84000 Glossary of Terms

Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.

ཆར་པའི་བར་ཆད་བྱེད་པ་ལྔ། | Glossary of Terms

  • ཆར་པའི་བར་ཆད་བྱེད་པ་ལྔ།

  • char pa’i bar chad byed pa lnga
  • Term
Publications: 1
  • five obstacles to rainfall
  • ཆར་པའི་བར་ཆད་བྱེད་པ་ལྔ།
  • char pa’i bar chad byed pa lnga
Definition in this text:

Five conditions that prevent timely rainfall. In a discourse in Chinese translation, the Discourse on the Arising of Worlds (Qishi jing 起世經, Taishō 24, 1:349b1–c14), these are given as (1) The asura king Rāhula emerges from his palace, gathers the rain clouds in both hands, and hurls them into the ocean; (2) The power of the fire element increases, causing the rain clouds to dissipate; (3) The power of the wind element increases, blowing the rain clouds into the desert or the wilderness; (4) The spirits responsible for causing rainfall become derelict in their duties, and thus the rain clouds dissipate without releasing rain; (5) The majority of people in Jambudvīpa become mired in affliction and desire and engage in unethical conduct, so the heavens refuse to send down rain.