An ideal lifestyle for a practitioner is described as dwelling in a place suitably removed from the social world of the town so as to best enable spiritual practice. In some contexts the term can also be understood on a more inward level as remaining free from distraction and other disturbing states of mind.
Gentleness, especially in one’s thoughts and behavior toward others; the absence of any desire for retaliation. This is often paired with tolerance.
A teacher of the spiritual path.
In the general Mahāyāna teachings the mind of awakening (bodhicitta) is the intention to attain the complete awakening of a perfect buddha for the sake of all beings. On the level of absolute truth, the mind of awakening is the realization of the awakened state itself.
A term meaning acceptance, forbearance, or patience. As the third of the six perfections, patience is classified into three kinds: the capacity to tolerate abuse from sentient beings, to tolerate the hardships of the path to buddhahood, and to tolerate the profound nature of reality. As a term referring to a bodhisattva’s realization, dharmakṣānti (chos la bzod pa) can refer to the ways one becomes “receptive” to the nature of Dharma, and it can be an abbreviation of anutpattikadharmakṣānti, “forbearance for the unborn nature, or nonproduction, of dharmas.”
The great scholar and author of fourth or fifth century Buddhist India, born in Gandhāra and said according to Tibetan and Chinese traditions to have been related to Asaṅga, perhaps as his younger brother.
Vasubandhu.’phags pa chos bzhi pa’i rnam par bshad pa (*Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna). Toh 3990. Degé Tengyur vol. 113 (mdo ’grel, ngi), folios 66.a–66.b.
Vasubandhu. ’phags pa chos bzhi pa’i rnam par bshad pa. bstan ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Tengyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripiṭaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 120 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 1994–2008, vol. 65, pp. 914–17.
’phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 251, Degé Kangyur vol. 66 (mdo sde, za), folios 60.b–61.a. English translation in Pearcey 2023.
’phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. 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 Tripiṭaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 66, pp. 169–70.
’phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 65 (stog pho brang bris ma bka’ ’gyur), folios 417.a–418.a.
pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag [Denkarma]. Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Jñānadatta. ’phags pa chos bzhi pa’i rgya cher bshad pa’i rgya cher ’grel pa (*Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyānaṭīkā). Toh 3990b. Degé Tengyur vol. 113 (mdo ’grel, ngi), folios 67.a–71.b.
Dunhuang manuscripts: IOL Tib J 71, IOL Tib J 72, IOL Tib J 73, IOL Tib J 74, and IOL Tib J 430. British Library, London. Accessed through The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.
Anacker, Stefan. Seven Works of Vasubandhu: The Buddhist Psychological Doctor. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984.
Engle, Artemus B. The Bodhisattva Path to Complete Enlightenment: A Complete Translation of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2016.
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Pearcey, Adam, trans. The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Four Factors (Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra, Toh 251). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
Pereira, José, and Francis Tiso. “The Life of Vasubandhu According to Recent Research.” East and West, vol. 37, no. 1/4 (1987): 451–54.
Skilling, Peter (2000). “Vasubandhu and the Vyākhyāyukti Literature.” In Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies., vol. 23, no. 2, 2000: pp. 297–350.
Skilling, Peter (2021). Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2021.