Five collections or “heaps” of impersonal mental and physical elements (dharma).

The buddha of the western buddhafield of Sukhāvatī, where fortunate beings are reborn to make further progress toward spiritual maturity. Amitābha made his great vows to create such a realm when he was a bodhisattva called Dharmākara. In the Pure Land Buddhist tradition, popular in East Asia, aspiring to be reborn in his buddha realm is the main emphasis; in other Mahāyāna traditions, too, it is a widespread practice. For a detailed description of the realm, see The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī, Toh 115. In some tantras that make reference to the five families he is the tathāgata associated with the lotus family.

Amitābha, “Infinite Light,” is also known in many Indian Buddhist works as Amitāyus, “Infinite Life.” In both East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions he is often conflated with another buddha named “Infinite Life,” Aparimitāyus, or “Infinite Life and Wisdom,”Aparimitāyurjñāna, the shorter version of whose name has also been back-translated from Tibetan into Sanskrit as Amitāyus but who presides over a realm in the zenith. For details on the relation between these buddhas and their names, see The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1) Toh 674, i.9.

Another name for Amitābha.

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

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

According to Buddhist tradition, one who is worthy of worship (pūjām arhati), or one who has conquered the enemies, the mental afflictions (kleśa-ari-hata-vat), and reached liberation from the cycle of rebirth and suffering. It is the fourth and highest of the four fruits attainable by śrāvakas. Also used as an epithet of the Buddha.

There are twelve bases of cognition in all: the five physical sense organs plus the mind and their respective six sorts of objects. The six inner bases from eye to mind are what apprehend, and the six outer bases from form to mental objects are the objects that are apprehended.

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”).

Name of a buddha.

Manu being the archetypal human, the progenitor of mankind, in the Mahā­bhārata, the Purāṇas, and other Indian texts, “born of Manu” is a synonym of “human being” or mankind in general. Also rendered “son of Manu.”

The primary cause.

The concomitant circumstances and influences in a causal process.

The titans who inhabit one of the six types of “worlds” (loka) that make up saṃsāra.

The ultimate state that can be experienced in the realization of reality, and a near-synonym of nirvāṇa; sometimes also translated as “the reality limit” in contexts describing a partial nirvāṇa that needs to be transcended.

The various conditioning factors and circumstances that affect rebirth, including primarily (but not only) karma. Formative factors also constitute one of the five aggregates and figure as one of the links in the twelve links of dependent arising to account for how karma eventually leads to rebirth.

The term is used in this text in the same way as saṃskāra (“formative factors,” q.v. second entry).

One of the three realms. See glossary s.v. “three realms” (khams gsum).

Lit. “smell eater.” Gandharvas are a class of spirits and minor gods (deva) in both Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies. They are supposedly messengers, singers, and skilled musicians and dancers. Often closely associated with various nature spirits (yakṣa), they are on occasion depicted as disturbing to monks practicing meditation.

Epithet of the Buddha.

The first buddha of our eon; the fifth buddha of the “seven generations of buddhas” (sangs rgyas rab bdun). Also found as Kakutsanda, Kakutsunda, etc. See Edgerton (1985), s.v. Krakucchanda, for the various spellings.

God of the lower realms.

The Abhidharma speaks of five consciousnesses that grasp physical objects (form, sound, smells, tastes, bodily sensations) and are correlated with their respective physical sense faculties (indriya, dbang po), i.e., the eye, ear, etc. The mental consciousness, on the other hand, is said to have as its faculty simply the mind (manas, yid). It grasps all that exists, including what is presented by the physical consciousnesses as well as mental and abstract objects. These six consciousnesses, added to the twelve bases of cognition, constitute the Abhidharma schema of eighteen domains or spheres (dhātu, khams).

Nāgas are associated with springs, streams, rivers, and water in general, and among their many magical powers is the ability to produce rain.

Among the many magical powers of the nāgas is the ability to produce rain. Presumably this ability is what is meant here by “nāga-power,” although this appears to be the only mention of the term in the Kangyur in connection with clouds and rain.

One of the five aggregates. It is also one of the five mental omnipresent (sarvatraga, kun ’gro) mental factors that necessarily accompany any cognition.

A post set up as a marker to which offerings may be presented. Described in the Maitreyāvadāna (“The Story of Maitreya”), which in the Kangyur is found within the Bhaiṣajya­vastu (in Vinayavastu, Toh 1, Degé Kangyur, vol. kha, folios 29.a–32.b); a matching passage from the Divyāvadāna is translated in Rotman (2008), pp. 121–24.

The buddhafield of the Buddha Amitābha.

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.

Indra’s paradise on the summit of Sumeru.

The distinctive physical attributes of the Buddha. These are the “signs of a great man” (Skt. mahā­puruṣa­lakṣaṇa, Tib. skye bu chen po’i mtshan bzang) that, following Indian tradition, characterize cakravartin kings (world sovereigns) as well as buddhas. For a descriptive list, see Dharmachakra (2013), 26.145-173.

The three realms are the desire realm (kāmadhātu, ’dod khams), form realm (rūpadhātu, gzugs khams), and the formless realm (ārūpyadhātu, gzugs med khams), i.e., the three worlds that make up saṃsāra. The first is composed of the six sorts of beings (gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings), whereas the latter two are only realms of gods and are thus higher, more ethereal states of saṃsāra.

This term in Abhidharma cosmology refers to 1,000³ world systems, i.e., 1,000 “dichiliocosms,” or “two thousand great thousand world realms” (dvi­sāhasra­mahā­sāhasra­loka­dhātu), which are in turn made up of 1,000 first-order world systems, each with its own Mt. Meru, continents, sun, and moon, as well as desire, form, and formless realms, heavens of gods, etc.

The ancient capital of the Vṛji (q.v.) confederacy and Licchavi republic.

The land and people of Vṛji or Vaji (Pāli Vajji), a country situated on the northeastern Gangetic plain, and one of the sixteen mahājanapada of ancient India. It was run by a confederacy of eight or nine clans, including the Vṛji, Licchavi, and Videha, who sent representatives to an administrative council led by an elected ruler. Its capital was Vaiśālī. See Edgerton, s.v. Vṛji and Vaji.