most powerful rebirth possible within saṃsāra (rigpawiki, 2012).
In this text, being “established … in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa” appears as a synonym for the attainment of arhatship.
A certain buddha who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Fifth in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
Along with Nanda, one of King Mahādeva’s two chief ministers in the city of Mithilā.
Not to be confused with “Upananda,” the nāga; or with Upananda, the monk.
A member of the Śākya clan and monk of the Buddha’s order, he often appears in the vinaya texts, as here, to exemplify certain wrong behaviors.
Not to be confused with Upananda, one of King Mahādeva’s ministers; or with Upananda, the nāga.
The name of a certain nāga.
Not to be confused with “Upananda,” one of King Mahādeva’s ministers; or with Upananda, the monk.
A certain monk who had gone forth under the Buddha. With his support Lotus Color found faith in the Buddha’s doctrine and also went forth.
One of the given names of Venerable Śāriputra. See “Śāriputra.”
Considered the “younger brother” of Indra, the name Upendra appears as an epithet of Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa in Sanskrit epic and purāṇic literature.
Not far from Bodhimaṇḍa, it was the place where a thousand long-haired ascetics went forth in the Buddha’s following, among them Uruvilvā Kāśyapa.
Arhat nun slain by Devadatta following his botched attempt to assassinate the Buddha.
A future buddha.
A previous incarnation of Buddha Śākyamuni, prophesied by Buddha Kāśyapa to achieve total and complete enlightenment.
A future buddha.
During the Buddha’s time, a certain lay vow holder in Śrāvastī. Elsewhere there is also the Viśākha who was the son of King Prasenajit’s minister.
An ancient city founded by Viśāla, Vaiśālī was an important location where a number of Buddhist sūtras are said to have been taught, particularly in the Mahāyāna literature.
A god of wealth. One of the four great kings, protector of the cardinal direction to the north of Mount Meru. Also called “Kubera.”
Not to be confused with King Vaiśravaṇa.
King of an unspecified land during the reign of King Maitrībala in Vārāṇasī.
Not to be confused with great king Vaiśravaṇa.
Also known as Benares, one of the oldest cities of northeast India on the banks of the Ganges, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh. It was once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kāśi, and in the Buddha’s time it had been absorbed into the kingdom of Kośala. It was an important religious center, as well as a major city, even during the time of the Buddha. The name may derive from being where the Varuna and Assi rivers flow into the Ganges. It was on the outskirts of Vārāṇasī that the Buddha first taught the Dharma, in the location known as Deer Park (Mṛgadāva). For numerous episodes set in Vārāṇasī, including its kings, see The Hundred Deeds, Toh 340.
A certain householder of the country of Mithilā.
One of the oldest deities of the Vedic pantheon and one of the first to be considered a supreme deity or “king of the gods.” Varuṇa eventually came to occupy a lesser status in the Vedic pantheon as a god of the waters.
King of an unspecified kingdom during the time of Buddha Dīpaṃkara.
The father of the wife of a Vārāṇasī merchant in The Hundred Deeds.
Not to be confused with the Vāṣpa who was among the group of five monks (bhadravargīya) that received the Buddha’s teaching on the four noble truths.
A certain nāga king, father of the nāga Vasubhadra.
A certain nāga, son of the nāga king Vasu.
The name of a kingdom south of Kośala that was ruled by Udayin/Udayana during the Buddha’s time. Its capital was Kauśāmbī.
Honorific term for an ordained person.
Literally “worth a hundred thousand.”
A certain stūpa in Magadha located near Forest of Reeds.
Mentioned as ruler of Videha in “The First Bird Story” in The Hundred Deeds and contemporary of Brahmadatta (past). Other stories in this collection that reference these two rulers refer to the king of Videha by the name Mahendrasena.
A certain prince, son of King Prasenajit (’phags skyes po, his name in Tibetan, is also the Tibetan name of Virūḍhaka).
An ancient kingdom whose seat was the city of Mithilā. One of its borders was the Ganges River, and it abutted the kingdoms of Kośala and Kāśi. The name Videha, in ancient Buddhist cosmology, refers to the eastern of the four continents in the cardinal directions.
Also called “mental alertness,” the faculty of mind that maintains a conscious watch for any inclination of the mind toward mental dullness or agitation, especially during meditation (Rigzin 423). Closely related to mindfulness.
Son of King Jaya.
Not to be confused with the future buddha Vijaya.
A future buddha.
Another term for the Vindhya mountain range; a synonym for Vindhyagiri.
Past buddha of the ninety-first eon; often counted as the sixth buddha before Śākyamuni.
A certain nāga king and the hermitage that bears his name.
One of the four great kings, protector of the cardinal direction to the south of Mount Meru. (’phags skyes po, his name in Tibetan, is also the Tibetan name of Videha).
A certain jealous king of Mithilā who lived before the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Not to be confused with Virūpa (the ugly one), the householders’ son.
Son of householders on Mount Śiśumāri who cast him out of their home because of his extreme ugliness. When later he felt joy toward an emanation of the Buddha, the Buddha made his ugliness disappear. Then, hearing the Dharma from the Buddha, he manifested the resultant state of a non-returner, went forth, and went on to manifest arhatship.
Not to be confused with King Virūpa.
One of the four great kings, protector of the cardinal direction to the west of Mount Meru.
Son of King Prasenajit’s minister Mṛgāra, betrothed to the non-returner Dharmadinnā. His fiancée fled their imminent marriage by a display of miracles at what was to be their wedding, receiving his assent for her to go forth instead. The text also tells of a certain female lay vow holder with a similar name Vaiśākhā on vol. 73, F.15.b.
One of the primary gods of Hinduism, associated with the preservation and continuance of the universe, held by many as a supreme being.
The voice endowed with the sixteen perfect qualities of Brahmā, the king of the gods. A common description of a buddha’s speech (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary, “tshangs pa’i dbyangs”).
The name of the country in which Māyā and Mahāmāya are said to have been born in “The Story of Keśinī” from The Hundred Deeds.
Name of a peak just outside of the city of Rājagṛha and the site where a great number of sūtras are said to have been taught, particularly in the Mahāyāna textual tradition of the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtras.
A certain sea captain during the reign of King Brahmadatta (past), father of Wealth’s Delight.
Previous incarnation of the Buddha, a sea captain during the reign of King Brahmadatta, and son of Wealth the sea captain. He saved the lives of a number of sailors by drowning himself so that they could use his floating corpse as a buoy to safely reach shore.
This title only appears in The Hundred Deeds. It may be a shortened title for one of the various versions of the Dharmacakrapravartanasūtra.
Also known as “pristine awareness,” “primordial wisdom,” “primordial awareness,” “gnosis,” or the like. Typically refers to nonconceptual states of knowledge.
The collective name of five hundred future solitary buddhas.
A litany chanted by the monastic saṅgha as a way of giving thanks and recognizing the merit generated by a donation or alms. cf. ’dul ba’i mdo, D 261, F.80.b.
Along with the Ṛg Veda, Sāma Veda, and Atharva Veda, one of the four Vedas, the most ancient Sanskrit religious literature of India.
Harmful spirits, classified among the gods of the desire realm (Rigzin 232).
Daughter of Śākya Daṇḍadhara (more commonly Daṇḍapāṇi), sister of Iṣudhara and Aniruddha, she was a spouse of Gautama who, along with Gopā, spurned the advances of Devadatta and subjected him to brutal humiliation.
Appears in The Hundred Deeds as the name of a king and a people dwelling in the “barbaric outlying region” north of Jambudvīpa. A reference to the Greeks or Greco-Bactrians.
An Indian measure of distance equal to 16,000 cubits, or about 4.5 miles (7.4 km), or approximately 4000 fathoms (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary).
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