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.
An eleventh-century Tibetan translator who translated over eighty seven works in the Kangyur and Tengyur.
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
A collective name for the realms of animals, hungry ghosts, and denizens of the hells.
The bodhisattva Maitreya is an important figure in many Buddhist traditions, where he is unanimously regarded as the buddha of the future era. He is said to currently reside in the heaven of Tuṣita, as Śākyamuni’s regent, where he awaits the proper time to take his final rebirth and become the fifth buddha in the Fortunate Eon, reestablishing the Dharma in this world after the teachings of the current buddha have disappeared. Within the Mahāyāna sūtras, Maitreya is elevated to the same status as other central bodhisattvas such as Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara, and his name appears frequently in sūtras, either as the Buddha’s interlocutor or as a teacher of the Dharma. Maitreya literally means “Loving One.” He is also known as Ajita, meaning “Invincible.”
For more information on Maitreya, see, for example, the introduction to Maitreya’s Setting Out (Toh 198).
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.
Abstaining from the ten nonvirtuous actions. Namely, abstaining from killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, lying, uttering divisive talk, speaking harsh words, gossiping, covetousness, ill will, and wrong views.
The Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—the three objects of Buddhist refuge. In the Tibetan rendering, “the three rare and supreme ones.”
An Indian paṇḍita who was born in 1017 and was influential in Tibet.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Āryamaitreyapratijñānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 653, Degé Kangyur vol. 91 (rgyud ’bum, ba), folios 127.b–128.a.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Āryamaitreyapratijñānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 890, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 165.b–166.a.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. 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. 91, pp. 462–64.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. 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. 485–87.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 105 (rgyud ’bum, pha), folios 86.a–87.b.
Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). byams pa’i dam bcas pa’i sngags. In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 16 (ma), pp. 365–99. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71. BDRC W22106.
Chandra, Lokesh, ed. Sanskrit Texts from the Imperial Palace at Peking in the Manchurian Chinese Mongolian and Tibetan Scripts. New Delhi: Institute for the Advancement of Science and Culture, 1966.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Losang Norbu Shastri. Śatagāthā of Ācārya Vararuci (Sanskrit Restoration, Tibetan Text, along with English and Hindi translations). Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2001.
Majer, Zsuzsa. “On After-Death Ritual Texts Mentioned by Travellers (A. M. Pozdneev and Bálint Gábor of Szentkatolna).” In Mongolica Pragensia, 2017, vol. 1, pp. 65–92.
Schaeffer, Kurtis R. Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Saraha. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Uranchimeg Tsultemin. “The Power and Authority of Maitreya in Mongolia Examined through Mongolian Art.” In Buddhism in Mongolian History, Culture, and Society, edited by Vesna Wallace, 137–59. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.