Refers to Encircled by a Thousand Houses in Ornament of the Mind.
An Indian paṇḍita involved in translating this sūtra.
The Buddha’s teachings regarding subjects such as wisdom, psychology, metaphysics, and cosmology.
A mountain near the asura city Double Pleasure.
A city in Godānīya.
An ancient title given to ascetics, monks, hermits, and saints, namely, those who have attained the realization of a truth through their own contemplation and not by divine revelation.
Here also used as a specific epithet of the buddhas.
A pool in Dwelling on the Disk.
The four abodes of Brahmā are love, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
An ocean far beyond Jambudvīpa.
A mountain in the sea south of Jambudvīpa.
A mountain between Godānīya and Videha.
A river on Saṅkāśa.
An island in the sea west of Jambudvīpa.
King at the second level of the asuras.
A conditioned factor that according to Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma is responsible for the ripening of karmic actions subsequent to their having been performed. See also n.35.
A forest in Dwelling in Forests.
A realm of the triple-lute-bearer gods.
Indian paṇḍita referred to in the sūtra’s colophon
A forest of the asuras.
A previous ruler of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
A river on Saṅkāśa.
A mountain in Shining in Manifold Ways.
An emanated mountain on the trunk of Airāvaṇa.
A river on Saṅkāśa.
One of sixteen realms that surround the Hell of Ultimate Torment.
Literally “pain,” “torment,” or “affliction.” In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit it literally means “impurity” or “depravity.” In its technical use in Buddhism it means any negative quality in the mind that causes continued existence in saṃsāra. There are the 84,000 variations of mental disturbances for which the 84,000 categories of the Buddha’s teachings serve as the antidote. These mental disturbances can be subsumed into the three or five poisons of attachment, aversion, and ignorance plus arrogance and jealousy.
In the context of this sūtra, this appears to refer to the “age of perfection.”
The first of the four ages of human life in Jambudvīpa. Humans in this age enjoy good qualities such as long lifespans free from disease (see 5.238). Over the course of the four ages humans will lose a quarter of these qualities between each age.
The last of the four ages of human life in Jambudvīpa. In this age humans are endowed with only one remaining quarter of the good qualities that they had during the age of perfection.
The second of the four ages of human life in Jambudvīpa. In this age humans are endowed with three quarters of the good qualities that they had during the age of perfection.
The third of the four ages of human life in Jambudvīpa. In this age humans are endowed with two quarters, or half of the good qualities that they had during the age of perfection.
The five psycho-physical components of personal experience: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.
A bird that we have been unable to identify.
A righteous nāga king.
Śakra’s elephant.
A realm that neighbors the Hell of Intense Heat.
A forest upon Mount Playful in Sudharma.
A town in Videha.
A summit in Ornament of the Mind.
A river on Saṅkāśa.
The sharing of merit as food, drink, etc. is offered to members of the saṅgha.
(1) A forest of the asuras. (2) A grove in Lateral.
(1) A park in Sustained by Fruition (rtag tu dga’ ba). (2) A pleasure grove in High Conduct (rtag tu dga’ ba). (3) A pond on Equal Peaks (rtag tu mngon par dga’ ba). (4) A forest of the asuras (tin di kun dga’).
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.
A lake near Mount Sumeru.
Unidentified region of India.
A land in the east of Jambudvīpa.
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, who suffer from gross ignorance or bewilderment (gti mug, moha). They inhabit the realm of desire along with human beings.
A city in Godānīya.
A land in the east of Jambudvīpa.
’phags pa dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa. Toh 287, Degé Kangyur vol. 68 (mdo sde, ya), folios 82a–318a; vol. 69 (mdo sde, ra), folios 1.b–307.a; vol. 70 (mdo sde, la), folios 1.b–312.a; and vol. 71 (mdo sde, sha), folios 1.b–229.b.
’phags pa dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), vol. 68, 238–842; vol. 69, 3–828; vol. 70, 3–821; and vol. 71, 3–603.
’phags pa dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa. Stok Palace Kangyur, vol. 82 (mdo sde, ki), folios 1.b–378; vol. 83 (mdo sde, khi), folios 1.b–370.b; vol. 84 (mdo sde, gi), folios 1.b–383.b; and vol. 85 (mdo sde, ghi), folios 1.b–419.b.
Zhengfa nianchu jing 正法念處經. In Taishō Tripiṭaka. Edited by Junjirō Takakusu and Kaigyoku Watanabe. Vol. 17, no. 721.
Cabezón, José Ignacio. Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism. Sommerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017.
Demoto, Mitsuyo (2009). “Die 128 Nebenhöllen nach dem Saddharmasmṛ- tyupasthānasūtra.” Pāsādikadānam: Festschrift für Bhikkhu Pāsādika, edited by Martin Straube, Roland Steiner, Jayandra Soni, Michael Hahn, and Mitsuyo Demoto. Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2009: 61–88.
Demoto, Mitsuyo, ed. Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra: Critical Edition of Ch. 3. Unpublished draft, last modified July 2012. PDF file.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan [/ lhan] dkar gyi chos ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Degé Tengyur, vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Kritzer, Robert (Forthcoming). “Worms in Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra.” In Memorial Volume for Helmut Krasser. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Kritzer, Robert (2020). “Meditation on the Body in Chapter 7 of Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra.” Religions 11, no. 6 (2020): 283.
Lin, Li-kuoung, & P. Demiéville. L’aide-mémoire de la vraie loi. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1949.
Mizuno, Kogen. “On the Ārya-saddharmasmrtyupasthāna-sūtra.” Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu) 12 (September 1964): 38–47.
Moretti, Costantino. “The Thirty-six Categories of ‘Hungry Ghosts’ Described in the Sūtra of the Foundations of Mindfulness of the True Law.” Fantômes dans l’Extrême-Orient D’hier et D’aujourd’hui. Edited by Vincent Durand Dastès, 43–69. Paris: INALCO, 2017.
Rangjung Dorjé (rang byung rdo rje). dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar bzhag pa’i mdo yi don snang bar byed pa’i bstan bcos. Lhasa: bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, 2010.
Stuart, Daniel M. (2012). “A Less Traveled Path: Meditation and Textual Practice in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna(sūtra).” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.
Stuart, Daniel M. (2015a). A Less Traveled Path: Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra Chapter 2, Critically edited with A Study on Its Structure and Significance for the Development of Buddhist Meditation. Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region (STTAR) 18. Beijing and Vienna: China Tibetology Publishing House and Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2015.
Stuart, Daniel M. (2015b). “Power in Practice: Cosmic Sovereignty Envisioned in Buddhism’s Middle Period.” The Critical Review for Buddhist Studies 18 (2015): 165–96.
Stuart, Daniel M. (2017a). “Yogācāra Substrata? Precedent Frames for Yogācāra Thought among Third-Century Yoga Practitioners in Greater Gandhāra.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 46 (October 2017): 193–240.
Stuart, Daniel M. (2017b). “Unmanifest Perceptions: Mind-Matter Interdependence and Its Consequences in Buddhist Thought and Practice.” In Śrāvakabhūmi and Buddhist Manuscripts, edited by Jundo Nagashima and Seongcheol Kim, 109–71. Tokyo: Nombre, 2017.
Stuart, Daniel M. (2019). “Becoming Animal: Karma and the Animal Realm Envisioned through an Early Yogācāra Lens.” Religions 10, no. 6 (2019): 363.
van der Kuijp, Leonard W. J. “On the Vicissitudes of Subhūticandra’s Kāmadhenu Commentary on the Amarakoṣa in Tibet.” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009): 1–105.
Wallace, Vesna A., ed. Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra: Critical Edition of Ch. 1. Unpublished draft, last modified May 10, 2020. PDF file.