The female equivalent of the term Son of good family.
A cosmic period of time, sometimes equivalent to the time when a world system appears, exists, and disappears. According to the traditional Abhidharma understanding of cyclical time, a great eon (mahākalpa) is divided into eighty lesser eons. In the course of one great eon, the universe takes form and later disappears. During the first twenty of the lesser eons, the universe is in the process of creation and expansion; during the next twenty it remains; during the third twenty, it is in the process of destruction; and during the last quarter of the cycle, it remains in a state of empty stasis. A fortunate, or good, eon (bhadrakalpa) refers to any eon in which more than one buddha appears.
Rebirth in one of the three lower states of existence, namely, the hell realm, the realm of hungry ghosts, or the animal realm.
While this is usually a characteristic pertaining to Brahmins (i.e., born in the Brahmin caste to seven generations of Brahmin parents), the Buddha redefined noble birth as determined by an individual’s ethical conduct and integrity. Thus, someone who enters the Buddha’s Saṅgha is called a “son or daughter of noble family” and is in this sense “good” or “noble” and considered born again (dvija, or “twice born”).
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.
zla ba’i ’od kyi mtshan rjes su dran pa. Toh 535, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud ’bum, na), folios 82.b–83.a.
zla ba’i ’od kyi mtshan rjes su dran pa. Toh 868, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 88.b–89.a.
zla ba’i ’od kyi mtshan rjes su dran pa. Narthang Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud, da), folio 77.a.
zla ba’i ’od kyi mtshan rjes su dran pa. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folio 102.b.
zla ba’i ’od kyi mtshan rjes su dran 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), 2006–9, vol. 88, pp. 320–21.
zla ba’i ’od kyi mtshan rjes su dran 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), 2006–9, vol. 97, pp. 253–54.
Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). chos ’byung (bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i gter mdzod). In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 24 (ya), pp. 633–1055. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71. BDRC W22106.
84000. Bouquet of Flowers (Kusumasañcaya, me tog gi tshogs, Toh 266). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.
84000. Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations (dpang skong phyag brgya pa, Toh 267). Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2011.
84000. The Eight Buddhas (Aṣṭabuddhaka, sangs rgyas brgyad pa, Toh 271). Translated by Annie Bien. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
84000. The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita (Guṇaratnasaṅkusumitaparipṛcchā, yon tan rin chen me tog kun tu rgyas pas zhus pa, Toh 78). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
84000. The Questions of Ratnajālin (Ratnajāliparipṛcchā, rin chen dra ba can gyis zhus pa, Toh 163). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
84000. The Twelve Buddhas (Dvādaśabuddhaka, sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa, Toh 273). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
84000. The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, dam pa’i chos pad ma dkar po, Toh 113). Translated by Peter Alan Roberts. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018.
Davidson, Ronald M. “Studies in Dhāraṇī III: Seeking the Parameters of a Dhāraṇī-piṭaka, the Formation of the Dhāraṇīsaṃgrahas, and the Place of the Seven Buddhas.” In Scripture:Canon::Text:Context: Essays Honoring Lewis Lancaster, edited by Richard K. Payne, 119–80. Berkeley: Institute of Buddhist Studies and BDK America, 2014.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp. “The Lives of Bu ston Rin chen grub and the Date and Sources of His Chos ‘byung, a Chronicle of Buddhism in India and Tibet.” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 35 (April 2016): 203–308.